Homosexual Rape as a Metaphor for Imperialism

As I’ve pointed out before, scathing denunciations of Babylonian imperialism soak the pages of the book of Habakkuk. The final oracle of a series, Hab 2:15-17, is the most hard-hitting of all. Translations, however, are coy about the text’s allusions. An excellent case can be made for the conclusion that Hab 2:15 describes Babylonian foreign policy, invasive and brutal as it was, as homosexual rape. The oracle in Hab 2:6b-8 starts the anti-Chaldean series off:

Ah, the one who amasses what is not his!
       How long can he make heavier
       the debt accruing to him?
Shall not your creditors
       suddenly arise?
May those who make you tremble awake
       and you be despoiled by them!

Because you plundered
       many nations,
       all remaining peoples will plunder you
on account of the spilled blood of man,
     violence to the land,
     to towns and all who live in them.

Here is the text and a fresh translation of the series’ conclusion, 2:15-17:

הוֹי מַשְׁקֵה רֵעֵהוּ

מְסַפֵּחַ חֲמָתְךָ

וְאַף שַׁכֵּר לְמַעַן

הַבִּיט עַל־מְעוֹרֵיהֶם׃

 

שָׂבַעְתָּ קָלוֹן מִכָּבוֹד

שְׁתֵה גַם־אַתָּה וְהֵעָרֵל

תִּסּוֹב עָלֶיךָ   כּוֹס יְמִין יְהוָה

וְקִיקָלוֹן עַל־כְּבוֹדֶךָ׃

 

כִּי חֲמַס לְבָנוֹן יְכַסֶּךָּ

וְשֹׁד בְּהֵמוֹת יְחִיתָךְ*

מִדְּמֵי אָדָם   וַחֲמַס־אֶרֶץ

קִרְיָה וְכָל־יֹשְׁבֵי בָהּ׃

*MT: יְחִיתַן

Ah, the one who makes his neighbor drink
     adding in your drug –
making them drunk
     so as to take advantage of their nakedness!

You are stuffed with shame, not glory!
     Now you drink, you show your foreskin!

To you shall return
     the cup of יהוה’s right hand,
     shame come upon your glory.

The violence against Lebanon will cover you,
     the destruction of beasts shatter you,
on account of the spilled blood of man,
      violence to the land,
      to towns and all who live in them. (2:15-17)

Commentary

It is natural to bring this passage into association with another, Gen 10:22-24:

Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness, and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a cloth, placed it against both their backs and, walking backward, they covered their father’s nakedness; their faces turned the other way, so that they did not see their father’s nakedness. When Noah woke up from his wine, and learned what his youngest son had done to him, he said, “Cursed be Canaan [Ham’s fourth son]; the lowest of slaves shall he be to his brothers.” (NJPSV)

The language of Gen 10:22 saw his father’s nakedness is close to that of Hab 2:15, literally, so as to observe their nakedness. In the Jewish Study Bible (which every serious student of the Bible needs to own), Jon D. Levenson makes the following remark:

The identity of the act in question is murky. “To uncover the nakedness” of a man means to have sexual relations with his wife (e.g., Lev. 20.11). This makes Ham guilty of incest. In Lev. 20.17, the less common expression “to see the nakedness” means to have sex. This would make Ham guilty of homosexual rape. In an effort to explain why Canaan is cursed for Ham’s sin, on the other hand, the midrash sees Ham as castrating his father. Just as Ham prevented Noah from ever having a fourth son, so will his own fourth son, Canaan, be cursed (10.6), (Gen. Rab. 36.7). V. 23, however, suggests that the words saw his father’s nakedness are better taken literally. If so, Ham violated two norms highly stressed in both the Tanakh and rabbinic Judaism, the ethic of bodily modesty and the norm to honor and respect one’s parents.

Given the abject nature of the retaliatory consequences to which Ham’s son Canaan is treated - he becomes “the lowest of slaves” to his brothers - it is more likely that Ham raped his father. The point of Gen 10:23 is that Shem and Japhet respected established norms of sexual propriety, but Ham did not.

Regardless, Hab 2:15 most likely alludes to having sex. This is exactly what one expects based on Lev 20:11. The idioms to which Leviticus attests are not well known because, simply put, few have read the book or read it with sufficient care.

It was not unusual for the prophets to describe tawdry and exploitative relations between one country and another in highly charged sexual terms. I discussed another example, Ezekiel 16, here. What sets Hab 2:15 apart is the implication of same-sex rape (הביט על מעורים; cf. ראה את ערוה in Lev 20:17) via an added (מספח) drug (חמה).

Most translations twist Hab 2:15-16a every which way, and emend without noting the fact. This is a common practice with sexually charged texts in the Bible. I will spare the reader a detailed exposé. Here are three previous translations more courageous than most in representing the Hebrew of Hab 2:15-16a in translation:

NASB:

Woe to you who make your neighbors drink, / Who mix in your venom even to make them drunk / so as to look on their nakedness! // You will be filled with disgrace rather than honor. / Now you yourself drink and ^aexpose your own nakedness.

^aLit show yourself uncircumcised 

NJB:

Disaster to anyone who makes his neighbor drink, / pouring out his poison until they are drunk, / so that he can see them naked! // You are full of shame, not glory! // Your turn now to drink and show your foreskin. 

(BP [Alonso-Schökel])

¡Ay del que emborracha a su prójimo, / lo embriaga con una copa drogada, / para remirarlo desnudo! // Bebe tú también y enseña el prepucio, / hártate de baldones y no de honores. 

I imagine some of my readers are unable to read Spanish. But Daniel will enjoy it! For Antonio’s pleasure, here is Alonso-Schökel translation in Italian:

Guai a chi ubriaca il prossimo, / lo inebria con una coppa drogata, / per guardarlo nudo! // Bevi anche tu, e mostra il prepuzio, / saziati di oltraggi, non di onori.

Woe to the one who gets his neighbor drunk, / inebriates him with a drugged cup, / to see him naked! // You drink too, and show your foreskin, / satiated with shame, not honor.

This post is part of a series:

• The Book of Habakkuk: An Introduction
• The Prophet as Intercessor
• Faith-based Religion
• Assurance of Things Hoped For
• Habakkuk 2:4
• Anticipated Closure`
• Good and Bad Imperialism
• The Anticipatory Reach of Prophecy
• Smoke on the Water, Fire in the Sky: Habakkuk 3 Remixed

Comments

[danielandtonya]

John,

I do enjoy it! Schökel hits the nail on the head. Thanks for including this.

But I do disagree with your and Levenson's take on Genesis 9.22 (I assume 10.22 is a typo). Why isn't violation of modesty customs and gross disrespect of one's father enough for the curse he got? Seems like enough to me.

Also, 'exposed his father's nakedness' in Lev 20.11 is ערות אביו גלה, while 'saw his father's nakedness' in Gen 9.22 is וירא חם ערות אביו. Can you offer other instances of ראה having a connotation of sexual intercourse? I can't find any (Even Hab 2.15 doesn't use ראה).

Thanks,
D

[James Pate]

Would Genesis 42:9 be relevant here? Joseph accuses his brothers of being spies who have come to see the nakedness of the land. I (for some reason) thought this meant coming to see the land's deteriorating condition. Maybe there's something imperialistic here, since the spies would spy for some reason.

[JohnFH]

Hi Daniel,

Thanks for pointing out the mis-reference. I'll fix that.

For the rest, it is Lev 20:17, as I note in my post, in which ראה is used euphemistically for sexual activity. For a first orientation to this euphemism together with others of the same kind, I recommend Jacob Milgrom's note at Lev 18:6 in his AB commentary.

I do not deny that Ham's disrespect of his father in a far more limited sense than sexual aggression or castration is sufficient motive for the curse on Ham's son in Gen 9. But I still think that, from a quid pro quo point of view, an interpretation in line with Lev 20:17 is more likely.

[JohnFH]

Hi James,

Yes, you are on a fruitful track. Nahum Sarna (and you couldn't ask for better) preceded you. His comment on Gen 42:9:

"Hebrew 'ervat ha-'arets has its analogy in Isaiah 20:4, 'the nakedness of Egypt,' in the sense of 'the shame of Egypt' as a conquered state. Similarly, as the downfall of Jerusalem, peoples are said to 'have seen her disgraced' (Lam 1:8). Thus the figure here means to uncover any defects in its fortifications."

I'm not sure that Sarna has identified the precise reference of the figure in Gen 42:9, but regardless, the other passages he references, Isa 20 and Lam 1:7.8.17, are relevant to Hab 2:15. Even more so, Lam 4:21. In this last passage, the question is, once again, whether "exposure" following drunkenness is to be understood as an euphemism, as hinting at more than that.

[Alan Lenzi]

Another typo. 3rd paragraph after the Levenson quote:
מעורים >> מעוריהם

[danielandtonya]

John,

As you note, the Lev 20 reference is about a man having sex with "his father's wife", not his father.

Also, in Lev 18, again גלה is used. It seems that גלה is more prototypical of intercourse language than ראה.

[JohnFH]

Hi Alan,

Actually, the omission of the suffix was intended. "Citation" or "dictionary" forms for idioms is an unsettled matter in our field. I'm trying to do something along the lines of what we are familiar with from Assyriology, in which a particular idiom in discussion or a dictionary is cited with suffixes removed.

Daniel,

You are right that the reference in Lev 20 is not to homo-sex. But I see no reason why we should assume that a euphemism like the one in question would be used for hetero- *as opposed to* homo-sex.

There are lots of "hinting" euphemisms for the sex act in ancient Hebrew, not to mention Akkadian and other cognate languages. Besides ra'ah "see," Milgrom notes qareb "approach", bo' "enter," nagash "draw near," shakab "lie down" = close to our "sleep with," and gilla "reveal."

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