Etymologically
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פלגש

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Pronunciation

  • Tiberian: pîleḡeš, also pileḡeš[1][2]
  • Samaritan reading tradition: filgåš, plural filgā̊šəm[3][4]

Forms

פִּלֶגֶשׁ (pileḡeš) noun[5] Feminine; written plene פִּילֶגֶשׁ or defectively פִּלֶגֶשׁ (2 Samuel 3:7, 21:11); with suffixes פִּילַגְשׁוֹ, פִּילַגְשֵׁהוּ; plural פִּילַגְשִׁים or פִּלַגְשִׁים, construct פִּלַגְשֵׁי.[2][3] Also in the fuller phrase אִשָּׁה פִילֶגֶשׁ (Judges 19:1).[6]

Etymology

It is a non-Semitic word with no Semitic root or cognates.[3][7][8] It goes with Aramaic פַּלְקְתָא (palqəṯā), Ancient Greek πάλλαξ (pállax, “young girl”), παλλακίς (pallakís, “concubine”), παλλακή (pallakḗ) and Latin paelex (“mistress”), and HALOT and Ellenbogen add the Arabic name of the queen of Sheba, Bilqīs.[3][9][8] Klein and Wiktionary also compare Avestan pairikā, the name of women who seduce pious men.[9][10]

The direction of the loan is disputed.[8] BDB reports Stade's view that the word is Greek in origin.[2] Lewy derived the Hebrew word from Greek and Latin, but Noonan objects that the Greek and Latin words themselves have no clear Indo-European etymology.[7] De Vaan reports Levin's view that the Latin word came from a Mediterranean language, perhaps Semitic, given the Hebrew word.[11] Noonan points to the ⟨-δ-⟩ of the Greek word's stem, which is found in other words that came into Greek through Anatolia, and concludes that the Semitic and Greek words come from a third, Anatolian source, an old culture word for a form of cohabitation.[7] Ellenbogen, after Uhlenbeck, also thinks of an Asianic source, and BDB mentions a proposed Hittite origin.[8][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The word is used 37 times in the Bible, mostly in the narratives of Genesis, Judges and 2 Samuel.[5] The first concubine in canonical order is Reumah, Nahor's concubine (Genesis 22:24), and the longest story is that of the Levite's concubine in Judges 19–20.[5][3]

Semantic evolution

A pîleḡeš was a secondary wife: the concubines of Abraham, Jacob, Gideon, Saul and David, the Levite's concubine of Judges 19, and the eighty concubines of Song of Songs 6:8.[3][2] In Ezekiel 23:20 the plural refers to the lovers of Oholibah, so BDB takes it there as “paramours” or as concubinage.[2] The Septuagint renders it almost everywhere with Ancient Greek παλλακή (pallakḗ).[5][12] The word is used twelve times in the Dead Sea Scrolls, mostly in a Samuel scroll.[13] Rabbinic law sets the concubine apart from the wife by her marriage contract, and Kimhi defines her as a woman kept for a man's bed without a marriage contract and without betrothal.[14][15] Modern Hebrew פילגש (pilégesh) means “mistress, concubine”.[10]

Timeline

  • Classical Biblical Hebrew – 25 of the 37 biblical uses are in the narratives of Genesis to Kings.[5]
  • Late Biblical Hebrew – seven uses in Chronicles and Esther.[5]
  • 3rd–2nd century BC – the Septuagint translates it with Ancient Greek παλλακή (pallakḗ).[16][5]
  • 2nd century BC – 2nd century AD – twelve uses in the Dead Sea Scrolls.[17][13]

Meanings

Noun

  1. a concubine, a secondary wife of lower standing.[3][2]
  2. (plural, Ezekiel 23:20) male paramours.[2]

Descendants

  • Modern Hebrew פילגש (pilégesh)[10]
  • Ancient Greek παλλακή (pallakḗ)
  • Latin paelex

Usage notes

The Bible writes the word both plene, פִּילֶגֶשׁ, and defectively, פִּלֶגֶשׁ;[10] Modern Hebrew uses the plene spelling פילגש.[2][10]

References

  1. ^ Eep Talstra Centre for Bible and Computer (2021), BHSA: Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia Amstelodamensis, Text-Fabric dataset, version 2021, github.com/ETCBC/bhsa
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Brown, Francis; Driver, S. R.; Briggs, Charles A. (1906), A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. פִּלֶגֶשׁ
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob (1994–2000), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, transl. and ed. M. E. J. Richardson, 5 vols, Leiden: Brill, p. s.v. פִּלֶגֶשׁ
  4. ^ Højgaard, Christian Canu; Naaijer, Martijn; Schorch, Stefan (2023), Text-Fabric Dataset of the Samaritan Pentateuch, Zenodo, doi:10.5281/zenodo.7734632
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Clear Bible (2023–), MACULA Hebrew Linguistic Datasets (Westminster Leningrad Codex, with Greek alignment), github.com/Clear-Bible/macula-hebrew, CC BY 4.0
  6. ^ Gesenius, Wilhelm (1846), Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures, transl. Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, London: Samuel Bagster, p. s.v. פִּלֶּגֶשׁ
  7. ^ a b c Noonan, Benjamin J. (2019), Non-Semitic Loanwords in the Hebrew Bible: A Lexicon of Language Contact, University Park: Eisenbrauns (Linguistic Studies in Ancient West Semitic 14), p. 176
  8. ^ a b c d Ellenbogen, Maximilian (1962), Foreign Words in the Old Testament: Their Origin and Etymology, London: Luzac, p. 134
  9. ^ a b Klein, Ernest (1987), A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English, Jerusalem: Carta; Haifa: University of Haifa, p. s.v. פִּילֶגֶשׁ
  10. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  11. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. paelex
  12. ^ Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. s.v. παλλακή
  13. ^ a b Abegg, Martin G.; Jacobs, Jarod; Roorda, Dirk (2022), The Dead Sea Scrolls, Text-Fabric dataset, version 2.0.2, github.com/ETCBC/dss
  14. ^ Jastrow, Marcus (1886–1903), A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature, London: Luzac; New York: Putnam, p. s.v. פִּלֶּגֶשׁ
  15. ^ Kimhi, David (13th c.), Sefer ha-Shorashim, ed. J. H. R. Biesenthal and F. Lebrecht (1847), Berlin: G. Bethge, p. s.v. פלגשׁ
  16. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 93
  17. ^ Sáenz-Badillos, Angel (1993), A History of the Hebrew Language, transl. John Elwolde, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 143