Chapter IV: The Old Testament Terms for “dancing”

I

How large a _rôle_ dancing in its various forms must have played among the Israelites is shown by the fact that, either in the restricted or in the more extended sense, no less than eleven Hebrew roots are used to describe its different characteristics. This in what is a relatively poor language is not without significance.

Before saying something about the meaning of these roots it will be well to give a list of them:

_Sāḥaq_ and _tzāḥaq_, used in the intensive _piel_ form.
_Ḥūl_.
_Kārar_, used in the _pilpel_ form, also intensive.
_Pāzaz_, used in the _piel_ form.
_Rāqad_, used in the _piel_ form.
_Sābab_, used in the _hiphil_, causative, form.
_Qāphatz_, used in the _piel_ form.
_Dālag._
_Tzālaʿ_, occurs only once.
_Ḥāgag_.
_Pāsaḥ_, used in the _piel_ form.

The first thing to notice here is that most of these roots, when used in reference to dancing, occur only in intensive forms; this is significant as pointing to the nature and character of the sacred dance. Of the exceptions, _ḥūl_ “to whirl” is intensive in its root-meaning; it has no _piel_, and its other forms occur only rarely, and almost entirely in the later poetical books. The roots _dālag_ and _tzālaʿ_, refer to a particular kind of ritual step; and as to _ḥāgag_ more will be said in a moment.

Now as to the meaning of these different words for dancing:

The root _sāḥaq_, in its intensive form _siḥēq_, means in the first instance “to laugh,” and it is also used in the sense of “playing” (Job xl. 29) and “merry-making” (Jer. xv. 17, xxx. 19, xxxi. 4, Zech. viii. 5; cp. also Judg. xvi. 25). In the specific sense of “dancing” it occurs in 1 Sam. xviii. 7: “... and the dancing women answered one another and said ...” (see also 1 Chron. xv. 29). Equivalent to this root is _tzāḥaq_, also used in the intensive form _tziḥēq_, which occurs, _e.g._, in Exod. xxxii. 6: “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to dance.” It is also used of “playing” or “sporting,” _e.g._ Gen. xxi. 9, Judg. xvi. 25, but in the second of these passages its obvious meaning is “to dance,” for as we shall see later this was the custom at feasts. This root, therefore, presents dancing in the aspect of a pleasant and enjoyable pastime. Further, in various passages this root is used as a parallel to other words for dancing. For example, in 1 Sam. xviii. 6, 7 just cited, it occurs as a parallel to the root which is the one most frequently used in the Old Testament for dancing, viz. _ḥūl_. This root expresses the “whirl” of the dance (_e.g._ Judg. xxi. 21, 23, Ps. lxxxvii. 7). It is the word used of the “writhing” or “twisting” of a woman in travail, _e.g._ Isa. xxvi. 17, xlv. 10, or of one in great pain, Isa. xiii. 8, xxiii. 5, Jer. li. 29; so that when used in the sense of dancing, contortions of the body are thought of, which suggests something of a rather wild character.

The “whirling” idea is also contained in the root _kārar_ (in its intensive _pilpel_ form, _kirkēr_), “to whirl about,” or “rotate.” It occurs, in this sense, only once in the Old Testament, 2 Sam. vi. 14-16, of David dancing before Jahwe[34]; and in this passage we have another root which does not occur elsewhere in the sense of dancing, viz. _pāzaz_ (again in the intensive form _pizzēz_); this expresses the idea of agile leaping as part of the dance[35], the cognate Arabic root means “to be excited.” The idea of leaping is also contained in another root _rāqad_ (in its intensive form _riqqēd_) which in its ordinary sense means “to skip about[36]”; as applied to dancing it occurs in the passage last mentioned, and see further, Isa. xiii. 21, Job xxi. 11, Joel ii. 5, Eccles. iii. 4, 1 Chron. xv. 29; in Ps. xxix. 6 it is used of a calf “skipping.”

The root _sābab_, used of “going round” the altar, is spoken about below (pp. 93 f.), so that we can leave this for the present.

So far, then, we have briefly touched on words used in reference to dancing which either express or suggest the ideas of its being something enjoyable, of its involving the bending about of the body, whirling about, leaping, and skipping; as well as that of forming a circle, perhaps round the altar, but in any case encircling something, or going round about it.

Now we come to some rather special words. In including _dālag_ in our category we realize that this is only justified because we are using the word “dancing” in its extended, as well as in its more restricted, sense; and we have shown above that this is not only permitted, but necessary in view of the general ideas underlying the whole subject. This word is used of the “leaping” of a hart in Isa. xxxv. 6, just as the word _rāqad_ is used, as we have seen, of the “skipping” of a calf; the latter, as already pointed out, occurs in several passages in the sense of “dancing”; _dālag_ may, therefore, be regarded as in some sense parallel to it. In Cant. ii. 8 _dālag_ certainly seems to refer to some form of dancing. But in two other passages the word has a special sense; in these, though the reference is not to dancing in the strict meaning of the term, it is used of a ritual step of a leaping character, and may justifiably be applied to dancing in the more extended sense. Thus, in 1 Sam. v. 5 it is said that no one ever treads on the threshold of Dagon’s house in Ashdod. This is explained in the Septuagint by the addition of the words “leaping over they leap over”; this is probably only an explanatory gloss (though it is conceivable that they represent a text in which _dālōg yidlōgū_ occurred), but it witnesses, at any rate, to what was a well-known custom, for in the other passage, Zeph. i. 9, punishment is pronounced against “all those who leap over the threshold,” without further explanation, showing that something quite familiar is being referred to. There was a similar Persian custom which forbad stepping on the threshold, one had to leap over it with the right foot first. The custom was due to the belief that evil spirits crouched down on the threshold, and the leaping over it prevented coming into contact with them, and the consequent risk of harm. The action implied the recognition of an alien cult, hence its prohibition[37]. In Cant. ii. 8 the root _qāphatz_ is used as a parallel to _dālag_, and also means “to jump,” or the like; but this is the only passage in which the word is used in this sense.

We come now to two roots of which rather more must be said. The first is _ḥāgag_. In 1 Sam. xxx. there is the account of David’s attack on an Amalekite troop who had carried off all the women from Ziklag, among them his two wives; the Egyptian slave of an Amalekite, who had been abandoned by his master because he had fallen sick, is asked by David to lead him to the spot where the Amalekites were encamped; this he undertakes to do on condition that no harm comes to him; then we read in verse 16: “And when he had brought him down, behold, they were sprawling about all over the ground, eating and drinking and feasting” (_hōgĕgim_); that is how the Revised Version renders this last word. To render it thus, however, is pleonastic, for if they were eating and drinking they were quite obviously “feasting”; the word, therefore, cannot well have this meaning here. The more natural rendering would be “dancing”; and, indeed, this would be the meaning that we should expect, for, as will be shown below, “dancing” is almost synonymous with “feasting,” because it was characteristic of feasts. Driver, in discussing this passage, says in reference to the word:

Whether, however, the sense of _dancing_ is really expressed by
the word is very doubtful. Modern lexicographers only defend
it by means of the questionable assumption that _ḥāgag_ may
have had a similar signification to _ḥūg_, which, however, by
no means itself expresses the sense of _to dance_, but _to
make a circle_ (Job xxvi. 10).... It is best to acquiesce
in the cautious judgement of Nöldeke[38], who declares that
he cannot with certainty get behind the idea of a _festal
gathering_ for the common Semitic _ḥag_. Here then the meaning
will be “behaving as at a _ḥag_ or gathering of pilgrims,” i.e.
enjoying themselves merrily[39].

Nowack is of a similar opinion; he says that the word here can hardly mean more than “to celebrate a feast”; but he adds: “perhaps the word is originally used of the sacred dance[40].” But apart from the question of the relationship between _ḥāgag_ and _ḥūg_, if the Arabic _Ḥagg_, “the going round in a circle,” is the word from which the Hebrew _ḥag_ is derived, and presumably there is little doubt about that, then the root-meaning of _ḥāgag_ will be “to go round in a circle,” and this was the essence of the sacred dance—or of one type of the sacred dance—among the Semites. Wellhausen points out that the central and most important part of the _cultus_ of the ancient Arabs was the circuit round the sanctuary, or, when this was offered, round the sacrifice. It is from this fact, he says, that the _Ḥagg_, which means really “the sacred dance,” is so called. He points out, further, that this original meaning of the word has not even yet been entirely lost in Arabic, for the verb still often has as its transitive object the stone or the “house.” The holy stone is itself called _Davar_ “the object of the encirclement” because of the custom of performing the sacred dance round it. Evidence is forthcoming that this was done not only round the sacred stone, the _Kaaba_, but also in all sanctuaries generally[41]. König gives as the primary meaning of _ḥāgag_ “to make dancing movements,” “to turn,” and regards the sense of “celebrating a feast” as secondary[42]. This is borne out by the use of the word in Ps. cvii. 27, where it means “to go round in a circle,” like a drunken man.

The chief original Hebrew term for a religious dance was
doubtless _ḥag_. The rendering “feast” or “festival” will
indeed suffice in most cases, but only because religious
festivals necessarily included the sacred dance, at least as
long as the sacred stones remained in the sanctuaries[43].

There is thus sufficient justification for reckoning this root among those which are used for “to dance” in the Old Testament.

Then as to the root _pāsaḥ_ (in its intensive form _pisseaḥ_). According to Exod. xii. 13, 23 the root-meaning of this word would appear to be “to spare,” for we read there: “... and when I see the blood _I will pass over_ you, and there shall be no plague upon you”; and again: “... and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, Jahwe _will pass over_ the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come into your houses to destroy you.” Both Zimmern[44] and Schrader[45] hold that the word is derived from the Assyrian _pasâḥu_, “to pacify,” which would support the _Exodus_ interpretation. Robertson Smith, on the other hand, thinks it by no means clear that this was the original meaning;

“there is,” he says, “no certain occurrence of the name before
_Deuteronomy_ (in Exod. xxxiv. 25 it looks like a gloss),
and the corresponding verb denotes some kind of religious
performance, apparently a dance, in 1 Kings xviii. 26. A
nocturnal ceremony at the consecration of a feast is already
alluded to in Isa. xxx. 29, who also perhaps alludes to
the received derivation of _pāsaḥ_ in xxxi. 5[46]. But the
Deuteronomic passover was a new thing in the days of Josiah (2
Kings xxiii. 21 f.). It underwent further modification in the
exile...[47].”

So that the opinion is worth hazarding as to whether _Pesaḥ_, the Passover, did not originally get its name from the particular form of limping dance peculiar to it, just as the ordinary feast got its name from the sacred dance, the _Ḥagg_, which was characteristic of it. See further p. 92.

A ritual dance of a somewhat similar character is mentioned in Gen. xxxii. 31, 32, where Jacob, as he passed over Penuel, “limped upon his thigh.” Here the root used is _tzālaʿ_, which in this sense occurs here only[48]; but there is the place-name _tzēlaʿ_, Saul’s ancestral home (2 Sam. xxi. 14), which was possibly an ancient sanctuary where this special kind of limping dance was performed.

These, then, are the words used in the Old Testament for “dancing” in its various forms; they will come before us again and their meanings will be more fully illustrated when we deal in the following chapters with the nature of the sacred dance.

II

It will be appropriate if we add here a word or two about the musical accompaniment (if this can in all cases be called “musical”) to dancing so far as can be gathered from the Old Testament.

In its earliest and simplest form this accompaniment consisted of the rhythmic beating of what is translated “timbrel” in the Revised Version; the word is _tôph_ in Hebrew, and it was probably the most primitive instrument among the Hebrews. It would be better described as a hand-drum, or “tom-tom,” being made of a circular (though also square and sometimes probably three-sided) piece of wood over which the skin of an animal, after preparation, was tightly drawn and fastened with a thin thong of skin. It was held in one hand and struck with the open palm of the other. In addition to this two other instruments of percussion are mentioned as accompanying dancing, namely “cymbals,” _tzeltzĕlim_, and what are called _metziltaim_, evidently also cymbals in some form or another as both words come from the same root; the latter must clearly have been held one in each hand and struck together, the dual form of the word shows this. Wind instruments for accompaniment were represented by the _ḥalîl_, “flute,” and the _ʿugâb_, perhaps something in the nature of a Pan’s-pipe, though this is quite uncertain; it is mentioned in Gen. iv. 21, where the Revised Version renders it “pipe.” Stringed instruments as an accompaniment to dancing were a later development, though of course used in what are to us early times, among the Israelites; the simplest of these were the _kinnôr_, “lyre” and the _nēbel_, “harp.” For the accompaniment to dancing of all three types of instruments, percussion, wind, and string, see Job xxi. 11, 12. We also read of “rattles,” _mĕnaʿnĕʿim_, probably something equivalent to the _sistrum_ of the Egyptians[49].

Besides instrumental, there was also vocal accompaniment, and doubtless the rhythmic clapping of hands, the most primitive form of accompaniment, and the beating of the thighs, though neither of these is mentioned in the Old Testament.

It has been truly said that

music is rarely divorced from dancing in the early stages of
culture, and seldom advances beyond mere rhythm into melody or
harmony. To a modern European ear it sounds not much more than
rhythmic noise, a mere marking of time for concerted movement
of the limbs, monotonous and unattractive, if heard without its
origin and inspiration—the dance[50].

But the writer is mistaken in his mention of harmony here; such a thing was quite unknown in “the early stages of culture,” if he means by that “culture” among uncivilized men[51].

The normal accompaniment to the sacred dance, then, among the Hebrews was the beating of the drum and the blowing of the flute; this, as will be seen in the following chapters, is true of all peoples. The accompaniment of stringed instruments is, as we have said, a later development.