Originally published in Vetus Testamentum 22 (1972), pp. 266-87, and reprinted with the permission of E.J. Brill.
1. This, the most obvious reason for the full name-form, is the only one recognized even by Irene Lande in her valuable Formelhafte Wendungen der Umgangssprache im Alten Testament (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1949), p. 80.
2. On 'perspective reporting', cf. below, n. 12.
3. Cf. Hans Jochen Boecker, Redeformen des Rechtslebens im Alten Testament (Neukirchen: Neukirchener Verlag, 1964), pp. 26-34.
4. So G.F. Moore, Judges (ICC; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1895), p. 256; John Gray, Joshua, Judges and Ruth (NCB; London: Nelson, 1967), p. 322.
5. gO(o,)'al 'loathing' (cf. Josephus's I&avlhß, Ant. 5.7.3-4.).
6. So lxx Iwbhl, a common error for Iwbhd (Moore, Judges, p. 256).
7. Cf. lxx kai; pa~ß Israhl ajgavpa aujtovn. So Henry Preserved Smith, The Books of Samuel (ICC; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1899), p. 175; Paul. Dhorme, Les Livres de Samuel (Etudes bibliques; Paris: J. Gabalda, 1910), p. 166; S.R. Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text . . . of the Books of Samuel (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2nd edn, 1913), p. 155. Remarkably, BH3, neb, Hans Wilhelm Hertzberg, I and II Samuel (London: SCM Press, 1964), p. 159, and J. Mauchline, 1 and 2 Samuel (NCB; London: Oliphants, 1971), p. 141, appear to have no difÞculty with the mt.
8. Older commentators occasionally saw that some explanation of the full name-form is called for, though their explanations were beside the point; for example, 'Michal is expressly called Saul's daughter, not thereby to characterize her as lacking in true-hearted piety (Keil), but to distinguish her in comparison with David's other wives, as highest in position' (C.F.D. Erdmann, The Books of Samuel [ed. C.H. Toy and J.A. Brooks; New York: Scribner, Armstrong & Co., 1877], p. 419); or, 'as king's daughter, she valued her royal dignity' (R. Payne Smith, II Samuel [Pulpit Commentary, 9; London: Kegan, Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., 1888], p. 147).
9. Cf., e.g., Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text, p. 352; Mauchline, 1 and 2 Samuel, p. 302. J.J. Glück, 'Merab or Michal', ZAW 77 (1965), pp. 72-81, alone retains 'Michal' at the cost of an unconvincing emendation of 'Adriel b. Barzillai the Meholathite' to 'Paltiel b. Laish'.
10. Cf. Gen. 37.6 anAw[mv (Joseph to his brothers); 1 Sam. 22.7 anAw[mv (Saul to his servants); Judg. 9.7 yla w[mv (Jotham to the men of Shechem).
11. Cf. 2 Sam. 2.20 (Abner to Asahel); 1 Kgs 18.7 (Obadiah to Elijah).
12. This is therefore an example of 'perspective reporting' narrative technique, in which the narrator tells the story from within the perspective of one of his characters. This technique is discussed by M. Weiss ('Einiges über die Bauformen des Erzählens in der Bibel', VT 13 [1963], pp. 456-75) under the rubric 'erlebte Rede'. An alternative interpretation of our text is suggested by Lande, Formelhafte Wendungen der Umgangssprache im Alten Testament, p. 20, who sees David's address of Abner by the simple name-form as a sign of disrespect. This is difÞcult to establish since there are no exact parallels: Joram's neglect of the courteous 'my brother' when crying 'Treachery, Ahaziah' (2 Kgs 9.23) is hardly disrespectful, and from 2 Kgs 9.5 when a messenger addresses Jehu with 'I have a message for thee, O commander (rch)', we do not learn whether one can say, 'O commander Jehu (rch   arhy). Other examples (cf. Lande, Formelhafte Wendungen der Umgangssprache im Alten Testament, p. 28, and add 2 Kgs 9.31) are of a superior addressing an inferior, and are irrelevant here. David can hardly address Abner as 'my brother' (yja) or 'my lord' (ynda), and as far as we know he would have to call out either rch (which might produce some other rc; cf. 2 Kgs 9.5), or (rnAb) rnba, regardless of how respectful or unrespectful he wanted to appear. If he really wanted to be ill-mannered, he could always say simply rbAb (cf. on ben Y below). Finally, note that Lande does not explain why the long name-form appears in our text.
13. lxx prosekalevsato Daueid to;n lao;n, kai; tw~/ Abennhr ejlavlhsen levgwn. Cf. neb 'David shouted across to the army and hailed Abner'. The problem is further complicated by Abner's reply 'Who art thou who callest to the king?' (°lmhAla omitted by lxx, bh3, jb), but this does not concern us here.
14. Cf. Boecker, Redeformen des Rechtslebens, p. 30.
15. 'Why' questions of reproach are commonly supplemented by yk or alh clauses, e.g. 1 Sam 26.18 (yk); 1 Sam. 17.8 (alh), and probably alh should be restored at the beginning of v. 25 (cf. lxx). But lxx is rather free at this point, running (24) ajpelhluqen ejn eijrhvnh/ (25) h] oujk oi\daß th;n kakivan Abennhr . . . for mt rnbaAta t[dy. °wlh °lyw. One should not succumb to lxx and read µwlvb   °lyw (so K. Budde, Die Bücher Samuel [KHAT; Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1902], p. 212; BH3), since that is clearly an assimilation to the ending of vv. 22-23. and Driver (Notes on the Hebrew Text, p. 249) rightly sees that 'while the narrator, and reporters, use the common µwlvb °lyw, Joab characteristically expresses himself with greater energy °wlh °lyw. Nor should we read rnba t[rAta in v. 25 (so Budde, Die Bücher Samuel, p. 212), since lxx is only smoothing, though not improving, the Hebrew.
16. Cf. on Abner (1 Sam. 17.55).
17. Cf. on Abner (2 Sam. 2.8).
18. The inversion of verb and subject is not here due to dischronologization of the narrative, as is sometimes the case (see, e.g., S.R. Driver, A Treatise on the Use of the Tenses in Hebrew [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2nd edn, 1881], pp. 102, 229-30).
19. Attested in the Old Testament only as a proper name (Num. 26.35; Gen. 46.21; 1 Chron. 7.6, 8), but cf. Akk. bakru 'young of a camel of donkey' (CAD, B, p. 35), Arab. bakr 'a youthful he-camel, one in a state of youthful vigour' (Lane, I, p. 240b).
20. 'Sons of Belial' are those who break loose from accepted standards of morality or order (cf. V. Maag, 'Belija'al im Alten Testament', TZ 21 [1965], pp. 287-99). The parallel with the uncontrollable hrkb of Jer. 2.23 is plain; 'such a young camel never takes more than about three steps in any direction. To this day the young camel provides a dramatic illustration for anything unreliable' (K.F. Bailey and W.L. Holladay, 'The "Young Camel" and "Wild Ass" in Jer. ii 23-25', VT 18 [1968], pp. 256-60 [258-59]). Bailey and Holladay have shown emendation of the mt rbdm dml arp (v. 24) to be unnecessary, since a different animal is referred to in this verse, but the sense is unaffected even if one of the usual emendations is adopted: to rB;d"Mil' hx;r"po 'breaking forth into the desert' (L. Koehler, ZAW 29 [1909], pp. 35-36, followed by BH3, W. Rudolph, Jeremia [HAT; Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 3rd edn, 1968], p. 20), or to rB;d"Mil' hd . . . r´p;m]] (G.R. Driver, JQR 28 [1937­p;38], pp. 98-99; followed by neb).
21. J. Marquart, Fundamente israelitischer und jüdischer Geschichte (1896), pp. 14-15, reading rk,B, for tr"/kB] in the genealogy of Saul in 1 Sam. 9.1 (cf. rkb among the sons of Benjamin, Gen. 46.21; and Wrk]Bo (if not an error for /rkoB], cf. BH3) among the descendants of Saul in 1 Chron. 8.38; 9.44). A difÞculty with this view is that 2 Sam. 16.5 refers to Shimei b. Gera as being of the hjpvm (phratry) to which the baAtyb (extended family) of Saul belonged; for we know that Gera was, like Becher (Bichri), a clan of the Benjamin tribe, and it would be surprising to Þnd a Gera in the Becher clan. A less serious difÞculty is that in 1 Sam. 11.21 Saul is said to be of the hjpvm of Matri (yrfm), but since the name Matri is nowhere attested as a Benjaminite name, we have doubtless to do with an error in transmission. Indeed, yrfm may itself be witness to an original yrkb b and m are easily confused both in the palaeoscript and in square Hebrew (cf. respectively B. Margulis, ZAW 82 [1970], pp. 421, 426; F. Delitzsch, Die Lese- und Schreibfehler im Alten Testament [Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 1920], pp. 113-14).
22. Cf. Budde, Die Bücher Samuel, p. 296.
23. It is obvious that v. 15b is a Deuteronomic aside (cf. M. Noth, Könige [BKAT; Neukirchen: Neukirchener Verlag, 1968], I, p. 276), but that fact in itself cannot explain this use of 'XbY' which is out of line with the use of 'X' throughout 1 Kgs 12­p;14, for the Deuteronomic historian must for the present purpose be regarded as the primary author, and it is largely his narrative usage that we are examining. It could, however, perhaps be suggested that either the whole clause 'to establish his word which Yahweh spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam b. Nebat' (so James A. Montgomery and Henry Snyder Gehman, The Books of Kings (ICC; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1951], p. 250) or, preferably, the last phrase, 'to Jeroboam b. Nebat', is a secondary, scribal (i.e. not narrator's), addition and consequently does not employ the same narrative technique as the Deuteronomic author. The reading of lxxA, B peri;(= l[) Ieroboam ui|oß Nabat, which is certainly a difÞcilior lectio than mt Ala, since the previous chapter plainly relates how Ahijah delivered his prophecy to Jeroboam (11.31), points to the phrase having been a marginal gloss and so no part of the Deuteronomic narrative (cf. 15.29). If this were so, it would remove the necessity of seeking a reason for the employment of the 'XbY' form within the terms of the analysis offered above. It might be pointed out that the unnecessary (note its absence in lxxA, B) use of 'Yahweh' in the last clause (after 'Yahweh' has already appeared in the main clause and has been taken up by 'his word' just before this last clause) is a further ground for suspicion of the clause; such repetitiousness is not normal, though it can be paralleled: in 2 Kgs 10.10, as here, 'Yahweh' is not the subject of the main clause.
24. Surprisingly the oracle has already referred (v. 2) to Jeroboam-by the short form, quite contrary to normal narrative style. This is not of course narrative form, but a speech form of an authoritative type where a climactic statement is natural. The oracle could in fact be easily arranged in metric form:
larcy ym[Al[ dygn ÷ °ntaw rp[hA~m °ytmyrh 3 + 3
µtafjb ynsy[khl ÷ larcy ym[Ata amjtw ÷ µ[bry °rdb °ltw 3 + 3 + 2
wtyb yrjaw avab yrja ÷ ry[bm ynnh 2 + 2
fbnAb µ[bry tybk ÷ °tybAta yttnw 2 + 2

25. lxx adds 'son of Nebat', on which BH3 comments 'frt recte', though it has not suggested following the same lxx addition in 15.34.
26. So 'ben Omri' need not be deleted with lxx and BH3.
27. Though 13.6 may be a post-Deuteronomic addition, and so no part of the narrative style (cf. John Gray, I and II Kings [London: SCM Press, 2nd edn, 1970], p. 592, regarding vv. 4-6 as a 'Deuteronomistic afterthought').
28. Francis Brown, S.R. Driver and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1909, corr. r.p. 1955), p. 120b.
29. C. Siegfried and B. Stade, Hebräisches Wörterbuch zum Alten Testamente (Leipzig: Veit, 1893), p. 93.
30. Julius Fuerst, A Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament (trans. S. Davidson; Leipzig: B. Tauchnitz, 1871), p. 215.
31. Ludwig Koehler and Walter Baumgartner, Hebräisches und aramäisches Lexicon zum Alten Testament (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 3rd edn, 1967), p. 132b.
32. Lande, Formelhafte Wendungen der Umgangssprache im Alten Testament, pp. 35, 82.
33. Mauchline, 1 and 2 Samuel; William McKane, I and II Samuel (Torch Commentary; London: SCM Press, 1963); Hertzberg, I and II Samuel; Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text; H.P. Smith, The Books of Samuel.
34. Budde, Die Bücher Samuel, p. 144: 'ein Emporkömmling wird mit den Vaternamen verächtlich benannt'; but does Saul mean to brand David an 'upstart' (Emporkömmling)?
35. Reading rbej; (so BH3; cf. lxx mevtocoß ei\) for mt rjebo.
36. This example is not noted by BDB, p. 120b.
37. The references to b. Remaliah in vv. 4-5, though not that in v. 9, possibly form part of a gloss (cf. Hans Wildberger, Jesaja [BKAT; Neukirchen: Neukirchener Verlag, 1972], pp. 264-66).
38. Wrongly cited in BDB, p. 120b, as 8.16.
39. The phrase 'Rezin and b. Remaliah' is perhaps not original here (cf. bhs).
40. So, e.g., George Buchanan Gray, The Book of Isaiah (ICC; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1912), p. 118; B. Duhm, Das Buch Jesaia (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 4th edn, 1922), p. 72.
41. Karl Marti, Das Buch Jesaja (KHAT; Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr [Paul Siebeck], 1900), p. 73: 'Heisst der israelitische König . . . nicht Pekach, sondern verächtlich, um seine niedere Herkunft hervorzuheben, nur Sohn Remaljas'. John Skinner, Isaiah I­p;XXXIX (Cambridge Bible; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, rev. edn, 1915), p. 55: 'Pekah was a usurper, a novus homo, and Isaiah never condescends to utter his name'. Cf. Wildberger, Jesaja, p. 281.
42. Georg Fohrer, Das Buch Jesaja (Zürcher Bibelkommentare; Zürich: Zwingli, 2nd edn, 1966), I, pp. 107-108: '[Jesaja] verachtet den israelitischen König, den er als Sohn eines gewissen Remalja bezeichnet. Er ist ein Mann ohne eigenen Namen und geprägtes Wesen, ein vom Leben des Vaters zehrendes Etwas, das durch Mord auf den Thron gelangt ist!'
43. 1 Sam. 22.17 is an exception; we would expect 'b. Jesse' there (cf. vv. 8, 13).
44. See J. Sturdy, 'The Original Meaning of "Is Saul also among the prophets?" ', VT 20 (1970), pp. 206-13.
45. Contra Lande, Formelhafte Wendungen der Umgangssprache im Alten Testament, pp. 35, 82, who regards such an address as an insult. Certainly when the plural form ynb is used in an address it cannot be held to be disparaging; the reason for David's use of hywrx ynb for Joab and Abishai (2 Sam. 3.39; 19.23 [mt 22]) and for the regular use of larcy ynb is the same: it is inconvenient to enumerate all the members of the group!
46. Cf. Gray, Joshua, Judges, and Ruth, p. 284.
47. Cf. E.Z. Melamed, 'Break-up of Stereotype Phrases as an Artistic Device in Biblical Poetry', in Studies in the Bible (ed. Chaim Rabin; Scripta Hierosolymitana, 8; Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1961), pp. 115-53; G. Braulik, 'Aufbrechen von geprägten Wortverbindungen und Zusammenfassung von stereotypen Ausdrücken in der alttestamentliche Kunstprosa', Semitics 1 (1970), pp. 7-11.
48. Contra E.R. Dalglish, 'Jesse', IDB, II, p. 868.
49. This example is not cited by BDB, p. 120b.
50. R.G. Boling, ' "And who is ¦-K-M?" (Judges ix 28)', VT 13 (1963), pp. 479-82, suggests 'Who is Abimelech, and who the Shechemite [read O(s,)kmy, or else [¡ar] ¡ekem; cf. v. 30], that we should serve him? Is this not Jerubbaal's son? And Zebul is his deputy.' That is, 'Gaal is . . . complaining that the Shechemite påqîd is subordinate to a merely half-Shechemite mèlek' (p. 481). But if Abimelech and O(s,)km are contrasted, 'that we should serve him' is out of place.
51. Reading lwav °b<l> Wyh;.
52. One may doubt that 'das ursprüngliche l[bça vor lwaçnb leicht übersehen werden' (Budde, Die Bücher Samuel, pp. 214-15), and the suggestion that confusion has occurred between tvbvya and [mvyw (see Driver, Notes on the Hebrew Text, p. 252) could explain only the Þrst omission.
53. Contra Smith, The Books of Samuel, p. 284, on v. 1.
54. I am indebted to my colleague D.M. Gunn for many helpful suggestions on particular passages, especially from the books of Samuel, studied in this paper.