The Lord of the East Wind (review)

Hebrew Studies 44 (2003) 250 Reviews Covenant (Exodus 21-23), when most authors assume that the talion principle was a foundational assumption for all the laws. Barton suggests that the taHon principle was fading away as a legal principle when this code was crafted. But in response, we might opine that since many of the working laws were not written down in the theological and scribal creation we call the Book of the Covenant, and that this literary creation might not have been used in the law courts, it is then possible that the talion principle was operative in many other laws in the oral tradition. In conclusion, Barton's work on Old Testament ethics is an excellent resource in an area of study which deserves and demands greater attention by Old Testament scholars and biblical theologians. His arguments merit close attention by anyone who dares to articulate the ethics of the Old Testament. Robert Gnuse Loyola University New Orleans, LA 70118 rkgllllse@loYllo.edu THE LORD OF THE EAST WIND. By Aloysius Fitzgerald. CBQMS 34. Pp. vi + 234. Washington, D.C.: Catholic Biblical Association of America, 2002. Paper, $12.00. In the introduction to his work, Aloysius Fitzgerald states that "this study is the result of personal befuddlement occasioned by the different approaches, taken by geographers and a minority of exegetes on the one hand and the majority of exegetes on the other, to storm theophanies in the OT-and to OT meteorology more generally" (p. 1). Fitzgerald sets out to test the hypothesis that the first of these approaches is correct, namely, that behind much of the imagery in theophanic storm accounts in the Bible are real meteorological phenomena, albeit subject to poetic hyperbole. In particular, Fitzgerald states that "the prime intention of this study is simply to show that it is possible to analyze and make distinctions in the OT language of siroccos and rainstorms (often in association with theophanies), and to show that Palestinian (or better Syro-Palestinian) meteorology is the ultimate source of these presentations" (p. 8). Fitzgerald presents a carefully reasoned argument in seven parts. In Part I, Fitzgerald gives a summary of Palestinian meteorology, focusing on the sirocco. His focus on the sirocco is partially motivated by the unfamiliarity of Western exegetes with this dry, desert storm in contrast to the more familiar rainstorm imagery in biblical storm theophanies. Hebrew Studies 44 (2003) 251 Reviews Fitzgerald begins his examination in Part 2 by looking at five theophanic passages that mention water sources being dried up (Hos 13:14-15; Nah 1:2-8; Isa 19:1, 5-7; 50:2-3; Jer 51:34-37, 42-45) in order to isolate the central vocabulary and motifs of siroccos. He begins with these passages in order to distinguish the imagery of siroccos from that of rainstorms, which presumably would have no place in storm theophanies that mention waters drying up. Having derived an initial catalogue of vocabulary for sirocco from these five passages, Fitzgerald expands his investigation in Part 3, where he examines five further passages with typical sirocco terminology and images, but which do not mention water sources drying up (lsa 13:2-22; Jer 4:5-31; 25:30-38; Deut 32:21-25; Lam 2). As a transition to his discussion of the relationship between siroccos and rainstorms in Part 5, Fitzgerald briefly examines the account of the miracle at the Red Sea in Part 4. He contrasts the account in Exod 15:1b-18, 21b, which utilizes sirocco imagery, with the alternate account in Ps 77:17-20, which instead employs rainstorm imagery. He uses these contrasting accounts to illustrate the distinctiveness of the eastern sirocco storm and the rainbringing west wind in biblical storm theophanies (p. 70). In Part 5, Fitzgerald examines six passages which contain both sirocco and rainstorm imagery (Isa 34-35; 30:27-33; Hab 3:2-19; Ps 18:8-10; Isa 29:1-8; Ps 96-97) that indicate a setting during the transitional Fall and Spring period, in which these two storm types may alternate. By explaining these mixed sirocco-rainstorm theophanies in terms of Syro-Palestinian Fall and Spring meteorology, Fitzgerald further...