Miktāb, Votive Thanksgiving Song, and the Prayer of Hezekiah (Isaiah 38:9-20)

Abstract

There have been a claim that miktāb in the superscription of “the prayer of Hezekiah” (Isa 38:9-20) should be altered to miktām. Miktām is a word consisting of the superscriptions of Pss. 16 and 56-60, although its meaning is yet to be clarified. These superscriptions of those “miktam psalms” relate the historical situations about David’s struggle. Since Isa 38:9 tells the historical situation concerning Hezekiah’s illness, miktāb there is also thought to be emended to miktām. W. W. Hallo, who suggests the connection between Sumerian and Akkadian genre of “letter-prayer” and biblical prayer of Hezekiah, also thinks that miktāb and miktām are somehow related. While most of the “miktam psalms” are classified into the lament genre, the prayer of Hezekiah is traditionally understood to be a thanksgiving song of an individual in which gratitude to and reliance on god play a central role. The author of this paper thinks it preferable to retain miktāb in Isa 38:9, by regarding the meaning of miktāb as “what was written,” rather than to emend miktāb to miktām, the word in a strong connection with an individual lament genre. There are some examples of showing that a thanksgiving song may have been “written.” Ps. 40 contains the verses that are considered to be a “written” prayer. Further, “the prayer of Nabonidus” from Qumran has a description of “having written” a thanksgiving prayer. Several Old Aramaic inscriptions have a dedicatory character as a means to proclaim the God’s good will. These examples make it possible to regard miktāb as the writing for a dedicated thanksgiving song. As long as the clearer ground to emend miktāb in Isa 38:9 to miktām, is not presented, the understanding I present in this article should be one of the possibility that keeps miktāb in the superscription of the prayer of Hezekiah.