Metamorphosis of a Ferocious Pharaoh 235 of Ezek 29,3-5; 32,2-6 (23) that envisions Pharaoh as a huge mythical reptile wallowing in the river (24). The image is not taken any further because the editors are bound to follow P’s narrative which at this point still requires a human pharaoh. So the first strike of the magical rod is not aimed at the king but at the waters that turn into blood (Exod 7,17-23). That editors inserted into P’s narrative a depiction of Pharaoh that draws on Ezekielian imagery confirms Risa Kohn’s claim that “although traditional scholarship generally highlights Ezekiel’s affinity to P, it is truly the redactor of the Torah (R) he most resembles” (25). The “dragonization” of Pharaoh in Exod 7,15 is one more clue to the editing of P by scribes well-versed in Ezekiel or by an “Ezekielan school” that was involved in editing the Torah. 3. Ben Sira and the Stinking Tannin If modern Bible translators do not like dragons, in the second century BCE, Jesus Ben Sira was not embarrassed by mythical dragons. On the contrary, only a mythical reading makes sense of a cryptic verse in the Hebrew of Sira 3,24 (Greek and English = 3,26) (26): µhb ghny twbwf bhwaw wtyrja çabt/dbk bl Hardened heart, his hind part will stink and he who loves “goodnesses” will be lead away by them. This verse clearly alludes to Exodus 7, packing into eight words two expressions found in Exod 7: dbk bl in the negative sense as in Exod 7–10 and çab ‘to stink’ (Exod 7,18.21). Pharaoh is dubbed as ‘hardened heart’ that will end up badly due to an inordinate love of goodness, which appears paradoxical, unless goodness here is ironical. The nature of this goodness is not given, but it can be nothing else than the water by which Pharaoh will perish when pursuing the Israelites! Ben Sira has thus seen that Pharaoh’s going to the water is not motivated by hygienic reasons but by an inordinate love of Nile waters because, as Ezekiel 29 explains, Pharaoh considers the Nile as his own and loves to wallow in it. Because he wrote in Egypt and owed his safety to a Ptolemaic Pharaoh (27), Ben Sira was indeed careful in his depiction of the Exodus Pharaoh, although he did not resist cracking this rude joke by alluding to the king’s fate and to his anatomical end part. Ben Sira’s grandson who came to Egypt to translate the text into Greek (23) PROPP, Exodus, 310. (24) PROPP, Exodus, 324; R.L. KOHN, “A Prophet like Moses? Rethinking Ezekiel’s Relationship to the Torah”, ZAW 114 (2, 2002) 236-254 (236). (25) KOHN, “Prophet”, 251. See also R.L. KOHN, A New Heart and a New Soul. Ezekiel, the Exile and the Torah (JSOTSS 358; Sheffield 2002); and already J.D. LEVENSON, Theology of the Program of Restoration of Ezekiel 40–48 (HSM 10; Missoula 1976); J.L. SKA, “La sortie d’Egypte (Ex 7–14) dans le récit sacerdotal (Pg) et la tradition prophétique”, Bib 60 (1979) 203-215; H. MCKEATING, “Ezekiel the ‘Prophet Like Moses’?”, JSOT 61 (1994) 97-100; B. GOSSE, “Le livre d’Ezéchiel et Ex 6,2-8 dans le cadre du Pentateuque”, BN 104 (2000) 20-25. (26) I. LÉVY, The Hebrew Text of the Wisdom of Ecclesiasticus (Leiden 1969) 2, considers this verse as unintelligible. (27) P. MCKECHNIE, “The Career of Joshua Ben Sira”, JThS 51 (2000) 1-26.