Biblica_1_Layout 1 20/01/12 11:44 Pagina 495 495 THE INTERPRETATION OF PS 144,14 Even so, perhaps the proposal has been too easily dismissed. With the exception of “stampede” (tacwy) — which should be re- placed with the less sensational “escape” — Held’s rendition may not be as improbable as his critics have claimed. There is sufficient archaeological and biblical evidence that livestock were kept in fenced enclosures, stables, stalls, and homes (Gen 33,17; Num 32,16.24.36; 1 Sam 24,4; 28,24; Amos 6,4; Mic 2,12?; Hab 3,17; Mal 3,20; Ps 50,9; 78,70) 59, and it is conceivable that they could have wandered away from any of them. More feasibly, tacwy and #rp could broadly describe animals escaping from or leaving the custody of their owners, rather than specifically departing from physically confining barriers 60; wandering livestock were common enough to be included in the Covenant Code (Exod 23,4), Deuteronomy (22,1-3), and Ezekiel’s metaphor of Israel’s shep- herds (Ezekiel 34), with 1 Sam 9,3 recording an actual example in the straying of Kish’s donkeys. A variation of this scenario was put forward by Particular Baptist, John Gill, in his OT commentary [1748-1763], “no breaking in to folds and herds, and leading out and driving away cattle, to the loss of the 59 See L.E. STAGER ‒ P.J. KING, Life in Biblical Israel (Louisville, KY 2001) 29, 34, 68; L.E. STAGER, “The Archaeology of the Family in Ancient Israel”, BASOR 260 (1985) 12-15; J.S. HOLLADAY, JR., “The Stables of Ancient Israel: Functional Determinants of Stable Construction and the Interpretation of Pil- lared Building Remains of the Palestinian Iron Age”, The Archaeology of Jor- dan and Other Studies (eds. L.T. GERATY ‒ L.G. HERR) (Berrien Springs, MI 1986) 103-165. For a defense of the commonly accepted reading “enclosure”, instead of “Bozrah” (Mic 2,12), see WALTKE, Micah, 133-134. 60 So A. BARNES, Psalms (Grand Rapids, MI 1950) III, 319; E.J. KIS- SANE, The Book of Psalms. Translated from a Critically Revised Hebrew Text (Dublin 1953-1954) 317; PETERS, Das Buch der Psalmen, 351, 352. Can the LXX also be read with this meaning? ouvk e;stin kata,ptwma fragmou/ ouvde. die,xodoj ouvde. kraugh. evn tai/j platei,aij auvtw/n. (Note, a, A, B have evpau,lesin, “homestead”, “country house” for platei,aij, “broad streets”.) Ziegler (“Ps 144”, 194) felt that db;a' would have been more appropriate for straying cattle (Ps 119,176; Ezek 34,4.16) — to which he could have added h['T' (Exod 23,4) and xd'n" (Deut 22,1; Ezek 34,4.16). He fails, however, to take the following into consideration: the Hitpael participle of #r;P' describes escaping servants in 1 Sam 25,10, and the same meaning can be attributed to acy in 2 Kgs 13,5, if the Masoretic reading is accepted; in Mal 3,20, acy describes the faithful going forth (~tacyw) “like calves released from the stall” (qbrm ylg[k) (NIV).