Breaking the Siege: Examining the נַעֲרֵי֙ שָׂרֵ֣י הַמְּדִינֹ֔ות in 1 Kgs 20

This article examines the identity of the נַעֲרֵי֙ שָׂרֵ֣י הַמְּדִינֹ֔ות who dramatically break the siege of Samaria in 1 Kgs 20. Beginning with a grammatical and semantic analysis of the extended construct chain, this essay also considers ancient translations and evidence from Neo–Assyrian administrative texts. I consider how the Neo–Assyrian administrative apparatus, which included The King’s Magnates, may offer a conceptual model for understanding the identity and function of theנַעֲרֵי֙ שָׂרֵ֣י הַמְּדִינֹ֔ות. I propose that this group is best understood as “junior governors of the provinces,” and their presence in the narrative appears linked to a larger historiographic agenda

On the Moding and Diachrony of the Books of Samuel

The three “lamp” passages in Samuel (1 Sam 3:3; 2 Sam 21:17; 22:29) cooperate to establish an inclusio that serves as the hermeneutical lens for the final form of Samuel. Contrary to Graeme Auld, therefore, 1 and 2 Samuel is not necessarily all about David, but rather it’s about David insofar as he is the chief vehicle through which the narrative communicates a particular ideology. To account for this dynamic, there appears to be at least two phases of development within Samuel’s lamp metaphor, the latter of which imported a more critical posture toward the monarchal institution. Moreover, the latter phase of this metaphor’s development appears to have important implications for Samuel’s literary development away from an ancient apology. Alastair Fowler argues that literary genres change through time, and when this happens ideas encroach upon literary forms and become the driving force of the work’s presentation. Synthesizing this framework with some of the ideas of John Van Seters, this essay proposes that the certain phases of Samuel’s literary development may constitute the moding of a royal apology

Relationship between resistivity and specific heat in a canonical non-magnetic heavy fermion alloy system: UPt_5-xAu_x

UPt_(5-x)Au_x alloys form in a single crystal structure, cubic AuBe_5-type, over a wide range of concentrations from x = 0 to at least x = 2.5. All investigated alloys, with an exception for x = 2.5, were non-magnetic. Their electronic specific heat coefficient $\gamma$ varies from about 60 (x = 2) to about 700 mJ/mol K^2 (x = 1). The electrical resistivity for all alloys has a Fermi-liquid-like temperature variation, \rho = \rho_o + AT^2, in the limit of T -> 0 K. The coefficient A is strongly enhanced in the heavy-fermion regime in comparison with normal and transition metals. It changes from about 0.01 (x = 0) to over 2 micro-ohm cm/K^2 (x = 1). A/\gamma^2, which has been postulated to have a universal value for heavy-fermions, varies from about 10^-6 (x = 0, 0.5) to 10^-5 micro-ohm cm (mol K/mJ)^2 (x > 1.1), thus from a value typical of transition metals to that found for some other heavy-fermion metals. This ratio is unaffected, or only weakly affected, by chemical or crystallographic disorder. It correlates with the paramagnetic Curie-Weiss temperature of the high temperature magnetic susceptibility.Comment: 5 pages, 5 eps figures, RevTe