Speaking of Speaking: Marking Direct Discourse in the Hebrew Bible

An analysis of the means by which quoted speech is framed in the Old Testament, with special attention to the distinctive marking of God’s voice and variations in word choice and syntax as a function of literary and linguistic diversity. The discussion covers the distinct conventions of poetry and prose, verbs whose distribution is not uniform, and the significance of the common discourse markers ‘mr, dbr and l'mr. A treatment of direct discourse marking in prophetic literature underscores that one cannot treat this corpus as a uniform construct, and that phrases such as Thus saith the Lord are unhelpful for insight into the self-perception of the classical prophets.