Humor in the Hebrew bible

This paper demonstrates that the Hebrew Bible contains much humor, albeit m ainly subtle and much of it requiring a knowledge of the original language of the Bible, Hebrew. The purpose of this article is not to exhaustively en umerate all instances of humor in the Bible but, rather, to demonstrate tha t humor permeates the Holy Scriptures. The humorous verses and situations c ollected in this paper are characterized as belonging to one of the followi ng categories of humor: sarcasm, irony, wordplay, humorous names, humorous imagery and exaggeration, and humorous situations. An examination of the co llection in this paper makes evident at least one important purpose of this humor: Humor brings God closer to humankind. For instance, God seems more understandable and less aloof when he is sarcastic. We mortals note that ev en omniscience and omnipotence do not prevent one from being hurt by strayi ng children. Humorous stories and exaggerations make the moral lessons of t he Hebrew Bible more memorable, and the irony behind punishments that are " measure for measure" hints at a world in which justice does truly prevail.