I. Name

The word śĕʿîrîm, the plural of śăʿîr ‘hairy’ (Gen. 27.11 and often), i.e. ‘(hairy) he-goat’ (over 50 examples, in addition to its synonyms ʿattûd ‘he-goat’, ṣāpîr and tayiš), describes a group of creatures which are usually identified as ‘hairy demons, satyrs’ (Lev. 17.7; Isa. 13.21; Isa. 34.14; 2 Chr. 11.15; HALAT 1250; for older translations see Snaith 1975). The conjectured reading śĕʿîrîm for MT šĕʿārîm ‘gates’ in 2 Kgs. 23.8 is old (BHS), but is to be rejected on…