I. Name
On the basis of Gen. 49.24, Maag reconstructed the expression Rōʿeh Yiśrāʾēl, ‘Shepherd of Israel’ as the name of the personal god of Israel/Jacob, comparable in his view to the ‘Fear of Isaac’ and the ‘Mighty One of Jacob’ (1980:121). Since the name can only be obtained by textual emendation, Maag’s proposal is hardly convincing (cf. Köckert 1988:65–67). Though ‘shepherd’ is not unusual as an epithet for Near Eastern gods, it has nowhere attained the status of an independent divine name.