Meals Associated with Marzeah

Several other meals in the Hebrew Bible are sometimes associated with the concept of a marzeah, even though the noun does not appear in the text. For example, Asen argues that Isa 28:1–6 describes an ancient Near Eastern marzeah, pointing to the references to flowers, food, unguents, and wine. He draws several parallels between Isa 28 and the ancient Near Eastern description of El’s drunken stupor in connection with a marzeah and concludes that the prophet used the marzeah as a model for his condemnation of Ephraim’s mistreatment of the poor and underclass (Asen, “Garlands of Ephraim,” 84–85).

Ackerman argues that Ezek 8:7–13 describes a marzeah because the meal Ezekiel sees in his vision was under the patronage of a god and was celebrated regularly in a room owned by the worshipers who were part of the aristocracy within the palace boundaries (Ackerman, “A Marzeah in Ezekiel 8:7–13?” 85).

Greer highlights several parallels between the marzeah in Amos 6 and Belshazzar’s feast in Dan 5. He notes that, although Dan 5 does not use the noun marzeah (מַרְזֵחַ, marzeach), the “affinity is strikingly obvious” (Greer, “A Marzeah and a Mizraq,” 251).