An illustration of the processional type of dance among the Israelites which immediately suggests itself is that of “David and all the house of Israel dancing before Jahwe with all their might” (2 Sam. vi. 5)[52]. The picture is that of an imposing procession, headed by the king going in front of the Ark into Jerusalem. The entire body of those forming the procession is described as dancing, but special attention is drawn to David, and the words used in reference to his mode of dancing are instructive; he not only dances in the ordinary sense of the word (sāḥaq), but he “rotates (kārar) with all his might” (verse 14), and “jumps” (pāzaz, verse 16), and “whirls round” (ḥūl); and in the parallel passage 1 Chron. xv. 29, his dancing is described as “skipping” (rāqad) or the like; it is the word used in Isa. xiii. 21 of the “hopping” of satyrs, and also of “galloping” horses (Joel ii. 5) and “jolting” chariots (Nah. iii. 2). The self-abandonment of this dancing can be imagined in the light of Michal’s jibe that the king had shamelessly uncovered himself. Nevertheless, the religious character of the processional dance is obvious, and is emphasized by the phrase “before Jahwe,” and by the fact that David “was girded with a linen ephod” (verse 14), the officiating priest’s dress (see 1 Sam. ii. 18).
It is probable that the sacred processional dance is again referred to, though one cannot say so positively, in such passages as Ps. cxlix. 3: “Let them praise His name in the dance; let them sing praises unto Him with timbrel (tôph) and lyre”; cl. 4: “Praise Him with timbrel and dance,” etc.; and although in Ps. lxviii. 24, 25 (25, 26 in Hebr.) there is no special mention of the dance, it is clearly implied by the reference to the damsels playing on the timbrel, which was the usual accompaniment to dancing; the passage runs: “They see Thy goings forth [i.e. processions in honour of Jahwe], O God, the goings forth of my God, my King, into the sanctuary; the singers go before, behind (are) those playing stringed instruments, in the midst (are) damsels playing timbrels,” see also Ps. lxxxvii. 7.
Further quotations are unnecessary, for it is clear that the sacred processional dance formed a normal adjunct to worship among the Israelites.
In studying these types of the sacred dance among other peoples we are faced with the same difficulty that meets us in the case of various passages where the dance is mentioned in the Old Testament, viz. it is by no means always possible to say whether a processional dance is meant or not. It is, therefore, inevitable that some uncertainty should exist in the case of some of the illustrations to be offered; but if not always of the processional type, the examples to be given will all illustrate the sacred dance as an act of honour to some superhuman power.
II
As to those peoples most closely allied to the Israelites, namely the Syrians and Arabs, our data, so far as processional dances are concerned, are very scanty, though we are not without information on the general subject of the sacred dance among them. In one of the inscriptions found in Deir el-Ḳala near Beirut there is a reference to Θεω Βαλμαρκωδι; he is called upon as Βαλμαρκως κοίρανε κώμων; this witnesses to the existence of a Phoenician god known as Baal-Marqôd, according to the Semitic form, i.e. the “Baal, or Lord, of dancing[53].” He was either thought of as the originator of the sacred dance among the Phoenicians, just as the Greeks and others ascribed the origin of dancing to certain gods and goddesses; or else he was so called “because of a bacchanalian dance which was performed in his honour[54]”; or because he was the god, par excellence, to whom dancing was due as an act of homage[55]. The name shows that among the Phoenicians the sacred dance had its place.
We shall come, later on, to other types of the sacred dance among the Syrians and Arabs. Here we may, in passing, point to the fact that the Bedouin Arabs of the Syrian Desert even at the present day perform dances in honour of exalted personages; this may confidently be regarded, especially in view of other evidence to be given below, as pointing to similar dances being performed in earlier times in honour of gods; for divinities were honoured in this way for ages before men were. Thus Ritter describes the dancing of the Bedouin Arabs which he witnessed, adding that the far-travelled sailors who were with him told him that this mode of dancing was strikingly similar to that which they had seen performed by the savage South Sea islanders[56]. Dancing in honour of the newly married couple, regarded as king and queen, is interestingly described by Wetzstein[57]. Such dances, though not now strictly sacred, deserve a passing reference, for they have a long history behind them, and at one time were certainly connected with religion.
In many Babylonian psalms and hymns which were sung in procession, and which have come down to us, there is, it is true, no mention of dancing; but it is difficult to believe that it did not take place, especially in view of the evidence to be given below. The silence may well be due to the fact that it was so obvious a part of the ritual that there would have been no point in mentioning it. One can hardly conceive of its absence, knowing what we do of the Semitic religious temperament, during such a great festival, for example, as that of the re-entry of Marduk on the 11th Nisan into the temple of E-sagila. On this occasion a great procession of priests and choir was formed, and during the re-entry of the god into his sanctuary they sang the hymn beginning:
“O Lord, at the entering-in into thy sanctuary...[58].”