The History of a Legal Formula: kōl 'ašer-hāpēs ʻāśāh (Psalm 115:3; 135:6)

The Hebrew phrase kōl 'asher chāpēts ʻāsāh, used in the Bible as a literary cliché, stems from a legal formula whose Sitz im Leben is to be sought in jurisprudence. The discussion centers around two points: 1) a presentation of the extra-biblical sources (Nabataean, Aramaic, Syriac, and ['Proto-'] Mishnaic Hebrew from Qumran) which substantiate the suggested legal origin of the formula; and 2) an investigation of its chronological background ('he did whatever he pleased' makes its first appearance only after 500 BCE, replacing the classical alternative 'he did whatever was right in his eyes').