[b-hebrew] (YNYM

JimStinehart at aol.com JimStinehart at aol.com
Mon May 18 09:51:52 EDT 2009


(YNYM
 
In the singular, (YN primarily means “eye”, but depending on the context 
(and use of idiom, prepositions, etc.), it can also mean “sight” or “judgment
” or, on rarer occasions, “spring” or “fountain” or “well”.  HALOT 
states as to (YN:  “meaning eye, 866 times;  meaning spring, 23 times”.  Indeed, 
outside of the Patriarchal narratives, (YN is used as a common word to mean 
“spring”, “fountain(s)”, or “well(s)” a mere 12 times, whereas by 
contrast, (YN is used to mean “eye” [or “sight”, “judgment”, etc.] many, many 
hundreds of times.  
 
George Athas seems to suggest that when used in a geographical place name, 
(YN exclusively means “spring” or “fountain”, and does not mean or imply “
eye” [although all that George actually said was that (YN cannot mean “
gateway”]:  “‘En’ does not mean gateway - it means 'spring' or 'fountain'.  
Plain and simple.”  Yet as a common word, (YN is used many hundreds of times 
in the Bible to mean “eye”, in various senses, and only a relatively handful 
of times is (YN used as a common word to mean “spring”, “fountain” or “
well”.  We need to investigate this matter further.
 
Note also that of the 119 geographical place names in Canaan on the 
mid-15th century BCE Thutmosis III list, there is only one name (item #5, discussed 
on a prior thread) that starts with (YN and has a second word.  Yet there 
are 14 such geographical place names in the Bible.  That may indicate that 
(YN + second word was rarely used as a geographical place name in Canaan in 
the Bronze Age, but became enormously popular in the Iron Age.  Why?
 
Finally, consider that there are other west Semitic words for “spring”, “
fountain”, “well”, some of which are used as frequently, or more frequently, 
in the Bible as a common word than (YN.   B)R means “well”.  That is used 
35 times in the Bible to mean “well” [more often than (YN is used to mean “
spring”, “fountain” or “well”].  On four occasions, the word B)R is paired 
with a second word in a geographical place name.  But the meaning there is “
well”, not “spring” or “fountain”.  M(YN is used 23 times in the Bible to 
mean “fountain”, “well” or “springs”.  MQWR is used 15 times in the 
Bible to mean “fountain”, “spring” or “well”.  MWC) is used a half dozen 
times or so to mean “spring” in the Bible, and seems a more obvious word for “
spring” than (YN, which primarily means “eye”.  With all these various 
Biblical Hebrew words for “spring”, why is it that geographical place names that 
reference a “spring” invariably use (YN, a word that usually means “eye”, 
rather than one of the other words that more narrowly means “spring”?  A “
well” is different than a “spring”, but why use (YN, a word that can mean “
well” or “spring” [but that usually means “eye”], instead of using one of 
three other words that more consistently mean “spring”?
 
What’s going on here?  Why is a word, (YN, that is only rarely used as a 
common word to mean “spring”, “fountain” or “well”, used as the first half 
of 14 geographical place names in the Bible, whereas the other three above 
words for “spring” are  n-e-v-e-r  used as the first half of a geographical 
place name referencing a “spring”?  George and the conventional view 
[including HALOT] imply [without explicitly so stating] that (YN in all 14 of 
those 14 cases exclusively means “spring”.  Yet on 866 occasions in the Bible, 
(YN as a common word means “eye” [either literally or figuratively].  
Something seems amiss here.  Have scholars missed something important about those 
14 geographical place names whose first word is (YN?
 
We will first approach this important problem somewhat indirectly, 
examining in this post (YNYM, the dual of (YN.  We will see that (YNYM almost 
certainly implies “eyes”, when used as a geographical place name, and does not 
exclusively mean “double fountain”.  (YNYM, as the dual of (YN, is used in 
the context of a geographical locale at Genesis 38: 14, 21.  
 
[Part A of this post is a simple linguistic analysis of (YNYM.  Part B of 
this post then analyzes (YNYM in the context of the famous story of Judah and 
Tamar in chapter 38 of Genesis.]
 
A.  Basic Linguistic Analysis of (YNYM
 
Most scholars, including HALOT, see “eye” and “spring” in the singular as 
being the same word, with different meanings.  Strong’s sees (YNYM at 
Genesis 38: 14, 21 as meaning “double fountain”.  Prof. Robert Alter of Berkeley 
at p. 220 of his translation of Genesis sees (YNYM as likely meaning “Twin 
Wells”.  BDB gives no entry for a dual of the word “spring”, so BDB 
presumably might interpret (YNYM here as meaning “eyes” [that is, two eyes], 
rather than meaning “double fountain” or “twin wells”.  [The plural of “spring”
 is (YNT or (YNWT.]
 
HALOT, interestingly enough, gives the following as one possible 
interpretation of (YNYM at Genesis 38: 14, 21:  “a viewpoint from which two routes can 
be seen”.  That focuses on “eyes”, not “spring”.  KJV, unlike virtually 
all other translations, sees (YNYM at Genesis 38: 14 as meaning “open”, and 
at Genesis 38: 21 as meaning “openly”.  Though a minority view, KJV is 
seeing (YNYM as being a play on “eyes” [somewhat akin to HALOT], where 
something can be “seen” “openly”, in the “open”, not as meaning “double fountain”
.
 
Given what happens in chapter 38 of Genesis (discussed below), it seems 
clear to me that (YNYM at Genesis 38: 14, 21 either means “eyes”, or perhaps 
more likely is an obvious and intentional pun on “eyes”, and is meant to 
imply “eyes”, in various senses.  In chapter 38 of Genesis, (YNYM as the dual 
of (YN may mean both “double fountain”  a-n-d  “eyes”, with the former 
perhaps being the literal meaning, and the latter being the figurative meaning 
or an obvious pun.  Interestingly, one of the candidates for historical 
Enaim/(YNYM has no spring or fountain!  
http://www.bible-history.com/isbe/E/ENAIM/  I understand that (YN in the singular may differ from (YNYM as a dual, 
but certainly there is a realistic possibility that in a geographical place 
name that includes (YN, while the literal meaning may well be “spring” or “
fountain”, the figurative meaning, or an obvious pun, may be “eye” (in 
various senses).  Therefore, any insistence that (YN in a geographical place name 
can  n-e-v-e-r  mean “eye” would be going too far.
 
Consider now in this connection the following very relevant comment by 
Prof. Daniela Santus, an expert on geographical place names in Canaan:  “[T]he 
Hebrew Beth-shemesh (the House of the Sun) became the Arabic ‘Ain Shems (the 
Eye of the Sun)”, where ‘Ain in Arabic, as the first of two words in a 
geographical place name, is viewed as meaning “eye”, not “spring”.  
http://www.openstarts.units.it/dspace/bitstream/10077/843/1/b5antus.pdf  Likewise, in 
a modern context, the name of the fourth largest city in the United Arab 
Emirates is Al Ain, which a tourist information site says literally means The 
Eye or The Spring.  We begin to see that, as logically we should have 
expected, there can be no automatic guarantee that (YN in a geographical place name 
does not mean, or at least imply, “eye”.
 
B.  (YNYM in the Context of Judah and Tamar
 
Though the words (YN and (YNYM are not used in chapter 38 of Genesis in 
describing what Judah and Tamar do, nevertheless those two words seem strongly 
implied throughout this famous story, as we shall now see.
 
When Judah is at (YNYM [Genesis 38: 14], Tamar goes to (YNYM and makes “eyes
”/(YNYM at her own father-in-law, Judah, who does not realize that Tamar is 
the apparent prostitute, because her veil means that Judah can only see her 
“eyes”/(YNYM.  Tamar has donned that veil, covering her entire face except 
for her “eyes”/(YNYM, in order to impersonate a prostitute and get her own 
father-in-law to impregnate her.
 
The exciting climax of chapter 38 of Genesis comes when we all breathlessly 
wait to see how a pregnant Tamar will be judged in the “sight”/(YN/“eye” 
of Judah.  [That particular phrase/idiom does not appear at the end of 
chapter 38 of Genesis, but it does appear at Genesis 38: 7 and Genesis 38: 10.  
It is an extremely well-known idiom that also appears numerous other places 
throughout the Patriarchal narratives and the Bible.  That particular 
phrase/idiom starts with L as a preposition, then has (YN in the singular, and then 
has Y as the suffix.  The key word in that idiom is (YN, literally meaning “
eye”, but in context having the figurative meaning of “sight” or “judgment
”.]
 
Will or will not Judah countermand his harsh initial order that Tamar be 
burned alive because she turned up pregnant without a husband?
 
We see that the entire story of Judah and Tamar is implicitly built on “eye”
/(YN or “eyes”/(YNYM, in various senses.  At (YNYM, Tamar makes (YNYM at 
Judah, who can only see her (YNYM, because of her prostitute’s veil.  
Everything turns out fine in the end, however, when in the (YN of Judah, Tamar, who 
had gotten pregnant by Judah at (YNYM, is properly adjudged by Judah to be “
more righteous than I”.  Genesis 38: 26
 
Accordingly, it should not be insisted that (YNYM as a geographical locale 
can  o-n-l-y  mean “double fountain”.  If one insists that (YNYM 
exclusively means “double fountain” at Genesis 38: 14, 21, while having no figurative 
meanings whatsoever, then one misses the clever Hebrew wordplay that is 
beautifully embedded in the very soul of chapter 38 of Genesis.
 
My point is that double meanings like that -- such as (YN or (YNYM 
sometimes meaning in part (or implying) “eye” or “eyes”, in various senses, in a 
geographical place name -- are common in the Patriarchal narratives.
 
As a dual, (YNYM certainly seems to have plenty of overtones of “eyes” in 
chapter 38 of Genesis, as we have seen in this post.  Likewise, if we 
examine individual instances of geographical place names [such as (YN M$P+] where 
the first part of the name is (YN, there is a distinct possibility in my 
view that we might find that (YN in the singular could also have overtones of “
eye”, in various senses, on occasion.  In fact, in all 14 cases when (YN is 
used as the first word in a geographical place name in the Bible, (YN may 
mean  b-o-t-h  “spring” or “well”,  a-n-d  “eye” [in some figurative sense] 
as well.  If only “spring” were the intended meaning, pure and simple, 
then we would expect to see M(YN or MQWR or MWC) [“spring”], at least on 
occasion.  But if  b-o-t-h  “spring” or “well”  a-n-d  “eye” are deliberately 
intended [with “eye” having a figurative, but very important, meaning], 
then one and only one west Semitic word can fit the bill:  (YN. 
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

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