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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Baal-Hermon
  • Date: Wed, 10 Sep 2008 10:04:45 EDT


1. Isaac Fried wrote:

“XERMON could be possibly a compacted form of the compounds HAR-RAM-)
ON or KAR-RAM-)ON, or HAR-MA(ON or KAR-MA(ON, or who knows what.”

“Hermon” in unpointed text is XRMWN. I agree with you completely that XR
(at the beginning of this name) may, on one level, be referencing HR, that
is, “
mountain”. Since “Hermon” is the most prominent mountain in northern Canaan,
it is hard to miss the possibility that XR may on one level be a non-standard
spelling of the somewhat similar sounding HR, meaning “mountain”.

Then we can see “Hermon”/XRMWN as being HR + M-N. As I noted in my prior
post, M-N is a truly ancient, pre-Hebrew west Semitic root that means “to be
appointed to oversee, and having implications of towering, divine-like
grandeur”.
(As to M-N, see MNH in Hebrew, and ’amn and hmn in Ugaritic.)

2. David Kolinsky wrote:

“I would like to add from my research that XRM ~ ChRM in all probability
means "lifted, mounted up". related words: RM = high”

Yes, RM means “high” or “up”, being the second syllable of Abraham’s birth
name. If the X/heth at the beginning is, in part, an alternative rendering
of
H/he, then (i) the H could mean “the”, (ii) RM means “high”, and (iii) –WN
as a suffix means “place”. So we then logically have: X-RM-WN = “the high
place”. I myself do not see that as being the primary analysis, or the
primary
root, of “Hermon”. But Mt. Hermon certainly is “the high place”, so this
analysis works well as an auxiliary meaning/root.

(As to whether the concept of “destroy” is in here, see #3 below.)

3. Yigal Levin wrote:

“You are wrong that the common etymology for Hermon, XRM, means ‘to destroy’
. It means ‘to consecrate’….”

Is XRM a pleasant word in Biblical Hebrew, that connotes “consecration” in
the form of being a peaceful blessing? Or, by stark contrast, is XRM one of
the most violent words in the language of Biblical Hebrew?

XRM means “consecrate” to God in the sense of utterly “destroying”
something in the name of God.

Here is BDB’s first definition of XRM:

“1. most oft. of devoting to destruction cities of Canaanites and other
neighbours of Isr., exterminating inhabitants, and destroying or
appropriating
their possessions.”

The Blue Letter Bible gives the following as some of its alternative
definitions for XRM:

“ban, devote, destroy utterly, completely destroy, dedicate for destruction,
exterminate, prohibit, consecrate, split, slit, mutilate”.

David Kolinsky wrote: “XRM = lift up > as in mount XeRMon
= lift up and remove > to destroy
= lift up and remove > to consecrate
…In Syriac = devote to G-d, destroy utterly, curse, put under a ban
…In Arabic:
ChRM = take away, deny, exclude, prohibit, declare sacred
XRM = to carry away / off, destroy, annihilate, come to an
end, peter out”

That is to say, the overtones of XRM in Biblical Hebrew are totally different
from the normal meaning of “to consecrate” in English. The English language
stock phrase “baptism by fire” is a little closer to the mark. XRM connotes
tremendous power, that usually is exercised in an extremely violent way: “
destroy utterly, completely destroy”, “exterminate”, “split, slit, mutilate”.

The concept of XRM is not for the faint of heart. The overtones of XRM in
Biblical Hebrew are totally different than the normal meaning of the polite
English word “consecrate”.

As such, XRM does not make sense as being either the sole root of “Hermon”,
or even the primary root of “Hermon”. The majestic, towering Mt. Hermon was
not thought of primarily as either “devoting to destruction cities of
Canaanites and other neighbours of Isr., exterminating inhabitants, and
destroying or
appropriating their possessions”, or as exemplifying “to completely destroy,
dedicate for destruction, exterminate, prohibit, consecrate, split, slit,
mutilate”, or, per the Arabic cognates, “take away, deny, exclude, prohibit,
declare sacred”, “carry away/off, destroy, annihilate, come to an end, peter
out”.

No, the true root of Hermon/XRMWN is M-N, meaning “to be appointed to
oversee, having implications of towering, divine-like grandeur”.

I agree with Isaac Fried that the XR at the beginning of XRMWN/Hermon can on
one level be viewed as being a prefix, which in large part is a non-standard
spelling of HR, meaning “mountain”. So on one level, “Hermon” means “Mt. M-N”
. It is hard to think of a better meaning for “Hermon”. (See also David
Kolinsky’s analysis of RM/“high” in #2 above.)

But by using the non-standard spelling (and pronunciation) XR (instead of
HR), that nicely brought XRM into play as well (being the first three letters
of
XRMWN/Hermon). Now, as a secondary meaning/root, we get a reference to the
terrible divine power of destruction (XRM). So the non-standard spelling XR,
by
creating XRM at the beginning of this name, gives a further boost to the
already powerful main meaning of Hermon/XRMWN, which is Mt. M-N.

* * *

Rather than being mutually exclusive, these three different theories of the
origin of “Hermon” may all have played a role. As to my M-N theory, it is
the
oldest. Hmn in Ugaritic is similar to “Hermon”, and both mean a majestic,
towering mountain to the north. Hmn and ’amn in Ugaritic may likely be
different spellings of the same name, and their common element is M-N. The
“Hamon”
portion of “Baal Hamon” in Phoenician is similar to both hmn in Ugaritic and
Hermon in Hebrew. ’amn in Ugaritic is similar to Amana in Hebrew, as well as
being similar to hmn and Hamon, which shows how “Amana” and “Baal Hermon”
could easily have ended up being alternative names in Hebrew for the same
mountain -- the easternmost summit of the three famous mountain peaks on the
southern tip of the Anti-Lebanon mountain range. I continue to see M-N as
being the
original, primary root of “Hermon”.

4. To say simply that “Hermon”/XRMWN means “sanctuary”, as some sources
do, is to miss almost all of the raw power, earthiness and elemental meaning
of
Biblical Hebrew. In English, “sanctuary” is a quiet, peaceful place, where
one can passively hide from any and all troubles that one may be having in
the
outside world. “Hermon”/XRMWN does not have a meaning anything at all like
that passive English concept of “sanctuary”. Rather, “Hermon”/XRMWN in
Biblical Hebrew is a big, bold, powerful, raw, earthy, violent, divine-like
word,
so unlike the passive English word “sanctuary”.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois




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