Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Jonathan D. Safren" <yonsaf AT beitberl.beitberl.ac.il>]

"M. Brody" wrote:

> Thank you Peter_Kirk AT SIL.ORG for your letter 0n 10:49 10/02/99 -0500. You
> wrote:
> >"Yemen" is spelt with "ya".
> >Clearly the root y-m-n means "right" (side) as in Hebrew.
> >Peter Kirk
>
> And ,of course, "Yamin" means "South" [when the observer is  "oriented"
> facing the East ], which is it's direction relative to the land of Israel.
>

Just as yamin means "south", sem'ol means "north". In Gen. 14, Abraham 
pursues the 5
Mesopotamian kings  as far as sem'ol, "north" of Damascus.
Two of the tribes in OB Mari were called DUMU.ME$ ya-mi-na, "the 
Southerners". and
DUMU.ME$ si-im-(h)a-al, "the Southerners".
Sincerely,
Jonathan D. Safren
Dept. of Biblical Studies
Beit Berl College
Beit Berl Post Office 44905
Israel