Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Dave Washburn" <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

> On Sun 11 Jun 2000 (15:03:14 +0200), mc2499 AT mclink.it wrote:
> > How about if we cut the word "meteorological"? Can you document any such
> > event regarding stones coming from the sky other than those listed
> > above? Obviously, anything else will need to be demonstrated before
> > being considered.
> 
>  What about the "great goddess Artemis" whose image "fell down from heaven"?
>  (Acts 19:35). Hardly contemporary with any dating of Exodus; but isn't this
>  the same sort of "meteoric" origin of a figurine, as opposed to
>  "meteorological"?  Sidereal iron; not a thunderbolt.
> 
Another question: does Akkadian have a word for hailstone, as 
opposed to just "stone"?  OTOH, this discussion of perceived 
Assyrian parallels etc. seems a little stretched to me.  The Hebrew 
text uses BFRFD, which seems to explicitly mean "hail."  Isa 
30:20 uses )EBEN BRFRD, "stone of hail," so it's fairly clear it 
doesn't just mean "stone" with context determining the "hail" part.  
The fire is said to be MITLAQ.AXAT B:TOWK HAB.FRFD.  The 
only other place this form shows up is Ezek 1:4 where fire is 
MITLAQ.AXAT W:NOGAH SABIYB, which seems to mean 
"flashing and shining all around" the cloud that the prophet saw.  
Hence, it seems to me that we need look no further than the HB 
itself to understand the phrase in Ex 9:24, it means nothing more 
than hail with lightning.  Anybody who has ever lived through a 
typical monsoon season in Arizona knows exactly what this looks 
like.  Hunting for Assyrian deities and the like to explain this verse 
appears somewhat off the path to me.

Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
"In the face of an obstacle which is impossible to
overcome, stubborness is stupid."  Simone de Beauvoir