Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Peter,
> I suppose there could be some confusion somewhere in our thinking between
> the roots `rb and qrb. The latter means "draw near" in Hebrew, and includes
> the sexual meanings. Does it appear with ayin instead of qoph in Ugaritic?

No.  qrb appears, but the only attested meanings for `rb are the
ones I already mentioned; grb (the g being the other form of `ayin in
Ugaritic) doesn't appear at all.

> There are also at least two distinct roots `rb in Hebrew (corrseponding, I
> understand, to different pronunciations of ayin at least in early Hebrew);
> one, meaning "evening", is cognate with the Arabic gh-r-b as in Maghreb =
> west, place of the evening, and the other is cognate with the Arabic `rb as
> in `arab "Arab", which is both Arabic and Hebrew. Perhaps someone who knows
> more Hebrew and Ugaritic than either of us can put us right on which root
> underlies `rbt in the Ugaritic text in question.

In Ugaritic the only meaning is "enter" and the only meaning
connected with "sun" is "sunset" or "evening."


Dave Washburn
http://www.nyx.net/~dwashbur
"Éist le glór Dé."