Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Peter Kirk" <Peter_Kirk AT sil.org>]

Unfortunately I don't think this explanation holds water ;-) For one thing,
one would expect a doubled m or dagesh forte with your explanation.

It is very unlikely that shamayim is a compound of any type. There are very
few compound nouns (excluding names) in Biblical Hebrew - beliyya`al being
one of those very few. Shamayim seems to be a plural or dual form from a
typical triliteral Semitic root, which is also found in the singular in the
Arabic sama = "heaven" and various other Semitic languages - see
Brown-Driver-Briggs for more details of this.

Peter Kirk

-----Original Message-----
From: Bavno AT aol.com [mailto:Bavno AT aol.com]
Sent: 21 November 2000 21:26
To: Biblical Hebrew
Subject: Re: shamayim = sha + mayim ?


Very interesting,...I always thought  that  sham = there mayim = water....in
other words there is water.  cordially JAck G

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