Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Ian Hutchesson" <mc2499 AT mclink.it>]

Dear Charles,

Thanks for the citation from Meek and the outline of his
thoughts about the connection between Habiru and Hebrew.
(Also for the exposition of the behaviour of segholates.)

First I've checked my data and it is actually the WPA form
found in the Amarna letters which has the long vowel and not
the Mesopotamian sources.

>Uri is correct to say of Meek that "the medial long vowel does not concern
>him in this case."  I have the following quotation from Meek's Hebrew
>Origins, p. 7: "Now the exact equivalent of `abir(u), and hence of `eber and
>`ibri, in cuneiform is habiru (nom. sing.), habirû (nom. pl.), habiri
>(gen.-acc.pl.)."

It would seem that the form he gives `abir(u) isn't attested
anywhere. The argument outlined above does not, and cannot,
derive this form from the Akkadian habiru, for while it is
true that a Hebrew cognate starting with /`/ in Akkadian is
/x/, this is due to internal historical changes, but, as
there are numerous examples of cognates with /x/ in Akkadian
and Hebrew,  one would expect a /x/ in Hebrew had habiru
been the source of the term Hebrew -- which is the major
position regarding habiru.

However, the WPA version as evinced in the Amarna letters
is given by Liverani as hapi:ru (the ":" = length) which he
then normalizes to the Akkadian habiru. Ahlstrom regularly
uses `api:ru. It would seem that we are dealing with a long
medial vowel in the local area as written by the Canaanite
scribes, which wouldn't allow the possibility that we are
dealing with a seghol here. If the term "Hebrew" is indeed
deriving from this should be xbyr, with the yod indicating
the long vowel, as one sees in from the Akkadian li-li:-tu
in Hebrew lylyt, or the elsewhere borrowed spyr (sapphire)
which also ends up in Greek sapfeiros.

(At the same time Liverani writes that the /p/ is caused
problems in a derivation from `br, though he says that it
is not insurmountable.)

My interest has been to show that there are numerous
problems with the equation habiru = Hebrew on historical
and linguistic grounds.

                           -o0o-

Here are some hypotheses for an etymology of "Hebrew":

1. from the sociological term habiru (and variants)
   (already discussed);
2. from the eponymous Eber (which causes more problems
   than it cures);
3. from `br [to cross over], ie those who crossed over,
   with various ulterior hypotheses (outlaws, or
   crossed the Jordan, etc.);
4. from `br lnhr (or variants), where the exiles were
   to go (see 1 Kgs 14:15);
5. from `br nhrh (the Persian province to which the
   Jerusalemites belonged)

(Some of these force me to reconsider the significance of
Num 24:24 in which ships from the Kittim would afflict
Asshur and Eber. I had taken Eber here as a matter of
course to indicate the Hebrews, but this now seems less
likely to me, though the verse is still a mystery.)


Ian