Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Charles David Isbell" <cisbell AT cox.net>]

Ian wrote, " ... it is actually the WPA form found in the Amarna letters
which has the long vowel and not the Mesopotamian sources."

Does it make a difference?  Each region attests its own peculiar vowel
patterns, and I rather expect "Canaanite" to be different from Mesopotamian
dialects.  The question is whether you believe the "outsiders" that are
attested all over the ANE for about 1000 years represent two separate
sociological phenomena or rather different manifestations of the same
phenomenon--a group that is outside the regularized and recognized "law" or
"system."  That the Egyptians viewed the slaves among them as outsiders,
"Hebrews," is hardly remarkable.  The establishment naturally holds a
pejorative view of such groups.  My position is that several of the groups
that come to constitute ancient Israel seem to derive from this social
class.

As to the b/p interchange, there is overlap both in Egyptian and in
Ugaritic, and I think Liverani and others are correct to note that this is
not an insurmountable problem.

Incidentally, if the root is perceived to be (-P-R rather than (-B-R, I
believe this would point to a derivation from the noun meaning "dust",
another way of underscoring the low social status of the people so
described.

Shalom,
Charles David Isbell