Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Noam Eitan <noameitan AT yahoo.com>]

>However, when looking at the context of the nouns, the two occurances in Job 
>and the >one in Numbers 32:41 refers to the same thing, 
 
 
Job 38:14 uses xwtm (chotam), and the context is that with daylight the earth 
is like the material for a seal or for a signet ring (basically wax) - it 
takes a new form; In 41:15 it is the same xwtm (chotam), and the context is 
that the Leviathan's (crocodile?) scales overlap and fit together like a seal 
(like a sealed letter). Neither has anything to do with XWT, it has nothing 
to do with what Numbers 32:41 refers to.
 
 
 
>while I’ll agree upon more careful checking the context that the other two 
>come from >“seal(ring)”. In all three cases, the noun has a third person 
>plural suffix and in the case >in Numbers the noun is plural as well.
 
Ezekiel 28:12,  Haggai 2:23, Job 38:14, 41:15 all are in simple noun form, 
they do not have a third person plural suffix. Numbers 32:41 is the only one 
that does have a third person plural suffix. 

>When I look at the contexts of the name “XWT Y)YR” I noticed that they were 
>listed as >cities, not just encampments. Is this a holdover from an older 
>name, sort of like “Fort >Laramy” and other such names in the U.S., or does 
>it refer to something more than just >a military encampment?
 
I don't know if there is a clear answer. It is not strickly a military 
encampment, it can be any small settlement. I would like to speculate that it 
comes from the root xwh because it refers to any settlement with livestock 
(xwh - the root for life, Eve was the mother of all living) - FWIW in modern 
Hebrew xwh means a farm.
 
Regards
 
Noam


----- Original Message -----
From: Noam Eitan <noameitan at yahoo.com>
Date: Sat, 25 Oct 2003 17:01:39 -0700 (PDT)
To: b-hebrew at lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [b-hebrew] meaning of XWT

> It means a camp, conjugated as a construct noun. In Numbers 32:41 it is 
> used as such, as well as a free standing noun. But all the other examples 
> you gave are of a different word altogether, xwtm (chotam - a signet ring) 
> - the root is xtm, not xwh as in xwt.
>  
> Noam Eitan
> Brooklyn, NY
>  
>  
> >In the dictionaries I have XWT [chawat] is listed merely as a name, and 
> most of the time in Tanakh it is used as one, as part of the name XWT 
> Y)YR, the name of a town east of the Jordan.
> 
> However, in five verses, Numbers 32:41, Ezekiel 28:12,  Haggai 2:23, 
> Job 38:14, 41:15 I noticed that it is used apart from the name of the 
> town. It appears to be something that was built up, not just a natural 
> phenomenon. Does anyone have a clue to its meaning?
> 



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>From peterkirk AT qaya.org  Wed Oct 29 07:28:48 2003
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On 28/10/2003 17:31, Karl Randolph wrote:

>Peter:
>
>That’s an interesting theory. Only I wonder if XWT is one of those rare 
>nouns that has a tau final and not just a construct form? In Tanakh it is 
>never found except with a tau, so if the non-construct form has a hey, that 
>would be in a cognate language. Well?
>
>Karl W. Randolph.
>
>  
>
Since in Tanakh it is always in the construct or with a pronoun suffix, 
this is something we can never really know - though evidence from later 
Hebrew might be a guide. BDB reconstructed the absolute form, presumably 
on the basis of patterns of similar nouns and on the Masoretic pointing. 
I know that in some cases different dictionaries give different 
reconstructions of the absolute. I'm not sure if there is actually an 
ambiguity here. If there is, it is one which probably cannot be resolved.

-- 
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/