Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Dave Washburn <dwashbur AT nyx.net>]

On Mon, 2004-01-26 at 17:23, Polycarp66 AT aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 1/26/2004 7:17:51 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> dwashbur AT nyx.net writes:
>         My oldie-but-goodie Gesenius lexicon says "sea-weed, sedge,
>         Jon. 2,6. 
>         Hence YAM-SW.P, the sea of sedge, i.e. the Arabian Gulf or Red
>         Sea,
>         which abounds in seaweed..."  I've never been there so I can't
>         verify
>         this, but considering how long the lexicon has endured and how
>         many
>         others have been based on it, I would suspect that he did his
>         homework. 
>         And as has been pointed out, the references in Jonah and the
>         clear
>         reference to the Gulf of Aqabah seems to preclude the idea
>         that the
>         expression referred to the Bitter Lakes, unless we want to
>         posit an ad
>         hoc meaning especially for the occurrences in Exodus.
> 
> ______
>  
> Perhaps I'm reading too much into your post, but I'm wondering if you
> are suggesting that Jonah was in the Gulf of Aqabah (whether a
> historical prophet or simply the subject of a moral story)?  My
> reading of Jonah indicates that he went to Joppa which would indicate
> a Mediterranian provenence.
>  
> gfsomsel

As far as I can tell, nobody suggested that Jonah was in the Gulf of
anything.  Gesenius' point was on the meaning of suph.