Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yigal Levin" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Peter Kirk" <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
To: "Yigal Levin" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
Cc: "b-hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2004 9:44 PM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Negev


> On 27/01/2004 11:28, Yigal Levin wrote:
>
> >Good point. I really don't have any biblical examples of the root NGB
> >meaning "wiped". But Hebrew already has two words for "south" - "darom",
> >which seems to be the basic term, and "yamin", which means "right" (as in
> >"right hand"), and came to mean "south" to people for whom east was
"qedem",
> >west was "axor" and north was "semol". These terms are also known from
> >cognate languages. So why another word? Perhaps "Negev" was FIRST a
proper
> >noun, which then came to mean "south" (anologous to "yam" meaning "west"
> >even if you're in the Sinai, south of the Great Sea), and only came to
mean
> >"wiped" in later Hebrew.
> >
> >Yigal
> >
> >
> I had forgotten about "darom". This may be the basic term, although
> HALOT's only evidence is from languages derived from Hebrew. But then
> "negev" could also be the basic term. I don't see enough evidence to
> tell one way or the other.
>
> --
> Peter Kirk


Just that "darom" does not have any other meaning. By the way, in the Roman
period, "Daroma" also became a proper noun, referring to the southern Judean
hills.

Yigal