Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

In the specific case of Tyre (not mentioned in Isa. 20), remember that the
city WAS an island, almost a kilometer from the coast. The "suburb" on the
coast was called Ushu in Mesopotamian documents, probably the Hosah of Josh.
19:29, mistakenly called Paleotyrus by the Greeks. It was Alexander who
connected the city to the coast in order to conquer it, in a huge
engineering project.

I had always assumed that the far-away Iyyim are the Greek islands in
general, though in some cases the reference may be to a coastline. The Greek
islands were certainly on the periphery of first millennium ANE geography,
and were very important to the Persians.

Yigal

----- Original Message -----
From: "Reinier de Blois" <r.de.blois AT solcon.nl>
To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Tuesday, June 08, 2004 9:43 AM
Subject: RE: [b-hebrew] The islands


> Let us not be misled by the term "islands". The Hebrew word probably has
> a wider meaning than that. Coastland may be a much better translation.
> Think of Isa. 20:6, for example, which probably refers to Philistea,
> Tyrus, or Sidon, some place near Israel. In the later chapters of Isaiah
> it may refer to all kinds of Greek and/or Phoenician colonies in the
> Mediterranean.
>
> Let us not forget that we have good maps these days. For us the
> distinction between islands, peninsulas, and coastlands is relevant. I
> doubt whether it had the same relevance for the writer of
> deutero-Isaiah.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Reinier de Blois
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
> > [mailto:b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Noam Eitan
> > Sent: dinsdag 8 juni 2004 1:09
> > To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> > Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] The islands
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org> wrote:
> > On 07/06/2004 12:39, VC wrote:
> >
> > >Dear Listmembers,
> > >
> > >Just wanted to share a thought. What always puzzled me in
> > the Tanakh -
> > >and this turn is most often encountered in Isaiah - is the
> > reference to
> > >certain islands. They are clearly hostile to the Jews, ...
> > >
> >
> > >Where does it say this?
> >
> > Many of the 36 references to Islands in the Tanakh are
> > hostile, particularly in the prophets. But it's not so much
> > that there is any evidence they were hostile to the Judeans,
> > but rather that the prophets were hostile to them, and even
> > this hostility was not specific but often part of a
> > generalized Yahwistic hostility to other nations who will be
> > taught a lesson one day about Yahweh's superiority. I think
> > Jeremiah 31:10 is emblematic - 'Islands' stand for the
> > remotest corners of the earth (and Yahweh's message and score
> > settling will reach EVEN as far as the islands.) - Noam
> > Eitan, Brooklyn, NY
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ---------------------------------
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