Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>]

David:

Your first missive concerning the theory that the Philistines 
were Semites I found rather interesting. Further it is 
supported in that the ancient Hebrews seemed to have 
little difficulty in speaking with Philistines. The latter fact 
indicates that either bilingualism was very common in 
those days, or that the languages were so similar that 
people speaking one could understand people speaking 
the other without translation.

However, this second missive has a major problem: you 
made a big thing about certain date palm trees and the 
mice connected with them. But when I checked the story (I 
remembered that the Hebrew word used was (PLYM  ) I 
found that in only some manuscripts was +XRYM used as 
a Qere in 1 Samuel 5 & 6 where (PLYM was Kethib, and 
was used as Kethib only a couple of times in chap. 6. 
(PLYM means swellings, such as tumors. Further there 
was mention that a lot of people died. From this story, I get 
the picture that this was an outbreak of bubonic plague, 
typified by many rats coming out and dying, followed by 
the disease breaking out in people with swellings 
(buboes) and a high mortality rate 1 Samuel 5:12.

Unless we change the text, which I am very loathe to do, 
the evidence from the theory of date palm trees and mice 
doesn't hold up.

Karl W. Randolph.

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Eid" <eid.david AT gmail.com>
>
> ...
> 
> I thing Derketo is the Greek corruption of Terqeto. Terqeto, or Terq, is a
> word from Taiy language according Arabic dictionaries. It means: the palm
> tree. If this is right, then the Palm tree is the mother goddess of Tagayah
> people.
> 
> ... In Samuel, when the Philistine captured the Ark of Covenant
> they suffered from tumors. To recover from them they have been asked to set
> tumor and mice sculptures in the Ark before sending it back.
> 
> ...
> 
> Why then they have been asked to set tumors also? It is really a strange
> request! The answer is this: they have been asked to set palm trees images
> not tumors!
> 
> The word tumor in Hebrew is (*Tchorim*). This word is coming from Taiy
> Language. Troqin (Terochin in Arabic) is the plural of Terq, Terqeto or
> Terouq. All these have the same meaning: the palm tree.
> 
> ...

-- 
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