Biblical Hebrew Forum

["JAMES CHRISTIAN READ" <JCR128 AT student.apu.ac.uk>]

Dave:
What's your source for this definition?  Rochelle has said several times that 
it's not a
Hebrew word and nobody has challenged that, so I assume she's correct, plus 
it doesn't
look like a Hebrew word.  Do we know what language it is?  Seems to me we'd 
need to know
that in order to nail down such a specific definition.
END QUOTE

JCR: According to New International Dictionary of Old
Testament Theology & Exegesis liwyathan comes from
hebrew root 'lwh' meaning to accompany, to join.

Article 4293 deals closer with liwyathan itself and
claims it is cognate with Ugaritic 'ltn', a seven
headed monster smitten by Baal (ANET 137-38).

Anyway, whatever the root of liwyathan no reference to
creation battles between it and Yah are depicted so
liwyathan constitutes no evidence that Genesis creation
account in a respin of Enuma Elish.

James C Read
UK