Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Isaac,

The reason that the "double" ending of the biblical word Misrayim is assumed 
to reffer to upper and lower Egypt is because there is plenty of 
documentation that the Egyptians themselves considered their country to be a 
union of "the two lands". The differences between the two are very real: 
Upper Egypt is a narrow strip of watered land on either sides of the Nile, 
cut off from the rest of the world by the great deserts to the east and the 
west, developing (pretty much) its culture in isolation. Lower Egypt is the 
flat, wide-open and expansive Nile Delta, open to the sea and to the major 
trade routes connecting it to Asia. The Egyptians realy did consider these 
to be two separate lands, united in the person on the Pharaoh, "master of 
the two mistresses". Think of England and Scotland.

Yigal Levin
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Isaac Fried" <if AT math.bu.edu>
To: "Uri Hurwitz" <uhurwitz AT yahoo.com>
Cc: "b-hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 22, 2007 9:20 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Mis(.)rayim


> Uri,
>
> You are right---who knows. I am only suggesting an obvious
> possibility. Look at the map and you will see that Egypt is indeed
> just two narrow and long strips of land along the Nile. It is not
> clear to me why my etymology should be more "far fetched" than yours.
> It appears to me that the name of a country (in the ancient sense of
> the word, not in the modern geopolitical sense as drawn on a map),
> who knows how old,  is likelier  to be derived from a permanent and
> apparent geographical feature of the terrain rather than from a
> transient political system. Isn't the ancient Egyptian symbol for a
> foreign country a wavy landscape? I really do not know why the
> present Arabic name of Egypt---originally the land of the Copts =
> Egopts, is MISR.
>
> Isaac Fried, Boston University
>
> On Mar 21, 2007, at 8:27 PM, Uri Hurwitz wrote:
>
> > Isaac Fried if at math.bu.edu
> > Wed Mar 21 17:46:56 EST 2007
> > Previous message: [b-hebrew] Kush - and Mis(.)rayim
> >    Dear Isaac,
> >
> >   The fact of the two Egypts was well recgonized  by the ancient
> > Egyptian
> >  themselves, and marked in various ways.
> >
> >   As for your suggestion, do you mean the green, culivated strips
> > on the shores of the Nile?   A bit far fetched, - but who knows?
> > And besides, how does one explain the Arabic name, identical to the
> > Heb., but in the singular.
> >
> >
> >   Uri,
> >
> > Or in reference to the two narrow (CARIM) strips along the Nile.
> >
> > Isaac Fried, Boston University
> >
> > Don't get soaked. Take a quick peek at the forecast
> > with theYahoo! Search weather shortcut.
>
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