Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Harold Holmyard <hholmyard3 AT earthlink.net>]

Lewis Reich wrote:
> It has always seemed to me that the the meaning of Mis(.)rayim is indeed a dual, but not the upper and lower Egypt dual.  It seems to make sense to 
> me when read in conjunction with the meaning of s(.)r as "narrow."  (See, e.g. the last word in Lamentations 1:4 "rodfeha hisiguha 
> bayn ha-ms(.)arim" - "her pursuers have overtaken her between the narrows.") "Mis(.)rayim" seems to make a great deal of 
> sense as "the dual narrows" - the two narrow strips of fertile inhabitable land on either side of the Nile.  "Misr" might 
> conceivably denote "the narrow" - the narrow fertile Nile valley.
>   

HH: Yes, that is interesting, but you mean Lamentations 1:3.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard