Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Bryan Cox <b_coxus AT yahoo.com>]

A 'newly discovered' ancient text nicknamed 'Gabriel's Vision' or 'Gabriel's 
Revelation' is currently grabbing headlines.  Its controversial nature lies 
in the phrase l'shloshet yamin, or 'in three days'.
 
My question is about the 'nun'.  Searching the text of the Hebrew Bible, I 
only ever find 'yamim' (ending in a 'mem').  Where does the word 'days' end 
in a 'nun' as in 'yamin'?
 
Aramaic has a 'yamin', ending in 'nun', but if the 'new' text is written in 
Aramaic, I would expect the 'three' to also be written in Aramaic as 
'thalatha' (or somewhat similar transliteration).
 
My suspicion is that during the time period in question, 1st century BCE, 
'mem' and 'nun' were often interchanged in texts, at least I believe I may 
have read something along these lines about the Dead Sea Scrolls.
 
Is this suspicion correct, or could 'yamin' actually be the word 'right' or 
is there something odd here?
 
Thanks much for any clarification!
Bryan Cox



>From yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com  Thu Jul 10 09:49:50 2008
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Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:49:49 +0000
From: "Yitzhak Sapir" <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>
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Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] yamim or yamin?
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On Thu, Jul 10, 2008 at 1:16 PM, Bryan Cox wrote:
> A 'newly discovered' ancient text nicknamed 'Gabriel's Vision' or 
> 'Gabriel's Revelation' is
> currently grabbing headlines.  Its controversial nature lies in the phrase 
> l'shloshet yamin,
> or 'in three days'.
>
> My question is about the 'nun'.  Searching the text of the Hebrew Bible, I 
> only ever find
> 'yamim' (ending in a 'mem').  Where does the word 'days' end in a 'nun' as 
> in 'yamin'?

Dear Bryan,

Look at the last word in the book of Daniel.  That is the most
appropriate parallel, really.
Interchange between nun and mem could take place at the end of the
word.  There are
examples in 2 Kings 11:13 rcyn vs rcym elsewhere in the passage,
Ezekiel 26:18 )yn
besides )yym, (yyn in Micah 3:12 vs. Jer 26:18, and mlkym vs mlkyn in
Prov 31:3-4.
Also compare the plurals in the book of Job for mlym vs mlyn.

Yitzhak Sapir