Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Bill Rea <bill.rea AT canterbury.ac.nz>]

Jim wrote:-

Quoting Joel:-

>You wrote:  ?[I]n my dialect, there's no difference between "Negev-ward" and
>"toward the Negev."  ? (And yes, NEGEV is also used metonymically for 
>"south.")
>?

In reply:-
 
>I fear that you may be assuming that the word ?negev? in Genesis refers to
>the Negev Desert.  But in fact, the word ?negev? was  n-e-v-e-r  used in the
>secular history of the ancient world (at least prior to Roman times) as the
>proper name of the Negev Desert.  This is confirmed by an archaeological
>professor who lives and works in the Negev Desert:

Actually, if you look at his post he was responding to me and the way I
suggested the directional He be translated. Originally you (Jim) said it was
hard to translate. Both Joel's post and my post were intended to point out
that its not hard to translate at all. I certainly wasn't attempting to
engage in your speculations on where these geographical regions lie. In
translating the way I did I was merely trying to capture the fact that the
directional He is attached to a word so as to become part of it. Thus I
suggested southward or Negev-ward would be suitable translations. If you
wish to use a separate word, which is what Joel suggested and is perfectly
acceptable in my view, you could use the word ``toward''. That's all. The
issue was the translation of the directional He. It was not about where or
what ``the Negev'' means in this context.


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