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  • From: Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
  • To: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Carmel: The Town of David's Abigail
  • Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2009 23:37:49 +0200

Dear Karl,

From: "K Randolph" <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>

1) Carmel was not the name of a town, rather of a region. A mountainous
region.

2) The name predates Joshua's invasion, as such, it is possible that in its
original language it had a different meaning than expected from Hebrew.


While I am pretty certain that I'm going to disagree with whatever Jim is getting to, Carmel in Judah IS a town. It's listed in the third "sub-district" of hill-country towns in Josh. 15:55, together with the fairly well-known towns of Maon, Ziph (also known from the LMLK stamps) and Juttah. All of these can be identified with ruins or villages south of Hebron that bear pretty much the same name today - Khirbet Ma'in, Tell Zif, Khirbet Kirmil and Yatta. Abigail, of course, was the wife of Nabal, who was from Maon and had buisness in Carmel 1 Sam. 25:2 ff.).
As a noun, "KRML" means "half-ripened grain" or something of the sort, but is sometimes taken as a shortened form of Kerem (vineyard) + El (God). And of course, there is also a mountain on the northern coast with the same name.

As far as I know, the name "Carmel" is NOT attested in any pre-Israelite sources.

Yigal Levin




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