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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] XBR vs. ubburu: Hebron

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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com, b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] XBR vs. ubburu: Hebron
  • Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2009 14:21:11 EST


Yitzhak Sapir:

Based on Victor Hurowitz’s analyses, I believe this is what he sees.

1. Ubburu, meaning “to bind”, in Akkadian or Assyrian is linked to the XBR
in Biblical Hebrew that means “to bind by magical force”.

I see no heth/X in that Akkadian word. You say that the heth/X had
originally been there, being an h/Oriental type of heth, but that it “dropped
in
Akkadian”.

When did that heth drop in Akkadian? Wasn’t it dropped before any written
Hebrew language is attested?

Did this meaning of XBR in Biblical Hebrew, on your view, come over from
Akkadian before or after Akkadian dropped the heth?

2. Another Akkadian/Assyrian cognate, meaning “bind”, for XBR in Biblical
Hebrew is abaru. Once again, I see no heth/X.

If you see XBR in Biblical Hebrew as coming from ubburu and abaru, doesn’t
that downgrade the significance of the heth/X which is the initial letter in
XBR?

3. XBL meaning “rope” in Biblical Hebrew is linked to eblu in Akkadian.
Once again, I see no heth/X in the Akkadian cognate.

* * *

Victor Hurowitz links XBR or XBL in Biblical Hebrew to three Akkadian words
that begin with mere vowels: U or A or E. Doesn’t that suggest to you that
the heth/X in the Biblical Hebrew word XBR may be a mere prefix? As to an
initial U in Akkadian, in the Akkadian word ugaru the initial U is a mere
prefix,
with the root being GR/QR/“citadel”. The Hittite version drops the initial U
altogether, and just has gurta, with the same GR/QR root, and the same T
suffix, again meaning “citadel”. The equivalent in Biblical Hebrew is QRYT,
once
again not bothering to have any initial letter, where the root is, as always,
QR/“citadel”, and once again there is a final T suffix. Aramaic has XQR) or
)QR), where there is an initial letter, but it varies and it may or may not
be
an initial heth/X; the suffix is not T, but the root, being what counts, is
QR/“citadel” once again.

What’s constant in ubburu/abaru/XBR is the BR. The first letter varies all
over the lot, suggesting that it is a mere prefix. Likewise, in eblu/XBL,
what’
s constant is BL (which in Bronze Age Canaan sounded like BR), with the
initial letter again varying, suggesting once again that the initial letter,
a
heth/X in Hebrew, is a mere prefix.

I am not ignoring that initial heth/X in Biblical Hebrew. But I’m saying it
may be a mere prefix.

I do not necessarily agree, by the way, with Victor Hurowitz’s analysis of
the Hebrew words XBR and XBL in terms of the Akkadian cognates he has
suggested.
The early Hebrews looked at things their own way. But I do think that
Victor Hurowitz’s analysis tends to support my suggestion that the heth/X in
XBR
and XBRN/XBRWN may be a mere prefix, with the root being BR in all cases.
When
Victor Hurowitz links XBR and XBL to three Akkadian words that begin,
respectively, with the Akkadian vowels U and A and E, that should cause us to
wonder
if the heth/X as the initial Hebrew letter in the Hebrew words XBR and XBL
and
XBRN and XBRWN may be a prefix. That’s my argument.

My view that an initial heth/X may be a mere prefix is strongly supported by
the fact that both XQR) and )QR) in Aramaic mean “citadel”. The heth/X in
that case in effect functions as a mere prosthetic aleph/). The root is QR/“
citadel”.

Likewise, I see the heth/X in XBR and XBRN as being a mere prefix (though the
prefix cannot be ignored, as it often shades the meaning in important ways).
In my controversial view, those two Biblical Hebrew words are X + BR, and X +
BR + N, with BR being the true root.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

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