Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Kevin P. Edgecomb" <kevin AT bombaxo.com>]

Mr Stinehart wrote:
> If Y)R means the Nile River in Egypt, then the context is strongly suggesting
> that $XR at Isaiah 23: 3 is referring to Egypt.

I write:
What this parallelism with Y)R connotes is precisely what Egyptian  
documents show us, namely that Shi-Hor (Water-body of Horus) was the  
name for a connected body of water comprising a bay and the  
easternmost branch of the Nile, later known as the Pelusiac branch.  
This was considered by the Egyptians to be the  eastern border of  
their land.  The Shi-Hor and its surrounding area has been popularly  
well-described by James Hoffmeier in his two books _Israel in Egypt_  
and _Ancient Israel in Sinai_.

The Nile Delta was not as extensive as now in the mid to late second  
millennium and the Shi-Hor was particularly the name of a bay off the  
Mediterranean sea at that time, but also to the branch of the Nile  
that emptied into that bay or very near it into the Mediterranean.   
This bay is directly north of Tell Hebua, the site of Silu/Tjaru as  
proven by the excavations of Mohammed Abd el-Maksoud.  In either the  
late second or early first millennium the delta extended to the point  
where the bay was cut off from the Mediterranean and eventually dried  
up.  It's still visible in satellite photos as a large depression in  
the area.  From that point onward, the easternmost branch of the Nile  
retained the name Shi-Hor.

There is absolutely no doubt about Shi-Hor being this body of water.   
A coincidental similarity with a Hebrew root for black is only that:  
coincidental.

You should rather find a reflection of the Egyptian word for their  
"Black Land" (referring to Lower Egypt) in the Hebrew XM.  As is  
otherwise well-known, by the New Kingdom, the feminine marker final -T  
had dropped out of pronunciation, though it was retained in writing.

Regards,
Kevin P. Edgecomb
Berkeley, California