Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On Tue, Apr 7, 2009 at 2:38 AM, David Hamuel wrote, responding to Charles 
Grebe:
>
>> When the preposition MIN is used with a direction like QEDEM (east) or 
>> TSAPHON
>> (north), how do you know when it means "direction from" or "direction 
>> towards"?

> Very simple. Context & grammar. See Waltke & O'Connor -- Biblical Hebrew 
> Syntax, pp.212-214.

This can be read online at:
http://books.google.com/books?id=jZlwYGilLW0C&pg=PA212

However, I think this doesn't answer the question.  Waltke & O'Connor,
don't include at all
a singular use of the word like in Gen 2:8.

Here comparing cognates is very useful.  If we look at Hebrew mn in
HALOT, we see that
cognates in other languages include mn but also others:
Old South Arabian: mn, bn
Phoenician: b, bn, mn
Ugaritic: b (which is used for both 'in' and 'from')
Phoenician bn is also a cognate of Hebrew 'b' 'in'.

So really, what we have is a very basic connection between 'in' and 'from'.
Compare also the Aramaic Balaam Deir Alla inscription.  Here we have:
wyqm bl(m mn mxr,
comparable to Hebrew wyqm bl(m bbqr.

We can also understand other verses using mn that we normally read as
'from' as saying 'in':
Gen 13:11 wys( lw+ mqdm 'And Lot traveled in the east.'
Gen 12:18 'And he advanced in there to the mountain in the east of Bet
El  and he set up
his tent Bet El in the west and the Ai in the east.'

So the difference that we see between b 'in' and mn 'from' is somewhat
artificial.  The
two words were very close in meaning and were used somewhat interchangeably.

See also:
Ziony Zevit, "The So-Called Interchangeability of the Prepositions b,
l, and m(n) in Northwest
Semitic." JANES 7 (1975), p. 103-12:
http://www.jtsa.edu/Documents/pagedocs/JANES/1975%207/Zevit7.pdf

Gary Rendsburg, "Morphological Evidence for Regional Dialects in
Ancient Hebrew ," in W. R.
Bodine, ed., Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew (Winona Lake, IN:
Eisenbrauns, 1992), pp. 65-88.
http://jewishstudies.rutgers.edu/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_view&gid=210&Itemid=158

Robert Althann, Studies in Northwest Semitic, p. 7- (he quotes
Rendsburg and Zevit around
p. 15, but the whole thing seems to be of interest):
http://books.google.com/books?id=kQdCcegn_mIC&pg=PA7

Yitzhak Sapir