Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Al Craig" <crequi AT ntlworld.com>]

Karl:

So long as it's a plain that the Israelites can come out of to occupy the 
Promised Land it will do as a point of origin. It doesn't have to be THE 
Arabah, it just has to be something to do with the desert.

As to your point about Abraham, yes he is in direct descent from Arpachshad, 
but that's where I think there's a problem. To avoid being provocative I did 
not say that I thought Abraham's starting point in Mesopotamia was 
implausible as a place of origin for the Hebrews and that that could be due 
to an incorrect interpretation of Arpachshad.

It's all a bit trivial but if there is anyone having sleepless nights 
wondering about the meaning of the name Arpachshad they might want to 
consider the idea put forward here as one of the possibilities.

Al Craig

On Wed Apr 29 2009 at 13:39, K Randolph <kwrandolph at gmail.com> wrote:

> My comments were about the spelling in context of how the spelling 
> indicates
> meaning, so actually included both.
>
> Genesis 11:10-13 indicates that Arpachshad was an ancestor of Abraham,
> though the last three letters of the name could indicate that he was an
> ancestor of the Chaleans as well.
>
> As to the word (RBH to which you thought there may have been a connection 
> in
> your first posting, its use seems to indicate a geographical feature, 
> namely
> a plain, rather than as a place name.
>
> Karl W. Randolph.