Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

(YNYM

In the singular, (YN primarily means “eye”, but depending on the context
(and use of idiom, prepositions, etc.), it can also mean “sight” or “judgment
” or, on rarer occasions, “spring” or “fountain” or “well”.  HALOT
states as to (YN:  “meaning eye, 866 times;  meaning spring, 23 times”.  
Indeed,
outside of the Patriarchal narratives, (YN is used as a common word to mean
“spring”, “fountain(s)”, or “well(s)” a mere 12 times, whereas by
contrast, (YN is used to mean “eye” [or “sight”, “judgment”, etc.] many, many
hundreds of times.

George Athas seems to suggest that when used in a geographical place name,
(YN exclusively means “spring” or “fountain”, and does not mean or imply “
eye” [although all that George actually said was that (YN cannot mean “
gateway”]:  “‘En’ does not mean gateway - it means 'spring' or 'fountain'.
Plain and simple.”  Yet as a common word, (YN is used many hundreds of times
in the Bible to mean “eye”, in various senses, and only a relatively handful
of times is (YN used as a common word to mean “spring”, “fountain” or “
well”.  We need to investigate this matter further.

Note also that of the 119 geographical place names in Canaan on the
mid-15th century BCE Thutmosis III list, there is only one name (item #5, 
discussed
on a prior thread) that starts with (YN and has a second word.  Yet there
are 14 such geographical place names in the Bible.  That may indicate that
(YN + second word was rarely used as a geographical place name in Canaan in
the Bronze Age, but became enormously popular in the Iron Age.  Why?

Finally, consider that there are other west Semitic words for “spring”, “
fountain”, “well”, some of which are used as frequently, or more frequently,
in the Bible as a common word than (YN.   B)R means “well”.  That is used
35 times in the Bible to mean “well” [more often than (YN is used to mean “
spring”, “fountain” or “well”].  On four occasions, the word B)R is paired
with a second word in a geographical place name.  But the meaning there is “
well”, not “spring” or “fountain”.  M(YN is used 23 times in the Bible to
mean “fountain”, “well” or “springs”.  MQWR is used 15 times in the
Bible to mean “fountain”, “spring” or “well”.  MWC) is used a half dozen
times or so to mean “spring” in the Bible, and seems a more obvious word for “
spring” than (YN, which primarily means “eye”.  With all these various
Biblical Hebrew words for “spring”, why is it that geographical place names 
that
reference a “spring” invariably use (YN, a word that usually means “eye”,
rather than one of the other words that more narrowly means “spring”?  A “
well” is different than a “spring”, but why use (YN, a word that can mean “
well” or “spring” [but that usually means “eye”], instead of using one of
three other words that more consistently mean “spring”?

What’s going on here?  Why is a word, (YN, that is only rarely used as a
common word to mean “spring”, “fountain” or “well”, used as the first half
of 14 geographical place names in the Bible, whereas the other three above
words for “spring” are  n-e-v-e-r  used as the first half of a geographical
place name referencing a “spring”?  George and the conventional view
[including HALOT] imply [without explicitly so stating] that (YN in all 14 of
those 14 cases exclusively means “spring”.  Yet on 866 occasions in the Bible,
(YN as a common word means “eye” [either literally or figuratively].
Something seems amiss here.  Have scholars missed something important about 
those
14 geographical place names whose first word is (YN?

We will first approach this important problem somewhat indirectly,
examining in this post (YNYM, the dual of (YN.  We will see that (YNYM almost
certainly implies “eyes”, when used as a geographical place name, and does not
exclusively mean “double fountain”.  (YNYM, as the dual of (YN, is used in
the context of a geographical locale at Genesis 38: 14, 21.

[Part A of this post is a simple linguistic analysis of (YNYM.  Part B of
this post then analyzes (YNYM in the context of the famous story of Judah and
Tamar in chapter 38 of Genesis.]

A.  Basic Linguistic Analysis of (YNYM

Most scholars, including HALOT, see “eye” and “spring” in the singular as
being the same word, with different meanings.  Strong’s sees (YNYM at
Genesis 38: 14, 21 as meaning “double fountain”.  Prof. Robert Alter of 
Berkeley
at p. 220 of his translation of Genesis sees (YNYM as likely meaning “Twin
Wells”.  BDB gives no entry for a dual of the word “spring”, so BDB
presumably might interpret (YNYM here as meaning “eyes” [that is, two eyes],
rather than meaning “double fountain” or “twin wells”.  [The plural of 
“spring”
 is (YNT or (YNWT.]

HALOT, interestingly enough, gives the following as one possible
interpretation of (YNYM at Genesis 38: 14, 21:  “a viewpoint from which two 
routes can
be seen”.  That focuses on “eyes”, not “spring”.  KJV, unlike virtually
all other translations, sees (YNYM at Genesis 38: 14 as meaning “open”, and
at Genesis 38: 21 as meaning “openly”.  Though a minority view, KJV is
seeing (YNYM as being a play on “eyes” [somewhat akin to HALOT], where
something can be “seen” “openly”, in the “open”, not as meaning “double 
fountain”
.

Given what happens in chapter 38 of Genesis (discussed below), it seems
clear to me that (YNYM at Genesis 38: 14, 21 either means “eyes”, or perhaps
more likely is an obvious and intentional pun on “eyes”, and is meant to
imply “eyes”, in various senses.  In chapter 38 of Genesis, (YNYM as the dual
of (YN may mean both “double fountain”  a-n-d  “eyes”, with the former
perhaps being the literal meaning, and the latter being the figurative meaning
or an obvious pun.  Interestingly, one of the candidates for historical
Enaim/(YNYM has no spring or fountain!
http://www.bible-history.com/isbe/E/ENAIM/  I understand that (YN in the 
singular may differ from (YNYM as a dual,
but certainly there is a realistic possibility that in a geographical place
name that includes (YN, while the literal meaning may well be “spring” or “
fountain”, the figurative meaning, or an obvious pun, may be “eye” (in
various senses).  Therefore, any insistence that (YN in a geographical place 
name
can  n-e-v-e-r  mean “eye” would be going too far.

Consider now in this connection the following very relevant comment by
Prof. Daniela Santus, an expert on geographical place names in Canaan:  “[T]he
Hebrew Beth-shemesh (the House of the Sun) became the Arabic ‘Ain Shems (the
Eye of the Sun)”, where ‘Ain in Arabic, as the first of two words in a
geographical place name, is viewed as meaning “eye”, not “spring”.
http://www.openstarts.units.it/dspace/bitstream/10077/843/1/b5antus.pdf  
Likewise, in
a modern context, the name of the fourth largest city in the United Arab
Emirates is Al Ain, which a tourist information site says literally means The
Eye or The Spring.  We begin to see that, as logically we should have
expected, there can be no automatic guarantee that (YN in a geographical 
place name
does not mean, or at least imply, “eye”.

B.  (YNYM in the Context of Judah and Tamar

Though the words (YN and (YNYM are not used in chapter 38 of Genesis in
describing what Judah and Tamar do, nevertheless those two words seem strongly
implied throughout this famous story, as we shall now see.

When Judah is at (YNYM [Genesis 38: 14], Tamar goes to (YNYM and makes “eyes
”/(YNYM at her own father-in-law, Judah, who does not realize that Tamar is
the apparent prostitute, because her veil means that Judah can only see her
“eyes”/(YNYM.  Tamar has donned that veil, covering her entire face except
for her “eyes”/(YNYM, in order to impersonate a prostitute and get her own
father-in-law to impregnate her.

The exciting climax of chapter 38 of Genesis comes when we all breathlessly
wait to see how a pregnant Tamar will be judged in the “sight”/(YN/“eye”
of Judah.  [That particular phrase/idiom does not appear at the end of
chapter 38 of Genesis, but it does appear at Genesis 38: 7 and Genesis 38: 10.
It is an extremely well-known idiom that also appears numerous other places
throughout the Patriarchal narratives and the Bible.  That particular
phrase/idiom starts with L as a preposition, then has (YN in the singular, 
and then
has Y as the suffix.  The key word in that idiom is (YN, literally meaning “
eye”, but in context having the figurative meaning of “sight” or “judgment
”.]

Will or will not Judah countermand his harsh initial order that Tamar be
burned alive because she turned up pregnant without a husband?

We see that the entire story of Judah and Tamar is implicitly built on “eye”
/(YN or “eyes”/(YNYM, in various senses.  At (YNYM, Tamar makes (YNYM at
Judah, who can only see her (YNYM, because of her prostitute’s veil.
Everything turns out fine in the end, however, when in the (YN of Judah, 
Tamar, who
had gotten pregnant by Judah at (YNYM, is properly adjudged by Judah to be “
more righteous than I”.  Genesis 38: 26

Accordingly, it should not be insisted that (YNYM as a geographical locale
can  o-n-l-y  mean “double fountain”.  If one insists that (YNYM
exclusively means “double fountain” at Genesis 38: 14, 21, while having no 
figurative
meanings whatsoever, then one misses the clever Hebrew wordplay that is
beautifully embedded in the very soul of chapter 38 of Genesis.

My point is that double meanings like that -- such as (YN or (YNYM
sometimes meaning in part (or implying) “eye” or “eyes”, in various senses, 
in a
geographical place name -- are common in the Patriarchal narratives.

As a dual, (YNYM certainly seems to have plenty of overtones of “eyes” in
chapter 38 of Genesis, as we have seen in this post.  Likewise, if we
examine individual instances of geographical place names [such as (YN M$P+] 
where
the first part of the name is (YN, there is a distinct possibility in my
view that we might find that (YN in the singular could also have overtones of 
“
eye”, in various senses, on occasion.  In fact, in all 14 cases when (YN is
used as the first word in a geographical place name in the Bible, (YN may
mean  b-o-t-h  “spring” or “well”,  a-n-d  “eye” [in some figurative sense]
as well.  If only “spring” were the intended meaning, pure and simple,
then we would expect to see M(YN or MQWR or MWC) [“spring”], at least on
occasion.  But if  b-o-t-h  “spring” or “well”  a-n-d  “eye” are deliberately
intended [with “eye” having a figurative, but very important, meaning],
then one and only one west Semitic word can fit the bill:  (YN.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

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