Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Bekins <pbekins AT fuse.net>]

> The question is, what exactly is תחשים? It's generally  
> understood to
> refer to the skin of something like a seal or other sea animal. I had
> someone ask me about an Akkadian connection, something along the lines
> of "dyed orange," kinda like M)DMYM means "dyed red." Does anyone know
> of an Akkadian cognate that would lend to this interpretation? What is
> that cognate in English transliteration? Is there anything that can
> help us understand what תחשים is referring to?
>
> Thanks,
> Jason Hare
> Rehovot, Israel

Stephanie Dalley has a 19 page article in JSS XLV/1 (Spring 200)  
entitled "Hebrew TAḤAŠ, Akkadian DUHŠU, Faience and Beadwork in  
which she gives a lengthy discussion. Interestingly, Luther  
interpreted taḥaš as German Dachs 'Badger', basically  
transliterating Hebrew into Latin, and translated as 'Badger-skin'  
which persisted into the Autherized Version. 'Dolphin' comes from the  
Arabic cognate tukhaš. There is an Egyptian cognate thś meaning  
'well-tanned leather' which some have invoked. Dalley prefers  
Akkadian duhšu, which was probably a Hurrian loanword, explaining the  
variation d/t between Akkadian and Hebrew. The vowel change from /u/  
to /a/ is also consistent with loans from either Hurrian or Akkadian.

duhšu can modify either stone, leather, wool, or linen products. For  
instance, the elippi duhši is a boat with a covering made of duhšu- 
leather. It can also be used in decorative contexts to describe inlay  
work. However, the colors associated with it are not consistent.  
Dalley concludes that duhšu is related to a type of beadwork or inlay  
which was originally blue, but later more generally to multi-color  
work. It can also relate to inlay work.

Pete Bekins