Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Peter:
Thanks. I had been wondering about that word too. Now Ezekiel 16:10 makes
sense.

Karl W. Randolph.

On Tue, May 26, 2009 at 11:48 AM, Peter Bekins <pbekins AT fuse.net> wrote:

>
>
> > 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
>