Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Jim:

Where do you get your w-e-i-r-d translations, like “divine-like rock”?

As for the etymology of the name of Tyre, it may originally have had
nothing to do with a rock at all. The city was originally built on the
shore, on sand and dirt, on a spot next to a natural harbor, which was
fairly rare on that coastline. Only later was the city rebuilt on the
rock so that the harbor also provided a natural moat to protect the
city from enemies. But that rebuilding was long after the name had
been chosen.

Possible etymologies include from the root also spelled CRR meaning
“narrow place” referring to the harbor, as well as the ones you
mention.

As for the spelling, it was fluid in Biblical days, In fact, only with
the first dictionaries such as those by Samuel Johnson and Noah
Webster, did the concept of correct spelling come into even modern
languages. You are making a mountain out of a molehill.

Genesis 20 referred to a completely different city, in the south, not
Tyre in the north of Canaan. Further, Abimelekh was the king of GRR,
not CR, Therefore your conclusions have no basis in the text itself.

Karl W. Randolph.