Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 7:19 PM, K Randolph wrote:

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

Karl, given the context where it is used it is not so weird.  How
would you convey the association of rocks with divinity that is
apparent in the Bible?

> 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.

The oldest attestation of Tyre's name that I know of is from the
Egyptian execration texts.  Also, the name Tyre referred to the
island portion rather than the mainland portion.  I would consider
an etymology relating to the root cwr 'besiege'.  This would
explain the Ugaritic transcription of the city name which suggests
the Sade in Tyre is etymologically different from the Sade in "rock".
It would also explain the variant spellings with a double -r- (Amarna)
and a single -r- (Greek) since the root cwr 'besiege', 'encircle' has
a byform crr.  In this sense, the city's name would refer to the
fact that it is an island, 'besieged'.

http://books.google.com/books?id=3SapTk5iGDkC&pg=PA373
http://books.google.com/books?id=P9sYIRXZZ2MC&pg=PA1341

Yitzhak Sapir