Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Read <J.Read-2 AT sms.ed.ac.uk>]

Hi Jim,

you've lost me a bit here. The text specifically mentions the salt sea  
and Sodom and Gomorah. I've been looking at a map of Isreal and have  
been unable to find a salt sea in the north anywhere.

James Christian

Quoting JimStinehart AT aol.com:

> Karl:
>
> A.  You wrote (in part):  “Eylam (YLM [is]…a proper noun, i.e. a name,
> referring to various people….”
>
> Those “various people” are Hebrews.  That suggests that (YLM is a west
> Semitic word, being used as a west Semitic name for west Semitic-speaking
> people, namely various Hebrews.  For example, I Chronicles 26: 3   
> refers to a man
> named (YLM as being a Levite who was a contemporary of King David.  Wouldn’t
> a Levite in that time period be portrayed in the Bible as having a west
> Semitic name?
>
> If (YLM is a west Semitic word, a Hebrew word, rather than being an exotic
> non-west Semitic foreign loanword, then isn’t the yod/Y a matres lectionis?
> Doesn’t (YLM clearly derive from the Biblical Hebrew verb (LM, which is the
> root?
>
> If so, then (1) (YLM is a west Semitic word, and (2) the “defective”
> spelling of (YLM would be (LM.  If scholars are right that defective spelling
> preceded full spelling in Biblical Hebrew, then Genesis 14: 1, 9 originally
> likely referenced MLK (LM as Chedorlaomer’s title (using defective spelling).
> That is  i-d-e-n-t-i-c-a-l, letter for letter, to the grand title that was
> unique to kings of Ugarit.
>
> That linguistic analysis strongly supports my view that Chedorlaomer is
> presented in chapter 14 of Genesis as being a king of Ugarit, not a king of
> far-off, irrelevant Elam.
>
> B.  Outside of Genesis, there is no reference in the Bible to Elam as a
> country, prior to Isaiah.  Why would the Patriarchal narratives reference
> far-off, irrelevant Elam, east of southern Mesopotamia, when there is no
> reference to that irrelevant country in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers,   
> Deuteronomy,
> Joshua, Judges, Samuel or Kings?  No ruler of Elam ever came to the Northern
> Negev Desert!  (You and the scholars interpret Genesis 14: 7 as referencing
> the Northern Negev Desert, despite the fact that none of the five   
> proper names
> at Genesis 14: 7 are attested in ancient secular history as being located
> anywhere near that locale, as opposed to all five such names being attested
> in northern Canaan in the Bronze Age.)  Why on earth would chapter 14 of
> Genesis be telling a story about a king of far-off Elam ravaging the Northern
> Negev Desert?  Is that a sensible theory of the case?  Is it just a “
> coincidence” that (i) Chedoralomer’s title, MLK (LM, is the unique   
> title of kings of
> Ugarit, and (ii) the name “Chedorlaomer” can easily be analyzed as being
> comprised of three common Ugaritic words?  KDR and L and (MR are all common
> Ugaritic words, as well as being common Hebrew words, too.  I see KDRL(MR and
> MLK and (LM [or (YLM] as all being virgin pure west Semitic words or names,
> with no exotic non-west Semitic loanwords being involved.
>
> If chapter 14 of Genesis is not late [that is, 8th century BCE or later],
> why would the Patriarchal narratives be talking about far-off, irrelevant
> Elam, a country with which the pre-8th century BCE Hebrews had no contact
> whatsoever?  And if Genesis 14: 1, 9 is trying to refer to
> NIM/hatalmtu/hatamtu/atamtu/KUR Elammatum/Elamtu, as scholars   
> assert, then where oh where is that
> yod/Y coming from in (YLM?  Those foreign names have no yod/Y.  Using your
> knowledge of Biblical Hebrew, you can see that (YLM appears to be a form of
> the virgin pure Hebrew verb (LM, so (YLM itself is a virgin pure Hebrew
> noun/name.  (YLM is not an exotic non-west Semitic word.  [I agree   
> with you, by
> the way, that (LM in Ugaritic had a slightly different meaning than its
> cognate (WLM in Biblical Hebrew.  (LM means “eternity” in Ugaritic.]  
>   When later
> Biblical authors use (YLM to refer to a country, they use it in the sense
> of “a distant place”, based on the fact that one meaning of the Biblical
> Hebrew verb (LM is “to be distant”.  (LM, (YLM and (WLM are all virgin pure
> west Semitic/Biblical Hebrew words, in my opinion, having no hint whatsoever
> of foreign-ness.
>
> The later Biblical authors did not know that the phrase MLK (LM [(YLM] had
> been the unique title of Ugaritic kings.
>
> C.  In 5,000 years of human history, there was only one event comparable to
> the “four kings against the five” at Genesis 14: 9, where all four of the
> following key elements apply:
>
> (1)  There were four (4) attacking rulers.
>
> (2)  The four (4) attacking rulers utterly destroyed a league of five (5)
> defending rulers [“four kings against the five”].
>
> (3)  The names of the four attacking rulers follow this precise pattern:
> (i) one is a Hittite kingly name, (ii) one is a Hurrian princeling name, and
> (iii) the other two names each make perfect sense as being composed of west
> Semitic words.  [All of these names are apt nicknames, not formal historical
> names, in chapter 14 of Genesis.  But the precise ethnicity of each
> name/nickname is exactly right.]
>
> (4)  One of the west Semitic-speaking rulers had the unique historical
> title MLK (LM.
>
> It only happened once in secular history, and west Semitic-speaking Ugarit
> was a key player.  It’s nicely recorded, for eternity, right there at
> Genesis 14: 1-11.
>
> Why accept the view of university scholars that this is a tall tale about a
> fictional king of Elam fictionally rampaging through the Northern Negev
> Desert?  There’s nothing in secular history or linguistics to back up that
> strange, unconvincing view of the case.
>
> But if we match the defective spelling MLK (LM to the unique, historical
> title of Ugaritic kings, MLK (LM, then we can quickly discern the solid
> secular historical basis for the “four kings against the five” at Genesis 14:
> 1-11.  No scholar has ever looked to Late Bronze Age northern Canaan in
> analyzing the Patriarchal narratives.  That’s why all scholars have   
> missed this
> key, letter-for-letter match:
>
> MLK (LM.
>
> Jim Stinehart
> Evanston, Illinois
>
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