Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Arne Halbakken <1stluth AT smig.net>]

For what it's worth, here is an excerpt from Papyrus Anastasi I from COS:

(18.7) You do not go to the land of Hatti; you do 
not see the land of Upi. Khadum's manner you do 
not know, nor Yagadiya either. What is it like, 
the Zimira of Ramesses II, LPH? The town of 
Aleppo is on which side of it? What is its river 
like? You do not campaign to Qadesh or Dubikh; 
you do not go to the region of Shasu with the 
archers. You do not tread the road to the Magara, 
where the sky is dark by day. It is overgrown 
with junipers and alluna and cedars (that) have 
reached the sky, where lions are more numerous 
than leopards and bears, and surrounded with 
Shasu on every side. You do not climb the 
mountain of Shuwa; you do not plod with your 
hands on your legs, your chariot netted with 
ropes, your horses in tow.

(19.6) Hey, come that you may see Birata and make 
h‡afidja from its ascent, having crossed its 
river. You will see what it's like to be a mahir 
when your markabata is set on your shoulders 
because your aide is exhausted. When you finally 
unburden your-self in the evening, your whole 
body is crushed and battered, your limbs 
thrashed. You will lose your-self in sleep only 
to awake at reveille in the short night, alone at 
the harnessing, for no brother comes to (help) 
brother. The naharu}a have entered the camp, the 
horses are untied. The [...] has with-drawn in 
the night; your clothes have been stolen. Your 
maru}a has awakened in the night, learned what he 
did, and taken the rest. He has gone over to 
those who are bad; he has mingled with the Shasu 
tribes and made himself an Asiatic. The enemy has 
come to make sûadda in thievery and found you 
inert. You will awaken and find no trace of them; 
they have made off with your things. Now you know 
what it's like to be a mahir.

(20.7) I will mention to you another inaccessible 
town, the one named Byblos. What is it like? And 
its goddess? Once again, you do not set foot in 
it. Inform me, please, about Beirut, and about 
Sidon and Zarepta. Where is the river of Litani? 
What is Uzu like? They tell of another town on 
the yumma, named Tyre of the Port. Water is taken 
to it in freighters; it is richer in fish than 
sand.

(21.2) I will tell you another subject. The 
passage of Zir{am is difficult. You will say it 
burns more than a sting: how sick is the mahir! 
Come, put me on the road north to the region of 
Akko. Where does the way to Aksap start? At which 
town? Inform me, please, about the mountain of 
Wasir. What is its rusûa}u like? Where does the 
mountain of Shechem start? Who can take it? Where 
does the mahir march to Hazor? What is its river 
like? Put me on the track to Hamat, Dagan, and 
Dagan-el, the parade-ground of every mahir. 
Inform me, please, about its road, and let me see 
Ya{anu. When one is marching to Adamim, where is 
he facing? Don't withhold your teaching: let us 
know them.

(22.2) Come, that I may tell you other towns that 
are above them. You do not go to the land of 
Takhsi, Gur-Maruni, Tamintu, Qadesh, Dapur, Asya, 
or Hermon. You do not see Qiryat-{anabi and 
Beit-sopiri. You do not know Aduruna, or 
Zitti-padalla either. You do not know the name of 
Khalsa, which is in the land of Upi, a bull on 
its borders, the place where the troops of every 
hero have been seen. Inform me, please, about the 
manner of Qiyana. Let me know Rehob, and ex-plain 
Beit-she}an and Tirqa-el. The river of Jordan, 
how is it crossed? You should let me know the 
pass of Megiddo, which is above it.

(23.1) You are a mahir learned in the work of 
heroism. May a mahir like you be found to sagga 
in front of the army. Oh maryana, forward to 
shoot! Look, the face of the murad44 is a 
sûadiluta 2000 cubits deep, full of scree and 
pebbles, so that you must make a sawbib. You will 
take the bow and make a pirtji on your left so 
that you might let the chiefs see. Their eye is 
good, and weakness is in your hand: "abatta kama 
eri mahir na{imu." You will make the reputation 
of every mahir of Egypt who passes: your 
reputation will become like that of Qatsra-yadi, 
the king of Asuru, when the bear found him in the 
bika}i.

(23.7) The face of the pass is dangerous with 
Shasu, hidden under the bushes. Some of them are 
4 or 5 cubits, h nose to foot, with wild faces. 
Their thoughts are not pretty, they do not listen 
to cajoling, and you are alone, no {adjira with 
you, no djabi}u behind you. You do not find the 
ir}ir to make passage for you. The decision is 
made to go forward, but you don't know the way. 
Your face starts to djanna, your head is sûalafi, 
your ba lies in your hand. Your path is full of 
scree and pebbles, with no toehold to pass, 
overgrown by asbarru with dangerous qadja and 
wolfspaw. The sûadiluta is on your one side, the 
mountain stands on your other. You go in 
hastakkata, with your chariot on its side, afraid 
to press your horse, lest he be thrown to the 
Duat. Your yoke has been thrown off and bare, 
your kusûana has fallen. You will unharness the 
team to renew the yoke in the middle of the pass, 
but you are not experienced in the manner of 
binding it, and do not know how to refasten it. 
The anqafqafa has been thrown from its place, too 
heavy for the team to bear. Your heart is 
disgusted; you will start to trot. When the sky 
is open (again), you think the enemy is behind 
you. You will start to tremble: if only you had a 
wall of shrubs, that you might put him on the 
other side. The team has been worn down by the 
time you find a cot; you will see the taste of 
sickness.

(24.2) You have entered Joppa and will find the 
field verdant in its season. You will break 
through for food and find the little maiden who 
is guarding the garden, and she will fraternize 
with you as a companion and give you the color of 
her embrace. It will be perceived that you have 
given witness and you are judged with a mahar.  
Your cloak of fine linen, you will sell it.

William W. Hallo and K. Lawson Younger Jr., eds., 
Archival Documents from the Biblical World (COS 
3; Accordance electronic ed. Leiden: Brill, 
2003), 12-13.

Arne Halbakken


Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:31:24 +0200
From: Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
Subject: [b-hebrew] FW:  The King's road
To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

I assume Rainey is referring to Papyrus Anastasi 
I - see the map on p. 101 of Sacred Bridge.

Yigal Levin


-----Original Message-----
From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of James Spinti
Sent: Thursday, February 11, 2010 4:24 PM
To: b-hebrew
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] The King's road

Check out p. 41 in Sacred Bridge, by Anson Rainey 
& Stephen Notley (Carta, Jerusalem). He mentions 
"an ancient Egyptian treatise on roads in Canaan" 
but doesn't cite the source. See also page 123, 
199, and 328, ranging in date all the way into 
the Hasmonean times.

James
> From jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com  Thu Feb 11 18:53:06 2010
Return-Path: <jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com>
X-Original-To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Delivered-To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Received: by lists.ibiblio.org (Postfix, from userid 3002)
        id 579F54C014; Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:53:06 -0500 (EST)
X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.2.3 (2007-08-08) on malecky
X-Spam-Level:
X-Spam-Status: No, score=0.0 required=5.0 tests=HTML_MESSAGE
        autolearn=disabled version=3.2.3
Received: from mail-bw0-f223.google.com (mail-bw0-f223.google.com
        [209.85.218.223])
        by lists.ibiblio.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6F8864C013
        for <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>; Thu, 11 Feb 2010 18:53:03 -0500 
(EST)
Received: by bwz23 with SMTP id 23so1588011bwz.21
        for <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>; Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:53:02 -0800 
(PST)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Received: by 10.204.156.204 with SMTP id y12mr408377bkw.3.1265932381592; Thu,
        11 Feb 2010 15:53:01 -0800 (PST)
In-Reply-To: <SNT113-W536F2BA197C3EBD6148B7DB64E0 AT phx.gbl>
References: <mailman.1.1265826010.23022.b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
        <SNT113-W536F2BA197C3EBD6148B7DB64E0 AT phx.gbl>
Date: Thu, 11 Feb 2010 23:53:01 +0000
Message-ID: <4f3a6171002111553y2ea59ab4la2989b7e01e92771 AT mail.gmail.com>
From: James Christian <jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com>
To: Garth Grenache <garthgrenache AT hotmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.9
Cc: b-hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] The final vowel of YHWH: Garth exposes his theory.
X-BeenThere: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.9
Precedence: list
List-Id: Biblical Hebrew Forum <b-hebrew.lists.ibiblio.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew>,
        <mailto:b-hebrew-request AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/b-hebrew>
List-Post: <mailto:b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
List-Help: <mailto:sympa AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=HELP>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew>,
        <mailto:b-hebrew-request AT lists.ibiblio.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 11 Feb 2010 23:53:06 -0000

Sorry Garth.

This is where objective people like Karl and I are likely to say stop right
there and slow down a little. Your whole argument is based on theoretically
based assumptions on pronunciation guides which we won't necessarily agree
with. It then becomes impossible for us to follow the rest of your argument
because we don't accept the foundation it rests upon as sturdy (like the man
who built his house upon the sand, the wind blew and the crash of that house
was great).

We have a strong tradition of Yahuw but your theoretical forms of Yahwu are
simply unattested. The least you could do is follow convention and
acknowledge that they are not attested by writing *Yahwu in your theoretical
presentations. That way we immediately understand you acknowledge there may
be a fault with the very foundation of your line of logic.

Further some of us are convinced that Hebrew if not entirely CV was
predominantly CV and still is predominantly so right up to the MT tradition.
And so, I personally find your proposed *Yahwu forms extremely unlikely if
not impossible.

Furthermore, Iabe is clearly a Samaritan dialectal perversion of the
original form. For this reason many view its witness (myself included) as
highly suspicious.

Assuming a causative conjugation of Yhwh for reasons of factors induced by
weak consonants we would accept a trisyllabic pronunciation if following the
usual patterns we observe.

James Christian



James Christian

2010/2/11 Garth Grenache <garthgrenache AT hotmail.com>

> Deal all, peace!
>
> ...and thanks to Karl and James who responded to my post.
>
> Here I offer an answer to your questions:
>
> James asked> Where do you get 'yahwu'? Surely you mean 'yahuw'?!?
>
> Garth replies> I mean -yahwu.  This would be the result of adding the final
> nominative case marker -u to the end of a name ending with -yahwa.  E.g. A
> name formed from the sentence "natan- yahwa" would be Natan-yahw-u.
>
> The final -u was present as a Nominative case marker, -a as Accusative case
> marker, and -i as Genitive case marker, as late as about 1000BCE, in most
> Semitic languages.
>
> To append such a marker to a word which already had a final vowel, would
> involve replacing that vowel: Natan-yahwa > Natan-yahw-u
>
>
> Karl wrote> There is one slight problem, namely, that we don?t know how
> Biblical Hebrew was pronounced. The vowels were not written down. Some of
> the consonants apparently changed pronunciation over time as well. As a
> result, there have been sometimes strongly worded disputes on this list as
> to Biblical Hebrew pronunciation. Therefore, to claim that we can come to a
> resolution as to the exact pronunciation of a single word (name) within the
> language sounds, well, impossible.
>
> Garth replies> The exact pronunciation of each phoneme(meaningful unit of
> speech to be pronounced) may be unknown, but by comparing Semitic languages
> and their morphology, the phonemes themselves can be evidenced.  For
> example, one might argue about how open or closed the 'a' phoneme was
> pronounced in a certain culture, but few scholars would doubt that the 'a'
> phoneme existed, or that it was in words such as malku, yawmu, etc.
>
> There were only three distinct short vowel phonemes in the original Semitic
> language, as can be deduced by *comparative Semitic Linguistics* -a i & u-
> and this could allow each to be pronounced slightly differently in different
> words and still remain distinct.
>
> So even in Arabic today the same long â phoneme can have a quality as
> forward as the 'a' in 'at', or as open as the 'a' in 'father'.
>
> I haven't asserted how open or closed the 'a' in Yahwa is: merely that it
> was an 'a': an open vowel phoneme.
>
>
> Finally, please note that some of the characters I've used are showing up
> in the text e-mails as ?s, but do read correctly online.
>
> The formatting allowed at this website makes my theory a bit easier to
> understand, and this presentation is more complete, for those who wish to
> understand more.
>
> http://garthg.multiply.com/journal/item/110/The_ancient_and_correct_pronunciation_of_YHWH
>
>
> Original message:
>
> Dear all at b-hebrew, peace!
>
> My name is Garth Grenache and I am an internet friend of Dave Donnelly.
> I live in the land down under.
>
> I
> have been seeking the original pronunciation of YHWH for several years,
> publically proposing and challenging various theories on YHWHgroup (
> groups.yahoo.com/group/YHWHgroup/ ) whilst developing my understanding
> of the history of Hebrew and the Semitic languages.
>
> From YHWH came Yah, Yəhô-, -yāhû, Greek iaō, "Temple of YHW",
>  and somehow also Greek 'Samaritan' forms iabe, iaou(e) and magic papyrus
> iaōouēe.
> A good theory needs to give a good explanation of all the data.
>
> In
> 2006 I proposed a reconstruction that I've not been able to better to
> this date, though it has been peer reviewed and critiqued on the above
> forum and elsewhere.
>
> Dave Donnelly has prompted me to post my also before your eyes, so that you
> too may critique it.
>
> Scholars
> like Gesenius could determine from the above forms that the Name began
> with Yahw-, and had a final vowel other than î or û.
> (If any reader is in doubt about this, I refer them to...
>
> http://garthg.multiply.com/journal/item/110/The_ancient_and_correct_pronunciation_of_YHWH
> ...where I give convincing linguistic evidence of this.)
>
>
> Why did Gesenius and like-minded scholars accept 'e' for the final vowel?
> *Greek 'Samaritan' forms iabe, iaou(e) and magic papyrus iaōouēe supplied
> an 'e'.
> *Hebrew Imperfective verbs with weak 3rd root consonant have final 'e'.
> YHWH appeared to be the same.
>
> Then why reject the 'e'?
> *The
> Name is as old as Adam and Eve (Ge 4:1) and the first Semitic language
> did not have 'e'. Therefore 'e' could not be original.
> *Even
> centuries before before the iabe/iaou(e)/iaōouēe forms, the final vowel
> was already lost from the pronunciation of YHWH, not appearing in Greek
> forms iaō or Hebrew "Temple of YHW", which together suggest that the
> pronunciation of YHWH had long come to be Yahô.  If 'e' were original,
> and was a contraction from -ayu/-iyu as in other 3-He Imperfectives,
> why then did the verbs retain their final 'e', but YHWH did not?  And
> having lost its final true vowel, from where did the final 'e' come
> from?  Perhaps from the assumption that it was pronounced like the
> other 3-He Imperfectives which end in -e!  Or...
> *The magical
> papyri's iaōouēe is in the context of a syncretist's god who is
> simultaneously both Zeus and YHWH: "I summon thee the, ruler of the
> gods--Zeus, Zeus, that thunderest on high, king Adonai, lord Iaoouee."
> The long string of vowels is impossible in Hebrew, and includes every
> Greek vowel letter.  It is mystical and may be a syncretism of iaō with
> iowe/iowi -Latin inflectional forms of of Iuppiter (Jupiter), who is
> Zeus! ( See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyptoton ).
> *Samaritan
> "Iaoue">"Iabe" may reflect the same syncretism of iaō with iowe,
> even as the Samaritans were syncretists who "feared YHWH but also
> served their own gods, after the manner of the nations from among whom
> they had been carried away" (2Ki 17:33).
> Therefore, Hebrew 3-He
> Imperfectives suggest that the missing final vowel of Yahw- should be
> an 'e', and those who believed that YHWH was Iawe(Jupiter) had even
> more reason to reconstruct the lost final vowel as 'e'.  But it could
> not have been original, even as the 'e' in 3-He Imperfectives was not
> original!
>
>
> If not final 'e', then what?
> *Ex 3:14 implies
> that the Name means "He is", and it's consonants also suggest the root
> HWY which means 'be/become' and is attested in both East and West
> Semitic, being present in Akkadian as well as Amorite, Hebrew and
> Aramaic.
> *Qal Stative Imperfectives in Central Semitic tend to have
> 'a' between the 2nd and 3rd root consonants.  "He is" would have been
> *yahwayu.
> Therefore 'a' was the original vowel after the 'w' in
> Yahwa, even before the Name's formation, being present there in the
> verb *yahwayu.
>
> But what happened to the -yu in yahwayu?  Why has it been arbitrarily
> truncated?
> *I suggest it was not an arbitrary truncation, but a calculated truncation
> by YHWH Himself.
> *If
> He gave His Name as Yahwayu or Yahway, it would undergo regular
> inflection to become Yahwaya, which would be suggestive of the
> Subjunctive verb, with the inappropriate meaning of "He would be".
> *Truncating the final -yu produced an indeclinable form Yahwa, to which
> this inappropriate meaning would not be attached.
> (*A declinable form Yahu/Yaha/Yahi was also supplied, which became the
> short form "Yah".)
>
> How did the Yəhô- names become?  -Further evidence for final -a in Yahwa.
> *Even as in regular sentences, Yahwa was followed by other words to form
> names such as Yahwanatanu.
> *The -wa- in these names became softened to -ô-, producing Yahônatan, even
> as in 'aḫwatu > 'aḫôt "sister".
> *This left the first short 'a' in an open syllable, exposing it to
> antepenultimate reduction: Yahô- >Yəhô-.
> *The
> reduction of -wa- to a close-mid vowel ô, rather than close vowel û can
> be explained by the presence of the 'a'. If the final vowel of YHWH
> were a close vowel i or u, we would expect û to result.
> *From Yəhô-
> names, or independently, the absolute Name Yahwa became pronounced as
> Yahô (as evidenced by "Temple of YHW" and BC Greek iaō).
>
> How did -yahû names become?
> *The theophoric name's case marker must be appended to the final consonant
> of a name ending in -yahwa, producing -yahwu.
> *e.g. 'Elî + yahwa + final case marker -u -> 'Elîyahwu
> *Here with u, the final '-wu' was softened to long -û:  -yahwu > -yahû
> *Penultimate augmentation of the vowel in a resulting open syllable
> subsequently occurred: -yahû > -yāhû
>
>
> In summary: final -a in YHWH is suggested by...
> *The presence of 'a' in the second syllable of Qal stative Imperfectives
> yaCCaCu, yahwayu 'he is' being the origin of the name.
> *The close-mid ô vowel found in Yəhô- names in the place of 'wa', v.s. the
> close û vowel found in -yahû names from -yahwu.
>
>
> Thanks for reading.  Your response and criticism is most welcome.
> Kind regards,
>
> Garth Grenache.
>
> A more complete presentation of this Yahwa theory can be found here:
>
> http://garthg.multiply.com/journal/item/110/The_ancient_and_correct_pronunciation_of_YHWH
>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Link all your email accounts and social updates with Hotmail. Find out now
> http://windowslive.ninemsn.com.au/oneinbox?ocid=T162MSN05A0710G
> _______________________________________________
> b-hebrew mailing list
> b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew