Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Ishinan" <ishinan AT comcast.net>]

ISHINAN:  I believe the sense of "ploughing" (and not dividing) the earth is 
a more suitable definition for the Hebrew term "plg" in (Gen 10:25). This 
would render the following verse as follows:

25 And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of one Peleg; for in his days 
was the earth ploughed .......


My proposal for this new definition is based on the following Semitic 
comparative method .

You may click the following URL to view the comparative method between 
Hebrew and Arabic . Attached is a JPG  comparing the various definitions of 
plg/flg in both languages.

http://labyrinthoflanguage.freewebsitehosting.com/PLG.html

While the proto-Semitic * plg indeed has a primary sense of divide/split, it 
also means to plough the land for sowing (cf. Arabic flg ).  In addition the 
term in question, apparently, has been borrowed into the Germanic P.Gmc. 
*plogo-

In Ælfric's Colloquy the ploughman says : lce dæg ic sceal erian fulne æcer 
oððe máre. Pleuch a quantity of land for caring for which one plough 
suffices, Jamieson's Dict.), the word sulh being used to denote the 
implement :-- Ic hit (property) ágnian wille tó ágenre hte, ðæt ðæt ic 
hæbbe, and nfre ðé myntan ne plot ne plóh, ne turf ne toft, ne furh ne 
fótml, L. O.; Th. i. 184, 6. [Icel. plógr; m. a plough; plógs-land an acre: 
O. H. Ger. pfluoc aratrum.]    (E. plog, ploh cf. O.N. plogr "plow"),  (cf. 
O.Fris. ploch, M.L.G. ploch, M.Du. ploech, O.H.G. pfluog).

I suspect that the German term was borrowed from Hebrew itself, via a 
translation of the Bible. A fact that strongly suggests that originally 
"plg" was correctly interpreted  as "plough" rather than "divide".

Further, based on the Semitic examples cited above, the present 
Indo-European's conjecture of a Rhaetian origin for the term "plough" is 
untenable.

Best regards

Ishinan B. Ishibashi


---------------------------------------------------------------------------

YIGAL LEVIN: The way I (and I think most people) read the explanation of the 
name "Peleg" is as a reference to the Tower of Babel story in Gen. 11:1-9. 
And just as in verse 1 there, "all the earth" refers to the human 
inhabitants of the earth, not the planet itself, I assume that this is what 
10:25 means as well. Does it also refer to the earth being divided in other 
ways, such as into continents and habitation zones? I don't see it in the 
text, but who knows?

Doug, any translation is necessarily an interpretation, as is any reading. 
Both Gen. 10:25 and 11:1 have "ha'arec", which literally means "the earth" 
or "the land". As you write, 11:1 is specifically about the people of the 
earth having one tongue. 10:25 simply explains Peleg's name by saying "in 
his day the earth was divided". The logical inference is to 11:1-9, but if
you want to think that it refers to some other division of the earth, there 
is no way I can prove that it does not.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------


DOUG BELOT: Perhaps i should begin by an apology for dashing in where angels 
fear to tread , I love your emails back and forth about all sorts of areas 
of Hebrew, sometimes that have quite a bit of value for me, I am sure they 
are valuable to you all

Now my query is Hebrew language related in that I want to know , if 
possible, does Gen 10:25 when speaking of dividing the earth actually mean 
what it says , and thus explaining the different languages world wide , and 
the different animals , Kangaroo , in Aus ' Zebra in Africa , etc.

Did the existing "earth" as a round ball divide into different areas , can 
we safely believe that this is what is written and thus this is what it is 
meant to be from what is written here in Gen 10:25 , or will your ability to 
rip it into segments of constanants make this implausible.: