Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Karl wrote:  “Ugarit, and other geographically separate societies, which 
may not have
 knowledge of the Dead Sea, would use the terms differently.”
 
O.K., fair enough, so then let’s stick to an analysis of Biblical Hebrew 
words.
 
The phrase “salt sea” at Genesis 14: 3 is literally “sea the salt”:  YM 
H-MLX.  Obviously the 5 critical letters there are MLX/salt and YM/sea.
 
1.  Consider now how people from Tyre who sail the Mediterranean Sea (what 
I would call the “Big Salt Sea”) are described at Ezekiel 27: 29:  MLXYM.
 
The 5 critical letters are the same.  Yes, the literal meaning is 
different, with those letters at Ezekiel 27: 29 literally meaning “salts”, 
not “salt 
sea”.  But note that using “salts” to mean sailors on the Mediterranean 
Sea means that the Hebrews thought of the Mediterranean Sea as being a “salt 
sea”.
 
2.  If Tyre is a bit far north for one’s tastes, then consider Jonah 1: 5, 
where Jonah sets off to sea on the Mediterranean Sea from Joppa in central 
coastal Canaan.  Note that the people who sail the Mediterranean Sea from 
Joppa are called:  H-MLXYM.  It’s the same 5 key letters again (this time 
with 
H meaning “the”, similar to Genesis 14: 3).
 
It’s probably a coincidence that the suffix –YM in unpointed text is the 
same as the word “sea”/YM.  But it’s no coincidence that people who sail the 
Mediterranean Sea are called “salts”.  That means that the Hebrews 
themselves considered the Mediterranean Sea to be a “salt sea”.
 
3.  The point is that YM H-MLX at Genesis 14: 3 is inherently ambiguous.  
Depending on the context, those letters could be referencing the 
Mediterranean Sea, or the Dead Sea.  In order to determine the context, 3 
keys are the 
following aspects of Genesis 14: 7:  (i) recognize that $WB at the beginning 
of Genesis 14: 7 almost certainly means “return”, and in the context of 
Genesis 14: 5, which tells us that this military operation started at 
Ashteroth, the likely implied meaning is “and then they returned (to the 
Ashteroth 
area)”;  that in turn would mean that the places and peoples that come later 
in Genesis 14: 7 are north of Ashteroth;  (ii) recognize that QD$ in Genesis 
14: 7 is an historically attested spelling of Qadesh of Upper Galilee, north 
of Ashteroth, whereas no place in the Sinai Desert has any such attested 
name in secular history;  and (iii) recognize that historically, the Amorites 
referenced in Genesis 14: 7 were closely associated with Lebanon in the 
Bronze Age, being north of Ashteroth, with the historical Amorites never 
being 
historically attested south of the Dead Sea.
 
4.  Any argument that YM H-MLX at Genesis 14: 3 cannot refer to the 
Mediterranean Sea is refuted by the use of MLX-YM at Ezekiel 27: 29 and 
H-MLX-YM at 
Jonah 1: 5, where those same 5 key letters are used to refer to people who 
sail on the Mediterranean Sea -- a body of salt water/YM H-MLX, that is, a “
salt sea”.
 
There’s no way that Biblical Hebrew would call people who sail on the 
Mediterranean Sea “salts”/MLX-YM or H-MLX-YM unless the Hebrews thought of 
the 
Mediterranean Sea as being a “salt sea”/YM H-MLX.  Thus the very language of 
Biblical Hebrew itself is telling us that YM H-MLX at Genesis 14: 3 may 
possibly be referring to the Mediterranean Sea, and does not necessarily 
refer 
to the Dead Sea.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois