Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Uri Hurwitz <uhurwitz AT yahoo.com>]

--- On Mon, 4/12/10, James Christian wrote:




Hi Uri,
 
why do you find the name Naha$ interesting in this context?
 
James Christian




  Hello James,
 
  The words NH$, the name of the Ammonite king in Hebrew,
 and NHS, the Arabic name of the ancient smelting eterprise in
 Khirbat Nahas, meaning copper, are identical. The hebrew
 consonant $ is often the equivalent of the Arabic S.
   Compare $alom, Heb. and  salam, Arab.
  
  One possibility is that this identity - not just similarity
 - is a coincidence, and that would be the end of this matter.
 Especially since the Heb. word means "snake", and the Arab. means "copper".
   
   But then the Hebrew word for copper is derived from the same
 root, and appears in Fem. form, with an auxillary 'T'
 - N'ho$et. Compare with N'hu$tan, the icon destroyed by
 Hezekiah. Is the name derived from its serpent like
 shape, or the material it is made from? The text in II Kings
 18:4 is ambivalent.
  

  On another matter, the existence of Edom before the
 Neo- Assyrian evidence of Iron II, here is what 
 the Egyptian recorded:
  (One must keep in mind that "Seir" is another name
 for "Edom". So also in the HB)
  Seir appears in the topographical lists of
 
   Amenhopis III (1370);
  also under Ramesses (1280);
  also under Merneptah, the name Edom explitctly
 mentioned (thirteenth century);
  also under Ramesses III (ca. 1170s).
 
  The above from K. Kitchen.

  Uri Hurwitz                                  Great Neck, NY
  













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