Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Jim:

On Thu, May 6, 2010 at 8:50 AM, <JimStinehart AT aol.com> wrote:

> James Christian:
>
> Would you please comment specifically on the word )YL at Genesis 14:  6?
>

There are several possibilities:

This could be a transcription of a non-Semitic name.

If a Semitic name, it could be a deliberate distortion of a Semitic word or
referring to an event of which this is not a direct description.

If a Semitic name, it is possible that it is from a cognate language,
referring to a meaning not found in Hebrew.

It could be the name of a person who founded the town.

The name could refer to an event that happened on that site.

If it is from a Hebrew word, there are five homographs (words in the absence
of vowels were written the same way) in Biblical Hebrew, which I doubt were
pronounced all the same way. Those meanings refer to a ram, the male of
sheep; a portal, a decorated doorway; strength or forcefulness; a buck, a
male deer; and a type of tree.

With so many possibilities, how can anyone insist that only one meaning is
the correct one?

>
> Jim Stinehart
> Evanston, Illinois
>

Karl W. Randolph.