Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Christian <jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com>]

Jim,

this subject is now banned. Please respect the decisions of the moderators.
I'm sure everybody has your email address by now and if anyone wishes is
free to discuss this off list.

Please help enrich this list by participating in other discussions without
bringing up your theory any more.

thanks,
James Christian

On 14 May 2010 16:56, <JimStinehart AT aol.com> wrote:

>
> %(YR/Seir at Genesis 14: 6 probably comes from the Hurrian word $a(ri [with
> Hurrian variants thereon being $xri or $a-ax-ri], meaning “orchard”.
> Fournet/Bomhard at p. 98.  Hurrian had no ayin as such, but it had a voiced
> velar fricative, which is probably equivalent to the archaic ghayin in
> Hebrew.
> As such, this Hurrian letter for ghayin would be expected to come out in
> written Biblical Hebrew as an ayin.  The closest possible Hebrew equivalent
> to
> Hurrian $a(ri/“orchard” would likely be $(YR or $(R, which in unpointed
> text is what we see at Genesis 14: 6.  [$ and % are the same letter in
> written
> Hebrew.  It’s unclear if the yod/Y was there in the original defective
> spelling.]  Related words in Hurrian-type languages are “sarme” in
> Subarian,
> meaning “forest”, and “sare” in Urartian, meaning “orchard”.  Since Hurrian
> borrowed almost no words from any Semitic language, it seems that Hebrew
> likely picked up this word and geographical place name from Hurrian.
>
> As to “Seir”/%(YR in Hebrew, the root %(R means "hair" or "hairy" 28 times
> in the Bible, including at Genesis 25: 25 in the Patriarchal narratives,
> often with the connotation of "bristling".  BDB at p. 973 sees “Seir”/%‘YR
> as
> meaning “the ‘hairy’, i.e. ‘well-wooded’. Cf. [the Arabic word for] trees”
> .  The Arabic words for tree and trees sound a lot like “Seir”/%(YR:  “
> Tree = shajra;  Trees = shajar”.  Gesenius likewise sees “Seir”/%(YR as
> meaning “clothed, and, as it were, bristled with trees and thick woods”.
>
> Thus there is every reason to think that %(YR at Genesis 14: 6 means “
> Well-Wooded”.  Such a name would only make sense in a locale that is
> “well-wooded
> ”, such as the well-wooded hill country in western Transjordan north of the
> Dead Sea, where the Hurrians are historically attested in the Late Bronze
> Age.  No place south of the Dead Sea was “well-wooded” or had any Hurrians,
> so at Genesis 14: 6 Seir is not referencing a locale south of the Dead Sea.
> Yes, in later parts of the Bible Seir was used to reference a locale south
> of the Dead Sea.  But not in truly ancient chapter 14 of Genesis.  If we
> are
> willing to analyze Seir in chapter 14 of Genesis in its Late Bronze Age
> historical context, we will see that it means “Well-Wooded”, and that it is
> referring to the well-wooded hill country in the western Transjordan north
> of
> the Dead Sea.
>
> Jim Stinehart
> Evanston, Illinois
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