Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Bryant J. Williams III" <bjwvmw AT com-pair.net>]

Dear Jim,

Your hypothesis is not coherent nor consistent. You have been shown that the
evidence is contrary. If you were a doctoral student, your thesis would be
thrown out and told to do it over again and/or do another subject.

Rev. Bryant J. Williams III
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <JimStinehart AT aol.com>
To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Friday, May 14, 2010 6:56 AM
Subject: [b-hebrew] Seir


>
> %(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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>


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