Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Arnaud Fournet" <fournet.arnaud AT wanadoo.fr>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Will Parsons" <wbparsons AT alum.mit.edu>
To: <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
Cc: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Monday, July 26, 2010 2:54 AM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Pharaoh Khepera'a in Jeremiah 44:30


> On Sat, 24 Jul 2010 22:43:26 +0300, Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il> 
> wrote:
> > "Conventional wisdom" is that "Hophra" in Jer. 44:33 is the same as the 
> > king
> > that the Greek historians call Apries, 4th king of the 26th dynasty, who
> > ruled from 589 to 570 BCE. The form "Khepera" is not the name of a king, 
> > but
> > rather a title of the sun god Re, actually referring to the sacred dung
> > beetle. But if you or anyone else think that "Hophra" should be 
> > identified
> > with someone else, I'm sure that we would all be happy to hear your
> > evidence.
***

Apparently the full name of that pharaoh is ḥ_ˁ_ˁ '_b r_ˁ  w_3_ḥ '_b r_ˁ
'_b r_ˁ  with the vowels is 'ab riˁa "heart of Ra"
Happy is Ra's heart, Stable is Ra's heart.
That Ra was pronounced with the i_a scheme is proved by Akkadian and 
Hurrian.
Tushratta wrote to Pharaoh Neb-maat-ra: ni-ib-mu-u-ri-a in cuneiform
That part fits the Greek name fairly well Απριης/Apries (with extra -s and a 
> η)
Hophra seems to be a bad rendition of ḥ_ˁ_ˁ '_b r_ˁ = ḥaˁˁ 'ab riˁa. 
Haˁaphriˁa is expected.
Ουαφρη/Ouaphre is a kind of rendition of w_3_ḥ '_b r_ˁ
It's funny to see that ḥ and b fused to generate φ

Arnaud Fournet
***