Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Uri Hurwitz" <uhurwitz AT yahoo.com>
To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, July 29, 2010 11:53 PM
Subject: [b-hebrew] H-XT-Y at II Samuel 11: 3



As for the onging discussion about the origin of the name
)RYH  here are two points:

Accepted criterion of the presence of various ethnic groups
in a given area, at a given time, are personal names. Now,
an examination of the preserved PNs in the EA lettters
clearly indicates a good percentage of 'Indo -European'
background in the Western Levant at that time.
  The term includes not only the rulers, or "kings",
in Canaan, but also
elsewhere in states likle Amurru, or cities like Gubla,
which eventually became Phoenician.
***
It's unclear to which extent people who bear Mitanni Aryan names are really 
Mitanni-Aryan-speakers or just Hurrians with some honorific Aryan-sounding 
names.
In all cases, if we have rulers with Mitanni Aryan names then we should 
expect Hurrian followers.

A.
***



All very far from Hatti.
For details one can check the monograph of Richard S. Hess
on the Amarna Names.
***
Very far!?
Next door in my opinion.
By the way, a Hatti word just for the fun: ben, bin "child, son". it's 
*Hatti* language.
Cf. Teli-binu, Dala-binu, etc.
A.
***


As for names with theophoric suffix -YH in the HB ,
they're quite common in the HB. Just note the names
of the prophets Zekharyah, Zephaniyah,
Ovadyah.

Sometimes the ending - YH interchanges with -YHW.
Note the name Hizqiyahu/Hizqiyah.

In fact, the -YH ending is the standard in post-exilic
extra-biblical, Yhawistic names, while the -YHW ending
is the standard in pre-exilic extra-biblical sources such
as bullae, Lakhish, Arad and so forth.
***

So the frequency of this name-formation actually supports the idea that 
original *urhiya may have been emended into uri-yah, which makes more sense 
from the Hebrew point of view.

Arnaud Fournet