Biblical Hebrew Forum

[jimstinehart AT aol.com]

Since this thread has a focus on Aramaic, let me briefly summarize the 
reasons why the scholarly view is untenable that YGR %HDWT) at Genesis 31: 47 
is a phrase consisting of two Aramaic words.
 
1.  As noted in my prior post, the most obvious problem is that the Aramaic 
word for “testimony” starts with a samekh, not the sin/shin found at Genesis 
31: 47.  The Aramaic word for “testimony”, spelled with a sin, is not 
attested until the Nabateans in the late 1st millennium BCE, south of Canaan.
 
2.  If %HDWT) is an Aramaic word, then the final aleph/) means “the”.  But 
then there is a lack of parallelism with Jacob’s phrase, GL(D, which does not 
include the Hebrew word for “the” [which is he/H].
 
3.  Nor is the first word what we would expect in Aramaic.  If the first word 
were an Aramaic word meaning “heap of stones”, we would expect GDR, which 
means “heap of stones” in Aramaic.  GL in GL-(D in this same verse means 
“heap of stones” in Hebrew, and scholars routinely try to see an exact 
parallelism between these words [despite the obvious huge difference in their 
length;  how can (D be viewed as being an exact equivalent to %HDWT)?].  But 
instead of GDR, which means “heap of stones” in Aramaic, we see YGR, which if 
it’s an Aramaic word at all, would mean “heap” in Aramaic, not “heap of 
stones”.  More likely is that YGR is a Hebrew (non-Aramaic) word, meaning “to 
fear” [e.g. Deuteronomy 9: 19].  [See #4 below.]  Indeed, YGR might even have 
been chosen as the word for “to fear” here [instead of PXD below, which by 
the way is also the Aramaic word for “fear”] precisely because YGR is 
somewhat redolent of the Hurrian word for “to fear”, which is ugul [given the 
frequent confusion between R and L in the ancient languages, and the fact 
that early Biblical Hebrew had no known way of recording an initial Hurrian 
vowel U].
 
4.  Also of relevance here is the supposedly inexplicable reference soon 
after by Jacob to “Fear [PXD] of Father Isaac”, at Genesis 31: 53.  [PXD can 
be either a verb or a noun in Hebrew.]  If YGR is a Hebrew verb [with Hurrian 
overtones] meaning “to fear”, and if $H-DT) is a Hurrianized Sanskrit name 
meaning “Given by the [Hurrian] Sky(god) [Te$$up]”, then YGR $H-D-T) at 
Genesis 31: 47 means:  “To Fear [that which is] Given by the [Hurrian] 
Sky(god) [Te$$up]”.  That grandiose homage by Laban to the Hurrian sky-god 
Te$$up needs to be countered by Jacob, which it is, at Genesis 31: 53:  “Fear 
of Father Isaac”, which effectively means:  “the proper, fearful respect of 
Jacob’s father Isaac for the true deity, YHWH”.  So first Laban talks about 
“fearing” the Hurrian sky-god Te$$up at Genesis 31: 47, and then Jacob 
answers in kind by referring to the righteous “fear” of his father Isaac 
regarding YHWH.  Instead of the phrase “Fear of Father Isaac” being 
inexplicable, it makes perfect sense if YGR $H-D-T) at Genesis 31: 47 means:  
“To Fear [that which is] Given by the [Hurrian] Sky(god) [Te$$up]”.
 
Ugul or u-ku-la is a Hurrian verb meaning “to fear” or “to kneel down 
before”.  In attested Hurrian names at Nuzi [a little east of Laban’s home at 
Harran, in the east Syrian heartland of the Hurrians], perhaps u-ge is short 
for ugul, and/or akkul is an alternate spelling of u-ku-la [with neither uge 
nor akkul otherwise being known as Hurrian common words].  If so, then two 
different Hurrian names at Nuzi mean “To Fear God”, or more literally, “to 
fear, and to kneel down before, a god”, where eni or enni or enna means 
“god”:  (i) “U-ge-en-na”, at p. 19 of Martha A. Morrison, “Studies on the 
Civilization and Culture of Nuzi and the Hurrians” (1981);  and (ii) 
“Akkul-enni”, at JEN 788, at p. 33 of Ernest René Lacheman and M. P. Maidman, 
“Joint Expedition with the Iraq Museum at Nuzi VII” (1989).  Similarly, if 
ukku or akku is short for u-ku-la and means “to fear”, then “Ukkuja” and 
“Akkuja” may well be ukku-ya and akku-ya, where -ya is an all-purpose 
theophoric frequently found in Hurrian hypocoristicon names, with Ukku-ya and 
Akku-ya meaning “To Fear God”.  Katarzyna Grosz, “The Archive of the Wullu 
Family” (1988), at pp. 69, 86.  Though starting a name with “Fear” or a verb 
meaning “To Fear” seems odd in Hebrew, especially since no specific name of a 
deity appears thereafter but rather is only implied, note that such 
particular pattern is attested out the wazzo at Nuzi for Hurrian names.  This 
Hurrian pattern is directly comparable to YGR $H-D-T), where YGR means “to 
fear” in Hebrew, and has overtones of the Hurrian words noted above for “to 
fear”;  and $H-D-T) by implication [though not explicitly] refers to the 
Hurrian sky-god Te$$up, literally meaning “Given by the [Hurrian] Sky(god) 
[Te$$up]”.  That is to say, though “Fear of Father Isaac” has a somewhat odd 
ring about it in Hebrew, it’s absolutely standard nomenclature for Hurrian 
proper names, if by “Father Isaac” is meant:  YHWH, the deity fearfully 
revered by Jacob’s father Isaac.  
 
Also note the classic Hurrian hypocoristicon [shortened] style here.  The 
name chosen by Laban literally is “To Fear Given by Sky”, with the actual 
name of the deity, Te$$up, not expressly appearing.  Most Hurrian princeling 
names in the Amarna Letters similarly are hypocoristicons.  Likewise, the 
name chosen by Jacob literally is “Fear of Father Isaac”, with the actual 
name of the deity, YHWH, not expressly appearing.  The rest of the Bible 
knows nothing of these Late Bronze Age Hurrian-type stylings, but note how 
easy it is to find close parallels in Late Bronze Age Hurrian culture to YGR 
$H-D-T).  None of this is Aramaic!  You don’t find Aramaic words that begin 
with PXD, meaning “fear”.  No, these proper names beginning with Fear or To 
Fear, and not expressly setting forth a deity’s actual name, are vintage 
Hurrian-style all the way, in every way.  
 
For the foregoing reasons, we should reject the scholarly assertion that YGR 
%HDWT) at Genesis 31: 47 is a phrase consisting of two Aramaic words.  
Rather, YGR is a Hebrew word with Hurrian overtones, and $H-D-T) is a Hebrew 
rendering of Hurrianized Sanskrit, with the meaning of this Hurrian-style 
phrase being “To Fear Deity”.  The 1st  millennium BCE language of Aramaic 
did not exist yet when the Patriarchal narratives were composed in the Late 
Bronze Age.  Whereas Hurrianized Sanskrit is ubiquitous in the names of 
Hurrian princelings in Canaan in the Amarna Letters, and the pattern “To Fear 
Deity” is commonplace in attested hypocoristic Hurrian names, there’s nary a 
trace of Aramaic in the Patriarchal Age.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois