Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Nir cohen - Prof. Mat." <nir AT ccet.ufrn.br>]

isaac,

>>>>  I tend to  
think that biblical place names are mostly derived from the local  
topography rather than the local fauna and flora.
Isaac Fried

in josh 12-21 i found the following places which relate to animals
and plants:

baal gad, migdal gad, beit nimrah, maaleh akrabim, beit xogla, har 'efron(i?),
kiryat ye'arim, har  ye'arim, rimon, gat-rimon, 'ein ganim, tapuax, beit
tapuax, ein tapuax, 'anav, 'ein gedi, luz, gezer, kanah, naxal kanah,
ha-parah, dabeshet.

then i also found these:

* xatzar shu'al!!!! 15:27, 19:3

* sha'alabin (19:42) along with ayalon!

rakon (racoon???????!!!!....)

from judges: 

ofrah, elon mutzav, shamir, avel cramim, sela 'eitam ('ait?), laish, 
ba'al tamar, sela' harimon, levonah.

zur-'orev, yekev-zeeev (but the bible says these are names of midyan 
officials)

1sam:

eretz tzuf, elon tavor, emek haelah,
erez sha'alim (????), seneh (sneh?)

eretz shual!!!! gey hatzvo'im!!!! 13:17-18

i got tired but there should be many more. though 
i imagine that some of them are wrong calls.

nir cohen

PS: a mystery: in josh 21:35 some books add an extra phrase not shared by all
books. apparently reuben was left without 'ir miklat...??? so, is there 
 more than one official tanakh version?