Biblical Hebrew Forum

[jimstinehart AT aol.com]

Isaac Fried wrote:  “TMR, of which we have the tree name TAMAR.”
 
But the Amorites did not necessarily live at places with west Semitic names.  
Per Amarna Letter EA 175, the Amorites also lived in the Beqa Valley, which 
at the time was dominated by Hurrians.  So TMR in XCC-N TMR at Genesis 14: 7 
is not necessarily a west Semitic word referring to a palm tree.  TMR is the 
Hebrew rendering of the Hurrian word for “nine”:  tam-ri.  XCC is the Hebrew 
rendering of the Hurrian word for “wisdom”:  xa-tsi-tsi.  And -N is the 
Hebrew rendering of the Hurrian word for “the”, namely -ni, which is a suffix 
in Hurrian.  So XCC-N TMR at Genesis 14: 7 is the Hebrew rendering of 
“Wisdom-the Nine” in Hurrian.  The only three numbers we have from the 
Hurrian primeval myths are (i) nine, (ii) nine, and (iii) nine thousand, so 
the name “Wisdom-the Nine” makes perfect sense in Hurrian.  The Akkadian 
equivalent of “wisdom” is xa-si-su;  Akkadian for “wise” is xas-su.  The 
abbreviated Akkadian version of XCC-N TMR/xa-tsi-tsi-ni tamri is simply Xasi. 
 That’s spelled Hasi in English, and is where Amorites lived in the 
Hurrian-dominated north-central Beqa Valley, per Amarna Letter EA 175.
 
The p-i-n-p-o-i-n-t  historical accuracy of the Patriarchal narratives in a 
mid-14th century BCE historical context is truly amazing.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois