Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>]

You are right that "common wisdom" sees YERU$ALAYIM as the  
composition YERU-$ALEM, but what this $ALEM is is still open to  
conjecturing. It is possibly a deity (I suspect that every Hebrew  
root was a name fit for one deity or another), possibly a sun-god, or  
it may mundanely mean 'whole, entire' in the sense of being enclosed  
by a wall.
What do you think, does the MEY- in MEYDBA, Nu. 21:30, or the M- of  
MGIDO, Jud. 5:19, stand for MAYIM, 'water'?

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On Feb 6, 2011, at 10:44 AM, Uri Hurwitz wrote:

>      The name probably originated, in part, with the name $LM,
> a Ugaritic deity. This can be supported in Gen. 14:18 in
>  the reference to Malchizedek, king of Shalem.