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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Jerusalem - spelling, in historical perspective

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  • From: Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>
  • To: Uri Hurwitz <uhurwitz AT yahoo.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Jerusalem - spelling, in historical perspective
  • Date: Sun, 6 Feb 2011 11:26:09 -0500

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.





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