Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Jack Kilmon" <jkilmon AT historian.net>]

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From: "K Randolph" <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, February 06, 2011 9:06 PM
To: "Uri Hurwitz" <uhurwitz AT yahoo.com>
Cc: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Jerusalem - spelling, in historical perspective

> That Jerusalem is spelled without a yod in 622 verses, while with a yod in
> only five, opens the possibility that the inclusion of a yod are copyist
> errors. One way to test that question is to look at the DSS for those five
> verses: Jeremiah 26:18, Esther 2:6, 1 Chronicles 3:5, 2 Chronicles 25:1,
> 32:9.


The original name of Jerusalem is Canaanite and it was URU-SALIM meaning 
"City of Salim."  It is also so called in the Amarna Tablets and simply 
"Salim" in Ramesside inscriptions.  This is preserved at Genesis 14:18 
וּמַלְכִּי־צֶדֶק מֶלֶךְ שָׁלֵם  "malekytsedeq meleke SHA-LEM"  There is no 
"SHALAYIM" (a late construction).  We are left to wonder what "salim" means. 
It could be "peace" but is it Hittite (the author of the Amarna letter 
warning of an imminent invasion by "habiru") or it could be Babylonian or 
even Jebusite.  I think it is Jebusite, a tribe of Amorites and hence the 
etymology is Canaanite.  In the Canaanite pantheon Shalem was the god of 
dusk so it was the "City of Shalem" often referred to simply as Shalem.

רואה לך
Jack

Jack Kilmon
San Antonio, TX