Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Nir Cohen:
 
You’re pouring oil on the fire when you start listing those names ending in 
-WN:  “AYLWN, MXLWN, KLYWN, QDRWN, GV(WN, LBNWN, GD(WN, (PRWN etc etc etc.”
 
 
(PRWN must be e-pi-ri-en-ne, meaning [in Hurrian] “the [Hurrian] lord”.  
[Note that in this 5-syllable Hurrian name, -WN represents a 2-syllable 
Hurrian ending, -Vn-ne, where the vowel/V can be A, E, I or U.]   Heavens, 
Genesis 23: 10 flat out tells us he’s a XTY, which must be Xu-Ti-Ya, the most 
frequently attested Hurrian name at Nuzi, which means “Praise Teshup”.  He’s 
a 
Hurrian landowner at Rubutu in the southeast Ayalon Valley, known from the 
Amarna Letters to be associated with the Hurrian princeling Tagi.
 
AYLWN is even worse!  Once again, Genesis 36: 2 flat out tells us he’s a 
XTY, that is, a Hurrian.  But worse is the fact that one of Zebulun’s sons 
has 
the same name!  Genesis 46: 14.  Heavens to murgatroid.  The Hebrew author 
seems to be going out of his way to let us know that one of Jacob’s 
descendants had a name that sounded like, and was spelled the same as, the 
name of a 
bona fide Hurrian.  [But then again, if the ending of the Hurrian name “
Uriah” can be Semiticized by adding a west Semitic -H at the end, then the 
ending of the Hurrian name of a Hurrian )YLWN at Genesis 36: 2 can be 
Semiticized by dropping that interior vav/W, as at Genesis 26: 34.  Can you 
see what’s 
coming down the pike as to the Hurrian-sounding Hebrew name ZBLWN?  See the 
end of this post.] 
 
Machlown is not quite so bad, but isn’t he a foreigner as well?
 
And Chilion is his brother, so these names are seeming pretty foreign to 
me.  Don’t you ever cite Hebrew names?
 
“Lebanon” doesn’t count, because that’s not a personal name of an 
individual.  Besides, it’s a foreign country anyway.  Where are the Hebrews 
in your 
list?
 
Gibeon doesn’t count either, as it’s a city name.  Come to think on it, it’
s a XV-Y city, per Joshua 11: 19, where XV is the chief Hurrian goddess 
Xeba, pronounced Xeva.  Don’t be citing Hurrian city names!
 
Kidron doesn’t count as a personal name, because it’s the name of a 
stream, although at least it’s near Jerusalem.
 
Gideon, at long last, is a Hebrew name.
 
My own view is that all 11 of Jacob’s oldest sons have Hebrew names.  It’s 
just that two of those names -- Simeon and Zebulun, $M(-WN and ZBL-WN -- 
have a peculiar -WN ending [just like the Hurrian common word/name 
e-pi-ri-en-ne/(PR-WN above].  That odd ending was specifically designed to 
remind 
everyone that those 11 sons were born in the heart of Hurrianland, in 
Naharim/MDYN/Mi-da-a-ni/Mitanni on the upper Euphrates River in Late Bronze 
Age eastern 
Syria.  But the names are still Hebrew names, as vouchsafed to us by no 
less than Leah and Rachel themselves.  And No, there were never any Hebrew 
tribes, or any other tribes, with those 11 names, prior to the composition of 
chapters 29 and 30 of Genesis.  The first Hebrew was the sole author of the 
Patriarchal narratives, and he created those 11 names at the same time that 
he 
came up with all those charming etymologies.  They’re Hebrew names!
 
For further proof, just look at how fast that Hurrian-sounding ending -WN 
in the name ZBLWN is dropped once Jacob’s family gets back home to beloved 
Canaan.  The name of Jacob’s 10th son is spelled ZBLWN at Genesis 30: 20 out 
in eastern Syria in the Hurrian heartland.  But the minute Jacob’s family 
gets back to Canaan, the funky Hurrian-sounding ending -WN in that name is 
dropped like a hot potato.  It’s gone at Genesis 35: 23, at Genesis 46: 14, 
and 
at Genesis 49: 13.  Don’t let university scholars tell you that’s a long 
series of “scribal errors”.  No way!  Rather, that’s the received text 
letting us know that although the birthname ZBLWN had a bit of a Hurrian 
ambience 
[reflecting the backdrop of Laban’s Hurrian-speaking neighbors], in fact 
that name is a fine Hebrew name all the way. 
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois