Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

On this thread we have asked if the personal name TMR may be a shortened 
form of T-)MR, and if the personal name MMR) may be a shortened form of 
M-)MR), in both cases adding in an initial aleph that was omitted in order to 
form 
the personal name.  That latter name then raises the further question of 
the longstanding scholarly discussion as to whether the Biblical names “Moreh”
 and “Moriah” may likewise be possibly based on the underlying word “
Amorite”, with the initial aleph once again having been omitted to form these 
names.  Though the words Amorite and Amurru [or Amuri, Amurri, Amu-ura, etc.] 
always have the initial aleph [or vowel A in non-Hebrew languages], 
nevertheless it may be that names that are based on such word routinely drop 
the 
initial aleph [or vowel A].  Thus Mu-ur-ku-nas-a$ is “a country which 
exported 
to Nuzi horses and cloth”;  Mu-ur looks like A-mu-ur [or Amurri] without the 
initial A, and may likely have the same meaning.  “Moriah” is a name at 
Genesis 22: 2;  dropping off the Hebrewized ending -H, the basic name is MRY. 
 
That is the Hebrew spelling of “Amorite”, )MRY, such as at Genesis 48: 22, 
but here with the initial aleph being omitted in this name based on that 
word.  Likewise, “Moreh” is a name at Genesis 12: 6;  once again dropping off 
the Hebrewized ending -H, the basic name is MWR.  One of the six attested 
spellings of Amurru in the Amarna Letters is a-mu-ur-ra at EA 162: 1.  If the 
initial A is omitted to form a name, and if the doubled R is eliminated by 
dropping the first R, we are left with mu-u-ra.  That 3-syllable name mu-u-ra 
would be rendered by the 3 Hebrew letters M-W-R, just as we see at Genesis 
12: 6.  Finally, if we instead drop the second R from that Amarna rendering, 
we have mu-ur-a.  That 3-syllable name mu-ur-a would be rendered by the 3 
Hebrew letters M-R-), which is what we see at Genesis 14: 13 in the form of 
M-MR), which I see as meaning “from Amurru”.  I propose that all of these 
various names mean “Amorite” or “Amurru”;  it’s just that when forming a 
name based on that word, the initial aleph is treated as being prosthetic and 
dropped, which seems to be the consistent pattern.
 
One benefit of the foregoing approach is that it helps solve the 
longstanding Biblical mystery of how the references to Shechem and Amorite at 
Genesis 
48: 22 can correlate with Shechem in chapter 34 of Genesis, where there is 
no reference to Amorite, but there would nevertheless seem to be an obvious 
substantive match to what the text is talking about.  The answer is supplied 
by Genesis 12: 6, which on the above view references both Shechem and, 
albeit with a slightly different spelling, Amorite, in the form of “Moreh”.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois