Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Ishnian" <ishinan AT comcast.net>]

 GEORGE ATHAS wrote: I think you'll find the root רקע refers to 'spreading 
out' in the same sense as one hammers out gold plaiting onto a wooden object 
or panel. The רקיע, just going by the morphology of the noun, suggests 
something that is spread out in the same way, like the gold in the example I 
just gave. The sky is evidently not conceived of as an emptiness or ether, 
but rather as a hard thing that has been spread out in this 'hammering out' 
kind of way.
 
 Yes, there are other words that mean to beat in repetitive manner, like כתת. 
But they are in some way synonymous or have overlapping semantic domains, 
even as they each have specific exclusive nuances. The root כתת has the sense 
of beating or crushing down in order to pulverise into small pieces. The idea 
of רקע is to beat something out in a particular shape—not to pulverise into 
pieces.


ISHINAN:  I believe your description above, is simply a medieval Germanic 
imagery unrelated to the true sense of the sky in B. Hebrew. In Germanic, 
'Thor'  is the god  of the sky in Norse, he is often depicted yielding his 
mighty hammer Mjollnir.  

Unlike the Germanic mythology, the trilateral root of _rq`_ in Hebrew 
actually means "patch", ( parallel meaning is also found in many Semitic 
languages such as in Ugaritic, Classical Arabic etc. All of them are,  
invariably,  describing the sky region with the exact same terminology.   
This is a clear reference to each one of the seven heavens.  Each of these 
heavens being a cover to what is next to it as though it was 'patched' over 
by the next one above it.  The highest celestial 'region' being portrayed as 
'patched' garment. 

Best regards,

Ishinan Ishibashi