Biblical Hebrew Forum

[jimstinehart AT aol.com]

Karl:

 

Thank you for your comments, but except for your very brief mention of Uriah, they do not directly address my twin contentions that (i) the first book in the Bible that has as the personal name of an individual character a west Semitic name ending in -YH that honors YHWH is II Samuel, and that (ii) King David should rightly get the credit for being the first person in the Bible to give to one or more of his sons a west Semitic name ending in -YH that honors YHWH.

 

You do, however, make many good points that are indirectly related to this subject.

 

1.  You wrote:  “First of all, names ending in -YH and -YHW are alternate spellings for the same name. So you have to include MYKYHW Judges 17:1, 4 and CRWYH 1 Samuel 26:6.”

 

Some scholars say that -YHW is the southern way, attributable to old Judah, whereas -YH is the northern way, which was not adopted by the Hebrews until later [King David’s time and thereafter].  Without opining as to whether that particular scholarly view is right or wrong, I will repeat my own assertion:  prior to II Samuel, no book in the Bible has a name of an individual character that is a west Semitic name ending in -YH that honors YHWH.

 

2.  You wrote:  “Two place names are also recorded, MRYH Genesis 22:2 and BZYWTYH Joshua 15:28, the former recognizing YHWH.”

 

But those are geographical place names, not names of individual characters in the Bible.  MRYH is a particularly interesting geographical place name, but on this thread, I want to focus on personal names of individual characters in the Bible.  There are over 100 individuals in the Bible who have a west Semitic name ending in -YH that honors YHWH, but there’s not even one such name of an individual character prior to II Samuel.  That’s the specific phenomenon I am focusing on here.

 

3.  You wrote:  “[I]n 2 Samuel we find one of King Saul’s concubines was the daughter of )YH 3:7….”

But Karl, that’s not a west Semitic name ending in -YH that honors YHWH, is it?  Don’t you see that name as being the Hebrew common word for “falcon”, )YH, for example at Leviticus 11: 14?

 

4.  You wrote:  “)WRYH one of David’s contemporaries (many times in 2 Samuel)….”

 

I agree with the scholarly view that as a XTY/Xuti-ya [KJV “Hittite”], )WRYH is Ev-ri  -ya   [-H], a Semiticized non-Hebrew name.  Indeed, contra the scholarly view, I go farther and assert that the name of King David’s scribe is exactly like that:  $ar-ri  -ya   [-H]  :  $R  -Y   [-H], that is, a Semiticized non-Hebrew name.  The Hebrew way to Semiticize a foreign name is to add a he/H at the end, as in “Uriah”, “Seraiah” and “Araunah”, all in II Samuel.  Remember that per Joshua 15: 63, we know that there were still many non-Hebrews, the “Jebusites”, living in Jerusalem in King David’s day.  In my opinion, those non-Hebrews [by birth] include Uriah, Seraiah and Araunah.  Though the names )WRYH and $RYH happen to end with -YH, after the Semiticizing -H is added to these non-Hebrew names, the fathers of Uriah and Seraiah did  n-o-t  honor YHWH!  No way.  These are not west Semitic names ending in -YH that honor YHWH.  Rather, they are non-Hebrew names ending in -Y/-ya, which have been Semiticized by adding a final -H.

 

One nice result of my view of the case is that then King David gets the credit for being the first person in the Bible to give one or more of his sons a west Semitic name ending in -YH that honors YHWH.  That’s my central contention on this thread.

 

5.  You wrote:  “BNYHW son of YHWYD( another of David’s contemporaries (mentioned a few times)….”

 

That name does not end in -YH.  On this thread, I am trying to focus on personal names of individual characters in the Bible that end in -YH.

 

6.  You wrote:  “Go to 1 Chronicles, the first ten chapters are deadly to read—all they are are genealogies. So we find before David )YH 1:40, (ZRYH 2:8, CRWYH 2:16.”

 

Yes, there are dozens of names in Chronicles that end with -YH, many of which [though not all of which] are west Semitic names that honor YHWH.  But Chronicles comes long after II Samuel in the Bible, even though Chronicles in part covers time periods before King David.  I am only talking about books in the Bible through II Samuel, not later books, as to whether there are individual characters who have names ending in -YH that honor YHWH.

 

7.  Karl, although you make many interesting comments, most of them [other than your brief mention of Uriah] do not go directly to either of my twin contentions, which are that (i) the first book in the Bible that has as the personal name of an individual character a west Semitic name ending in -YH that honors YHWH is II Samuel, and that (ii) King David should rightly get the credit for being the first person in the Bible to give to one or more of his sons a west Semitic name ending in -YH that honors YHWH.

 

Jim Stinehart

Evanston, Illinois