Biblical Hebrew Forum

[jimstinehart AT aol.com]

Yohanan bin-Dawidh:

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You wrote: “ I do not adhere to the notion that Midyan is Mitanni, unless his claim is that the wife of 'Avraham, i.e. K'turah was Hurrian, and it was her, rather than 'Avraham who gave Midyan his name? The text of the Miq'ra places Midyan as the son of 'Avraham. And with regards to place names, the only way Midyan is linked with Mitanni, is if people from Mitanni uprooted themselves and moved to Kena'an, much like 'Avraham moved to Kena'an.”

 

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Two of Keturah’s sons by Abraham are named MDYN and MDN.  At Genesis 25: 6, both MDYN and MDN are sent “eastward, unto the east country”.  That makes sense only if Keturah was a Hurrian from “the east country”, that is, the Hurrian state of Mitanni in Late Bronze Age eastern Syria.

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Keturah, an ethnic Hurrian with a classic Hurrian name who hailed from Mitanni, had two sons who were named after her homeland of Mitanni.  The Hittite cuneiform spelling of Mitanni is mi-ta-an-ni, having 4 cuneiform segments, whereas the Amarna Letters’ abbreviated spelling of Mitanni is mi-ta-ni, having 3 Akkadian-style cuneiform segments.  In my opinion, the Hurrian verb mid- is the root of the name Mitanni, with such verb routinely having the D change to T when Hurrian suffixes are added.  On that basis, the Amarna Letters’ mi-ta-ni was conceptualized as being mi-da-ni and was spelled in alphabetical Hebrew as MDN:  one Hebrew letter per one Hurrian/cuneiform segment.  As to the longer version with a Hebrew yod/Y, scholar Edward Lipinski has pointed out that in the phrase “Uriah the Hittite”, XTY should be viewed as being the well-attested Hurrian personal name Xuti-ya or Xuti-a, where Hebrew yod/Y represents the Hurrian true vowel A as its own separate segment.  Applying that concept to MDYN, and recognizing that Biblical Hebrew never doubles a consonant if there is no vowel in between, we see that mi-ta-an-ni was conceptualized as being mi-da-a-ni, and hence spelled MDYN in alphabetical Biblical Hebrew:  4 Hebrew letters for 4 Hurrian/cuneiform segments.

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If Keturah were from Arabia, as often supposed, it would not make sense for her children to be sent “eastward, unto the east country”, that is, to eastern Syria, which in the Late Bronze Age was the location of the Hurrian state of Mitanni.  In fact, “Keturah” is a Hurrian name, two of her sons have names -- MDN and MDYN -- that recall her Hurrian homeland of Mitanni, and as such it is very fitting that at Genesis 25: 6, sons MDN and MDYN are sent “eastward, unto the east country”, that is, to mi-ta-ni/mi-da-ni/MDN, alternatively spelled mi-ta-an-ni/mi-da-a-ni/MDYN.

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Jim Stinehart

Evanston, Illinois