Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Stewart Felker <stewart.felker AT gmail.com>]

Several times in the Hebrew Bible - in Numbers 22 and in Exodus 10 - the phrase עין הארץ is used, usually translated (figuratively) as 'surface of the earth'. Is anyone aware of analogous phrases used elsewhere in ancient Near Eastern literature? I've searched the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary for similar uses of īnu, but there doesn't seem to be any. Of course, פני האדמה might be somewhat of a similar phrase (also, Sumerian ɪɢɪ can mean both 'eye' and 'face'; cf. perhaps Ugaritic ˁn, 'forehead').

Klein mentions the meaning of 'visible surface' for عين‎, but I haven't been able to find anything about this.

Is it relevant that, apparently, "the land of Egypt itself was visualized as an eye...called the eye of the earth" (cf. Eberhard Otto, "Auge," LexÄg, I, 559-661) – and that the passages in the HB in which עין הארץ appears all involve Egypt?

Stewart Felker
University of Memphis