Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

John et al:

…

But this has little to do with Hebrew. My point was rather was two-fold, first to show how Arabic and Hebrew borrow the same Aramaic term to describe different things, and second that you can't always trust a dictionary definition alone for a cognate even for common words, particularly for Arabic where the words tend to accrue meanings and where changed circumstances had led to rapid development of vocabulary on the first few centuries of Islam. And where our lexicons are based on the admirable medieval lexica (Arabic) which, however, were not really based on historical principles.

John Leake

In discussing the Hebrew uses, one can also analyze how and when the term was used in Hebrew.

MDYNT מדינת form was used only in Aramaic portions of Tanakh, so not to take into account.

Question: was MDYNH or its plural used before the Babylonian Exile, and in what contexts? Of the 18 verses where MDYNH is found in singular, only one is pre-Babylonian Exile, Kohelet 5:7 (8) where the meaning appears to refer to a place where judgment takes place. Of the 24 verses where MDYNWT plural is found, four verses are from the same context, 1 Kings 20:14, 15, 17, 19 which took place during the Tel Amarna period, so could very well have been a borrowing into Hebrew even then, as the Egyptians used Aramaic or Akkadian in their dealings with their holdings in the Levant. Lamentations 1:1 was after the apparent borrowing into Hebrew, so used it the same way. The final verse to mention is again from Kohelet, 2:8, where again it appears to mean a judgment place.

To sum up, of the 42 verses where MDYNH or the plural MDYNWT is found, 35 are from either during or after the Babylonian Exile and have the meaning apparently taken from Aramaic of “administrative district”. Five verses are from the Tel Amarna period or later, and appear to be borrowings from Aramaic. Only two verses are pre-Tel Amarna period, and those two verses use the term differently. That makes 40 out of 42 verses that use the term, use it in an Aramaic understanding.

Karl W. Randolph.