Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

David Kolinsky wrote:  “Is there any extra- biblical evidence that a people named AMaLeQ ever existed?”

 

The answer to that has everything to do with language, and as such should be a fit topic for the b-hebrew list.

 

No historical people bore the group name Amalekites [Genesis 14: 7], or the following group names at Genesis 15: 19-21:  Kenites, Kenizzites, Perizzites, Girgashites, or Jebusites.  Rather, these are Hurrian personal names that the early Hebrew author of the Patriarchal narratives is using as nicknames for the historical Hurrians of his day.  [On the linguistic front, the main non-obvious fact to figure out is that Hebrew yod/Y is used to render the Hurrian true vowel A as its own separate syllable.  More Hurrian names begin with the Hurrian true vowel A than in any other way, such as A-bu-u-$e-ya/“Jebusites”.]

 

1.  “Amalekites” :  (MLQY  :  A-ma-li-qa-ya : the Teshup Sees people.  [For all six names, the final Hebrew yod/Y does double duty.  On the one hand, it’s the universal theophoric represented by the cuneiform sign I.A in the Amarna Letters for west Semitic, Hurrian and Egyptian names, which historically was particularly common for Hurrian names, and is here translated in context as “Teshup”.  But on the other hand, that final yod/Y is simultaneously the west Semitic standard suffix that means “people”.  Hebrew ayin/( is the old-style way in chapter 14 of Genesis to render the Hurrian true vowel A as its own separate syllable.]

 

2.  “Kenites”  :  QYNY  :  Qa-a-ni-ya  :  the Teshup Is Firm people.  [Hebrew yod/Y as the second letter is the normal way to render the Hurrian true vowel A as its own separate syllable.]

 

3.  “Kenizzites”  :  QNZY  :  Qa-ni-zi-ya  :  the Blessed Teshup Is Firm people.

 

4.  “Perizzites”  :  PRZY  :  Pi-ri-zi-ya  :  the Blessed Teshup Is Lord people. 

 

5.  “Girgashites”  :  GRG$Y  :  Ge-ra-ge-$e-ya  :  the Being Freed by Teshup people.  [Although the sibilant is shown as a shin/$ here, it’s also attested as a sin/%.]

 

6.  “Jebusites:  :  YBWSY  :  A-bu-u-$e-ya  :  the Saved by Teshup People.  [Hebrew yod/Y as the first letter is used to render the Hurrian true vowel A as its own separate syllable.  In cuneiform, samekh/S equates to shin/$, and samekh/S does not equate to sin/%.]

 

None of these peoples are fictional.  Rather, instead of always using their proper name, XRY, the early Hebrew author of the Patriarchal narratives most often referred to them by using an apt Hurrian personal name as a nickname.  Note that each of the above six names exemplifies an important historical characteristic of the Hurrians.

 

As to a linguistic point made in another connection by Dave Washburn, we might note that the cuneiform used to record Hurrian names and to record these Biblical Hurrian names forces a CV basic format [with some vowel-only syllables as well].  Whether the actual pronunciation, in Hurrian or in the Hebrew pronunciation of these Biblical Hurrian names, was often CVC or not, we cannot tell from the cuneiform.  Also, although I have shown the interior -a- in #2 above as being a separate syllable, it’s perhaps more likely that it was an orthographic convention that meant that the prior A vowel was long, rather than being pronounced in its own right.  That’s the way it worked in Akkadian, and #2 and #3 are attested Hurrian personal names that are based on an Akkadian verb, but we cannot tell directly from the cuneiform renderings.

 

Linguistic analysis reveals that the above six peoples are not fictional, as often alleged.  Rather, they are the historical Hurrians, who are being referred to by clever, fitting nicknames that utilize attested Hurrian personal names.

 

Jim Stinehart

Evanston, Illlinois