You wrote: “The two words (ELEM, 'youth', and TA-(ALUMAH, 'mystery,
concealment', come from the same root essentially meaning 'amass, bury
under'….”
Does ayin-yod-lamed-mem/(YLM at Genesis 14: 1 come from that same root? Is
it a west Semitic word? If so, would it mean the “Dissembler” country?
“Bury
under” could mean “dissemble”, used in a negative sense. Or do you go with
the traditional view that ayin-yod-lamed-mem/(YLM is a non-west Semitic word
referencing a far-off, non-Semitic country?
Ayin-yod-lamed-mem/(YLM at Genesis 14: 1 sure looks like a perfectly good
west Semitic word to me. Does it “sound foreign” to you? Is it a
non-Semitic
foreign loanword, borrowed directly from a non-Semitic country, or
alternatively borrowed indirectly via an east Semitic version of a
non-Semitic word for a
non-Semitic country?
Ayin-yod-lamed-mem/(YLM at Genesis 14: 1 looks like a virgin pure west
Semitic word to me. To me, it has no exotic, foreign flavor at all. But you
have a
much, much better feel for Biblical Hebrew than I do. What’s your take on
the linguistic background of ayin-yod-lamed-mem/(YLM at Genesis 14: 1? Is it
foreign/non-west Semitic?