To: "\"b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org\"" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] כְּעֵין אֶבֶן תַּרְשִֽׁישׁ - "like the gleam of a Tarshish stone"? (Ezek 10:9)
Date: Sat, 13 Jul 2013 19:27:21 -0700 (PDT)
I am not near my Hebrew Tanakh, but \YN also means "appearance." "Like the appearance of a Tarsheesh stone" has almost the same meaning.
David Kolinsky
Monterey Ca
From: Stewart Felker <stewart.felker AT gmail.com> To: "b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Saturday, July 13, 2013 11:12 AM Subject: [b-hebrew] כְּעֵין אֶבֶן תַּרְשִֽׁישׁ - "like the gleam of a Tarshish stone"? (Ezek 10:9)
"Then I looked, and behold, four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside each cherub; and the appearance of the wheels was like the gleam of a Tarshish stone."
Is there any evidence from the ancient Near East of cognates of עין being understood similarly as 'gleam'? I know that the eyes can be 'made bright' (from אוֹר) - cf. Ps 13.3. Further, I know that some Egyptian traditions envision the sun as an eye (of Ra, etc.) - but obviously neither of these are really parallel to the use of עין in Ezek 10 (and 1:16, as well).