Exodus 3:2 - Burning Snow

For discussions which focus upon specific words, their origin, meaning, relationship to other ANE languages.
Forum rules
Members will observe the rules for respectful discourse at all times!
Please sign all posts with your first and last (family) name.
Post Reply
Saboi

Exodus 3:2 - Burning Snow

Post by Saboi »

Moses was in Egypt in Exodus 1-2 and he somehow ended up in the Sinai Peninsula and he encountered a 'Burning Bush' upon this Mountain
but my study suggest there was no Bush or even fire.

The word אש is a poetic word for Ice/Snow and is used throughout the Hebrew scriptures.

Exodus 9:23 - LORD sent thunder and hail, and the fire
Exodus 9:24 - So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail
Genesis 19:24 - brimstone and fire
Ezekiel 38:22 - hailstones, fire, and brimstone
Psalms 18:13 - hail stones and coals of fire
Isaiah 30:33 - stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.

ככפר = גפרית " hoarfrost"
-hoary frost of heaven ( Job 38:29)
-κρύος, κρύσταλλος

Job 6:15-7
My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and as the stream of brooks they pass away
Which are blackish by reason of the ice, and wherein the snow is hid
What time they wax warm, they vanish: when it is hot, they are consumed out of their place

The word Bush is סנה (Cenah), this is another word for סיני (Cinai) , שניר (Shenir) and שיאן (Sion)
from χεῖμα (Cheim) or χιόνα (Chion) "Snow".

Exodus 3:2
And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of the Snow: and he looked and behold, the snow burned with fire and the snow was not consumed, Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the snow not burnt.

Exodus 4:6 - Moses dipped his hand into his Bosom and his hand was leprous as Snow and a similar scene occurs in
Numbers 12:1 - a Cloud departed... Miriam became leprous, white as snow.

Burning snow rejuvenates the rivers in the Levant. * one of them turns Red.
Moses said in 3:2 "Why the Snow not melted" and so Moses is tasked with melting it through sacrifice.

Lee Mcgee
Wales
Saboi

Re: Exodus 3:2 - Burning Snow

Post by Saboi »

Herodotus in error, describes Egyptian rivers sourcing from winter torrents.
Herodotus 2:22
The third opinion is by far the most plausible, yet the most erroneous of all. It has no more truth in it than the others. According to this, the Nile flows from where snows melt; but it flows from Libya through the midst of Ethiopia, and comes out into Egypt.
How can it flow from snow, then, seeing that it comes from the hottest places to lands that are for the most part cooler

The principal and strongest evidence that the river is unlikely to flow from snows is that the winds blowing from Libya and Ethiopia are hot.
In the second place, the country is rainless and frostless; but after snow has fallen, it has to rain within five days ; so that if it snowed, it would rain in these lands

And thirdly, the men of the country are black because of the heat. [4] Moreover, kites and swallows live there all year round, and cranes come every year to these places to winter there, flying from the wintry weather of Scythia. Now, were there but the least fall of snow in this country through which the Nile flows and where it rises, none of these things would happen, as necessity proves.
Numbers 34:5
נחלה מצרים " Brook of Egypt"
χειμάρρουν Αἰγύπτου "Winter-flowing Aiguptos"

Homer, Odyssey 14:245
Αἴγυπτον ἐϋρρείτην "Fair-flowing Aiguptus "

The name Αἴγυπτον is a compound word, αιγ "Goat" and υπτιος " Laid on one's back'
υπτιος : of land, flat, horizontal , smooth (Liddell-Scott Greek Lexicon)

Herodotus 2:7 -
Inland from the sea as far as Heliopolis, Egypt is a wide land, all flat and watery and marshy.
Αἴγυπτος, ἐοῦσα πᾶσα ὑπτίη]

ὑπτίη : פתה "to be spacious, be open, be wide" * H6601
Αἴγυπτος : Smooth Goat (Gen 27:11 )
Gen 27:11 : Hairy and Smooth Goats
יעקב : Αἴγυπ,
עשו : δασύ " shaggy surface"

χίμαρος (Chimaros) "He-Goat" and χίμαιρα (Chimaira) "She-Goat" and these words are similar too χειμάρρῳ (Cheimarro) "Winter-flowing"
* Ezra 6:17 - twelve he goats(χιμάρους ), according to the number of the tribes of Israel

αἰγίς (Aigis) "Goat-Skin"
καταιγίς (Kataigis) "Hurricane, Tempest"
שער/סַעַר(Saar) - Hurricane/ He-Goat
אדרת (ἐκδέρω) "Skin taken off the Goat"

Songs 4:1 - thy hair is as a flock of goats, that appear (גלש) from mount Gilead (χάλαζα)
- גלש : ἀπεκαλύφθησαν "Apocalypse "
- Snow that cover the Mountains ( Poetic for)

Nahum 1:3
LORD hath his way in the whirlwind(סופה/) and in the storm(שערה), and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
... 1:5 - the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence,

*Mount Hermon has seasonal winter and spring snow falls, which cover (καλύπτω/ שלמ/לבש ) all three of its peaks for most of the year.

Lee Mcgee
Post Reply