root *W'L

[chimera]

slm,
It appears that jael "mountain goat" derives from root *W'L "to ascend". It produced Assyrian i-alu " sacred ibex goat" and Babylonian i-al "ram". As speculation, there is also Gr ouranos "heaven" and Welsh ial "high meadow" and Hinduism yali " sacred horned beast" as in Ethiopian walu .
Eli the High Priest is "ascended. gone up" ( El Al airlines) but Elihu, Elijah and Elohim, Eli refer to G-D. Maybe that root is "strong" but it's hard to find facts.
In Moses' time there was the error of making an Egyptian golden calf and Babylon's high priest chucked a goat into the Euphrates river each New Year to purefy the water.....The main god Marduk's beast was a horned lion , possibly with ibex horns of the i-alu.
Is it possible that *WL was the generic heavens with nations having literal goats etc as animals that walked on literal hills up high as meaning the gods ? Greeks had Uranus the son of the earth. In Hebrew, maybe it became the abstract term for the monotheist who allows no idols?

[Isaac Fried]

Indeed, יעל is an extension of the uni-literal root ל L, 'high'. Related to יעל are איל, 'ram'; שוּעל, 'fox?'; and תוֹלעת, 'worm'.

By this root we have also: אֵל, 'god'; מעלה = מה-עלה, 'grade'; עָלֶה 'leaf'; עוּל, 'young adult'; עוֹל, 'yoke'; מעיל, 'coat'; לוּל, 'staircase, ladder'; ליל, 'night, enveloping darkness'; עלילה, 'long story'; and more.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

[Isaac Fried]

T the animal names we may add also the tree names אֵשֶׁל of Gen. 21:33 and 1Sam. 22:6, and the צְאֶל of Job 40:21.

Isaac Fried, Boston University