Linguistic Analysis of "Galilee"

[Jim Stinehart]

The name “Galilee” is first attested in the 15th century BCE using Egyptian phonemic hieroglyphs. In that Egyptian rendering, however, we cannot tell, out of context, if this name was spelled at that time with two R’s, or rather with two L’s. First, as to the dating of the first appearance of the name “Galilee” [ignoring for the moment its spelling]:

“[The name] Galilee…is first attested…during one of the Asiatic campaigns conducted by…pharaoh Tuthmosis III [in the 15th century BCE].” Trevor Bryce, “The Routledge Handbook of the Peoples and Places of Ancient Western Asia: The Near East from the Early Bronze Age to the Fall of the Persian Empire” (2009), p. 246.

This is item #80 on the T III list. It is usually transliterated as KRR, where:

(i) Egyptian K routinely renders west Semitic gimel/G/ג.

(ii) Egyptian R is neutral as to whether it is intended to render west Semitic R/ר, or rather west Semitic L/ל.
In my opinion, in the Late Bronze Age (as opposed to the Iron Age and subsequently), “Galilee” was spelled with two R’s, per the Akkadian common word, garāru, that means “roll”.

Consider in this regard the analysis set forth at p. 97 of Bernice Varjick Hecker’s 2007 Ph.D. dissertation, “The Biradical Origin of Semitic Roots”, here: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/etd/d/2007/he ... b18583.pdf

For the word “roll” [which is fitting for the “rolling” hills of Galilee], she starts with Akkadian, where the consonants GRR, in the form of gararu, mean “roll, twist”. She then gives many Semitic cognates in Akkadian and other Semitic languages, including the following (as a partial list):

Akkadian: gararu: “roll, twist”. [Note the two R’s in Akkadian.]

[However, essentially all the other Semitic languages (west Semitic) instead use two L’s.]

Biblical Hebrew: galal: “roll”

Arabic: jalal: “go around, circle”

Syriac: glm: “roll up”

Mandaic: gll: “roll”

Ge’ez: kallala: “encircle”

[Though not mentioned in this source, Ugaritic has glgl, which means “cup”. That Ugaritic word is usually viewed as relating to the above Akkadian and/or west Semitic words for “roll”.]

The old, Bronze Age word for the “rolling [hills]” of Galilee, as reflected in the Biblical Hebrew of the truly ancient Patriarchal narratives (originally recorded, in my opinion, in cuneiform in the mid-14th century BCE), was the Akkadian word garāru : GRR : גרר [KJV: “Gerar”]. But by the Iron Age, with virtually all other Semitic languages substituting L for R regarding the underlying common word that means “roll”, the Biblical Hebrew word for Galilee had changed to GLYL : Galilee : גליל. Compare the Biblical Hebrew common word galal : גלל, which means: “to roll”. This common word גלל, with this meaning, appears three times in the Patriarchal narratives, at Genesis 29: 3, 8, 10. Gesenius agrees that “Galilee” : GLYL : גליל means “rolling [hills]” in Hebrew. (The prose sections of the Patriarchal narratives for the most part use standard Biblical Hebrew as of 7th century BCE Jerusalem for all common words [such as galal : גלל], even though, in my opinion, the cuneiform originals of the Patriarchal narratives had used Canaanite/pre-Hebrew as of the mid-14th century BCE. But proper names, such as GRR : גרר [KJV: “Gerar”], in the Patriarchal narratives often reflect their Late Bronze Age linguistic origin.)

Now note that the name “Galilee” : GLYL : גליל n-e-v-e-r appears in the Patriarchal narratives. That’s not because the Patriarchs never sojourned in Galilee! No, it’s because the truly ancient Patriarchal narratives used the old, Late Bronze Age name for Galilee, which was the Akkadian word garāru : GRR : גרר [KJV: “Gerar”].

For additional confirmation that the Akkadian word meaning “roll” was spelled with two R’s, as garāru, see the following:

(i) “Both {gur4} and {kìr} are equated with Akk. nagarruru ‘to roll’ (N-stem of garāru)….” J. Cale Johnson, Markham J. Geller, “The Class Reunion – An Annotated Translation and Commentary on the Sumerian Dialogue Two Scribes” (2015), p. 212.

(ii) “garāru (to roll)”. Jo Ann Scurlock. “Diagnoses in Assyrian and Babylonian Medicine” (2005), p. 813.

* * *

With the exception of Akkadian, where the word for “roll” [fitting for the “rolling” hills of Galilee] has two R’s, most other Semitic languages, including Biblical Hebrew and also Arabic, have two L’s for the underlying common word here. The common words are: (i) Biblical Hebrew: galal: “roll”; (ii) Arabic: jalal: “go around, circle”.

That’s why GRR/גרר/garāru [KJV: “Gerar”] in the truly ancient Patriarchal narratives is the old, Late Bronze Age name for “Galilee” : GLYL : גליל, in all cases referencing the “rolling” [garāru vs. galal] hills of Galilee.

Jim Stinehart

[Isaac Fried]

גָּלִיל GALIYL is a variant of כָּלִיל, 'inclusive', used to describe a region (compare German Bezirk, Kreis). See גְּלִילוֹת הַפְּלִשְׁתִּים "the regions of the Philistines" in Jos. 13:2.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

[Jim Stinehart]

Isaac:

You cite גלילות at Joshua 13: 2 as meaning, in your opinion, “regions”. KJV translates that word there as “borders”. Gesenius sees the singular form of this word as meaning “circuit, region”. As discussed below, I see that word as meaning “[the] borders (of a circuit or region)”.

Strong’s gives what seems to me a logical analysis of the following words as being closely related:

(i) גלל means “to roll”.

(ii) גליל derives from #i, and means “a ‘valve’ of a folding door (as ‘turning’); also a ‘ring’ (as ‘round’)”.

(iii) גלילה [the singular form of the word you cited] is the feminine of #ii, and means “a circuit or region -- border….”.

(iv) Strong’s does not have a separate entry for the feminine plural form of this word (being the form you cited), גלילות, but it would derive from #ii and #iii and mean “circuits”, “regions”, or, most likely, “borders [of a circuit or region]”.

The Hebrew seems perfect, and perfectly rational, in all regards here.

That which “rolls” is “round”. So as a form of גלל : “roll”, גליל means “ ‘ring (as ‘round’)”.

The feminine singular form of that latter word carries on the concept of “that which is round”, and hence means a “circuit” (which would literally often be “round”), or more generally a “region” (which could be “round”, more or less, though it would not necessarily be round), and likewise could mean “border”, meaning any given part of the imaginary line that goes “around” a circuit or region.

Finally, the feminine plural form that you cite would carry on that same concept of “that which is round”, meaning “borders”: the entire imaginary line that goes “around” a circuit or region.

So far, so good. All aspects of the meanings of these Hebrew words logically follow from the standard etymology, where the starting point (root) is that גלל means “to roll”.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

[Isaac Fried]

There is another גָּלִיל GALIYL, 'tube, cylinder', (related to גָּלִיל is חָלִיל, 'flute') which is also certainly a כָּלִיל, 'include, encompass', in Song 5:14
יָדָיו גְּלִילֵי זָהָב מְמֻלָּאִים בַּתַּרְשִׁישׁ
NIV: "His arms are rods of gold set with topaz."

We have also the cylindrical, inclusive, גָלָל GALAL, 'dung' excrement', of Ezekiel 4:15
רְאֵה נָתַתִּי לְךָ אֶת צְפִיעֵי הַבָּקָר תַּחַת גֶּלְלֵי הָאָדָם וְעָשִׂיתָ אֶת לַחְמְךָ עֲלֵיהֶם
NIV: “I will let you bake your bread over cow dung instead of human excrement.”

Notice how צְפִיעֵי הַבָּקָר is related to the snake צֶפַע, 'viper', of Isaiah 14:29
כִּי מִשֹּׁרֶשׁ נָחָשׁ יֵצֵא צֶפַע וּפִרְיוֹ שָׂרָף מְעוֹפֵף
NIV: "from the root of that snake will spring up a viper, its fruit will be a darting, venomous serpent."

Isaac Fried, Boston University

[Jim Stinehart]

It is likely that the oldest non-biblical reference to Galilee is item #80 on the 15th century BCE Thutmose III list of places in Canaan, where the intended letters are likely GRR. That would be גרר in Hebrew, which KJV translates as “Gerar”, but which I think reference Galilee.

To check out my theory based on logic, the text, and geography, here are the seven references to “Gerar” in chapters 20 and 26 of Genesis. I start with KJV, and then I modify the KJV translation as follows: (i) instead of “Gerar”, I substitute גרר : Galilee [KJV: “Gerar”]; (ii) where a reference to Galilee requires a re-thinking as what underlying geography was actually intended to be referenced in the applicable verse (primarily regarding Genesis 20: 1), I make appropriate adjustments (in brackets); and (iii) the “Philistines” and the only person in גרר : Galilee [KJV: “Gerar”] who has a non-Semitic name (from Anatolia), namely Phicol, are viewed as being foreign mercenaries (per my comments in brackets) in Galilee. As we are beginning to see, it makes perfect sense to view גרר in the Patriarchal narratives as meaning “Galilee”.

1. Genesis 20: 1: “And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the [land of Adami]-the-south [in eastern Lower Galilee], and [after going farther north, into Upper Galilee,] dwelled between Kadesh[-Naphtali in eastern Upper Galilee] and [Tyre, misspelled as] Shur [in northwestern Upper Galilee], and sojourned in גרר : Galilee [KJV: “Gerar”].”

2. Genesis 20: 2: “…Abimelech king of Gerar…[i.e., the Semite Abimelek of Tyre is the single most powerful princeling in גרר : Galilee [KJV: “Gerar”].”

3. Genesis 26: 1: “And Isaac went unto Abimelech king[, by virtue of his questionable reliance upon foreign mercenaries (“Philistines”) like the non-Semitic Phicol,] of גרר : Galilee [KJV: “Gerar”].”

4. Genesis 26: 6: “And Isaac dwelt in גרר : Galilee [KJV: “Gerar”].”

5. Genesis 26: 17: “And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in a valley of גרר : Galilee [KJV: “Gerar”], and dwelt there.”

6. Genesis 26: 20: “And the herdmen of גרר : Galilee [KJV: “Gerar”] did strive with Isaac’s herdmen….”

7. Genesis 26: 26: “Then Abimelech went [out to a rural part of Galilee] to him [Isaac] from [the leading city of] גרר : Galilee [KJV: “Gerar”], and [with Abimelek went the Semite] Ahuzzath one of his friends, and [the non-Semitic foreign mercenary] Phichol the chief captain of his army.”

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

[Jim Stinehart]

1. A person who has written an entire article on the etymology of “Galilee” cites our own Isaac Fried’s analysis of this word (on one of my old threads), in summarizing such person’s own considered views on the subject, here: http://www.vocabula.com/2009/VRSept09SS.asp
[Scroll down to the brief remarks on Galilee.]:

“Galilee: Origin of a Hebrew Place Name, by Bill Casselman. …The conventional etymology of Galilee suggests that it is derived from the Hebrew and Aramaic galil, "ring, circle," hence "region" or "surrounding district" or "province." The Arabic name is الجليل, al-Jaleel. But it may, in fact, hark back to a much older West Semitic place name known to the ancient Egyptians as Galulu, which may have meant "northern part of Canaan." For an interesting alternative origin of Galilee, see this [which is a link to Isaac Fried’s analysis of “Galilee”.] Another derivation of Galilee offers a source in the triliteral Semitic root, G-L-L, "to roll" so that a Hebrew noun like galil (Galilee) derived from such a verb might mean "rolling land" or "hill country" or "undulant terrain".”

That last sentence notes that linguistically, “Galilee” may be based on the Hebrew word “to roll”, גלל, and as such “Galilee” may well mean "rolling land" or "hill country" or "undulant terrain".

2. Historical Analysis of Item #80 on the T III List: (i) KRR = GRR, and Was גרר : “Gerar” in the Late Bronze Age; (ii) This Became גלל : GLL : גליל “Galilee” by the Iron Age

I agree with the following two leading scholarly analyses of the 15th century BCE Tuthmose III list of places in Canaan regarding item #80: (i) Yohanan Aharoni, “The Land of the Bible: A Historical Geography” (1979), pp. 152 and 150; and (ii) W.M. Müller, “Die Palästinaliste Thutmosis III” (1907), p. 124.

Aharoni sees all of items #80-#102 on the T III list as being places in Upper Galilee (p. 152; all remaining cites to Aharoni are to p. 150). Aharoni interprets the (somewhat ambiguous) phonemic hieroglyphs for #80 as being KRR, with Egyptian K being equivalent to west Semitic gimel/ג/G. Müller, likewise viewing #80 as being GRR : גרר, logically concludes that item #80 on the T III list is גרר : GRR : “Gerar”. The reason why other scholars have not followed Müller’s lead in seeing גרר : GRR as being “Gerar” has nothing whatsoever to do with linguistics (because the linguistic argument is rock-solid), but rather has everything to do with the traditional misunderstanding of the geographical cites referenced at Genesis 20: 1 (discussed in my prior post).

Aharoni continues his analysis by seeing the “Canaanite-Hebrew Form” of גרר : GRR of item #80 on the T III list as being גלל : GLL, meaning “Galilee”. Aharoni then concludes his analysis by conjecturing, without any explicit explanation, that item #80 = גליל = Kedesh[-Naphtali]. Aharoni’s implicit argument here is that (i) Kedesh-Naphtali was a very important city in Upper Galilee but is not otherwise referenced on the T III list; (ii) therefore item #80 : גליל must be Kedesh[-Naphtali]; and (iii) the full name of that Kedesh in the Late Bronze Age (with קדש being one of the most common city names in greater Canaan) must, accordingly, have been: Kedesh of the “Rolling” Hills, so that such Kedesh could be referred to simply as “Rolling” for short (to distinguish it from other cities named קדש). In the Late Bronze Age, the Akkadian word for “rolling” was originally used, garāru, whose consonants are GRR : “Gerar”. But by the Iron Age (and subsequently), the Hebrew word for “rolling” was used, namely גלל : GLL, with the following (non-archaic) plene spelling: גליל : GLYL.

Note that e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g now makes perfect sense on all levels: linguistically, historically and textually. The Kedesh[-Naphtali] that Aharoni explicitly references is the קדש that is set forth at Genesis 20: 1, being the most important city in eastern Upper “Gerar”/Galilee. We should not let the traditional misunderstanding of the intended northerly geographical references at Genesis 20: 1 prevent us from making the foregoing, rock-solid analysis of item #80 on the 15th century BCE T III list. Such item #80 references the place known as “Gerar” in the Late Bronze Age, and as “Galilee” in the Iron Age and thereafter. “Galilee” doesn’t mean “District [of Heathens]”. No way! Rather, the name “Galilee”, in the form “Gerar”, goes all the long way back to the Late Bronze Age, when the 7th century BCE Jerusalem concept of northern Canaan being the “District of Heathens” was 800 long years in the future. “Galilee”, and its archaic, defective spelling forerunner “Gerar”, means: “Rolling [Hills]”.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

[Isaac Fried]

There is no denying that גליל GLIYL may well be an extension, or multiplication, of גל, 'mound', possibly also alluded to in the other names of high places
גּוֹלָן, גִּלְבֹּעַ, גִּלְגָּל, גִּלֹה, גַּלִּים, גִּלְעָד
We also have גל, 'mound', with an L, and הר, 'mountain', with an R; and Gen. 31:46-49
וַיֹּאמֶר יַעֲקֹב לְאֶחָיו לִקְטוּ אֲבָנִים וַיִּקְחוּ אֲבָנִים וַיַּעֲשׂוּ גָל וַיֹּאכְלוּ שָׁם עַל הַגָּל וַיִּקְרָא לוֹ לָבָן יְגַר שָׂהֲדוּתָא וְיַעֲקֹב קָרָא לוֹ גַּלְעֵד וַיֹּאמֶר לָבָן הַגַּל הַזֶּה עֵד בֵּינִי וּבֵינְךָ הַיּוֹם עַל כֵּן קָרָא שְׁמוֹ גַּלְעֵד וְהַמִּצְפָּה אֲשֶׁר אָמַר יִצֶף יהוה בֵּינִי וּבֵינֶךָ
NIV: "He said to his relatives, “Gather some stones.” So they took stones and piled them in a heap, and they ate there by the heap. Laban called it Jegar Sahadutha, and Jacob called it Galeed. Laban said, “This heap is a witness between you and me today.” That is why it was called Galeed. It was also called Mizpah, because he said, “May the Lord keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other.
With יְגַר = גל.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

[Jim Stinehart]

Isaac:

You wrote that גל is the same as יְגַר.

Now we’re finally getting somewhere!

Gesenius agrees that יגר at Genesis 31: 48 means “hill”, which is essentially the same as “mound”.

Meanwhile, changing the R to an L, גל means “heap” or “mound”, that is, “something rounded”, and גל derives from גלל, which means “to roll”, with “something that rolls” being “something that is round”.

You are certainly right that גל = יְגַר, with the liquids R and L simply interchanging.

Thus גרר is the archaic, defective spelling of “Galilee” (pronounced and spelled “Gerar” in the Bronze Age), and גליל is the non-archaic, plene spelling of “Galilee”. Both such names (the archaic and the non-archaic versions) describe Galilee as being the place of “rolling [hills]”, or the place of “mounds” (that is, rolling hills).

“Galilee” did not originally mean “district [of heathens]”, as the conventional etymology would have it. Rather, “Galilee” is based on the concept of “rolling” and “mounds”, and reflects the well-known topography of northern Canaan.

In the Late Bronze Age/Patriarchal Age, the name of northern Canaan was גרר : “Gerar”, being simply the forerunner of the name גליל : “Galilee”, as shown above.

When Abraham and Isaac leave southern Canaan, they go to a place in the Promised Land where Isaac can get rich growing wheat, and both Patriarchs build a whole series of wells between the leading city of “Gerar” and a Beersheba. That Beersheba cannot be the famous Beersheba of the Negev, because no one could grow wheat, much less get rich growing wheat, anywhere in the general vicinity of Beersheba of the Negev; and it is not possible to build a series of wells ending at Beersheba of the Negev, because the entire basis of the well-deserved fame of Beersheba of the Negev is precisely that it is the only place in the general vicinity where one can dig a well that will produce water even during the dry season. Contra the conventional, southerly interpretation (mis-interpretation) of Genesis 20: 1, there’s no way that Abraham would choose to sojourn in the Negev and Sinai Deserts; rather, Abraham logically takes soon-to-be-pregnant Sarah, and his large flock of sheep and goats, to the fine land of the rolling hills of Upper Galilee. Finally, Esau could not possibly routinely bag big game for his father Isaac anywhere near the arid area of the Beersheba of the Negev; but in the Bronze Age, Beersheba of Galilee was just north of a dense forest, where big game would abound.

Thus the Beersheba being referenced in chapters 21 and 26 of Genesis regarding Abraham and Isaac must be Beersheba of Galilee, located near the southern edge of Upper Galilee.

Genesis 20: 1, contra the unanimous, but unanimously wrong, view of university scholars, lists four geographical places in Galilee, not one geographical place in southwest Canaan and three geographical places south of Canaan. [Why on earth do 100% of university scholars interpret Genesis 20: 1 in a manner that requires viewing Abraham as bizarrely deciding to sojourn in the Negev and Sinai Deserts?!?!? That makes no sense at all. The קדש in that verse is Kedesh-Naphtali, not Kadesh-barnea.] I understand why, and that, Ezra felt a profound need to re-interpret Genesis 20: 1 to accommodate the southern Hebrew perspective of post-exilic Jerusalem. Ezra was also fine with re-interpreting “Galilee” to mean “district [of heathens]” [a view which makes sense only in pre-exilic or post-exilic Jerusalem]. I understand why Ezra felt compelled to make a southerly re-interpretation of what the text of Genesis 20: 1 in the Patriarchal narratives had originally meant. But why oh why can’t today’s university scholars get beyond Ezra’s re-interpretation of Genesis 20: 1 and see that Genesis 20: 1 was originally intended to reference the n-o-r-t-h-e-r-l-y locale of “Gerar” : Galilee? Abimelek historically is located in the northwest corner of Upper Galilee, nowhere near Gaza. Wheat can be grown in Upper Galilee, but not near the Beersheba of the Negev. A series of wells can easily be dug near the west coast of Upper Galilee ending at Beersheba of Galilee, but wells cannot be dug near (as opposed to at) the Beersheba of the Negev. The fine land of the rolling hills of Upper Galilee is the logical place for Abraham and Isaac to take their families and flocks when they must leave southern Canaan, while still remaining in the Promised Land. And in the Bronze Age (though not later), there was a dense forest just south of Beersheba of Galilee, where Esau could bag big game for Isaac.

The Patriarchal narratives in general, and Genesis 20: 1 in particular, have p-i-n-p-o-i-n-t historical accuracy in the historical context of Year 13 in the Late Amarna time period. For example, the early Hebrew author of the Patriarchal narratives knew that Abimelek indeed was the leading princeling ruler in Galilee: “Gerar” in Year 13; we know from the Amarna Letters that historical Abimelek, just like Biblical Abimelek, was constantly fretting about contested access to valuable water wells. But to see the incredible historical accuracy of the Patriarchal narratives [which, contra university scholars, is neither “late” nor has multiple authors], one must realize that גרר : “Gerar” = גליל : “Galilee”. Both such names accurately refer to the “rolling” [originally Akkadian garāru : GRR : גרר, and later Hebrew GLL : גלל] hills (mounds) [גל or יגר] of northern Canaan. Genesis 20: 1 is talking about Upper Galilee!

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

[Jim Stinehart]

If we make a deeper linguistic analysis, and go all the long way back to Sumerian and its antecedents, we can figure out the historical reasons why גרר : GRR [KJV: “Gerar”] came to reference Galilee in Hebrew. The following two factors are what make the linguistic analysis here somewhat difficult:

(i) Hebrew and other west Semitic languages do not have the concept of “rolling” hills (so unlike English, where such phrase is very natural).

(ii) Words whose ultimate root is the Sumerian word kir (discussed below) can have any of the following three patterns: (1) the word may only mean “roll” (not “round”); (2) the word may only mean “round” (not “roll”); or (3) the word may mean either “roll” or “round”. It all depends on the context, as to what the word actually means, even though the ultra-literal meaning of these words in all cases is “roll” (as discussed below).

The Hebrew words (i) יגר : YGR, and (ii) גרר : GRR (both in the Patriarchal narratives [KJV: “Gerar”], and at item #80 of the 15th century BCE Thutmose III list of places in Canaan, where the Egyptian rendering of such letters references Galilee), and (iii) גלל : GLL -- all of them ultimately derive from the Sumerian word kir, which in turn (as shown below) derives from the Indo-European concept of a wheel that is “round” and that “rolls”. Although the ultra-literal meaning of all three of these words is “roll” or “rolling”, the actual meaning of the first two of these words is, rather, “round” or “rounded”, that is, having a “round” or “rounded” shape like a wheel.

Neither Hebrew, nor any other west Semitic language, has the English language concept of “rolling” hills that are akin to the “rolling” waves of the ocean. Rather, the Semitic languages view the hills of Galilee as being “rounded” hills, that is, a land where instead of being flat, what one sees are “rounded” protuberances, sticking up like “round” wheels, everywhere one looks. Though גרר : GRR ultra-literally means “rolling”, that is not its actual meaning, which rather is “round” or “rounded”. Likewise, a יגר : YGR doesn’t “roll” anywhere; rather, it is a “rounded” protuberance, a “mound” or “hill”. The ultra-literal meaning of “roll” is misleading for these two Hebrew words, because the actual meanings of these two Hebrew words are in fact based on the concept of being “round” like a wheel (that “rolls”).

What is confusing here is that although the Hebrew word גלל : GLL is closely related linguistically to the Hebrew name גרר : GRR [KJV: “Gerar”], nevertheless these two Hebrew words have quite different actual meanings! גלל : GLL only means “to roll”, and does not mean “round” (although derivatives of גלל : GLL, such as גליל : GLYL : Galilee, can reference “round” hills). By contrast, גרר : GRR [KJV: “Gerar”] only means “round” or “rounded” (referencing the “round” or “rounded” hills of Galilee), even though the ultra-literal meaning of גרר : GRR is “to roll”.

Although in E-n-g-l-i-s-h we say “the ‘rolling’ hills of Galilee”, in Hebrew the concept is, rather: “the ‘rounded’ hills of Galilee”. The Hebrews were not seafarers, and made no analogy of the hills of Galilee to the “rolling” waves of the ocean. Rather, the hills of Galilee are “rounded” protuberances.

Here’s a professional linguistic analysis of the Sumerian word kir as being the ultimate basis of all these various words, and as having derived from the Indo-European concept of wheeled vehicles (wagons, carts, chariots) that “roll”, based on having wheels that are “round”:

“Sum[erian] gigir 'chariot' …). In most of the languages this word can be analyzed as a reduplicated verb 'to turn; roll; twist'. Sum[erian] kìr 'to roll' gigir → ; PIE [Proto-Indo-European] *kwel- 'to turn; twist' → *kwekwlo-; CK [Common Kartvelian -- a language of the Caucasus similar to Indo-European] gr- 'to roll' → *grgar. It is suggested that the word is of Indo-European origin, as the latest archaeological evidence points that wheeled vehicles were invented by PIE speakers of the Late Tripolye Culture (see A. Parpola 2007).” Aleksi Sahala, University of Helsinki, “SUMERO-INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGE CONTACTS”, p. 7 (2009). http://www.ling.helsinki.fi/~asahala/as ... nd_pie.pdf

Accordingly, גרר : GRR : “Gerar” in the Patriarchal narratives should be viewed as referencing the “rounded” hills of Upper Galilee. The English phrase “rolling hills of Galilee” is somewhat misleading here, because in Hebrew, the actual meaning (as opposed to the ultra-literal meaning) is not “rolling”, but rather is “round” or “rounded”, referring to the “rounded” protuberances [hills] that dominate northern Canaan. The “rounded” hills of Galilee were likened by the Canaanites of old to the ancient Sumerian word kir, being the oldest word in the Near East that refers to the wheels of a chariot being “round” (and that ultra-literally refers to the fact that “round” wheels allow the vehicle to “roll”).

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

[Isaac Fried]

The יגר YGAR of Gen. 31:47 seems to me to be related to אגר AGAR, 'collect, gather, accumulate', as in Prov. 6:8
תָּכִין בַּקַּיִץ לַחְמָהּ אָגְרָה בַקָּצִיר מַאֲכָלָהּ
NIV: "yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest."

I think that יגר is still further related to יקר YQAR, 'dear, collecible', as in Jer. 20:5
וְנָתַתִּי אֶת כָּל חֹסֶן הָעִיר הַזֹּאת וְאֶת כָּל יְגִיעָהּ וְאֶת כָּל יְקָרָהּ וְאֵת כָּל אוֹצְרוֹת מַלְכֵי יְהוּדָה אֶתֵּן בְּיַד אֹיְבֵיהֶם
NIV: "I will deliver all the wealth of this city into the hands of their enemies—all its products, all its valuables and all the treasures of the kings of Judah."

Isaac Fried, Boston University