what language did abraham speak?

[Jim Stinehart]

Isaac Fried wrote: “שער possibly refers to just the opening in the wall.”

That may well be right.

Gesenius thinks that שער as a Hebrew verb means: “to cleave, to divide”. However, that verb appears only once in the Hebrew Bible, at Proverbs 23: 7, where it has a different acquired meaning.

At Ugarit, tġr only means “gate” or “gatekeeper”, and is never used as a verb.

What is usually considered a separate Hebrew word, but that is spelled the same, שער, appears 8 times in the Hebrew Bible, including as a verb, for example at Job 27: 21. There, KJV translates שער as “hurleth”: “The east wind carrieth him away, and he departeth: and as a storm hurleth [שער] him out of his place.”

As possible west Semitic cognates, BDB notes: (i) a similar word in Aramaic means “to split, divide”; (ii) a similar word in Ethiopic means “tear in two, dissolve”; and (iii) a similar word in Arabic means “to break, break off, break through”, or “gap, opening”. (By the way, Akkadian has no cognate to this word.)

Yet to me, what’s important here is that Abraham used this word in precisely the same sense as later books in the Hebrew Bible do. Per my prior post, the Canaanite gloss at Amarna Letter EA 244: 16, ša-aḫ-ri = רġש conceptually, and = שער in standard Biblical Hebrew, in all cases meaning “city gate”.

Abraham’s vocabulary, per the Canaanite/pre-Hebrew words evidenced in the mid-14th century BCE Amarna Letters, is surprisingly similar to the vocabulary of standard Biblical Hebrew.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

[Isaac Fried]

שער is possibly a variant of תאר, 'shape, form'.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

[Jemoh66]

This word finds its way into IE languages:
SeCuRe, and all its cognates.

[Jim Stinehart]

In Amarna Letter EA 120: 21, a list of stolen goods in Lebanon includes 15 ma-ar-ba-du. This is not a gloss. It appears to be a Canaanite word, meaning: “fancy bedspread” or “fancy blankets (of the highest and most expensive quality)”.

Hebrew: מרבדים : marbaddîm = “fancy blankets, coverlets, coverings, coverings of tapestry”.

This word appears twice in the Hebrew Bible:

1. “I have decked my bed with [מרבדים : marbaddîm] coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt.” Proverbs 7: 16

2. “She maketh herself [מרבדים : marbaddîm] coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple.” Proverbs 31: 22

In Ugaritic, mrbd means “bedspread, or counterpanes (of superior quality)”. (There is no Akkadian cognate.)

A Hebrew word that in the Bible only appears in Proverbs turns out to be a word that Abraham would have known, per the attestation of this Canaanite/pre-Hebrew word in the mid-14th century BCE in the Amarna Letters.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

[Jim Stinehart]

The Canaanite word examined in this post is from an Amarna Letter written by IR-Heba, the Hurrian princeling ruler of Jerusalem in the mid-14th century BCE (which I view as being the Patriarchal Age). His scribe probably was a Canaanite, though the scribe apparently had studied in Syria. This scribe has some peculiarities as compared to other scribes who did Amarna Letters (for example regarding the use of sibilants). (Though not relevant to this post, IR-Heba’s scribe may likely have been bi-lingual in Canaanite and Hurrian, as was Abraham [in my opinion].)

At Amarna Letter EA 287: 41 we see the following Canaanite word: ta-ṣa-qa. In context, it probably means “dire straits”. It is a Canaanite gloss following the Akkadian common word ša-šu-nu, which presumably is a form of the Akkadian common word ašāšu, meaning “to be distressed”.

This Canaanite gloss, ta-ṣa-qa, is likely the following Biblical Hebrew word (with the non-Biblical prefix ta-):

ṣûq : צוק = (i) as a noun: “distress, anguish, dire straits”; (ii) as a verb: “to constrain, press, bring into straits, straiten, oppress”.

Isaiah 8: 22: “anguish”.

Deuteronomy 28: 53: thine enemies shall “distress” thee.

As to that latter use as a verb, and showing that a prefix ta- is possible in west Semitic (though not in standard Biblical Hebrew), consider:

Ethiopic: “be cramped”: (ta)ṣə‘qa.

As usual, Ugaritic has similar words: (i) ṣ-q, meaning “to grasp, push, put pressure on”; and (ii) ṣq, meaning “distressed”.

There is an Akkadian cognate of sorts, sīqu, but it is rare and is only found in the following phrase: napišti sīqu : “a straitened life”.

As to the ta- prefix that we see in the Canaanite version of this word, ta- is one of the most common prefixes in Semitic languages, especially for (but not exclusively for) second person and/or third person feminine. In Akkadian this ta- prefix is optional for third person feminine singular; Ugaritic has this ta- prefix; and as noted above, Ethiopic has ta- as an optional prefix. The Hebrew equivalent here is that ת can function as a prefix. All of these prefixes in the various west Semitic languages had some tendency to become assimilated and drop out over time. Thus it is not particularly surprising that Canaanite in the mid-14th century BCE had this ta- prefix for this word, but that standard Biblical Hebrew has dropped that prefix. (When I say that the “endings” often differ between Canaanite and standard Biblical Hebrew, that is not limited to suffixes, but also includes prefixes and infixes.)

So as usual, it’s quite easy to match a Canaanite word in the Amarna Letters to the corresponding word in standard Biblical Hebrew. Abraham’s vocabulary (though not the endings of the words) was surprisingly similar to that of II Samuel.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

[Isaac Fried]

The word מרבדים = מה-רבד-הם, 'carpet, rug, cover, layer', is from the root רבד RBD, 'spread', of which also the רביד =רב-היא-ד RABIYD, 'necklace', of Gen. 41:42 וַיָּשֶׂם רְבִד הַזָּהָב עַל צַוָּארוֹ
The root רבד is a variant of רבץ RBC, 'crouch, hunker down, ease down, spread', as in Gen. 49:9 כָּרַע רָבַץ כְּאַרְיֵה
Also the roots רפד (see Job 41:22). Also the roots רפס, רפש, רפת.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

[Isaac Fried]

I see the "prefix" TA as the coalesced personal pronoun את/אתה, 'you, it', as in תלמיד = אתה= למ-היא-ד and תלמוּד = אתה-למ-הוּא-ד.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

[Jim Stinehart]

Isaac Fried wrote:

“The word מרבדים = מה-רבד-הם, 'carpet, rug, cover, layer', is from the root רבד RBD, 'spread', of which also the רביד =רב-היא-ד RABIYD, 'necklace', of Gen. 41:42 וַיָּשֶׂם רְבִד הַזָּהָב עַל צַוָּארוֹ”.

Yes. (Wm. Moran himself expressly notes this in his analysis of the Canaanite word ma-ar-ba-du : מרבדים : marbaddîm at Amarna Letter EA 120: 21. So we all agree as to that.)

It is interesting that RBD : רבד itself, as a verb, appears only once in the Hebrew Bible, at Proverbs 7: 16 that I quoted previously, where it appears immediately after מרבדים : marbaddîm:

“With [מרבדים : marbaddîm] coverings of tapestry I have decked [רבדתי] my bed, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt.” Proverbs 7: 16

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

[Isaac Fried]

The magic of the Hebrew language is its transparency, resulting from the continuous shift of meaning over strings of ever slightly mutated roots. It is so apparent to us, we are able to actually visualize it, what רבד and consequently מרבד and רביד are, because of our recognition that this root is but a slight modification of רבץ RBC, 'lie down, spread out, lay out a layer'.
Nu. 22:27
וַתֵּרֶא הָאָתוֹן אֶת מַלְאַךְ יהוה וַתִּרְבַּץ תַּחַת בִּלְעָם
NIV: When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, it lay down under Balaam
Deu. 22:6
כִּי יִקָּרֵא קַן צִפּוֹר לְפָנֶיךָ בַּדֶּרֶךְ בְּכָל עֵץ אוֹ עַל הָאָרֶץ אֶפְרֹחִים אוֹ בֵיצִים וְהָאֵם רֹבֶצֶת עַל הָאֶפְרֹחִים אוֹ עַל הַבֵּיצִים
NIV: If you come across a bird’s nest beside the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs
Song 1:7
הַגִּידָה לִּי שֶׁאָהֲבָה נַפְשִׁי אֵיכָה תִרְעֶה אֵיכָה תַּרְבִּיץ בַּצָּהֳרָיִם
NIV: Tell me, you whom I love, where you graze your flock and where you rest your sheep at midday.

Then we have the kindred root רפד (related, in turn, to רפה RPH, 'soft, weak, pliable, slack')
Job 17:13
בַּחֹשֶׁךְ רִפַּדְתִּי יְצוּעָי
KJV: I have made my bed in the darkness
Song 3:9-10
אַפִּרְיוֹן עָשָׂה לוֹ הַמֶּלֶךְ שְׁלֹמֹה מֵעֲצֵי הַלְּבָנוֹן עַמּוּדָיו עָשָׂה כֶסֶף רְפִידָתוֹ זָהָב מֶרְכָּבוֹ אַרְגָּמָן תּוֹכוֹ רָצוּף אַהֲבָה מִבְּנוֹת יְרוּשָׁלִָם
NIV: King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon. He made the pillars thereof of silver, the bottom thereof of gold, the covering of it of purple, the midst thereof being paved with love, for the daughters of Jerusalem.

Then we have the kindred root רפש (related to רפס RPS, ' pliable, weak, loose') of which we have רֶפֶשׁ REPE$, 'loose dirt, mud, mire, muck'
Isaiah 57:20
וְהָרְשָׁעִים כַּיָּם נִגְרָשׁ כִּי הַשְׁקֵט לֹא יוּכָל וַיִּגְרְשׁוּ מֵימָיו רֶפֶשׁ וָטִיט
NIV: But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud.

Isaac Fried, Boston University