Hayim ben Yosef Tawil. An Akkadian Lexical Companion for Biblical Hebrew

532 Pages·2016·34.91 MB·English

An Akkadian Lexical Companion
For Biblical Hebrew
Etymological-Semantic and Idiomatic Equivalents
with Supplement on Biblical Aramaic
Hayim ben Yosef Tawil
An Akkadian Lexical Companion
For Biblical Hebrew
Etymological-Semantic and Idiomatic Equivalents
with Supplement on Biblical Aramaic
Cover Illustration
To thc riiiht, a beardcd Assyrian scribe (tu pi a mi Aiinra\t) holds a tablet m li ìs loft hand and inipresses ìt
with a Stylus. The figure on thè left ìs writing witli a brush on a piece of skin or papyrus and ìs probablv
ìtitended to represent an Aramean Scribe (lupsarru Ara ma a).
Idi Ahtnar, anriciit Til-Biirsib. Wall paiaring, noti’ destroycd. llcight oj ngisler: abotil 1.40 tu. Pcrhaps early agitili
century or ei'cu lo reign oj Adail-nirari III (810-783).
-(ANEP 74, 276:235)
An Akkadian Lexical Companion
For Biblical Hebrew
Etymological-Scmantic and Idiomatic Equivalents
with Supplement ori Biblical Aramai'c
Hayim ben Yosef Tawil
K'FAV PUBLISHÍNG 1IOUS.C INC.
Copyright © 2009 Hayim ben Yosef Tawil
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tawil, Hayim
An Akkadian lexical companion to biblical Hebrew : etymological-semantic and idiomatic
equivalents with supplement on biblical Aramaic / by Hayim Tawil.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1-60280-114-1
1. Hebrew language-Dictionaries-Akkadian. 2. Hebrew language-Dictionaries-English. I. Title.
PJ4831.T38 2009
492.4'3921—dc22
2008050209
Published by
KTAV Publishing House, Inc.
930 Newark Avenue
Jersey City, NJ 07306
[email protected]
www.ktav.com
[phone]
Fax [phone]
I dedicate this work to
My parents
Joseph and Esther
V-T
to
My daughter
Taphat Tonya
My soli Arye Joseph, his wife Limor
to
My grandson Hod Hayim
and
My granddaughter Hadar Ziviah
cm r':pj rnt?i?
(l’rovcrhs 17:6)
My hcartfelt apprcciation to thè pcople attd institutions that ctiablcd this projcct to conte to Jruition:
Mr. Harry Bpstein
Dedicateci to Prof. Hayim ben Yosef Tawil
In honor ofShirley and Al (lindi, and Irene and Sonny (lindi
By their children
Michael Tawil
In memory ofhis parents Yitzhak ben Yael and Rachel bat Helena
Zvi Erenyi
In memory ofhis parents Abraham M. and Stephanie
Isaac Tawil
Sepharadic Rabbinical College
In appreciation of Prof. Hayim ben Yosef Tawil
Professor Richard Whitc
For his countless efforts and great contributions
Yeshiva University
Table of Contents
Acknowledgnients viii
Preface j
x
Abbreviations xv
Lexicographical Entrics xxi
Typology of Passages Cited xxii
Biblical Hcbrcw-Akkadian Lexical Companion i
Biblical Aramaic 437
Hebrew and Akkadian Nainc Corrcspondcnce 457
Brief Overvicw of thc Akkadian Language 465
Akkadian to Hcbrew Concordancc 472
Akkadian to Biblical Araniaic Concordance 485
Sclcctcd Bibliography 486
vii
Acknowledgments
I ani indcbted to my friends Profs. Yakov Elman, Mitchcll Orlian, Samuel Schncider, 1 Iaym Soloveitchick,
and Peter Merkel for always showing keen interest m thè progress of my project. A note of thanks to thè
administration of Yeshiva University, to Dr. Hillel Davis, Vice President for University Life, and Provost
Dr. Mortoti Lowengrub. In addition, I owe a debt of gratitude to my colleague Prof. Richard Steiner for
his scholarly suggestions.
1 benefited from thè insight and thè criticai comments of Profs. Barry Eichler, George Landes,
Nachum Sarna z”l, Alan Schwartz, JefFrey Tigay, and Shalom Holtz. However, any errors are thè author’s
responsibility.
Throughout this project my research was aided by thè professionalism extended to me by thè library
staff of Yeshiva University. 1 thank Leah Adler, Zalman Alpert, Mary Ann Linahan, John Moryl, Moshe
Schapiro, and especially Zvi Erenyi.
The manuscript of this Lexical Companion was typed by my students Evan Anziska, Avi Bloom, Jonathan
Edelstem, Shmuel Greenwald, Aaron Leibtag, Pinhas Rothman, Judah Rosenblum, Ami Steinberger,
Michael Yankovich, and Azoulay Zohar. Much gratitude for their proficiency, alacrity, and reliability. I
express my deepest thanks and appreciation to my senior students Chaim Gitler, Dani Kahana, Jonathan
Miller, Joseph Ringle, Adam Scheier, and Jonathan Strauss, whose kind and tireless cooperation in typing
and editing thè first draft of thè Lexical Companion enabled me to complete this undertaking. I am grateful
also to Aaron Koller for his assistance in thè development of sections of thè introduction, to Salini Dweck
z”i for his comments, and to my nephew David Bibi, who, during my sabbatical year, had an uncanny knack
for making order out of chaos.
Many thanks to my student Michael Siev for his unstinting and selfless help in preparing thè Companion
for publication.
I express my appreciation to my sisters Miryam Elkayani and Ashira Bibi, and to Dr. Gloria Silbert for
making my sabbatical year in Israel enjoyable and fruitfiil.
Preface
Thirty four years ago, in his article “Sonic Remarks More specifically, this Akkadian Lexical
011 a New Approach Co Hebrew,” published on thè Companion does not confine its interest solely
occasion of M. A. Beek’s sixty-fifth birthday, thè to etymological equivalents, but also embraces
Assyriologist R. Frankena expressed thè need for semantic and idiomatic relationships. While thè
a suitable tool to provide students of thè Hebrew prodigious amount of data assembled will appeal
L3ible with linguistic inforniation from Akkadian. In primarily to Hebrew Bible and East Semitic
his suniniation he states: scholars, I tliink anyone with some knowledge of
Biblical Hebrew and Akkadian will want to consult
This article 011 thè relationship between Hebrew and this Lexical Companion from time to time. To that
Accadimi ìs a first attempi to reach a new approach end, thè contribution of thè Lexical Companion will
to Hebrew, whieli will profit from thè ever more
meet concerns on several main levels:
manifest afFinity of both languages and in whicli thè
1.T0 help uncover meanings for Hebrew
mentioned parallels are not considered incidental, but
words that hitherto have eluded clear definition
symptomatic for this underlying affinity. The existing
in particular contexts, but whicli have either
parallels between Hebrew and Aecadian in words,
grammatical structure and idioniatie expressions, Akkadian cognates or vocable equivalents
in my opinion, warrant new investigations into this employed in a similar context;
relationship between Hebrew and Aecadian in order
2. To propose nuanccs for Hebrew words
to understand both languages better. This would
suggested by similar Akkadian usages;
require a joint effort of Hebraists and Assynologists. If
more people would be convinced of thè necessity and 3. To illuminate idioms from related expressions
importante ofsuch a study, thè first ami of this article in Akkadian;
would liave been attained.
4. To correct a certain understanding of
Hebrew words and expressions in light of their
O11 August 1998 1 embarked 011 a personal journey
Akkadian equivalents;
to undertake and bring sudi a project to fruition.
Because of its complicated writing system, 5. To show that thè large resource of
Akkadian is a ratlier difficult language to learn and Akkadian literature, though geographically and
thè majority of people whose main interest is thè temporally somewhat remote and linguistically
Hebrew Bible bave liniited access to thè Akkadian somewhat different from Hebrew, nonetheless,
material. Indeed, thè hundreds of thousands of can offer a large number of insights for thè
tablets uncovered in Mesopotamia can be used to task of understanding and interpreting Biblical
elucidate and shed light 011 thè language of thè Hebrew;
“Scrolls.” Although in thè last one hundred years 6. Last but not least, “indirectly” to introduce
or so there have been numerous studies concerning those biblical scholars and students who are not
individuai words, idiomatic expressions, and phrases familiar with thè Akkadian language to thè vast
understood in light of Akkadian, so fiir, to my Assyrian and Babylonian material as compiled
knowledge, there has been no widescale attempi in all thè volumes of The Assyrian Dictionary of
to systematically evaluate thè parallels and cognates thè Orientai Institute oj thè University of Chicago
between these two branches of thè Seniitic family (CAD)—as of thè completion of this Companion,
of languages. thè volume U/W has not been published—and
IX