Torah - by P. Haupt

8/12/2019 Torah - by P. Haupt

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JOURNAL OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE258

fin.) or decision, must be combined withrnassor,saw; cf. Syr.

magzr, ax, saw, and gzrt, decree, fromgezr, to cut. I n

Hebrew we have magzera, ax (also gar zen = gazrinn) and inDan. 4 : 14. 21 Aram, gzer means decree. Cf. also Sum. kutand tar (SGI 126. 155). I shall discuss the termMasora in aspecial paper.

THE ORIGINAL MEANING OF SHEOL

Heb.se'01should be writtense'01with er in the first syl-lable: it is a formqittl (cf. the Ethiopie formS'01) from the

stem sa'al, derived from the root sal which we have in Arab.ntala-'r-rak%iataand-^^. In Syriac we have this stem

in tallii, damp, moist, wet, while Syr. tilla, hill, is an Assyrian

loanword. In Assyrian this root tal appears in sal, to sink;seeKings (SBOT) 175, 2 andcf. Heb. sh andsaht, pit, from

sh, to sink (Arab,sxa, iasuxu). From the same stem we have

sln (= silunu) sunset (3636; cf. AJSL 33, 48).1 Arab.

ntal is said to meanpit, andtillah signifiesannihilation, death ;so Heb.se'01is a synonym of saht (GB

16821

a; cf. JBL 34, 81).

For the Aleph in se'01cf. AJSL 21, 205 and the remarks onHeb. nahg = Arab,n'aja = Assyr. naggu in Nah. 46. Hit-

zi g ' s combination of se' 01with s'al 9 fox (see his Jesaia,1833,p. 52) is not impossible : the original meaning of sii

6al may be

burrow er,and the middle 6

Ainmay be secondary (see AJSL23, 245; contrast 34, 210).

TOBA = TAHBIBTU

Twenty-three years ago I pointed out in Chronicles (SBOT)80, 48 that Heb. tor corresponded to Assyr.trtu, oracle (HW

51; A kF 68). For the Heb. 0= Assyr. seeProverbs (SBOT)33, 51 ; Est. 7 ; JBL 36, 90. Assyr.trtu, however, is not iden-ti l ith Ethi i h i t ti (JBL 19 58) th


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259BRIEF COMMUNICATIONS

tionof the will of the gods,hosed on the inspection of the entrails

of sacrificial victims. The Assyrian equivalent of Sumer. uzu,

flesh, body, butcher-meat, sru (HW 635a) = Heb. sr (not

s'r) signifies also haruspication, prognostication (HW 655b

;

AL5 16, 124; 79, 7 ; cf. JAOS 35, 393, 1. 6; A J P 17, 489, n. 3).

Syr. trt is not etymologically identical with Heb. sr (ZR 89,

. 3) but an Assyrian loanword. Syr.ta"r, to suggest, inti-

mate (cf. Heb. natn b-lbb) andtarr', to instruct, discipline,

are denominative Paels derived fromtrt; cf. also Syr. trt,

discipline; turr', erudition; mtarr(')n, instructor, andthe Talmudicatri, to warn, Heb. hitr. This Syriac stem can-not be combined with (contrast Brocke lmann ' s lex. 401

b.

392b

). I n Levy ' s Talmudic dictionaryhitr was derived from

tor.I believe now that Assyr.trtu must be derived from the stem

of irru, intestines, andirr, opium, lit.intestinal medicine (JBL

36, 81). Assyr. arru harru (ZA 30, 63) and trtu =tahrirtu, a form liketasqirtu, lie, or Arab,tdkirah, note (WdG

1, 115, B) . Tahrirtu tahriratu, fem. of tahriru, a form like

tamslu, likeness (BA 1, 38; AG2 181). The prefixed t is the

feminine t (JAOS 28, 115). There is no causative prefix t

(JBL 34, 78). Tahrirtu became trirtu, trirtu, trrtu, trtu(constr. trit, pl. trti) and this term passed into Hebrew as

tor. The synonym of trtu, Assyr. urtu, from which Aram.

rit and Ethiop. rt are derived, is syncopated fromurratu= hurratu (cf. martu, gall = marratu).

I shall show elsewhere that not only the Jewishbdqt (JBL

19, 80, n. 120) was derived from Babylonia, but also the Jewishsht. The Assyrian name of the slaughter-house, where the

throats of the animals were cut, seems to have been manrtu ormanru = Arab, mrihar, a form like narmu, fem. narmtu,

love ( 1, 177) fromrmu = Arab, rahima (cf. NE 45, 77and above, p. 252) and the Assyrian name of the assistants of


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Torah - by P. Haupt