Lynne, I would STRONGLY urge you to dig a bit deeper and seek some original research. While the word SHaD has a literal meaning and on the surface means "breasted" (I have also heard "horned"), there is a greater meaning at work here. This is where the literal misses the greater point. The word is also use as sufficient or more than sufficient. Just as a mother seems (and really seemed back then) to have enough milk for the babe (be it human, goat, sheep, cow, whatever they were raising), she also had enough milk for several other things or orphaned babes. This brought to the minds of the people "more than sufficient". That concept is also used during the Passover - More than enough. It is also used to describe the "glowing" of Moses. (Hence the early Roman pagan connection with the SUN god and all of those glowing heads in the early Christian paintings.)
While beating on the woman-drum many have missed the greater point and made YHVH merely another deity in the pantheon of false gods. And sadly some will go with the Asherah god as the Woman god of the Hebrews. DO NOT GO THERE! (Shouting really loudly here!). This is where the concrete literal meets a greater description of YHVH and does not give His gender in some secret code. As for "respected" source, the literal meaning of the word is common knowledge. Call up any Bible college with a Hebrew class and ask the professor. The transferred meaning of the word is also common knowledge but you need to look into Jewish sources for the original thought on that. Yep, I am a woman. Dee
