I've actually never been asked that particular question, but if I was to be asked, and since I'm not an expert on Hurrian toponyms, I’d tell the student to look it up. HALOT would obviously be one source that I'd refer him to, but there are a dozen other lexica and dictionaries and encyclopedias that are much more up-to-date. I'd also suggest that the name is a play on the word "Rasha'", "evil", befitting the king of evil Gomorra. And I'd readily admit that I don't really know for sure.
End of discussion for me. Yigal Levin From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, December 06, 2010 1:51 AM To: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] HALOT Etymologies Dr. Fournet: You wrote: “I read it as a polite though ironic request not to defend that point of view...” 1. When the freshmen ask Prof. Yigal Levin what the name BR$( at Genesis 14: 2 means, do you think he answers as follows? “Per HALOT at p. 163: ‘Arabic…ugly’.” _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
