All Semitic words and names in the Hebrew Bible that start with )YL are
plays on “mighty”. One theory would be that there is an unused Hebrew verbal
root )YL, which means “to be mighty”. Although that is a tempting theory,
it does not seem to be borne out by a comparison to cognate languages. ’al’
iy = “strong” in Ugaritic. allallu = “strong” in Akkadian. Assyrian for “
stag”, being a “mighty” adult male deer, is ailu. One begins to suspect
that )Y in Hebrew was used to represent the initial true vowel A in these
cognate languages. Perhaps there is a somewhat similar phenomenon in Aramaic,
where HaYLaA = “power, mighty work, strength”. The archaic 2-letter root,
being the true root of Semitic words that mean “mighty” or “strong”, may
have been AL. Hebrew of course has no true vowel A, so that usually comes
out in Hebrew as )YL, where )Y represents the true vowel A, but sometimes it
comes out in Hebrew as )WL or )L, where )W or ) represents the true vowel A.
Most Hebrew words that start with )WL or )L have nothing to do with “mighty”
, whereas all Hebrew words and names [other than non-Semitic names] in the
Hebrew Bible that start with )YL are plays on “mighty”.
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois
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