Plural Construct: Adam, Adamah, Adami
This thread will not examine any geographical place names in the
Pentateuch, but rather will look at certain geographical place names in Joshua
[with
an occasional reference to other books in the Bible, but never to the
Pentateuch].
There are three cities in Canaan whose basic name is some form of Adam:
Adam, Adamah, Adami. Although )DM is usually a verb or adjective meaning “to
be red” or “red”, it occasionally seems to be a masculine noun, perhaps
meaning “something that is red”. With a feminine ending, )DMH means “earth”.
Only one of these three city names uses plural construct. The focus of
this thread is analyzing what construct plural means when a proper name [as
opposed to a common word] is in construct plural form in a geographical place
name.
1. Adam: )DM, at Joshua 3: 16
This city is located in the Jordan River Valley, south of the Jezreel
Valley, near Zaretan. It is the only city named Adam in Canaan south of
Galilee.
Thus there is no reason to use the construct format for this city, for
there was no other city named Adam in the neighborhood.
2. Adamah: )DMH, at Joshua 19: 36
In eastern Lower Galilee there was a fairly big city whose name has a
feminine ending: Adamah/)DMH. No construct form is used here, but construct
is
used for the town with a somewhat similar name located a few miles south of
Adamah. [The common word )DMH has the feminine plural form of )DMWT at
Psalms 49: 11.]
3. Adami Nekeb: )DMY H-NQB, at Joshua 19: 33
The original name of this small town is not completely clear. It may have
originally been just Adam/)DM, and it may have been known by various names
later. Here, however, we will focus solely on the name as it appears at
Joshua 19: 33: )DMY H-NQB.
I see )DMY as being masculine construct plural. )DM probably means “
something red” and may simply be the masculine form of )DMH, meaning “(red)
earth”
. In part because we would not expect to see “earths” as a common word in
the plural, I see the word/name in construct plural here at Joshua 19: 33
as being primarily a proper name, whose ultra-literal meaning is “Adams of”.
That then raises the issue of Hebrew grammar that I wish to explore on
this thread. When a proper name is in construct plural form in a geographical
place name, what does that construct plural form mean?
I see )DMY H-NQB as meaning “[concerning the two] Adams [in eastern Lower
Galilee, the o-n-e that is] of the Nekeb”. The plural aspect of the plural
construct form means that there are two Adams in the neighborhood. The
word/name not in construct form then specifies which o-n-e of these two Adams
is being referenced here.
I erred previously in thinking that )DMY H-NQB might mean “two Adams, both
of which are associated with Nekeb”. No, there are not two Adams associated
with Nekeb. Only one Adam is associated with Nekeb. But the plural aspect
of the plural construct form here is telling us one additional item of
information: there is a second Adam in the neighborhood.
An author had the option of referring either to )DM H-NQB or )DMY H-NQB,
using either singular or plural construct. In both cases, the same city in
eastern Lower Galilee was being referenced. But the difference is that if
plural construct is used, that is giving us one additional piece of
information: there was another city named Adam [or Adamah] in the neighborhood.
Thus the rule I propose is that if a proper name appears in construct
plural form in a geographical place name, that means that there are at least
two
places with that same basic proper name in the neighborhood, yet only o-n-e
of such two places is being referenced in the particular case, as
specified by the word/name that is not in construct form.
Different from this are those cases where the word in construct plural form
is primarily a common word, rather than being primarily a proper name.
Thus XWT Y)YR at Joshua 13: 30 has a common word in construct plural. As such,
the reference is to the “towns of Jair”, where “towns of”/XWT is
primarily a common word, not a proper name, and multiple towns are indeed being
referenced here. Note also )$DWT H-PCGH at Joshua 12: 3, where Pisgah is a
well-known proper name, and )$DWT is a common word in the plural meaning
“slopes”
. The reference is to the various slopes [in the plural] of Pisgah. But
by sharp contrast, when the word/name in construct plural form in a
geographical place name is a proper name, the construct plural form of such
proper
name means that (i) there is another place with a similar name in the
neighborhood, but that (ii) only o-n-e place is being referenced in the
particular
instance, as specified by the word not in construct form. Yes, in some
cases it will be difficult to distinguish whether the word/name in construct
form is a common word or a proper name, but note that a great deal is riding
on such distinction if, as I see it, construct plural format functions
somewhat differently in these two situations.
Exhibit A for my view is )DMY H-NQB at Joshua 19: 33. )DMY is masculine
construct plural, yet only o-n-e city is being referenced, with the plural
aspect of the construct plural form of )DM as a proper name meaning that
there is another city named Adam/Adamah in the neighborhood.
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois
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