In addition to the possibility mentioned by George below, and which is widely accepted, one should add the possibility of "city of Shalem". This is suggested by the El-Amarna name, where the Hebrew "Yeru-" replaced the Akkadian for 'city'.
This second possibility - whether or not the Egyptian Execration texts lend a much earlier support to it - cannot be written off. Another open question is the diphthong of the dual which cropped up in the pronounciation Yeru$alayim (also in some written versions). There is no clear scholarly explanation for this. As for the objection to the inclusion of the minor deity Shalem from Ugarit in the city's name - note the existence of dozens and dozens word-pairs in biblical Hebrew which are the exact equivalents of such pairs in LB Ugaritic. This is a case of precise linguistic borrowing. Uri Hurwitz ...Second, the etymology of Jerusalem is usually based on a form of the verb ירה, which has within its semantic domain the concept of 'putting up' or 'founding' (cf. Gen 31.51; Job 38.6). On this basis, it is concluded that ירושׁלם means 'founded by/for Shalem'. The proper noun Shalem is the name of a deity known from cognate cultures (eg. Ugaritic). GEORGE ATHAS Dean of Research, Moore Theological College (moore.edu.au) Sydney, Australia _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
