Karl: Thank you for your comments, but except for your very briefmention of Uriah, they do not directly address my twin contentions that (i) thefirst book in the Bible that has as the personal name of an individualcharacter a west Semitic name ending in -YH that honors YHWH is II Samuel, andthat (ii) King David should rightly get the credit for being the first personin the Bible to give to one or more of his sons a west Semitic name ending in -YHthat honors YHWH. You do, however, make many good points that are indirectlyrelated to this subject. 1. You wrote: “First of all, names ending in -YH and -YHWare alternate spellings for the same name. So you have to include MYKYHW Judges17:1, 4 and CRWYH 1 Samuel 26:6.” Some scholars say that -YHW is the southern way, attributableto old Judah, whereas -YH is the northern way, which was not adopted by the Hebrewsuntil later [King David’s time and thereafter]. Without opining as to whether that particular scholarly view is right orwrong, I will repeat my own assertion: prior to II Samuel, no book in the Bible has a name of an individualcharacter that is a west Semitic name ending in -YH that honors YHWH. 2. You wrote: “Two place names are also recorded, MRYHGenesis 22:2 and BZYWTYH Joshua 15:28, the former recognizing YHWH.” But those are geographical place names, not names ofindividual characters in the Bible. MRYHis a particularly interesting geographical place name, but on this thread, Iwant to focus on personal names of individual characters in the Bible. There are over 100 individuals in the Biblewho have a west Semitic name ending in -YH that honors YHWH, but there’s noteven one such name of an individual character prior to II Samuel. That’s the specific phenomenon I am focusingon here. 3. You wrote: “[I]n 2 Samuel we find one of King Saul’sconcubines was the daughter of )YH 3:7….” But Karl, that’s not a west Semitic name ending in -YH thathonors YHWH, is it? Don’t you see thatname as being the Hebrew common word for “falcon”, )YH, for example at Leviticus11: 14? 4. You wrote: “)WRYH one of David’s contemporaries (manytimes in 2 Samuel)….” I agree with the scholarly view that as a XTY/Xuti-ya [KJV “Hittite”],)WRYH is Ev-ri -ya [-H], a Semiticized non-Hebrew name. Indeed, contra the scholarly view, I gofarther and assert that the name of King David’s scribe is exactly like that: $ar-ri -ya [-H] : $R -Y [-H], that is, a Semiticized non-Hebrewname. The Hebrew way to Semiticize aforeign name is to add a he/H at the end, as in “Uriah”, “Seraiah” and “Araunah”,all in II Samuel. Remember that perJoshua 15: 63, we know that there were still many non-Hebrews, the “Jebusites”,living in Jerusalem in King David’s day. In my opinion, those non-Hebrews [by birth] include Uriah, Seraiah andAraunah. Though the names )WRYH and $RYHhappen to end with -YH, after the Semiticizing -H is added to these non-Hebrewnames, the fathers of Uriah and Seraiah did n-o-t honor YHWH! No way. These are not west Semitic names ending in -YH that honor YHWH. Rather, they are non-Hebrew names ending in -Y/-ya,which have been Semiticized by adding a final -H. One nice result of my view of the case is that then King Davidgets the credit for being the first person in the Bible to give one or more ofhis sons a west Semitic name ending in -YH that honors YHWH. That’s my central contention on this thread. 5. You wrote: “BNYHW son of YHWYD( another of David’scontemporaries (mentioned a few times)….” That name does not end in -YH. On this thread, I am trying to focus onpersonal names of individual characters in the Bible that end in -YH. 6. You wrote: “Go to 1 Chronicles, the first ten chaptersare deadly to read—all they are are genealogies. So we find before David )YH1:40, (ZRYH 2:8, CRWYH 2:16.” Yes, there are dozens of names in Chronicles that end with -YH,many of which [though not all of which] are west Semitic names that honorYHWH. But Chronicles comes long after IISamuel in the Bible, even though Chronicles in part covers time periods beforeKing David. I am only talking aboutbooks in the Bible through II Samuel, not later books, as to whether there are individualcharacters who have names ending in -YH that honor YHWH. 7. Karl, although youmake many interesting comments, most of them [other than your brief mention ofUriah] do not go directly to either of my twin contentions, which are that (i) thefirst book in the Bible that has as the personal name of an individualcharacter a west Semitic name ending in -YH that honors YHWH is II Samuel, andthat (ii) King David should rightly get the credit for being the first personin the Bible to give to one or more of his sons a west Semitic name ending in -YHthat honors YHWH. Jim Stinehart Evanston, Illinois
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