XRB and XWRB in Exodus: Common Word or Proper Name?
On this thread I would like to explore the Biblical Hebrew grammar
question of whether XRB and XWRB in Exodus are, unlike in Deuteronomy, common
words, rather than being proper names. It is my contention that in the Book of
Exodus (though not in Deuteronomy), XRB and XWRB mean “desert”, as a
common word with a generic meaning, and do not function as a proper name. If
that theory of the case is correct, then it should be no particular surprise
if the three references in Exodus to XRB or XWRB are referring to three
entirely different desert mountains, which are not necessarily located
anywhere close to each other.
Here is the KJV translation of the three verses in Exodus that contain
either XRB or XWRB as a noun (or adjective, but not as a verb), which I have
modified as to XRB/XWRB to show my own interpretation of that key word (and
I have not transliterated MDYN):
“Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of MDYN:
and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to [the]
mountain of God in [the] desert [XRB-H].” Exodus 3: 1 [I have translated
the directional suffix -H here as “in”, since “to” or “toward” don’t work
well here in English.] [Ultra-literally: “…came to mountain the God to
desert.” Paraphrase: “…came to the God-like desert mountain.”]
“Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in [the] desert
[B-XRB]; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it,
that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of
Israel.” Exodus 17: 6
“And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by
[the] mountain [in the] desert [XWRB].” Exodus 33: 6. [Or, reversing the
Hebrew word order for smoother English, and so that the English words “in the”
need not be implied: “…by [the] desert [XWRB] mountain”.]
It is my opinion that (i) there is no reference to “Mt. Horeb” in Exodus,
(ii) the above three passages in Exodus do not use a proper name for “Mt.
Sinai”, but rather XRB or XWRB in all three above cases is a common noun
with the generic meaning of “desert”, and (iii) which desert mountain is
being referenced in each of the above three verses can only be determined by
context.
Going beyond grammar now, my own view is that only the third reference, at
Exodus 33: 6, is in context a reference to Mt. Sinai in the southern
Sinai. In context, the second reference, at Exodus 17: 6, is to a desert
mountain situated between Egypt and Mt. Sinai, being a place that Moses and the
Israelites reached in the Sinai long before they got to Mt. Sinai at Exodus
19: 1. And in my opinion, the first desert mountain referenced above, at
Exodus 3: 1, is in context located nowhere in the general vicinity of Egypt
or the Sinai or Arabia. What all three of those mountains share in common
is that they are XRB or XWRB, that is, they are “desert” mountains.
My key question on this thread is whether people agree or disagree that in
the above three passages from Exodus, XRB/XWRB is functioning as a common
word with the generic meaning of “desert”, rather than functioning as a
proper name [either “Mt. Horeb” or “Mt. Sinai”].
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois
_______________________________________________
b-hebrew mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
