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Almon Diblathaimah (Hebrew: עַלְמֹן דִּבְלָתָיְמָה) was one of the places the Israelites stopped at during the Exodus. By the name "Almon Diblathaimah" it is referred to only in Numbers 33:46 and 47, in a list of stopping-points during the Exodus.[1] It is usually considered the same place as Beth-diblathaim of Jeremiah 48:22, mentioned in the oracle against Moab.[2][3]
The suffix-he may be read as a locative, for "Almon toward-Diblathaim," in support of which is the Mesha Stele's ". ובת . דבלתן | ובת . בעלמען, and beth-Diblathan and beth-Baal-M'on" and Jeremiah's mention of "Beth-diblathaim . . . and beth-M'on". Baal M'on (Baalmon in some versions) is orthographically identical to the "in Almon" of MT Num. 33:46, and the Peshitta reads Baal M'on in Numbers 33, which suggests the reading "Baalmon toward-Diblathaim". The Talmud agrees that the final he is a locative suffix:[a]
For it was taught: Nehemiah says, "Every word which requires a lamed-prefix [i.e. 'toward'], the Bible [sometimes instead] suffixed a he"; and a teaching of the House of Ishmael, "As in the case of Elim-ah, Mahanaim-ah, Mitzraim-ah, Diblathaim-ah . . ."[4]
The Septuagint, however, does not transcribe a suffix-he: Γελμὼν Δεβλαθαίμ.
Etymology
editEtymologically, the name Beit-Diblathaim is said to refer to "The House of Dried Figs",[5] or else "The House of two fig-cakes."
References
edit- ^ T. K. Cheyne; J. Sutherland Black, eds. (1901) [1899]. "Almon-Diblathaim". Encyclopaedia Biblica: A Critical Dictionary of the Literary, Political, and Religious History, the Archaeology, Geography, and Natural History of the Bible. Vol. 1, A–D. New York: The Macmillan Company.
- ^ ". . . apparently the same as Beth-Diblathaim." T. K. Cheyne; J. Sutherland Black, eds. (1901) [1899]. "Almon-Diblathaim". Encyclopaedia Biblica: A Critical Dictionary of the Literary, Political, and Religious History, the Archaeology, Geography, and Natural History of the Bible. Vol. 1, A–D. New York: The Macmillan Company.
- ^ J. D. Douglas; Merrill C. Tenney (3 May 2011). Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Harper Collins. p. 51. ISBN 978-0-310-49235-1.
- ^ "Yevamot 13b:6". www.sefaria.org. Retrieved 2022-06-17. Printers have seen fit to insert the normal forms inline: "Elim, Elimah, Mahanaim, Mahanaimah . . ." but these are not original.
- ^ Goor, Asaph (1965). "The History of the Fig in the Holy Land from Ancient Times to the Present Day". Economic Botany. 19 (2): 125 (Areas of Cultivation). JSTOR 4252586.
- ^ N.b. that according to y. Megillah 1:9, "Rabbi Simon and Rabbi Samuel b. Nahman would both say, 'The men of Jerusalem would write Jerusalem, Jerusalem-ah, without care. And likewise tzafon (north), tzafon-ah (northward), and teiman (south), teiman-ah (southward)'". R. Nehemiah also reports Jerusalemite practices (b. San. 30a) and may have been a resident. Documentary evidence, including from the Dead Sea Scrolls, confirms that the -ah suffix, while generally a locative in Biblical Hebrew, was sometimes applied to ordinary nominatives in the Second Temple period. See Abraham Geiger, Urschrift p. 233, Saul Lieberman Tarbiz 4(1933) p. 293, Ezekiel Kutscher, Isaiah Scroll, p. 67
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