Language:
English
Year of publication:
2019
Titel der Quelle:
Journal of Hebrew Scriptures
Angaben zur Quelle:
19,9 (2019) 10 pp.
Keywords:
Bible. Language, style
;
Hebrew language, Biblical Terms and phrases
;
Akkadian language Influence on Hebrew
;
Sumerian language Influence on foreign languages
Abstract:
The Hebrew word ᵓĕlīlîm is usually explained as the plural of the Hebrew adjective ᵓĕlīl (“useless, vain”), hence a dysphemism describing idols. However, the ancient versions did not understand the word this way. The word more plausibly is a loanword from the Akkadian illilu, itself a borrowing from Sumerian. The earliest attestations of ᵓĕlīlîm in Hebrew appear in Isaiah often as part of code-switching to signal the foreignness of the word itself.
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