Letushim

לטושים


Genesis 25:3 names him as a son of Dedan, father Av-Raham, mother Keturah.

Dedan (the Dodanim) is thought by some scholars to be an error for Rodanim (רדנים), the Reysh (
ר) and Dalet (ד) being easily mistaken for each other. Rodanim would make them inhabitants of the island of Rhodes (Rhodos), which is a Greek island, west of Kena'an, and therefore unlikely to have been mothered by Keturah, all of whose others sons are Arabian. For those who think the Dalet is correct, the strongest candidate is the Dardanians; but these occupied an area of western Anatolia, right opposite Galipoli, so themselves very Greek, and Anatolia is surely too far north for the Arabia of Keturah's progeny. My answer can be found on the page for Dedan.

Letushim itself comes from the root Latash (לטש) = "to hammer/forge". Unusually for Yehudit, which builds nouns and verbs and adjectives and adverbs from roots, the word for a blacksmith is either NAPACH (נַפָּח) or CHARASH BARZEL (חָרָשׁ בַּרזֶל), both of which appear in Isaiah 54:16 as CHARASH NOPHEYACH BE EYSH PECHAM - חָרָשׁ נֹפֵחַ בְּאֵשׁ פֶּחָם - "the smith who blows the fire of coals".




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