Genesis 46:17 names him as a son of Asher. According to Gesenius, the name means "prosperity". as does his father's; only, as so often with Gesenius' definitions, he fails to give a root and is, in this case, relying on the later meaning that we find in the Psalms. Asher's other sons, Yishva and Yishvi, do mean precisely that however: "prosperity". Given that Yimnah was his first-born, it would be quite logical to presume the root was Yaman (ימן), as in Bin-Yamin (בנימן), the Yehudit equivalent of the English "right-hand-man", which denotes the eldest - or in ultimogenitural societies the youngest - in his role as counsellor and Dauphin. The only plausible alternative is Manah (מנה) with the common Yud (י) prefix. Manah = "to divide" or "to apportion", whence "a meal", as in the "manna" eaten by the Beney Yisra-El in the Mosaic wilderness.
Yimnah's younger siblings were Yishva (ישוה), Yishvi (ישוי), Beri'ah (בריעה) and Serach (שרח). Yishvah and Yishvi are clearly the same person differently spelled. Serach their sister is almost certainly an error for - or possibly a dialect variation of - Sarah (שרה), the later scribes having mistaken the Hey (ה) for a Chet (ח).
While we know the names of the great divine quartet through the Greek - as Isis, Osiris, Horus and Set - the original Egyptian gives Osher for Osiris, which Yehudit may then render as Asher, though Osher has an Ayin (עשר) and Asher an Aleph (אשר). Isis is likewise a regional name for the moon-mother, which in Egypt would be Eshet = Woman, in Yehudit Asherah (with an Aleph) or Sarah.
If Yimnah is indeed the feminine of Yamin, as Dinah is of Dan and Yehudit of Yehudah, are there feminine equivalents of the other tribes?
Copyright © 2019 David Prashker
All rights reserved
The Argaman Press
No comments:
Post a Comment