Yoel Elitzur

This book is an improved translation of a Hebrew book that was published in 2014 and is based on conversations given on a weekly radio program and later expanded into articles. In this book there are 62 chapters, devoted to Torah parashot and holidays. Each chapter discusses a topic in biblical and historical geography, or topics close to this field. I have tried to deal with issues that have a point of novelty of my own or others', without repeating things that one can read in an encyclopedia or on websites. The book is intended for researchers and scholars but also for an ordinary educated person. I refrained from burdening the reader with long footnotes and multiple references, and contented myself with a short list of main sources and studies at the end of each chapter.
My basic approach, on which I was educated by my father and mentor the late Prof. Yehuda Elitzur, is an approach that believes in the sanctity of the Bible and its authenticity on the one hand, and uses all the the tools provided by linguistics, history, geography and archeology on the other.
From the innovations in the book: Unknown correspondence between Judith Krause-Marquet the excavator of the mound near Deir Dibwan ('Ai') with Prof. Samuel Klein after no suitable remains were found at the site, The word MUL which probably means the opposite of what is accepted today and resulting geographical interpretations in the Bible, NAHAL EITAN which is a rocky canyon and not a perennial stream, the location of AZAZEL based on both Rabbinic and Christian sources, the background to the name of 'Tel Aviv' in Babylon in the days of Ezekiel - and in the Land of Israel in the early twentieth century CE.

This volume, published by the Academy of the Hebrew Language and Yad Ben-Zvi in 2012, is the second improved edition of the Hebrew version of 'Ancient Place Names in the Holy Land: Preservation and History' (2004, Eisenbrauns & Magnes). As a rule the Hebrew version is more developed and updated than the English volume, and the second Hebrew edition includes hundreds of corrections and additions to the first one.

This book contains 62 chapters, each for one Parashah, Haftarah or Holiday, cocentrating as a rule in the geographical aspect. I made an effort to avoid repeating issues well-known to learned people and tried to deal with topics in which I can present an innovative view (of me or of others). In order to make the book appropriate for a broad  diversity of population, it was not composed in the so-called 'scientific writing' and it does not contain footnotes. However, every chapter ends with a bibliographical list.
An English version of this book is now in a process of publication.

As a topographical term, the Hebrew word katef, literally: 'shoulder,' denotes a topographical feature similar in form to a human shoulder: an elevated flat area with a slope alongside it. As used in the Bible, this term is unique in its usage and distribution. Katef is used exclusively in descriptions of boundaries and is invariably associated with a direction perpendicular to that of the boundary. Hence this direction describes the place where the 'shoulder' breaks off. Accordingly, the phrase (Numbers 34:11) denotes the eastern break of the Golan Heights, that is, the descent to present-day Nahr er-Ruqqad. The term occurs nine times in the Bible, all occurrences except one in Joshua 15 and 18, and describes the boundaries of Benjamin and northern Judah. As there is no topographical justification to distinguish between Benjamin and other tribes, or to such a uniform treatment of all parts of Benjaminite territory, it follows that the term was unique to the Benjamin...

Four facets of names of God reveal clear internal development within the classical biblical period: (1) El Shaddai was used in oral speech only until the Exodus from Egypt. In later periods, the name Shaddai existed as an archaic term used, infrequently, by prophets and poets. (2) The expression YHWH Tzva'ot (the Lord of Hosts) originated only in the time of the book of Samuel, and was in use from then until the compostion of the books of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. (3) The first two cases of the theophoric element YHW/YH/YW in personal names occurred just before and during the life of Moses. From that point, it increased gradually in frequency until the period of the late monarchy, by which time it was included in more than half of all personal names. (4) The name indicating lordship, Adonai, was initially a term of supplicatory address and became a name of God in the eighth century BCE.

... OF THE DEAD SEA -49-4414) , 4f74"-- AMOS FRUMKIN AND YOEL ELITZUR 7 Genesis ... How can a place be both a sea and a valley? Authors Amos Frumkin and Yoe! E/itzur, in the accompanying article, explain that the answer lies in the ever-changing level of the Dead Sea. ...

Prof. Y.M Grintz’s hypothesis that the magnificent ossuary found together with the Aramaic inscription of Abba son of Eleazar the priest “the oppressed, the pursued, who was born in Jerusalem and went to exile into Babylonia, and carried up (for interment) Mattathi[ah] son of Jud[ah] and I buried him in the cave which I purchased by the writ,” belonged to Mattathias Antigonus, the last Hasmonean king, received compelling scientific corroboration in a television program broadcast in December 1974. On the program, the anthropologist Prof. Nicu Hass, who analyzed the bones, presented a sketch of a decapitated skull that in his view had belonged to a tall 25-year-old man, who was tortured until he lost consciousness, after which he was beheaded, a description that is consistent with the manner in which Mattathias Antigonus was executed, as described by Josephus and Dio Cassius. However, these findings were not published scientifically and were forgotten. Nicu Hass suffered a head injury a month after the broadcast and never regained consciousness. The bones, left in cardboard boxes in his office, were reexamined by Prof. Patricia Smith who maintained that the decapitated skull had belonged to a short old woman. In light of her findings, a general consensus took root in the scientific community that rejected Grintz’s analysis. The current paper will (1) survey the history of the subject, including the comments made on the television program that are as yet unpublished, and argue that Hass’s diagnosis is preferable; (2) add unpublished information or information not properly published (a second ossuary found years later apparently containing the bones of Abba the priest, an examination of the caves and the order in which they were dug, the return of the bones of Mattathias son of Judah to their resting place; (3) advance a hypothesis that will try to identify Abba the priest and his family with a family mentioned in Josephus Flavius’s Antiquities of the Jews.

Prof. Y.M Grintz’s hypothesis that the magnificent ossuary found together with the Aramaic inscription of Abba son of Eleazar the priest “the oppressed, the pursued, who was born in Jerusalem and went to exile into Babylonia, and carried up (for interment) Mattathi[ah] son of Jud[ah] and I buried him in the cave which I purchased by the writ,” belonged to Mattathias Antigonus, the last Hasmonean king, received compelling scientific corroboration in a television program broadcast in December 1974. On the program, the anthropologist Prof. Nicu Hass, who analyzed the bones, presented a sketch of a decapitated skull that in his view had belonged to a tall 25-year-old man, who was tortured until he lost consciousness, after which he was beheaded, a description that is consistent with the manner in which Mattathias Antigonus was executed, as described by Josephus and Dio Cassius. However, these findings were not published scientifically and were forgotten. Nicu Hass suffered a head injury a month after the broadcast and never regained consciousness. The bones, left in cardboard boxes in his office, were reexamined by Prof. Patricia Smith who maintained that the decapitated skull had belonged to a short old woman. In light of her findings, a general consensus took root in the scientific community that rejected Grintz’s analysis. The current paper will (1) survey the history of the subject, including the comments made on the television program that are as yet unpublished, and argue that Hass’s diagnosis is preferable; (2) add unpublished information or information not properly published (a second ossuary found years later apparently containing the bones of Abba the priest, an examination of the caves and the order in which they were dug, the return of the bones of Mattathias son of Judah to their resting place; (3) advance a hypothesis that will try to identify Abba the priest and his family with a family mentioned in Josephus Flavius’s Antiquities of the Jews.

As a result of a mistaken interpretation of the Madaba map, biblical Nahal Zered is often identified in the scho- ̣ larship as Wadi Al-hsa which marks the boundary between Moab and Edom southeast of the Dead Sea. In reality, the brook of Zered does not appear on the Madaba map and the sole documentary evidence available for its identification is the Bible, which situates Nahal Zered near Nah ̣ al Arnon. The author proposes Wa ̣ ̄di Nkheile, which spills into the Arnon from the southeast, as the most likely candidate for the biblical Zered. This identification perhaps also sheds light on the conflicting biblical sources regarding the question of whether or not the Moabites allowed the Israelites to pass through their territory en route to Canaan. In the postbiblical era Nahal Zered appears in the boundaries baraita (baraita de-teh ̣ umin) as part of the eastern border of ̣ the land of Israel and the article demonstrates that the identification of Nahal Zered as Wadi Nkheile is consis...

As a result of a mistaken interpretation of the Madaba map, biblical Nahal Zered is often identified in the scho- ̣ larship as Wadi Al-hsa which marks the boundary between Moab and Edom southeast of the Dead Sea. In reality, the brook of Zered does not appear on the Madaba map and the sole documentary evidence available for its identification is the Bible, which situates Nahal Zered near Nah ̣ al Arnon. The author proposes Wa ̣ ̄di Nkheile, which spills into the Arnon from the southeast, as the most likely candidate for the biblical Zered. This identification perhaps also sheds light on the conflicting biblical sources regarding the question of whether or not the Moabites allowed the Israelites to pass through their territory en route to Canaan. In the postbiblical era Nahal Zered appears in the boundaries baraita (baraita de-teh ̣ umin) as part of the eastern border of ̣ the land of Israel and the article demonstrates that the identification of Nahal Zered as Wadi Nkheile is consistent with the geographical logic of the baraita

... OF THE DEAD SEA -49-4414) , 4f74"-- AMOS FRUMKIN AND YOEL ELITZUR 7 Genesis ... How can a place be both a sea and a valley? Authors Amos Frumkin and Yoe! E/itzur, in the accompanying article, explain that the answer lies in the ever-changing level of the Dead Sea. ...

The Dead Sea, the Holocene terminal lake of the Jordan River catchment, has fluctuated during its history in response to climatic change. Biblical records, calibrated by radiocarbon-dated geological and archaeological evidence, reinforce and add detail to the chronology of the lake-level fluctuations. There are three historically documented phases of the Dead Sea in the Biblical record: low lake levels ca. 2000–1500 B.C.E. (before common era); high lake levels ca. 1500–1200 B.C.E.; and low lake levels between ca. 1000 and 700 B.C.E. The Biblical evidence indicates that during the dry periods the southern basin of the Dead Sea was completely dry, a fact that was not clear from the geological and archaeological data alone.

An ancient rock-hewn sacrifice altar has been discovered in the year 2003 in Giv'at Har'el 1.5 km west of Tel Shiloh. The discovery was published in Hebrew (in Judea and Samaria Research Studies 12) and in English (in PEQ 135 and in BAR 30). The publication in BAR focuses on the human aspect of the people who discovered the artifact and published it and the settkers of the region around the site. It also contains very good photographs and tables.
The altar is one of three rock-hewn sacrifice altars known in the Land of Israel and the only one which has four horns. Its dimensions and horns are similar to those of the altar of the Tabernacle (Ex 27:1-2). Its location below the top of the hill might indicate that it was devoted to monotheistic cult rather than to a pagan one, that chacterized by sacrificing "on the high mountains and on the hills".
After some years of negligence the site was recently (2020) renovated. The altar is located inside the settlement, above a steep cliff, overlooking Nahal Shiloh and one of its springs. Near the site there are a restaurant and a winery. Waze can guide visitors to the place.

המילה 'מדה' משמשת גם במשמעות של 'הלכה', וגם 'מסכת'. לאור זאת יש להבין את דברי בן בג בג במשנה האחרונה במסכת אבות כדברי שבח למסכת זו המחנכת את האדם להתנהגות מוסרית וטובה והמלצה להגות בה תמיד כי אין בכל סדרי המשנה מסכת טובה ממנה. בן הא הא משיב לבן בג בג בפתגם שהיה ידוע לכל: "לפום צערא אגרא", כלומר, עם כל הכבוד למוסר ולדרך ארץ, לא יזכה לכתר תורה אלא מי שיתייגע במסכתות קשות וכבדות כמו עירובין, יבמות, נגעים ואהלות

This article, based on lectures of my late father Prof. Yehuda Elitzur, provides examples to the literary phenomenon of key words that are often repeated in biblical passages. In this way the Scripture sharpen the main idea of the passage or hints to an idea that from some reason could not be uttered explicitly. The root שב"ת is a main keyword in Leviticus 23-26, and that is the reason why the word שבת is used here also in the sense of 'the 15th day of the month' parallel to Akkadian shabattu

In biblical poetry 'nahar' and 'nahal' are parallels, but in prose passages 'nahar'  is a huge body of water, always out of the borders of the Land of Israel, while 'nahal' is a local wadi with or without water. 'nehar Mizraim' is the Nile (in Gen 15 the branch of Pelusium) whereas 'nahal Mizraim' is Wadi el-'Arish. The Jordan River and the Yarkon are larger than 'nahal' and smaller than 'nahar'; sometimes they are called 'mayim', 'mey'.
Concerning 'nahal eitan' (Deut 21:4) there is an interesting dispute between ancient sources (until the 11th century CE) and later translators and authors; the former interpreted it 'a rocky wadi or canion' while the latter believed that the expression meant 'a perennial stream', an interpretation that influenced Modern Hebrew. The current article supports the opinion of the ancients.

'emeq in BH never refers to a wadi or gorge. In addition there are a number of examples of 'emeq that refer to a plateau located in high areas. A linguist might offer some suggestions concerning the history of the word, but for the Bible student this is irrelevant. In this case as in other cases etymology could do more interfere than to assist.

השערתו של פרופ' י"מ גרינץ שהגלוסקמה המפוארת שנמצאה יחד עם הכתובת הארמית של אבה בן אלעזר הכהן 'המעונה והנרדף שנולד בירושלם וגלה לבבל והעלה את מתתיה בן יהודה וקברתיו במערה שקניתי בשטר' שייכת למתתיה אנטיגונוס המלך החשמונאי האחרון,  זכתה לאישוש מדעי משכנע בתוכנית טלויזיה ששודרה בחנוכה תשל"ה (דצמבר 1974). בתוכנית זו הציג האנתרופולוג פרופ' ניקו האס שחקר את העצמות, שרטוט של גולגולת ערופת ראש השייכת לפי אבחנתו לאיש גבה קומה כבן 25, שעונה עד שאיבד את הכרתו ואז נכרת ראשו, תיאור התואם את מתתיה אנטיגונוס והאופן שבו הוצא להורג לפי עדותם של יוסף בן מתתיהו ודיו קסיוס. אולם ממצאים אלו לא פורסמו פרסום מדעי ונשכחו. ניקו האס נפגע בראשו כחודש לאחר התוכנית ולא חזר לתפקד. את העצמות שהיו בארגזי קרטון במשרדו קיבלה לבחינה מחודשת פרופ' פטרישיה סמית והיא שייכה את הגולגולת הערופה לאשה זקנה נמוכת קומה. לאור ממצאיה נשתרשה במחקר הדעה שדחתה את ניתוחו של גרינץ.  המאמר הנוכחי: א. סוקר את תולדות הטיפול בנושא כולל דברים שנאמרו בתוכנית הטלויזיה ולא פורסמו אחר כך, וטוען שיש להעדיף את אבחנתו של האס. ב. מוסיף נתונים שלא פורסמו או שלא פורסמו כראוי (גלוסקמה שנייה שנמצאה לאחר שנים ובה כנראה עצמות אבה הכהן, בדיקה של המערות וסדר חציבתן, החזרת עצמות מתתיה בן יהודה למקומן). ג. מעלה השערה המנסה לזהות את אבה הכהן ומשפחתו עם משפחה שנזכרה ב'קדמוניות היהודים' ליוסף בן מתתיהו.

Four facets of names of God reveal clear internal development within the classical biblical period: (1) El Shaddai was used in oral speech only until the Exodus from Egypt. In later periods, the name Shaddai existed as an archaic term used, infrequently, by prophets and poets. (2) The expression YHWH Tzva'ot (the Lord of Hosts) originated only in the time of the book of Samuel, and was in use from then until the compostion of the books of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. (3) The first two cases of the theophoric element YHW/YH/YW in personal names occurred just before and during the life of Moses. From that point, it increased gradually in frequency until the period of the late monarchy, by which time it was included in more than half of all personal names. (4) The name indicating lordship, Adonai, was initially a term of supplicatory address and became a name of God in the eighth century BCE.

'shloshet ha-naphet' (Josh 17:11) should be interpreted 'three (cities) in each naphah'` like 'shesh ha-ma'arakhet'  = 'six (loaves) to a row' (Lev 24:6) as suggested orally by Haim Lahmish, and contrary to his own article 'Ein Dor and Shloshet Hanafet'.

"Gilgal" and "Geliloth" are synonymous (Josh 15:7; 18:17); linguistically, as well, these are two parallel forms of a double-letter root. ‫גלילות‬ and ‫גלילה‬ are known only in relation to the Jordan Valley-Dead Sea region and the land of the Philistines. Therefore, it may be assumed that ‫גלילות‬ meant "plain". ‫,ככר‬ and apparently also ‫,מעגל‬ are words that literally mean "circle", but are also used in the sense of "plain". In the area of the Gilgal to the east of Jericho there was a known hallowed and cultic site. Unlike the prevalent view, the name "Gilgal" itself has no cultic association.
RÉSUMÉ
Gilgal et Gueliloth sont synonymes (Jos 15,7 ; 18,17). ‫גלילות‬ et ‫גלילה‬ sont des mots connus uniquement dans la vallée du Jourdain, dans la région de la mer Morte et dans le pays des Philistins. Ainsi peut-on considérer que le terme ‫גלילות‬ signifiait plaine. ‫ככר‬ et également ‫מעגל‬ sont des mots qui, apparemment, signifient cercle, mais sont également employés dans le sens de plaine. Dans la région de Gilgal, à l'Est de Jéricho, il y avait un site cultuel célèbre pour son caractère sacré. À l'opposé, il n'y a aucune connotation de culte ou de sacralité dans le nom Gilgal.

A. In the Mishnah and the Talmud in Tractate Eruvin, there are several attestations to an actual marking of the teḥum of Shabbat.
B. It may be assumed that, similar to milestones and the tombstones, this marking was either made by engraving or by dyeing. In the latter case it could be erased.
C. The important finding of Ehrlich and Shavtiel can teach that in other cases too - Gezer and Usha - the marking should be understood as teḥum  Shabbat.
D. There is evidence in the Mishna of long hiding systems that were considered for the purpose of calculating the teḥum  Shabbat.

In medieval Arabic sources, the long vowels ū and  ī were often perceived as uw and iy respectively, and thus the entire alphabet could be seen as purely consonantal. It seems that such a perception existed in Ancient Hebrew and Aramaic as well. Evidence of this can be found in forms such as שְוָקִים, דְּוָדִים, עֲיָרִים, whose grammatical pattern is identical with that of the "segolates". The next stage was addition of the glottal consonants ה (in Hebrew) or א (in Aramaic) afrer final vowels. This stage has also a parallel in Arabic, namely forms like samāˀ "sky", bināˀ "building".

At present, the distinction between the Standard Biblical Hebrew of the preexilic period and the Late Biblical Hebrew of the postexilic period is part of a wide scholarly consensus. I argue that linguistic changes should be expected in SBH as well, as every spoken language experiences linguistic development at every stage. This article presents nine linguistic or lexical features in which the language of the Pentateuch differs from that of the rest of the Hebrew Bible. All these features are scattered in texts that differ in style, genre, and content; thus the most plausible explanation for their distribution is the diachronic one. These data must be taken into account by scholars who address the dating of the books of the Hebrew Bible.

The distinction between the Standard Biblical Hebrew of the preexilic period and Late Biblical Hebrew of the postexilic one is at present widely accepted in the scholarship. Some scholars have provided evidence for the claim that various linguistic layers can be discerned in Standard Biblical Hebrew as well. As a proponent of the latter approach, I present here ten examples of linguistic developments that most probably occurred during the preexilic period, which can perhaps be linked to historical and archeological data. Thus, the discussion of this significant topic advances the discussion of the dating of the books of the Hebrew Bible from relative to absolute dating.

In this study all the occurrences of the pattern qittul in the Mishna according to MS Kaufmann were collected, classified and discussed. Of which, 109 are derivatives of Pi'el, 7 of Nitpa'al, 16 of Qal and 2 of Hif'il; 7 have no connection to verbs. The findings were compared to approaches of Epstein, Segal,, Kutscher  and Ben Hayyim.

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JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

In this paper 6 names of Jerusalem are discussed: 1. שלם. identificated with Jerusalem as early as Ps 76:2, means presumably place of peace and tranquility. 2. ירושלם probably *wuru + שלם. The element *wuru known also in the place names ירואל, מוריה, מורה was perhaps related to a tpographic or agricultural feature. 3. יבוס. was in use between Joshua and David. 4. ציון. before it became a literary-prophetic nickname, it had been in use only for a short time relating to the the adjacent vicinity, its meaning being perhaps a semi-arid ground. 5. צדק.the existence of  this name might be concluded from the names Melciedek and Adonizedek, the  altering of Mathaniah to Zedekiah and some prophetic expressions. 6. קדש. the parallelism  קדש//ציון in Ps 20:3 may indicate that קדש was a name of Jerusalem, from which an underground stream yielded in late generations the Arabic al-Quds.

In this paper I investigate 4 topics in the field of the divine names in biblical Hebrew, and their impact on the question of the dating of the writing/editing of the books of the Hebrew Bible: 1. El Shadday. This name occurs in prose writing only in Genesis-Exodus, always citing direct speech. In addition it was the theophoric element in three pre-exodus personal names. Later, it is found  rarely, almost always without El, only in the role of literary borrowing. 2. צבאות 'The Lord of Hosts'. This title is very common in the Scriptures (285 times), but only from the beginning of the Book of Samuel on. In the Pentateuch, Joshua and Judges it is absolutely absent. The only plausible explanation for this phenomenon is that this title was created after these books were completed. 3. Theophoric names that contain the element YHW are increasing gradually from two in the Torah until they become the majority some time before the destruction of the First Temple. 4. The divine name ADNY began to be used as an objective name of God only from the prophecies of Isaiah and Amos on, and in the historical books, not before the Book of Kings.
All four issues apparently indicate that the order of the composing /editing of the books of the Bible was in accordance with the picture depicted by the Bible itself – Genesis first, then the other books of the Torah, then Joshua, Judges and Samuel, and ultimately the prophets and the Book of Kings.

Arab villages and ruins that bear the Deir-X type name are common in some districts in Israel and neighboring countries. Since the Arabic dayr means ‘convent’ or ‘monastery,’ many scholars have assumed that these villages are located on the sites of Byzantine monasteries. However, the great number of such villages and ruins is incompatible with the presumed number of monasteries. Moreover, most of these villages are Muslim and contain no evidence of ancient monasteries. In addition, the second component of these names is usually an Arabic word or name. In our view, the solution hinges on the meaning of דֵיר or דַּירָא in Aramaic dialects, from which most Christian concepts in Arabic were taken. In Aramaic, דיר commonly means ‘habitat of shepherds’ or ‘farm.’ After the establishment of the Christian coenobium, monasteries in which monks lived together, farming and herding flocks, Syriac – and probably also Babylonian Aramaic – developed the meaning of ‘convent’ or ‘monastery’ for deir, whence the word entered Arabic. The Arabic toponyms of the Deir-X type apparently preserved the ancient meaning of the word. They are more frequent in districts in which isolated farmsteads were in use. One interesting conclusion of the current study, is that unlike modern Hebrew, Mishnaic Hebrew (according to reliable manuscripts), used the word דיר with the same vocalization (דֵּיר and not דִּיר) and meaning as the Aramaic did.

נסקרו מאמרים, שנושאיהם העיקריים הם:
יוסף עופר – פירוש של רש"י שהתבסס על נוסח שגוי במקרא
מרדכי סבתו – שינויים שעשה הרמב"ן בסדר הפסוקים
חננאל מאק – אברבנאל על אחאב ואיזבל כבבואה של פרננד ואיזבל
יואל בן נון – הבנות חדשות בעשרת הדברות
יהושע רייס – משה ויהושע ושבטי עבר הירדן
דניאל שוורץ – ניתוח מקורי של פרשת פילגש בגבעה
נח חכם – מוטיב שפיכות הדמים בסיפורי דוד
יונתן' גרוסמן - מבנה כיאסטי בנבואות עמוס
עמוס פריש – אליטרציה ומבנים לשוניים במזמורי תהלים
שולמית אליצור -  'עלילה' בלשון המקרא וגלגולה בלשון המדרש
חנן אשל – 70 שנות גלות בבל ו-490 השנה בדניאל במגילות קומראן
עוזי פוקס – 'כבושים' במאמר תלמודי והגהות אידיאולוגיות של הגאונים בתלמוד

Teshurah le-‘Amos: Collected Studies in Biblical Exegesis Presented to Amos Hakham, ed. M. Bar-Asher, N. Hacham, and Y. Ofer, Alon Shevut: Tevunot, 2007, 581 pp.

The twenty-seven variegated articles by leading scholars in this collection range from original biblical exegesis, to a profound analysis of the doctrines of the classical exegetes and other medieval sages, to literary and linguistic studies of the Bible. This volume contains three parts: “The Gates of Interpretation,” “The Gates of Bible,” and “The Gates of Wisdom.”
The article surveys eleven of the papers in this collection, of which comments on several are summarized here. First I note the view of Rashi as a “pedagogic homilist” presented by Avraham Grossman and Elie Assis in their contributions. I suggest the possibility that various trends they attribute to Rashi actually derive from talmudic and midrashic doctrines.
Bryna Levy’s discovery regarding Radak’s commentary on Kings is of great interest. She proposes that, regarding the son of the woman of Zarephath whom Elijah revived, Radak first wrote that the son was not quite dead, later himself correcting his commentary and writing that he was absolutely dead. She attributes the initial exegesis to an anti-Christian tack, which shifted during the controversy over Maimonides’ Guide, in which Radak was a participant. Whether Radak himself had a firm opinion on this matter, which he concealed for pedagogical or apologetic reasons, remains an open question.
Sara Japhet examines the expulsion of the foreign women in Ezra’s day from the halakhic perspective. The halakhic aspect could have been more fully realized in my opinion; in addition, the importance of the national-religious aspect was overlooked: the fears of Ezra and the elders that the returnees would be absorbed by the local society. However, her article contains an intriguing sociolinguistic discovery: namely, that for marriage and divorce of the foreign women, the books of Ezra and Nehemiah use specific terminology that is not found in earlier or later sources, aimed at delegitimizing marriage with foreign women.
Moshe Bar-Asher’s contribution treats the word ידיד. Bar-Asher cites evidence that, originally, its meaning was like the passive participle אהוב and that morphologically, the correct vocalization is יָדִיד in the qatil pattern. I suggest that perhaps the difference between qatil and qetil is simply phonological, with both representing the original qatil.
In his thought-provoking article, Haim Sabato compiles instances in which post-talmudic sages retained the customs of the mishnaic and talmudic sages and derived halakhot from Scripture itself through midrashic exegesis. This fascinating article, however, overlooks some historical aspects and uses second-hand citations, which led to some errors.
The most captivating section is found at the end of the book. It tells the story of Amos Hakham who achieved prominence in a single day, on winning the first International Bible Contest in August 1958, and how he came to be a leading biblical scholar and exegete.

Amer Dahamshe, A Local Habitation and a Name: A Literary and Cultural Reading of the Arabic Geographical Names of the Land, Beer-Sheva 2017

The book, based on the author's doctoral dissertation, presents the names of many Arab villages and sites in the Galilee, including marginal and small sites, and focuses on explanations in the field of etiology and popular etymology for these names, carefully recorded by local residents. The author is an Arab born in the Galilee whose mother tongue is Arabic who also specialized in methods of study and academic research and thus has an advantage over Jewish and Christian scholars. However, there are errors or inaccuracies in the book. The main problem in the book is the political trend that is evident throughout the book, which sees the whole country as 'Falstin' and Israel as occupying and dispossessing. In the end, this is more a political manifesto rather than a scientific study.