THE NAME NAPHATH DOR. 



The Old Testament seems to distinguish between Dor and 

 Naphath (or Naphoth) Dor. Whereas in Judg. 1 : 27 and in 1 

 Chron. 7:29 the simpler form "Dor" alone is used, the other 

 passages employ the compound name. Thus, in Josh. 11 : 2 the 

 name is given as ")11 illOJ ' and in 1 Kings 4: 11 as "INl jlSJ • I" 

 Josh. 12:23 the reference is to "ll"! H^^'l ll"!; here the two names 

 are clearly distinct the one from the other. In the obscure phrase, 

 DsD^n ni^'':':^'. of josh. 17:11 (end) it is probable that nD^H (the 

 form of the word is corrupt) has reference to the preceding "1X1 '• 



The most likely explanation of the meaning of the word niD.3 is 

 the one which fconnects it with the old Semitic root fllJ , "to be 

 high ". Thus in Arabic the verb is used for that which is "long and 

 high" (*AJ\t^ JLio !3I 0*.AJ oLi), and we find Yaniif (also written 



Yaniifa, Tantlf, etc.) as the ancient proper name of a mountainous 

 region in North Arabia; see Yfiqut s.v. Similarly the fourth stem 



participle, uA>^-^x , signifies "high", " lofty ", and is used esjjecially 

 of buildings or mountains, also as the proper name of a mountainous 



district, a lofty fortress, and the like. The word for the overtop- 



s - 

 ping hum]) of a camel, Oj-J , comes from this root; as does also the 



form >— ftA J , "surplus", used in the sense of "over and above". 

 Cp. also iiiv-AJ , "His Eminence", used as the title of cardinals'. 

 In the Hebrew^ the original meaning, "be high", seems to have 

 been retained in the fllJ HiD^ - "beautiful in elevation", of Psalm 

 48:3\ Parallel with this meaning, however, and almost entirely 

 supplanting it, arose the use of the verb, principally in the Hiphil, 

 to mean " move to and fro", "brandish". Doubtless this signifi- 

 cation of the root arose from the fact that the brandished object, 



' See the discussion of the passage on pp. 45 flf. 



' Dozy, Supplement aiix Dictionnaires Arabes, 738. 



3 B.D.B., Heb. Lex., 1, II niJ . 



^ So Engl. Rev. Version, Briggs, Baethgen, Duhm (who connects it with 

 KallioKo7-LM>7j = Fair-hill). Wellhausen, however, characterizes the word as 

 "suspicious ", having " no appropi-iate meaning which can be established". 



