History of Dor. 25 



(=Bezirk, Kreis') ; in Josh. 17:11 the absolute pD^^D NH^H 

 occurs. This native Jewish tradition cannot be relied upon in its 

 interpretation of the meaning of the word Naphath; it is valuable, 

 however, in that it indicates that T^^^ must signify a district 

 ("Bezirk, Kreis ") adjoining Dor. 



In the Peshitto of Joshua 11:2; 12 : 23 ; 1 Kings 4: 11 the name 

 is reproduced with no attempt at interpretation as 'o? ^-^ . The 

 form ^^-aJ represents a Hebrew segholate noun. But from a middle 

 weak root tV\^ no such segholate form is permissible. The penulti- 

 mate vowel of nfiJ ' construct T\^^ > must of necessitv be lone: and 



T T -T *■ *^ 



its omission in the Syriac is therefore incorrect. It is quite proba- 

 ble that the Septuagint renderings Na<^c^8<op, Na<^€88(up, Nac^eSwp, 

 Nat^e^a, ^evi/eSSw/a, etc. (with € in the second syllable)" with good 

 reason suggested to the Syriac punctuator' that the form was 

 a Hebrew segholate noun of the qatl type. Hence he used the 

 equivalent Syriac form qHeV. 



In its ^©1 ^-5^ in Joshua 17:11, the Peshitto departs from pre- 



cedent in regard to the word Naphath, in that an attempt is made 

 to translate the troublesome nQ-iH TS^f^^ of that verse. The 

 numeral "three" before nS^H must have seemed to demand a 



rendering of the noun. This t^©! is the plural of l^©! which 

 is defined* as meaning primarily "angulus"; metaphorically it may 



^ Levy, Neuhehr. u. Chald. Worterbuch, s.v.; Dalman, Aram. u. Neuhebr. 

 Worterbuch. 



2 It appears that the e in the second syllable was the vowel used by the 

 Greek translator to indicate the short construct vowel ^ of jH^J . Com- 



- T 



pare the rendering Pa/xe6 (L) for JIJ^'H of Josh. 13: 26— see also Josh. 19:8. — 



- T 



Only in ^sipaS^cjp of I Kings 4:11 (A) do we find a in the second syllable. 



^ It is quite certain that the Syriac translator or translators also used the 

 Greek for comparison. Inasmuch as the Hebrew text was unpointed, it 

 was quite natural for the punctuator to adopt in case of doubt the vowels 

 supplied by the Greek. 



* In Payne Smith's Thesaurus Syriacus 909£waJ is not given at all. This 

 omission should be supplied, and the word listed under both I^aJ and wsoJ ^ 

 with the observation that the Syriac punctuation is due to a mistake. — 

 Another evident oversight in Payne Smith is the omission of any reference 

 to the town name 909. 



= Payne Smith, Thes. Syr. I, Col. 1093, under root ]c"| . 



