26 George Dahl, 



signify " plagae caeli ", and is used " de 7 terrae zonis sive clima- 

 tibus"; the word is also employed in the sense of " prineipes ". 



Quite a difference in meaning between JlQJ , "height" and ^-©l , 

 *'anguli"! The probable explanation of ^©1 is the following: In 

 the Hebrew the word for "corner" is H-^D • the plural is HJlS • 

 The r\\(fl^ preceding n£3^n would seem to the translator to indi- 

 cate that the latter was pluraP. Evidently the Syriac translator 

 interpreted the singular T\^^ in the unpointed Hebrew text as the 

 plural ri^3 , by the easy transposition of ^ and £3 • This H^Q 



would then in the Syriac be translated ^-cl , "angles" or "cor- 

 ners". In the ^€W€.hho}p of Josh. 11: 2; 12: 23 (B text) the transla- 

 tor may have found warrant for transposing the first two conso- 

 nants. Moreover, the five towns he mentions in this verse (i. e. 

 Bethshean, Jibleam, En-dor, Taanach and Megiddo — Dor is omitted 

 in the Syriac), might easily have seemed to him, with his probably 

 rather hazy idea of the relative positions of the places, to form a 



rough triangle, a "three corners" (rr'®!)'^- This supposedly tri- 

 angular shape of the district might have confirmed his faith in the 

 correctness of his rendering. But when Dor is substituted, as it 

 should be, for Endor", this argument from the shape of the district 

 would be weakened. The interpretation of Naphath as "height", 

 we must conclude, best fits the facts and the verses in which the 

 name occurs. 



The peculiar and probably impossible form Jl^^H in r\^^\(^ 

 r\^^'n (in the Hebrew of Joshua 17: 11) requires some explanation. 

 Evidently ri£3^ is in the construct state in the other instances where 

 it is used (viz. in Joshua 11:2; 12:23; 1 Kings 4: 11), and is there- 

 fore to be translated "height of" or "heights of" Dor. As will 

 be shown in the discussion of the verse, JlS^ in Josh. 17:11 was 

 likewise originally a construct form. It seems probable, that is, 

 that we have to do with a marginal gloss, ri§^ HJlt^'p^ ' whose 

 purpose it was to record a variant and superior reading of the 

 name of the third city in the enumeration: Ij^l ri£3^ instead of 



1 See the discussion of Joshua 17: 11 on pp. 45 ff. 



' Cp. Trinacria. 



3 See the discussion of Joshua 17: 11. 



