2 August 2017

This post is part of a broader project to make a modified online version of the Brown-Driver-Briggs dictionary. See bdb-project.

Aleph Bet Bet is a stem related to the concepts of freshness, or brightness. It has an Assyrian cognate, ababu.

EB

From this stem, we get the word eb, which would be spelled, hypothetically aleph-tsere-beth, although it never appears alone in that spelling. It is a noun, presumably masculine, although it never appears in a context which would make its grammatical gender clear. It means freshness, fresh green. It appears in Job 8:12, which described a reed as odennu b’ibbo, “while yet in its freshness.” In the plural it takes on the concrete meaning green shoots, as in the phrase b’ibbei hannachal, [to see] the green shoots in the valley, which appears in Song 6:11.

These two are the only occurrences of this word ib in the Bible.

ABIB

From this stem, we also get the word abib, spelled aleph-kamatz-bet-hiriq-yod-bet. It is a masculine noun, as can be seen from its usage in Leviticus 2:14. It is a collective noun.

(1) fresh, young ears of barley, as in Exodus 9:13. It appears without the definite article in Leviticus 2:14 — minchat bikkurim l’YHWH abib qaluy.

(2) chodesh haabib is the month of ear-forming, or of growing green, Abib, the month of Exodus and passover (Exodus 13:4; 23:15; 34:18, 18 (JE); Deuteronomy 16:1, 1). It is the first month of the year, approximately equivalent to April, harishon, hachodesh harishon in P. See Dillmann on Exodus 12:2. It is equivalent to the post-exilic month of Nisan.

The occurrences above are every mention of abib in the Bible.