Re: Babel in the east or not?

At 7:10 pm -0500 19/12/98, Sally Caves wrote:
>On Sat, 19 Dec 1998, Steg Belsky wrote:
>
>> But it's *not* "to" - it says *from*, explicitly!
>>
>> _vayehi benas`am MI-qedem_.
>>
>> MI- = from
>>
>> It's as simple as that.  I don't know from where all these translations
>> came up with "to".
Geography?

The plain of Shinar is, as Sally says, in the Tigris-Euphrates basin.  The
descendants of Noah are supposed to have lived in the Ararat region which
is to the north-west of Shinar.  Thus if they were travelling from Ararat
to Shinar they'd be travelling _towards_ east unless, of course, they took
a circular route.

In any case, I thought the term 'miqeddem' was vague in Hebrew - even the
King James Version though translating it as "from the east" gives
"eastwards" as an alternative reading in its marginalia.  Or is 'qeddem'
the normal Hebrew for east?

Ray.