Thursday, April 18, 2024

Bernard F. Batto on Jeremiah 49:21 Identifying the Reed Sea with the Red Sea

  

Jeremiah prophesies of the dying babies of Edom will cry, and “the sound of screaming shall be heard at the yam sûp.” A glace at a map indicates that the yam (sea) referred to is again the north-eastern finger of what we call the Red Sea and that yam sûp refers to the body of water we call the Red Sea. (For other examples, see Numbers 21:4 and with less certainty, Numbers 14:25; Deuteronomy 1:40 and 2:1; and Judges 11:16.) (Bernard F. Batto, “Red Sea or Reed Sea? What Yam Sûp Really Means” [BAR July/August 1984] repr. Approaches to the Bible: The Best of Bible Review, ed. Harvey Minkoff [Washington, D.C. Biblical Archaeology Society, 1994], 1:292)