First Records of Thermal Springs

Genesis 36:24  •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 8
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1DR. P. JAMES is right in preferring the Revised to the A. V. of Gen. 36:2424And these are the children of Zibeon; both Ajah, and Anah: this was that Anah that found the mules in the wilderness, as he fed the asses of Zibeon his father. (Genesis 36:24). Anah found, not “mules” but, “hot springs” in the wilderness. So the Vulgate rendered the word from early days correctly, followed by Wiclif and the Wiclifite, and in the Douay Bible. The Septuagint makes the word an unmeaning proper name, τὸν 'lαμεὶν (τοὺ 'l Aq. et Sym.), having lost the sense; and later Jews were misled by the Talmud, which loved to indulge in fables about “mules,” some of them filthy as in this case. The Samaritan text for yemim has Emim as in Gen. 14:55And in the fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer, and the kings that were with him, and smote the Rephaims in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzims in Ham, and the Emims in Shaveh Kiriathaim, (Genesis 14:5), which as an appellative means “terrors” or the like. This seems to be the source of “giants” in the Targum of Onkelos; and so the Pseudo-Jonathan.
The word yemim is never used for “mules.” “Mule” in Hebrew is peredi or pirdah). Rechesh is also translated so, and “dromedary” too, as well as “swift beast.” Etymologically Y. is akin to “hot,” and modern philologists agree in the meaning of “hot springs.” Indeed the horse does not seem to have entered Palestine till the days of David, when we first hear also of “mules,” which were probably imported as the law forbade any such mixture (Lev. 19:1919Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed: neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee. (Leviticus 19:19)). In the N. T. we do not read of the mule, but of the ass used as in ancient times.
But any of our readers who might like to peruse this little treatise of the discovery of Thermal waters will find reliable information in Dr. J.'s pamphlet.