Almon Diblathaimah (
Hebrew: עַלְמֹן דִּבְלָתָיְמָה) was one of the places the
Israelites stopped at during
the Exodus. By the name "Almon Diblathaimah" it is referred to only in
Numbers 33:46 and 47, in a list of stopping-points during the Exodus.[1] It is usually considered the same place as Beth-diblathaim of
Jeremiah 48:22, mentioned in the oracle against Moab.[2][3]
The suffix-
he may be read as a locative, for "Almon toward-Diblathaim," in support of which is the
Mesha Stele's ". ובת . דבלתן | ובת . בעלמען, and beth-Diblathan and beth-Baal-M'on" and Jeremiah's mention of "Beth-diblathaim . . . and beth-M'on". Baal M'on (Baalmon in some versions) is orthographically identical to the "in Almon" of MT Num. 33:46, and the
Peshitta reads Baal M'on in Numbers 33, which suggests the reading "Baalmon toward-Diblathaim". The
Talmud agrees that the final he is a locative suffix:[a]
For it was taught:
Nehemiah says, "Every word which requires a
lamed-prefix [i.e. 'toward'], the Bible [sometimes instead] suffixed a
he"; and a teaching of the House of
Ishmael, "As in the case of Elim-ah, Mahanaim-ah, Mitzraim-ah, Diblathaim-ah . . ."[4]
The
Septuagint, however, does not transcribe a suffix-
he: Γελμὼν Δεβλαθαίμ.
Etymology
Etymologically, the name Beit-Diblathaim is said to refer to "The House of Dried Figs",[5] or else "The House of two
fig-cakes."
^"Yevamot 13b:6". www.sefaria.org. Retrieved 2022-06-17. Printers have seen fit to insert the normal forms inline: "Elim, Elimah, Mahanaim, Mahanaimah . . ." but these are not original.
^Goor, Asaph (1965). "The History of the Fig in the Holy Land from Ancient Times to the Present Day". Economic Botany. 19 (2): 125 (Areas of Cultivation).
JSTOR4252586.
^N.b. that according to y.
Megillah 1:9, "Rabbi Simon and Rabbi Samuel b. Nahman would both say, 'The men of Jerusalem would write Jerusalem, Jerusalem-ah, without care. And likewise tzafon (north), tzafon-ah (northward), and teiman (south), teiman-ah (southward)'". R. Nehemiah also reports Jerusalemite practices (b. San. 30a) and may have been a resident. Documentary evidence, including from the
Dead Sea Scrolls, confirms that the -ah suffix, while generally a locative in
Biblical Hebrew, was sometimes applied to ordinary nominatives in the
Second Temple period. See
Abraham Geiger, Urschrift p. 233,
Saul LiebermanTarbiz 4(1933) p. 293,
Ezekiel Kutscher, Isaiah Scroll, p. 67