Literatuur

• A.S. Yahuda , Language of the Pentateuch in its Relation to Egyptian [1933], Vol. 1, , [1933], 156-158, Our view is best illustrated by the employment of the word אֵד in verse 6 [Gen 2], where the irrigation of the rainless earth is described. It is true this word is interpreted by many modern commentators as identical with the Akkadian, edu 'flood', and the occurance of this word is even advanced by them as a conclusive proof that the author could only have thought of the flooding in the Mesopotamian plain by the Tigris {Gressman, Paradiessage, [1921], p. 42} and Euphrates. But if such a phenomenon really was in the author's mind, it is much more plausible to assume that he had Egypt in mind because of the very argument advanced that the אֵד was to replace the absent rain. Quite apart from this purely logical argument אֵד cannot possibly refer to a flood, because a flood does not, as the text has it, 'go forth מִן-הָאָרֶץ from the earth', but from a water or a river, and moreover it would only have 'watered' the adjacent portions, and not, as it is said, אֶת-כָּל-פְּנֵי הָאֲדָמָה 'the whole face of the earth'. Thus the interpretaion of אֵד as 'flood' must on these grounds alone be dismissed. If we now revert to the old interpretation of אֵד as mist, cloud, dew, we find that it is completely confirmed by Egyptian, as אֵד turns out to be nothing else than the Egyptian i3d.t = אאד.ת or איאד.ת 'dew' (Er.Gr. 6), thus e.g. Urk. iv, 217, 10, where i3d.t is the dew which the gods let fall from heaven. See also Urk. iv, 615, 15; Ebers Körpert. 77, 21; Nav. Totb. 15, A iv, 7; Urk. iv, 385 for water. Our passage is now perfectly clear: אֵד yields exactly the conception of mist which 'goes forth out of the earth', is dissolved in dew and 'waters the whole face of the earth'. It is very characteristic of tropical countries that in the non-rainy seasons the dew in the morning often falls so heavily that it is psread like a thick fog, profusely saturating the ground. It is just this phenomenon so frequently witnessed in Egypt, especially in fertile regions (cf. inter alia Schäfer, ÄZ. 31, 51 ff.), which the author had in mind whe he described the watering of the ground before there was rain. It now becomes clear, why he prefaced the description of the Garden of Eden by the remark about the dew. This was done intentionally because, in the absence of rain and inundation, the dew appeared to him to be the sole means of watering the ground.
• - - , B-Hebrew, newsgroup, [0], 28 sep 2005, Vadim Cherny: Genesis 2:6 opens with the word 'ed, commonly translated as "mist" or "inundation."
  The last translation, alluding to the flooding of Mesopotamian plains, relies on the Akkadian edu, "flood." Ancients knew that floods are related to rains; 2:5 states that there was no rain yet, and the meaning "flood" is thus unlikely. Flood is associated with destruction, not creation. Hebrew has an attested word for "flood," mabul, etymologically linked to iaval (to flow), and sharing root cell with mebucha (confusion), mavo' (intrusion), mevusa (trampling), and mevuka (desolation).
  Egyptian reportedly has a word i3d.t meaning "dew." Interpretations of edu and i3d.t, however, themselves rely on the Hebrew 'ed, and are tentative. Notwithstanding that caveat, Akkadian edu and Egyptian i3d.t may have common semantic. The Akkadian word could equally well mean "cataclysm" or "overhaul." "Dew" is also a return of water.
  That Hebrew borrowed an Akkadian or Egyptian word without converting it to three-letter root is unusual. Steinberg reconstructs 'ud (to turn) from 'eid (calamity), 'ud (firebrand; charred from all sides), and 'odot (because; Russian, by way of). The sense of "turn" could be behind 'i as misfortune (change), jackal (dodging animal), and island (wrapped by sea).
  The only other instance of 'ed in Tanakh is in Job 36:27-28, "For he would pile the drops of water; they would percolate [as] rain *for its return* which the clouds would pour down." The common translation of l'edo as "from his [divine] vapor" presumes that the ancient writer equalized mist with clouds. Moreover, the laborious "his vapor" ignores that "his" is not used in the context for more important things, like water and rain, and that the immediate antecedent for 3ms suffix is "rain." The translation "vapor" also runs into a problem of preposition le, which it very unusually renders "from." 36:28 starts with "which"; if 'ed is a noun, it should be the antecedent, yet, vapor cannot be plausibly poured down.
  The meaning of 'ed seems to be "turn, change."
• J.P. van de Giessen , Blog Aantekeningen bij de Bijbel, November 22, 2011,

  Mist

---

Mede mogelijk dankzij