THE ETYMOLOGY OF HEBREW ÍELEM * David J.A. Clines In a recent issue of this journal Professor I.H. Eybers offered a compre- hensive study of the root ßl and its derivatives, 1 among which he included the word ßelem ‘image’. The purpose of the present paper is to offer further support for Professor Eybers’s view on one matter, namely the supposed derivation of ßelem from a Semitic root attested in Arabic ßalama, and to question his view on another matter, namely his connec- tion of ßelem with a root ßlm ‘to be dark’. I The view that Hebrew ßelem ‘image’ is to be derived from a Semitic root ßlm, attested in Arabic ßalama ‘to cut off’, is widespread, and adhered to by all the standard lexicons. 2 Professor Eybers however rightly expresses some doubts about this view. First, it may be asked * Originally published in Journal of Northwest Semitic Languages 3 (1974), pp. 19-25, and reprinted with permission in On the Way to the Postmodern: Old Testa- ment Essays, 1967–1998, vol. 2 (Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Sup- plement Series, 293; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1998), pp. 577-84. 1 . I.H. Eybers, ‘The Root Í-L in Hebrew Words’, JNSL 2 (1972) pp. 23-36. 2 . Cf. Francis Brown, S.R. Driver and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1907), p. 853b; Eduard König, Hebräisches und arämaisches Wörterbuch zum Alten Testament: Mit Einschaltung und Analyse aller schwer erkennbaren Formen, Deutung der Eigennamen sowie der massoretischen Randbemerkungen und einem deutsch- hebräischen Wortregister (Leipzig: Dietrich, 1910), p. 388; Franciscus Zorell, Lex- icon hebraicum et aramaicum Veteris Testamenti (Rome: Pontifical Biblical Insti- tute, 1947–54), p. 692a; L. Koehler, Lexicon in Veteris Testamenti libros (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1953), p. 804b; Th. Nöldeke, review of Friedrich Delitzsch, Prolegomena eines neuen hebräisch-aramäischen Wörterbuch zum Alten Testament (Leipzig: Hinrichs, 1887), ZDMG 40 (1886), pp. 718-43 (733-34); ‘tw<m;l]x' und μl,x, ’, ZAW 17 (1897), pp. 183-87 (185-86); K. Budde, ‘Professor Nöldeke on tw<m;l]x' and μl,x, ’, ExpT 8 (1896–97), p. 384; T.C. Vriezen, OTS 2 (1943), p. 95; L. Koehler, TZ 4 (1948), p. 19.