Dotan, Datan

דתן


Genesis 37:17 ff names Dotan as the place where Yoseph found his brothers, and where they then somewhat changed his life.

The name means "two wells" and is probably a corruption of Dotayin (דתין). Dot (דת) is the 
Chaldean word for "a well", and in the double plural becomes Dotayin; the proper Yehudit equivalent is really Dotayim (דתים).

2 Kings 6:13 has a town in the north of 
Shomron (Samaria) called Dotan.

Numbers 16:1 refers to Datan (דתן) as the name of one of Korach's and Kehat's fellow-conspirators.

Numbers 26:9 makes him a son of Eli-Av in the tribe of 
Re'u-Ven.

Deuteronomy 11:6 and Psalm 106:17 tell how he paid for his hubris with regards the rebellion.

Clearly then we have two different names, Dotan and Datan, which happen to look identical when written without "pointing".




Copyright © 2019 David Prashker
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The Argaman Press

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