Source:Reexploring the Book of Mormon:Ch:13:2:Nahom and ritual mourning

Nahom and ritual mourning

Nahom and ritual mourning

The name of the area in Yemen now mapped as "Nehem" is pronounced by local inhabitants Nä-hum, derived from the Arabic root nhm, whose basic meaning is "growl, groan, roar; suffer from hunger; complain." The same root is found in biblical Hebrew (see Isaiah 5:29-30; Hosea 2:23) and in ancient Egyptian (nhm, "thunder, shout"; nhmhm, "roar, thunder"). Thus a ritual concomitant of mourning (groaning) is also associated with this root, as well as the sense of suffering from hunger, which is equally apt in the context of 1 Nephi 16:35, which reports much complaining, suffering, and hunger.[1]

Notes

  1. Warren P. Aston and Michaela J. Aston, "Lehi's Trail and Nahom Revisited," in Reexploring the Book of Mormon, edited by John W. Welch (Provo, Utah: FARMS, 1992), Chapter 13, references silently removed—consult original for citations].