I. Name

The second element of the name of the deity ʾl qn ʾrṣ can etymologically be connected with the verbal-root qny ‘create, acquire (a property)’, which is used for example, in Ps. 139.13 (ʾattā qānîtā kilyōtai ‘you created my kidneys’). The interpretation of the god as ‘El-Creator-of-the-Earth’ therefore seems highly justified. Contrast E. Lipiński (TWAT 7 [1990–1992] 68) who preferred a derivation from qny ‘to keep, to possess’ and translated: ‘El-the-Owner-of the Earth’. The God …