I. Name

In Hebrew two nouns occur which traditionally have been translated with ‘virgin’: ʿalmâ and bĕtûlâ. A convincing etymology of the noun ʿalmâ has not been given. The word has cognates in various Semitic languages; Ugar ǵlmt, ‘girl’; Phoen. ʿlmt;Aram. ʿljmt. The exact meaning of these words, however, is not easily established. The proposal of Dohmen (1987:172–173) who sees a relation—via Ugar ǵlm—between Heb. ʿalmâ and Akk./Semitic ṣlm, ‘image’ and proposes a semantic field in…