324 Jeremy M. Hutton This preservation of the ancient name would be somewhat unexpected, however, since both possible original names that we have been considering so far (Beth ha-Arabah and Beth Abarah) derive from Protosemitic (PS) roots beginning with ‘ayin [cf. Heb. rb[ “to pass over” (68) and Heb. br[ “dry, infertile,” especially the name of the Jordan Valley, hb;r:[} (69)], whereas the name here begins with gμayin (G˜arabe). This datum may suggest that the modern Arabic name may be linked not to any purported precursor derived from the Hebrew reflex of a PS *√‘rb, but rather related to PS *√gμrb, realized in Hebrew as br[ “to grow dark” (70), and particularly familiar as the name of the Euphrates poplar (Populus euphratica), hb;r:[} (71) (e.g., Isa 44,4; Ps ≠¯ 137,2; Lev 23,40; and Job 40,22). Indeed, W. Borée identified H. ‘En el-G˜arabe as the site of Beth ha-Arabah, having found Euphrates poplars growing there (72). ≠¯ If H. ‘En el-G˜arabe is in fact to be identified as an authentic preservation of the toponymic precursor of Beth ha-Arabah, Beth Barah, and Beth Abarah, then a whole series of linguistic and textual misanalyses falls into place, most probably along the lines of Model 2 (outlined above and made explicit here): (1) The toponym was originally *bˇt gμarabi (“House of Poplars/Willows”). (2) Misanalysis in early Hebrew, later compounded by the phonological collapse of */gμ/ and */‘/ to /‘/ by the 1st century CE (73), yielded /bˇt «arab˝/. The Hebrew- and Aramaic-speaking authors and tradents of most biblical texts presumably analyzed the new pronunciation as “House of the Plain”. (68) BDB, s.v. rb[ (716b-720b); HALOT, s.v. rb[ I (778b-780b); compare, e.g., Arab. √‘br (E.W. LANE, An Arabic-English Lexicon [London 1865] I/5, 1936c-1937a); ‘ibrun “bank, side” (1939a); ma‘birun “A place where a river is crossed; a ferry; a bank, or side, of a river, prepared for crossing” (1938c-1939a); etc. (69) BDB, s.v. br[ IV (787a-b); and HALOT, s.v. br"[} (878b); br:[} (878b); hb;r:[} III (880a-b); compare Arab. ‘irbun “such as is dried up” (LANE, Lexicon, I/5, 1993a). (70) BDB, s.v. br[ V (787b-788a); HALOT, s.v. br[ V (877b); and the rela- ted noun br,[, I (877b-878a); compare Arab. √gμrb (LANE, Lexicon, I/6, 2240b- 2244c) meaning “to go away” and, by extension, the sun’s “going away” (to the west): gμarb^yun “of or relating to the west, or place of sunset; western” (2242c); or “growing dark”: gμur˝bun “a certain black bird” (2243a; cf. Heb. bre[o). (71) BDB, s.v. hb;r:[} II (788a); HALOT, s.v. hb;r:[} I (879b); compare Arab. gμarabun “willow” (specifically Salix babylonica; LANE, Lexicon, I/6, 2242c). (72) W. BORÉE, Ortsnamen, 78 n. 4; ALT, “Institut”, 27.