© 2025 The Interpreter Foundation. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

All content by The Interpreter Foundation, unless otherwise specified, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available here.
Interpreter Foundation is not owned, controlled by or affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. All research and opinions provided on this site are the sole responsibility of their respective authors, and should not be interpreted as the opinions of the Board, nor as official statements of LDS doctrine, belief or practice.
Matt,
With regards to the work on Ziff, zyf was not only found in Arabic, but was also found in Lotera’i which is an enclave dialect originating from an enclave of Jews found in Iran from the first Babylonian captivity, originating from ancient Aramaic. So this indicates the word was known in Israel prior to Lehi. This is a very good attestation and is discussed in the same reference you cited for the Arabic.
Also Kim is fairly well attested. The masculine Hebrew noun (qim) means adversary; ie someone who rises up against someone (Job 22:20), the feminine noun also means “a rising up” (Lamentations 3:63). During Kim’s reign, his brother rose up in rebellion against him and placed him in captivity. Also in Sumerian Kim means “stone” or “willow”. Com means “to arise, stand up” (qum) in Hebrew in the Book of Mormon Onomasticon, and it also means “to alter” (kam) in Sumerian. These are discussed on pages 83-84 and 93-95 in the book Sumerian Roots of Jaredite-Derived Names and Terminology in the Book of Mormon which can be accessed for free with a simple internet search.