Note 497 — Chapter V · THE MOST PROMINENT FIGURES IN HEBREW MYTHOLOGY. (continued 2)

There still remain some names whose etymological explanation is difficult, as Reʾûbhên and Shimʿôn. Yissâsekhâr (Issachar) translated literally might be ‘the Day-labourer,’ certainly a fitting designation for the Sun, expressing how he does his day’s work, like a day-labourer. Yet I cannot look upon that as a mythical description, because it would be an unpardonable anachronism to suppose that that primeval age when myths were created would speak of day-labourers, especially after the fashion in which the idea is expressed by the word Yissâ-sekhâr, ‘he takes up his wages.’