Examples of place names ending with -ra [Gk.
-??; Hb. =
??] are especially supportive and helpful during a tactical analysis for verification of the Hira thesis. I presupposes that in the Hebrew
Vorlage it was written almost certainly as
? which corresponds to the Arabic form
?Now, it is interesting to note that the Greek translators of LXX (Septuagint) occasionally preferred a declinable forms of certain proper names. For example, the name


(Esdras = Ezra) is an ancient Greek rendering of the Hebrew
?? (?Ezra), and as we can note, the LXX translators clearly prefers a declinable form [i.e.


], yet its indeclinable form is also attested in Nehemiah 7:7 as

?? (Esdra).
Thus, based on this one example with the
-?? (=
??) ending, we can deduct (or at least assume) that
? (chira) is an indeclinable form, while
?? (chiras) is its declinable form.
NOTE: if someone will spot other examples of Hebrew place names ending specifically with
?? and then transliterated in LXX with -???, please let us known here.
Take care,
Idris