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• And so, to conclude this lesson, let us review the interaction between Hebrew and Aramaic, and the gradual shift from Hebrew to Aramaic.
• At the time of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Land of Israel, the ancient Israelites spoke Hebrew, although from their interaction with Mesopotamia, they would have been able to speak Aramaic. Abraham came from Ur of the Chaldees after all, the Chaldees being the land that would later be at the heart of the Babylonian Empire.
• Isaac and Jacob, too, would have been able to speak Aramaic. When Isaac’s servant Eliezer goes to Padan-Aram to look for a wife for Isaac, he must have spoken Aramaic to Laban and his family. And when Jacob also goes to Padan-Aram, he also must have spoken Aramaic with Laban. Laban, after all, speaks Aramaic in calling their memorial Jegar Sahadutha in Genesis 31:47.