The verb is generally regarded as a direct loanword from Aramaic (von Soden 1966:7, Abraham; Sokoloff 2011:28). Alternatively (with Beaulieu 2013:372), beḫēru could be seen as a variant of Akk. baˀāru “to select” that arose under the influence of the semantically and etymologically identical Aramaic root b-ḥ-r.