[b-hebrew] MQWM

JimStinehart at aol.com JimStinehart at aol.com
Tue Aug 23 10:37:46 EDT 2011


Professor Yigal Levin wrote:
 
1.  “Jim, that is rediculous. MQWM simply means "place" in a general way….”
 
That’s not true.
 
(a)  All lexicons agree that MQWM has a range of meanings (as is the case 
with most Hebrew words).  For example, MQWM is variously translated by the 
KJV, depending on the context, as “place, home, room, whithersoever, open, 
space, country”.  Usually the correct translation is “place”, but we must 
always consider the context.
 
(b)  The KJV translation of MQWM as “place” at Genesis 12: 6 is not a good 
translation:  “And Abram passed through the land unto the place of Sichem”
.  What sense does that make?  Nowhere else in the entire Hebrew Bible is 
that particular Hebrew phrasing used.  Rather, once we see that MQWM can mean “
city” (Genesis 18: 24 below) and “country” (Genesis 29: 26) below, we will 
come to see that a better translation of Genesis 12: 6 is:  “And Abram 
passed through the land unto the major city-state of Shechem”.
 
2.  “In Gen. 29:26, Laban is using it to say ‘that's not how it's done 
around here’.”
 
What you are translating as “here” in fact is referring to a “country” or 
“large territory” or “land that is large enough to be a country”.  MQWM 
at Genesis 29: 26 unequivocally has a broad territorial sweep, and is not 
referring merely to one town or a small place.  The use of MQWM at Genesis 29: 
26 is somewhat comparable to the use of MQWM at Genesis 12: 6, in that both 
are referring to a large territory.  The difference, though, is that by 
placing $KM immediately after MQWM, the reference at Genesis 12: 6 is to a “
major city-state”.
 
3.  “In Gen. 33:17 Jacob builds "booths" or "huts" (Sukkot) for his flocks, 
and calls "the place" Sukkot. Does make it a major city or a country?”
 
Certainly not.  In fact, Genesis 33: 17 is the normal use of MQWM, in a 
phrase such as calling or naming a “place” such-and-such.  But the particular 
phrasing at Genesis 12: 6 is unique, not like the standard phrasing at 
Genesis 33: 17, where the first word is H-MQWM, not just MQWM, and the phrase is 
explicitly in the context of a place being “called” or “named” something.  
That’s not Genesis 12: 6.
 
4.  “In Gen. 18: 24, Abraham (or the writer) is using different words to 
mean the same thing, as speakers and writers often do.”
 
That is not the case for Biblical authors, unlike people who write modern 
English.  As the preeminent Biblical Hebrew stylist Prof. Robert Alter of 
Berkeley aptly observes at p. xxvi of “Genesis”:  “The biblical prose writers…
revel in repetition, sometimes of a stately, refrainlike sort, sometimes 
deployed in ingenious patterns through which different meanings of the same 
term are played against one another.  Elegant synonymity is alien to biblical 
prose….” 
 
5.  “Since he already called Sodom "the city", now he says "than place". 
Later he says "there" (Sham). Does "Sham" mean "evil city in which sodomy is 
practiced"?”
 
(a)  There was no sodomy practiced in Sodom, for heaven’s sake!  All the 
elders of Sodom approve of requiring Lot to produce the strange visitors, and 
elders certainly would not have sodomy on their minds.  Lot wouldn’t marry 
off his two oldest daughters to male sodomists.  Think Years 12-14 and Aziru 
and Etakkama and you’ll understand the real sin of Sodom.  “Sodom” is a 
Patriarchal nickname for Rehov [near Beth Shean] that is based on both the 
Hebrew word for “blasted” and the Hebrew word for “good fields”, and which in 
Hebrew has nothing whatsoever to do with sodomy.
 
(b)  MQWM at Genesis 18: 24 does mean “city”, as Gesenius explicitly 
states.  So with MQWM at Genesis 18: 24  meaning “city”, and MQWM at Genesis 29: 
26 meaning “country”, we see that the unique phraseology at Genesis 12: 6 
of MQWM $KM can mean:  “the major city-state of Shechem”.  You seem not to 
be noting the unique phraseology at the end of Genesis 12: 6 and in the 
second half of Genesis 14: 4, both of which are telling us something special.  
At Genesis 12: 6, the Biblical author is trying to convey the important 
message that rather than being a mere town, Shechem was more like a country in 
Year 12, with Shechem seemingly poised during that one year to dominate all of 
Canaan south of the Jezreel Valley.
 
Please note that Abram pitches his tent only at Bethel [Genesis 12: 8, 13: 
3],  n-o-t  at Shechem!  [Cf. Genesis 12: 6.]  The early Hebrew author is 
trying hard to tell us something important, if we will only listen.
 
6.  “Now, what does "the place of Shechem" mean? Why not just "Shechem"? I 
don't really know. Maybe to indicate that Abraham stayed "in the vicinity" 
of Shechem, and not in the city itself.”
 
(a)  Yes, you’re right that Abram stayed in the vicinity of Shechem, not in 
the city itself.  That’s certainly true.
 
(b)  But more importantly, the odd, unique phrase MQWM $KM is telling us 
that in Year 12, Shechem was more like a country than a regular city.  Shechem 
seemed poised to try to take over most of Canaan!  That’s why Abram does 
not pitch his tent there, and why Lot, whose destination is north, 
nevertheless must leave Bethel going east, in order to make a wide detour around the 
notorious “Canaanite” strongman ruler of Shechem.





The  p-i-n-p-o-i-n-t  accuracy of the Patriarchal narratives in a Year 12 
historical context is simply stunning.  Prof. Levin, since you yourself are 
well-versed on Amarna, you should be able to see that JEPD couldn’t possibly 
have had a detailed knowledge of the Amarna Age like that.  No, the author 
of the Patriarchal narratives must have been a contemporary, the first 
Hebrew, in order for him to have  p-i-n-p-o-i-n-t  knowledge of  
e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g  that was going on in Canaan in Year 12.  [JEPD didn’t know who the “
Girgashites” were.  But think Year 12 and it becomes obvious who the 
Girgashites were.  Gera-ga-%i-ya.]
 
On the Hebrew grammar front, the key is to note the unique Hebrew 
phraseology in the second half of Genesis 14: 4 and at the end of Genesis 12: 6.  
That unique Hebrew phraseology brilliantly and accurately describes the unique 
situation in southern Canaan in Year 12.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois


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