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  • From: barre AT access1.com
  • To: "B-Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Cc:
  • Subject: The Shasu and Yahweh
  • Date: 03 Nov 99 10:06:07 -0800


List,

Does anyone have any information about the Shasu beyond that which is listed
in the posting
quoted below?

***

"Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times" by Donald
Redford: pages 271-273

Shasu-- literally meaning "a people who move on
foot"--are found in Egyptian texts from the 18th
Dynasty through the Third Intermediate Period. They
most frequently occur in generalizing toponym lists
where the context helps little in pinpointing their
location. But lists from Soleb and Amarah ultimately
of fifteenth century BC origin suggest that an
original concentration of Shasu settlements lay in
southern Trans-Jordan in the plains of Moab and
northern Edom.

Here a group of six names is identified as in 'the
land of the Shasu' and these include
#1--Se'ir (Edom)
#2--Laban (Libona, south of Amman)
#3--Sam'ath (Shim'ethites, a clan of the Kenites: 1
Chron. 2:55)
#4-- Wrbr (Wady Hasa)
#5--Yhw
#6--Pysps

Elsewhere in texts of the 19th and 20th Dynasties, the
consistent linking of Shasu with Edom and the Arabah
(Timna) places the identifications on the earlier
lists beyond doubt.

The localization of the 'Land of the Shasu' in the
mountainous districts of Se'ir

--has an interesting consequence for one name in the
mentioned lists from Soleb and Amarah - 'Yhw (in) the
land of the Shasu.'

For half a century it has been generally admitted
that we have here the tetragrammaton, the name of the
Israelite god, 'Yahweh'; and if this be the case, as
it undoubtedly is, the passage constitutes a most
precious indication of the whereabouts during the late
fifteenth century B.C. of an enclave revering this
god.

Numerous passages in later Biblical tradition depict
Yahweh 'coming forth from Se'ir' and originating in
Edom."

***

Thank you.



L. M. Barre, Ph.D.

barre AT access1.com
www.angelfire.com/ca2/AncientIsrael








  • The Shasu and Yahweh, barre, 11/03/1999

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