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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Sodom
  • Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2008 16:35:27 EDT


Rev. Bryant J. Williams III:

You wrote: “If Abraham is in Hebron (Genesis 18:1, Oaks of Mamre), which is
about the half-way point of the Dead Sea, and since this area is about
2700-3000 feet
above sea level, it would have a very good view of the area of Sodom,
Gomorrah,
Zoar, etc. near the Zered River at the Southeast corner of the Dead Sea. This
area was well-watered at one time; at least until the destruction of the
Cities
of the Plain and burial under the south end of the Dead Sea. There would be
no
need to go to up to near Bethel to see to the South-Southeast, when it is
much,
much easier to look to the Southeast from the Hebron plateau area.”

1. The modern city of Hebron is just west of the center of the central
mountains in southern Canaan. To the best of my knowledge, there is no view
east
from Hebron; the mountains and hills cut off all view of the Dead Sea.

2. Abraham sojourned in the valley of Hebron. Genesis 37: 14 Even if
Abraham’s Hebron is at the same geographical locale as the high altitude
modern
city of Hebron, there is no view from a valley.

3. There is no indication in chapters 17 and 18 of Genesis that Abraham is
on a mountain, or otherwise has a good view of anything, when YHWH visits
Abraham. Genesis 18: 1 refers to “the terebinths of Mamre; he was sitting
at the
entrance of the tent”, when three divine figures appear to Abraham. Abraham
would not have pitched his tent on a mountain. Abraham is living in a
valley,
the Valley of Hebron, with no good view. While at Hebron, Abraham stands
before YHWH in the valley, where Abraham’s tent is. Abraham’s meetings with
YHWH
at Hebron are not associated with having a good view. By sharp contrast,
when Abraham stands before YHWH on the mountaintop between Beth-el and Hai,
Abraham and Lot have a spectacular view -- of the Jordan River Valley, not of
the
southern part of the Dead Sea.

4. The logical interpretation of Genesis 19: 27 is that Abraham went back to
the mountaintop between Beth-el and Hai, where Abraham had stood before YHWH
on that mountaintop, and where Abraham and Lot had had that spectacular,
panoramic view of the Jordan River Valley:

“And Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he had stood
before the LORD [YHWH].”

The text does not say that Abraham merely stepped outside his tent door in
the valley of Hebron and looked at Sodom. No, Abraham has to get up early in
the morning and hurry off to a mountaintop to be able to see YHWH. The only
mountaintop where Abraham stood before YHWH was at Mt. Jebel et-Tawil,
between
Beth-el and Hai.

(I myself see Abraham’s valley of Hebron as being located much closer to
Beth-el than is the modern city of Hebron. But the key here is where Abraham
would have had a good view.)

Remember, Lot has a good view of the Jordan River Valley on the mountaintop
near Beth-el, and Lot goes off to Sodom in the Jordan River Valley. It is
eminently logical that years later, when Abraham wants to view the
destruction of
Sodom, Abraham would go back to that same mountaintop, where Abraham had
stood
before YHWH, for that same panoramic view.


5. Please note that on a mountaintop near Bethel, where Lot makes the fatal
decision to go to Sodom, it is impossible to see the southern part of the
Dead
Sea. To repeat two key eyewitness reports that I posted on a different
thread earlier:

(a) Here’s an eyewitness report from 1891:

http://www.arkdiscovery.com/s&g-research1.htm

"...what can there be seen is the northern end of the Dead Sea, the Jordan
Valley, and the river running like a blue thread through the green plain. The
hills of Engedi shut out completely all view of the southern end of the sea;
but
as I before said, the northern end, where the Jordan runs in, and about two
or three miles of the sea, can be seen. I have wandered all over the Bethel
hills and tested this question." ("The Bible and Modern Discoveries" by Henry
A.
Harper, a Member of the Palestine Exploration Fund Society, 1891.)”

Please note the key phrase: “The hills of Engedi shut out completely all
view of the southern end of the [Dead S]ea”.

(b) And here’s a current eyewitness report:

“Bethel. … I live ten miles north of Jerusalem in the Judean hills….Today’
s Beit El is a town of orthodox Jews with its own mayor and municipal council
situated in the heart of the Binyamin region, just to the east of Arab
Ramallah. Its Pisgat Ya'acov (“Jacob’s Heights”, named after the patriarch
Jacob)
neighborhood has a hilltop observatory with a commanding view -- as far east
as
the mountains of Jordan, as far west as Tel Aviv and the Mediterranean Sea,
south to Jerusalem, and on clear days, as far [north] as Mount Hermon in the
Golan Heights. It has a higher elevation than Jerusalem and summer nights are
cool. Occasionally, we have snow in winter.”

“Yedidya Atlas is a commentator for Arutz 7 and a long time resident of Beit
El.”

_http://mideastoutpost.com/archives/000372.html_
(http://mideastoutpost.com/archives/000372.html)

6. Chapters 13 and 19 of Genesis are logically linked to each other. In
chapter 13 of Genesis, Lot sees the Jordan River Valley, north of the Dead
Sea,
and Lot decides to move to Sodom. Abraham stands before YHWH on that
mountaintop, and Abraham gets great divine promises of progeny and land.
Then in
chapter 19 of Genesis, Abraham logically goes back to that very same
mountaintop,
near Bethel, to witness the destruction of Sodom.

7. So I see Abraham as going back to that mountaintop between Beth-el and
Hai, north of Jerusalem, and looking down upon the Jordan River Valley. That
may be the most spectacular view in all of Canaan. It is a perfect place to
witness the destruction of Sodom in the far distance.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois




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