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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: klriley AT alphalink.com.au, b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] )BL Mistranslated at I Samuel 6: 18
  • Date: Mon, 2 Mar 2009 09:51:58 EST


Kevin Riley:

You wrote: “You need some evidence that any northern Hebrew or Canaanite
dialect had made this change [heth being replaced by aleph] before c C15th
BC.”

As to the word )BL having the same meaning as, but a different spelling than,
XBL in the historical context of Late Bronze Age Canaan, the evidence is
abundant.

1. JBR appears four times on the mid-15th century BCE Thutmosis III list of
places in Canaan. Scholars rightly consider Egyptian JBR to be the
equivalent
of west Semitic )BL (though they somewhat misleadingly translate this word as
“meadow”, as discussed below). I see item #90 JBR as being the Elah Valley,
item #92 JBR as being the Sorek Valley, and item #99 JBR as being the Aijalon
Valley, which are the three great meadowlands, from south to north, that
Thutmosis III witnessed near the beginning of his campaign in Canaan as he
moved
northeast through the northern Shephelah after leaving Gaza, heading for
combat
in central Canaan. The other JBR, item #15, is almost certainly
Abel-Beth-Maacah way up north, as discussed below. (The Shephelah was
friendly territory,
fairly close to Egypt, that was not really “conquered” by Egyptian pharaoh
Thutmosis III, so all the items near the Aijalon Valley were placed in 27
consecutive slots near the very end of the Thutmosis III list, having
relatively
little propaganda value. Much more prominent, and earlier, on the list is a
place like Abel-Beth-Maacah at item #15, which had to be truly conquered, and
which was located very far from Egypt, being in the general vicinity of
Damascus.)

2. Geographical place names in the Hebrew Bible often come from the Late
Bronze Age, even in those portions of the Hebrew Bible that were composed
“late”
. The Hebrew Bible reports )BL as the first part of a Canaanite geographical
place name on 12 occasions, referring to 5 different places:

(i) the Sorek Valley (in my opinion, as previously discussed)
I Samuel 6: 18

(ii) Abel-Beth-Maacah (discussed below)
II Samuel 20: 14-15, 18; I Kings 15: 20; II Kings 15: 29

And probably as well: Abel-Maim
II Chronicles 16: 4

(iii) Abel-Meholah
Judges 7: 22; I Kings 4: 12; 19: 16

(iv) Abel-Mizraim
Genesis 50: 11

(v) Abel-Shittim
Numbers 33: 49

Meanwhile, )BL is never used in the entire Bible as a common, generic noun
referencing a “meadow” or anything like that in Canaan. Outside of Canaanite
geographical place names, the southern Hebrews always used XBL, not )BL, in
their sacred scripture.

* * *

The standard English translation of )BL as “meadow” is somewhat misleading.
In the modern West, that sounds like “unspoiled scenic beauty”. There was
no such concept in the ANE. In the Late Bronze Age, nothing was “spoiled”
yet!

Rather, )BL means: “a well-defined tract of land that is excellent for
grazing domesticated animals, such as the world-famous Aijalon and Sorek
Valleys”,
or “excellent pastureland”.

The city of Abel-Beth-Maacah, featuring )BL and prominently referenced in the
Bible, fits this conception of )BL perfectly. It was a place/“house”/beth
in a valley/“depression”/maacah near the source of the Jordan River, that, so
unlike most of its surroundings, was excellent pastureland for grazing
domesticated animals/)BL. Abel-Beth-Maacah is usually viewed as being a
low-lying
area west of Dan (in the far north of Israel), that was good land, being
immediately south and east of the mountains which by contrast had very little
such
good land. As such, all three elements of the name fit perfectly. JBR at
item
#15 on the Thutmosis III list comes right after Damascus at item #13 and
Adurru near Damascus at item #14, so everything fits perfectly for this JBR
to be
referencing Abel-Beth-Maacah. Note that all four JBR items are very similar
types of places (although one such JBR item, Abel-Beth-Maacah, is located
very
far away from the other three, both geographically and in terms of where it
appears on the Thutmosis III list).

To be )BL (or JBR), the place had to be “well-defined”, as if measurable by
a “rope”/XBL. And there was an implication that the place was very good
land, that was not very hilly or rough. The one-word English translation
“meadow”
fails to capture the many overtones of what )BL meant in the ANE.

I see )BL and XBL as being regional variations of different spellings of the
same word. XBL, while literally meaning “rope”, is very often used in the
Hebrew Bible in a figurative sense as referring to a tract of fine land that
is
measurable as if by a “rope”. HALOT gives as one definition of XBL something
like “a long, narrow tract of land”. But it is important to note that XBL
as a noun almost always has extremely positive overtones. Thus XBL strongly
implies “good land” or “very fine land”. Since the early Hebrews were
pastoralists, not farmers, “good land”/XBL was conceptualized by the early
Hebrews
as being land that was ideal for pasturing sheep and goats (that is, far
better
land than midbar, but not necessarily ideal for settled farmers growing wheat
or barley).

In addition to being excellent pastureland, )BL and, when it is used in this
sense, XBL must also be a “well-defined” specific area, as if measurable by a
“rope”/XBL.

In Canaanite, non-southern Hebrew usage, we only see )BL when it means the
Aijalon Valley, the Sorek Valley, or some other place (such as
Abel-Beth-Maacah)
that was (or at least claimed to be) something like the fine meadowlands of
the Aijalon or Sorek Valleys. We see XBL as a common noun in Biblical Hebrew
having a wide variety of meanings, but one core set of meanings is: “a
well-defined tract of land that is excellent for grazing domesticated
animals, such
as the world-famous Aijalon and Sorek Valleys”.

I am not going to try to prove any particular linguistic theory as to when
and where heth was sometimes replaced by aleph in general. Rather, I am just
pointing out that the Bible is very familiar with both )BL and XBL as
referencing “excellent pastureland”.

There is no way that )BL can be “late”, because )BL in the Egyptian form of
JBR is right there, big as life, four times on the Thutmosis III list from
the
mid-15th century BCE.

I believe I have now completed my first task. )BL = XBL in a Late Bronze Age
historical context. In fact, that can be expanded a bit, as follows: JBR =
)BL = XBL

We see JBR four times on the Thutmosis III list, being the Egyptian rendering
of a generic common noun in west Semitic that is used to reference the Elah
Valley, the Sorek Valley, the Aijalon Valley and Abel-Beth-Maacah. We see
)BL
in the Hebrew Bible six times as a reference to Abel-Beth-Maacah. As argued
in my first post on this thread, we very likely see )BL in the Hebrew Bible
as
referencing the Sorek Valley at I Samuel 6: 18. Notice how everything makes
sense. Nothing is strange or out of place, and there’s no need to change any
consonants in the Masoretic Text! In every one of the references to JBR or
)BL
noted above, the common generic word from Biblical Hebrew that fits the
situation is XBL. That’s because XBL is a different regional spelling of
)BL, but
they’re the same word as a noun. Yes, the Hebrew Bible also uses XBL as a
noun with many other meanings as well, especially “rope”. But every )BL and
JBR
is comprehended by the Biblical Hebrew word XBL.

The objective facts of the secular history of Late Bronze Age Canaan
(particularly the mid-15th century BCE Thutmosis III list and its relevant
geography),
and the consonants in the received Masoretic Text, make clear that for “a
well-defined tract of land that is excellent for grazing domesticated
animals,
such as the world-famous Aijalon and Sorek Valleys”, that is, for “excellent
pastureland” in Late Bronze Age Canaan:

JBR = )BL = XBL


Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

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