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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: kevin AT bombaxo.com, b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] $XR = black?
  • Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2009 09:55:26 EDT


Kevin Edgecomb:

Thanks for your interesting comments. For people interested in this
fascinating topic, Kevin Edgecomb has a slightly longer, and very
informative,
treatment of this same topic here:

_http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=358_ (http://www.bombaxo.com/blog/?p=358)

Let me quote some of your comments from that other site.

1. “To summarize reactions to the Biblical use of Shihor, the Isaiah and
Jeremiah references are unanimously recognized as referring to the Nile, but
the
Joshua and Chronicles passages are not.”

Thus whereas Karl has argued that $XR at Isaiah 23: 3 means “Tyre”, not “
Egypt”, the unanimous view of scholars is (and here I agree with the
scholars)
that $XR at Isaiah 23: 3 is a reference to “Egypt” (or the Nile River). I do
not think that all the lexicons and all the scholars can be wrong about that.

2. Tell Hebua/Shi-Hor is located on the far northwest corner of the Sinai,
about where the northern end of the Suez Canal is today. It’s over 150 miles
west of Gaza, with the entire northern coast of Sinai being between Gaza and
Tell Hebua. Tell Hebua/Shi-Hor also is not very close to the main branch of
the
Nile River, south of the Delta, being about 100 miles north by northeast of
Memphis. Thus Tell Hebua/Shi-Hor (i) is not centrally located in Egypt, and
as
such is not a locale that represents Egypt as a whole, and (ii) is not
located anywhere in the general vicinity of the southwest corner of the
Promised
Land, being over 150 long miles west of Gaza.

As we will now see, the location of Tell Hebua/Shi-Hor on the northwest
corner of Sinai precludes it from being the $XR referenced in the 4 Bible
verses
that you cite. Rather, in all 4 such Bible verses, $XR means “Black”/Egypt/“
bountiful Greater Egypt”, as we shall see. (The term “Greater Egypt”
includes
the Sinai; as you note, the Sinai was not considered by the Egyptians to be
part of Egypt proper. But Egypt maintained tight control over the entire
northern coast of the Sinai.)

On the other hand, Tell Hebua/Shi-Hor has the right location for a different
Hebrew word, $WR, that we see 5 times in the Bible: Genesis 16: 7; 25: 18;
Exodus 15: 22; I Samuel 15: 7; 27: 8. So there may be some connection of
Tell Hebua/Shi-Hor to $WR, based on its location. But Tell Hebua/Shi-Hor
cannot
be $XR, because its location is completely wrong for how $XR is used in the
Bible.

(i) If $XR means the northeasternmost edge of Egypt, rather than being a
reference to Egypt generally, Isaiah 23: 3 has a very odd ring about it:

“And on great waters the seed of Shihor [$XR], the harvest of the Nile, was
her revenue….” Isaiah 23: 3, per JPS1917

Why would “the seed of Shihor” be referring to the northeasternmost edge of
Egypt? Why would “the harvest of the Nile” be referring to the
northeasternmost edge of Egypt? Isaiah 23: 3 reads much more naturally if
$XR means “Egypt”
/“Black”/“bountiful Greater Egypt”, than if $XR means the northeasternmost
edge of Egypt.

$XR is a semi-poetical reference to Egypt, which could be translated as “
bountiful Egypt”. Yes, I realize that the Bible often excoriates Egypt
unmercifully. But when the Bible does that, the word $XR is never used. In
a tiny
handful of cases, consisting of all 4 out of 4 uses of $XR to refer to Egypt,
the
Bible has its reasons for referring to “bountiful Egypt”, as we shall see.
Here at Isaiah 23: 3, as noted in my prior post, Isaiah is excoriating Tyre
and
Sidon (not Egypt), saying that Tyre and Sidon will no longer be getting
filthy rich by trading with “bountiful Egypt”/$XR. In that particular,
limited
context, a reference to “bountiful Egypt” is called for in the Bible.

(ii) Now let’s consider Jeremiah 2: 18, which is the only other passage in
the Bible where $XR is generally thought by most scholars to be referring to
the Nile River:

“And now what do you gain by going to Egypt
to drink the waters of the Nile [$XR]?
Or what do you gain by going to Assyria
to drink the waters of the Euphrates?” Jeremiah 2: 18, per the English
Standard Version translation

Note that $XR is translated there as “Nile”. A translation of $XR there as
the northeasternmost edge of Egypt, or the northeasternmost edge of the Nile
River, does not make sense. Much more natural is to see $XR as meaning
“Black”
/Egypt/“bountiful Greater Egypt”.

(Other translations of Jeremiah 2: 18 refer to being “on the way” to Egypt
and Assyria, but the verse makes more sense if Jeremiah is excoriating
Hebrews
for going to Egypt or going to Assyria, not for being “on the way” to going
to those places.)

Note that at Jeremiah 2: 18, it’s not Egypt that’s being excoriated. No, it’
s Hebrews who are considering selling out and adopting the soft life of
infidels by moving to “bounteous Egypt”, a country that is filthy rich and
that
can offer the enticements of a soft life, who are being upbraided. Once
again,
it makes perfect sense in this limited, particular context for the Bible to
use a semi-poetical word for Egypt that means “bountiful Egypt”. The literal
meaning is “Black”, meaning “Black”/Kemet, which is how the Egyptians
referred to their own country, focusing on the fact that Egypt’s great wealth
stems
from the fertile “black” earth along the Nile River in Egypt.

So we see that in both of the places where scholars generally agree that $XR
is referencing the Nile River, a reference to Egypt in general, viewing $XR
as
meaning “Black”/Egypt/“bountiful Greater Egypt”, and focusing on Egypt’s
great wealth, makes much more sense than trying to view $XR as being an
Egyptian
phrase that means “the northeasternmost edge of Egypt”, or “pond of Horus”.

3. Kevin Edgecomb, you clearly do not approve of the scholarly reaction to
two other uses of $XR as a geographical expression in the Bible. To quote
more
of your quotation cited above:

“To summarize reactions to the Biblical use of Shihor, the Isaiah and
Jeremiah references are unanimously recognized as referring to the Nile, but
the
Joshua and Chronicles passages are not. Some (like Naʾaman himself) would
equate
Shihor in the Joshua and Chronicles references to the Wadi Besor (so Naʾaman
argues) as the “Brook of Egypt” rather than the Nile itself, though this
“Brook
of Egypt” is typically placed further south, at the Wadi el-Arish. Generally,
the Joshua and Chronicles Shihor usage is denied as referring to the Nile
because the Shihor is elsewhere not described as the border of Canaan or the
Promised Land, while the “Brook of Egypt” is.”

Once again, note that if $XR means “Black”/Egypt/“bountiful Greater Egypt”,
then everything makes sense. Joshua 13: 3 and I Chronicles 13: 5 make
perfect sense if the reference is to the border of Egypt generally (Greater
Egypt),
without specifying a particular “Water-body” connected to the Nile River. It
is simply impossible that a locale like Tell Hebua/Shi-Hor on the northwest
corner of Sinai could be viewed as being the southwest corner of the Promised
Land. Scholars are right to reject that strange theory outright.

The Bible in those two passages is saying that everything northeast of “
bounteous Greater Egypt”/$XR is the Promised Land of the Hebrews. Note that,
as
always when $XR is used in the Bible to refer to Egypt, Egypt here is not
being
excoriated. On the contrary, the Bible is recognizing that Egypt is
bounteous, but is asserting that everything northeast of bounteous Greater
Egypt
properly belongs to the Hebrews, as the Hebrews’ divine “bounty” from YHWH.
Once
again, these are rare instances where a semi-poetical reference to “bounteous
Greater Egypt”/$XR/“Black”/Kemet makes sense in the Bible.

4. You also mention a third use of $XR as a geographical reference, where
you yourself state that the meaning of $XR is “Black”:

“(There is also mention of a Shihor-Libnath, near Mount Carmel, in Jos 19.26,
but this appears to be a Canaanite town or regional name interestingly based
on a combination of the Semitic roots for “black” שחר and “white” לבן
whatever the meaning may have been.)”

Karl has asserted that all the lexicons and translators are wrong in viewing
$XR as meaning “black”. But Isaac Fried has more or less admitted that $XR
means “black”, while nevertheless insisting that $XR is “obscure”. I don’t
really understand George Athas’s specific comments, but they seem to be along
the lines that $XR is allegedly obscure. But what’s obscure here? $XR means

black”. When $XR applies to Egypt, $XR means “Black”, with “Black”/Kemet
being the Egyptians’ name for their own country. $XR, when applied to Egypt,
means “bounteous Greater Egypt”.

5. You note disapprovingly:

“The fascinating information that Naʾaman provides from the Assyrian texts
(in “The Brook of Egypt…” article noted above) is still equivocal, and the
article has the overall feel of a tour de force rather than an objective,
rational investigation. It’s interesting, but forced in its fitting of the
evidence
to a hypothetical border placed close to Gaza.”

Still, Nadav Na’aman is the top scholar in the field. The Bible considers
everything west of Gaza, that is Sinai, to be within Egypt’s sphere of
influence, hence being part of Greater Egypt, and certainly not being part of
the
Promised Land. $XR means “Black”/Egypt/“bountiful Greater Egypt”, with no
particular body of water being referenced. $XR, being a reference to
bountiful
Greater Egypt as a whole, functions perfectly in the Bible as defining the
southwest border of the Promised Land. There is no way that Tell
Hebua/Shi-Hor can
play that role. It’s located in the wrong place!

6. Along with all Western scholars, you absolutely deny that $XR at Isaiah
23: 3 could possibly, under any circumstances, have anything to do with
“black”
:

“A coincidental similarity with a Hebrew root for black is only that:
coincidental.”

Yet in every case that you cite, a meaning of “Black”/Egypt for $XR, with
$XR being a Hebrew word, not an Egyptian phrase, makes perfect sense.
Meanwhile, $XR, as allegedly being an Egyptian phrase meaning “Water-body of
Horus”,
meaning the northeasternmost edge of Egypt, per the northeasternmost extent
of
the Nile River, makes no sense at all in any Bible verse that you cite.

Your view, and that of HALOT, that $XR is an Egyptian phrase meaning “
Water-body of Horus” does not work at Isaiah 23: 3 or Jeremiah 2: 18 (where
Egypt in
general is being referenced, not some spot in northwest Sinai), or at Joshua
13: 3 or I Chronicles 13: 15 (where the Hebrew text, in context, as scholars
rightly insist, is clearly referring to the border of Greater Egypt as being
somewhere near Gaza, not over 150 miles west of Gaza in northwest Sinai).
That’s
0 for 4. Meanwhile, all 4 cases make perfect sense if $XR = “Black” = Egypt
= “bountiful Greater Egypt”.

7. Thank you for your fascinating information. However, I think that some
of us will continue to view $XR at Isaiah 23: 3 as being a Hebrew word, not
an
Egyptian phrase. And I for one see $XR as a geographical expression meaning “
Black”, which when applied to Egypt means “Black”/Kemet/“bountiful Greater
Egypt”, based on the fact that the Egyptians called their own country
“Black”,
in honor of the fertile “black” earth along the Nile River that made Egypt
wealthy.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

**************Feeling the pinch at the grocery store? Make dinner for $10 or
less. (http://food.aol.com/frugal-feasts?ncid=emlcntusfood00000001)




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