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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] (MQ: "Deep Place"
  • Date: Tue, 3 Jan 2012 10:35:33 -0500 (EST)


(MQ: “Deep Place”

Although the Hebrew word (MQ is usually translated into English as “valley”
, in fact (MQ as a noun comes from the verbal root (MQ, which means “to be
deep”. The literal meaning of (MQ as a noun is “deep place”. A basin in a
mountain, where a city may well be situated, is not “deep” and is not a “
deep place”, and hence such city would not be stated in the Bible to be in an
(MQ, even though in English we might routinely describe such city as being
situated in a mountain “valley”.

Cities located high up in the mountains, but not on a mountain peak but
rather nestled in a mountain gorge or basin, are consistently described in
the
Hebrew Bible in the following two ways, as being “up”/(LH in the “mountains”
/HR. Such mountainous cities, though located in a gorge or basin, are
never said to be a “deep place/true valley”/(MQ. Thus Shechem, which is
located in a narrow mountain gorge high up in the mountains, is described in
Biblical Hebrew as follows: (i) HR, per Joshua 20: 7; 21: 21; Judges 9: 7,
25;
I Kings 12: 25; I Chronicles 6: 67. [At Psalms 60: 6 and 108: 7, Shechem
is distinguished from the valley of Succoth.] (ii) (LH, per Judges 21: 19.
(iii) (MQ: never. By stark contrast, in English we might well
characterize Shechem using the word “valley”, as follows: “An important city
in
central Palestine, in the valley between mounts Ebal and Gerizim”. But in
Biblical Hebrew, unlike in English, Shechem is never said to be an (MQ,
because
mountainous Shechem is not situated in a “deep place”/(MQ. Rather, the
Bible consistently says HR and (LH in describing Shechem.

If we focus on the Hebron of the Conquest and King David’s Hebron, being a
city which is located in a mountain basin high up in southern hill country,
the Biblical pattern is identical to that of Shechem [ignoring Genesis for
the time being]. (i) Per Joshua 10: 36, Judges 16: 3 and II Samuel 2: 1, the
Hebron in southern hill country is “up”/(LH. (ii) And per Joshua 11: 21
and 20: 7 and 21: 11 and Judges 16: 3, the Hebron in southern hill country is
in the “mountains”/H-HR or B-HR. (iii) In the Conquest narratives and
regarding King David’s Hebron, the mountainous city of Hebron is never said
to
be (MQ, because the city of Hebron is not a “deep place”. Thus the Hebron
of the Conquest narratives and of King David is described in the identical
way as Shechem, which has a similar topographical locale: (LH and HR, but
never (MQ, because the city of Hebron is not a “deep place”. The Bible is
quite consistent about that nomenclature. By contrast, here is a famous
description in English of the mountainous city of Hebron, vintage 1911, using
the word “valley”: “Though the hills of Judea reach their greatest elevation
in the neighborhood, Hebron itself rests in a valley. …For this reason
Hebron is ideally placed for conveying an impression of the mountainous
character of Judea.” Note that whereas in English we may often refer to the
Hebron
“Valley”, nevertheless in describing the Hebron of the Conquest and King
David’s Hebron, the Bible never says (MQ, because the city of Hebron is not a
“deep place” or a “true, broad, deep valley” or connected to a true,
broad, deep valley. Rather, the Bible consistently says HR and (LH as to the
mountainous city of Hebron, not (MQ.

In the Hebrew Bible, an (MQ is a true deep valley: either a broad, deep
true valley itself, or it’s deep and is closely connected with a broad, deep
true valley. Most places outside of Genesis that are called (MQ as part of a
proper name are either the Jezreel Valley, the Ayalon Valley, or the Elah
Valley or, like the Achor Valley and the Rephaim Valley and the Valley of
Succoth, are closely connected either to one of those three famous valleys or
to the Jordan River Valley.

In E-n-g-l-i-s-h one could talk about King David taking over the Hebron “
Valley”. But that’s English, not Biblical Hebrew. The Hebrew word (MQ
does not fit King David’s mountainous city of Hebron located high up in hill
country. Rather, the two Biblical Hebrew words that fit King David’s Hebron,
and that are used in the Bible to describe the mountainous city of Hebron,
are (LH and HR, just as is the case with Shechem. Any lengthy Biblical
Hebrew text that refers to either such mountainous city can be expected to
use
the words (LH and/or HR. By sharp contrast, neither mountainous Shechem nor
the mountainous city of Hebron is located in a “deep place”, and
consequently neither is ever described in the Bible as being (MQ.

Therefore, if a lengthy Biblical text repeatedly refers to a specific place
and (i) never uses the words (LH or HR in describing such place, yet (ii)
does refer to such place as (MQ, then that choice of vocabulary means that
such place cannot be either Shechem or the mountainous city of Hebron located
in southern hill country. That choice of vocabulary, not the proper name of
the place used in the text, is the key clue here, because (a) many
different places in Canaan have the same proper name, whereas (b) the
determining
factor is that the Bible consistently refers to Shechem and the mountainous
city of Hebron as being (LH and HR, never referring to such mountainous
cities
as being (MQ.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois




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