Biblical Hebrew Forum

[barre AT access1.com]

Dear List,

It occurred to me that it may have been Hamor who took Shechem and not Jacob 
since 
Jacob apparently took it from Hamor.  If so, this would lower the dating of 
Jacob's 
possession to sometime between the Amarna age of the 14th century and the one 
that 
follows.  That Hamor was historical is indicated by Gaal's causal reference 
in Judg 9:28 so 
that we have the sequence regarding the possession of Shechem as 
Lab'ayu--Hamor--Jacob.  
The question is when did Hamor's (Hivites) people take the city while 
acknowledging that it 
may have been yet a different group to which the Amarna letter refers?  
Therefore I must 
recant my view that the letter refers to Jacob.  Hamor or a preceding Hivite 
ruler seems more 
likely whose date of conquest we can now narrow considerably by the Amarna 
allusion and 
likewise define the parameters for Jacob's taking the city from Hamor and 
which was in 
Jacob's possession sometime before the taking of the land under Joshua.

LMB




---------------------------
L.M. Barre
www.angelfire.com/ca2/AncientIsrael
Point Loma, California