Biblical Hebrew Forum

[John Ronning <ronning AT xsinet.co.za>]

Walter wrote: 

> 
> So, I suspect that when the border is being described as going to the
> "wilderness of Beth-awen" it is describing in "general terms" the end of
> cultivated slopes near Deir Dibwan, the wilderness of Beth-awen being the
> arid lands below Deir Dibwan. The track (Benjamin's border being this track)
> does not go "literally" to Deir Dibwan, it passes by it on the north,
> ascending to Rummon, Shebab, and TURNING SOUTH TO Beitin/Bethel.
> 
It looks to me like that still leaves you with the
wilderness of Beth Awen being much closer to Bethel than it
is to Beth Awen, and it still does not explain how Michmash
could be described as east of Deir Dibwan, when it's more
like due south (if Michmash = Mukhmas).  Locating Beth Awen
at Beitin removes both of these difficulties.  

It is also not correct to say that the name Deir Dibwan
contains the root Awen since it only has two out of the
three root letters.  

I also suppose that ein Lozah means the well of Lozah, not
necessarily the same as the city of Luz, and your
interpretation of Josh 16:2 ("from Bethel to Luz") agrees
with the Hebrew but seems to contradict Josh 18:13 which
says explicitly that Luz is Bethel (ditto several other
passages in Genesis and Judges that equate Luz and Bethel) -
one way of resolving the conflict is to suppose that the
parenthetical Luz - "from Bethel [Luz] ..." was
misinterpreted and the locative h added at a later date. 
The point being that finding a site khirbet ein Lozah
distinct from Bethel is not much in the way of evidence.

Shebarim has the definite article thus is not necessarily
(or likely to be) a settlement - possibly "the quarries." 
The ancient quarries 1 mile southeast of Kh. el-Maqatir
would make a nice fit with the scene described in Joshua 7.

> In an earlier post I noted that there appeared to be only two ways to get to
> the vicinity of et-Tell (Ai ?) and Betein (Bethel ?) ...

It's good to see the more tentative tone indicated by your
question marks,  If the location of Bethel and Ai is in
doubt, then obviously the dogmatic statements about the lack
of historicity of Joshua 7-8 should cease, lest the writer
of such statements find that his own are fictional.


Regards,

John Ronning