Biblical Hebrew Forum

["George F. Somsel" <gfsomsel AT juno.com>]

On Sat, 04 Sep 2004 19:30:03 -0500 "Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>
writes:
> George:
> 
> The general term )RC did not refer specifically to the land of 
> Canaan, rather to any land. For example, Genesis 41:30, 31, 34 uses 
> )RC which, in context, refers to Egypt and not Canaan.
> 
> Where a specific, named land was meant, we find )RC followed by the 
> name of the country unless the context otherwise indicates the 
> land’s identity. I don’t know when )RC when unnamed started to refer 
> specifically to the land of Israel or of Judea, but as far as I can 
> tell, that practice started after Tanakh was completed. As I 
> mentioned in an earlier message, the phrase B)RC WBMDBR on the 
> “Josiah Stone” was one of the signs that the stone is a fake.
> 
> Taken by itself, 1 Chronicles 7:20–24 gives no indication where the 
> event occured. But taking the total context that includes Genesis 
> and Exodus, the events most likely occured in Egypt and the phrase 
> )N$Y GT HNWLDYM B)RC refers to Egyptian born sons of immigrants from 
> Gath.
> 
> Karl W. Randolph.
> 
> ----- Original Message -----

Karl,

Sorry, but that just isn't very convincing.  Since it is the men of Gath
"who were born in the land", it would seem clear to me that the land is
the land where Gath is located, viz. Israel.  It seems to me that the
attempt to place it in Egypt rests upon nothing more or less than a
desire to make it agree with the schema of the Exodus-Conquest narrative
whether it actually agrees with it or not.  There was a humorist (before
my time) named Will Rogers who used to do rope tricks while giving news
and political commentary.  One of his lines was "All I know is what I
read in the newspapers."  Well, all I know is what I read in the text.

george
gfsomsel