Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yitzhak Sapir" <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On 7/3/06, James Christian Read wrote:
> I can't remember who it was that recently suggested that
> the isrealites were not attested pre 1000BCE but I thought
> the following article may be of interest.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shasu
>
> The article speaks of reference to Yhw in the land of the
> Shasu. I think we all know who Yahowa is by now.

I obviously agree with Yigal's notion of the wikipedia.  I think it
is somewhat useful for bibliographic starting points.  But all
information must be verified from several sources.

The following may be of interest to you, from Ahlstrom's
The History of Ancient Palestine, p. 277 n 5:

"The phrases $3sw yhw' and $3sw s'rr, ie, the territories of
Yahu and S'rr which occur in Egyptian lists of the New
Kingdom, have often been seen as referring to Se(ir, ie.
Edom, and thus the deity name Yahweh would also have
been at home in Edom.  The latter may be true.  However,
the Egyptian s'rr is philologically not identical with Hebrew
se(ir (where did the second r go?).  The territory of s'rr was
most probably in Syria because it is mentioned in
connection with other peoples in the Beqa( and Orontes
Valleys.  The yhw' territory of the Shasu is then also to be
sought in the same area (see M. Astour, "Yahweh in
Egyptian Topographical Lists', Festschrift Elmar Edel [ed.
M. Gorg and E. Push], pp. 17-33).  The name Yahu is thus
a toponym here, but it should be kept in mind that "anthro-
ponymns could serve as toponymns in the ancient Near
East (Astour, p. 30 n 71).  Furthermore, the name of a
deity, a nation and a city could be the same, the most
famous example being that of Ashur."

The quoted study of Astour is from 1979.

Yitzhak Sapir
http://toldot.blogspot.com