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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Genesis 20: 1
  • Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 17:31:50 EDT


Yitzhak Sapir:
Thank you so much for your specific comments on the Hebrew wording of
Genesis 20: 1.
A. You wrote: "However -ah is a locative case in Hebrew. My general
impression is that it is more often used with proper place names. Thus, the
word
?arcah would mean
'to the Land.'…?arcah hannegev is an indivisible construct chain that means
'Land of
the Negev', most likely a proper name because it ('Land') takes the locative
case."
Based on my investigation, your analysis of that key phrase is not borne out
by the received Hebrew text of the Patriarchal narratives. In the
Patriarchal narratives (beginning with the first mention of Abraham at
Genesis 11: 26),
the Hebrew letter combination aleph-resh-tsade-he appears 22 times in 21
verses. These 21 verses are referenced below, along with the relevant
portion
of the JPS1917 translation. We see that in a clear majority of cases,
aleph-resh-tsade-he is not used with a proper place name.
1. Genesis 11: 31 "to go into the land of Canaan"
2. Genesis 12: 5 (twice) "to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land
of Canaan they came"
3. Genesis 19: 1 "he fell down on his face to the earth"
4. Genesis 20: 1 "Abraham journeyed from thence toward the land of the
South"
5. Genesis 24: 52 "he bowed himself down to the earth"
6. Genesis 28: 12 "behold a ladder set up on the earth"
7. Genesis 29: 1 "and came to the land of the children of the east"
8. Genesis 31: 18 "to go…unto the land of Canaan"
9. Genesis 32: 4 "Jacob sent messengers…unto the land of Seir"
10. Genesis 33: 3 "bowed himself to the ground"
11. Genesis 37: 10 "to bow down to thee to the earth"
12. Genesis 38: 9 "he spilled it on the ground"
13. Genesis 42: 6 "bowed down to him with their faces to the earth"
14. Genesis 42: 29 "they came…unto the land of Canaan"
15. Genesis 43: 26 "bowed down to him to the earth"
16. Genesis 44: 11 "took down every man his sack to the ground"
17. Genesis 44: 14 "they fell before him on the ground"
18. Genesis 45: 17 "get you unto the land of Canaan"
19. Genesis 46: 28 "they came into the land of Goshen"
20. Genesis 48: 12 "he fell down on his face to the earth"
21. Genesis 50: 13 "his sons carried him into the land of Canaan"
In the Patriarchal narratives, the Hebrew letter combination
aleph-resh-tsade-he is most often used in the phrase "bowed down to the
earth". The other
common use is "go into the land of Canaan". No one translates the second
phrase "go into The Land of Canaan" or "go into the Land of Canaan". (Of
course, no one would translate the first phrase as "to the Earth".)
In Genesis 20: 1, "earth" or "ground" do not fit the context. In Genesis 20:
1, the English translation of aleph-resh-tsade-he should either be "to the
land" or "to the region" (before we get to the issue of how to translate
he-nun-gimel-bet in this connection), not "to the Land".
B. Now consider what would result if, per your suggestion, one were to
translate the first third of Genesis 20: 1 to say that "Abraham journeyed
from
thence to the Land of the Negev". Or, more consistent with JPS1917's usage
of
prepositions elsewhere, the translation would be: "Abraham journeyed from
thence into the Land of the Negev". That rendering would contradict the
immediately following phrase, which tells us "and he dwelt between Qadesh
and
S(h)ur". The Negev Desert is not located "between Qadesh and S(h)ur".
Excluding Genesis 20: 1 for one moment, note that in all 10 of the other 10
uses above of aleph-resh-tsade-he in the Patriarchal narratives in connection

with a geographical location (Canaan, the land of the children of the east,
Seir, and Goshen), the person goes "into" or "unto" or "to" that place, and
then stays there, rather than immediately passing through there. Only at
Genesis 20: 1 is it claimed that Abraham went aleph-resh-tsade-he -- to the
land
in question -- but did not stay there, instead immediately passing through
the
Negev Desert to settle in the Sinai Desert. That to me is "special
pleading": translating Genesis 20: 1 differently than all other uses of
aleph-resh-tsade-he in the Patriarchal narratives, for the purpose of trying
to deny
that each of "the land of the South" and Gerar is located "between Qadesh
and
S(h)ur". Note how JPS1917 uniquely comes up with the word "toward" at
Genesis
20: 1, a word never used in the other 21 occurrences of aleph-resh-tsade-he
in its translation of the Patriarchal narratives. Why is everyone
straining
so mightily to make Genesis 20: 1 nonsensical?
C. Both the place to which Abraham goes ("the land of the South" per JPS
1917), and the land where Abraham sojourns (Gerar), should logically be
"between Qadesh and S(h)ur", which is the place where Abraham "dwelt" or, in
other
translations, "settled", or else Genesis 20: 1 reads very awkwardly. On my
view of the case, Genesis 20: 1 reads very naturally, as it conveys the
following substantive content:
(i) Abraham traveled to a locale that is located between Qadesh and Sur, in
the southern part of that area (near Sur); and
(ii) Abraham settled between Qadesh and Sur; and
(iii) Abraham sojourned in the part of Gerar that is located between Qadesh
and Sur.
On my view, Abraham did all three of those things simultaneously, in the
same southern Lebanon locale: Sur ("Tyre").
I see Genesis 20: 1 as telling us that Abraham traveled from Bethel/Ai to
the southern region between Qadesh and Sur (in southern Lebanon, near Sur),
and
he settled there between Qadesh and Sur (near Sur), and he sojourned in a
part of Gerar that is located between Qadesh and Sur. It all makes logical
sense. Southern Lebanon was a logical place to go to have the baby. At the
time
he left Hebron, Abraham knew that Sarah would be getting pregnant with Isaac
about 30 days after they left Hebron. A desert environment like the Negev
Desert, or even worse the Sinai Desert, would not be an appropriate place to
go to have the baby. It would make no sense at all, given Sarah's impending
pregnancy with Isaac, to first go to the Negev Desert, then go to the Sinai
Desert and "settle" in the Sinai Desert, and than go all the way back to the
Negev Desert, to a locale not near either Qadesh or S(h)ur. And how could
all
that traveling be completed before Sarah gets pregnant with Isaac? Sarah
apparently does not get pregnant with Isaac (in chapter 21 of Genesis) until
after Abraham and Sarah have interacted with Abimelech at Gerar (in chapter
20
of Genesis), yet Genesis 20: 1 tells us that Abraham "settled between Qadesh
and S(h)ur". I just do not see how your proposed translation of Genesis 20:
1
can possibly make substantive sense (even though it is possible
grammatically). Why would Genesis 20: 1 tell us that Abraham "settled
between Qadesh and
S(h)ur", if in fact Abraham settled, less than 30 days after leaving Hebron,
near the site of the modern Israeli city of Beersheba, nowhere near to
either Qadesh or S(h)ur? How are you interpreting the middle third of
Genesis
20: 1, which explicitly tells us that Abraham "settled between Qadesh and
S(h)ur"? We should not ignore that portion of Genesis 20: 1, should we?
As to whether "negev" may mean "dry land", I will show in a later post that
all that jousting over water wells in chapters 21 and 26 of Genesis is
historically documented at Sur in southern Lebanon in this time period. And
Yes, it
involves "Philistines", as frequently referenced in chapters 21 and 26. As
you probably know, the urban classic Philistines were never in the Negev
Desert or the Sinai Desert (in addition to not yet being in existence in the
Patriarchal Age), and "Gerar" is not associated with the classic Philistines
(who
are described, more or less accurately, in many other books of the Bible, so
we should be able to figure out whether or not the classic Philistines are
being referenced in the Patriarchal narratives). Historically, the
activities described in chapters 21 and 26 took place only near Sur, in
southern
Lebanon, and only in the time period of the first Hebrews. We need (i)
"Philistines" who are (ii) jousting over water wells, (iii) a leader named
"Abimelech",
and (iv) interaction with tent-dwelling people (v) in the secular historical
time period of the first Hebrews. The one and only place to get all that
in
secular history is Sur in the Patriarchal Age. There's nothing like that in
the secular history of the Negev Desert or the Sinai Desert (regardless of
how oddly people may choose to translate Genesis 20: 1, or how insistent
people are in resolutely ignoring the part of Genesis 20: 1 that explicitly
states
that Abraham "settled between Qadesh and S(h)ur").
Genesis 20: 1 makes perfect historical sense, if we will only use a
sensible, literal translation of that key verse. Abraham went straight to
Sur in
southern Lebanon from Hebron, Sarah bore Isaac near Sur, and Isaac was
raised
near Sur. Only after the binding incident did the family leave Sur in
southern
Lebanon and return to Hebron. After returning to Canaan from Egypt, Abraham
on my view never again lived or sojourned in either the Negev Desert or the
Sinai Desert. (Why would an extremely wealthy man with 318 armed retainers
[Genesis 13: 2; 14: 14] move into a desert? Why would his son Isaac later
move into a desert when drought/famine hit Hebron? Does any of that make
sense?) Nor did Abraham move around much either. Rather, Abraham is at
Hebron,
then at Sur in southern Lebanon, and then back at Hebron, with there being
very
little wandering involved during this very long period of time.
It all makes perfect sense, once we accept the fact that, per Genesis 20: 1,
Abraham "settled between Qadesh and Sur".
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois



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