Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Uri Hurwitz <uhurwitz AT yahoo.com>]

Yigal Levin wrote:
   
  ".... in 18th century BCE Mari there 
were two tribes that lived near the city: those who lived to its north were 
called "Bene Samaal", and those you lived to its south were "Bene Yamin". If 
you assume that the eponymous ancestors of the tribes were not "real" 
people, but rather representative figures, then "Son of the South" would be 
an apt name for the ancestor of the southernmost tribe of "Israel"..."
   
    Yes, and this may well be just one of several indications
   for the existence of an early northern Israel/Yacob federation  m  (UH)

"On the other hand, Gen. 35:18 gives another explaination for the name 
"Benjamin": as Rachel was dying in childbirth, she called her child "Ben 
Oni". This can mean either "Son of my sorrow" or "Son of my strength". 
"Yamin", meaning the right hand, also means "strength", so Jacob, by calling 
him "Binyamin", preserved the more positive meaning of his dead wife's 
request."
   
    The above biblical explanations of the name are of literary nature added 
by
  biblical editors who had recieved various names through tradition. This was
  quite common. Compare the wrong Hebrew etymolgy given the Egyptian 
  PN Moses.
    The name Jacob appears more than a dozen times in Mari with various
   theophoric suffixes and prefixes.It appears also in a name of a Hyksos king
   in Egypt, and elsewhere. The verb's original meaning was was' to protect'.
   The original full Hebrew or NWS name was something like '* Ya'aqob-el' -- 
  may the deity protect.
   The form preserved in Genesis is a hypcorosticon.
   
   Uri Hurwitz
   
  


 

       
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>From JimStinehart AT aol.com  Thu Oct 11 10:31:43 2007
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Subject: [b-hebrew] Genesis 20: 1
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Based on the critical comments made concerning my first attempt at a new  
translation of Genesis 20: 1, I have revised my new translation.  Set forth 
below 
are three versions of my  new translation.  Each version uses  identical 
English wording, but different punctuation and capitalization are used  in 
each 
version, recognizing (per Version #1) that the original Hebrew had no  
punctuation or capitalization at all. 
1.  Version #1 
No punctuation or capitalization [ambiguous as to whether Isaac is born  in 
southern Lebanon at Sur or in the Negev Desert] 
"and departed from there abraham to the south land and he settled between  
kadesh and s(h)ur and he sojourned in gerar" 
2.  Version #2 
Dashes [Isaac is born in southern Lebanon at Sur] 
"And departed from there Abraham to the southland -- and he settled --  
between Kadesh and Sur and he sojourned in Gerar." 
3.  Version #3 
Semi-colons and capitalization [Isaac is born in the Negev  Desert] 
"And departed from there Abraham to The South Land;  and he settled between 
Kadesh and  Shur;  and he sojourned in  Gerar." 
*       *       * 
I agree that Version #3, the traditional interpretation of Genesis 20: 1,  
works grammatically.  But what I am  saying is this: 
(i)  Version #2 is also a  legitimate interpretation of Genesis 20: 1, and is 
not impossible  grammatically. 
(ii)  Version #2 makes  perfect sense substantively, whereas Version #1 is 
virtually nonsensical  substantively.  If Abraham journeyed  into The Land of 
Negev, how then could Abraham settle in the Sinai Desert?  Wrong desert.  And 
having "settled" in the middle of  the Sinai Desert, how is it then that 
Abraham 
sojourned at Gerar in the Negev  Desert?  Wrong desert again.  And there's 
not enough time for Abraham  first to settle in the Sinai Desert, and then 
commence sojourning in the Negev  Desert at Gerar, with all this happening 
over a 
period of less than 30 days  after Abraham leaves Hebron.  Sarah  must get 
pregnant about 30 days after they leave Hebron, which is presumably  after 
Abraham 
and Sarah have interacted with Abimelech at Gerar (in chapter 20,  with 
Sarah's pregnancy becoming known only in chapter 21), in order for Sarah to  
bear 
Isaac "when the season cometh round", that is, when spring returns  again.  
Finally, it makes no sense  for Abraham and Sarah to go to a desert in order 
to 
have, and raise,  Isaac. 
On this list, the key issue is the Hebrew grammar.  I view Version #2 as 
being a legitimate  possible interpretation of Genesis 20: 1 based on Hebrew 
grammar, even though I  admit that Version #3 would be most people's first 
reading 
of Genesis 20:  1.  In my view, the author of the  Patriarchal narratives did 
all this deliberately.  He is deliberately causing us to think  initially 
that 
Abraham may have followed in Hagar's footsteps from chapter 16 of  Genesis, 
leaving Hebron and going toward Kadesh(-barnea) and Shur.  But we gradually 
figure out that in  fact, Abraham went in exactly the opposite direction.  
Abraham went north from Bethel/Ai (not  southwest from Hebron), toward the 
Lebanese 
city-states of Kadesh and Sur  ("Tyre").  Isaac is born near Sur,  in 
southern 
Lebanon, in fulfillment of the Covenant. 
I see the ambiguity in Genesis 20: 1 as being deliberate.  The Hebrew author 
is forcing us to  think.  And by forcing a parallel  with Hagar from chapter 
16 of Genesis, who (along with her son Ishmael) is left  outside of the 
Covenant, the author is making an important point by this  deliberately 
ambiguous 
wording of Genesis 20: 1. 
Jim Stinehart 
Evanston, Illinois



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