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  • From: Uri Hurwitz <uhurwitz AT yahoo.com>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Genesis 20: 1
  • Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 06:36:19 -0700 (PDT)

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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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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