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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Genesis 20: 1
  • Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 22:37:41 EDT


Yitzhak Sapir:
1. Perhaps we can agree on the following Version #4 translation of
Genesis 20: 1:
Version #4
“And departed from there Abraham to the land of the south, and he settled
between Qadesh and S(h)ur, and he sojourned in Gerar.”
As to the phrase “to the land of the south”, Yigal Levin now sees that as
being acceptable: “I do agree now that ‘Arcah Hannegev’ here may mean "to
the
land
of the south".
I hope we can now move on to the two critical issues involving Genesis 20:
1.
1. You wrote: “In light of the many cognates, and in light of Joshua
15:19,
"ngb" = "dry land" may be only a theory, but it is also a very
compelling theory and one that has to be answered if someone
suggests that "ngb" refers to a very fertile land.”
You and I agree that the Negev Desert is not very fertile land, even though
people were able to live there in Biblical times. But could any Hebrew
author
describe the Negev Desert like this:
"Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines unto Gerar. …And Isaac
sowed in that land, and found in the same year a hundredfold; and the LORD
[YHWH] blessed him. And the man waxed great, and grew more and more until
he
became very great. And he had possessions of flocks, and possessions of
herds,
and a great household; and the Philistines envied him." Genesis 26: 1,
12-14
All of us start out thinking that “the land of the south” and “Gerar” are
in the Negev Desert. I thought that for years, too. But chapter 26 of
Genesis is not consistent with that view. In my view, the author of the
Patriarchal narratives is gradually letting us know that “the land of the
south” and
“Gerar” at Genesis 20: 1 are not the geographical locales we initially
thought they were.
Although south/negev is usually synonymous with dry/non-fertile land, here
is the exception. “And Isaac sowed in that land, and found in the same year
a
hundredfold”. Surely that cannot be the Negev Desert, can it?
1. One of the most important phrases in the entire Bible is the middle
third of Genesis 20: 1:
“and he settled between Qadesh and S(h)ur”
What does the Hebrew verb yashab mean there?
As used in this way, doesn’t yashab always mean to stay in a place for at
least 12 months, and usually much longer than that? When I start looking at
the
Patriarchal narratives, I find that yashab, when it is used in this way
(that is, when it does not mean “sit down”), always means to remain or stay
in a
place for a long time. Genesis 11: 31; 13: 6-7, 12, 18; 14: 7, 12; 16:
3; 19: 29-30; 20: 15, 20-21; 22: 19; 23: 10; 24: 3, 37 (stopping at
chapter 24 simply because the usage seems so consistent and commonplace).
Typical
of how yashab is used in the Patriarchal narratives is Genesis 16: 3:
“…Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan….”
But if Abraham “settled” in the Sinai Desert, that would normally mean that
he stayed in the Sinai Desert for at least 12 months, and probably much
longer than that. But then how on earth would Abraham have enough time to
go
back to Gerar in the Negev Desert, where Sarah gets pregnant with Isaac, and
Sarah bears Isaac “when the season cometh round”, that is, less than 12
months
after Abraham and Sarah left Hebron? How can Abraham “settle” in the Sinai
Desert, when all the rest of the text is busy telling us what Abraham did at
Gerar?
Am I misunderstanding the Hebrew here? How can Abraham “settle” in the
Sinai Desert, but we never hear about the Sinai Desert again, all the talk
is
about Gerar, Gerar, Gerar. And Sarah gets pregnant with Isaac in Gerar,
and
bears Isaac in Gerar less than 12 months after Abraham and Sarah left Hebron
and “settled” “between Qadesh and S(h)ur”.
1. The problems set forth in #2 and #3 above disappear instantly if “
the land of the south”, “Gerar”, and the land “between Qadesh and S(h)ur”
are
all references to southern Lebanon, near Sur (my controversial view).
Unless I am misunderstanding what the Hebrew is saying, I just do not see
how (i) Isaac can get incredibly wealthy growing crops in the Negev Desert,
or
how (ii) Abraham and Sarah can “settle” in the middle of the Sinai Desert,
yet Sarah still gets pregnant with Isaac in Gerar, and bears Isaac less than
12 months after Abraham and Sarah left Hebron.
I hate to bring up the Biblical Minimalists, but everyone knows that famed
Biblical Minimalist Niels Peter Lemche openly asserts in his published works
that the Patriarchal narratives are ‘fairy tales’. Aren’t we playing into
his
hands if we insist that Genesis 20: 1 must be interpreted to mean that Isaac
gets incredibly wealthy growing crops in the Negev Desert, and that Abraham “
settles” in the Sinai Desert after leaving Hebron, yet Sarah gets pregnant
with Isaac in Gerar, and Isaac is born less than 12 months after Abraham and
Sarah leave Hebron? On my controversial view of Genesis 20: 1, the entire
sequence here would, by stark contrast, make perfect sense, if Genesis 20: 1
is
subtly referring to southern Lebanon near Sur (“Tyre”). Qadesh, and Sur, and
Abimelech/Abimilki, and Gerar/Garu, and “Philistines”/“Invaders”/foreign
mercenaries/Sherden, and interminable jousting over valuable water wells,
and
habiru/Hebrews -- all fit southern Lebanon perfectly in the mid-14th century
BCE secular historical context. Can all that be merely a weird
“coincidence”
?
Why not take a new look at Genesis 20: 1, and see that, on second thought,
it just may be referencing Sur in southern Lebanon? Then both Genesis 20: 1,
and chapters 21 and 26 of Genesis, would all make perfect sense, both in
terms
of logic, and in terms of well-documented secular history as well.
Why continue with the traditional view of Genesis 20: 1, which appears to
make three chapters of the Patriarchal narratives nonsensical?
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois



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