Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>]

Jim,

You may be right that Beer-Sheba, Shur, Grar and Qadesh may be  
generic names, like Beit-Lexem, but there is one overriding  
consideration for Abraham's travels: He had to avoid densely  
populated areas of central authority. He was practically defenseless,  
and they were good looking people [blond with blue eyes?]. As soon as  
they entered such area they had their wives and daughters confiscated  
by the local ruler or strongman. So wherever you place Abraham it  
must be a sparsely populated, semi arid region of only few herders.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On Oct 15, 2007, at 5:50 PM, JimStinehart AT aol.com wrote:

> Everything makes sense if Genesis 20: 1 is referring to  southern  
> Lebanon as
> the place where Abraham and Sarah went to have the  baby.