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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] "The Negev" at Genesis 12: 9 Is Not the Negev Desert
  • Date: Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:27:51 EDT


Joel M. Hoffman:

You wrote: “[I]n my dialect, there's no difference between "Negev-ward" and
"toward the Negev." … (And yes, NEGEV is also used metonymically for
"south.")


I fear that you may be assuming that the word “negev” in Genesis refers to
the Negev Desert. But in fact, the word “negev” was n-e-v-e-r used in the
secular history of the ancient world (at least prior to Roman times) as the
proper name of the Negev Desert. This is confirmed by an archaeological
professor who lives and works in the Negev Desert:

“[Regarding] the Negev…the Northern Negev of today[,… w]e do not have any
pre-biblical (Bronze Age or second millennium BC) texts, Egyptian or
otherwise,
which use the word. …It is true that the Negev as such does not serve as a
name for any administrative region, but I am not sure that it does not appear
in
texts from Roman and Byzantine times.” Dr. Steve Rosen, Professor of
Archaeology at Ben-Gurion University in the Negev

So at least prior to Roman times (and the Patriarchal narratives certainly
were composed prior to Roman times), “negev” was n-e-v-e-r used as the
proper
name of the Negev Desert in the secular history of the ancient world.

Accordingly, in order to determine what geographical locale is being referred
to in Genesis by the word “negev”, we must on each separate occasion examine
the immediate context. At Genesis 12: 9 (and at Genesis 13: 1 as well), the
context makes it clear that, to paraphrase the text, Abraham traveled “to and
through the hill country south of Beth-el”. That is, in context, the
reference in those two passages to “the South”/“the negev” is to the hill
country
south of Beth-el, not to the Negev Desert. Also note that where the Hebrew
directional suffix he/H applies to a region, as here (instead of to a city),
a
translation of “to” or “toward” is not as good as “to and through”, in my
opinion. As I understand Biblical Hebrew (and I would like to be corrected
if I
am wrong about this), the Hebrew directional suffix he/H, when applied to a
region, means that the person both went “to” the region, and that the person
traveled “through” the region. The English word “toward” would imply in
English that the person never actually made it to the region, which is not
the
meaning in Biblical Hebrew at all. And the English word “to”, while not as
bad,
really just means “arrived at” in English, without the focus on traveling in
a
particular direction that applies in the Biblical Hebrew.

At Genesis 12: 9, the text is logically focusing on the fact that having
observed drought/famine in the eastern part of both northern and central
Canaan
(Genesis 12: 6, 8), Abraham now observes the same drought/famine in the
eastern
part of southern Canaan proper as well -- the hill country south of Beth-el.
It is on this basis that Abraham confirms that, as the text states at Genesis
12: 10: “And there was a famine in the land….” That is, all of eastern
Canaan proper (with no consideration being given to the Negev Desert, one way
or
the other) was experiencing a widespread drought/famine. That fact is
important in Abraham’s somewhat surprising decision to proceed immediately to
Egypt.

There is no reason for the text to mention the Negev Desert here, and the
text does not mention the Negev Desert. The divine sign that Abraham should
go
down to Egypt immediately (to sell directly to Pharaoh’s royal buyers the
lapis
lazuli that Terakh had bought in Ur) is that all of eastern Canaan proper
(excluding the Negev Desert) was experiencing a widespread drought/famine
(though
such drought/famine would soon prove to be of short duration). If we focus
on what the author is logically trying to tell us at Genesis 12: 9, we see
that
the author is stressing that the hill country south of Beth-el, like the rest
of eastern Canaan, was at that time experiencing a drought/famine. There is
no reason for the author to mention the Negev Desert in this context, and he
doesn’t.

In order to keep this post short, I will not go on to analyze the other uses
of “negev” in Genesis. But let me note that if we examined the rest of the
Patriarchal narratives, we would find that (i) the phrases “the negev” and “
the land of the negev” n-e-v-e-r refer to the Negev Desert in the
Patriarchal
narratives (at Genesis 24: 62, Genesis 20: 1, or elsewhere), and (ii) the
Patriarchal narratives n-e-v-e-r refer to the Negev Desert.

We must recognize that, historically, a reference in Biblical Hebrew to “the
South” (that is, “the negev”) is inherently ambiguous on its face. The
actual geographical locale being referenced can only be determined by
reference to
the immediate context in which such phrase is used in the text. Here at
Genesis 12: 9, a close review of the text indicates that “the South”/“the
negev”
at Genesis 12: 9 is referring to the hill country south of Beth-el. Genesis
12: 9 is telling us that Abraham traveled “to and through” the hill country
south of Beth-el, confirming that this part of Canaan proper, just like all
the
rest of eastern Canaan, was at that time experiencing a widespread
drought/famine. That was the divine sign that Abraham should then proceed
directly to
Egypt.

JPS1917 translates Genesis 12: 9 as follows:

“And Abram journeyed, going on still toward the South.”

In context, that means, and could be paraphrased as: “And Abram journeyed,
going on in stages to and through the hill country south of Beth-el.” There
is
no reason to focus on the Negev Desert here, and every reason to focus on the
hill country south of Beth-el. The hill country south of Beth-el was an
integral part of Canaan proper and, in a somewhat unusual occurrence, was at
this
time experiencing a widespread drought-famine.

Finally, we should remember the words that Abraham had just recently heard
from YHWH as part of that series of tremendous divine promises that YHWH made
to
Abraham in Harran:

“Now the LORD [YHWH] said unto Abram: 'Get thee…unto the land that I will
show thee.’” Genesis 12: 1

We soon find out that “the land that I will show thee” means, in part, that
(i) Abraham will proceed first to eastern Canaan, which will at this time be
experiencing a widespread drought/famine, and (ii) accordingly, Abraham
should
then proceed directly to Egypt, and (iii) Abraham will then soon return to
Canaan from Egypt, with the short-lived famine in eastern Canaan already
being a
thing of the past, and with Abraham himself never to leave Canaan again.
Those specific geographical details are of course not spelled out as such at
Genesis 12: 1, but as the story plays out, we soon come to know what YHWH had
meant
by that important, but initially ambiguous, divine reference to “the land
that I will show you”.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois




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