Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

What Does the Name “Hebron” Mean?
 
We previously saw on this thread that (i) “Hebron” means “the Binding 
Friendship place”,  a-n-d  that (ii) “Hebron” means “the Hebrew place”.  But 
now 
let’s consider a more controversial third pun that is possibly embodied in 
the 
name “Hebron”.
 
3.  “Hebron” = The Arbe Place
 
Controversial Amarna Letter EA 281 (a short letter from a princeling who 
probably lived southwest of Jerusalem) may include a reference to “[H]arabu”. 
 
(Based on that one short Amarna Letter, the locale of “Harabu” or “Arabu” 
could be anywhere in central or southern Canaan.)  With it being unclear 
whether 
or not there is an “H” there, “Arabu” in Akkadian cuneiform certainly looks 
like “Arbe”, as in Kiriath [city of] Arbe.  Arbe is the town near which 
Abraham settles after splitting with Lot.  Genesis 23: 2;  35: 27  In each of 
the 
only two references to Kiriath Arbe in Genesis, “Arbe” is paired with “Hebron”
.  The city of Arbe is at the Hebron place.  Hebron is “the Arbe place”.  
 
(As we are beginning to suspect, the Hebron place in the Patriarchal 
narratives may have no connection whatsoever to the city of Hebron located 20 
miles 
south of Jerusalem, a city which did not exist in the Late Bronze Age.  
Rather, 
the name “Hebron” may have been chosen/created by the author of the 
Patriarchal narratives in order to make the three apt puns that we are 
discussing on 
this thread.  The name of the  c-i-t-y  near which Abraham settles is Arbe 
[Kiriath Arbe, where “Kiriath” means “city”], not Hebron.)  
 
Early translators of the Amarna Letters saw that reference to “[H]arabu” as 
possibly meaning “Hebron”.  Note that the two key consonants -- resh/R and 
bet/B -- are inverted on that analysis.  Even if we reject the earlier 
interpretation of that Amarna Letter (as the more recent translator Wm. Moran 
does), we 
still should consider the possibility of the inversion of these two key 
consonants (resh/R and bet/B).  Inversions of this general type are 
documented on 
several occasions in the ancient world.  Here, this inversion may be a 
deliberate pun by the author of the Patriarchal narratives.  The letters B-R 
are 
inverted (in this third-level, non-obvious pun) to become R-B.  On that 
inversion 
analysis:
 
“Hebron” = XBRWN = H + RB [inverted] + WN = “the” [H] “Arbe” [RB, per 
inversion] “place” [-WN].
 
In the Patriarchal narratives, Hebron certainly is “the Arbe place”, because 
the city of Kiriath Arbe is twice stated to be at the place (valley?, per 
Genesis 37: 14) called “Hebron”.  Genesis 23: 2;  35: 27  “Kiriath Arbe” 
means “
the R-B city”.  Hebron is the place (valley) where “the R-B city” (Arbe) is 
located.  
 
As to the linguistic tactic of inverting BR to get RB, consider the famous 
divine blessing at Genesis 22: 17 that Abraham receives immediately after the 
binding incident.  (A mere eight verses later is the first mention of Kiriath 
Arbe in the text.  This blessing functions as a bridge to (i) our 
introduction 
to Arbe, and (ii) our re-introduction to Hebron.)  This famous divine 
blessing 
that Abraham receives at this awkward, delicate moment, which has 
particularly 
felicitous phrasing, starts out with two B-R words (“bless”/BaRak), and then 
what immediately follows is the inverse:  two R-B words (“multiply”/RaBah):  
“‘…in blessing [a B-R word] I will bless [a B-R word] thee, and in 
multiplying [an R-B word] I will multiply [an R-B word]…’”  First B-R, B-R, 
then R-B, 
R-B.  Likewise, we have first been told (once, at Genesis 13: 18) that 
Abraham 
will sojourn at a B-R place (HeBRon).  But a mere eight verses after this 
blessing, it turns out that the name of the actual city at that B-R/HeBRon 
place 
is the inverse:  the R-B city/aRBe/Kiriath aRBe (historical 
aRaBu/RaBbah/RuButu).  That sentence (Genesis 23: 2) states that Arbe (an R-B 
word) is at Hebron 
(a B-R word), just as Genesis 22: 17 had contrasted two B-R words with two 
following R-B words.  The linguistic point here is that B-R words (like 
“Hebron”
) can pair nicely with R-B words (like “Arbe”), in sophisticated Biblical 
Hebrew wordplay.
 
A town in Canaan called “Rabbah” is referenced at Joshua 15: 60.  “Rubutu” 
is referenced at Amarna Letters EA 289: 13 and 290: 11.  Scholars generally 
agree that such Rabbah and Rubutu are the same historical town, which was 
probably located in or near the Aijalon Valley.  (The T at the end of 
“Rubutu” is 
simply an optional west Semitic suffix that means “town of”.  The three U’s 
in 
“Rubutu” are typical Akkadian cuneiform, which never match the vowel sounds 
in Biblical Hebrew.)  Note that the prosthetic aleph at the beginning of 
“Arbe”
 is optional and is routinely dropped in other words that have R-B as their 
root.  It is thus not surprising that historically, the town name “Arabu” 
[Arbe] became “Rabbah”/“Rubu(tu)” (dropping the prosthetic aleph at the 
beginning).  “aRaBu”, “aRBe”, “RaBbah” and “RuBu(tu)” all feature R-B as 
their 
root.  They are four variations of essentially the same name for the same 
historical town, located 17½ miles west of Beth-el, in the Aijalon Valley.
 
By inverting B-R to become R-B, “Hebron” can be seen to be a pun that means, 
on one level, “the Arbe place”.  
 
In a similar way, “Hebron” can be viewed as being a virtual anagram of “Arbe”
.  The suffix “-on” in “Hebr-on” can be disregarded for this purpose (as it 
is not part of the root), leaving us with “Hebr”.  “Hebr” consists of one 
guttural (a heth [X]), and the consonants bet [B] and resh [R].  “Arbe” 
consists of two gutturals (an aleph [)] at the beginning and an ayin [(] at 
the 
end), plus resh [R] and bet [B].  Thus both of these words -- “Hebr(on)” and 
“Arbe
” -- consist of gutturals and resh/R and bet/B, in varying combinations.  
Which is just to say that the “Hebr-“ in “Hebr-on” is a virtual anagram of 
“Arbe
”.
 
The point is that the names “Hebron” and “Arbe” are suggestive of each 
other, rather than being entirely unrelated.  Instead of that phenomenon 
being a “
coincidence”, it more likely reflects the fact that the author of the 
Patriarchal narratives chose/created the name “Hebron” precisely because the 
name “
Hebron” is, on one level, redolent of the historical Late Bronze Age city 
named “
Arbe”.
 
Thus the name “Hebron” brilliantly embodies three different puns, each of 
which tells us something important about the Hebron place.  First, “Hebron” = 
“
the Binding Friendship place”, where Abraham has a “binding friendship” with 
certain Amorites, who in due course help Abraham rescue his nephew Lot.  
Second, “Hebron” = “the Hebrew place”, being the first place where the word “
Hebrew” is used, and being the place where the first Hebrews in Genesis 
sojourn 
longer than any other place.  And finally, “Hebron” is “the Arbe place”, as 
the name of the  c-i-t-y  at that place is “Arbe”.  
 
We can determine that “Hebron” itself in the Patriarchal narratives is a 
valley (per Genesis 37: 14), not a city.  “Hebron” in Genesis is in fact very 
likely the Aijalon Valley, located 17½ miles west of Beth-el.  (Cf. Genesis 
13: 
3, 8-11, 18 as to where Abraham should logically go upon separating from Lot 
at Beth-el, since Lot for his part goes 17½ miles  e-a-s-t  of Beth-el to the 
Jordan River Valley.)  The Aijalon Valley, in addition to having the ideal 
location to be the place where Abraham would be expected to be portrayed as 
pitching his tent upon separating from Lot, is famous for its magnificent 
groves of 
oak trees/terebinths. Genesis 13: 18  And as emphasized in this post, in the 
Late Bronze Age one of the most prominent cities in the Aijalon Valley was 
Arbe/Arabu/Rabbah/Rubutu, all of which town names are based on the root R-B.  
Thus 
the name “Hebron” is telling us the locale of the Hebron place, as “Hebron” 
(a B-R name) is redolent of “Arbe” (an R-B name), which was a prominent town 
in the Aijalon Valley in the Late Bronze Age historical time period of the 
Patriarchal Age.  
 
There was no city of Hebron located 20 miles south of Jerusalem in existence 
in the Late Bronze Age.  Abraham’s “Hebron” is a Patriarchal name for an 
important  v-a-l-l-e-y  in Canaan (17½ miles west of Beth-el), rather than 
being 
the later city of Hebron.
 
If we can understand the meaning of the name “Hebron”, we can understand the 
Patriarchal narratives.   
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois




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