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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] M$QH at Genesis 13: 10: Where Did Lot Go?
  • Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2008 10:06:00 EDT


Yigal Levin:

1. You wrote: “Jim, Lot was not looking for "city life", he was looking for
good grazing.”

Au contraire, that is not what the text says.

“Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the
[KKR/valley/]Plain, and moved his tent as far as Sodom.” Genesis 13: 12

Already at Genesis 13: 12 we are told that “Lot dwelt in the cities of the
[KKR/valley/]Plain”. Lot was n-o-t “looking for good grazing”. No, Lot
had
already had trouble handling his new, large, time-consuming flock of sheep
and
goats. Genesis 13: 6-8 So Lot (unlike Abraham) was already thinking of
selling off his flock and living the soft, city life. As you yourself put it
so
very well

“The whole point of the story is to contrast Abraham's righteousness with
Lot's
wrong choices….”

Lot initially pitches his tent a short distance from Sodom, but quite
quickly, Lot sells his flock and moves into the city of Sodom. By the time
we get to
chapter 19 of Genesis, Lot owns a house with a wooden roof beam over his
head, Lot has married off his two oldest daughters to men of Sodom, and Lot
is a
full-fledged townie in all regards, enjoying the soft, city life.

2. You wrote: “The Jezreel Valley is NOT used primarily for grazing, since
the fields are sown and planted with grain.”

I agree with that 100%. In fact, I myself stressed that very point in my own
post, where I specifically stated:

“The Jezreel Valley was world-famous for growing grain (some of which was
shipped to Egypt) and for rich cities, not for tent-dwelling herders of sheep
and
goats like Abraham.”

But your real point, which is a valid point, is that the definition of M$QH
that I initially proposed is deficient. M$QH means good land that is
well-watered. M$QH does not exclude land that is used for growing grain. So
let’s try
the following, much-improved definition of M$QH: “luxuriant, well-watered
land”.

3. You wrote: “Most grazing by semi-pastoralists such as the Patriarchs was
done on the desert fringe, including the Judean Desert.”

First, Lot was n-o-t “looking for good grazing”. Rather, Lot had already
resolved to live the soft city life, as we know from Genesis 13: 12 quoted
above.

Second, your assertion that “[m]ost grazing by semi-pastoralists such as the
Patriarchs was done on the desert fringe” does not hold true, at least not in
the mid-14th century BCE. We’ve got umpteen references to tent-dwelling “
habiru” all over Canaan in the Amarna Letters. If those semi-pastoralist
habiru
had minded their own business and kept to the “desert fringe”, then the
Amarna Letters would not be replete with princeling after city-dwelling
princeling
complaining to no end about the blessed habiru. Even if the word “habiru” is
not connected to the word “Hebrew”, the plain fact of the matter is that the
historical habiru were tent-dwelling “semi-pastoralists” who in the Late
Bronze Age refused to confine themselves to the “desert fringe”, and instead
were a constant source of angst to the city-dwelling princelings all over
Canaan
who wrote the Amarna Letters.

Third, your reference to “the desert fringe” is irrelevant here in any
event, as to the question of where Lot went. Genesis 13: 10 explicitly tells
us
that Lot resolved to go to M$QH, which is luxuriant, well-watered land, not
“the
desert fringe”.

4. You wrote: “AND - the area of the Kikar, along the southern edge of the
Dead Sea is even today a lush area, watered by several large springs. Most
tourists don't get to see this part of the Dead Sea shore because it's so
close
to the Jordanian border, but I've done some military service there, and the
soldiers call it "Vietnam", because it reminds them of movie scenes of
patrolling through the jungles of southeast Asia.”

Although there are many oases along the southern edge of the Dead Sea, amidst
the otherwise desolate eastern Negev Desert, that area is not M$QH. Much
more importantly, though, the area south of the Dead Sea is entirely
irrelevant
here in any event, because from a mountain east of Beth-el, absolutely
nothing
south of the northern tip of the Dead Sea can be seen. That mountain east of
Beth-el affords, rather, a gorgeous, panoramic view to the northeast,
featuring the beautiful Jordan River north of the Dead Sea and, far in the
distance,
magnificent Mt. Hermon. Nothing about that wondrous northeast view from
Beth-el would incline Lot to go anywhere near “the southern edge of the Dead
Sea”,
a part of the world as to which Lot knew absolutely nothing.

Lot knew nothing whatseover about the “Vietnam”-like oases “along the
southern edge of the Dead Sea”. Lot had just come from the far northeast,
from
Harran. So Lot knew the M$QH on the eastern edge of the Jezreel Valley,
including
the rich cities that were there in that fertile valley, and Lot knew the
entire Jordan River Valley north of the Dead Sea.

The text specifically tells us what happened:

“And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the valley of the Jordan, that it
was luxuriant, well watered land [M$QH] every where…as thou goest unto Zoar.”
Genesis 13: 10

The M$QH cannot be desert oases “along the southern edge of the Dead Sea”,
because Lot knew nothing about any such thing. What Lot knew, rather, having
come from the far northeast, was that there were numerous rich cities like
Biblical Zoar/historical S-R/Afula the Small in the luxuriant eastern Jezreel
Valley. The Biblical M$QH referred to there is the historical M$QH in the
eastern
Jezreel Valley. The “valley of the Jordan”, broadly construed, includes the
eastern half of the Jezreel Valley, because the water at Afula the Small and
points east (such as Beth Shan) drains east into the Jordan River Valley.

I don’t see how the text could be more specific, or more historically
accurate, or more geographically accurate than it is. The text is telling us
that
Lot chose the soft city life among the well-known rich cities he knew about
in
the M$QH of the fertile eastern Jezreel Valley. There’s no way that Lot
would
have incongruously decided to rough it, and take his large flock on a long,
risky trek “along the southern edge of the Dead Sea” on “the desert fringe”,
a
part of the world as to which Lot had absolutely no knowledge whatsoever.

Genesis 13: 10 tells us where Lot went. Lot went toward Zoar, which is
S-R/historical Afula the Small, in the M$QH/luxuriant, well-watered land that
characterizes the eastern Jezreel Valley. Lot knew well that wondrous M$QH,
which
was the breadbasket of ancient Canaan, and Lot knew the many rich cities in
that fertile valley, Lot having passed by that way in coming into Canaan from
the far northeast. Genesis 13: 12 then confirms that Lot quickly began
living
the soft city life among “the cities of the KKR/valley/‘Plain’”. In an
historical context, the only place in Canaan that had numerous cities in
luxuriant
M$QH was, precisely, the Jezreel Valley. Such cities did not exist “along
the
southern edge of the Dead Sea”, or “on the desert fringe”, nor did Lot have
any knowledge whatsoever of “the southern edge of the Dead Sea”. Rather, Lot
had made up his mind as to where he was going when Lot looked northeast, in
that spectacular view from a mountain just east of Beth-el. Lot was bound
and
determined to seek the good life, the soft city life, among the rich cities
in
the M$QH of the fertile Jezreel Valley.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois




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