Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Where Is the Patriarchs’ “Hebron”?
 
In chapter 13 of Genesis, Abraham and Lot return to Beth-el in central Canaan 
after briefly having been in Egypt.  Abraham at that point tells Lot that the 
two men must now separate.  Abraham specifically says to Lot:
 
“‘Is not the whole land before thee? separate thyself, I pray thee, from 
me;  if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right;  or if 
thou take the right hand, then I will go to the left.'”  Genesis 13: 9
 
The natural reading of that passage would seem to be that (i) Lot will choose 
what direction to depart from Beth-el, and (ii) Abraham will then also depart 
from Beth-el, with Abraham going in precisely the opposite direction than 
Lot.  So if Lot leaves Beth-el heading  e-a-s-t, we would expect Abraham to 
then leave Beth-el going  w-e-s-t.  If Lot leaves Beth-el heading  e-a-s-t, 
we would not expect Abraham to head straight  s-o-u-t-h  from Beth-el (to the 
city of Hebron), because Abraham had so clearly stated to Lot:  “‘[I]f 
thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right;  or if thou take 
the right hand, then I will go to the left.'”
 
Lot then looks at the Jordan River Valley (the “KKR of the Jordan”), and 
Lot duly leaves Beth-el, heading  e-a-s-t:
 
“Lot chose him all the [KKR/valley/]plain of the Jordan;  and Lot journeyed 
east; and they separated themselves the one from the other.’”  Genesis 
13: 11
 
The text unequivocally states that “Lot journeyed east” upon leaving 
Beth-el.  Bearing in mind that Abraham had, just before that, said to Lot 
that “‘if thou wilt take the left hand, then I will go to the right;  or 
if thou take the right hand, then I will go to the left'”, it certainly 
seems that we should now expect Abraham, for his part, to leave Beth-el 
traveling exactly the opposite direction:  w-e-s-t.
 
Moreover, YHWH’s words to Abraham right after Lot has left Beth-el would 
seem to confirm the above interpretation, namely that Abraham at this point 
should head out  w-e-s-t  from Beth-el (not south toward the city of Hebron 
that lies 20 miles south of Jerusalem and 35 miles south of Beth-el):
 
“And the LORD [YHWH] said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from 
him:  'Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, 
northward and southward and eastward and westward;… Arise, walk through the 
land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for unto thee will I give 
it.'”   Genesis 13: 14, 17
 
The natural reading of those two verses would seem to be that YHWH is 
advising Abraham that Abraham should check out the land north and south and 
east and west of Beth-el.  We know that the first three directions have 
already been covered by Abraham.  Abraham had been in the Shechem area, which 
is straight north of Beth-el, prior to arriving at Beth-el the first time.  
Abraham has now gone to and from Egypt, meaning that Abraham has twice 
traveled the entire length of the land south of Beth-el.  And Abraham came 
from the east, crossing the Jordan River which lies east of Beth-el.  So the 
one direction that is obviously missing here is:  w-e-s-t.  Abraham has never 
been west of Beth-el.
 
Based on what Abraham and YHWH say at Beth-el, and what Lot does at Beth-el, 
chapter 13 of Genesis seems to be definitely saying that after Lot left 
Beth-el heading  e-a-s-t, Abraham should then be expected to leave Beth-el 
heading the opposite direction:  w-e-s-t.
 
We know that Abraham proceeds to the Patriarchs’ “Hebron”, and while 
there, Abraham many years later eventually deals with the townspeople of 
Kiriath Arbe (in order to purchase a gravesite for Sarah).  The word 
“kiriath” means “city”;  Kiriath Arbe is expressly stated at Genesis 
23: 10, 18 to be a “city” that has a “gate”.  By contrast, the 
Patriarchs’ “Hebron” is never called a “city”, and is never said to 
have a “gate”.  “Kiriath Arbe” means “city of Arbe”.  In the 
ancient world, there is no inscriptional evidence of a town called Arbe south 
of Jerusalem.  And there is no inscriptional evidence of “Hebron” being 
the name of a place south of Jerusalem until the Iron Age, in the 8th century 
BCE or so.  But if we look  w-e-s-t  of Beth-el, which chapter 13 of Genesis 
seems to indicate is the direction Abraham should have gone in leaving 
Beth-el, we may find the historical city of Kiriath Arbe documented by 
several inscriptions in the Late Bronze Age.  We may also find a well-watered 
meadowland, being a famous valley, that features the finest land in Canaan 
for grazing sheep and goats, whose pre-Hebrew name in the mid-15th century 
BCE may be the forerunner of the Patriarchal name “Hebron”.
 
Why is no “Arbe” documented in the ancient world south of Jerusalem?  Why 
is the name “Hebron” not documented south of Jerusalem prior to the 8th 
century BCE?  By sharp contrast, why do both the names “Arbe” and 
“Hebron” seem to appear in the Late Bronze Age, if we are willing to look 
 w-e-s-t  of Beth-el, instead of insisting on the traditional approach of 
solely looking south of Beth-el, at the locale of the city that from the Iron 
Age to the present has been called Hebron?  Why should we follow the 
traditional approach of confining ourselves exclusively to the  c-i-t-y  of 
Hebron, located 20 miles south of Jerusalem, when Genesis 13: 12 explicitly 
tells us that tent-dwelling Abraham, unlike Lot, did  n-o-t  live in a city?  
Genesis 13: 12 tells us that Abraham, unlike Lot, lived in the  
c-o-u-n-t-r-y-s-i-d-e  of Canaan.  Abraham had a huge flock of sheep and 
goats, and per Genesis 14: 14 Abraham had 318 armed retainers.  The 
Patriarchs’ “Hebron”, which features a magnificent grove of oak trees 
(Genesis 13: 18), must be a rural locale that is conducive to herding a huge 
flock of sheep and goats, not a city.
 
Have people been looking for Kiriath Arbe and the Patriarchs’ “Hebron” 
in the wrong place for 2½ millennia?  Given the analysis above of what 
chapter 13 of Genesis seems to specifically say as to where Abraham would be 
expected to go upon leaving Beth-el, shouldn’t we cast our eyes  w-e-s-t, 
and see if we can document the names “Arbe” and “Hebron” in a Bronze 
Age inscription at a locale  w-e-s-t  of Beth-el?  Why continue to look in 
vain for a Bronze Age inscription of either of those two names south of 
Jerusalem, at the locale of the city of Hebron?
 
Can we on the b-hebrew list do what no scholar has ever accomplished -- find 
Late Bronze Age inscriptions for “Arbe” (Kiriath Arbe) and for the 
Patriarchs’ “Hebron”?  Are we willing to look  w-e-s-t  of Beth-el for 
such ancient inscriptions?  If we are willing to cast our eyes west of 
Beth-el, instead of doggedly insisting on only looking south of Beth-el, we 
may well find both the Biblical city of Kiriath Arbe, and the Patriarchs’ 
“Hebron”.  Both of these key Biblical places may be attested by 
well-known Late Bronze Age inscriptions.  The one real question here is 
whether or not we are willing to look  w-e-s-t  of Beth-el for such ancient 
inscriptions.
 
Why not take a chance?  Why not look  w-e-s-t  of Beth-el for Late Bronze Age 
inscriptions of “Arbe” and the Patriarchs’ “Hebron”?  If we want to 
investigate whether the names “Arbe” and “Hebron” match ancient 
Bronze Age inscriptions in secular history, and thereby in large part 
validate the historicity of the Patriarchal narratives, we must be willing to 
jettison the traditional, non-textual assumption as to where the 
Patriarchs’ “Hebron” is located.  It makes no sense for Abraham to take 
a huge flock of sheep and goats and 318 armed retainers way “up” to the 
austere city of Hebron in the forbidding “hill” country south of 
Jerusalem, where there is very little good pastureland.  The common words 
“up” and “hill” are never used in Genesis to describe the 
Patriarchs’ “Hebron”, which in fact is  n-o-t  “up” in “hill” 
country.  No, Abraham, with a great divine blessing in hand, would naturally 
have sought a tremendous pastureland, a “well-watered meadowland”, “the 
well-watered meadowland place”, H + )BR + WN, that is, the Patriarchs’ 
“Hebron” [XBRWN, where heth/X, having an H plus guttural sound, has been 
substituted for he-aleph/H)].  The well-watered meadowland place/“Hebron” 
in the Patriarchal narratives is, unlike the city of Hebron, located 17½ 
miles west of Beth-el, just as chapter 13 of Genesis indicates (with Lot 
having gone 17½ miles east of Beth-el to get to the Jordan River).  So 
let’s look for Late Bronze Age inscriptions 17½ miles west of Beth-el that 
say “Arbe” and “Hebron”, instead of solely looking south of Beth-el 
and Jerusalem.  If we are brave enough to buck tradition and cast our eyes  
w-e-s-t  of Beth-el, we will surely find those ancient inscriptions in 
secular history.  Then we will know, for the first time in 2,500 years, where 
Abraham actually went after he split from Lot at Beth-el.  
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois




**************New MapQuest Local shows what's happening at your destination.  
Dining, Movies, Events, News & more. Try it out!      
(http://local.mapquest.com/?ncid=emlcntnew00000001)