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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Hebron: The Linguistic Search for the Patriarchs' Bronze Age "Hebron"
  • Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2008 14:29:39 EDT


Karl W. Randolph:

1. You wrote: “How do you know that this "suffix" [-WN] is not merely an
indicator that we are dealing with a noun, sort of like -tion in English? And
in
some cases is not a suffix at all, just part of the noun? … Even if your
claim were true, the grammatical use throughout the whole language rules it
out
as meaning "place", more likely merely a noun indicator, in these cases the
noun of a name.”

I agree. Several people on this thread have made a similar point, and I
accept it.

Your phrase “noun indicator” is probably exactly right.

The fact remains that –WN is a common ending for geographical place names in
ancient Canaan. But I accept your judgment that –WN does not really mean “
place”. Rather, you are doubtless right that –WN is simply a “noun
indicator”.

2. You wrote: “With personal and place names, there could be all sorts of
reasons for the name, and unless we are privy to the origin of the name, all
we
can do is
speculate fruitlessly. …Secondly, as I stated above concerning Hebron,
there can be all sorts of reasons for the name that unless we are privy to
the
reason, all we can do
is speculate fruitlessly.”

In the Patriarchal narratives, every important personal name, whether of a
person or of a geographical place, is used as a pun. In order to understand
what the early Hebrew author is telling us, we must follow along with his
puns.
Thus, we would not be sure that Shechem was an Amorite city unless we take
account of the pun on “shechem” at Genesis 48: 22, which explicitly refers to
the Amorites, and in context must also be referring to the city of Shechem as
a
pun. “Shechem” is the historical spelling of the historical name of the
historical city of Shechem. Yet that name is also used as a pun by the early
Hebrew author of the Patriarchal narratives.

The foregoing analysis then leads us to reassess the name Chamor/Hamor/XMWR.
Since Hamor is the princeling ruler of the Amorite city of Shechem, it makes
sense for his name to mean “the Amorite”. Now we see the pun, which is a
play on heth/X vs. he/H, and involves heth/X representing both he/H and
aleph/),
that is, both an H sound and a guttural sound: XMWR = XMR = H + )MR = “
the Amorite”. That is not a “coincidence”. That is a deliberate pun.

Since heth can represent he-aleph in the name “Hamor”, the same is true in
the name “Hebron”. XBRWN = H + )BR + WN = H + “JBR” + WN = “the
well-watered meadowland”. “JBR” is the mid-15th century BCE word for the
Aijalon
Valley. The pun makes perfect sense if the Patriarchs’ “Hebron” is the ideal
pastureland of the luxuriant Aijalon Valley located 17½ miles west of
Beth-el,
because the Aijalon Valley, so unlike the city of Hebron way up in austere
hill country, is a “well-watered meadowland”.

If we do not try to understand the author’s deliberate puns, we will not
understand what the author is saying. That is to say, the historical content
of
this text only becomes apparent once one understands the author’s constant
punning. If we ignore these unremitting puns, we will fail to understand
what the
author of the Patriarchal narratives is actually saying. “Hamor” refers to
an “Amorite” ruler, and “Hebron” is a play on Late Bronze Age “JBR”, being “
the well-watered meadowland” of the Aijalon Valley. The puns here are
critical to understanding the substantive content of the text.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

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