Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

In the fine article by our own Professor Yigal Levin, “Numbers 34: 2-12, The 
Boundaries of the Land of Canaan, and the Empire of Necho”, in “Journal of 
the Ancient Near Eastern Society”, Prof. Levin makes the following statement 
at 
p. 71:
 
“As far as we can tell, the Hebrew Bible in fact expresses no recollection of 
Egyptian rule of Canaan…from pre-Israelite Canaan….”
 
Rather, according to Prof. Levin, Joshua and Numbers “fit the reality of the 
seventh century B.C.E.”  At p. 74
 
If Joshua is coming from “the seventh century B.C.E”, with “no recollection 
of Egyptian rule of Canaan…from pre-Israelite Canaan”, then how on earth can 
the city lists in Joshua consistently record every single city, town and 
village listed in 27 consecutive items near the end of the mid-15th century 
BCE 
Thutmosis III list?  Many of those obscure towns and villages were never 
heard 
from again in secular history after the Late Bronze Age.  But every single 
one 
of those towns and villages is right there in Joshua, located in or near the 
northern Shephelah, right where the Thutmosis III list indicates it should be.
 
Let’s look at how accurately Joshua reflects these 27 consecutive items, 
beginning with item #90, on the mid-15th century BCE Thutmosis III list.  The 
Aijalon Valley, on the northern edge of southern Canaan, was the staging area 
where pharaoh Thutmosis III mustered his Egyptian troops for the conquest of 
central and northern Canaan.  The Egyptian scribes/translators were likely in 
the 
Aijalon Valley area for several weeks, perhaps at the city of Aijalon on the 
east end of the Aijalon Valley, waiting for the invasion of central and 
northern 
Canaan to begin.  During that time, the Egyptian scribes, perhaps wanting to 
brush up on their Canaanite language skills, spoke to many different sets of 
local villagers and recorded the name of every town and village on the east 
end 
of the Aijalon Valley, including one or more towns a few miles east of the 
Shephelah in the western part of hill country.  Not surprisingly, these 27 
items 
ended up being placed at the end of the Thutmosis III list, because they had 
little propaganda value;  the Shephelah had not sided with the ruler of 
Qadesh 
on the Orontes, far to the north, and thus the Shephelah, unlike central and 
northern Canaan, was not hostile territory that Thutmosis III conquered.  
Many 
of those small, obscure, unimportant towns and villages near the east end of 
the Aijalon Valley went out of existence by the end of the Late Bronze Age.  
Only an authentic Late Bronze Age source -- the Thutmosis III list certainly, 
and possibly the city lists of Joshua as well -- could include all of these 
obscure towns and villages in and near the eastern Aijalon Valley in the Late 
Bronze Age.
 
90.  JBR.  Those Egyptian letters reflect )BL for the non-Hebrew Canaanites.  
Egyptian J is most often an aleph/), and Egyptian R is most often a lamed/L.  
This JBR/)BL is the first of three such items, roughly meaning “meadow with a 
wadi”.  (For an example of )BL used as part of a non-Hebrew Canaanite 
geographical place name having this meaning, see Judges 7: 22.)  The northern 
Shephelah is world-famous for having three long valleys/meadows with a wadi.  
This 
first JBR/)BL/“meadow with a wadi” is the Elah Valley.  It’s the first place 
of 
consequence northeast of Egyptian-held Gaza.
 
91.  JTR.  That’s (TR/Ether at Joshua 15: 42, just south of the Sorek Valley. 
 Here, the Egyptian J has its second most common role:  an ayin/(.  The 
Egyptian R here is a resh/R.  [Per Joshua 15: 33, Ether is in or near the 
“Lowland”
/Shephelah/$PLH.]
 
92.  JBR.  This second “meadow with a wadi”/)BL is the Sorek Valley (located 
north of the Elah Valley, and south of the Aijalon Valley;  those three 
prominent valleys constitute the essence of the northern Shephelah, just west 
of 
hill country, west of Jerusalem).  One of the trade routes through Canaan ran 
from the eastern branch of the coastal route, at Ekron, east through the 
Sorek 
Valley.
 
93 - 96.  KNT JT MQR PT (YN KRMN.  The first and last words are KNT KRMN.  
KNT-KRM + suffix N = Ginti-Carmel, which is Carmel [KRM + diminutive suffix 
L] 
at Joshua 15: 55.  (A final N is the most common suffix for a geographical 
place name on the Thutmosis III list.  A final T is the second most common 
such 
suffix.)  The intermediate words are topographical references -- “namely, 
with 
[)T] water-well [MQWR] piece [PT], fountain [(YN]” -- emphasizing that 
Carmel, 
probably located on the northern rim of the Sorek Valley (per the composition 
of the Amarna tablets from Ginti-Carmel), had plenty of water resources.  
[Per 
Joshua, Carmel at Joshua 15: 55 is in, or just west of, hill country.  Only 
the 11 cities listed at Joshua 15: 48-51 are expressly stated in the text to 
be 
located “in” hill country proper.  We should not be too surprised to see 
several towns listed at Joshua 15: 52-60 as being in the eastern Shephelah, 
just 
west of hill country, and showing up on the Thutmosis III list, even though 
scholars have never considered that possibility.]
 
97-98.  BTJ TPN.  As we shall see, that’s Beth-Dagon/BYT-DGWN, at Joshua 15: 
41, located fairly near the coast southeast of Joppa.  TPN has traditionally, 
but erroneously, been viewed as being DBN/Dibon, in the Transjordan.  The 
Egyptian T here is a dalet/D, and the Egyptian P is a bet/B, but a 
Transjordanian 
location makes no sense.  The original name of this town near Joppa, in the 
mid-15th century BCE, may have come from, and be a slightly abbreviated, 
Canaanite version of, the Ugaritic divine phrase “bt il dbb”.  If so, then 
BTJ TPN = 
BT + )[L] + DB[B] + N suffix.  The original meaning was “Town of the Daughter 
of El, Dubab”.  (That original deity may in Biblical Hebrew be the B(L 
ZBWB/Beelzebub at II Kings 1: 2, at nearby Ekron.  An underlined d is often 
zayin/Z 
in Biblical Hebrew, though it may be a dalet/D in other west Semitic 
languages.)  But Dagon/DGWN soon became a much more popular god in Canaan, 
especially 
among the later Philistines near this location.  So perhaps as early as the 
mid-14th century BCE, the former BT) DBN had become BYT-DGWN/Beth-Dagon, 
having a 
somewhat similar sound, but now meaning “House of Dagon”.  [Per Joshua, 
Beth-Dagon is located in the Shephelah.]  
 
We will see the Thutmosis III list describe cities and towns in an arc on the 
northern edge of the Shephelah, with the farthest point north being 
Beth-Dagon, on the northwest, fairly near Joppa.  On the northeast (not as 
far north), 
we will later see Beth-Horon, on the border between the northeast corner of 
the Shephelah and hill country.  In between, a little farther south, we will 
see 
essentially every city, town and village in the greater Aijalon Valley area 
as of the mid-15th century BCE.  Virtually all of these 27 consecutive items 
lie in non-hostile territory between, in an arc south of, Beth-Dagon on the 
northwest and Beth-Horon on the northeast. 
 
99.  JBR.  This third “meadow with a wadi”/)BL (to the non-Hebrew 
Canaanites) in the northern Shephelah is the Aijalon Valley.  This was the 
ideal staging 
area for Thutmosis III to assemble his troops for the conquest of central and 
northern Canaan, having plenty of pasture for animals and space for troops, 
plenty of water for soldiers and animals, and being located in non-hostile 
territory just south of the war zone.
 
100.  YRT.  That is YL + suffix T, where Egyptian R is lamed/L (or the 
original Y-R later became Y-L).  This is the city of Aijalon.  A final T 
effectively 
means “city” on the Thutmosis III list.  This place soon came to be referred 
to with the even more popular suffix, N [vav-nun/WN in Hebrew], which can 
mean either “city” or “place” (emphasizing that Aijalon, in addition to being 
a 
small city, was a place that overlooked the important Aijalon Valley;  cf. 
the final –N ending in SRN/“Sharon” at item #20, where such final –N/-WN 
means 
“place”,  not “city”).  An initial prosthetic aleph/) was also added, to 
aid pronunciation.  So the former YL + T became:  ) + YL + WN = Aijalon, per 
the 
Amarna Letters (transliterated as “Ayyaluna”, with an archaic pre-12th 
century BCE case ending).  At Joshua 19: 42 and 21: 24, Aijalon is spelled 
)YLWN.  
[By comparison of Joshua 19: 41 to Joshua 15: 33, the city of Aijalon is in 
the Shephelah, on the eastern end of the Aijalon Valley.]
 
101.  XRKR.  That is Halhul at Joshua 15: 58:  XLXWL.  Each Egyptian R here 
is, as in the majority of cases, a lamed/L.  The kaf/K sound of the Egyptian 
K 
is somewhat similar to X/heth in Biblical Hebrew, so this spelling difference 
(or Egyptian scribal error) is understandable.  The vav/W is an implied vowel 
in Egyptian.  [Per Joshua, Halhul is located in, or just west of, hill 
country.  This section of Joshua (15: 52-60) contains a surprisingly large 
number of 
towns that appear on the Thutmosis III list, reflecting the fact that 
Egyptian 
scribes recorded the name of every small town and village in or near the 
eastern edge of the Aijalon Valley, including one or more towns located in 
the 
western part of hill county itself.]
 
102.  Y(QBJMR (second version).  The first version of this name is the 
equivalent of Jacob-El.  This second, later, longer version here probably 
came to be 
pronounced YQB + (M, meaning “Winepress People”.  There is a one-letter 
transcription error in the Masoretic text of Joshua 15: 56, so this city name 
comes out as “Jokdeam”/YQD)M, instead of Jokbeam/Jakeb-am.  But the older 
Septuagint shows no dalet/D, which is evidence of this one-letter 
transcription 
error.  [Per Joshua, Jokdeam/Jakeb-am is located in, or just west of, hill 
country.]
 
103.  QPT.  That’s Gibeah/GB(H at Joshua 15: 57.  Egyptian Q is often 
gimel/G, as in the immediately following item #104 (which is recognized by 
all 
scholars).  Peh/P and bet/B are often confused in going from one ancient 
language to 
another (as in #98 above).  The –T suffix in Egyptian routinely becomes a 
he/H standard suffix in Biblical Hebrew.  [Per Joshua, Gibeah is located in, 
or 
just west of, hill country.]
 
104.  QDR (with underlined D, usually indicating a Z-type sound in Biblical 
Hebrew;  the Egyptians did not have a separate Z).  That’s Gezer/GZR, at 
Joshua 
16: 3, 10.  [Chapter 16 of Joshua implies that Gezer is in northwestern 
Shephelah, near the coastal plain.]  (Of the 27 items being discussed, 
scholars 
firmly identify only this #104 and the following #105.  Scholars have been 
baffled by most of these 27 items, guessing that some of these items may have 
been 
located as far north as Syria, and some items as far east as the Transjordan. 
 
But in fact, all conquests that far from Egypt are, not surprisingly, placed 
in earlier, more prominent positions on the Thutmosis III list.)
 
My next post will start with item #105 on the Thutmosis III list.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

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