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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] Joshua City Lists, Part I
  • Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:16:07 EST


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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  • [b-hebrew] Joshua City Lists, Part I, JimStinehart, 01/29/2009

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