Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Karl: 
If you would look at p. 12 of Anson Rainey’s “The Sacred Bridge”, you  will 
see that the traditional scholarly view (at least Rainey’s version of the  
traditional scholarly view) is that all 10 towns at Joshua 15: 55-57 were  
located exclusively southeast of Hebron, near the Judean Desert, in a part of 
 
Canaan for which there is no evidence in secular history of there ever being 
any  
real towns at all.  My point is that  such traditional view is a completely 
erroneous interpretation of what Joshua is  saying.  The place to find those 
10  
towns is in the foothills on the western edge of hill country, a place where  
many towns are documented, near the fertile east end of the Sorek  Valley. 
We expect to see Timnah in the foothills on the western edge of hill  
country, where Samson operated.  Timnah is at Joshua 15: 55-57.  The town 
name “
Jezreel”, at Joshua 15: 55-57, probably means something  like “God will sow”. 
 
That makes no  sense in the desolate area southeast of Hebron, but would make 
perfect sense in  or near the foothills on the western edge of hill country.  
We 
have previously discussed that  “Carmel”, another name at Joshua 15: 55-57, 
probably means “wondrous garden” or  something like that.  Once again,  that 
meaning makes no sense southeast of Hebron, yet makes perfect sense in the  
foothills.  The Zanoah at Joshua 15:  55-57 may be a duplicate of the Zanoah 
at 
Joshua 15: 34 that is explicitly  stated to be in the Shephelah.  We  have 
previously discussed that “Jokdeam”/Jakeb-am, another town name at Joshua  
15: 
55-57, may reference “winepress”, a concept that is senseless southeast of  
Hebron, but would make sense in the foothills just east of the  Shephelah. 
The names of the towns at Joshua 15: 55-57 make perfect sense as names of  
towns in the foothills of hill country, just east of the Shephelah, while not 
 
making sense as names of towns in the desolate area southeast of Hebron (a 
place  where there were no towns anyway).  The problem is not what the text 
of 
Joshua says.  No, the problem is the traditional  scholarly misunderstanding 
of 
the Biblical geography set forth in chapter 15 of  Joshua. 
The city lists in Joshua are much older, and more accurate, than scholars  
realize. 
Jim Stinehart 
Evanston, Illinois
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