Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Halhul, Jezreel and Timnah
 
When I tried to match XRKR [XLKL] at item #101 on the mid-15th century BCE 
Thutmosis III list to XLXWL/Halhul at Joshua 15: 58 (a city name that appears 
nowhere else in the Bible), Professor Yigal Levin properly pointed out that a 
kaf/K is not a heth/X.  That was a good tip to do further research.
 
Consider now XKYLH/Hachilah at I Samuel 23: 19;  26: 1, 3, which features a 
kaf/K as a key interior consonant (instead of a heth/X).  Are XKYLH/Hachilah 
and XLXWL/Halhul different spellings of one and the same place?
 
If we look at Anson Rainey’s map at p. 12 of “The Sacred Bridge”, we note 
that XLXWL/Halhul is thought to be located north of the city of Hebron, in 
rugged hill country, with there being no town between Halhul and the Judean 
Desert 
(the harsh desert area west of the Dead Sea, which Rainey euphemistically 
calls “The Steppe”).  Halhul is located in the midbar/MDBR/rugged, hilly 
pastureland of hill country, facing the Judean Desert.
 
XKYLH/Hachilah at I Samuel 26: 1-3 exactly matches the foregoing description 
of XLXWL/Halhul:
 
“And the Ziphites came unto Saul to Gibeah, saying: 'Doth not David hide 
himself in the hill of Hachilah, which is before Jeshimon?'  Then Saul arose, 
and 
went down to the wilderness [MDBR] of Ziph, having three thousand chosen men 
of Israel with him, to seek David in the wilderness [MDBR] of Ziph.  And Saul 
pitched in the hill of Hachilah, which is before Jeshimon, by the way.  But 
David abode in the wilderness [MDBR], and he saw that Saul came after him 
into 
the wilderness [MDBR].”  I Samuel 26: 1-3
 
MDBR/midbar in I Samuel usually means “rugged, hilly pastureland”, not a 
true desert.  The “midbar of Ziph” (like the “midbar of Maon”) is the rugged, 
hilly pastureland of hill country, east of Ziph.  The town of Ziph (like 
Maon) 
was located in the foothills on the western edge of hill country, northwest 
of 
the city of Hebron.  Saul generally only chased David when David ventured 
north of the city of Hebron, into the midbar of Ziph or the midbar of Maon, 
being 
the rugged interior hill country north of the city of Hebron.  (David’s usual 
haunts were south [not southeast] of Hebron, per I Samuel 30: 26-31.  David’s 
usual haunts, south [not southeast] of Hebron, do not include a single one of 
the 10 towns listed at Joshua 15: 55-57, because none of such 10 towns were 
located south or southeast of the city of Hebron.)  “Jeshimon”/Y$YMWN as used 
here is the Biblical word for the Judean Desert, a true desert.
 
Note that Ziph is grouped together with Jezreel (and Maon) at Joshua 15: 
55-57.  I Samuel 29: 11 says that “the Philistines marched up to Jezreel”.  
The 
Philistines did not idiotically march down from the high altitude city of 
Hebron into the uninhabitable western extension of the Judean Desert 
southeast of 
Hebron, for heaven’s sake.  No, the Philistines sensibly marched up from the 
low-lying Shephelah into the foothills of hill country adjoining the eastern 
edge of the Shephelah -- where Jezreel and Ziph (and Maon and all the rest of 
the 
10 towns at Joshua 15: 55-57) were located.
 
Though there are two Jezreels in Canaan (with the more famous Jezreel being 
located in the Jezreel Valley), there’s only one Jezreel in southern Canaan.  
Likewise, there’s only one Timnah in southern Canaan -- Samson’s Timnah, 
located a few miles west of the foothills, in the eastern end of the Sorek 
Valley.  
That general location -- northwest of the city of Hebron, in or near the 
foothills -- is where Jezreel and Ziph and all the rest of the 10 towns 
listed at 
Joshua 15: 55-57 are located.  Why let scholars dream up a second Timnah in 
southern Canaan, just to make Joshua look bad?
 
The Timnah at Joshua 15: 55-57 is the real Timnah -- Samson’s Timnah, just 
west of the foothills of hill country.  The Jezreel at Joshua 15: 55-57 is 
the 
real Jezreel in Judah -- the place up to which the Philistines march in I 
Samuel.  Likewise, the Carmel at Joshua 15: 55-57 is the real, historical 
Carmel, 
well known from the Amarna Letters, located just west of the foothills of the 
Sorek Valley (very near Samson’s Timnah).  All the Biblical geography of 
southern Canaan makes perfect sense, if we don’t allow scholars to invent 
duplicate 
towns within Judah having the same names, with all these duplicate, fictional 
towns allegedly being located in no-man’s land southeast of the city of 
Hebron, a place where no historical towns at all are attested.
 
Halhul and Hachilah are one and the same place.  The facts that the spelling 
XLXWL/Halhul only appears once in the Bible, and that the etymology would 
apparently be a senseless “writhe in pain”/XWL, suggest that XLXWL may be a 
non-standard spelling of this city name.  Looking at the essential consonants 
(including the Egyptian rendering), we see XLKL vs. XLXL vs. XKL:  these are 
three 
different spellings of the same historical town in hill country, north of the 
city of Hebron.
 
Note how the entire Biblical geography of southern Canaan makes perfect 
sense, if we don’t allow scholars to invent fictional duplicate towns in 
Judah 
(especially in the no-man’s land southeast of Hebron, which contains not a 
single 
archaeological site).  All the southern Hebrews knew the geography of 
southern 
Canaan like the back of their hand.  There’s no fictional or senseless 
geography of southern Canaan in the Bible.  Not in Joshua, not in I Samuel, 
not in 
Judges, and not in the Patriarchal narratives.  No way.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

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