Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Karl:
 
You wrote:  “To quote you, you claimed that MDBR means "rugged, hilly 
pastureland".  Not one of the references you pointed to give that definition. 
Where 
did you get it from?”
 
Perhaps my first post on this thread was misleading.  What I was saying was 
that (i) the land north and northeast of the city of Hebron is MDBR, (ii) 
some 
MDBR, but not all MDBR, is rugged, hilly pastureland, and (iii) the MDBR 
north 
and east of the city of Hebron is rugged, hilly pastureland.  I am perfectly 
well aware of the fact that not all MDBR is rugged, hilly pastureland, and I 
did not mean to imply the contrary.
 
I don’t know why people want to see so many definitions of MDBR, but here are 
two more, this time from impeccable scholarly sources.
 
(1)  HALOT
 
“pasture, steppe, wilderness, desert”
 
If you combine the notions of “pasture” and “steppe”, you’re basically 
talking “rugged, hilly pastureland”.
 
(2)  Koehler und Baumgartner, “Hebraisches und Aramaisches Lexikon” (1995)
 
“Trift, Steppe, Wuste”
 
Per the 2005 Oxford-Duden German Dictionary, “Trift” means:
 
“common (esp. mountain) pasturage”
 
Once again, “mountain pasturage” looks a lot like “rugged, hilly pastureland”
.
 
As far as I can tell, everyone agrees on the meaning of MDBR.  MDBR can 
include, but is by no means limited to being, rugged, hilly pastureland.  
MDBR 
cannot be cultivatable land, where wheat or barley is grown.  But MDBR can be 
almost anything else.  There clearly is a tension in this Hebrew word between 
the 
concept of “pastureland”, which would basically be positive, and the concept 
of “desert” or “wilderness”, which would be decidedly negative.  MDBR often 
means pastureland, but with a somewhat negative connotation, indicating very 
modest land.
 
For purposes of this thread, what counts is whether the land north and 
northeast of the city of Hebron was MDBR.  It was.  That’s what I’m saying.  
Thus 
the “MDBR of Ziph” could be the land north and northeast of the city of 
Hebron, in terms of that land being classic MDBR land.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

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