Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Kevin Riley:
 
You wrote:  “You need some evidence that any northern Hebrew or Canaanite 
dialect had made this change [heth being replaced by aleph] before c C15th 
BC.”  
 
As to the word )BL having the same meaning as, but a different spelling than, 
XBL in the historical context of Late Bronze Age Canaan, the evidence is 
abundant.
 
1.  JBR appears four times on the mid-15th century BCE Thutmosis III list of 
places in Canaan.  Scholars rightly consider Egyptian JBR to be the 
equivalent 
of west Semitic )BL (though they somewhat misleadingly translate this word as 
“meadow”, as discussed below).  I see item #90 JBR as being the Elah Valley, 
item #92 JBR as being the Sorek Valley, and item #99 JBR as being the Aijalon 
Valley, which are the three great meadowlands, from south to north, that 
Thutmosis III witnessed near the beginning of his campaign in Canaan as he 
moved 
northeast through the northern Shephelah after leaving Gaza, heading for 
combat 
in central Canaan.  The other JBR, item #15, is almost certainly 
Abel-Beth-Maacah way up north, as discussed below.  (The Shephelah was 
friendly territory, 
fairly close to Egypt, that was not really “conquered” by Egyptian pharaoh 
Thutmosis III, so all the items near the Aijalon Valley were placed in 27 
consecutive slots near the very end of the Thutmosis III list, having 
relatively 
little propaganda value.  Much more prominent, and earlier, on the list is a 
place like Abel-Beth-Maacah at item #15, which had to be truly conquered, and 
which was located very far from Egypt, being in the general vicinity of 
Damascus.)
 
2.  Geographical place names in the Hebrew Bible often come from the Late 
Bronze Age, even in those portions of the Hebrew Bible that were composed 
“late”
.  The Hebrew Bible reports )BL as the first part of a Canaanite geographical 
place name on 12 occasions, referring to 5 different places:
 
(i)     the Sorek Valley (in my opinion, as previously discussed)
I Samuel 6: 18
 
(ii)    Abel-Beth-Maacah (discussed below)
II Samuel 20: 14-15, 18;  I Kings 15: 20;  II Kings 15: 29
 
And probably as well:  Abel-Maim
II Chronicles 16: 4
 
(iii)  Abel-Meholah
Judges 7: 22;  I Kings 4: 12;  19: 16
 
(iv)  Abel-Mizraim
Genesis 50: 11
 
(v)   Abel-Shittim
Numbers 33: 49
 
Meanwhile, )BL is never used in the entire Bible as a common, generic noun 
referencing a “meadow” or anything like that in Canaan.  Outside of Canaanite 
geographical place names, the southern Hebrews always used XBL, not )BL, in 
their sacred scripture.
 
*       *       *
 
The standard English translation of )BL as “meadow” is somewhat misleading.  
In the modern West, that sounds like “unspoiled scenic beauty”.  There was 
no such concept in the ANE.  In the Late Bronze Age, nothing was “spoiled” 
yet!
 
Rather, )BL means:  “a well-defined tract of land that is excellent for 
grazing domesticated animals, such as the world-famous Aijalon and Sorek 
Valleys”, 
or “excellent pastureland”.
 
The city of Abel-Beth-Maacah, featuring )BL and prominently referenced in the 
Bible, fits this conception of )BL perfectly.  It was a place/“house”/beth 
in a valley/“depression”/maacah near the source of the Jordan River, that, so 
unlike most of its surroundings, was excellent pastureland for grazing 
domesticated animals/)BL.  Abel-Beth-Maacah is usually viewed as being a 
low-lying 
area west of Dan (in the far north of Israel), that was good land, being 
immediately south and east of the mountains which by contrast had very little 
such 
good land.  As such, all three elements of the name fit perfectly.  JBR at 
item 
#15 on the Thutmosis III list comes right after Damascus at item #13 and 
Adurru near Damascus at item #14, so everything fits perfectly for this JBR 
to be 
referencing Abel-Beth-Maacah.  Note that all four JBR items are very similar 
types of places (although one such JBR item, Abel-Beth-Maacah, is located 
very 
far away from the other three, both geographically and in terms of where it 
appears on the Thutmosis III list).  
 
To be )BL (or JBR), the place had to be “well-defined”, as if measurable by 
a “rope”/XBL.  And there was an implication that the place was very good 
land, that was not very hilly or rough.  The one-word English translation 
“meadow”
 fails to capture the many overtones of what )BL meant in the ANE.
 
I see )BL and XBL as being regional variations of different spellings of the 
same word.  XBL, while literally meaning “rope”, is very often used in the 
Hebrew Bible in a figurative sense as referring to a tract of fine land that 
is 
measurable as if by a “rope”.  HALOT gives as one definition of XBL something 
like “a long, narrow tract of land”.  But it is important to note that XBL 
as a noun almost always has extremely positive overtones.  Thus XBL strongly 
implies “good land” or “very fine land”.  Since the early Hebrews were 
pastoralists, not farmers, “good land”/XBL was conceptualized by the early 
Hebrews 
as being land that was ideal for pasturing sheep and goats (that is, far 
better 
land than midbar, but not necessarily ideal for settled farmers growing wheat 
or barley).
 
In addition to being excellent pastureland, )BL and, when it is used in this 
sense, XBL must also be a “well-defined” specific area, as if measurable by a 
“rope”/XBL.
 
In Canaanite, non-southern Hebrew usage, we only see )BL when it means the 
Aijalon Valley, the Sorek Valley, or some other place (such as 
Abel-Beth-Maacah) 
that was (or at least claimed to be) something like the fine meadowlands of 
the Aijalon or Sorek Valleys.  We see XBL as a common noun in Biblical Hebrew 
having a wide variety of meanings, but one core set of meanings is:  “a 
well-defined tract of land that is excellent for grazing domesticated 
animals, such 
as the world-famous Aijalon and Sorek Valleys”.
 
I am not going to try to prove any particular linguistic theory as to when 
and where heth was sometimes replaced by aleph in general.  Rather, I am just 
pointing out that the Bible is very familiar with both )BL and XBL as 
referencing “excellent pastureland”.
 
There is no way that )BL can be “late”, because )BL in the Egyptian form of 
JBR is right there, big as life, four times on the Thutmosis III list from 
the 
mid-15th century BCE.
 
I believe I have now completed my first task.  )BL = XBL in a Late Bronze Age 
historical context.  In fact, that can be expanded a bit, as follows:  JBR = 
)BL = XBL
 
We see JBR four times on the Thutmosis III list, being the Egyptian rendering 
of a generic common noun in west Semitic that is used to reference the Elah 
Valley, the Sorek Valley, the Aijalon Valley and Abel-Beth-Maacah.  We see 
)BL 
in the Hebrew Bible six times as a reference to Abel-Beth-Maacah.  As argued 
in my first post on this thread, we very likely see )BL in the Hebrew Bible 
as 
referencing the Sorek Valley at I Samuel 6: 18.  Notice how everything makes 
sense.  Nothing is strange or out of place, and there’s no need to change any 
consonants in the Masoretic Text!  In every one of the references to JBR or 
)BL 
noted above, the common generic word from Biblical Hebrew that fits the 
situation is XBL.  That’s because XBL is a different regional spelling of 
)BL, but 
they’re the same word as a noun.  Yes, the Hebrew Bible also uses XBL as a 
noun with many other meanings as well, especially “rope”.  But every )BL and 
JBR 
is comprehended by the Biblical Hebrew word XBL.
 
The objective facts of the secular history of Late Bronze Age Canaan 
(particularly the mid-15th century BCE Thutmosis III list and its relevant 
geography), 
and the consonants in the received Masoretic Text, make clear that for “a 
well-defined tract of land that is excellent for grazing domesticated 
animals, 
such as the world-famous Aijalon and Sorek Valleys”, that is, for “excellent 
pastureland” in Late Bronze Age Canaan:
 
JBR = )BL = XBL
 
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

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