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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [b-hebrew] The Name "Hebron"
  • Date: Wed, 4 Mar 2009 09:45:40 EST


The Name “Hebron”

JBR at item #99 on the Thutmosis III list appears to be a west Semitic
generic common noun that in context is being used to reference the Aijalon
Valley.
Ignoring the name “Hebron”/XBRWN/XBRN for one brief moment, all other aspects
of the Patriarchal narratives seem to indicate that the Patriarchs’ “Hebron”
was the ideal pastureland of the Aijalon Valley. (The Patriarchs’ “Hebron”
logically could not be the mountainous citadel of a city which, beginning
only
many centuries later [as all Biblical authors knew], came to be called “Hebron
”. That city, located high up in the forbidding hill country of the Northern
Negev Desert, 20 miles south of Jerusalem, is manifestly unsuitable as an
ideal locale for a divinely-blessed, classic pastoralist like Abraham.)

If “Hebron”/XBRWN in the Patriarchal narratives is not a passive recording
of a city name, then where is the name XBRWN in the Patriarchal narratives
coming from? Could the n-a-m-e XBRWN (whose defective spelling is XBRN)
be, at
least in part, a play on JBR, referencing the Aijalon Valley? Was the name
XBRN created by the author of the Patriarchal narratives, based in part on
JBR/the Aijalon Valley [as recorded in secular history at item #99 on the
Thutmosis
III list]?

If the Aijalon Valley was generically referred to as being a JBR (“meadow”
or “excellent pastureland”) in the Late Bronze Age, as seems likely, then the
most obvious way of creating a proper name/geographical place name for the
Aijalon Valley would be to add a –N/nun suffix (or –WN in full spelling). [A
final –N is the most common suffix on the Thutmosis III list.] JBR + N =
JBRN.
Now instead of JBR as a generic reference to an “excellent pastureland” in
general, JBRN would mean “Excellent Pastureland”, referring to one specific,
individual place in particular, namely the Aijalon Valley.

But what would be the Biblical Hebrew equivalent of the Egyptian letters
JBRN? Here are the three possibilities:

(1) )BLN

(2) XBLN

(3) XBRN

In evaluating JBR, note that an Egyptian J (a single reed) was not the
Egyptian letter for an aleph/). Yet J most often represented an aleph. The
classic
case for use of an Egyptian J would in fact be where most Canaanites said
aleph/), but a minority of Canaanites said heth/X for the same word. So we
must
consider both aleph and heth as possible counterparts to Egyptian J. As to
Egy
ptian R, it could be either resh/R or lamed/L, so we must consider both of
those possibilities.

We know that the defective spelling of “Hebron” is XBRN (with the full
spelling being XBRWN), which is #3. But if the Patriarchs’ “Hebron”/XBRN is
meant
to be a deliberate reference to the Aijalon Valley, then why would #3 have
been chosen? At first glance, #1 and #2 might seem better choices. But as
we
shall now see, #3 was the only viable choice.

1. )BL + N

In context, JBR in Egyptian letters may be the direct equivalent of the
well-known west Semitic word )BL. Both in secular history and in the Bible,
)BL is
used as part of Canaanite geographical place names where the meaning seems to
be the same as JBR, namely “meadow” or “excellent pastureland”.
Accordingly, it would at first glance seem that the way to represent the
Egyptian
letters JBRN in Biblical Hebrew would be )BLN.

Moreover, we know that the author of the Patriarchal narratives knew the word
)BL well. The word )BL is used five times in the Patriarchal narratives with
a single meaning. But that meaning is “mourning”! Genesis 27: 41; 37:
34-35; 50: 11(a), (b). On one additional occasion, )BL is an
openly-disclosed
pun that primarily means “mourning”, and only secondarily means “meadow” or “
fine land” or “region of land”. Genesis 50: 11(c).

We immediately see the unsuitability of )BL as the basis of the Patriarchal
name for the Patriarchs’ beloved “Hebron” in southern Canaan. In the
Patriarchal narratives, )BL primarily connotes “mourning”. Moreover, there
is no
divine implication to the Canaanite word )BL at all.

So )BLN was not an appropriate name for the Patriarchs’ “Hebron”, despite
the apparent match between )BL on the one hand, and JBR referencing the
Aijalon
Valley on the other hand.

2. XBL + N

As far as we can tell, XBL was not in general usage among the early Hebrews
at the time when the name “Hebron” became irrevocably associated with the
name
“Abraham”. Note first that XBL never appears in the Patriarchal narratives
in any way, shape or form. Later in the Bible, XBL is very frequently used,
and XBL sometimes has wonderful overtones of being “a divinely-approved
inheritance of a region of land”. (For example, at Deuteronomy 3: 13-14 XBL
may
merely mean “region”, but XBL there seems to imply “a divinely-approved
inheritance of a region of land”. A more figurative use of XBL to mean “lot”
or “
inheritance” is then found at Deuteronomy 32: 9.) Yet although the
Patriarchal
narratives concern the Promised Land, the author of the Patriarchal
narratives
n-e-v-e-r uses the word XBL. The only logical conclusion, since the word
XBL would seem to fit the substantive content of the Patriarchal narratives
perfectly, is that XBL was not in general usage at the time the name “Hebron”
became associated with Abraham and the Patriarchal narratives, at least not
with
its later figurative meanings involving land and inheritance.

The author of the Patriarchal narratives may likely have known of the word
XBL, as an alternative regional spelling (likely an older spelling) of the
well-known )BL. But nothing indicates that XBL was in general usage in Late
Bronze
Age Canaan. There’s no attestation of usage of XBL as a noun prior to
Deuteronomy, or in the secular history of Bronze Age Canaan. Moreover, one
of the
primary meanings of XBL is “sorrows” (or “pangs”, “pain”, “destruction”),
just as )BL primarily means “mourning”. At the time the Patriarchal
narratives were composed, XBL had not yet emerged in general usage as being a
reference
to land or inheritance, much less as “a divinely-approved inheritance of a
region of land”.

The Patriarchs’ “Hebron” is not called XBLN because XBL was not in general
usage at the early date when the name “Hebron” became associated with the
name
“Abraham”, at least not as having its own later figurative meanings
involving land and inheritance. XBL may have been closer to JBR/)BL/the
Aijalon
Valley than is XBR. But XBL, which probably is an alternative, early
spelling of
the inappropriate )BL, was not yet in general usage with its own later
figurative meanings.

3. XBR + N

Thus the only remaining alternative is XBRN/XBRWN, which is exactly what we
see in the Masoretic Text.

We see XBR five times in the Patriarchal narratives. (Genesis 14: 3 as a
verb; Genesis 46: 17 as a person’s name; and Genesis 13: 18; 23: 2; and
23: 19
in the geographical place name “Hebron”/XBRWN.) Thus XBR was readily
available for use by the author of the Patriarchal narratives. XBR sounded
somewhat
similar to )BL. As to heth vs. aleph in initial position, some versions of
the Samaritan Pentateuch have )BRN for “Hebron”, so heth/X vs. aleph/) as the
first letter of a word is not an uncommon dynamic in ancient Semitic
languages. [Cf. XQR) vs. )QR) as two different Aramaic words for “citadel”.
As noted
above, XBL is an alternative spelling of )BL.] As to R vs. L, though west
Semitic speakers distinguished R from L, the sounds were nevertheless so
similar
in the Late Bronze Age that the Egyptians made no distinction whatsoever
between L and R in recording west Semitic words. Note in this connection
that
each of XBR and XBL as nouns, where the only difference is R vs. L, can mean “
band, association”. Hosea 6: 9; I Samuel 10: 5, 10 With the J in JBR being
an
aleph or a heth, and the R in JBR being a resh or a lamed, XBR may be much
closer to JBR and )BL by sound than one might at first imagine. As such,
XBRN
could connote JBR/the Aijalon Valley, where J is heth, and R is resh. Yet
unlike )BL, XBR is not associated with “mourning”.

Very importantly, the primary meaning of XBR works beautifully here. XBR as
a verb means “to bind”. XBRN means that Abraham is “bound” to this place in
southern Canaan, and implies that Abraham and his descendants are divinely “
bound” to southern Canaan forever.

So XBRN was the only logical choice for the name of where Abraham sojourns.
Abraham is divinely “bound”/XBR to XBRN/“Hebron”. In addition, XBR has a
somewhat similar sound to JBR/)BL/the Aijalon Valley. As such, XBRN is a
fitting Biblical Hebrew name for Abraham’s divine “binding”/XBR to the
Aijalon
Valley/JBR, which is the Patriarchs’ “Hebron”.

As used in the Patriarchal narratives, the name XBRN is in part a deliberate
play on JBR, which was the common generic west Semitic word that is
historically attested in the Late Bronze Age as referring to places in Canaan
like the
Aijalon Valley. Though )BLN might possibly have been the most obvious play
on
JBR, )BLN was unacceptable, because in the Patriarchal narratives )BL
primarily means “mourning”. XBLN seems to have been effectively unavailable
at that
time. So by process of elimination, the only choice left was XBRN. The sound
of XBR is somewhat reminiscent of the sound of JBR/)BL, and hence is
reminiscent of the Aijalon Valley/JBR, while XBRN primarily means that
Abraham and his
descendants are eternally and divinely “bound”/XBR to southern Canaan.

As we have now seen, XBRN was the logical choice as the name of where Abraham
sojourns in southern Canaan. XBRN is a name that is redolent of JBR as the
Aijalon Valley, where Egyptian J can be heth and Egyptian R can be resh,
while
proudly asserting that Abraham and his descendants are eternally and divinely

bound”/XBR to southern Canaan at XBRN/“Hebron”. The Patriarchs’ “Hebron”
/XBRN is the Aijalon Valley/JBR: historically, logically, textually, and as
shown by this post, linguistically.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

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