Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

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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