Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Kevin Edgecomb:
 
In #3 below, I agree with you as to $WR.  But I continue to disagree with 
you, as do most scholars, as to $XR.
 
1.  You wrote:  “Shi-Hor in Egyptian and in those references to it in the 
Bible (clearly $XR in Hebrew…) all refer to the same entity: it was the name 
of 
the Pelusiac branch of the Nile….”
 
You yourself, in the portion of your own blog that I quoted in my prior post, 
specifically note that (and lament the fact that) the vast majority of 
scholars explicitly reject your claim that $XR at Joshua 13: 3 and I 
Chronicles 13: 
5 refers to “the Pelusiac branch of the Nile”.  The Pelusiac branch of the 
Nile is located on the northwest corner of the Sinai, 150 miles too far west 
of 
Gaza to be the southwest corner of the Promised Land.  As such, $XR cannot 
possibly refer to “the Pelusiac branch of the Nile” at Joshua 13: 3 and I 
Chronicles 13: 5.
 
Here is Joshua 13: 1-3 (per the JPS1917):
 
“Now Joshua was old and well stricken in years;  and the LORD said unto him:  
'Thou art old and well stricken in years, and there remaineth yet very much 
land to be possessed.  This is the land that yet remaineth:  all the regions 
of 
the Philistines, and all the Geshurites;  from the Shihor [$XR], which is 
before Egypt, even unto the border of Ekron northward--which is counted to 
the 
Canaanites;  the five lords of the Philistines: the Gazite, and the 
Ashdodite, 
the Ashkelonite, the Gittite, and the Ekronite;  also the Avvim”
 
Certainly you are not suggesting that YHWH told Joshua to try to fight his 
way 150 long miles west from Gaza across the entire northern coast of the 
Sinai 
to “the Pelusiac branch of the Nile”, to try to bring in the entire northern 
Sinai as part of the Promised Land, are you?  That would have been both 
suicidal and totally pointless.  Everything else in the Bible contradicts 
that 
strange idea completely.  The southwest corner of the Promised Land was 
somewhere 
in the general vicinity of Gaza (or south of Gaza), and was nowhere near “the 
Pelusiac branch of the Nile” in the northwest corner of the Sinai!  Thus $XR 
cannot possibly mean a geographical locale at or near “the Pelusiac branch of 
the Nile” at Joshua 13: 3.
 
The Hebrew concept of the geographical boundaries of the Promised Land does 
not extend 150 miles west of Gaza.
 
2.  You wrote:  “[N]ot every word in the Hebrew Bible is Hebrew, you know….”
 
There are very few words in the Bible that are Egyptian, and almost no 
Egyptian phrases whatsoever, outside of the Patriarchal narratives.  Later 
Biblical 
authors copied some Egyptian words from the Patriarchal narratives, such as “
pharaoh” most obviously, and, as discussed in #3 below, $WR as well (but not 
&WR or $XR).
 
Indeed, one of the linguistic problems with the Book of Exodus’s theory that 
the Hebrews were in Egypt in bondage for 400 years is that Biblical Hebrew is 
a virgin pure west Semitic language, showing almost no Egyptian influence 
whatsoever (especially after the Patriarchal narratives).  That indicates 
that the 
Patriarchal narratives are right (contra the Book of Exodus) in saying that 
Joseph’s surviving brothers would return to Canaan from Egypt almost 
immediately upon Joseph’s death.  Genesis 50: 24-25  Whether that story is 
literally 
true or only symbolic, its basic point is historically accurate.  Some early 
Hebrews were in Egypt for some years as guest workers, during part of one 
generation, but that’s it.  The presence of Egyptian words and phrases in the 
Patriarchal narratives, in conjunction with the nearly total absence of any 
new 
Egyptian words or phrases in the Bible thereafter (other than proper names), 
confirms it.
 
$XR does not appear in the Patriarchal narratives as a geographical 
reference.  $XR is a perfectly good Biblical Hebrew word that often means 
“black”.  
The Egyptians called their own country “Black”/Kemet, so it makes sense for 
the 
Bible, on rare occasions (the 4 cases I cited in my prior post), to make an 
overtly positive reference to prosperous Egypt as $XR/“Black”.
 
$XR is not an Egyptian phrase referencing “pond of Horus”, as you and HALOT 
would have it.  The geographical location of Shi-Hor -- being over 150 long, 
grueling miles west of Gaza and Canaan -- does not fit a single Biblical 
reference to $XR.  Not one.  
 
The Hebrews’ concept of the Promised Land did not extend 150 miles west of 
Gaza across the entire northern coast of the Sinai.
 
3.  You wrote:  “Egyptian sources unanimously place the border of Egypt at 
the Shihor and the series of forts nearby which were referred to by the 
Egyptians as ‘The Walls of the Ruler’.  …This is very likely the source of 
the 
$WR/Wall in the Biblical phrase MDBR $WR.”
 
One thing I really like about your posts is that I learn so much from them.  
I myself had noted in my prior post that the geographical location of Shi-Hor 
(the northwest corner of Sinai, being the northeast edge of the Nile Delta 
and 
the northeast edge of Egypt proper) matches nicely to 5 Biblical references 
to $WR.
 
Now, based on what you say here, we can figure out that the super-brilliant 
author of the Patriarchal narratives created $WR as a triple-threat pun in 
Hebrew and Egyptian.  No other person in 5,000 years of human history could 
do 
such a thing, but the author of the Patriarchal narratives does it as if 
there’s 
nothing to it.
 
Pun #1 is as you say.  $WR means “wall” in Hebrew.  The Egyptians referred 
to the forts on the northeast edge of the Delta as “The ‘Walls’ of the Ruler”
, hence the pun on “wall”/$WR in Hebrew.
 
Pun #2 is the Samaritan pronunciation of the Hebrew word “black”, namely $XR 
or $XWR.  “Black” is how the Egyptians referred to their own country:  “Black
”/Kemet.  Many Canaanites dropped the heth/X, so $XWR came out as $WR.  Thus 
HALOT observes, regarding $XR meaning “become black”:  “Samaritan $RYR 
(develops from 
 
 
$XRYR)”.  Thus per HALOT, the heth/X could drop out in the “Samaritan” 
pronunciation of  $XWR, leaving us with $WR.  The southern Hebrews were well 
aware 
of Samaritan pronunciations, though such a pronunciation would not be good 
form in the southern Hebrews’ sacred scripture, which (almost uniquely among 
Semitic speakers) adamantly refused to drop heths.  The “Samaritan” 
pronunciation 
of $XWR, namely $WR, is non-deferential toward Egypt, as it is not the proper 
southern Hebrew pronunciation.  But it’s not insulting.  It’s just 
non-deferential.
 
In pun #3, we finally get to the Shi-Hor you keep talking about.  $WR is a “
Samaritan” pronunciation of the Egyptian phrase Shi-Hor.  As just noted, most 
Canaanites, unlike the southern Hebrews, frequently dropped a heth/X in 
pronunciation.
 
So $WR, referring to the northeast corner of Egypt proper, being the 
northwest corner of the desolate Sinai, is a nifty three-way pun, in Hebrew 
and 
Egyptian, that is first seen in the Patriarchal narratives:  (1) $WR vs. $WR 
(“wall”
) in Hebrew;  (2) $WR vs. $XWR (“black”) in Hebrew;  and $WR vs. Shi-Hor (“
pond of Horus”) in Egyptian.  Nice!  
 
But why?  Why is the author of the Patriarchal narratives going to such 
heroic efforts to create the foregoing triple-pun, so that Egypt can be 
referred to 
by the non-standard $WR, instead of just using $XWR or $XR, which is the 
standard spelling of both “black” and, arguably, “Shi-Hor”?  The reason is 
pun 
#4.  The other great power with whom the Patriarchs have to deal is the 
troublesome, super-wealthy, super-famous island city-state of Tyre/Suur/Sur.  
The 
standard spelling of Tyre is CWR, with a ssade.  But &WR with a sin/& sounds 
almost the same, as ssade is merely an emphatic S, whereas a sin/& is a 
regular S. 
 So &WR works beautifully as a non-standard reference to CWR/Sur/Tyre.  In 
unpointed text, all we see is sin/shin-vav-resh.  So those three unpointed 
Hebrew letters mean either $WR or &WR, depending on the context.  At Genesis 
16: 7, 
$WR references Egypt.  At Genesis 20: 1, &WR references Tyre.  Then at 
Genesis 25: 18, the third time around, $WR references Egypt again, with the 
meaning 
being clarified only in this third case, where the regular word for “Egypt” 
appears at Genesis 25: 18.
 
Thus the author of the Patriarchal narratives refers to both of the 
semi-hostile/semi-friendly great powers with which the Patriarchs had to deal 
by the 
same name!  It’s sin/shin-vav-resh in both cases.  That’s why the author 
makes 
the great effort of using the Samaritan pronunciation and spelling of $XWR 
and 
Shi-Hor, coming out with $WR, precisely so that he can also generate pun #4, 
which is &WR as a pun on CWR for Tyre/Sur.  Sin/shin-vav-resh is both $WR and 
&WR, with the actual geographical reference being dependent on the context in 
which sin/shin-vav-resh is used in the Patriarchal narratives.  Yes, I 
realize 
that the later Biblical authors used sin/shin-vav-resh exclusively as $WR, 
consistently referencing the northeast corner of Egypt/the northwest corner 
of 
the desolate Sinai:  the Wilderness of Shur.  But originally, pun #4 of &WR 
vs. 
CWR at Genesis 20: 1 was a key reason why the author of the Patriarchal 
narratives came up with sin/shin-vav-resh.
 
Only the author of the Patriarchal narratives could pun in both Hebrew and 
Egyptian, and create a brilliant 4-fold pun like $/&-W-R.  In my 
controversial 
opinion, there’s no way that the author of the Patriarchal narratives is the 
same as the authors of the rest of the Torah.  There’s no J, E or P in the 
Patriarchal narratives.  No other part of the Bible could come up with 
super-brilliant puns in both Hebrew and Egyptian like that.  
 
4.  Thank you so much for your helpful insight on $WR.  Perhaps we should 
just agree to disagree as to $XR.  $WR is used 5 times in the Bible where a 
location in the northwest corner of the Sinai makes perfect sense.  (At 
Genesis 20: 
1, a reference to Egypt or the Sinai does not make sense, so 
sin/shin-vav-resh should be read there as &WR, meaning Sur/Tyre/CWR/CR.)  By 
sharp contrast, 
$XR is  n-e-v-e-r  used in the Bible in a context where a locale in the 
northwest corner of the Sinai would make sense.  Thus Shi-Hor matches nicely 
to $WR, 
but in a Biblical context Shi-Hor does not match $XR at all.  The sound may 
be 
similar, but the geographical location, in the context of how $XR is used in 
the Bible, is all wrong.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

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