Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Read <J.Read-2 AT sms.ed.ac.uk>]

Jim,

I think you need to backtrack and look at the context a little. The  
only reason we are interested in the story is because Abram got  
involved. The only reason Abram got involved is because Lot was taken  
off captive. The only reason Lot was taken of captive was because he  
ended up in that region. The reason he ended up in that region is  
explained in charter 13 where it is very specifically made explicit  
that Abram came up out of Egypt into the Negev and that was where the  
dispute among their man started so that Abram asked Lot to choose  
which way his camp would go.

Lot chose the Jordan and went East. This is made very specific for us  
and there is little left open to interpretation. The internal clues are:

i) They came out of Egypt to a place called Negev
ii) There Lot saw the Jordan and chose to go East.
iii) Abram remained in Canaan i.e. the West

I don't think your theory stands up to close scrutiny.

James Christian




Quoting JimStinehart AT aol.com:

> James Christian:
>
> You wrote:  “you've lost me a bit here. The text specifically mentions the
> salt sea and Sodom and Gomorah. I've been looking at a map of Isreal and
> have been unable to find a salt sea in the north anywhere.”
>
> 1.  What map are you looking at?  Just look west of Galilee and west of the
> Jezreel Valley.  You didn’t think the Mediterranean Sea was a freshwater
> lake, did you?
>
> 2.  “Siddim” is an archaic word for “fields”.  The Valley of
> Siddim/Valley of Fields is the Jezreel Valley.  The Jezreel Valley   
> is the only place in
> Canaan that has always been devoted to fields, tilled by farmers, with
> tent-dwelling nomads never being welcome there.  The Valley of Fields is the
> Jezreel Valley (not a desert oasis near the Dead Sea, as scholars would have
> it).  The final battle is portrayed as occurring right where one   
> would expect:
> at Megiddo, near the Valley of Fields (the Jezreel Valley/Valley of
> Siddim), and near the bigger of the two salt seas that border   
> Canaan.  Thus the
> final battle occurs just southwest of the Jezreel Valley.
>
> 3.  No invading rulers would waste their time rampaging through the
> Northern Negev Desert, as scholars would have it.  There was no loot  
>  there, and it
> was uncomfortably close to mighty Egypt.  That scholarly theory of the case
> makes no sense on any level.  (None of the five proper names at Genesis 14:
> 7 matches to a locale south of Gaza, per any secular historical inscriptions
> that pre-date the common era.)
>
> No, after quickly subduing the Transjordan, the four invading rulers act
> very rationally.  First they go back to the northern Transjordan (the first
> word at Genesis 14: 7).  Then they campaign in Upper Galilee,   
> southern Lebanon
> and eastern Lower Galilee (Genesis 14: 7, with all five proper names
> matching to secular historical inscriptions from Late Bronze Age   
> northern Canaan),
> just as one would expect of rational invaders of Canaan.  Then finally they
> move on to their ultimate target:  the fertile, attractive Jezreel Valley
> (Valley of Siddim/Valley of Fields) in central Canaan, just as one would
> expect of rational invaders of Canaan.  The final battle is fought   
> at Megiddo,
> just as one would expect, just southwest of the Jezreel Valley.  Everything
> makes perfect sense, and nothing is peculiar, much less bizarre, as under the
> scholarly view of chapter 14 of Genesis.
>
> All of the local geography in the Patriarchal narratives always makes
> rational and historical sense.  Why would anyone think otherwise?
>
> 4.  Here is the Anchor Bible Dictionary’s critique of the majority
> scholarly view that sees Chedorlaomer as a king of Elam   
> incongruously making a
> series of grand conquests in, of all places, the Northern Negev Desert:
>
> “[N]o king of Elam named Kutir/Kudur-Lagamar is attested, nor is there the
> slightest evidence of Elamite political or military engagement in Palestine
> at any time in history.”  [At p. 893 of Vol. I. under “Chedorlaomer”.]
>
> 5.  But on this thread, I am trying to focus on the linguistic issue of
> Chedorlaomer’s title.  Under its entry for (WLM, HALOT notes the Ugaritic
> phrase MLK (LM.  That phrase was unique to Ugaritic kings (otherwise only
> applying to a deity).  In the defective spelling of the original   
> version of chapter
> 14 of Genesis, Chedorlaomer’s title was likely:  MLK (LM.  That’s a
> letter-for-letter match to the unique title of the kings of Ugarit!
>
> If a king of Ugarit, along with three nearby allies, was not satisfied with
> defeating a league of five defending rulers in western Syria, then the next
> logical target might be expected to be southern Lebanon, Galilee, and the
> Jezreel Valley.  That is, if the mightiest Hittite king of all time were
> there to provide the military muscle (and looting opportunities).    
> The actual,
> historical “four kings against the five” took place immediately north of
> Canaan.  It transpired just as chapter 14 of Genesis represents,   
> except that it
> occurred just north of Canaan.  The purpose of chapter 14 of Genesis is to
> warn Canaan, Ssur/Tyre, and Egypt that the Hittites, along with local
> allies, might next attack Canaan proper, so that it was of critical   
> importance for
> all of Canaan (along with Egypt) to present a united front against the
> dreaded Hittites.
>
> One of the important historical reasons why the early Hebrews considered
> themselves divinely blessed was that on a semi-miraculous basis, and against
> the odds, the mighty Hittites decided against ever making any conquests south
> of the northern half of Lebanon.  After that very brief, but
> ultra-terrifying, moment in the mid-14th century BCE had passed, the  
>  early Hebrews enjoyed
> almost 500 years of basically being left alone.  No wonder that the
> historical story of the terrifying year when the very existence of the early
> Hebrews was gravely threatened by the unstoppable Hittites was never  
>  forgotten by
> the Hebrews, and is right there at Genesis 14: 1-11 in the received text to
> this very day.
>
> But on this thread, I am trying to concentrate on the linguistic match of
> MLK (LM at Genesis 14: 1, 9 in defective spelling to the unique title of
> kings of Ugarit:
>
> MLK (LM.
>
> Jim Stinehart
> Evanston, Illinois
>
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