Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

James Christian:

1.  You wrote:  “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.”

That is not so.  Genesis 13: 3 makes clear that Abraham and Lot went
through the South land, as far north as Beth-el.  We know from chapters 12 
and 13
of Genesis, as well as from secular history, that Biblical Beth-el in the
Patriarchal narratives is located at or near the traditional location of
Beth-el, south of Shechem, north of Jerusalem.  That is way north of the Negev
Desert.

>From the east side of a mountaintop near Beth-el, one can see the Jordan
River.  What Lot actually chose was the Jordan River Valley, very broadly
defined.  That is, Lot got not only the Jordan River Valley proper, but also
what we would call the Jezreel Valley as well.  The eastern two-thirds of the
Jezreel Valley is part of the water system of the Jordan River Valley.
Moreover, that effectively limited Abraham, temporarily, to the southwest 
part of
Canaan.  Lot claimed more than two-thirds of Canaan (as against Abraham),
while Abraham initially was confined to a rather small part of Canaan.  (But
see #4 below for how that all changed later.)

2.  You wrote:  “Abram remained in Canaan i.e. the West”

That’s a nice way of putting it.  Lot went east from Beth-el, and Abraham
went west from Beth-el.  Yes!  Abraham did not go back south to the Negev
Desert.  No way.  Rather, as Lot went 17 ½  miles east of Beth-el to the 
Jordan
River, Abraham went 17 ½ miles west of Beth-el to the Aijalon Valley, which
is the Patriarchs’  “Hebron”.

3.  You wrote:  “The only reason we are interested in the story is because
Abram got involved.”

I disagree.  To me, the primary interest is Genesis 14: 1-11, which
recounts the harrowing year in which it appeared virtually certain that the 
mighty
Hittite war machine would very soon conquer all of beloved Canaan, thereby
gravely endangering the future existence of the early Hebrews.

4.  As to where Lot ended up, after initially going straight east to claim
the greater Jordan River Valley by dipping his foot in the place where the
Jordan River is closest to Beth-el, here is the key Hebrew word:

M$QH

That’s at Genesis 13: 10.  Although Lot could not literally see the lush
Jezreel Valley from Beth-el, he could see Mt. Hermon, and he knew that the
lush Jezreel Valley was southwest of Mt. Hermon, being a part of the water
system of the Jordan River, with the Jordan River itself being clearly visible
from Beth-el.  It is M$QH that attracted Lot.  M$QH is the well-watered, lush
eastern half of the Jezreel Valley.  That is where the soft city life was
to be had.  Lot had no interest in going to a small desert oasis near the
Dead Sea, much less roughing it elsewhere near the Dead Sea.  No, Lot 
logically
chose the richest part of ancient Canaan:  the eastern Jezreel Valley.
That is actually northeast, not straight east, of Beth-el.

But then Lot forfeits his claim to Canaan, and is reduced to living in a
cave in the Transjordan, in chapter 19 of Genesis.  Before the smoke has even
settled, there’s Abraham hot-footing it up north, past the Jezreel Valley
(which was not conducive to tent-dwellers), and on to lovely Galilee, that is,
GRR/Gerar.  Abraham had been effectively cut off from Galilee as long as
Lot maintained a claim to the entire greater Jordan River Valley.  But as soon
as Lot lost that claim, Abraham immediately perfected Abraham’s divine
claim to all of Canaan, at Genesis 20: 1.

Abraham and the other Patriarchs are portrayed in the received text as
splitting their time, when each man is the  g-o-v-e-r-n-i-n-g  Patriarch (not
merely the heir apparent), between south-central Canaan (the Aijalon Valley,
being the Patriarchs’ “Hebron”), and Galilee (GRR/Gerar) in northern Canaan.
 The Hebrews’ claims to  a-l-l  of Canaan, not just the Northern Negev
Desert, are much older and stronger than today’s scholars realize.

All of the local geography of the Patriarchal narratives makes complete
sense, both rationally and historically.  Why would we think otherwise?

5.  The key to understanding chapter 13 of Genesis is the Hebrew word M$QH.

The key to understanding chapter 14 of Genesis is the Ugaritic kingly
phrase MLK (LM.

The b-Hebrew list is designed to focus on key words in the Hebrew Bible
like M$QH and MLK (LM.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

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