Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Rolf Furuli:
 
I see the word (MLQY at Genesis 14: 7 as being corrupt.  Originally, in my 
view, that word was (MQLY.  The corruption consists of the Q/qof and L/lamed 
being transposed in the received text.
 
Related to this is the fact that, in my opinion, the word QD$ in the same 
sentence was pointed incorrectly in the Middle Ages.  That is not really a “
corruption”, but it has misled Biblical analysts in interpreting Genesis 14: 
7.
 
1.  Traditional Explanations of (MLQY
 
To the best of my knowledge, the two traditional, scholarly explanations of 
(MLQY at Genesis 14: 7 are as follows.
 
(a)  (MLQY = “Amalek’s descendants”, being descendants of Abraham’s 
illegitimate great-grandson Amalek/(MLQ [by Abraham’s grandson Esau, per 
Genesis 
36: 12].  But how on earth could Abraham, in chapter 14 of Genesis, be 
dealing with invading rulers who have just defeated descendants of an 
illegitimate great-grandson of Abraham?
 
(b)  (MLQY = a variant of )MRY (which is the next word at Genesis 14: 7), 
meaning in both cases:  “Amorite”.  But why would the ayin/( change to 
aleph/), the lamed/L change to resh/R, and the qof/Q drop out altogether, in 
the 
very same sentence?
 
Neither proffered explanation makes any sense on any level.
 
2.  Un-transposing (MLQY Yields:  (MQLY 
 
Now everything makes perfect sense.  (MQ is a generic Hebrew word meaning “
valley”.  
In the Amarna Letters, the Bekka Valley is consistently referred to as “
am-qi”.  (For example, Amarna Letter EA 140: 27, 30.)  The final vowel is 
probably a pre-12th century BCE case ending, which would not have been 
preserved 
in later Biblical Hebrew.  Yet in the earliest Biblical Hebrew, this final 
vowel sound might have been represented, in which case there would be a yod/Y 
at the end.  The Bekka Valley seems to be referred to in the Amarna Letters 
simply as “valley”.  We know that the generic word for “valley” in Hebrew 
is (MQ.  In oldest Biblical Hebrew, perhaps the Bekka Valley was referred 
to as (MQY [that is, (MQ + Y], being effectively the exact equivalent of the 
rendering in the Amarna Letters.  [There is no ayin in Akkadian cuneiform.  
Akkadian cuneiform does have an aleph, which is not used in am-qi.  So one 
might expect am-qi in Akkadian cuneiform to have as its Biblical Hebrew 
equivalent (MQY.]
 
A lamed/L is sometimes used as a suffix, meaning “great, fine, big”.  In 
referencing the Bekka Valley, which is a very “big valley”, it would make 
sense to add the suffix lamed/L.  That suffix would be placed after the root 
(MQ, and before the archaic case ending Y.  So (MQ + Y, literally meaning “
valley”, would become (MQ + L + Y, literally meaning “big valley”.  That is 
the word at Genesis 14: 7:  (MQLY.  It can well be viewed as meaning “big 
valley” literally, and hence meaning the “Bekka Valley”.  If the final yod/Y 
is an archaic case ending, it does not necessarily mean a “people”, even 
though in later Biblical Hebrew (i) a final yod/Y routinely means “people”, 
and (ii) case endings were dropped.
 
The full original reference at Genesis 14: 7 (if there was a transposition 
error as is being discussed here) was &DH H (MQLY.  &DH either means “
cultivated fields” or “plain”.  The reference here is probably to the “
cultivated fields”/&DH of “the”/H “big valley”/“Bekka Valley”/(MQLY, rather 
than 
being, as usually supposed, a reference to “country of the Amalekites”.  
There were no Amalekites in secular history.  Genesis 14: 7 is referencing 
the 
Bekka Valley, using a slight variant of the historically-attested name of 
the Bekka Valley in the Amarna Letters.  Instead of the “valley”, per the 
Amarna Letters, we are seeing the “big valley” at Genesis 14: 7.  The suffix 
lamed/L, meaning “big”, has been added after the root (MQ, which means “
valley”, and before the old-style case ending, yod/Y:  (MQ + L + Y.
 
Thus an archaic, early Biblical Hebrew rendering of Bekka Valley could well 
have been (MQLY.  
 
3.  Easy Transposition Mistake for a Scribe to Make
 
Note how easy it would have been for a later scribe to confuse (MQLY at 
Genesis 14: 7 with (MLQY, by transposing the qof/Q and the lamed/L.  (MLQY 
occurs on 11 other occasions in the Bible, meaning Amalekites..  (MLQ appears 
on 
39 occasions in the Bible, meaning either Amalek or Amalekites.  Thus 
excluding Genesis 14: 7, scribes saw (MLQY or (MLQ on 50 occasions in the 
Bible, 
and scribes never saw (MQL or (MQLY even once (other than at Genesis 14: 7). 
 Accordingly, in the one and only place where (MQLY originally appeared in 
scripture, it would have been a very easy mistake for a scribe to misread 
this as being (MLQY [or to be misinterpreted as being a mistake made by a 
prior scribe who had meant to write down (MLQY].
 
4.  After Correcting This Transposition, Genesis 14:7 Now Makes Perfect 
Sense on All Levels
 
The first word in Genesis 14: 7 is “return”, meaning that the four 
invading rulers, after conquering the Transjordan from north to south, went 
back up 
north to near where the invasion had started:  Ashteroth/Astartu, in the 
northern Transjordan (the first place named at Genesis 14: 5).  Historically, 
the perfect place for a coalition including Hittites (the name/nickname of 
invading ruler “Tidal” is a Hittite kingly name from the Amarna period) to 
launch an invasion of Canaan would have been Ashteroth, because we know from 
Amarna Letter EA 197 that Ashteroth was one of the very few places south of 
Syria that was pro-Hittite.  (The pinpoint historical accuracy of the 
Patriarchal narratives is truly breathtaking.)  
 
Straight west of Ashteroth is Upper Galilee in general, and QD$ of Upper 
Galilee in particular.  The first geographical place name at Genesis 14: 7 is 
as follows:  (YN-M$P+, that is QD$.  (YN means either or both that the place 
has a “fountain”, or it’s an “eye” on something.  M$P+ means “seat of 
[Baal’s] judgment”, and in the Patriarchal Age referred to towering Mt. 
Hermon, Baal’s home, which simultaneously overlooks QD$ of Upper Galilee to 
the 
south and the Bekka Valley to the west.  Furthermore, M$P+ can be viewed as 
being an alternative spelling/word for the similar-sounding MCPH that we see 
at Joshua 11: 3, 8, where the southern tip of the Bekka Valley is clearly 
being referenced in the latter case.  QD$ of Upper Galilee both has a 
“fountain
”/(YN, and it is an “eye”/(YN on Mt. Hermon/M$P+.  So the reference at 
Genesis 14: 7 now makes perfect sense:  (YN-M$P+, that is QD$.  The QD$ at 
Genesis 14: 7 is the real QD$, namely Qadesh of Upper Galilee.  Despite the 
erroneous pointing of QD$ at Genesis 14: 7 that was done in the Middle Ages, 
the 
QD$ here is not Kadesh Barnea, 60 miles south of Gaza, a locale where no 
name QD$ or Kadesh Barnea is attested in secular history prior to the common 
era.  Rather, having taken the real QD$ (that is, Qadesh of Upper Galilee), 
the four invading rulers naturally then conquered the “cultivated fields”
/&DH of “the”/H “big valley”:  (MQ + L + Y = (MQLY = Bekka Valley.
 
We all know what ethnic group was most prominent in the Bekka Valley and 
Upper Galilee in the Patriarchal Age and historically in the Bronze Age -- 
the 
Amorites, which is the next word at Genesis 14: 7.  (In secular history, 
the Amorites were never in the Negev Desert.)
 
Scholars, unfortunately, unanimously opine that Genesis 14: 7 is referring 
to the Northern Negev Desert.  But not a single one of the 5 geographical 
place names at Genesis 14: 7 is attested in secular history prior to the 
common era in the Northern Negev Desert, or anywhere near that locale!  
Rather, 
all 5 such geographical place names are well-attested in the Bronze Age in or 
near Upper Galilee. 
 
5.  Conclusion
 
University scholars try to tell us that Genesis 14: 1-11 is a myth about a 
king of the predecessor of Persia, who nonsensically rampages through the 
Northern Negev Desert.  Balderdash!  Genesis 14: 7 is not referring to the 
Northern Negev Desert (nor is MLK (YLM a bollixed-up reference to 
hatamtu/Elam, 
east of Mesopotamia;  rather, MLK (LM as Chedorlaomer’s kingly title in 
old-style defective spelling is an exact 6-letter match to the unique title 
of 
kings of Ugarit, “King Eternity” [see the HALOT reference to this Ugaritic 
kingly title at (WLM], whose literature often refers to Upper Galilee;  in a 
completely different context, George Athas has recently observed quite 
correctly that the pre-exilic Hebrews had virtually no contact with Persia, 
and 
the same goes for the predecessor of Persia;  by sharp contrast, Ugarit was 
Canaan’s neighbor).  No, all 5 geographical place names at Genesis 14: 7 
reference well-attested Bronze Age locales in or near Upper Galilee.  One key 
to seeing the pinpoint historical accuracy of “the four kings against the five
” in Genesis is to recognize that the word (MLQY in the received text is “
corrupt”.  Originally, that word was (MQLY -- the Bekka Valley.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois