Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yigal Levin <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

Hi James,

The term "derekh hammelekh" is a legal one, meaning "the public road", as
opposed to private property. Exactly the same term, "harran sharri", occurs
in Akkadian. Its two occurrences in the Bible in fact refer to two different
roads: in Num. 20:19 Moses is at Kadesh-barnea and wishes to go east across
what is now called "the Negev Highlands" towards what is now called the
Arava into Edom. In 21:22 he's already in Transjordan and wishes to cross
the Arnon northward through the Mishor, which was ruled by Sihon.

At some point in the early 20th century, someone (maybe it was Kurt Galling)
decided that "derekh hammelekh" is the proper name of the main north-south
route on the Transjordanian plateau. The road itself is well known
throughout history and is still one of the major highways of Jordan today.
Roughly, it goes from Damascus to Der'a (Edrei) to Amman to Madeba to Hisban
to Diban to Bazrah Petra to Aqaba. Its specific route shifted to reflect
changes in settlement over the ages. Remember that before the Roman period,
roads were usually not "built" or marked, nor did they have proper names.
Rather, they were referred to by their destination, depending on the
perspective of the speaker. 

The same, by-the-way, is true for the famous "Derekh hayyam" or "Via Maris".
While the main route that ran parallel to the Mediterranean coast is well
known and was very important, it did not have a single permanent name, nore,
BTW, did it actually lead to the sea. Isaiah 8:23 (or 9:1 in most English
versions) does not refer to this road. However both names as commonly used
today as if they were the ancient designations of these roads. 

By the way, I once heard a Jordanian tour guide tell his group that the
"king's highway" is called that because it was built by King Mesha!


Yigal Levin



-----Original Message-----
From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of James Christian
Sent: Thursday, February 11, 2010 12:16 PM
To: b-hebrew
Subject: [b-hebrew] The King's road

Hi,

does anybody know what evidence we actually have for the route of the
'King's highway'? The one that Moses evidently asks permission to use in his
plans to cross through Edom (Numbers 20:19) and then also through Ammon
(Numbers 21:22)?

thanks,
James Christian
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