Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Professor Yigal Levin:
 
Thank you so much for your excellent explanation of the King’s Highway.
 
I wonder if I might ask you to comment on Biblical Bezer, in the context of 
the King’s Highway, linguistics, and some secular sources?
 
Isn’t it true that travel through the Transjordan was fast and relatively 
easy, if one took the King’s Highway?  The King’s Highway deftly avoids both 
(i) the rugged hill country near the Jordan River, where travel would be 
slow, and (ii) the hellacious Eastern Desert, where the elements would make 
travel dangerous.
 
What I’m driving at here is that couldn’t a princeling from just east of 
the northern end of the Dead Sea quickly travel up to Ashteroth (east of the 
Sea of Galilee), primarily using the King’s Highway?  Though 80 miles was a 
long distance in the ancient world, still an 80-mile trip along the King’s 
Highway would be eminently doable, wouldn’t it?
 
On that basis, let’s now ask if Biblical Bezer might be linked to 
Ashteroth, 80 miles away, by virtue of the King’s Highway.
 
Based in large part on the following three Biblical references, Biblical 
Bezer likely was located near Heshbon, directly east of the northern end of 
the Dead Sea:
 
“And beyond the Jordan at Jericho eastward, they assigned Bezer in the 
wilderness in the table-land out of the tribe of Reuben, and Ramoth in Gilead 
out of the tribe of Gad, and Golan in Bashan out of the tribe of Manasseh.”  
Joshua 20: 8
 
“And out of the tribe of Reuben, Bezer with her suburbs, and Jahazah with 
her suburbs”  Joshua 21: 36
 
“And on the other side Jordan by Jericho, on the east side of Jordan, [were 
given them] out of the tribe of Reuben, Bezer in the wilderness with her 
suburbs, and Jahzah with her suburbs”  I Chronicles 6: 78
 
Biblical “Bezer” is:  BCR [with a ssade]
 
Is Biblical “Bezer” one and the same place as the “Busruna” referenced at 
Amarna Letter EA 197: 13?
 
Per Anson Rainey, the Akkadian cuneiform spelling of “Busruna” in that 
Amarna Letter is:  bu-uc-ru-na, where the C is a ssade.  It is well known 
that 
in non-Hebrew secular sources such as the Thutmose III list, a suffix –N 
often appears, which is a nominative ending, and in the context of a 
geographical place name is an optional suffix, which can be present or 
absent, and 
effectively means “town”.
 
Thus the significant consonants in the “Busruna” of Amarna Letter 197: 13 
are one and the same as the consonants in Biblical “Bezer”:  B-C-R.
 
Despite this apparent linguistic match, I believe that scholars have 
generally considered the “Busruna” in that Amarna Letter to be an unknown 
town 
near Ashteroth, east of the Sea of Galilee, since the content of that Amarna 
Letter concerns whether various princelings with Hurrian-type names, most or 
all of whom are located at or near Ashteroth, may be considering switching 
loyalties and swearing loyalty to the new great power:  the mighty Hittites 
under Hittite King Suppiluliuma I.  (See especially Amarna Letter EA 197: 
23-31.)
 
But if Ashteroth was easily reachable from Bezer by way of the King’s 
Highway, couldn’t a princeling with a Hurrian-type name in Bezer make common 
cause with princelings with Hurrian-type names at Ashteroth and Halunnu (with 
the latter presumably being Golan, near Ashteroth)?
 
Or to put the matter the other way around, if the Hittites were verbally 
pressuring Ashteroth, couldn’t the Hittites simultaneously put some verbal 
pressure on Bezer as well, even if only a tiny number of Hittites came into 
the 
Transjordan, and these Hittites themselves did not venture very far south 
of Ashteroth?
 
It just seems to me to be logical that Biblical Bezer and the Busruna of 
Amarna Letter EA 197: 13 are one and the same place.  The linguistic match is 
perfect, and given excellent transportation along the King’s Highway, to me 
the geography could be made to work as well.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois