Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Jim:

 

In theory, you could be right. However:

1.      At least a hundred years separate the Amarna references to Busruna
and the biblical references to Bezer (assuming that the latter are
historically reliable and not anachronistic - which I would not take for
granted).
2.      Most of the inter-city conflicts that are recorded in the Amarna
letters are between towns that are closer than that. 
3.      There are several other places in Transjordan that have names
derived from the root BCR, which means "to harvest grapes". Most famous is
Bazrah, chief city of Edom, but there are others. So why focus on this
otherwise unknown Bezer?
4.      Even if so, so what? 

 

 

Yigal Levin

 

  _____  

From: JimStinehart AT aol.com [mailto:JimStinehart AT aol.com] 
Sent: Thursday, February 11, 2010 5:35 PM
To: leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il; b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] The King's road: Bezer

 

 
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

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