Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Karl:
 
In response to my writing “What does that have to do with Amorites?  
Genesis 14: 7 refers to Amorites being at XCCN TMR”, you wrote:
 
“Other than your presuppositions, what problem is there with that?”
 
One of the main arguments that scholars make against the historicity of the 
“four kings against five” at Genesis 14: 1-11 is that Amorites are 
allegedly portrayed, non-historically, as living south of the Dead Sea.  When 
you 
say, “what problem is there with that?”, you’ve got the whole historicity of 
the Patriarchal narratives riding on it!
 
Karl, about the only part of the Bible that university scholars concede is 
very old, pre-dating the 1st millennium BCE, is chapter 14 of Genesis.  If 
the “four kings against five” is a truly ancient composition, as many 
(perhaps even a majority of) university scholars concede is the case, then 
how 
could an ancient author portray Amorites as living south of the Dead Sea, 
when 
every single person in the ancient Near East at the time knew that the 
Amorites lived primarily in Lebanon, and were never south of the Dead Sea?
 
Karl, if we give up on that key point, we’re dead ducks.
 
The Amorites historically were in Lebanon, and are attested as being in and 
near Hasi in the north-central Beqa Valley in the Amarna Letters.  
Everything makes sense if Hasi is a shorthand, simplified version of XCCN 
TMR, which 
itself is a virgin pure Hurrian name.  Neither the Hurrians (Biblical “
Horites” at Genesis 14: 6) nor the Amorites were ever south of the Dead Sea.  
Nothing at Genesis       14: 6-7 is, or is portrayed as being, south of the 
Dead Sea. 
 
Genesis 14: 7 (in reverse order).  XCCN TMR is Hasi in the Beqa Valley.  
The Amorites are in the Beqa Valley.  (MLQY means either “valley” or “valley 
dwellers”, and in context is referring to the Beqa Valley.  [(MLQY is not 
nonsensically talking about the descendants of Abraham’s future 
great-great-grandson Amalek.]    QD$ is the historical Qadesh of Upper 
Galilee located 
just south of the southern entrance to the Beqa Valley.  And En-mishpat is 
“Eye 
on Seat of Justice”, that is, “Eye on Mt. Hermon”, being an alternative 
name for (not a former name of) Qadesh of Upper Galilee, per items #4 and #5 
on the Thutmose III list.  “En-mishpat” is similar to the first line of the 
song that modern residents of the kibbutz at Qadesh of Upper Galilee sing 
today:  “Facing the radiance of the Hermon”.  
_http://www.malkiya.co.il/info/about1.htm_ 
(http://www.malkiya.co.il/info/about1.htm)   It’s the same 
concept, based on the same geography, 3,500 years later.  (There’s nothing 
like 
that in the Sinai Desert, nor is any name “Kadesh barnea” or “QD$” attested 
in the Sinai Desert either.  Rather, everything’s way up north, up Lebanon 
way.)
 
Genesis 14: 6 (in reverse order).  El-paran means “Great Desert”, and is 
logically referring to the Great Desert -- the impassable Syro-Arabian Desert 
that borders the entire eastern edge of the Transjordan, and which 
stretches all the long way east to Babylon.  “Horites” are the historical 
Hurrians 
attested in the central Transjordan.  Seir/“well-wooded” HRRM/“hill country”
 is the well-wooded hill country on the east bank of the Jordan River.  
There’s no hill country, and nothing well-wooded, south of the Dead Sea.  
There’
s  n-o-t-h-i-n-g  at Genesis 14: 6-7 south of the Dead Sea.  Moreover, we 
can use the Amarna Letters to verify the exact movement of troops south from 
Ashteroth through the Transjordan (Genesis 14: 5-6).  Then they “return”
/$WB back north past Qadesh of Upper Galilee and on into the 
Hurrian-dominated 
Beqa Valley, “indeed even”/GM unto the small enclave of Amorites at and 
near Hasi/XCCN TMR (Genesis 14: 7).  In the entirety of the Hebrew Bible, the 
three verses that have the most explicit secular historical backing, 
verifying virtually each and every word in those three verses, are Genesis 
14: 5-7.  
 
Karl, Genesis 14: 6-7 has pinpoint historical accuracy, if only we, unlike 
university scholars, are willing to look north of the Dead Sea, which is the 
geographical locale that the author of chapter 14 of Genesis is talking 
about.
 
The problem is not with the Biblical text.  The Biblical text is perfect 
(or nearly perfect;  unfortunately, one or two letters were added by later 
scribes in error).  The problem, rather, is that no university scholar is 
willing to look north of the Dead Sea in a Bronze Age historical context in 
evaluating the peoples and places referenced at Genesis 14: 6-7.  That’s why 
the 
Hurrian analysis of XCCN TMR is important.  Karl, don’t you think it’s 
strange that university scholars ignore XCCN entirely, and purport to match 
TMR 
to a Roman-era village south of the Dead Sea?  Why would such a village be 
thought to be in continuous existence from the Bronze Age to Roman times?  
And with the same name?  And yet every single other Biblical author, 
including 
Joshua and Ezra, missed that precious village entirely?  Is that a 
convincing theory of the case?  That’s the scholarly view, believe it or not.
 
Instead of dreaming that the Roman-era village of Tamar has a 
1,000-year-old unattested history and never changed its name in all that time 
(while 
nevertheless being missed by every Biblical author and every Egyptian 
historical 
document, except the ancient author of chapter 14 of Genesis), and ignoring 
XCCN/Hazezon entirely, which is the scholarly way, why not consider a 
Hurrian analysis of XCCN TMR?  Karl, we’ve got all the documented history on 
our 
side in supporting the pinpoint historical accuracy of the “four kings 
against five”.  When scholars claim it’s all fiction, in part on the basis of 
their allegation that Amorites are being non-historically portrayed in the 
Biblical text as living south of the Dead Sea, how can you breezily say:  “
[W]hat problem is there with that?”
 
E-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g  is riding on that.  The Amorites historically were in 
Lebanon, not south of the Dead Sea.  The Amorite state of Amurru in northern 
coastal Lebanon is prominent in the Amarna Letters, and three Amarna 
Letters document Amorites in the Beqa Valley at and near Hasi.  The second 
half of 
Genesis 14: 7 has pinpoint accuracy historically, and is talking about the 
Beqa Valley in eastern Lebanon in the Bronze Age (not fictional people and 
fictional places south of the Dead Sea, as university scholars would have 
it).  XCCN TMR needs to be associated historically with Amorites, in order 
for 
the “four kings against five” to be historically accurate.  It is!  The 
Hurrian analysis of XCCN TMR cinches the deal.  The Masoretic Text has a 
perfect 7-letter match to that ancient Hurrian name, whose shortened and 
simplified equivalent is Hasi, which had an Amorite ruler in the 
Hurrian-dominated 
Beqa Valley in Bronze Age Lebanon.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois