Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

“Wells, Wells of Bitumen”
 
A person criticized my proposed revision of the underlying geography of the 
“four kings against five”, which posits that everything happened (and is 
portrayed in the Biblical text as happening)  n-o-r-t-h  of the Dead Sea, by 
stating that as to the B)RT B)RT XMR referenced at Genesis 14: 10:  “Such a 
description could never be even remotely imagined to be a place north of the 
dead sea”.
 
Let’s take a look.
 
1.  Hebrew Language Issues
 
In a previous discussion some time ago, Karl came up with the following 
fine, accurate translation of B)RT B)RT XMR at Genesis 14: 10:  “wells, wells 
of bitumen”.  (Why are Karl’s translations so much better and more reliable 
than standard translations?)
 
We might in passing note that B)RT apparently is either an archaic version, 
or a defective spelling version, of the plural B)RWT.  More relevant here, 
though, as we will see in #3 below, is that I think the Arabic 
semi-equivalent of this Biblical phrase may be Biar el Hommar (ﺭﺎﻣﺣﻠﺍ ﺭﺎﻳﺒ).
 
“Wells, wells of bitumen” is a colorful, specific description.  Let’s ask 
an Israeli scientist if it fits the Dead Sea.
 
2.  Israeli Scientist:  No “Wells, Wells of Bitumen” at Dead Sea
 
There’s no evidence that the Dead Sea was ever characterized by wells of 
bitumen.  Here’s what Israeli scientist Arie Nissenbaum of the Department of 
Environmental Sciences and Energy Research, Weizmann Institute of Science, 
Rehovot 76100, Israel has to say in the abstract to his article “‘…and the 
vale of Siddim was full of slime [= bitumen, asphalt?] pits’ (Genesis, 14:10)”
 in “_The Geochemical Society Special Publications_ 
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/bookseries/18739881) ”, _Volume 9_ 
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=PublicationURL&_tockey=#TOC#42595#2004#999909999#662117#FLP#&;
_cdi=42595&_pubType=BS&view=c&_auth=y&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersio
n=0&_userid=10&md5=824fac44edd3b59fccb80970a51a7d71) , 2004, at pp. 359-364:
 
“The Dead Sea area has been associated with bitumen (= asphalt) for 
thousands of years.  For this reason, it has commonly been taken for granted 
that 
pits of bitumen existed in the Dead Sea area, and into which the kings of 
Sodom and Gomorrah fell after losing a battle in the vale of Siddim in the 
Dead 
Sea region (Genesis, 14:10).  However, physical evidence for the existence 
of such pits is practically non-existent.”
 
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B8H43-4P40HR7-W&_us
er=10&_coverDate=12%2F31%2F2004&_rdoc=1&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_sort=d&_doca
nchor=&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=4c457
076f587133dedc1bb0ff6cce690
 
3.  “Wells, Wells of Bitumen” in the Southern Beqa Valley
 
If one wants “wells, wells of bitumen”/Biart Biart Hommar, one needs to 
look  n-o-r-t-h  of the Dead Sea, to the southern end of the Beqa Valley.  
Here
’s how an 1819 traveler’s account reads:
 
“The neighbourhood of Hasbeya [in the southern Beqa Valley] is interesting 
to the mineralogist.  …The ground all around, and the spring near the 
village, are strongly impregnated with iron;  the rock is sandstone, of a 
dark red 
colour.  The other mineral curiosities are, a number of wells of bitumen 
Judaicum, in the Wady at one hour below the village on the west side, after 
recrossing the bridge;  they are situated upon the declivity of a chalky 
hill; 
the bitumen is found in large veins at about twenty feet below the surface. 
 The pits are from six to twelve feet in diameter;  the workmen descend by 
a rope and wheel, and in hewing out the bitumen, they leave columns of that 
substance at different intervals, as a support to the earth above….  The 
bitumen is called Hommar, and the wells, Biar el Hommar {Arabic}.  The Emir 
possesses the monopoly of the bitumen;  he alone works the pits, and sells 
the 
produce to the merchants of Damascus, Beirout, and Aleppo.” John Lewis 
Burckhardt, “Travels in Nubia” (1819),  Association for Promoting the 
Interior 
Part of Africa, London, at pp. 293-297. 
 
_http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/b/burckhardt/john_lewis/syria/complete.html_ 
(http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/b/burckhardt/john_lewis/syria/complete.html) 
 
4.  Conclusions
 
The phrase “wells, wells of bitumen” is reminiscent of the southern Beqa 
Valley, north of the Dead Sea, even as to the exact name -- Biar el Hommar.  
This colorful, specific description focusing on ‘wells’ fits the southern 
Beqa Valley perfectly, where there literally are ‘wells’ of bitumen.  But 
that specific description does not recall the Dead Sea, whose plentiful 
bitumen is not found in ‘wells’, but rather, very famously, floats right on 
top 
of the salty water in the Dead Sea.
 
We should take facts like this into account in analyzing Genesis 14: 1-11.  
The place to find “wells, wells of bitumen” (and Amorites and XCCN 
TMR/Hasi as well) is up north in the Beqa Valley, not at the Dead Sea.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois