Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Christian <jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com>]

Hi Jim,

that's the point exactly isn't it. The reason there are no wells of bitumen
in the dead sea area is because they were in the valley of siddim. Where is
the valley? Under the sea! At least it is now after Yhwh blasted it hundreds
of metres below its original depth (which was already pretty darn low).
That's why the bitumen floats on the water. It's coming out of the wells
which can't be seen anymore without diving down a few hundred metres into
the dead sea.

James Christian

On 3 May 2010 17:15, <JimStinehart AT aol.com> wrote:

>
> “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
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