Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Dear list members,

for the past three years we have been bombarded with Jim's theories on
Genesis 14:1-11. One of the basis of his theory is 'no Horites were ever to
the South of the Salt Sea'. He therefore presents an alternative
identification of Seir on this basis. Let's have a look to see if there is
any basis to this theory.

Very little, in fact, is known about the Horites. They are identified with
the Khar of Egyptian texts whose contexts place them as a people of Southern
Canaan. In the Torah we see three reference to the Horites. Genesis 36:20-29
gives a detailed family tree from Seir, the father of the Horites and
evidently the man the region was named after, to the Sheikhs of Seir. But it
is in Deuteronomy 2:12 that we get the most unambiguous reference to the
whereabouts of Seir. In Deuteronomy 2:12 we are told that the Edomites drove
the Horites out of Seir before settling there just as the Isrealites will
have to drive out the Canaanites to obtain their settling place.

In order to support a relocation of Seir inhabited by Horites we need to do
one of two things:

a) discredit Deuteronomy 2:12
b) abandon a wealth of archaeology placing Edom very much South of the Salt
Sea

James Christian