Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

James Christian:
 
You wrote:  “Actually, it's far worse out of context than that Karl. The 
context of the Amarna correspondence is that he is trying to pretend he had 
nothing to do
 with the attacks on neighbouring territories. In fact, he is such a coward
 that he is willing to lie about not knowing his son had been hiring hapiru
 to carry out the attacks and is even willing to give his son up to the
 Pharoah. This has no parallels with Genesis 34 whatsoever.”
 
Hello, hello?  How can you possibly say that “[t] his has no parallels with 
Genesis 34 whatsoever.”
 
Each of Hamor and Labayu commits the same sin:  enticing tent-dwelling 
people to become partisans of Shechem, in order to try to create a Greater 
Shechem out of much of central Canaan.
 
Here’s the nefarious Biblical enticement offered to the tent-dwelling 
Hebrews by Hamor:
 
“Make marriages with us.  Give your daughters to us, and take our daughters 
for yourselves. You shall dwell with us, and the land shall be open to you. 
Dwell and trade in it, and get property in it."  Genesis 34: 9-10
 
Note the key phrases of enticement offered to the supposedly gullible 
tent-dwelling early Hebrews:  “[T]he land shall be open to you.  …[G]et 
property 
in it."
 
That is  e-x-a-c-t-l-y  the enticement that Labayu historically, and 
nefariously, offered to the tent-dwelling Hapiru:
 
“Are we to act like Labayu when he was giving away the land of Sakmu 
[Shechem] to the [tent-dwelling] Hapiru?”  Abdi-Heba of Jerusalem, Amarna 
Letter 
EA 289: 18-24
 
It’s the  s-a-m-e  sin, in the  s-a-m-e  context, in the  s-a-m-e  place 
(Shechem).
 
Hamor and Labayu commit the same sin and pay the same price:  death from a 
sneak attack on behalf of, but not with the approval of, the first 
historical monotheistic leader of a people.
 
Finally, note that both in the Bible and historically, and quite 
surprisingly, no one ever pays any real price for that murder of the ruler of 
Shechem 
who had such grand plans (all of which came to naught).
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois