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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Genesis 34:8 consorting with the hapiru

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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com, kwrandolph AT gmail.com
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Genesis 34:8 consorting with the hapiru
  • Date: Wed, 12 May 2010 14:42:49 EDT


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




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