Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

James Christian:
 
If you want to restrict the conversation to Biblical evidence, then I hope 
you will be willing to discuss the Masoretic Text of chapter 8 of II Samuel. 
 (Yes, I know that the Septuagint and II Chronicles emend the Masoretic 
Text, but most of us see the Masoretic Text as, most of the time, being the 
more accurate source.)  I will use the King James Version translation, 
because 
it sticks strictly to the Masoretic Text.
 
II Samuel 8: 3-7 reports that Hebrew King David went way up north to Syria 
and defeated the king of Syria in Syria.  In reading this passage, think  
S-y-r-i-a: 
 
“David smote also Hadadezer, the son of Rehob, king of Zobah, as he went to 
recover his border at the river Euphrates.  And David took from him a 
thousand chariots, and seven hundred horsemen, and twenty thousand footmen: 
and 
David houghed all the chariot horses, but reserved of them for an hundred 
chariots.  And when the Syrians of Damascus came to succour Hadadezer king of 
Zobah, David slew of the Syrians two and twenty thousand men.  Then David put 
garrisons in Syria of Damascus: and the Syrians became servants to David, 
and brought gifts.  And the LORD preserved David whithersoever he went.  And 
David took the shields of gold that were on the servants of Hadadezer, and 
brought them to Jerusalem.”  II Samuel 8: 3-7 per KJV
 
Although that passage tells us that Hebrew King David went way up north to 
Syria and defeated the king of Syria in Syria, it does not tell us precisely 
where in Syria the final battle was fought.  But that information comes 
just a few verses later:
 
“Of Syria, and of Moab, and of the children of Ammon, and of the 
Philistines, and of Amalek, and of the spoil of Hadadezer, son of Rehob, king 
of 
Zobah.  And David gat him a name when he returned from smiting of the Syrians 
in 
the valley of salt….”  II Samuel 8: 12-13 per KJV
 
So when David was up north in Syria, he accomplished the “smiting of the 
Syrians in the valley of salt”.
 
The only “valley of salt” in Syria is the Orontes River Valley, in that it 
is a north-south valley that is at all points quite close to the salt 
sea/Mediterranean Sea, and its river empties into the salt sea/Mediterranean 
Sea.
 
In fact, this is simply a shortened version of exactly what we see at 
Genesis 14: 3:  “the valley of siddim (sea the salt)”.  II Samuel 8: 13 
shortens 
this slightly to “valley of salt”.
 
James, King David could not defeat the king of Syria at or near the Dead 
Sea.  No way!  No, the place to defeat the king of Syria is in the Orontes 
River Valley in southern Syria, just north of the Beqa Valley.  (That’s 
precisely where Hittite King Suppriluliuma, with three regional allies, 
defeated 5 
small-time kings of Syria in the “four kings against five”, both at Genesis 
14: 1-11 and in the secular history of the first year of the Great Syrian 
War.)
 
Both “the valley of siddim (sea the salt)” and “valley of salt” are 
Biblical phrases that are referring to the same place in Syria:  the Orontes 
River Valley.  That’s the only valley in Syria where a king of Syria could be 
defeated, and that is close to, and whose river empties into, the salt sea, 
that is, the Mediterranean Sea.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois