Biblical Hebrew Forum

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

Your ability to contradict yourself is absolutely stellar. It's time to make
your mind up Jim about which parts of the bible are early versus late and
accurate versus inaccurate.

James Christian

On 13 May 2010 17:02, <JimStinehart AT aol.com> wrote:

>  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
>
>