Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

James Christian:
 
I am not contradicting myself.  Rather, I am saying that in all the Books 
of the Bible (at least prior to Chronicles), a reference to “sea the salt” 
could be either a reference to the Mediterranean Sea, which was a salt sea, 
or to the Dead Sea, which was also a salt sea.  Rather than relying 
exclusively on the words “sea the salt” to determine which salt sea is being 
referenced in any particular case, the only way to determine which salt sea 
is 
being referenced is to look at the particular context involved.
 
Here’s my Biblical evidence that a reference to “sea the salt” could be a 
reference to the Mediterranean Sea:
 
1.  Ezekiel 27: 29
 
In Biblical Hebrew, people who sail the Mediterranean Sea are called “salts”
 (meaning “sailors”).  The Hebrew word for “salt” (in the singular) is 
MLX, with the plural being MLX-YM.  At Ezekiel 27: 29 people who sail the 
Mediterranean Sea are called “salts”/MLXYM.
 
2.  Jonah 1: 5
 
At Jonah 1: 5, people who sail the Mediterranean Sea are called “the salts”
/H-MLXYM.  So the Hebrews thought of the Mediterranean Sea as being a “salt 
sea” (rather than exclusively thinking of the Dead Sea as being a salt sea).
 
3.  II Samuel 8: 3, 56, 13 (per KJV)
 
In chapter 8 of II Samuel, King David goes up north to Syria and defeats 
the king of Syria in a “valley of salt” in Syria.  That’s the Orontes River 
Valley, being a valley that is near the salt sea/the Mediterranean Sea, and 
whose river empties into the nearby salt sea/Mediterranean Sea.  Here’s the 
KJV translation, which relies exclusively on the Masoretic Text:
 
“David smote also Hadadezer, the son of Rehob, king of Zobah, as he went to 
recover his border at the river Euphrates.  …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 David gat him 
a name when he returned from smiting of the Syrians in the valley of salt….”
 
Hebrew King David could not defeat the king of Syria at or near the Dead 
Sea.  No, the only place for the “smiting of the Syrians in the valley of 
salt”
 to occur in defeating the king of Syria was in Syria, at the Orontes River 
Valley in southern Syria, just north of the Beqa Valley.
 
4.  Genesis 14: 3
 
Since chapter 14 of Genesis is admitted by most scholars to be very old, 
dating all the long way back to the Late Bronze Age, the Hurrians and the 
Amorites at Genesis 14: 6-7 must be the historical Hurrians and Amorites, who 
lived north of the Dead Sea.  The references to QD$ and Amorites at Genesis 
14: 7 are therefore referring to QD$ of Upper Galilee, just south of 
Lebanon’s 
Beqa Valley, and the Amorites are historically accurately portrayed as 
being attacked in the Beqa Valley in eastern Lebanon.
 
After being just south of Syria in the Beqa Valley at Hasi, and being far, 
far north of the Dead Sea, the final battle then occurs, not surprisingly, 
at the Valley of Siddim/valley of tilled fields.  The fullest reference to 
the spot of the final battle occurs early on, at Genesis 14: 3:
 
“And all these joined forces in the Valley of Siddim (sea the salt).”
 
In the context of the attacking troops having just been at Hasi in the Beqa 
Valley, just south of the Orontes River Valley, the final battle logically 
occurred in the Orontes River Valley.  Historically, we know that’s where 5 
princelings were destroyed by a fearsome coalition of 4 attacking rulers in 
Year 14:  in a valley of tilled fields near a salt sea, that is, in the 
Orontes River Valley near the Mediterranean Sea.
 
*       *       *
 
Your position that a Biblical reference to “sea the salt” could not 
possibly, under any circumstances, be a reference to the Mediterranean Sea is 
untenable.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois