Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Yitzhak Sapir:
 
You wrote:  “Penuel, the Jabbok, and Mahanaim are all directly east of the 
Jordan river, not in the Gil(ad.”
 
Yes, Penuel, the Jabbok [River], and Mahanaim are all directly east of the 
Jordan
 River, that’s for sure. 
 
But just as surely, that’s in the heart of Gilead.  We can prove that 
Biblically at Genesis 31: 46-47:
 
“And Jacob said to his kinsmen, "Gather stones."  And they took stones and 
made a heap, and they ate there by the heap.  Laban called it 
Jegar-sahadutha, but Jacob called it Galeed.”
 
Galeed is Gilead.  That’s where Jacob has his final meeting with Laban, and 
is very near where Jacob then meets with Esau.
 
Or if you want a scholarly account of where Gilead is, here’s p. 145 of “”
Baker Encyclopedia of Bible Places” (1995):
 
“Geographically, Gilead proper was the hilly, wooded country north of a 
line from Heshbon west to the northern end of the Dead Sea, and extending 
north 
towards the present-day river and Wadi Yarmuk….”
 
Note that scholarly reference to “hilly, wooded country”, which fits my 
etymology for Seir perfectly.
 
Gilead is east of the Jordan River, from the northern end of the Dead Sea 
to the Yarmuk River (a river which is well north of the Jabbok River).
 
Here’s one more scholarly quote, this time from the “Oxford Bible Atlas” 
(2007) at p. 27:  “South of the Yarmuk is the territory of Gilead, divided by 
the River Jabbok.”
 
So as I was saying, when Jacob had his final meeting with Laban, that was 
in northern Gilead (just north of the Jabbok River).  Shortly thereafter, 
Jacob told Esau that Jacob would slowly meander on south to Seir, that is, 
historical Seir/Shar/Jazer in southern Gilead, well south of the Jabbok 
River.  
But in fact, Jacob did not go south to Gilead, or to the Patriarchs’ Hebrew, 
as expected, but rather Jacob went straight west from Penuel to Succoth and 
Shechem.
 
Why is everyone trying to impose a non-historical geography on the 
Patriarchal narratives?  The author of the truly ancient Patriarchal 
narratives 
certainly knew his geography!  The text makes perfect sense, as written, with 
no 
forcing of the text being needed at all, if we will only apply an 
historical geography to the Patriarchal narratives (while ignoring Genesis 
36: 8-43 
for all purposes).
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois