Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Isaac Fried" <if AT math.bu.edu>]

I have not read the learned paper by Dr David Elgavish but I saw last night 
the Israeli movie ZOHI SDOM, which gave me an excellent insight into life 
there.

Isaac Fried, Boston University
>From JimStinehart AT aol.com  Fri Aug 20 10:59:35 2010
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Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] a mystery regarding gen14:24?
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Professor Yigal Levin:
 
1.  I would be very interested in reading the paper you reference by Dr. 
David Elgavish of Bar-Ilan University when it becomes available to the public.
 
2.  You wrote:  ג€�Gen. 13:13 already informed us that when Lot chose to 
settle in Sodom, its inhabitants were evil.  So they did not only become evil 
after chapter 14.ג€�
 
I myself view Genesis 13: 13 as being a rare post-exilic addition to this 
otherwise truly ancient text.  Donג€™t you?  YHWH Himself does not find out 
for 
sure that the citizens of SDM have become truly evil until Genesis 18: 
20-21:
 
ג€�Then the LORD said, ג€˜Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is 
great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have 
done 
altogether according to the outcry that has come to me.  And if not, I will 
know.ג€™"
 
Although there are very few editorial additions to the Patriarchal 
narratives, I see Genesis 13: 13 as being one of them.  Note that chapter 13 
of 
Genesis reads better if Genesis 13: 13 is removed.  Genesis 13: 13 is 
completely 
out of sync with the style of the rest of the Patriarchal narratives, which 
tells us what happens as it happens, in a neutral style, rather than 
explicitly telling us how to interpret what will happen.
 
If BR( and SDM were evil in chapter 13 of Genesis, then it wouldnג€™t make 
sense for Lot to choose to live in SDM, or for Lot to marry off his two 
oldest 
daughters to men of SDM (per Genesis 19: 14).
 
If Lot himself is a bad person in chapters 13 and 14 of Genesis, which you 
specifically assert by your statement ג€�Lot was certainly not a ג€˜goodג€™ 
person even thenג€�, it would make no sense for Abraham to take Lot away from 
the 
bad attacking rulers, and weirdly turn Lot over to the truly evil BR( and the 
men of evil SDM, with the name BR( allegedly even meaning, in west Semitic, 
ג€�In Evilג€�.  Such an analysis, in addition to being non-historical, makes 
the entire text nonsensical on its face.
 
If Lot is evil, then that long conversation at the end of chapter 18 of 
Genesis between Abraham and YHWH makes no sense, where YHWH reassures Abraham 
that innocent people will not die when YHWH destroys SDM.  That can only be 
referring to Lot who, along with his two youngest daughters, are the innocent 
people who escape from SDM, all of whose other inhabitants had, some time 
after chapter 14 of Genesis and before chapter 18 of Genesis, unfortunately 
gone over to the dark side (that is, had become part of the faction that 
favored selling out Canaan to the Hittites, in order to avoid a possible 
bloody 
invasion of Canaan by the Hittites).  
 
Your claim that ג€�Abram did rescue him [Lot] out of kinship obligationsג€� 
rings hollow.  After Abraham sees with his own eyes that SDM has been 
destroyed, and Abraham knows that Lot was living in SDM and that YHWH had 
promised 
Abraham at the end of chapter 18 of Genesis that innocent lives would not [at 
least for the most part] be lost in the destruction of SDM, why oh why doesn
ג€™t Abraham go up to Sodom to see if Lot has survived, and to see if Lot 
needs some help in getting back on his feet?  Wouldnג€™t that be a ג€�kinship 
obligationג€�?  Donג€™t you see that things changed between chapters 13-14 
and 
chapters 18-19?  In chapters 13-14, it makes sense for Lot to associate with 
BR( 
and SDM, who at that point are properly anti-Hittite, and who as such are 
subject to attack by 4 attacking rulers one of whom has the authentic Hittite 
kingly name TD(L as his Biblical nickname.  But some time after chapter 14 
of Genesis all the men of SDM, from the oldest to the youngest (Genesis 19: 
4), made the strategic, iniquitous decision to sell out to the Hittites.  
Lot should have left SDM at that point, but he did not.  When the chips are 
down, though, Lot risks his own life trying to protect the angels from the 
iniquitous citizens of SDM, so Lot deserves to be spared from the divine 
destruction rightly meted out on the truly iniquitous citizens of SDM [with 
BR(, 
who himself never sold out to the Hittites, being long out of the picture by 
then].
 
If you read Genesis 18: 20-21, I think you will conclude with me that 
Genesis 13: 13 is a rare, bogus post-exilic addition to the text.  Thereג€™s 
no way 
that we the reader are to be told things in chapter 13 of Genesis that YHWH 
Himself has not yet fully confirmed as late as Genesis 18: 20-21.
 
BR( is not portrayed in the text as being evil, nor is he portrayed as 
having a west Semitic name that means ג€�In Evilג€�.  Rather, the 
name/nickname BR( 
is the early Hebrew defective spelling of ebri, the best-known Hurrian 
common word in Late Bronze Age Canaan, literally meaning ג€�lordג€�, but 
effectively meaning ג€�Hurrian princelingג€�.  That is the neutral, generic, 
apt Biblical 
nickname for the Hurrian princeling ruler of SDM, who himself is portrayed 
in a generally positive light in the Patriarchal narratives.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois