Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Oun Kwon wrote:  “Reading v. 16  'Then they journeyed from Bethel; and when 
there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, ...' (NASB), it must be not 
too


far from Bethel to be Bethlehem in Judea.”
 
As to the location of Jacob’s “Bethel”, here is the relevant portion of 
Genesis 35: 6-7:  “So Jacob came to Luz, …and he…called the place Elbethel: be
cause there God [had] appeared unto him, when he fled from the face of his 
brother” [in leaving Canaan to go to Laban’s place way out east in 
Naharim].  Luz/LWZ is Laish, in northeastern Galilee.  Jacob flees north to 
Luz/Laish to avoid any backlash from the bloody events at Shechem in central 
Canaan. 
 Jacob gives Luz/Laish the Patriarchal nickname of “Bethel” or “Elbethel”
, in honor of the fact that Jacob, in leaving GRR/Upper Galilee to go to 
Paddan-Aram to visit Laban, had been comforted by YHWH at Luz/Laish/“Bethel”/“
House of God” on the first night of his long journey out east.  This is not 
historical Bethel south of Shechem, but rather is historical Laish, way 
north of Shechem, which Genesis 35: 7 tells us Jacob gave the Patriarchal 
nickname “Elbethel”.  Laish/Luz/“Bethel” is the first place in Canaan after 
returning from Naharim/Paddan-Aram out east, and that is why we read at 
Genesis 
13: 9:  “God [had] appeared to Jacob again, when he came from Paddan-aram, 
and blessed him.”
 
Having gone northeast after the bloody Shechem incident, Jacob now 
gradually moves south toward central Canaan.  “Then they journeyed from 
Bethel [that 
is, Luz/Laish].  When they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel 
went into labor, and she had hard labor.”  Genesis 35: 16  The city name 
transliterated as “Ephrath” is )PRT.  The two most common west Semitic 
suffixes 
on the mid-15th century BCE Thutmose III list of places in Canaan are –T and 
–N, each of which effectively means “place” in a geographical place name.  
So )PRT is )PR-T, with the key letters being )PR.  Now compare the spelling 
of Afula in the Jezreel Valley:  (PWLH.  The vav is a post-exilic spelling 
update, being a vowel indicator, and the –H is a common suffix [since most 
place names are feminine in Hebrew].  The key letters are (PL, which compare 
with the key letters )PR at Genesis 35: 16.  I see these as being different 
spellings of the same city:  historical Afula, in the heart of the Jezreel 
Valley.  Bethlehem of Galilee is 10 miles north of Afula, and 50 miles 
southwest of Laish/Luz/“Bethel”.  So having slowly traveled 50 long miles 
southwest of Laish/Luz/“Bethel”, but still being a good 10 miles north of the 
next 
sizable city, Afula, Rachel dies at a tiny place called Bethlehem of 
Galilee.  “So Rachel died, and she was buried on the way to Ephrath [Afula] 
(that 
is, Bethlehem [of Galilee])”.  After Rachel’s death, Jacob continues to 
journey south, to historical Migdal (southwest of Megiddo), where he tends 
his “
flock”/(DR/“Eder”.  “And Israel journeyed, and spread his tent on the 
other side of Migdal-Eder.”  Genesis 35: 21
 
Between Genesis 35: 6 and Genesis 35: 21 Jacob is between Laish and Migdal, 
being well north of Judah.  Jacob does not go to see his father Isaac in 
XBR-W-N, at the Aijalon Valley in the northern Shephelah, until Isaac is on 
his deathbed.  Genesis 35: 27.  So Jacob starts at Shechem, goes northeast to 
Laish in fleeing the bloody Shechem incident, then slowly works his way 
southwest to Afula by way of Bethlehem of Galilee, then southwest to Migdal 
[naturally giving Shechem a very wide berth!], and finally south to 
XBR-W-N/the 
Aijalon Valley, just northwest of the territory controlled by the much later 
state of Judah.  XBR-W-N is west of historical Bethel (south of Shechem), 
per Genesis 13: 9, 11, where Abraham says that he will go the opposite of 
whatever way Lot goes, and Lot goes “east” of historical Bethel.
 
The geography of the Patriarchal narratives makes perfect sense, once one 
realizes that the Patriarchs never sojourn south  of a line drawn between 
historical Bethel (south of Shechem, north of Jerusalem) and the Aijalon 
Valley, whose Patriarchal nickname is XBR-W-N.  XBR-W-N references the 
idealized 
kingdom XBR/Khuburu of mythical Ugaritic King Keret, with XBR-W-N also 
meaning in Hurrian “the heaven-and-sky of mine”.  XBR-W-N is a fanciful 
Patriarchal nickname for a very real place, the wondrous pastureland of the 
Aijalon 
Valley.  Note the difference in spelling:  XBR-W-N is where the Patriarchs 
tend a huge flock, whereas XBR-N, by stark contrast, is the highest city in 
Canaan, surrounded by rugged mountains, 20 miles south of Jerusalem, being a 
forbidding locale that could not possibly have enough water for a huge flock 
of sheep and goats in the long, hot summers, while being too cold and wet 
for camels in the winter.  If one starts with Isaac being born in GRR/Upper 
Galilee, which is where Jacob in turn starts from in leaving Canaan to go out 
to Naharim, then one realizes that Jacob’s “Bethel” is a nickname for 
historical Laish, and that this entire segment of the Patriarchal narratives 
is 
taking place in Galilee, not in southern Canaan, where the future state of 
Judah would eventually coming into being many centuries later.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois