Biblical Hebrew Forum

[jimstinehart AT aol.com]

Dr. Fournet:
 
You wrote:  “That place so far south cannot have a Hurrian name, unless 
Hurrians would have created it, which sounds beyond believable.  I still do 
not understand why and how Hurrians would have massively occupied these 
places so far south.”
 
1.  $(-R Is Not Too Far South
 
We know from Amarna Letter EA 197 that Hurrian maryannu operated in the 
central Transjordan, south of Ashteroth.  The $e-e-ri referred to by IR Heba 
of Jerusalem is likely the city north of the Dead Sea whose later name was 
Jazer.  The ruins of Jazer are called %R or CR, which vaguely recalls its 
original name.  Moran at p. 392 states as to $e-e-ri:  “perhaps Biblical 
Seir”.  So $(-R or $(-YR at Genesis 14: 6 is probably the city whose later 
name was Jazer.  Although Seir is traditionally thought to be southeast of 
the Dead Sea, in the Patriarchal narratives “Seir”/$erri must be located in 
Gilead, north of the Dead Sea [at or near the city later called “Jazer”, an 
important locale not too far from IR-Heba’s Jerusalem], because when Jacob is 
in the hill country of central Transjordan east of Shechem [15 miles north of 
Jazer] upon returning from Naharim in chapters 32 and 33 of Genesis, Jacob 
cannot avoid meeting his estranged older twin brother Esau coming up north 
from “Seir” or $(-R or $(-YR or $e-e-ri or $e-e-ir-ri.  Genesis 33: 14
 
2.  )L P-)R-N Is Not Too Far South
 
The traditional view is that this somehow refers to the far-off Gulf of 
Aqaba, but there is no linguistic, textual or historical support for such 
view.  Rather, this and the preceding geographical place name at Genesis 14: 
6 are referring to Hurrian names of places in the central Transjordan, south 
of Ashteroth, in the mid-14th century BCE.  The first element of this Hurrian 
name, ’L/eli, may form the basis of the later west Semitic name of this city, 
’L‘LH/Elealah, at Numbers 32: 3.  That city is located southeast of Jazer, 
near the desert, and as such fits Genesis 14: 6 perfectly.
 
It’s not surprising that after the Hurrians disappeared from the Transjordan 
and Canaan after the 14th century BCE, most of the places that had had 
Hurrian names changed their names to west Semitic names.  $(-R/“Seir” became 
Jazer, and )L P-)R-N/eli pu-ur-ni became Elealah.  But back in the mid-14th 
century BCE, at the time of the Amarna Letters, when the Hurrians were still 
at their height, these places in the central Transjordan had had Hurrian 
names, as Genesis 14: 6 reports with pinpoint historical accuracy.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois