Biblical Hebrew Forum

[jimstinehart AT aol.com]

Yigal Levin wrote:  “Jim, since I don't know Hurrian I can't argue with you, 
but there is no reference to "Amorites" in EA 175, and what in the world does 
anything there have to do with Hazazon-Tamar?”
 
Amarna Letter EA 175 probably dates to Year 14 (of Akhenaten’s troubled 
17-year reign), which is the  e-x-a-c-t  year referenced in Genesis 14: 5.  
The princeling ruler of Hasi in the Beqa Valley in Amarna Letter EA 175 is 
Il-dayyi.  That is a west Semitic name, very probably being an Amorite name, 
as “Il” is a hallmark of an Amorite name.  Richard S. Hess has noted that 
although the Beqa Valley was generally dominated by Hurrians, with “northern” 
names, there was an enclave of (Amorite) princelings with west Semitic names 
at and near Hasi in the mid-14th century BCE:
 
““In the Lebanese Biqa [the Beqa Valley],…Northern names [that is, 
Hurrian-type names] predominate.  …[But] if Hasi, Hasabu, and Eni-sasi, which 
all have West Semitic names for leaders, are to be located near one another 
in the Biqa, then there is a cluster of West Semitic leaders in the midst of 
a valley of Northern leaders.”  Richard S. Hess, “Cultural Aspects of 
Onomastic Distribution in the Amarna Texts”, Ugarit-Forshungen (1989), issue 
21, at pp. 213-214.
 
“Hasi” is Xasi.  As I noted in my prior post, that’s probably xas-su or a 
shortened form of xa-si-su in Akkadian, meaning “wisdom”.  That’s a cognate 
to xa-tsi-tsi, which is the Hurrian word for “wisdom”.  The Hurrians’ 
“wisdom” regarding primeval matters centered around the number nine, as I 
noted in my prior post.  So in Hurrian, the following city name makes sense:  
“Wisdom-the Nine”/xa-tsi-tsi-ni tam-ri, which would be rendered in Hebrew as: 
 XCC-N TMR.  Note the 7 letter-for-letter spelling accuracy of the Biblical 
text in rendering this Hurrian city name.  And XCC in the Biblical text is 
similar to x-s-s or, in shortened form, x-s, which is Xasi/Hasi, being the 
Akkadian version of this Hurrian name.
 
As to checking out the Hurrian (and Akkadian for “wisdom”), just take a look 
at Dr. Fournet’s website:  
http://www.nostratic.ru/books/(432)bomhard-hurrian.pdf
 
At p. 87, we read:  “*[xatsitsi] ‘intelligence, wit’
EL xazzizzi/xasisi. CA <xa-(as)-sí-(is)-sí>.”
 
That’s XCC in Hebrew.  But what about Akkadian?
 
At footnote 32 on p. 20, we read:  “This word means ‘divine wisdom , god of 
wisdom’ <e-ni-xa-az-zi-iz-zi-ya>. The Semitic form is <x s s> (cf. Akkadian 
xassu ‘intelligent, wise’, xasāsu ‘to heed a deity, to be pious; to be 
intelligent, understanding; to remember; etc.’).”
 
P. 15 is one of the places that refers to “-ni ‘definite article’.”  So “the 
wisdom” in Hurrian is represented by the Hebrew letters XCC-N.
 
P. 58 tells us that “tamri” is the cardinal number “nine” in Hurrian.  That’s 
TMR in the Hebrew rendering of this Hurrian word.  So XCC-N TMR is 
“Wisdom-the Nine” in Hurrian.
 
By contrast, as you well know, there is nothing similar to XCC as a name 
attested at or near the southern end of the Dead Sea.  No, if you’re looking 
for XCC, the place to look is Hasi in the Beqa Valley.  Genesis 14: 1-11 has  
p-i-n-p-o-i-n-t  historical accuracy, as verified by the Amarna Letters.  
When the second half of Genesis 14: 7 says that there were Amorites at XCC-N 
TMR who in Year 14 were attacked by forces including a Hurrian [)RYWK] and 
Hittite [TD(L] name, then take it to the bank, there indeed were Amorites at 
Hasi [the Akkadian shortened version of xa-tsi-tsi-ni tam-ri/XCC-N TMR in 
Hurrian] in the Hurrian-dominated Beqa Valley who in Year 14 were attacked by 
forces including a Hurrian [Etakkama] and Hittite [Hatti] name.  Amarna 
Letter EA 175 and the second half of Genesis 14: 7 are describing one and the 
same event. 
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois