Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

In seeking to pin down the identity of the priest Melchizedek, the single 
most important word is $WH at Genesis 14: 17.  Melchizedek is said to be at 
(MQ $WH, and that implies that he was the priest at a temple located at (MQ 
$WH.  As I noted in my prior post, all three of the elements of Melchizedek’s 
long double-name fit the Canaanite god Mekal, whose temple was at Beth 
Shan:  MLK and CDQ and $LM.  Is Beth Shan, the site of the famous Late Bronze 
Age Temple of Mekal, located at (MQ $WH?
 
In this post, I will restrict myself to the conventional understanding of 
$WH, which is that it is a west Semitic word that means “level plain”.  Two 
of the meanings that HALOT gives for $WH are “make (ground) level” and “
plain”.  BDB says “level plain”.  The Blue Letter Bible says “plain” or “
level plain”.
 
We must remember that in the Bronze Age, cities in Canaan had formal names, 
but valleys did not.  Thus the only way to denote a valley in Bronze Age 
Canaan was to come up with a suitable nickname for that valley, a nickname 
that would exemplify the key characteristics of that valley.    
 
(MQ $WH literally means “valley level plain”.  As to the topography of 
Canaan, note that everything to the west of Beth Shan is a “level plain” in a 
“
valley”, whereas immediately east of Beth Shan is a deep “valley”:  
 
“The Valley of Jezreel…leaves sea level about two miles from the Esdraelon 
Valley, and then drops gently to a -400 feet in nine miles.  At this spot 
[the site of Beth Shan],…four miles west of the Jordan, it almost literally 
drops 300 feet over a ledge, and down into the Jordan Valley.  …In the whole 
length of Palestine, this is the only lowland route from the Mediterranean 
to the Jordan.  This route is further enhanced by the easy fords of the 
Jordan and the fairly easy ascent to the eastern plateau.”  Henry O. 
Thompson, “
Mekal:  The God of Beth-Shan” (1979), at p. 8.  
 
So Beth Shan is characterized by two “valleys” [the Jezreel Valley to the 
west, and the Jordan Valley to the east], and by a “level plain” [the very 
gently sloping Jezreel Valley, where I am using the term “Jezreel Valley” 
to include the entire Esdraelon Valley/Plain of Esdraelon].  The Jezreel 
Valley/Plain of Esdraelon is the most famous “valley” and “level plain” in 
Canaan, and the site of Beth Shan is on the eastern edge thereof.  For a nice 
map, showing that Beth Shan is located both in a “level plain” [the Plain of 
Esdraelon] and in a “valley” [the Jezreel Valley, adjoining the Jordan 
Valley], see here:  _http://www.crivoice.org/phototour/pjezreel.html_ 
(http://www.crivoice.org/phototour/pjezreel.html) 
 
Indeed, it is impossible to imagine a two-word phrase that better 
exemplifies the east end of the Jezreel Valley/Plain of Esdraelon, where Beth 
Shan 
was located, than what we see in the received text near the end of Genesis 
14: 
17:  (MQ $WH -- “valley level plain”.  
 
Thus even without looking at any unconventional meaning of (MQ $WH, we see 
that (MQ $WH at Genesis 14: 17 is a perfect description of the location of 
Beth Shan:  “level plain valley”.  Based on an analysis of Melchizedek’s 
long double-name, and based on the conventional meaning of (MQ $WH, all signs 
are pointing to Melchizedek as being the high priest of the Canaanite god 
Melak, at the Late Bronze Age Temple of Melak, located at Beth Shan on the 
east 
end of the Jezreel Valley/Plain of Esdraelon:  (MQ $WH/“level plain valley”
.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois