Biblical Hebrew Forum

[jimstinehart AT aol.com]

George Athas wrote:
 
“I don't see any strength to your five arguments. They are all based on 
oblique possibilities and remain very far from what I would call plausible, 
and require 
such a wholesale reinventing of ancient world geography that I do not think 
it actually fits in the real world.”
 
Is it “plausible” that big game hunting for “savory” meat was good near 
Beersheba of the Negev?  Beersheba is mentioned before and after Ishmael is 
said to be an “archer”, and Beersheba is mentioned shortly before Isaac tells 
Esau to go out and hunt some “savory” meat.  Indeed, it’s clear that Isaac 
was certain that Esau would easily be able to bring home some prey that was 
“savory”.  I have asserted that the Beersheba in question there is Beersheba 
of Galilee, which was immediately northeast of a huge, dense forest of trees 
that was ideal for hunting.  But is the foregoing a “plausible” storyline to 
be told regarding Beersheba of the Negev?  Wouldn’t the semi-arid area around 
Beersheba of the Negev be a poor area for hunting big game?
 
Here’s a scholarly analysis of that very question:
 
“Only 8 fragments of fallow deer and 6 of fragments gazelle bones were 
identified, indicating the insignificant role of hunting in pre-urban Beer- 
sheba.”  Ze’ev Herzog, “Beer-Sheba II:  The Early Iron Age Settlements” 
(1984).
 
That confirms what common sense should tell us:  it does not make sense to 
portray Esau as being easily able to hunt “savory” game near Beersheba of the 
Negev.
 
Genesis 26: 6 tells us that in response to a drought-famine in southern 
Canaan, Isaac moved to GRR, that is, Galilee.  [There is no name GRR attested 
in the ancient world in or near the southern wilderness or anywhere near 
Beersheba of the Negev.]  Genesis 26: 23 says that Isaac’s family went “up” 
to Beersheba [with Beersheba of Galilee being located “up” in the foothills 
of southwestern Upper Galilee].  Genesis 26: 33 says that Isaac’s family 
lived near Beersheba, which must be Beersheba of Galilee.  Esau’s ability to 
bring “savory” meat from his hunting exploits back home to his doting father 
Isaac is referenced soon after this reference to Beersheba [of Galilee], at 
Genesis 27: 4.
 
Note that as soon as Isaac’s family is living by Beersheba of Galilee, on six 
occasions in chapter 27 of Genesis there is a reference to the “savory” meat 
from Esau’s hunting. Chapters 25 and 27 of Genesis both tell of Esau’s 
hunting prowess.  But only in chapter 27 is Esau said to bring home “savory” 
meat:  M+(MYM.  That particular word appears six times in chapter 27 of 
Genesis, at Genesis 27: 4, 7, 9, 14, 17, 31.  [The only other two appearances 
of that word in the Bible are in Proverbs.]
 
The best place to hunt for savory prey in all of Canaan was likely just 
southwest of Beersheba of Galilee, in the “dense forest of trees”/MDBR P)RN, 
where archaeology has not been able to find a trace of any people living 
there in the Late Bronze Age, and which was a heavily forested area in 
Biblical times.  When Isaac’s family moves up to Upper Galilee and stays at 
Beersheba of Galilee near that dense forest, all of sudden we hear six times 
of “savory” meat from Esau’s hunting.
 
We see that it is the traditional view, which sees the area near Beersheba of 
the Negev as being an ideal place for Ishmael and Esau to hunt big game, that 
“require[s]…a wholesale reinventing of ancient world geography”.  Such 
traditional view simply is not “plausible”.  By sharp contrast, these stories 
of Ishmael and Esau being great hunters near Beersheba make perfect sense if 
the Beersheba being referenced in chapters 21 and 26 of Genesis is Beersheba 
of Galilee.  Unlike the traditional view [which unfortunately has been 
uncritically accepted by university scholars], the “northerly” view of which 
Beersheba is being referenced here does not “require…a wholesale reinventing 
of ancient world geography”, and it’s eminently “plausible”.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois