Biblical Hebrew Forum

[jimstinehart AT aol.com]

Karl:  

You wrote:  “Please don’t parade your ignorance. The effects of the 
Mediterranean climate are not limited to within a few miles of the coast, yet 
Hebron is within a few miles of the coast.”

In fact, the city of Hebron is 38 miles east of the Mediterranean Sea, up 
high in the mountains.  The city of Hebron is only 18 miles west of the 
desolate Dead Sea.


The issues you raise about the climate at the city of Hebron are of critical 
importance.  Both the traditional view and the view of today’s university 
scholars are along the following lines:
“In the Negev, in Beersheba, and beyond Mount Hebron, rainfall is slight, 
pasture-land is poor, springs are meagre, and the population is sparse. Yet 
here, alone with his tents, Abraham would build his home, remote from tribe 
and nation….  The northern-born sheep and cattle had grown up in a cool 
climate, with an abundance of water and soft grass, and found it hard to 
adapt to the parched and arid south.”  Moshe Dayan, “Living with the Bible” 
(1978), at p. 15. 



But does that standard view of the Patriarchs’ Hebron make any logical sense, 
and does it comport with what the text in fact says?

1.  Genesis 13: 9, 11 says that Abraham went the opposite direction from 
Bethel as Lot, and that Lot went east.  Thus the text indicates that Abraham 
went west of Bethel, which would bring Abraham to one of the best places in 
all of Canaan for a huge flock of sheep and goats:  the Aijalon Valley, in 
the northern Shephelah.

2.  Genesis 37: 14 says that the Patriarchs’ Hebron is a “valley”.  That fits 
the low-lying Aijalon Valley perfectly, but does not fit the towering 
mountains that surround the city of Hebron.

3.  The Bronze Age name of the city of Hebron was “Qiltu”, or some variant 
thereof.  Moses would not have known “Hebron” as the name of the city just 
northwest of the Judean Desert.  [Valleys in Bronze Age Canaan had no formal 
names.  The name “Aijalon Valley” was unknown in the ancient world.  The 
Patriarchs would have to come up with a nickname for a valley, unlike 
reporting the historical name of a city.]

4.  In World War I, the camels at the city of Hebron died, because it was too 
cold and damp.  In the Early and Middle Bronze Ages, the climate was even 
cooler and wetter, so that Abraham’s camels could not have survived the 
winters at the city of Hebron.

5.  The city of Hebron receives almost no rainfall at all during the long, 
hot summer.  Though conditions in the Early and Middle Bronze Age would 
admittedly have been better than they are today, still there is not enough 
water for a huge flock of sheep and goats in the summer at the city of 
Hebron.  Yet look how Abraham fared at the Patriarchs’ Hebron, as described 
by his faithful servant:  “The LORD has greatly blessed my master, and he has 
become great.  He has given him flocks and herds, silver and gold, male 
servants and female servants, camels and donkeys.”  Genesis 24: 35.  That is 
simply not possible in the rugged mountains that surround the city of Hebron. 
 There’s not enough water in the long, hot summer for goats and sheep or 
other livestock, and it’s too cold and damp in the winter for camels.

6.  Genesis 14: 14 tells us that Abraham had 318 armed retainers.  Why would 
a powerful man like that choose to sojourn way up in the rugged mountains 
that surround the city of Hebron, instead of in the lovely Aijalon Valley 
west of Bethel?

7.  In the Early and Middle Bronze Age, the city of Hebron was a true 
fortress with massive walls.  Why is that never mentioned in the Biblical 
text?

8.  In the entirety of Genesis, no one is ever said to go “up” to the 
Patriarchs’ Hebron.  That makes sense if X-BR-W-N is a Patriarchal nickname 
for the low-lying verdant Aijalon Valley, but is not possible if the 
Patriarchs routinely sojourned in the rugged mountains that surround the city 
of Hebron.

9.  Genesis 24: 62 says that Isaac chose to live south of Abraham.  If 
Abraham was living at the city of Hebron, that means that Isaac chose to live 
either in the heart of the Negev Desert, or in the eastern Sinai Desert.  
What sense does that make?  Why would Isaac choose to sojourn in a desert, 
and even after Abraham’s death, stay there?

10.  The Biblical text confirms what logic dictates:  the Patriarchs chose to 
sojourn in the best parts of Canaan for tending a huge flock of sheep and 
goats:  the Shephelah and Upper Galilee [GRR/“Gerar”].  The Patriarchs 
sensibly never went anywhere near the mountainous city of Hebron, which was a 
terrible place for sheep and goats in the long, hot summers.  The reason why 
the city name Qiltu does not appear in Genesis is because the Patriarchs 
never went anywhere in the vicinity of that mountainous place.  Rather, the 
Patriarchs’ X-BR-W-N is the lovely Aijalon Valley in the northern Shephelah.  
That conforms with both logic and what the Biblical texts says and does not 
say. 

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois