Biblical Hebrew Forum

[jimstinehart AT aol.com]

Isaac Fried:
 
You wrote:  
 
“I am sorry, but all I can say about ELONEY MAMRE of Genesis 13:18 is that it 
appears to be a place name near XEBRON. Is it an oak grove? Possibly.”
 
1.  Over 300 XBRN lmlk seals were found in the Shephelah, whereas only 7 XBRN 
lmlk seals were found at the mountainous city 20 miles south of Jerusalem.  
So XBRWN in the Patriarchal narratives may be a nickname for the Shephelah.  
 
2.  Yes, on one level )LNY means “oak grove”.  One reason we know there were 
many oak groves in the northeast Shephelah, west of Bethel, is because there 
are three villages there whose names refer to oak trees:  (i) )LWN [I Samuel 
10: 3];  (ii) )YLWN [Joshua 19: 43];  and (iii) )YLWN [I Kings 4: 29]. By 
contrast, there is not a single village or city in southern hill country 
whose name refers to oak trees.
 
The first such village Abram would have come to after leaving Bethel and 
heading west [with Lot having headed “east” of Bethel] was )LWN.  Note that 
Abraham’s grandson at Genesis 46: 14 has this same name:  )LWN.  That 
personal name is in honor of the Patriarchs’ favorite place to sojourn in 
southern Canaan, in the rural paradise of the eastern Aijalon Valley:  )LWN 
[per I Samuel 10: 3].
 
3.  So I repeat the $64,000 question.  How does one refer to these three 
villages west of Bethel dominated by Mamre, with their “lofty”, “mighty” 
names that refer to oak trees, in masculine construct plural?  How do you say 
“Allons/Elons of Mamre”, with the accent on )LWN/Allon [in honor of which one 
of Jacob’s grandsons was named]?  Doesn’t Genesis 13: 18 say it all?
 
)LNY MMR)
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois