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  • From: Yigal Levin <Yigal.Levin AT biu.ac.il>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Mighty
  • Date: Thu, 12 May 2011 14:52:45 +0300

Jim, can you give us one additional example in biblical Hebrew, in which a
group of towns named after a geographical (or any other) object are
collectively called "the X..,s of...". We don't find all of the "hills" of
Benjamin (Geba, Gibeah, Gibeon and their variables) named collectively
"Geba'ot Binyamin". The closest there is is "Havvot Yair", but we do not
really know what a "Havvah" is.

Yigal Levin

-----Original Message-----
From: b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:b-hebrew-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of jimstinehart AT aol.com
Sent: Thursday, May 12, 2011 2:15 PM
To: if AT math.bu.edu
Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Mighty


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


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