Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>]

It is not completely clear to me what is your point.
As I understand it ABRAM kept to the high, semi arid, semi desolate,  
sparsely populated, eastern and southern parts of country where he  
could graze his flocks on the natural growth and dwell free of  
molestation. He did not, methinks, descend to the fertile coastal  
plains that were teeming with Canaanites who would have given him and  
his exceedingly good looking (blond hair, blue eyes?) wife a goodly  
hard time.
The Israelites entering the country after the exodus and the wait in  
the desert also came from the east to avoid the plain (see Ex. 13:17).

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On May 12, 2011, at 7:14 AM, jimstinehart AT aol.com wrote:

> 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].