Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Karl:
 
You wrote:  “Again you contradict yourself, in that you recognize that the 
quickest route from Egypt to Bethel while avoiding the heat of the lowlands 
is through Beersheba, then up to Hebron, then along the ridge-line to 
Bethel. Especially if they wanted to avoid destroying the crops of the 
coastline 
cities by the grazing of their huge flocks. Have you not admitted that 
yourself earlier?”
 
Nothing could be farther from the truth.  If one is at the northern edge of 
the Negev upon coming out of Egypt, and wants to proceed to Bethel, which 
is the situation here, then the logical way to go, especially if one has many 
animals in tow, is through the Shephelah by way of the Diagonal Route.  
Because it is on the diagonal, it is shorter than going to Bethel by way of 
Hebron.  Much more importantly, though, it enables the animals to avoid the 
mountains entirely.  The Diagonal Route starts at Lachish and proceeds 
northeast to the eastern Aijalon Valley, then by way of the two Beth-horons 
one 
enters hill country.  The more famous route in the rest of the Bible at that 
point is to go to the right to Gibeon [and then on further right to 
Jerusalem], 
but by turning left instead of right, here in the truly ancient Patriarchal 
narratives [where there is no concern about Jerusalem] one came straight to 
Bethel.  [Although Abram himself went to the top of a tall mountain at 
Bethel to worship YHWH, presumably the animals stayed near the bottom of the 
mountain.]
 
It would make no sense for Abram and Lot to take the longer route, which 
would require them to drive the animals, exhausted from the long trip from 
Egypt, all the way up to the mountains at Hebron.  So the logical way to get 
to 
Bethel from the northern edge of the Negev is by way of the Aijalon Valley, 
taking the Diagonal Route through the lovely Shephelah, not by way of the 
towering mountains near Hebron.
 
Moreover, the Hebrew text suggests that when between the northern Negev and 
Bethel, and  o-n-l-y  in that precise locale, Abram proceeded “by stages”. 
 Here is Robert Alter’s translation of Genesis 12: 9 and Genesis 13: 3:
 
“[After leaving Bethel,] Abram journeyed onward by stages to the Negeb.”
 
“[In returning to Bethel from Egypt,] he went on by stages from the Negeb 
up to Bethel….”
 
JPS 1985 uses almost the same language, in particular using the phrase “by 
stages” at both Genesis 12: 9 and Genesis 13: 3.
 
If Abram had gone up to Mt. Hebron, it would then have been impossible to 
travel “by stages” along the Ridge Route from Hebron to Bethlehem.  The 
Ridge Route follows the narrow ridge, and there is no space to go left or 
right: 
 “In the section between Hebron and Shechem it [the Ridge Route] follows a 
single track corresponding approximately to the watershed, and the deep 
wadis on both sides prevent any deviation to the right or left.” Yohanan 
Aharoni, “The Land of the Bible: A Historical Geography” (1979), at p. 57. 
“…the 
Patriarchs’ Road.  The original path would have been three or four feet wide,
…a stone-riddled trail winding around the mountains to avoid steep climbs.”
 Bruce Feiler, “Walking the Bible” (2005), at p. 51.
 
Thus the only practical way to take a large number of animals “by stages” 
from the northern Negev to Bethel was by way of the Aijalon Valley, along 
the Diagonal Route through the Shephelah.  The lush Shephelah was much more 
congenial to grazing livestock than the rugged mountains near Hebron, much 
less the narrow, rocky Ridge Route north from Hebron.  The Ridge Route 
between 
Hebron and Bethlehem was so harsh and narrow that there were no cities 
there, with no place to rest the animals, whereas cities are a dime a dozen, 
as 
are ideal places for pasturage, for Abram and all the animals proceeding “by 
stages” along the Diagonal Route through the lush Shephelah.
 
>From a mountaintop near Bethel, Lot and Abram were able to see both of the 
only two places which they had recently traversed together:  (i) the greater 
Jordan River Valley [including the east end of the incredibly fertile 
Jezreel Valley, which in addition to having the finest farmland in all of 
Canaan 
also featured an important international trade route through Canaan], and 
(ii) the rural paradise of the Shephelah.  Lot chose the soft city life of 
the 
richest part of Canaan, the eastern Jezreel Valley, which then left Abram 
the Shephelah, including the eastern Aijalon Valley as a locale ideal for 
sheep and goats and virtuous tent-dwellers.  There is no basis whatsoever in 
the text for your fanciful claim that Lot may have “traveled around the land 
before this event”.  No, the two regions of Canaan that Lot and Abram 
provisionally divvied up between themselves were (i) the greater Jordan River 
Valley, north of the Dead Sea, and (ii) the Shephelah;  those were the only 
two 
places in Canaan the two men traversed together.
 
If we could just get the underlying geography right, these stories 
practically tell themselves.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois