Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Rob:
 
You are raising questions about the meaning of certain names in the Hebrew 
Bible.  I hope the moderators may allow us to discuss the meaning of those 
names.
 
1.  If PRZ-Y is a west Semitic word, then it might mean, as you say, “
belonging to a village” “rural”. “rustics”….”  But no such tribal name is 
attested historically.
 
At the website noted below, Richard Hess, the leading expert in analyzing 
Amarna personal names, sees the match of PRZ-Y to the Hurrian name “Pirizzi” 
as meaning “Hurrian” in a mid-14th century BCE context:  “While the 
Perizzites could be ‘village dwellers’, the fact that a similarly named 
Pirizzi 
comes from the N. Syrian kingdom of Mitanni in the Amarna letters invites 
comparison with…the presence of Hurrians and other northerners in the 
region…..
”  Richard S. Hess, “Peoples in Early Israel”, at 
_http://www.bibleinterp.com/opeds/people358009.shtml_ 
(http://www.bibleinterp.com/opeds/people358009.shtml) , November, 2010
 
2.  If PRZ-Y is viewed as having a singular meaning at Genesis 13: 7, then 
as opposed to “the Canaanite”, namely Lab’ayu, the notorious Canaanite 
strongman ruler north of Bethel at Shechem, also referenced is IR-Heba, the 
Hurrian princeling ruler of Jerusalem, south of Bethel, who in a series of 
Amarna Letters rants and rails to no end against tent dwellers/Apiru.  We 
know 
from the Amarna Letters that these two rulers were high profile in Years 
12-13, as “Year 12” is the Egyptian docket date on Lab’ayu’s Amarna Letter EA 
254, and Lab’ayu is assassinated prior to the end of Year 13.  Genesis 14: 5 
refers to “Year 14” as the timing of the events that unfold in that 
chapter, but also briefly refers to “Year 13” at Genesis 14: 4.  Thus Genesis 
13: 
7 would be referring to a period shortly before Year 14, namely Year 13, 
which fits in perfectly with the dating of the above Amarna Letter from the 
strongman Canaanite ruler of Shechem.





3.  You wrote:  “And why would Abraham seek an east west route to escape 
the Perizzites when according to the Septuagint Perizzites lived at Shechem 
(Gen 34:30)….?”
 
(a)  At Genesis 34: 30, PRZ-Y is referring to the Hurrians in the plural at 
Shechem.  Historically, we know that there was a strong Hurrian presence at 
Shechem.  Claire M. Epstein, “Palestinian Bichrome Ware” (1966), at p. 
165.  Moreover, Late Bronze Age Shechem prominently featured a Hurrian-style 
migdal temple.
 
(b)  When Lot and Abram go “east” and the opposite of east at Genesis 13: 
9, they thereby neatly exit hill country (which runs north and south), and 
as such avoid both of the two most notorious princelings in the entirety of 
the Amarna Letters:  Lab’ayu, who was at the time operating out of Shechem 
(though he was not the official mayor of Shechem), and IR-Heba, the Hurrian 
princeling ruler of Jerusalem who was officially blessed by Akhenaten as 
mayor 
of Jerusalem.
 
(c)  By going the opposite of “east” from Bethel, Abram comes to the 
northeast Ayalon Valley, west of Bethel, which was ruled by a tent-dweller 
friendly Amorite princeling, both at Genesis 14: 13 and in the Amarna 
Letters.  “
Mamre” is an apt Biblical nickname for historical Milk-Ilu.
 
Note how all three of the most famous princeling rulers in the Amarna 
Letters as of Year 13 -- Lab’ayu, IR-Heba and Milk-Ilu, a Canaanite strongman 
at 
Shechem, a Hurrian princeling ruler at Jerusalem, and an Amorite princerling 
ruler at Gezer in the Ayalon Valley -- are referenced with specificity in 
chapters 13-14 of Genesis.
 
4.  The  p-i-n-p-o-i-n-t  historical accuracy of the Patriarchal narratives 
in describing the precise situation that obtained in the southern half of 
Canaan early in Year 13 is absolutely breathtaking.  We not only have all 
three short-lived prominent rulers in the southern half of Canaan referenced 
each with his exact ethnicity and locality, but also Genesis 14: 4 even gives 
us the  e-x-a-c-t  year:  Year 13.  And note how wise Abram is to give Lab’
ayu’s Shechem and IR-Heba’s Jerusalem a wide berth, and instead sojourn 
where Abram could enter into a beneficial covenant with the princeling ruler 
there:  the Ayalon Valley of Milk-Ilu.
 
The two keys to the above approach are (i) to view both H-KN‘NY and H-PRZY 
as having a singular meaning at Genesis 13: 7, and (ii) to view PRZY as 
being a Hurrian-based reference to the Hurrians.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois