Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Jim:

On Thu, Sep 15, 2011 at 11:45 AM, <JimStinehart AT aol.com> wrote:

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> Karl:****
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> Consider that the following six names of peoples at Genesis 15: 19-21, and  
> a-l-l  personal names associated in the Bible with such six names, make 
> more sense in Hurrian than in west Semitic:****
>
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> 1.  Kenizzites, and associated personal names:  Jephunneh, Othniel, Caleb, 
> Achsah.****
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> 2.  Kenites, and associated personal names:  Heber, Hobab, Reu-el.****
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> 3.  Hittites, and associated personal names:  Ephron, Uriah.****
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> 4.  Jebusites, and associated personal name:  Araunah.****
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> 5.  Perizzites.  (No associated personal names.)****
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> 6.  Girgashites.  (No associated personal names.)****
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> Far enough, I won’t read the rest of your dense prose.

You make three errors:

1) you assume that we have a full vocabulary from West Semitic, but we
don’t. So at least some of these names can be good West Semitic, but we have
lost the connections that show us how they fit in.

2) you assume that all the people who lived in the land of Canaan spoke West
Semitic. They may have, they may not have, they left behind no inscriptions
or writing. There may have been a mixture of languages spoken.

3) you forget that the Hittites, Jebusites, Girgashites, descendants of
Canaan (after all, this was the Land of Canaan) were native to the land
before Abraham arrived. And because this was a crossroads between Asia and
Africa, what was to stop other peoples from settling in as well?

You jump to conclusions with no evidence to back yourself up.

Karl W. Randolph.