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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Yamin -South (was: Names of Rachel's etc.)

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  • From: jimstinehart AT aol.com
  • To: uhurwitz AT yahoo.com, b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Yamin -South (was: Names of Rachel's etc.)
  • Date: Sat, 1 Oct 2011 07:44:35 -0400 (EDT)


Uri Hurwitz:

You wrote: “Now consider the location of Binyamin in the northern kingdom of
Israel -- this tribe is the southern most.”

I can’t quite tell from your post if you are asserting the following. The
author of chapter 35 of Genesis lived long after the tribes in the northern
kingdom of Israel had established their geographical positions. Working his
way backward, he decided to create a story in the Patriarchal narratives that
would call Israel’s youngest son “Son of the South”, meaning that this
fictional son of Jacob would fictionally be the namesake of the southernmost
tribe in the northern kingdom of Israel. The fact that the story has
Benjamin born in the “west”, as opposed to Jacob’s other 11 sons being born
in the “east”, is not relevant. The fact that YMYN means “right hand”, and
Jacob’s “right hand”/YMYN is portrayed in chapter 47 of Genesis as being
critical in giving Joseph’s younger son Ephraim a greater inheritance than
Manasseh, is not relevant. The fact that YMYN is never used in the
Patriarchal narratives to mean “south” is not relevant.

Is that what you are asserting?

Contrast my view, where an early Hebrew author is portraying Jacob as naming
Rachel’s second-born son “Son of the Right Hand”, meaning “My Heir Apparent”,
with Benjamin being born right after Jacob’s loss of both Joseph [Rachel’s
firstborn son, who had just now disappeared, as told later as a flashback in
chapter 37 of Genesis] and Rachel, with Rachel being Jacob’s favorite wife.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois







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