Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Alan:

Up until the time that Hebron was made part of Israel under Joshua, it was
a city state. The area that was considered as part of the city state did
not end at the city walls, rather it included all the area under that city
state’s rule, including fields and small villages. So Hebron included
Kiryat Arba, the valleys with their fields between Hebron the city and
Kiryat Arba, the Oaks of Mamre to the north-east, and today we don’t know
the rest of the extent of Hebron that was part of the city state of Hebron.

So we find in Genesis 37:14 that Jacob sent Joseph from a valley within the
city state of Hebron. From outside the city state of Hebron, one would
ascend to get there because Hebron was the highest of the city states in
its region. There is no contradiction there.

In Judges and Samuel Hebron referred only to the city itself and its
immediate fields, but we are talking about the same city.

Karl W. Randolph.

I don’t see how you could read Jim’s blog postings. They are too long for
me.

On Thu, Jan 5, 2012 at 3:46 PM, Alan Wood <salad_wood AT yahoo.com.au> wrote:

> Dear Jim,
> As I understand it, you are saying:
> ·         A place called Hebron in Genesis is described using
> (MQ.
> ·         The place called Hebron in Judges and Samuel is
> described using (LH or HR.
> ·
> You actually put the question ‘Are Hebron and Hebron the
> same Hebron?’
>
> By the way, you have left open some rhetorical holes, if not
> logical ones.  I haven't looked where you've looked, so I don’t know if
> Genesis
> routinely uses geographical descriptors differently from the rest of the
> Tanakh,
> or from the rest of the Torah itself.  If it does, that
> would account for your data as well as Alter’s explanation or yours does.
> You have said “*leaving Genesis aside for a moment*,
> there is not a single place that the Bible describes as being both (MQ and
> either (LH or HR.”  That makes me wonder,
> where else does (MQ appear in odd ways in
> Genesis?  What other geographical
> descriptors are used strangely in Genesis?
> Alan Wood