Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Norman Cohn <normanncohn AT yahoo.com.br>]

Hi, list!
 
Are you ok with my changing the subject of this exchange? Some of us are more 
focused on Kenneth's original post, which this exchange seems to be deviating 
from. 
  
Jim, doesn't 1 Kgs 11:18 make it impossible the claim that MIDIAN was in 
Syria?  
 
"14Then the Lord raised up against Solomon an adversary, Hadad the Edomite, 
from the royal line of Edom. 15 Earlier when David was fighting with Edom, 
Joab the commander of the army, who had gone up to bury the dead, had struck 
down all the men in Edom. 16 Joab and all the Israelites stayed there for six 
months, until they had destroyed all the men in Edom. 17 But Hadad, still 
only a boy, fled to Egypt with some Edomite officials who had served his 
father. 18 They set out from MIDIAN and went to Paran. Then taking people 
from Paran with them, they went to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, who gave 
Hadad a house and land and provided him with food..."
 
Best regards,
 
Norman Cohn
SP - Brazil.
 
 

________________________________
 De: "jimstinehart AT aol.com" <jimstinehart AT aol.com>
Para: bjwvmw AT com-pair.net; yohanan.bin.dawidh AT gmail.com; 
b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org 
Enviadas: Terça-feira, 8 de Janeiro de 2013 22:54
Assunto: Re: [b-hebrew] Exodus 4:25 bridegroom of blood
  
 
Rev. Rev.
Bryant J. Williams III:  
   
*  
You wrote:  “I agree that Zipporah was a
daughter of Reul/Jethro, a priest of Midian. I have no problem with that. The
Hebrew text (Exodus 2) is quite clear about that. What I disagree with is that
Midian = Mitanni.  There is about 1,000
miles difference between the two areas.”  
   
*  
1.  Here is some of the Biblical evidence that
MDYN is historical Mitanni in Late Bronze Age eastern Syria, rather than being
an unattested place with an unattested name somewhere in southwestern Arabia. 
  
   
*  
(a)  Judges repeatedly pairs “MDYN” with “children
of the east”, which fits eastern Syria perfectly, but does not fit Arabia at
all:  
   
*  
[i]  “And so it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and
the Amalekites, and the children of the east, even they came up against 
them.”  Judges 6: 3  
   
*  
[ii]  “Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the east
were gathered together, and went over, and pitched in the valley of Jezreel.” 
 Judges 6: 33  
   
*  
[iii]  “And the Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east
lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude;  and their camels 
were without number, as the
sand by the sea side for multitude.”  Judges 7: 12  
   
*  
(b)  Numbers 31: 8 pairs five princelings of MDYN with Balaam, who per
Deuteronomy 23: 4 is from Naharim, that is, the Late Bronze Age Hurrian state
of Mitanni in eastern Syria:  
   
*  
“And they slew the kings of Midian,
beside the rest of them that were slain;  namely Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and 
Hur, and Reba, five kings of
Midian:  Balaam also the son of Beor they
slew with the sword.”  Numbers 31: 8    
   
*  
2.  What Biblical text would you cite from Genesis through II Kings for the
proposition that MDYN refers to western Arabia?  
   
*  
Jim Stinehart  
Evanston, Illinois 
 
   
   
   
            
   _______________________________________________b-hebrew mailing 
listb-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.orghttp://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew