Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Chavoux Luyt:

 

You wrote:  “How do you get Eastern Syria? Should it not be Eastern Jordan? Or maybe you have a map that shows Syria to the East of Canaan?”

 

Yes, eastern Syria is east of Canaan.  More importantly, in the Patriarchal narratives eastern Syria is described as where “the people of the east” live:  “Then Jacob went on his journey, and came into the land of the people of the east.”  Genesis 29: 1

 

Likewise, the QDMNY, or “Easterners”, at Genesis 15: 19 are Hurrians whose original homeland was in eastern Syria.

 

Looking at a modern map, we might describe eastern Syria as being “northeast” of Canaan.  But the Hebrews consistently viewed eastern Syria as being “east” of Canaan.

 

Accordingly, the natural reading at Genesis 25: 6 of “eastward, unto the east country” is that Keturah’s son’s MDN and MDYN were sent east [by northeast] to eastern Syria, whose Hurrian name in the Late Bronze Age was Mitanni, which could be spelled either MDN or MDYN.

 

I profoundly disagree with the scholarly gambit that “eastward, unto the east country” at Genesis 25: 6 could possibly, under any circumstances, refer to MDN and MDYN being sent straight south to western Arabia, near Aqaba, which is the traditional, but erroneous, location of Biblical MDYN.  Not.  The Bible means what it says.  MDN and MDYN were sent “east”.  That’s where MDYN/historical Mitanni was located in relation to the Hebrews in Canaan:  east.  Genesis 25: 6 uses the word QDM/“east” twice, to emphasize that MDN and MDYN were sent east, not south to Arabia.

 

Jacob comes to “the land of the people of the east” in the east, in eastern Syria, not south in Arabia, at Genesis 29: 1.  The Egyptian name for eastern Syria in the Amarna Letters is “Naharim”, which we see at Genesis 24: 10.  The “Easterners” at Genesis 15: 19 are Hurrians whose original homeland was in the east, in eastern Syria, which the Hurrians in the Late Bronze Age called MDN or MDYN:  Mitanni.  The “Easterners” at Genesis 15: 19 are not from Arabia!  So likewise, when MDN and MDYN are sent “eastward, unto the east country” at Genesis 25: 6, that means they are sent to the “east”, to eastern Syria, to a place which, only in the Late Bronze Age [and never after the 12^th century BCE], is attested as having the name MDN or MDYN:  Mitanni.

 

As I was saying,  e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g  makes sense once one recognizes the following equation:  in the Patriarchal narratives and the Book of Exodus, Biblical “Midian”/MDYN = historical Mitanni, the Hurrian state in Late Bronze Age eastern Syria.

 

Jim Stinehart

Evanston, Illinois