Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Nir Cohen:

 

You wrote:  “as i understand it, (MQ has to be a low place, hence not consistent with the ridge top. it is usually mentioned as opposite of HR.  also, (MQ is normally mentioned describing a MAJOR (*) valley with fertile land, agriculture and densely inhabited, which again is not consistent with a ridge which only sustains small, deep, arid, valleys with hostile habitat. i imagine that, for example, most biblical (MQYM which are east or west of the watershed ridge are, in fact, WEST, due to their favorite precipitation, soil, trade and topographic elements; the eastward valleys were mentioned only  for strategic reasons: war, tracing boundaries etc.”

 

I agree 100%.  On that basis, I conclude that when Genesis 37: 14 says that the Patriarchs’ Hebron was an (MQ, that must be “a MAJOR…valley with fertile land”, such as the Ayalon Valley [referenced by name at Genesis 13: 18, 14: 13 and 18: 1, having the abbreviated spelling )-L-N].  An (MQ cannot be a small mountain valley located near the top of the highest mountain in southern Canaan, which is the locale of King David’s Hebron.  I completely agree with you that an (MQ in Canaan south of the Jezreel Valley strongly implies the following:  “most biblical (MQYM which are east or west of the watershed ridge are, in fact, WEST, due to their favorite precipitation, soil, trade and topographic elements; the eastward valleys were mentioned only  for strategic reasons: war, tracing boundaries etc.”  Those considerations fit the Ayalon Valley perfectly.

 

The only thing I would add is that the Late Bronze Age is the  o-n-l-y  time in history when the northeast Ayalon Valley had little population, due primarily to drought.  Only in that particular time period had the northeast Ayalon Valley reverted to pastureland that was virtually unoccupied:  it had lost 90% of its Middle Bronze Age population.

 

So the northeast Ayalon Valley/(MQ, in the Late Bronze Age, is the  o-n-l-y  match to how Genesis describes the Patriarchs’ Hebron.  At no point in the text are the Patriarchs ever portrayed as setting foot anywhere in the general vicinity of the later site of King David’s Hebron, which was located “up”/(LH in the “mountains”/HR of southern hill country.  The Patriarchs’ Hebron and King David’s Hebron are two entirely different places, in two entirely different parts of southern Canaan.

 

Jim Stinehart

Evanston, Illinois