One needs to be very careful about Hebrew names as they lack context. Evidently, ALON refers to something lofty or tall, possibly (but not necessarily) a tree, as is the ELAH, said to be HA-GDOLAH, 'the big one', in 2S 18:9, and HA-ABUTAH, 'the thickety one' in Ez. 6:13. If the biblical ALON is the 'oak' of today, only God knows. TABOR is a TABUR as in Judges 9:37 and Ez. 38:12, being a kind of a CABUR, 'pile up'. I am not sure as to what is the meaning of AYALON and EYLON. I am sorry, but all I can say about ELONEY MAMRE of Genesis 13:18 is that it appears to be a place name near XEBRON. Is it an oak grove? Possibly.
Isaac Fried, Boston University On May 11, 2011, at 9:15 PM, [email protected] wrote: > Isaac Fried: > You wrote: > “Not mighty but lofty.” > > There were three small villages near “lofty” or “mighty” trees west > of Bethel whose names reflected those “lofty”, “mighty” trees, and > which were historically dominated by an Amorite princeling that the > Bible aptly refers to as Mamre. Here are the three village names: > 1. )LWN. Allon. I Samuel 10: 3: Allon of Tabor. [This was the > most important village.] > 2. )YLWN. Elon. Joshua 19: 43: Elon. [Not the famous city of > Aijalon at Joshua 19: 42. The tent-dwelling Patriarchs sojourned > in a rural paradise, not near a big city.] > 3. )YLWN. Elon. I Kings 4: 29: Elon-Beth-Hanan. > The $64,000 question is: how does one refer to these three > villages dominated by Mamre, with their “lofty”, “mighty” names > that refer to oak trees, in masculine construct plural? How do you > say “Allons/Elons of Mamre”, with the accent on )LWN/Allon, in > describing the Patriarchs’ favorite place to sojourn in southern > Canaan? Doesn’t Genesis 13: 18 say it all? )LNY MMR) > Jim Stinehart > Evanston, Illinois > _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
