Isaac Fried: You wrote: “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.” 1. Over 300 XBRN lmlk seals were found in the Shephelah, whereas only 7 XBRN lmlk seals were found at the mountainous city 20 miles south of Jerusalem. So XBRWN in the Patriarchal narratives may be a nickname for the Shephelah. 2. Yes, on one level )LNY means “oak grove”. One reason we know there were many oak groves in the northeast Shephelah, west of Bethel, is because there are three villages there whose names refer to oak trees: (i) )LWN [I Samuel 10: 3]; (ii) )YLWN [Joshua 19: 43]; and (iii) )YLWN [I Kings 4: 29]. By contrast, there is not a single village or city in southern hill country whose name refers to oak trees. The first such village Abram would have come to after leaving Bethel and heading west [with Lot having headed “east” of Bethel] was )LWN. Note that Abraham’s grandson at Genesis 46: 14 has this same name: )LWN. That personal name is in honor of the Patriarchs’ favorite place to sojourn in southern Canaan, in the rural paradise of the eastern Aijalon Valley: )LWN [per I Samuel 10: 3]. 3. So I repeat the $64,000 question. How does one refer to these three villages west of Bethel 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 honor of which one of Jacob’s grandsons was named]? Doesn’t Genesis 13: 18 say it all? )LNY MMR) Jim Stinehart Evanston, Illinois
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