Jim, I wish to focus on the meaning of Genesis 13:17-18 I stated , based on the works of others that13:18 means "So Abraham moved his tents from place to place, then settled in Hebron" meaning Abraham obeyed the command to "walk the land." after Lot departed. You dispute this, You have gone to great lengths to try to show the quote "you go left and I go right" in Genesis 13:9 meant Abraham went opposite Lot to the Aijalon valley.(it's you go north I go south in both the Targums and Talmud) You claim Abraham did not actually obey God's command to walk the land. You claim there is no evidence Abraham made this journey although I'd mentioned traditions from all over Canaan. The direction Lot went is totally irrelevant. Abraham was clearly given another mission which had nothing to do with Lot.This is clear by the use of וַיֶּאֱהַ֣ל (vai·ye·'e·hal) which appears on only one other occasion in the bible. And this is confirmed in the Dead Sea Scrolls. I refer you to The Genesis Apocryphon labeled 1QapGen found in Cave 1 near Qumran written, possibly by the Essenes in Aramaic and dating to about 100 BCE available from many sources online. It is said to be Abraham's personal narration of the events later used by Moses. "After that day, Lot departed from me on account of the deeds of our shepherds. He went away and settled in the valley of the Jordan, together with all his flocks; and I myself added more to them. He kept his sheep and journeyed as far as Sodom, and he bought a house for himself in Sodom and dwelt in it. But I dwelt on the mountain of Bethel and it grieved me that my nephew Lot had departed from me. "And God appeared to me in a vision at night and said to me, "Go to Ramath Hazor which is north of Bethel, the place where you dwell, and lift up your eyes and look to the east and to the west and to the south and to the north; and behold all this land which I give to you and your seed forever....Rise and go! Behold the length and breadth of the land for it is yours; and after you, I will give it to your seed forever."" "And I, Abram, departed to travel about and see the land.' I began my journey at the river Gihon and traveled along the coast of the sea until I came to the Mountain of the Bull [Taurus]. Then I traveled from the coast of the Great Saltwater Sea and journeyed towards the east by the Mountain of the Bull, across the breadth of the land, until I came to the river Euphrates. I journeyed along the Euphrates until I came to the Red Sea in the east, and I traveled along the coast of the Red Sea until I came to the tongue of the Sea of Reeds which flows out from the Red Sea. Then I pursued my way in the south until I came to the river Gihon, and returning, I came to my house in peace and found all things prosperous there. I went to dwell at the Oaks of Mamre, which is at Hebron, northeast of Hebron; and I built an altar there, and laid on it a sacrifice and an oblation to the Most High God...."
Now, you may wish to dig up the Essenes and tell them they too are wrong , and you will no doubt question the fact it is a story in a Dead Sea Scroll and not the Hebrew Bible but the story laid out here, over 2000 years ago precisely matches Genesis 13:17-18 and gives a plausible route. It is not a recent invention such as your theory. It is how the early Jews understood Genesis 13:18.It is what they taught their children. It points out: Abraham did as commanded in his usual fashion...he did it immediately. He did not wait until Isaac was born. Lot leaves Canaan altogether. He keeps his sheep even after he buys a home in Sodom, so your claim Lot he sells his sheep to "live the city life" is also not accurate. Abraham obeys the command to Walk the Land immediately after it was given and precisely as it was given. He returns and settles in Hebron...the traditional Hebron where the Oaks of Mamre are in the very fertile Northeast of modern day Hebron. We are told in the Jewish traditions Sodom was outside Canaan. That Lot married an Egyptian woman while inEgypt, and that Sodom was the only city in the region that would accept him as a resident and only becauseof his great herds of sheep. This is why he is sitting "at the gates" of Sodom, a practice of the merchants,when the angels arrive. I've stated before that many of the questions that so vex moderns due to the difficulties of Hebrew are likely answeredsomewhere,at some time, by the ancient Jews themselves if you look hard enough. Rob Acosta To: [email protected]; [email protected] Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Genesis 13:18 Appositional Phrase vs. Adjectival Phrase Date: Mon, 27 Jun 2011 22:24:14 -0400 From: [email protected] Rob: As my prior post made clear, Sarah gets pregnant with Isaac, and Abraham moves to GRR, immediately after Lot is reduced to living in a cave (which is years after Hagar bears Ishmael). I agree that YHWH never made any promises to Lot. But Abraham on his own motion could not unilaterally cut out Lot. Rather, the divine promise of all of Canaan to Abraham could not be fulfilled until after YHWH determined that Lot had completely forfeited any claim to Canaan that Lot might otherwise have had, based on Lot failing to affirmatively object to Sodom’s turn to the dark side. [Abram does not split from Lot at Bethel because there’s not enough pasturage. Rather, Abram needs to be by himself so he can righteously live by YHWH’s divine commandments, while Lot for his part will show Lot’s merit or lack thereof by the manner in which Lot, on his own, handles himself in the face of the iniquity of Sodom that begins to occur only after Abram has returned Lot to Sodom at the end of chapter 14 of Genesis.] I agree that Genesis 13: 17 is important. Abram begins the process of walking the length of Canaan by sojourning at the Patriarchs’ XBRWN, in southern Canaan. But Sarah will not get pregnant until Abraham fulfills the divine commandment of Genesis 13: 17 and walks all the long way north to the far northwest corner of Upper Galilee/GRR, the home of Biblical and historical Abimelek (of the Amarna Letters). Abraham cannot go north until Lot’s provisional claim to the northern two-thirds of Canaan has been definitively rejected by YHWH. That’s why all three issues are resolved almost simultaneously: (i) Lot is reduced to living in a cave [chapter 19] and (ii) Abraham moves way up north to GRR [chapter 20] and (iii) Sarah gets pregnant with Isaac (with Isaac’s actual birth, of course, coming 9 months later [chapter 21]). Why do you think that Abraham hurries to watch the destruction of Sodom? Why do you think that Abraham never inquires what happened to Lot when Sodom was destroyed? Why does Abraham move to GRR immediately upon Sodom’s destruction? The reason is that Abraham knew that, at long last, all three problems would now be divinely resolved, all at the same time. That’s what YHWH had in effect foretold, that’s what is demanded by Genesis 13: 17, and that’s exactly what is portrayed as happening in the text. Sarah could not get pregnant with Isaac until Abraham moved way up north to GRR and perfected his claim to all of Canaan, because that move was required by the divine commandment of Genesis 13: 17. Jim Stinehart Evanston, Illinois _______________________________________________ b-hebrew mailing list [email protected] http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew
