Always excluding the Book of Genesis and the Patriarchs entirely, let’s
continue our consideration of the use of the Biblical words (LH and HR in
connection with the Hebron that is located in southern hill country, whereas
(MQ never appears in such connection. There appear to be five main cases in
the Bible [excluding Genesis] where people go to the XBRWN that is located
in southern hill country, as follows:
1. Spies.
HR and (LH are paired regarding Moses’ spies “going up”/(LH to Hebron in
southern hill country. At Numbers 13: 17 we see (LH twice and HR/“mountains
” once; then at Numbers 13: 22 we see (LH and XBRWN. Note that the city
of Hebron in the mountains of southern hill country quite naturally causes
the text to use the words HR and (LH, while never using the word (MQ. That’
s the “norm”, and meets every expectation fully.
2. Joshua.
Joshua 10: 36 features (LH and XBRWN in southern hill country, and Joshua
10: 40 predictably has HR. All very predictable.
3. Samson.
Judges 16: 3 has XBRWN in southern hill country and (LH and HR. All very
predictable.
Samson and Joshua and Moses’ spies all “go up”/(LH to the “mountains”/HR
in order to get to the Hebron that is the highest altitude city in all of
Canaan, and that is located in mountainous southern hill country. The
XBRWN that is located high up in the mountains of southern hill country is a
perfect fit to (LH and HR.
4. Future King David.
II Samuel 2: 1-3 has (LH five times and XBRWN in southern hill country
twice. No HR is mentioned there.
5. Elders of Israel.
The elders of Israel meet with King David at Hebron at I Chronicles 11: 1,
3. This is the classic “exception that proves the rule”, in that XBRWN
in southern hill country is mentioned twice, but there’s no (LH and no HR,
in chronicling a series of meetings between King David and the elders of
Israel.
Please note that in all five cases, there’s never a mention of (MQ when
the Hebron that is located in southern hill country is being discussed.
Thus leaving aside Genesis entirely, in the rest of the Bible if there is
a mention of Hebron in southern hill country, then we can confidently
expect the following:
(a) (LH is likely to be there. That’s because one has to “go up”/(LH
to get up to the mountainous city of Hebron in southern hill country.
(b) HR is likely to be there. That’s because the mountainous city of
Hebron in southern hill country is located in the “mountains”/HR.
(c) But (MQ will never be there, because in the context of southern
Canaan [south of the Jezreel Valley], (MQ in Biblical Hebrew means: “a true
broad valley located east or west of the Watershed Ridge Route that is at a
lower elevation than hill country”. In the Bible [always excluding
Genesis], the site of King David’s first capital city of Hebron [in any time
period], located near the top of the tallest mountain in Canaan in southern
hill
country, is n-e-v-e-r said to be an (MQ. N-e-v-e-r .
Thus if the reference is to the mountainous city of Hebron in southern
hill country, expect to see (LH, and expect to see HR, but be advised that
there is no way on earth that you will ever see (MQ! (MQ and the mountainous
city of Hebron in southern hill country cannot be paired, per the Biblical
Hebrew wording that is consistently used in the Bible [always excluding,
per Prof. Levin’s wishes, all consideration of the Patriarchs and the Book
of Genesis].
In my humble opinion, (LH and HR and (MQ are very basic Biblical Hebrew
words that have very clear meanings. (LH and HR fit the mountainous city of
Hebron in southern hill country perfectly in all ways. By stark contrast,
(MQ is antithetical to the Hebron that is located high up in mountainous
southern hill country. The city that is the highest altitude city in all of
Canaan cannot be squared with (MQ!!! No way. Always excluding Genesis,
in the entirety of the Bible one n-e-v-e-r sees (MQ paired with the city
of Hebron in southern hill country. N-e-v-e-r . Not once. Not. Nada.
Nope. No can do. Not in Biblical Hebrew. No way.
The Bible records the historical name of a fine historical non-Hebrew
princeling who married a Hurrian wife and who was the ruler of Hebron, and
under whose wise rulership the Hebrews prospered. Most unfortunately, however,
this fine native west Semitic-speaking princeling ruler unduly favored his
firstborn son who, after his father’s death, soon became a dire threat to
run the Hebrews out of their beloved homeland of Hebron. This awful
successor ruler had a younger brother who historically allied with
tent-dwellers
at Hebron, instead of hating tent-dwellers, and such younger brother
[unlike the prior ruler’s firstborn son] would have been the ideal successor
ruler from the Hebrews’ point of view. All of these historical events match
the
stories told in the Bible, detail for specific detail, but if and only if
we pay close attention to the Biblical Hebrew words (LH, HR, and (MQ in
determining the geographical location of each Hebron that is mentioned in the
Bible. If you focus on the words (LH, HR, and (MQ, then you can determine
which Hebron is being referenced in various parts of the Bible, and thereby
confirm the p-i-n-p-o-i-n-t historical accuracy of certain Biblical
stories told about Hebron. The Bible records the actual historical name of
the
most important ruler of Hebron, and tells us the exact year in which he
was allied with the Hebrews, with certain Canaanite princelings, and with
certain Hurrian princelings. But the only way to match these Biblical stories
with their exact historical equivalents in non-biblical sources is to
focus on the words (LH, HR, and (MQ in determining the geographical locale of
each Hebron mentioned in the Bible. If you know those three basic Biblical
Hebrew words, you can figure it out for yourself. The historicity of the
Bible is riding on the words (LH, HR, and (MQ.
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois
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