Notes on the text of the book of Genesis : with an appendix online

^^W, inf. cstr. of pn, Is. 30, 18 ; nnD for HD, from mo,
Ez. 43, 10; D''09^ = Q^tsy, Neh. 9, 22. 24 [cf. the regular
emph. pi. in Aramaic Nj^Dy] ; and in poetry, Judg. 5, 14.
See also Ges., § 93. i. Rem. 7.

p^^D h^^ lV = 'lo the terebinth of P.;' cf. on 12, 6. ^>N
pND is possibly identical with the well-known port Elath, on
the iElanitic gulf, variously called ni'''N, rh"^, or nii?^N, in the
O.T., which were perhaps abbreviated names of more modern
origin, for the full name pN2 ^^N.

7. IDDITO pV- 'Well of judgment' i.e. a place where
decisions were given to disputants, perhaps the seat of a
temple or oracle; cf. the other name {^'Tp. The position of
Qadesh, so often mentioned in the Pentateuch, is still un-
certain. Three identifications are given by Di., p. 239 :
1. that it is to be sought for in 'Ain el Weibeh, near the
Arabah, 30° 42' lat. (Robinson). A view now generally
abandoned. II. Identical with QadHs, about eleven kilo-
meters north of mount Madara, in the neighbourhood of the
Wady-el-Yemen, one day's journey from Hebron (Wetzstein,



CHAP. 14, VERS. 6-10. 151

in Del., Gen.'^, p. 574; cf. Del.^ p. 266). 'But this situation
is too far north, and neither suits Gen. 16, 14 nor the history
of Moses/ Di. More probable is III. Prof. E. H. Palmer
and others identify it with Ain Qudes, on the western slope
of the 'Azazimeh (Machra) Plateau, south of Elusa, four and
a half hours east-south-east of the Well of Hagar. See also
Trumbull [Kadesh Barfiea, 1884, p. 241 2ind passim).

"^On p!^n. Cf. 2 Chron. 20, 2, where it is explained
by ''i: py N\"i ' En-gedil on the west side of the Dead Sea.
noted for its palm trees. Knobel prefers to identify it with
Dncnn t];, judg. i, 16, or "i^n Ez. 47, 19. 48, 28 (as
Engedi lay too far north), on the south-east border of the
Holy Land, the modern Kurnub (Di.). Cf. Sh., G., pp. 269 f.,
507; Bad., Pal, p. 140. The name perhaps means 'Palm
rows,' or 'cutting of Pahns^ but this is not certain.

10. "inn ni^^n nn^^^n, nt. 'pits, pits of asphalt; i.e.

'full of asphalt pits! On the repetition of the noun to
express plurality, cf. Ges., § 123 d. 3 ; Ewald, § 313 a ; M. R.,
§ 72. 2; Dav., S., § 29. R. 8. -iron nit^ ""Dil ''p.tJ'O, the second noun
explaining the first, which is in the construct state, its proper
genitive being T\f\>-^ so ^T\ \^np_ ''IlJP., Job 20, 17, •'i?n:
explaining nnj, the "•"ini being really cstr. state before the
genitive C'31; cf. Ewald, § 289 c; M. R., § 73, note a. 4;
Ges., § 130. 5 ; Dav., S., § 28. R. 6.

''^:C\ rr\^1 Dnirn pnyn. Note the form of the
predicate in Hebrew. In English we say, 'The valley of
Siddim was full of slime pits,' i. e. we have to use some term
such as, cottsist of cofitains, or the like, to express the
relation between the subject and the predicate. In Hebrew



152

the predicate is expressed by the simple noun. ' The valley
of Siddiin was slime pits: Cf. Ex. 9, 31 nnt^sm r35< nnyb'n
^51^23 ; Ps. 23, 5 r\'^r\ ^DID; so 13, 10. Is. 5, 12. Ps. 45, 9.
Ezr. 10, 13 ; cf. note on 11, i, and Driver, § 188.

"yyiVy is ' asphalt ' or ' bitumen^ found in the neighbour-
hood of the Dead Sea and of Babylon. The Babylonians used
it as mortar; cf. 11,3. See Sh., 6^,,p. 5oof. ; Bad., /*«/., p. 170.

rT^TDJ?"! QlD \^^ . LXX, ^ao-iXevs 2o86fi(ov Ka\ ^acn\€vs

Tofioppas, so Pesh. and Sam., reading niDy iblO) DID 'pD,
which would be the more correct expression; cf. on ver. i.
The second ']bl2 might have slipped out by homoioteleuton.

ntDU? 17D^1 . Rather the followers of the kings, for the
king of Sodom (ver. 1 7) at least escaped.

run. ">0, with the ace. ending n, implying motion
towards, ' mountainwards' The form is pointed with -^
instead of ^-, because the short a (pathach) before a guttural
with long a (qame9) is changed into € (seghol) ; cf. ^^C v ^^^
Dsnn, Ewald, §§ 70a, 71. '^'^^.^ however, seems to be the
only instance of this with 1. Delitzsch compares nPD for npp,
the doubling being resolved, and the -r- changed into -n- ;
also n3"1Q 28, 2 and nbo")? i Sam. 25, 5 for n3^J and n^tt")?
respectively, cf. his Co7?im. on the Psalms, 5th ed., p. 78
(on Ps. 3).

II. \IO"^. LXX, Tr]v LTTTTov, Tcadiug the word as though
it were ^91-

13. lO^T'Cn i^2"^"l. 'And the fugitive came', i.e. 'the
fugitive or escaped one, who in such cases is wont to come,'
see esp. Ez. 24, 26. 33, 21. 22. Or it may be taken as a
collective. On the article with D^i^D, see Ewald, § 277a;
Ges., § 126. 4; Dav., S., § 22 b; M. R., § 68; cf. TJOn,
2 Sam. 15, 13.



CHAP. 14, VERS. II-I3. 153

"^â– ^n^n. ' The Hebrew^ n^y means * one wJio has come
13yD from the other side of a river ^ If this name was
given to the Israelites by the Canaanites (Reuss, Stade, etc.),
the name being Hebrew, the people who gave it them must
have spoken the same language as they did. It is only used
in O. T. to or by foreigners, or when the Hebrews are men-
tioned in opposition to other nations. The name Israelite
was, on the other hand, a patronymic, and the national name
used by the people themselves (cf, however, Robertson-
Smith, Ejicy. Brit., 9th edit., art. Hebrew Lang, and Lit).
The river from beyond which the Hebrews came is, accord-
ing to some, the Euphrates, cf Josh. 24, 2 ff . 14 f ; so most
commentators. Reuss and Stade prefer the Jordan, on the
ground that the Hebrews on their return from Egypt spent
some time in the land east of Jordan, leaving the Canaanites
in possession of that on the west, which, however, does not
seem very conclusive against the general view. LXX render
it here rw nepdrrj, Vulg. ' Transeuphratensis.' Another ex-
planation is that nny is a patronymic from lay, mentioned
as an ancestor of Abram, 10, 24. 11, 14. 15. Num. 24, 24.
See Di., p. 2 1 1 ^

^^^^^ ''^T't^D. Cf on 12, 6. The terebinth grove being
named after the Amorite Mamre, who possibly owned or
planted it.

D'nn^ n^"^n ^hv^ Om. 'They being confederates of
Abram,' notice the circ. clause. The text literally translated
is, ^Afid they iijoere) owners of a covenant with A.;' 7])^ being



^ Robertson-Smith, I.e., mentions a modified form of the usual etymo-
logy of 'eder, the word being taken in the Arabic sense = a river bank.
The Hebrews would then be 'dwellers in a land of rivers.' This would
suit Pcleg (the water-course) as in Arabic we have the district Falag so
called * because it is furrowed by waters.'



154 GENESIS,



used to form an adjective here, as in 37, 19 niDirin bv^=
'dreamer;' 49, 23 D''^*n 'hv'^ = ^ bow-men (lit. arrow-7ne?i);' bv^
'\]}'^=' /lairjy,' 2 Kings i, 8; PjJD bv^^' winged I Pro v. i, 17,
etc. Cf. Ges., § 129. 2. Rem. 2 b; Dav., S., § 24. R. 3; M, R.,
§ 79. 6 d. We have a similar expression to n"'"i2 "hv^ in
Neh. 6, 18, viz. nyUK^ \bp. The phrase nnn ^yn occurs
nowhere else. In Judg. 8, 33. 9, 4 it is a proper name.

14. pl^l is the imperf. apoc. Hif. of pn = '^ ^w/Zy (?z///
e. g. arrows from a quiver, or a sword from the sheath, Ex.
15, 9. Lev. 26, 33. Ps. 35, 3; but only in this passage and
Ps. 18, 43 with a personal object. Render, 'Let loosed LXX
have r]pidfjLr)(T€v, ' mustered^ reading pn''") as though it were
Pl'K which the Heb.-Sam. has, and which seems to have
been the reading of the Sam. text, which has frr'\^
' recensuit,' and the Vulg. ' mimeravit!

in""! ■'tS'' V:D'':n. ^'^yin — ' Ms tried o?ies' {y^n is
a oTj-a^. Xey.) ; d. ihQ Ax2ih. \^>-^^ — ' experienced / LXX, tovs
Idiovs ; who were inu ''l^i''' ' hoj?ie-born slaves,' as opposed to
P]D^ nJplD, 17, 12.23, ^'^'^o were purchased slaves (or 13, Ex. 23,
12); cf. the similar phrases, n-n'p, 15, 3 ; HDN'p, Ex. 23, 12.

^"T, i.e. Laish, on the N. frontier of Canaan, which in the
time of the Judges received the name of Dan, Josh. 19, 47.
Judg. 18, 29; the modern Tell el- Kadi, cf Bad., Pal,
p. 264, but Sh., G., p. 480, takes it as = Banias.

15. Dn*'7y p7n"^1, lit. ' he divided himself against them',
i.e. 'he divided his forces and fell upofi them ;' cf. Job i. 17.
I Sam. II, II, for a similar manoeuvre. For the cstr. praeg-
nans cf. on ver. 3.

n!lin is on the left, i.e. north of Damascus, identified by
Wetzstein with Hoba, twenty hours north of Damascus, in the
neighbourhood of Hims and Tadmor; cf. Del., Gen.*, p. 561.



CHAP. 14, VERS. 14-18. 155

17. 1)1"1 p^V ^^in mU} p72V — mentioned again 2 Sam.
18, 18, as the place where Absalom set up his monument — is
hardly identical with DTinp n^C' ver. 5, as it is now mentioned
as though it were not previously known, and its position not
far from Salem is against this identification, cf. ver. 18.
It is usually — following Josephus' notice, A?i/., vii. 10. 3, that
Absalom's pillar was two stadia distant from Jerusalem —
supposed to be in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. Cf.
Neubauer, Geog. du Talmud, p. 50 f.

18. Q71L\ Generally taken as Jerusalem, so Del., Kn.,
Targg., Hieron. {Quaes t), Joseph., etc. Others, Roed. in Ges.,
Thes., and Tuch, identify it with the SaXa'/x of John 3, 23, cf.
Judith 4, 4, which, according to Eusebius and Hieron., w^as
eight Roman miles south of Scythopolis (see, however,
Riehm, H.W.B., p. 32 f.; Del.^ p. 269). In Ps. 76, 3 Salem
is certainly Jerusalem. The objections to its being Jeru-
salem are : I. That this city lay too far south. II. That its
old name was Jebus ; cf. Judg. 19, 10. III. That Ps. 76, 3
is late, and the ]^^ there is a late poetical abbreviation of
oi'K'^nV But as Del.'', p. 269, shews, Jerusalem would not
necessarily be too far out of the way — whether Abram
returned down the Jordan valley to Sodom, or took his way
home through Samaria to Hebron — for the king of Sodom to
come and meet him from the south-east, and Melchizedek out
of Jerusalem. Further, the facts (I) that in Josh. 10, i there
is a king of Jerusalem bearing the name \>'n '•nN*, which is
very similar to pnV''3i?D\ and (II) that the comparison of



* But Well, and Budde {Richter und Samuel, p. 63) assert that >:i«
pl^ is a later alteration of pn^:iN, which is the reading of the LXX
in Josh. 10, 1 ; cf. Judg. i, 5. Kittel, however, disputes this, see his Gesch.
i. p. 277 f. It may be remarked that the name [/jiisalifn is found in
the Tel-el-Amarna Letters, i.e. in the year 1400 B.C. Cf. Di., p. 243.



156

David, Ps. i lo, 4 (cf. Heb. c. 7 Melchizedek a type of Christ),
with Melchizedek would be far more suitable if he were king
of Jerusalem, favour the identification with Jerusalem. The
other two objections are not conclusive ; it is quite uncertain
that th^ is a poetical abbreviation of D^'Khn'', and that the
old name of Jerusalem was Jebus is not of necessity fatal,
as the name n7^ might have been intentionally chosen
with some hidden significance, just Hke iT'lID 22, 2. The
name plV '^yp'O m2iy=my king is Sidi'q, Sidiq being the name
of a deity, see Baudissin, Studien ziir Sem. Religionsgesch.,
i. 15, and cf. E. Nestle, Israelii. Eigennamen, p. 175 ff.

]V7y 7b^7 'jn^r^not 'the priest', as A.V., but 'a priest
of God most high^ so R. V.; see Ges., § 129. i a; Dav., -5".,
§28, R. 5. ''y h"^ as a proper name (cf. ntJ' ^N*) has no
article; so pD might mean 'the priest' or 'a priest ;'
but to avoid this ambiguity of meaning, the construction with
the prep, h, instead of the construct state, is chosen ; cf. M.R.,
§ 76 b; Ewald, § 292 a. 2. \\h^ in the O. T. when joined
with nin"', or 7t is only found in this chapter.

19^ to 20^ are poetical in form. Notice Hp for ^1.3 or



CHAP. 14, VER. 19 — CHAP. 15, VER. I. 157

W, "^^^.^ for T^^i^, and |20, which occurs twice again, Hos.
II, 8. Prov. 4, 9; all poetical words, though Dnv is also found
in prose writings ; also the poetical sounding fV^jy hii't