Trees as Boundary Markers

 

Alice C. Linsley

Trees served as boundary markers for the ancient Hebrew. According to Scripture, terebinth trees marked the northern and southern boundaries of Abraham's territory between Hebron and Beersheba. Sarah, Abraham's half-sister wife, resided in Hebron, and Abraham's cousin-wife resided in Beersheba. The wives' settlements marked the northern and southern boundaries of Abraham's territory in ancient Edom.

Hebron and Beersheba are in Idumea (Edom), the land of red people. 

The Horite Hebrew rulers of Edom are listed in Genesis 36. Abraham's territory was entirely in the region of Edom. It extended on a north-south axis between Hebron and Beersheba and on an east-west axis between Ein Gedi and Gerar. This region was called Idumea by the Greeks which means "land of red people."

One of the rulers of Edom was Seir the Horite. He was a contemporary of Esau the Elder. He married Adah. Esau the Younger is described as red and hairy. He married Oholibamah. Job was of the Horite Hebrew clan of Uz. Uz was a son of Dishan.

After offering Isaac at Mount Moriah, Abraham apparently did not return to Hebron. He spent his last years in Beersheba with Keturah (Genesis 22:19). There he had built an altar and planted a terebinth. A terebinth marked the northern end of Abraham's territory (Gen. 12:6) and after Abraham formed a treaty with Abimelech, he planted a terebinth at the southern end of his territory (Gen. 21:22-34).

People often were buried under oaks and terebinths (Gen. 35:8; 1 Chron. 10:12). This helped to ensure that the boundaries were observed since people stayed away from burial grounds, fearing the spirits of the dead.

Related reading: Edom and the Horite Hebrew; Trees of the Bible; The Trees of Prophets

The Canaan Abraham Knew

Alice C. Linsley


The period that tells us the most about Canaan during Abraham's time is from 2,200 to 1500 BC. This would include Abraham and other Biblical patriarchs. These were rulers as evidenced by the solar symbol at the beginning of their names: Yitzak, Yaqtan, Yisbak, Yishmael, Yacob, and Yosef.

The Canaanite Y symbolized a cradle for the sun, the emblem of the Creator. The Y in a man's name indicated divine appointment to rule. The ruler's tent was the head tent (oholibamah) and was represented by the ancient Hebrew and Arabic vaw. This sign was a Canaanite sign. Both the Y and V signs have been found on ancient Canaanite inscriptions.

The branch symbol was another common sign. It is sometimes called Tammuz and is associated with a deity described as "faithful son" (Ezekiel 8:14). However, the name likely has an association with Tamana, the earlier word for the shrine cities, many of which were dedicated to Horus.

Canaanite signs found at Wadi El-Hol

Hebrew developed from the Canaanite language spoken by people of Abraham's time. In Abraham's time rulers and their royal advisors spoke many languages. The ability to speak, read, and write more than one language continued to be a requirement for ruler-priests who served in the served Sanhedrin, the Beth Din HaGadol (The Great Court).

Priests belonging to prominent families were highly regarded members of the Sanhedrin. A "prominent" family was one whose lineages could be traced back to Horite Hebrew ruler-priests, what Jews call their Horim. (In English Bibles Horim is Horite.)

The third century Rabbi Johanan enumerates the qualifications of those in the Sanhedrin as follows: they must be tall, of imposing appearance, of advanced age, and scholars. They were required to be adept in the use of foreign languages. When testimony was give to the Sanhedrin in a foreign language, at least two members who spoke that language were required to examine the witness. There was also a third member who understood the language. These three members constituted a minor court of three, who then reported the testimony to the entire Sanhedrin.

Abraham is a combination of the words Ab – father and ham – burnt, referring to a reddish skin tone. The Horites are described in the Bible as having a reddish skin tone. According to Genesis 36, Esau married with the Horites of Edom (meaning red). He is described as being hairy and red. The Edomites and the Dedanites were known to live in rock-hewn houses or caves like those found at Beersheba during Abraham's time.


Peoples of Canaan

Many different people lived in Canaan, including Amorites, Kenites, Jebusites, Dedanites, Joktanites, and Phoenicians. Exodus 3:8 provides this list: "The Canaanite, and Hethite, and Amorite and Pherezite, and Hevite, and Jebusite." Here is is evident that the word "Canaanite" is intended as a general category.

Genesis 15:19-21 lists "the Kenites, the Kenizzites, Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Raphaim, the Amorites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites."

The Kenites and the Amorites are found in both lists. Kenite is the likely origin of the words Kenite and Canaanite. Cain and Seth were brothers. Seth's land was along the Nile. Cain went east of there and we find his descendants the Kenites in Canaan. It is likely that the term Canaan is related to the word Cain.

The word kinah-hu, found in the Nuzi tablets, refers to the Canaanites and to the color red. This aligns with what is known about Abraham's Nilotic ancestors who had a red skin tone. Some equate the word "Canaan" with the red purple dye used to make the garments of Tyrian rulers. However, it is more likely that kinah-hu relates to the early Horite and Sethite Hebrew to whom Abraham was related and from whom Moses descended. This is substantiated by Joshua 15:21,22 which reports that, "The southernmost towns of the tribe of Judah in the Negev toward the boundary of Edom were: Kabzeel, Eder, Jagur, Kinah, Dimonah, Adadah..." Edom means red and Horite Hebrew lived there.

Kinah is a variant of the name Kenan. Genesis 5 lists Kenan as Cain's grandson. The name Kenan is a variant of Kain and Ghayin. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (2007) writes that ghayin lies behind kinah-huat in the Nuzi tablets. In the Canaano-Akkadian, "hu" is a pronominal suffix.

A principal shrine of the Amoprites was in Hazazon-tamar (Gen. 14:7), also known as Engedi (2 Chron. 20:2). Engedi was a large oasis on the western shore of the Dead Sea bounded on the south by the Wadi Arnon. The Amorites are also called the Amurru. The word likely derives from Am-Ar, meaning the people, tribe, clans or caste of Ar. It also appears in the titles of many rulers, including Ar-Shem, Arsames, Artix, and Araxes and in the names of Biblical places, such as Wadi Arnon. Ar-non (originally Ar-nxn) means the Ar of Onn/Heliopolis. Here we find a connection between Abraham's Ainu ancestors of Onn. Joseph/Yosef married the daughter of the high priest of Heliopolis, a Horite shrine city.

The Amorites lived in ancient Egypt as evidenced by Tomb No. 34 at Thebes (c. 1550-c. 1292) where a bearded Amorite chief with light skin and red-brown hair is shown. It appears that they had a scribal function. Ariel means "Scribe/Messenger of God." The association of Ar with the scribal caste is further demonstrated by the discovery of Aramaic scrolls from Arsames, the satrap, to his Egyptian administrator Psamshek and to an Egyptian ruler named Nekht-hor. (A.T.Olmstead, History of the Persian Empire, Chicago, 1948, pp.116-117)

The Shrine Cities of Abraham's Time

In Abraham's time, Canaan was a collection of city-states that paid tribute to the Great House of Egypt, as attested in the Amarna tablets. During the final years of the Late Bronze Age, Egyptianized Philistines were a prominent power in Canaan. The principal cities were shrine cities set at higher elevations, These are referred to as the "high places" in the Bible. The central temple and palace were pillared and usually aligned to the the solar arc. These were sometimes called "sun temples" (o'piru) or houses of the sun. The sun was the emblem of the Creator.

During Abraham's time there were at least seven principal mound or shrine cities. These were Hazor, Shechem, Beersheba, Ramah, Jerusalem, Bethel and Hebron. The shrines were attended by priests, mainly Horites. The Horites were a caste of ruler-priests who were widely dispersed in the ancient world. They originated in the Nile Valley and were ethnically Kushites.

Shrine cities were built on high ground and had good water sources. The ruler's complex was at the highest level and included quarters for residential staff such as cooks, craftsmen, warriors and priests. The most holy shrine or chapel was within the royal complex.

From about 1400 BC there is evidence that the Hebrew (habiru/abru) attempted to take control of the principal shrine cities in Canaan. This suggests that the Habiru under Joshua and Caleb's leadership attempted to supplant their Habiru kinsmen in those cities. Hazor was one of those cities.

Pillared residence at Hazor

Fourteen massive jars of scorched wheat have been found in a Late Bronze Age palace at Hazor. These are testimony to a large fire between 1400 and 1200 BC. Scholars do not agree on the cause of the fire. The Israeli archaeologist Amnon Ben Tor believes that the Israelites conquered Hazor and burned it as described in Joshua 11:11- "None of the cities that stood on mounds did Israel burn, except Hazor only; that Joshua burned." However, the accounts in Joshua are ambiguous. Joshua 6:24 credits Joshua with burning Jericho, and Joshua 8:28 reports that he also burned Ai.

It is also possible that Hazor was burned by the Egyptians with the help of Horite warriors such as Joshua and Caleb. Seti I claimed to have destroyed Hazor in a military campaign around 1300 BC. It is possible that Horite warriors were among Seti's destroyers of Hazor and memory of the event came into the Hebrew Bible from them. It seems doubtful that the Habiru would have burned Hazor on their own initiative since the king of Hazor was friendly to the Habiru as evidenced by Amarna document EA 148 (Cairo Museum Cat. Number 4765, ca. 1400-1100 BC).

According to Jewish tradition, the Hebrews entered Canaan from Egypt and conquered it between 1240-1200 BC. The Amarna tablets make it clear that there were already ‘apiru or Habiru living among the Canaanites. In the ancient Egyptian piru means house. However, in the proto-Saharan languages p is sometimes replaced by b so that Hapiru also appears as Habiru, which in English is Hebrew.

The Hapiru served in the ancient temples and water shrines called hâît, or pirû, a reference to the house of the deity. The Dravidians referred to their East-oriented temples as O'piru, meaning "Sun House."

Archaeological excavations at Hebron reveal traces of strong fortifications dated to the Early Bronze Age. Hebron is where Abraham's wife Sarah resided. There was a grove of oak trees and a male moreh or prophet sat under one of these on a hill overlooking Hebron. Abraham likely consulted that moreh. (Photo right: Hebron vineyard with the Moreh's Hill in the background)

There are caves here and some of these were used for burial. Islamic tradition places Joseph’s tomb in Haram al-Khalil in Hebron, in the Tomb of the Patriarchs, a heavy rectangular building that encloses the Cave of Machpelah that was explored in 1967. This is believed to be the cave that Abraham purchased for Sarah's burial.

Arabic Al-Khalil translates the ancient toponym Hebron as haber (friend), but more likely it relates to the Habiru who served as priests at this shrine.

Abraham's second wife was either his patrilineal cousin or niece. She resided at Beersheba which was inhabited from at least 4000 BC according to archaeological finds.The settlement that Abraham would have known was comprised of rock-hewn dwellings and a deep well that supplied fresh water to the inhabitants. This is the well from which the settlement took its name: the "well of Sheba."

Beersheba is where Abraham spent his old age.

Both Abraham and Keturah were descendants of Sheba (Gen. 10:26-30). Keturah's father was Joktan (Yaqtan) and she named her first born son Joktan, as was the custom for the patrilineal cousin bride. Joktan was Abraham's first born son, but not his heir according to the Horite marriage and ascendancy pattern. Abraham complained before the Lord that he had no proper heir from Sarah, his half-sister wife.

Related reading: Language Families; The Urheimat of the Canaanite Y; Who Were the Canaanites?; Edom and the Horites; Two Named Esau; The Cousin Bride's Naming Prerogative; Abraham's Complaint; Abraham a descendant of both Shem and Ham; Confirmation of Early Biblical Populations; The Genesis King Lists

Hagar's Journeys

Alice C. Linsley


Hagar was one of Abraham's two concubines and Sarah's handmaid. Abraham's son by Hagar was Yishmael (Ishmael) an Egyptian chief, as is evident by the initial Vav, a solar symbol designating a ruler. The Y indicates that he was a clan chief, as were these men: Yaqtan, Yisbak, Yitzak, Yacob, Yisra-el and Yeshua.

Yishmael's ethnicity was traced through his Egyptian mother, just as Jewish ethnicity is traced through the mothers. The idea that the Arabs come from Abraham by Ishmael is simply wrong. The Ar clans existed before the time of Abraham, and Abraham's Arabian descendants are traced through his first born son Yaqtan (Joktan). This is Yaqtan the Younger. He is named for his maternal grandfather in whose territory he would serve as a sort of Prime Minister.


Hagar's status

Hagar was a strong and sophisticated woman whose status actually increased once she left Sarah's service. She contracted marriage for her son with an Egyptian. This means that Yishmael's children were also Egyptian. 

After leaving Sarah, Hagar had other offspring known as the Hagarites. They are mentioned in Psalm 83:6. It is evident from this psalm that the Hagarites and the Ishmaelites were regarded as distinct clans and Hagar, like Anah and Oholibamah, was a clan chief.

This information provides an answer to the question raised by the angel: And the angel of the Lord found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur. And he said, "Hagar, Sarai's maid, from where came you? and where will you go?" (Gen. 16:7-8)

Upon leaving Sarah's service, Hagar was at a pivotal point in her life. She needed to review her past and consider her future. She appears to have made the most of all the opportunities God presented her.


Hagar's route

Hagar fled from Hebron to Beersheba. Abraham had made this journey many times as he journeyed between the settlements of his two wives. Sarah resided in Hebron and Keturah resided in Beersheba. Abraham spent his old age in Beersheba.

The well at Sheba was very ancient. It was a water shrine under the control of Sheba, a Horite ancestor of both Abraham and Keturah. (Gen. 10:7) Sheba was the son of Ramah whose anceint priestly line was living in Ramah, the hometown of Elkanah and his two wives: Hannah and Penninah. Hannah was the mother of Samuel the Prophet. Penninah was the mother of Am-asi (I Chron. 2:25, 35). Am-asi is a Kushite name.

Beersheba and Kadesh were major water stations on the way to Egypt, so it appears that Hagar was returning to Egypt. The angel found her on "the way to Shur" (Darb el-Shur) which led from Beersheba to Kadesh-Barnea. From prehistoric times this route took travelers by year round water supplies. Flintstone tools dating between 80,000 and 16,000 BC have been found scattered around the area of Beerotayim (two wells). This is likely where the angel spoke to Hagar.

Archaeological surveys of the region have identified remains of structures on the eastern and western hills dating from the early and Middle Bronze Age. Hagar's route is indicated on the map as a dashed line.

Hagar's dismissal

Hagar apparently heeded the angel's advice and returned to serve Sarah. There she remained until Abraham agreed to send her and his son away. She second journey away from Hebron took her in a different direction. She headed to the desert of Paran where she lived with Ishmael who became a master archer. As with all sent-away sons, Ishmael receives his own territory.

It is likely that Abraham made provision for Hagar and Ishmael to join his kinsmen in the area of Timna, shown on the map at the bottom.

Timna or Tema plays an important role in early Biblical history. Known by Arabs as Taima, this water source lies about 70 miles north-east of Dedan. During the Chalcolithic Period, Kushite artisans settled in Paran where they lived in subterranean dwellings carved out of the limestone with metal tools. The Bible refers to these cave-dwellers as Dedanites. Dedan, Tema and Buz comprized a Horite confederation.

The oldest Arabic texts have been found around the North Arabian oases of Tema and Dedan. An ivory workshop was discovered in one of these dwellings at Bir es-Safadi.

Tema, Dedan and Dumah were caravan stops along the trade route from southern Arabia to Babylon. To this day, Joktanite clans reside in southern Arabia and Yemen.

Joktan is a variant of the name Jonathan, meaning "God gives." Joktan lived about 1987-1912 B.C. That he was a ruler is evident by the solar symbol Y at the beginning of this name. In early Arabian scripts, such as Thamudic, symbols represented complex ideas and experiences including names, attributes and worldview. A solar symbol such as Y or T or O represented a deified or divinely appointed ruler, his territory, his people, and his resources such as water and gold. This is why the Horite ruler-priests names begin with the solar symbol: Yaqtan, Yishmael, Yitzak, Yisbak, Yacob, Yosef, Yeshua, etc.


Related reading: Hagar's Conversion; The Pattern of Two Wives; The Afro-Arabian Dedanites; Abraham's Complaint; The Status of Women in Ancient Egypt and Arabia; Hagar in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan by Florentino Garcia Martinez

Jacob Leaves Beersheba

Genesis 28:10-17

Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And the LORD stood beside him and said, "I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; , and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, "Surely the LORD is in this place-- and I did not know it!" And he was afraid, and said, "How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven."

Alice C. Linsley

Beersheba was the southern boundary of Abraham's territory and the territory that Isaac received as his birthright.

When Abraham was approaching his death he arranged for Isaac to take a second wife from among Nahor's clan. Nahor was Abraham's older brother. Nahor ascended to the throne of their father Terah and ruled a territory between Ur and Haran. Abraham, as the younger son, was sent away. Sent away sons receive their territories through conquest or marriage. This is a feature of the Kushite marriage and ascendancy pattern and is reflected in the Zulu word Kushwa, which means one expelled from home, cast out, or sent away.

Isaac was Abraham's first born son by his half-sister wife Sarah. As the firstborn son of the sister wife, Isaac was to rule over the territory of his father Abraham. Abraham's territory extended from Beersheba in the south to Hebron in the north. Hebron is where Sarah lived. Beersheba is where Keturah lived. Keturah was Abraham's patrilineal cousin. Her firstborn son was Joktan (Yaqtan) who ruled over holdings in the territory of his maternal grandfather in southern Arabia.  Josephus calls the descendants of Abraham by Keturah "Horites" and, quoting an ancient historian, speaks of them as "conquerors of Egypt and founders of the Assyrian Empire."

Isaac was living in Beersheba when Jacob was sent away.  Jacob was heading to the land of His mother's kin in Mesopotamia, to the "padan" of Aram in Haran. This story is laced with irony because we are told that Jacob was a "hogareño" who enjoyed staying home. He was not one who enjoyed hunting trips or other activities that took him away from his mother's settlement. We can imagine how insecure he must have felt as he crossed the Jabok into unfamiliar territory and an uncertain future.


Behold the pattern!

Jacob was returning to the homeland of his mother's people and was uncertain as to his reception. This also happened to his grandfather Abraham. Abraham left his father's territory to journey to the homeland of his mother in Canaan. Abraham’s mother was a daughter of Terah the Elder and likely the sister of Keturah’s mother. It appears that Terah the Elder and Joktan the Elder (Keturah's father) married sisters. This marriage pattern is typical of the Horite rulers. It is seen as early as Genesis 4 and 5 where we find that Cain and his brother Seth married sisters. They were the noble daughters of an African chief Nok.

The Babylonian Talmud names Abraham's maternal grandfather as Karnevo, an Akkadian form of Karnak. Karnak was a Horite temple along the Nile. Horite ruler-priests maintained shrines along all the major water systems in East Africa, Arabia, Canaan and Mesopotamia. Most of the women in Genesis are Horite wives and daughters. The Jews acknowledge their Horim or Horite ancestors.

In Haran Jacob found a cousin wife, Leah. Among the Horites, the cousin wife is the second wife, suggesting that Jacob may already have had a wife. Was Rachel is half-sister bride? In Canaan, Abraham found a second wife, Keturah, his cousin. Abraham's first wife Sarah came with him to Canaan. The manner in which Jacob came by his two wives appears to be unusual. It is blamed upon Laban's deception, but this is problematic since no kingdom is gained by deception.

On the way to his mother's people, Jacob had an encounter with God in a dream. On the way to his mother's people, Abraham had an encounter with God. Both received divine promises. God's promise to Abraham is "I shall give this country to your progeny" (Gen. 12:7) and God's promise to Jacob is "the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth."  The promise received by Jacob is essentially the same as that received by Abraham.  Abraham had 8 or 9 sons and an unknown number of daughters. His offspring became too numerous to count.  Jacob had even more sons and at least one daughter.  The offspring of both Patriarchs spread throughout the land.

At the time that Jacob received the promises in Genesis 28:10-17, he was in great need of a word from the Lord about his future. When his grandfather Abraham had been at a loss about his future, he consulted the moreh (prophet) at the great Oak between Bethel on the west and Ai on the east (Gen. 12:6). Notice that the west has priority in this list.  This cardinal direction represents the future. The promise made to Abraham is to be fulfilled in the future, west being listed first. Jacob had no prophet to consult, but instead was visited in a dream. He beheld a great ladder reaching to heaven. Above the ladder stood the Lord who said to him, "Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth and shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south." Again we note that priority is given to the west in the list of cardinal points.  Despite his attempt to deceive and usurp the birthright of his older brother Esau, Jacob would see the divine promise fulfilled in the future.

Your kingdom, O Lord, is an eternal kingdom. Your dominion endures through all the ages. Faithful is the Lord to his word and gracious in all His works. (Psalm 145:13)

Related reading: Genesis on the Ancient Kingdom Builders; Jacob's Journeys; Some Cousin Brides Were Nieces; Sent-Away Sons; Ishmael Was Not Abraham's First Born Son; Abraham's Nephews and Niece; The Cousin Bride's Naming Prerogative; The Genesis Record of Horite Rule; Terah's Territory and Legacy; Reality is Cross Shaped

Where Abraham Spent his Old Age

Alice C. Linsley



Abraham's territory extended from Hebron in the north (where Sarah resided) to Beersheba in the south (where Keturah resided). Abraham would have traveled back and forth between his two wives as he attended to his various enterprises. These would have included diplomatic matters such a water treaties and mutual defense pacts, defense of his wells, the movement and care of his sheep and cattle, collecting tariffs for the movement of cargo through his territory, and probably metal working since at Beersheba copper was smelted and abundant.

Genesis 22:19 tells us that after his offering of Isaac at Mount Moriah, Abraham didn’t return to Sarah in Hebron but instead went to live on a permanent basis with his cousin-wife Keturah in Beersheba. There he had built an altar and planted a terebinth. In other words, Beersheba was both a shrine and a border settlement. A terebinth marker grew at the north end of Abraham's territory in Mamre (Gen. 12:6) and after Abraham's formed a treaty with Abimelech at Beersheba, he planted a terebint there at the south end of his territory. 

Many Bibles render terebinth as oak tree, but the word that appears in the Hebrew is terebinth, which might indicate the Pistacia terebinthus, also called turpentine tree. It is a small deciduous tree related to the pistachio and the earliest known source of turpentine. However, it is more likely that in the original telling of this story, terebinth meant the "tree of the daughter of Terah." Terah was the father of both Abraham and Sarah. This is a reasonable explanation and it suggests that when Abraham and Sarah left Haran they went first to a place where they had kin on their father's side. Arabic is older than Hebrew and the Arabic word bint (بنت) means "daughter of" and tera is the name Terah. Trees were commonly used as landmarks and border markers.



Beersheba was a Shrine in Abraham's Time

At the time that Abraham would have settled permanently in Beersheba it was a settlement of between 300 and 400 residents who depended on the well to sustain them. “Beer” means well, so Beersheba means the Well of Sheba. It was also a region where very sophisticated metal work was being done.

In Abraham's time wells were considered sacred places and neutral ground for combatants. Shrines were built at wells and these shrines were tended by priests who used the water to tend their flocks. This explains why many of the men of the Horite priestly lines met their future wives, the daugthers of priests, at wells.  This includes Abraham, Jacob, Isaac's Rebecca, and Moses' Zipporah.  Zipporah was the daughter of Jethro a priest of Midian.

Beersheba is first mentioned in Genesis 21. Here the meaning is given “well of seven” or “well of the oath.” The word sheba might refer to the seven lambs sacrificed in the covenant between Abraham and Abimelek, if we are willing to acknowledge that the word sheba is from the older Arabic word sab’a, meaning seven. However, this is a latter interpretation that pertains to covenant theology which developed during the time of Josiah and Hezekiah. It is more likely that the well was named for the person who maintained it as a shrine, and that would have been Sheba, a Horite ancestor of both Abraham and Keturah who is mentioned in Genesis 10:7. Sheba is the son of Ramah and we know that there was an ancient priestly line living in Ramah because that was the hometown of the priest Elkanah and his 2 wives: Hannah and Pennianah. Hannah was the mother of Samuel the Prophet. Penninah was the mother of Am-asi (I Chron. 2:25, 35) which is a Kushite name. The name is found among the Ashante of Ghana. Nte means "people of" and Asha is a proper name. The Ashante are the people of Asha, a Kushite ruler who established a kingdom in West Africa.

Asha is a priestly name in the Bible. A Jerusalem priest was named Am-ashai (Neh. 11:13). One of Jesse's grandsons was named Asah-el, which means "made by God." This suggests that the origin of the priesthood of Israel is to be traced to the older Kushite civilization, which makes sense since this is where Abraham's ancestors originated.

Josiah and Hezekiah were instrumental in turning the religion of Israel from its Kushite antecedents to a Jerusalem cult. During Josiah’s reforms, he “defiled the high places where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba; and he broke down the high places of the gates which were at the entrance of the gate…” (II Kings 23:8).

Archaeologists have found Edomite and Midianite pottery here which indicates that these related peoples lived here together and at different times throughout the Iron Age. A four-horned brazen altar identical in structural to the altar used later by the Israelites was uncovered in 1973. This discovery was made by a team under the direction of Yohanan Aharoni and Ze'ev Herzog of Tel Aviv University. The team first encountered an ancient storage wall that contained the stones of the altar. Three of the stones still had large horns projecting from them, but the horn of the fourth stone had been broken off. Yet still another stone had the carved image of a serpent, probably indicating Kenite construction. The stones, which had been incorporated into a wall, were reassembled to assume their former shape and dated to the time of the Patriarchs. It is believed that the altar was destroyed during Hezekiah’s attempts to eradicate all shrines outside Jerusalem.

Beersheba had strategic importance because it was the largest settlement in the Negev. It guarded the trade routes between Mesopotamia and Egypt and between the Nile Delta and Southern Arabia. Its fortifications in the late Iron Age were impressive and included a moat that encircled the city and a steeply-sloped earthen rampart. Beyond the rampart the city was surrounded by thick stone walls. The gate was a chambered type, and inside the gate archaeologists found an incense altar at the high place, just as described in II Kings 23:8.

Archaeological discoveries indicate that Beersheba culture was from the earliest time associated with a ruler class.  This explains the discovery of crowns and specters, and objects of ivory and copper of exquisitive craftsmanship.


Related reading:  The Pattern of Two Wives; A Woman at a Well; Wells and Brides

Sarah's Story

Alice C. Linsley

Sarah’s story is one of loss, long-suffering, hope and fulfillment. Though she was born a princess in the household of her father Terah, a high-ranking Hebrew ruler-priest, her life was not without troubles. She married her half-brother, Abraham. After their father died in Haran, Abraham's older brother Nahor ascended to rule over Terah's territory in Aram. Abraham was sent away to establish a territory of his own near a maternal uncle living in the region of the Negev.

Sent-away sons often lived with or near their maternal uncles. This is called "avunculocal residence." Jacob was sent away to live with his maternal uncle Laban. Moses was sent away to live with his uncle, Jethro, the priest of Midian. (The Midianites were descendants of Abraham by Keturah, Gen. 25). It is likely that Joseph, the son of Jacob and Rachel, was sent away to serve his maternal uncle Potiphar in Egypt. 

Sarah enjoyed the life of a wealthy, highborn woman. Her name is derived from the Akkadian word for queen: šarratum. Sarah's high social status was recognized by Pharaoh who was told of her beauty. From childhood, she had servants to attend to her needs. One was Hagar, Sarah's handmaid. 

Sarah had to leave her home and all that was familiar. When Sarah set out with Abraham for the land of Canaan, she was Abraham’s only wife. However, after Abraham relocated to the land of Canaan, he took a second wife, Keturah, his patrilineal cousin. This marriage arrangement was typical of the early Hebrew ruler-priest caste.

As the first wife, it was Sarah's responsibility to produce an heir for Abraham. Sarah's barren state was a cause of great sorrow for her. By the time she brought forth Isaac, Abraham's proper heir, Keturah had already brought forth six sons. Genesis does not say that Abraham married Keturah after Sarah died. It simply states that “Abraham married another wife whose name was Keturah.” The idea that he married her after Sarah’s death is implied by the order of the accounts of marriage and is reinforced by rabbinic tradition. Both Abraham and Keturah were descendants of Sheba the Elder (Gen. 10:7).

In her desperation, Sarah decided to use Hagar as a legal surrogate according to Horite/Hurrian law. Horite family law allowed for a concubine to bear an heir, and this is what Sarah had in mind when she encouraged Abraham to produce an heir by her handmaid Hagar. The son was to be born on Sarah’s lap, symbolically making the child Sarah’s offspring.

Analysis of the marriage and ascendancy pattern of the biblical Hebrew indicates that the proper heir was the firstborn son of the first wife, usually a half-sister. As Sarah was barren, Abraham could lawfully appoint Eliezer, the son of the concubine Mesek, to be the steward of his household. A steward is not the same as a proper heir. 

Mesek was probably Keturah’s handmaid. She is mentioned in the Septuagint, but not in the Masoretic Text. “Eliezer dam-Mesek” means “Eliezer blood/son of Mesek”. Dam mesek is erroneously taken as a reference to Damascus in some versions of the Bible. The appointment of a concubine's son as steward over Abraham's estate would have been "salt in the wound" for Sarah.

Two Wives in Separate Settlements

Two wives were instrumental in establishing and maintaining territorial boundaries. However, the birth of two firstborn sons raises the question: “Which is the ruler’s proper heir?” Among the early Hebrew the proper heir was the firstborn son of the first wife, usually a half-sister. That is why Isaac was Abraham's proper heir, and like his father, Isaac was a man of great wealth. He ruled over his father's territory in Idumea (ancient Edom). Like his ancestor Adam, Esau is associated with the red skin people.

Sarah settled in Hebron at the northern boundary of Abraham's territory. Her settlement was served by craftsmen, herdsmen, shepherds, and warriors. Likewise, Keturah's settlement in Beersheba was well provisioned with servants, metal workers, stone masons, herdsmen, potters, bakers, weavers, and warriors.

The wives' settlements marked the northern and southern boundaries of Abraham's territory. Abraham divided his time between the settlements of his two wives, and after Sarah died, he spent his last years in Beersheba.

The wives of Hebrew rulers exercised considerable influence over their settlements. Sarah ordered her Egyptian servant Hagar to leave the settlement and, though he loved his son Ishmael, Abraham conceded to Sarah’s demand (Gen. 21).

Both Hebron and Beersheba were in ancient Edom, the territory that the Greeks called Idumea, which means the land of red people. These are Jesus' ancestors and many of them are described as having a red skin tone like Adam, Esau, and David.

The biblical data suggests that Abraham controlled a sizeable territory that extended between Hebron and Beersheba and Ein Gedi and Gerar. This corresponds to ancient Edom, a territory associated with the Horite Hebrew (Gen. 36).

Settlements required permanent water sources. The major water systems of Abraham's territory included the Well of Sheba (Beersheba), the Spring of Abraham in Hebron, Ein Gedi, and wells in Gerar. Genesis 26:18 reports that Isaac, Abraham's heir, had to reopen the wells in Gerar.

Keturah's Descendants

Keturah had six sons, and these were clan chiefs who spread across Arabia. Among Keturah's people are the Joktanite clans of Arabia, descendants of Joktan, one of Keturah's sons (Gen. 25).

According to Genesis 23:1, Sarah lived 127 years. She died in Hebron and was buried in a cave in a field that Abraham purchased from a kinsman, Ephron the Hittite (Gen. 23:1-20). In this final act, Abraham honored his wife and half-sister through a costly purchase of land. Genesis 25:9 tells us that Abraham was buried there also.

And his sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, which is before Mamre; the field which Abraham purchased of the sons of Heth: there was Abraham buried, and Sarah his wife.

Related reading: Hebrew Rulers with Two Wives; Cousin Brides Among the Hebrew; Sarah's Laughter; Abraham's Complaint; Abraham's Concubines; The Wives' Settlement Marked the Boundaries