Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

14:13-16 GENESIS
identified with the aggressive roaming Habiru, who are
mentioned in tablets from the 19th and 18th centuries, and
from the Tell el-Amarna letters of the 11th and 14th
centuries, as invading “the king’s cities”?) On the other
hand, was not Abram sprung from a large branch of the
Shemites who continued to live in Shinar, and who prob-
ably regarded Eber as their direct ancestor? It seems to
be a confirmation of this view that the word ‘Hebrew’
appears with peculiar propriety applied to Abram here
(v. 13) as a patronymic, in contradistinction to his allies,
who are styled Amorites (14:lj). “Hebrew” is the name
used for self-identification to foreigners (40:13, 43 :32).
V. 14, Lot us Abruids “brother”: such terms as “brother,”
“sister,” which were used by Hebrews as cognate terms are
used by Orientals still, in a wide sense, equivalent to
relative, kinsman or kinswoman (cf. 2O:ll with 28:6,
24:60; 2 Sam. 19:13, Judg. 14:11, Job 42:ll). Note
Abrum’s 318 trained men. Note that these were men
‘born in his house even before he had a son of his own
.(12:1, 14:14). Note the pursuit to Dm.. Before its
capture by the Danites, this city was known as Laish
(Judg. 18:29). (HSB, 24) : “The name was modernized
in Genesis so that the reader could readily identify the
familiar Danite city.”, Dan was the northernmost Israelite
city; hence the phrase, “from Dan to Beersheba” (e.g.,
Judg. 20:l). But, writes Leupold (EG, 4j9) : “This town,
as all know, first received the name Dan in the days of
the Judges: see Judg. 18:7, 29. The use of the term at
this point would then be clearly post-Mosaic and evidence
of authorsKip of the book later than the time of the Judges.
Critics are so ready t accept this view that by almost uni-
verd consent they fiore the other possible location of
Dan so entirely as.t t was not even worthy of con-
sideration. For an n in Gilead (see Deut. 34:1),
mentioned apparently in -2 Sam. 24:6 as ‘Dan Jaan,’ ex-
cellently meets the needs of the case, for that matter even
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