Edward Lipinski's "El's Abode: Mythological Traditions Related to ...

m Pi
• 32 1. LIPI&SKI
confused with, o in some Jewish scripts of the second and first century
B.C. S7. This place is identical with the older 'Abel-bet-ma' oka., as
shown by a comparison between I Kings 15,20 and II Chron. 16,4,
It is simply called 'Abel in II Sam. 20,18, and this name is still keptin
the one of Tell Abil, situated just south of Metuila, the modern
frontier village of Israel 8S. In the vicinity of 'Abel the Hule valley'
descends quite suddenly, and one of the smaller sources of the Jordan*
which passes near 'Abel, leaps over this step in a gushing waterfall 88.
The south-eastern slopes of Mount Lebanon end west of 'Abel, at the
brink of the River . Litani ; east of 'Abel emerges the snow-covered
Mount Hermon. It is called ZeviariX in the Greek text of I Enoch 13,9,
. . . . . .
and Seniser in the Ethiopic version. The original name was obviously
Semr, found in Deut. 3,9; Ez. 27,5; I Chron. 5,35; Cant. 4,8 90. This
was thus the place where the heavenly beings gathered weeping.
since 'abel means « mourning ». But, independently of this folk etyniology?
their weeping reflects probably a ritual practice, just as their
oath on the summit of Mount Hermon does. The Babylonian Talmud
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locates in fact Micah's idol of Judg. 17-18 in a place called Bekl,
« weeping », which is likely to be in the neighbourhood of Dan91.
The full name of that place was probably cSn BeHd, « Source of Weeping»,
which would be the smaller source of the Jordan near 'Abelmayim.
The Talmud mentions actually the «yarid of 'fin Beki»,
which was probably at the origin of the gathering of the heavenly
beings at 'Abel-mayim 923 where Enoch came to reprimand them in
God's name.
87 Cf. J.T. MiLiK, Le Testament de L&oi en arameen. fragment de la grotte 4 de Qumran,
in Revue Biblique, 62, 1955, p. 398-406 with pi. iv (see p. 404 with n. 3).
88 Of. ibid., p. 403.
89 Cf. G. DALMAW, Abel Beth Maacha, in Palastinajakrbuch, 10, 1914, p. 45-46.
90 See above, p. 17, n. 22.
91 Talmud of Babylon, Pesahim, 117. M. OPPENHEIM, in Hamagid, 1867, p. 29,
had suggested to identify BeM with Baalbek.
92 Talmud of Babylon, *Aboda zara, 11 b : ywrld se-be*£n beM. A. NBUBAUBE, L&,
Oeographie du Talmud, p. 298, and I. L&YY, art. cit., in R$J, 43, 1901, p. 194, identify
fchis place with Baalbek and consider its name as a variant of ba'al beki, found in the
Mishnah, Maai&fot, Y, 8. But the Sum baal beJd, mentioned there, is rather the « weepinggarlic
», i.e., so strong that it makes the eyes water. Cf. H. DAKBY, The Mishnah, London,
1933, p. 73, n. 3. In fact, when the Midrash Rabba to Qohelet 5,8 mentions later «the wine
of Baalbek », yyn Blbqy, the name of the city is written Blbq. The full name was perhaps
Ba^l-beq'a.
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