320 f.; Ball, Light from the East, 119 f.—horsemen, however,
never appear in them: "We have no representations of
Egyptians on horseback; and were it not for a few literary
allusions, we should not know that the subjects of the
Pharaoh knew how to ride" (Erman, LAE, 492 f.).—10, 11.
The mourning at the grave.—Gōren hā-Āṭād] 'the threshing-floor
of the bramble'; the locality is unknown (v.i.).—11.
Ābēl Miẓraim] one of several place-names compounded with
(
Hebrew characters) = 'meadow' (Nu. 3349, Ju. 1133, 2 Sa. 2015, 2 Ch. 164);
here interpreted as (Hebrew characters) 'mourning of Egypt.' The
real name 'meadow of Egypt' may have commemorated
some incident of the Egyptian occupation of Palestine; but
the situation is unknown.—The record of the actual burying
in J and E has not been preserved.
It is difficult to say whether Gōren hā-Āṭād and Ābēl Miẓraim are
two different places, or two names for one place. Jerome (OS, 8515ff.)
identifies the former with Bethagla (= 'Ain Ḥaǧla, or Ḳaṣr Ḥaǧla, S of
Jericho [Buhl, GP, 180]), but on what authority we do not know. The
conjecture that it was in the neighbourhood of Rachel's grave depends
entirely on a dubious interpretation of 487. Since there appears to be a
doublet in v.10 (10a_(Greek characters) || 10b), it is natural to suppose that one name belongs
to J and the other to E, and therefore there is no great presumption that
the localities are identical ((Hebrew characters) in 11 may be a gloss). According to
the present text, both were E of the Jordan (10a 11b); but such a statement
if found in one document would readily be transferred by a redactor
to the other; and all we can be reasonably confident of is that
one or other was across the Jordan, for it is almost inconceivable that
(Hebrew characters) should be an interpolation in both cases. Since it is to be assumed
that in J and E the place of mourning was also the place of
burial, and since the theory of a détour round the Dead Sea and the E
of Jordan to arrive at any spot in W. Palestine is too extravagant to
have arisen from a fanciful etymology, it would seem to follow that,
according to at least one tradition, Jacob's grave was shown at some
now unknown place E of the Jordan (Meyer, INS, 280 f.). Meyer's inference
that Jacob was originally a transjordanic hero, is, however, a
doubtful one; for the East is dotted with graves of historic personages
in impossible places, and we have no assurance that tradition was more
reliable in ancient times.
and is here to be preferred.—(Hebrew characters)] [E] + (Hebrew characters).—10. (Hebrew characters)] The word
for 'bramble' in Jotham's parable from Gerizim, Ju. 914f. (only Ps. 5810
again). Can there be an allusion to the threshing-floor of this passage
at Shechem?—11. (Hebrew characters)] Possibly a gloss from v.10. If so, (Hebrew characters) ([E]
(Hebrew characters)), referring to (Hebrew characters) (whose gender is uncertain), must have been substi-
