CPCC Bible Study: Genesis 12

      "Abram travelled through the land until he came to the sacred tree of Moreh, the holy place at Shechem ..." Verse 6, (Good News Translation)

Question: has anybody been keeping count of the number of times these next three words have been used to begin a scene so far in Genesis?

verse 1
      "way yomer" (and said) YHWH to "'Abram", "halak" (go / walk / come / etc) 'your' "erets" (land), "moledeth" (kindred / relatives) and "bayith" (house) 'of your' father, to a land I will show you.
      He's already in Haran, which as far as we know, and will be revisited in the next chapter, wasn't the land of his father, as we saw at the end of chapter 10. We also still have no idea why Terah packed up and moved. It may well have been on advice from 'Upstairs' and he just didn't tell anybody. Also, we're not exactly sure how long they were there.

2
      "we" (and) 'I will' "asah" (make) 'you' "goy" (people / nation) "gadol" (great (includes the idea of 'cannot be ignored')), and I will "barak" (bless) you and 'make great' 'your' "shem" (name), and you shall be a "berakah" (blessing).

      Notice the use of the word there, Abram will be blessed, and he will be a blessing to others.

A Blessed Tangent
      As we mentioned much earlier in the study of Genesis, the word "blessing" keeps turning up. And here it again. And now it's time to take a look at what it means.
      The idea of "blessing", giving a blessing, being blessed, blessing the Name of God, and so on is a recurrent theme in Genesis. Remember we saw it in chapter one when The Creator blessed part of the creation, and then blessed the Seventh Day, and so on. Now, He is specifically blessing an individual. But exactly what does that mean? We'll look at the word, then at what it means to us here and now.
      There are two sides to the Hebrew word "barak" in context with God (or a notable stand in, say, 'an angel') as the bestower. HE is the one who does the 'blessing', and does so from a position of power and authority, which can also apply in a more limited way to an Earthly king or ruler. The one who is asking for a blessing is in a position of subservience or submission to the other. It implies a lack of power and state of humility and even reverence for the giver. They are "asking for the blessing", and have no capability to ensure that it will be forthcoming, even if they have to work for it, or it is in some time in arriving. In short, it is "God from Whom all blessings flow", and it is us who must ask, work, and wait for them.
"For it is we who must pray for our daily bread, and if He grants it to us, it is only through our labour, our skill and preparation." - Paracelsus (1493 - 1541) see link below.

      The word also indicates the state of happiness one enjoys after one has been blessed.
      It is also used to bless the Name of God. Which means to hold His Name / Place / Position / Role / etc with special honor and reverence that is reserved for Him Alone. For which you will be blessed by Him in return.
      The blessings that originated "Upstairs" can be as simple as circumstances that favor the one that is receiving the blessing in some way, an unexpected special status or position, or even a gift of material goods. It can be "good health", a cool breeze, or even something which ends up being described with the word "miraculous" in the sentence. The blessing can manifest as a random string of good luck, or perhaps something that is bad in the short term, such as a flat tire, but in the long run that turned into a blessing because you missed the worst traffic jam of the year.
      Of course many things that are blessings, some of which we just mentioned may have come from other people, perhaps your flat tire was the result of some metal scrap that fell off a truck instead of an angel from heaven that let the air out of your tire. But the timing is what was a blessing...
"Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous" - Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)
end tangent

3
      This is what it says:
"And I will blesse them that blesse thee, and curse him, that curseth thee: and in thee shal all families of the earth be blessed." (1611 KJV)
      We see this verse quoted again in places like Numbers 24 : 9, is implied in Jeremiah 30: 7 and 20, and in Zechariah 2: 8 and is even partially seen in the teachings of Christ in Matthew 25.
      Ol' Abe is regarded as the Father of the Faithful, and everything he says and does from here out is the subject of sermons for over half of the world's total population under the larger umbrellas of the three great faiths that start here and now.
      Perhaps since we just went through the blessing tangent now would be a good time to look at the other side of it, which we also saw earlier in Genesis: a curse.
      But we'll simply say this: In Most Cases "to be cursed" is the exact opposite of a "to be blessed", and in some cases, the Hebrew word for blessing is used in that context as the curse is being called down from above.

4
      So "halak" (walked....) Abram.... and "halak" with him went "Lot"....
In one of those old potboiler mystery movies there would be a scene along a foggy dock and you'd have somebody on a pipe organ playing a sequence of minor chords while the hero stares wide-eyed into the camera, because he knows something bad is on the horizon. Meanwhile an announcer with a British accent whispers "The 'mission from GOD' was to leave your 'moledeth'... 'family', which included Lot."
      .... Abram was seventy five years old when he left Haran.

5
      This verse is a packing list. Not only did Abram not travel light with nothing but his toothbrush and a clean shirt. When he left, he took a good bit of everything, and everybody, with him.

      Look back at verse 31 of chapter 11. Terah had made plans to move to Canaan, but it didn't work out for him and he stopped in Haran. Now, Abram is picking up the second half of the trip.

6
      Abram's Travelogue, all this moving around indicates one thing, while they were "city folk" while in Haran, now, they are nomads. We'll focus on one place, and then one thing.
      "sekem" (Shechem / Shekem). The ridge and associated ancient city has been identified archaeologically as being where Tel Balata is today, about dead center of today's West Bank, thirty miles north east of Tel Aviv.
      And when we say "ancient" this one truly is. The name "Sekmem" is used on an engraved stone from the reign of Pharaoh Senusret III (1878 - 1839 BC) which tells of an Egyptian advance into the area. It is also mentioned as an established settlement in the collection of clay tablets found in Egypt at El-Amarna. The tablets were written in Cuneiform, the written language of Mesopotamia and sent to representatives of the courts of Pharaohs Amenhotep IV and Akhenaten somewhere around 1350 BC. See both artifacts linked below.
      Shekem's position along a key trade route from the south into the entire Fertile Crescent, is sufficient reason for the Pharaoh to be interested, but it has also served as a holy place for ages as well. Given that the valley has a good reliable source of water and tillable land made it very attractive for early settlement. And, coming from not very far to the east, good soil and plenty of water would make it seem the valley had been blessed by the gods.
      Later in the Biblical story this site becomes the first capital of Israel, and later falls into disrepute as the capital of the Northern Kingdom, and later is the place where the Samaritans worshiped "on the high place" because they were not allowed in the Temple in Jerusalem.

      ..... the "elon" (terebinth or oak tree) of "moreh" (teacher / instructor (one who predicts rain))...

      The fact that it specifies a notable tree, or a significant stand of trees that are attached to a teacher of some description isn't all that remarkable. Sizable trees in this area are somewhat unusual. The most likely candidate for a large tree would be the terebinth (turpentine) tree which can grow as a clump of several trees that appear to be one and get to quite large and live many years.
      This is part of the story that the 1611 simply misses. According the the original KJV Moreh was a "plaine" instead of any kind of tree. Other translations, such as the New American Standard and the ESV, turn what may have been a turpentine tree into an oak. The NIV simply labels it a "great tree", while the Good News calls it a "sacred tree", which means somebody there was reading ahead.
      In Judges 9, verse 37, a tree somewhere in the vicinity of Shekem is called the "elon" of the "anan" (soothsayer / diviner (includes foretelling weather)).
      It would seem that in the intervening years the line of 'wise ones' who did the weather forecasts in Abram's time had branched out and were now general fortune tellers, who still had a big tree in their yard.

      ... and the "Kna'aniy" (Canaanite) was in the "erets" (land).

7
      And "raah" (see / seen / behold / etc) YHWH to Abram, "way yomer" (and said), to your "zera" (seed / descendants) "nathan" (give / grant) this "erets" (land). And he "banah" (build / constructed) a "mizbeach" (altar) to YHWH who had "raah" (saw / appeared)
      This is only the second altar in the OT, the first being Noah's, who was Abram's great-great-.... (nine generations)... grandfather.

8 - 9
      he moved to the mountain east of "Betheel / Beth-El" (Bethel (means "house of God") and "Ai / Ay / etc" on the east, and he built an altar to YHWH..... journeyed toward "negeb" (Negev / south (dry area)).
      Biblical Bethel was apparently located some twelve miles north of Jerusalem, and there are several hills and mountains in the area of the village. The next town mentioned is about a mile and a half east of there, Ai has possibly been archaeologically identified as the ruins known as Et-Tell (meaning "the ruin-heap", which it is). This settlement has been lived in, abandoned, re-established, conquered, and then rebuilt in cycles for the last four thousand years or so. The Negev is today the same as it was then, an arid region south of Jerusalem and west of the Dead Sea running east-ish into the Sinai.

10
      "way hi" (and then / and now / etc) "raab" (famine / hunger (means 'to be hungry)) "erets" (in the land), and "yarad" (went down) Abram to "Mitsrayim" (Egypt)
      We saw Mitsrayim as the name of a man in chapter 10 in Ham's section. The Egyptians are said to be of that linage.

11 - 20
      Discussion.
      One thing that is clear is stated in no uncertain terms in verse 16. When Abram and Sarai took their trip, they didn't travel light, but instead took a small town with them. Even as nomads, they had a lot of people, animals, and "stuff" with them.

      It could be that people aged a bit slower then. And perhaps Sarai was an exceptionally healthy and well tended sixty five year old woman, seeing how she lived to be 127. But still.
      In reality She was his half sister. Same father, different mothers.
      One has to wonder why this episode in the life of Father Abraham is relayed to us. The Lord is only mentioned in verse 17 as sending plagues to the royal house because of the half-lie Abram and Sarai had told.
      There is no firm identification of which Pharaoh this was. Given a reasonable timeline for the life of Abram / Abraham it is possible this was during the period of reunified Egypt's "Middle Kingdom", from, give or take, 2000 BC to around 1600 BC. which included Pharaohs with names like Mentuhotep and Amenemhat. Statements that claim that Abram had to have dealt with a "famous" Pharaoh such as Khufu (known from a pyramid that bears his name) are totally baseless in either the Scriptural texts or the written history of Egypt that survives, and is due more to wishful thinking than scholarship. Apparently the visit of a wandering herdsman from up north that shows up and embarrasses the king isn't something they wanted to note in the official records of the royal court.
      We also have no idea how long Abe and Company were in Egypt. From the text, it doesn't appear to be very long, but we do not know.

      One more thing....
           .... ... what happened to the famine back home when Abram was told to pack his stuff and go?
      Again. We don't know. The fact that it was over with implies that Abe & Co. were 'down south' for several months, possibly even a year or more. But it isn't stated.

      In verse 20 the terms of Abram exiting stage right is somewhat understated in English.
      "tsavah" (commanded / 'to be ordered' ("an offer you can't refuse")) directed at 'Abram', "Paroh" "ish" (men (implies a group of soldiers)), "shalach" (send away / dispatch) him, his wife, and all that he had.

Chapter 13, Verse 1
      "way alah" (and departed / went up / etc) "'Abram" "mim" (from) "Mitsrayim" (Egypt) with all that he had.... and "Lot" (Lot) with him to "negeb" (Negev).

end 12

Selected resources for this chapter:

The Interlinear: Hebrew - English https://biblehub.com/interlinear/genesis/12.htm

The Good News Translation at BibleGateway.com https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2011&version=GNT

"Paracelsus, the man who brought chemistry to medicine" https://www.aaas.org/taxonomy/term/10/paracelsus-man-who-brought-chemistry-medicine

"Sobek-khu describes military campaigns into the ancient Near East which, before the discovery of the stela, were little known. As is typical of such autobiographical inscriptions, the protagonist emphasises his talent and promotion through the ranks by Pharaoh because of this."
The stela of Sebek-khu the Manchester Museum https://egyptmanchester.wordpress.com/2014/04/10/texts-in-translation-13-the-stela-of-sobek-khu-acc-no-3306/

"The Amarna Letters are a group of several hundred clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform (“wedge-shaped”) writing that date to the fourteenth century B.C. and were found at the site of Tell el-Amarna, the short-lived capital of ancient Egypt during the reign of Amenhotep IV / Akhenaten (ca. 1353–1336 B.C.)"
The Amarna Letters https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/amlet/hd_amlet.htm

"Timeline showing the dates, periods, dynasties and significant events in the history and art of ancient Egypt from the Predynastic Period (before 3100 BCE) to the end of the Roman Period (395 CE)."
https://australian.museum/learn/cultures/international-collection/ancient-egyptian/ancient-egyptian-timeline/

Genesis Study Index Page

NOTE: The Bible Study Lesson presented above is posted as a reference document to begin a conversation of the topic. And that's it. Please accept it at such.

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