Biblical Tours – Page 2

Yad Vashem – The importance of names

The Hall of Names in Yad Vashem museum, Jerusalem. Jotpe – Own work

The Holocaust (Shoah) museum in Jerusalem, is called “Yad Vashem”, which means in Hebrew: “A Memorial and a Name”

This term is taken from a quote in Isaiah 56:5

“to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name”
Isaiah 56:4 (NASB)

in 1953, just a short time after the state of Israel was founded, and shortly after the terrible Shoah, the Knesset passed a law that instructs to build a museum.
The name ‘Yad Vashem’ was chosen for a reason: as a legacy of our nation, we want to remember every person that lived.
As much as the Nazis tried to destroy the remembrance of the Jewish people, we will remember each person that lived and died.

And indeed, close to four million eight hundred thousand of the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis and their accomplices are commemorated in the database of the museum. Of course, not all people had someone left to tell about them and some names were forgotten. but stil, so much effort was put by Jewish people and the state of Israel to record every single name that is known to someone.

There is a web site with accessible database of Shoah victims’ names. The interesting story of how this database was created and how all the names were collected can be found here

Importance of namnes

Why is it so important for Jews to remember all names of dead people?
This question can be answered when while reading the Bible.
Sometimes, people ask themselves, while reading the whole of the Bible, why so many names are mentioned from the Jewish and Israelite history. Especially in the book of Chronicles:

The sons of Judah were Perez, Hezron, Carmi, Hur, and Shobal. ²And Reaiah the son of Shobal begot Jahath, and Jahath begot Ahumai and Lahad. These were the families of the Zorathites. ³These were the sons of the father of Etam: Jezreel, Ishma, and Idbash; and the name of their sister was Hazelelponi; ⁴and Penuel was the father of Gedor, and Ezer was the father of Hushah. These were the sons of Hur, the firstborn of Ephrathah the father of Bethlehem. ⁵And Ashhur the father of Tekoa had two wives, Helah and Naarah. ⁶Naarah bore him Ahuzzam, Hepher, Temeni, and Haahashtari. These were the sons of Naarah. ⁷The sons of Helah were Zereth, Zohar, and Ethnan; ⁸and Koz begot Anub, Zobebah, and the families of Aharhel the son of Harum.
1 Chronicles 4:1-8 (NKJV)

Also in Ezra, names and numbers:

²Those who came with Zerubbabel were Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, and Baanah. The number of the men of the people of Israel: ³the people of Parosh, two thousand one hundred and seventy-two; ⁴the people of Shephatiah, three hundred and seventy-two; ⁵the people of Arah, seven hundred and seventy-five; …
Ezra 2:2-5

And this continues on and on…

I believe that names are very important to God. In listing all the names, and by us reading those very long lineages, there is a lesson:

All people and all names are important for God!

There are no ‘less important people’ and ‘more prestigious people’ before God. All of us are important no matter what we do or do not do.

Are the names to remember only from Israel?

And here, we get to a very interesting part: the quote from Isaiah 56 that we started with.
In the context of the museum ‘Yad Vashem’, this quote reminds us that God keeps a memorial and a name for each person. But let’s read the whole of the passage carefully, and see to whom does Isaiah really refer:

Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say,
“The Lord will surely separate me from His people.”
Nor let the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.”
⁴For thus says the Lord,
“To the eunuchs who keep My sabbaths,
And choose what pleases Me,
And hold fast My covenant,
⁵To them I will give in My house and within My walls a memorial,
And a name better than that of sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name which will not be cut off.
⁶“Also the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,
To minister to Him, and to love the name of the Lord,
To be His servants, every one who keeps from profaning the sabbath
And holds fast My covenant;
⁷Even those I will bring to My holy mountain
And make them joyful in My house of prayer.
Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar;
For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.”
Isaiah 56:3-7 (NASB)

So, to whom does this promise refers?
To the eunuchs, who have no children to continue their family – to them who keeps the Sabbaths and do what pleases God, to them there is a promise to have a memorial and a name.

And to the foreigners, the gentiles, who joins themselves to the Lord, to love His name and to be His servants. Those who keep the Sabbath and hold His covenant – they will be brought to His mountain and be joyful in the House of the Lord.

For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.

Shoah

I want to bring another Biblical reference, and this is the word Shoah.

The English term ‘Holocaust’, comes from the Greek word: ὁλόκαυστος which means completely burnt.

The Hebrew word ‘Shoah’ appears several times in the Bible:

When your dread (Heb: Shoah) comes like a storm
And your calamity comes like a whirlwind,
When distress and anguish come upon you.
Proverbs 1:27 (NASB)

Let destruction (Heb: Shoah) come upon him unawares,
And let the net which he hid catch himself;
Into that very destruction (Heb: Shoah) let him fall.
Psalms 35:8 (NASB)

The Holocaust of the Jews in Europe, is called in Hebrew ‘Shoah’. This word is used almost only for this specific event. For other terrible disasters we use other words in Hebrew. The Jewish Holocaust in Europe that took place in the first half of the twentieth century, has a special Biblical word.

A Double portion

Elisha and Elijah crossed the Jordan river, in the same place where the sons of Israel had entered into Canaan led by Joshua. Elisha knew that Elijah was going to be taken from him – he heard this prophecy three times from the sons of the prophets. Elisha anticipated this moment and he had a plan. What was his plan? to become greater than his master!

We read:

When they had crossed over, Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask what I shall do for you before I am taken from you.” And Elisha said, “Please, let a double portion of your spirit be upon me. ¹⁰He said, “You have asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you; but if not, it shall not be so.”
(2 Kings 2:9-10)

It is a hard thing to ask indeed. but what our God promises – He fulfills. Not because He likes the man, or because the man is worthy – no! Because God is faithful.

Was Elisha worthy? Let’s look how he behaved, from the moment his master left him:

And Elijah went up by a whirlwind to heaven. ¹²Elisha saw it and cried out, “My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” And he saw Elijah no more.
(2 Kings 2:12)

What was Elisha shouting? Many interpretations were given about this shout. Can it be that he was actually saying in other words: God! I saw it! I saw the chariot and horsemen! Now give me what you promised!

And we continue reading:

He took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him and struck the waters and said, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” And when he also had struck the waters, they were divided here and there; and Elisha crossed over.
(2 Kings 2:14)

What is this language? “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” Is this the gentleman that we expect a man of God to be? Not really…

So Elisha really spoke to God in kind of demanding. And our God gave him what he asked for: a double portion of the spirit – even though, in our human judgemental mind, we may say his is a rude and arrogant person.

And from now on, we see that Elisha really got a double portion – on one hand he performs many more miracle than his master did. But unlike his master, he is very much appreciated by the kings and the high society. He is the kind of man that likes to be acknowledged of what he is – A man of God.

Let’s look into the following story:

Now there came a day when Elisha passed over to Shunem, where there was a prominent woman, and she persuaded him to eat food. And so it was, as often as he passed by, he turned in there to eat food. ⁹She said to her husband, “Behold now, I perceive that this is a holy man of God passing by us continually.¹⁰Please, let us make a little walled upper chamber and let us set a bed for him there, and a table and a chair and a lampstand; and it shall be, when he comes to us, that he can turn in there.”
(2 Kings 4:8-10)

This is “a holy man of God”! Rich people want to host him in their house. He is famous. He is adored. Was Elijah like this? No. Elijah was persecuted. He had to escape from the king and his wife.

And we see more of this in how Elisha dares to behave in front of Naaman, the Aramaic captain:

So Naaman came with his horses and his chariots and stood at the doorway of the house of Elisha. ¹⁰Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh will be restored to you and you will be clean.”¹¹But Naaman was furious and went away and said, “Behold, I thought, ‘He will surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God
(2 Kings 5:9-11)

Naaman did not expect such an attitude. This was not accepted. But this is Elisha who got a double portion of the spirit that had been upon Elijah. He, and only he, can act like this.

There are more examples of this arrogance of Elisha in 2 Kings. For example how he speaks to the King in Samaria in chapter 6.

A spiritual principle

The principle we learn from Elisha is that when we approach God and ask for a gift – a spiritual gift – God wants to bestow on us. We might not be perfect, we may not be very nice. We certainly are considered sinners. It does not mean we cannot ask for gifts. And we can ask for a double portion of the Spirit!

Epilogue

The place where Elisha accepted the double portion, is the same place where the sons of Israel entered into the land. But there was another event that took place in the exact same place:

John testified saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him. ³³I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’
(John 2:32-33)

Was this spirit, descending from heaven, a double portion? a triple portion? or infinite?

A Void in the Word

Memorial day in the new state of Israel is set one day before Independence Day. In this day we all mourn for the soldiers who died in wars and on duty. The symbol of this day is a flower that is very common in the mountains of Israel and blossoms in this season, and looks like drops of blood. Its Hebrew Name is Dam Hamakabim which translates to “The blood of the Maccabees”

The dead left a huge void in our hearts

One verse that is quoted every year in this day is from “The song of the Bow” that David wrote after Saul and Jonathan died in the battle against the Philistines:

“The beauty of Israel is slain on your high places!
How the mighty have fallen!” (2 Samuel 1:19)

Let’s focus on the word that is used in Hebrew for the the English word “slain” here.

The word in Hebrew is pronounced “Chalal” and its literal meaning is “void” or “hollow”.

Many examples in the Bible. Here are a few:

“If anyone is found slain (chalal), lying in the field in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him (Deuteronomy 21:1)

For by fire and by His sword
The Lord will judge all flesh;
And the slain (chalal) of the Lord shall be many. (Isaiah 66:16)

“Yes, you shall be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised,
And lie with those slain (chalal) by the sword (Ezekiel 32:28)

Whenever the word “chalal” appears in the Bible it refers to a person that was killed or died unexpectedly. Instead of using the word “meth” – “dead”, in those cases the Bible use the word “chalal” – “void”.

When someone was slain or killed, a void is left in the heart of the people who knew him and loved him.

In memorial day we all remember the people who fell protecting our country and left a huge void in our hearts.

Play the Flute

But Hebrew is a special language. Every word has a root, and you can use the same root to build other words.

So if you take the root of “chalal” and make a verb out of it – you get “chilel”

“Chilel” has two distinct meaning. The first is: “playing the flute”

A flute is a hollow instrument, and the word “chalal” means also hollow.

So a flute in Hebrew is “chalil” and “to play the flute” is “lechalel”

The harp and the strings,
The tambourine and flute (chalil),
And wine are in their feasts; (Isaiah 5:12)

Then they blew the trumpet, and all the people said, “Long live King Solomon!” ⁴⁰All the people went up after him, and the people were playing (mecholelim) on flutes (chalil) and rejoicing with great joy, so that the earth shook at their noise. (1 Kings 1:39-40)

And from the word “chilel” – play the flute, rose the word “Machol” which means “dance for the sound of instruments”:

Again I will build you, and you shall be rebuilt,
O virgin of Israel!
You shall again be adorned with your tambourines,
And shall go forth in the dances (machol) of those who rejoice. (Jeremiah 31:4)

Profane God’s word

But now, there is a surprise: The word “chilel” which means “play the flute” is also used for a completely different meaning.

Many times in the Bible this word is used for the meaning of “profane” or “defile”

Here are some examples with different derivatives of the word “chilel”

And you shall not let any of your descendants pass through the fire to Molech, nor shall you profane (techalel) the name of your God: I am the Lord. (Leviticus 18:21)

They shall not profane (yechalelu) the holy offerings of the children of Israel, which they offer to the Lord (Leviticus 22:15)

because they despised My judgments and did not walk in My statutes, but profaned (chilelu) My Sabbaths (Ezekiel 20:16)

“Reuben, you are my firstborn,
My might and the beginning of my strength,
The excellency of dignity and the excellency of power.
⁴Unstable as water, you shall not excel,
Because you went up to your father’s bed;
Then you defiled it (chilalta) (Genesis 49:3-4)

Can we understand how the root “chalal” which means “void” and “hollow” turned into a word that means “profane” and “defile”?

Maybe, it is because, when we profane or defile God’s word, we replace it in our hearts with void?

But He was profaned for our transgressions

Another example of the use of the word “chilel” with the meaning of profane, but this time in a passive form can be found in Isaiah’s prophecy about the Messiah, Chapter 53.

The word is “mechulal” which is the passive form of “cholel” and means: being profaned or being defiled.

Note that in most English translation, the word is translated to “wounded” or “pierced”but this is not the original Hebrew meaning:

But He was wounded (profaned – “mechulal”) for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)

World Peace

In this era in which we live, we talk about World Peace probably more than ever before. The reason may be the trauma of the two world wars in the 20th century. After WW2, many people started to believe that this is the lowest point in human history and something radical need to be done by humanity to prevent such a terrible war from happening again.

Many efforts and ideologies aimed to achieve World Peace. There is some kind of perception that we live today in one of the most peaceful time in history. See: Obama: We’re living in ‘most peaceful’ era in human history

When have this “peaceful era” started and when is it going to end?

This month, Rwanda marked 25 years since the genocide in which 1 million people were killed in 100 day.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed in Syria in the last 8 years of civil war. Numbers , as for March 2019, vary between 371,222 and 570,000, while the number of registered refugees resulting from that war is more than 5.6 million. Real numbers are probably much higher.

So, is it really the most peaceful era in human history? What is the meaning of this claim anyway? Maybe it means that in the majority of the western world people are not involved in wars for the last 70 years, but countries like Syria, Rwanda, Iraq, North Korea, Afghanistan and other, are too far to be heard and care for?

There are several ways in which humanity tries to achieve World peace.

Diplomacy may be the most effective, but also in some cases the least effective, when it just cannot stop a massacre that started already.

Every year, one person is awarded with a Nobel Peace prize. This represents how much the idea of seeking peace is important in a global view.

And the question still remains: Is seeking of world peace and all the effort that people put in this movement really effective? or are we still living in a time when power and brutal politics rules, as always in history?

I like to investigate every such question with what the Bible has to say. And indeed, there is a lot!

⁶“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,
The leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
The calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little child shall lead them.
⁷The cow and the bear shall graze;
Their young ones shall lie down together;
And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
⁸The nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole,
And the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den.
⁹They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain,
For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
As the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:6-9)

This beautiful vision of world peace, in which even the animals stop devouring and killing, is far beyond the ideas of the new World Peace movement.

Note that the vision involves “My holy mountain” and “Knowledge of the Lord”. Those two terms are completely missing from the discussion of modern peace seekers.

And this prophecy continues:

¹⁰“And in that day there shall be a Root of Jesse,
Who shall stand as a banner to the people;
For the Gentiles shall seek Him,
And His resting place shall be glorious.”

¹¹It shall come to pass in that day
That the Lord shall set His hand again the second time
To recover the remnant of His people who are left,
From Assyria and Egypt,
From Pathros and Cush,
From Elam and Shinar,
From Hamath and the islands of the sea.

¹²He will set up a banner for the nations,
And will assemble the outcasts of Israel,
And gather together the dispersed of Judah
From the four corners of the earth.

There are some more motives that we see here that are bound with this vision. A lot of those motives appear again in all other prophecies:

“Root of Jesse” – this is the Messiah from the seed of David son of Jesse. A redeemer that will come from a certain family and is to be the “banner to the people”
“Recover the remnant of His people who are left”: This future vision cannot happen without “His people” recovered and returning to their home land.
“He will set up banner for the nations”: Note that all the prophets do not talk about “all the people” but always about “the nations”. The important meaning is that people are part of nations. even when the whole world is in peace, the nations are still important and are not gone. This is in contrast to the common thought that globalism and breaking the structure of nations and nationality is part of World Peace

Look at the following lines from John Lennon’s famous song “Imagine”:

“Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too

Imagine all the people
Living life in peace”

This expression of futuristic world is the opposite of what the Bible teaches us:

John Lennon believed that there would be a world peace when there are no countries and no religion.

Image result for john lennon imagine poster

Israel and World Peace

The United Nations is an international organization that was founded after WW2 and was mainly aimed to protect the world from any new coming war.

Surprisingly (or not), the state of Israel is the most condemned nation by the UN for violating human rights and being a great obstacle to peace with its political actions. The number of resolutions against Israel that were taken in the UN exceeds far more than the number of resolutions against any other country. See “Israel most condemned country at UN in 2018” and “UN to condemn Israel 9 times, rest of the world 0” and “UN Condemns Israel Through six Resolutions in one day”

How does this fact above is seen in the light of what the prophet says?

³Many people shall come and say,
“Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
To the house of the God of Jacob;
He will teach us His ways,
And we shall walk in His paths.”
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
⁴He shall judge between the nations,
And rebuke many people;
They shall beat their swords into plowshares,
And their spears into pruning hooks;
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
Neither shall they learn war anymore. (Isaiah 2:3-4)

What is the right way to bring peace?

With all ideologies, peace movements and diplomacy that concern World Peace, the general idea is that humanity can achieve world peace using the following terms:

Education for tolerance toward other people
International control of conflict using strong military allies
Equality of resources between people and political control of society.
Democracy as an ultimate political regime that allows each person to express himself freely and equally

According to peace movements, if we adhere to those terms, (there are of course some other ideas) then eventually our world would be a safer and more peaceful place.

But the big question is: Can humanity really solve its conflicts by itself? is this achievable at all?

Again, Let’s check what the Bible tells us on how we should behave in order to live peacefully.

²⁶“Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: ²⁷the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today; ²⁸and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known. (Deuteronomy 11:26-28)

Note that in the Bible, the key is obedience to God.

When this is done, the blessing and peace will come as a result. This opposes the secular thought on how to achieve peace: The modern idea is that people need to seek peace by taking an action toward it, but without any need to fix themselves. Morality is not part of seeking peace. Only stopping the fighting and accept other people.

The Bible, on the contrary, tells us first to fix our ways, and then peace will shine on us.

The method of the Bible is based on the fact that we cannot really fix humanity as we ourselves are full of sins.

for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth (Genesis 8:21)

For there is not a just man on earth who does good
And does not sin. (Ecclesiastes 7:20)

for there is no one who does not sin (1 Kings 8:46)

Summary

We see two ways today to seek peace.

The more common way that is taught in most schools in Western society:

Any act of war is evil. You should condemn violence and inequality you see around you. you should hate the aggressors and love the poor.

And what about your own actions? Do whatever you like, as long as you do not hurt your neighbour. This is modern morality.

Two prophets of this vision are the late John Lennon and former US president Barack Obama.

But there is another way. The way of the Bible:

Fix yourself. Obey God. follow His commandments – And the God of peace will be with you.

…Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you…

You shall choose: What is your way?

For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly,
Saying, ‘Peace, peace!’
When there is no peace. (Jeremiah 8:11)

Judah: The Lion that confessed

We Jews, are called after our father Judah – Yehuda in Hebrew (יְהוּדָה), the fourth son of Israel.

What did Judah do to get the honor that all of the Jewish people are called after him?

In Genesis 49, Moses blessed Judah with a special blessing:

“⁸Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise;
Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies;
Your father’s children shall bow down before you.
⁹Judah is a lion’s whelp;
From the prey, my son, you have gone up.
He bows down, he lies down as a lion;
And as a lion, who shall rouse him?
¹⁰The scepter shall not depart from Judah,
Nor a lawgiver from between his feet,
Until Shiloh comes.” (Genesis 49: 8-10)

Although he was the fourth son, he was the one who got the best blessing. Judah was compared to a lion!

This is a blessing that prophesied the role of Judah in the genealogy of the Messiah!

The first three brothers did not get the blessing. Reuben, for defiling his father’s bed; Simeon and Levi were cursed for killing the men of Shechem.

What was it in Judah that gave him the primacy and blessing from his father?

The name Yehuda, comes from the word “Hoda” – To praise and give thanks. This is explained when he was born:

“And she (Leah) conceived again and bore a son, and said, “Now I will praise the Lord (of give thanks to the Lord. R.S).” Therefore she called his name Judah.” (Genesis 29:35)

The Hebrew word “Toda” (תּוֹדָה) that means “thanks” comes from the same root of Hoda and Yehuda.

And indeed. Judah has a special role among his brothers when they meet Joseph in Egypt, while they do not know yet he is their brother.

Joseph was playing with them for a long time. The ten brother went to Egypt to bring grain for the famine in Canaan, while leaving the youngest – Benjamin – with his father.

When Joseph saw them, he recognised them but acted as a stranger to them. First, he blamed his brothers that they were spies. He took Simeon to prison, and commanded the rest to go to Canaan and bring their young brother Benjamin to him.

After some time in Canaan, the famine was strong and the grain was finished, they needed to go to Egypt again. But this time, they knew they had to bring Benjamin with them. Jacob could not accept this. He did not agree to send his young son with them. At this point, Judah promised and gave his word to be blamed forever if Benjamin would not be back. It was a strong burdon Judah takes upon himself!

In Egypt, Joseph continued to play with his brothers. This time he gave them grain to take back, but commanded to put his silver cup in Benjamin’s sack. When they had left, Joseph sent people to chase them and look in their sacks. The silver cup was found in Benjamin’s sack, of course. Joseph took Benjamin to be his slave because of this allegedly theft.

Judah could not accept this fate, knowing how his father’s heart would break. And he spoke to Joseph begging to be his slave instead of Benjamin:

³⁰“Now therefore, when I come to your servant my father, and the lad is not with us, since his life is bound up in the lad’s life, ³¹it will happen, when he sees that the lad is not with us, that he will die. So your servants will bring down the gray hair of your servant our father with sorrow to the grave. ³²For your servant became surety for the lad to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father forever.’ ³³Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the lad as a slave to my lord, and let the lad go up with his brothers. ³⁴For how shall I go up to my father if the lad is not with me, lest perhaps I see the evil that would come upon my father?” (Genesis 44:30-34)

This is the point that Joseph broke down. Judah really spoke to his heart and he could not go on with his game.

This is the point when Joseph confessed to his brothers. He wept loudly so all Egypt could hear.

In this story, Judah appeared as the brother that his father could count on. He took on himself something that seemed impossible, and made a change while being accountable.

This is indeed why he is called Yehuda – for his father could give thanks to God of this son. He is indeed a lion!

But This is not the end of the story with Judah. in Genesis 38, after Joseph was sold and before we read what happened to him in Egypt, There is short hidden episode:

This is the story of Tamar. A girl that married one of Judah’s sons: Er. But Er dies, so Tamar was given to his younger brother: Onan. But Onan did not want to give Tamar a son, and he dies too. So Tamar was now supposed to wait for the third son to be old enough to marry her, but this did not happen either. And Tamar wanted a child so much!

What did she do? she waited for Judah where he went to shear his sheep, and pretended to be a harlot in the dark night. When Judah wanted to come to her, she asked for something in return, and he gave her his signet and his cord and his staff – Three personal items.

Three months later, Judah was told that his daughter-in-law – Tamar – was pregnant with a child by harlotry. Judah immediately commanded that she would be burned!

Now, as in a good drama, Tamar showed the three items: the signet, cord and staff, and said: I carry the child of the person to whom those belong.

In this point of the story, we learn something new about Judah: He could have said: she is a liar! She stole those from me! and burn her anyway. But he did something different that showed his generosity:

So Judah acknowledged them and said, “She has been more righteous than I, because I did not give her to Shelah my son.” (Genesis 38:26)

Judah confessed his fault instead of continuing blaming.

The word “confessed” in Hebrew is “Hoda” The same word used for “give thanks. The same word on which Yehuda was called. Yehuda is the son for which his parents could give thanks to the Lord, and he is the one who confessed about being unrighteous.

This is Yehuda – Judah.

And after his name, we, Jews are called.

The Curse on Mount Ebal

²⁹“It shall come about, when the Lord your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, that you shall place the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. ³⁰Are they not across the Jordan, west of the way toward the sunset, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh? (Deuteronomy 11:29-30)

³⁰Now Joshua built an altar to the Lord God of Israel in Mount Ebal, ³¹as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the Book of the Law of Moses: “an altar of whole stones over which no man has wielded an iron tool.” And they offered on it burnt offerings to the Lord, and sacrificed peace offerings. (Joshua 8:30-31)

Where did the Covenant of Abraham take place?

abraham-and-three-angels — Abraham and three Angels, Marc Chagall

In the book of Genesis, The Lord made covenant with Abram/Abraham in two different occasions: The first one is known as the “Covenant of the parts” (Hebrew: Brit bein HaBetarim). The second one is the “Covenant of Circumcision” (Hebrew: Brit Milah)

Covenant of the Parts:

¹After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”

⁹So He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, a three-year-old ram, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” ¹⁰Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. ¹¹And when the vultures came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.

¹⁸On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates— ¹⁹the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, ²⁰the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, ²¹the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.” (Genesis 15:1, 9-11, 18-21)

Covenant of Circumcision:

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am Almighty God; walk before Me and be blameless. ²And I will make My covenant between Me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.” ³Then Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying: ⁴“As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. ⁵No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. ⁶I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. ⁷And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. ⁸Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.”

⁹And God said to Abraham: “As for you, you shall keep My covenant, you and your descendants after you throughout their generations. ¹⁰This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you: Every male child among you shall be circumcised; ¹¹and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you. (Genesis 17:1-11)

In this post, I am not going to talk about the meaning of the covenant, but rather on the question: where did it take place?

The Lord commanded Abram: “Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you. (Genesis 13:17).

And indeed, Abraham walked the land from north to south and from east to west.

Many places are mentioned by their names and what Abraham did there:

He built altars in Shechem and Bethel; Moved his tent to Elonei Mamre; Journeyed to Kadesh and Shur; Planted a tree in Beersheba; Pursued kings to Damascus; Sacrificed in the Land of Moriah; and so on.

But two events are described without any reference to a location: the two covenants.

As Bible scholars, we want to learn: where were the places of the covenants.

Let’s start our investigation:

Where was the place of the “Covenants of the Parts”

Mount Hermon

One very common suggestion for the place of the “Covenant of the Parts” is Mount Hermon.

There are several reason to believe that this is the place: The covenant took place, as described in the Bible, immediately after Abram met king of Sodom and Melchizedek king of Salem in “Valley of Shaveh” (Gen 14:17). Unfortunately, there is not an agreement about where valley of Shaveh is…

So, if we look in the Bible a little before that story, we read that Abram was chasing the four kings that took Lot until Hobah which is north of Damascus (Gen 14:15). So, it makes sense, that on his way back, The Lord made the covenant with Abraham on a high mountain somewhere between Damascus and Canaan. Mount Hermon is a good candidate.

Another reason to believe that mount Hermon was the place is the fact that there is an old Jewish tradition (and even Muslim tradition) that relates Mount Hermon to our story. There is even a site that is called “Place of the Parts” that refers to Abraham.

There are though, two problem with the identification of Mount Hermon:

Abraham met King of Sodom and Melchizedek in “Valley of Shaveh that is, the King’s Valley”. Valley of Shaveh is not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible, but the King’s valley is mentioned once more as the place where Absalom had built himself a pillar as a tomb. (2 Samuel 18:18). It makes sense that Absalom built his tomb close to Jerusalem and not in Hermon Mountain.
The Jewish tradition of “Place of the Parts” on mount Hermon started not before 16th century AD by Jewish pilgrims. So it is quite a “new” tradition that does not go back to Biblical times.

Elonei Mamre (Oaks of Mamre) in Hebron

Let’s read again the verse from the Bible:

And the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh, that is, the King’s Valley, after his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him. (Genesis 14:17)

Note that the Bible says: “after his return“. This can point out that all this happened close to where Abraham lived. But Abraham did not live in one place: he moved from one place to another. So how about looking for the last place where he set his tent.?

Then Abram moved his tent and came and dwelt by the oaks of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and there he built an altar to the Lord. (Genesis 13:18)

Oaks of Mamre, or in Hebrew Elonei Mamre, is then the new candidate for the place of the covenant.

And where was the place of the Covenant of Circumcision?

This is in Genesis 17. Again here, there is no reference for a place.

If we go to the previous chapter, to find a reference, then it is the story of Hagar and Ishmael. This story in chapter 16 ends with the saying that Abram was 86 years old.

Chapter 17 starts telling us that Abram was 99 years old when the Lord appeared to him.

It means that 13 years passed between the two stories. We cannot just assume that he was in the same place all those years…

So, why not try to get the location reference from what happens after the Covenant of the Circumcision. In Chapter 18:

Now the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day. (Genesis 18:1)

This is the beginning of the Story of the three men that came to Abraham and promised him a son from his wife.

We understand that Abraham, after many years, was still in Elonei Mamre. (Later on he would move to the south and set his tent in Beersheba).

So here again, Elonei Mamre is the place where the Covenant could have take place.

Another option though…

I want to come with a different approach about where the covenants took place.

And this is directly from the Bible itself:

Could it be that there is a reason why it was not mentioned where exactly the covenants took place?

If all Abraham’s moves in the country were commented so well exactly where he went and what he did in every place, but the covenants do not have a location – maybe this is in purpose?

Both covenants come with the promise of the inheritance of the land:

¹⁸On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates ¹⁹the Kenites, the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, ²⁰the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, ²¹the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.” (Genesis 15:18-21)

⁷And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. ⁸Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” (Genesis 17:7-8)

The promise in the covenant is the inheritance of the whole land of Canaan. Therefore there is no specific location.

I believe that when the Bible does not mention a place – there is a reason and purpose!

I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their God

Bible Code Revealed !??

Bible_code_in_Exodus_1,1-6

The Bible, as we know it, was translating to many languages, but the original language is ancient Hebrew. Many people have searched to find a code or a cipher in the Bible that shows divine meaning in it.

And indeed, there are many examples of secrets found in the Bible that can be revealed using decryption method.

In this article, I am not going to dive into those theories or methods. Many books have been written about this subject. I want to focus on something else that people do not always notice: how modern cryptology is explained in the Bible.

Because I am a software engineer, and worked a lot with modern cryptology and ciphering algorithms, I was surprised to reveal that some of the most complicated methods that were invented in the 20th century, were already mentioned in the Bible.

Thus, I am going to explain in simple words, some of the cryptology methods and point to the references in the Bible.

Cryptography for dummies

Goal of cryptography

Cryptography is the practice of sending confidential text or data to another person, in a way that only the recipient can read it. Any person in the middle, including the messenger, should not be able to understand the message.

Terminology

Cipher – a cipher is a method (algorithm) that dictates how a piece of text is being encrypted and decrypted. for example, a common cipher is the method of switching letters according to some replacement table.
Key/Secret – the key is what is used to encrypt and to decrypt the message. Without the key the message cannot be read. The sender of the message, needs to make sure that the recipient has the key to open and read the message. for example, in a letter switching method, the replacement table is the Key. In the army, they use this method and change the table every two weeks.
Identification – because the Key for decryption should be kept secured, the sender of the message also wants to make sure that the recipient got the Key, and not anybody else. Because if the Key falls into wrong hands, all messages are revealed. Therefore the sender wants to identify the person that he hands the key to.
Password/Passcode – this is the same as Key, but it is more often used for authentication (Identification). So when I, as a sender wants to verify the identity of the receiver, I ask him to use a password for identification. After successful authentication, I give him the key to decipher messages that I will send in the future. So we have doubled our security.

After this technical introduction, let’s see how all this appears in the Bible.

Gematria (Hebrew: גמטריא‬)

This is the simplest type of cipher. In the Hebrew alphabet, every letter has a numeric value. Aleph:א = 1, Bet:ב‬ = 2, Gimel:ג‬ = 3, etc.

All the chapters and verses in the Hebrew Bible are numbered by letters and not by numbers. So Genesis 1:1 is numbered: א:א. Psalms 114 is numbered: קי‬ד‬‬.

The cipher here is a translation table between letters and numbers. But the secret is revealed to everyone because it is not really a secret.

Gematria is used a lot in Kabbala, because each word can be translated into a number, and the numbers can be assessed according to numerology.

David and Jonathan

A real example of using a very unique cipher is the story of David and Jonathan. David was afraid that Saul, Jonathan’s father, wanted to kill him. Jonathan, in order to comfort David, Suggests how he would reveal to David whether the king wanted to kill him or not:

David would hide behind a rock. Jonathan, after hearing his father in the palace would send a secret message to David, because no one should know that they have communicated each other. Jonathan would shoot three arrows and would send his servant to find them. He would call the boy with a message that is the secret for David to know whether the king wants to kill him or not (1 Samuel, 20).

In this story we have a Cipher – this is the method that Jonathan agreed with David on how to understand the message. There is a Key – that is the secret message that Jonathan sent when calling his servant. The servant himself, is a messenger that did not have a Key, and therefore could not decipher the message.

But note that there is also a need here for Authentication: Jonathan knew David and passed the secret to him and him only. He did not give the secret to someone else so the secret would not fall into wrong hands.

God will provide the Key

Several times it happened in the Bible that there was a message encrypted and nobody could understand it. But then, there was one person who had the ability (the Key) to decipher the message. This person got the key directly from God.

The different dreams that Joseph interpreted in Egypt were one such example.

Daniel also interpreted the dream of Nebuchadnezzar. In this case, the king forgot the dream and Daniel could tell him exactly what was the dream and what was its meaning.

Daniel deciphered later another message that was not a dream. It was king Belshazzar:

⁴They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone. ⁵In the same hour the fingers of a man’s hand appeared and wrote opposite the lampstand on the plaster of the wall of the king’s palace; and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.

…

²⁵“And this is the inscription that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.

²⁶This is the interpretation of each word. MENE: God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it; ²⁷TEKEL: You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting; ²⁸PERES: Your kingdom has been divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.” (Daniel 5:4-5, 26-28)

There is no way to understand the meaning of the message from God without a key. The key id given to special chosen people and only then the message can be deciphered.

Give me the password!

⁵The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan opposite Ephraim. And it happened when any of the fugitives of Ephraim said, “Let me cross over,” the men of Gilead would say to him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he said, “No,” ⁶then they would say to him, “Say now, ‘Shibboleth.’” But he said, “Sibboleth,” for he could not pronounce it correctly. Then they seized him and slew him at the fords of the Jordan. Thus there fell at that time 42,000 of Ephraim. (Judges 12:5-6)

According to this story, the people of Gilead, led by Jephthah, were fighting against Ephraim. They could not distinguish one from the other – not by look or by language. But there was something about the people of Ephraim: They could not pronounce the word “Shibboleth” properly.

“Shibboleth” was the “Password” that was used for authentication.

Note that in this case, we call it “Biometric authentication“, because it is something the the person has by nature and therefore can be easily tracked.

A side note here about the word “Shibboleth”(שִׁבֹּלֶת‬): Its meaning in Hebrew is “stalk of grain”. In Modern cryptography this word is used to refer to “Password” and is even used as a trademark for an Identity Solution framework. Check it here: shibboleth.net

Forgot your password?

What would you do if you’ve forgotten your password? You need a way to reset it, Right?

This happened to the people of Israel:

¹¹The whole vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is literate, saying, “Read this, please.”

And he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.”

¹²Then the book is delivered to one who is illiterate, saying, “Read this, please.”

And he says, “I am not literate.” (Isaiah 29:11-12)

When the Key or Password is lost, we are in trouble. We cannot read the encrypted messages. Isaiah says in his prophecy that this is what happened to the people of Israel.

In the past, they have had access to the Word of God. But now, they lost access and cannot read the book. Some of them are illiterate and cannot read, others can read but the book is sealed and they cannot open it. In both cases, the method – Cipher – is known, but the Key was lost.

sealed book

Asymmetric cryptography

We go now to a further complication of cryptography: Asymmetric cryptography.

The idea is simple, but not the implementation.

Let’s assume that the one who writes the message and encrypt it, use one private Key. But in order to decipher the message, the recipient needs a different key. A public key. The algorithm to implement this is very difficult, but feasible. Why do we need this?

Because, If I have a private key that only I can encrypt a message, then anyone that accept the message and can decrypt it, knows for sure that it arrived from me, as I am the only one that holds the private key. In this case, the recipient wants to validate that the message is authentic and got from the right sender.

The key of the house of David
I will lay on his shoulder;
So he shall open, and no one shall shut;
And he shall shut, and no one shall open. (Isaiah 22:22)

This is a precise example of asymmetric key set: The key of the house of David is the Private Key. It can open, and no one can close. It can close, and no one can open.

This same key appears again in The Book of Revelation.

These things says He who is holy, He who is true, He who has the key of David, He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens. (Revelations 3:7)

Israel – Jews – Hebrews: who are we?

Mount of olives.png

We, Jewish people, are part of a very old nation.

The identification of this nation changed throughout time.

We are the sons of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
Our land is called Israel, but it was Canaan in the past and also Judah
Our language is Hebrew
We are known in the world as Jews

Why is our identity so confusing?

Let’s try to explain all those terms:

Hebrews

This is the most ancient term. It was referred to Abraham before Israel existed.

“Then a fugitive came and told Abram the Hebrew. Now he was living by the oaks of Mamre” (Genesis 14:13)

The term “Hebrew” appears many times throughout the Bible and even in the New Testament there is the “Letter to the Hebrews”.

Today, We do not call ourselves “Hebrews” very often, but our language is called Hebrew, which denotes that it is a very ancient.

Where did this name come from?

Hebrew is the tongue of Eber, who is the forefather of many nations including Israel.

To Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided; and his brother’s name was Joktan. (Genesis 10:25)

Israel

Israel is the name that was given to Jacob after struggling with a mysterious man in Peniel. The name means “struggle with God”. Peniel, by the way, means “face of God”.

And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.” (Genesis 32:28)

The name Israel is mentioned many times in the Bible with reference to the people (Children of Israel, tribes of Israel), the kingdom of Israel and also to God of Israel.

Today this is the name of our state: State of Israel.

The land, before the children of Israel had conquered it, was called Canaan after the people who lived in it.

Judah

Judah is the name of a tribe in Israel. The tribe of the forth son of Jacob/Israel

The kingdom of Israel was divided in the time of Rehoboam, son of King Solomon into two kingdoms: Israel, that was the big kingdom in the north of the country, and had ten tribes, and Judah, that was in the south of the land, and was Judah only (with Simeon and some of the Levites).

Now it came to pass when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had come back, they sent for him and called him to the congregation, and made him king over all Israel. There was none who followed the house of David, but the tribe of Judah only. (I Kings 12:20)

From here on, Israel and Judah are two distinct Kingdoms.

But note this: although the kingdom of Judah and the kingdom of Israel were foes most of the time, people of the kingdom of Judah are also children of Israel. But northern kingdom of Israel does not have part in Judah.

Many prophecies refer to Israel and Judah together.

In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell safely; Now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. (Jeremiah 23:6)

In many places in the Bible, the people of the northern kingdom of Israel are also called “Ephraim“. This may be to differ from “Israel” which include both the people of Judah and the people of the northern Kingdom.

Ephraim shall not envy Judah, And Judah shall not harass Ephraim (Isaiah 11:13)

Jews

Jews and Jewish are terms used to describe the people who once belonged to Judah.

Kingdom of Judah was destroyed by Babylon and people were sent to exile in the first half of the 6th century BC. From this time on, the term “Jews” became the most common reference for our people. The term “Israelites” was rarely used.

Are we all Jews from the tribe of Judah only?

we do not know for sure. Certainly, we have among us people that came from the levites, but also Benjamin, Simeon and maybe other tribes as well.

Modern state of Israel

When the state of the Jews was founded, there was a question of how to call it.

The major suggestions were “Judah” and “Israel”, but also “Zion” and “state of the Hebrews”.

The name Judah made sense, as we are all Jews, which means we refer to Judah.

But there was a problems with this name: if we called it “Judah” it would not include the rest of the tribes of Israel, who, according to the prophecies of the Bible, should also return to their land.

Therefore the name “Israel” was chosen.

There is hope in your future, says the Lord,
That your children shall come back to their own border (Jeremiah 31:17)

Where is the city of Ai?

“Now Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is beside Beth Aven, on the east side of Bethel” (Joshua 7:2)

049.Joshua_Burns_the_Town_of_Ai

The city of Ai is the second city that the sons of Israel conquered in the land of Canaan, after Jericho.

The identification of the location of the city of Ai is one of the most controversial topics in Biblical archeology and research.

As explained in another post, many of the names of Biblical sites are revealed in Arab villages names.

Two of the places quoted above from Joshua 7:2 are identified using Arab synonym of existing places:

Jericho is identified very well and the Arab name of the city today is Aricha.
Bethel in the Bible is identified as the Arab village of Beitin.

The other two places: Ai and Beth-Aven do not have an Arab village name that preserves their location.

What did the writer of the book of Joshua know?

Looking back to the quoted text, you may notice something very interesting: The writer needs to explain where the Ai is, and he explains this by references to two different places: “Ai, which is beside Beth Aven, on the east side of Bethel“.

What is the meaning of this? Well, obviously, when this book was edited, people did not know where the Ai was, but they DID know where Bet-Aven and Bethel were. So the writer could tell them the location by reference.

For example, if a visitor comes to your city and asks you where is the location of a certain bank branch, you may tell him: “Go to the central station, and three blocks after McDonald’s you will see the bank”. You give instructions to a place that is not known by referring to places that are known.

Another such example can be found about Shiloh in the book of Judges:

“There is a yearly feast of the Lord in Shiloh, which is north of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah” (Judges 21:19)

Here again, in the time that the book was written, Shiloh did not exist (was destroyed by the Philistines in the battle of Ebenezer). So it was pointed by reference to Bethel, Shechem and Lebonah that existed in that time.

Back to our topic: we learn that the location of the Ai was not known in the time of writing the book of Joshua, but Bethel and Beth-Aven were known. This fact will be very important later when trying to identify where the Ai is!

Archeological Embarrassment

“And he moved from there to the mountain east of Bethel, and he pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; there he built an altar to the Lord and called on the name of the Lord.” (Genesis 12:8)

Another quote about Abraham that set his tent “with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east” led American Biblical scholar Edward Robinson, and later William Foxwell Albright, to identify the Ai with a little hill that is called in Arabic ״Et-Tell״. The location was perfect! Even the Arabic name Et-Tel that means “The ruin” was a good sign as Ai in Hebrew also means “heap of ruins”.

in the 1930s, the first archeological expedition started to excavate the place. The archeologists started with a great excitement and the Baron Rothschild funded the excavation. Everyone thought that they are going to bring the story of the Bible to life.

But then, a bitter surprise: In 1935, after examining the finding of Et-Tel, the report showed that indeed there was a Canaanite city in this place. The city had a wall, a fortified palace and Canaanite temple. And this city was burned to ashes around 2100 BC. Around 1000 BC, during early Israelite period, a small village was built again in the site for about 200 years.

Could it be that the sons of Israel led by Joshua burned that big city? NO!!! The conquest of Canaan by Israel dates to, according to the different scholars, between 1450 BC to 1200 BC. Those who count according to the Bible take the earlier date, and other archeologists choose the later date.

But in any case, when Joshua entered Canaan, the fortified city that was found in the ruins in Et-Tell was already destroyed for at least 600 years!

Homat_hai_1

How can sort out this confusion?

The resolutions to what was found in the excavations in Et-Tell went in two different directions, depending on the point of view of the beholder:

Those who wanted to refute the Bible as an historical evidence, concluded that the Bible was just not right and Joshua did not conquer the Ai. Instead, they said, there was an evidence of a place that was burned in history, and the ancient Jews told the story that it was Joshua who burned it.
Those who believed that the Bible was true, claimed that Et-Tell is just a wrong identification. The Ai is out there somewhere and is yet to be discovered.

Read in this article more about the debate between those who try to affirm the Bible through archeology and those who try to refute it.

I want to focus on one very interesting solution to this perplexity that was suggested by Prof. Yehoshua Meir Grints who was a Bible scholar in Tel Aviv university. His analysis is described again by Prof. Yoel Elitzur in his book: Places in the Parashah.^[1]

Let’s go back to our key verses:

He pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east (Gen. 12:8)
Ai, which is beside Beth Aven, on the east side of Bethel (Josh. 7:2)

In Genesis, the Ai is east of Bethel and Beth-Aven is not mentioned. In Joshua, the Ai is still east to Bethel, but we also find that it is beside Beth-Aven.

Grints concluded that the three cities were indeed close to one another, but have not existed simultaneously all the time. In the time of Abraham (or the time of writing Genesis) the Ai existed but Beth-Aven did not. Where in the time of editing the book of Joshua, Beth-Aven existed but the Ai did not.

Grints collected all the places in the Bible where the three cities appear and found out something quite surprising:

Bethel existed from the time of the patriarchs through the Bible until the return to Zion in the time of Cyrus.

The Ai existed most of the time of the Bible except for the time after it was destroyed by Joshua, and then was rebuilt in the time of the Israelite kings. Beth-Aven on the other hand, existed only in the time of Joshua, Judges and Samuel.

The suggestion is that those two cities: the Ai and Beth-Aven did not co-exist. In each period only one of them stood in its place.

Going back to the excavations in Et-Tell, it is most likely that this site is Beth-Aven and not the Ai!

Map Of Bethel And Ai 1

Summary

The place that was found and was originally identified as the Ai (Et-Tell) is probably not the Ai. It may be the ruins of Beth-Aven.

So where is the Ai? we do not know. This may be found in the future. But it is also possible that it will never be found. As it is written:

“So Joshua burned Ai and made it a heap forever, a desolation to this day” (Joshua 8:28)

Continue reading “Where is the city of Ai?”