Copyright © 1958 by Westminster
Theological Seminary, cited with permission.
THE HA-BI-RU--KIN OR FOE
OF
THIRD
ARTICLE
MEREDITH G. KLINE
II. Ha-BI-ru--HEBREW
RELATIONS
A fascination with the possibilities
of illuminating Hebrew
origins has characterized studies of the ha-BI-ru. As
observed
at the outset, popular theory has it that the
Hebrews were
one offshoot of the ha-BI-ru. This theory may start with
the supposition that the ha-BI-ru were a social class or an
ethnic group. Although some form of either approach
can be
developed without the assumption that the terms ha-BI-ru
and 'Ibri can be equated phonetically or at least
semantically
they are greatly strengthened if such equation can
be estab-
lished. It is necessary in
this connection to survey the usage
of 'Ibrim in the Old Testament and to face the question of
the phonetic relation of ha-BI-ru and 'Ibri.
A.
The Usage of 'Ibrim
in the Old Testament.
Support for the view that the term ha-BI-ru
denotes a
larger whole from which the biblical Hebrews
originated has
been claimed in the usage of the term 'Ibrim in the
Old
Testament. There is no doubt that the gentilic 'Ibri is
ordinarily used in the Old Testament as an ethnicon for
Abraham
and his descendants of the Isaac-Jacob line.178 In
a
178 The word is found
almost exclusively in a few clusters which suggests
that particular circumstances account for its
employment. One such
group appears in the narrative of the Egyptian
sojourn and bondage; a
second in the record of Israelite-Philistine
relationships during the days of
Samuel
and Saul; and a third in a series of texts dealing with the manumis-
sion of Hebrew servants.
There are besides only the isolated appearances
in Genesis 14:13 and Jonah 1:9. The great majority
of these are instances
of non-Israelites speaking to or about Israelites,
or of Israelites speaking to
foreigners, or of declarations of God destined for
foreigners. Where it is
46
HA-BI-RU 47
few passages, however, some have judged that 'Ibrim is used
in a non-Israelite or even appellative sense and
that in such
texts an original, wider (i.
e., ha-BI-ru)
connotation emerges.
These
passages must be examined.
1.
The 'Ebed 'Ibri Legislation.
In the legislation of Exod.
21:2 and Deut. 15:12 and in
the references to these laws in Jer.
34:9, 14 the term ‘Ibri
has
been thought to denote not the ethnic character of
the servant
but a particular variety of servanthood.
J. Lewy develops
this theory on the basis of his interpretation of
the term
ha-Bl-ru in the Nuzu contracts as an appellative meaning
"foreign-servant",
and his judgment that the parallels between
the status of the ha-BI-ru servants and the 'ebed ‘Ibri of
Exod. 21:2 (and the associated passages) are so
close and
numerous as to indicate identical institutions
and identity
of meaning for ha-BI-ru and 'Ibri.179
the Israelite author who employs the term he is
often adapting his ter-
minology to the usage in the
context. In several passages a contrast is
drawn between Israelites and other ethnic groups.
It has been suggested that ‘Ibri uniformly possesses a
peculiar connota-
tion. For example, DeVaux (RB 55,
1948, pp. 344 ff.) maintains that it
has a derogatory nuance and finds the common
element in the fact that
the 'Ibrim are strangers in the milieu, while Kraeling (AJSL
58, 1941
pp. 237 ff.) suggests
that 'Ibri
is an alternate for "Israelite" in situations
where the designee is not a free citizen in a free
community or on free soil.
The
latter formulation seems to be successful in unravelling
a strand
common to all the 'Ibri contexts but it remains uncertain whether such a
nuance necessarily attached to the employment of the
word. Cf. Green-
berg, op. cit.,
p. 92.
179 HUCA XIV, 1939, pp. 587 ff.; XV, 1940, pp. 47 ff. Cf. his note in
Bottero, op. cit., pp. 163-4, where he
translates ha-BI-ru
as "resident
alien". Lewy supports
his thesis with the considerations that the ha-BI-ru
are present in the Mitannian
orbit in the period during which the 'Ibrim
became a nation and that the whole area in question
had been unified
under the Hyksos with the
result that the same technical terms and
analogous institutions are found throughout. He
holds that this social-
legal appellative usage of Ibri
represents the earliest stage (noting its
appearance in the first paragraph of
that later the term was used in an ethnic sense for
the descendants of the
"Hebrews par excellence".
Cf. supra WTJ XIX, pp. 183, 184.
48
But
is the situation on the Nuzu side clearly as Lewy has
reconstructed it? There are texts180
in which the person(s)
concerned is not designated as an ha-BI-ru and
yet the
tial clauses of the contract
are those characteristic of the
contracts where the persons are labeled as ha-BI-ru. It
is,
therefore, difficult to insist that we are dealing
with a specif-
ically ha-BI-ru type of servanthood.181
While, therefore,
ha-BI-ru are found in the great majority of these
contracts,
they are not necessarily involved in all of them,182
and one
may not assume then the existence in the Nuzu area of a
specifically ha-BI-ru brand of slavery.
Moreover, even if Lewy's
view of the Nuzu evidence were
to be adopted, the biblical evidence would
contradict the
translation of ‘Ibri as
"foreign-servant" in the ‘ebed ‘Ibri
legislation. For the biblical law is patently not
dealing with
foreign servants but with those who were their
masters'
brethren. The Deut. 15:12 expansion of the
original state-
ment reads, "If thy
brother183 a Hebrew man, or a Hebrew
woman, be sold unto thee"; while Jeremiah,
further expanding
it urges "that every man should let go free
his man-servant
and every man his maid-servant, that is a Hebrew or
He-
brewess ; that none should make
bondmen of them, namely,
of a Jew, his brother" (34:9, cf. vs. 14).
While one may then
recognize the instructive parallels in the
conditions of servant-
hood at Nuzu and in the
biblical legislation, it is impossible
to hold that ‘Ibri is in this legislation a
technical term for a
180 JEN VI, 610, 611, 613 (cf. JEN
V, 456:9-23); JEN V, 446, 449,
457 and 462.
181 An alternate interpretation
has been advocated in the present study.
See
supra WTJ XIX, pp. 179, 180, 183,
184.
182 Especially relevant is the
figure of Attilammu the Assyrian in the
servant contract JEN VI, 613:2. Even when this text in abbreviated form
is included in the Sammelurkunde JEN V, 456 between two contracts in
which the persons are specifically designated as ha-BI-ru (i. e., in a situation
where there would be a tendency to uniformity), Attilammu is not
described as an ha-BI-ru. It is further to be observed in
connection with
the use of as-su-ra-a-a-u for Attilammu in JEN VI, 613 that when ha-BI-ru
from Ashur are so
described it is as sa-mat as-su-ur.
183 Note the clear distinction drawn in
verse 3 between "the foreigner"
and "thy brother" in the law of the
seventh year release with respect
to debt.
HA-BI-RU 49
specific type of servanthood184 and
least of all for the
idea of "foreign-servant". Its usage is
rather ethnic, as
always.
2.
The ‘Ibrim
in I Samuel 13 and 14.
It has been affirmed that the 'Ibrim here (cf. 13:3, 7, 19;
14:11,
21) are quite clearly non-Israelites.185 The proper
interpretation of these verses is,
indeed, difficult; nevertheless,
to distinguish between the ‘Ibrim and the Israelites would
be at odds with the decisive evidence in this
context of their
identity. Thus, in 13:3, 4, Myrib;fihA
and lxerAW;yi-lkA are
obvious
equivalents (cf. Ufm;wA
lxerAW;yi-lkAv; :Myrib;fihA
Ufm;w;yi).186 More-
over, it is apparently in reference to the hiding of
those de-
scribed in 13:6 as the "men of
"Behold,
the ‘Ibrim
are coming out of the holes where they had
hid themselves" (14:11b). Again, the
equivalence of Myrib;fihA
with the inhabitants lxerAW;yi
Cr,x, lkoB; and with lxerAW;yi-lkA
in 13:19, 20 is evident.
To find, then, in the ‘Ibrim of 13:7 a group ethnically
distinct from the "men of
the term ‘Ibrim a change from its contextual significance too
abrupt to be plausible. Verses 6 and 7 are concerned
with
two groups of Israelites. Verse 6 refers to those
excused by
Saul
from military service (cf. vs. 2).187 These
hide in the
hills and caves west of
the selected troops who were with Saul at Gilgal near the
Gad
and
184 The 'ebed in the phrase ‘ebed ‘Ibri (Exod. 21:2) would then be tau-
tological, and Alt feels obliged
to exscind it from the text.
185 Cf. e. g., A. Guillaume, PEQ,
1946, p. 68.
186 The LXX rendering of the end
of verse 3, h]qeth<kasin oi[ dou?loi
(as though the Hebrew were Myrbfh
vfwp) seems to be a conjectural emenda-
tion occasioned by the fact
that Myrib;fihA comes somewhat
unexpectedly
on the lips of Saul.
187 13:4b does not describe a regathering of those sent home but simply
indicates the new location of Saul and his chosen
army at Gilgal.
188 There were originally 3000
chosen by Saul (13:2), but after the
approach of the Philistines in force and Samuel's
delay there were only
600
left (13:11, 15; 14:2).
50
In 14:21 it is not necessary to follow the
English versions in
regarding the ‘Ibrim as men who had been serving
in the
Philistine army. Even if such a
translation were adopted, it
would still be gratuitous to identify these ‘Ibrim as non-
Israelites
for they might be Israelite turn-coats.
But verse 21 may be translated
: "Now the Hebrews were
towards the Philistines as formerly when189
they went up
with them in the camp round about;190
both they were with
the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan
and...".
The
antecedent of Mm.Afi, "with them",
appears to be "Saul
and all the people (or army)" of verse 20.
Another possibility
is to regard "the Philistines" as the
antecedent of "them"
but to translate the preposition
"against".191 In either case
this passage would contain no mention of ‘Ibrim as having
served in Philistine forces. Verses 21 and 22 rather
distinguish
as two elements swelling the unexpectedly
triumphant rem-
nants of Saul's army those
who had deserted after being
selected by Saul to encamp against the
Philistines (vs. 21)
and those who, after being dismissed by Saul,192
were fright-
ened into hiding by the
alarming course of the conflict (vs. 22).
This distinction in 14:21, 22 is the same as
that found in
13:6, 7a. Indeed, the terminology in the two
passages is
deliberately made to correspond. ‘Ibrim is used in
both
13:7a
and 14:21 for the deserters; and "men of
13:6
and 14:22 for the people who hid in the hill-country of
Ephraim. The ‘Ibrim of 14:21 will then be the
deserting
soldiers of Saul who had crossed over193
the
resume their former position in the Israelite ranks
against
the Philistines.
189 Cf. Brown, Driver and
Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon of the
Old
Testament (
190 Is this an allusion to the
circumstance that the original three Israelite
positions at
garrison at Geba? If
the Massoretic text and accentuation (bybisA) stand,
the next clause will be a pseudo-verbal
construction (as translated above).
The
LXX and Syraic would read MGa
Ubb;sA, "they also
turned", which would
provide a parallel to Mga
UqB;d;y.ava (vs. 22).
191 Cf. Brown,
Driver and Briggs, op. cit., under Mfi lc.
192 For a similar military
development see Judg. 7:3-7, 23, 24.
193 The use of
Urb;fA. in
13:7a suggests the possibility of Myrib;fohAv;, "those
who passed over", as the original in 14:21
(cf. the participle, MyxiB;Hat;mi.ha,
HA-BI-RU 51
3.
Abraham the ‘Ibri
(Gen. 14:13).
Is ‘Ibri in this its earliest biblical appearance used eth-
nically? This question may be
dealt with in connection with
an inquiry into the origin of the term ‘Ibri. Broad
contextual
considerations indicate that in his
use of ‘Ibri
in Gen. 14:13,
the author had in mind ‘Eber of the line of Shem (cf.
Gen.
10:21,
24, 25; 11:14-i 7).194 The direct descent
of Abraham
from ‘Eber had already been traced in the genealogy of
Gen. 11:10-26. Moreover, the departure
from the stereotyped
presentation of the genealogical
data in Gen. 10 to describe
Shem
as "the father of all the children of ‘Eber" (vs. 21)195
is most readily accounted for as an anticipation
of the author's
imminent concentration (cf. Gen. 11:27 ff.) upon
the Semitic
Eberites par excellence, i.
e., the "Hebrews" whom Yahweh
chose to be the channel of revelation and redemption.
In
Gen.
14:13 then, ‘Ibri
is a patronymic, applied in this isolated
way to Abraham perhaps to contrast him with the
many other
ethnic elements which play a role in this context.
On the other hand, many regard this usage of ‘Ibri as
appellative and then find their interpretations of
the term
ha-BI-ru reflected in it.196 The appellative view is ancient,
for the LXX renders yrib;fihA as o[
pera<thj;197
perai~thj; Jerome, as transeuphratensis;
and the prevailing
view of the rabbis a generation after
in the corresponding member of 14:21). Such a
change in the Massoretic
pointing would support a corresponding change to Myrib;fov; in 13:7a. If
the Massoretic Myrib;fiv;. is
original, the author perhaps employed this
designation of the Israelites to produce a word play
with Urb;fA.
194 yrib;fi (‘ibri)
is the gentilic formation of rbAfa (‘eber).
195 Cf. also the additional
remark in Gen. 10:25.
196 For example, W. F. Albright,
JAOS 48, 1928, pp. 183 ff., once found
in both the idea of "mercenary"; and DeVaux, op. cit.,
pp. 337 ff., that of
"stranger". Kraeling, op.
cit., held that ‘Ibri
is used to underscore Abra-
ham's role as a sojourner who pays tribute to
Melchizedek.
197 Parzen,
AJSL 49, pp. 254 ff., is mistaken in
his opinion that the
LXX
actually found rbfh in the Hebrew text. Noth, "Erwagungen zur
Hebraerfrage", in Festschrift Otto Procksch
(
probably correct in stating that the LXX
translator simply regarded it as
desirable at this first appearance of ‘Ibri to indicate
what was, in his
opinion, its significance.
52
designated Abraham as "from the other side of
the river".198
All
of these derived 'Ibri
from the substantive meaning "the
other side" rather than from the verb ‘br.199 In line with this
view of the etymology is the emphasis in Joshua
24:2, 3 on
Abraham's origin "beyond the River". But these facts are
far from possessing the weight of the more
immediate con-
textual considerations cited above. Here too
then ‘Ibri
is
not appellative but ethnic.
4. Conclusion.
It has appeared from this study that, the term 'Ibrim in
the Old Testament has uniformly an ethnic meaning
and
denotes descendants of Eber
in the line of Abraham-Isaac-
Jacob exclusively. Deriving from the
eponymous ancestor
'Eber the term is probably
early;200 in particular, its applica-
tion to Abraham need not be proleptic. To judge from
its characteristic association with foreigners in
the biblical
contexts and the general avoidance of it by the
Israelites,
it possibly originated outside the line of
Abraham. Orig-
inally it may have been of
wider application than is the
usage in the Old Testament, denoting other
descendants of
Eber than
the Abrahamites. This is perhaps suggested by
the use of 'Eber in Gen. 10:21 and Num. 24:24.201 In
that
199 Greenberg, op. cit., p. 5, n. 24, directs attention
to the evidence for
this in Beresit Rabba 42, 8. A minority opinion of the rabbis was that
Abraham
was called the 'Ibri
because he was a descendant of 'Eber.
199 This appears to be so even
in the LXX, although later Patristic
writings in treating the LXX rendering derived it
from a verbal base.
(cf.
Greenberg, ibid.).
200 Kraeling,
op. cit., offers the strange
hypothesis that "Hebrews"
is a secondarily personalized form of a
geographical name, i. e., "Overites"
from rhAnA.ha rbAfa
adopted by the Israelites as late as the early monarchy in
an attempt to orientate themselves to the world in
which they had just
become prominent. The usage would thus be that of the
first millennium
even when applied to the Patriarchs. H. H. Rowley
counters: (a) in the
early monarchy, consciousness of being from over the
apparent among the Hebrews; (b) the term
disappeared almost completely
from the Old Testament with the establishment of the
monarchy; (c) The
Israelites
would hardly adopt as a symbol of self-esteem a term "generally
employed in a pejorative sense". PEQ, 1942, pp. 41-53; From Joseph to
Joshua, 1952, pp. 54-5; cf.
further O'Callaghan's criticism in
Naharaim p.
216, n. 4.
201 The validity of conclusions
based on the tradition of descent from
HA-BI-RU 53
case the appearance of such gentilic
but non-Abrahamic
‘Ibrim in some
non-biblical text of the patriarchal age need
not come altogether unexpectedly.
Do the ha-BI-ru qualify?
According to the conclusions
already reached in this study concerning the
probable ge-
ographical and ethnic origins of
the ha-BI-ru
they do not
qualify as Semitic let alone Eberite
kin of the Hebrews.202
On
the other hand, a final judgment on this larger issue is
Eber is challenged by DeVaux's
contention (op. cit.) that there are diver-
gent views within the Old Testament. He grants that
the composer(s)
of the biblical genealogies derives ‘Ibri from the
ancestor ‘Eber,
but finds
in the reference to Jacob as a "wandering Aramean" (Deut. 26:5) a
conflicting tradition of Aramaic origin (cf. Gen.
10:22-24). DeVaux
believes the latter to be further supported by
the description of Laban,
grandson of Abraham's brother Nahor,
as an "Aramean" (Gen. 31:20).
According
to the record, however, the term "Aramean"
could have been
applied to both Jacob and Laban
in virtue of their long residence in
Paddan-aram and so construed would say nothing about
their lineage.
DeVaux also insists, but unnecessarily, on identifying
the Aram of Gen.
10:22
and the Aram of Gen. 22:21, which would then bring
the two passages
into hopeless confusion. Finally, DeVaux appeals to the prophetic denun-
ciation of
the land of the Canaanite; the Amorite was your
father and the Hittite
your mother". Actually, as is apparent from the
context (cf. especially
vss. 45 ff.), Ezekiel is using a scathing figure to
say that from the first
relationship with Yahweh as were her
despised heathen neighbors--the
point being that
of divine grace. But even if Ezekiel were speaking
of literal racial inter-
mixture, the reference would be not to Abraham's
family origins but to the
subsequent mingling of the racial strain of his
descendants with those of
the inhabitants of
BI-ru were
of common Aramaean descent. Starting with the notion
that
the ha-BI-ru were desert
nomads, DeVaux seeks to relate the ha-BI-ru
to the Aramaeans by a
partial identification of them with proto-Aramaean
nomadic Ahlamu.
202 Greenberg, op. cit, pp. 93
ff., provides an example of how the biblical
usage of ‘Ibrim can be regarded as consistently ethnic, and ha-BI-ru be
deemed an appellative for a social class, and yet the
terms be equated
and the Hebrews derived from the ha-BI-ru. He
suggests that Abraham
was an ha-BI-ru, but this epithet as applied to Abraham's
descendants
became an ethnicon. Later
biblical genealogists, unaware of this, invented
the ancestor 'Eber, man of many descendants, in order to explain at
one
stroke the known kinship of the Hebrews to other
Semitic tribes and the
origin of their name!
54
bound to be seriously affected by one's opinion on
the phonetic
question of whether the term ha-BI-ru can be equated with
the term 'Ibri (and so be derived from 'Eber).203
B. Phonetic
Relation of Ha-BI-ru to 'Ibri.
1. Consonants.
The common cuneiform spelling of the name
is ha-BI-ru the final u
being, according to the usual assump-
tion, the nominative case
ending, which yields as the grammat-
ical relations require to
other case or gentilic endings.204 In this
cuneiform rendering the identity of the first two
radicals is
ambiguous. The initial consonant is ambiguous
because
Accadian h
may represent other letters than Hebrew H;205
among them, Hebrew f.206 The
second is ambiguous because
203 In addition to the supposed
phonetic equivalence of ha-BI-ru and
'Ibri, support has been
sought for the derivation of the Hebrews from the
ha-BI-ru by appeal to certain parallels in the careers
of the two. But the
similarities are for the most part
superficial or based on misinterpretations
of the data on one side or the other. For a recent
popular example see
H.
Orlinsky, Ancient
H.
H. Rowley From Joseph to Joshua, 1952, p. 53, n. 1.
Items like the
following have been or might be mentioned: (a) In
each case there is a
westward movement about the
demonstrated for the ha-BI-ru and,
in the case of the Hebrews, it applies
not to the group as such but only to Abraham.) (b)
The chronological
span of the use of the terms ha-BI-ru and 'Ibri is roughly the same. (c)
Both
groups move in the Hurrian cultural orbit and exhibit
the influence
of this fact. (d) The military activity of Abraham
the Hebrew in Genesis
14
and the attack of Simeon and Levi on Shechem are
comparable to
ha-BI-ru razzias. (But this
involves a superficial estimate of both biblical
instances.) (e) The ha-BI-ru mercenary activity is paralleled
by the
Hebrews in the Philistine army. (But this is a
misinterpretation of the
biblical data.) (f) Both groups are in
(g)
The ha-BI-ru
are frequently strangers in the milieu and such are the
Hebrew patriarchs in
holdings in
204 Cf. supra, WTJ XIX, pp. 9-11.
205 Indeed, as A. Ungnad observes, "Bisweilen wird h fur 3 gebraucht"
(Grammatik
des Akkadischen, 1949, p. 9).
206 In the Canaanite glosses in
the Tell el Amarna tablets are found, for
example: hu-ul-lu (EA 296:38) = lfo (cf. XXX) ; and hi-na-ia (EA 144:17) =
ynayfa (cf. XXXX). Cf. E. A. Speiser, Ethnic
Movements in the
the Second Millennium B.C., 1933, p. 39.<