{"id":54282,"date":"2019-04-24T12:27:22","date_gmt":"2019-04-24T09:27:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=54282"},"modified":"2022-11-15T07:48:41","modified_gmt":"2022-11-15T05:48:41","slug":"an-orientation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/an-orientation\/","title":{"rendered":"An Orientation"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[361],"acf":{"old_id":"54282","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":34243,"related_cahpter":"205","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"E, W, S, N - Shining, Sea, Dry, Hidden. Is that clear?","content":"

Before we get further into more of the minute details of how the land was apportioned among the remaining tribes, we would do well to consider some of the larger particulars.<\/span><\/p>\n

Each tribe\u2019s portion is described in terms of its boundaries, which are noted according to each of the four cardinal directions. The Hebrew term for boundary is <\/span>gevul<\/span><\/em>; <\/span>tzafon<\/span><\/em> is north, <\/span>negev<\/span><\/em> is south, <\/span>yam<\/span><\/em> is west and <\/span>kedem<\/span><\/em> is east. What are the etymologies of these words?<\/span><\/p>\n

The noun <\/span>gevul<\/span><\/em> derives from a verb that means to demarcate. We encountered it, first, on the eve of the revelation at Sinai when God instructed Moses to \u201cdemarcate (<\/span>hagbel<\/span><\/em>) the mountain and sanctify it\u201d (Exodus 19:23), and, again, in the prohibition \u201cDo not displace the demarcations (<\/span>gevul<\/span><\/em>) delineated (<\/span>gav\u2019lu<\/span><\/em>) by your predecessors\u201d (Dt. 19:14). Rather than lines on a map, these demarcations were most likely boundary stones; indeed, in Arabic, a Semitic language closely related to Hebrew, <\/span>g-b-l<\/span><\/em> means mountain, the earliest and most natural form of boundary. (The island of Gibraltar was originally named <\/span>G-B-L Tarik<\/span><\/em> after the Arab conqueror of Spain, Tarik Ibn Ziyad.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Yam<\/span><\/em> (v. 12) is west in biblical geography because the Mediterranean Sea lies to Israel\u2019s west, whereas <\/span>negev<\/span><\/em> (v. 13) is south because the verb <\/span>N-G-B<\/span><\/i> means to dry and the driest part of Israel lies to its south. <\/span>Tzafon<\/span><\/em> (v. 5) is a bit of a puzzle because its only meaning in Hebrew is \u201chidden,\u201d which may be a way of signifying that in the east-west arc of the \u201cFertile Crescent\u201d (Mesopotamia-Egypt), anything off to the north was out of the way. (Curiously, in Arabic, south is <\/span>g-n-<\/span>b<\/span><\/em>, Hebrew for stolen, or hidden away.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Mizrach<\/span><\/em> (v. 7), for east, is the place of shining (of the sun – zarach<\/em>), just as its correspondent, <\/span>Ma`arav<\/span><\/em>, west (absent in our chapter), is the place of its setting (‘erev – <\/em>evening)<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nevertheless, it is the term <\/span>kedem<\/span><\/em> (v. 20), that is the most intriguing. Its other meanings in Hebrew include \u201cfront\u201d and \u201cbefore,\u201d indicating that it is the direction right in front of me. Since I can face any direction, however, there needs to be a more objective sense to it. Since the cardinal direction I can count on finding under almost any circumstance is east\u2014as long as I await sunrise\u2014there is an implicit assumption that we start by facing eastward. That is why even in English we call directional alignment \u201corientation,\u201d because it is anchored in the east, the direction of the rising sun. <\/span><\/p>\n

Image – Hebrew compass \/ wikisource<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":54283,"id":54283,"title":"jo18-Compass_heb","filename":"jo18-Compass_heb.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo18-Compass_heb.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/an-orientation\/jo18-compass_heb\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"jo18-compass_heb","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":54282,"date":"2019-04-24 09:27:07","modified":"2021-01-17 07:27:51","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":655,"height":600,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo18-Compass_heb-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo18-Compass_heb-300x275.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":275,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo18-Compass_heb.jpg","medium_large-width":655,"medium_large-height":600,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo18-Compass_heb.jpg","large-width":655,"large-height":600,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo18-Compass_heb.jpg","1536x1536-width":655,"1536x1536-height":600,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo18-Compass_heb.jpg","2048x2048-width":655,"2048x2048-height":600,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo18-Compass_heb.jpg","post_full_size-width":655,"post_full_size-height":600,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/jo18-Compass_heb-459x420.jpg","home_baner-width":459,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"An Orientation","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"E, W, S, N - Shining, Sea, Dry, Hidden. 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