{"id":57033,"date":"2019-06-06T13:56:06","date_gmt":"2019-06-06T10:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=57033"},"modified":"2023-01-01T15:11:00","modified_gmt":"2023-01-01T13:11:00","slug":"was-their-life-in-tents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/was-their-life-in-tents\/","title":{"rendered":"Was Their Life In Tents?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Scholars refer to 1 Samuel, chs. 4-6, as the Ark Narrative, for in it the Ark of the Covenant plays center stage: \u00a0first it is captured by the Philistines (ch. 4), then it resides within various Philistine temples (ch. 5), and finally the Philistines return the Ark to the Israelites (ch. 6). \u00a0Remarkably, Samuel, who has played such a central role in chs. 1\u20133 is totally absent from chs. 4\u20136 (save for the sole mention at 4:1).<\/span><\/p>\n

When the Israelites are routed by the Philistines (1 Samuel 4:10), the text states\u200e <\/span>vayanusu \u02beish le-\u02beohalav\u00a0<\/span><\/em>\u2018<\/em>and each man fled to his tents\u2019. \u00a0Now, the setting of First Samuel is during the latter part of the Iron Age I period, when the vast majority of Israelites lived in stone houses, as revealed through archaeological fieldwork \u2013 and yet the text still speaks of tents. \u00a0In fact, parallel phrases occur elsewhere: Judges 20:8; 1 Samuel 13:2; 2 Samuel 18:17, 19:9, 20:1, 22; 2 Kings 8:21, 14:12, pointing to the use of the expression as an ancient Hebrew idiom.<\/span><\/p>\n

The use of the word \u201ctents,\u201d accordingly, speaks to an earlier time in Israelite society, when the Israelites were indeed tent-dwellers. \u00a0This usage, relevant to the history of the Hebrew language, speaks volumes, for it demonstrates that latter-day (that is, immediately pre-monarchic and monarchic-period) Judahites and Israelites were descended from people who once lived in tents \u2013 that is to say, pastoral semi-nomads on the desert fringe. \u00a0This demonstrates that the Bible\u2019s core narrative, of a people with desert (or desert fringe) origins is essentially a historically accurate one. Those scholars who believe that Israelite origins are to be found amongst the urban Canaanites totally ignore this key data point. <\/span><\/p>\n

For an English analogy, note how the word \u201chorse\u201d reverberates in English expressions, such as \u201chold your horses,\u201d \u201cstop horsing around,\u201d \u201cget off your high horse,\u201d \u201ca dark-horse candidate,\u201d \u201cdon\u2019t beat a dead horse,\u201d etc. \u00a0These and other expressions indicate that horses were once part of the daily life of English speakers \u2013 which was true, of course, until c. 1900 \u2013 even if nowadays most people rarely encounter the beautiful animals. In like fashion, Hebrew speakers of the Iron Age I period and later were descended from people who lived in tents, even if they themselves had transitioned to a different life style.<\/span><\/p>\n

As to the use of the plural form in the phrase \u201ceach man to his tents,\u201d most likely this refers to a family unit centered around several tents, with the <\/span>paterfamilias <\/span><\/i>in the main tent, his primary wife in another tent, perhaps a secondary wife in another tent, and other more extended family members, including servants, in others. \u00a0See Genesis 31:33 for the <\/span>locus classicus<\/span><\/em>. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>This lifestyle is known amongst the B<\/span>edouin until the present day. <\/span><\/p>\n

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