Havilah: A Linguistic Analysis

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Jim Stinehart
Posts: 352
Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2013 11:33 am

Havilah: A Linguistic Analysis

Post by Jim Stinehart »

Havilah: A Linguistic Analysis

The name “Havilah” : חוילה appears 7 times in the Bible, in various connections. If the Patriarchal narratives are significantly older than the rest of the Bible (my view), then the oldest reference to “Havilah” : חוילה is at Genesis 25: 18, where this Biblical name is used in connection with telling us where Ishmael’s sons and descendants settled.

According to the scholarly literature that has been published regarding Havilah (by no means limited to Genesis 25: 18), it would seem that all the following appear to be the case regarding the mysterious Biblical name “Havilah” : חוילה:

1. No one knows what this Biblical name means.

2. No one knows what language this Biblical name comes from.

3. Perhaps most surprisingly, scholars are about equally split as to the geographical location of Havilah, with the four leading candidates being:

(i) Egypt

(ii) Southwest Arabia

(iii) Northeast Arabia

(iv) India

Hey, guys, we’ve got another 3,000-year-old Biblical mystery on our hands. With the scholarly community having drawn a complete blank on this issue, let’s see if we on the b-Hebrew list can solve this age-old conundrum:

(1) What language is “Havilah” : חוילה coming from?

(2) What does “Havilah” : חוילה mean?

(3) And where oh where is the “Havilah” : חוילה referenced at Genesis 25: 18 located?

If the Patriarchal narratives are as old as I think they are, it shouldn’t be too hard to solve this longstanding Biblical mystery.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois
Jim Stinehart
Posts: 352
Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2013 11:33 am

Re: Havilah: A Linguistic Analysis

Post by Jim Stinehart »

On this thread, we are trying to figure out the mysterious Biblical name “Havilah” : חוילה. Our focus will be on linguistics. We will, however, give due regard to my own view that the Patriarchal narratives, including the reference to “Havilah” : חוילה at Genesis 25: 18, are much older than the rest of the Bible, dating all the long way back to the Late Bronze Age.

As has often been observed, the root of “Havilah” : חוילה may well be its first two letters, חו. If so, then the root of “Havilah” is, like the Biblical name “Eve” [חוה], the same as the root of “Hivites” [חוי], namely חו. Many scholars (though perhaps not a majority of scholars) agree with my view that the root of the Biblical name “Hivites” [חוי] refers to the Hurrian goddess “Heva” [Ḫe-va]. A few scholars (though definitely in the minority) even agree with my view that the root of the Biblical name “Eve” [חוה] may also refer to the Hurrian goddess “Heva”. So shouldn’t we go where no scholar has ever gone, and ask what would seem to be the next logical question? Does the mysterious Biblical name “Havilah” : חוילה likewise have as its root a reference to the Hurrian goddess “Heva”?

Note that the three letters in “Hivites” [חוי] are the first three letters in “Havilah” : חוילה. (Hebrew defective spelling does not record vowels, so the differences in the vowels in the conventional English transliterations of these three names are meaningless.) The ideal transliteration of “Havilah” : חוילה would then be: Ḫe-va-ya -il -H. Better transliterations of these three names, in lieu of “Havilah”, “Eve” and “Hivites”, would as such be as follows:

(i) “Eve” [חוה] = Ḫe-va -H.

(ii) “Hivites” [חוי] = Ḫe-va-ya -Y.

(iii) “Havilah” : חוילה = Ḫe-va-ya -il -H.

[I am using capital letters at the end to show that the final Hebrew letter in each of these three names is merely a standard Hebrew/west Semitic ending, having nothing to do with the root of these names -- if such root is a non-Hebrew, non-Semitic word or name. For the name “Hivites”, the final yod/Y does double duty, representing both the Hurrian theophoric suffix -ya, and also the standard Hebrew/west Semitic ending that means “people”.]

Note that all three such names begin with Ḫe-va [חו], which is a dead ringer for the name of the Hurrians’ chief goddess.

So far, so good. Are we on to something here?

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois
Jim Stinehart
Posts: 352
Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2013 11:33 am

Re: Havilah: A Linguistic Analysis

Post by Jim Stinehart »

If “Havilah” : חוילה = Ḫe-va-ya -il -H, and is based on the name of the Hurrian goddess Heva [Ḫe-va : חו], then “Havilah” : חוילה = Ḫe-va-ya -il -H would seem to be a Hurrian-based name. One explanation of the Hurrian suffix -il is that it is a gentilic suffix for an extended family commune [dimtu] at Nuzi. Gelb & Purves, “Nuzi Names”, pp. 219, 21. That gentilic suffix has been used here to turn “Hivites” [חוי] : “[the] Heva-Is-God people” into a geographical place name, along with the standard Hebrew ending for a (feminine) country name, ה/-H. Ḫe-va-ya -il -H = literally, “[the] Ḫeva-Is-God Extended Family Place”, i.e., the lands of the Ḫeva-Worshipping Hurrians.

Less literally (on my view that the Patriarchal narratives were composed, and recorded in cuneiform writing, in the mid-14th century BCE), “Havilah” means “the lands where the Hurrians are present [in the Amarna Age]”. In the mid-14th century BCE, that’s a colorful way of saying: “Syro-Canaan”, since Hurrian princelings dominated most of Syria and Canaan in the Amarna Age/Patriarchal Age.

If that’s what “Havilah” means, then Genesis 25: 18 can be understood quite differently than how KJV translates it (where the word “they” below is, in all events, referring to Ishmael’s sons and descendants):

KJV translation: “And they dwelt from Havilah unto Shur, that is before Egypt, as thou goest toward Assyria….”

Proposed paraphrase, if “Havilah” means “the lands where the Hurrian goddess Heva is worshipped [i.e. where the Hurrians are present in the Amarna Age, i.e. Syro-Canaan in the mid-14th century BCE Patriarchal Age]”:

And they dwelt in all the lands where the Hurrian goddess Heva is worshipped, from Shur, that is, from just east of Egypt, unto just west of Assyria….

On that view, “Havilah” includes most all of Syro-Canaan, while excluding Arabia completely.
Contrary to popular belief, Ishmael and his descendants are not portrayed in the Patriarchal narratives as being the first Arabs, or as being forerunners of the Arabs. In fact, there’s nothing whatsoever in the Patriarchal narratives (excluding glosses added by Ezra in the mid-5th century BCE) about Arabia, Arabs, the Dead Sea, the land south of the Dead Sea, or the southern Transjordan.

At Genesis 25: 18, “Havilah” : חוילה = Ḫe-va-ya -il -H is a Hurrian-based Patriarchal name that refers to where the goddess Heva [Ḫe-va : חו] was worshipped by Hurrian princelings in the Amarna Age, namely: Syria and Canaan. That’s the land from just east of Egypt, to just west of Assyria, per Genesis 25: 18. In fact, it’s the same general concept as the peoples and territory being referenced at Genesis 15: 18-21, where in referring to 10 peoples, 8 of which are Hurrians, Genesis 15: 18 specifically says: “from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates”. That’s both where Ishmael’s descendants are dispersed, and where Hurrian princelings were prominent in the Amarna Age; provided, of course, that Abraham and his select line of descendants are granted the Promised Land of Canaan -- “this land”, per Genesis 15: 18.

Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois
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