Desert Place-Names in Numbers 33;34, Assurbanipal's Arabian Wars and the Historical Geography of the Biblical Wilderness Toponymy

Abstract

Among the geographical narratives of the book of Numbers stand two toponym descriptions that include place-names in the Sinai Peninsula and the Negev Desert: Num 33:5-49, an account of the itinerary of the Exodus with new toponym material; and Num 34:1-12, a description of the borders of the land of Canaan as told by Yahweh. Both texts have been largely regarded as having very different historical value. While Num 34:1-12 is traditionally viewed as a good source of information for the historical geography of Palestine, Num 33:5-49 is often seen as a toponym description composed for purely theological or ritual reasons, with little primary historical information. This short article will attempt a hermeneutical exercise by studying two southern toponyms from both lists and test out their historical reliability in the light of a 7th century BCE Akkadian source, Rassam Cylinder (Prism A), the most important of Neo-Assyrian king Assurbanipal?s descriptions of his wars against the Arabs in the Syro-Arabian Desert. The analysis of this inscription suggests, for the first time, plausible parallels in two Aramized/Arabianized southern Transjordanian place-names for two toponyms in Numbers (Haradah in 33:24, and Hazar Addar in 34:4), strongly suggesting that the origin of these biblical site-names fits well into a specific historical-geographical setting: the arid margins of the southern Levant during the time of the Neo-Assyrian hegemony over the area. The historicity of both geographical descriptions in Numbers, then, should be re-considered in the light of this new interpretation.