The Wealth of the Mesopotamian Rulers

 

Elite Mesopotamian burial ground dating to 2400 BC. 

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

Nimrod is designated a son of Kush in Genesis 10:8. As a sent-away son, he became established in Mesopotamia by marrying a Sumerian princess. It is likely that she and Nimrod were cousins. The couple enjoyed a life of opulence and prestige. They were among the first lords and ladies. They exercised great influence and power in the ancient world.

In the Ubaid period (c. 5500-4000 BC) there was vigorous commerce between the local walled villages. By the time Nimrod married a daughter of Asshur (c.3600-3200 BC), long-distance trade had become a source of wealth for the Mesopotamian lords and ladies. Ships coming from the Island of Bahrain (ancient Dilmun) brought wool, gold, copper, lapis lazuli, and carnelian to the Sumerian cities of Ur, Nippur, and Uruk. With the precious materials that came into Mesopotamia, royal craftsmen fabricated jewelry for the royal wives, daughters, and concubines.

As early as 7000 BC, Dilmun (Bahrain) served as a major trade depot with its own commercial seal. The weights used there were of the same denominations as the system of weights used in the Indus Valley. Ancient documents speak of Dilmun’s trade in gold, silver, ivory, sesame oil, wool, carnelian beads, lapis lazuli, and copper. One document details a cargo of eighteen tons of refined copper purchased in Dilmun.

Sumerian ships brought cargo to Dilmun and to port cities in the Indus valley. Ships sailed southeast on the Tigris or Euphrates to the Persian Gulf, making stops at the port city of Dilmun, passing the Oman Peninsula, and entering the Arabian Sea. From there the ships sailed northeast on the Indus River to Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa. Trade in lapis lazuli and carnelian beads ran between Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, and Afghanistan as early as 4000 BC. Indus seals with Harappan inscriptions have been found in Mesopotamia. Indus pottery and seals have been found along the maritime routes between the Indian subcontinent and Mesopotamia.

Genesis 10:10 mentions the Sumerian city of Erech (Uruk) in connection with Nimrod. Another important Sumerian city was Eridu, a major trade center in the land of Shinar as early as 5000 BC. The Sumerian King List cites Eridu as the “city of the first kings,” stating, “After the kingship descended from heaven, the kingship was in Eridu.” 

Nimrod was not the first city builder. In the Bible that is credited to Cain (Gen. 4). However, Nimrod's fame was such that he is remembered as one of the “mighty men of old” (Gen. 6:4). Some Bibles describe him as a “mighty hunter” or a maharba in Hausa or nahshirkan in the Targum. These terms appear to the be related to the Hausa sarkin maharba, meaning lead hunter or chief. Clearly, Nimrod was among the Nephilim, or powerful men who were considered "sons of God" in the ancient world because of their authority and grandeur. In Genesis 6, the phrase "sons of God" parallels the phrase "daughters of men." Such parallelism is typical of Semitic literature.

The cities in Mesopotamia were small settlements during the Ubaid Period (6500-4100 BC) when irrigation and other agricultural advancements were introduced. Between c.4000-3000 BC, Mesopotamia became a region of cultural advances in writing, animal husbandry, metal work, and boat building. Nimrod undertook his building projects during this period.

Archaeologists discovered a 4000-year-old boat at Uruk when the erosion of a riverbed at the edge of the city revealed the boat’s outline in 2018. The vessel measures 22 feet long and five feet wide. The boat was constructed of organic materials, probably bundles of marsh reeds, and covered in bitumen; a tar-like substance used for waterproofing. This technique was used in the construction of Noah’s ark (Gen. 6:14).

River trade generated great wealth for the rulers who controlled commerce on the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Commerce led to the expansion of the major Sumerian cities during Nimrod's time, especially Uruk (Erech). Trade extended over land from Uruk to the resource-rich Zagros Mountains, Northern Syria, and Anatolia.

Related reading: Nimrod's Sumerian Wife; Cousin Brides Among the Hebrew; A Book about the Nephilim

Thoughts on the Days of Creation

 

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

Throughout history many wise persons have thought about the creation of the universe, the origin of organic life, and the Creator's purpose. Interpretations of the days of creation in Genesis chapter 1 range from literal to allegorical. The science of Biblical Anthropology attempts to place the narrative in its earliest cultural context among the Nilotic Hebrew who dispersed widely before the time of Abraham (c. 2000 BC).

Young Earth Creationists interpret the sequence of days in Genesis 1 as 6 consecutive 24-hour days. They assume that Cain (Gen. 4) and Seth (Gen. 5) were among the few humans on earth no more than 10,000 years old. The YEC position requires one to ignore the vast material evidence of human existence on earth over millions of years. Those who do not ignore the evidence resort to the fallacy of inaccurate dating methods.

St. Augustine of Hippo believed that everything in the universe was created simultaneously by God. He is explicit that God did not create over the course of six consecutive 24-hour days. He writes, "The sacred writer was able to separate in the time of his narrative what God did not separate in time in His creative act." In his view, the six days of creation convey the logical order of and relationship of created things, rather than a passage of time. He wrote, "But in the beginning He created all things together and completed the whole in six days, when six times he brought the 'day' which he made before the things which He made, not in a succession of periods of time but in a plan made known according to causes."

St. Basil the Great, on the other hand, believed in six consecutive days of creation and presents the divine act in great detail in his Hexaemeron. It originated as a lecture series that he delivered over three days in 378 AD on the days of creation, moving line by line through Genesis 1:1–26. Basil did not insist on 24-hour days since the solar arc was not a factor until the fourth day (Gen. 1:14-19). 

Origen of Alexandria also noted that "days" did not exist before the sun and moon were formed, and he believed that the "days" described in Genesis 1 do not refer to a literal succession. Rather the sequence is a symbolic representation of God's creative process. Origen tended to interpret that Genesis 1 creation narrative allegorically.

St. John Chrysostom wrote, "The text says: "This is the book about the origins of heaven and earth when they were created, on the day God made heaven and earth, before any grass of the field appeared on the earth or any crop of the field sprouted. God, you see, had not sent rain on the earth, and there was no human being to till the soil; a spring used to flow out of the ground and water the whole face of the earth." [Gen 2:4] Notice again, I ask you, the insight of this remarkable author, or rather the teaching of the Holy Spirit. I mean, after narrating to us detail by detail all the items of creation and going through the works of the six days, the creation of human beings and the authority granted them over all visible things, now he sums them all up in the words, "This is the book about the origins of heaven and earth when they were created." It is worth enquiring at this point why it is he calls it the book of heaven and earth in view of the fact that the book contains many other things and teaches us about a greater number of matters about the virtue of good people, about God's loving kindness and the considerateness he demonstrated in regard both to the first formed human being and to the whole human race, and about a lot of other things it would be impossible to list right now. Don't be surprised, dearly beloved; after all, it is the custom with Holy Scripture not to describe every thing to us in detail in every case but rather to begin with a summary of related items and to leave further detail to be considered by rightminded listeners as they take in what is said.

So that you may learn this is the case, I will make it clear from the very verses just now read. What I refer to is this: notice Sacred Scripture taught us in detail in the preceding verses the creation of everything, but now, instead of mentioning them all, it says: "This is the book about the origins of heaven and earth when they were created, on the day God made heaven and earth," and so on. Do you see how it confines the whole account to heaven and earth, leaving us to get from them a sweeping view of all the other things? I mean, when it said heaven and earth, it included everything together in those words, both things on earth and things in heaven. So, just as in its account of created things it doesn't mention them all one by one but gives a summary of related items and makes no further attempt to describe them to us, so too it called the whole book the book about the origins of heaven and earth, even though it contains many other things, evidently leaving us to work out from the reference to these two that all visible things are of necessity contained in this book, both those in heaven and those on earth.

Professor John Walton believes that Genesis 1 draws on Babylonian cosmology in which the whole universe is God's cosmic 7-tiered temple.

Biblical Anthropology applies the tools of anthropology to the Genesis creation narratives and suggests that they come from the early Hebrew who lived in the Nile Valley (4200-1500 BC). The oldest known site of Horite Hebrew worship is Nekhen on the Nile. 

The Nilotic Hebrew understanding of the human condition and our need of God’s saving mercy is evident in the Genesis 1-3 narratives which have their closest parallels in African creation/origin stories. 

The African themes such as "the beginning", the chaotic waters, the apical parents of the Hebrew ruler-priest caste, the defiling Serpent, are concisely woven together in the Genesis creation stories. These African themes include the separation of the waters above from the waters below, the creation of male and female humans from the soil (humus), the Tree of Life, estrangement from the Heavenly Father and his son, and the anticipated third day resurrection of the Eternal Son.

It must be evident that the creation stories are not where we encounter verifiable historical data. One may insist that creation happened over 6 consecutive 24-hour days, but Genesis does not provide empirical evidence for that argument. On the other hand, analysis of the kinship pattern of the early Hebrew rulers listed in Genesis 4 and 5 reveals that these are historical persons with an authentic marriage and ascendancy pattern. In other words, when speaking of history in Genesis we must begin with the historical persons of Adam, Eve and their descendants, some of whom are named in Genesis 4 (Cain's line) and 5 (Seth's line).

 

Related reading: The Roots of the Gospel are in Africa; Theories about the Tree of Life; Adam Was a Red Man; Is Scientific Dating Reliable?; BIBLICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: Competition Between the Horites and the Sethites; The Historical Eve; Lamech Segment Analysis; Five Features of the Hebrew Social Structure

Celebrity Burials at Giza

 

The angel holds the Shen symbol over the deceased king, the symbol for eternity.

The Omega, the last letter of the Greek alphabet, corresponds to the Egyptian Shen symbol for eternity.

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

The early Hebrew rulers and priests were "the mighty men of old" as described in Genesis 6:4. They were "heroes" of their time and "men of renown" (celebrities). They were known for their construction of temples, palaces, fortified cities, pyramids and ziggurats. The first person described as a city builder in the Bible is Cain. He built a settlement and named it after his son Enoch (Gen. 4). Enoch is a royal title.

Nilotic rulers constructed pyramids as elaborate tombs for themselves and for their wives. The pyramids were a repository for their mummified bodies and for objects they would need in the afterlife. They people of the Nile Valley Civilization (NVC) were very religious, and they viewed death as the beginning of a journey to life beyond. They hoped that one of their rulers would rise from the dead and lead his people to immortality. That is why they took such care in the preparation of the ruler's body before burial and why royal priests were retained to offer daily prayers for the deceased. 

As with esteemed people today such as the late Pope Francis, the funerals of the Nilotic Hebrew rulers included regal processions in which the families and officials accompanied the body of the deceased to the place of burial.

The pyramids were of such a grand scale that they inspired awe. The shape of the pyramid resembles a mountain, symbolic of the spatial sacred center between earth and heaven. It was hoped that the ruler would ascend to the place of immortality. 

The best-known pyramids are those at Giza in Egypt. South of these are other pyramids at Abusir and Saqqara (shown above). All these pyramids are aligned to the sacred city of Heliopolis (On or Iunu).

The Czech mission, led by Miroslav Barta, stated that the construction of the tombs in Abusir began during the mid 5th Dynasty and many priests and officials who worked in the Abusir Pyramid complex of the 5th Dynasty and the Sun Temples were buried there.

That is the case of the tomb of a priest named Rudj-Ka (or Rwd-Ka) that dates between 2465 and 2323 BC. Rudj-Ka was a priest who performed purification rituals for those who bore blood guilt and who had become contaminated through contact with blood or a corpse. Egyptian archaeologists discovered his tomb south of the cemetery of the pyramid builders at Giza. The tomb was unearthed near the pyramid builder's necropolis.

The tomb of Shepseskaf-ankh is the third tomb found at Abusir belonging to a priest-physician (wab sxmt or wab sekhmet). A huge false door inside the offerings chapel carries the names and titles of the tomb owner: “Priest of Re in the Temples of the Sun” and “Priest of Khnum” with other titles that indicate the high rank of this ruler-priest. Originally the huge limestone tomb was marked by a pyramid.

This 4,600-year small step pyramid was found at the archaeological site of al-Ghonemiya near the modern town of Edfu, Egypt.

Oriental Institute

The pyramid belongs to a series of almost identical small pyramids that have been discovered near several provincial centers in Egypt such as Elephantine, Nekhen, Naqada, Abydos, Zawiet el-Meitin near Minya, and Seila in the Fayum. The whole group dates to the reign of Pharaoh Huni (c.2600 BC), the last ruler of the 3rd Dynasty. They date to about 600 years before the time of Abraham.

Related reading: Ancient Egyptian Geometry; Sun Cities of the Ancient World; Horite and Sethite Mounds; Competition Between the Horites and the Sethites; Early Resurrection Texts; Funerary Rites and the Hope of Resurrection; Just Genesis: The Pyramids of Bosnia; BIBLICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: Divine Nature (Alpha) and Eternal Being (Omega)

Christ's Third Day Resurrection

 

Jesus said, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matt. 12:39–40)

In the New Testament, we find that Jesus used different time expressions when speaking about His resurrection: “three days and three nights” (Mt 12:40), “after three days” (Mk 8:31), “in three days” (Jn 2:19), and “on the third day” (Lk 9:22). Peter and Paul also refer to Christ's resurrection “on the third day” in Acts 10:40 and 1 Corinthians 15:3–4.

What is the significance of the third day resurrection? The Matthew 12 phrase "three days and three nights” isn't simply a Jewish idiom. It refers to the fulfillment of one of the earliest known Messianic prophesies. 

Jesus Christ fulfilled all that was expected and anticipated by his early Hebrew ancestors (4400-2000 BC) to whom the Messianic Faith was first delivered: including his virginal conception as the Son of God (Gen. 3:15) by divine overshadowing (Luke 1:35), his sacrificial death, his third day resurrection, and his opening of the way to eternal life or immortality as a King who leads his people in a royal procession (Eph. 4:8). Among the early Hebrew, the Son of God was regarded as co-equal with his Father, and they believed that there were no gods above Him. Utterance 573 in the Pyramid Texts is addressed to the Son of God: "For you are he who oversees the gods, there is no god who oversees you!"

Christians believe that by his death Christ trampled down death, and while his body was still in the tomb, he declared good news to those in the place of the dead. A Horite Hebrew song found at the royal complex at Ugarit, speaks of the Son's descent to the place of the dead "to announce good tidings." The text reads: Hr ešeni timerri duri - "Horus below in the dark netherworld" and has the phrase Šanizzin ḫalukan ḫalzi - "to announce good tidings." (See Note 2 on page 2012.)

The early Hebrew were a priest caste that believed in God Father and God Son. The Son of God was called HR which means Most High One in ancient Egyptian. The Greeks referred to HR as Horus. In Ancient Egyptian Re means "father."

In the Ancient Pyramid Texts, a priest prays for the King, saying, "Horus is a soul and he recognizes his Father in you..." (Utterance 423) 

In the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Horus is called the "advocate of his Father" (cf. 1 John 2:1), and all the gods are said to be "in the train of Horus." Here we find the language of a royal procession such as this: "When He ascended on high, He led captives in his train, and gave gifts to men.” (Eph. 4:8).

Concerning the Son, the early Hebrew wrote, "Horus has shattered the mouth of the serpent with the sole of his foot." (Utterance 388 of the Pyramid Texts)
 

All of this is known from reading the prayers and sacred texts of the early Hebrew royal priests. Descriptions of the Horite and Sethite Hebrew are plentiful in ancient texts such as the Pyramid Texts (2400-2200 BC). These descriptions indicate that the Horite Hebrew and the Sethite Hebrew maintained separate settlements and sacred sites (mounds). Utterance 308 addresses them as separate entities: "Hail to you, Horus in the Horite Mounds! Hail to you, Horus in the Sethite Mounds!"

The more prestigious Horite Hebrew settlements were usually at a higher elevation than those of the Sethite Hebrew. Utterance 470 contrasts the Horite and Sethite mounds, designating the Horite mounds "the High Mounds.”

Utterance 413 of the Pyramid Texts states that the deceased king is to become one with the sacred bull (a Messianic symbol) by eating the sacrificed bull. The king is urged to rise, to "gather his bones together, shake off your dust" and enter immortality.

Utterance 214 of the Pyramid texts bids the deceased king to "ascend to the place where your father is." 

The third day resurrection of the Son of God is expressed in the Pyramid Texts: "Oh Horus, this hour of the morning, of this third day is come, when thou surely passeth on to heaven, together with the stars, the Imperishable Stars" (Utterance 667).

 

Related reading: BIBLICAL ANTHROPOLOGY: The Earliest Known Site of Horite Hebrew Worship; Horite and Sethite Mounds; Righteous Rulers and the Resurrection; Abraham's Faith Lives in Christianity; Ancient Egyptian Lexicon; The Hebrew were a Caste; Twin Cities of the Ancient World

The Archetypal Eve

 

Creation of Eve, marble relief by Lorenzo Maitani on the Orvieto Cathedral, Italy.

Dr. Alice C. Linsley

To understand the Messianic or Christological Faith that we received from the biblical Hebrew we must distinguish two different threads concerning Eve: the archetypal Eve and the historical Eve. Much theological speculation surrounds the archetype of the woman beguiled by the Serpent, and too little attention is given to the historical Eve, the mother of Cain, a Hebrew city builder.

Theological approaches do not distinguish the historical Eve from the archetypal Eve. On the other hand, an anthropological approach identifies significant data that helps to identify Eve as one of the founders of the Hebrew ruler-priest caste. Because the earliest known Hebrew presence is in the Nile Valley, it helps to consider what Eve represented to her Nilotic Hebrew descendants.

It is evident that the early Hebrew believed in a hierarchical order of creation. God is outside and above that hierarchy. At the pinnacle of the created order are humans, created male and female. Other created beings exist as servants and messengers of the High God. These lesser spirits or angelic beings are venerated but not worshiped. This devotion to a Supreme God while accepting the existence of other lesser divine beings is called “henotheism.” The term was coined by Max Müller (1823-1900) who specialized in Oriental religions. He applied the term to the schools of Hinduism that acknowledge a High God as well as other lesser deities.

In Traditional African religions (TAR) and in the biblical view, God is intimately involved in the affairs of humans as a devoted father. Humans are to their Creator what children are to their biological parents.

The late Dr. Abraham Akrong (McCormick Theological Seminary) explains: "God in Africa is a relational being who is known through various levels of relationship with creation. In relationship to humanity, God is the great ancestor of the human race. Therefore, all over Africa God is portrayed more in terms of a parent than as sovereign."

C. L. Crouch made this observation about the relationship of humans to our Creator. He wrote, "The linguistic and cultural background of the words םלצ [image] and תומד [likeness] supports a reading of Gen. 1:26–7 as a statement of humanity’s divine parentage. As such it is intended to evoke the responsibilities of child to parent and of parent to child in the minds of its readers. Such an interpretation accommodates both the semantic range of the key terms םלצ and תומד and the sense that the statement is meant to be theologically significant."

This clarifies the early Hebrew conception of Eve who disobeyed the command of the Father and succumbed to the temptation of the Serpent. By heeding the Serpent’s voice, the archetypal Eve set aside her moral obligation to her Heavenly Father. Those who wish to be conformed to the image and likeness of the Father must be like Jesus whose priority was always to please his Father. That is summed up in the first and great commandment: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” (Matt. 22:37-39)

In the early Hebrew conception of the order of creation humans are at the pinnacle over which the Creator rules as a loving Father. As the last of God’s creations, Eve is the crown of the created order. As such, she is the prime target of the Serpent who wishes to invert the pyramid, placing himself at the pinnacle. That is the closest the Serpent can get to the level of God since the archetypal Serpent (the Devil) is also a creature.

Eve’s submission to the belly-crawler exchanged her exalted position for the serpent's dust and surrendered her glory for a baser image. In submitting to the serpent's will, the pyramid of God’s design was inverted. The serpent now reigns over the fallen world. This is why Satan is called “the prince of this world” in John 12:31.

In the scheme of redemption, a daughter of Eve is appointed to bring forth the Son of God. In this sense, the Bible is the Woman’s story; beginning with Eve’s failure and climaxing with the Woman who brings forth the Son of God who crushes the Serpent’s head (Gen. 3:15). This is the theological thrust from Genesis to Revelation and it involves historical people. The narrative suggests that women were held in higher regard by the early Hebrew than is generally recognized. Certainly, women play a significant role in God’s plan of salvation.

The archetypal Eve is wrapped in theological speculation about the origin of sin and death, the presence of evil, and the necessity of divine intervention. Theological speculation rarely connects to historical realities. However, considerable data is available to gain an accurate picture of the historical Eve. She was the Hebrew mother of at least one surviving son, Cain. Cain had a brother, Seth, who may have been the firstborn of Adam’s second wife (assuming that Adam observed the marriage and ascendancy pattern of the biblical Hebrew). Both Cain and Seth were clan chiefs and rulers over territories. Their descendants intermarried (caste endogamy) according to a marriage pattern that was already well established. Their heirs ascended to positions of authority. They established settlements, built fortifications, navigated rivers, patronized skilled craftsmen, engaged in commerce, observed and recorded celestial patterns, pioneered medical treatments, and enforced sacred law. 

The biblical data makes it clear that Eve and her Hebrew people were not the first humans on earth. As far as the material evidence goes, the first humans lived in Africa between three and four million years ago.

Related reading: The Adam and Eve of History; Hebrew Rulers with Two Wives; The Social Structure of the Biblical Hebrew; A Book about the Nephilim; Why Nekhen is Anthropologically Significant; Mounds of the Horite and Sethite Hebrew; The Historical Eve; The Father of Adam and Eve

The Trees of Prophets

 

Alice C. Linsley

In the Old Testament trees are associated with gender, cardinal directions, and with wise counselors known as morehs, prophets, or judges. Many of the early Hebrew were known to be judges. This was indicated by the initial Y in their names: Yacob, Yosef, Yishmael, Yonah, Yeshua, etc. The Y is derived from the hieroglyph of two upright feathers, representing one who judges.

The word "Torah" refers to instruction and is associated with a prophet, seer or judge sitting under a tree. Often these persons were consulted far from the cities. People seeking their counsel or judgement had to make an effort to see them, just as people of Jerusalem had to go out into the wilderness to see John the Forerunner. The giver on torah could be found sitting under a tree. These trees were important landmarks.

Women prophets, like Deborah, sat under the date nut palms and male prophets sat under oak trees. In Judges 4:4-6 we read that “Deborah, the wife of Lappidoth, was a prophet who was judging Israel at that time. She would sit under the Palm of Deborah, between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites would go to her for judgment."

Deborah under her date nut palm (tamar)

Deborah's duties included settling disputes, instructing leaders, providing guidance to people, and rallying the people to defend themselves in battle. According to Judges 4 and 5 the people of Israel had peace for forty years under Deborah’s rule.

Deborah judged from her palm tree (tamar) between Bethel to the north and Ramah to the south. Deborah's tree was between two important settlements. It marked the "sacred center" between Ramah to and Bethel. Ramah means high or lifted up, and Bethel means house of God. As as the case with John the Forerunner, people seeking counsel from the prophet had to journey into the wild. 

Abraham pitched his tent at the “Oak of Moreh” (Gen. 13), between Ai to the east and Bethel to the west. The Oak of Moreh, or the Oak of the Seer, is described as “the navel of the earth” in Judges 9:37. Here we find a parallel to Deborah's palm tree at the sacred center. The oak was an important landmark. It is likely that Abraham went there seeking divine guidance. Sacred oaks were known elsewhere, according to Deuteronomy 11:30.

Deborah's tree was at the center of a north-south axis between Ramah and Bethel. The oak where Abraham camped was at the center of the east-west axis between Ai and Bethel. It appears that among the ancient Hebrew, the date nut palm and the north-south axis were associated with the feminine while the oak and the east-west axis of the solar arc were associated with the masculine. The pillar-like oak resembles the male reproductive organ and represented masculine virtues. The date nut when cut in half resembles the female reproductive organ and feminine virtues.

The association of the physical appearance of a plant and a human organ was further developed in the Middle Ages and is known as the “Doctrine of Signatures.”

Related reading: Samuel's Horite Hebrew Family; The Judges Deborah, Samuel and Huldah; Trees of the Bible; Trees as Boundary Markers

Trees as Boundary Markers

 

Alice C. Linsley

Trees served as boundary markers for the ancient Hebrew. According to Scripture, terebinth trees marked the northern and southern boundaries of Abraham's territory between Hebron and Beersheba. Sarah, Abraham's half-sister wife, resided in Hebron, and Abraham's cousin-wife resided in Beersheba. The wives' settlements marked the northern and southern boundaries of Abraham's territory in ancient Edom.

Hebron and Beersheba are in Idumea (Edom), the land of red people. 

The Horite Hebrew rulers of Edom are listed in Genesis 36. Abraham's territory was entirely in the region of Edom. It extended on a north-south axis between Hebron and Beersheba and on an east-west axis between Ein Gedi and Gerar. This region was called Idumea by the Greeks which means "land of red people."

One of the rulers of Edom was Seir the Horite. He was a contemporary of Esau the Elder. He married Adah. Esau the Younger is described as red and hairy. He married Oholibamah. Job was of the Horite Hebrew clan of Uz. Uz was a son of Dishan.

After offering Isaac at Mount Moriah, Abraham apparently did not return to Hebron. He spent his last years in Beersheba with Keturah (Genesis 22:19). There he had built an altar and planted a terebinth. A terebinth marked the northern end of Abraham's territory (Gen. 12:6) and after Abraham formed a treaty with Abimelech, he planted a terebinth at the southern end of his territory (Gen. 21:22-34).

People often were buried under oaks and terebinths (Gen. 35:8; 1 Chron. 10:12). This helped to ensure that the boundaries were observed since people stayed away from burial grounds, fearing the spirits of the dead.

Related reading: Edom and the Horite Hebrew; Trees of the Bible; The Trees of Prophets