Abraham and the Ram - Har Karkom (Sinai)

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The image file below is from a Pinterest page.
Source: Panoramio (which is no longer available).

Photo of Petroglyphs of Har Karkom, the engraving of an ibex and a...man (?) | Petroglyphs, Pictograph, Rock art

By the Scripture Text:

Har Karkom information:
Prof. Emmanuel Anati: Mount Sinai has been found: Archaeological discoveries at Har Karkom

A seh is not always a small member of the flock, such as a lamb, or a sheep, or a goat, but can also be used for a portion: a portion of just about anything, (like bread). In the rock inscription above the seh is caught in the thicket or copse of the horns of the ram. An ayil or ram is also an ayil or palm tree, and the date palm also has a thicket or copse with portions in the copse of its horns.

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Genesis 22:13 Hebrew Text (Consonants Only)
וישא אברהם את עיניו וירא והנה איל אחר[ד] נאחז בסבך בקרניו וילך אברהם ויקח את האיל ויעלהו לעלה תחת בנו׃

The LXX reads echad, (one), instead of achar, (after, hinder, behind), and this problem is typical in the ancient handwritten texts when it comes to distinguishing between the dalet and the resh, which were often very difficult to tell apart in a handwritten text written in the Asuri, (Assyrian-Babylonian), block letter script from the time of Ezra. The issue is well known from the handwritten texts recovered at Qumran, (the DSS). I believe the LXX to be correct in this case and have placed the dalet in red square brackets in the above text. The word following echad is ne'echaz, which is H270 אחז 'achaz, and does often mean to sieze or something seized, (rendered herein most often as caught), but it also means a possession and is also used in the Torah for a portion, in the sense of a possession, and is so rendered as a portion in the KJV in the following passage, and moreover it is also found here with echad, "one portion", (אחד אחז).

Numbers 31:30 KJV
30 And of the children of Israel's half, thou shalt take one portion of fifty, of the persons, of the beeves, of the asses, and of the flocks, of all manner of beasts, and give them unto the Levites, which keep the charge of the tabernacle of the LORD.

If we read the second occurrence of 'eth, (את), as H854 את instead of H853 את we have the following reading.

וישא אברהם את עיניו וירא והנה איל אחר[ד] נאחז בסבך בקרניו וילך אברהם ויקח את האיל ויעלהו לעלה תחת בנו׃

And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold, a ram, one portion in the copse in its horns: and Abraham went and took it from the ram, and offered it for an ascending offering instead of his son.

In this reading it is not the ram itself that is offered up as a slaughtered animal burnt offering, but rather, it is the portion which was in the copse of its horns that is offered up for an ascending offering. In the image file from the OP this is precisely what we see portrayed in the rock inscription or carving. The seh, (Gen 22:7-8), achaz, (Gen 22:13), or portion, is being held in the horns of the ram and Abraham is taking the portion from the ram.

 

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Why the seh of Gen 22:7-8 cannot be the ram of Gen 22:13.

Genesis 22:7-8 KJV
7 And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb [H7716 seh] for a burnt offering?
8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb [H7716 seh] for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.

It is clear enough by the English translations that seh herein is rendered as a lamb, however, a lamb is not the same size as a ram. And in the Torah we are taught the difference by way of the sizes of the flour offerings for each of the three different sizes of the sacrifices, (and in reality the animals themselves represent the three different sizes of the flour offerings, which are called minchah).

A lamb, the smallest minchah, is one tenth of an ephah of fine flour.
A ram, the middle size minchah, is two tenths of an ephah of fine flour.
A member of the herd, the largest minchah, is three tenths of an ephah of fine flour.

Numbers 15:1-16 KJV
1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
2 Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye be come into the land of your habitations, which I give unto you,
3 And will make an offering by fire unto the LORD, a burnt offering, or a sacrifice in performing a vow, or in a freewill offering, or in your solemn feasts, to make a sweet savour unto the LORD, of the herd, or of the flock:
4 Then shall he that offereth his offering unto the LORD bring a meat offering [H4503 minchah] of a tenth deal of flour mingled with the fourth part of an hin of oil.
5 And the fourth part of an hin of wine for a drink offering shalt thou prepare with the burnt offering or sacrifice, for one lamb.
6 Or for a ram, thou shalt prepare for a meat offering [H4503 minchah] two tenth deals of flour mingled with the third part of an hin of oil.
7 And for a drink offering thou shalt offer the third part of an hin of wine, for a sweet savour unto the LORD.
8 And when thou preparest a bullock for a burnt offering, or for a sacrifice in performing a vow, or peace offerings unto the LORD:
9 Then shall he bring with a bullock a meat offering [H4503 minchah] of three tenth deals of flour mingled with half an hin of oil.
10 And thou shalt bring for a drink offering half an hin of wine, for an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD.
11 Thus shall it be done for one bullock, or for one ram, or for a lamb, or a kid.
12 According to the number that ye shall prepare, so shall ye do to every one according to their number.
13 All that are born of the country shall do these things after this manner, in offering an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD.
14 And if a stranger sojourn with you, or whosoever be among you in your generations, and will offer an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD; as ye do, so he shall do.
15 One ordinance shall be both for you of the congregation, and also for the stranger that sojourneth with you, an ordinance for ever in your generations: as ye are, so shall the stranger be before the LORD.
16 One law and one manner shall be for you, and for the stranger that sojourneth with you.

Thus an ayil, (ram), is not a seh, and by the context the text itself points the observant reader and hearer to the correct understanding of Gen 22:13 by the fact that we find seh written in Gen 22:7-8. Neither the author, nor Abraham, nor Yitzhak made a mistake in using the word seh in Gen 22:7-8.

 

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אילם

Exodus 15:22-27
[22] And Mosheh brought Yisrael from Yam Suph, and they went out into the desert of Shur: and they went three yamim into the desert, and found no water.
[23] And they came to Marthah, and they could not drink of the waters of Marah because they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah.
[24] And the people murmured against Mosheh, saying, What shall we drink?
[25] And he cried unto HE WHO WAS AND IS, and HE WHO WAS AND IS taught him of a tree, and he cast it into the waters, and the waters were made sweet: there He made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there He proved them.
[26] And He said, If hearing, you will diligently hearken to the voice of HE WHO WAS AND IS your Elohim, and will do what is right in His eyes, and will give ear to His commandments, and guard all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon you, which I have brought upon Mitzraim: for I am HE WHO WAS AND IS your Healer.
[27] And they came to Eilem, [אילם] and there were twelve fountains of water and seventy palm trees: and they encamped there by the waters.

Tapping Palm Wine

Palm Wine (Wikipedia)
Palm Wine (including felling the whole tree)

So Mosheh felled the איל, and slit its throat about the neck, immediately below its copse with its horns. And he cast the איל into the bitter waters of Marah, and the bitter waters of Marah were made sweet: for the blood of the איל gushed out into the waters and mingled with the bitter waters, and sweetened them downstream. And because the blood was immediately mixed into the waters it had no time to ferment. And the blood is of course the nectar from the date-palm tree, just as the same terminology is used for the juice of the grape in the scripture, the blood of the grape.

A statute and an ordinance:
איל = Ayil, Eyil, a ram or a palm tree, (the date-palm).
אילם = Eilem, the date-palm and/or its produce, (plural, (pointed as if masc. plural)).
אילים = Eiliym, rams, (masc. plural).

 

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Hosea 14:2 KJV
2 Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves [פרים] of our lips.

Hosea 14:2 ASV
2 Take with you words, and return unto Jehovah: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and accept that which is good: so will we render as bullocks [פרים] the offering of our lips.

Hosea 14:2 YLT
2 Take with you words, and turn to Jehovah, Say ye unto Him: 'Take away all iniquity, and give good, And we do render the fruit [פרים] of our lips.

פרים = parim, (par, masc. plural), calves, young bullocks, fruit, (as a mass noun), or fruits.
פרי = priy/periy, fruit, (as a mass noun), or fruits.
פר = par/per, a fruit or fruit, (as a mass noun), or a calf, or a young bullock.

Hosea 14:1-2
[01] O Yisrael, return unto HE WHO WAS AND IS your Elohim, for you have stumbled in your iniquity:
[02] Take with you words, and turn unto HE WHO WAS AND IS: say to Him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so shall we render the fruits [פרים] of our lips.

So shall we render the fruits of our lips ~ implied fruit offerings, (because of masc. plural form).
The words of the lips from a repentant heart are fruit offerings, that is, פרים, (parim/farim).

 

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Numbers 22:41 KJV
41 And it came to pass on the morrow, that Balak took Balaam, and brought him up into the high places of Baal, that thence he might see the utmost part of the people.

Numbers 23:1-2 KJV
1 And Balaam said unto Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven oxen [פרים] and seven rams [אילים].
2 And Balak did as Balaam had spoken; and Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a bullock [פר] and a ram [איל].

Numbers 23:27-30 KJV
27 And Balak said unto Balaam, Come, I pray thee, I will bring thee unto another place; peradventure it will please God that thou mayest curse me them from thence.
28 And Balak brought Balaam unto the top of Peor, that looketh toward Jeshimon.
29 And Balaam said unto Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bullocks [פרים] and seven rams [אילים].
30 And Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bullock [פר] and a ram [איל] on every altar.

Revelation 2:14-17 ASV
14 But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there some that hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication.
15 So hast thou also some that hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans in like manner.
16 Repent therefore; or else I come to thee quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of my mouth.
17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches. To him that overcometh, to him will I give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written, which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it.