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This site was archived on Aug. 3, 2021. The two-state solution is no longer the most popular solution among the jurisdictions involved. A reconsideration of the topic is possible in the future.Donald B. Redford, Professor of Near East Studies at Pennsylvania State University, in Egypt, Canaan and Israel in Ancient Times, wrote:
“The ‘Land of the Shasu’ in the mountainous districts of Se’ir east of the Araba [the valley south of the Dead Sea] has an interesting consequence for one name in the mentioned lists from Soleb [northern Sudan] and Amarah [south of Cairo] — ‘Yhw (in) the land of the Shasu.’ For half a century it has been generally admitted that we have here the tetragrammaton, the name of the Israelite god, ‘Yahweh’; and if this be the case, as it undoubtedly is, the passage constitutes a most precious indication of the whereabouts during the late fifteenth century B.C. of an enclave revering this god.
And while it would be wrong to jump to the conclusion that ‘Israel’ as known from the period of the Judges or the early monarchy was already in existence in Edom at this time, one cannot help but recall the numerous passages in later Biblical tradition that depict Yahweh ‘coming froth from Se’ir’ and originating in Edom. The only reasonably conclusion is that one major component in the later amalgam that constituted Israel, and the one with whom the worship of Yahweh originated, must be looked for among the Shasu of Edom already at the end of the fifteenth century B.C.”
1992 – Donald B. Redford