YHWH GOD OF THE FORGE: The name YHWH was supposedly unknown until revealed to Moses even though his name is frequently mentioned in association with Abraham.. Yhwh was associated with fire as he was a storm god as well as a god of the forge. That he was a god of the forge is made obvious in Psalm 18 which describes him thus: “Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it.” Hot coals were used to smelt copper. Both Moses and Aaron forged molten idols. Moses forged the nechushtan (copper snake upon a pole) and Aaron forged the golden calf. Both were also priests from the tribe of Levi, a name which means twined, twisted or interlaced like Moses brazen serpent wound around the pole. So, to understand Yhwh, one must first understand the land of his origins, the land of Seir.(Deut 33:2).
The entire copper mining industry in the land of Seir (Edom) is mentioned in Genesis 4. The Genesis description of this industry includes the founders (Khry chiefs aka Horites aka Bedouin natives & Esau), the area where the copper was mined (Timna) and the names of the offspring of the Khry/Horites and Esau who forged the tools from the copper mined at Timna. According to Genesis 4, Cain (Qyn) was the first born of Adam. Qyn means ‘metal smith’. Qyn was banished to the land of Nod which means ‘to sway’ or ‘nwd’ in ancient Egyptian (Gardiners Sign List N35-U19-W24-Z7-D46-Z9-G37) . The land, which was occupied by Egypt for 300 years, was named after the mining method of suspending miners from swaying ropes into the copper mines at Timna and Punon (Job 28:4). The copper mining region of Timna is personified as Lotan’s daughter, the Khry aluf (Sheikh in Arabic) of Seir in Gen 36:22. The forging of bronze, an alloy if copper and tin, is specifically mentioned in Genesis. Genesis 4: 19 Lamech married two women, one named Adah and the other Zillah. 20 Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock. 21 His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play stringed instruments and pipes. 22 Zillah also had a son, Tubal-Cain, who forged all kinds of tools out of[g] bronze and iron. Tubal-Cain’s sister was Naamah.
The khry in Genesis 36 are the offspring of Qyn in Genesis 4. These offspring of Qyn were also known as Qynites (Kenites). The Qynites were the mining clan of the Midianites aka Ishmaelites. Moses married the daughter of Jethro, a Qynite priest. Due to the smithing industry’s association with the forging of idols, the word qyn in South Arabia also meant priest according to the Wiki article: Religion in PreIslamic Arabia. This explains the metal working skills of Aaron, who forged the ‘golden’ calf and Moses, who forged the nehushtan as well as the brothers’ association with the priestly caste of the Levite clan. Lawi or Levi was the Minaean word for priests according to Dr. J.A. Montgomery.
As for Seir, Lotan was the son of Seir, the khry aluf. Lotan’s sister, Timna (copper mining area), became the concubine of Eliphaz, Esau’s son according to Genesis 36. These two begat 3mlq (Amalek) who became the patriarch of the Amalekites upon whom Yhwh ordered a genocide especially targeting infants and toddlers in 1 Sam 15:1-3. In any case, the land of Seir is also referred to in the Bible as Edom. The name Seir is derived from the word meaning shaggy or hairy in both Hebrew and Arabic. In Arabic, Seir was known as ‘sh3ara’ or scrubland. Seir means scrubland. This Seir was even more anciently known to the Egyptians as Atika as mentioned in the Harris Papyrus I. Atika is the Egyptian transliteration of the word Aykat/Aykah. The word means ‘brush/scrub’.
According to Genesis 5:9, the Hebrews are descendants of Qynn, the South Arabian god of smiths. The Hebrew words for Cain (qyn), Cainan (qynn), Kenite (qyny) and Kenites (haqyny) are derived from the Egyptian word qnqn N29-N35-N29-N35-Z9-D40 which means to flatten metal with a mallet, the work of a smith. Biblical conflict between Qyn and his brother Abel is an iconic story of the conflict created by the copper mining operations in the Negev. Copper was mined and smelted on site using local brushwood as fuel. The mining operations denuded the area where the Bedouin and caravan tribes grazed their goats and camels causing a conflict between the miners and the shepherding Bedouin and camel herders. The conflict is represented in the Cain and Abel saga in which Cain represented the mining interests and Abel represented Bedouin pastoralism as well as the caravan tribes in the frankincense trade.
The name Abel is now thought to be derived from the Arabic word, ‘ibl’ which means camels. Abel’s name connects him to caravan tribes or the frankincense trade. Another biblical name, Keturah, Abraham’s 3rd wife and mother of the caravan tribes (Gen 25:1-4) is also connected to the caravan trade. Keutrah means ‘camel train’ in Arabic.The Judean authors of this epic favored the Bedouin and caravan tribes over the Qynite (Kenite) mining interests because the mines produced the molten idols of the gods that the Judeans condemned in the Old Testament (Ex 34:17, Lev 19:4 etc.). The Judeans had put their Qynite ancestry and the gods associated with their ancestors behind them. They created a new identity in which they became the descendants of Yhwh instead of their former god of smiths, Qynn/Cainan (Isa 63:16).
The ancestry is complicated but the biblical import is that Hebrew ancestry included the Khry who were the descendants of Qyn, These Qynites were further integrated into Hebrew genealogy thru a tribal alliance between the Qynite clan of the Midianties and the Levites whose religious origin seems to have been in the Arabian Peninsula.