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Journeys of Jacob - Sheeba, Bethel & Haran

Writer's picture: NtandoyenkosiNtandoyenkosi

Welcome People! We appreciate you tuning in from whatever part of the world you currently find yourself in. We welcome you! Our website statistics tells us you as a People, are literally all spread across the whole world. From all corners of the earth ! And we are grateful for that. As we see it, it is SoNiNi talking to you through these few pages of writing and Scripture. And it is the responsibility of the people that are awakening, to try their level best to set the old historical locations right. And we would say just as important, to interpret Scripture, to read the words of our Father, in a way that has an African foundation and understanding. So wherever you are tuning in from, welcome and May we meet in The Promised Land soon.


Now We have to enjoy the sharing of information while we can, we are doing our bit to ensure future sharing, after the ever-looming large scaled internet blackout and perhaps a more controlled and limited internet, we are preparing for that as it is quite possibly what the future holds. And Now make no mistake, His People are waking up, along with more and more truth coming to light. So a more controlled internet is unlikely to stop The Most High from reaching out to His children. Now, the amount of emails we are receiving has grown exponentially. South Africans, Zimbabweans, Kenyans, people all over Africa really, but also from Europe and even Russians!, and last but not least, many US citizens. We try to answer all of you (in person) with all kinds of queries and questions. That means more than a simple Hi in the chat people. It is obviously not manned 24-hours a day. So if you write us from the States, normally we are sleeping over here as we are on a different set of time. We are not many running this site, and we try as best we can. So when writing, take your time, and tell us your story and testimony. We will answer. We will make time. Forgive us if we have overlooked some. We would like to answer everyone.


Listen, the questions we are getting are all legitimate and there are no dumb questions, only dumb answers. But there certainly are ignorant people writing us also. For sure there are arrogant people. We had a university teacher write us a while back. He or she, we bless the persons heart, went out of their way to tell us what unacademic drivel it is to suggest that the Dogon tribe would originally be from the area where we suggested in Moab. We quote "unacademic drivel". The fact that these academic opinions and others we would call them attacks, the fact that this is happening encourages us. Because if a university professor attacks someone's work its because something or someones theory is threatened. And these are peoples livelihoods. University positions, dissertations written years ago that protect peoples jobs. This information threatens a lot of those positions, so of course there will be resistance. Remember this information is disruptive to the status quo. Imagine the historical rewrites, there will be an uproar in academia. So, we can only pray for the people stuck in webs of intellect the devil has had so much time to spin for them. With intellect and education comes a good portion of pride. Now just because a person has a degree or is educated does not give them an ounce of authority over anyone. We on this site, we bend a knee to SoNiNi, not academia. Medicines or sciences, we must put it up against Scripture to see if the information holds true. More then often these disciplines of man, fall short. They lack SoNiNi. We do not.


Now as a continuation of the other posts on various Biblical locations, we came come to the realisation that we should be mapping the Journeys of Jacob. In realising this, as we started the research for these locations many years ago, we quickly saw the amount of information that had to be sifted through. And countries to visit. After that, and only after being somewhat certain of at least a few of them, we decided to make them into a series. Now, this will amount into some 10+ very important Biblical Locations. So, Lets dive!


In these journeys we will follow the man Jacob, also called Yacobi or Yakobel in the Egyptian texts, the son of Isaac, grandson of Abraham. Now Jacobs name, as a lot of Bantu don not like or want to call him Jacob, as it is a rather Eurocentric name. Remember J is a new letter, kinda like expanding the letter Y (Yod or Jod) in the Hebrew alphabet. So, the form does kinda exist in the Paleo Hebrew. We would say because of the limitations of language, therefore we now have all kinds of abbreviations, Akobi, Yakobi, Yacov even although his name did distinguish between V and B, and many other forms. Now none of these should matter because SoNiNi gave him a new name, Israel or in the vernacular ancient Hebrew something closer to Isakele or in Xhosa Jijisana, which means something like he or those who Wrestles with SoNiNi. This is a root word not far from Ihleka, remember Isaac, who was Jacobs father and the son of Abraham was called my laughter, as Sarai laughed when she was told she would be with child. Isolele is another word thrown around among Bantus speakers in the North close to Zambezi, but with basically the same root meaning. And bearing these images as vidid descriptions of a struggling, or being the perfect rendered image of the perpetual struggle between Man and SoNiNi. Moving on, as we can read this story in its full glory in Genesis chapters 25 and all the way to 50. Go ahead, we challange you to read on through it and pick up here with us when you done. We will wait :)

Now if you did not do that. The story goes like this, after Jacob deceived his father Isaac into giving him the blessings, and then he fled to the east. Not on this route he had the dream of a ladder reaching all the way up into Heaven, with angels going up and down. And Isakele (Jacob) was struck on the hip after wrestling with the angel all night in a dream. It is from there his name was given, Wrestles with God. Israeli or Isakele, which we briefly again mentioned has another Bantu root word which is Jacobs father Isaacs name which was laughter / Ihleka - now both of these (Isakele and ihleka), that for some reason now in modern times has become IS-RA-EL. Which of course denotes origins from Egypt and Babylon, Isis (Egyptian goddess), Ra another Egyptian god and EL which is riddled in the Babylonian texts. El-Shaddai? Yep, Babylonian origin. Another long article.


SoNiNi naNiNi, now that is the true African name of The Old and Mighty One. Anything with EL in it (basically) is of Babylonian heritage. But you will find that a lot, perhaps after the Babylonian exile, has ties to the vernacular ancient Hebrew. Remember that, These old kingdoms had lots of interactions. It would be very strange if they did not bleed into one another's language. just like AmaEnglish is rather endemic in todays tongues. It happened back then also, just as it happened with Greek and Latin. Languages of trade. In a coming article, we will use language as our guide in trying to pinpoint and place the locations of the 12 Tribes, at the times of Joshua. Not an easy task.

Now back to Jacobs journey, which could also be called Abrahams and Isaacs Journeys as well. In these journeys we find Jacobs uncle Laban who likely could have been from Central Africa, in various countries like Zambia, Zimbabwe or even northern Botswana and Angola areas, the father of two women named Rachel and Leah. Were these women twins? All we know is at the very least they must have looked very similar as Jacobs mistakes one for the other. Even during intimacy. It was dark the Bible notes, although we are not quite sure we buy into that excuse. Anyways, he married both in time and his two women (and two concubines) gave birth to 12 Tribes. We wont go too much into the story as we tend to get sidetracked, we will stick to the locations for now.

Now among all these locations, we have narrowed down some of them as being rather key, among which we believe we can now rather confidently locate a few of them. Kanaan was the most priced inheritance of Abraham, among the larger part of southern and central Africa (from the Nile and down), Jacob would become the father of the 12 Tribes who would inherit the Promised Land as promised by SoNiNi. Kanaan was promised to Abrahams descendants, and the 12 Tribes would inherit a lot of land in southern Africa. Now we say from the Nile and down basically describes these lands, with exceptions. But we will admit, that Abrahams lands could have stretched further up into central, east and perhaps even parts of West Africa. But, then you have to account for the Nile and off course the placement of the historical Euphrates, which we believe was/is the Zambezi, and also the Historical and ancient River Nile.


Moving on, Now Jacob as his grandfather Abraham at Hebron, actually had to purchase land at Shechem (not far from Goshen), and later he went south to Hebron, where he stayed for quite a while and then comes the story of his favoured son Joseph. Jacob lies buried even to this day at Hebron, in the family tomb, a place called Mashabela - also a description for Sothos in Northern Cape or Machpelah as the Hebrew reads. What do you think, is it still there? Are they buried at Hebron/Gaborone?


Now an important Biblical location is Beersheba. And we have given two examples of where Beersheba could have been located in Southern Africa. One on the West Coast of Namibia and another in South Africa in the Province of KwaZulu Natal, not far from Kokstad and areas not far from there (might not be the right place, but could be close to another Biblical location). The first location in Namibia is however more likely when thinking of the quote, from Dan to Beersheba from East to West as we previously discussed and suggested. Now wherever it may have been, it is the place where Jacob and his brother Esau developed their brotherly disagreements. Now Jacob went from Beersheba to his family in Padan-Aram, and the city of Haran (Genesis 25,19-20):

19 These are the descendants of Isaac, Abraham`s son: Abraham was the father of Isaac, 20 and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel the Aram of Paddan-Aram, sister of Laban the Aram."

So Beersheba, the Well of Seven (Sheba, or seven Lambs) or the Well of Oaths, dugg by Abraham and named after the pact between Abimelech and Abraham (Genesis 21,31). Isaak gave it a different name (Genesis 26,31-33).

31 Early the next morning the men swore an oath to each other. Then Isaac sent them on their way, and they went away peacefully. 32 That day Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well they had dug. They said, “We’ve found water!” 33 He called it Shibah, and to this day the name of the town has been Beersheba."

Now there is a lot to say about Sheeba or Beersheba. The Patriarchs loved to stay here, and it was among the cities given to the son called Somoni or Simeon (Joshua 19,2 & 1 Chronicles 4,-24-28):

24 The descendants of Simeon:
Nemuel, Jamin, Jarib, Zerah and Shaul; 25 Shallum was Shaul’s son, Mibsam his son and Mishma his son. 26 The descendants of Mishma: Hammuel his son, Zakkur his son and Shimei his son. 27 Shimei had sixteen sons and six daughters, but his brothers did not have many children; so their entire clan did not become as numerous as the people of Judah. 28 They lived in Beersheba, Moladah, Hazar Shual, 29 Bilhah, Ezem, Tolad, 30 Bethuel, Hormah, Ziklag, 31 Beth Markaboth, Hazar Susim, Beth Biri and Shaaraim. These were their towns until the reign of David.

As the saying goes, the Promised Land stretched from Dan to Beersheba (Judges 20,1 ; 1 Chronicles 21,1 ; 2 Samuel 24,2), these verses will solidify this saying as a proverb that fits the whole of the Promised Land inside of it. Please check our previous article for that possible mapping.


Now after the Captivity of the People, the saying changed and then went on to say from Beersheba unto the Valley of Hinnom (2 Chronicles 19,4). Now this quote puts things on its head again, and we could be looking at a from South to North concept, still, we will keep the East to West, as it seems more plausible. But where then, was the Valley of the Son of Hinnom? Is it also underneath desert sands and now called desolate places? Or is it up there where all the countries of Zimbabwe, Zambia and Namibia meet? Is that the valley of the Son of Hinnom?

Something to think about, now Beersheba was known as an endpoint in the Promised Land, some say southern limit, but we have yet to see a quote from the Bible that says it was in the south. All we can find is that it was one of the outermost cities of the tribe of the children of Juda (Josh 15,21-28). No Mention of south there, but if someone else finds it please let us know. the mention that we can find was that the City of Bethel was in the south of Juda, which would be on the other side (the east side) of the Jordan, and north in the Kingdom. Now Sheba also means Seven in ancient Hebrew, and the name could stem from the Lambs slain (which were Seven) and given to King Abimelech, OR it could be from the amount of Wells dug there (which was also Seven). Now this place is a reminder of SoNiNis ways of doing things in Sevens, even binding things into the number seven, just like Sabbaths and full calendar years, this number is a reoccurring theme in our Bibles. So Beersheba was a place where Isaac lived (Genesis 26,23) and Jacob traveled from when going to Haran (Genesis 28,10). A Place in the inheritance of Juda, then assigned to Simeon (Somoni), and LOTS of Biblical events happened here. Too many to mention here, so it is and was a sacred place. Now if we want to look there in the dirt for what we can find, there was said to be a tree planted there by Abraham, where he would call on SoNiNi (Genesis 21,33). We believe that tree would still be there to this day, especially if this was a Baobab. So something to look for in Beersheba. A city said not to be far from Bethel and Gilgal, a shrine was built there at Shiba, said to be the place of the purest of worship of SoNiNi (Amos 5,5 & 8,14).


Now before we approach the place and now city of Haran, Jacob came to his 2nd location which is Bethel, the place where Jacob met SoNiNi and received the vision of the stairway or ladder that went up into heaven (Genesis 28,11-22):

11 When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. 12 He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels SoNiNi were ascending and descending on it. 13 There above it stood SoNiNi, and he said:
“I am SoNiNi naNiNi, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying. 14 Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. 15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely SoNiNi is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 17 He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of SoNiNi; this is the gate of heaven.”
18 Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. 19 He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz. 20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If SoNiNi will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear 21 so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the SoNiNi will be my God 22 and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be SoNiNi’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”

Now if we check up on Bethel, House of God or House of El (Babylonian remember), House of SoNiNi is where Abraham pitched his tent (East of Bethel), which was abundant in pastures for his cattle (Genesis 12,8 & Genesis 13,3):

3 From the Negev he went from place to place until he came to Bethel, to the place between Bethel and Ai where his tent had been earlier 4 and where he had first built an altar. There Abram called on the name of SoNiNi.

Now, as it just so happens, if you go out from Beersheba, and go directly east or up a little then east, you will come to a two interesting places, both called Bethal / Bethel even to this day. The first one is in Namibia, not far from Hardap. And is a mountainous region The second is close to Mahikeng in South Africa, in the Northwest province of South Africa. The last one is more Northeast, but still moving across country. Both good candidates and very close to Gaborone (Hebron). But this one is not in the desert, so we continue. There is a third one.

There are other Bethels, one not far from Embalenhle, out from the Johannesburg areas, towards the Mozambican border. However, we doubt this is the right Bethal we are looking for. There are also another two locations that bears the name, one in Free State and another Bethel in KZN, the last one is not far from our farm. All good candidates, but remember, all must fit for one to fit. Furthermore, the location would not be it as Abraham pitched his tent to the East of the town or city of Bethal, on a mountain (Genesis 12,8). Abundant pastures, there are plenty in these areas, not too much water retained in the ground though. But that will change in the future. Imvula iyanetha.

So is the one in the image, in the Desert, the place or at the very least not far from the House of SoNiNi? Is this the place of the heavenly ladder? We think its a good candidate for sure. But we are not certain of this location and needs more research. But in these areas, we are confident that it will be. Perhaps named in another name, an old Namib (Damara) or Tswana dialect, we will find the House of SoNiNi. And at this place, Jacob set up a pillar of stones, anointed the pillar with oil and marked the place where SoNiNi spoke to him, Bethel. Now we do know more about the area, a Kanaanite city called Luz was said to be close (Joshua 16,1-2). Now Jacob did change his name, a good while later and our Scriptures say 20 years later (Genesis 35,1-15 and Genesis 32,28).

Another Bethal, is a bit further up from the other one and in the vicinity of Erongo (Damaraland). Also a very good candidate. But until we get there, locations like this one become slim theories. For now, but they will become more clear as soon as we come back from Namibia. Now remember Bethal, belong to Benjamin, but was also claimed by Ephraim, with Bethal as his southern border (Judges 1,22-26):


It was close to Jerusalem, in which there is a very good candidate for the Holy City, not far from this location at all. During the civil wars of the Promised Lands, Benjamin took the Ark of the Covenant to Bethal to be able to consult with SoNiNi (I Samuel 10,3). Now there are many other verses that ties into Bethel in Scripture, many quotes Prophet Samuel (1 Samuel 7,16) and others bring in King Jeroboam (1 Kings 12-13).

Now Jeroboam built a place of calf worship there, but was overthrown by Josiah (II Chronicles 13,19), and regained again at a later stage. Now in the times of Samuel, it was Jezreel that had their own worship thing going away from Bethal, but under Jehu the calf worship was again restored. After this we see Bethel becoming a Kings Chapel (II Kings 10,29), Kings Court, or House of the Kingdom (Amos 7,13 & 3,14-15). And we can actually from Scripture get names like Summer and Winter House, and even House of Ivory. Interesting one, and it would not be hard to find traces in the earth for this.

Now then, with images of Houses made by Ivory bones firmly in the imagination, we see that after Israel was overthrown, The King of Assyria sent a Priest of Israel to Bethal. This was to teach the new people coming into the lands, like from Babylonia, Cutha, Ava, Hamath and Sepharvain after the manners of the God of these lands. They should fear SoNiNi, the priest said (II Kings 17,27-28). And keep in mind for future mappings, in the territory of the tribe of Judah, Bethel was in the very south (I Samuel 30,27-30). Another points is this city was west of Ai (Genesis 12,8), names on the northern border of Benjamin (southern Ephraim (Joshua 16,2), and more importantly was at the top of the Jordan valley (Joshua 18,13. South of Shilo (Judges 21,19).


Now what is very interesting about this location of Bethel, is the nearby placement (of Eusebius and his Onomasticon) of Jerusalem, not many miles from there. And it was said to be on the road to Neapolis, an ancient Greek city that was alive and kicking it ancient times. Good candidates for this Nea (New) Polis (City), are the places towards the east and north, which would be the ever-growing areas in and around the areas of Gauteng and cities like: Johannesburg, Pretoria, Centurion (good name for roman prefect right?) and also more north towards Polokwane. But they may well have been areas on the other side of southwest Africa coast also. Angola and SouthCentral Africa, like the little explored areas of The Congo, and closer cities like Mongu, Lusaka and Harare, is always of interest because of their share size, proximity and ancient cultural traces to Biblical civilisations.


Lastly in our Bibles say that Jacob arose and returned to Bethal on his 9th stop coming back from Hebron, which means Hebron would be close. And upon returning here, he renewed his vows to SoNiNi and built an altar there at Bethal and worshipped SoNiNi there (Genesis 35,1-15).


And then we have Haran (3rd location) the home of Laban, said to be in ancient Mesopotamia (Monomapata - The lands between the two Rivers Zambezi and Congo, you will find Monomapata on ancient African maps still). Remember this place was not necessarily within the promised land itself, among the 12 Tribes but a part of Abrahams inheritance. A place where Jacob stayed for 14 years while working off his Lobola (Bride Dowry) for Labans two daughters. In Genesis Chapter 29 you see the full story of Leah and Rachel, and SoNiNi blessing him with many riches, then came twelve sons who became the fathers of the 12 Tribes of Israel.


Now the true ancient location of Haran, we are not to sure about. But the region, we think must be close to where we think the city of Harare is today, or even further north on the East side of the Zambezi (Euphrates). Haran was Said to be on the banks of Belik, a tributary/affluent to the Euphrates. We will still entertain Harare as being a close and suitable candidate.


Now we can find the modern-day city of Harare, in Zimbabwe, not far from the River Mazowe, an affluent of the Zambezi. And if the Zambezi is the River Euphrates, as we have postulated, then the City of Nahor (Biblical name of Haran) would have been situated on the banks of Belik, not far from the Euphrates that we believe is the Zambezi. And this area we now have ventured into would have been called the area of Mesopotamia, the lands in between the Two Rivers, back in the days. With Assyria not to far off in the distance in the West. But we will get into all of this just now.


Now then the place and name can only be found in English as Haran (Charan) and in the ancient old vernacular Hebrew (a Bantu sounding language) it would mean parched, however it its more likely to have meant crossroads or road. Being more related to the Babylonian word Haranu.

Now if we go into the nitty gritty, the eldest son of Terah, that was called Charran or Haran, who was Abrahams brother AND the father of Lot, Milcah and Iscah, died before his father Terah (Genesis 11,26). He died supposedly in Ur of the Chaldaeans. From this we get the city called Haran named after Abrahams brother - in the northwest of Mesopotamia (we think is the lands between the two Rivers). Now it was here in Haran, after leaving UR, that Abraham spent some time until Terah, his father had died. Now these parts would also have been within the borders of the Promised Lands under Hezekiah, but was taken by Assyrians (II Kings 19,12). The location of Ur of Chaldea would presumably be closer to or at least North of the Nile, which contained the area given to Abrahams descendants, basically Nile and down.

Now in this area, they worshipped Sin, the moon god, and a Temple was built here by Shalmaneser II. So they seemed to share the faith of Assur, with various Temples as built by Ashurbanipal and the likes, this would be the historical country of the Medes and not far from ancient Persia. The Asian and what we call today "Muslim" influences of and in countries like Tanzania are off course not coincidental, and may serve historically to have basis from Biblical times. But this needs more research, but remember Mesopotamia was the lands between the Two River, lots of areas and lots of peoples.

Now from the location of Bethal in Namibia, to Harare, is quite the trek. We are not saying the Jacob could not have made this trip, only that it is a 32 hour (constant) drive by vehicle! It would take you a good while longer by donkey or camel, is all we are saying. There is another Bethal as we mentioned, just west out from Windhoek, which makes the tripe somewhat shorter but still, it would take you weeks if not months to get the Harare from Bethal, Namibia. Remember Haran was said to be a city of northwest Mesopotamia, so the location could certainly be close to the banks of Zambezi but further West, going into Zambia and or even Angloa. Harare is put as an example and mostly on account of its similarity of name and on the banks of the Zambezi (Euphrates).

Now, ancient Haran was indeed a crossroads city in Northwestern Mesopotamia, also called Charran in the phonetical. Now is this the city that Abraham was called to go out from to The Promised Land? Remember Abraham left this city at the age of 75, and search for the Promised Land. The distance going South could make it likely, but, Ur of the Chaldeans would certainly be further north. The trek then down towards the south and encountering the cities of the plains, would make it likely. And they would come the place that separated Abraham a Lot, one going East and the other going West. It is likely, but we need more research on this.


People, thank you for reading. Go and tell your neighbour about the things that you have read. Test the spirit in them, if they vehemently disagree, that should tell you something. If they say, you know that may very well be, or better yet, he or she gives that startled look of something you said they know to be true, then guess what. SoNiNi has already told them, either in their sleep or in a vision. Let the blood speak. Associate with this person, even if they go on to disagree with you, you saw their initial reaction remember. Now the one who goes out of his way to disagree with you on these things, or they try to tell you where the lands of Abraham really is, let them go. The truth might come to them, it also might not. But you, you did the right thing. You shared what you know, and did your part. Whatever happens next is not up to you. Either way, when the person retells what he or she heard, perhaps even to mock you or your beliefs, even then the person (unknowingly) will help to spread the truth about SoNiNis people and ancient history. Slowly like this, the history of Africa will finally come out. aBantu bam will wake up. Play your part.


SoNiNi unathi

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