These texts preserve the old style Ṣ dating to 840 BCE found on the Gezer and Jerusalem tablets while showing updated letters for everything else.
For translation methodology see: How to Translate Alphabetic Akkadian Texts
(April 2, 2022) Droughts separate the archaeological periods in the Levant. States weakened by local droughts were often subject to raids right after the droughts by Mesopotamian empires which were unaffected due to their irrigation. Below is the latest widely accepted chronology proposed by Amihai Mazar in 2014 shown below:
(March 21, 2023) Image is of the winged sun disk of the god Hu spewing fluid onto a long necked bird. Hu represents the life network which filters and guides the fertility fluids which trigger the life form manifestations from Yahu.
(April 8, 2023) Face B shows an exhausted or dead eagle vulture which weaves the life network. Most letters on this sealing date to the 6th century with key letters "A" showing squareness and the letter "P" getting forked appendages. Yet, significantly, the letter Ṣ is in the older style of the Jerusalem stone dating to 840 BCE. This suggests the sealing may have originated at the tribe of Benjamin's temple at Tel Masos.
Some Hebrew language scholars claim the text reads as follows:
Not Provenanced. Letter assignments by Olmsted
(Feb 22, 2023)
This text was translated by Robert Deutsch as (red are differing letter assignments):
This is a filed translation for following reasons:
Hezekiah or Hizkiah is spelled in four slightly different ways in the Hebrew scripture (http://www.abarim-publications.com/Meaning/Hezekiah.html) :
None of these match Deutsch's word assignment for Hezekiah.
The 980 BCE drought forced many of the original Israelite Moabites to migrate. Based on the Moabite Stele this Israelite group showed many early characteristics of what would later become Judaism. This proto-Jewish group seems to have settled around Jerusalem where they became the tribe of Benjamin.
This Jewish Moabite exodus event left three independent Biblical story arcs:
The whole exodus tradition
The story of Ruth from Moab set against a background of drought and famine,
The Benjaminite war of Israel but mainly with Judah (Judges 19-21) as it established its new territory.
Significantly, tradition remembers that king Saul was of the tribe of Benjamin while king David was of the tribe of Judah.
This Benjamin/Moabite hypothesis is further supported by the establishment of a village and temple at Tel Moza at the time when the Moabite refugees would have arrived (980-960 BCE) west of the Jordan river. This temple was located 7 km northwest of Jerusalem (Kisilevitz 2015). This site has been identified as the town of Moẓah by archaeologists and is mentioned in Joshua 18:26 as a town of Benjamin. It’s temple is of the type which would have been used by the Jewish Moabite refugees.
This Moza temple (fig 5) was found below a later public building (building 500) which dated to between 800 and 700 BCE meaning the temple was in use prior to that time. The temple was dated to the Iron IIA period. It consisted of a building with a courtyard orientated in an east west direction. The courtyard had a square stone altar facing south and an adjacent supply table and refuse pit which was filled with earth, ash, pottery sherds, and a large number of bones.
The first temple’s end was violent. It likely occurred during the 840 BCe drought and resulting civil war. Objects on the supply table were just swept off with a forearm and left scattered on the floor. Later all this debris was left in place as new dirt was brought in as the foundation for building 500.
Beside pottery fragments the supply table debris contained four figurines (two anthropomorphic and two zoomorphic), fragments of chalices/cauldrons/stands, and styled pendants including one in the shape of a pomegranate which was a symbol for life. One of the “chalices” had burn marks indicating it held incense like a cauldron. Another “chalice” was oversized with a large base for holding heavy liquids such that it was called a stand. All these cult objects would have been used by a life-priest in healing rituals based upon sympathetic magic. In this type of ritual objects stand in for the objects to be healed or protected. In contrast to these object, objects used for emotion magic rituals are based upon emotional correspondences.
The Moabite Mountains of Nebo and Horeb are also a part of the exodus story arc. Mount Nebo was the place where Deuteronomy chapter 34 says Moses dies after seeing the promised land. In Deuteronomy 34.1 “Nebo” has the letters Nun-Bet-Vav or N-B-U. In Akkadian this means the “Revealer’s nourishing” from “Nu Bu.” The “Revealer” is a common epithet in Alphabetic Akkadian texts for the god Yahu. Consequently, this was a sacred mountain for Yahweh.
In contrast and in 1 Kings 19.8 “Horeb” has the letters Het-Resh-Bet or H-R-B. In Akkadian this means “Liver’s nourishing” from “ḫarû bu.” The liver was thought to be the seat of emotions so this was the mountain sacred for the magical motion class powers in the Ancient Pagan Paradigm. In this passage Elijah sits in a cave where Yahweh came to him as a quiet small voice. In other words, this was a place of divination which fits with this mountain’s divine power class.
Mount Sinai is actually just another name for Mount Horeb. The word “Sinai” means “Su’s power is revealed” from Samak-Yod-Nun-Yod or SI-NI. Su is the full moon god and the source for all motion powers including the astrological powers of fate and the animal emotional powers.
