Yehimilk inscription
{{Short description|10th-century BC Phoenician inscription}}
{{Infobox artefact
|image=Yehimilk of Byblos Inscription.jpg
|created={{circa}} 955 BC
|discovered_date=before 1931
|discovered_place=Byblos, Keserwan-Jbeil, Lebanon
|location=Byblos, Keserwan-Jbeil, Lebanon
}}
File:Yehimilk Phoenician Inscription in the Byblos Castle Museum.png
The Yehimilk inscription is a Phoenician inscription (KAI 4 or TSSI III 6) published in 1930,Maurice Dunand, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/44102431 Nouvelle Inscription Phénicienne Archaique], RB 39 (1930): 321–331.{{cite web|title=Middle East Kingdoms- Ancient Central Levant States|url=http://www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsMiddEast/CanaanByblos.htm|publisher=Kessler Associates|access-date=23 May 2017}} currently in the museum of Byblos Castle.
It was published in Maurice Dunand's Fouilles de Byblos (volume I, 1926–1932, numbers 1141, plate XXXI).{{Cite book|last=Dunand|first=Maurice|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cYIeAAAAMAAJ|title=Fouilles de Byblos: Tome 1er, 1926-1932|publisher=Librarie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner|year=1939|isbn=|series=Bibliothèque archéologique et historique|volume=24|location=Paris|pages=|language=fr|trans-title=The Byblos excavations, Tome 1, 1926–1932|ref=none}} and {{Cite book|last=Dunand|first=Maurice|url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9107356n/f1.item|title=Fouilles de Byblos, Tome 1er, 1926–1932 (Atlas)|publisher=Librarie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner|year=1937|isbn=|series=Bibliothèque archéologique et historique|volume=24|location=Paris|pages=|language=French|trans-title=The Byblos excavations, Tome 1, 1926–1932 (Atlas)|oclc=|via=Gallica|ref=none}}
It is dated to the 10th century BCE, and contains the earliest known Phoenician reference to Baalshamin.{{cite book | last=van der Toorn | first=K. | last2=Becking | first2=B. | last3=van der Horst | first3=P.W. | title=Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible | publisher=Eerdmans Publishing Company | year=1999 | isbn=978-0-8028-2491-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yCkRz5pfxz0C&pg=PA150 | access-date=2022-01-30 | page=150}}
Text of the inscription
The inscription reads:{{cite book |last1=Donner |first1=Herbert |last2=Röllig |first2=Wolfgang |title=Kanaanäische und aramäische Inschriften |date=2002 |publisher=Harrassowitz |location=Wiesbaden |page=I, 1 |edition=5}}{{cite book |last1=Krahmalkov |first1=Charles R. |title=Phoenician-Punic Dictionary |date=2000 |publisher=Peeters / Departement Oosterse Studies |location=Leuven |isbn=90-429-0770-3 |pages=106, 129, 179, 218}}
{{interlinear|number=(1)|BT Z BNY YḤMLK MLK GBL|[This is] the temple that he has built, Yehimilk, king of Byblos.}}
{{interlinear|number=(2-3)|H’T ḤWY KL MPLT HBTM / ’L|It was he who restored all these ruins of temples.}}
{{interlinear|number=(3-4)|Y’RK B‘L-ŠMM WB‘L(T) / GBL|May they [the gods] prolong —Baalsamem, and Ba'al(at) Gebal,}}
{{interlinear|number=(4-5)|WMPḤRT ’L GBL / QDŠM|and the assembly of the holy gods of Byblos—}}
{{interlinear|number=(5-6)|YMT YḤMLK WŠNTW / ‘L GBL|[may these gods prolong] Yehimilk's days and his years over Byblos,}}
{{interlinear|number=(6-7)|K MLK ṢDQ WMLK / YŠR|because [he is] a just king and a righteous king}}
{{interlinear|number=(7)|LPN ’L GBL QDŠM [H’]|before the holy gods of Byblos, he.}}
Bibliography
- Christopher Rollston, "[https://www.academia.edu/474442/The_Dating_of_the_Early_Royal_Byblian_Phoenician_Inscriptions_A_Response_to_Benjamin_Sass The Dating of the Early Royal Byblian Phoenician Inscriptions: A Response to Benjamin Sass]." MAARAV 15 (2008): 57–93.
- Benjamin Mazar, The Phoenician Inscriptions from Byblos and the Evolution of the Phoenician-Hebrew Alphabet, in The Early Biblical Period: Historical Studies (S. Ahituv and B. A. Levine, eds., Jerusalem: IES, 1986 [original publication: 1946]): 231–247.
- William F. Albright, The Phoenician Inscriptions of the Tenth Century B.C. from Byblus, JAOS 67 (1947): 153–154.
- Corinne Bonnet. [https://hal.science/hal-01865311 Existe-t-il un B'l gbl. à Byblos. À propos de l'inscription de Yehimilk] (KAI 4). Ugarit-Forschungen, 1993, 25, pp.25-34. ⟨hal-01865311⟩