A LITERATE SOLDIER: LACHISH LETTER III* Frank Moore Cross Harvatd University 1.0 Ostracon II from Lachish, a letter from a junior officer, Hoshaiah, to his commander at Lachish, Ya°osh, is perhaps the most fascinating of the Lachish corpus. It speaks tersely and tantalizingly of troop movements between Judah and Egypt in the last days of Judah, of a letter containing, apparently, the warning of a prophet, and, in the midst of allusions to great events, expresses the hurt and injured pride of a man accused by his superior of not being able to read and understand a ewer, in effect of being illiterate. It is the last-mentioned section of the letter that particularly interests us here, In the forty-five years which hhave passed since the editio princeps of the ostracon, most of its material readings have been solved; ironically we still have difficulties in under- standing —reading—the author's argument defending his ability to read a lewer, 1.1 TRANSCRIPTION Recto 1 bd hws yhw. sla. 1 2 Agd Pany yi yim* * Note the following special abbreviations: Albright: W.F. Albright in Ancient Near Eastern Texte Relating to the Old Testament, ed. J.B, Pritchard (Princeton: Princeton University, 1950), p. $22, EHO: F.M. Cross and D. N. Freedman, Early Hebrew Orthography. AOS 36 (New Haven: American Oriental Society, 1952), LeMaire: A. LeMaire, Inscriptions hébraigues. Tome I: Les ostaca (Paris Les éditions du Cerf, 1977) Michaud: H. Michaud, Sur la pierre et Pergile, (Neuchitel: Delachaux et Niestlé, 1958), Pardee: Dennis Pardee etal, Handbook of Ancient Hebrew Letters. SBL Sources for Biblical Study 15 (Chico, California: Scholars Press, 1982). ' For bibliography, see Pardee, 81-88, 4142 IN Fav Moons Gross 8. ha dy, s'est 4. wim, OL] w'thpgh 5. PLPE Zan] bdk.lypr. & HMAC YT hab, maby lb 1. dk duh. mein Hh, °l, cbd BAL fokyL me dey dh 9. qr spr hyhwh.mnsh 10. 98 lar" byspr Insbaog 1M spat “8 9b bk 12. grty. °th w'tid. “tmnhw 13. Shmrwmh whbdh, hed 14 Prmr. ged Se. heb? 15. yh. bn "Inin . 16. mayb. wt Verso 7 udwyhw bn hye a 18 nsw th. lghtanch 19. usprbyhw “bdshmith Ab> 20. stm bm yam n.Pm Bh 7 him Shh. sbed>h. 21 ny. 1.2 PROVISIONAL VOCALIZATION i. iat" Tegra” te pe lon, oegam ful spielen ab iy. om gure “1oh we aud. “atninha Sei a°umah, we-laablak hugged tema, grad rhage here in “ata eb maya, wae hawdauryebt bin hth wa oat leg misath seer, (Ob yohu Cab am math: hab "a alam bin ged, meoihannabh ome nla tishOh “abed>ek. et “ad A Literate Soldier: Lachish Lewer MI il 43. 1.3 TRANSLATION Your servant Hoshaiah: he has sent to report to my lord-Ya’osh, May Yahweh let my lord hear tidings of peace and tidings of good. And now: let be opened, pray, the ear of your servant concerning the letter which you sent to your servant yesterday evening; for the heart of your servant has been despondent since you sent (it) to your servant, 8. and that my lord said, “you did not understand it 9. Calla scribe!” As Yahweh lives, no one has tried 10, to reada letter to me ever, and furthermore, 11, any scribe who might have come to me, I did not 12, summon him and, further, I would pay him 18. nothing! Now it has been reported to your servant, 14, saying: “The commander of the army has gone down— 15. Coniah son of Elnathan—to go into 16. Egyptand 17, Hodaviah son of Ahiah and 18. his men he has sent for, taking them away from here.” 19. As for the letier at Tobiah the servant of the king which came 20. to Shallum son of Jaddua at the instance of the prophet, saying: 21, “Beware!” thy servant has forwarded it to my lord. 2.0 The transcription above (based on Figure 1) reflects the writer's study of the original ostracon, new photographs, which, alas, reveal fad: ing of the ink which new photographic procedures have not overcome, and study of old photographs, especially a postcard published many years ago by the (then) Palestine Archaeological Museum. The vocaliza- tion of the text presumes the development of pre-Exilic Hebrew reflected in inscriptions and transcriptions in vocalized languages notably in Ak- kadian and Greek. At many points it is theoretically based with litle or no direct evidence. For example, we do not know when certain types of tone-lengthening took place; in such cases we reconstruct forms with the carlier (short) vowels. We offer it, not as an exercise in historical Hebrew, but as a laying bare of our grammatical analysis, so often obscured in ambiguity when translations alone are given. 2.1 COMMENTARY ON MATERIAL READINGS ‘The beginning of line 4 has been long mistead. Michaud and LeMaire have correctly reconstructed wém:t.(b. The fis partly preserved; traces remain of the top of the mas well as the cross-bar of aw. The tet I regard as certain, and a trace conforming to the bottom of bet exists44° I Fnank Moor Cross I [nha NAS? gues a 5t9 D4 land p.qager Wat SAE SAA agg A 0% gas tog AFG FEY, AF Lageanpese! la pat Le ange Kaledaptg gr) ANAAe aa AAD SE se. ~ reel ale? “ Tos BAN 3 Ae ) + Aarg. coqh he heey leg. pypspinpagorZy) grheganns 4d -§ x 7 apt le Y9e he age Mc Figure 1. A Tracing of Lachish Ostracon IIT A Literate Soldier: Lachish Letter Ill 43 ‘There is a space before the waw of w°t, anda blob of ink, It is possible to read wim tbe In line 5 the reading °2n is certain; it is mystifying that this render- ing emerged so late in the study of the ostracon, and is still unrecognized by some. The beginning of line 6 must be read slhch. "1. bdh. Only the “alep- is in doubt, The cross-stroke of the faw and its lower shaded siroke are preserved, and he is very clear. ‘The end of line 12, *tmnhw, and the beginning of line 13, °Lm wml, despite the difficulty the reading occasions, are, I believe, beyond ques tioning, The reading remains a crux. 2.2 COMMENTARY ON THE TEXT AND TRANSLATION ‘The introduction in lines 1-2 is unusual. Syntactically it can be understood most easily as a casus pendens, “Your servant Hoshaial followed by the perfect (or sulfixal) tense, The body of the letter, intro- duced as usual by w°t, begins with a request for an explanation of a reprimand received in a previous leter from Yaosh, The phrase hpgh an is to be taken as the nip‘al imperative with the object of the active construction still subordinated in the accusative with °t! There is no reason to propose an unattested hip il (pace Pardee). slhth in line 6 ‘must be taken as the perfect, 2.m.s. with the retrospective pronoun. Reg- ularly in pre-Exilic Hebrew prose the 2.m.s. form without the suffix is, written without he, the 2.m.s. form with the 8.m.s, suffix with he: qatalt (the short form) and qatalioh In line 8/9 a crucial reading is 1°yd°th.gr? spr. yd th should be taken as the 2.m.s. perfect with the 8.ms. suffix, "you did not under- stand it” or “you have no knowledge of it," referring no doubt to a previous letter. gr° spr has been taken to mean “call a scribe” (Albright), or “to read a letter.” The later reading is difficult. We should have expected 1° yd Igy? *t hspr, “you do not know (how) to read the letter” ‘or, much more harshly, © yd°t qr° spr, “you do not know (how) to read a *GKCS 121 ab, See EHO, 65-68, In the Arad Letters, eg., compare wntt (2.7-8); wsrrt (835); wight (3.8; 17.8-4) over against Aubuh (7.5/6), and in the Lachish ostrac, te (5-4 9.317) vs. Shah (8.6); ydth (26; 8.8). Te should be noted that the 8.ms sulfix here and with the singular noun is not derived from *-ahu > *aw > "6; diphthongs had not yet contracted; the development of the nominal suffix was ‘uhu *>uh >. This is the reason for the use of he as a mater lectionis regularly {or this form of the sulix in pre-Exilic Hebrew. The verbal suffix is surprising: we should have expected *gataliaw (<*gataltahu) or *qataltah ( 1a pis aller, forced by a misunder- standing of °mnhw °lmewhn line 12/13. We should read, I am con- vinced, "as Yahweh lives, no one has tried to read a letter to me ever, and furthermore any scribe who might have come to me, I did not summon him >tnnhw > m>wmh as we have noted is a certain reading. How is it to be understood? The context reminds one of 2 Sam 8:35: kh y°sh ly Uhym wkh ysyp ky 2m... 2t5m Um mewmh, an oath formula affirm: ing determination to taste no bread nor anything else. °U m°wmh is to be vocalized °al ma°timah “not anything,” “nothing.” “al construed with substantives is not rare, appearing without verbs or with the verb at a remove.’ *tnnhw has been taken to be an imperfect of nm: "ettininhit or better “ettininnahii§ “I would give (ie. pay) to him.” Alternately it could be analyzed—without the unexpected energic (or emphatic) -n- tunassimilated or the archaic -nn- energic—as deriving from the root ‘nn. Biblical "einan and Ugaritic *itnanu? “fee” suggest that a denomina- tive, “to pay a professional fee" may have existed. To be sure, the biblical usage is, for the most part, restricted to the harlot’s price, a “professional fee" in a narrowed sense, but the meaning may have been more general. In this case, we could vocalize *et6ninihi, “I would pay him (no) fee, nothing!” + Generally those who have elected to interpret the phrase as meaning “you do not know to read a leter” take yd°th as a long (lormal) qataliah without suffix, Methodologically 1 believe this is unsound—untl it can be shown that the two forms were used interchangeably in pre-Exilic prose. This is not this case; elsewhere the distribution appears to be systematic. Later, of course, fifferent scribal schools vended «level one OF die uther forms thiough the biblical text with the resultant mixed orthography of the Qumrin texts, the second column of the Hexapla, and the Massoretic Text. See EHO, 65-70, and F. M. Cross, “The Contribution of the Qumrin Discoveries to the Study of the Biblical Text,” in Gross and S. Talmon, Qumran and the History of the Biblical ‘Text (Cambridge: Harvard University, 1975) 2866 SCE UAL w°l mgr 2 8am 1:21); wt (Amos 5:14); wl Asp (Prov 810); 70 ‘mt (Prov 12:28}, °U ngh (Deit “AIIS I, 6); cf. V1 "to nought" (Job 24:25), h forms as -rmmnhw (Exod 15:12), probably to be vocalized “Compare “dxomémennah 7 Usartie V.6.75: yttnhim. mir bm bun. “iinnk “Thave given serpents as your bridal price Dragon's sons as your (conjugal) fe. A Literate Soldier: Lachish Lewer MI) 47 Ic should be noted that the negative force of °m carries through to ve end (lines 12-13) so that lnerally we should render with a double negative, “I would not pay him—nothing! ‘The vocalization kun-yaha (line 15) is a haplological reduction of yakun-yahit, bibl. yékanyaha. mt (Line 20) has been understood as mean- ing “by the instrumentality” of the prophet, comparing 2 Kgs 8:11. How. ever, more natural is the meaning, “at the instance of,” suggesting that the warning originates from the prophet. 3.0 The aggrieved soldier, it must be said, spends a disproportion: ate space in his letter, to judge {rom other events to which he alludes, defending his skills in reading. The suggestion of his commander that hhe needs a scribe to assist him in reading letters prompts a vigorous and passionate response, Hoshaiah’s expressions of hurt and pride lend a Pathos to the letter as we read it, aware as we are of the fate which shortly descended on Hoshaiah and his fellow soldiers manning the ‘outposts of Judah. At the same time the letter yields some data by which ‘we can estimate.the extent of literacy in Judah in the early sixth century Ge. A minor army officer is “sick at heart” if his ability to read acca rately and easily is questioned. At the same time the importance of the scribe in the life of Judah is underlined by the assumption of all uardes that a scribe is near at hand, It should be added that there is every reason to believe that the skilled and elegant hand of the letter which appears ‘on Ostracon III is not the hand of Hoshaiah, but the hand of an army scribe. Literacy was wide spread in Judah, but the writing of documents ‘was primarily the task of a scribal elite, It is with great pleasure that I dedicate this brief paper to Professor Iwry, a school mate from olden days at Johns Hopkins, ane through the years, a cherished friend and respected colleague. January 8, 1988GIRECTOR'S LIBRARY ORINTAL INSTITUTE UNIVERSITY. OF CHICAGG BIBLICAL AND RELATED STUDIES PRESENTED TO SAMUEL IWRY Edited by Ann Kort and Scott Morschauser Eisenbrauns ‘Winona Lake, Indiana —~ 1985,CONTENTS. Preface and Acknowledgments Lewers of Appreciation for Prof. Iwry List of Financial Contributors Principal Abbreviations Did Alexander Yanai Negotiate an Alliance with the Parthians? Moses Aneznacit ‘The First and Second Tithes in the Temple Scroll JosePH M. BAUMGARTEN ‘The Rhetoric of Psalm 145 ADELE BERLIN Levitical Cities: Archaeology and Texts Ronert G. BoLne Sargon and Joseph: Dreams Come True ‘JeRROLD S. CoorER A Literate Soldier: Lachish Lever I sank atl FRANK Moore Cross, Prose Particles in the Poetry of the Primary History Davin No#L FREEDMAN The Murder of the Merchants Near Akko... Barry M. Grrriex Adam's Rib Hans Goxicke, ‘On Making Other Gods Cyrus H. Gono ‘The Meaning of Thunh Jonas C. GREENFIELD (Cult and Prayer MENAHEM HARAN Marginal Notes to the Biblical Lexicon Mosne Hetot {A Difficult Curse in Aqht (19[1 Aght) 3.152-154) Deunert R. Hatters vil ” 3 33 41 49 8 n 81 7 ys ~ 105Contents Gain, the Arrogant Sufferer Hernerr B. Hurrmox Originals and Imitations in Biblical Poetry: a Comparative Exami- nation of 1 Sam 2:1-10 and Ps 113:5-9 : ‘Avi Huavirz, Studies in Neo-Aramaic Lexicology ‘Gronc KRoTKOHF Philippi’s Law Reconsidered ‘Tuomas O. Laman ‘The Worship of Bal and Aserah: a Sty in the Social Bonding Functions of Religious Systems Groce E, MENDENHALL Hezekiah’s Sacrifices at the Dedication Services of the Purified Temple (2 Chr 29:21~24) ‘Jacon Mricrom Esther Revisited: an Examination of Esther Studies over the Past Decade Caney A. Moore Rib-Hadda: Job at Byblos? ‘Wintant L, Mokan ‘The New Jewish Version: Genesis ofthe Fourth Great Age of Bible ‘Translation : Hargy M. ORLINSKY Isaiah and His Children J.J-M. Ronesrs Isaiah 66:1-4: Judean Sects in the Persian Period as Viewed by ‘Trito-Isaiah : ALEXANDER ROFE Materials Toward a Biblical Grammar in the Bible Exegesis of the Tosefta Samet. ROSENBLATT} [A Study of the Relationship of the Syriae Version to the Massoretic Hebrew, Targum Jonathan, and Septuagint Texts in Jeremiah 18 LxoNA GuipneN RUNNING Ernest Renan’s Interpretation of Biblical History Leavy SMOLAR few Gleanings on Resheph from Ugacit Yicae. Vain} 109 ns 128 185 ur 159 “198 205 219 —— PREFACE. AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, Samuel Iwry has enjoyed a long and distinguished career as professor in the Department of Near Eastern Studies at the Johns Hopkins Univer- sity, and professor and dean of the Baltimore Hebrew College. His remark- able knowledge, wit, humor and inspired teaching have touched the lives of generations of students. The fields of biblical and ancient Near Eastern studies owe the richness of much scholarship to the influence of this one teacher. It is an altogether fitting tribute to Prof. Iwry's achieve ‘ments, as both scholar and teacher, that his many colleagues and friends hhave joined together to produce this festschrift in his honor. ‘The editors are greatly indebted to the faculty members of the Department of Near Eastern Studies at Johns Hopkins for their generous assistance during the preparation of this volume. Former chairman Prof. Hans Goedicke supported the project {rom its inception and kindly placed departmental facilities at the editors’ disposal. The present chair- man, Prof, Jerrold Cooper, generously extended his support, encourage- ‘ment and assistance throughout all phases of the project. The editors also received many kind and helpful suggestions from Professors Delbert R. Hillers and Georg Krotkoff, Ms, Jane Dreyer, while performing her regular duties as department secretary, gave of her time and efforts, always with patience and good humor. ‘The editors are also grateful to Prof. Leivy Smolar, president of the Baltimore Hebrew College, and Professors Barry M. Gittlen, Moshe Aberbach and Joseph Baumgarten for their kind interest and support. Prof. Carey A. Moore of Gettysburg College also offered valuable advice and encouragement, Mr. James Eisenbraun and his staff have provided indispensable expertise in the preparation of this volume. The editors are greatly indebted to Mr. Eisenbraun for his careful and skillful guidance and participation in the project. From the beginning, the editors have been impressed by the enthu- siasm, support and patience of all those who contributed articles to the volume. It should be noted that many papers were written in 1982 and 1983, and may therefore be somewhat different in content than if their authors had written them today. Sadly, several contributors passed away before the volume could be completed, Prof. Mitchell Dahood, Sam Iwry’s friend and fellow student from graduate school days, had intended to write a paper entitled "Ebla and the Psalms.” He was unable to begin work before his death in March, 1982, Prof. Samuel Rosenblatt, a colleague at Johns Hopkins for ixX tl -PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS many years and a personal friend, contributed his article early in the project. He passed away in January, 1983. Another fellow graduate student was Prof, Moshe Held, who hand-delivere¢ his article and per- sonally expressed his enthusiasm during a visit co Baltimore. Prof. Held died in June, 1984. Prof, Yigael Yadin, a close personal friend, agreed to contribute a paper while in Baltimore to deliver the 1983 William F. Albright Memorial Lecture. He passed away in June, 1984. ‘A project such as this festschrift cannot become reality without financial backing. The editors gratefully acknowledge and thank the ‘many individuals and institutions whose kind and generous support ‘made possible the realization of this tribute to Prof. Sam Iwry. Ann Kort Scott Morschauser Baltimore April, 1985 LETTERS OF APPRECIATION 1 (Our friend, colleague, and teacher, Samuel Iwry, was born in Poland, ‘where as a child and young man he acquired a European education, and. especially a detailed and profound mastery of traditional Jewish learning. When the cruel twists and turns of fate through which World War II led him had finally abated, he was able to enter the Johns Hopkins Univer sity in Baltimore and there, under the guidance of Prof. William F. Albright, he proceeded to the doctorate through a broad program empha- sizing archaeology and modern critical approaches to history, linguistics, and biblical literature, The outcome of this unusual mixture, displayed over a Iong and fruitful career, has been a scholar and teacher of extra ‘ordinary breadth, and a personality of the most engaging piquancy. In biblical studies and in ancient epigraphy, itis evident that Samuel Iwry usually chose to write about the tough words and the difficult texts! It is remarkable, then, that his proposals, imaginative as they are, have consistently been models of good sense and persuasiveness, a result achieved no doubt by his ability to combine judiciously any number of scholarly approaches. The Dead Sea Scrolls have been a preoccupation Of his since their discovery—one might almost say, since before theit discovery—which found him already an expert on the Damascus Docu- ment, It must be gratifying for him to see that in recent times specialists such as Murphy-O'Connor have come to espouse views of Essene origins anticipated in Iwry's own early work. ‘Many readers of this volume and contributors to it will remember ‘Samuel Iwry most appreciatively as a teacher. I would join that number, adding my impression that what makes this so is not only the vivacity of his classroom manner (which can only be experienced, not described), but his ability and inclination to encourage students. No austere figure barring the path forward, he is that rare teacher who invites young people to move ahead and is ready to praise extravagantly any sign of promise, I recall that Yigael Yadin cited this encouraging quality as, characteristic of William F, Albright—quite correctly and perceptively, from my experience. Here there is a real resemblance between Tw1y anid his revered teacher, All of Samuel Iwry's students and friends feel a great debt of grati- tude to Ms. Ann Kort and Mr. Scott Morschauser for their devoted and skillful labors in bringing out this volume in honor of our beloved colleague and teacher. All of us hope he will accept it as a token of our