Original Historical Documents

ISRAELITE DOCUMENTS

The Shebna Lintel
Shebna Seal
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 Hebrew Dictionary Lexicon
Shebna lintel
For a translation see Here
Suggested Spelling (right to left):
1. ?, ?, ?, lacuna, ?, hay, waw, ?, shin, reysh, ?, lamed, hey, ?, ?, x?, ?, ?, nun, bet?, hay, chaf?, samech, pey, waw, ?, hay, bet
2. mem, yod, ?, mem, lacuna, ?, ?, ?, mem, x?, ?, mem, x?, hay, ?, x?, hay, ?, resh, waw, resh, hay, resh, ?, mem, resh
3. yod, bet, x?, ?, ?, x?, ?, chaf?, x?
 The lintel of a tomb, found at Siloam in Jerusalem, with the name of a royal steward, possibly the one time High Priest Shebna; the tomb was among others belonging to people of high rank, and the inscription is one of the longest in ancient Hebrew so far discovered.
We met Shebna in our paper on Sargon. There we learn that in the end he fled for his life to Egypt where pharaoh took him prisoner and delivered him into the hands of the Assyrians after which we do not hear from him again. If the tomb was made for him, that would have been while he was in office.
Shebna lintel
 M. Kallos informed us, `I translated the Shebna inscription my own way. Red dots mean "uncertain". What I can make of it more or less fits the translation of Avigad.' His translation is as follows:

"This is [lacuna]'au' (not translated) who was over the house. There is no silver or gold in here. [ ? ] [lacuna] [ ? ] died (fem.) with him (or 'her'). Cursed the [ ? ] who opens this"

Interestingly, "tomb" in Hebrew is masculine, but in the inscription, the first and last "this" denote femenine. I also note that the words are well separated, but in "over the house", "the" is misplaced. It should have been written "over thehouse"; instead we see "overthe house". "Asher al a" means " who was over the" while "asher ala" means "who went up" - but this doesn't make much sense, does it?
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