Special Issue IOSOT 2013 - Books and Journals

100 D. Pardee / Vetus Testamentum IOSOT (2013) 99-108
be ordered as follows: 1) The Ugaritic evidence; 2) the texts from the Hebrew
Bible; 3) etymology.
The Ugaritic Evidence
1934—C. Virolleaud published a “mirror-written” text (207[57].9) which contained
in line 9 the word ypḫ (ḥ → ḫ in the 22-letter alphabet); only later was
the word recognized.
1956—Virolleaud read a paper before the Groupe Linguistique d’Etudes Chamito-Sémitiques
in which he announced the discovery of a Ugaritic word ypḥ
“witness”.5
1957—A badly broken text (1144:5) contains the clear sequence ypḥ after what
may or may not be a word divider. The document is economic in nature.
1965—Palais Royal d’Ugarit V contains three texts which include references to
witness:
2045:6 ypḥm “witnesses” (difficult context).
2053:18-23 ṯlṯm . ʾar[bʿ] (19) kbd . ksp .[ ] (20) ʿl . tgyn (21) wʿl. ʾaṯth . (22) ypḥ .
mʿnt (23) bn . lbn “Thirty-four (shekels) of silver due by Tagiyanu and his
wife. Witness: Maʿnatu son of Labnu”.
2116:17-23 (lines 1-16 guarantee text) ypḥ . ʿbdʾilt (18) bn . m (19) ypḥ . ʾilšlm (20)
bn . prqdš (21) ypḥ . mnḥm (22) bn . ḥnn (23) brqn . spr “Witness: ʿAbduʾilati
son of Mu; witness: ʾIlīšalim son of Parqudši; witness: Munaḥḥimu son
of Ḥananu; Barqānu was the scribe”. This is the clearest text published
up to 1965. The form is clearly that of a contract, followed by witnesses,
then by the name of the scribe. Parallels could be offered from economic
documents originating in virtually all sectors of the ancient Near East.
The next text cited is formally comparable.
1971—Claremont 1957-702 rev. 8-116 ypḥ . ʾiḫršp (9) bn . ʾuḏrnn (10) w . ʿbdn (11)
bn . sgld “Witness: ʾIḫirašap son of ʾuḏrnn and ʿAbdinu son of Sigilda”.
1976—S 100:107 = 1120:10 yp[ḥ]. Virolleaud did not restore the -ḥ in his editio
princeps. In spite of the badly broken state of the text, the restoration proposed
by Dietrich and Loretz must be judged likely.
5) “Notes de lexicographie ugaritique,” GLECS 7 (1954-7), pp. 85-6.
6) Patrick D. Miller, Jr., “The mrzḥ Text,” in L. R. Fisher (ed.), The Claremont Ras Shamra Tablets
(Rome, 1971), pp. 37-49, Plates IX-XI.
7) M. Dietrich and O. Loretz, Die Elfenbeininschriften und S-Texte aus Ugarit (Kevelaer).