Monday, September 19, 2022

"Sons of God" Meaning "Gods" in the Amman Citadel Inscription (9th-century B.C.)

 The Amman Citadel inscription is a stone inscription, 29 x 19 cm, which dates to the 9th-century B.C, and was discovered in 1961. Kent P. Jackson provides the following transliteration and translation of the inscription:

 

Text

 

1. m]lkm . bnh . lk . mb't .sbbt[

2. ] . kkl . msbb 'lk . mt ymtn[

3. ]kḥd .'kḥd wkl . m'rb[

4. ]wbkl . sdrt ylnn ṣdq[m

5. ]l . tdltbdlt . bṭn kbh[

6. ]h . tšt' . bbn . 'lm [

7. ]wš[ ] . wn[

8. ]šlm . lk . wš[lm

 

Translation

 

1. Mi’lkom, build for yourself entrances around [

2. ] like anyone who surrounds you, they will surely die [

3. ] I will surely annihilate. And anyone who causes [evil (?)] to enter [

4. ] and in every hall (?), the just will dwell [

5

6 ] You shall fear the gods [

7. and

8. ] peace for you and pe[ace (Kent P. Jackson, The Ammonite Language of the Iron Age [Harvard Semitic Monographs 27; Chico, Calif.: Scholars Press, 1983], 10)

 

Commenting on line 6, Jackson offered the following comments about “sons of god” (bn ‘lm) denoting “gods” (cf. Psa 29:1):

 

bn ‘lm: “gods,” common in Ugaritic (Gordon 1965: 373), Phoenician (KAI 26.AIII.19, Karatepe, 8th century), and Biblical Hebrew (Gen. 6:2, 4; Ps 29:1; 89:7; etc.; cf. Dion 1975: 31, n. 45). (Ibid., 23)