Jerusalem (Jehoash) Tablet From the Tribe of Benjamin 840 BCE

Moabite Stele and this tablet have the same letter style and their stone even looks similar. For translation methodology see: How to Translate Alphabetic Akkadian Texts

The Jerusalem Tablet mistakenly called the Jehoash Tablet is a black basalt stone about 12 inches long, 10 inches wide and just over 3 inches thick. Fifteen lines are preserved.
The Jerusalem Tablet is a black basalt stone about 12 inches long, 10 inches wide and just over 3 inches thick. Fifteen lines are preserved. It is in the style of the Moabite Stele. Modern Israeli authorities have declared it a fraud because while it was found in Jerusalem and dates to Biblical times it cannot be translated in Hebrew. Its language is actually Akkadian and its successful translation in that language proves it is authentic because Akkadian's alphabetic form was only discovered after this tablet came to light.

Translation of Jerusalem Tablet

(May 15, 2023) This text is blaming a drought on the astrological powers of fate. These powers of the full moon god Su are discipling humans for some unstated reason.  


  1. Hu is not emanating the turning (shaping) of ...
  2. Enlightenment (glow from the night sky) is turning-away the motion-powers. Activity is magic. Enlightenment ....
  3. Starvation is being expelled by eagle-vultures.  The Revealer (Yahu) lacks fertility-fluids.  Those are being re-assigned by [1 word]
  4. The House (astrological powers) is lording-over the expulsion of the nourishments.  The Controllers (connective powers) are roasting the division of the life-manifestations.
  5. Seers and tears are being motion-empowered by the shepherds (emotion magic-crafters).  (In contrast) YaHu is enlightened by the high-life-powers
  6. Emotion-Magic opens-up the discipline of Su (full moon god).  Nothing is being transformed.  Activity is being filled by the authorities (astrological powers)
  7. The lack of threads is revealing magic. Life-priests are revealing fertility-fluids.  Anxiety is being nourished by the authority's eagle-vultures.
  8. Making-active the waters would still the drought  This life-blood would burst-through the drought.
  9. The Nourisher's (Alu) fertility-fluids are being diverted. Involve the life-priests. The Reed-Boat has been revealed which turns (shapes) the active motion-powers.
  10. That confirms the emotional-arousal.  The sky-shell is overshadowed when not one threads are being set by Su
  11. Gating is fate-cursed by emotion-magic. Nothing is organized when shedding tears. 
  12. Fertility fluids are being crimped by the high-life-powers. Crimping causes a lack of fertility-fluids. Crimping is being neglect by the shepherds (emotion magic-crafters). Magic is crimping nothing.
  13. Manifestations lack magic. The pasture (astrological night sky) is nothing.  Yahu (YH) is nothing. Emotions of lunar-energy are nothing
  14. Astrological-powers are manifesting discipline. The same omens are lacking for Hu. The Supervisors (Ayu and her eagle-vultures) are lacking.  Emotion-owls are nothing.
  15. Confusion is not doing the crimping. Nothing is being turned (shaped). The melding nourishes the waters. The Seers are involved with nothing.
Lake bottom Core sample data from the Sea of Galilee showing the droughts
Lake bottom Core sample data from the Sea of Galilee. In historical times it shows two major droughts with several minor ones. Minor droughts are indicated anytime the curves turn downward. 
The 50 year long Great Drought of 1180 to 1140 BCE (Iron Age 1 period) is what ended the Bronze Age and the 5-year long Elijah drought of 845-840 BCE. The yellow gives the tree pollen level while the green gives the non-tree pollen level. (Langut and Finkelsein 2013)

Droughts Defined the Archaeological Periods in the Levant

(May 3, 2023) Droughts separate the archaeological periods in the Levant. States weakened by local droughts were often subject to raids right after the droughts by Mesopotamian empires which were unaffected due to their irrigation. Below is the latest widely accepted chronology proposed by Amihai Mazar in 2014 shown below: 

Droughts According to Drought Chart

  1. 1180-1140 BCE - Great Drought
  2. 980 BCE
  3. 845-840 BCE - Elijah Drought
  4. 732 BCE - led to Assyrian invasion  
  5. 605 BCE - led to Babylonian invasion 

Diagnostic Letter Shapes For Dating

  1. 605 BCE - "A" has square peak. "L" has hooked appendage.
  2. 732 BCE - "A" has pointed peak.  "L" has flat appendage.

References

Langut, D. Finkelsein, I, Litt, T. (2013) Climate and the Late Bronze Collapse: New Evidence from the Levant. Tel Aviv 40:149-175. Online at https://www.academia.edu/6053886/Climate_and_the_Late_Bronze_Collapse_New_Evidence_from_the_Southern_Levant
Mazar, Amihai (2005) The Debate over the Chronology of the Iron Age in the Southern Levant: its History, the Current Situation and a Suggested Resolution. pp. 15-30 in: T. Levy and T. Higham (editors), The Bible and Radiocarbon Dating - Archaeology, Text and Science. London. Online at: https://www.academia.edu/2632501/The_Debate_over_the_Chronology_of_the_Iron_Age_in_the_Southern_Levant_its_History_the_Current_Situation_and_a_Suggested_Resolution_2005
Graphic shows a top view of old Jerusalem and its temple as they were probably rebuilt between 536 and 445 BCE under Ezra and Nehemiah. Not much is actually known about this city due to subsequent rebuilding. Illustration from https://visualunit.me/2015/01/17/jerusalem-rebuilt/

Background

This tablet was found in the Muslim cemetery outside the eastern wall of the Old City of Jerusalem, right next to the Temple Mount. The unknown finder passed it on to an antiquities dealer Hasan Akilan in 1999 who then placed it with antiquities dealer Oded Golan to fence it. In 2003 the tablet was noticed by the Israeli Antiquities Authority who in 2004 charged Golan with fraud leading to a trial on the tablet’s authenticity. Forgery could not be proved. Instead, the tablet was shown by physical tests to date to at least as far back as 200 BCE when it was caught up in a major fire with nearby golden objects. Microscopic gold droplets were found on its surface.

The prevailing assumption of those who believe the tablet is authentic is that this tablet was burned along with other Jerusalem temple artifacts when the temple was Hellenized by king Antiochus IV Epiphanes when he ruled the Near East between  175 and 164 BCE. The burned remains were then dumped off the mount onto land which would later become a cemetery.  This may very well be the case but the tablet's letter style is similar to that of the Moabite Stele indicating it dates to around the time of the 840 BCE Elijah drought. This tablet was likely found when Jerusalem was being rebuilt and placed in the temple store room for safekeeping.

Image of Jerusalem (Jehoash) Tablet from Haaretz on May 21, 2014.
Image of Jerusalem Tablet from Haaretz on May 21, 2014. https://www.haaretz.com/2014-05-21/ty-article/.premium/owner-regains-jehoash-tablet/0000017f-e7af-d97e-a37f-f7ef84590000

References


Cohen (2007; 2008) Cohen, Chaim, "Biblical Hebrew Philology In The Light Of Research On The New Yeho’ash Royal Building Inscription", in Lubetski, Meir, editor, New Seals And Inscriptions, Hebrew, Idumean, And Cuneiform, Hebrew Bible Monographs, 8, Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2007
 Cross, Frank Moore (2003) Notes on the Forged Plaque Recording Repairs to the Temple. Israel Exploration Journal Vol. 53, No. 1, pp. 119-122 (Online at https://www.jstor.org/stable/27927028?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents)
 Friedman, Matti (14 March 2012) After 7-year saga, a surprising end to antiquities fraud case. The Times of Israel. Online at: http://www.timesofisrael.com/8-years-after-trial-began-verdict-expected-in-biblical-antiquities-forgery-case/
 Ilani, A. Rosenfeld S.; Feldman, H.R.; Krumbein, W.E.; Kronfeld, J. (November 2008). "Archaeometric evidence for the authenticity of the Jehoash Inscription Tablet". The Bible and Interpretation. Retrieved September 16, 2012.
  Rosenfeld , A., Ilani, S., Feldman, H.R., W.E., Kronfeld, J. (2008) Archaeometric analysis of the “Jehoash Inscription” tablet. Journal of Archaeological Science 35(11):2966-2972. Online at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248579400_Archaeometric_analysis_of_the_Jehoash_Inscription_tablet, and http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/abslast.shtml

Fraud Trial

This so-called Jehoash tablet was thought to be a fraud by many because it could not be translated from Hebrew and because it was tainted by association with other forged antiquities found in the possession of antiquities dealer Oden Golan.  

In 2004, Oded Golan was indicted on several charges by the Israeli government at the behest of the Israel Antiquities Authority who sought to prove mainly that the text on the James ossuary was forged. The Jerusalem tablet text was included in the trial for completeness. After eight long years on March 2012 this case finally ended with Oded’s acquittal because neither text could be proven as forged using physical tests (Matti 2012). For some, the physical tests on the Jerusalem tablet indicated the text was old and genuine (Rosenfeld, and all 2008) yet others claimed such physical phenomena could be reproduced by very skilled forgers yet this was before the dating evidence came in (Silberman and Goren 2003).

Reporter Matthew Kalman summed up the trial in the Israeli newspaper Haaratz on May 21, 2014. Some excerpts from his article are below:


An inscribed stone that may be the only remnant of Solomon’s Temple has been returned to its owner after an 11-year legal battle waged by the Israeli government. The Jehoash Tablet, also known as the “Bedek Habayit” inscription, is back in the hands of Tel Aviv collector Oded Golan, who plans to put it on public display in a major museum. Golan finally retrieved the tablet and hundreds of other items more than two years after he was acquitted of forging priceless antiquities in a seven-year criminal trial and nearly a year after the High Court finally rejected a last-ditch appeal by Israel's state attorney and the Israel Antiquities Authority.
As the only reporter who has covered this story from beginning to end and sat through a decade of court hearings, I watched in amazement as the IAA embarked on a doomed prosecution that it not only lost, but has now triggered a $2-million lawsuit for wrongful prosecution from Golan’s main co-defendant, the Tel Aviv antiquities dealer Robert Deutsch, who was acquitted on all charges.
Back in 2003, the IAA at first demanded possession of the tablet because of its huge potential significance as the only known remnant of the Temple. Then Education Minister Limor Livnat ordered the IAA to find the stone after reading about it in Haaretz. Oded Golan agreed to hand over the tablet as part of a written agreement with the Jerusalem district attorney, but was then arrested and charged with forging it and other antiquities, including a stone burial box with the inscription “James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus.
In 2012, Golan was acquitted on all charges of forgery and Jerusalem District Court Judge Aharon Farkash ordered the IAA to return some 500 items seized in raids on his home and workplaces. “The state insisted on its view that this was not an antiquity, but a forged antiquity. Since, according to the state, it is not an antiquity, it cannot now contend that it owns the tablet according to the Antiquities Law, and therefore by law it should be returned to Golan,” Judge Farkash ruled.
But the state, while continuing to argue that the items were forged, insisted on keeping them and appealed to the High Court. I was astounded when Israel’s state prosecutor tried to argue against Judge Farkash’s steely logic. When the IAA continued to argue in the High Court that they should keep the tablet, Golan made them an offer: he would loan it to any major museum in Israel if the IAA would confirm that it was a genuine antiquity from Israel. The IAA refused.
While in the safekeeping of the IAA, the tablet broke in two along an existing crack. Ironically, the break helped to prove that Golan had not forged it. The patina, the bio-organic crust that forms on ancient objects, can clearly be seen inside the crack, suggesting that it could not have been made recently. Golan says he bought the stone from Hasan Akilan, an East Jerusalem dealer, in 1999. The shop inventory shows that Akilan acquired it in 1997. He told Golan it was found in the Muslim cemetery outside the eastern wall of the Old City of Jerusalem, right next to the Temple Mount.Scientists at the Geological Survey of Israel tested the tablet for Golan over several months in 2001 and found no indication of forgery. Instead, they found thousands of sub-microscopic globules of pure gold embedded in the patina, each less than five microns in diameter, as if the tablet had been close to a raging inferno in which golden objects had melted and diffused into tiny droplets. Samples of the patina were sent for Carbon-14 dating to the Beta Analytic Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory in Miami, Florida, who found the patina was approximately 2,200 years old.
The gold and carbon dating indicate that this tablet was once part of the Jerusalem temple's treasury which was plundered by Antiochus IV Epiphanes (born 215 BCE - died 164) in revenge for an uprising by traditional Jews which cleared the city of his appointed Greek culture promoting Jewish officials. Antiochus came to Jerusalem in 167 BCE to reinstate Menelaus, his appointed high priest. Antiochus then plundered its treasury and melted down the gold such as the golden candlestick upon the altar and the showbread table.
Frank Cross' Hebrew translation of what came to be popularly called the Jehoash tablet because of the guessed at name in the first sentence. Cross eventually decided that his translation was wrong and agreed with others that this inscription was a forgery. (Cross 2003)

Previous Translation Attempts in Hebrew

In early 2003 Frank Cross presented a Hebrew translation (see image on left) yet later in the year admitted that his translation was flawed agreeing with others that the text was a forgery stating:


I have felt, however, that public notice should be made of the fact that, with what we can read with certitude, the inscription is definitely a forgery. (Cross 2003)

This allowed all Hebrew linguists to claim at the start of the trial that the tablet was a fraud. This was reported by Silberman and Goren's (2003) pro-forgery paper which said:


The verdict of the epigraphers with regard to the Jehoash Inscription was unanimous: the numerous mistakes in grammar and the eccentric mixture of letter forms known from other inscriptions made it clear that this was a modern forgery.

Yet after the trial could not prove that it was forged, Cohen then thought it could be translated from Hebrew (Cohen 2007). Yet this has never been demonstrated without the translator resorting to translation fraud.

 Despite being a Judahite text this /s/ sounds are not yet reversed at this early date.

Lines 1 and 2

Translation in Akkadian

(Read right to left. Capital letters on foil Small letters are inferred Inner vowels)
  1. Ḫu  Zu Ya  EWa M[ ] ... (Levant Text 12.1)
  2. EDu  EWu  A'u.  Ṣ  A  Tu.  EDu ... (Levant Text 12.2)

In English

  1. Hu is not emanating the turning (shaping) of ...
  2. Enlightenment is turning-away the motion-powers. Activity is magic. Enlightenment ....

Being a Judahite text the /s/ sounds of Š and Ṣ are reversed from normal.

Lines 3 and 4

Translation in Akkadian

(Read right to left. Capital letters on foil Small letters are inferred Inner vowels)
  1. EKu  AṢu  Ru.  Nu  Mu  Lu.  A  ENu  ... (Levant Text 12.3)
  2. BeTu  LaBu  AṢu  Bu.  ARu  ŠaWu  BuMa  Du (Levant Text 12.4)

In English.

  1. Starvation is being expelled by eagle-vultures.  The Revealer (Yahu) lacks fertility-fluids.  Those are being re-assigned by [1 word]
  2. The House (astrological powers) is lording-over the expulsion of the nourishments.  The Controllers (connective powers) are roasting the division of the life-manifestations.

Lines 5 and 6

Translation in Akkadian

(Read right to left. Capital letters on foil Small letters are inferred Inner vowels)
  1. BaRu  U  BaKu  Le'u  ReYu.  YaHu  EDu  ELu  (Levant Text 12.5)
  2. Tu  TuKku  Su  Pu.  E  QuDa.  Ṣu  MaLu  RaBu  (Levant Text 12.6)

In English

  1. Seers and tears are being motion-empowered by the shepherds (emotion magic-crafters).  (In contrast) YaHu is enlightened by the high-life-powers
  2. Magic opens-up the discipline of Su (full moon god).  Nothing is being transformed.  Activity is being filled by the authorities (astrological powers)

Lines 7 and 8

Translation in Akkadian

(Read right to left. Capital letters on foil Small letters are inferred Inner vowels)
  1. La  Qu  Nu Tu.  ABu  Nu  Mu. ḪaŠu  Bu  UBu  Ru (Levant Text 12.7)
  2. Ṣa  MuWu  NeḪu  ṢeTu.  A  DaMu  Ga' u ṢeTu (Levant Text 12.8)

In English. 

  1. The lack of threads is revealing magic. Life-priests are revealing  fertility-fluids.  Anxiety is being nourished by the authority's eagle-vultures.
  2. Making-active the waters would still the drought  This life-blood would  burst-through the drought.

Lines 9 and 10

Translation in Akkadian

(Read right to left. Capital letters on foil Small letters are inferred Inner vowels)
  1. Bu  Mu  LaRu.  Ku  ABu.  AMu  Nu.  EW  A'u  Ṣa (Levant Text 12.9)
  2. A  TeBu  DuQqu.  EBu  ITtu  U  E  Qu  ReTu  Su (Levant Text 12.10)

In English. 

  1. The Nourisher's (Alu) fertility-fluids are being diverted. Involve the life-priests. The Reed-Boat has been revealed which turns (shapes) the active motion-powers.
  2. That confirms the emotional-arousal.  The sky-shell is overshadowed when not one thread is being set by Su

Lines 11 and 12

Translation in Akkadian

(Read right to left. Capital letters on foil Small letters are inferred Inner vowels)
  1. BaBu  WA  Tu.  E  IŠe’u  U  EṢu  BaKu   (Levant Text 12.11)
  2. Mu  Wu  ELu.  Wu  Lu  Mu.  Wu  EGu  Re'u.  Tu  Wu  E (Levant Text 12.12)

In English. 

  1. Gating is fate-cursed by emotion-magic.  Nothing is organized when shedding tears. 
  2. Fertility fluids are being crimped by the high-life-powers. Crimping causes a lack of fertility-fluids. Crimping is being neglect by the shepherds (emotion magic-crafters). Magic is crimping nothing.

Lines 13 and 14

Translation in Akkadian

(Read right to left. Capital letters on foil Small letters are inferred Inner vowels)
  1. Du  Lu  Tu.  TaWu  E.  YaHu  E.  IMu  EZu  E  (Levant Text 12.13)
  2. Le'u  Du  TuKku.  ITtu  Ša  La  Ḫu.  EMu  Lu.  AKu  E (Levant Text 12.14)

In English. 

  1. Manifestations lack magic. The pasture (astrological night sky) is nothing.  Yahu (YH) is nothing. Emotions of lunar-energy are nothing
  2. Astrological-powers are manifesting discipline. The same omens are lacking for Hu. The Supervisors (Ayu and her eagle-vultures) are lacking.  Emotion-owls are nothing.

Line 15

Translation in Akkadian

(Read right to left. Capital letters on foil Small letters are inferred Inner vowels)
  1.  IŠu  Wu  Ya.  EWu  E.  ATa'u  MaWu  Bu.  BaRu  Ku  E  (Levant Text 12.15)

In English. 

  1. Confusion is not doing the crimping. Nothing is being turned (shaped). The Melder (Thu) nourishes the waters. The Seers are involved with nothing.