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In December 2019, an expedition on Mt. Ebal to examine the discarded material from Adam Zertal’s 1982–1989 excavation yielded a small, folded lead tablet. The east dump pile, from which the object emerged, contained the discarded matrix from two structures that he interpreted as altars dated to the Late Bronze Age II and Iron Age I. The earlier and smaller round altar lay underneath the geometric center of the later and larger rectangular altar. The tablet could not be opened without damaging it. A team of scientists performed X-ray tomographic measurements with different scanning parameters. The tomographically reconstructed data were subjected to advanced processing to reveal the hidden text. Epigraphic analysis of the tomographic data revealed a formulaic curse written in a proto-alphabetic script likely dating to Late Bronze Age II. The inscription falls within the literary genre of Chiastic Parallelism and predates any previously known Hebrew inscription in Israel by at least 200 years.

Abstract The formation of the books Judges and Samuel is re-examined in this article. The author maintains that two main editions of the book of Samuel were created. The first was composed in Jerusalem during the reign of Solomon. The author of this edition was also the author of the second edition of the Book of Judges (\"B\"). The first edition of Judges, the \"book of saviors,\" which was composed in the north at the beginning of the age of monarchy (\"A\"), was also one of the four main sources which were incorporated into the first edition of Samuel. The other sources were: the \"acts of Saul\"; the \"acts of David,\" and the \"book of Jashar.\" The second edition of Samuel and the third of Judges were edited by a single person, the Deuteronomist, in Babylonia, ca. 560 BCE. He prepared an extensive composition describing the history of Israel from Moses to Jeremiah. In Deuteronomy the path was delineated and norms were determined. The main body (Joshua-Kings) records the ups and downs in Israel's relationship with God; and the epilogue (the book of Jeremiah) focuses on the destruction and Exile, explaining the events and informing the exiles of the message of redemption.

This pioneering study surveys all 446 Lower Stratum families in the period under review (800-600 B.C.). It is the most important and the most responsible study of the lower stratum of the Neo-Assyrian society proposed to date.

This book contains a collection of studies in Historical Geography and Biblical Historiography. It is presented to Professor Zecharia Kallai, one of the leading scholars of Historical Geography of the Bible and is concluded with a list of his publications.

This paper reexamines ND 2443+, a Neo-Assyrian administrative record excavated at Calah in 1952, and first published by Barbara Parker in 1961 (Iraq 23, pp. 27-28). A new translation of this important text is presented, followed by a few notes and a discussion on the relation between the Israelite exile Hilqī-Iāu, and the city Sagbat/Bīt-Sagbat in Media. The text should be dated to the last years of Tiglath-pileser III since it mentions Bēl-Harrān-bēlu-uṣur, the nāgir ekalli, first appointed ca. 775 B.C., and the Israelites Hilqī-Iāu and Gir-Iāu, probably exiled from Israel after the 733-732 B.C. campaign. In light of the new interpretation of ND 2443+ the issue of \"the cities of Media\" (1 Kgs 17:6; 18:14) is reconsidered, and it is suggested that ND 2443+ indicates the deportation of Israelites to Media in the last years of Tiglath-pileser III.

This article re-examines the relations between Assyria, Aram-Damascus and Israel in the period of Shalmaneser III and his son Shamshi-Adad V (858-811 in light of the new edition of the Assyrian Royal Inscriptions published in 1996 by A. K. Grayson (RIMA 3) and the Booty Inscriptions of Hazael. The author reconsidered the following issues: the battle of Qarqar, the Assyrian campaigns to the West in 849-848 BC and Israel's foreign policy during Jehu's reign, pointing out the advantages of Jehu's departure from the anti-Assyrian coalition. L'article reprend l'examen des relations entre l'Assyrie, Aram-Damas et Israël durant la période de Salmanazar III et de son fils, Shamshi-Adad V (858-811 av. J.-C.), au vu de la nouvelle édition des Inscriptions royales assyriennes, publiée en 1996 par A. K. Grayson (RIMA 3), et des listes de tributs de Hazaël. L'auteur reconsidère la bataille de Qarqar, les campagnes assyriennes vers l'ouest en 849-848, et la politique étrangère d'Israël sous le règne de Jéhu, soulignant les avantages de sa distanciation de la coalition anti-assyrienne.

This article points out that the series of the minor judges were not included in the deuteronomistic edition of the Book of Judges, and therefore did not form part of the Dtr's chronology. In the author's opinion the Dtr constructs a chronological framework spanning 480 years from the Exodus to the establishment of the Temple (1 Kgs 6,1) and correlates it with the chronological data in Deuteronomy-Samuel.

The first part of the article re-examines the inscriptions of Tiglath-pileser III, mainly Summary inscriptions 4, 9, 10 and Ann. 18, 23, 24. The author proposes a new reading to line 6 of Summ. 4 by adding a verb (abil or akšud) at the end of this line, and separating lines 5-6 from lines 7-8. In the author's opinion Ann. 18 and 24 are indeed parallel versions depicting the events of 732, yet, Ann. 18 describes the conquest of Galilee, while Ann. 24 deals with the conquest of Damascus. The second part of the article examines the relations between Assyria and the West in the days of Tiglath-pileser III in light of the new proposals offered in the first part of the article.