rob117

I figured it was something like that. I have heard Yehawmilk claimed as a Phoenician instance of Yahweh-worship, but those usually turn out to be duds.

A transliteration is on page 13 of this article.

Ratel

I recall reading that the Phoenicians had a deity with a very similar name to yhwh also, like "IAW" or something. It's one of those things you read once and never see mentioned again. Probably because it's erroneous, but oh well.

spin

I had a look at the Harris article, both at the article page 13 and the pdf page 13 and couldn't find a transliteration. I did find the conventionally spelt name Yehawmilk on the pdf page 13. Perhaps I missed something in the process.


spin

rob117

By transliteration you mean the consonants rendered in the Latin alphabet without vowels then?

spin

A transliteration is a representation of the original letters used. This is usually done in western languages with Roman letters and other symbols, which I attempted to show in post #7, where I've given in Hebrew alphabetical order the letters we commonly use for the 22 Hebrew letters, starting with ")", indicating an alef.

Original Hebrew texts were written without vowels: it is a consonantal script. We have to rely on a much later system of vowels, taking the ad hoc systems sometimes used in Qumran documents and transliterations of names into Greek as indicators of vowels.


spin

yummyfur

Isn't the source for this qoute in the OP, Cylinder C from Ashurbanipal? Isn't it written in Akkadian, in cuneiform script? how do you get the name is YXMLK?, it doesn't seem a proper way to transliterate Cuneiform text. Or is there another source for the name of this King of Tyre's son?

spin

No, there's a 10th C. inscription from Byblos. There's a translation of it in ANET.

yummyfur

The OP was talking about a 7th century person, as referenced in this text

“In my third campaign I marched against Ba'lu, king of Tyre, who lives amidst the sea, because he did not heed my royal order, did not listen to my personal commands. I surrounded him with redoubts, seized his communications, on sea and land. I intercepted and made scarce their food supply and forced them to submit to my yoke. He brought his own daughter and daughters of his brothers before me to do menial services, at the same time, he brought his son Iahimilki who had not crossed the sea to greet me as slave. I received from him his daughter and the daughters of his brothers with their great dowries. I had mercy upon him and returned to him the son, the offspring of his loins"

Which is in Akkadian, in cuneiform writing. While we can make an educated guess that this name is the same as that from a tenth century Phoenician inscription from Byblos, which refers to Yehimilk, King of Byblos, and it probably is the best guess, you gave the impression that the name of this 7th century person was actually written as YXMLK in the text, which it is not.

For those interested, here are the translations of the various inscriptions from Byblos referenced so far.

The tenth century Phoenician inscription translation is as follows from ANET
"A house built by Yehimilk, king of Byblos, who also has restored all the ruins of the houses here. May Ba'Ishamem and the Lord of Byblos (or Lady of Byblos) and the Assembly of the Holy Gods of Byblos prolong the days and years of Yehimilk in Byblos, for (he is) a righteous king and an upright king before the Holy Gods of Byblos!"

As you stated this is written YXMLK

The fifth/fourth century Phoenician inscription from Byblos is translated as follows from ANET
"I am Yehawmilk, king of Byblos, the son of Yeharba'l, the grandson of Urimilk, king of Byblos, whom the mistress, the Lady of Byblos, made king over Byblos. I have been calling my mistress, the Lady of Byblos, [and she heard my voice]. Therefore, I have made for my mistress, the Lady of Byblos, this altar of bronze which is in this [courtyard], and this engraved object of gold which is in front of this inscription of mine, with the bird (winged sun?) of gold that is set in a (semiprecious) stone, which is upon this engraved object of gold, and this portico with its columns and the [capitals] which are upon them, and its roof: I, Yehawmilk, king of Byblos, have made (these things) for my mistress, the Lady of Byblos, as I called my mistress, the Lady of Byblos, and she heard my voice and treated me kindly. May the Lady of Byblos bless and preserve Yehawmilk, king of Byblos, and prolong his days and years in Byblos, for he is a righteous king. And may [the mistress,] the Lady of Byblos, give [him] favor in the eyes of the gods and in the eyes of the people of this country and (that he be) pleased with the people of this country. [Whoever you are,] ruler and (ordinary) man, who might [continue] to do work on this altar and this engraved work of gold and this portico, my name, Yehawmilk, king of Byblos, [you should put with] yours upon that work, and if you do not put my name with yours, or if you [remove] this [work and trans[fer this work [from its foundation] upon this place and [ ..., may] the mistress, the Lady of Byblos, [destroy] that man and his seed before all the Gods of Byblos."


There is also a ninth/eigth century statue from Byblos, of Pharaoh Oskoron I, with Phoenician dedication inscription.

"Statue which Elibaal, king of Byblos, son of Yehimilk, [King of Byblos], made [for] Baalat-Gebel, his lady. May Baalat-[Gebel] prolong [the days of] Elibaal and his years over [Byblos]."

For this Yehimilk, the second letter could be chet also, though to my eye the inscription is broken here, so we only have YX, and I couldn't say for certain this is chet or not, and translators have just quessed on the MLK portion, and not just the "King of Byblos" portion in brackets.

spin

I think that the case is relatively simple:

We have the name in the Phoenician onomasticon, Yechimilk, from the Xth century. Going by a drawing of the reused Osorkon statue which talks of Elibaal son of Yech[..], it has to me a relatively clear chet after the crossed Z-shaped yod. It is "boxy" rather than E-shaped, making it an almost certain chet for another YX- radical. This of course is only to be expected, as regnal names are often based on what came before. We also have the Shiptibaal inscription: Shiptibaal is the son of Elibaal, the son of Yechimilk, which is a clear undisturbed presentation of the name. So we have a precedent for the name Yechimilk in the local onomasticon. I have no trouble opting for the Assyrian rendition being based on that name. The only further thing would be a direct transliteration of the Akkadian.


spin

yummyfur

I largely agree with you, though I don't think the Byblos Shipitbaal inscription mentions Yechimilk (your right, that this is probably a better way to transliterate this name, instead of Yehimilk, though it makes me want to say YuckyMilk .

"Wall built by Shipitbaal, king of Byblos, son of Elibaal, king of Byblos, for Baalat-Gebel, his lady. [May] Baalat-Gebel prolong the days of Shipitbaal and his years over Byblos."

A connection can also be made between this King and a Sibittibael of Byblos, as translated from Akkadian cuneiform records from Assyria under Tiglath-pileser III.

That said, my main reason for posting, was that the gist of the thread would, to an average reader, suggest that Ashurbanipal's war records(the qoute from the OP) were written in Phoenician or a Phoenician related script.

My only other issue, is that while we have several Kings named Yechimilk or similar in Byblos, there is no King of Tyre(or Sidon, Akko, or even Carthage either), though we know of many of their names, that we know of who uses this name. So this Prince of Tyre, would be our sole one from Tyre, and since we only have his name in Akkadian, we can't be certain. I think there is no doubt that his name is not related to YHWH, but that doesn't mean that the name could actually be different and have a different meaning than the Yechimilk of Byblos. This is probably a trivial point on my part, but to me it is important to say the name of the Prince of Tyre as Yechimilk, is only fairly probable, not certain.