Biblical Archaeology Review

Only the initial phoneme sh is extant. I have reconstructed Shamash on the basis of the disappearance of the sun suggested in the text. Another reconstruction, suggested by P. Kyle McCarter, Jr., is Sheol, goddess of the underworld and, in rabbinic literature, the realm of the underworld.

The word is shaddayin, the plural of the related Hebrew word shadday, which is usually translated “Almighty” as in El-Shadday, “God Almighty.” The philological evidence seems to indicate that shadday originally meant “the one of the mountains”; that is, a mountain god. The plural used at Deir ‘Alla may refer to a divine council where major decisions were made.

Hackett, The Balaam Text, pp. 4, 7, 21, 31, etc.

P. Kyle McCarter, Jr., “The Balaam Texts from Deir ‘Alla: The First Combination,” Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 239 (1980), pp. 49–60; cf. also Baruch A. Levine, “The Deir ‘Alla Plaster Inscriptions,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 101 (1981), pp. 195–205.

André Caquot and Lemaire, “Les textes araméens de Deir ‘Alla,” Syria 54 (1977), pp. 189–208.

In the editio princeps, 13 other groups of very fragmentary pieces are listed.

Cf. André Lemaire, “La disposition originelle des inscriptions sur plâtre de Deir ‘Alla,” to be published in Studi epigrafici e linguistici (SEL) 2 (1985).

Cf. Jo Ann Hackett, The Balaam Text from Deir ‘Alla (Chico, California, 1984), p. 19.

Joseph Naveh, “The Date of the Deir ‘Alla Inscription in Aramaic Script,” Israel Exploration Journal 17 (1967), pp. 256–258.

Hoftijzer and van der Kooij, ADTA, p. 16.