Deir Alla inscription

Reconstruction and translation

When the text was found, it was broken into fragments. The fragments are poorly preserved, and only a part of the text has been found. In all, 119 pieces of ink-inscribed plaster were recovered. The wall, near the summit of the tell, was felled by a tremor.

Scholars have succeeded in arranging many of the fragments into two large 'combinations'. At least to some extent, they had use of information about which fragments were found close together or wide apart on the ground. Still, uncombined fragments remain. For the reading of damaged or missing parts of the text, they sometimes had to guess; however, where the same group of words seems to appear in several places, but with different parts damaged in different occurrences, they could reasonably reconstruct a combined text.

The first complete translation and reconstruction of the inscription was published in 1981. Today, the text in modern Hebrew letters is available online. The text is difficult to read and to interpret. Here is one reconstruction and translation of the first combination:

1. [This is] the book of [Ba]laam, [son of Beo]r, a seer of the gods. To him came the gods at night. [And they spoke to] him
2. according to the utterance of El, and they spoke to [Bala]am, son of Beor, thus: [ ... ]
3. And Balaam arose in the morning, [ ... ] And he was not [able to eat. And he fast]ed while he was weep-
4. ing greviously. And his people came to him, and the[y said] to Balaam, son of Beor: "Why do you fast? [And w]hy do you weep?" And he sa-
5. id to them: "Sit down! I will show you what the Shadd[ayin are ...ing] Now come, see what the Elohin are about to do! The Elo[h]in gathered,
6. while the Shaddayin met in assembly, and said to Sha[mash]: "Thou mayest break the bolts of heaven, in thy clouds let there be gloominess, and no bril-
7. liance, darkness(?) and not thy radiance(?) thou mayest cause terror [by] the gloomy [cl]ouds– but do not be angry forever! For the swift is re-
8. proaching the eagle, and the vultures' brood the ostrich. The st[ork is ...ing] the [young of the] hawk, and the owl the chicks of the heron. The swallow is ...ing the
9. dove, and the sparrow the [ ... ] And [ ... ] staff. Where the stick would lead sheep, hares are eating
10. [the g]rass. [ ... ] The [ ... ] are drinking wine. The hyenas are listening to instruction. The young of the [ ... ]
11. while [the ... ] is laughing at wise men. And the poor woman is preparing an ointment of myrrh. And the priestess
12. [ ... ] And...
13. ...while the deaf are hearing from afar.
14. ...And all are beholding the oppression (exercised) by Shagar-and-Ishtar.
15. ...the leopard. The piglet is driving out the (you-
16. [ng] of the...) [ ... ] ...destruction and ruins.

A more recent and complete English translation can also be found online.

The second combination:

1. [ ... ]
2. [ ... ]
3. [ ... ]
4. [ ... ] El satisfies himself with lovemaking.
5. [ ... ] Why is the tot in the tophet with the foliage?
6. So that El will be satisfied. He will make to the house of eternity.
7. a house which no travelers enter, nor does a bridegroom, [a house ... ]
8. as wormrot from a grassy grave. From the reckless affairs of man, and from the lustful desires [ ... ]
9. Your sacrifices make poor haruspecy. [ ... ]
10. [From] the bed, (or you will) cover him with one garment. Look, if you mistreat (lit. hate) him he will falter [ ... ]
11. punishment, [and wormrot] under your head, you shall lie on your eternal bed. To pass away to [ ... ]
12. [ ... ] all [ ... ] in their heart! The corpse moans in his heart! He moans [ ... ]
13. daughter. There, sacrifices shall be held Bal[ ... ] There is no compassion when death seizes an infant! And an infant [ ... ]
14. An infant [ ... ] there [ ... ] shall endure, he sighs to his heart as he approaches [Sheol ... ]
15. To the edge of She[ol ... ] and the shadow of the hedge [ ... ] The quest of a king becomes his "moth", and the q[ue]st of [ ... ]
16. [ ... ] and [ ... ] seers. Your quest has become dis[tant] from you! Why [ ... ]
17. To know how to deliver an oracle to his people, you have been condemned for what you have said, and banned from pronouncing words of execration.
18. [ ... ]
19. [ ... ]
20. [ ... ]
21. [ ... ]

Language

Though containing some features of Aramaic, such as the word bar "(son of [Beor])" rather than the Canaanite ben, the Deir Alla inscription also has many elements of Canaanite languages, leading some to believe it was written in a dialect of Canaanite rather than an early form of Aramaic. The inscription has been dated to 880–770 BC.

Klaus Beyer calls the language South Gileadite.

Holger Gzella reckons the mixture of Canaanite vocabulary and narration with a primarily Aramaic grammatical core reflect a translation of a Canaanite story into a literary Aramaic text. The Semitic Etymological Dictionary categorizes the Deir Alla language as simply "dialect of the inscription from Deir Alla."

Tablets with unknown script and hemp cloth

In the 1960s, in addition to hundreds of vessels like bowls and jars, seven clay tablets were found with an unknown script. As of 2021, they had not yet been fully deciphered, nor has their clay been tested to see if it's local to Deir Alla.

The only discovery of hemp cloth in an archaeological context in the Iron Age Levant is a piece of very fine hemp textile found on a loom in a room adjacent to the one containing the inscription. The entire complex probably had a cultic purpose, the unique and exquisite textile thought to have been woven for the goddess Shagar, who is mentioned in the inscription. The complex most likely dates to the 2nd half of the 9th century BCE, being destroyed by an earthquake around 800 BCE. It may be noted that the hemp product cannabis has been found at an Iron Age cultic site further southwest, Tel Arad in the Negev, as residue of burned incense in a temple - also a surprising discovery.