Yehimilk inscription

The Yehimilk inscription is a Phoenician inscription (KAI 4 or TSSI III 6) published in 1930.[1][2] Currently in the museum of Byblos Castle.

Yehimilk Phoenician Inscription in the Byblos Castle Museum

It was published in Maurice Dunand's Fouilles de Byblos (volume I, 1926–1932, numbers 1141, plate XXXI).[3]

It is dated to the 10th century BCE, and contains the earliest known Phoenician reference to Baalshamin.[4]

The earliest known Aramaean evidence of this god is found around 790 BC in the Stele of Zakkur.[5]

Text of the inscription

The inscription reads:[6][7]


(1)	BT Z BNY YḤMLK MLK GBL	[This is] the temple that he has built, Yehimilk, king of Byblos.
(2-3)	H’T ḤWY KL MPLT HBTM / ’L	It was he who restored all these ruins of temples.
(3-4)	Y’RK B‘L-ŠMM WB‘L(T) / GBL	May they [the gods] prolong —Baalsamem, and Ba'al(at) Gebal,
(4-5)	WMPḤRT ’L GBL / QDŠM	and the assembly of the holy gods of Byblos—
(5-6)	YMT YḤMLK WŠNTW / ‘L GBL	[may these gods prolong] Yehimilk's days and his years over Byblos,
(6-7)	K MLK ṢDQ WMLK / YŠR	because [he is] a just king and a righteous king
(7)	LPN ’L GBL QDŠM [H’]	before the holy gods of Byblos, he.

Christopher Rollston, "The Dating of the Early Royal Byblian Phoenician Inscriptions: A Response to Benjamin Sass." MAARAV 15 (2008): 57–93.
Benjamin Mazar, The Phoenician Inscriptions from Byblos and the Evolution of the Phoenician-Hebrew Alphabet, in The Early Biblical Period: Historical Studies (S. Ahituv and B. A. Levine, eds., Jerusalem: IES, 1986 [original publication: 1946]): 231–247.
William F. Albright, The Phoenician Inscriptions of the Tenth Century B.C. from Byblus, JAOS 67 (1947): 153–154.

Maurice Dunand, Nouvelle Inscription Phénicienne Archaique, RB 39 (1930): 321–331.
"Middle East Kingdoms- Ancient Central Levant States". Kessler Associates. Retrieved 23 May 2017.
Dunand, Maurice (1939). Fouilles de Byblos: Tome 1er, 1926-1932 [The Byblos excavations, Tome 1, 1926–1932]. Bibliothèque archéologique et historique (in French). Vol. 24. Paris: Librarie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner. and Dunand, Maurice (1937). Fouilles de Byblos, Tome 1er, 1926–1932 (Atlas) [The Byblos excavations, Tome 1, 1926–1932 (Atlas)]. Bibliothèque archéologique et historique (in French). Vol. 24. Paris: Librarie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner – via https://gallica.bnf.fr. {{cite book}}: External link in |via= (help)
van der Toorn, K.; Becking, B.; van der Horst, P.W. (1999). Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible. Eerdmans Publishing Company. p. 150. ISBN 978-0-8028-2491-2. Retrieved 2022-01-30.
Herbert Niehr (ed), The Aramaeans in Ancient Syria. Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 1: The Near and Middle East. BRILL, 2014 ISBN 978-90-04-22943-3 pp.168-169
Donner, Herbert; Rölig, Wolfgang (2002). Kanaanäische und aramäische Inschriften (5 ed.). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. p. I, 1.
Krahmalkov, Charles R. (2000). Phoenician-Punic Dictionary. Leuven: Peeters / Departement Oosterse Studies. pp. 106, 129, 179, 218. ISBN 90-429-0770-3.

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