SIJ 699

SIJ 699: (y)qm for nqm; ʿḏr for ʿḏm; yṣḥḥ for yṣbḥ; ḥnn for bnn. JSafN p. 44 note 33: lqm for {n}qm.

This inscription likely includes a rare example of a complaint to the deity, Allāh. This interpretation is dependent upon the parsing and understanding of the rather unformulaic narrative:  {w} tẓr [f] h lh l ḥnn w l ġnmt. The verb tẓr is usually used to signal awaiting rains, although it can be used in other senses as well, including hunting and keeping watch during rains. The conjunction f must be supplied to transition into the complaint. The author then calls upon Allāh saying lā ḥanāna wa-lā ġanīmata 'there is no divine compassion and so there is no spoil,' perhaps indicating that the author was waiting in the context of a raid. It is possible to understand the conjunction of this clause as a waw of apodosis - '(where) there is no divine compassion, there is no spoil.' According to both understandings, the l should be understood as an existential negator, taking an accusative object.

Alternatively, but less likely, is the interpretation of hlh as the object of the verb tẓr, meaning 'he awaited Hallāh.' This would be the first clear attestation of this form of Allāh in Safaitic invocations. The name is previously attested in Dadanitic. In this case, the l would be a dative preposition, meaning 'for' with the objects of 'divine compassion' and 'spoil'. This would give us the sentence: 'he awaited Hlh for divine compassion and spoil.' This meaning seems also unlikely as the verb tẓr never takes a deity as its object. Rather, writers 'lay in wait' for enemies, animals (on the hunt), or simply await the rains to come. Fate itself lies in wait for its victim. Further attestations are required to arbitrate definitively between these two choices.