WH 1859

Siglum: WH 1859
Transliteration: l ʾnʿm bn s²hm bn ġṯ w bny h- s¹trt l- hnʾ hdy s¹nt mṣr ʾl whbʾl l- grs²
Translation: By ʾnʿm son of S²hm son of Ġṯ and he [helped] build the fortified encampment for Hnʾ the commander the year of the expeditionary force of ʾl Whbʾl to Gerasa.

Interpretation

Apparatus Criticus: SIAM p. 196: first name ʾnʿm.
Commentary: Both ʾnʿm and ġṯ are clear on the stone. It is possible that s¹trt represents some form of military structure if hdy means the leader of a mliitary unit. It is also tempting to connect mṣr with the South Arabian mṣr ʿexpeditionary forceʾ — from the root ṣyr — (cf. JRWH p. 500). If this is so [and other instances of mṣr need to be checked] the mṣr ʾl whbʾl would presumably a unit drawn from the ʾl whbʾl comparable to the ms¹rt ʾl ʿmrt in M .... Finally WH seem not to have noticed the more lightly scratched lower lines of the last letter making a s² rather than the {f} they read. It is therefore possible that grs² is Gerasa/Jerash. It appears that the original form of the city's name was spelt with a /ś/ (see Elitzur 2004: 110, n. 16) which would have been been pronounced and and written with s² in Safaitic. The translation offered above is based on all these hypotheses and can be no more than a tentative suggestion. Note that immediately below this inscription is WH Greek 2 (=WH 1860) which reads ‘Wahballāh son of Ẓannʾēl son of Wahballāh’, and Wh 1861 by his daughter ʾʿḏq daughter of Wahballāh son of Ẓannʾēl.

Winnett, F.V. & Harding, G.L. Inscriptions from Fifty Safaitic Cairns. (Near and Middle East Series, 9). Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1978.
Elitzur, Y. Ancient Place Names in the Holy Land: Preservation and History. Jerusalem: Magnes / Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2004.