262 CHAPTER NINE
(Panel 3, in Aramaic) May Yosi and Azrin and Haziqin sons of Halfai be remem-
bered for good ./ Whoever causes faction between men and their fellows, or
recounts / slander about his fellow to the nations [’amemayah], or steals / the
property of his fellow, or whoever reveals the secret of the village [qarta]/tothe
nations^54 —may He whose eyes wander through all the land (cf .Zechariah 4:10;
2 Chronicles 16:9) / and who sees what is hidden, may He set His face against
such a man / and his seed, and uproot him from beneath the heavens / and let
all the nation [’amah] say, Amen and Amen, Selah.
(Panel 4, in Aramaic) Rabbi Yosi ben [sic] Halfai, Haziqin bar Halfai—may they
be remembered for good, / for they did very much for the name of the Merciful
One.
Peace .(Naveh,On Mosaic#70; my translation)
Despite its disarrangement, this inscription is quite obviously a verbal repre-
sentation of the common decorative scheme discussed above .The first panel
stands in for the biblical scene, and the second for the zodiac circle, the signs
identified, as at Sepphoris, with the lunar months .What follows in the second
panel is not a continuation of the first panel’s biblical genealogy; rather, it is
likely to be the counterpart of the prototypical scenes of worship found at
Susiyah, Naaran, Sepphoris, and Bet Alfa .Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah,
like their associate Daniel, are the types of successful (i.e., immediately an-
swered), prayer, and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, perhaps of sacrifice, the activ-
ity Genesis most frequently reports of them .The third panel is puzzling by
any criteria .That it begins with a short dedicatory inscription is unproblem-
atic, since dedicatory inscriptions are frequently found in the corresponding
position on the figural pavements .It is of great interest that the donors chose
to have their names placed in the inconspicuous aisle, not in the nave .They
presumably believed that their names belonged with the most potent evoca-
tion of the synagogue’s sanctity, the zodiac scheme, even if this evocation was
now somewhat discredited .The third panel is odd because where we would
expect some verbal allusion to the ark andmenorot, we have instead a curse.
This curse bears a loose resemblance to those inscribed on amulets produced
in the same period, collected by Naveh and Shaked.^55 Like many of them, it
uses an allusion to a biblical verse as a periphrastic way of referring to God,
and it concludes not just with a single “amen,” but “amen, amen, selah.” The
rhetoric is rather different, though, perhaps in part because it is, unlike the
amulets, a public text, as the inscription itself acknowledges (“let all the nation
say”) .Perhaps invocations of angels, a feature of most amulets but absent
(^54) For a speculative interpretation of this curse, see S .Lieberman, “A Preliminary Note on an
Inscription from En-Geddi,”Tarbiz40 (1971): 24–26.
(^55) Amulets and Magic Bowls; andMagic Spells and Formulae.