bIbLICaL arCHaeOLOGy reVIeW 55
WorDs Unseenepigraphers dated the inscriptions to the eighth to
sixth centuries B.C.E. based upon their paleography.^2
Once the texts were deciphered, they became two
of the most important archaeological discoveries of
the 20th century.
Both inscriptions contain blessings with strik-
ing parallels to the so-called priestly blessing of
Numbers 6:24–26: “The Lord bless you and keep
you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and
be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance
upon you, and give you peace.” The inscriptions on
the amulets are badly damaged, making attempts to
read their texts extremely diffi cult. Still, the presence
of the blessings on the amulets makes them some
of our earliest artifacts containing the divine name
Yahweh. In 2004 the West Semitic Research Project
at the University of Southern California produced
high-resolution photographs of the inscriptions that
brought new light to their words.^3 Their readings of
the text led to the following translations:^4
Amulet 1
(^1) ... ]YHW ...
(^2) ...
(^3) the grea[t ... who keeps]
(^4) the covenant and
(^5) [G]raciousness toward those who love [him]5 and
(^6) those who keep [his commandments ...
(^7) ... ].
(^8) the Eternal [ ... ]
(^9) [the?] blessing more than any
(^10) [sna]re and more than Evil.
(^11) For redemption is in him.
(^12) For YHWH
(^13) is our restorer [and]
(^14) rock. May YHWH bles[s]
(^15) you and
(^16) [may he] guard you.
(^17) [May] YHWH make
(^18) [his face] shine ...
Amulet 2
(^1) [For PN, (the son/daughter of ) ... ]h/hu. May h[e]/
(^2) sh[e] be blessed by Yahweh,
(^3) the Warrior and
(^4) the one who expels
(^5) [E]vil: May Yahweh bless you,
(^6) ...
(^7) guard you.
(^8) May Yahweh make
(^9) his face shine
(^10) upon you and
(^11) grant you
(^12) p[ea]ce.
Beyond the presence of blessings with close par-
allels to the priestly blessing, both inscriptions con-
tain a wealth of important information about the
background of the deity Yahweh. Amulet 1 refers
to Yahweh as the one who shows graciousness to
those who love him and keep his commandments.
This expression exhibits close parallels to several
Biblical texts (cf. Deuteronomy 7:9; Nehemiah 1:5;
Daniel 9:4).^6 Amulet 2 refers to Yahweh as the deity
who has the power to expel Evil.^7 Such references
shed light upon the early history of amuletic magic
in ancient Judah during the
Iron Age. While we have
thousands of uninscribed
amulets from Israelite and
Judahite sites dating to the
Iron Age, these are the only
extant ones with words
inscribed on their surfaces.
When Barkay fi rst pub-
lished the amulets, he drew
attention to their tiny size
by labeling them “minia-
ture scrolls.”^8 He empha-
sized not only the minia-
ture scale of their words,
but also the small size of
the objects. Amulet 1 meas-
ures only 1 inch in height
and 0.4 inches in diameter.
Even smaller is the size
of Amulet 2, which measures only 0.5 inches high
with a diameter of 0.2 inches. After Amulet 1 was
unrolled, its length was measured at 3.8 inches and
its width 1 inch. By comparison, Amulet 2 measures
1.5 by 0.4 inches. This places the size of Amulet 2
just shorter than the length of a standard matchstick.
We should note that Amulet 2 contains 12 lines of
text. This means that a scribe found a way to incise
12 lines of Hebrew text on a metal scroll the length
of a matchstick!
Barkay also noted that one of the references to
the divine name Yahweh on Amulet 2 spans only
0.3 inches in width.^9 To put this into perspective,
the standard radius of a dime is 0.7 inches. So the
scribe wrote the divine name in a space less than
half the size of a dime! Barkay estimated Amulet
2 could have originally contained more than 100
Hebrew letters.^10
All of this begs the following question: What was
so important about the miniature size and, perhaps
more important, the invisible quality of the inscrip-
tions? As a highly literate culture, we are accustomed
to thinking about writing along very functional lines.
0 250 m
N
Temple
Mount
City
of
David
Mt.
Zion
Temple
St. Andrew’s
Church and
Hospice
Ketef
Hinnom
Old City
walls