Herod’s War
(0135) Text: l ‘bd bn ḫlf bn ’n‘m bn rb’l bn ’n‘m bn ms¹k bn s²rb bn ġlmt bn d’f bn ḫld ḏ- ’l d’f w wgm ‘l- ms¹k w […] ‘l- m‘[n] w s¹rt ‘[l-] ḫr hdy s¹nt qttl hrdṣ f h lt s¹lm w ġnmt l- ḏ d‘y w qttl [g]fṯr
Translation: By ‘bd son of Hlf son of ’n‘m son of Rb’l son of ’n‘m son of Msk son of Srb son of Glmt son of D’f son of Hld of the lineage of D’f and he grieved for Msk and for M‘n and he served in an army unit under Hr the commander the year Herod waged war and so O Lt may he who reads aloud the inscription have security and booty and Gftr waged war.
Commentary: It is unclear which “Herod” this inscription refers to, let alone which war. Presumably it is not one of the Agrippas, who are consistently referred to by that name in Safaitic inscriptions. The inscription is in Safaitic and so the text is rendered here in transliteration instead of transcription, given difficulties in reproducing the latter (e.g., use of boustrephedon, non-standard characters).
Provenience: stateless desert region (Al-Mafraq, Jordan) 47 BCE-39 CE
Bibliography: OCIANA #0021652*