Deir 'Alla Inscription

Deir 'Alla is situated in western Jordan, about eight kilometers east of the river Jordan, and about a kilometer north of the Jabbok. The excavators found a very large Bronze Age sanctuary that had suffered in the period of wide-spread destruction in the thirteenth/twelfth centuries. Unlike other settlements, which were abandoned, Deir 'Alla remained in use well into the fifth century BCE. That is remarkable.

Even more remarkable, however, was the discovery of a painted text that contained a prophecy by Balaam, a non-Israelite prophet who is mentioned in the Biblical book of Numbers 22-24 as a servant working for the Moabite king Balak. (The site of Deir 'Alla is, technically, on the Ammonite side of the river Jabbok.) The text refers to divine visions and signs of future destruction, in a language that is close to that of the Bible. For example, we read about the "Shaddai gods", an expression that is close to the Biblical El Shaddai, "God Almighty". On the other hand, the setting is not monotheistic: we read, for instance, about a gathering of a group of gods. The word elohim, which in the Bible (although plural) refers to one God, refers to more than one god in the Deir 'Alla text.

Reconstructing the contents is difficult, but it is clear that Bileam learns from the gods that the world will be destroyed, an apocalyptic event that is described with metaphors from bird life. Somehow, Bileam and his people seem to have averted this disaster. There is also a description of the Underworld.

The text, in a language between Aramaic and Canaanite, can be dated to c.800 BCE. It was discovered in 1967 by Dutch archaeologists, and the first edition, by Hoftijzer and Van der Kooij, is from 1976. The scholars were able to form two large and ten small combinations of matching fragments. Since then, scholars have been able to improve their readings. The translation offered here is by B.A. Levine, who also inserted the titles. It was published in 2003 and consists of the two main combinations, minus the two first lines of Combination 2.

These two lines, and the small combinations, are offered in the original translation by Hoftijzer and Van der Kooij (1976); to discern them from Levine's translation, these lines have been printed in italics. Their book also contains photos, drawings, and the most detailed description of the fragments. The text is also published in Context of Scripture #2.27.

Literature

• J. Hoftijzer and G. van der Kooij, Aramaic Texts from Deir 'Alla (1976)
• B.A. Levine, "The Deir 'Alla Plaster Inscriptions", in: W.W. Hallo (ed.), Context of Scripture, vol.2 (2003), 140-145.

Combination I

Title

[i.1] The misfortunes of the Book of Balaam, son of Beor. A divine seer was he.

The Theophany

[i.2] The gods came to him at night.

And he beheld a vision in accordance with El's utterance.

They said to Balaam, son of Beor:

"So will it be done, with naught surviving.

No one has seen [the likes of] what you have heard!"

Balaam Reports his Vision to His Intimates

[i.5] Balaam arose on the morrow;

He summoned the heads of the assembly to him,

[i.6] And for two days he fasted, and wept bitterly.

Then his intimates entered into his presence,

and they said to Balaam, son of Beor,

"Why do you fast, and why do you weep?"

[i.7] Then he said to them: "Be seated, and I will relate to you what the Shaddai gods have planned,

And go, see the acts of the god!"

Balaam Describes the Celestial Vision and Its Aftermath in the Land

"The gods have banded together;

[i.8] The Shaddai gods have established a council,

And they have said to [the goddess] Shagar:

'Sew up, close up the heavens with dense cloud,

That darkness exist there, not brilliance;

Obscurity and not clarity;

[i.9] So that you instill dread in dense darkness.