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Israelite, Moabite and Sabaean War-hrem
Traditions and the Forging of National Identity:
Reconsidering the Sabaean Text RES 3945
in Light of Biblical and Moabite Evidence*
Lauren A. S. Monroe
Ithaca
Abstract
In the biblical conquest accounts, hrem signifies ritual destruction and consecration to
the deity of entire enemy populations and towns. The root hrm also appears in two extra-
biblical conquest accounts: the Mesha Inscription and the Sabaean text, RES 3945. This
article revisits the interpretation of the Sabaean text in light of recent scholarship in South
Arabian Studies, and argues that RES 3945 should be placed on equal footing with the
Alesha Inscription for its relevance for understanding the biblical hrem. Taken together,
these sources situate the vtzi-hrem in the context of early state formation, and suggest that
the tripartite relationship between people, land and god, expressed in terms of berit, or
"co\
r
enant," in ancient Israel, may in fact have found expression more widely, in a tribal,
inland Palestinian setting with cultural connections extending into the South Arabian Pen-
insula.
Keywords
hrem, X4esha Inscription, Sabaean, South Arabia
The Hebrew root hrm is attested most frequently in the Bible in the con-
text of war, where it signifies a type of ritual destruction of enemy popula-
This article represents an expansion of part of a chapter of my dissertation on Josiah's reform
as dfilement ritual. The chapter out of which this paper emerged is entitled "Hrem Ideology
and the Politics of Destruction." I am grateful to Daniel Fleming for his willingness to read
and respond to the ideas presented here at every phase in their development, and to my col-
league at the University of A'linnesota, Andrea Berlin for her thoughtful comments and cri-
tique. This paper has also greatly benefited from conversations with my husband Christopher
Monroe, also of Cornell University. Any errors or inaccuracies are entirely my own.
Konmklijke Bnll XV, Leiden, 20( DOI 10 1163/1568533(215509
L. A. S Monroe I Vetus Testamentum 57 (200?J 318-341 319
tions and their towns, with the consecration of these to the deity.
1
In
Deuteronomy and Deuteronom(ist)ic thought, herem is intimately linked to
the concept of heritor "covenant." "Hie book of Deuteronomy declares, early
on, that God does not act alone in establishing the Israelites in the land. They
must participate, first militarily, by imposing herem upon their adversaries,
and then by upholding Gods tor in the land that they have settled (e.g.
Deut. vii 1-4). In this way the Israelites ensure Gods sovereignty and estab-
lish themselves as his people. If the Israelites fail to live according to God s
instruction, they risk expulsion. Deut. viii 20 states, "Just as the nations that
God destroyed before you, so will you be destroyed if you do not heed the
voice of Yahweh your God." The retrospective wzi-herem narratives in Deu-
teronomy and the Deuteronomistic History recall Israels emergence as a
nation bound to its land.
In addition to biblical references to the war-fpirem, there are two extra-
biblical conquest accounts in which the root hrm appears. The better known
ninth-century Mesha Inscription has been studied in depth for the light it
sheds on the biblical herem.
2
The other, an Old South Arabian Sabaean
text, RES 3945, which documents the accomplishments of the mukarrib
Karib-ilu, has been referred to only in passing by a small number of biblical
1
The most recent comprehensive treatment of the hrem is the work of P. Stern, The
Biblical Herem: A Window on Israels Religious Experience (Atlanta, 1989). Stern's ''chaos-
to-order" mythological model for understanding the hrem has received considerable criti-
cism (see the discussion below); nevertheless, it remains the most systematic work on the
subject to date. See also, for example, N. Lohfink, "harem/^,'' TDOTV, pp. 180-203;
M. Greenberg, "Herem," EJ 8 (19
7
1), pp 344-350; R. D. Nelson, "Hrem and the Deu-
teronomic Social Conscience/' Deuteronomy and Deuteronomic literature: Festschrift C. H
W Brekelmans (d. M. Vervenne, and J. Lust; Leuven, 1997), pp. 39-54; S. Niditch, War
in the Hebrew Bible: A Study in the Ethic: of Violence (New York, 1993). L. Younger has
provided a synthesis and comprehensive bibliography of recent scholarship on the hrem in
a paper entitled, "Warfare in Ancient Israel: Some Recent Discussion of the Hrem? pre-
sented at the annual meeting of the Society for Biblical Literature, San Antonio, TX, 2004.
For earlier work on the subject see G. von Aad, Holy War in Ancient Israel (trans, . Dawn;
Grand Rapids, 1991); F. Schwally, Der Heilige Krieg im alten Israel (Semitsche Kriegsalter-
tumer I; Leipzig, 1901), and M. Weber, Ancient Judaism (trans., Gerth and Martindale;
New York, 1952), pp. 118-139.
2
' See, most recently, . Routledge, Moab in the Iron Age: Hegemony, Polity, Archaeology
(Philadelphia, 2004). Routledge provides extensive bibliography. Certain readings have
been re-evaluated and re-interpreted since . Dearman, Studies in the Mesha Inscriptw?i and
Moab (Atlanta, 1989).
320 L A. S. Monroe I Vetus Testamentum 57 (2007) 318-341
scholars.
3
1 shall argue here that the Sabaean text, whose date may well be
contemporary with the later Iron II period in Israel, should be placed on
equal footing with the Moabite Inscription for its ability to illuminate the
social, religious, political and literary-historical implications of the biblical
wai-hrem.
The phenomenological resemblance between the South Arabian hrem
and the hrem attested in Moab and Israel is dependent upon the transla-
tion of a portion of lines 15-16 in the Sabaean text, rendered by Rhodo-
kanakis in his editto princeps, "he destroyed the wall of the city of Nashan
until he razed it, but the city of Nashan he forbade to be burnt (yhhrm bn
mwptm)!^ This translation was widely accepted by South Arabian schol-
ars, including Beeston and others, despite the fact that it contradicts the
inscription's larger interest in destruction wrought on a massive scale.
5
This
inconsistency has now been recognized by a handful of South Arabian
scholars, and Beeston has proposed a new interpretation of these lines that
yields a remarkably similar translation to those found in the biblical war-
hrem texts. Yet until now the Sabaean text has remained outside the pur-
view of biblical scholarship.
The biblical war-hrem accounts are generally understood to have been
composed long after the events they portray, during a time when Israel's
tribal origins may have represented a collective cultural memory more than
a social reality. For this reason they are often taken to reveal more about the
ideological interests of the Bible's Deuteronom(ist)ic authors and editors

C. Brekelmans, De Herem in het Oude Testament (Nijmegen, 1959); and P. Stern, Vie
Biblical Herem. Both of these studies were undertaken before the implications of the term
hrem in the Sabaean text were fully understood by South Arabian scholars (see below).
N. Rhodokanakis, Altsaabaische Texte I (Wein and Leipzig, 1927), pp. 3-103.
^ A. F. L. Beeston, Sabaean Inscriptions (Oxford, 193"^), pp. 64. Idem, A Descriptive Gram-
mar of South Arabian (London, 1962), 47:3. Beeston suggests that his translation be read
along side that of Rhodokanakis. For a recent discussion of the history of interpretation of
line 16 see F. Bron, "Guerre et conqute dans le Yemen pre-islamique. Guerre et Conqute
Dans le Proche-Orient Ancien Actes de la table ronde du 14 Novembre 1998 organise par
IVRA 1062, tudes Smitiques (ed. L. Nehm; Paris, 1999).
6
" See for example, R. Nelson, Joshua (Old Testament Library; Louisville, KY, 1997), p.
111. Nelson identifies the conquest account itself as pre-Deuteronomistic and Benjami-
nite, but takes the reference to hrem to be part of a later, Deuteronomistic redaction, where
a parallel is created between the conquest of Ai and the defeat of Sihon and Og, in Deut. ii
31-35, iii l-"
7
; J. van Seters, In Search of History: Historiography in the Ancient World and the
Origins of Biblical History (Winona Lake, 1997), p. 329.
L A. S Monroe I Vetus Testamentum 57 (2007) 318-341 321
than they do about any real events in emergent Israel's history.
6
While this
may indeed be the case for a large majority of the biblical references to the
hrem, textual evidence from Moab and South Arabia attests to the fact that
the war-hrem was a part of the lexicon and social consciousness of the
world to which ancient Israel belonged, long before the literary activity
of the Deuteronomistic school. I shall suggest here that in particular, the
account of the hrem against Ai in Josh, viii may preserve a tradition that
pre-dates the Deuteronomistic text. By "tradition" I mean to identify mate-
rial that underlies the present narrative, but that may or may not have been
rendered, originally, in written form.
When the hrem texts from Israel, Moab and South Arabia are read
together, the hrem presents itself first and foremost as a political assertion of
the inviolable relationship between a conquering nation on its newly acquired
land and the god from whom that land was granted. It should be acknowl-
edged that there are a number of priestly, prophetic and Deuteronom(ist)ic
references to hrem where the context is non-military, and where the politi-
cal aspect of the phenomenon is therefore less clear (e.g. Deut. xiii 13-16;
Num. xviii 14-19; Lev. xxvii 28, etc.). In his work on the Mesha Inscrip-
tion, B. Routledge has suggested that the hrem has its basis in gift exchange
as the foundation of non-kin based human sociability/ He proposes that
the key to invoking hrem is the prevention of exchange through the inser-
tion of the deity who holds booty and captives as inalienable possessions.
8
This is an attractive solution to the problem of identifying a common
thread in the Bible's various applications of the cerm, and is consistent with
the association between hrem and covenant in the war-hrem texts. In as
much as covenant may be understood in treaty terms, the notion of gift
exchange is fitting. When the lateness of many of the Bible's references to
hrem is considered in light of the evidence presented in the present work,
it becomes clear that hrem was a continuous and multivalent concept in
ancient Israel, and was integral to Israelite self-definition from the outset.
Before turning to the Sabaean text, it may be helpful to undertake a
brief discussion of the biblical and Moabite hrem texts, with particular
attention to certain shared religious and political interests that are often
overlooked, and that provide important points of contact with the Sabaean
evidence.
' B. Routledge, "The Politics of Mesha: Segmented Identities and State Formation in Iron
Age Moab," JESHO 43/3 (2000), pp. 237-238.
s
' Routledge, "Politics of Mesha," 23
7
-238.
322 L A. S. Monroe I Vetus Testamentum 57 (2007) 318-341
TheWar-hrem in Israel and Moab
The importance of proper imposition of the hrem is first demonstrated in
narrative terms in Josh, vi-vii, which describe the conquest of Jericho and
the sin of Achan. In Josh, vi God commands the Israelites to lay siege to
the city of Jericho and put it to the hrem. He warns them:
But only, you must guard against the herem, lest you impose the herem* and
take from the hrem, and thus put the Israelite camp to the hrem and so disturb
it. (Josh, vi 18)
This verse foreshadows the events that transpire in the following chapter.
Josh, vii opens ominously, "But the people of Israel committed a trans-
gression of the hrem when Achan son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of
Zerah of the tribe of Judah took from the hrem and the anger of the Lord
burned against the people of Israel." For the moment nothing more is
mentioned of Achan s misdeeds, nor of Gods ignited anger, and the focus
of the narrative shifts to the Israelites' impending battle with Ai. A group
of Israelite spies are sent to survey the land, and return confident, with
assurances that the men of Ai are few in number and that there is no need
for Joshua to send the entire Israelite army into battle. Things do not go as
the Israelites imagine however. They fall in battle against the men of Ai,
and when Joshua inquires of God as to why he has allowed them to be
defeated, God tells Joshua what the readers know all along, that the hrem
was misappropriated and that the Israelites thus brought hrem upon
themselves. God explains in his response to Joshua in verse 11 that hrem
was enacted against the Israelites because they had transgressed his cove-
nant Caber et bert). It is clear from this that in the Deuteronomistic
conception, proper enactment of the hrem against Israels enemies is a pre-
condition for the Israelites' occupation of the land. Failure in this regard
may be interpreted as a breach of covenant. Hrem thus serves not only as
a means of defeating Israel's enemies; in addition, its proper execution is
necessary to ensure the Israelites' own existence on the land. In this way the
war-hrem binds the Israelites at once to their land, and to Yahweh, who
granted it to them.
9
LXX reads , retroverted into Hebrew ""!2", in place of MT' s "2""~.
R. Boling and G. E. Wright, Joshua (Anchor Bible 6; New York, 1982), p. 201, for example,
therefore translate ". . . lest you covet and take something banned."
L. A. S. Monroe I Vetus Testamentum 57 (2007) 318-341 323
Because the hrem is consistent with Deuteronom(ist)ic interests in Isra-
el's exclusive relationship with Yahweh, the hrem narratives that appear in
Deuteronomy, Joshua and Judges, are often identified as late, Deuteronomis-
tic compositions. However, the fact that hrem and covenant are connected
in these texts and that their association serves Deuteronomistic interests,
does not necessarily indicate that this connection was introduced at a Deu-
teronomistic compositional phase. As shall be demonstrated below, already
in Moabite and Sabaean contexts, hrem served as an affirmation of the
exclusive relationship between a people on its land, and the patron deity
from whom that land was granted. Understood in this light, the notion of
covenant would naturally inhere in the concept of the war-hrem, and this
may have inspired its Deuteronomistic application.
The connection between hrem and covenant may be most explicit in
Josh, viii, especially in the ceremony of rededication to Yahweh that con-
cludes the chapter. This chapter opens with the Israelites' spirits dampened
after their first failed attempt at taking the city of Ai. God enjoins Joshua
not to be discouraged, and to take the whole Israelite army with him to
attack the city once again. This time God vows, ' have given the King of
Ai, his people, his cities and his land into your hand" (Josh, viii 1). Once
the land is conquered, its entire population killed and put to the hrem,
and its king's body hung from a tree as a symbol of defeat, Joshua builds
an altar to the Lord on Mount Ebal, the Israelites offer sacrifices, and
Joshua inscribes and reads aloud the laws of Moses before the entire Israel-
ite community.
10
The account of the battle at Ai and the account of the
ceremony on Mount Ebal serve similar functions. Both describe the
moment of official transfer of land from God to the Israelites. In Josh, viii
30-35 this transfer of land is expressed in cultic terms, through the build-
ing of an altar, the offering of sacrifices and the reading of the law, while in
Josh, viii 1-29 enactment of the hrem serves as the ultimate expression of
Israelite entitlement, a function made particularly clear by the repeated use
of the phrase ntan beyd, "to give into the hand." The significance of this
10;
Instructions for performing the covenant renewal ceremony are contained in Deut.
xxvii. The prescriptions provided here are followed almost precisely in Josh, viii, including
the building of an altar and the offering burnt offerings and peace offerings as well as the
central role played by the Levitical priests and the division of the tribes into two groups,
each group standing atop a different mount. See below for a more detailed discussion of
verses 30-35 and their relationship to the narrative in 3-29.
(
324 L A. S. Monroe I Vetus Testamentum 57 (2007) 318-341
term has been discussed by various interpreters, who have seen it as a jurid-
ical formula in which the legal right to land is handed over by Yahweh to
Israel.
11
J. C. Greenfield drew attention to the fact that in this way, the verb
notan may be understood to function in a way similar to its Akkadian cog-
nate nadnu(m) which, among other uses, appears in Mesopotamian land
grant texts to describe the bequeathing of agricultural land or sometimes
entire villages and their populations to an individual, often by the King.
12
Circumstances similar to those in Josh, viii characterize the ninth-century
Mesha Inscription, which celebrates the victory of Mesha King of Moab
over the Israelites, and his devotion of spoils to the Moabite god Kemosh.
According to this text, the Israelite king Omri had occupied the land of
Moab for many years and had oppressed Moab "because Kemosh was
angry at his land." Omri's son (presumably the biblical king Ahab) contin-
ued to occupy Moab, but in the reign of Mesha, Kemosh restored the land
to the Moabites (lines 5-9). In the first of Mesha's military initiatives, the
king is credited with taking the town of Ataroth, killing the entire popula-
tion of the city and dedicating it to Kemosh (lines 11-12).
13
Following this
he is called upon by Kemosh to seize the Israelite-occupied Moabite town of
Nebo. He is credited with taking the town, killing everyone in it, and put-
11
See for example P. Miller, "The Gift of God/' Interpretation 23 (1969), p. 455. Miller
cites Plger, Literarkritische,formgeschichtliche und stilkritische Untersuchungen zum Deuter-
onomium (BBB, 26; Bonn, 1967), p. 79.
12
J. C. Greenfield, "Nas-nadnu and its Congeners," Essays on the Ancient Near East: Stud-
ies in Memory ojJacob Joel Finkelstein (ed. . de J. Ellis; Connecticut Academy of the Arts
and Sciences, A4emoir 19; Hamden, 1977), pp. 87-91. For the most recent study of these
land grant texts, see K. Slanski, Tlie Babylonian Entitlement Nars: A Study in Form and
Function (Boston, 2003).
13
The newer reading hyt Ikms 'Vas for Kemosh," in place of the original reading ryt Ikms "a
satiation for Kemosh," was first proposed by Andr Lemaire, "Notes dpigraphie nord-ouest
smitique/' Syria 64 (198
7
), pp. 205-216. For Lemaire s English translation see, "House of
Da\
r
id Restored in Moabite Inscription,'' BAR 20/3 (1994), pp. 31-37. Lemaire s rendering
has become widely accepted. See for example, S. Parker, Stories in Scripture and Inscriptions:
Comparative Studies on Narratives in Northwest Semitic Inscriptions and the Hebrew Bible
(Oxford, 1997), p. 45, n.8; B. Routledge, "The Politics of Mesha," p. 248, n.90. The read-
ing, a "satiation for Kemosh," has been pointed to as an example of the sacrificial aspect of
the hrem (on this see below). "Was for Kemosh" retains the sense that the people and town
of Ataroth were devoted to the deity. However, it should be noted that the word hrem does
not appear in reference to Ataroth, it only appears below, in line 17, in reference to the tak-
ing of Nebo. The absence of the word in line 12 and its presence in line 17 suggests that
Kemoshs action against Ataroth was not in fact conceived as herem, as such.
L. A. S. Monroe I Vetus Testamentum 57 (200~?) 318-341 325
ting it to the hrem for Ashtar-Kemosh (lines 14-17).
14
Once the Israelites
are purged from the land, Mesha is said to have undertaken a series of
building initiatives in Qarhoh.
15
He builds walls, rebuilds gates and towers,
builds the palace and creates access to water from inside the city.
16
In addi-
tion, and perhaps most significantly, he builds a bma for Kemosh.
1
Similarities between the hrem enacted by Mesha and the biblical hrem
accounts are manifold and have been the subject of considerable scholarly
attention.
18
Segert has suggested the possibility that both the Mesha Inscrip-
tion and certain Deuteronomic and Deuteronomistic compositions reflect
a topos that included the following seven elements: receipt of an oracle,
departure, battle, capture of the city, slaying of the populace, hrem and
taking of booty.
19
If such a fixed schema existed, it is most explicitly repre-
sented in the Bible in the account of the conquest of Ai in Joshua viii. The
Mesha Inscription and Joshua viii also share an eighth element: the build-
ing of a cult installation as a culminating event after conquest. Both the
building of a cult installation and imposition of the hrem serve as expres-
sions of the integrity of the relationship between a people on its land and
the god from whom that land was granted. Guarding this exclusive rela-
tionship through the enactment o hrem constitutes an assertion of collec-
tive identity both internally and externally, with the surrounding nations
as witnesses. Thus the purpose o hrem is not only to destroy an enemy; it
is positively linked to the binding of a new population to the land it has
conquered.
14
Stern, The Biblical Herem, p. 34, comments that the position of the reference to the
herem against Nebo in the exact center of the inscription (it appears in line 17 out of total
of 34 lines) signifies the importance of this notion to the composition as a whole. It is
difficult to understand why the variation Ash tar- Kemosh occurs in line 17.
1,1
MI, line 3. The exact location of Qarhoh and its relationship to Meshas urban base in
Dibon are unclear. The name Qarhoh will be discussed at greater length below.
16
MI, lines 21-26.
1
MI, line 3. The fact that this reference appears at the beginning of the text and not in
lines 21-26 which describe his other civic initiatives suggests that this accomplishment has
symbolic significance that bears more weight than the rest of Meshas achievements. This
will be discussed in greater detail below.
18
See for example, Stern, Tloe Biblical Herem, pp. 19-56; Dearman, Studies in the Mesha
Inscription, pp. 233-237; more recently, Walter Dietrich, "'The 'Ban' in the Age of Israels
Early Kings,'' The Origins of the Ancient Israelite States (ed. V. Fritz and P. Davies; Sheffield,
1996), pp. 196-210.
10
S. Segert, "Die Sprache der moabtischen Knigsinschrift," AO 29 (1961), pp. 238-239.
326 I A. S. Monroe I Vetus Testamentum 57 (2007) 318-341
In the Biblical vzx-hrem accounts and the Mesha Inscription, resettle-
ment of conquered territory is tied specifically to occupation of individual
towns. Destruction of a particular town and eradication of its inhabitants
through imposition of the hrem rendered that town an empty vessel in
which the conquering population and its god could set up residence. In this
way, land, designated as
(
rs in both the Moabite and Hebrew texts, is con-
ceived similarly to the Akkadian mtu(m) which was coterminous with its
constituent towns and villages.
20
By imposing hrem on particular towns,
the conquering population symbolically asserted political ascendancy over
the land as a whole.
The fact that all of these elements are attested in both biblical and Moabite
texts suggests that, in the Bible, the "fixed schema" identified by Segert and
upon which I have elaborated here, is not necessarily a Deuteronom(ist)ic
(and therefore relatively late) invention. Rather it may be understood to
reflect a familiar topos associated with the military application of the term
hrem in an ancient West Semitic milieu. This hypothesis finds strong sup-
port in the Sabaean evidence.
Hrem in Saba
The Sabaean text, RES 3945, shares many features with the biblical and
Moabite hrem texts. This text describes the civic and military accomplish-
ments of the Sabaean mukarrib
11
Karib-ilu, who reigned during an early
period in the Kingdom of Saba. According to S. Ricks the region of Saba
(known in the Bible as Sheba), with its capital at Marib in northwestern
Yemen, had an advanced culture during the first millennium BCE, with
important trade links in the north and west toward the Mediterranean basin
and Mesopotamia and east to India.
22
The merchants of Sheba are identified
in the Bible as traders in gold (Ps. lxxii 15; Isa. lx 6; Ezek. xxvii 22; cf.
Ezek. xxxviii 13), gems (Ezek. xxvii 22), and frankincense (Isa. lx 6; Jer. vi 20)
and myrrhproducts grown in various locations in and around the South
20
Josh, viii 1; MI, lines 10, 28. On the term mtum as the basic unit of regional politics
the early second millennium, see D. Fleming, Democracy s Ancient Ancestors: Man and Early
Collective Governance (Cambridge, 2004), esp. pp. 115-133.
21
A discussion of the social significance of the term mukarrib will follow shortly.
22,
S. Ricks, ''Sheba, Queen of," n.p., Anchor Bible Dictionary on CD-Rom. Version 2.0c.
1995, 1996.
L A. S. Monroe I Vetus Testamentum 57 (200
7
) 318-341 327
Arabian peninsula (modern day Yemen, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United
Arab Emirates).
23
Evidence from Sabaean inscriptions suggest that ancient
South Arabia was comprised of independent territorial communities known
as shabs, and that at some point in the early first millennium BCE, the
political leaders (mlk) of the tribal community of Saba created a huge
"commonwealth" of shabs that occupied most of the South Arabian terri-
tory. These leaders took the title "mukarrib of the Sabaeans."
24
Among the
most important of the early mukarribs was Karib-ilu, who, in RES 3945,
takes credit for numerous military and diplomatic successes, including the
expansion of Sabaean control over not only the southern Arabian penin-
sula but also the Northern trade routes.
2:?
According to Korotayev, the
"commonwealth" over which Karib-ilu was mukarrib was relatively short-
lived; by some time after the middle of the first millennium, it had almost
disappeared and the area under control of the Sabaean rulers had been
drastically reduced.
26
There is considerable diversity of opinion over the chronology of ancient
South Arabia. Few excavations have been conducted in this region, and
archaeological fieldwork has yielded scant information.
2
The oldest extant
inscription that mentions Saba is an Assyrian clay tablet that reports that a
governor of Mari, who reigned c. 750 BCE, raided a caravan from Tema and
Saba, near Hindanu.
28
No pottery typology has yet been established for Saba
23
' Ricks, ''Sheba, Queen of.
v
According to K. Schippmann, Ancient South Arabia From the
Queen of Sheba to the Advent of Islam (trans. Allison Brown; Princeton, 2001), p. 79, for the
most part, frankincense and myrrh could be acquired only from this region as these resins
were from trees native to the central South Arabian coast. For one of very few works on
relations between ancient Israel and South Arabia see R. C. Steiner, Stockmen from Tekoa,
Sycamores from Sheba: A Study of Amos' Occupations (Washington, D. C, 2003).
241
A. Korotayev, Ancient Yemen: Some General Trends of Evolution of the Sabaic language
and Sabaean Culture (JSSSup 5; Oxford, 1995), p. 4.
251
Ricks, "Sheba, Queen of," n.p.
26
' Korotayev, Ancient Yemen, p. 4.
2
' On excavations in South Arabia, see J. F. Breton and E. Will, Fouilles de Shabwa II: Rap-
ports prliminaires (Paris, 1992). A. de Maigret, ed., The Sabaean Archaeological Complex in
Wadi Yala: A Preliminary Report (Reports and Memoirs, ISX4EO 21; Rome, 1988): B. Doe,
Monuments of South Arabia (Cambridge, 1983); J. Schmidt, ed., Archaeologische Berichte
aus dem Yemen I (Mainz, 1982); B. Doe, Southern Arabia (New York, 1971); G. Lankester
Harding, Archaeology in the Aden Protectorates (London, 1964); R. Bowen, Jr and F. P.
Albright, Archaeological Discoveries m South Arabia (Baltimore, 1958).
281
Schippmann, Ancient South Arabia, p. 54.
328 L. A. S. Monroe I Vetus Testamentum 57 (2007) 318-341
and the only secure date for the historical period is the Roman campaign
against the Sabaeans led by Aelius Gallus in the years 25-24 BCE.
29
For this
reason scholars have been forced to rely almost exclusively on palographie
evidence, but as Schippmann has noted, there is little agreement even on
the relative chronological order of the various inscriptions.
30
Schippman
provides a clear and comprehensive discussion of evidence brought to bear
on the subject of chronology, and addresses the strengths and weaknesses
of the various interpretations that have been proposed.
31
It is, however,
necessary to provide a brief summary here, for the sake of establishing the
temporal relevance of the Sabaean reference to hrem in RES 3945.
Dispute centers primarily on the question of whether Yita'mar of Saba
who is mentioned as having paid tribute to Sargon II in an Assyrian inscrip-
tion from c. 715 BCE, and Karib-ilu of Saba, whose gift to Sennacherib is
said to have been placed in the foundation of the Bit Akitu Temple in another
Assyrian text from c. 685 BCE, should be identified with the two Sabaean
mukarribs whose names are attested in early Sabaean monumental inscrip-
tions.
32
Essentially, two opposing theories have been proposed to resolve
this question: a Short Chronology and a Long Chronology.
Proponents of the Long Chronology, first proposed by E Hommel,
3
^
regard the eighth century BCE as the beginning of the mukarrib period
in Saba, and most accept the synchronism of references to Yita'mar and
Karib-ilu in Assyrian and Sabaean sources. This view relies on the supposi-
tion that the succession of early Sabaean rulers was always from father to son.
As J. Pirenne, the strongest adversary of the Long Chronology, points out
however, it is quite possible that some of these rulers belonged to the same
generation but represented different branches of the ruling family. This
29
Schippmann, Ancient South Arabia, p. 35.
3,J
' Schippmann, Ancient South Arabia, p. 35.
^ Schippmann, Ancieyit South Arabia, pp. 35-48.
32
Gl. 1703, a text known as the "Great Genealogy/' which mentions both Yitamar and
Karib-ilu, and RES 3945, the text with which we are concerned here. It is generally agreed
that the name Karib-ilu refers to the same individual in both Sabaean inscriptions.

F. Hommel, Handbuch der altarabischen Altertumskunde, (ed. D. Nielsen; Copenhagen,

1927). Hommel's original proposal of the tenth century as the starting date for the mukar-
rib period has since been modified. The more widely accepted eighth-century date was
proposed by H. von Wissmann, whom Schippmann, Ancieyit South Arabia, 36, suggests
can be regarded as the ''leader" among the proponents of the Long Chronology.
L A. S Monroe I Vetus Testamentum 57 (2007) 318-341 329
would shorten the entire mukarrib period considerably.
34
Instead of a long
chronology beginning in the eighth century, Pirenne therefore advocates a
short chronology beginning in the fifth century. Based on a fifth century
date for the oldest Sabaean monumental inscriptions, she rejects the idea
that the Assyrian and Sabaean inscriptions refer to the same individual.
Pirenne s attribution of the fifth century date for RES 3945 rests on two
key points, one palographie and the other numismatic. At the basis of her
palographie argument is the notion that alphabetic script originated in
Phoenicia and came into regular use in about the tenth century BCE.
3 D
She
argues that the Phoenician led to the Aramaic and Hebrew alphabets,
which appeared in the eighth century, and that the Greek appeared con-
currently.
36
Pirenne compares the Sabaean script from Gl. 1703 with Greek
monumental script from the fifth century and determines that they must
be contemporary, based on certain morphological similarities.
3
Pirenne's
argument assumes a continuity in the development of script across cultures
that is untenable, and her reliance on the Greek monumental script as a
gauge for judging the date of the Old South Arabian inscription is odd,
given the abundance of more closely related scripts. Furthermore, she over-
looks a mass of early data, including most notably, the Ugaritic alphabet,
which is attested as early as the fourteenth century. Ryckmans has chal-
lenged Pirenne on this basis, specifically in light of the Ugaritic Beth
Shemesh abecedary, which testifies to the existence of the South Semitic
letter order, at least as early as the thirteenth century BCE.
38
3-1
Schippmann, Ancient Yemen, p. 39. Cf. J. Pirenne, la Grce et Saba: Une nouvelle base
pour la chronologie sud-arabe (Mmoires prsents par divers savants l'Acadmie des
Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, tome XV; Paris, 1955).
3
" Pirenne, ''Chronology," p. 117.
36
Pirenne, "Chronology,'' p. 117.
3
Pirenne, "Chronology," p. 118.
38
Ryckmans, "A. G. Lundins Interpretation of the Beth Shemesh Abecedary: A Presenta-
tion and Commentary," PSAS 18 (1988), p. 123. The recently discovered Tel Zayit abece-
dary, found in secondary use in a stratum dated to the tenth century, should also be
mentioned in this context. Palographie analysis of this inscription is still in the early stages,
but according to R. Tappy and P. Kyle McCarter (SBL plenary session, Philadelphia, PA
2005) preliminar}- research reveals possible Hebrew features. As P. Daniels The Worlds Writ-
ing Systems (Oxford, 1996), p. 101, has noted, variety of scripts (and peoples) were
involved in the diffusion of the alphabet around the region, even if the Phoenicians played
a major role in the process."
330 L A. S Monroe / Vetus Testamentum 57 (2007) 318-341
The second argument Pirenne advances in support of the Short Chro-
nology is related to the earliest Sabaean coins, which contain a depiction
of an owl that she compares to the owl known from the Athenian drachma.
39
Pirenne concludes that these could not possibly have appeared before the
fifth century. She asserts:
No one would seriously maintain that the Sabaean Mukarribs minted Athe-
nian-type coins three centuries before the original was made, and it seems quite
inconceivable that a great civilization of the kind evidenced by the Mukarrib
monuments existed for three or four centuries without the use of coins.
40
While Pirenne s dating of the appearance of these Sabaean coins may be
correct, her second conclusion regarding the ability of a civilization to exist
culturally and economically without coins, is guided by an erroneous
assumption that currency and coinage are necessarily one and the same.
One need look no further than Mesopotamia to find what Powell has
identified as "a complex economic system that functioned for centuries on
end entirely without coinage."
41
Schippman cites not only the kingdoms of
Assyria and Babylonia but also those of Egypt, Mycenae and Crete as sim-
ilar examples.
42
In sum, while the Long Chronology is based on admittedly scanty evi-
dence, arguments in favor of the Short Chronology are founded on false
assumptions and misinformation. The dispute remains unresolved. What is
clear is that in 715 and 685 BCE two Sabaean rulers with the names Yitac-
mar and Karib-ilu had direct contact with Assyrian kings. At the very least,
references in Assyrian sources to receipt of tribute and gifts from Sabaean
rulers point to a highly developed system of leadership already in place in
Saba in the eighth and early seventh centuries BCE.
43
Whether the Karib-ilu
referred to in the Sabaean
u
Great Genealogy" and in RES 3945 is the same
^ Pirenne, ''Chronology," p. 118.
40
Pirenne, "Chronology," p. 118.
41
M. Powell, "Money in iMesopotamia," JESHO 39/3 (1996), p. 225.
42
Schippman, Ayicient Yemen, p. 41.
**' The word for "gift" in this inscription is nmurtu, defined in the CAD as (a) "an audience
gift"; (b) "a gift to god or temple"; (c) "a gift given to or by the king of the NA royal court."
I. Eph'al, The Ancient Arabs: Nomads on the Borders of the FretiL Cresceytt, 9th-5th centuries
BCE (Leiden, 1982), p. 24, comments that this designation "indicates a freely given gift to
royalty," and that, as such, it would differ from tribute and indicate a higher degree of parity
between donor and recipient. J . N. Postgate, Taxation ayid Conscriptioyt m the Neo-Assyrian
L A. S. Monroe I Vetus Testamentum 57 (2007) 318-341 331
as the one mentioned by Sennacherib is uncertain, but there is no aspect
of the Sabaean inscriptions form or content that makes such an attribution
implausible. Thus the reference to hrem in this source may with caution
be dated to the beginning of the seventh century.
RES 3945 contains two references to the root hrm, the first in line 7, in
a line of text that is badly broken, and the second in line 16, which describes
the destruction and resettling of the city of NSN. I shall begin my discus-
sion with the second, better preserved reference. Line 16 is reproduced in
transliteration below:
44
whgrn I nsn Iyhhrm I bn I mwptm I wtbhw I hrs I bythwl prw I whrs I hgrhw I
nsn I wbd I bzhr I nsn I s I'm I pklt I wtb I bn I nsn / 7 / wd't I sptmw I nsrn I
Tltn I wyhrgw I wtb I smhyp I wnsn I kd I yhwr I sb' I bhgrn I nsn I wkd I ybny I
smhyp I wnsn I byt I
<
lmqh I bwst I hlrn I nsn I
As alluded to earlier, Beeston initially translated this verse as follows:
But the city of NSN he forbade to be burnt {hrm) and he instructed him to
destroy his palace TRW and his city NSN and imposed on NSN a tribute for
the priests, and he gave command concerning those of NSN whose dedica-
tion to the gods was allotted(?) so that they were killed, and he instructed
SMHYF' and NSN that Sabaeans should settle in the city NSN and that
SMHYF

and NSN should build a temple for 'LMQH in the midst of the city
NSN.*
5
Based on this translation, it would seem that the implications of the root hrm
here differ significantly from its biblical and Moabite usage. Based on Rho-
dokanakis' similar translation of the line, Brekelmans rendered "verbood hij
de stad Nsn door brand te verwoesten..." and commented, "The religious
Empire (Rome, 1974), pp. 146-154, however, demonstrates that while nmurtu seems to
have designated a freely given gift in the Middle Assyrian period, in Neo-Assyrian texts the
term signifies a subsidiary gift accompanying tribute. See also J. Br, Der assyrische Tribut
und seine Darstellung: eine Untersuchung zur imperialien Ideologie im neuassyrischeyi Reich
(AOAT 243; Neukirchen-Vluyn, 1996), pp. 9-10.
44
' All transliterations are my own, based on Beeston's handcopies in Sabaean Inscriptions.
45
Beeston, Sabaean Inscriptions, p. 64. There is little variation between the translations
of this verse by Beeston, Rhodokanakis, Altsabaische Texte; and Mller, "Altsdarabische
Inschriften". I have cited Beeston only as a matter of convenience.
332 I. A. S. Monroe I Vetus Testaynentum 57 (2007) 318-341
sense of the herem here is not at all clear."
46
Brekelmans suggests rather
that this line contains a profane use of the word, which he sees as a second-
ary development, distinct from the notion of consecration to destruction
that characterizes the biblical hrem texts.
4
In his 1989 book, Stern paraphrased this line, referring to the Sabaean
king Karib-ilu who, "in his wars put many cities to flames; he banned the
city of Nan destroying it by fire, so that he might let his own folk live in
the wild."
48
Stern's rendering is markedly different from those of his prede-
cessors, yet he does not acknowledge that he is proposing a new transla-
tion; rather, he claims to be citing Brekelmans. It seems that Stern may
have inadvertently mistranslated Brekelmans' Dutch and produced a read-
ing that is much more akin to the references to hrem in the Bible than
Brekelmans himself suggested.
Despite Stern's understanding of the verse, he dismisses the reference as
fundamentally different from biblical attestations of the word. He acknowl-
edges that the Sabaean text shares several elements in common with the
biblical hrem texts, including use of the word hrem itself, the shunning of
the ruined city, the religious motivation of temple building and the asso-
ciation of the root hrm with fire as well as with the destruction of the city.
However, he ultimately accepts Brekelmans' assessment that the religious
sense of the hrem is lacking in this context. He concludes that "all these
elements lead up to something not too remote from the biblical practice of
the hrem although far from identical to it."
49
In the early 1990s specialists in Sabaean revisited the interpretation of
this line. Chr. Robin observed that the translation of the Sabaean yhhrm, as
"he forbade to be burnt" is not consistent with the larger interests of the text.
He proposed instead that the clause whgrn I nsn I yhhrm I bn I mwptm be
translated, "ainsi que la ville de Nashan, qu'il anantit par le feu,"
50
". . . just
46
C. H. "W. Brekelmans, De Herem, p. 18:
w
'de religieuze zin van hhrm hier allesbehalve
duidelijk/'
4
Brekelmans, De Herem, p. 19: ''In ieder geval zouden we dan hier niet de oorspronkeli-
jke en profane betekenis van hrm voor ons hebben, maar een \
r
erzwakking van de godsdi-
enstige zin."
49
Stern, Hoe Biblical Herem, p. 13.
^ Stern, Tlie Biblical Herem, p. 13.
Chr. Robin, "Quelques pisodes marquants de l'histoire sudarabique," UArabie antique de
Karib 'il Mahomet: Nouvelles doyies sur l'histoire des Arabes grce aux inscriptions" (ed. Chr.
Robin; Revue du Monde Musulman et de la Mditerrane 61; Aix-en-Provence, 1992),
pp. 5
T
-58.
L A. S. Monroe i Vetus Testamentum 57 (2007) 318-341 333
like the city of Nashan, which he destroyed by fire." This translation was sub-
sequently challenged and revised by Beeston, who observed that the syntax
of the French, with its relative clause introduced by, "ainsi que," does not
reproduce the syntax of the source, nor does Robin's rendering "anantit"
capture the meaning of the Sabaean yhhrm?
1
Beeston prefers Rhodokanakis'
syntax, though he rightly observes that the latter s translation "verbot er sie
zu verbrennen," is improbable, since we are told two sentences later that the
town was indeed ordered to be destroyed. Beeston suggests instead that the
Sabaean word should be understood like the Hebrew heherim, which is
indicative of a solemn devono?
1
Beeston does not offer a revised translation
of line 16. Based on his comments and the analysis presented here, however,
the following may be proposed, "And he devoted the city of Nashan to the
hrem by burning." This rendering takes the prefixed w as a coordinating
rather than as an adversative conjunction,^
3
and the preposition bn with an
explicative, rather than a prohibitive sensed
4
The translation of line 16 proposed here finds support in line 7, where
the root hrm is also attested. To my knowledge, this reference has not been
dealt with systematically in any of the scholarship on the hrem. Line 7 is
reproduced here in transliteration:
hrg/srm I wsyr I 'dhbhw I whbklhw /sb7 wywm I mhdl dhsm I wtbny / whrghmw I
tny I " I wsbyhmw I hmst 11pm I """" I wwptl 'bgrhmw I
dhsm I wivhrm I ml whtb I [dhs]m/ wtbny I ivdtnt I
Tlmqh I wl /sb' I ivhtb l'wdm I Imlk I dhsm I w
Rhodokanakis included in his transcription of this line the words, dhsm/
whrm /

r n. . . but he leaves these untranslated,^ while Beeston, in his 1937

work, translated:
And when he overthrew DHSm and TBNY and slew two thousand of them
2000, and captured five thousand of them 5000, and burnt their cities DHSm,
M
A. F. L. Beeston, "Review of Chr. Robin, I Arabie antique de Karib 'il Mahomet? JRAS
(1993), p. 433.
52
Beeston, "Review of Chr. Robin," p. 433.
^ J. C. Biella, Dictionary of Old South Arabic, Sabaean Dialect (HSS 5; Cambridge, 1982),
p. 119.
s
"* Biella, Dictionary of Old South Arabic, 46. For a brief discussion of the grammatical
issues, see Beeston, "Review of Chr. Robin/' p. 433 n.4.
^ Rhodokanakis, Altasabaische Texte, p. 30.
334 L A. S. Monroe I Vetus Testay?iey7tuyn 57 (2007) 318-341
but prevented (hrni) [from being burnt] the hill-town and made over
DHSm andTBNY and DTNT to TJV1QH and to Saba.. ?
e
In order to render his translation of line 7 consistent with that of line 16,
Beeston supplied in brackets the words "from being burnt." But the words
bn mwptm, which justify this reading in line 16, do not appear in line 7,
nor is it likely that they belong in the lacuna, as they would then occur in
a different position than they do in line 16. The most straightforward ren-
dering of this portion of the verse is: "he put the (hill?) town to the hrem?
Unfortunately the break in the text occurs precisely where it might have
indicated what hrem entails. Since the rest of the line, indeed the rest of
the inscription, reports destruction wrought on a massive scale, there is no
reason to assume hrem involved the sparing of the city.
The notion of consecration to the deity, though essential to the concept of
hrem, is not always expressed explicitly in texts where the word is attested.
For example, in the Moabite inscription the aspect of consecration to des-
truction is clear but implicit in line 17, "I put it to the hrem for Ashtar-
Kemosh." Nor do all biblical texts explicitly mention the consecration aspect
of the hrem. Most notable is Deut. vii 2, which simply states, "And when
Yahweh your God gives them over before you and you defeat them, you
must put them to the hrem..." The notion of consecration to the deity is
not clear here; it is only when this passage is read in conjunction with other
hrem texts that it may be understood in such a light. Therefore, specific
mention of consecration of conquered land and people to the deity is not,
by itself, an adequate gauge for evaluating the underlying intention of any
particular hrm reference.
Both Stern and Brekelmans based their interpretation of the Sabaean ref-
erence to hrem on line 16 alone. Focusing first and foremost on hrem as
a religious phenomenon, and relying heavily on this as a gauge for judging
the relevance of the comparative material, they posited that the Sabaean
hrem was categorically different from what we find attested in biblical and
Moabite sources. This assertion is undermined by the biblical and Moabite
texts themselves, which are not always explicit about the consecration aspect
of the hrem, and by the implicit reference to consecration in line 7: wwhrm
ml whtb I [dhsjml wtbny I wdtnt I Vlmqh I wl lsb\ "and put its
Beeston, Sabaean Inscriptions, p. 25.
L A. S. Monroe I Vetus Testamentum 57 (2007) 318-341 335
town to the hrem and made over DHSm and TBNY and DTNT to
' LMQH and'to Saba."
The phrase "to Aimaqah and to Saba" finds a striking parallel in line 12 of
the Mesha Inscription, where Mesha boasts that he took the city of Ataroth,
and killed the entire population "for Kemosh and Moab."
5
" 'Aimaqah was
the moon god, as well as a national god of Saba, like Kemosh in Moab, and
Yahweh in Israel. The mention of Aimaqah and Saba together in line 7 sug-
gests that the hrem in South Arabia, like that in Moab, served to affirm the
relationship between a people on its land (expressed by the terms "Saba" and
"Maob") and its national deity ('Aimaqah, or Kemosh). This interpretation
is supported by Karib-ilu's building of a temple for 'Aimaqah, at the end of
line 16. As discussed above, the erecting of a cult installation as a culminat-
ing event following enactment of the hrem provided a tangible expression of
the relationship between people, land and god, which imposition of the
hrem served to restore. Karib-ilu's installation of a cult place in the newly
conquered city of NSN is to be understood in this light.
The Sabaean text thus contains the following four key elements. First,
hrem is associated with destruction wrought on a massive scale and effec-
tuated by conflagration. Second, at least some segment of the population
of the conquered city is killed and consecrated to the deity. This is expressed
in line 16 by the comment, "he gave command concerning those of NSN
whose dedication to the gods was allotted, so that they were killed." Third,
resettlement of the conquered terri tory by the victors is tied specifically to
the occupation of individual towns, so that the town in effect becomes an
empty vessel ready to receive the new population. Fourth, a cult installa-
tion is erected, signifying that the new population and its patron god have
set up residence. All four of these are elements that the Sabaean text shares
with the biblical and Moabite hrem accounts.
TheWai-hrem and the Construction of National Identity
The parallels discussed above raise the question of whether Josh, viii may pre-
serve a tradition that pre-dates, considerably, the Deuteronomistic redaction
of the text. The description of the battle in verses 3-29 is not characterized by
^ This parallel has been acknowledged by F. Bron, ''Guerre et conqute dans le Yemen
prislamique," Guerre et Conqute Dayis le Proche-Orient Anciyi (d. L. Nehm), p. 145.
336 L. A. S. Moyiroe I Vetus Testamentum 57 (2007) 318-341
the formulaic language that would identify it as a Deuteronomistic compo-
sition.
58
For example, there is no reference to the smashing of sacred pil-
lars, the burning of sacred posts, or the destruction of sacred images, acts
that are explicitly associated with the hrem in Deut. vii 2-5. Nor is impo-
sition of the herem associated with an interest in protecting against con-
tamination, as we find articulated in Deut. xii 2, xx 18, and elsewhere. It
is therefore worth considering the possibility that Josh, viii preserves a pre-
Deuteronomistic tradition that, like the Moabite and Sabaean texts, reflects
a moment in the construction of Israelite national identity during the early
phases of Israel's emergence as a viable political state.
Josh, viii 3-30 constitute a coherent hrem narrative that begins with the
Israelites' preparation for battle, and ends with the city of Ai completely
destroyed. Contained in these twenty-eight verses are all of the elements
shared with the Moabite and Sabaean texts, including the building of a
cult installation as a culminating event to commemorate the victory. Josh,
viii 30-35 are generally understood to represent a discrete literary unit,
composed independently of verses 1-29, and attributed to a Deuteron-
omistic redactor. This attribution is based on repeated references to the
"book of the law of Moses," and the presence of other language explicitly
associated with the Deuteronomistic interests.
59
It is clear that the pericope
was identified as an independent unit already in antiquity, as its placement
in the text differs from the MT in 4 Q Josh where it is located after Josh,
2 and in LXX where it appears after ix 2.
60
However, if an early hrem tradi-
tion were embedded in Joshua viii, the parallel with the Moabite and
Sabaean texts would suggest that reference to building the altar on Mount
Ebal would have been an original element.
If this were the case it would have important ramifications for our
understanding of the relationship between Josh, viii 30-35 and Deut. xxvii
1-10, where the instructions for performing the Ebal ceremony are given.
Generally the Joshua passage is understood to align the Joshua text more
ss
On the role of the Deuteronomist in the composition of Josh, viii 1-29, see recently
J. Briend, "The Sources of the Deuteronomistic History: Research on Joshua 1-12," Israel
Constructs its History: Deuteronomistic Historiography in Receyit Research (ed. A. Pury, T.
Rmer and J-D Macchi: JSOT 306: Sheffield, 2000), pp. 364-369.
"
>Q
For a recent discussion of the date and setting of Josh, viii 30-35 see A. Rof, Deuter-
onomy: Issues arid Interpretation (London, 2002), pp. 214-215.
6
On Josh, viii 30-35 as a ''floating pericope" see A. Rof, Deuteronomy, p. 214; R. Nel-
son, Joshua, pp. 116-117.
L A. S. Monroe I Vetu, Testamentum 57 (2007) 318-341 337
closely with the instructions in Deuteronomy.
61
But if the passage were com-
posed for this purpose, it is peculiar that it was included at the end of this
particular narrative, instead of immediately after the crossing of the Jordan,
where it would more precisely fulfill the instructions in Deut. xxvii 2. Indeed,
the location of the pericope in 4QJosh surely reflects an interest on the part
of the Qumran tradents to more closely align the Joshua text with the instruc-
tions in Deuteronomy. As Nelson has noted, it is difficult to see why the
pericope would have been moved from this position, but it is easy to under-
stand why it would have been transferred here.
62
I would suggest that the
parallels between Joshua viii and the hrem texts from Moab and Saba signify
that reference to building the altar on Mount Ebal is an integral part of the
Ai hrem tradition, and that its original home is preserved in the Masoretic
Text. This detail would have been incorporated later into the pericope in
verses 30-35 as part of the Deuteronomistic recasting of events, either after
or at the same redactional phase as the full rendering of Deut. xxvii.
The existence of an actual cult place on Mount Ebal from the Iron I
period suggests that an early hrem tradition in Joshua viii might have pre-
served a real memory of the erection of the Ebal altar, although this mem-
ory is likely, already, to have been distorted by the lens of time.
63
If this
were the case then we might see the instructions in Deuteronomy xxvii as
a response to the existing Ebal altar, and the Ai hrem tradition as belong-
ing to an evolving lore associated with this sanctuary. In its earliest form,
then, reference to the altar in Joshua viii would not represent the fulfillment
of Pentateuchal law. Rather it would preserve a real memory of the Ebal
altar, which Deuteronomy xxvii sought in its own way to legitimate.
64
61
See for example, M. Fishbane, Biblical Interpretation in Ancient Lrael (Oxford, 1985),
p. 162; A. Rof, Deuteronomy, p. 214.
62
Nelson, Deuteronomy, p. 116.
6
* The site of Mount Ebal was excavated by A. Zertal in the course of eight seasons, beginning
in 1980. See A. Zertal, "An Early Iron Age Cultic Site on Mount Ebal: Excavation Seasons
1982-1987," Tel Aviv 13-14 (1986-1987), p. 105-165; Idem. "Has Joshuas Altar Been Found
on Mount Ebal?'' Archaeology ayid the Bible- The Best oJBAR, I (d. H. Shanks and D. Cole;
Washington D. C, 1990), pp. 77-93; Idem, "Ebal, Mount, ' n.p. Anchor Bible Dictionary on
CD-ROM. Version 2.0c. 1995, 1996; Idem, "Ebal," The Oxford Encyclopedia ojArchaeology in
the Ayiaent Near East II (ed. E. Meyers; Oxford, 199
7
), p. 180. On the debate over the
identification of this site as a cult place, see A. Kempinski, "Joshuas Altar: An Iron Age I
Watchtower." BAR 12/1 (1986), pp. 42-53; and A. Zertal, "How Can Kempinski Be So
Wrong," BAIL 12/1 (1986), pp. 42-53.
64
The fact that Deut. xxvii legitimates the altar on A'lount Ebal at all, is peculiar, given
Deuteronomy's interest ir centralization. This in and of itself suggests either that underlying
338 L A. S Monroe I Vetus Testamentum 57 (2007) 318-341
Why the building of this altar was associated with the hrem imposed on
Ai in particular may be impossible for us to determine, although here too
parallels with the Mesha Inscription may be instructive. In the Mesha Inscrip-
tion, the town of Nebo is destroyed by the hrm, but a high place is built in
Qarhoh. According to Alstrm, . Mazar suggested an association between
Qarhoh and the Akkadian word qirhu "acropolis," a term which A. L.
Oppenheim maintained should be compared with the Hittite phrase
sarazzis gurtas, meaning "upper city.
65
If this etymology is correct it would
suggest that Mesha built his bam in a highly visible, and highly symbolic
location. The erection of the altar on Mount Ebal would have had a similar
and even more dramatic eifect. Rising over 3,000 feet above sea level,
Mount Ebal is the highest mountain in northern Samaria.
66
The erection
of an altar on this site would not only have provided a natural axis mundi
between Israel and Yahweh but also would have served as a powerful sym-
bolic assertion of Israelite presence in the region.
6
Scholars have long reog-
nized an incongruity between the biblical account of the destruction of Ai
and the absence of evidence for Middle and Late Bronze Age occupation
at the site. R. Nelson has characterized the story as an example of "the role
played by etiological factors in the development and transmission of the
conquest narratives."
68
By drawing a connection between the conquest of
Ai and the altar on Ebal, the biblical tradent would have contributed to the
construction of a national mythology wherein a distinctively Israelite cul-
tural memory was embedded in the landscape.
Deut. xxvii is an older Ebal tradition with which the authors of Deuteronomy had no
choice but to contend, or that the law of centralization in Deuteronomy was formulated
with Ebal in mind. This possibility has been proposed recently by S. Richter, "The 'Placing
of the Name' in Israel's Experience," paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society
for Biblical Literature, San Antonio, TX, 2004. On the "placing the name" formula in
Deuteronomy as rooted in the Mesopotamian notion of a temple as space that commemo-
rates divine victory over enemies, see S. Richter, Hoe Deuteronomistic History and the Nayne
Ueology (BZAW 318; Berlin, 2002).
6
"" G. Ahlstrm, Royal Administration ayidNatioyial Rehgwyi in Ancieyit-Palestine (SHANE 1;
Leiden, 1982), p. 16.
66
' A. Zertal, "Joshuas Altar/' p. 79.
6
~ R. Nelson, Joshua, p. 119, has noted that the building of the altar constitutes an asser-
tion that the central heartland belonged to Israel, not because of battle but as part of Yah-
weh's promise of an effortless occupation.
6:5
' R. Nelson, Joshua, p. 111.
L A. S. Monroe I Vetus Testamentum 57 (2007) 318-341 339
If the interpretation of Joshua viii offered here is correct, it raises the
question of a date for the origins of the Ai tradition. Here too the Moabite
and Sabaean evidence may be helpful. In contrast to the biblical war-hrern
texts, which reflect a long and complicated history of transmission, the
Moabite and Sabaean texts, though perhaps no less colored by agenda or
ideology, appear to have been composed immediately after the events they
portray. These texts describe periods in which each nation was, to use terms
Routledge applies to Moab, "a tribal confederacy... dominated by rela-
tions of kinship and charisma rather than by class or institutions."
69
Karib-
ilu, who reigned early in the period of the mukarribs is credited with having
consolidated power and expanded considerably the Sabaean kingdom.
Mesha played a similar role in the political life of Moab. The Moabite
kingdom arose at approximately the same time as the kingdoms of Ammon
and Edom in the wake of the dissolution of traditional powers at the end
of the Late Bronze Age."
0
Each state sought to defend and expand its bor-
ders, and the history of Moab and the definition of its territorial borders
are intimately linked to the fortunes of other regional states."
1
Such conflicts are well attested in the Hebrew Bible, for example in
Judges iii, which describes Israel's service to Moab and the Israelites' even-
tual defeat of the A4oabites under the leadership of Ehud, and 2 Kings
iii:4-27, which describes the Israelite king Jehoram's Moabite campaign.
The picture depicted in biblical as well as extra-biblical sources is of an
unstable political atmosphere in which the fate of particular nations on
their land was regularly threatened by the potential for expansion by rival
states. Routledge notes that recent scholarship on the Mesha Inscription
has been characterized by a particular emphasis on the "fragile, emergent
or even non-existent nature of Moabite statehood as witnessed in the
Mesha Inscription," and "the absence of unequivocal evidence in either
Mesha or the Hebrew Bible for a territorially integrated state of Moab
before Mesha."^
2
69
Routledge, Moab in the Iron Age, p. 141. The designation "tribal confederacy" should
not be understood to be at odds with the notion of statehood. On the tribal state at Mari,
for example, see Fleming, Democracy's Ancient Ancestors, esp. pp. 104-115.
L
" Dearman, Studies in the Mesha hiscription, p. 156.
1
On the political landscape depicted in the Moabite Inscription and biblical sources, see
J. Liver, "The Wars of Mesha, King of Moab," PEQ 99 (1967), pp. 14-32. For a discussion
of the LB- I transition in Transjordan, and the ways in which this process differed from
the transition in Palestine, see Routledge, Moab in the Iron Age, pp. 91-92.
~
:
Routledge, Moab in the Iron Age, p. 139.
340 L A. S Monroe I Vetus Testamentum 57 (2007) 318-341
The similar social and political circumstances underlying the Moabite
and Sabaean hrm texts, and the structural and thematic parallels these texts
share with Joshua viii, suggest the possibility that the Ai hrem tradition
has its origins in a phase of Israel's history when it too was in the nascent
stages of state formation; that is, in the Iron IIA period. A setting for the
hrem against Ai during the Israelite conquest and settlement (whether
these events were real or imagined) would have served to legitimate territo-
rial claims of the emergent Israelite state.
3
In order to understand better the political significance of an early Ai
hrem tradition as articulated here, recent work on Israelite ethnicity by E.
Bloch-Smith is instructive.
4
Bloch-Smith, drawing on the works of J.
Bruner and S. Cornell, suggests that composing narrative is an essential
part of the process of constructing ethnic identity.
3
Through a narrative
that is continually updated to account for changing circumstances, collec-
tive memory is established. Such a narrative is meaningful not for its his-
torical reliability, but for its ability to confer meaning. Bloch-Smith cites
Cornell who contends that narrative functions as a mechanism to promote
and sustain ethnic bonds through periods of so-called "rupture." As Bloch-
Smith acknowledges, for Israel, the stages of incorporation and consolida-
tion preceding the viable political state were just such a critical time.
6
Like the Mesha Inscription and the Sabaean Karib-ilu Inscription, both
of which originated in tribal contexts during the early stages of state for-
mation, the hrem account in Joshua viii can be understood to reflect real
changes in the geo-political landscape during an early phase in ancient
Israel's ethnogenesis. In this context, the herem text itself would have con-
stituted an expression of nascent political sovereignty Commenting on the
ideological nature of the Mesha Inscription (an aspect of the text that
has received little attention in the scholarship) Routledge asserts that the

On the rise of the Israelite territorial state as reflected in the Bible s literary traditions,
see e.g. G. Ahlstrm, History of Ancient Palestine (Minneapolis, 1993), pp. 421-454.
"* E. Bloch-Smith, ''Israelite Ethnicity in Iron I: Archaeology Preserves What is Remem-
bered and What is Forgotten in Israels History,"/ 122 (2003), pp. 401-425.
" J. Bruner, Acts of Meaning (Cambridge, MA, 1990); S. Cornell, "That's the Story of
Our Life," in We Are a People. Narrative ayid Multiplicity m Constructing Ethnic Identity
(ed. P. Spickard and W. J. Borroughs; Philadelphia, 2000). Also on the subject of narrative
and collective memory, see A. Yadin, "Goliaths Armor and Israelite Collective Memory,"
I T 5 3 (2004), pp. 3^3-395.
6
Bloch-Smith, "Israelite Ethnicity," p. 422.
L. A. S Monroe I Vetus Testamentum 57 (2007) 318-341 341
inscription "is not about the narration or falsification of an event-based
history aimed at convincing a credulous audience," but rather is "about
history making; bringing into being a certain understanding of the world
by the context and manner in which it recounts events." When Rout-
ledges comments are considered together with those of Bloch-Smith, the
account of the Israelite hrem against Ai may be understood to reflect an
interest in narrativizing emergent Israelite collective cultural identity; a
concern that took priority over matters of historical accountability
In Josh, viii along with the Moabite and Sabaean texts, imposition of
the hrm is associated with assertions of collective identity and emergent
political authority. This shared tradition connects Israel intimately to her
inland neighbors and suggests the need to cast a wider net in our efforts to
understand the cultural character of earliest Israel. The presence of the war-
hrem in Israelite, Moabite and Sabaean sources suggests that the tri-partite
relationship between people, land and god, sometimes expressed in terms
of bent, or "covenant," in ancient Israel, may in fact have found expression
more widely, in a tribal, inland Palestinian setting with cultural connec-
tions extending into the South Arabian Peninsula.
Routledge, Moab m the Ir ori Age, p. 141.
^ s
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