Page:Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894.djvu/319

Rh must supply the words, "of rock remained to be broken through." voice of one, (pass on to line 3).

Line 3.— called to his fellow-workman, for. there being, excess, an unusual word, the cognate  occurs in the sacred text, in the sense of pride, arrogance.  in the rock. rock with the prep. in on the right ( the right hand, with ). After this word is another break in the text. and in the west, westward. = the ordinary  sea. Used also to indicate the west, i.e., the region of the Great Sea, or Mediterranean, which lay to the west of Palestine.

Line 4.— of the excavation, to be read with preceding word "westward," or "on the west side of the excavation." they struck through. Hiph. of third person pl. an unusual noun, with the article, the excavation, from  to cut, to hew out. each, to meet, from  to meet accidentally, to light upon, as in Ruth ii, 3. his fellow, as before. pick upon pick, and flowed, third person pl. pret. kal.,from, synonymous with to go, walk, flow, &c., a very common Hebrew, Phœnician, and Arabic root.

Line 5.— the waters. from,  the outlet, spring, the root-idea of the word is going forth, egress, often occurs in Old Testament, as of the upper Gihon outflow, 2 Chron. xxxii, 30. to, the pool, occurs frequently in Old Testament, "the upper pool," Isa. vii, 3, xxxvi, 2. Arabic birket, Spanish alberca, a pond, Portuguese alberca, a trench, drain. The next word Major Conder takes to mean for two hundred, Professor Sayce translates it for the distance of, from a root implying extension,  a thousand,  cubit.

Line 6.—At the end of line 5 and beginning of line 6 is a broken word, which is read by Professor Sayce with the following word and three-fourths of a cubit,  was  the height, elevation, common in Old Testament. the rock. over,  head, beginning, a common word. the excavation, tunnel.

It will be seen that most of the words in the inscription are common Bible terms, although some are used in an unusual sense.

The great value of the Siloam inscription can be rightly estimated only after consideration of what was known before its discovery with respect to the graphic art and literary culture of Palestine at the period when this inscription was cut on the wall of the famous subterranean aqueduct. Up to a very recent time all primitive Semitic writing was supposed to be Phœnician, the Phœnicians in turn being supposed to