Ekron ( Philistine : 𐤏𐤒𐤓𐤍 *ʿAqārān , Hebrew : עֶקְרוֹן , romanized : ʿEqrōn , Arabic : عقرون ), in the Hellenistic period known as Accaron ( Ancient Greek : Ακκαρων , romanized : Akkarōn ) was a Philistine city, one of the five cities of the Philistine Pentapolis , located in present-day Israel .
173-531: In 1957, Ekron was first identified with the mound of Tel Miqne ( Hebrew ) or Khirbet el-Muqanna ( Arabic ), near the depopulated Arab village of 'Aqir , on the basis of the large size of the Iron Age archaeological remains; the judgement was strengthened by the discovery in 1996 of the Ekron inscription . The tell lies 35 kilometres (22 mi) west of Jerusalem , and 18 kilometres (11 mi) north of Tel es-Safi ,
346-541: A destruction layer caused by Sennacherib at Tel Lachish . None of the original seals has been found, but some 2,000 impressions made by at least 21 seal types have been published. LMLK stands for the Hebrew letters lamedh mem lamedh kaph (Hebrew: לְמֶלֶךְ , romanized: ləmeleḵ ), which can be translated as: According to a 2022 study, traces of vanilla found in wine jars in Jerusalem might indicate that
519-650: A siege of Jerusalem , ultimately destroying the city and ending the kingdom. A large number of Judeans were exiled to Babylon , and the fallen kingdom was then annexed as a Babylonian province . After the fall of Babylon to the Achaemenid Empire , the Achaemenid king Cyrus the Great allowed the Jews who had been deported after the conquest of Judah to return. They were allowed to autonomous rule under Persian governance . It
692-674: A Hebrew form. Medieval Hebrew added 6421 words to (Modern) Hebrew. The approximate number of new lexical items in Israeli is 17,000 (cf. 14,762 in Even-Shoshan 1970 [...]). With the inclusion of foreign and technical terms [...], the total number of Israeli words, including words of biblical, rabbinic and medieval descent, is more than 60,000. In Israel, Modern Hebrew is currently taught in institutions called Ulpanim (singular: Ulpan). There are government-owned, as well as private, Ulpanim offering online courses and face-to-face programs. Modern Hebrew
865-413: A bull-shaped zoomorphic vessel, an incised ivory tube, and a bronze pin and needle. Stratum V monumental building was constructed on a similar scale as the one in the elite zone. The artifacts, many representing a continuation of Aegean traditions, include a rectangular bone plaque painted in blue and incised with the depiction of the rear of a horse, a Mycenaean-type female figurine, a gold spiral hair-ring,
1038-583: A century ago, was fluent enough in this idiom to be able to follow the Mishna Berurah without any trouble." Hebrew has been revived several times as a literary language, most significantly by the Haskalah (Enlightenment) movement of early and mid-19th-century Germany. In the early 19th century, a form of spoken Hebrew had emerged in the markets of Jerusalem between Jews of different linguistic backgrounds to communicate for commercial purposes. This Hebrew dialect
1211-542: A conical stamp seal depicting two prancing gazelles, an iron knife with an ivory handle, two small pebbled hearths, and two goat skulls. The domestic buildings continued in use in Stratum IV with no substantial change, and special finds included an incised scapula, similar to those found in the upper city. Also in the lower city, in the elite zone, Stratum VII was represented by a number of installations, including rectangular hearths. In Stratum VI circular hearths were found in
1384-600: A corollary Hebrew ceased to function as a spoken language around the same time. Moshe Zvi Segal , Joseph Klausner and Ben Yehuda are notable exceptions to this view. During the latter half of the 20th century, accumulating archaeological evidence and especially linguistic analysis of the Dead Sea Scrolls has disproven that view. The Dead Sea Scrolls, uncovered in 1946–1948 near Qumran revealed ancient Jewish texts overwhelmingly in Hebrew, not Aramaic. The Qumran scrolls indicate that Hebrew texts were readily understandable to
1557-429: A cultic stand of a type known from Cyprus and reminiscent of the biblical description of the mechonot (laver stands) and a bronze Janus-faced linchpin from a chariot wheel. Another special find was an iron knife with a pierced spool-shaped ivory handle attached with three bronze nails. In Strata VI and V, the building complex contained a large stone bath, a monolith, two stone pillar bases, and several hearths. In Stratum IV
1730-516: A dispute emerging between biblical minimalists and biblical maximalists on this particular topic. Due to geopolitical factors like security issues, isolation, and political changes, the core area of the Kingdom of Judah on the south-central highlands has seen limited archaeological exploration compared to regions west of the Jordan River . Few excavations and surveys have been conducted there, creating
1903-562: A distinct style of philosophical Hebrew. This is used in the translations made by the Ibn Tibbon family. (Original Jewish philosophical works were usually written in Arabic. ) Another important influence was Maimonides , who developed a simple style based on Mishnaic Hebrew for use in his law code, the Mishneh Torah . Subsequent rabbinic literature is written in a blend between this style and
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#17328456778112076-420: A general of the army. The Ethiopians were pursued to Gerar , in the coastal plain, where they stopped out of sheer exhaustion. The resulting peace kept Judah free from Egyptian incursions until the time of Josiah , some centuries later. In his 36th year, Asa was confronted by Baasha of Israel , who built a fortress at Ramah on the border, less than ten miles from Jerusalem. The capital came under pressure, and
2249-435: A gold cobra (a uraeus ), and a unique assemblage of ivories with cultic connotations. The ivories include a depiction of a woman, perhaps a royal personage; a knob bearing the cartouche of the 12th century Pharaoh Ramses VIII; a large head, probably from the top of a harp; and a large object with a male figure on the front, the image of a royal female personage on the side, and a cartouche of the 13th century Pharaoh Merneptah on
2422-579: A gradually accepted movement. It was not, however, until the 1904–1914 Second Aliyah that Hebrew had caught real momentum in Ottoman Palestine with the more highly organized enterprises set forth by the new group of immigrants. When the British Mandate of Palestine recognized Hebrew as one of the country's three official languages (English, Arabic, and Hebrew, in 1922), its new formal status contributed to its diffusion. A constructed modern language with
2595-507: A heavy loss of life on the Israel side. According to the Books of Chronicles , Abijah and his people defeated them with a great slaughter, so that 500,000 chosen men of Israel fell slain, and Jeroboam posed little threat to Judah for the rest of his reign. The border of the tribe of Benjamin was restored to the original tribal border. Abijah 's son and successor, Asa of Judah , maintained peace for
2768-487: A large public structure, which also produced a round ivory pyxis lid decorated with scenes of animals in battle. In Stratum V, a megaron-type building contained superimposed pebbled hearths, three rooms with benches and bamot, and a monumental entrance hall with two mushroom-shaped stone pillar bases. One room yielded 20 spherical loom weights in the Aegean tradition. This building also produced three miniature bronze wheels from
2941-473: A limestone bathtub, and an industrial kiln area. In Strata VI–V, a major feature was the mudbrick glacis, a cultic room with an incised scapula similar to those found in the 12th and 11th century BCE shrines at Enkomi and Kition on Cyprus. In the lower city, along the ridge of the southern slope of the tel, behind the Iron I mudbrick city wall of Stratum VI, were a number of architectural units and finds, which included
3114-463: A literary language down through the Byzantine period from the 4th century CE. The exact roles of Aramaic and Hebrew remain hotly debated. A trilingual scenario has been proposed for the land of Israel. Hebrew functioned as the local mother tongue with powerful ties to Israel's history, origins and golden age and as the language of Israel's religion; Aramaic functioned as the international language with
3287-532: A literary language, especially in Spain, as the language of commerce between Jews of different native languages, and as the liturgical language of Judaism, evolving various dialects of literary Medieval Hebrew , until its revival as a spoken language in the late 19th century. In May 2023, Scott Stripling published the finding of what he claims to be the oldest known Hebrew inscription, a curse tablet found at Mount Ebal , dated from around 3200 years ago. The presence of
3460-410: A notable knowledge gap compared to the extensively-studied Shephelah to the west, which has undergone systematic surveys and numerous scientific excavations. While it is generally agreed that the narratives of David and Solomon in the 10th century BCE tell little about the origins of Judah, currently, there is no consensus as to whether Judah developed as a split from a unified kingdom Israel (as
3633-675: A presence at the site in the Chalcolithic period and Early Bronze Age. A continuous stratigraphic profile, however, was found only in the upper city on the Northeast Acropolis (Field I), beginning in Stratum XI of the MB IIB and extending through the end of Stratum I of the Iron IIC. In the lower city (Fields II, III, IV, V, X), a 400-year occupational gap followed Stratum XI of the 17th–first half of
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#17328456778113806-506: A production capacity of 500–1,000 tons, making it the largest ancient industrial center for the production of olive oil thus far excavated. In Stratum IB of the last third of the 7th century, the diminution in olive oil production is associated with the end of Assyrian domination in Stratum IC and the expansion of the Egyptian sphere of influence to Philistia ca. 630 BCE. Master suggests the answer
3979-527: A result, ten of the tribes rebelled against Rehoboam and proclaimed Jeroboam their king, forming the northern Kingdom of Israel . At first, only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to the House of David , but the tribe of Benjamin soon joined Judah. Both kingdoms, Judah in the south and Israel in the north, co-existed uneasily after the split until the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel by Assyria in 722/721. For
4152-535: A set of dialects evolving out of Late Biblical Hebrew and into Mishnaic Hebrew, thus including elements from both but remaining distinct from either. By the start of the Byzantine Period in the 4th century CE, Classical Hebrew ceased as a regularly spoken language, roughly a century after the publication of the Mishnah, apparently declining since the aftermath of the catastrophic Bar Kokhba revolt around 135 CE. In
4325-497: A siege, which lasted either eighteen or thirty months, and Nebuchadnezzar again pillaged both Jerusalem and the Temple and then destroyed both. After killing all of Zedekiah's sons, Nebuchadnezzar took Zedekiah to Babylon and so put an end to the independent Kingdom of Judah. According to the Book of Jeremiah , in addition to those killed during the siege, some 4,600 people were deported after
4498-669: A sizable army up to the Euphrates to aid the Assyrians . Taking the coastal route into Syria at the head of a large army, Necho passed the low tracts of Philistia and Sharon . However, the passage over the ridge of hills, which shuts in on the south the great Jezreel Valley , was blocked by the Judean army, led by Josiah, who may have considered that the Assyrians and the Egyptians were weakened by
4671-652: A spoken language, it continued to be used as a lingua franca among scholars and Jews traveling in foreign countries. After the 2nd century CE when the Roman Empire exiled most of the Jewish population of Jerusalem following the Bar Kokhba revolt , they adapted to the societies in which they found themselves, yet letters, contracts, commerce, science, philosophy, medicine, poetry and laws continued to be written mostly in Hebrew, which adapted by borrowing and inventing terms. After
4844-412: A stand against Assyria by refusing to pay tribute. In response, Sennacherib of Assyria attacked the fortified cities of Judah. Hezekiah paid three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold to Assyria, which required him to empty the temple and royal treasury of silver and strip the gold from the doorposts of Solomon's Temple . However, Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem in 701 BCE though
5017-527: A talent of gold (about 34 kilograms (75 lb)). Necho then took Jehoahaz back to Egypt as his prisoner, never to return. Jehoiakim ruled originally as a vassal of the Egyptians by paying a heavy tribute. However, when the Egyptians were defeated by the Babylonians at Carchemish in 605 BCE, Jehoiakim changed allegiances to pay tribute to Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon . In 601 BCE, in the fourth year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar attempted to invade Egypt but
5190-468: A truly Semitic vocabulary and written appearance, although often European in phonology , was to take its place among the current languages of the nations. While many saw his work as fanciful or even blasphemous (because Hebrew was the holy language of the Torah and therefore some thought that it should not be used to discuss everyday matters), many soon understood the need for a common language amongst Jews of
5363-452: A vast army and took many cities. In the sack of Jerusalem (10th century BCE) , Rehoboam gave them all of the treasures out of the temple as a tribute and Judah became a vassal state of Egypt. Rehoboam's son and successor, Abijah of Judah , continued his father's efforts to bring Israel under his control. He fought the Battle of Mount Zemaraim against Jeroboam of Israel and was victorious with
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5536-549: A vernacular in Judea until it was displaced by Aramaic, probably in the 3rd century CE. Certain Sadducee , Pharisee , Scribe , Hermit, Zealot and Priest classes maintained an insistence on Hebrew, and all Jews maintained their identity with Hebrew songs and simple quotations from Hebrew texts. While there is no doubt that at a certain point, Hebrew was displaced as the everyday spoken language of most Jews, and that its chief successor in
5709-511: Is 8198, of which some 2000 are hapax legomena (the number of Biblical Hebrew roots, on which many of these words are based, is 2099). The number of attested Rabbinic Hebrew words is less than 20,000, of which (i) 7879 are Rabbinic par excellence, i.e. they did not appear in the Old Testament (the number of new Rabbinic Hebrew roots is 805); (ii) around 6000 are a subset of Biblical Hebrew; and (iii) several thousand are Aramaic words which can have
5882-620: Is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family . A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages , it was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a first language until after 200 CE and as the liturgical language of Judaism (since the Second Temple period ) and Samaritanism . The language was revived as a spoken language in the 19th century, and
6055-713: Is assumed to have been written during this same time period and emphasizes the significance of upholding them. With the final fall of the Neo-Assyrian Empire in 605 BCE, competition emerged between Saite Egypt and the Neo-Babylonian Empire over control of the Levant , ultimately resulting in Judah's rapid decline. The early 6th century BCE saw a wave of Egyptian-backed Judahite rebellions against Babylonian rule being crushed. In 587 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar II engaged in
6228-595: Is clear from the position of Judaean strongholds that one of their primary purposes was to facilitate communications via fire signals across the Kingdom, a method well-documented in the Book of Jeremiah and the Lachish letters. Canaan State of Israel (1948–present) According to the biblical account, the United Kingdom of Israel was founded by Saul during the late-11th century BCE, and reached its peak during
6401-514: Is fighting to stop businesses from using only English signs to market their services. In 2012, a Knesset bill for the preservation of the Hebrew language was proposed, which includes the stipulation that all signage in Israel must first and foremost be in Hebrew, as with all speeches by Israeli officials abroad. The bill's author, MK Akram Hasson , stated that the bill was proposed as a response to Hebrew "losing its prestige" and children incorporating more English words into their vocabulary. Hebrew
6574-574: Is one of several languages for which the constitution of South Africa calls to be respected in their use for religious purposes. Also, Hebrew is an official national minority language in Poland , since 6 January 2005. Hamas has made Hebrew a compulsory language taught in schools in the Gaza Strip. Kingdom of Judah The Kingdom of Judah was an Israelite kingdom of the Southern Levant during
6747-566: Is the earliest known record of the name "Judah" (written in Assyrian cuneiform as Ya'uda or KUR.ia-ú-da-a-a), while an earlier reference to a Judahite envoy seems to appear in a wine list from Nimrud dated to the 780s BCE. The status of Jerusalem in the 10th century BCE is a major subject of debate. The oldest part of Jerusalem and its original urban core are the City of David , which does show evidence of significant Israelite residential activity around
6920-539: Is the most complete olive oil production center from ancient times to be discovered. The discovery indicates that olive oil production was highly developed in the Levant and that it was a major producer of olive oil for its residents as well as for other parts of the Ancient Near East , such as Egypt and especially Mesopotamia . The Tel Miqne excavations were conducted for 14 seasons between 1981 and 1996, sponsored by
7093-560: Is the only successful large-scale example of linguistic revival . It is the only Canaanite language, as well as one of only two Northwest Semitic languages, with the other being Aramaic , still spoken today. The earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew date back to the 10th century BCE. Nearly all of the Hebrew Bible is written in Biblical Hebrew , with much of its present form in the dialect that scholars believe flourished around
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7266-453: Is the primary official language of the State of Israel. As of 2013 , there are about 9 million Hebrew speakers worldwide, of whom 7 million speak it fluently. Currently, 90% of Israeli Jews are proficient in Hebrew, and 70% are highly proficient. Some 60% of Israeli Arabs are also proficient in Hebrew, and 30% report having a higher proficiency in Hebrew than in Arabic. In total, about 53% of
7439-613: Is to be found in the rediscovery of an old trade route and the entrance of a new player in the olive oil and wine market, the Ionians. The southern trunk route that connected Egypt by sea to the West lay in disuse for five hundred years, while the northern trunk route functioned as the only major route. Ships that made use of the northern route passed by Ashkelon on their journey to and from Egypt, which of course placed Philistia in an advantageous position viz-a-viz trade with Egypt. However, sometime during
7612-536: Is used to pronounce the Hebrew Bible; however, properly it should be distinguished from the historical Biblical Hebrew of the 6th century BCE, whose original pronunciation must be reconstructed. Tiberian Hebrew incorporates the scholarship of the Masoretes (from masoret meaning "tradition"), who added vowel points and grammar points to the Hebrew letters to preserve much earlier features of Hebrew, for use in chanting
7785-630: The Chayei Adam in Hebrew, as opposed to Yiddish , as a guide to Halacha for the " average 17-year-old" (Ibid. Introduction 1). Similarly, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan 's purpose in writing the Mishnah Berurah was to "produce a work that could be studied daily so that Jews might know the proper procedures to follow minute by minute". The work was nevertheless written in Talmudic Hebrew and Aramaic, since, "the ordinary Jew [of Eastern Europe] of
7958-640: The Albright Institute of Archaeological Research and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem , under the direction of Trude Dothan and Seymour Gitin . The primary research focus was an interdisciplinary investigation of the interactions between the Philistines, Israelites , Phoenicians , Assyrians , and Egyptians during the Late Bronze Age II, Iron Age I and II. The ceramic evidence indicates
8131-705: The Ancient Greek Ἑβραῖος ( hebraîos ) and Aramaic 'ibrāy , all ultimately derived from Biblical Hebrew Ivri ( עברי ), one of several names for the Israelite ( Jewish and Samaritan ) people ( Hebrews ). It is traditionally understood to be an adjective based on the name of Abraham 's ancestor, Eber , mentioned in Genesis 10:21 . The name is believed to be based on the Semitic root ʕ-b-r ( ע־ב־ר ), meaning "beyond", "other side", "across"; interpretations of
8304-534: The Canaanite group of languages . Canaanite languages are a branch of the Northwest Semitic family of languages. Hebrew was the spoken language in the Iron Age kingdoms of Israel and Judah during the period from about 1200 to 586 BCE. Epigraphic evidence from this period confirms the widely accepted view that the earlier layers of biblical literature reflect the language used in these kingdoms. Furthermore,
8477-625: The Canaanites . In Stratum XI (MB IIB) both the Upper City and Lower City was occupied. Later, the occupation would retreat to the Upper City. The Canaanite city had shrunk in the years before its main public building burned in the 13th century BCE, during the Bronze Age collapse , a period of general devastation associated with the Sea Peoples . It was re-established by Philistines at the beginning of
8650-557: The Gospel of Matthew . (See the Hebrew Gospel hypothesis or Language of Jesus for more details on Hebrew and Aramaic in the gospels.) The term "Mishnaic Hebrew" generally refers to the Hebrew dialects found in the Talmud , excepting quotations from the Hebrew Bible. The dialects organize into Mishnaic Hebrew (also called Tannaitic Hebrew, Early Rabbinic Hebrew, or Mishnaic Hebrew I), which
8823-580: The Iron Age . Centered in the highlands to the west of the Dead Sea , the kingdom's capital was Jerusalem . It was ruled by the Davidic line for four centuries. Jews are named after Judah, and primarily descend from people who lived in the region. The Hebrew Bible depicts the Kingdom of Judah as one of the two successor states of the United Kingdom of Israel , a term denoting the united monarchy under biblical kings Saul , David , and Solomon and covering
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#17328456778118996-415: The Judaean Desert descending into the Jordan Valley to the east, formed the kingdom's core. The northern border of Judah extended east-west from the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea , passing near Jericho to the area of Gezer . To the west, the border ran from Gezer across the Shephelah to Beersheba in the northern Negev. In the east, Judah's boundaries followed the Arabah to the western shore of
9169-444: The Latin alphabet of ancient Rome . The Gezer calendar is written without any vowels , and it does not use consonants to imply vowels even in the places in which later Hebrew spelling requires them. Numerous older tablets have been found in the region with similar scripts written in other Semitic languages, for example, Proto-Sinaitic . It is believed that the original shapes of the script go back to Egyptian hieroglyphs , though
9342-433: The Maccabean Revolt (167–160 BCE) and the emergence of the Hasmonean kingdom , the Great Jewish Revolt (66–73 CE), and the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–135 CE). The nationalist significance of Hebrew manifested in various ways throughout this period. Michael Owen Wise notes that "Beginning with the time of the Hasmonean revolt [...] Hebrew came to the fore in an expression akin to modern nationalism. A form of classical Hebrew
9515-422: The Second Aliyah , it replaced a score of languages spoken by Jews at that time. Those languages were Jewish dialects of local languages, including Judaeo-Spanish (also called "Judezmo" and "Ladino"), Yiddish , Judeo-Arabic and Bukhori (Tajiki), or local languages spoken in the Jewish diaspora such as Russian , Persian and Arabic . The major result of the literary work of the Hebrew intellectuals along
9688-399: The literary and liturgical language into everyday spoken language . However, his brand of Hebrew followed norms that had been replaced in Eastern Europe by different grammar and style, in the writings of people like Ahad Ha'am and others. His organizational efforts and involvement with the establishment of schools and the writing of textbooks pushed the vernacularization activity into
9861-507: The official language of the State of Israel . Estimates of worldwide usage include five million speakers in 1998, and over nine million people in 2013. After Israel, the United States has the largest Hebrew-speaking population, with approximately 220,000 fluent speakers (see Israeli Americans and Jewish Americans ). Modern Hebrew is the official language of the State of Israel, while pre-revival forms of Hebrew are used for prayer or study in Jewish and Samaritan communities around
10034-484: The ostraca found near Lachish , which describe events preceding the final capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian captivity of 586 BCE. In its widest sense, Biblical Hebrew refers to the spoken language of ancient Israel flourishing between c. 1000 BCE and c. 400 CE . It comprises several evolving and overlapping dialects. The phases of Classical Hebrew are often named after important literary works associated with them. Sometimes
10207-441: The 10th century BCE at the beginning of the Monarchic period , the traditional time of the reign of David and Solomon . Classified as Archaic Biblical Hebrew , the calendar presents a list of seasons and related agricultural activities. The Gezer calendar (named after the city in whose proximity it was found) is written in an old Semitic script, akin to the Phoenician one that, through the Greeks and Etruscans , later became
10380-433: The 10th century. Some unique administrative structures such as the Stepped Stone Structure and the Large Stone Structure , which originally formed one structure, contain material culture dated to Iron I. On account of the alleged lack of settlement activity in the 10th century BCE, Israel Finkelstein argues that Jerusalem was then a small country village in the Judean hills, not a national capital, and Ussishkin argues that
10553-490: The 11th/10th-9th centuries BCE which feature "papyrus lines" on their backs. It has been argued that these seals provide evidence that papyrus texts were written and used in Jerusalem already from the 10th (perhaps 11th) century BCE onwards. LMLK seals are archaic Hebrew stamp seals on the handles of large storage jars dating from the reign of King Hezekiah (circa 700 BCE) discovered mostly in and around Jerusalem . Several complete jars were found in situ buried under
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#173284567781110726-501: The 16th century BCE until its resettlement in Stratum VII at the beginning of the Iron I, ca. 1175 BCE. Another occupational gap of ca. 270 years followed the end of Iron I Stratum IV, ca. 975 BCE, in the lower city (Fields II, III, IV, V, X), until it was again resettled in Stratum I of the 7th century BCE. The cities at Ekron were well planned in both the Iron I and Iron II, with four distinct zones of occupation: fortifications, industrial, domestic, and elite. The final Iron II occupation in
10899-454: The 1980s in the USSR , Hebrew studies reappeared due to people struggling for permission to go to Israel ( refuseniks ). Several of the teachers were imprisoned, e.g. Yosef Begun , Ephraim Kholmyansky , Yevgeny Korostyshevsky and others responsible for a Hebrew learning network connecting many cities of the USSR. Standard Hebrew, as developed by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, was based on Mishnaic spelling and Sephardi Hebrew pronunciation. However,
11072-535: The 19th century was a lexical modernization of Hebrew. New words and expressions were adapted as neologisms from the large corpus of Hebrew writings since the Hebrew Bible, or borrowed from Arabic (mainly by Ben-Yehuda) and older Aramaic and Latin. Many new words were either borrowed from or coined after European languages, especially English, Russian, German, and French. Modern Hebrew became an official language in British-ruled Palestine in 1921 (along with English and Arabic), and then in 1948 became an official language of
11245-495: The 6th century BCE, during the time of the Babylonian captivity . For this reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as Lashon Hakodesh ( לְשׁוֹן הַקֹּדֶש , lit. ' the holy tongue ' or ' the tongue [of] holiness ' ) since ancient times. The language was not referred to by the name Hebrew in the Bible , but as Yehudit ( transl. ' Judean ' ) or Səpaṯ Kəna'an ( transl. "the language of Canaan " ). Mishnah Gittin 9:8 refers to
11418-401: The 7th century Neo-Assyrian Royal Annals. The language and form of writing of the Ekron inscription show a significant Phoenician influence, and the name Ikausu is understood as "the Achaean" or "the Greek" and Ptgyh has been interpreted as a Greek goddess. Other special finds come from the side-rooms of the sanctuary, which yielded a treasure trove of gold, silver, and bronze objects, including
11591-441: The 7th/6th centuries BCE was represented by a single architectural unit in Field III in the lower city. A presence in the Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic periods was attested in Fields IV Upper and V. The tel was apparently shaped by fortifications that encompassed both the upper and lower cities in the Middle Bronze Age. Monumental platforms, part of the fortification ramparts, were excavated in Fields III and X. MB II ceramic evidence
11764-579: The Aramaized Rabbinic Hebrew of the Talmud. Hebrew persevered through the ages as the main language for written purposes by all Jewish communities around the world for a large range of uses—not only liturgy, but also poetry, philosophy, science and medicine, commerce, daily correspondence and contracts. There have been many deviations from this generalization such as Bar Kokhba 's letters to his lieutenants, which were mostly in Aramaic, and Maimonides' writings, which were mostly in Arabic; but overall, Hebrew did not cease to be used for such purposes. For example,
11937-409: The Assyrian king Sennacherib . Josiah took advantage of the political vacuum that resulted from Assyria's decline and the emergence of Saite Egyptian rule over the area to enact his religious reforms. The Deuteronomistic history , which recounts the history of the people of Israel from Joshua to Josiah and expresses a worldview based on the legal principles found in the Book of Deuteronomy ,
12110-399: The Assyrians in the 7th century BCE. The city was later destroyed by the Neo-Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II in 604 BCE, and although it is mentioned, as "Accaron", as late as 1 Maccabees 10:89 (2nd century BCE), it was never resettled on a large scale. An olive oil production center dating from the seventh century BCE discovered at Ekron has over one hundred large olive oil presses, and
12283-424: The Bible tells) or independently. Some scholars suggested that Jerusalem, the kingdom's capital, did not emerge as a significant administrative center until the end of the 8th century BCE. Before then, the archaeological evidence suggests its population was too small to sustain a viable kingdom. Other scholars argue that recent discoveries and radiocarbon tests in the City of David seem to indicate that Jerusalem
12456-668: The British Mandate who at the turn of the 20th century were arriving in large numbers from diverse countries and speaking different languages. A Committee of the Hebrew Language was established. After the establishment of Israel, it became the Academy of the Hebrew Language . The results of Ben-Yehuda's lexicographical work were published in a dictionary ( The Complete Dictionary of Ancient and Modern Hebrew , Ben-Yehuda Dictionary ). The seeds of Ben-Yehuda's work fell on fertile ground, and by
12629-611: The Dead Sea. In prosperous periods, Judah's influence expanded, stretching southward to Beersheba and beyond, including Kadesh Barnea and likely Kuntillet Ajrud . Its influence possibly extended to the Gulf of Eilat in the south, as well as the Coastal Plain in the west in Mesad Hashavyahu fortress. The formation of the Kingdom of Judah is a subject of heavy debate among scholars, with
12802-468: The Great conquered Babylon, he allowed the Jewish people to return from captivity. In time, a local version of Aramaic came to be spoken in Israel alongside Hebrew. By the beginning of the Common Era , Aramaic was the primary colloquial language of Samarian , Babylonian and Galileean Jews, and western and intellectual Jews spoke Greek , but a form of so-called Rabbinic Hebrew continued to be used as
12975-581: The Great . Judean independence was reestablished after the Maccabean revolt , and the establishment of the Hasmonean Kingdom in the 2nd century BCE. Jews are named after Judah, and primarily descend from people who lived in the former Kingdom. The major theme of the Hebrew Bible's narrative is the loyalty of Judah, especially its kings, to Yahweh , which it states is the God of Israel . Accordingly, all of
13148-432: The Hebrew name of god , Yahweh, as three letters, Yod-Heh-Vav (YHV), according to the author and his team meant that the tablet is Hebrew and not Canaanite. However, practically all professional archeologists and epigraphers apart from Stripling's team claim that there is no text on this object. In July 2008, Israeli archaeologist Yossi Garfinkel discovered a ceramic shard at Khirbet Qeiyafa that he claimed may be
13321-588: The Hebrew Bible. The Masoretes inherited a biblical text whose letters were considered too sacred to be altered, so their markings were in the form of pointing in and around the letters. The Syriac alphabet , precursor to the Arabic alphabet , also developed vowel pointing systems around this time. The Aleppo Codex , a Hebrew Bible with the Masoretic pointing, was written in the 10th century, likely in Tiberias, and survives into
13494-500: The Iron Age, c. 12th century BCE. During the Iron Age , Ekron was a border city on the frontier contested between Philistia and the kingdom of Judah . Records of the Neo-Assyrian Empire also refer to Ekron, as Amqarrūna . The siege of Ekron in 712 BCE is depicted on one of Sargon II 's wall reliefs in his palace at Khorsabad , which names the city. Ekron revolted against Sennacherib and expelled Padi, his governor, who
13667-498: The Iron I in general at Ekron. Following the destruction of the Iron I Stratum IV city during the first quarter of the 10th century, the lower city was abandoned. Only the upper city was occupied in Strata III–II fortified with a mudbrick city wall and a 7 m wide mudbrick tower faced with Phoenician –type ashlar masonry in header-and-stretcher construction. Stratum III was continued in the monumental architecture of Stratum IIA–B, with
13840-454: The Israeli population speaks Hebrew as a native language, while most of the rest speak it fluently. In 2013 Hebrew was the native language of 49% of Israelis over the age of 20, with Russian , Arabic , French , English , Yiddish and Ladino being the native tongues of most of the rest. Some 26% of immigrants from the former Soviet Union and 12% of Arabs reported speaking Hebrew poorly or not at all. Steps have been taken to keep Hebrew
14013-637: The Late Iron Age. In: Eitam, D. and Heltzer, M. (eds.) Olive Oil in Antiquity, Israel and Neighboring Countries, from the Neolithic to the Early Arab Period. Studies VII, Sargon srl: 166-196. Hebrew Hebrew ( Hebrew alphabet : עִבְרִית , ʿĪvrīt , pronounced [ ʔivˈʁit ] or [ ʕivˈrit ] ; Samaritan script : ࠏࠨࠁࠬࠓࠪࠉࠕ ʿÎbrit )
14186-471: The Middle East was the closely related Aramaic language, then Greek , scholarly opinions on the exact dating of that shift have changed very much. In the first half of the 20th century, most scholars followed Abraham Geiger and Gustaf Dalman in thinking that Aramaic became a spoken language in the land of Israel as early as the beginning of Israel's Hellenistic period in the 4th century BCE, and that as
14359-610: The Negev, including Hurvat Uza , Tel Ira, Aroer, Tel Masos , and Tel Malhata. The main Judahite fortification in the Judaean Desert was found at Vered Yeriho ; it protected the road from Jericho to the Dead Sea . A few freestanding, elevated, isolated guard towers of the period were found around Jerusalem; towers of this type were discovered in the French Hill and south to Giloh . It
14532-592: The Neo-Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II , after which the site was only partially and briefly resettled in the first quarter of the 6th century. A well-preserved Assyrian courtyard-type building was the only remaining architectural evidence for Stratum IA. Thereafter, Ekron was abandoned until the Roman period. Ekron next appears in the documentary record in 147 BCE, during the Hellenistic period when
14705-558: The Shepehla, including the Judahite towns of Azekah, Socho, Goded, Lachish, and Maresha, could be seen from this fort. In the northern Negev, Tel Arad served as a key administrative and military stronghold. It protected the route from the Judaean Mountains to the Arabah and on to Moab and Edom . It underwent numerous renovations and extensions. There are several other Judahite forts in
14878-539: The Strata VI–V Philistine 2 (Bichrome) pottery with red and black decoration on white slip is a major part of the ceramic assemblage. The material culture of Stratum IV is characterized by Philistine 3 (debased) pottery and the influence of a ceramic tradition of predominantly red-slipped and burnished ware. In the upper city features in Stratum VII, include a mudbrick city wall, megaron-type buildings, hearths,
15051-493: The Summit by a severely-burnt storeroom complex that yielded jars containing carbonized grains, lentils, and figs. Stratum VII is characterized by a new material culture with Aegean and Cypriot affinities introduced by the Philistines, one of the Sea Peoples featuring the locally-made Philistine 1 (previously designated Mycenaean IIIC:1) pottery. Such pottery is known as Cypriot Bichrome ware , and Philistine Bichrome ware . In
15224-654: The Talmud, the Gemara , generally comments on the Mishnah and Baraitot in two forms of Aramaic. Nevertheless, Hebrew survived as a liturgical and literary language in the form of later Amoraic Hebrew, which occasionally appears in the text of the Gemara, particularly in the Jerusalem Talmud and the classical aggadah midrashes . Hebrew was always regarded as the language of Israel's religion, history and national pride, and after it faded as
15397-455: The Talmud, various regional literary dialects of Medieval Hebrew evolved. The most important is Tiberian Hebrew or Masoretic Hebrew, a local dialect of Tiberias in Galilee that became the standard for vocalizing the Hebrew Bible and thus still influences all other regional dialects of Hebrew. This Tiberian Hebrew from the 7th to 10th century CE is sometimes called "Biblical Hebrew" because it
15570-480: The ability to speak the language and attempted to promote its use. According to the Jerusalem Talmud , Megillah 1:9: "Rebbi Jonathan from Bet Guvrrin said, four languages are appropriate that the world should use them, and they are these: The Foreign Language (Greek) for song, Latin for war, Syriac for elegies, Hebrew for speech. Some are saying, also Assyrian (Hebrew script) for writing." The later section of
15743-470: The above phases of spoken Classical Hebrew are simplified into "Biblical Hebrew" (including several dialects from the 10th century BCE to 2nd century BCE and extant in certain Dead Sea Scrolls) and "Mishnaic Hebrew" (including several dialects from the 3rd century BCE to the 3rd century CE and extant in certain other Dead Sea Scrolls). However, today most Hebrew linguists classify Dead Sea Scroll Hebrew as
15916-483: The addition of a series of rooms, probably shops or market stalls, that opened onto the re-paved street, to which a stone-lined central drainage system was added in Stratum IIB. Both the lower city and the upper city were reoccupied. In the lower city, new fortifications included a city wall and a three-entryway gate protected by a gatehouse, similar to those excavated at Timnah (Tel Batash), Gezer, Lachish, and Ashdod. To
16089-557: The almost certain site of the Philistine city of Gath , on the grounds of Kibbutz Revadim on the eastern edge of the Israeli coastal plain . In the Hebrew Bible , Ekron is mentioned initially in Joshua 13:2–3 : Joshua 13:13 counts it the border city of the Philistines and seat of one of the five Philistine city lords, and Joshua 15:11 mentions Ekron's satellite towns and villages. The city
16262-552: The average Jew, and that the language had evolved since Biblical times as spoken languages do. Recent scholarship recognizes that reports of Jews speaking in Aramaic indicate a multilingual society, not necessarily the primary language spoken. Alongside Aramaic, Hebrew co-existed within Israel as a spoken language. Most scholars now date the demise of Hebrew as a spoken language to the end of the Roman period , or about 200 CE. It continued on as
16435-402: The back. The buildings of the elite zone also produced 16 short inscriptions including kdš l’šrt ("dedicated to [the goddess] Asherat"), lmqm ("for the shrine"), and the letter tet with three horizontal lines below it (probably indicating 30 units of produce set aside for tithing), and silver hoards. The entire Iron II city was destroyed in a violent conflagration during the 604 BCE campaign of
16608-535: The beginning of the 20th century, Hebrew was well on its way to becoming the main language of the Jewish population of both Ottoman and British Palestine. At the time, members of the Old Yishuv and a very few Hasidic sects, most notably those under the auspices of Satmar , refused to speak Hebrew and spoke only Yiddish. In the Soviet Union, the use of Hebrew, along with other Jewish cultural and religious activities,
16781-467: The border. Asa's successor, Jehoshaphat , changed the policy towards Israel and instead pursued alliances and cooperation with it. The alliance with Ahab was based on marriage. The alliance led to disaster for the kingdom with the Battle of Ramoth-Gilead according to 1 Kings 22 . He then allied with Ahaziah of Israel to carry on maritime commerce with Ophir . However, the fleet equipped at Ezion-Geber
16954-535: The burial containing a 19th Dynasty seal and scarab and in the 14th century BCE scarab bearing the name of the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep III and dedicated to the "Lady of the Sycamore Tree," usually associated with the foundations of Egyptian shrines, an heirloom found in a later Iron I phase. The last Canaanite city of Stratum VIII was destroyed in a violent conflagration, dramatically illustrated on
17127-465: The city was entirely uninhabited. Amihai Mazar contends that if the Iron I / Iron II A dating of administrative structures in the City of David are correct, which he believes to be the case, "Jerusalem was a rather small town with a mighty citadel, which could have been a center of a substantial regional polity." William G. Dever argues that Jerusalem was a small and fortified city, probably inhabited only by
17300-451: The city was never taken. During the long reign of Manasseh (c. 687/686 – 643/642 BCE), Judah was a vassal of Assyrian rulers: Sennacherib and his successors, Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal after 669 BCE. Manasseh is listed as being required to provide materials for Esarhaddon 's building projects and as one of a number of vassals who assisted Ashurbanipal 's campaign against Egypt. When Josiah became king of Judah in c. 641/640 BCE,
17473-596: The composition of 1 Maccabees in archaizing Hebrew, Hasmonean coinage under John Hyrcanus (134-104 BCE), and coins from both the Great Revolt and Bar Kokhba Revolt featuring exclusively Hebrew and Palaeo-Hebrew script inscriptions. This deliberate use of Hebrew and Paleo-Hebrew script in official contexts, despite limited literacy, served as a symbol of Jewish nationalism and political independence. The Christian New Testament contains some Semitic place names and quotes. The language of such Semitic glosses (and in general
17646-462: The content of Hebrew inscriptions suggests that the written texts closely mirror the spoken language of that time. Scholars debate the degree to which Hebrew was a spoken vernacular in ancient times following the Babylonian exile when the predominant international language in the region was Old Aramaic . Hebrew was extinct as a colloquial language by late antiquity , but it continued to be used as
17819-465: The daughter of Ahab. Despite the alliance with the stronger northern kingdom, Jehoram's rule of Judah was shaky. Edom revolted, and he was forced to acknowledge its independence. A raid by Philistines and Arabs or perhaps South Arabians looted the king's house and carried off all of his family except for his youngest son, Ahaziah of Judah . After Hezekiah became the sole ruler in c. 715 BCE, he formed alliances with Ashkelon and Egypt and made
17992-610: The death of Pharaoh Psamtik I only a year earlier (610 BCE). Presumably in an attempt to help the Babylonians, Josiah attempted to block the advance at Megiddo , where a fierce battle was fought and Josiah was killed. Necho then joined forces with the Assyrian Ashur-uballit II , and they crossed the Euphrates and lay siege to Harran . The combined forces failed to hold the city after capturing it temporarily, and Necho retreated back to northern Syria . The event also marked
18165-563: The dialects of Classical Hebrew that functioned as a living language in the land of Israel. A transitional form of the language occurs in the other works of Tannaitic literature dating from the century beginning with the completion of the Mishnah. These include the halachic Midrashim ( Sifra , Sifre , Mekhilta etc.) and the expanded collection of Mishnah-related material known as the Tosefta . The Talmud contains excerpts from these works, as well as further Tannaitic material not attested elsewhere;
18338-401: The discovery of several Judahite fortresses and towers. The fortifications had a large central courtyard surrounded by casemate walls with chambers on the outside wall, and they were square or rectangular in shape. Khirbet Abu et-Twein , which is situated on the Judaean Mountains between modern day Bat Ayin and Jab'a , is one of the most noteworthy fortresses from the period. Great views of
18511-464: The disintegration of the Assyrian Empire. On his return march to Egypt in 608 BCE, Necho found that Jehoahaz had been selected to succeed his father, Josiah. Necho deposed Jehoahaz, who had been king for only three months, and replaced him with his older brother, Jehoiakim . Necho imposed on Judah a levy of a hundred talents of silver (about 3 3 ⁄ 4 tons or about 3.4 metric tons) and
18684-423: The earliest Hebrew writing yet discovered, dating from around 3,000 years ago. Hebrew University archaeologist Amihai Mazar said that the inscription was "proto-Canaanite" but cautioned that "[t]he differentiation between the scripts, and between the languages themselves in that period, remains unclear", and suggested that calling the text Hebrew might be going too far. The Gezer calendar also dates back to
18857-513: The earliest speakers of Modern Hebrew had Yiddish as their native language and often introduced calques from Yiddish and phono-semantic matchings of international words. Despite using Sephardic Hebrew pronunciation as its primary basis, modern Israeli Hebrew has adapted to Ashkenazi Hebrew phonology in some respects, mainly the following: The vocabulary of Israeli Hebrew is much larger than that of earlier periods. According to Ghil'ad Zuckermann : The number of attested Biblical Hebrew words
19030-503: The early 6th century BCE, the Neo-Babylonian Empire conquered the ancient Kingdom of Judah , destroying much of Jerusalem and exiling its population far to the east in Babylon . During the Babylonian captivity , many Israelites learned Aramaic, the closely related Semitic language of their captors. Thus, for a significant period, the Jewish elite became influenced by Aramaic. After Cyrus
19203-483: The east of the gate, an 80 m long row of stables or storehouses associated with a large public building was built between the city wall and an outer screening wall. The outstanding feature was the olive oil industrial zone, laid out in a belt extending throughout the lower city along the inner face of the city wall. Special finds include a cache of seven well-preserved large iron agricultural tools and nine four-horned limestone altars. The 115 oil presses found at Ekron have
19376-590: The elite zone of the lower city, in Stratum I, the Ekron Royal Dedicatory Inscription , one of the most important finds of the 20th century in Israel, was found in the holy of holies, or cella, a room in the sanctuary of the Temple Complex 650. The inscription mentions Ekron, thus confirming the identification of the site, as well as five of its rulers, including Ikausu (Achish), son of Padi, who built
19549-498: The existence of the United Monarchy, but the datings and identifications are not universally accepted. The Tel Dan stele shows a historical " House of David " ruled a kingdom south of the lands of Samaria in the 9th century BCE, and attestations of several Judean kings from the 8th century BCE have been discovered, but they do little to indicate how developed the state actually was. The Nimrud Tablet K.3751 , dated c. 733 BCE,
19722-434: The fall of Judah. By 586 BCE, much of Judah had been devastated, and the former kingdom had suffered a steep decline of both its economy and its population. Jerusalem apparently remained uninhabited for much of the 6th century BCE, and the centre of gravity shifted to Benjamin, the relatively unscathed northern section of the kingdom, where the town of Mizpah became the capital of the new Babylonian province of Yehud for
19895-615: The famous attack of Sennacherib on Hezekiah and Jerusalem, in which Sennacherib compelled Hezekiah to restore Padi, who was reinstated as governor at Ekron. The Philistine city of Ekron is specifically named in the Aramaic stele ( Oriental Institute Prism ) detailing Sennacherib's exploits in the land of Judah: The cities of his (i.e. Hezekiah's), which I had despoiled, I cut off from his land and to Mitinti , king of Ashdod, [and to] Padi, king of Ekron, [and to] Silli-bel, king of Gaza, I gave. And (thus) I diminished his land. Ashdod and Ekron survived to become powerful city-states dominated by
20068-609: The first 35 years of his reign, and he revamped and reinforced the fortresses initially built by his grandfather, Rehoboam. II Chronicles states that at the Battle of Zephath , the Egyptian-backed chieftain Zerah the Ethiopian and his million men and 300 chariots were defeated by Asa's 580,000 men in the Valley of Zephath near Maresha . The Bible does not state whether Zerah was a pharaoh or
20241-414: The first 60 years, the kings of Judah tried to re-establish their authority over Israel, and there was perpetual war between them. Israel and Judah warred throughout Rehoboam 's 17-year reign. Rehoboam built elaborate defenses and strongholds, along with fortified cities. In the fifth year of Rehoboam's reign, Shishak , who is identified as the pharaoh Shoshenq I of the 22nd Dynasty of Egypt , brought
20414-703: The first Middle East printing press, in Safed (modern Israel), produced a small number of books in Hebrew in 1577, which were then sold to the nearby Jewish world. This meant not only that well-educated Jews in all parts of the world could correspond in a mutually intelligible language, and that books and legal documents published or written in any part of the world could be read by Jews in all other parts, but that an educated Jew could travel and converse with Jews in distant places, just as priests and other educated Christians could converse in Latin. For example, Rabbi Avraham Danzig wrote
20587-468: The fortified cities of the Kingdom of Judah during the 10th century BCE were located at Khirbet Qeiyafa , Tell en-Nasbeh , Khirbet el-Dawwara (by Halhul ), Tel Beit Shemesh , and Tell Lachish. Tel Be'er Sheva , believed to be the site of the ancient biblical town of Be'er-sheba , was the main Judahite center in the Negev in the 9th and 8th centuries BCE. The Judaean Mountains and Shephelah have seen
20760-406: The generic term for these passages is Baraitot . The dialect of all these works is very similar to Mishnaic Hebrew. About a century after the publication of the Mishnah, Mishnaic Hebrew fell into disuse as a spoken language. By the third century CE, sages could no longer identify the Hebrew names of many plants mentioned in the Mishnah. Only a few sages, primarily in the southern regions, retained
20933-402: The international situation was in flux. To the east, the Neo-Assyrian Empire was beginning to disintegrate, the Neo-Babylonian Empire had not yet risen to replace it and Egypt to the west was still recovering from Assyrian rule. In the power vacuum, Judah could govern itself for the time being without foreign intervention. However, in the spring of 609 BCE, Pharaoh Necho II personally led
21106-459: The kingdom existed in some form by the middle of the 9th century BCE, but it does not indicate the extent of its power. Recent excavations at Khirbet Qeiyafa , however, support the existence of a centrally organized and urbanized kingdom by the 10th century BCE, according to the excavators. In the 7th century BCE, the kingdom's population increased greatly, prospering under Neo-Assyrian vassalage , despite Hezekiah's revolt against
21279-479: The kingdom the anger of Yahweh. King Josiah (640–609 BCE) returned to the worship of Yahweh alone, but his efforts were too late, and Israel's unfaithfulness caused God to permit the kingdom's destruction by the Neo-Babylonian Empire in the Siege of Jerusalem (587/586 BCE) . It is now widely agreed among academic scholars that the Books of Kings are not an accurate portrayal of religious attitudes in Judah or Israel of
21452-478: The kings of Israel (except to some extent Jehu ) and many of the kings of Judah were "bad" in terms of the biblical narrative by failing to enforce monotheism . Of the "good" kings, Hezekiah (727–698 BCE) is noted for his efforts at stamping out idolatry (in his case, the worship of Baal and Asherah , among other traditional Near Eastern divinities), but his successors, Manasseh of Judah (698–642 BCE) and Amon (642–640 BCE), revived idolatry, which drew down on
21625-649: The land and dispersed throughout the Babylonian Empire . Among them was Ezekiel . Nebuchadnezzar appointed Zedekiah , Jehoiakim's brother, the king of the reduced kingdom, who was made a tributary of Babylon. Despite the strong remonstrances of Jeremiah and others, Zedekiah revolted against Nebuchadnezzar by ceasing to pay tribute to him and entered an alliance with Pharaoh Hophra . In 589 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar II returned to Judah and again besieged Jerusalem . Many Jews fled to surrounding Moab , Ammon , Edom and other countries to seek refuge. The city fell after
21798-456: The language as Ivrit , meaning Hebrew; however, Mishnah Megillah refers to the language as Ashurit , meaning Assyrian , which is derived from the name of the alphabet used , in contrast to Ivrit , meaning the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet . Hebrew ceased to be a regular spoken language sometime between 200 and 400 CE, as it declined in the aftermath of the unsuccessful Bar Kokhba revolt , which
21971-458: The language spoken by Jews in scenes from the New Testament) is often referred to as "Hebrew" in the text, although this term is often re-interpreted as referring to Aramaic instead and is rendered accordingly in recent translations. Nonetheless, these glosses can be interpreted as Hebrew as well. It has been argued that Hebrew, rather than Aramaic or Koine Greek, lay behind the composition of
22144-464: The language. The revival of the Hebrew language as a mother tongue was initiated in the late 19th century by the efforts of Ben-Yehuda. He joined the Jewish national movement and in 1881 immigrated to Palestine , then a part of the Ottoman Empire . Motivated by the surrounding ideals of renovation and rejection of the diaspora " shtetl " lifestyle, Ben-Yehuda set out to develop tools for making
22317-426: The latter part of the 7th century the southern route was rediscovered and the Ionians re-established direct trade connections with Egypt. They soon started to undercut the Philistine oil and wine trade. Lower trade volumes meant lower profit margins and so we see some olive oil presses being decommissioned in the latter part of the 7th century. Ashkelon and Ekron’s full productive capacities were no longer needed. In
22490-605: The leadership of Yohanan ben Kareah . They ignored the urging of the prophet Jeremiah against the move. In Egypt, the refugees settled in Migdol , Tahpanhes , Noph and Pathros , and possibly Elephantine , and Jeremiah went with them as a moral guardian. The numbers that were deported to Babylon and that made their way to Egypt and the remnant that remained in the land and in surrounding countries are subject to academic debate. The Book of Jeremiah reports that 4,600 were exiled to Babylonia . The two Books of Kings suggest that it
22663-469: The local elite enjoyed wine flavored with vanilla during the 7–6th centuries BCE. Until very recently, vanilla was not at all known to be available to the Old World. Archeologists suggested that this discovery might be related to an international trade route that crossed the Negev during that period, probably under Assyrian and later, Third Intermediate Period Egyptian rule. According to Yosef Garfinkel ,
22836-572: The military situation was precarious. Asa took gold and silver from the Temple and sent them to Ben-Hadad I , the king of Aram-Damascus , in exchange for the Damascene king cancelling his peace treaty with Baasha. Ben-Hadad attacked Ijon, Dan and many important cities of the tribe of Naphtali , and Baasha was forced to withdraw from Ramah. Asa tore down the unfinished fortress and used its raw materials to fortify Geba and Mizpah in Benjamin on his side of
23009-602: The modern interpretation), however he also mentioned that some equated the city with Straton's Tower at Caesarea Maritima . This may be a reference to Rabbi Abbahu 's identification of Ekron with Caesarea in Megillah . Robinson first identified the Arab village of Aqir as the site of Ekron in 1838, and this was accepted until it was contested by Macalister in 1913, who suggested Khirbet Dikerin , and Albright in 1922, who suggested Qatra . The identification of Ekron as Tel Miqneh
23182-720: The newly declared State of Israel . Hebrew is the most widely spoken language in Israel today. In the Modern Period, from the 19th century onward, the literary Hebrew tradition revived as the spoken language of modern Israel, called variously Israeli Hebrew , Modern Israeli Hebrew , Modern Hebrew , New Hebrew , Israeli Standard Hebrew , Standard Hebrew and so on. Israeli Hebrew exhibits some features of Sephardic Hebrew from its local Jerusalemite tradition but adapts it with numerous neologisms, borrowed terms (often technical) from European languages and adopted terms (often colloquial) from Arabic. The literary and narrative use of Hebrew
23355-525: The phonetic values are instead inspired by the acrophonic principle. The common ancestor of Hebrew and Phoenician is called Canaanite , and was the first to use a Semitic alphabet distinct from that of Egyptian. One ancient document is the famous Moabite Stone , written in the Moabite dialect; the Siloam inscription , found near Jerusalem , is an early example of Hebrew. Less ancient samples of Archaic Hebrew include
23528-403: The plan of the building complex was reused and its cultic function continued, as attested by the finds, including a cache of ivory, faience, and stone objects, among them decorated earplugs and a ring depicting the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet. The destruction and abandonment of the Stratum IV lower city during the first quarter of the 10th century marked the end of both the early Philistine city and of
23701-582: The present day. It is perhaps the most important Hebrew manuscript in existence. During the Golden age of Jewish culture in Spain , important work was done by grammarians in explaining the grammar and vocabulary of Biblical Hebrew; much of this was based on the work of the grammarians of Classical Arabic . Important Hebrew grammarians were Judah ben David Hayyuj , Jonah ibn Janah , Abraham ibn Ezra and later (in Provence ), David Kimhi . A great deal of poetry
23874-503: The primary language of use, and to prevent large-scale incorporation of English words into the Hebrew vocabulary. The Academy of the Hebrew Language of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem currently invents about 2,000 new Hebrew words each year for modern words by finding an original Hebrew word that captures the meaning, as an alternative to incorporating more English words into Hebrew vocabulary. The Haifa municipality has banned officials from using English words in official documents, and
24047-514: The province was Mizpah in Benjamin , not Jerusalem. On hearing of the appointment, many of the Judeans who had taken refuge in surrounding countries were persuaded to return to Judah. However, Gedaliah was soon assassinated by a member of the royal house, and the Chaldean soldiers killed. The population that was left in the land and those who had returned fled to Egypt for fear a Babylonian reprisal, under
24220-611: The region was under Seleucid rule . At that point Alexander Balas , the ruler of the Seleucid Empire , gave Ekron to Jonathan Apphus . Ekron is also mentioned in Eusebius ' Onomasticon , a 4th-century gazetteer , in which it was described as a village. There is but fragmentary evidence from the Roman, Byzantine and Islamic periods found only in Fields IV Upper and V. 21. Eitam, D. 1996. The Olive Oil Industry at Tel Miqne–Ekron in
24393-497: The remnant of the Jewish population in a part of the former kingdom. That was standard Babylonian practice. When the Philistine city of Ashkelon was conquered in 604 BCE, the political, religious and economic elite (but not the bulk of the population) was banished and the administrative centre shifted to a new location. Gedaliah was appointed governor of the Yehud province, supported by a Babylonian guard. The administrative centre of
24566-657: The rest of the Middle East; and eventually Greek functioned as another international language with the eastern areas of the Roman Empire. William Schniedewind argues that after waning in the Persian period, the religious importance of Hebrew grew in the Hellenistic and Roman periods, and cites epigraphical evidence that Hebrew survived as a vernacular language – though both its grammar and its writing system had been substantially influenced by Aramaic. According to another summary, Greek
24739-413: The royal court, priests and clerks. A collection of military orders found in the ruins of a military fortress in the Negev dating to the period of the Kingdom of Judah indicates widespread literacy, based on the inscriptions, the ability to read and write extended throughout the chain of command from commanders to petty officers. According to Professor Eliezer Piasetsky, who participated in analyzing
24912-616: The rule of David and Solomon . After the death of Solomon circa 930 BCE, the Israelites gathered in Shechem for the coronation of Solomon's son and successor, Rehoboam . Before the coronation took place, the northern tribes, led by Jeroboam , asked the new king to reduce the heavy taxes and labor requirements that his father Solomon had imposed. Rehoboam rejected their petition: “I will add to your yoke: my father hath chastised you with whips, I will chastise you with scorpions" ( 1 Kings 12:11 ). As
25085-503: The sanctuary. The sanctuary reflects a Phoenician design, paralleled in Astarte Temple 1 at Kition on Cyprus. The Ekron Royal Dedicatory Inscription incised on a rectangular-shaped limestone block has five-lines and mentions Ekron, thus confirming the identification of the site, as well as five of its rulers, including Ikausu (Achish), son of Padi, who built the sanctuary to Ptgyh, his lady. Padi and Ikausu are known as kings of Ekron from
25258-436: The siege and was succeeded by his son Jeconiah at an age of either eight or eighteen. The city fell about three months later, on 2 Adar (March 16) 597 BCE. Nebuchadnezzar pillaged both Jerusalem and the Temple and carted all of his spoils to Babylon. Jeconiah and his court and other prominent citizens and craftsmen, along with a sizable portion of the Jewish population of Judah, numbering about 10,000 were deported from
25431-426: The southern villages of Judea." In other words, "in terms of dialect geography, at the time of the tannaim Palestine could be divided into the Aramaic-speaking regions of Galilee and Samaria and a smaller area, Judaea, in which Rabbinic Hebrew was used among the descendants of returning exiles." In addition, it has been surmised that Koine Greek was the primary vehicle of communication in coastal cities and among
25604-413: The spoken language of the Russian Jews, should be treated as their only national language, while Hebrew was to be treated as a foreign language. Hebrew books and periodicals ceased to be published and were seized from the libraries, although liturgical texts were still published until the 1930s. Despite numerous protests, a policy of suppression of the teaching of Hebrew operated from the 1930s on. Later in
25777-414: The term "Hebrew" generally render its meaning as roughly "from the other side [of the river/desert]"—i.e., an exonym for the inhabitants of the land of Israel and Judah , perhaps from the perspective of Mesopotamia , Phoenicia or Transjordan (with the river referred to being perhaps the Euphrates , Jordan or Litani ; or maybe the northern Arabian Desert between Babylonia and Canaan ). Compare
25950-502: The territory of Judah and Israel . However, during the 1980s, some biblical scholars began to argue that the archaeological evidence for an extensive kingdom before the late 8th century BCE is too weak, and that the methodology used to obtain the evidence is flawed. In the 10th and early 9th centuries BCE, the territory of Judah appears to have been sparsely populated, limited to small rural settlements, most of them unfortified. The Tel Dan Stele , discovered in 1993, shows that
26123-437: The texts, "Literacy existed at all levels of the administrative, military and priestly systems of Judah. Reading and writing were not limited to a tiny elite." That indicates the presence of a substantial educational infrastructure in Judah at the time. Archaeological research near the Gihon Spring in the City of David has revealed many anepigraphical bullae (that is, bullae bearing only iconography, no inscriptions) dated to
26296-580: The upper class of Jerusalem , while Aramaic was prevalent in the lower class of Jerusalem, but not in the surrounding countryside. After the suppression of the Bar Kokhba revolt in the 2nd century CE, Judaeans were forced to disperse. Many relocated to Galilee, so most remaining native speakers of Hebrew at that last stage would have been found in the north. Many scholars have pointed out that Hebrew continued to be used alongside Aramaic during Second Temple times, not only for religious purposes but also for nationalistic reasons, especially during revolts such as
26469-455: The word Habiru or cognate Assyrian ebru , of identical meaning. One of the earliest references to the language's name as " Ivrit " is found in the prologue to the Book of Sirach , from the 2nd century BCE. The Hebrew Bible does not use the term "Hebrew" in reference to the language of the Hebrew people; its later historiography, in the Book of Kings , refers to it as יְהוּדִית Yehudit " Judahite (language)". Hebrew belongs to
26642-424: The world today; the latter group utilizes the Samaritan dialect as their liturgical tongue. As a non- first language , it is studied mostly by non-Israeli Jews and students in Israel, by archaeologists and linguists specializing in the Middle East and its civilizations , and by theologians in Christian seminaries . The modern English word "Hebrew" is derived from Old French Ebrau , via Latin from
26815-409: Was 10,000 and later 8,000. In 539 BCE, the Achaemenid Empire conquered Babylonia and allowed the exiles to return to Yehud Medinata and to rebuild the Temple, which was completed in the sixth year of Darius (515 BCE) under Zerubbabel , the grandson of the second to last king of Judah, Jeconiah . Yehud Medinata was a peaceful part of the Achaemenid Empire until its fall in c. 333 BCE to Alexander
26988-421: Was a spoken language , and Amoraic Hebrew (also called Late Rabbinic Hebrew or Mishnaic Hebrew II), which was a literary language . The earlier section of the Talmud is the Mishnah that was published around 200 CE, although many of the stories take place much earlier, and were written in the earlier Mishnaic dialect. The dialect is also found in certain Dead Sea Scrolls. Mishnaic Hebrew is considered to be one of
27161-401: Was a noted sanctuary of Baal at Ekron. The Baal who was worshipped was called Baal Zebub, which some scholars connect with Beelzebub , known from 2 Kings 1:2 : The prophet Elijah repeatedly condemned Ahaziah for turning to Baal-zebub for assurance: Ekron's destruction is prophesied in Zephaniah 2:4 : Jerome wrote that Ekron was to the east of Azotus and Iamnia (consistent with
27334-399: Was already a significant city by the 10th century BCE. Much of the debate revolves around whether the archaeological discoveries conventionally dated to the 10th century should instead be dated to the 9th century, as proposed by Israel Finkelstein . Recent archaeological discoveries by Eilat Mazar in Jerusalem and Yosef Garfinkel in Khirbet Qeiyafa have been interpreted as supporting
27507-406: Was carried out against the Roman Empire by the Jews of Judaea . Aramaic and, to a lesser extent, Greek were already in use as international languages, especially among societal elites and immigrants. Hebrew survived into the medieval period as the language of Jewish liturgy , rabbinic literature , intra-Jewish commerce, and Jewish poetic literature . The first dated book printed in Hebrew
27680-425: Was found throughout the tel, as were fragmentary architectural remains and three infant jar burials excavated in Field IV Lower. The unfortified Strata X–VIII settlement was found only in the upper city in Field I on the Northeast Acropolis. It yielded Cypriot and Mycenaean imported pottery and Anatolian Grey burnished ware, attesting to international maritime trade. Egyptian influences are also evident, inter alia, in
27853-609: Was immediately wrecked. A new fleet was fitted out without the cooperation of the king of Israel. Although it was successful, the trade was not prosecuted. He joined Jehoram of Israel in a war against the Moabites , who were under tribute to Israel. This war was successful, and the Moabites were subdued. However, on seeing Mesha 's act of offering his son in a human sacrifice on the walls of Kir of Moab (now al-Karak ) filled Jehoshaphat with horror, he withdrew and returned to his land. Jehoshaphat 's successor, Jehoram of Judah , formed an alliance with Israel by marrying Athaliah ,
28026-409: Was not until 400 years later, following the Maccabean Revolt , that Judeans fully regained independence. The Kingdom of Judah was located in the Judean Mountains , stretching from Jerusalem to Hebron and into the Negev Desert . The central ridge, ranging from forested and shrubland-covered mountains gently sloping towards the hills of the Shephelah in the west, to the dry and arid landscapes of
28199-438: Was now a more significant written language than Aramaic within Judaea." This nationalist aspect was further emphasized during periods of conflict, as Hannah Cotton observing in her analysis of legal documents during the Jewish revolts against Rome that "Hebrew became the symbol of Jewish nationalism, of the independent Jewish State." The nationalist use of Hebrew is evidenced in several historical documents and artefacts, including
28372-406: Was published by Abraham Garton in Reggio ( Calabria , Italy) in 1475. With the rise of Zionism in the 19th century, the Hebrew language experienced a full-scale revival as a spoken and literary language. The creation of a modern version of the ancient language was led by Eliezer Ben-Yehuda . Modern Hebrew ( Ivrit ) became the main language of the Yishuv in Palestine , and subsequently
28545-416: Was reassigned afterwards to the tribe of Dan ( Joshua 19:43 ), but came again into the full possession of the Philistines. It was the last place to which the Philistines carried the Ark of the Covenant before they sent it back to Israel ( 1 Samuel 5:10 and 1 Samuel 6:1–8 ), and the city lords returned here once they had seen that the Ark reached the Israelites in Beth Shemesh ( 1 Samuel 6:16 ). There
28718-447: Was repulsed with heavy losses. The failure led to numerous rebellions among the states of the Levant that owed allegiance to Babylon. Jehoiakim also stopped paying tribute to Nebuchadnezzar and took a pro-Egyptian position. Nebuchadnezzar soon dealt with the rebellions. According to the Babylonian Chronicles , after invading "the land of Hatti (Syria/Palestine)" in 599 BCE, he laid siege to Jerusalem . Jehoiakim died in 598 BCE during
28891-470: Was revived beginning with the Haskalah movement. The first secular periodical in Hebrew, Ha-Me'assef (The Gatherer), was published by maskilim in Königsberg (today's Kaliningrad ) from 1783 onwards. In the mid-19th century, publications of several Eastern European Hebrew-language newspapers (e.g. Hamagid , founded in Ełk in 1856) multiplied. Prominent poets were Hayim Nahman Bialik and Shaul Tchernichovsky ; there were also novels written in
29064-409: Was sent to Hezekiah , King of Judah, for safe-keeping in Jerusalem. Sennacherib marched against Ekron and the Ekronites called upon the aid of the king of Mutsri from northwest Arabia. Sennacherib turned aside to defeat this army, which he did at Eltekeh , and then returned and took the city by storm, put to death the leaders of the revolt and carried their adherents into captivity. This campaign led to
29237-401: Was suggested by Naveh and Kallai in 1957–1958, a theory now widely accepted in light of the Ekron Royal Dedicatory Inscription found during the 1996 excavations. The site of Tel Miqne was lightly occupied beginning in the Chalcolithic period and up to the Early Bronze Age . After a 400-year gap when only the upper tel was occupied, the city underwent a major expansion c. 1600 BCE, under
29410-479: Was suppressed. Soviet authorities considered the use of Hebrew "reactionary" since it was associated with Zionism, and the teaching of Hebrew at primary and secondary schools was officially banned by the People's Commissariat for Education as early as 1919, as part of an overall agenda aiming to secularize education (the language itself did not cease to be studied at universities for historical and linguistic purposes ). The official ordinance stated that Yiddish, being
29583-437: Was the language of government, Hebrew the language of prayer, study and religious texts, and Aramaic was the language of legal contracts and trade. There was also a geographic pattern: according to Bernard Spolsky , by the beginning of the Common Era, " Judeo-Aramaic was mainly used in Galilee in the north, Greek was concentrated in the former colonies and around governmental centers, and Hebrew monolingualism continued mainly in
29756-408: Was to a certain extent a pidgin . Near the end of that century the Jewish activist Eliezer Ben-Yehuda , owing to the ideology of the national revival ( שיבת ציון , Shivat Tziyon , later Zionism ), began reviving Hebrew as a modern spoken language. Eventually, as a result of the local movement he created, but more significantly as a result of the new groups of immigrants known under the name of
29929-570: Was written, by poets such as Dunash ben Labrat , Solomon ibn Gabirol , Judah ha-Levi , Moses ibn Ezra and Abraham ibn Ezra , in a "purified" Hebrew based on the work of these grammarians, and in Arabic quantitative or strophic meters. This literary Hebrew was later used by Italian Jewish poets. The need to express scientific and philosophical concepts from Classical Greek and Medieval Arabic motivated Medieval Hebrew to borrow terminology and grammar from these other languages, or to coin equivalent terms from existing Hebrew roots, giving rise to
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