Jerubbaal

I hope this tiny text is real. Seriously.

Jerubbaal may be the most interesting figure in the Book of Judges, a book already filled with larger-than-lifes. Unlike Joshua (in that book's present, badly corrupt form) Jerubbaal's exploits seem real - at least to me. Literally a Man Who Would Be King, he even named his heir-apparent "Abî Malek". You barely even need be a Semite to know what that means, on mine own authority as a barely-Semite.

Judges associates Jerubbaal with Gideon. This book comes to us from a line of heroic poetry and song, and questionable lines of textual transmission. So we need some external attribution.

The Good Book says, although Jerubbaal did hold sway over the hills and maybe even the coastal plain north of the Philistines; that was all by force of his personality, cunning, and heroism. His son Abimelech inherited none of these attributes and failed in his bid to be Israel's mlk. Hence why we'll not likely see an inscription with this kid's name on it.

And I really do hope that this inscription of the 1100s BC is real, and that other inscriptions will be found near it. If not real then, sigh, another Bible Museum froggery. Gettin' a li'l tired of these.