Lachish 3

ועת. הפקח

נא את אזן    ×¢×‘דך. לספר. אשר

שלחתה   אל עבדך. אמש. ×›×™. לב

עבדך דוה. מאז. שלחך. אל. עבד

ך   וכי  אמר. אדני. לא. ידעתה

קרא ספר חיהוה. אם. נסה. א

יש לקרא לי. ספר לנצח. וגם

כל ספר   אשר יבא. אלי   אם.

קראתי. אתה ועוד אתננהו

אל. מאומה                    

And now, please explain to the ear of your servant the letter which you sent to your servant last night because the heart of your servant is sick since you sent to your servant. And when my lord said “You do not know to read a letter” (Or “You do not understand! Call a scribe!). By God never has any man tried to read to me a letter, and every letter which comes to me, surely I read it myself, and moreover I can repeat it!

 This is one of a series of letters that were found at Lachish before the attack by Nebuchadnezzar. 

b. Hoshayahu is insulted because his superior officer has told him that his literacy abilities are subnormal and that he should get professional help in the future (either explicit in Cross’ reading or implicit in the usual reading). He thinks that he can read just fine and does not need any help in that area. He says that he reads all the letters that are brought to him and no one dares to try and read him a letter. And even beyond that, he can read so well that he can even repeat back what he read (although this phrase is obscure).

However, Schniedewind presents the case that while the officer can read; he perhaps can not read as well as he claims. He supports his case by presenting evidence that the officer makes grammatical oddities in this letters. Some of these include the odd phrase “הפקח את אזן” (lines 4-5) which is not found elsewhere, the final ×” on שלחתה (line 6) and ידעתה (line 8), and the contraction of חיהוה in line 9. One more case is the odd word “אתננהו” which he takes as showing Aramaic influence, as in Hebrew the word ‘to repeat’ would be spelled with a ש and not a ת. Two last oddities are the spelling of אנשו in line 18, where we would expect אנשיו, and the missing ד in עבדך in line 21. All of these problems together indicate to Schniedewind that while the officer could read and write, his skill was not superb, and if there were important matters to discuss, it might have been beneficial for him to get a scribe.

c. The question of the extent of literacy in ancient Israel is a raging debate. How many people knew how to read and write? Or just read? The question ultimately is difficult to discover, since we have no census records listing how many people could read and write, but there are hints in the data we have about the issue. Lachish 3 is one of those hints about the extent of literacy. If we assume that the letter was not written by a scribe, but by the officer himself (which seems to be a good assumption), then we derive several conclusions. First of all, the ability to read and write was not limited to a scribal caste, but extended even to army officers who used the ability in their daily work. Hoshayahu does not appear to be a high ranking officer, so his ability to read and write is that much more interesting. Second, he is proud of his ability to read and write. We can not be sure if he is proud of it because it is rare, or because it was expected among people like him, and so to tell him he can not read is an insult. But whichever is true, he is happy that he can read and he does not want to use a scribe. Third, as Schniedewind has pointed out, literacy is not an “all or nothing” kind of deal. There were people who could read and write with difficulty, as we see in Lachish 3. While Hoshayahu could write, he did include several errors and oddities in his letter. From this we can assume that there were levels of literacy, and the question is not a black and white “who could read and write and who could not?” but a more nuanced spectrum view: “how much can each person read or write?” Fourth, this letter reminds us that there were scribes who were available for reading and writing work. One could always resort to a professional.

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