The Gezer Calendar

ירחו אסף ירחו ז

רע ירחו לקש

ירח עצד פשת

ירח קצר שערים

ירח קצר וכל

ירחו זמר

ירח קץ

אבי

Two months of harvest

Two months of sowing

Two months of late planting

One month of hoeing flax

One month of barley-harvest

One month of harvest and measuring

Two months of vine-pruning

One month of summer fruit

Abi[yahu?]

Follow the link for a discussion of Hebrew gramamr, the purpose of the calendar and the date of the calendar (it's old!).  

b. The phrase ירחו is difficult, and because of its difficulty many proposals have been put forward to explain it (see Emerton and Sivan for more details on all these options). One possible solution is view the ו as a vowel letter and the sign of an old nominative construct dual (mentioned by Albright). But this is difficult because it is unusual to have ו as a vowel letter so early and the lack of other vowel letters on the tablet.

Two views see the ו as consonantal. The first of these says it is due to a third person singular suffix on a dual form (Albright), while the other sees it as the dual in a construct state. All of these views give a result of 12 months on the calendar.

            But one view that does not give 12 months is the view that the ו represents not a dual but a plural, and so must be more than two months. This would mean that more than 12 months are given on the calendar, so there is some overlap between the months. On the other hand, the dual is not productive in Biblical Hebrew, so a plural can in theory refer to two of something, especially when they are not naturally occurring pairs, like hands or feet.

            One last view is that the ו is an anticipatory suffix. It does not refer to “his” or an unknown farmer, but to the following nouns. But while this does occur in Biblical Hebrew, it is awkward in this context.

            I find the discussion to be very difficult to understand, due to the number of proposals and to their complexity, as they invoke archaic influence which the student is not usually well versed in. But I find myself leaning towards the view that the form is an archaic plural ending. The dual form seems to be too difficult to suppose, especially with a non-natural pair like a month.

            The semantic meaning of ירח refers to a month. The reason it is interesting is because of its more common synonym, חדש. It is possible that חדש is a later word while ירח is an earlier word, as חדש is used often in the later books, such as Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles. But the word ירח does fit the time period, as it is used in reference to Solomon in 1 Kings 6:37-38.

What is this tablet and what was it used for? Once again we have debate on the answer to that question. One possibility is that this is a school exercise (Albright). Evidence for this can be found in the slow and awkward hand of the scribe. But the problem with this view is that if it is a school exercise, why have not more of these types of tablets been found? As it is, this appears to be the only one of its kind that has appeared. It is possible that the school was not for everyone, but only for a small group of scribes, which would explain why there were not very many of these types of tablets found. But this is only speculation.

Another possibility (mentioned in Young along with the next option) is that the tablet is a kind of a blessing. The farmer or the priest wrote the tablet in hopes that the blessing would result in bigger harvests. Against this is the fact that there are no other blessings that look like this.

Yet another option is that the tablet is administrative, referring to various months, perhaps to collect taxes during the various periods. But the style of the tablet does not sound very administrative and is quite different in style from the other administrative tablets we have from Lachish and Arad.

c. One reason to date it to the tenth century is the historical background. Gezer is mentioned several times during the time of David and Solomon, but then disappears from the map after that and is not mentioned. Perhaps it was destroyed by Shishak in 918 and then never rebuilt. While no mention is made of Shishak destroying Gezer, it is likely that he did because it lay right in his path and was an important city on the coastal road. After Shishak, Gibbethon becomes an important city, and due to the proximity of the two Gezer was probably not rebuilt. This lack of mention, along with a gap in occupation seen by archaeologists, gives evidence that the tablet is tenth century, when people are there.

Albright claims that the אבי is short for Abiyahu and that the name was most common during the tenth century. He dates it to between the fortification of the city by Solomon in about 950 and the destruction of the city by Shishak in 918.

            Paleography is another reason to date it to the tenth century. The מ especially is very similar to the early inscriptions, like Ahiram and Abibaal of the tenth century, rather than the ninth century inscriptions like Mesha. In the former, like Gezer, the upper edge of the מ has not yet “fallen down” as it has by the ninth century (Albright).

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