Ma'sub inscription

The Ma'sub inscription is a Phoenician-language inscription found at Khirbet Ma'sub (French: Masoub) near Al-Bassa. The inscription is from 222/21 BC. Written in Phoenician script, it is also known as KAI 19.

Provenance
It is considered by the Louvre to originate from Umm al-Amad, Lebanon, around 6-7 km to the northwest of Kh. Ma'sub, on the basis of the reference to an Astarte temple in the inscription; such a temple has been excavated at the Lebanese site. This theory is contra the original provenance statement by Clermont-Ganneau and has also been recently contested by Friedman and Ecker, who see no reason to construe a new provenance and suggest that a second Astarte temple, a twin to the northern one from Umm al-Amad, was built at the southern entrance to the Ladder of Tyre pass, i.e. at or near Ma'sub, thus creating a ritual "bracket" for the pass. In Dunand and Duru's catalogue of Umm al-Amad inscriptions, it is number iv.

Inscription
The inscription is given as:

‘RPT KBRT MṢ’ ŠMŠ WṢ

The great colonnade of (the side of) the sunrise, and its nor- PLY ’Š BN H’LM ML’K MLK

-th (side), which the ʾElim (gods), the envoys of (the divine couple) Milk- ‘ŠTRT W‘BDY B‘L ḤMN

ʿAshtart and the servants of Baʿal Ḥammon (dedicated) L‘ŠTRT B’ŠRT ’L ḤMN

to ʿAshtart, in the holy courtyard of the god Ḥammon BŠT 20 3 3 LPTLMYS ’DN

in the 26th year of Ptolemy, lord MLKM H’DR P‘L N‘M BN PT

of kings, (the) noble, (the) beneficent, son of Pto- LMYS W’RSN’S ’LN ’[Ḥ]

-lemy and Arsinoë, the divine A[del]- YM ŠLŠ ḤMŠM ŠT L‘M [ṢR]

-phoi (literally "the gods-brothers"), (in the) three-(and)-fiftieth year of the people of [Tyre], KM’Š BN ’YT KL ’ḤRY [HMQ]

as also they built all of the other tem- [DŠ]M ’Š B’RṢ LKN LM L[SKR]

-ples which are in the land, to be to them for [memory] [WŠM N‘M ‘D] ‘LM

[and good name for] eternity.