Yehimilk inscription



The Yehimilk inscription is a Phoenician inscription (KAI 4 or TSSI III 6) published in 1930, currently in the museum of Byblos Castle.

It was published in Maurice Dunand's Fouilles de Byblos (volume I, 1926–1932, numbers 1141, plate XXXI).

It is dated to the 10th century BCE, and contains the earliest known Phoenician reference to Baalshamin.

Text of the inscription
The inscription reads:

BT Z BNY YḤMLK MLK GBL

[This is] the temple that he has built, Yehimilk, king of Byblos. H’T ḤWY KL MPLT HBTM / ’L

It was he who restored all these ruins of temples. Y’RK B‘L-ŠMM WB‘L(T) / GBL

May they [the gods] prolong —Baalsamem, and Ba'al(at) Gebal, WMPḤRT ’L GBL / QDŠM

and the assembly of the holy gods of Byblos— YMT YḤMLK WŠNTW / ‘L GBL

[may these gods prolong] Yehimilk's days and his years over Byblos, K MLK ṢDQ WMLK / YŠR

because [he is] a just king and a righteous king LPN ’L GBL QDŠM [H’]

before the holy gods of Byblos, he.