Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Harold R. Holmyard III" <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear Dora,

> Actually, Peter, the text "to YHWH and his Asherah" has been found in
> several iscriptions, in Sinai and in Israel. But you're right that a. the
> reading is debated, and b. that we have no way of really knowing how
> widespread the idea of YHWH having a consort was. It's certainly contrary
> to any of the biblical authors.

HH: What seems especially debated about the interpretation is a final 
H on the word Asherah. Is it functioning as a 3ms pronominal suffix 
"his" referring back to Yahweh, or is it a final element in the 
spelling of the word Asherah itself. Kitchen favored the latter 
because he said that one god did not refer to another god as his when 
using the name of the god. One might say that a god was one's wife, 
but not that it was "his Ishtar," or "his Bastet," or something like 
that. Without the idea of "his," the consort interpretation is 
weakened.

                                Yours,
                                Harold Holmyard