The Peh/Ayin Order in the Acrostics of the Book of Eichah
by Mitchell First[1]
The first four chapters of the book of Eichah comprise alphabetical acrostics. In the acrostics in chapters 2, 3 and 4, the verses that begin with peh precede the verses that begins with ayin.[2] The Soncino commentary to Eichah remarks: "This unusual order has never been satisfactorily explained." [3] In light of the archaeological discoveries of recent decades, it is time to provide this explanation.
Preliminarily, it will be noted that the Talmud includes a comment on the unusual order of peh preceding ayin in the book of Eichah. The suggestion is made that it alludes to the sin of the meraglim:[4]
רבא אמר רבי יוחנן אמר בשביל מה הקדים פ"א לעי"ן בשביל מרגלים שאמרו בפיהם מה שלא ראו בעיניהם.
The sin of the meraglim is connected to the ninth of Av in a well-established rabbinic tradition:[5]
But even prior to the archaeological discoveries of recent decades, evidence of peh preceding ayin was found elsewhere. In the Septuagint version of חיל אשת (Mishlei 31:10-31), the translation of the peh verse, פיה, precedes the translation of the ayin verse, עז.[6] The earliest manuscripts of the Septuagint are from the 4th and 5th centuries, hundreds of years earlier than the earliest Hebrew manuscript of Mishlei.
The relevant archaeological discoveries of recent decades from the land of Israel are as follows:
-It was discovered that in the texts of Eichah from the Dead Sea, the peh verse precedes the ayin verse even in the first chapter.[7]
-During excavations between Oct. 1975 and May 1976 at Kuntillet 'Ajrud, a site in the northern Sinai,[8] a jar fragment was discovered which included three Hebrew abecedaries in which the peh precedes the ayin.[9] The site dates to a period between the mid-9th and mid-8th centuries and is believed to have been a religious centre in the tribe of Judah, at its border.[10]
-In 1976, a potsherd was discovered at Izbet Sartah (near Rosh ha-Ayin). The potsherd had five lines of Hebrew[11] writing on it, one of which was an abecedary (written left to right!). In this abecedary, the peh precedes the ayin. The writing and potsherd date to the 12th-11th centuries B.C.E. Scholars are confident that Izbet Sartah was an Israelite settlement.[12]
-In 2005, a Hebrew abecedary inscribed on a stone was discovered at Tel Zayit (north of Lachish). The stone had been used in the construction of a wall belonging to a 10th cent. B.C.E. structure. In the abecedary, the peh precedes the ayin.[13] Most probably, Tel Zayit was within the tribe of Judah in the 10th century B.C.E.[14]
The abecedaries mentioned above are the only Hebrew (or Proto-Canaanite[15]) texts of the alphabet in order that have ever been discovered in ancient Israel that date from the period of the Judges and the First Temple that are long enough to span the letters ayin and peh.[16] Peh precedes ayin in every single one.[17]
Abecedaries or other texts of the alphabet in order from other Western Semitic languages[18] have also been found, dating from the late second millenium and early first millenium BCE:
- Twe