Sample Sources
The sources below are those contained in our three curated collections—covering themes of Passover, Gender Roles, and Holocaust Resistance. They represent a fraction of the thousands of sources that will be available when the full site launches in 2024.
Seated Male Figure
This is a modern artist’s illustration of a painting of a seated male in profile, perhaps an enthroned dignitary. The painting was made on a potsherd from Ramat Rahel. It measures around 5 × 3 inches…
Cosmetic Implements
These cosmetic implements from Gibeon include a limestone bowl decorated with small, incised circles and two bronze spatulas. Tweezers for plucking hairs have also been found.
The Book of Resemblances
The author of the book in question hides behind various pseudonyms, which are promptly presented as voices from the beginning of time and as figures both familiar and strange: for he is himself a…
Holiness of the People
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to the whole Israelite community and say to them:
You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.
You shall each revere his mother and his…
The First-fruits Ceremony
When you enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a heritage, and you possess it and settle in it, you shall take some of every first fruit of the soil, which you harvest from the land…
Slave Sale
On the twentieth of Adar, the second year (of Arses), the accession year of Darius, the king, in Samaria the citadel, which is in Samaria the province, Hananiah son of Beyadel sold a certain Yehohanan…
Psalm 6
For the leader; with instrumental music on the sheminith. A psalm of David.
O Lord, do not punish me in anger, do not chastise me in fury.
Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I languish; heal me, O Lord…
An Order Concerning Rations
To Elyashib: And now, give to the Kittim 1 bath and 3 hin of wine and write the date. And from the surplus of the best flour you shall load 1 kor (?) to make bread for them. From the wine of the…
Imprisonment of Jewish Leaders
[To my brother PN, your brother Islah.
It is well for me here]. May the gods seek after your welfare at all times. And now, . . . PN son of PN went to Syene and did/made . . . .
Behold, these are the…
Another Shipment of Wine
In the ninth year,
From Siptan, to Baalzamar:
A jar of aged wine
Translated by Anson F. Rainey from Shmuel Aḥituv’s Hebrew edition.
Mesha Inscription
I am Mesha son of Chemoshyat king of Moab, the Di-bonite. My father reigned over Moab thirty years and I reigned after my father.
And I built this high place for Chemosh in the “citadel,” a high place…
