“For I am Esmunazar, king of the Sidonians, the son of King Tabnit, king
of the Sidonians, and the grandson of Esmunazar, king of the Sidonians,
and my mother is Am-Ashtoreth, priestess of our lady Ashtoreth, the
queen, the daughter of King Esmunazar, king of the Sidonians--and it is
we who have built the temples of the gods, the temple of Ashtoreth in
Sidon on the shore of the sea, and have placed Ashtoreth in her temple
to glorify her; and we too have built the temple of Esmun, and set the
sacred grove, En Yidlal, in the mountain, and made him (Esmun) dwell
there to glorify him; and it is we who have built temples to the
[other] deities of the Sidonians, in Sidon on the shore of the sea,
as the temple of Baal-Sidon, and the temple of Asthoreth, who bears the
name of Baal. And for this cause has the Lord of Kings given us Dor and
Joppa, and the fertile cornlands which are in the plains of Sharon, as
a reward for the great things which I have done, and added them to the
boundaries of the land, that they may belong to the Sidonians for ever.
I adjure every royal personage, and every man whatsoever, that they open
not this my chamber, nor empty my chamber, nor build aught over this my
chamber, nor remove the coffin from this my chamber, lest the Holy Gods
deliver them up, and destroy the royal personage, or the men [who
shall do so], and their offspring for ever.”[1320]
The inscription on the tomb of Tabnit, Esmunazar’s father, found near
Beyrout in 1886, is shorter, but nearly to the same effect. It has been
thus translated:--“I, Tabnit, priest of Ashtoreth, and king of Sidon,
lying in this tomb, say--I adjure every man, when thou shalt come upon
this sepulchre, open not my chamber, and trouble me not, for there is
not with me aught of silver, nor is there with me aught of gold, there
is not with me anything whatever of spoil, but only I myself who lie in
this sepulchre. Open not my chamber, and trouble me not; for it would be
an abomination in the sight of Ashtoreth to do such an act. And if thou
shouldest open my chamber, and trouble me, mayest thou have no
posterity all thy life under the sun, and no resting-place with the
departed.”[1321]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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