I-MI-SA-RA
Il-Mīšar, god of justice—theophoric compound: ʾil 'god' + Mīšaru (justice god, maqtal pattern of √y-š-r). Personnel category on sanctuary allocation tablet.
- Reading
- Il-Mīšar
- Confidence
- Probable
- Root
- *yašar- ‘straight’
- Kind
- Divine
- Language
- Semitic
- Rank
- #65 of the top 100
Compared forms
- AkkadianMīšaru (d-Mīšaru)—god of justice, son of Adad and Šala, spouse of Išartu (An = Anum III). maqtal nominal of ešēru "to be straight/just" (CAD E 352). Attested: OB theophoric names, Mari, Seleucid Uruk god-lists.
- Ugariticmšr—"justice, equity" (DULAT 586); KTU 1.16 vi: mšr as divine attribute
- Hebrewמֵישָׁרִיםmêšārîmmêšārîm (מֵישָׁרִים) "equity, uprightness" (Ps 9:9, 58:2, 75:3); same maqtal pattern as Akkadian Mīšaru
- PhoenicianMisor (Μισωρ)—Philo of Byblos via Eusebius PE 1.10.13: father of Taautus/Thoth; paired with Sydyk (√ṣ-d-q)
Attestations1 cited
Commentary
HT 27a .3 I-MI-SA-RA 43[, line-initial at an intact edge, on a personnel allocation tablet headed by TI-NI-TA *307 (Tinit of the Sanctuary); the numeral meets a break, so 43 or more. I ʾi(l), MI mī, SA ša, RA r. CAD M/2 118 lists ᵈMi-šá-ru ᵈIl-mi-šá-ru (KAV 42 i 34) and the god of justice as DINGIR-lum mi-š[a-ri] (KUB 4 47 r. 8); I-MI-SA-RA writes Il-Mīšar with the coda l unwritten, as Linear B leaves a syllable-final l unwritten (ka-ko = khal-kos; Ventris and Chadwick 1956, 45). ʾil ‘god’ heads Amorite names written I-lī- (I-lī-ṣa-du-uq, I-lī-ma-lik; Huffmon 1965, 165); išar, the Akkadian form of √yšr, serves Amorite names as a theophorous element or divine name (I-šar-li-im; Huffmon 1965, 216), and Me-ša-rum is an Amorite name (Gelb 1980, no. 4661). With Tinit at its head in the place of Išartu, HT 27a holds both members of the Akkadian justice dyad. Rival: ʾī-Mīšar, with the interrogative ʾī ‘where is’ of liturgy and names: Ug. ỉy (DULAT 130) in the cultic cry ỉy ảlỉyn bʿl (KTU 1.6 IV 28–29; Pope 1977, 589); Heb. ʾÎ-kāḇôd (1 Sam 4:21; HALOT 38, s.v. III אִי); Amorite Ḥa-ya-ab-AN ‘where is the father, O god’ (Huffmon 1965, 128 n. 18). Weak points: one attestation, though √y-š-r runs through the libation formula (JA-SA-SA-RA-ME, 7 inscriptions); the right end of .2 is broken, and the scribe runs KI-*310 across .4–.5, so I can close a word lost there; MI-SA-RA alone then writes Mīšar (ᵈMi-šar, BRM 4 25:45; CAD M/2 118). See JA-SA-SA-RA-ME.