Compared forms
- Hebrewפָּנִיםpānīmpānīm (פָּנִים) ‘face, presence’ (Gen 32:31, Exod 33:14–15, Lev 1:3–4, Ps 19:15, Mal 1:8); lipnê (לִפְנֵי) ‘before the face of’ = standard cult-approach formula; √p-n-y ‘to turn, face’
- Ugaritic𐎔𐎐𐎎pnmpnm ‘face, presence’ (DULAT 664); pn ilm ‘face of the gods’ in ritual texts
- Akkadianpānupānu ‘face, front, presence’ (CAD P 92); ina pāni ‘before, in the presence of’
- Arabicفناءfanā'fanā' (فناء) ‘courtyard, forecourt’; related to approaching a presence
- Amarna Canaanitepa-ni-mu /panīmū < paniy=humu/ ‘before them’ (Moran: ‘before him’), ‘face’ as a preposition (GlOS 2, 130)
- Eblaitepanwūba-na-ù /panwū/ ‘face’, ba-nu ‘front’ (GlOS 2, 130)
Attestations7 cited
- IO Za 23DA-TA-I-*301-WA-JA JA-DI-KI-TU JA-SA-SA-RA-[ME] [U-NA-KA-NA]-SI I-PI-NA-MAin the presence of
- IO Za 153DI-PI-NA-MA SI-RU-TEface, presence (of)
- KO Za 13DI-PI-NA-MA SI-RU-TEin the presence of
- TL Za 13D[…]NA-MA SI-RU[…]in the presence of
- VRY Za 13DI-PI-NA-MAin the presence of
- AP Za 23D]NA-SI I-PI-NA-MA[ ]-KU-PA₃-NA-TU-NA-TE-[presence/face […]
- PK Za 83DI-PI[in the pres[ence of …]
Commentary
Complete at three peak sanctuaries: IO Za 2 and IO Za 15 (Iouktas), KO Za 1 (Kophinas), VRY Za 1 (Vrysinas). Damaged at Troullos (TL Za 1 […]NA-MA) and Apodoulou (AP Za 2 I-PI-NA-MA[, to a broken edge), and I-PI[ at the break of PK Za 8. ʾippina=ma ‘in the presence of’: pnm, Heb. pānîm ‘face, presence’ (HALOT 938), Ug. pnm ‘face, countenance’ (DULAT 664). Biblical cult pairs approach before the divine presence with acceptance (Lev 1:3–4; Ps 19:15; Mal 1:8), as I-PI-NA-MA stands beside the √r-ṣ-y verb of the fuller formula. PI writes pin- against Heb. pānîm and Akk. pānu, a different vowel in one root: Hebrew shifted *a > *i more than once (Suchard 2016, 189), Punic writes Tinnit’s epithet pn bʿl as Θινιθ-Φανεβαλ and Θεννειθ-Φενηβαλ (Krahmalkov 2000, 398, 495), and SED reconstructs *yad- ‘hand’, of the same noun pattern as *pan-, ‘with a variant *id- … probably for PS too’ (SED I, CXXX). Rival: Davis’s functional gloss ‘a favor, a blessing’ (Davis 2026, 55). See PI-*310-A.