JA-SA-SA-RA-ME
in righteousness (adverbial accusative in -am of √y-š-r; also 'righteously'); rival: substantivized "the upright/proper [thing]" in an object slot. Polysemic layer: masculine divine name Yasharam (Akk. Mīšarum, Phoen. Misor)
- Reading
- yaššaram
- Confidence
- Confirmed
- Root
- *yašar- ‘straight’
- Kind
- Ritual
- Language
- Semitic
- Rank
- #4 of the top 100
Compared forms
- Hebrewיָשָׁרyāšāryāšār (יָשָׁר) ‘upright, straight, righteous’ (Deut 32:4, Ps 119:137, 1 Kgs 9:4, Prov 2:7); yōšer (יֹשֶׁר) ‘uprightness, equity’ (Ps 111:8, Prov 2:13); √y-š-r ‘to be straight’; Yeshurun (יְשֻׁרוּן) poetic name for Israel = ‘the upright one’ (Deut 32:15, 33:5, 33:26, Isa 44:2); cf. Num 23:10 yĕšārīm (Balaam’s pun on Yeshurun)
- Ugaritic𐎊𐎌𐎗yšryšr ‘straight, upright’ (DULAT 973); yšr in ritual context = moral/cultic fitness
- Akkadianešēruešēru ‘to be/go straight, prosper’ (CAD E 354); išaru ‘straight, just, normal’; mīšaru ‘justice, equity’ (CAD M/II 116)—Hammurabi’s mīšarum edicts: royal debt-release decrees that ‘set things straight’
- Arabicيسرyasarayasara (يسر) ‘to be easy, smooth’; yasār ‘ease, prosperity’
Attestations8 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 righteousness
- IO Za 63DTA-NA-I-*301-U-TI-NU I-NA-TA-I-ZU-DI-SI-KA JA-SA-SA-RA-MEuprightly (accusative -am, √y-š-r)
- IO Za 93DJA-SA-SA-[RA-ME]in righteousness (adverbial accusative, √y-š-r)
- IO Za 12[?]-[?] JA-SA-SA-RA-ME I-TIin righteousness (adverbial accusative -am, √y-š-r)
- TL Za 13DJA-SA-SA-RA-ME U-NA-KA-NA-SI[…]in righteousness (adverbial accusative -am, √y-š-r)
- PS Za 23DTA-NA-I-*301-(TI/E) […]-JA-(TI/E) JA-SA-SA-RA-MEuprightly (accusative -am, √y-š-r)
- PK Za 143D]-TU-ME-I JA-SA-SA-[unread
- PK Za 273D[…] JA-SA-SA-RA-ME Ụ-NA-KA-[in righteousness (adverbial accusative, √y-š-r)
Commentary
√y-š-r ‘to be straight, upright, righteous.’ SA writes š (cf. SA-SA-ME sesame on HT 23a: LB sa-sa-ma, Ug. ššmn); SA-SA writes the geminate šš (di Mino, Ya Diktu); the same root takes one SA, with no gemination written, in JA-SA-RA (KN Zc 7) and I-MI-SA-RA (HT 27a). RA writes the accusative -am, against RU for nominative -um, and ME the mimation: yaššaram ‘in righteousness’, as Amorite JAŚAR-AM, IA-SA-RA-AM, classed accusative (Gelb 1980, no. 3448). Rival: the object of the verb, ‘an offering, a gift, a dedication’ (Davis 2026, 55; Thomas 2020). Whole on IO Za 6 (GORILA V 25), PS Za 2 (IV 54), TL Za 1 (IV 59) and IO Za 12, one line, second SA and ME dotted (Karetsou, Godart and Olivier, Kadmos 24, 1985, 143); IO Za 2 has JA-SA-SA-RA-[, ME restored by GORILA (V 19), IO Za 9 ]JA-SA-SA-, RA-ME restored (V 33), and PK Za 14 JA-SA-SA-[ at the broken edge (IV 40). Cf. PL Zf 1 JA-SA-SA-RA-[ME?], a damaged vertical trace after RA; SAM Wa 1 (Samothrace) JA-SA SA-RA, without -ME, on a nodule with TE 10 ¹⁄₁₆; and KH Zc 106 ]-SA-SA-RA-MI (RILA-S1), broken before SA, the formula in LM IIIA1 with MI for ME.