MI-DA-RU-RA

ARKH Zf 9 (Arkhanes, a bronze votive object), word 2 of JA-KI-SI-KI-NU <> MI-DA-RU-RA; RILA rereads GORILA’s MI-DA-MA-RA₂, sign 3 as RU (AB 26) and sign 4 as RA (AB 27). midrara ‘dust, ashes’, the second accusative after JA-KI-SI-KI-NU *yaksīkīnū ‘May he cover you!’: ‘May he cover you with dust and ashes!’ ‘Cover, clothe’ takes two accusatives, person and covering (Fischer 2002, §374a: albasanī ṯiyābahu ‘He clothed me in his garments’), so the -a has its governor; the final RA writes either that accusative -a on a root-final r, *midr-a, or the geminate rr of an intensive *midrar-. Ashes and dust serve penance and purification, both fit for a votive bronze: sitting in ashes (Jonah 3:6), the red heifer’s ashes (Num 19:17), dust on the head in mourning (Job 2:12), ashes in lament (2 Sam 13:19), rolling in ashes, בָּאֵפֶר יִתְפַּלָּשׁוּ (Ezek 27:30), sackcloth and ashes, וַיִּלְבַּשׁ שַׂק וָאֵפֶר (Esth 4:1), Abraham’s עָפָר וָאֵפֶר ‘dust and ashes’ (Gen 18:27), and פְּאֵר תַּחַת אֵפֶר ‘beauty instead of ashes’ (Isa 61:3). One attestation.