Bible Synapse
Yavne-Yam ostracon
Inscription · late 7th century BC · Assyria and Babylon · also called Mesad Hashavyahu ostracon, KAI 200
See it on the map and timeline
- Date
- late 7th century BC (the letter)
- Found
- Mesad Hashavyahu, near Yavne-Yam, Israel, 1960. Found in 1960 by Joseph Naveh under the floor of a room beside the gate complex of a small coastal fortress, together with other Hebrew ostraca.
- Now
- Israel Museum, Jerusalem
- Passages
- Exodus 22:26–27, Deuteronomy 24:12–13, Amos 2:8
What it is
A potsherd about 20 cm high with 14 lines of Hebrew written in ink: a harvest worker’s petition to the official in charge of the fort. He says he had finished reaping and storing grain at Hazar-asam when Hoshavyahu son of Shobi took his garment; his fellow reapers can testify that he is innocent, and he begs the official to give it back. The Hebrew letters from the fort suggest that it was under Judahite control at the time, probably in the reign of Josiah.
How it connects to the Bible
The law of Moses forbids keeping a poor man’s cloak overnight: “If thou at all take thy neighbour’s raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down” (Exodus 22:26; compare Deuteronomy 24:12–13). Amos condemns those who lie down “upon clothes laid to pledge” (Amos 2:8). The letter does not quote the law, but it shows a labourer appealing to the same sense of justice in a real dispute.