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DAFNA GAZIT

FAMILIAR NAME. In a large stone-lined silo in Area A, this 3.5-inch-wide fragmented sherd bearing the inscription yrb‘l (“Jerubbaal”) was discovered. This name is attested in the Bible: The individual more commonly known as Gideon takes this name after destroying the altar to Baal in Ophrah (Judges 6:32). Although there is no direct connection between the biblical story and the sherd from Khirbet al-Ra‘i, the parallel is striking, especially given that the episode from Judges is set in the period just before the rise of the monarchy (12th–11th centuries BCE), precisely the period with which the inscribed sherd is associated.