What Letters Are These?

047

The Character Third from the End of Line 8

Yardeni does not agree with Cross and Eshel on what the third character from the end of line 8 looks like; their drawings of it are very different. She reads a nun (n), where they read a yod (y).

While the character Yardeni draws here must be interpreted as a nun, the situation is not as straightforward for the character Cross and Eshel draw. Their inverted V is not obviously a yod. Compare it, for instance, with the other characters they themselves, as well as Yardeni, have positively identified as yods (below).

The Character Second from the End of Line 8

Yardeni and Cross and Eshel have little disagreement over how the second-to-last letter in line 8 looks; their drawings of this character almost match. Nevertheless, they interpret it as different letters. Yardeni reads it as an aleph (a); Cross and Eshel read it as a het (h). Who is correct? We have placed the other characters definitely identified by Yardeni and Cross and Eshel as alephs and hets below for comparison.