Note on Isaiah 18:4

The ancient name of a Hebrew calendar month, Tzah, hitherto unknown, has been deciphered on a clay jar found at Arad in Israel. The present names of Hebrew months were derived from Babylon at the time of the Captivity and up to the time of this discovery only three of the original names were known. The interest attaching to this discovery is the light it sheds on Isa.18:4 where the prophet is made, in the A.V. (KJV), to refer to a "clear heat" after rain where "clear" has been rendered from "tsach." No one has ever suggested exactly what was meant by a "clear heat." Now that the meaning of "tsach" is known the rendering is obviously "the heat of (the month) tzah after rain," from which it is deduced that tzah was one of the summer months following the spring rains.

March / April 1966