Mur 174: A Hebrew I.O.U. Document from Wadi Murabba‘at

Mur 174 is a Hebrew I.O.U. document, i.e. a debt acknowledgment. The fragmentary document allegedly has been found in the Wadi Murabba‘at caves. It is in the museum of the SBF since 1962, but has never been studied systematically. Although the document is poorly preserved, most of the text can be reconstructed on the basis of similar documents. The document is dated to the 2nd of Tevet. The portion recording the year is not preserved; it may be reconstructed as the 2nd year of the Redemption of Israel, i.e. 133 CE. The name of the lender can be deciphered as Shim‘on, son of Yehudah. The name of the borrower is lost, but we know that he came from Tekoa‘. The borrowed sum was 25 zuzin/dinars or 6 sela‘in/tetradrachms and 1 zuz. The language is the same Hebrew dialect containing some Aramaisms, which is found in other legal documents of that time and area.