Lachish Ivory Comb: The Earliest Canaanite Sentence
A 3,700-year-old lice comb inscribed 'May this tusk root out the lice of the hair and the beard'
Found 2016 — Fourth Expedition to Lachish, Yosef Garfinkel (Hebrew University) with Michael Hasel and Martin Klingbeil (Southern Adventist University); the tiny letters were noticed in 2021 by Madeleine Mumcuoglu and read by Daniel Vainstub (Ben-Gurion University); published October 2022
Where Tel Lachish, Judean Shephelah (Israel)
Dates from c. 1700 BCE · Middle Bronze Age · Age of the Patriarchs; Canaanite city-states before Israel
Now at Israel Antiquities Authority collections, Jerusalem
How Lachish Ivory Comb: The Earliest Canaanite Sentence was found
Found in 2016 in a Middle Bronze context but the faint scratches went unnoticed until the comb was cleaned and examined again five years later. Microscopic study even found remains of head lice between the teeth.
What it is
A small elephant-ivory comb, 3.5 by 2.5 cm, with coarse teeth on one side to untangle hair and fine teeth on the other to remove lice. Along one side run 17 shallow letters in the early Canaanite alphabet forming seven words: 'May this tusk root out the lice of the hair and the beard.' The ivory was imported, so the owner was wealthy.
Why it matters for the Bible
This is the first complete, meaningful sentence ever found in the Canaanite alphabet, the ancestor of the Hebrew script, dating from the era of Avraham's descendants in Canaan. Earlier alphabetic finds were single words or names. The wish inscribed on a comb shows the alphabet was already used for everyday life, not only by scribes, and its words 'hair' (se'ar) and 'beard' (zaqan) are the same in biblical Hebrew. The date is inferred from the letter shapes and context, not from a datable layer, so some scholars would place it a century or two later.
The Hebrew word: kee-NEEM
כִּנִּים
כִּנִּים is pronounced kee-NEEM and means lice, gnats — the word for the third plague in Exodus 8:16; the comb's inscription uses the same Semitic root (Strong's H3654).
Places
- Lachish — לָכִישׁ (Lah-CHEESH) — uncertain; perhaps 'invincible'
Events
Origins of the alphabet among the Canaanites · Third plague of lice on Egypt (Exodus 8), the same pest
Lachish Ivory Comb: The Earliest Canaanite Sentence in Scripture
Exodus 8:16-17 The plague of lice (kinnim); the Lachish comb shows how a wealthy Canaanite fought the same pest with a written wish.
Joshua 10:3 First mention of Lachish in Scripture.
Joshua 10:31-32 Lachish was a major Canaanite city in the conquest account; the comb comes from its earlier Canaanite period.
Questions people ask
What is Lachish Ivory Comb: The Earliest Canaanite Sentence?
A small elephant-ivory comb, 3.5 by 2.5 cm, with coarse teeth on one side to untangle hair and fine teeth on the other to remove lice. Along one side run 17 shallow letters in the early Canaanite alphabet forming seven words: 'May this tusk root out the lice of the hair and the beard.' The ivory was imported, so the owner was wealthy.
When was Lachish Ivory Comb: The Earliest Canaanite Sentence discovered?
It was found in 2016 by Fourth Expedition to Lachish, Yosef Garfinkel (Hebrew University) with Michael Hasel and Martin Klingbeil (Southern Adventist University); the tiny letters were noticed in 2021 by Madeleine Mumcuoglu and read by Daniel Vainstub (Ben-Gurion University); published October 2022, at Tel Lachish, Judean Shephelah.
Where is Lachish Ivory Comb: The Earliest Canaanite Sentence today?
Israel Antiquities Authority collections, Jerusalem.
Which Bible verses does Lachish Ivory Comb: The Earliest Canaanite Sentence relate to?
Exodus 8:16-17, Joshua 10:3, Joshua 10:31-32.
Related discoveries
- מַשְׂאֵתLachish Letters (Lachish Ostraca)Military dispatches from the last days of Judah: 'we cannot see the signals of Azekah'
- בָּמָהLachish Gate Shrine and Desecrated ToiletA gate sanctuary with broken altar horns and a stone latrine — Hezekiah's reform in action?
- סֹלְלָהLachish Level III: Assyrian Siege Ramp and Battle DebrisThe only surviving Assyrian siege ramp, with arrowheads, sling stones and a mass grave
- בַּיּוֹם הַשֵּׁנִיLachish Level VI Destruction and the Fosse TempleA Canaanite city under Egypt, burned around 1150 BCE
- דָּרְיָוֶשׁThe Lachish 'Darius' Ostracon (2022)A 'first Darius inscription in Israel' that turned out to be a modern demonstration piece
- עָרֵי מָצוֹרLachish Level VThe first Judahite town at Lachish and the question of Rehoboam's wall
Sources
- D. Vainstub et al., 'A Canaanite's Wish to Eradicate Lice on an Inscribed Ivory Comb from Lachish', Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology 2 (2022)
- Hebrew University press release, 'First Sentence Ever Written in Canaanite Language Discovered at Tel Lachish'
- Wikipedia, 'Canaanite ivory comb'
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