I. Name

The concept of kingship is widespread in the ancient Near East. The epithet melek, ‘king’, is also used 41 times for Yhwh in the OT. In addition Yhwh is 13 times subject of the verb mlk, ‘to rule’, ‘to be king’. The abstract nouns derived from the root mlk occur nine times with reference to Yhwh. Moreover, personal names that refer to the kingship of Yhwh have been found on Hebrew ostraca, bullae and seals from the early seventh century bce onward. Furthermore, the name of a number of ancient Near Ea…