I. Name

The Heb. word hêkāl occurs 78 times in the Old Testament and designates a palace or temple. The word is common in West-Semitic languages (HALAT 234–35 s.v. היכל; Hoftijzer-Jongeling, DNWSI 278 s.v. hykl) and derives from Sum. é-gal, literally ‘big house’, the residence of a divine or worldly ruler. It is well known from Egyptian and Mesopotamian sources that temples were ascribed numinous qualities. Jalabert & Mouterde 1939 suggested that in Syria during the Roman period the deified temp…