Lamedh or lamed is the twelfth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Hebrew lāmeḏ ל, Aramaic lāmaḏ 𐡋, Syriac lāmaḏ ܠ, Arabic lām ل, and Phoenician lāmd 𐤋. Its sound value is [l]. It is also related to the Ancient North Arabian 𐪁, South Arabian 𐩡, and Ge'ez ለ.
The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Lambda (Λ), Latin L, and Cyrillic El (Л).
The Paleo-Hebrew script (Hebrew: הכתב העברי הקדום), (𐤐𐤋𐤏𐤉 𐤏𐤁𐤓𐤉), also Palaeo-Hebrew, Proto-Hebrew or Old Hebrew, is the writing system found in Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions, including pre-Biblical and Biblical Hebrew, from southern Canaan, also known as the biblical kingdoms of Israel (Samaria) and Judah. It is considered to be the script used to record the original texts of the Bible. Due to its similarity to the Samaritan script, the Talmud states that the Samaritans still used this script. The Talmud described it as the "Livonaʾa script" (Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: לִיבּוֹנָאָה, romanized: Lībōnāʾā), translated by some as "Lebanon script". It has also been suggested that the name is a corrupted form (with the letters nun and lamed accidentally swapped) of "Neapolitan", i.e. of Nablus. Use of the term "Paleo-Hebrew alphabet" for the script follows the suggestion by Solomon Birnbaum, who in 1954 argued that "[t]o apply the term Phoenician [from Northern Canaan, today's Lebanon] to the script of the Hebrews [from Southern Canaan, today's Israel-Palestine] is hardly suitable". The Paleo-Hebrew and Phoenician alphabets are two slight regional variants of the same script.
The first Paleo-Hebrew inscription identified in modern times was the Royal Steward inscription (KAI 191), found in 1870, and described at the time as "two large ancient Hebrew inscriptions in Phoenician letters". Fewer than 2,000 inscriptions are known today, of which the vast majority comprise just a single letter or word. The earliest known examples of Paleo-Hebrew writing date to the 10th century BCE.
The Paleo-Hebrew script (Hebrew: הכתב העברי הקדום), also Palaeo-Hebrew, Proto-Hebrew or Old Hebrew, is the writing system found in Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions, including pre-Biblical and Biblical Hebrew, from southern Canaan, also known as the biblical kingdoms of Israel (Samaria) and Judah. It is considered to be the script used to record the original texts of the Bible. Due to its similarity to the Samaritan script; the Talmud states that the Samaritans still used this script. The Talmud described it as the "Livonaʾa script" (Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: לִיבּוֹנָאָה, romanized: Lībōnāʾā), translated by some as "Lebanon script". It has also been suggested that the name is a corrupted form (with the letters nun and lamed accidentally swapped) of "Neapolitan", i.e. of Nablus. Use of the term "Paleo-Hebrew alphabet" for the script follows the suggestion by Solomon Birnbaum, who in 1954 argued that "[t]o apply the term Phoenician [from Northern Canaan, today's Lebanon] to the script of the Hebrews [from Southern Canaan, today's Israel-Palestine] is hardly suitable". The Paleo-Hebrew and Phoenician alphabets are two slight regional variants of the same script.
The first Paleo-Hebrew inscription identified in modern times was the Royal Steward inscription (KAI 191), found in 1870, and described at the time as "two large ancient Hebrew inscriptions in Phoenician letters". Fewer than 2,000 inscriptions are known today, of which the vast majority comprise just a single letter or word. The earliest known examples of Paleo-Hebrew writing date to the 10th century BCE.
Elohim (Hebrew: אֱלֹהִים, romanized: ʾĔlōhīm [(ʔ)eloˈ(h)im]) is a Hebrew word meaning "gods" or "godhood". Although the word is plural (viz. the majestic plural) in form, in the Hebrew Bible it most often takes singular verbal or pronominal agreement and refers to a single deity, particularly but not always the God of Judaism. In other verses it takes plural agreement and refers to gods in the plural.
Morphologically, the word is the plural form of the word אֱלוֹהַּ (ʾĔlōah) and related to El. It is cognate to the word ʾl-h-m which is found in Ugaritic, where it is used as the pantheon for Canaanite gods, the children of El, and conventionally vocalized as "Elohim". Most uses of the term Elohim in the later Hebrew text imply a view that is at least monolatrist at the time of writing, and such usage (in the singular), as a proper title for Deity, is distinct from generic usage as elohim, "gods" (plural, simple noun).
Shin-Lamedh-Mem is a triconsonantal root of many Semitic words (many of which are used as names). The root meaning translates to "whole, safe, intact, unharmed, to go free, without blemish". Its earliest known form is in the name of Shalim, the ancient god of dusk of Ugarit. Derived from this are meanings of "to be safe, secure, at peace", hence "well-being, health" and passively "to be secured, pacified, submitted".
Arabic salām (سَلاَم), Maltese sliem, Hebrew šālōm (שָׁלוֹם), Ge'ez sälam (ሰላም), Syriac šlama (pronounced Shlama, or Shlomo in the Western Syriac dialect) (ܫܠܡܐ), Mandaic šlama (ࡔࡋࡀࡌࡀ) are cognate Semitic terms for 'peace', deriving from a Proto-Semitic *šalām-.