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was inferted there inftead of MAAXOT TOT 
MAAXOT. They at the fame time moft clearly 
evince, notwithftanding what has been advanced to 
the contrary by Dr. Bernard and Dr. Smith, that the 
word AIXMAAXOT is not of oriental extraction. 
4. The furname PHILIPP VS, which ought to have 
followed IVLIVS, in the feventh line of this in- 
fcription, does not appear ; though a chafm, or vacant 
fpace, capable of containing a word of that fize, 
prefents itfelf there to our view. This, in con- 
junction with the parallel chafm, exhibited by the 
Greek infcription, exprefling much of the fenfe of 
the Palmyrene one I am confidering, amounts, in 
my opinion, to an almofl irrefragable proof, that this 
furname, as our great Dr. Halley formerly fuppofed, 
was, after Philip ' s treafon to the emperor Gordian 
came to light, purpofely effaced. 
y . The laft letter but one of the fixth line of our 
Palmyrene infcription feems to refemble Daleth or 
Refchy whereas it was undoubtedly defigned at firfl 
for Ajin ; fo that the name to which it belongs 
ought to be written in Hebrew or Chaldee letters 
IAREHBAAL, IARIHBAL, or IARIBOL, 
i. e. DOMINVS LVNVS. From whence we may 
certainly infer, as Dr. Halley has obferved, that this 
deity was the DEVS LVNVS worfhiped by the 
antient Syrians. I have therefore taken the liberty 
to reftore the true reading here, by converting the 
Daleth or Refch into Ajin ; as alfo to infert the 
word *Q, BAR, FILIVS, notwithstanding it has 
probably for many ages difappeared, as the laft in 
the firft line of the infcription. 
6. The numeral characters preferved at the end 
of this infcription merit the particular attention of 
the 
