In his column today, Philologos mentions William Bradford (1590–1657), the first governor of the Plymouth Colony who described its founders giving thanks to God upon their arrival. Israel Benporat considers the mysterious motto on his tombstone:

Etched on the stone are three Hebrew words that in English read, “God is the help of my life.” The inscription reflects Bradford’s Puritan piety and profound engagement with the Old Testament. Yet the phrase itself does not appear anywhere in the Bible. Why commemorate Bradford with a pseudo-scriptural citation?

A local newspaper, the Columbian Centinel [sic], provided two key details about the monument’s creation. First, the inscription contained a different Hebrew phrase than the one currently carved into the stone: “[God] is the portion of my inheritance,” drawn from Psalm 16:5. Bradford himself had also placed the same words at the top of a theological manuscript he composed in 1652. . . .

Around the same time, he penned the phrase that later adorned his gravestone, Bradford began studying biblical Hebrew. In the opening pages of his manuscript history of Plymouth, he added an extensive Hebrew vocabulary and a series of scriptural citations. Bradford’s exercises reflected his deep desire to understand the Old Testament in its original language.

The change from “portion of my inheritance” to “help of my life” remains a mystery. Was it an intentional reframing of Bradford’s legacy or simply a stonemason’s error during a restoration?

Addressing a recent meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Central Committee, Mahmoud Abbas criticized Hamas more sharply than he has previously (at least in public), calling them “sons of dogs.” The eighty-nine-year-old Palestinian Authority president urged the terrorist group to “stop the war of extermination in Gaza” and “hand over the American hostages.” The editors of the New York Sun comment:

Mr. Abbas has long been at odds with Hamas, which violently ousted his Fatah party from Gaza in 2007. The tone of today’s outburst, though, is new. Comparing rivals to canines, which Arabs consider dirty, is startling. Its motivation, though, was unrelated to the plight of the 59 remaining hostages, including 23 living ones. Instead, it was an attempt to use an opportune moment for reviving Abbas’s receding clout.

[W]hile Hamas’s popularity among Palestinians soared after its orgy of killing on October 7, 2023, it is now sinking. The terrorists are hoarding Gaza aid caches that Israel declines to replenish. As the war drags on, anti-Hamas protests rage across the Strip. Polls show that Hamas’s previously elevated support among West Bank Arabs is also down. Striking the iron while it’s hot, Abbas apparently longs to retake center stage. Can he?

Diminishing support for Hamas is yet to match the contempt Arabs feel toward Abbas himself. Hamas considers him irrelevant for what it calls “the resistance.”

[Meanwhile], Abbas is yet to condemn Hamas’s October 7 massacre. His recent announcement of ending alms for terror is a ruse.

Abbas, it’s worth noting, hasn’t saved all his epithets for Hamas. He also twice said of the Americans, “may their fathers be cursed.” Of course, after a long career of anti-Semitic incitement, Abbas can’t be expected to have a moral awakening. Nor is there much incentive for him to fake one. But, like the protests in Gaza, Abbas’s recent diatribe is a sign that Hamas is perceived as weak and that its stock is sinking.