One side of the stone carries the Northwest Semitic (Phoenician) abecedary[4] extending over two lines: Rendered in the modern Hebrew alphabet, this corresponds to the sequence: In other words, the Zayit abecedary has the order ו ה ח ז ט י ל כ‎ compared to the standard Semitic abjad order of ה ו ז ח ט י כ ל‎, switching the positions of he and waw, of zayin and heth, and of kaph and lamedh.

[5] The side opposite this inscription has a bowl-shaped depression measuring 18.5 by 14.5 by 6.7 centimetres (7.3 in × 5.7 in × 2.6 in), a volume of approximately 1.8 litres (110 cu in).

The Tel Zayit abecedary adds to the corpus of inland Canaanite alphabetic inscriptions from the early Iron Age and thus provides additional evidence for literacy in the region during this period.

In addition to the above broad historical concerns, the inscription is significant primarily due to the light it sheds on the development of letter forms in the southern Canaanite interior of the early Iron Age.

Because the stratigraphy of the site and the date of the inscription itself are still debated, it is difficult to come to any definite historical or chronologically absolute conclusions.