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Title: Patriarchal Palestine

Author: Archibald Henry Sayce

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{1}

PATRIARCHAL PALESTINE

BY

THE REV. A.H. SAYCE

PROFESSOR OF ASSYRIOLOGY, OXFORD

WITH A MAP

PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE TRACT COMMITTEE

LONDON:
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE,
NORTHUMBERLAND
AVENUE, CHARING CROSS, W.C.;
43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C.

BRIGHTON: 129, NORTH STREET.
NEW YORK: E. & J.B. YOUNG &
CO.

RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED,
LONDON &
BUNGAY.
{3}

THE CHIEF PLACES MENTIONED IN THE BOOKS OF GENESIS AND EXODUS

PREFACE

A few years ago the subject-matter of the present volume might have been
condensed into a few pages. Beyond what we would gather from the Old Testament,
we knew but little about the history and geography of Canaan before the age of
its conquest by the Israelites. Thanks, however, to the discovery and
decipherment of the ancient monuments of Babylonia and Assyria, of Egypt and of
Palestine, all this is now changed. A flood of light has been poured upon the
earlier history of the country and its inhabitants, and though we are still only
at the beginning of our discoveries we can already sketch the outlines of
Canaanitish history, and even fill them in here and there.

Throughout I have assumed that in the narrative of the Pentateuch we have
history and not fiction. Indeed the archaeologist cannot do otherwise.
Monumental research is making it clearer every day that the scepticism of the
so-called "higher criticism" is not justified in fact. Those who {4} would examine the proofs of
this must turn to my book on The Higher Criticism and the Verdict of the
Monuments. There I have written purely as an archaeologist, who belongs to
no theological school, and consequently readers of the work must see in it
merely the irreducible minimum of confidence in the historical trustworthiness
of the Old Testament, with which oriental archaeology can be satisfied. But it
is obvious that this irreducible minimum is a good deal less than what a
fair-minded historian will admit. The archaeological facts support the
traditional rather than the so-called "critical" view of the age and authority
of the Pentateuch, and tend to show that we have in it not only a historical
monument whose statements can be trusted, but also what is substantially a work
of the great Hebrew legislator himself.

For those who "profess and call themselves Christians," however, there is
another side to the question besides the archaeological. The modern "critical"
views in regard to the Pentateuch are in violent contradiction to the teaching
and belief of the Jewish Church in the time of our Lord, and this teaching and
belief has been accepted by Christ and His Apostles, and inherited by the
Christian Church. It is a teaching and belief which lies at the root of many of
the dogmas of the Church, and if we are to reject or revise it, we must at the
same time reject and revise historical Christianity. It is difficult to see how
we can call ourselves Christians in the sense which the term {5} has borne for the last
eighteen hundred years, and at the same time repudiate or modify, in accordance
with our individual fancies, the articles of faith which historical Christianity
has maintained everywhere and at all periods. For those who look beyond the
covers of grammars and lexicons, the great practical fact of historical
Christianity must outweigh all the speculations of individual scholars, however
ingenious and elaborate they may be. It is for the individual to harmonize his
conclusions with the immemorial doctrine of the Church, not for the Church to
reconcile its teaching with the theories of the individual. Christ promised that
the Spirit of God should guide His Apostles and their followers into "all
truth," and those who believe the promise cannot also believe that the "Spirit
of Truth" has been at any time a Spirit of illusion.

Oriental archaeology, at all events, is on the side of those who see in the
Hebrew patriarchs real men of flesh and blood, and who hold that in the
narratives of the Pentateuch we have historical records many of which go back to
the age of the events they describe. Each fresh discovery made by the
archaeologist yields fresh testimony to the truth of the Old Testament stories.
Since the manuscript of the present work was ready for the press, two such
discoveries have been made by Mr. Pinches, to whom oriental archaeology and
Biblical research are already under such deep obligations, and it has been
possible only to glance at them in the text.
{6}

He has found a broken cuneiform tablet which once gave an account of the
reign of Khammurabi, the contemporary of Chedor-laomer and Arioch, of the wars
that he carried on, and of the steps by which he rose to the supreme power in
Babylonia, driving the Elamites out of it, overthrowing his rival Arioch, and
making Babylon for the first time the capital of a united kingdom. Unfortunately
the tablet is much broken, but what is left alludes to his campaigns against
Elam and Rabbatu—perhaps a city of Palestine, of his reduction of Babylon, and
of his successes against Eri-Aku or Arioch of Larsa, Tudghulla or Tidal, the son
of Gazza ... and Kudur-Lagamar or Chedor-laomer himself. The Hebrew text of
Genesis has thus been verified even to the spelling of the proper names. The
other discovery of Mr. Pinches is still more interesting. The name of Ab-ramu or
Abram had already been found in Babylonian contracts of the age of Khammurabi;
Mr. Pinches has now found in them the specifically Hebrew names of Ya'qub-ilu or
Jacob-el and Yasup-ilu or Joseph-el. It will be remembered that the names of
Jacob-el and Joseph-el had already been detected among the places in Palestine
conquered by the Egyptian monarch Thothmes III., and it had been accordingly
inferred that the full names of the Hebrew patriarchs must have been Jacob-el
and Joseph-el. Jacob and Joseph are abbreviations analogous to Jephthah by the
side of Jiphthah-el (Josh. xix. 14), of Jeshurun by the side of Isra-el, {7} or of the Egyptian Yurahma
by the side of the Biblical Jerahme-el. As is mentioned in a later page, a
discovery recently made by Prof. Flinders Petrie has shown that the name of
Jacob-el was actually borne not only in Babylonia, but also in the West. Scarabs
exist, which he assigns to the period when Egypt was ruled by invaders from
Asia, and on which is written the name of a Pharaoh Ya'aqub-hal or Jacob-el.

Besides the names of Jacob-el and Joseph-el, Mr. Pinches has met with other
distinctively Hebrew names, like Abdiel, in deeds drawn up in the time of the
dynasty to which Khammurabi belonged. There were therefore Hebrews—or at least a
Hebrew-speaking population—living in Babylonia at the period to which the Old
Testament assigns the lifetime of Abraham. But this is not all. As I pointed out
five years ago, the name of Khammurabi himself, like those of the rest of the
dynasty of which he was a member, are not Babylonian but South Arabian. The
words with which they are compounded, and the divine names which they contain,
do not belong to the Assyrian and Babylonian language, and there is a cuneiform
tablet in which they are given with their Assyrian translations. The dynasty
must have had close relations with South Arabia. This, however, is not the most
interesting part of the matter. The names are not South Arabian only, they are
Hebrew as well. That of Khammu-rabi, for instance, is compounded with the name
of the god {8} 'Am, which
is written 'Ammi in the name of his descendant Ammi-zaduqa, and 'Am or 'Ammi
characterizes not only South Arabia, but the Hebrew-speaking lands as well. We
need only mention names like Ammi-nadab or Ben-Ammi in illustration of the fact.
Equally Hebrew and South Arabian is zaduqa or zadoq; but it was a
word unknown to the Assyrian language of Babylonia.

When Abraham therefore was born in Ur of the Chaldees, a dynasty was ruling
there which was not of Babylonian origin, but belonged to a race which was at
once Hebrew and South Arabian. The contract tablets prove that a population with
similar characteristics was living under them in the country. Could there be a
more remarkable confirmation of the statements which we find in the tenth
chapter of Genesis? There we read that "unto Eber were born two sons: the name
of the one was Peleg," the ancestor of the Hebrews, while the name of the other
was Joktan, the ancestor of the tribes of South Arabia. The parallelism between
the Biblical account and the latest discovery of archaeological science is thus
complete, and makes it impossible to believe that the Biblical narrative would
have been compiled in Palestine at the late date to which our modern "critics"
would assign it. All recollection of the facts embodied in it would then have
long passed away.

Even while I write Prof. Hommel is announcing fresh discoveries which bear on
the early history {9} of
the Book of Genesis. Cuneiform tablets have turned up from which we gather that
centuries before the age of Abraham, a king of Ur, Ine-Sin by name, had not only
overrun Elam, but had also conquered Simurru, the Zemar of Gen. x. 18, in the
land of Phoenicia. A daughter of the same king or of one of his immediate
successors, was high-priestess both of Elam and of Markhas or Mer'ash in
Northern Syria, while Kimas or Northern Arabia was overrun by the Babylonian
arms. Proofs consequently are multiplying of the intimate relations that existed
between Babylonia and Western Asia long before the era of the Patriarchs, and we
need no longer feel any surprise that Abraham should have experienced so little
difficulty in migrating into Canaan, or that he should have found there the same
culture as that which he had left behind in Ur. The language and script of
Babylonia must have been almost as well known to the educated Canaanite as to
himself, and the records of the Patriarchal Age would have been preserved in the
libraries of Canaan down to the time of its conquest by the Israelites.

Perhaps a word or two is needed in explanation of the repetitions which will
be found here and there in the following pages. They have been necessitated by
the form into which I have been obliged to cast the book. A consecutive history
of Patriarchal Palestine cannot be written at present, if indeed it ever can be,
and the subject therefore has to be treated under a series of separate heads.
{10} This has sometimes
made repetitions unavoidable without a sacrifice of clearness.

In conclusion it will be noted, that the name of the people who were
associated with the Philistines in their wars against Egypt and occupation of
Palestine has been changed from Zakkur to Zakkal. This has been in consequence
of a keen-sighted observation of Prof. Hommel. He has pointed out that in a
Babylonian text of the Kassite period, the people in question are mentioned
under the name of Zaqqalu, which settles the reading of the hieroglyphic word.
(See the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archaeology for May
1895.)

A.H. SAYCE.

September 30, 1895.
{11}

THE KINGS OF EGYPT AND BABYLONIA DURING THE PATRIARCHAL AGE.

EGYPT.

Dynasties XV., XVI., and XVII.—Hyksos or Shepherd-kings (from Manetho).

Dynasty XV.—

yrs.

mths.

1.

Salatis

reigned

13

0

2.

Beon, or Bnon

reigned

44

0

3.

Apakhnas, or Pakhnan

reigned

36

7

4.

Apôphis I

reigned

61

0

5.

Yanias or Annas

reigned

50

1

6.

Assis

reigned

49

2

Of the Sixteenth Dynasty nothing is known. Of the Seventeenth the monuments
have given us the names of Apôphis II. (Aa-user-Ra) and Apôphis III.
(Aa-ab-tani-Ra), in whose reign the war of independence began under the native
prince of Thebes, and lasted for four generations.

Dynasty XVIII.—

1.

Neb-pehuti-Ra, Ahmes (more than 20 years).

Amosis.

2.

Ser-ka-Ra, Amon-hotep I., his son (20 years 7 months.)

Amenophis I.

3.

Aa-kheper-ka-Ra, Thothmes I., his son, and queen
Amen-sit.

Chebron.

4.

Aa-kheper-n-Ra, Thothmes II., his son, and wife Hatshepsu
I. (more than 9 years).

Amensis.

5.

Khnum-Amon, Hatshepsu II., Mâ-ka-Ra his sister (more than
16 years).

6.

Ra-men-Kheper, Thothmes III., her brother (57 years, 11
months, 1 day, from March 20, B.C. 1503 to Feb. 14, B.C. 1449).

Misaphris.

7.

Aa-khepru-Ra, Amon-hotep II., his son (more than 5
years).

Misphragmuthosis.

8.

Men-khepru-Ra, Thothmes IV., his son (more than 7
years).

Touthmosis.

9.

Neb-mâ-Ra, Amon-hotep III., his son (more than 35 years),
and queen Teie.

Amenophis II.

10.

Nefer-khepru-Ra, Amon-hotep IV., Khu-n-Aten (also called
Khuriya), his son (more than 17 years).

Horos.

11.

Ankh-khepru-Ra and queen Meri-Aten.

Akherres.

12.

Tut-ânkh-Amon Khepru-neb-Ra, and queen Ankh-nes-Amon.

Rathotis.

13.

Aten-Ra-nefer-nefru-mer-Aten.

14.

Ai kheper-khepru-ar-mâ-Ra, and queen Thi (more than 4
years).

15.

Hor-m-hib Mi-Amon Ser-khepru-ka (more than 3 years).

Armais.

{12}

Dynasty XIX.—

1.

Men-pehuti-Ra, Ramessu I. (more than 2 years).

Ramesses.

2.

Men-mâ-Ra, Seti I., Mer-n-Ptah I. (more than 27 years), his
son.

Sethos.

3.

User-mâ-Ra, Sotep-n-Ra, Ramessu II., Mi-Amon (B.C.
1348-1281), his son.

4.

Mer-n-Ptah II., Hotep-hi-ma Ba-n-Ra, Mi-Amon, his son.

Ammenephthes.

5.

User-khepru-Ra, Seti II., Mer-n-Ptah III., his brother.

Sethos Ramesses.

6.

Amon-mesu Hik-An Mer-Khâ-Ra Sotep-n-Ra, usurper.

Amenemes.

7.

Khu-n-Ra Sotep-n-Ra, Mer-n-Ptah IV., Si-Ptah (more than 6
years), and queen Ta-user.

Thuoris.

Dynasty XX.—

1.

Set-nekht, Merer-Mi-Amon (recovered the kingdom from the
Phoenician Arisu).

2.

Ramessu III., Hik-An, his son (more than 32 years).

3.

Ramessu IV., Hik-Mâ Mi-Amon (more than 11 years).

4.

Ramessu V., User-Mâ-s-Kheper-n-Ra Mi-Amon (more than 4
years).

5.

Ramessu VI., Neb-mâ-Ra Mi-Amon Amon-hir-khopesh-f (Ramessu
Meri-Tum, a rival king in Northern Egypt).

6.

Ramessu VII., At-Amon User-mâ-Ra Mi-Amon.

7.

Ramessu VIII., Set-hir-khopesh-f Mi-Amon User-mâ-Ra
Khu-n-Amon.

8.

Ramessu IX., Si-Ptah S-khâ-n-Ra Mi-Amon (19 years).

9.

Ramessu X., Nefer-ka-Ra Mi-Amon Sotep-n-Ra (more than 10
years).

10.

Ramessu XI, Amon-hir-khopesh-f Kheper-mâ-Ra
Sotep-n-Ra.

11.

Ramessu XII., Men-mâ-Ra Mi-Amon Sotep-n-Ptah Khâ-m-Uas
(more than 27 years).

Dynasty I. of Babylon—

1. Sumu-abi, 15 years, B.C. 2458.

2. Sumu-la-ilu, his son, 35 years.

3. Zabû, his son, 14 years.

4. Abil-Sin, his son, 18 years.

5. Sin-muballidh, his son, 30 years.

6. Khammu-rabi, his son, 55 years (at first under the sovereignty of
Chedor-laomer, the Elamite; by the conquest of Eri-Aku and the Elamites he
unites Babylonia, B.C. 2320).

7. Samsu-iluna, his son, 35 years.

8. Ebisum, or Abi-esukh, his son, 25 years.

9. Ammi-satana, his son, 25 years.

10. Ammi-zaduga, his son, 21 years.

11. Samsu-satana, his son, 31 years.

Dynasty II. of Uru-azagga, B.C. 2154—

1. Anman, 51 (or 60) years.

2. Ki-nigas, 55 years.

3. Damki-ili-su, 46 years.

4. Iskipal, 15 years.

5. Sussi, his brother, 27 years.

6. Gul-kisar, 55 years.

7. Kirgal-daramas, his son, 50 years.

8. A-dara-kalama, his son, 28 years.

9. A-kur-du-ana, 26 years.

10. Melamma-kurkura, 6 years.

11. Bel-ga[mil?], 9 years.

{13}

Dynasty III., of the Kassites, B.C. 1786—

1. Gandis, or Gaddas, 16 years.

2. Agum-Sipak, his son, 22 years.

3. Guya-Sipak, his son, 22 years.

4. Ussi, his son, 8 years.

5. Adu-medas, ... years.

6. Tazzi-gurumas, ... years.

7. Agum-kak-rimi, his son, ... years.

(The following order of succession is taken from Dr. Hilprecht.)

14. Kallimma-Sin.

15. Kudur-Bel.

16. Sagarakti-buryas, his son.

17. Kuri-galzu I.

18. Kara-indas,

19. Burna-buryas, his nephew, B.C. 1400.

20. Kara-Khardas, son of Kara-indas.

21. Nazi-bugas, or Su-zigas, an usurper.

22. Kuri-galzu II., son of Burna-buryas, 2. years.

23. Nazi-Maruttas, his son, 26 years.

24. Kadasman-Turgu, his son, 17 years.

25. Kadasman-Burias, his son, 2 years.

26. Gis-amme ti, 6 years.

27. Saga-rakti-suryas 13 years.

28. Kasbat, or Bibe-yasu, his son, 8 years.

29. Bel-nadin-sumi, 1 year 6 months.

30. Kadasman-Kharbe, 1 year 6 months.

31. Rimmon-nadin-sumi, 6 years.

32. Rimmon-sum-utsur, 30 years (including 7 years of occupation of Babylon
by the Assyrian king, Tiglath-Ninip).

33. Mile-Sipak, 15 years.

34. Merodach-baladan I., his son, 13 years.

35. Zamania-nadin-sunii I., 1 year.

36. Bel-sum-iddin, 3 years.

{14}

CONTENTS

I.
THE LAND

II.
THE PEOPLE

III.
THE BABYLONIANS IN CANAAN, AND THE EGYPTIAN CONQUEST

IV.
THE PATRIARCHS

V.
EGYPTIAN TRAVELLERS IN CANAAN

VI.
CANAANITISH CULTURE AND RELIGION

INDEX

{15}

CHAPTER I

THE LAND

Patriarchal Palestine! There are some who would tell us that the very name is
a misnomer. Have we not been assured by the German critics and their English
disciples that there were no patriarchs and no Patriarchal Age? And yet, the
critics notwithstanding, the Patriarchal Age has actually existed. While
criticism, so-called, has been busy in demolishing the records of the
Pentateuch, archaeology, by the spade of the excavator and the patient skill of
the decipherer, has been equally busy in restoring their credit. And the
monuments of the past are a more solid argument than the guesses and
prepossessions of the modern theorist. The clay tablet and inscribed stone are
better witnesses to the truth than literary tact or critical scepticism. That
Moses and his contemporaries could neither read nor write may {16} have been proved to
demonstration by the critic; yet nevertheless we now know, thanks to
archaeological discovery, that it would have been a miracle if the critic were
right. The Pentateuch is, after all, what it professes to be, and the records it
contains are history and not romance.

The question of its authenticity involves issues more serious and important
than those which have to do merely with history or archaeology. We are sometimes
told indeed, in all honesty of purpose, that it is a question of purely literary
interest, without influence on our theological faith. But the whole fabric of
the Jewish Church in the time of our Lord was based upon the belief that the Law
of Moses came from God, and that this God "is not a man that He should lie." And
the belief of the Jewish Church was handed on to the Christian Church along with
all its consequences. To revise that belief is to revise the dogmas of the
Christian Church as they have been held for the last eighteen centuries; to
reject it utterly is to reject the primary document of the faith into which we
have been baptized.

It is not, however, with theological matters that we are now concerned.
Patriarchal Palestine is for us the Palestine of the Patriarchal Age, as it has
been disclosed by archaeological research, not the Palestine in which the
revelation of God's will to man was to be made. It is sufficient for us that the
Patriarchal Age has been shown by modern discovery to be a fact, and that in the
narratives of {17} the
Book of Genesis we have authentic records of the past. There was indeed a
Patriarchal Palestine, and the glimpses of it that we get in the Old Testament
have been illustrated and supplemented by the ancient monuments of the Oriental
world.

Whether the name of Palestine can be applied to the country with strict
accuracy at this early period is a different question. Palestine is Philistia,
the land of the Philistines, and the introduction of the name was subsequent to
the settlement of the Philistines in Canaan and the era of their victories over
Israel. As we shall see later on, it is probable that they did not reach the
Canaanitish coast until the Patriarchal Age was almost, if not entirely, past
Their name does not occur in the cuneiform correspondence which was carried on
between Canaan and Egypt in the century before the Exodus, and they are first
heard of as forming part of that great confederacy of northern tribes which
attacked Egypt and Canaan in the days of Moses. But, though the term Canaan
would doubtless be more correct than Palestine, the latter has become so purely
geographical in meaning that we can employ it without reference to history or
date. Its signification is too familiar to cause mistakes, and it can therefore
be used proleptically, just as the name of the Philistines themselves is used
proleptically in the twenty-first chapter of Genesis. Abimelech was king of a
people who inhabited the same part of the country as the Philistines in later
times, and were thus their earlier representatives.
{18}

The term "Palestine" then is used geographically without any reference to its
historical origin. It denotes the country which is known as Canaan in the Old
Testament, which was promised to Abraham and conquered by his descendants. It is
the land in which David ruled and in which Christ was born, where the prophets
prepared the way for the Gospel and the Christian Church was founded.

Shut in between the Desert of Arabia and the Mediterranean Sea on the east
and west, it is a narrow strip of territory, for the most part mountainous,
rugged, and barren. Northward the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon come to meet it from
Syria, the Anti-Lebanon culminating in the lofty peaks and precipitous ravines
of Mount Hermon (9383 feet above the level of the sea), while Lebanon runs
southward till it juts out into the sea in its sacred headland of Carmel. The
fertile plain of Esdraelon or Megiddo separates the mountains of the north from
those of the south. These last form a broken plateau between the Jordan and the
Dead Sea on the one side and the Plain of Sharon and the sea-coast of the
Philistines on the other, until they finally slope away into the arid desert of
the south. Here, on the borders of the wilderness, was Beersheba the southern
limit of the land in the days of the monarchy, Dan, its northern limit, lying
far away to the north at the foot of Hermon, and not far from the sources of the
Jordan.

Granite and gneiss, overlaid with hard dark sandstone {19} and masses of secondary limestone, form as
it were the skeleton of the country. Here and there, at Carmel and Gerizim,
patches of the tertiary nummulite of Egypt make their appearance, and in the
plains of Megiddo and the coast, as well as in the "Ghor" or valley of the
Jordan, there is rich alluvial soil. But elsewhere all is barren or nearly so,
cultivation being possible only by terracing the cliffs, and bringing the soil
up to them from the plains below with slow and painful labour. It has often been
said that Palestine was more widely cultivated in ancient times than it is
to-day. But if so, this was only because a larger area of the cultivable ground
was tilled. The plains of the coast, which are now given over to malaria and
Beduin thieves, were doubtless thickly populated and well sown. But of ground
actually fit for cultivation there could not have been a larger amount than
there is at present.

It was not in any way a well-wooded land. On the slopes of the Lebanon and of
Carmel, it is true, there were forests of cedar-trees, a few of which still
survive, and the Assyrian kings more than once speak of cutting them down or
using them in their buildings at Nineveh. But south of the Lebanon forest trees
were scarce; the terebinth was so unfamiliar a sight in the landscape as to
become an object of worship or a road-side mark. Even the palm grew only on the
sea-coast or in the valley of the Jordan, and the tamarisk and sycamore were
hardly more than shrubs.
{20}

Nevertheless when the Israelites first entered Canaan, it was in truth a land
"flowing with milk and honey." Goats abounded on the hills, and the bee of
Palestine, though fierce, is still famous for its honey-producing powers. The
Perizzites or "fellahin" industriously tilled the fields, and high-walled cities
stood on the mountain as well as on the plain.

The highlands, however, were deficient in water. A few streams fall into the
sea south of Carmel, but except in the spring, when they have been swollen by
the rains, there is but little water in them. The Kishon, which irrigates the
plain of Megiddo, is a more important river, but it too is little more than a
mountain stream. In fact, the Jordan is the only river in the true sense of the
word which Palestine possesses. Rising to the north of the waters of Merom, now
called Lake Hûleh, it flows first into the Lake of Tiberias, and then through a
long deep valley into the Dead Sea. Here at a depth of 1293 feet below the level
of the sea it is swallowed up and lost; the sea has no outlet, and parts with
its stagnant waters through evaporation alone. The evaporation has made it
intensely salt, and its shores are consequently for the most part the picture of
death.

In the valley of the Jordan, on the other hand, vegetation is as luxuriant
and tropical as in the forests of Brazil. Through a dense undergrowth of canes
and shrubs the river forces its way, rushing forward towards its final gulf of
extinction {21} with a
fall of 670 feet since it left the Lake of Tiberias. But the distance thus
travelled by it is long in comparison with its earlier fall of 625 feet between
Lake Hûleh and the Sea of Galilee. Here it has cut its way through a deep gorge,
the cliffs of which rise up almost sheer on either side.

The Jordan has taken its name from its rapid fall. The word comes from a root
which signifies "to descend," and the name itself means "the down-flowing." We
can trace it back to the Egyptian monuments of the nineteenth and twentieth
dynasties. Ramses II., the Pharaoh of the Oppression, has inscribed it on the
walls of Karnak, and Ramses III., who must have reigned while the Israelites
were still in the wilderness, enumerates the "Yordan" at Medînet Habu among his
conquests in Palestine. In both cases it is associated with "the Lake of
Rethpana," which must accordingly be the Egyptian name of the Dead Sea. Rethpana
might correspond with a Hebrew Reshphôn, a derivative from Resheph, the god of
fire. Canaanite mythology makes the sparks his "children" (Job v. 7) and it may
be, therefore, that in this old name of the Dead Sea we have a reference to the
overthrow of the cities of the plain.

Eastward of the Dead Sea and the Jordan the country is again mountainous and
bare. Here were the territories of Reuben and Gad, and the half-tribe of
Manasseh; here also were the kingdoms of Moab and Ammon, of Bashan and the {22} Amorites. Here too was
the land of Gilead, south of the Lake of Tiberias and north of the Dead Sea.

We can read the name of Muab or Moab on the base of the second of the six
colossal statues which Ramses II. erected in front of the northern pylon of the
temple of Luxor. It is there included among his conquests. The statue is the
only Egyptian monument on which the name has hitherto been found. But this
single mention is sufficient to guarantee its antiquity, and to prove that in
the days before the Exodus it was already well known in Egypt.

To the north of Moab came the kingdom of Ammon, or the children of Ammi. The
name of Ammon was a derivative from that of the god Ammi or Ammo, who seems to
have been regarded as the ancestor of the nation, and "the father of the
children of Ammon" was accordingly called Ben-Ammi, "the son of Ammi" (Gen. xix.
38). Far away in the north, close to the junction of the rivers Euphrates and
Sajur, and but a few miles to the south of the Hittite stronghold of Carchemish,
the worship of the same god seems to have been known to the Aramaean tribes. It
was here that Pethor stood, according to the Assyrian inscriptions, and it was
from Pethor that the seer Balaam came to Moab to curse the children of Israel.
Pethor, we are told, was "by the river (Euphrates) of the land of the children
of Ammo," where the word represents a proper name (Num. {23} xxii. 5). To translate it "his people," as
is done by the Authorized Version, makes no sense. On the Assyrian monuments
Ammon is sometimes spoken of as Beth-Ammon, "the house of Ammon," as if Ammon
had been a living man.

Like Moab, Ammon was a region of limestone mountains and barren cliffs. But
there were fertile fields on the banks of the Jabbok, the sources of which rose
not far from the capital Rabbath.

North of Gilead and the Yarmuk was the volcanic plateau of Bashan,
Ziri-Basana, or "the Plain of Bashan," as it is termed in the cuneiform tablets
of Tel el-Amarna. Its western slope towards the Lakes of Merom and Tiberias was
known as Golan (now Jolân); its eastern plateau of metallic lava was Argob, "the
stony" (now El Lejja). Bashan was included in the Haurân, the name of which we
first meet with on the monuments of the Assyrian king Assur-bani-pal. To the
north it was bounded by Ituraea, so named from Jetur, the son of Ishmael (Gen.
xxv. 15), the road through Ituraea (the modern Jedur) leading to Damascus and
its well-watered plain.

The gardens of Damascus lie 2260 feet above the sea. In the summer the air is
cooled by the mountain breezes; in the winter the snow sometimes lies upon the
surface of the land. Westward the view is closed by the white peaks of
Anti-Lebanon and Hermon; eastward the eye wanders over a green plain covered
with the mounds of old towns and villages, and intersected by the clear {24} and rapid streams of the
Abana and Pharphar. But the Abana has now become the Barada, or "cold one,"
while the Pharphar is the Nahr el-Awaj.

The Damascus of to-day stands on the site of the city from which St. Paul
escaped, and "the street which is called Straight" can still be traced by its
line of Roman columns. But it is doubtful whether the Damascus of the New
Testament and of to-day is the same as the Damascus of the Old Testament. Where
the walls of the city have been exposed to view, we see that their Greek
foundations rest on the virgin soil; no remains of an earlier period lie beneath
them. It may be, therefore, that the Damascus of Ben-Hadad and Hazael is marked
rather by one of the mounds in the plain than by the modern town. In one of
these the stone statue of a man, in the Assyrian style, was discovered a few
years ago.

An ancient road leads from the peach-orchards of Damascus, along the banks of
the Abana and over Anti-Lebanon, to the ruins of the temple of the Sun-god at
Baalbek. The temple as we see it is of the age of the Antonines, but it occupies
the place of one which stood in Heliopolis, the city of the Sun-god, from
immemorial antiquity. Relics of an older epoch still exist in the blocks of
stone of colossal size which serve as the foundation of the western wall. Their
bevelling reminds us of Phoenician work.

Baalbek was the sacred city of the Bek'a, or "cleft" formed between Lebanon
and Anti-Lebanon {25} by
the gorge through which the river Litâny rushes down to the sea. Once and once
only is it referred to in the Old Testament. Amos (i. 5) declares that the Lord
"will break the bar of Damascus and cut off the inhabitant from Bikath-On"—the
Bek'a of On. The name of On reminds us that the Heliopolis of Egypt, the city of
the Egyptian Sun-god, was also called On, and the question arises whether the
name and worship of the On of Syria were not derived from the On of Egypt. For
nearly two centuries Syria was an Egyptian province, and the priests of On in
Egypt may well have established themselves in the "cleft" valley of
Coele-Syria.

From Baalbek, the city of "Baal of the Bek'a," the traveller makes his way
across Lebanon, and under the snows of Jebel Sannîn—nearly 9000 feet in
height—to the old Phoenician city of Beyrout. Beyrout is already mentioned in
the cuneiform tablets of Tel el-Amarna under the name of Beruta or Beruna, "the
cisterns." It was already a seaport of Phoenicia, and a halting-place on the
high road that ran along the coast.

The coastland was known to the Greeks and Romans as Phoenicia, "the land of
the palm." But its own inhabitants called it Canaan, "the lowlands." It included
not only the fringe of cultivated land by the sea-shore, but the western slopes
of the Lebanon as well. Phoenician colonies and outposts had been planted
inland, far away from the coast, as at Laish, the future Dan, where {26} "the people dwelt
careless," though "they were far away from the Sidonians," or at Zemar (the
modern Sumra) and Arka (still called by the same name). The territory of the
Phoenicians stretched southward as far as Dor (now Tanturah), where it met the
advance guard of the Philistines.

Such was Palestine, the promised home of Israel. It was a land of rugged and
picturesque mountains, interspersed with a few tracts of fertile country, shut
in between the sea and the ravine of the Jordan, and falling away into the
waterless desert of the south. It was, too, a land of small extent, hardly more
than one hundred and sixty miles in length and sixty miles in width. And even
this amount of territory was possessed by the Israelites only during the reigns
of David and Solomon. The sea-coast with its harbours was in the hands of the
Phoenicians and the Philistines, and though the Philistines at one time owned an
unwilling allegiance to the Jewish king, the Phoenicians preserved their
independence, and even Solomon had to find harbours for his merchantmen, not on
the coast of his own native kingdom, but in the distant Edomite ports of Eloth
and Ezion-geber, in the Gulf of Aqabah. With the loss of Edom Judah ceased to
have a foreign trade.

The Negeb, or desert of the south, was then, what it still is, the haunt of
robbers and marauders. The Beduin of to-day are the Amalekites of Old Testament
history; and then, as now, they infested the southern frontier of Judah, wasting
and robbing {27} the
fields of the husbandman, and allying themselves with every invader who came
from the south, Saul, indeed, punished them, as Romans and Turks have punished
them since; but the lesson is remembered only for a short while: when the strong
hand is removed, the "sons of the desert" return again like the locusts to their
prey.

It is true that the Beduin now range over the loamy plains and encamp among
the marshes of Lake Hûleh, where in happier times their presence was unknown.
But this is the result of a weak and corrupt government, added to the
depopulation of the lowlands. There are traces even in the Old Testament that in
periods of anarchy and confusion the Amalekites penetrated far into the country
in a similar fashion. In the Song of Deborah and Barak Ephraim is said to have
contended against them, and accordingly "Pirathon in the land of Ephraim" is
described as being "in the mount of the Amalekites" (Judges xii. 15). In the
cuneiform tablets of Tel el-Amarna, too, there is frequent mention of the
"Plunderers" by whom the Beduin, the Shasu of the Egyptian texts, must be meant,
and who seem to have been generally ready at hand to assist a rebellious vassal
or take part in a civil feud.

Lebanon, the "white" mountain, took its name from its cliffs of glistening
limestone. In the early days of Canaan it was believed to be the habitation of
the gods, and Phoenician inscriptions exist dedicated to Baal-Lebanon, "the Baal
of Lebanon." {28} He was
the special form of the Sun-god whose seat was in the mountain-ranges that shut
in Phoenicia on the east, and whose spirit was supposed to dwell in some
mysterious way in the mountains themselves. But there were certain peaks which
lifted themselves up prominently to heaven, and in which consequently the
sanctity of the whole range was as it were concentrated. It was upon their
summits that the worshipper felt himself peculiarly near the God of heaven, and
where therefore the altar was built and the sacrifice performed. One of these
peaks was Hermon, "the consecrated," whose name the Greeks changed into
Harmonia, the wife of Agenor the Phoenician. From its top we can see Palestine
spread as it were before us, and stretching southwards to the mountains of
Judah. The walls of the temple, which in Greek times took the place of the
primitive altar, can still be traced there, and on its slopes, or perched above
its ravines, are the ruins of other temples of Baal—at Dêr el-'Ashair, at
Rakleh, at Ain Hersha, at Rashêyat el-Fukhâr—all pointing towards the central
sanctuary on the summit of the mountain.

The name of Hermon, "the consecrated," was but an epithet, and the mountain
had other and more special names of its own. The Sidonians, we are told (Deut.
iii. 9), called it Sirion, and another of its titles was Sion (Deut. iv. 48),
unless indeed this is a corrupt reading for Sirion. Its Amorite name was Shenir
(Deut. iii. 9), which appears {29} as Saniru in an Assyrian inscription, and goes back
to the earliest dawn of history. When the Babylonians first began to make
expeditions against the West, long before the birth of Abraham, the name of
Sanir was already known. It was then used to denote the whole of Syria, so that
its restriction to Mount Hermon alone must have been of later date.

Another holy peak was Carmel, "the fruitful field," or perhaps originally
"the domain of the god." It was in Mount Carmel that the mountain ranges of the
north ended finally, and the altar on its summit could be seen from afar by the
Phoenician sailors. Here the priests of Baal called in vain upon their god that
he might send them rain, and here was "the altar of the Lord" which Elijah
repaired.

The mountains of the south present no striking peak or headland like Hermon
and Carmel. Even Tabor belongs to the north. Ebal and Gerizim alone, above
Shechem, stand out among their fellows, and were venerated as the abodes of
deity from the earliest times. The temple-hill at Jerusalem owed its sanctity
rather to the city within the boundaries of which it stood than to its own
character. In fact, the neighbouring height of Zion towered above it. The
mountains of the south were rather highlands than lofty chains and isolated
peaks.

But on this very account they played an important part in the history of the
world. They were not too high to be habitable; they were high {30} enough to protect their
inhabitants against invasion and war. "Mount Ephraim," the block of mountainous
land of which Shechem and Samaria formed the centre, and at the southern
extremity of which the sacred city of Shiloh stood, was the natural nucleus of a
kingdom, like the southern block of which Hebron and Jerusalem were similarly
the capitals. Here there were valleys and uplands in which sufficient food could
be grown for the needs of the population, while the cities with their thick and
lofty walls were strongholds difficult to approach and still more difficult to
capture. The climate was bracing, though the winters were cold, and it reared a
race of hardy warriors and industrious agriculturists. The want of water was the
only difficulty; in most cases the people were dependent on rain-water, which
they preserved in cisterns cut out of the rock.

This block of southern mountains was the first and latest stronghold of
Israel. It constituted, in fact, the kingdoms of Samaria and Judah. Out of it,
at Shechem, came the first attempt to found a monarchy in Israel, and thus unite
the Israelitish tribes; out of it also came the second and more successful
attempt under Saul the Benjamite and David the Jew. The Israelites never
succeeded in establishing themselves on the sea-coast, and their possession of
the plain of Megiddo and the southern slopes of the Lebanon was a source of
weakness and not of strength. It led eventually to the overthrow of the kingdom
of Samaria. The northern {31} tribes in Galilee were absorbed by the older
population, and their country became "Galilee of the Gentiles," rather than an
integral part of Israel. The plain of Megiddo was long held by the Canaanites,
and up to the last was exposed to invasion from the sea-coast. It was, in fact,
the battle-field of Palestine. The army of the invader or the conqueror marched
along the edge of the sea, not through the rugged paths and dangerous defiles of
the mountainous interior, and the plain of Megiddo was the pass which led them
into its midst. The possession of the plain cut off the mountaineers of the
north from their brethren in the south, and opened the way into the heart of the
mountains themselves.

But to possess the plain was also to possess chariots and horsemen, and a
large and disciplined force. The guerilla warfare of the mountaineer was here of
no avail. Success lay on the side of the more numerous legions and the wealthier
state, on the side of the assailant and not of the assailed.

Herein lay the advantage of the kingdom of Judah. It was a compact state,
with no level plain to defend, no outlying territories to protect. Its capital
stood high upon the mountains, strongly fortified by nature and difficult of
access. While Samaria fell hopelessly and easily before the armies of Assyria,
Jerusalem witnessed the fall of Nineveh itself.

What was true of the later days of Israelitish {32} history was equally true of the age of the
patriarchs. The strength of Palestine lay in its southern highlands; whoever
gained possession of these was master of the whole country, and the road lay
open before him to Sinai and Egypt. But to gain possession of them was the
difficulty, and campaign after campaign was needed before they could be reduced
to quiet submission. In the time of the eighteenth Egyptian dynasty Jerusalem
was already the key to Southern Palestine.

Geographically, Palestine was thus a country of twofold character, and its
population was necessarily twofold as well. It was a land of mountain and plain,
of broken highlands and rocky sea-coast. Its people were partly mountaineers,
active, patriotic, and poor, with a tendency to asceticism; partly a nation of
sailors and merchants, industrious, wealthy, and luxurious, with no sense of
country or unity, and accounting riches the supreme end of life. On the one
hand, it gave the world its first lessons in maritime exploration and trade; on
the other it has been the religious teacher of mankind.

In both respects its geographical position has aided the work of its people.
Situated midway between the two great empires of the ancient Oriental world, it
was at once the high road and the meeting-place of the civilizations of Egypt
and Babylonia. Long before Abraham migrated to Canaan it had been deeply
interpenetrated by Babylonian culture and religious ideas, and long {33} before the Exodus it had
become an Egyptian province. It barred the way to Egypt for the invader from
Asia; it protected Asia from Egyptian assault. The trade of the world passed
through it and met in it; the merchants of Egypt and Ethiopia could traffic in
Palestine with the traders of Babylonia and the far East. It was destined by
nature to be a land of commerce and trade.

And yet while thus forming a highway from the civilization of the Euphrates
to that of the Nile, Palestine was too narrow a strip of country to become
itself a formidable kingdom. The empire of David scarcely lasted for more than a
single generation, and was due to the weakness at the same time of both Egypt
and Assyria. With the Arabian desert on the one side and the Mediterranean on
the other, it was impossible for Canaan to develop into a great state. Its rocks
and mountains might produce a race of hardy warriors and energetic thinkers, but
they could not create a rich and populous community. The Phoenicians on the
coast were driven towards the sea, and had to seek in maritime enterprise the
food and wealth which their own land refused to grant. Palestine was essentially
formed to be the appropriator and carrier of the ideas and culture of others,
not to be itself their origin and creator.

But when the ideas had once been brought to it they were modified and
combined, improved and generalized in a way that made them capable of universal
acceptance. Phoenician art is in no way {34} original; its elements have been drawn partly from
Babylonia, partly from Egypt; but their combination was the work of the
Phoenicians, and it was just this combination which became the heritage of
civilized man. The religion of Israel came from the wilderness, from the heights
of Sinai, and the palm-grove of Kadesh, but it was in Palestine that it took
shape and developed, until in the fullness of time the Messiah was born. Out of
Canaan have come the Prophets and the Gospel, but the Law which lay behind them
was brought from elsewhere.
{35}

CHAPTER II

THE PEOPLE

In the days of Abraham, Chedor-laomer, king of Elam and lord over the kings
of Babylonia, marched westward with his Babylonian allies, in order to punish
his rebellious subjects in Canaan. The invading army entered Palestine from the
eastern side of the Jordan. Instead of marching along the sea-coast, it took the
line of the valley of the Jordan. It first attacked the plateau of Bashan, and
then smote "the Rephaim in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzim in Ham, and the Emim
in the plain of Kiriathaim." Then it passed into Mount Seir, and subjugated the
Horites as far as El-Paran "by the wilderness." Thence it turned northward again
through the oasis of En-mishpat or Kadesh-barnea, and after smiting the
Amalekite Beduin, as well as the Amorites in Hazezon-tamar, made its way into
the vale of Siddim. There the battle took place which ended in the defeat of the
king of Sodom and his allies, who were carried away captive to the north. But at
Hobah, "on the left hand of Damascus," the {36} invaders were overtaken by "Abram the Hebrew," who
dwelt with his Amorite confederates in the plain of Mamre, and the spoil they
had seized was recovered from them.

The narrative gives us a picture of the geography and ethnology of Palestine
as it was at the beginning of the Patriarchal Age. Before that age was over it
had altered very materially; the old cities for the most part still remained,
but new races had taken the place of the older ones, new kingdoms had arisen,
and the earlier landmarks had been displaced. The Amalekite alone continued what
he had always been, the untamable nomad of the southern desert.

Rephaim or "Giants" was a general epithet applied to the prehistoric
population of the country. Og, king of Bashan in the time of the Exodus, was "of
the remnant of the Rephaim" (Deut. iii. 11); but so also were the Anakim in
Hebron, the Emim in Moab, and the Zamzummim in Ammon (Deut. ii. 11, 20).
Doubtless they represented a tall race in comparison with the Hebrews and Arabs
of the desert; and the Israelitish spies described themselves as grasshoppers by
the side of them (Numb. xiii. 33). It is possible, however, that the name was
really an ethnic one, which had only an accidental similarity in sound to the
Hebrew word for "giants." At all events, in the list of conquered Canaanitish
towns which the Pharaoh Thothmes III. of Egypt caused to be engraved on the
walls of Karnak, the name of Astartu or Ashteroth {37} Karnaim is followed by that of Anaurepâ,
in which Mr. Tomkins proposes to see On-Repha, "On of the Giant(s)." In the
close neighbourhood in classical days stood Raphôn or Raphana, Arpha of the
Dekapolis, now called Er-Râfeh, and in Raphôn it is difficult not to discern a
reminiscence of the Rephaim of Genesis.

Did these Rephaim belong to the same race as the Emim and the Anakim, or were
the latter called Rephaim or "Giants" merely because they represented the tall
prehistoric population of Canaan? The question can be more easily asked than
answered. We know from the Book of Genesis that Amorites as well as Hittites
lived at Hebron, or in its immediate vicinity. Abram dwelt in the plain of Mamre
along with three Amorite chieftains, and Hoham, king of Hebron, who fought
against Joshua, is accounted among the Amorites (Josh. x. 1). The Anakim may
therefore have been an Amorite tribe. They held themselves to be the descendants
of Anak, an ancient Canaanite god, whose female counterpart was the Phoenician
goddess Onka. But, on the other hand, the Amorites at Hebron may have been
intruders; we know that Hebron was peculiarly a Hittite city, and it is at Mamre
rather than at Hebron that the Amorite confederates of Abram had their home. It
is equally possible that the Anakim themselves may have been the stranger
element; we hear nothing about them in the days of the patriarchs, and it is
only when the Israelites prepare to enter {38} Canaan that they first make their appearance upon
the stage.

Og, king of Bashan, however, was an Amorite; of this we are assured in the
Book of Deuteronomy (iii. 8), and it is further said of him that he only
"remained of the remnant of the Rephaim." The expression is a noticeable one, as
it implies that the older population had been for the most part driven out. And
such, in fact, was the case. At Rabbath, the capital of Ammon, the basalt
sarcophagus of the last king of Bashan was preserved; but the king and his
people had alike perished. Ammonites and Israelites had taken their place.

The children of Ammon had taken possession of the land once owned by the
Zamzummim (Deut. ii. 20). The latter are called Zuzim in the narrative of
Genesis, and they are said to have dwelt in Ham. But Zuzim and Ham are merely
faulty transcriptions from a cuneiform text of the Hebrew Zamzummim and Ammon,
and the same people are meant both in Genesis and in Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy
also the Emim are mentioned, and their geographical position defined. They were
the predecessors of the Moabites, and like the Zamzummim, "a people great and
many and tall," whom the Moabites expelled doubtless at the same time as that at
which the Ammonites conquered the Zamzummim. The "plain of Kiriathaim," or "the
two cities," must have lain south of the Arnon, where Ar and Kir Haraseth were
built.
{39}

South of the Emim, in the rose-red mountains of Seir, afterwards occupied by
the Edomites, came the Horites, whose name is generally supposed to be derived
from a Hebrew word signifying "a cave." They have therefore been regarded as
Troglodytes, or cave-dwellers, a savage race of men who possessed neither houses
nor settled home. But it is quite possible to connect the name with another word
which means "white," and to see in them the representatives of a white race. The
name of Hor is associated with Beth-lehem, and Caleb, of the Edomite tribe of
Kenaz, is called "the son of Hur" (1 Chron. ii. 50, iv. 4). There is no reason
for believing that cave-dwellers ever existed in that part of Palestine.

The discovery of the site of Kadesh-barnea is due in the first instance to
Dr. Rowlands, secondly to the archaeological skill of Dr. Clay Trumbull. It is
still known as 'Ain Qadîs, "the spring of Qadis," and lies hidden within the
block of mountains which rise in the southern desert about midway between Mount
Seir and the Mediterranean Sea. The water still gushes out of the rock, fresh
and clear, and nourishes the oasis that surrounds it. It has been marked out by
nature to be a meeting-place and "sanctuary" of the desert tribes. Its central
position, its security from sudden attack, and its abundant supply of water all
combined to make it the En-Mishpat or "Spring of Judgment," where cases were
tried and laws enacted. It was here that the Israelites lingered year after year
{40} during their
wanderings in the wilderness, and it was from hence that the spies were sent out
to explore the Promised Land. In those days the mountains which encircled it
were known as "the mountains of the Amorites" (Deut. i. 19, 20). In the age of
the Babylonian invasion, however, the Amorites had not advanced so far to the
south. They were as yet only at Hazezon-tamar, the "palm-grove" on the western
shore of the Dead Sea, which a later generation called En-gedi (2 Chron. xx. 2).
En-Mishpat was still in the hands of the Amalekites, the lords of "all the
country" round about.

The Amalekites had not as yet intermingled with the Ishmaelites, and their
Beduin blood was still pure. They were the Shasu or "Plunderers" of the Egyptian
inscriptions, sometimes also termed the Sitti, the Sute of the cuneiform texts.
Like their modern descendants, they lived by the plunder of their more peaceful
neighbours. As was prophesied of Ishmael, so could it have been prophesied of
the Amalekites, that their "hand should be against every man, and every man's
hand against" them. They were the wild offspring of the wilderness, and
accounted the first-born of mankind (Numb. xxiv. 20).

From En-Mishpat the Babylonian forces marched northward along the western
edge of the Dead Sea. Leaving Jerusalem on their left, they descended into the
vale of Siddim, where they found themselves in the valley of the Jordan, and
consequently in {41} the
land of the Canaanites. As we are told in the Book of Numbers (xiii. 29), while
"the Amalekites dwell in the land of the south, and the Hittites and the
Jebusites and Amorites dwell in the mountains, the Canaanites dwell by the sea
and by the coast of Jordan."

The word Canaan, as we have seen, meant "the lowlands," and appears sometimes
in a longer, sometimes in a shorter form. The shorter form is written Khna by
the Greeks: in the Tel el-Amarna tablets it is Kinakhkhi, while Canaan, the
longer form, is Kinakhna. It is this longer form which alone appears in the
hieroglyphic texts. Here we read how Seti I. destroyed the Shasu or Amalekites
from the eastern frontier of Egypt to "the land of Kana'an," and captured their
fortress of the same name which Major Conder has identified with Khurbet Kan'an
near Hebron. It was also the longer form which was preserved among the
Israelites as well as among the Phoenicians, the original inhabitants of the
sea-coast. Coins of Laodicea, on the Orontes, bear the inscription, "Laodicea a
metropolis in Canaan," and St. Augustine states that in his time the
Carthaginian peasantry of Northern Africa, if questioned as to their descent,
still answered that they were "Canaanites." (Exp. Epist. ad Rom. 13.)

In course of time the geographical signification of the name came to be
widely extended beyond its original limits. Just as Philistia, the district of
the Philistines, became the comprehensive Palestine, {42} so Canaan, the land of the Canaanites of
the coast and the valley, came to denote the whole of the country between the
Jordan and the sea. It is already used in this sense in the cuneiform
correspondence of Tel el-Amarna. Already in the century before the Exodus
Kinakhna or Canaan represented pretty nearly all that we now mean by
"Palestine." It was in fact the country to the south of "the land of the
Amorites," and "the land of the Amorites" lay immediately to the north of the
Waters of Merom.

In the geographical table in the tenth chapter of Genesis Canaan is stated to
be the son of Ham and the brother of Mizraim or Egypt. The statement indicates
the age to which the account must go back. There was only one period of history
in which Canaan could be geographically described as a brother of Egypt, and
that was the period of the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties, when for a while
it was a province of the Pharaohs. At no other time was it closely connected
with the sons of Ham. At an earlier epoch its relations had been with Babylonia
rather than with the valley of the Nile, and with the fall of the nineteenth
dynasty the Asiatic empire of Egypt came finally to an end.

The city of Sidon, we are further told, was the first-born of Canaan. It
claimed to be the oldest of the Phoenician cities in the "lowlands" of the
coast. It had grown out of an assemblage of "fishermen's" huts, and Said the god
of the fishermen {43}
continued to preside over it to the last. The fishermen became in time sailors
and merchant-princes, and the fish for which they sought was the murex with its
precious purple dye. Tyre, the city of the "rock," which in later days disputed
the supremacy over Phoenicia with Sidon, was of younger foundation. Herodotus
was told that the great temple of Baal Melkarth, "the city's king," which he saw
there, had been built twenty-three centuries before his visit. But Sidon was
still older, older even than Gebal, the sacred city of the goddess Baaltis.

The wider extension of the name of Canaan brought with it other geographical
relationships besides those of the sea-coast. Hittites and Amorites, Jebusites
and Girgashites, Hivites and the peoples of the southern Lebanon, were all
settled within the limits of the larger Canaan, and were therefore accounted his
sons. Even Hamath claimed the right to be included in the brotherhood. It is
said with truth that "afterwards were the families of the Canaanites spread
abroad."

Hittites and Amorites were interlocked both in the north and in the south.
Kadesh, on the Orontes, the southern stronghold of the Hittite kingdom of the
north, was, as the Egyptian records tell us, in the land of the Amorites; while
in the south Hittites and Amorites were mingled together at Hebron, and Ezekiel
(xvi. 3) declares that Jerusalem had a double parentage: its birth was in the
land of Canaan, but its father was an {44} Amorite and its mother a Hittite. Modern research,
however, has shown that Hittites and Amorites were races widely separated in
character and origin. About the Hittites we hear a good deal both in the
hieroglyphic and in the cuneiform inscriptions. The Khata of the Egyptian texts
were the most formidable power of Western Asia with whom the Egyptians of the
eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties had to deal. They were tribes of
mountaineers from the ranges of the Taurus who had descended on the plains of
Syria and established themselves there in the midst of an Aramaic population.
Carchemish on the Euphrates became one of their Syrian capitals, commanding the
high-road of commerce and war from east to west. Thothmes III., the conqueror of
Western Asia, boasts of the gifts he received from "the land of Khata the
greater," so called, it would seem, to distinguish it from another and lesser
land of Khata—that of the Hittites of the south.

The cuneiform tablets of Tel el-Amarna, in the closing days of the eighteenth
dynasty, represent the Hittites as advancing steadily southward and menacing the
Syrian possessions of the Pharaoh. Disaffected Amorites and Canaanites looked to
them for help, and eventually "the land of the Amorites" to the north of
Palestine fell into their possession. When the first Pharaohs of the nineteenth
dynasty attempted to recover the Egyptian empire in Asia, they found themselves
confronted {45} by the
most formidable of antagonists. Against Kadesh and "the great king of the
Hittites" the Egyptian forces were driven in vain, and after twenty years of
warfare Ramses II., the Pharaoh of the Oppression, was fain to consent to peace.
A treaty of alliance, offensive and defensive, was drawn up between the two
rivals, and Egypt was henceforth compelled to treat with the Hittites on equal
terms. The Khattâ or Khatâ of the Assyrian inscriptions are already a decaying
power. They are broken into a number of separate states or kingdoms, of which
Carchemish is the richest and most important. They are in fact in retreat
towards those mountains of Asia Minor from which they had originally issued
forth. But they still hold their ground in Syria for a long while. There were
Hittites at Kadesh in the reign of David. Hittite kings could lend their
services to Israel in the age of Elisha (2 Kings vii. 6), and it was not till
B.C. 717 that Carchemish was captured by Sargon of Assyria, and the trade which
passed through it diverted to Nineveh. But when the Assyrians first became
acquainted with the coastland of the Mediterranean, the Hittites were to such an
extent the ruling race there that they gave their name to the whole district.
Like "Palestine," or "Canaan," the term "land of the Hittites" came to denote
among the Assyrians, not only Northern Syria and the Lebanon, but Southern Syria
as well. Even Ahab of Israel and Baasha the Ammonite are included by Shalmaneser
II. among its kings.
{46}

This extended use of the name among the Assyrians is illustrated by the
existence of a Hittite tribe at Hebron in the extreme south of Palestine.
Various attempts have been made to get rid of the latter by unbelieving critics,
but the statements of Genesis are corroborated by Ezekiel's account of the
foundation of Jerusalem. They are, moreover, in full harmony with the monumental
records. As we have seen, Thothmes III. implies that already in his day there
was a second and smaller land of the Hittites, and the great Babylonian work on
astronomy contains references to the Hittites which appear to go back to early
days.

Assyrian and Babylonian texts are not the only cuneiform records which make
mention of the "Khata" or Hittites. Their name is found also on the monuments of
the kings of Ararat or Armenia who reigned in the ninth and eighth centuries
before our era, and who had borrowed from Nineveh the cuneiform system of
writing. But the Khata of these Vannic or Armenian texts lived considerably to
the north of the Hittites of the Bible and of the Egyptian and Assyrian
monuments. The country they inhabited lay in eastern Asia Minor in the
neighbourhood of the modern Malatiyeh. Here, in fact, was their original
home.

Thanks to the Egyptian artists, we are well acquainted with the Hittite
physical type. It was not handsome. The nose was unduly protrusive, {47} while the chin and the
forehead retreated. The cheeks were square with prominent bones, and the face
was beardless. In colour the Hittites were yellow-skinned with black hair and
eyes. They seem to have worn their hair in three long plaits which fell over the
back like the pigtail of a Chinaman, and they were distinguished by the use of
boots with upturned toes.

We might perhaps imagine that the Egyptian artists have caricatured their
adversaries. But this is not the case. Precisely the same profile of face,
sometimes even exaggerated in its ugliness, is represented on the Hittite
monuments by the native sculptors themselves. It is one of the surest proofs we
possess that these monuments, with their still undeciphered inscriptions, are of
Hittite origin. They belong to the people whom Israelites, Egyptians, Assyrians,
and Armenians united in calling Hittites.

In marked contrast to the Hittites stood the Amorites. They too are depicted
on the walls of the Egyptian temples and tombs. While the Hittite type of
features is Mongoloid, that of the Amorite is European. His nose is straight and
somewhat pointed, his lips and nostrils thin, his cheek-bones high, his mouth
firm and regular, his forehead expressive of intelligence. He has a fair amount
of whisker, ending in a pointed beard. At Abu-Simbel the skin is painted a pale
yellow—the Egyptian equivalent for white—his eyes blue, and his beard and
eyebrows red. At Medînet {48} Habu, his skin, as Prof. Petrie expresses it, is
"rather pinker than flesh-colour," while in a tomb of the eighteenth dynasty at
Thebes it is painted white, the eyes and hair being a light red-brown.

The Amorite, it is clear, must be classed with the fair-skinned, blue-eyed
Libyans of the Egyptian monuments, whose modern descendants are the Kabyles and
other Berber tribes of Northern Africa. The latter are not only European in
type, they claim special affinities to the blond, "golden-haired" Kelt. And
their tall stature agrees well with what the Old Testament has to tell us about
the Amorites. They too were classed among the Rephaim or "giants," by the side
of whom the Israelite invaders were but as "grasshoppers."

While the Canaanites inhabited the lowlands, the highlands were the seat of
the Amorites (Num. xiii. 29). This, again, is in accordance with their European
affinities. They flourished best in the colder and more bracing climate of the
mountains, as do the Berber tribes of Northern Africa to-day. The blond,
blue-eyed race is better adapted to endure the cold than the heat.

Amorite tribes and kingdoms were to be found in all parts of Palestine.
Southward, as we have seen, Kadesh-barnea was in "the mountain of the Amorites,"
while Chedor-laomer found them on the western shores of the Dead Sea. When
Abraham pitched his tent in the plain above Hebron, it was in the possession of
three Amorite chieftains, and at the time of the Israelitish conquest, Hebron
{49} and Jerusalem,
Jarmuth, Lachish and Eglon were all Amorite (Josh. x. 5). Jacob assured Joseph
the inheritance of his tribe should be in that district of Shechem which the
patriarch had taken "out of the hand of the Amorite" (Gen. xlviii. 22), and on
the eastern side of the Jordan were the Amorite kingdoms of Og and Sihon. But we
learn from the Egyptian inscriptions, and more especially from the Tel el-Amarna
tablets, that the chief seat of Amorite power lay immediately to the north of
Palestine. Here was "the land of the Amorites," to which frequent reference is
made by the monuments, among the ranges of Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, from Hamath
southward to Hermon. On the east it was bounded by the desert, on the west by
the cities of Phoenicia.

In early days, long before the age of Abraham, the Amorites must already have
been the predominant population in this part of Syria. When the Babylonian king,
Sargon of Akkad, carried his victorious arms to the shores of the Mediterranean,
it was against "the land of the Amorites" that his campaigns were directed. From
that time forward this was the name under which Syria, and more particularly
Canaan, was known to the Babylonians. The geographical extension of the term was
parallel to that of "Hittites" among the Assyrians, of "Canaan" among the
Israelites, and of "Palestine" among ourselves. But it bears witness to the
important part which was played by the Amorites in what we must still call the
prehistoric age of {50}
Syria, as well as to the extent of the area which they must have occupied.

Of course it does not follow that the whole of this area was occupied at one
and the same time. Indeed we know that the conquest of the northern portion of
Moab by the Amorite king Sihon took place only a short time before the
Israelitish invasion, and part of the Amorite song of triumph on the occasion
has been preserved in the Book of Numbers. "There is a fire gone out of
Heshbon," it said, "a flame from the city of Sihon: it hath consumed Ar of Moab,
and the lords of the high places of Arnon. Woe to thee, Moab! thou art undone, O
people of Chemosh: he hath given his sons that escaped, and his daughters, into
captivity unto Sihon king of the Amorites." (Num. xxi. 28, 29.) In the south,
again, the Amorites do not seem to have made their way beyond Hazezon-Tamar,
while the Tel el-Amarna tablets make it probable that neither Bashan nor
Jerusalem were as yet Amorite at the time they were written. It may be that the
Amorite conquests in the south were one of the results of the fall of the
Egyptian empire and the Hittite irruption.

Between the Hittite and the Amorite the geographical table of Genesis
interposes the Jebusite, and the Book of Numbers similarly states that "the
Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites dwell in the mountains." The
Jebusites, however, were merely the local tribe which in the early days {51} of the Israelitish
occupation of Canaan were in possession of Jerusalem, and they were probably
either Hittite or Amorite in race. At any rate there is no trace of them in the
cuneiform letters of Tel el-Amarna. On the contrary, in these Jerusalem is still
known only by its old name of Uru-salim; of the name Jebus there is not a hint.
But the letters show us that Ebed-Tob, the native king of Jerusalem and humble
vassal of the Pharaoh, was being hard pressed by his enemies, and that, in spite
of his urgent appeals for help, the Egyptians were unable to send any. His enemy
were the Khabiri or "Confederates," about whose identification there has been
much discussion, but who were assisted by the Beduin chief Labai and his sons.
One by one the towns belonging to the territory of Jerusalem fell into the hands
of his adversaries, and at last, as we learn from another letter, Ebed-Tob
himself along with his capital was captured by the foe. It was this event,
perhaps, which made Jerusalem a Jebusite city. If so, we must see in the enemies
of Ebed-Tob the Jebusites of the Old Testament.

The Girgashite is named after the Amorite, but who he may have been it is
hard to say. In the Egyptian epic composed by the court-poet Pentaur, to
commemorate the heroic deeds of Ramses II. in his struggle with the Hittites,
mention is twice made of "the country of Qarqish." It was one of those which had
sent contingents to the Hittite army. But it seems to have been situated in
{52} Northern Syria, if
not in Asia Minor, so that unless we can suppose that some of its inhabitants
had followed in the wake of the Hittites and settled in Palestine, it is not
easy to see how they could be included among the sons of Canaan. The Hivites,
whose name follows that of the Girgashites, are simply the "villagers" or
fellahin as opposed to the townsfolk. They are thus synonymous with the
Perizzites, who take their place in Gen. xv. 20, and whose name has the same
signification. But whereas the Perizzites were especially the country population
of Southern Palestine, the Hivites were those of the north. In two passages,
indeed, the name appears to be used in an ethnic sense, once in Gen. xxxvi. 2,
where we read that Esau married the granddaughter of "Zibeon the Hivite," and
once in Josh. xi. 3, where reference is made to "the Hivite under Hermon in the
land of Mizpeh." But a comparison of the first passage with a later part of the
chapter (vv. 20, 24, 25) proves that "Hivite" is a corrupt reading for "Horite,"
while it is probable that in the second passage "Hittite" ought to be read for
"Hivite."

The four last sons of Canaan represent cities, and not tribes. Arka, called
Irqat in the Tel el-Amarna tablets, and now known as Tel 'Arqa, was one of the
inland cities of Phoenicia, in the mountains between the Orontes and the sea.
Sin, which is mentioned by Tiglath-pileser III., was in the same neighbourhood,
as well as Zemar (now Sumra), which, like Arvad (the modern Ruâd), is named
repeatedly {53} in the
Tel el-Amarna correspondence. It was at the time an important Phoenician
fortress,—"perched like a bird upon the rock,"—and was under the control of the
governor of Gebal. Arvad was equally important as a sea-port, and its ships were
used for war as well as for commerce. As for Hamath (now Hamah), the Khamat and
Amat of the Assyrian texts, it was already a leading city in the days of the
eighteenth Egyptian dynasty. Thothmes III. includes it among his Syrian
conquests under the name of Amatu, as also does Ramses III. The Hittite
inscriptions discovered there go to show that, like Kadesh on the Orontes, it
fell at one time into Hittite hands.

Such then was the ethnographical map of Palestine in the Patriarchal Age.
Canaanites in the lowlands, Amorites and Hittites in the highlands contended for
the mastery. In the desert of the south were the Amalekite Beduin, ever ready to
raid and murder their settled neighbours. The mountains of Seir were occupied by
the Horites, while prehistoric tribes, who probably belonged to the Amorite
race, inhabited the plateau east of the Jordan.

This was the Palestine to which Abraham migrated, but it was a Palestine
which his migration was destined eventually to change. Before many generations
had passed Moab and Ammon, the children of his nephew, took the place of the
older population of the eastern table-land, while Edom settled in Mount Seir. A
few generations {54}
more, and Israel too entered into its inheritance in Canaan itself. The Amorites
were extirpated or became tributary, and the valleys of the Jordan and Kishon
were seized by the invading tribes. The cities of the extreme south had already
become Philistine, and the strangers from Caphtor had supplanted in them the
Avim of an earlier epoch.

Meanwhile the waves of foreign conquest had spread more than once across the
country. Canaan had been made subject to Babylonia, and had received in exchange
for its independence the gift of Babylonian culture. Next it was Egypt which
entered upon its career of Asiatic conquest, and Canaan for a while was an
Egyptian province. But the Egyptian dominion in its turn passed away, and
Palestine was left the prey of other assailants, of the Hittites and the Beduin,
of the people of Aram Naharaim and the northern hordes. Egyptians and
Babylonians, Hittites and Mesopotamians mingled with the earlier races of the
country and obliterated the older landmarks. Before the Patriarchal Age came to
an end, the ethnographical map of Canaan had undergone a profound
change.
{55}

CHAPTER III

THE BABYLONIANS IN CANAAN AND THE EGYPTIAN CONQUEST

It is in the cuneiform records of Babylonia that we catch the first glimpse
of the early history of Canaan. Babylonia was not yet united under a single
head. From time to time some prince arose whose conquests allowed him to claim
the imperial title of "king of Sumer and Akkad," of Southern and Northern
Babylonia, but the claim was never of long duration, and often it signified no
more than a supremacy over the other rulers of the country.

It was while Babylonia was thus divided into more than one kingdom, that the
first Chaldæan empire of which we know was formed by the military skill of
Sargon of Akkad. Sargon was of Semitic origin, but his birth seems to have been
obscure. His father, Itti-Bel, is not given the title of king, and the later
legends which gathered around his name declared that his mother was of low
degree, that his father he knew not, and that his father's brother lived in the
mountain-land. Born in secrecy in the city of Azu-pirani, "whence {56} the elephants issue
forth," he was launched by his mother on the waters of the Euphrates in an ark
of bulrushes daubed with pitch. The river carried the child to Akki the
irrigator, who had compassion upon it, and brought it up as his own son. So
Sargon became an agriculturist and gardener like his adopted father, till the
goddess Istar beheld and loved him, and eventually gave him his kingdom and
crown.

Whatever may have been the real history of Sargon's rise to power, certain it
is that he showed himself worthy of it. He built himself a capital, which
perhaps was Akkad near Sippara, and there founded a library stocked with books
on clay and well provided with scribes. The standard works on astronomy and
terrestrial omens were compiled for it, the first of which was translated into
Greek by Berossos in days long subsequent. But it was as a conqueror and the
founder of the first Semitic empire in Western Asia that posterity chiefly
remembered him. He overthrew his rivals at home, and made himself master of
Northern Babylonia. Then he marched into Elam on the east, and devastated its
fields. Next he turned his attention to the west. Four times did he make his way
to "the land of the Amorites," until at last it was thoroughly subdued. His
final campaign occupied three years. The countries "of the sea of the setting
sun" acknowledged his dominion, and he united them with his former conquests
into "a single" empire. On the shores of the Mediterranean {57} he erected images of
himself in token of his victories, and caused the spoil of Cyprus "to pass over
into the countries of the sea." Towards the end of his reign a revolt broke out
against him in Babylonia, and he was besieged in the city of Akkad, but he
"issued forth and smote" his enemies and utterly destroyed them. Then came his
last campaign against Northern Mesopotamia, from which he returned with abundant
prisoners and spoil.

Sargon's son and successor was Naram-Sin, "the beloved of the Moon-god," who
continued the conquests of his father. His second campaign was against the land
of Magan, the name under which Midian and the Sinaitic peninsula were known to
the Babylonians. The result of it was the addition of Magan to his empire and
the captivity of its king.

The copper mines of Magan, which are noticed in an early Babylonian
geographical list, made its acquisition coveted alike by Babylonians and
Egyptians. We find the Pharaohs of the third dynasty already establishing their
garrisons and colonies of miners in the province of Mafkat, as they called it,
and slaughtering the Beduin who interfered with them. The history of Naram-Sin
shows that its conquest was equally an object of the Babylonian monarchs at the
very outset of their history. But whereas the road from Egypt to Sinai was short
and easy, that from Babylonia was long and difficult. Before a Babylonian army
{58} could march into
the peninsula it was needful that Syria should be secure in the rear. The
conquest of Palestine, in fact, was necessary before the copper mines of Sinai
could fall into Babylonian hands.

The consolidation of Sargon's empire in the west, therefore, was needful
before the invasion of the country of Magan could take place, and the invasion
accordingly was reserved for Naram-Sin to make. The father had prepared the way;
the son obtained the great prize—the source of the copper that was used in the
ancient world.

The fact that the whole of Syria is described in the annals of Sargon as "the
land of the Amorites," implies, not only that the Amorites were the ruling
population in the country, but also that they must have extended far to the
south. The "land of the Amorites" formed the basis and starting-point for the
expedition of Naram-Sin into Magan; it must, therefore, have reached to the
southern border of Palestine, if not even farther. The road trodden by his
forces would have been the same as that which was afterwards traversed by
Chedor-laomer, and would have led him through Kadesh-barnea. Is it possible that
the Amorites were already in possession of the mountain-block within which
Kadesh stood, and that this was their extreme limit to the south?

There were other names by which Palestine and Syria were known to the early
Babylonians, besides the general title of "the land of the Amorites." {59} One of these was Tidanum
or Tidnum; another was Sanir or Shenir. There was yet another, the reading of
which is uncertain, though it may be Khidhi or Titi.

Mr. Boscawen has pointed out a coincidence that is at least worthy of
attention. The first Babylonian monarch who penetrated into the peninsula of
Sinai bore a name compounded with that of the Moon-god, which thus bears witness
to a special veneration for that deity. Now the name of Mount Sinai is similarly
derived from that of the Babylonian Moon-god Sin. It was the high place where
the god must have been adored from early times under his Babylonian name. It
thus points to Babylonian influence, if not to the presence of Babylonians on
the spot. Can it have been that the mountain whereon the God of Israel
afterwards revealed Himself to Moses was dedicated to the Moon-god of Babylon by
Naram-Sin the Chaldæn conqueror?

If such indeed were the case, it would have been more than two thousand years
before the Israelitish exodus. Nabonidos, the last king of the later Babylonian
empire, who had a fancy for antiquarian exploration, tells us that Naram-Sin
reigned 3200 years before his own time, and therefore about 3750 B.C. The date,
startlingly early as it seems to be, is indirectly confirmed by other evidence,
and Assyriologists consequently have come to accept it as approximately
correct.

How long Syria remained a part of the empire {60} of Sargon of Akkad we do not know. But it must have
been long enough for the elements of Babylonian culture to be introduced into
it. The small stone cylinders used by the Babylonians for sealing their clay
documents thus became known to the peoples of the West. More than one has been
found in Syria and Cyprus which go back to the age of Sargon and Naram-Sin,
while there are numerous others which are more or less barbarous attempts on the
part of the natives to imitate the Babylonian originals. But the imitations
prove that with the fall of Sargon's empire the use of seal-cylinders in Syria,
and consequently of documents for sealing, did not disappear. That knowledge of
writing, which was a characteristic of Babylonian civilization, must have been
carried with it to the shores of the Mediterranean.

The seal-cylinders were engraved, sometimes with figures of men and gods,
sometimes with symbols only. Very frequently lines of cuneiform writing were
added, and a common formula gave the name of the owner of the seal, along with
those of his father and of the deity whom he worshipped. One of the
seal-cylinders found in Cyprus describes the owner as an adorer of "the god
Naram-Sin." It is true that its workmanship shows it to belong to a much later
date than the age of Naram-Sin himself, but the legend equally shows that the
name of the conqueror of Magan was still remembered in the West. Another
cylinder discovered in the Lebanon mentions "the {61} gods of the Amorite," while a third from
the same locality bears the inscription: "Multal-ili, the son of Ili-isme-anni,
the worshipper of the god Nin-si-zida." The name of the god signified in the old
pre-Semitic language of Chaldæa "the lord of the upright horn," while it is
worth notice that the names of the owner and his father are compounded simply
with the word ili or el, "god," not with the name of any special
divinity. Multal-ili means "Provident is God," Ili-isme-anni, "O my God, hear
me!"

Many centuries have to elapse before the monuments of Babylonia again throw
light on the history of Canaan. Somewhere about B.C. 2700, a high-priest was
ruling in a city of Southern Babylonia, under the suzerainty of Dungi, the king
of Ur. The high-priest's name was Gudea, and his city (now called Tel-loh by the
Arabs) was known as Lagas. The excavations made here by M. de Sarzec have
brought to light temples and palaces, collections of clay books and carved stone
statues, which go back to the early days of Babylonian history. The larger and
better part of the monuments belong to Gudea, who seems to have spent most of
his life in building and restoring the sanctuaries of the gods. Diorite statues
of the prince are now in the Louvre, and inscriptions upon them state that the
stone out of which they were made was brought from the land of Magan. On the lap
of one of them is a plan of the royal palace, with the scale of measurement
marked on {62} the edge
of a sort of drawing-board. Prof. Petrie has shown that the unit of measurement
represented in it is the cubit of the pyramid-builders of Egypt.

The diorite of Sinai was not the only material which was imported into
Babylonia for the buildings of Gudea. Beams of cedar and box were brought from
Mount Amanus at the head of the Gulf of Antioch, blocks of stone were floated
down the Euphrates from Barsip near Carchemish, gold-dust came from Melukhkha,
the "salt" desert to the east of Egypt which the Old Testament calls Havilah;
copper was conveyed from the north of Arabia, limestone from the Lebanon ("the
mountains of Tidanum"), and another kind of stone from Subsalla in the mountains
of the Amorite land. Before beams of wood and blocks of stone could thus be
brought from the distant West, it was necessary that trade between Babylonia and
the countries of the Mediterranean should have long been organized, that the
roads throughout Western Asia should have been good and numerous, and that
Babylonian influence should have been extended far and wide. The conquests of
Sargon and Naram-Sin had borne fruit in the commerce that had followed upon
them.

Once more the curtain falls, and Canaan is hidden for a while out of our
sight. Babylonia has become a united kingdom with its capital and centre at
Babylon. Khammurabi (B.C. 2356-2301) has succeeded in shaking off the suzerainty
of {63} Elam, in
overthrowing his rival Eri-Aku, king of Larsa, with his Elamite allies, and in
constituting himself sole monarch of Babylonia. His family seems to have been in
part, if not wholly, of South Arabian extraction. Their names are Arabian rather
than Babylonian, and the Babylonian scribes found a difficulty in transcribing
them correctly. But once in the possession of the Babylonian throne, they became
thoroughly national, and under Khammurabi the literary glories of the court of
Sargon of Akkad revived once more.

Ammi-satana, the great-grandson of Khammurabi, calls himself king of "the
land of the Amorites." Babylonia, therefore, still claimed to be paramount in
Palestine. Even the name of the king is an indication of his connection with the
West. Neither of the elements of which it is composed belonged to the Babylonian
language. The first of them, Ammi, was explained by the Babylonian philologists
as meaning "a family," but it is more probable that it represents the name of a
god. We find it in the proper names both of Southern and of Northwestern Arabia.
The early Minsaean inscriptions of Southern Arabia contain names like
Ammi-karib, Ammi-zadiqa, and Ammi-zaduq, the last of which is identical with
that of Ammi-zaduq, the son and successor of Ammi-satana. The Egyptian Sinuhit,
who in the time of the twelfth dynasty fled, like Moses, for his life from the
court of the Pharaoh to the Kadmonites east of the Jordan, found protection
among them at the hands of their chieftain Ammu-ânshi. {64} The Ammonites themselves were the "sons of
Ammi," and in numerous Hebrew names we find that of the god. Ammi-el,
Ammi-nadab, and Ammi-shaddai are mentioned in the Old Testament, the Assyrian
inscriptions tell us of Ammi-nadab the king of Ammon, and it is possible that
even the name of Balaam, the Aramaean seer, may be compounded with that of the
god. At all events, the city of Pethor from which he came was "by the river
(Euphrates) of the land of the children of Ammo," for such is the literal
rendering of the Hebrew words.

Ammi-satana was not the first of his line whose authority had been
acknowledged in Palestine. The inscription in which he records the fact is but a
confirmation of what had been long known to us from the Book of Genesis. There
we read how Chedor-laomer, the king of Elam, with the three vassal princes,
Arioch of Ellasar, Amraphel of Shinar, and Tidal of Goyyim invaded Canaan, and
how the kings of the vale of Siddim with its pits of asphalt became their
tributaries. For thirteen years they remained submissive and then rebelled.
Thereupon the Babylonian army again marched to the west. Bashan and the eastern
bank of the Jordan were subjugated, the Horites in Mount Seir were smitten, and
the invaders then turned back through Kadesh-barnea, overthrowing the Amalekites
and the Amorites on their way. Then came the battle in the vale of Siddim, which
ended in the defeat of the Canaanites, the death of the kings {65} of Sodom and Gomorrha,
and the capture of abundant booty. Among the prisoners was Lot, the nephew of
Abram, and it was to effect his rescue that the patriarch armed his followers
and started in pursuit of the conquerors. Near Damascus he overtook them, and
falling upon them by night, recovered the spoil of Sodom as well as his
"brother's son."

Arioch is the Eri-Aku of the cuneiform texts. In the old language of Chaldea
the name signified "servant of the Moon-god." The king is well known to us from
contemporaneous inscriptions. Besides the inscribed bricks which have come from
the temple of the Moon-god which he enlarged in the city of Ur, there are
numerous contract tablets that are dated in his reign. He tells us that he was
the son of an Elamite, Kudur-Mabug, son of Simti-silkhak, and prince (or
"father") of Yamut-bal on the borders of Elam and Babylonia. But this is not
all. He further gives Kudur-Mabug the title of "father of the Amorite land."
What this title exactly means it is difficult to say; one thing, however, is
certain, Kudur-Mabug must have exercised some kind of power and authority in the
distant West.

His name, too, is remarkable. Names compounded with Kudur, "a servant," were
common in the Elamite language, the second element of the name being that of a
deity, to whose worship the owner of it was dedicated. Thus we have
Kudur-Lagamar, "the servant of the god Lagamar," Kudur-Nakhkhunte, {66} "the servant of
Nakhkhunte." But Mabug was not an Elamite divinity. It was, on the contrary, a
Mesopotamian deity from whom the town of Mabug near Carchemish, called Bambykê
by the Greeks, and assimilated by the Arabs to their Membij, "a source," derived
its name. Can it be from this Syrian deity that the father of Arioch received
his name?

The capital of Arioch or Eri-Aku was Larsa, the city of the Sun-god, now
called Senkereh. With the help of his Elamite kindred, he extended his power
from thence over the greater part of Southern Babylonia. The old city of Ur,
once the seat of the dominant dynasty of Chaldæan kings, formed part of his
dominions; Nipur, now Niffer, fell into his hands like the seaport Eridu on the
shores of the Persian Gulf, and in one of his inscriptions he celebrates his
conquest of "the ancient city of Erech." On the day of its capture he erected in
gratitude a temple to his god Ingirisa, "for the preservation of his life."

But the god did not protect him for ever. A time came when Khammurabi, king
of Babylon, rose in revolt against the Elamite supremacy, and drove the Elamite
forces out of the land. Eri-Aku was attacked and defeated, and his cities fell
into the hands of the conqueror. Khammurabi became sole king of Babylonia, which
from henceforth obeyed but a single sceptre.

Are we to see in the Amraphel of Genesis the Khammurabi of the cuneiform
inscriptions? The {67}
difference in the names seems to make it impossible. Moreover, Amraphel, we are
told, was king of Shinar, and it is not certain that the Shinar of the
fourteenth chapter of Genesis was that part of Babylonia of which Babylon was
the capital. This, in fact, was the northern division of the country, and if we
are to identify the Shinar of scripture with the Sumer of the monuments, as
Assyriologists have agreed to do, Shinar would have been its southern half. It
is true that in the later days of Hebrew history Shinar denoted the whole plain
of Chaldæa, including the city of Babylon, but this may have been an extension
of the meaning of the name similar to that of which Canaan is an instance.

Unless Sumer and Shinar are the same words, outside the Old Testament there
is only one Shinar known to ancient geography. That was in Mesopotamia. The
Greek geographers called it Singara (now Sinjar), an oasis in the midst of
deserts, and formed by an isolated mountain tract abounding in springs. It is
already mentioned in the annals of the Egyptian conqueror Thothmes III. In his
thirty-third year (B.C. 1470), the king of Sangar sent him tribute consisting of
lapis-lazuli "of Babylon," and of various objects carved out of it. From Sangar
also horses were exported into Egypt, and in one of the Tel el-Amarna letters,
the king of Alasiya in Northern Syria writes to the Pharaoh,—"Do not set me with
the king of the Hittites and the king of Sankhar; whatever gifts they have {68} sent to me I will restore
to thee twofold." In hieroglyphic and cuneiform spelling, Sangar and Sankhar are
the exact equivalents of the Hebrew Shinar.

How the name of Shinar came to be transferred from Mesopotamia to Babylonia
is a puzzle. The Mesopotamian Shinar is nowhere near the Babylonian frontier. It
lies in a straight line westward of Mosul and the ancient Nineveh, and not far
from the banks of the Khabur. Can its application to Babylonia be due to a
confusion between Sumer and Sangar?

Whatever the explanation may be, it is clear that the position of the kingdom
of Amraphel is by no means so easily determined as has hitherto been supposed.
It may be Sumer or Southern Babylonia; it may be Northern Babylonia with its
capital Babylon; or again, it may be the Mesopotamian oasis of Sinjar. Until we
find the name of Amraphel in the cuneiform texts it is impossible to attain
certainty.

There is one fact, however, which seems to indicate that it really is either
Sumer or Northern Babylonia that is meant. The narrative of Chedor-laomer's
campaign begins with the words that it took place "in the time of Amraphel, king
of Shinar." Chedor-laomer the Elamite was the leader of the expedition; he too
was the suzerain lord of his allies; and nevertheless the campaign is dated, not
in his reign, but in that of one of the subject kings. That the narrative has
been taken from the Babylonian annals there is little room for {69} doubt, and consequently
it would follow from the dating that Amraphel was a Babylonian prince, perhaps
that he was the ruler of the city which, from the days of Khammurabi onward,
became the capital of the country. In that case we should have to find some way
of explaining the difference between the Hebrew and the Babylonian forms of the
royal name.

Lagamar or Lagamer, written Laomer in Hebrew, was one of the principal
deities of Elam, and the Babylonians made him a son of their own water-god Ea.
The Elamite king Chedor-laomer, or Kudur-Lagamar, as his name was written in his
own language, must have been related to the Elamite prince Kudur-Mabug, whose
son Arioch was a subject-ally of the Elamite monarch. Possibly they were
brothers, the younger brother receiving as his share of power the title of
"father"—not "king"—of Yamutbal and the land of the Amorites. At any rate it is
a son of Kudur-Mabug and not of the Elamite sovereign who receives a
principality in Babylonia.

In the Book of Genesis Arioch is called "king of Ellasar." But Ellasar is
clearly the Larsa of the cuneiform inscriptions, perhaps with the word
al, "city," prefixed. Larsa, the modern Senkereh, was in Southern
Babylonia, on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, not far from Erech, and to the
north of Ur. Its king was virtually lord of Sumer, but he claimed to be lord
also of the north. In his inscriptions Eri-Aku assumes the imperial title of
{70} "king of Sumer and
Akkad," of both divisions of Babylonia, and it may be that at one time the rival
king of Babylon acknowledged his supremacy.

Who "Tidal king of Goyyim" may have been we cannot tell. Sir Henry Rawlinson
has proposed to see in Goyyim a transformation of Gutium, the name by which
Kurdistan was called in early Babylonia. Mr. Pinches has recently discovered a
cuneiform tablet in which mention is made, not only of Eri-Aku and
Kudur-Lagamar, but also of Tudkhul, and Tudkhul would be an exact transcription
in Babylonian of the Hebrew Tidal. But the tablet is mutilated, and its relation
to the narrative of Genesis is not yet clear. For the present, therefore, we
must leave Tidal unexplained.

The name even of one of the Canaanite kings who were subdued by the
Babylonian army has found its confirmation in a cuneiform inscription. This is
the name of "Shinab, king of Admah." We hear from Tiglath-pileser III. of
Sanibu, king of Ammon, and Sanibu and Shinab are one and the same. The old name
of the king of Admah was thus perpetuated on the eastern side of the Jordan.

It may be that the asphalt of Siddim was coveted by the Babylonian kings.
Bitumen, it is true, was found in Babylonia itself near Hit, but if Amiaud is
right, one of the objects imported from abroad for Gudea of Lagas was asphalt.
It came from Madga, which is described as being "in the mountains of the river
Gur(?)ruda." But no reference to {71} the place is to be met with anywhere else in
cuneiform literature.

When Abram returned with the captives and spoil of Sodom, the new king came
forth to meet him "at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king's dale." This was
in the near neighbourhood of Jerusalem, as we gather from the history of Absalom
(2 Sam. xviii. 18). Accordingly we further read that at the same time
"Melchizedek, king of Salem," and "priest of the most High God," "brought forth
bread and wine," and blessed the Hebrew conqueror, who thereupon gave him tithes
of all the spoil.

It is only since the discovery and decipherment of the cuneiform tablets of
Tel el-Amarna that the story of Melchizedek has been illustrated and explained.
Hitherto it had seemed to stand alone. The critics, in the superiority of their
knowledge, had refused credit to it, and had denied that the name even of
Jerusalem or Salem was known before the age of David. But the monuments have
come to our help, and have shown that it is the critics and not the Biblical
writer who have been in error.

Several of the most interesting of the Tel el-Amarna letters were written to
the Pharaoh Amenôphis IV. Khu-n-Aten by Ebed-Tob the king of Jerusalem. Not only
is the name of Uru-salim or Jerusalem the only one in use, the city itself is
already one of the most important fortresses of Canaan. It was the capital of a
large district which extended southwards as far as Keilah {72} and Karmel of Judah. It commanded the
approach to the vale of Siddim, and in one of his letters Ebed-Tob speaks of
having repaired the royal roads not only in the mountains, but also in the
kikar or "plain" of Jordan (Gen. xiii. 10). The possession of Jerusalem
was eagerly coveted by the enemies of Ebed-Tob, whom he calls also the enemies
of the Egyptian king.

Now Ebed-Tob declares time after time that he is not an Egyptian governor,
but a tributary ally and vassal of the Pharaoh, and that he had received his
royal power, not by inheritance from his father or mother, but through the arm
(or oracle) of "the Mighty King." As "the Mighty King" is distinguished from the
"great King" of Egypt, we must see in him the god worshipped by Ebed-Tob, the
"Most High God" of Melchizedek, and the prototype of "the Mighty God" of Isaiah.
It is this same mighty king, Ebed-Tob assures the Pharaoh in another letter, who
will overthrow the navies of Babylonia and Aram-Naharaim.

Here, then, as late as the fifteenth century before our era we have a king of
Jerusalem who owes his royal dignity to his god. He is, in fact, a priest as
well as a king. His throne has not descended to him by inheritance; so far as
his kingly office is concerned, he is like Melchizedek, without father and
without mother. Between Ebed-Tob and Melchizedek there is more than analogy;
there is a striking and unexpected resemblance. The description given of him by
Ebed-Tob explains {73}
what has puzzled us so long in the person of Melchizedek.

The origin of the name of Jerusalem also is now cleared up. It was no
invention of the age of David; on the contrary, it goes back to the period of
Babylonian intercourse with Canaan. It is written in the cuneiform documents
Uru-Salim, "the city of Salim," the god of peace. One of the lexical tablets
from the library of Nineveh has long ago informed us that in one of the
languages known to the Babylonians uru was the equivalent of the
Babylonian alu, "a city," and we now know that this language was that of
Canaan. It would even seem that the word had originally been brought from
Babylonia itself in the days when Babylonian writing and culture first
penetrated to the West. In the Sumerian or pre-Semitic language of Chaldæa
eri signified a "city," and eri in the pronunciation of the
Semites became uru. Hence it was that Uru or Ur, the birthplace of
Abraham, received its name at a time when it was the ruling city of Babylonia,
and though the Semitic Babylonians themselves never adopted the word in common
life it made its way to Canaan. The rise of the "city" in the west was part of
that Babylonian civilization which was carried to the shores of the
Mediterranean, and so the word which denoted it was borrowed from the old
language of Chaldæa, like the word for "palace," hêkâl, the Sumerian
ê-gal, or "Great House." It is noteworthy that Harran, the resting-place
of Abraham on his way {74} from Ur to Palestine, the half-way house, as it
were, between East and West, also derived its name from a Sumerian word which
signified "the high-road." Harran and Ur were two of the gifts
which passed to Canaan from the speakers of the primaeval language of
Chaldæa.

We can now understand why Melchizedek should have been called the "king of
Salem." His capital could be described either as Jeru-salem or as the city of
Salem. And that it was often referred to as Salem simply is shown by the
Egyptian monuments. One of the cities of Southern Palestine, the capture of
which is represented by Ramses II. on the walls of the Ramesseum at Thebes, is
Shalam or Salem, and "the district of Salem" is mentioned between "the country
of Hadashah" (Josh. xv. 37) and "the district of the Dead Sea" and "the Jordan,"
in the list of the places which Ramses III. at Medînet Habu describes himself as
having conquered in the same part of the world.

It may be that Isaiah is playing upon the old name of Jerusalem when he gives
the Messiah the title of "Prince of Peace." But in any case the fact that Salim,
the god of peace, was the patron deity of Jerusalem, lends a special
significance to Melchizedek's treatment of Abram. The patriarch had returned in
peace from an expedition in which he had overthrown the invaders of Canaan; he
had restored peace to the country of the priest-king, and had driven away its
enemies. The offering {75} of bread and wine on the part of Melchizedek was a
sign of freedom from the enemy and of gratitude to the deliverer, while the
tithes paid by Abram were equally a token that the land was again at peace. The
name of Salim, the god of peace, was under one form or another widely spread in
the Semitic world. Salamanu, or Solomon, was the king of Moab in the time of
Tiglath-pileser III.; the name of Shalmaneser of Assyria is written
Sulman-asarid, "the god Sulman is chief," in the cuneiform inscriptions; and one
of the Tel el-Amarna letters was sent by Ebed-Sullim, "the servant of Sullim,"
who was governor of Hazor. In one of the Assyrian cities (Dimmen-Silim, "the
foundation-stone of peace") worship was paid to the god "Sulman the fish." Nor
must we forget that "Salma was the father of Beth-lehem" (1 Chron. ii. 51).

In the time of the Israelitish conquest the king of Jerusalem was Adoni-zedek
(Josh. x. 1). The name is similar to that of Melchi-zedek, though the exact
interpretation of it is a matter of doubt. It points, however, to a special use
of the word zedek, "righteousness," and it is therefore interesting to
find the word actually employed in one of the letters of Ebed-Tob. He there says
of the Pharaoh: "Behold, the king is righteous (zaduq) towards me." What
makes the occurrence of the word the more striking is that it was utterly
unknown to the Babylonians. The root zadaq, "to be righteous," did not
exist in the Assyrian language.
{76}

There is yet another point in the history of the meeting between Abram and
Melchizedek which must not be passed over. When the patriarch returned after
smiting the invading army he was met outside Jerusalem not only by Melchizedek,
but also by the new king of Sodom. It was, therefore, in the mountains and in
the shadow of the sanctuary of the Most High God that the newly-appointed prince
was to be found, rather than in the vale of Siddim. Does not this show that the
king of Jerusalem already exercised that sovereignty over the surrounding
district that Ebed-Tob did in the century before the Exodus? As we have seen,
Ebed-Tob describes himself as repairing the roads in that very "Kikar," or
"plain," in which Sodom and Gomorrha stood. It would seem then that the
priest-king of the great fortress in the mountains was already acknowledged as
the dominant Canaanitish ruler, and that the neighbouring princes had to pay him
homage when they first received the crown. This would be an additional reason
for the tithes given to him by Abram.

Long after the defeat of Chedor-laomer and his allies, if we are to accept
the traditional belief, Abraham was again destined to visit Jerusalem. But he
had ceased to be "Abram the Hebrew," the confederate of the Amorite chieftains
in the plain of Mamre, and had become Abraham the father of the promised seed.
Isaac had been born to him, and he was called upon to sacrifice his first-born
son.
{77}

The place of sacrifice was upon one of the mountains in the land of Moriah.
There at the last moment the hand of the father was stayed, and a ram was
substituted for the human victim. "And Abraham called the name of that place
Yahveh-yireh; as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be
seen." According to the Hebrew text of the Chronicles (2 Chron. iii. 1), this
mount of the Lord where Abraham's sacrifice was offered was the temple-mount at
Jerusalem. The proverb quoted in Genesis seems to indicate the same fact.
Moreover, the distance of the mountain from Beer-sheba—three days' journey—would
be also the distance of Jerusalem from Abraham's starting-place.

It is even possible that in the name of Yahveh-yireh we have a play upon the
first element in the name of Jeru-salem. The word uru, "city," became
yeru or yiru in Hebrew pronunciation, and between this and
yireh the difference is not great. Yahveh-yireh, "the Lord sees," might
also be interpreted "the Lord of Yeru."

The temple-hill was emphatically "the mount of the Lord." In Ezekiel (xliii.
15) the altar that stood upon it is called Har-el, "the mountain of God." The
term reminds us of Babylonia, where the mercy-seat of the great temple of
Bel-Merodach at Babylon was termed Du-azagga, "the holy hill." It was on this
"seat of the oracles," as it was termed, that the god enthroned himself at the
beginning of each year, and announced his will to {78} mankind. But the mercy-seat was entitled
"the holy hill" only because it was a miniature copy of "the holy hill" upon
which the whole temple was erected. So, too, at Jerusalem, the altar is called
"the mount of God" by Ezekiel only because it represents that greater "mount of
God" upon which it was built. The temple-hill itself was the primitive
Har-el.

The list of conquered localities in Palestine recorded by Thothmes III. at
Karnak gives indirect testimony to the same fact. The name of Rabbah of Judah is
immediately preceded in it by that of Har-el, "the mount of God." The position
of this Har-el leads us to the very mountain tract in the midst of which
Jerusalem stood. We now know that Jerusalem was already an important city in the
age of the eighteenth Egyptian dynasty, and that it formed one of the Egyptian
conquests; it would be strange therefore if no notice had been taken of it by
the compiler of the list. May we not see, then, in the Har-el of the Egyptian
scribe the sacred mountain of Israelitish history?

There is a passage in one of the letters of Ebed-Tob which may throw further
light on the history of the temple-hill. Unfortunately one of the cuneiform
characters in it is badly formed, so that its reading is not certain, and still
more unfortunately this character is one of the most important in the whole
paragraph. If Dr. Winckler and myself are right in our copies, Ebed-Tob speaks
of "the city of the mountain of Jerusalem, the city of the temple {79} of the god Nin-ip,
(whose) name (there) is Salim, the city of the king." What we read "Salim,"
however, is read differently by Dr. Zimmern, so that according to his copy the
passage must be translated: "the city of the mountain of Jerusalem, the city of
the temple of the god Nin-ip is its name, the city of the king." In the one case
Ebed-Tob will state explicitly that the god of Jerusalem, whom he identifies
with the Babylonian Nin-ip, is Salim or Sulman, the god of peace, and that his
temple stood on "the mountain of Jerusalem"; in the other case there will be no
mention of Salim, and it will be left doubtful whether or not the city of
Beth-Nin-ip was included within the walls of the capital. It would seem rather
that it was separate from Jerusalem, though standing on the same "mountain" as
the great fortress. If so, we might identify Jerusalem with the city on Mount
Zion, the Jebusite stronghold of a later date, while "the city of Beth-Nin-ip"
would be that which centred round the temple on Moriah.

However this may be, the fortress and the temple-hill were distinct from one
another in the days of the Jebusites, and we may therefore assume that they were
also distinct in the age of Abraham. This might explain why it was that the
mountain of Moriah on the summit of which the patriarch offered his sacrifice
was not enclosed within the walls of Jerusalem, and was not covered with
buildings. It was a spot, on the contrary, where sheep {80} could feed, and a ram be caught by its
horns in the thick brushwood.

In entering Canaan, Abraham would have found himself still surrounded by all
the signs of a familiar civilization. The long-continued influence and
government of Babylonia had carried to "the land of the Amorites" all the
elements of Chaldæan culture. Migration from Ur of the Chaldees to the distant
West meant a change only in climate and population, not in the civilization to
which the patriarch had been accustomed.

Even the Babylonian language was known and used in the cities of Canaan, and
the literature of Babylonia was studied by the Canaanitish people. This is one
of the facts which we have learnt from the discovery of the Tel el-Amarna
tablets. The cuneiform system of writing and the Babylonian language had spread
all over Western Asia, and nowhere had they taken deeper root than in Canaan.
Here there were schools and teachers for instruction in the foreign language and
script, and record-chambers and libraries in which the letters and books of clay
could be copied and preserved.

Long before the discovery of the Tel el-Amarna tablets we might have gathered
from the Old Testament itself that such libraries once existed in Canaan. One of
the Canaanitish cities taken and destroyed by the Israelites was Debir in the
mountainous part of Judah. But Debir, "the sanctuary," was also known by two
other names. {81} It was
called Kirjath-Sannah, "the city of Instruction," as well as Kirjath-Sepher,
"the city of Books."

We now know, however, that the latter name is not quite correct. The
Massoretic punctuation has to be emended, and we must read Kirjath-Sopher, "the
city of the Scribe(s)," instead of Kirjath-Sepher, "the city of Book(s)." It is
an Egyptian papyrus which has given us the exact name. In the time of Ramses II.
an Egyptian scribe composed a sarcastic account of the misadventures met with by
a tourist in Palestine—commonly known as The Travels of a Mohar—and in
this mention is made of two adjoining towns in Southern Palestine called
Kirjath-Anab and Beth-Sopher. In the Book of Joshua the towns of Anab and
Kirjath-Sepher are similarly associated together, and it is plain, therefore, as
Dr. W. Max Müller has remarked, that the Egyptian writer has interchanged the
equivalent terms Kirjath, "city," and Beth, "house." He ought to have written
Beth-Anab and Kirjath-Sopher. But he has given us the true form of the latter
name, and as he has added to the word Sopher the determinative of
"writing," he has further put beyond question the real meaning of the name. The
city must have been one of those centres of Canaanitish learning, where, as in
the libraries of Babylonia and Assyria, a large body of scribes was kept
constantly at work.

The language employed in the cuneiform documents {82} was almost always that of Babylonia, which
had become the common speech of diplomacy and educated society. But at times the
native language of the country was also employed, and one or two examples of it
have been preserved. The legends and traditions of Babylonia served as
text-books for the student, and doubtless Babylonian history was carried to the
West as well. The account of Chedor-laomer's campaign might have been derived in
this way from the clay-books of ancient Babylonia.

Babylonian theology, too, made its way to the West, and has left records of
itself in the map of Canaan. In the names of Canaanitish towns and villages the
names of Babylonian deities frequently recur. Rimmon or Hadad, the god of the
air, whom the Syrians identified with the Sun-god, Nebo, the god of prophecy,
the interpreter of the will of Bel-Merodach, Anu, the god of the sky, and Anat,
his consort, all alike meet us in the names sometimes of places, sometimes of
persons. Mr. Tomkins is probably right in seeing even in Beth-lehem the name of
the primeval Chaldæan deity Lakhmu. The Canaanitish Moloch is the Babylonian
Malik, and Dagon was one of the oldest of Chaldæan divinities and the associate
of Anu. We have seen how ready Ebed-Tob was to identify the god he worshipped
with the Babylonian Nin-ip, and among the Canaanites mentioned in the letters of
Tel el-Amarna there is more than one whose name is compounded with that of a
Babylonian god.
{83}

Writing and literature, religion and mythology, history and science, all
these were brought to the peoples of Canaan in the train of Babylonian conquest
and trade. Art naturally went hand in hand with this imported culture. The
seal-cylinders of the Chaldæans were imitated, and Babylonian figures and
ornamental designs were borrowed and modified by the Canaanitish artists. It was
in this way that the rosette, the cherub, the sacred tree, and the palmette
passed to the West, and there served to adorn the metal-work and pottery. New
designs, unknown in Babylonia, began to develop; among others, the heads of
animals in gold and silver as covers for metal vases. Some of these "vases of
Kaft," as they were called, are pictured on the Egyptian monuments, and Thothmes
III. in his annals describes "the paterae with goats' heads upon them and one
with a lion's head, the productions of Zahi," or Palestine, which were brought
to him as tribute.

The spoil which the same Pharaoh carried away from the Canaanitish princes
gives us some idea of the art which they patronized. We hear of chariots and
tent-poles covered with plates of gold, of iron armour and helmets, of gold and
silver rings which were used in the place of money, of staves of ivory, ebony,
and cedar inlaid with gold, of golden sceptres, of tables, chairs, and
footstools of cedar wood, inlaid some of them with ivory, others with gold and
precious stones, of vases and bowls of all kinds in gold, silver, and bronze,
and {84} of the
two-handled cups which were a special manufacture of Phoenicia. Iron seems to
have been worked in Canaan from an early date. The Israelites were unable to
drive out the inhabitants of "the valley" because of their chariots of iron, and
when the chariot of the Egyptian Mohar is disabled by the rough roads of the
Canaanite mountains the writer of the papyrus already referred to makes him turn
aside at once to a worker in iron. There was no difficulty in finding an
ironsmith in Canaan.

The purple dye of Phoenicia had been famous from a remote antiquity. It was
one of the chief objects of the trade which was carried on by the Canaanites
with Egypt on the one side and Babylonia on the other. It was doubtless in
exchange for the purple that the "goodly Babylonish garment" of which we are
told in the Book of Joshua (vii. 21) made its way to the city of Jericho, for
Babylonia was as celebrated for its embroidered robes as Canaan was for its
purple dye.

We hear something about the trade of Canaan in one of the cuneiform tablets
of Tel el-Amarna. This is a letter from Kallimma-Sin, king of Babylonia, to the
Egyptian Pharaoh urging him to conclude a treaty in accordance with which the
merchants of Babylonia might trade with Egypt on condition of their paying the
customs at the frontier. Gold, silver, oil, and clothing are among the objects
upon which the duty was to be levied. The frontier was probably fixed at the
borders of {85} the
Egyptian province of Canaan rather than at those of Egypt itself.

Babylonia and the civilized lands of the East were not the only countries
with which Canaanitish trade was carried on. Negro slaves were imported from the
Soudan, copper and lead from Cyprus, and horses from Asia Minor, while the
excavations of Mr. Bliss at Lachish have brought to light beads of Baltic amber
mixed with the scarabs of the eighteenth Egyptian dynasty.

A large part of the trade of Phoenicia was carried on in ships. It was in
this way that the logs of cedar were brought from the forests at the head of the
Gulf of Antioch, and the purple murex from the coasts of the Ægean. Tyre,
whose wealth is already celebrated in one of the Tel el-Amarna tablets, was
built upon an island, and, as an Egyptian papyrus tells us, water had to be
conveyed to it in boats. So, too, was Arvad, whose navy occupies an important
place in the Tel el-Amarna correspondence. The ships of Canaan were, in fact,
famous from an early date. Two classes of vessel known to the Egyptians were
called "ships of Gebal" and "ships of Kaft," or Phoenicia, and Ebed-Tob asserts
that "as long as a ship sails upon the sea, the arm (or oracle) of the Mighty
King shall conquer the forces of Aram-Naharaim (Nahrima) and Babylonia."
Balaam's prophecy—"Ships shall come from Chittim and shall afflict Asshur and
shall afflict Eber," takes us back to the same age.
{86}

The Aram-Naharaim of Scripture is the Nahrina of the hieroglyphic texts, the
Mitanni of the native inscriptions. The capital city Mitanni stood on the
eastern bank of the Euphrates, at no great distance from Carchemish, but the
Naharaim, or "Two Rivers," more probably mean the Euphrates and Orontes, than
the Euphrates and Tigris. In one of the Tel el-Amarna tablets the country is
called Nahrima, but its usual name is Mitanni or Mitanna. It was the first
independent kingdom of any size or power on the frontiers of the Egyptian empire
in the age of the eighteenth dynasty, and the Pharaohs Thothmes IV., Amenophis
III., and Amenophis IV. successively married into its royal family.

The language of Mitanni has been revealed to us by the cuneiform
correspondence from Tel el-Amarna. It was highly agglutinative, and unlike any
other form of speech, ancient or modern, with which we are acquainted. Perhaps
the speakers of it, like the Hittites, had descended from the north, and
occupied territory which had originally belonged to Aramaic tribes. Perhaps, on
the other hand, they represented the older population of the country which was
overpowered and displaced by Semitic invaders. Which of these views is the more
correct we shall probably never know.

Along with their own language the people of Mitanni had also their own
theology. Tessupas was god of the atmosphere, the Hadad of the Semites, Sausbe
was identified with the Phoenician {87} Ashteroth, and Sekhrus, Zizanu, and Zannukhu are
mentioned among the other deities. But many of the divinities of Assyria were
also borrowed—Sin the Moon-god, whose temple stood in the city of Harran, Ea the
god of the waters, Bel, the Baal of the Canaanites, and Istar, "the lady of
Nineveh." Even Amon the god of Thebes was adopted into the pantheon in the days
of Egyptian influence.

How far back the interference of Aram-Naharaim in the affairs of Canaan may
have reached it is impossible to say. But the kingdom lay on the high-road from
Babylonia and Assyria to the West, and its rise may possibly have had something
to do with the decline of Babylonian supremacy in Palestine. The district in
which it grew up was called Suru or Suri by the Sumerian inhabitants of
Chaldæa—a name which may be the origin of the modern "Syria," rather than
Assyria, as is usually supposed, and the Semitic Babylonians gave it the title
of Subari or Subartu. The conquest of Suri was the work of the last campaign of
Sargon of Accad, and laid all northern Mesopotamia at his feet.

We gather from the letters of Tel el-Amarna that the Babylonians were still
intriguing in Canaan in the century before the Exodus, though they acknowledged
that it was an Egyptian province and subject to Egyptian laws. But the memory of
the power they had once exercised there still survived, and the influence of
their culture continued undiminished. When their rule {88} actually ceased we do not yet know. It
cannot have been very long, however, before the era of Egyptian conquest. In the
Tel el-Amarna tablets they are always called Kassites, a name which could have
been given to them only after the conquest of Babylonia by the Kassite
mountaineers of Elam, and the rise of a Kassite dynasty of kings. This was about
1730 B.C. For some time subsequently, therefore, the government of Babylonia
must still have been acknowledged in Canaan. With this agrees a statement of the
Egyptian historian Manetho, upon which the critics, in their wisdom or their
ignorance, have poured unmeasured contempt. He tells us that when the Hyksos
were driven out of Egypt by Ahmes I., the founder of the eighteenth dynasty,
they occupied Jerusalem and fortified it—not, as would naturally be imagined,
against the Egyptian Pharaoh, but against "the Assyrians," as the Babylonians
were called by Manetho's contemporaries. As long as there were no monuments to
confront them the critics had little difficulty in proving that the statement
was preposterous and unhistorical, that Jerusalem did not as yet exist, and that
no Assyrians or Babylonians entered Palestine until centuries later. But we now
know that Manetho was right and his critics wrong. Jerusalem did exist, and
Babylonian armies threatened the independence of the Canaanite states. In one of
his letters, Ebed-Tob, king of Jerusalem, tells the Pharaoh that he need not be
alarmed about the Babylonians, for the {89} temple at Jerusalem is strong enough to resist their
attack. Rib-Hadad the governor of Gebal bears the same testimony. "When thou
didst sit on the throne of thy father," he says, "the sons of Ebed-Asherah (the
Amorite) attached themselves to the country of the Babylonians, and took the
country of the Pharaoh for themselves; they (intrigued with) the king of
Mitanna, and the king of the Babylonians, and the king of the Hittites." In
another despatch he speaks in a similar strain: "The king of the Babylonians and
the king of Mitanna are strong, and have taken the country of the Pharaoh for
themselves already, and have seized the cities of thy governor." When George the
Synkellos notes that the Chaldæans made war against the Phoenicians in B.C.
1556, he is doubtless quoting from some old and trustworthy source.

We must not imagine, however, that there was any permanent occupation of
Canaan on the part of the Babylonians at this period of its history. It would
seem rather that Babylonian authority was directly exercised only from time to
time, and had to be enforced by repeated invasions and campaigns. It was the
influence of Babylonian civilization and culture that was permanent, not the
Babylonian government itself. Sometimes, indeed, Canaan became a Babylonian
province, at other times there were only certain portions of the country which
submitted to the foreign control, while again at other times the Babylonian rule
was merely nominal. But it is clear that it was not until {90} Canaan had been thoroughly reduced by
Egyptian arms that the old claim of Babylonia to be its mistress was finally
renounced, and even then we see that intrigues were carried on with the
Babylonians against the Egyptian authority.

It was during this period of Babylonian influence and tutelage that the
traditions and myths of Chaldæa became known to the people of Canaan. It is
again the tablets of Tel el-Amarna which have shown us how this came to pass.
Among them are fragments of Babylonian legends, one of which endeavoured to
account for the creation of man and the introduction of sin into the world, and
these legends were used as exercise-books in the foreign language by the scribes
of Canaan and Egypt who were learning the Babylonian language and script. If
ever we discover the library of Kirjath-sepher we shall doubtless find among its
clay records similar examples of Chaldæan literature. The resemblances between
the cosmogonies of Phoenicia and Babylonia have often been pointed out, and
since the discovery of the Chaldæan account of the Deluge by George Smith we
have learned that between that account and the one which is preserved in Genesis
there is the closest possible likeness, extending even to words and phrases. The
long-continued literary influence of Babylonia in Palestine in the Patriarchal
Age explains all this, and shows us how the traditions of Chaldæa made their way
to the West. When Abraham entered Canaan, he entered a country {91} whose educated
inhabitants were already familiar with the books, the history, and the
traditions of that in which he had been born. There were doubtless many to whom
the name and history of "Ur of the Chaldees" were already known. It may even be
that copies of the books in its library already existed in the libraries of
Canaan.

There was one Babylonian hero at all events whose name had become so well
known in the West that it had there passed into a proverb. This was the name of
Nimrod, "the mighty hunter before the Lord." As yet the cuneiform documents are
silent about him, but it is probable that he was one of the early Kassite kings
who established their dominion over the cities of Babylonia. He is called the
son of Cush or Kas, and "the beginning of his kingdom" was Babylon, which had
now for six centuries been the capital of the country. His name, however, was as
familiar to the Canaanite as it was to the inhabitant of Chaldæa, and the god
before whom his exploits were displayed was Yahveh and not Bel.

It was about 1600 B.C. that the Hyksos were finally expelled from Egypt. They
were originally Asiatic hordes who had overrun the valley of the Nile, and held
it in subjection for several centuries. At first they had carried desolation
with them wherever they went. The temples of the Egyptian gods were destroyed
and their priests massacred. But before long Egyptian culture proved too strong
for the invaders. The rude chief of a savage {92} horde became transformed into an Egyptian Pharaoh,
whose court resembled that of the ancient line of monarchs, and who surrounded
himself with learned men. The cities and temples were restored and beautified,
and art began to flourish once more. Except in one respect it became difficult
to distinguish the Hyksos prince from his predecessors on the throne of Egypt.
That one respect was religion. The supreme object of Hyksos worship continued to
be Sutekh, the Baal of Western Asia, whose cult the foreigners had brought with
them from their old homes. But even Sutekh was assimilated to Ra, the Sun-god of
On, and the Hyksos Pharaohs felt no scruple in imitating the native kings and
combining their own names with that of Ra. It was only the Egyptians who refused
to admit the assimilation, and insisted on identifying Sutekh with Set the enemy
of Horus.

At the outset all Egypt was compelled to submit to the Hyksos domination.
Hyksos monuments have been found as far south as Gebelên and El-Kab, and the
first Hyksos dynasty established its seat in Memphis, the old capital of the
country. Gradually, however, the centre of Hyksos power retreated into the
delta. Zoan or Tanis, the modern San, became the residence of the court: here
the Hyksos kings were in close proximity to their kindred in Asia, and were,
moreover, removed from the unmixed Egyptian population further south. From Zoan,
"built"—or rather rebuilt—"seven {93} years" after Hebron (Num. xiii. 22), they governed
the valley of the Nile. Their rule was assisted by the mutual jealousies and
quarrels of the native feudal princes who shared between them the land of Egypt.
The foreigner kept his hold upon the country by means of the old feudal
aristocracy.

Thebes, however, had never forgotten that it had been the birthplace and
capital of the powerful Pharaohs of the twelfth and thirteenth dynasties, of the
mighty princes who had conquered the Soudan, and ruled with an iron hand over
the feudal lords. The heirs of the Theban Pharaohs still survived as princes of
Thebes, and behind the strong walls of El-Kab they began to think of
independence. Apophis II. in his court at Zoan perceived the rising storm, and
endeavoured to check it at its beginning. According to the story of a later day,
he sent insulting messages to the prince of Thebes, and ordered him to worship
Sutekh the Hyksos god. The prince defied his suzerain, and the war of
independence began. It lasted for several generations, during which the Theban
princes made themselves masters of Upper Egypt, and established a native dynasty
of Pharaohs which reigned simultaneously with the Hyksos dynasty in the
North.

Step by step the Hyksos stranger was pushed back to the north-eastern corner
of the delta. At length Zoan itself fell into the hands of the Egyptians, and
the Hyksos took refuge in the great fortress of Avaris on the extreme border of
the {94} kingdom. Here
they were besieged by the Theban prince Ahmes, and eventually driven back to the
Asia from which they had come. The eighteenth dynasty was founded, and Ahmes
entered on that career of Asiatic conquest which converted Canaan into an
Egyptian province. At first the war was one of revenge; but it soon became one
of conquest, and the war of independence was followed by the rise of the
Egyptian empire. Thothmes II., the grandson of Ahmes, led his forces as far as
the Euphrates and the land of Aram-Naharaim. The territories thus overrun in a
sort of military reconnaissance were conquered and annexed by his son Thothmes
III., during his long reign of fifty-four years (March 20, B.C. 1503 to February
14, B.C. 1449). Canaan on both sides of the Jordan was made into a province, and
governed much as India is to-day. Some of the cities were allowed still to
retain their old line of princes, who were called upon to furnish tribute to the
Egyptian treasury and recruits to the Egyptian army. From time to time they were
visited by an Egyptian "Commissioner," and an Egyptian garrison kept watch upon
their conduct. Sometimes an Egyptian Resident was appointed by the side of the
native king; this was the case, for example, at Sidon and Hazor. Where, however,
the city was of strategical or political importance it was incorporated into the
Egyptian empire, and placed under the immediate control of an Egyptian governor,
as at Megiddo, Gaza, Gebal, Gezer, and Tyre. Similarly {95} Ziri-Basana, "the field of Bashan," was
under the government of a single khazan or "prefect." The troops, who
also acted as police, were divided into various classes. There were the tsabi
yidati or "auxiliaries," the tsabi saruti or "militia," the
Khabbati or "Beduin plunderers," and the tsabi matsarti or
"Egyptian soldiers of the garrison," as well as the tsabi bitati or
"house-guards," who were summoned in cases of emergency. Among the auxiliaries
were included the Serdani or Sardinians, while the Sute—the Sati or Sitti of the
hieroglyphic texts—formed the larger portion of the Beduin ("Bashi-bazouks"),
and the Egyptian forces were divided into the cavalry or rather charioteers, and
the Misi (called Mas'u in the hieroglyphics) or infantry.

Fragments of the annals of Thothmes III. have been preserved on the shattered
walls of his temple at Karnak. Here too we may read the lists of places he
conquered in Palestine—the land of the Upper Lotan as it is termed—as well as in
Northern Syria. Like the annals, the geographical lists have been compiled from
memoranda made on the spot by the scribes who followed the army, and in some
instances, at all events, it can be shown that they have been translated into
Egyptian hieroglyphs from Babylonian cuneiform. The fact is an indication of the
conquest that Asia was already beginning to make over her Egyptian conquerors.
But the annals themselves are a further and still more convincing proof of
Asiatic influence. To cover the {96} walls of a temple with the history of campaigns in a
foreign land, and an account of the tribute brought to the Pharaoh, was wholly
contrary to Egyptian ideas. From the Egyptian point of view the decoration of
the sacred edifice should have been theological only. The only subjects
represented on it, so custom and belief had ruled, ought to be the gods, and the
stereotyped phrases describing their attributes, their deeds, and their
festivals. To substitute for this the records of secular history was Assyrian
and not Egyptian. Indeed the very conception of annalistic chronicling, in which
the history of a reign was given briefly year by year and campaign by campaign,
belonged to the kingdoms of the Tigris and Euphrates, not to that of the Nile.
It was a new thing in Egypt, and flourished there only during the short period
of Asiatic influence. The Egyptian cared comparatively little for history, and
made use of papyrus when he wished to record it. Unfortunately for us the annals
of Thothmes III. remain the solitary monument of Egyptian chronicling on
stone.

The twenty-second year of his reign (B.C. 1481) was that in which the
Egyptian Pharaoh made his first determined effort to subdue Canaan. Gaza was
occupied without much difficulty, and in the following year, on the fifth day of
the month Pakhons, he set out from it, and eleven days later encamped at Ihem.
There he learned that the confederated Canaanitish army, under the command of
the king of Kadesh on the Orontes, was awaiting {97} his attack at Megiddo. Not only were the various
nations of Palestine represented in it, but contingents had come from Naharaim
on the banks of the Euphrates, as well as from the Gulf of Antioch. For a while
Thothmes hesitated whether to march against them by the road which led through
'Aluna to Taanach or by way of Zaft (perhaps Safed), whence he would have
descended southward upon Megiddo. The arrival of his spies, however, determined
him to take the first, and accordingly, after the officers had sworn that they
would not leave their appointed posts in battle even to defend the person of the
king, he started on his march, and on the nineteenth of the month pitched his
tent at 'Aluna. The way had been rough and impassable for chariots, so that the
king had been forced to march on foot.

'Aluna must have been close to Megiddo, since the rear of the Egyptian forces
was stationed there during the battle that followed, while the southern wing
extended to Taanach and the northern wing to Megiddo. The advanced guard pushed
into the plain below, and the royal tent was set up on the bank of the brook of
Qana, an affluent of the Kishon. The decisive struggle took place on the
twenty-first of the month. Thothmes rode in a chariot of polished bronze, and
posted himself among the troops on the north-west side of Megiddo. The
Canaanites were unable to resist the Egyptian charge. They fled into the city,
leaving behind them their horses and their chariots {98} plated with gold and silver, those who
arrived after the gates of the town had been shut being drawn up over the walls
by means of ropes. Had the Egyptians not stayed behind in order to plunder the
enemy's camp they would have entered Megiddo along with the fugitives. As it
was, they were compelled to blockade the city, building a rampart round it of
"fresh green trees," and the besieged were finally starved into a surrender.

In the captured camp had been found the son of the king of Megiddo, besides a
large amount of booty, including chariots of silver and gold from Asi or Cyprus.
Two suits of iron armour were also obtained, one belonging to the king of
Kadesh, the other to the king of Megiddo. The seven tent-poles of the royal
tent, plated with gold, also fell into the hands of the Egyptians. The catalogue
of the spoil was written down on a leather roll which was deposited in the
temple of Amon at Thebes, and in it were enumerated: 3401 prisoners and 83 hands
belonging to the slain, 32 chariots plated with gold, 892 ordinary chariots,
2041 mares, 191 foals, 602 bows, and 200 suits of armour.

Before the campaign was ended the Egyptian army had penetrated far to the
north and captured Inuam, south of Damascus, as well as Anugas or Nukhasse, and
Harankal, to the north of the land of the Amorites. All these places seem to
have belonged to the king of Kadesh, as his property was carried away out of
them. When Thothmes {99}
returned to Thebes the quantity of spoil be brought back with him was immense.
"Besides precious stones," golden bowls, Phoenician cups with double handles and
the like, there were 97 swords, 1784 pounds of gold rings and 966 pounds of
silver rings, which served as money, a statue with a head of gold, tables,
chairs, and staves of cedar and ebony inlaid with gold, ivory and precious
stones, a golden plough, the golden sceptre of the conquered prince, and richly
embroidered stuffs. The fields of the vanquished province were further measured
by the Egyptian surveyors, and the amount of taxation annually due from them was
fixed. More than 208,000 measures of wheat were moreover carried off to Egypt
from the plain of Megiddo. The Canaanitish power was completely broken, and
Thothmes was now free to extend his empire further to the north.

Accordingly in the following year (B.C. 1479) we find him receiving tribute
from the Assyrian king. This consisted of leather bracelets, various kinds of
wood, and chariots. It was probably at this time that Carchemish on the
Euphrates was taken, the city being stormed from the riverside. Five years later
the first part of the annals was engraved on the wall of the new temple of Amon
at Karnak, and it concluded with an account of the campaign of the year. This
had been undertaken in Northern Syria, and had resulted in the capture of Uarrt
and Tunip, now Tennib, to the north-west of Aleppo. No less than one hundred
pounds of silver and as {100} many of gold were taken from Tunip, as well as
lapis-lazuli from Babylonia, and malachite from the Sinaitic peninsula, together
with vessels of iron and bronze. Some ships also were captured, laden with
slaves, bronze, lead, white gold, and other products of the Greek seas. On the
march home the Egyptian army took possession of Arvad, and seized its rich
stores of wheat and wine. "Then the soldiers caroused and anointed themselves
with oil as they used to do on feast days in the land of Egypt."

The next year Kadesh on the Orontes, near the Lake of Horns, was attacked and
destroyed, its trees were cut down and its corn carried away. From Kadesh
Thothmes proceeded to the land of Phoenicia, and took the cities of Zemar (now
Sumra) and Arvad. The heirs of four of the conquered princes were carried as
hostages to Egypt, "so that when one of these kings should die, then the Pharaoh
should take his son and put him in his stead."

In B.C. 1472 the land of the Amorites was reduced, or rather that part of it
which was known as Takhis, the Thahash of Genesis xxii. 24, on the shores of the
Lake of Merna, in which we should probably see the Lake of Homs. Nearly 500
prisoners were led to Egypt. The Syrian princes now came to offer their gifts to
the conqueror, bringing with them, among other things, more than 760 pounds of
silver, 19 chariots covered with silver ornaments, and 41 leathern collars
covered with bronze scales. At the same time the whole {101} country was thoroughly organized under
the new Egyptian administration. Military roads were constructed and provided
with posting-houses, at each of which relays of horses were kept in readiness,
as well as "the necessary provision of bread of various sorts, oil, balsam,
wine, honey, and fruits." The quarries of the Lebanon were further required to
furnish the Pharaoh with limestone for his buildings in Egypt and elsewhere.

Two years later Thothmes was again in Syria. He made his way as far as the
Euphrates, and there on the eastern bank erected a stele by the side of one
which his father Thothmes II. had already set up. The stele was an imperial
boundary-stone marking the frontier of the Egyptian empire. It was just such
another stele that Hadad-ezer of Zobah was intending to restore in the same
place when he was met and defeated by David (2 Sam. viii. 3).

The Pharaoh now took ship and descended the Euphrates, "conquering the towns
and ploughing up the fields of the king of Naharaim." He then re-ascended the
stream to the city of Ni, where he placed another stele, in proof that the
boundary of Egypt had been extended thus far. Elephants still existed in the
neighbourhood, as they continued to do four and a half centuries later in the
time of the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser I. Thothmes amused himself by hunting
them, and no less than 120 were slain.

On his way home the tribute and "yearly tax" {102} of the inhabitants of the Lebanon was
brought to him, and the corvée-work annually required from them was also fixed.
Thothmes indulged his taste for natural history by receiving as part of the
tribute various birds which were peculiar to Syria, or at all events were
unknown in Egypt, and which, we are told, "were dearer to the king than anything
else." He had already established zoological and botanical gardens in Thebes,
and the strange animals and plants which his campaigns furnished for them were
depicted on the walls of one of the chambers in the temple he built at
Karnak.

Before his return to Egypt he received the tribute of "the king of Sangar,"
or Shinar, in Mesopotamia, and "of the land of Khata the greater." The first
consisted for the most part of lapis-lazuli, real and artificial, of which the
most prized was "the lapis-lazuli of Babylon." Among the gifts was "a ram's head
of real lapis-lazuli, 15 pounds in weight." The land of the Hittites, "the
greater," so called to distinguish it from the lesser Hittite land in the south
of Palestine, sent 8 rings of silver, 400 pounds in weight, besides "a great
piece of crystal."

The following year Thothmes marched through "the land of Zahi," the "dry
land" of the Phoenician coast, to Northern Syria, where he punished the king of
Anugas or Nukhasse, who had shown symptoms of rebellion. Large quantities of
gold and bronze were carried off, as {103} well as 15 chariots, plated with gold and silver,
6 iron tent-poles studded with precious stones, and 70 asses. Lead and various
kinds of wood and stone, together with 608 jars of Lebanon wine, 2080 jars of
oil, and 690 jars of balsam, were also received from Southern Syria, and
posting-houses were established along the roads of the land of Zahi. A fleet of
Phoenician merchant vessels was next sent to Egypt laden with logs of wood from
the forests of Palestine and the Lebanon for the buildings of the king. At the
same time, "the king of Cyprus," which now was an Egyptian possession, forwarded
his tribute to the Pharaoh, consisting of 108 bricks of copper 2040 pounds in
weight, 5 bricks of lead nearly 29,000 pounds in weight, 110 pounds of
lapis-lazuli, an elephant's tusk, and other objects of value.

The next year (B.C. 1468) there was a campaign against the king of Naharaim,
who had collected his soldiers and horses "from the extreme ends of the world."
But the Mesopotamian army was utterly defeated. Its booty fell into the hands of
the Egyptians, who, however, took only ten prisoners, which looks as if, after
all, the battle was not on a very large scale.

In B.C. 1464 Thothmes was again in Northern Syria. Among the booty acquired
during the expedition were "bowls with goats' heads on them, and one with a
lion's head, the work of the land of Zahi." Horses, asses and oxen, 522 slaves,
156 jars of wine, 1752 jars of butter, 5 elephants' tusks, {104} 2822 pounds of gold
besides copper and lead, were among the spoils of the campaign. The annual
tribute was only received from Cyprus, consisting this time of copper and mares,
as well as from Aripakh, a district in the Taurus.

The next year the Pharaoh led his troops against some country, the name of
which is lost, in "the land of the hostile Shasu" or Beduin. The plunder which
was carried off from it shows that it was somewhere in Syria, probably in the
region of the Lebanon. Gold and silver, a silver double-handled cup with a
bull's head, iron, wine, balsam, oil, butter and honey, were among the spoils of
the war. Tribute arrived also from "the king of the greater Hittite land," which
included a number of negro slaves.

Revolt, however, now broke out in the north. Tunip rebelled, as did also the
king of Kadesh, who built a "new" fortress to protect his city from attack.
Thothmes at once marched against them by the road along "the coast," which led
him through the country of the Fenkhu or Phoenicians. First he fell upon the
towns of Alkana and utterly destroyed them, and then poured his troops into the
neighbouring land of Tunip. The city of Tunip was taken and burnt, its crops
were trodden under-foot, its trees cut down, and its inhabitants carried into
slavery. Then came the turn of Kadesh. The "new" fortress fell at the first
assault, and the whole country was compelled to submit.
{105}

The king of Assyria again sent presents to the Pharaoh which the Egyptian
court regarded in the light of tribute. They consisted chiefly of large blocks
of "real lapis-lazuli" as well as "lapis-lazuli of Babylon." More valuable gifts
came from the subject princes of Syria. Foremost among these was "a king's
daughter all glorious with [a vesture of] gold." Then there were four chariots
plated with gold and six chariots of gold, iron armour inlaid with gold, a jug
of silver, a golden helmet inlaid with lapis-lazuli, wine, honey and balsam,
ivory and various kinds of wood, wheat in such quantities that it could not be
measured, and the sixty-five slaves who had to be furnished each year as part of
the annual tax.

The annals of the next two years are in too mutilated a condition to yield
much information. Moreover, the campaigns carried on in them were mainly in the
Soudan. In B.C. 1461 the record closes. It was in that year that the account of
the Pharaoh's victories "which he had gained from the 23rd until the (4)2nd
year" were engraved upon the wall of the temple. (The inscription has "32nd
year," but as the wars extended beyond the 40th year of the king's reign this
must be a sculptor's error.) And the chronicle concludes with the brief but
expressive words, "Thus hath he done: may he live for ever!"

Thothmes, indeed, did not live for ever, but he survived the completion of
his temple fourteen years. His death was followed by the revolt of {106} Northern Syria, and
the first achievement of his son and successor, Amenôphis II., was its
suppression. Ni and Ugarit, the centres of disaffection, were captured and
punished, and among the prisoners from Ugarit were 640 "Canaanite" merchants
with their slaves. The name of Canaanite had thus already acquired that
secondary meaning of "merchant" which we find in the Old Testament (Is. xxiii.
8; Ezek. xvii. 4). It is a significant proof of the commercial activity and
trading establishments of the Canaanite race throughout the civilized world.
Even a cuneiform tablet from Kappadokia, which is probably of the same age as
the tablets of Tel el-Amarna, gives us the name of Kinanim "the Canaanite" as
that of a witness to a deed. It was not always, however, that the Canaanites
were so honourably distinguished. At times the name was equivalent to that of
"slave" rather than of "merchant," as in a papyrus [Anast. 4, 16, 2.] where
mention is made of Kan'amu or "Canaanite slaves from Khal." So too in another
papyrus we hear of a slave called Saruraz the son of Naqati, whose mother was
Kadi from the land of Arvad. The Egyptian wars in Palestine must necessarily
have resulted in the enslavement of many of its inhabitants, and, as we have
seen, a certain number of young slaves formed part of the annual tax levied upon
Syria.

The successors of Thothmes III. extended the {107} Egyptian empire far to the south in the
Soudan. But its Asiatic limits had already been reached. Palestine, along with
Phoenicia, the land of the Amorites and the country east of the Jordan, was
constituted into an Egyptian province and kept strictly under Egyptian control.
Further north the connection with the imperial government was looser. There were
Egyptian fortresses and garrisons here and there, and certain important towns
like Tunip near Aleppo and Qatna on the Khabûr were placed under Egyptian
prefects. But elsewhere the conquered populations were allowed to remain under
their native kings. In some instances, as, for example, in Anugas or Nukhasse,
the kings were little more than satraps of the Pharaoh, but in other instances,
like Alasiya, north of Hamath, they resembled the rulers of the protected states
in modern India. In fact, the king of Alasiya calls the Pharaoh his "brother,"
and except for the obligation of paying tribute was practically an independent
sovereign.

The Egyptian dominion was acknowledged as far north as Mount Amanus.
Carchemish, soon to become a Hittite stronghold, was in Egyptian hands, and the
Hittites themselves had not yet emerged from the fortresses of the Taurus. Their
territory was still confined to Kataonia and Armenia Minor between Melitênê and
the Saros, and they courted the favour of the Egyptian monarch by sending him
gifts. Thothmes would have refused to believe that before many years were over
they {108} would wrest
Northern Syria from his successors, and contend on equal terms with the Egyptian
Pharaoh.

The Egyptian possessions on the east bank of Euphrates lay along the course
of the Khabûr, towards the oasis of Singar or Shinar. North of the Belikh came
the powerful kingdom of Mitanni, Aram-Naharaim as it is called in the Old
Testament, which was never subdued by the Egyptian arms, and whose royal family
intermarried with the successors of Thothmes. Mitanni, the capital, stood nearly
opposite Carchemish, which thus protected the Egyptian frontier on the east.

Southward of the Belikh the frontier was formed by the desert. Syria, Bashan,
Ammon, and Moab were all included in the Pharaoh's empire. But there it came to
an end. Mount Seir was never conquered by the Egyptians. The "city" of Edom
appears in one of the Tel el-Amarna tablets as a foreign state whose inhabitants
wage war against the Egyptian territory. The conquest of the Edomites in their
mountain fastnesses would have been a matter of difficulty, nor would anything
have been gained by it. Edom was rich neither agriculturally nor commercially;
it was, in fact, a land of barren mountains, and the trade which afterwards
passed through the Arabah to Elath and Ezion-geber in the Gulf of Aqabah was
already secured to the Egyptians through their possession of the Gulf of Suez.
The first and last of the Pharaohs, so far as we know, who ventured on a {109} campaign against the
wild tribes of Mount Seir, was Ramses III. of the twentieth dynasty, and his
campaign was merely a punitive one. No attempt to incorporate the "Red Land"
into his dominions was ever made by an Egyptian king.

The Sinaitic peninsula, the province of Mafkat or "Malachite," as it was
called, had been in the possession of the Egyptians since the time of Zosir of
the third dynasty, and it continued to be regarded as part of the Egyptian
kingdom up to the age of the Ptolemies. The earliest of Egyptian rock-sculptures
is engraved in the peninsula, and represents Snefru, the founder of the fourth
dynasty, slaughtering the Beduin who inhabited it. Its possession was valued on
account of its mines of copper and malachite. These were worked by the Egyptian
kings with the help of convict labour. Garrisons were established to protect
them and the roads which led to them, colonies of officials grew up at their
side, and temples were built dedicated to the deities of Egypt. Even as late as
the reign of Ramses III. the amount of minerals produced by the mines was
enormous. They existed for the most part on the western side of the peninsula,
opposite the Egyptian coast; but Ramses III. also opened copper mines in the
land of 'Ataka further east, and the name of the goddess Hathor in hieroglyphics
has been found by Dr. Friedmann on the shores of Midian.

Vanquished Syria was made to contribute to the endowments of the Egyptian
temples. Thus the {110} temple of Amon at Thebes was endowed by Thothmes
III. with the revenues of the three cities Anugas, Inu'am, and Harankal; while
Seti I., the father of Ramses II., bestowed upon it "all the silver, gold,
lapis-lazuli, malachite, and precious stones which he carried off from the
humbled land of Syria." Temples of the Egyptian gods, as well as towns, were
built in Syria itself; Meneptah founded a city in the land of the Amorites;
Ramses III. erected a temple to Amon in "the land of Canaan, great as the
horizon of heaven above, to which the people of Syria come with their gifts";
and hieroglyphic inscriptions lately discovered at Gaza show that another temple
had been built there by Amenophis II. to the goddess Mut.

Amenophis had suppressed the rebellion in Northern Syria with little trouble.
Seven Amorite kings were carried prisoners to Egypt from the land of Takhis, and
taken up the river as far as Thebes. There six of them were hung outside the
walls of the city, as the body of Saul was hung by the Philistines outside the
walls of Beth-shan, while the seventh was conveyed to Napata in Ethiopia, and
there punished in the same way in order to impress a lesson of obedience upon
the negroes of the Soudan.

Amenophis II. was succeeded by Thothmes IV., who was called upon to face a
new enemy, the Hittites. It was at the commencement of his reign that they first
began to descend from their mountain {111} homes, and the frontier city of Tunip had to bear
the brunt of the attack. It was probably in order to strengthen himself against
these formidable foes that the Pharaoh married the daughter of the king of
Mitanni, who changed her name to Mut-em-ua. It was the beginning of those
inter-marriages with the princes of Asia which led to the Asiatized court and
religion of Amenophis IV., and finally to the overthrow of the eighteenth
dynasty.

The son of Mut-em-ua was Amenophis III., whose long reign of thirty-seven
years was as brilliant and successful as that of Thothmes III. At Soleb between
the second and third cataracts he built a temple to his own deified self, and
engraved upon its columns the names of his vassal states. Among them are Tunip
and Kadesh, Carchemish and Apphadana on the Khabûr. Sangar, Assyria, Naharaim,
and the Hittites also appear among them, but this must be on the strength of the
tribute or presents which had been received from them. The Pharaoh filled his
harîm with Asiatic princesses. His queen Teie, who exercised an important
influence upon both religion and politics, came from Asia, and among his wives
were the sisters and daughters of the kings of Babylonia and Mitanni, while one
of his own daughters was married to Burna-buryas the Babylonian sovereign. His
marriage with Gilu-khipa, the daughter of Sutarna, king of Aram-Naharaim, was
celebrated on a scarab, where it is further {112} related that she was accompanied to Egypt by three
hundred and seventeen "maids of honour." Besides allying himself in marriage to
the royal houses of Asia, Amenophis III. passed a good deal of his time in Syria
and Mesopotamia, amusing himself with hunting lions. During the first ten years
of his reign he boasts of having killed no less than one hundred and two of
them. It was in the last of these years that he married queen Teie, who is said
on scarabs to have been the daughter of "Yua and Tua." Possibly these are
contracted forms of Tusratta and Yuni, who were at the time king and queen of
Mitanni. But if so, it is curious that no royal titles are given to her parents;
moreover, the author of the scarabs has made Yua the father of the queen and Tua
her mother. Tuya is the name of an Amorite in one of the Tel el-Amarna letters,
while from another of them it would seem as if Teie had been the daughter of the
Babylonian king. One of the daughters of Tusratta, Tadu-khipa, was indeed
married to Amenophis, but she did not rank as chief queen. In the reign of
Meneptah of the nineteenth dynasty the vizier was a native of Bashan, Ben-Mazana
by name, whose father was called Yu the elder. Yua may therefore be a word of
Amorite origin; and a connection has been suggested between it and the Hebrew
Yahveh. This, however, though possible, cannot be proved.

When Amenophis III. died his son Amenophis IV. seems to have been still a
minor. At all events {113} the queen-mother Teie became all-powerful in the
government of the state. Her son, the new Pharaoh, had been brought up in the
religious beliefs of his mother, and had inherited the ideas and tendencies of
his Asiatic forefathers. A plaster-cast of his face, taken immediately after
death, was discovered by Prof. Petrie at Tel el-Amarna, and it is the face of a
refined and thoughtful theorist, of a philosopher rather than of a king, earnest
in his convictions almost to fanaticism.

Amenophis IV. undertook no less a task than that of reforming the State
religion of Egypt. For many centuries the religion of the priests and scribes
had been inclining to pantheism. Inside the temples there had been an esoteric
teaching, that the various deities of Egypt were but manifestations of the one
supreme God. But it had hardly passed outside them. With the accession of
Amenophis IV. to the throne came a change. The young king boldly rejected the
religion of which he was officially the head, and professed himself a worshipper
of the one God whose visible semblance was the solar disk. Alone of the deities
of Egypt Ra, the ancient Sun-god of Heliopolis, was acknowledged to be the
representative of the true God. It was the Baal-worship of Syria, modified by
the philosophic conceptions of Egypt. The Aten-Ra of the "heretic" Pharaoh was
an Asiatic Baal, but unlike the Baal of Canaan he stood alone; there were no
other Baals, no Baalim, by the side of him.
{114}

Amenophis was not content with preaching and encouraging the new faith; he
sought to force it upon his subjects. The other gods of Egypt were proscribed,
and the name and head of Amon, the patron god of Thebes, to whom his ancestors
had ascribed their power and victories, were erased from the monuments wherever
they occurred. Even his own father's name was not spared, and the emissaries of
the king, from one end of the country to the other, defaced that portion of it
which contained the name of the god. His own name was next changed, and
Amenophis IV. became Khu-n-Aten, "the splendour of the solar disk."

Khu-n-Aten's attempt to overthrow the ancient faith of Egypt was naturally
resisted by the powerful priesthood of Thebes. A religious war was declared for
the first time, so far as we know, in the history of mankind. On the one side a
fierce persecution was directed against the adherents of the old creed; on the
other side every effort was made to impede and defeat the Pharaoh. His position
grew daily more insecure, and at last he turned his back on the capital of his
fathers, and built himself a new city far away to the north. The priests of Amon
had thus far triumphed; the old idolatrous worship was carried on once more in
the great temple of Karnak, though its official head was absent, and Khu-n-Aten
with his archives and his court had fled to a safer home. Upper Egypt was left
to its worship of Amon and Min, while the king established himself nearer his
Canaanite possessions.
{115}

Here on the eastern bank of the Nile, about midway between Minyeh and Siût,
the new capital was founded on a strip of land protected from attack by a
semi-amphitheatre of cliffs. The city, with its palaces and gardens, extended
nearly two miles in length along the river bank. In its midst rose the temple of
the new god of Egypt, and hard by the palace of the king. Both were brilliant
with painting and sculpture, and inlaid work in precious stones and gold. Even
the floors were frescoed, while the walls and columns were enamelled or adorned
with the most costly materials that the Egyptian world could produce. Here and
there were statues of alabaster, of bronze or of gold, some of them almost Greek
in form and design. Along with the reform in religion there had gone a reform in
art. The old conventionalized art of Egypt was abandoned, and a new art had been
introduced which aimed at imitating nature with realistic fidelity.

The mounds which mark the site of Khu-n-Aten's city are now known as Tel
el-Amarna. It had a brief but brilliant existence of about thirty years. Then
the enemies of the Pharaoh and his work of reform finally prevailed, and his
city with its temple and palaces was levelled to the ground. It is from among
its ruins that the wondering fellah and explorer of to-day exhume the gorgeous
relics of its past.

But among these relics none have proved more precious than the clay tablets
inscribed with {116}
cuneiform characters, which have revolutionized our conceptions of the ancient
East. They were preserved in the Foreign Office of the day. This formed part of
the public buildings connected with the palace, and the bricks of which it was
built were stamped with an inscription describing its character. Many of the
tablets had been brought from the archive chamber of Thebes, but the greater
part of the collection belongs to the reign of Khu-n-Aten himself. It consists
almost entirely of official correspondence; of letters from the kings of
Babylonia and Assyria, of Mesopotamia and Kappadokia, and of despatches from the
Egyptian governors and vassal-princes in Syria and Palestine. They furnish us
with a living and unexpected picture of Canaan about 1400 B.C.

Fragments of dictionaries for the use of the scribes have also been recovered
from the débris of the building, as well as the seal of a servant of
Samas-akh-iddin who looked after the cuneiform correspondence. Like several of
the Canaanitish governors, he bore a Babylonian name. Even the brother of
Amenophis III., who had been made king of Nukhasse, had received the Babylonian
name of Rimmon-nirari. No stronger proof could be found of the extent and
strength of Babylonian influence in the West.

At Khut-Aten, as the "heretic" Pharaoh called his new capital, he was
surrounded by the adherents of the new faith. Many of them were doubtless
Egyptians, but many, perhaps the majority, were {117} of Asiatic extraction. Already under
his father and grandfather the court had been filled with Canaanites and other
natives of Asia, and the great offices of state had been occupied by them. Now
under Khu-n-Aten the Asiatic character of the government was increased tenfold.
The native Egyptian had to make way for the foreigner, and the rule of the
Syrian stranger which seemed to have been expelled with the Hyksos was restored
under another form. Canaan was nominally a subject province of Egypt, but in
reality it had led its conqueror captive. A semi-Asiatic Pharaoh was
endeavouring to force an Asiatic form of faith upon his subjects, and entrusting
his government to Asiatic officials; even art had ceased to be Egyptian and had
put on an Asiatic dress.

The tombs of Khu-n-Aten's followers are cut in the cliffs at the back of the
city, while his own sepulchre is towards the end of a long ravine which runs out
into the eastern desert between two lofty lines of precipitous rock. But few of
them are finished, and the sepulchre of the king himself, magnificent in its
design, is incomplete and mutilated. The sculptures on the walls have been
broken, and the granite sarcophagus in which the body of the great king rested
has been shattered into fragments before it could be lifted into the niche where
it was intended to stand. The royal mummy was torn into shreds, and the
porcelain figures buried with it dashed to the ground.

It is clear that the death of Khu-n-Aten must {118} have been quickly followed by the
triumph of his enemies. His capital was overthrown, the stones of its temple
carried away to Thebes, there to adorn the sanctuary of the victorious Amon, and
the adherents of his reform either slain or driven into exile. The vengeance
executed upon them was national as well as religious. It meant not only a
restoration of the national faith, but also the restoration of the native
Egyptian to the government of his country. The feelings which inspired it were
similar to those which underlay the movement of Arabi in our own time, and there
was no English army to stand in the way of its success. The rise of the
nineteenth dynasty represents the triumph of the national cause.

The cuneiform letters of Tel el-Amarna show that already before Khu-n-Aten's
death his empire and power were breaking up. Letter after letter is sent to him
from the governors in Canaan with urgent requests for troops. The Hittites were
attacking the empire in the north, and rebels were overthrowing it within. "If
auxiliaries come this year," writes Ebed-Tob of Jerusalem, "the provinces of the
king my lord will be preserved; but if no auxiliaries come the provinces of the
king my lord will be destroyed." To these entreaties no answer could be
returned. There was civil and religious war in Egypt itself, and the army was
needed to defend the Pharaoh at home.

The picture of Canaan presented to us by the Tel el-Amarna correspondence has
been supplemented {119} by the discovery of Lachish. Five years ago Prof.
Flinders Petrie undertook to excavate for the Palestine Exploration Fund in the
lofty mound of Tel el-Hesi in Southern Palestine. Tel el-Hesi stands midway
between Gaza and Hebron on the edge of the Judaean mountains, and overlooking a
torrent stream. His excavations resulted in the discovery of successive cities
built one upon the ruins of the other, and in the probability that the site was
that of Lachish. The excavations were resumed by Mr. Bliss in the following
year, and the probability was raised to practical certainty. The lowest of the
cities was the Lachish of the Amorite period, whose crude brick walls, nearly
twenty-nine feet in thickness, have been brought to light, while its pottery has
revealed to us for the first time the characteristics of Amorite manufacture.
The huge walls bear out the testimony of the Israelitish spies, that the cities
of the Amorites were "great and walled up to heaven" (Deut. i. 28). They give
indications, however, that in spite of their strength the fortresses they
enclosed must have been captured more than once. Doubtless this was during the
age of the Egyptian wars in Canaan.

As at Troy, it is probable that it was only the citadel which was thus
strongly fortified. Below it was the main part of the town, the inhabitants of
which took refuge in the citadel when an enemy threatened to attack them. The
fortified part, indeed, was not of very large extent. Its ruins measured only
about two hundred feet each way, {120} while the enclosure within which it stands is a
quarter of a mile in diameter. Here a regular series of pottery has been found,
dating from the post-exilic age through successive strata back to the primitive
Amoritish fortress. To Prof. Petrie belongs the credit of determining the
characteristics of these various strata, and fixing their approximate age.

The work begun by Prof. Petrie was continued by Mr. Bliss. Deep down among
the ruins of the Amoritish town he found objects which take us back to the time
of Khu-n-Aten and his predecessors. They consist of Egyptian beads and scarabs
of the eighteenth dynasty, and on one of the beads are the name and title of
"the royal wife Teie." Along with them were discovered beads of amber which came
from the Baltic as well as seal-cylinders, some of them imported from Babylonia,
others western imitations of Babylonian work. The Babylonian cylinders belong to
the period which extends from 3000 to 1500 B.C., while the imitations are
similar in style to those which have been found in the pre-historic tombs of
Cyprus and Phoenicia.

But there was one discovery made by Mr. Bliss which far surpasses in interest
all the rest. It is that of a cuneiform tablet, similar in character, in
contents, and in age to those which have come from Tel el-Amarna. Even the
Egyptian governor mentioned in it was already known to us from the Tel el-Amarna
correspondence as the governor of {121} Lachish. One of the cuneiform letters now
preserved at Berlin was written by him, and Ebed-Tob informs us that he was
subsequently murdered by the people of his own city.

Here is a translation of the letter discovered at Tel el-Hesi:—

"To ... rabbat (?) [or perhaps: To the officer Baya] (thus speaks) ... abi.
At thy feet I prostrate myself. Verily thou knowest that Dan-Hadad and Zimrida
have inspected the whole of the city, and Dan-Hadad says to Zimrida: Send
Yisyara to me [and] give me 3 shields (?) and 3 slings and 3 falchions, since I
am prefect (?) over the country of the king and it has acted against me; and now
I will restore thy possession which the enemy took from thee; and I have sent my
..., and ... rabi-ilu ... has despatched his brother [with] these words."

(This translation differs in some respects from that previously given by me,
as it is based on the copy of the text made from the original at Constantinople
by Dr. Scheil (Recueil de Trailaux relatifs à la Philologie et à
l'Archéologie égyptiennes et assyriennes, xv. 3, 4, 137). As I stated at the
time, my copy was made from a cast and was therefore uncertain in several
places. I am doubtful whether even now the published text is correct
throughout.)

Yisyara was the name of an Amorite, as we learn from one of the Tel el-Amarna
tablets, where he is mentioned along with other rebels as being sent in fetters
of bronze to the king. Of Dan-Hadad we know nothing further, but Zimrida's
letter is as follows:—

"To the king my lord, my god, my Sun-god, {122} the Sun-god who is from heaven, thus (writes)
Zimridi, the governor of the city of Lachish. Thy servant, the dust of thy feet,
at the feet of the king my lord, the Sun-god from heaven, bows himself seven
times seven. I have very diligently listened to the words of the messenger whom
the king my lord has sent to me, and now I have despatched (a mission) according
to his message."

It was towards the end of Khu-n-Aten's reign, when the Egyptian empire was
falling to pieces, that the murder of Zimrida took place. Ebed-Tob thus
describes it in a letter to the secretary of the Pharaoh: "The Khabiri (or
Confederates) are capturing the fortresses of the king. Not a single governor
remains among them to the king my lord; all are destroyed. Behold, Turbazu thy
officer [has fallen] in the great gate of the city of Zelah. Behold, the
servants who acted against the king have slain Zimrida of Lachish. They have
murdered Jephthah-Hadad thy officer in the gate of the city of Zelah."

We hear of another governor of Lachish, Yabni-el by name, but he probably
held office before Zimrida. At all events the following despatch of his has been
preserved:—

"To the king my lord, my god, my Sun-god, the Sun-god who is from heaven,
thus (writes) Yabni-el, the governor of the city of Lachish, thy servant, the
dust of thy feet, the groom of thy horses; at the feet of the king my lord, my
god, my Sun-god, the Sun-god who is from heaven, {123} seven times seven I bow myself.
Glorious and supreme [art thou]. I the groom of [the horses] of the king my
lord, listen to the [words] of the king my lord. Now have I heard all the words
which Baya the prefect has spoken to me. Now have I done everything."

Zimrida of Lachish must be distinguished from another Canaanite of the same
name who was governor of Sidon. This latter was a personal enemy of Rib-Hadad
the governor of Gebal, whose letters to Khu-n-Aten form a considerable portion
of the Tel el-Amarna collection. The authority of Rib-Hadad originally extended
over the greater part of Phoenicia, and included the strong fortress of Zemar or
Simyra in the mountains. One by one, however, his cities were taken from him by
his adversaries whom he accuses of rebellion against the Pharaoh. His letters to
Egypt are accordingly filled with imploring appeals for help. But none was sent,
and as his enemies equally professed their loyalty to the Egyptian government,
it is doubtful whether this was because the Pharaoh suspected Rib-Hadad himself
of disaffection or because no troops could be spared.

Rib-Hadad had been appointed to his post by Amenophis III., and in one of his
letters he looks back regretfully on "the good old times." When his letters were
written he was old and sick. Abimelech, the governor of Tyre, was almost the
only friend who remained to him. Not content with fomenting rebellion in his
district, and taking {124} his cities from him, his enemies accused him to
the Pharaoh of disloyalty and misdoing. Those accusations were in some cases
founded on truth. He confesses to having fled from his city, but he urges that
it was to save his life. The troops he had begged for had not been sent to him,
and he could no longer defend either his city or himself. He also alleges that
the excesses committed by some of his servants had been without his knowledge.
This seems to have been in answer to a despatch of Ammunira, the prefect of
Beyrout, in which he informed the king that he was keeping the brother of the
governor of Gebal as a hostage, and that the latter had been intriguing against
the government in the land of the Amorites.

Chief among the adversaries of Rib-Hadad was Ebed-Asherah, a native of the
land of Barbarti, and the governor of the Amoritish territory. Several of his
sons are mentioned, but the ablest and most influential of them was Aziru or
Ezer, who possessed a considerable amount of power. The whole family, while
professing to be the obedient servants of the Pharaoh, nevertheless acted with a
good deal of independence, and sought to aggrandise themselves at the expense of
the neighbouring governors. They had at their disposal a large body of
"plunderers," or Beduin from the eastern desert, and Rib-Hadad accuses them of
forming secret alliances with the kings of Babylonia, of Mitanni and of the
Hittites. The authority of Aziru extended to the northern frontier of the {125} empire; we find him
sent with the Egyptian general Khatip, or Hotep, to oppose the Hittite invasion,
and writing to the king as well as to the prime minister Dudu to explain why
they had not succeeded in doing so. Tunip had been invested by the enemy, and
Aziru fears that it may fall into their hands. The Hittites had already made
their way into the land of Nukhasse, and were from thence marching up into the
land of the Amorites.

On the heels of these despatches came a long letter from the people of Tunip,
complaining of the conduct of Aziru, and protesting against his doing to them
what he had done to the city of Ni. He was at the time in the land of the
Hittites, doubtless carrying on the war against the general enemy.

To these accusations Aziru made a full reply. "O my lord," he begins,
"hearken not to the wicked men who slander me before the king my lord: I am thy
servant for ever." He had been charged with want of respect to the Pharaoh, on
the ground that he had not received the royal commissioner Khani on his arrival
at Tunip. But, he replies, he did not know that the commissioner was coming, and
as soon as he heard that he was on the road he "followed him, but failed to
overtake him." In his absence Khani was duly received by the brethren of Aziru,
and Belti-el (or Bethuel) furnished him with meat and bread and wine. Moreover,
on his way home he was met by Aziru {126} himself, who provided the commissioner with horses
and mules. A more serious charge was that of seizing the city of Zemar. To this
Aziru answers that it was done in self-defence, as the kings of Nukhasse had
always been hostile to him, and had robbed him of his cities at the instigation
of Khatip, who had also carried away all the silver and gold which the king had
placed under his care. Moreover he had not really seized Zemar, but had won the
people over to himself by means of gifts. Lastly, he denied the accusation that
he had received the envoy of the king of the Hittites and refused to receive the
Egyptian messenger, although the country he governed belonged to the king, and
the king had appointed him over it. Let the Egyptian envoy make inquiries, he
urges, and he will find that Aziru has acted uprightly.

The capture of Zemar forms the burden of many of the letters of Rib-Hadad. It
had been besieged for two months by Ebed-Asherah, who had vainly attempted to
corrupt the loyalty of the governor of Gebal. For the time Rib-Hadad managed to
save the city, but Aziru allied himself with Arvad and the neighbouring towns of
Northern Phoenicia, captured twelve of Rib-Hadad's men, demanded a ransom of
fifty pieces of silver for each of them, and seized the ships of Zemar, Beyrout,
and Sidon. The forces sent from Gebal to Zemar were made prisoners by the
Amorite chief at Abiliya, and the position of Rib-Hadad daily became more
desperate. Pa-Hor, the Egyptian governor of Kumidi, {127} joined his opponents, and induced the
Sute or Beduin to attack his Sardinian guards. Yapa-Hadad, another governor,
followed the example of Pa-Hor, and Zimridi the governor of Sidon had from the
first been his enemy. Tyre alone remained faithful to his cause, though an
"Ionian" who had been sent there on a mission from Egypt had handed over horses,
chariots, and men to Ebed-Asherah, and it was accordingly to Tyre that Rib-Hadad
sent his family for safety. Tyre, however, now began to suffer like Gebal in
consequence of the alliance between Zimridi and Ebed-Asherah.

Zemar eventually fell into the hands of Ebed-Asherah and his sons, its
prefect Khayapa or Khaip being slain during the assault. Abimelech, the governor
of Tyre, accuses Zimridi of having been the cause. Whether this were so or not,
it placed the whole of Northern Phoenicia under the government or the influence
of the Amorite chiefs. If Rib-Hadad spoke the truth, Ebed-Asherah had "sent to
the soldiers in Bit-Ninip, saying, 'Gather yourselves together, and let us march
up against Gebal, if therein are any who have saved themselves from our hands,
and we will appoint governors throughout all the provinces;' so all the
provinces went over to the Beduin." Provisions began to be scarce in Gebal, and
the governor writes to Egypt for corn.

Rib-Hadad now threatened the Pharaoh with deserting to his enemies if succour
was not forth-coming immediately, and at the same time he {128} appealed to Amon-apt and Khayapa, the
Egyptian commissioners who had been sent to inquire into the condition of
affairs in Canaan. The appeal was so far successful that troops were despatched
to Zemar. But it was too late: along with Arka it had already been occupied by
Ebed-Asherah, who thereupon writes to the Pharaoh, protesting his loyalty to
Khu-n-Aten, declaring that he is "the house-dog" of the king, and that he guards
the land of the Amorites for "the king" his lord. He further calls on the
Egyptian commissioner Pakhanate, who had been ordered to visit him, to bear
witness that he was "defending" Zemar and its fields for the king. That
Pakhanate was friendly to Ebed-Asherah may be gathered from a despatch of
Rib-Hadad, in which he accuses that officer of refusing to send any troops to
the relief of Gebal, and of looking on while Zemar fell. Ebed-Asherah goes on to
beg the king to come himself, and see with his own eyes how faithful a governor
he really was.

The letters of Abimelech of Tyre told a different tale, and the unfortunate
Pharaoh might well be excused if he was as much puzzled as we are to know on
which side the truth lay, or whether indeed it lay on either. Abimelech had a
grievance of his own. As soon as Zimridi of Sidon learned that he had been
appointed governor of Tyre, he seized the neighbouring city of Usu, which seems
to have occupied the site of Palætyros on the mainland, thereby depriving the
Tyrians of their {129}
supplies of wood, food, and fresh water. The city of Tyre was at the time
confined to a rocky island, to which provisions and water had to be conveyed in
boats. Hence the hostile occupation of the town on the mainland caused many of
its inhabitants to die of want. To add to their difficulties, the city was
blockaded by the combined fleet of Sidon, Arvad, and Aziru. Ilgi, "king of
Sidon," seems to have fled to Tyre for protection, while Abimelech reports that
the king of Hazor had joined the Beduin under Ebed-Asherah and his sons. It may
be noted that a letter of this very king of Hazor has been preserved, as well as
another from Ebed-Sullim, the Egyptian governor of the city, whose powers were
co-extensive with those of the king.

Soon afterwards, however, the Sidonian ships were compelled to retreat, and
the Tyrian governor made ready to pursue them. Meanwhile he sent his messenger
Elimelech to Khu-n-Aten with various presents, and gave the king an account of
what had been happening in "Canaan." The Hittite troops had departed, but
Etagama—elsewhere called Aidhu-gama—the pa-ur or "prince" of Kadesh, in
the land of Kinza, had joined Aziru in attacking Namya-yitsa, the governor of
Kumidi. Abimelech adds that his rival Zimridi of Sidon had collected ships and
men from the cities of Aziru against him, and had consequently defeated him, but
if the Pharaoh would send only four companies of troops to his rescue all would
be well.
{130}

Zimridi, however, was not behindhand in forwarding his version of events to
the Egyptian court, and assuring the king of his unswerving fidelity. "Verily
the king my lord knows," he says, "that the queen of the city of Sidon is the
handmaid of the king my lord, who has given her into my hand, and that I have
hearkened to the words of the king my lord that he would send to his servant,
and my heart rejoiced and my head was exalted, and my eyes were enlightened, and
my ears heard the words of the king my lord.... And the king my lord knows that
hostility is very strong against me; all the [fortresses] which the king gave
into [my hand] had revolted" to the Beduin, but had been retaken by the
commander of the Egyptian forces. The letter throws a wholly different light on
the relations of the two rival parties in Phoenicia.

The assertions of Rib-Hadad, however, are supported by those of his successor
in the government of Gebal, El-rabi-Hor. Rib-Hadad himself disappears from the
scene. He may have died, for he complains that he is old and sick; he may have
been driven out of Gebal, for in one of his despatches he states that the city
was inclined to revolt, while in another he tells us that even his own brother
had turned against him and gone over to the Amorite faction. Or he may have been
displaced from his post; at all events, we hear that the Pharaoh had written to
him, saying that Gebal was rebellious, and that there was a large amount {131} of royal property in
it. We hear also that Rib-Hadad had sent his son to the Egyptian court to plead
his cause there, alleging age and infirmities as a reason for not going himself.
However it may have been, we find a new governor in Gebal, who bears the hybrid
name of El-rabi-Hor, "a great god is Horus."

His first letter is to protest against Khu-n-Aten's mistrust of Gebal, which
he calls "thy city and the city of [thy] fathers," and to assert roundly that
"Aziru is in rebellion against the king my lord." Aziru had made a league (?)
with the kings of Ni, Arvad, and Ammiya (the Beni-Ammo of Num. xxii. 5) (See
above, p. 64.),
and with the help of the Amorite Palasa was destroying the cities of the
Pharaoh. So El-rabi-Hor asks the king not to heed anything the rebel may write
about his seizure of Zemar or his massacre of the royal governors, but to send
some troops to himself for the defence of Gebal. In a second letter he
reiterates his charges against Aziru, who had now "smitten" Adon, the king of
Arka, and possessed himself of Zemar and the other towns of Phoenicia, so that
Gebal "alone" is on the side of the king, who "looks on" without doing anything.
Moreover a fresh enemy had arisen in the person of Eta-gama of Kadesh, who had
joined himself with the king of the Hittites and the king of Naharaim.

Letters to Khu-n-Aten from Akizzi the governor of Qatna, which, as we learn
from the inscriptions {132} of Assur-natsir-pal, was situated on the Khabûr,
represent Aziru in the same light. First of all, the Egyptian government is
informed that the king of the Hittites, together with Aidhu-gama (or Eta-gama)
of Kadesh has been invading the Egyptian territory, burning its cities, and
carrying away from Qatna the image of the Sun-god. Khu-n-aten, it is urged,
could not allow the latter crime to go unpunished. The Sun-god had created him
and his father, and had caused them to be called after his own name. He was the
supreme object of the Pharaoh's worship, the deity for whose sake Khu-n-Aten had
deserted Thebes.

The Hittite king had been joined in his invasion of Syria by the governors of
some otherwise unknown northern cities, but the kings of Nukhasse, Ni, Zinzar
(the Sonzar of the Egyptian texts), and Kinanat (the Kanneh of Ezek. xxvii. 23)
remained faithful to the Egyptian monarch. The rebel governors, however, were in
the land of Ube,—the Aup of the hieroglyphics,—which they were urging Aidhu-gama
to invade.

Another letter brings Aziru upon the scene. He is accused of having invaded
the land of Nukhasse, and made prisoners of the people of Qatna. The Pharaoh is
prayed to rescue or ransom them, and to send chariots and soldiers to the help
of his Mesopotamian subjects. If they come all the lands round about will
acknowledge him as lord, and he will be lord also of Nukhasse; if they do not
come, the men of Qatna will be forced to obey Aziru.
{133}

It is probable that the misdeeds of Aziru which are here referred to were
committed at the time he was in Tunip, professedly protecting it against Hittite
attack. It would seem from what Akizzi says, that instead of faithfully
performing his mission, he had aimed at establishing his own power in Northern
Syria. While nominally an officer of the Pharaoh, he was really seeking to found
an Amorite kingdom in the north. In this he would have been a predecessor of Og
and Sihon, whose kingdoms were built up on the ruins of the Egyptian empire.

A despatch, however, from Namya-yitsa, the governor of Kumidi, sets the
conduct of Aziru in a more favourable light. It was written at a somewhat later
time, when rebellion against the Egyptian authority was spreading throughout
Syria. A certain Biridasyi had stirred up the city of Inu'am, and after shutting
its gate upon Namya-yitsa had entered the city of Ashtaroth-Karnaim in Bashan,
and there seized the chariots belonging to the Pharaoh, handing them over to the
Beduin. He then joined the kings of Buzruna (now Bosra) and Khalunni (near the
Wadi 'Allân), in a plot to murder Namya-yitsa, who escaped, however, to
Damascus, though his own brothers turned against him. The rebels next attacked
Aziru, captured some of his soldiers, and in league with Etu-gama wasted the
district of Abitu. Etakkama, however, as Etu-gama spells his own name, professed
to be a loyal servant of the Egyptian king, and one of the Tel el-Amarna letters
is from him.
{134}

We next hear of Namya-yitsa in Accho or Acre, where he had taken refuge with
Suta, or Seti, the Egyptian commissioner. Seti had already been in Jerusalem,
and had been inquiring there into the behaviour of Ebed-Tob.

The picture of incipient anarchy and rebellion which is set before us by the
correspondence from Phoenicia and Syria is repeated in that from the centre and
south of Palestine. In the centre the chief seats of the Egyptian government
were at Megiddo, at Khazi (the Gaza of 1 Chron. vii. 28), near Shechem, and at
Gezer. Each of these towns was under an Egyptian governor, specially appointed
by the Pharaoh.

The governor of Khazi bore the name of Su-yarzana, Megiddo was under the
authority of Biridî, while the governor of Gaza was Yapakhi. There are several
letters in the Tel el-Amarna collection from the latter official, chiefly
occupied with demands for help against his enemies. The district under his
control was attacked by the Sute or Beduin, led by a certain Labai or Labaya and
his sons. Labai, though of Beduin origin, was himself professedly an Egyptian
official, the Egyptian policy having been to give the title of governor to the
powerful Beduin sheikhs, and to attach them to the Egyptian government by the
combined influence of bribery and fear. Labai accordingly writes to the Pharaoh
to defend himself against the charges that had been brought against him, and to
assure Khu-n-Aten that he was "a faithful servant {135} of the king"; "I have not sinned, and I
have not offended, and I do not withhold my tribute or neglect the command to
turn back my officers." Labai, it would seem, had been appointed by Amenophis
III. governor of Shunem and Bene-berak (Joshua xix. 45), and had captured the
city of Gath-Rimmon when it revolted against the Pharaoh; but after the death of
Amenophis he and his two sons had attacked the Egyptian officials in true Beduin
style, and had taken every opportunity of pillaging central and Southern
Palestine. As we shall see, Labai and his ally, Malchiel, were among the chief
adversaries of Ebed-Tob of Jerusalem.

On one occasion, however, Labai was actually made prisoner by one of the
Egyptian officers. There is a letter from Biridî stating that Megiddo was
threatened by Labai, and that although the garrison had been strengthened by the
arrival of some Egyptian troops, it was impossible to venture outside the gates
of the town for fear of the enemy, and that unless two more regiments were sent
the city itself was likely to fall. Whether the additional forces were sent or
not we do not know. Labai, however, had to fly for his life along with his
confederate Yasdata, who was the governor of some city near Megiddo, as we learn
from a letter of his in which he speaks of being with Biridî. Of Yasdata we hear
nothing further, but Labai was captured in Megiddo by Zurata, the prefect of
Acre, who, under the pretext that he was going to send {136} his prisoner in a ship to Egypt, took
him first to the town of Khinatuna ('En'athôn), and then to his own house, where
he was induced by a bribe to set him free along with his companion, Hadad-mekhir
(who, by the way, has bequeathed to us two letters).

It was probably after this that Labai wrote to the Pharaoh to exculpate
himself, though his language, in spite of its conventional submissiveness, could
not have been very acceptable at the Egyptian court. In one of his letters he
excuses himself partly on the ground that even "the food of his stomach" had
been taken from him, partly that he had attacked and entered Gezer only in order
to recover the property of himself and his friend Malchiel, partly because a
certain Bin-sumya whom the Pharaoh had sent against him had really "given a city
and property in it to my father, saying that if the king sends for my wife I
shall withhold her, and if the king sends for myself I shall give him instead a
bar of copper in a large bowl and take the oath of allegiance." A second letter
is still more uncompromising. In this he complains that the Egyptian troops have
ill-treated his people, and that the officer who is with him has slandered him
before the king; he further declares that two of his towns have been taken from
him, but that he will defend to the last whatever still remains of his
patrimony.

Malchiel, the colleague of Labai in his attack upon Gezer, as afterwards upon
Ebed-Tob of Jerusalem, does not appear to have been of Beduin origin. {137} But as long as the
Beduin chief could be of use to him he was very willing to avail himself of his
assistance, and it was always easy to drop the alliance as soon as it became
embarrassing. Malchiel was the son-in-law of Tagi of Gath, and the colleague of
Su-yardata, one of the few Canaanite governors whom the Egyptian government
seems to have been able to trust. Both Su-yardata and Malchiel held commands in
Southern Palestine, and we hear a good deal about them from Ebed-Tob. "The two
sons of Malchiel" are also mentioned in a letter from a lady who bears a
Babylonian name, and who refers to them in connection with an attempt to detach
the cities of Ajalon and Zorah (Joshua xv. 33) from their allegiance to Egypt.
The female correspondents of the Pharaoh are among the most curious and
interesting features of the state of society depicted in the Tel el-Amarna
tablets; they entered keenly into the politics of the day, and kept the Egyptian
king fully informed of all that was going on.

The letters of Ebed-Tob are so important that it is as well to give them in
full. They all seem to have been written within a few months, or perhaps even
weeks, of one another, when the enemies of the governor of Jerusalem were
gathering around him, and no response came from Egypt to his requests for help.
The dotted lines mark the words and passages which have been lost through the
fracture of the clay tablets.

(I.) "To the king my lord [my] Sun-god, thus {138} [speaks] Ebed-Tob thy servant: at the
feet of the king my lord seven times seven I prostrate myself. Behold, the king
has established his name at the rising of the sun and the setting of the sun.
Slanders have been uttered against me. Behold, I am not a governor, a vassal of
the king my lord. Behold, I am an ally of the king, and I have paid the tribute
due to the king, even I. Neither my father nor my mother, but the oracle (or
arm) of the Mighty King established [me] in the house of [my] fathers.... There
have come to me as a present 13 [women] and 10 slaves. Suta (Seti) the
Commissioner of the king has come to me: 21 female slaves and 20 male slaves
captured in war have been given into the hands of Suta as a gift for the king my
lord, as the king has ordained for his country. The country of the king is being
destroyed, all of it. Hostilities are carried on against me as far as the
mountains of Seir (Joshua xv. 10) and the city of Gath-Karmel (Joshua xv. 55).
All the other governors are at peace, but there is war against myself, since I
see the foe, but I do not see the tears of the king my lord because war has been
raised against me. While there is a ship in the midst of the sea, the arm (or
oracle) of the Mighty King shall conquer the countries of Naharaim (Nakhrima)
and Babylonia. But now the Confederates (Khabiri) are capturing the fortresses
of the king. Not a single governor remains among them to the king my lord; all
have perished. Behold, Turbazu, thy military officer, [has fallen] in {139} the great gate of the
city of Zelah (Josh, xviii. 28). Behold, Zimrida of Lachish has been murdered by
the servants who have revolted against the king. Jephthah-Hadad, thy military
officer, has been slain in the great gate of Zelah.... May the king [my lord]
send help [to his country]! May the king turn his face to [his subjects]! May he
despatch troops to [his] country! [Behold,] if no troops come this year, all the
countries of the king my lord will be utterly destroyed. They do not say before
the face of the king my lord that the country of the king my lord is destroyed,
and that all the governors are destroyed, if no troops come this year. Let the
king send a commissioner, and let him come to me, even to me, with auxiliary
troops, and we will die with the king [our] lord.—[To] the secretary of the king
my lord [speaks] Ebed-Tob [thy] servant. At [thy] feet [I prostrate myself]. Let
a report of [my] words be laid before the king [my] lord. Thy [loyal] servant am
I."

(II.) "To the king my lord thus speaks Ebed-Tob thy servant: at the feet of
the king my lord seven times seven I prostrate myself. What have I done against
the king my lord? They have slandered me, laying wait for me in the presence of
the king, the lord, saying: Ebed-Tob has revolted from the king his lord.
Behold, neither my father nor my mother has exalted me in this place; the
prophecy of the Mighty King has caused me to enter the house of my father. Why
should I have {140}
committed a sin against the king the lord? With the king my lord is life. I say
to the officer of the king [my] lord: Why dost thou love the Confederates and
hate the governors? And constantly I am sending to the presence of the king my
lord to say that the countries of the king my lord are being destroyed.
Constantly I am sending to the king my lord, and let the king my lord consider,
since the king my lord has appointed the men of the guard who have taken the
fortresses. Let Yikhbil-Khamu [be sent].... Let the king send help to his
country. [Let him send troops] to his country which protects the fortresses of
the king my lord, all of them, since Elimelech is destroying all the country of
the king; and let the king send help to his country. Behold, I have gone down
along with the king my lord, and I have not seen the tears of the king my lord;
but hostility is strong against me, yet I have not taken anything whatever from
the king my lord; and let the king incline towards my face; let him despatch a
guard [for me], and let him appoint a commissioner, and I shall not see the
tears of the king my lord, since the king [my] lord shall live when the
commissioner has departed. Behold, the countries of the king [my lord] are being
destroyed, yet thou dost not listen to me. All the governors are destroyed; no
governor remains to the king the lord. Let the king turn his face to his
subjects, and let him send auxiliaries, even the troops of the king my lord. No
provinces remain unto the king; {141} the confederates have wasted all the provinces of
the king. If auxiliaries come this year, the provinces of the king the lord will
be preserved; but if no auxiliaries come the provinces of the king my lord are
destroyed.—[To] the secretary of the king my lord Ebed-Tob [says:] Give a report
of my words to the king my lord: the provinces of the king my lord are being
destroyed by the enemy."

(III.) "[To] the king my lord [speaks] Ebed-Tob [thy] servant: [at the feet
of the king] my lord seven [times seven I prostrate myself. Behold, let] the
king [listen to] the words [of his servant].... Let [the king] consider all the
districts which are leagued in hostility against me, and let the king send help
to his country. Behold, the country of the city of Gezer, the country of the
city of Ashkelon and the city of La[chish] have given as their peace offerings
food and oil and whatsoever the fortress needs. And let the king send help to
his troops; let him despatch troops against the men who have rebelled against
the king my lord. If troops come this year, there will remain both provinces
[and] governors to the king my lord; [but] if no troops arrive, there will
remain no provinces or governors to the king [my lord]. Behold, neither my
father nor my mother has given this country of the city of Jerusalem unto me: it
was an oracle [of the Mighty King] that gave it to me, even to me. Behold,
Malchiel and the sons of Labai have given the country of the king to the {142} Confederates. Behold,
the king my lord is righteous towards me. As to the Babylonians, let the king
ask the commissioner how very strong is the temple-[fortress of Jerusalem.]....
Thou hast delivered (?) the provinces into the hands of the city of Ash[kelon].
Let the king demand of them abundance of food, abundance of oil, and abundance
of wine until Pa-ur, the commissioner of the king, comes up to the country of
the city of Jerusalem to deliver Adai along with the garrison and the [rest of
the people]. Let the king consider the [instructions] of the king; [let him]
speak to me; let Adai deliver me—Thou wilt not desert it, even this city,
sending to me a garrison [and] sending a royal commissioner. Thy grace [is] to
send [them]. To the king [my lord] I have despatched [a number of] prisoners
[and a number of] slaves. [I have looked after] the roads of the king in the
plain (kikkar, Gen. xiii. 10) and in the mountains. Let the king my lord
consider the city of Ajalon. I am not able to direct my way to the king my lord
according to his instructions. Behold, the king has established his name in the
country of Jerusalem for ever, and he cannot forsake the territories of the city
of Jerusalem.—To the secretary of the king my lord thus speaks Ebed-Tob thy
servant. At thy feet I prostrate myself. Thy servant am I. Lay a report of my
words before the king my lord. The vassal of the king am I. Mayest thou live
long!—And thou hast performed deeds which I cannot enumerate against the men
{143} of the land of
Ethiopia.... The men of the country of the Babylonians [shall never enter] into
my house...."

(IV.) (The beginning of the letter is lost, and it is not certain that
Ebed-Tob was the writer of it.) "And now as to the city of Jerusalem, if this
country is still the king's, why is Gaza made the seat of the king's government?
Behold, the district of the city of Gath-Carmel has fallen away to Tagi and the
men of Gath. He is in Bit-Sani (Beth-Sannah), and we have effected that they
should give Labai and the country of the Sute to the men of the district of the
Confederates. Malchiel has sent to Tagi and has seized some boy-slaves. He has
granted all their requests to the men of Keilah, and we have delivered (or
departed from) the city of Jerusalem. The garrison thou hast left in it is under
the command of Apis the son of Miya-riya (Meri-Ra). Hadad-el has remained in his
house in Gaza...."

(V.) "To the king my lord thus [speaks] Ebed-Tob thy servant: at the feet of
my lord [the king] seven times seven [I prostrate myself]. Behold, Malchiel does
not separate himself from the sons of Labai and the sons of Arzai to demand the
country of the king for themselves. As for the governor who acts thus, why does
not the king question him? Behold, Malchiel and Tagi are they who have acted so,
since they have taken the city of Rubute (Rabbah, Josh. xv. 60).... (Many lines
are lost here.) There is no royal {144} garrison [in Jerusalem]. May the king live
eternally! Let Pa-ur go down to him. He has departed in front of me and is in
the city of Gaza; and let the king send to him a guard to defend the country.
All the country of the king has revolted! Direct Yikhbil-Khamu [to come], and
let him consider the country of the king [my lord].—To the secretary of the king
[my lord] thus [speaks] Ebed-Tob thy servant: [at thy feet I prostrate myself].
Lay [a report] of my words [before] the king. Mayest thou live long! Thy servant
am I."

(VI.) "[To] the king my lord thus speaks Ebed-Tob thy servant: at the feet of
the king my lord seven times seven I prostrate myself. [The king knows the deed]
which they have done, even Malchiel and Su-ardatum, against the country of the
king my lord, commanding the forces of the city of Gezer, the forces of the city
of Gath, and the forces of the city of Keilah. They have seized the district of
the city of Rabbah. The country of the king has gone over to the Confederates.
And now at this moment the city of the mountain of Jerusalem, the city of the
temple of the god Nin-ip, whose name is Salim (?)," (Or, adopting the reading of
Dr. Zimmern, "The city whose name is Bit-Nin-ip.") "the city of the king, is
gone over to the side of the men of Keilah. Let the king listen to Ebed-Tob thy
servant, and let him despatch troops and restore the country of the king to the
king. But if no troops arrive, the country of the king is gone over to the men
{145} even to the
Confederates. This is the deed [of Su-ar]datun and Malchiel...."

The loyalty of Ebed-Tob, however, seems to have been doubted at the Egyptian
court, where more confidence was placed in his rival and enemy Su-ardata (or
Su-yardata, as the owner of the name himself writes it). Possibly the claim of
the vassal-king of Jerusalem to have been appointed to his royal office by the
"Mighty King" rather than by the "great king" of Egypt, and consequently to be
an ally of the Pharaoh and not an ordinary governor, may have had something to
do with the suspicions that were entertained of him. At all events we learn from
a letter of Su-yardata that the occupation of Keilah by Ebed-Tob's enemies, of
which the latter complains so bitterly, was due to the orders of the Egyptian
government itself. Su-yardata there says—"The king [my lord] directed me to make
war in the city of Keilah: war was made; (and now) a complaint is brought
against me. My city against myself has risen upon me. Ebed-Tob sends to the men
of the city of Keilah; he sends silver, and they have marched against my rear.
And the king knows that Ebed-Tob has taken my city from my hand." The writer
adds that "now Labai has taken Ebed-Tob and they have taken our cities." In his
subsequent despatches to the home government Su-yardata complains that he is
"alone," and asks that troops should be sent to him, saying that he is
forwarding some almehs or maidens as a {146} present along with his "dragoman." At this point
the correspondence breaks off.

Malchiel and Tagi also write to the Pharaoh. According to Tagi the roads
between Southern Palestine and Egypt were under the supervision and protection
of his brother; while Malchiel begs for cavalry to pursue and capture the enemy
who had made war upon Su-yardata and himself, had seized "the country of the
king," and threatened to slay his servants. He also complains of the conduct of
Yankhamu, the High Commissioner, who had been ordered to inquire into the
conduct of the governors in Palestine. Yankhamu, it seems, had seized Malchiel's
property and carried off his wives and children. It was doubtless to this act of
injustice that Labai alludes in his letter of exculpation.

The territory of which Jerusalem was the capital extended southward as far as
Carmel of Judah, Gath-Carmel as it is called by Ebed-Tob, as well as in the
geographical lists of Thothmes III., while on the west it reached to Keilah,
Kabbah, and Mount Seir. No mention is made of Hebron either in the Tel el-Amarna
letters or in the Egyptian geographical lists, which are earlier than the rise
of the nineteenth dynasty. The town must therefore have existed under some other
name, or have been in the hands of a power hostile to Egypt.

The name of Hebron has the same origin as that of the Khabiri, who appear in
Ebed-Tob's letters by the side of Labai, Babylonia, and {147} Naharaim as the assailants of Jerusalem
and its territory. The word means "Confederates," and occurs in the Assyrian
texts; among other passages in a hymn published by Dr. Brünnow, where we read,
istu pan khabiri-ya iptarsanni, "from the face of my associates he has
cut me off." The word, however, is not Assyrian, as in that case it would have
had a different form, but must have been borrowed from the Canaanitish language
of the West.

Who the Khabiri or "Confederates" were has been disputed. Some scholars see
in them Elamite marauders who followed the march of the Babylonian armies to
Syria. This opinion is founded on the fact that the Khabiri are once mentioned
as an Elamite tribe, and that in a Babylonian document a "Khabirite"
(Khabirâ) is referred to along with a "Kassite" or Babylonian. Another
view is that they are to be identified with Heber, the grandson of Asher (Gen.
xlvi. 17), since Malchiel is said to be the brother of Heber, just as in the
letters of Ebed-Tob Malchiel is associated with the Khabiri. But all such
identifications are based upon the supposition that "Khabiri" is a proper name
rather than a descriptive title. Any band of "Confederates" could be called
Khabiri whether in Elam or in Palestine, and it does not follow that the two
bands were the same. In the "Confederates" of Southern Canaan we have to look
for a body of confederated tribes who made themselves formidable to the governor
of Jerusalem in the closing days of the Egyptian empire.
{148}

It would seem that Elimelech, who of course was a different person from
Malchiel, was their leader, and as Elimelech is a Canaanitish name, we may
conclude that the majority of his followers were also of Canaanitish descent.
The scene of their hostilities was to the south of Jerusalem. Gath-Carmel,
Zelah, and Lachish are the towns mentioned in connection with their attempts to
capture and destroy "the fortresses of the king." "The country of the king"
which had "gone over to the Confederates" was the territory over which Ebed-Tob
claimed rule, while the district occupied by Labai and his Beduin followers was
handed over "to the men of the district of the Confederates." The successes of
the latter were gained through the intrigues of Malchiel and the sons of
Labai.

All this leads us to the neighbourhood of Hebron, and suggests the question
whether "the district of the Confederates" was not that of which Hebron, "the
Confederacy," was the central meeting-place and sanctuary. Hebron has preserved
its sacred character down to the present day; it long disputed with Jerusalem
the claim of being the oldest and most hallowed shrine in Southern Palestine,
and it was for many years the capital of Judah, Moreover, we know that "Hebron"
was not the only name the city possessed. When Abram was "confederate" with the
three Amorite chieftains it was known as Mamre (Gen. xiii. 18), and at a later
day under the rule of the three sons of Anak it was called
Kirjath-Arba.
{149}

According to the Biblical narrative Hebron was at once Amorite, Hittite, and
Canaanite. Here, therefore, there was a confederation of tribes and races who
would have met together at a common sanctuary. When Ezekiel says that Jerusalem
was both Hittite and Amorite in its parentage, he may have been referring to its
conquest and settlement by such a confederacy as that of Hebron. At all events
we learn from Su-yardata's letter that Ebed-Tob eventually fell into the hands
of his enemies; he was captured by Labai, and it is possible that his city
became at the same time the prey of the Khabiri.

But all this is speculation, which may or may not prove to be correct. All we
can be sure of is that the Khabiri or "Confederates" had their seat in the
southern part of Palestine, and that we need not go outside Canaan to discover
who they were. Ebed-Tob, at all events, carefully distinguishes them from either
the Babylonians or the people of Naharaim.

In his letters, as everywhere else in the Tel el-Amarna correspondence, the
Babylonians are called Kassi or Kassites. The name is written differently in the
cuneiform texts from that of the Ethiopians, the Kash of the hieroglyphic
inscriptions. Both, however, are alike represented in Hebrew by Cush, and hence
we have not only a Cush who is the brother of Mizrairn, but also another Cush
who is the father of Nimrod. The name of the latter takes us back to the age of
the Tel el-Amarna tablets.
{150}

Nahrima, or Naharaim, was the name by which the kingdom of Mitanni was known
to its Canaanite and Egyptian neighbours. Mitanni, in fact, was its capital, and
it may be that Lutennu (or Lotan), as the Egyptians called Syria and Palestine,
was but a mispronunciation of it. Along with the Babylonians the people of
Naharaim had made themselves formidable to the inhabitants of Canaan, and their
name was feared as far south as Jerusalem. Even the governor of the Canaanite
town of Musikhuna, not far from the Sea of Galilee, bore the Mitannian name of
Sutarna. It was not, indeed, until after the Israelitish conquest that the last
invasion of Canaan by a king of Aram-Naharaim took place.

Gaza and Joppa were at one time under the same governor, Yabitiri, who in a
letter which has come down to us asks to be relieved of the burden of his
office. Ashkelon, however, which lay between the two sea-ports, was in the hands
of another prefect, Yidya by name, from whom we have several letters, in one of
which mention is made of the Egyptian commissioner Rianap, or Ra-nofer. The
jurisdiction of Rianap extended as far north as the plain of Megiddo, since he
is also referred to by Pu-Hadad, the governor of Yurza, now Yerzeh,
south-eastward of Taanach. But it was more particularly in the extreme south of
Palestine that the duties of this officer lay. Hadad-dan, who was entrusted with
the government of Manahath and Tamar, to the west of the {151} Dead Sea, calls him "my Commissioner"
in a letter in which he complains of the conduct of a certain Beya, the son of
"the woman Gulat." Hadad-dan begins by saying that he had protected the
commissioner and cities of the king, and then adds that "the city of Tumur is
hostile to me, and I have built a house in the city of Mankhate, so that the
household troops of the king my lord may be sent to me; and lo, Bâya has taken
it from my hand, and has placed his commissioner in it, and I have appealed to
Rianap, my commissioner, and he has restored the city unto me, and has sent the
household troops of the king my lord to me." After this the writer goes on to
state that Beya had also intrigued against the city of Gezer, "the handmaid of
the king my lord who created me." The rebel then carried off a quantity of
plunder, and it became necessary to ransom his prisoners for a hundred pieces of
silver, while those of his confederate were ransomed for thirty pieces of
silver.

The misdeeds of Beya or Bâya did not end here. We hear of him again as
attacking and capturing a body of soldiers who had been sent to defend the royal
palace at Joppa, and as occupying that city itself. He was, however,
subsequently expelled from it by the king's orders. Beya, too, professed to be
an Egyptian governor and a faithful servant of the Pharaoh, to whom he
despatched a letter to say that Yankhamu, the High Commissioner, was not in his
district. Probably this was in answer to {152} a charge brought against him by the Egyptian
officer.

The official duties of Yankhamu extended over the whole of Palestine, and all
the governors of its cities were accountable to him. We find him exercising his
authority not only in the south, but also in the north, at Zemar and Gebal, and
even among the Amorites. Amon-apt, to whom the superintendence of Phoenicia was
more particularly entrusted, was supplied by him with corn, and frequent
references are made to him in the letters of Rib-Hadad. Malchiel complained of
his high-handed proceedings, and the complaint seems to have led to some
confidential inquiries on the part of the home government, since we find a
certain Sibti-Hadad writing in answer to the Pharaoh's questions that Yankhamu
was a faithful servant of the king.

The country east of the Jordan also appears to have been within his
jurisdiction. At all events the following letter was addressed to him by the
governor Mut-Hadad, "the man of Hadad." "To Yankhamu my lord thus speaks
Mut-Hadad thy servant: at the feet of my lord I prostrate myself. Since
Mut-Hadad has declared in thy presence that Ayab has fled, and it is certified
(?) that the king of Bethel has fled from before the officers of the king his
lord, may the king my lord live, may the king my lord live! I pray thee ask
Ben-enima, ask ... tadua, ask Isuya, if Ayâb has been in this city of Bethel for
[the last] two months. Ever {153} since the arrival of [the image of] the god
Merodach, the city of Astarti (Ashtaroth-Karnaim) has been assisted, because all
the fortresses of the foreign land are hostile, namely, the cities of Udumu
(Edom), Aduri (Addar), Araru, Mestu (Mosheh), Magdalim (Migdol), Khinianabi ('En
han-nabi), Zarki-tsabtat, Khaini ('En), and Ibi-limma (Abel). Again after thou
hadst sent a letter to me I sent to him (i.e. Ayâb), [to wait] until thy
arrival from thy journey; and he reached the city of Bethel and [there] they
heard the news."

We learn from this letter that Edom was a "foreign country" unsubdued by the
Egyptian arms. The "city of Edom," from which the country took its name, is
again mentioned in the inscriptions of the Assyrian king Esar-haddon, and it was
there that the Assyrian tax-gatherers collected the tribute of the Edomite
nation. It would seem that the land of Edom stretched further to the north in
the age of Khu-n-Aten than it did at a subsequent period of history, and that it
encroached upon what was afterwards the territory of Moab. The name of the
latter country is met with for the first time among the Asiatic conquests of
Ramses II. engraved on the base of one of the colossal figures which stand in
front of the northern pylon of the temple of Luxor; when the Tel el-Amarna
letters were written Moab was included in the Canaanite province of Egypt.

A curious letter to Khu-n-Aten from Burnaburyas, the Babylonian king, throws
a good deal {154} of
light on the nature of the Egyptian government in Canaan. Between the
predecessors of the two monarchs there had been alliance and friendly
intercourse, and nevertheless the Canaanitish subjects of the Pharaoh had
committed an outrageous crime against some Babylonian merchants, which if left
unpunished would have led to a rupture between the two countries. The merchants
in question had entered Palestine under the escort of the Canaanite Ahitub,
intending afterwards to visit Egypt. At Ên-athôn, near Acre, however, "in the
country of Canaan," Sum-Adda, or Shem-Hadad, the son of Balumme (Balaam), and
Sutatna, or Zid-athon, the son of Saratum, [His name is written Zurata in the
letter of Biridî, the governor of Megiddo; see above, p. 135.]
who was governor of Acre, set upon them, killing some of them, maltreating
others, and carrying away their goods. Burna-buryas therefore sent a special
envoy, who was instructed to lay the following complaint before the Pharaoh:
"Canaan is thy country and the king [of Acre is thy servant]. In thy country I
have been injured; do thou punish [the offenders]. The silver which they carried
off was a present [for thee], and the men who are my servants they have slain.
Slay them and requite the blood [of my servants]. But if thou dost not put these
men to death, [the inhabitants] of the high-road that belongs to me will turn
and verily will slay thy ambassadors, and a breach will be made in the agreement
to respect the persons of ambassadors, {155} and I shall be estranged from thee. Shem-Hadad,
having cut off the feet of one of my men, has detained him with him; and as for
another man, Sutatna of Acre made him stand upon his head and then stood upon
his face."

There are three letters in the Tel el-Amarna collection from Sutatna, or
Zid-atna ("the god Zid has given") as he writes his name, in one of which he
compares Akku or Acre with "the city of Migdol in Egypt." Doubtless satisfaction
was given to the Babylonian king for the wrong that had been done to his
subjects, though whether the actual culprits were punished may be questioned.
There is another letter from Burna-buryas, in which reference is again made to
the Canaanites. He there asserts that in the time of his father, Kurigalzu, they
had sent to the Babylonian sovereign, saying: "Go down against Qannisat and let
us rebel." Kuri-galzu, however, had refused to listen to them, telling them that
if they wanted to break away from the Egyptian king and ally themselves "with
another," they must find some one else to assist them. Burna-buryas goes on to
declare that he was like-minded with his father, and had accordingly despatched
an Assyrian vassal to assure the Pharaoh that he would carry on no intrigues
with disaffected Canaanites. As the first part of his letter is filled with
requests for gold for the adornment of a temple he was building at Babylon, such
an assurance was very necessary. The despatches of Rib-Hadad and Ebed-Tob,
however, {156} go to
show that in spite of his professions of friendship, the Babylonian monarch was
ready to afford secret help to the insurgents in Palestine. The Babylonians were
not likely to forget that they had once been masters of the country, or to
regard the Egyptian empire in Asia with other than jealous eyes.

The Tel el-Amarna correspondence breaks off suddenly in the midst of a
falling empire, with its governors in Canaan fighting and intriguing one against
the other, and appealing to the Pharaoh for help that never came. The Egyptian
commissioners are vainly endeavouring to restore peace and order, like General
Gordon in the Soudan, while Babylonians and Mitannians, Hittites and Beduin are
assailing the distracted province. The Asiatic empire of the eighteenth dynasty,
however, did not wholly perish with the death of Khu-n-Aten. A picture in the
tomb of prince Hui at Thebes shows that under the reign of his successor,
Tut-ankh-Amon, the Egyptian supremacy was still acknowledged in some parts of
Syria. The chiefs of the Lotan or Syrians are represented in their robes of many
colours, some with white and others with brown skins, and coming before the
Egyptian monarch with the rich tribute of their country. Golden trays full of
precious stones, vases of gold and silver, the covers of which are in the form
of the heads of gazelles and other animals, golden rings richly enamelled,
horses, lions, and a leopard's skin—such are the gifts which they offer to the
{157} Pharaoh. It was
the last embassy of the kind which was destined to come from Syria for many a
day.

With the rise of the nineteenth dynasty and the restoration of a strong
government at home, the Egyptians once more began to turn their eyes towards
Palestine. Seti I. drove the Beduin before him from the frontiers of Egypt to
those of "Canaan," and established a line of fortresses and wells along "the way
of the Philistines," which ran by the shore of the Mediterranean to Gaza. The
road was now open for him to the north along the sea-coast. We hear accordingly
of his capture of Acre, Tyre, and Usu or Palætyros, from whence he marched into
the Lebanon and took Kumidi and Inu'am. One of his campaigns must have led him
into the interior of Palestine, since in his list of conquered cities we find
the names of Carmel and Beth-anoth, of Beth-el and Pahil or Pella, as well as of
Qamham or Chimham (see Jer. xli. 17). Kadesh, "in the land of the Amorites," was
captured by a sudden assault, and Seti claims to have defeated or received the
submission of Alasiya and Naharaim, the Hittites and the Assyrians, Cyprus and
Sangar. It would seem, however, that north of Kadesh he really made his way only
along the coast as far as the Gulf of Antioch and Cilicia, overrunning towns and
districts of which we know little more than the names.

Seti was succeeded by his son Ramses II., the {158} Pharaoh of the Oppression, and the
builder of Pithom and Ramses. His long reign of sixty-seven years lasted from
1348 B.C. to 1281 B.C. The first twenty-one years of it were occupied in the
re-conquest of Palestine, and sanguinary wars with the Hittites. But these
mountaineers of the north had established themselves too firmly in the old
Egyptian province of Northern Syria to be dislodged. All the Pharaoh could
effect was to stop their further progress towards the south, and to save Canaan
from their grasp. The war between the two great powers of Western Asia ended at
last through the sheer exhaustion of the rival combatants. A treaty of alliance,
offensive and defensive, was drawn up between Ramses II. and Khata-sil, "the
great king of the Hittites," and it was cemented by the marriage of the Pharaoh
to the daughter of the Hittite prince. Syria was divided between the Hittites
and Egyptians, and it was agreed that neither should under any pretext invade
the territories of the other. It was also agreed that if either country was
attacked by foreign foes or rebellious subjects, the other should come to its
help. Political refugees, moreover, were to be delivered up to the sovereign
from whom they had escaped, but it was stipulated that in this case they should
receive a full pardon for the offences they had committed. The Hittite copy of
the treaty was engraved on a silver plate, and the gods of Egypt and the
Hittites were called upon to witness the execution of it.
{159}

The legendary exploits of Sesostris, that creation of Greek fancy and
ignorance, were fastened upon Ramses II., whose long reign, inordinate vanity,
and ceaseless activity as a builder made him one of the most prominent of the
old Pharaohs. It was natural, therefore, at the beginning of hieroglyphic
decipherment that the Greek accounts should be accepted in full, and that Ramses
II. should have been regarded as the greatest of Egyptian conquerors. But
further study soon showed that, in this respect at least, his reputation had
little to support it. Like his monuments, too many of which are really stolen
from his predecessors, or else sacrifice honesty of work to haste and
pretentiousness, a large part of the conquests and victories that have been
claimed for him was due to the imagination of the scribes. In the reaction which
followed on this discovery, the modern historians of ancient Egypt were disposed
to dispute his claim to be a conqueror at all. But we now know that such a
scepticism was exaggerated, and though Ramses II. was not a conqueror like
Thothmes III., he nevertheless maintained and extended the Asiatic empire which
his father had recovered, and the lists of vanquished cities which he engraved
on the walls of his temples were not mere repetitions of older catalogues, or
the empty fictions of flattering chroniclers. Egyptian armies really marched
once more into Northern Syria and the confines of Cilicia, and probably made
their way to the banks of the Euphrates. We have no {160} reason for denying that Assyrian troops
may have been defeated by his arms, or that the king of Mitanni may have sent an
embassy to his court. And we now have a good deal more than the indirect
evidence of the treaty with the Hittites to show that Canaan was again a
province of the Egyptian empire. The names of some of its cities which were
captured in the early part of the Pharaoh's reign may still be read on the walls
of the Ramesseum at Thebes. Among them are Ashkelon, Shalam or Jerusalem, Merom,
and Beth-Anath, which were taken by storm in his eighth year. Dapul, "in the
land of the Amorites," was captured at the same time, proving that the Egyptian
forces penetrated as far as the Hittite frontiers. At Luxor other Canaanite
names figure in the catalogue of vanquished states. Thus we have Carmel of
Judah, Ir-shemesh and Hadashah (Josh. xv. 37), Gaza, Sela and Jacob-el, Socho,
Yurza, and Korkha in Moab. The name of Moab itself appears for the first time
among the subject nations, while we gather from a list of mining settlements,
that Cyprus as well as the Sinaitic peninsula was under Egyptian authority.

A sarcastic account of the misadventures of a military officer in Palestine,
which was written in the time of Ramses, is an evidence of the complete
occupation of that country by the Egyptians. All parts of Canaan are alluded to
in it, and as Dr. Max Müller has lately pointed out, we find in it for the first
time the names of Shechem and {161} Kirjath-Sepher. Similar testimony is borne by a
hieroglyphic inscription recently discovered by Dr. Schumacher on the so-called
"Stone of Job" in the Haurân. The stone (Sakhrat 'Ayyub) is a monolith
westward of the Sea of Galilee, and not far from Tel 'Ashtereh, the ancient
Ashtaroth-Karnaim, which was a seat of Egyptian government in the time of
Khu-n-Aten. The monolith is adorned with Egyptian sculptures and hieroglyphs.
One of the sculptures represents a Pharaoh above whose likeness is the cartouche
of Ramses II., while opposite the king, to the left, is the figure of a god who
wears the crown of Osiris, but has a full face. Over the god is his name in
hieroglyphics. The name, however, is not Egyptian, but seems to be intended for
the Canaanite Yakin-Zephon or "Yakin of the North." It is plain, therefore, that
we have here a monument testifying to the rule of Ramses II., but a monument
which was erected by natives of the country to a native divinity. For a while
the hieroglyphic writing of Egypt had taken the place formerly occupied by the
cuneiform syllabary of Babylonia, and Egyptian culture had succeeded in
supplanting that which had come from the East.

The nineteenth dynasty ended even more disastrously than the eighteenth. It
is true that the great confederacy of northern and Libyan tribes which attacked
Egypt by sea and land in the reign of Meneptah, the son and successor of Ramses
II., was successfully repulsed, but the {162} energy of the Egyptian power seemed to exhaust
itself in the effort. The throne fell into the hands of usurpers, and the house
of Ramses was swept away by civil war and anarchy. The government was seized by
a Syrian, Arisu by name, and for a time Egypt was compelled to submit to a
foreign yoke. The overthrow of the foreigner and the restoration of the native
monarchy was due to the valour of Set-nekht, the founder of the twentieth
dynasty and the father of Ramses III.

It was under one of the immediate successors of Ramses II. that the exodus of
the Israelites out of Egypt must have taken place. Egyptian tradition pointed to
Meneptah; modern scholars incline rather to his successors Seti II. and Si-Ptah.
With this event the patriarchal history of Canaan ought properly to come to an
end. But the Egyptian monuments still cast light upon it, and enable us to carry
it on almost to the moment when Joshua and his followers entered the Promised
Land.

Palestine still formed part of the kingdom of Meneptah, at all events in the
earlier years of his reign. A scribe has left us a record of the officials who
passed to and from Canaan through the frontier fortress of Zaru during the
middle of the month Pakhons in the third year of the king. One of these was
Baal- ... the son of Zippor of Gaza, who carried a letter for the Egyptian
overseer of the Syrian peasantry (or Perizzites), as well as another for
Baal-[sa]lil-ga[b]u, the vassal-prince of Tyre. {163} Another messenger was Sutekh-mes, the
son of 'Aper-dagar, who also carried a despatch to the overseer of the
peasantry, while a third envoy came in the reverse direction, from the city of
Meneptah, "in the land of the Amorites."

In the troubles which preceded the accession of the twentieth dynasty the
Asiatic possessions of Egypt were naturally lost, and were never again
recovered. Ramses III., however, the last of the conquering Pharaohs, made at
least one campaign in Palestine and Syria. Like Meneptah, he had to bear the
brunt of an attack upon Egypt by the confederated hordes of the north which
threatened to extinguish its civilization altogether. The nations of Asia Minor
and the Ægean Sea had poured into Syria as the northern barbarians in later days
poured into the provinces of the Roman Empire. Partly by land, partly by sea,
they made their way through Phoenicia and the land of the Hittites, destroying
everything as they went, and carrying in their train the subjugated princes of
Naharaim and Kadesh. For a time they encamped in the "land of the Amorites," and
then pursued their southward march. Ramses III. met them on the north-eastern
frontier of his kingdom, and in a fiercely-contested battle utterly overthrew
them. The ships of the invaders were captured or sunk, and their forces on land
were decimated. Immense quantities of booty and prisoners were taken, and the
shattered forces of the enemy retreated into Syria. There the Philistines and
Zakkal possessed themselves of the {164} sea-coast, and garrisoned the cities of the
extreme south. Gaza ceased to be an Egyptian fortress, and became instead an
effectual barrier to the Egyptian occupation of Canaan.

When Ramses III. followed the retreating invaders of his country into Syria,
it is doubtful whether the Philistines had as yet settled themselves in their
future home. At all events Gaza fell into his hands, and he found no difficulty
in marching along the Mediterranean coast like the conquering Pharaohs who had
preceded him. In his temple palace at Medînet Habu he has left a record of the
conquests that he made in Syria. The great cities of the coast were untouched.
No attempt was made to besiege or capture Tyre and Sidon, Beyrout and Gebal, and
the Egyptian army marched past them, encamping on the way only at such places as
"the headland of Carmel," "the source of the Magoras," or river of Beyrout, and
the Bor or "Cistern." Otherwise its resting-places were at unknown villages like
Inzath and Lui-el. North of Beyrout it struck eastward through the gorge of the
Nahr el-Kelb, and took the city of Kumidi. Then it made its way by Shenir or
Hermon to Hamath, which surrendered, and from thence still northward to "the
plain" of Aleppo.

In the south of Palestine, in what was afterwards the territory of Judah,
Ramses made yet another campaign. Here he claims to have taken Lebanoth and
Beth-Anath, Carmel of Judah and Shebtin, Jacob-el and Hebron, Libnah and Aphek,
{165} Migdal-gad and
Ir-Shemesh, Hadashah and the district of Salem or Jerusalem. From thence the
Egyptian forces proceeded to the Lake of Reshpon or the Dead Sea, and then
crossing the Jordan seized Korkha in Moab. But the campaign was little more than
a raid; it left no permanent results behind it, and all traces of Egyptian
authority disappeared with the departure of the Pharaoh's army. Canaan remained
the prey of the first resolute invader who had strength and courage at his
back.
{166}

CHAPTER IV

THE PATRIARCHS

Abraham had been born in "Ur of the Chaldees." Ur lay on the western side of
the Euphrates in Southern Babylonia, where the mounds of Muqayyar or Mugheir
mark the site of the great temple that had been reared to the worship of the
Moon-god long before the days of the Hebrew patriarch. Here Abraham had married,
and from hence he had gone forth with his father to seek a new home in the west.
Their first resting-place had been Harran in Mesopotamia, on the high-road to
Syria and the Mediterranean. The name of Harran, in fact, signified "road" in
the old language of Chaldæa, and for many ages the armies and merchants of
Babylonia had halted there when making their way towards the Mediterranean. Like
Ur, it was dedicated to the worship of Sin, the Moon-god, and its temple
rivalled in fame and antiquity that of the Babylonian city, and had probably
been founded by a Babylonian king.

At Harran, therefore, Abraham would still have been within the limits of
Babylonian influence and {167} culture, if not of Babylonian government as well.
He would have found there the same religion as that which he had left behind him
in his native city; the same deity was adored there, under the same name and
with the same rites. He was indeed on the road to Canaan, and among an Aramaean
rather than a Babylonian population, but Babylonia with its beliefs and
civilization had not as yet been forsaken. Even the language of Babylonia was
known in his new home, as is indicated by the name of the city itself.

Harran and Mesopotamia were not the goal of the future father of the
Israelitish people. He was bidden to seek elsewhere another country and another
kindred. Canaan was the land which God promised to "show" to him, and it was in
Canaan that his descendants were to become "a great nation." He went forth,
accordingly, "to go into the land of Canaan, and into the land of Canaan he
came."

But even in Canaan Abraham was not beyond the reach of Babylonian influence.
As we have seen in the last chapter, Babylonian armies had already penetrated to
the shores of the Mediterranean, Palestine had been included within the bounds
of a Babylonian empire, and Babylonian culture and religion had spread widely
among the Canaanitish tribes. The cuneiform system of writing had made its way
to Syria, and Babylonian literature had followed in its wake. Centuries had
already passed since Sargon of Akkad had made {168} himself master of the Mediterranean coast and his
son Naram-Sin had led his forces to the Peninsula of Sinai. Istar of Babylonia
had become Ashtoreth of the Canaanites, and Babylonian trade had long moved
briskly along the very road that Abraham traversed. In the days of the patriarch
himself the rulers of Babylonia claimed to be also rulers of Canaan; for
thirteen years did the Canaanite princes "serve" Chedor-laomer and his allies,
the father of Arioch is also "the father of the land of the Amorites" in his
son's inscriptions, and at a little later date the King of Babylon still claimed
sovereignty over the West.

It was not, therefore, to a strange and unexplored country that Abraham had
migrated. The laws and manners to which he had been accustomed, the writing and
literature which he had learned in the schools of Ur, the religious beliefs
among which he had lived in Chaldæa and Harran, he found again in Canaan. The
land of his adoption was full of Babylonian traders, soldiers, and probably
officials as well, and from time to time he must have heard around him the
language of his birthplace. The introduction into the West of the Babylonian
literature and script brought with it a knowledge of the Babylonian language,
and the knowledge is reflected in some of the local names of Palestine. The
patriarch had not escaped beyond the control even of the Babylonian government.
At times, at all events, the princes of Canaan were compelled to acknowledge the
suzerainty of Chaldæa {169} and obey the laws, as the Babylonians would have
said, of "Anu and Dagon."

The fact needs dwelling upon, partly because of its importance, partly
because it is but recently that we have begun to realize it. It might indeed
have been gathered from the narratives of Genesis, more especially from the
account of Chedor-laomer's campaign, but it ran counter to the preconceived
ideas of the modern historian, and never therefore took definite shape in his
mind. It is one of the many gains that the decipherment of the cuneiform
inscriptions has brought to the student of the Old Testament, and it makes us
understand the story of Abraham's migration in a way that was never possible
before. He was no wild nomad wandering in unknown regions, among a people of
alien habits and foreign civilization. We know now why he took the road which we
are told he followed; why he was able to make allies among the inhabitants of
Canaan; why he understood their language and could take part in their social
life. Like the Englishman who migrates to a British colony, Abraham was in
contact with the same culture in Canaan and Chaldæa alike.

But when he reached Canaan he was not yet Abraham. He was still "Abram the
Hebrew," and it was as "Abram the Hebrew" that he made alliance with the
Amorites of Mamre and overthrew the retreating forces of the Babylonian kings.
Abram—Abu-ramu, "the exalted father,"—is a Babylonian name, and is found in
contracts of the {170}
age of Chedor-laomer. When the name was changed to Abraham, it was a sign that
the Babylonian emigrant had become a native of the West.

It was under the terebinth of Moreh before Shechem that Abraham first pitched
his tent and erected his first altar to the Lord. Above him towered Ebal and
Gerizim, where the curses and blessings of the Law were afterwards to be
pronounced. From thence he moved southward to one of the hills westward of
Beth-el, the modern Beitin, and there his second altar was built. While the
first had been reared in the plain, the second was raised on the
mountain-slope.

But here too he did not remain long. Again he "journeyed, going on still
towards the south." Then came a famine which obliged him to cross the frontier
of Egypt, and visit the court of the Pharaoh. The Hyksos kinsmen of the race to
which he belonged were ruling in the Delta, and a ready welcome was given to the
Asiatic stranger. He was "very rich in cattle, in silver and in gold," and like
a wealthy Arab sheikh to-day was received with due honour in the Egyptian
capital. The court of the Pharaoh was doubtless at Zoan.

Among the possessions of the patriarch we are told were camels. The camel is
not included among the Egyptian hieroglyphs, nor has it been found depicted on
the walls of the Egyptian temples and tombs. The name is first met with in a
papyrus of the time of the nineteenth dynasty, and is one of the many words
which the Egyptians {171} of that age borrowed from their Canaanitish
neighbours. The animal, in fact, was not used by the Egyptians, and its
domestication in the valley of the Nile seems to be as recent as the Arab
conquest. But though it was not used by the Egyptians, it had been a beast of
burden among the Semites of Arabia from an early period. In the primitive
Sumerian language of Chaldæa it was called "the animal from the Persian Gulf,"
and its Semitic name, from which our own word camel is derived, goes back
to the very beginnings of Semitic history. We cannot, therefore, imagine a
Semitic nomad arriving in Egypt without the camel; travellers, indeed, from the
cities of Canaan might do so, but not those who led a purely nomadic life. And,
in fact, though we look in vain for a picture of the camel among the sculptures
and paintings of Egypt, the bones of the animal have been discovered deep in the
alluvial soil of the valley of the Nile.

Abraham had to quit Egypt, and once more he traversed the desert of the
"South" and pitched his tent near Beth-el. Here his nephew Lot left him, and,
dissatisfied with the life of a wandering Bedawi, took up his abode in the city
of Sodom at the northern end of the Dead Sea. While Abraham kept himself
separate from the natives of Canaan, Lot thus became one of them, and narrowly
escaped the doom which afterwards fell upon the cities of the plain. In
forsaking the tent, he forsook not only the free life of the immigrant from
Chaldæa, but the God of Abraham as well. The inhabitant {172} of a Canaanitish city passed under the
influence of its faith and worship, its morals and manners, as well as its laws
and government. He ceased to be an alien and stranger, of a different race and
fatherland, and with a religion and customs of his own. He could intermarry with
the natives of his adopted country and participate in their sacred rites. Little
by little his family became merged in the population that surrounded him; its
gods became their gods, its morality—or, it may be, its immorality—became theirs
also. Lot, indeed, had eventually to fly from Sodom, leaving behind him all his
wealth; but the mischief had already been done, and his children had become
Canaanites in thought and deed. The nations which sprang from him, though
separate in race from the older people of Canaan, were yet like them in other
respects. They formed no "peculiar people," to whom the Lord might reveal
Himself through the law and the prophets.

It was not until Lot had separated himself from Abraham that the land of
Canaan was promised to the descendants of the patriarch. "Lift up now thine
eyes," God said to him, "and look from the place where thou art, northward and
southward, and eastward and westward: for all the land which thou seest, to thee
will I give it, and to thy seed for ever." Once more, therefore, Abraham
departed southward from Shechem; not this time to go into the land of Egypt, but
to dwell beside the terebinth-oak of Mamre hard by Hebron, where the founder of
the Davidic monarchy was hereafter to be {173} crowned king. It is probable that the sanctuary
which in days to come was to make Hebron famous had not as yet been established
there; at all events the name of Hebron, "the confederacy," was not as yet
known, and the city was called Kirjath-Arba. Whether it was also called Mamre is
doubtful; Mamre would rather seem to have been the name of the plateau which
stretched beyond the valley of Hebron and was occupied by the Amorite
confederates of the Hebrew patriarch.

It was while he "dwelt under the terebinth of Mamre the Amorite" that the
campaign of Chedor-laomer and his Babylonian allies took place, and that Lot was
carried away among the Canaanitish captives. But the triumph of the conquerors
was short-lived. "Abram the Hebrew" pursued them with his armed followers, three
hundred and eighteen in number, as well as with his Amorite allies, and suddenly
falling upon their rear-guard near Damascus by night, rescued the captives and
the spoil. There was rejoicing in the Canaanitish cities when the patriarch
returned with his booty. The new king of Sodom met him in the valley of Shaveh,
"the king's dale" of later times, just outside the walls of Jerusalem, and the
king of Jerusalem himself, Melchizedek, "the priest of the most High God,"
welcomed the return of the victor with bread and wine. Then it was that Abram
gave tithes of the spoil to the God of Salem, while Melchizedek blessed him in
the name of "the most High God."
{174}

Outside the pages of the Old Testament the special form assumed by the
blessing has been found only in the Aramaic inscriptions of Egypt. Here too we
find travellers from Palestine writing of themselves "Blessed be Augah of Isis,"
or "Blessed be Abed-Nebo of Khnum"! It would seem, therefore, to have been a
formula peculiar to Canaan; at all events, it has not been traced to other parts
of the Semitic world. The temple of the Most High God—El Elyôn—probably stood on
Mount Moriah where the temple of the God of Israel was afterwards to be erected.
It will be remembered that among the letters sent by Ebed-Tob, the king of
Jerusalem, to the Egyptian Pharaoh is one in which he speaks of "the city of the
Mountain of Jerusalem, whose name is the city of the temple of the god Nin-ip."
In this "Mountain of Jerusalem" it is difficult not to see the "temple-Mount" of
later days.

In the cuneiform texts of Ebed-Tob and the later Assyrian kings the name of
Jerusalem is written Uru-Salim, "the city of Salim." Salim or "Peace" is almost
certainly the native name of the god who was identified with the Babylonian
Nin-ip, and perhaps Isaiah—that student of the older history of his country—is
alluding to the fact when he declares that one of the titles of the Messiah
shall be "the Prince of Peace." At any rate, if the Most High God of Jerusalem
were really Salim, the God of Peace, we should have an explanation of the
blessing pronounced by Melchizedek upon the {175} patriarch. Abram's victory had restored peace to
Canaan; he had brought back the captives, and had himself returned in peace. It
was fitting, therefore, that he should be welcomed by the priest of the God of
Peace, and that he should offer tithes of the booty he had recovered to the god
of "the City of Peace."

This offering of tithes was no new thing. In his Babylonian home Abraham must
have been familiar with the practice. The cuneiform inscriptions of Babylonia
contain frequent references to it. It went back to the pre-Semitic age of
Chaldæa, and the great temples of Babylonia were largely supported by the
esra or tithe which was levied upon prince and peasant alike. That the
god should receive a tenth of the good things which, it was believed, he had
bestowed upon mankind, was not considered to be asking too much. There are many
tablets in the British Museum which are receipts for the payment of the tithe to
the great temple of the Sun-god at Sippara in the time of Nebuchadrezzar and his
successors. From one of them we learn that Belshazzar, even at the very moment
when the Babylonian empire was falling from his father's hands, nevertheless
found an opportunity for paying the tithe due from his sister; while others show
us that Cyrus and Cambyses did not regard their foreign origin as affording any
pretext for refusing to pay tithe to the gods of the kingdom they had
overthrown.

The Babylonian army had been defeated near {176} Damascus, and immediately after this we are told
that the steward of Abraham's house was "Eli-ezer of Damascus." Whether there is
any connection between the two facts we cannot say; but it may be that Eli-ezer
had attached himself to the Hebrew conqueror when he was returning "from the
slaughter of Chedor-laomer." The name of Eli-ezer, "God is a help," is
characteristic of Damascus. More often in place of El, "God," we have Hadad, the
supreme deity of Syria; but just as among the Israelites Eli-akim and Jeho-iakim
are equivalent, so among the Aramaeans of Syria were Eli-ezer and Hadad-ezer.
Hadad-ezer, it will be remembered, was the king of Zobah who was overthrown by
David.

Sarai, the wife of Abraham, was still childless, but the patriarch had a son
by his Egyptian handmaid, the ancestor of the Ishmaelite tribes who spread from
the frontier of Egypt to Mecca in Central Arabia. It was when Ishmael was
thirteen years of age that the covenant was made between God and Abraham which
was sealed with the institution of circumcision. Circumcision had been practised
in Egypt from the earliest days of its history; henceforth it also distinguished
all those who claimed Abraham as their forefather. With circumcision Abraham
received the name by which he was henceforth to be known; he ceased to be Abram,
the Hebrew from Babylonia, and became Abraham the father of Ishmael and Israel.
The new rite and the new name were alike the seal and {177} token of the covenant established
between the patriarch and his God: God promised that his seed should multiply,
and that the land of Canaan should be given as an everlasting possession, while
Abraham and his offspring were called upon to keep God's covenant for ever.

It could not have been long after this that the cities of the plain were
destroyed "with brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven." The expression
is found in the cuneiform tablets of Babylonia. Old Sumerian hymns spoke of a
"rain of stones and fire," though the stones may have been hail-stones and
thunderbolts, and the fire the flash of the lightning. But whatever may have
been the nature of the sheet of flame which enveloped the guilty cities of the
plain and set on fire the naphtha-springs that oozed out of it, the remembrance
of the catastrophe survived to distant ages. The prophets of Israel and Judah
still refer to the overthrow of Sodom and its sister cities, and St. Jude points
to them as "suffering the vengeance of eternal fire." Some scholars have seen an
allusion to their overthrow in the tradition of the Phoenicians which brought
their ancestors into the coastlands of Canaan in consequence of an earth-quake
on the shores of "the Assyrian Lake." But the lake is more probably to be looked
for in the neighbourhood of the Persian Gulf than in the valley of the
Jordan.

The vale of Siddim, and "the cities of the plain," stood at the northern end
of the Dead Sea. Here {178} were the "slime-pits" from which the naphtha was
extracted, and which caused the defeat of the Canaanitish princes by the
Babylonian army. The legend which placed the pillar of salt into which Lot's
wife was changed at the southern extremity of the Dead Sea was of late origin,
probably not earlier than the days when Herod built his fortress of Machaerus on
the impregnable cliffs of Moab, and the name of Gebel Usdum, given by the modern
Arabs to one of the mountain-summits to the south of the sea proves nothing as
to the site of the city of Sodom. Names in the east are readily transferred from
one locality to another, and a mountain is not the same as a city in a
plain.

There are two sufficient reasons why it is to the north rather than to the
south that we must look for the remains of the doomed cities, among the numerous
tumuli which rise above the rich and fertile plain in the neighbourhood of
Jericho, where the ancient "slime-pits" can still be traced. Geology has taught
us that throughout the historical period the Dead Sea and the country
immediately to the south of it have undergone no change. What the lake is
to-day, it must have been in the days of Abraham. It has neither grown nor
shrunk in size, and the barren salt with which it poisons the ground must have
equally poisoned it then. No fertile valley, like the vale of Siddim, could have
existed in the south; no prosperous Canaanitish cities could have grown up among
the desolate tracts of the southern wilderness. {179} As we are expressly told in the Book of
Numbers (xiii. 29), the Canaanites dwelt only "by the coast of Jordan," not in
the desert far beyond the reach of the fertilizing stream.

But there is another reason which excludes the southern site. "When Abraham
got up early in the morning," we are told, "he looked towards Sodom and
Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke
of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace." Such a sight was possible
from the hills of Hebron; if the country lay at the northern end of the Dead
Sea, it would have been impossible had it been south of it.

Moreover, the northern situation of the cities alone agrees with the
geography of Genesis. When the Babylonian invaders had turned northwards after
smiting the Amalekites of the desert south of the Dead Sea, they did not fall in
with the forces of the king of Sodom and his allies until they had first passed
"the Amorites that dwelt in Hazezon-tamar." Hazezon-tamar, as we learn from the
Second Book of Chronicles (xx. 2), was the later En-gedi, "the Spring of the
Kid," and En-gedi lay on the western shore of the Dead Sea midway between its
northern and southern extremities.

In the warm, soft valley of the Jordan, accordingly, where a sub-tropical
vegetation springs luxuriantly out of the fertile ground and the river plunges
into the Dead Sea as into a tomb, the nations of Ammon and Moab were born. It
was a {180} fitting
spot, in close proximity as it was to the countries which thereafter bore their
names. From the mountain above Zoar, Lot could look across to the blue hills of
Moab and the distant plateau of Ammon.

Meanwhile Abraham had quitted Mamre and again turned his steps towards the
south. This time it was at Gerar, between the sanctuary of Kadesh-barnea and
Shur the "wall" of Egypt that he sojourned. Kadesh has been found again in our
own days by the united efforts of Dr. John Rowlands and Dr. Clay Trumbull in the
shelter of a block of mountains which rise to the south of the desert of
Beer-sheba. The spring of clear and abundant water which gushes forth in their
midst was the En-Mishpat—"the spring where judgments were pronounced"—of early
times, and is still called 'Ain-Qadîs, "the spring of Kadesh." Gerar is the
modern Umm el-Jerâr, now desolate and barren, all that remains of its past being
a lofty mound of rubbish and a mass of potsherds. It lies a few hours only to
the south of Gaza.

Here Isaac was born and circumcised, and here Ishmael and Hagar were cast
forth into the wilderness and went to dwell in the desert of Paran. The
territory of Gerar extended to Beer-sheba, "the well of the oath," where
Abraham's servants digged a well, and Abimelech, king of Gerar, confirmed his
possession of it by an oath. It may be that one of the two wells which still
exist at Wadi es-Seba', with the stones that line their {181} mouths deeply indented by the ropes of
the water-drawers, is the very one around which the herdsmen of Abraham and
Abimelech wrangled with each other. The wells of the desert go back to a great
antiquity: where water is scarce its discovery is not easily forgotten, and the
Beduin come with their flocks year after year to drink of it. The old wells are
constantly renewed, or new ones dug by their side.

Gerar was in that south-western corner of Palestine which in the age of the
Exodus was inhabited by the Philistines. But they had been new-comers. All
through the period of the eighteenth and nineteenth Egyptian dynasties the
country had been in the hands of the Egyptians. Gaza had been their frontier
fortress, and as late as the reign of Meneptah, the son of the Pharaoh of the
Oppression, it was still garrisoned by Egyptian troops and governed by Egyptian
officers. The Pulsata or Philistines did not arrive till the troublous days of
Ramses III., of the twentieth dynasty. They formed part of the barbarian hordes
from the shores of Asia Minor and the islands of the Ægean, who swarmed over
Syria and flung themselves on the valley of the Nile, and the land of Caphtor
from which they came was possibly the island of Krete. The Philistine occupation
of the coastland of Canaan, therefore, did not long precede the Israelitish
invasion of the Promised Land; indeed we may perhaps gather from the words of
Exod. xiii. 17 that the Philistines were already winning {182} for themselves their new territory when
the Israelites marched out of Egypt. In saying, consequently, that the kingdom
of Abimelech was in the land of the Philistines the Book of Genesis speaks
proleptically: when the story of Abraham and Abimelech was written in its
present form Gerar was a Philistine town: in the days of the patriarchs this was
not yet the case.

At Beer-sheba Abraham planted a tamarisk, and "called on the name of the
Lord, the everlasting God." Beer-sheba long remained one of the sacred places of
Palestine. The tree planted by its well was a sign both of the water that flowed
beneath its soil and of its sacred character. It was only where fresh water was
found that the nomads of the desert could come together, and the tree was a
token of the life and refreshment they would meet with. The well was sacred; so
also was the solitary tree which stood beside it, and under whose branches man
and beast could find shade and protection from the mid-day heat. Even
Mohammedanism, that Puritanism of the East, has not been able to eradicate the
belief in the divine nature of such trees from the mind of the nomad; we may
still see them decorated with offerings of rags torn from the garments of the
passer-by or shading the tomb of some reputed saint. They are still more than
waymarks or resting-places for the heated and weary; when standing beneath them
the herdsman feels that he is walking upon consecrated ground.
{183}

It was at Beer-sheba that the temptation came to Abraham to sacrifice his
first-born, his only son Isaac. The temptation was in accordance with the fierce
ritual of Syria, and traces of the belief which had called it into existence are
to be found in the early literature of Babylonia. Thus in an ancient Babylonian
ritual-text we read: "The offspring who raises his head among mankind, the
offspring for his life he gave; the head of the offspring for the head of the
man he gave; the neck of the offspring for the neck of the man he gave."
Phoenician legend told how the god El had robed himself in royal purple and
sacrificed his only son Yeud in a time of pestilence, and the writers of Greece
and Rome describe with horror the sacrifices of the first-born with which the
history of Carthage was stained. The father was called upon in time of trouble
to yield up to the god his nearest and dearest; the fruit of his body could
alone wipe away the sin of his soul, and Baal required him to sacrifice without
a murmur or a tear his first-born and his only one. The more precious the
offering, the more acceptable was it to the god; the harder the struggle to
resign it, the greater was the merit of doing so. The child died for the sins of
his people; and the belief was but the blind and ignorant expression of a true
instinct.

But Abraham was to be taught a better way. For three days he journeyed
northward with his son, and then lifting up his eyes saw afar off that {184} mountain "in the land
of Moriah," on the summit of which the sacrifice was to be consummated. Alone
with Isaac he ascended to the high-place, and there building his altar and
binding to it his son he prepared to perform the terrible rite. But at the last
moment his hand was stayed, a new and better revelation was made to him, and a
ram was substituted for his son. It cannot be accidental that, as M.
Clermont-Ganneau has pointed out, we learn from the temple-tariffs of Carthage
and Marseilles that in the later ritual of Phoenicia a ram took the place of the
earlier human sacrifice.

Where was this mountain in the land of Moriah whereon the altar of Abraham
was built? It would seem from a passage in the Second Book of Chronicles (iii.
1) that it was the future temple-mount at Jerusalem. The words of Genesis also
point in the same direction. Abraham, we read, "called the name of that place
Jehovah-jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be
seen." It is hard to believe that "the mount of the Lord" can mean anything else
than that har-el or "mountain of God" whereon Ezekiel places the temple,
or that the proverb can refer to a less holy spot than that where the Lord
appeared enthroned upon the cherubim above the mercy-seat. It is doubtful,
however, whether the reading of the Hebrew text in either passage is correct.
According to the Septuagint the proverb quoted in Genesis should run: "In the
mountain is the Lord seen," and the same authority changes {185} the "Moriah" of the
Book of Chronicles into Amôr-eia, "of the Amorites."

It is true that the distance of Jerusalem from Beer-sheba would agree well
with the three days' journey of Abraham. But it is difficult to reconcile the
description of the scene of Abraham's sacrifice with the future temple-mount.
Where Isaac was bound to the altar was a solitary spot, the patriarch and his
son were alone there, and it was overgrown with brushwood so thickly that a ram
had been caught in it by his horns. The temple-mount, on the contrary, was
either within the walls of a city or just outside them, and the city was already
a capital famous for its worship of "the most High God." Had the Moriah of
Jerusalem really been the site of Abraham's altar it is strange that no allusion
is made to the fact by the writers of the Old Testament, or that tradition
should have been silent on the matter. We must be content with the knowledge
that it was to one of the mountains "in the land of Moriah" that Abraham was
led, and that "Moriah" was a "land," not a single mountain-peak. (We should not
forget that the Septuagint reads "the highlands," that is, Moreh instead
of Moriah, while the Syriac version boldly changes the word into the name
of the "Amorites." For arguments on the other side, see p. 79.)

Abraham returned to Beer-sheba, and from thence went to Hebron, where Sarah
died. Hebron—or Kirjath-Arba as it was then called—was occupied by a Hittite
tribe, in contradistinction {186} to the country round about it, which was in the
possession of the Amorites. As at Jerusalem, or at Kadesh on the Orontes, the
Hittites had intruded into Amoritish territory and established themselves in the
fortress-town. But while the Hittite city was known as Kirjath-Arba, "the city
of Arba," the Amoritish district was named Mamre: the union of Kirjath-Arba and
Mamre created the Hebron of a later day.

Kirjath-Arba seems to have been built in the valley, close to the pools which
still provide water for its modern inhabitants. On the eastern side the slope of
the hill is honeycombed with tombs cut in the rock, and, if ancient tradition is
to be believed, it was in one of these that Abraham desired to lay the body of
his wife. The "double cave" of Machpelah—for so the Septuagint renders the
phrase—was in the field of Ephron the Hittite, and from Ephron, accordingly, the
Hebrew patriarch purchased the land for 400 shekels of silver, or about £47. The
cave, we are told, lay opposite Mamre, which goes to show that the oak under
which Abraham once pitched his tent may not have been very far distant from that
still pointed out as the oak of Mamre in the grounds of the Russian hospice. The
traditional tomb of Machpelah has been venerated alike by Jew, Christian, and
Mohammedan. The church built over it in Byzantine days and restored by the
Crusaders to Christian worship has been transformed into a mosque, but its
sanctity has remained unchanged. {187} It stands in the middle of a court, enclosed by a
solid wall of massive stones, the lower courses of which were cut and laid in
their places in the age of Herod. The fanatical Moslem is unwilling that any but
himself should enter the sacred precincts, but by climbing the cliff behind the
town it is possible to look down upon the mosque and its sacred enclosure, and
see the whole building spread out like a map below the feet.

More than one English traveller has been permitted to enter the mosque, and
we are now well acquainted with the details of its architecture. But the
rock-cut tomb in which the bodies of the patriarchs are supposed to have lain
has never been examined by the explorer. It is probable, however, that were he
to penetrate into it he would find nothing to reward his pains. During the long
period that Hebron was in Christian hands the cave was more than once visited by
the pilgrim. But we look in vain in the records which have come down to us for
an account of the relics it has been supposed to contain. Had the mummified
corpses of the patriarchs been preserved in it, the fact would have been known
to the travellers of the Crusading age. (See the Zeitschrift des deutschen
Palästina-Vereins, 1895.)

Like the other tombs in its neighbourhood, the cave of Machpelah has
doubtless been opened and despoiled at an early epoch. We know that tombs were
violated in Egypt long before the days of Abraham, in spite of the penalties
with which such {188}
acts of sacrilege were visited, and the cupidity of the Canaanite was no less
great than that of the Egyptian. The treasures buried with the dead were too
potent an attraction, and the robber of the tomb braved for their sake the
terrors of both this world and the next.

Abraham now sent his servant to Mesopotamia, to seek there for a wife for his
son Isaac from among his kinsfolk at Harran. Rebekah, the sister of Laban,
accordingly, was brought to Canaan and wedded to her cousin. Isaac was at the
time in the southern desert, encamped at the well of Lahai-roi, near Kadesh. So
"Isaac was comforted after his mother's death."

"Then again," we are told, "Abraham took a wife," whose name was Keturah, and
by whom he was the forefather of a number of Arabian tribes. They occupied the
northern and central parts of the Arabian peninsula, by the side of the
Ishmaelites, and colonized the land of Midian. It is the last we hear of the
great patriarch. He died soon afterwards "in a good old age," and was buried at
Machpelah along with his wife.

Isaac still dwell at Lahai-roi, and there the twins, Esau and Jacob, were
born to him. There, too, he still was when a famine fell upon the land, like
"the first famine that was in the days of Abraham." The story of Abraham's
dealings with Abimelech of Gerar is repeated in the case of Isaac. Again we hear
of Phichol, the captain of Abimelech's army; again the wife of the patriarch is
{189} described as his
sister; and again his herdsmen strive with those of the king of Gerar over the
wells they have dug, and the well of Beer-sheba is made to derive its name from
the oaths sworn mutually by Isaac and the king. It is hardly conceivable that
history could have so closely repeated itself, that the lives of the king and
commander-in-chief of Gerar could have extended over so many years, or that the
origin of the name of Beer-sheba would have been so quickly forgotten. Rather we
must believe that two narratives have been mingled together, and that the
earlier visit of Abraham to Gerar has coloured the story of Isaac's sojourn in
the territory of Abimelech. We need not refuse to believe that the servants of
Isaac dug wells and wrangled over them with the native herdsmen; that Beer-sheba
should twice have received its name from a repetition of the same event is a
different matter. One of the wells—that of Rehoboth—made by Isaac's servants is
probably referred to in the Egyptian Travels of a Mohar, where it is
called Rehoburta.

Isaac was not a wanderer like his father. Lahai-roi in the desert, "the
valley of Gerar," Beer-sheba and Hebron, were the places round which his life
revolved, and they were all close to one another. There is no trace of his
presence in the north of Palestine, and when the prophet Amos (vii. 16) makes
Isaac synonymous with the northern kingdom of Israel, there can be no
geographical reference in his words. Isaac died {190} eventually at Hebron, and was buried in
the family tomb of Machpelah.

But long before this happened Jacob had fled from the well-deserved wrath of
his brother to his uncle Laban at Harran. On his way he had slept on the rocky
ridge of Bethel, and had beheld in vision the angels of God ascending and
descending the steps of a staircase that led to heaven. The nature of the ground
itself must have suggested the dream. The limestone rock is fissured into
steplike terraces, which seem formed of blocks of stone piled one upon the
other, and rising upwards like a gigantic staircase towards the sky. On the hill
that towers above the ruins of Beth-el, we may still fancy that we see before us
the "ladder" of Jacob.

But the vision was more than a mere dream. God appeared in it to the
patriarch, and repeated to him the promise that had been made to his fathers.
Through Jacob, the younger of the twins, the true line of Abraham was to be
carried on. When he awoke in the morning the fugitive recognized the real
character of his dream. He took, accordingly, the stone that had served him for
a pillow, and setting it up as an altar, poured oil upon it, and so made it a
Beth-el, or "House of God," Henceforward it was a consecrated altar, a holy
memorial of the God whose divinity had been mysteriously imparted to it.

The Semitic world was full of such Beth-els, or consecrated stones. They are
referred to in the literature of ancient Babylonia, and an English {191} traveller, Mr.
Doughty, has found them still existing near the Tema of the Old Testament in
Northern Arabia. In Phoenicia we are told that they abounded. The solitary rock
in the desert or on the mountain-side seemed to the primitive Semite the
dwelling-place of Deity; it rose up awe-striking and impressive in its solitary
grandeur and venerable antiquity; it was a shelter to him from the heat of the
sun, and a protection from the perils of the night. When his worship and
adoration came in time to be transferred from the stone itself to the divinity
it had begun to symbolize, it became an altar on which the libation of oil or
wine might be poured out to the gods, and on the seals of Syria and the
sculptured slabs of Assyria we accordingly find it transformed into a portable
altar, and merged in the cone-like symbol of the goddess Ashêrah. The stone
which had itself been a Beth-el wherein the Deity had his home, passed by
degrees into the altar of the god whose actual dwelling-place was in heaven.

The Canaanitish city near which Jacob had raised the monument of his dream
bore the name of Luz. In Israelitish days, however, the name of the monument was
transferred to that of the city, and Luz itself was called the Beth-el, or
"House of God." The god worshipped there when the Israelites first entered
Canaan appears to have been entitled On,—a name derived, perhaps, from that of
the city of the Sun-god in Egypt. Bethel was also Beth-On, "the temple of On,"
from whence the {192}
tribe of Benjamin afterwards took the name of Ben-Oni, "the Onite." Beth-On has
survived into our own times, and the site of the old city is still known as
Beitîn.

It is not needful to follow the adventures of Jacob in Mesopotamia. His new
home lay far away from the boundaries of Palestine, and though the kings of
Aram-Naharaim made raids at times into the land of Canaan and caused their arms
to be feared within the walls of Jerusalem, they never made any permanent
conquests on the coasts of the Mediterranean. In the land of the Aramaeans Jacob
is lost for awhile from the history of patriarchal Palestine.

When he again emerges, it is as a middle-aged man, rich in flocks and herds,
who has won two wives as the reward of his labours, and is already the father of
a family. He is on his way back to the country which had been promised to his
seed and wherein he himself had been born. Laban, his father-in-law, robbed at
once of his daughters and his household gods, is pursuing him, and has overtaken
him on the spurs of Mount Gilead, almost within sight of his goal. There a
covenant is made between the Aramaean and the Hebrew, and a cairn of stones is
piled up to commemorate the fact. The cairn continued to bear a double name, the
Aramaean name given to it by Laban, and the Canaanitish name of Galeed, "the
heap of witnesses," by which it was called by Jacob. The double name was a sign
of the two populations {193} and languages which the cairn separated from one
another. Northward were the Aramaeans and an Aramaic speech; southward the land
of Canaan and the language which we term Hebrew.

The spot where the cairn was erected bore yet another title. It was also
called Mizpah, the "watch-tower," the outpost from which the dweller in Canaan
could discern the approaching bands of an enemy from the north or east. It
protected the road to the Jordan, and kept watch over the eastern plateau. Here
in after times Jephthah gathered around him the patriots of Israel, and
delivered his people from the yoke of the Ammonites.

Once more "Jacob went on his way," and from the "two-fold camp" of Mahanaim
sent messengers to his brother Esau, who had already established himself among
the mountains of Seir. Then came the mysterious struggle in the silent darkness
of night with one whom the patriarch believed to have been his God Himself. When
day dawned, the vision departed from him, but not until his name had been
changed. "Thy name," it was declared to him, "shall be called no more Jacob, but
Israel; for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast
prevailed." And his thigh was shrunken, so that the children of Israel in days
to come abstained from eating "of the sinew which shrank, which is upon the
hollow of the thigh." The spot where the struggle took place, beside the waters
of the Jabbok, was named Penu-el, "the face of God." There was more than {194} one other Penu-el in
the Semitic world, and at Carthage the goddess Tanith was entitled Peni-Baal,
"the face of Baal."

The name of Israel, as we may learn from its equivalent, Jeshurun, was really
derived from a root which signified "to be straight," or "upright." The
Israelites were in truth "the people of uprightness." It is only by one of those
plays upon words, of which the Oriental is still so fond, that the name can be
brought into connection with the word sar, "a prince." But the name of
Jacob was well known among the northern Semites. We gather from the inscriptions
of Egypt that its full form was Jacob-el. Like Jeshurun by the side of Israel,
or Jephthah by the side of Jiphthah-el (Josh. xix. 27), Jacob is but an
abbreviated Jacob-el. One of the places in Palestine conquered by the Pharaoh
Thothmes III., the names of which are recorded on the walls of his temple at
Karnak, was Jacob-el—a reminiscence, doubtless, of the Hebrew patriarch.
Professor Flinders Petrie has made us acquainted with Egyptian scarabs on which
is inscribed in hieroglyphic characters the name of a king, Jacob-bar or
Jacob-hal, who reigned in the valley of the Nile before Abraham entered it, and
Mr. Pinches has lately discovered the name of Jacob-el among the persons
mentioned in contracts of the time of the Babylonian sovereign Sin-mu-ballidh,
who was a contemporary of Chedor-laomer. We thus have monumental evidence that
the name of Jacob was well known {195} in the Semitic world in the age of the Hebrew
patriarchs.

Jacob and Esau met and were reconciled, and Jacob then journeyed onwards to
Succoth, "the booths." The site of this village of "booths" is unknown, but it
could not have been far from the banks of the Jordan and the road to Nablûs. The
neighbourhood of Shechem, called in Greek times Neapolis, the Nablûs of to-day,
was the next resting-place of the patriarch. If we are to follow the translation
of the Authorised Version, it would have been at "Shalem, a city of Shechem,"
that his tents were pitched. But many eminent scholars believe that the Hebrew
words should rather be rendered: "And Jacob came in peace to the city of
Shechem," the reference being to his peaceable parting from his brother. There
is, however, a hamlet still called Salîm, nearly three miles to the east of
Nablûs, and it may be therefore that it was really at a place termed Shalem that
Jacob rested on his way. In this case the field bought from Hamor, "before the
city of Shechem," cannot have been where, since the days of our Lord, "Jacob's
well" has been pointed out (S. John iv. 5, 6). The well is situated considerably
westward of Salîm, midway, in fact, between that village and Nablûs, and close
to the village of 'Askâr, with which the "Sychar" of S. John's Gospel has
sometimes been identified. It has been cut through the solid rock to a depth of
more than a hundred feet, and the groovings made by the ropes of the waterpots
{196} in far-off
centuries are still visible at its mouth. But no water can be drawn from it now.
The well is choked with the rubbish of a ruined church, built above it in the
early days of Christianity, and of which all that remains is a broken arch. It
has been dug at a spot where the road from Shechem to the Jordan branches off
from that which runs towards the north, though Shechem itself is more than a
mile distant. We should notice that S. John does not say that the well was
actually in "the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph," only that
it was "near to" the patriarch's field.

If Jacob came to Shechem in peace, the peace was of no long continuance.
Simeon and Levi, the sons of the patriarch, avenged the insult offered by the
Shechemite prince to their sister Dinah, by treacherously falling upon the city
and slaying "all the males." Jacob was forced to fly, leaving behind him the
altar he had erected. He made for the Canaanitish city of Luz, the Beth-el of
later days, where he had seen the great altar-stairs sloping upward to heaven.
The idols that had been carried from Mesopotamia were buried "under the oak
which was by Shechem," along with the ear-rings of the women. The oak was one of
those sacred trees which abounded in the Semitic world, like another oak at
Beth-el, beneath which the nurse of Rebekah was soon afterwards to be
buried.

At Beth-el Jacob built another altar. But he {197} could not rest there, and once more
took his way to the south. On the road his wife Rachel died while giving birth
to his youngest son, and her tomb beside the path to Beth-lehem was marked by a
"pillar" which the writer of the Book of Genesis tells us remained to his own
day. It indicated the boundary between the territories of Benjamin and Judah at
Zelzah (1 Sam. x. 2).

At Beth-lehem Jacob lingered a long while. His flocks and herds were spread
over the country, under the charge of his sons, browsing on the hills and
watered at the springs, for which the "hill-country of Judah" was famous. In
their search for pasturage they wandered northward, we are told, "beyond the
tower of the Flock," which guarded the Jebusite stronghold of Zion (Mic. iv. 8).
Beth-lehem itself was more commonly known in that age by the name of Ephrath.
Beth-lehem, "the temple of Lehem," must, in fact, have been the sacred name of
the city derived from the worship of its chief deity, and Mr. Tomkins is
doubtless right in seeing in this deity the Babylonian Lakhmu, who with his
consort Lakhama, was regarded as a primaeval god of the nascent world.

At Beth-lehem Jacob was but a few miles distant from Hebron, where Isaac
still lived, and where at his death he was buried by his sons Jacob and Esau in
the family tomb of Machpelah. It was the last time, seemingly, that the two
brothers found themselves together. Esau, partly {198} by marriage, partly by conquest,
dispossessed the Horites of Mount Seir, and founded the kingdom of Edom, while
the sons and flocks of Jacob scattered themselves from Hebron in the south of
Canaan to Shechem in its centre. The two hallowed sanctuaries of the future
kingdoms of Judah and Israel, where the first throne was set up in Israel and
the monarchy of David was first established, thus became the boundaries of the
herdsmen's domain. In both the Hebrew patriarch held ground that was rightfully
his own. It was a sign that the house of Israel should hereafter occupy the land
which the family of Israel thus roamed over with their flocks. The nomad was
already passing into the settler, with fields and burial-places of his own.

But before the transformation could be fully accomplished, a long season of
growth and preparation was needful. Egypt, and not Canaan, was to be the land in
which the Chosen People should be trained for their future work. Canaan itself
was to pass under Egyptian domination, and to replace the influence of
Babylonian culture by that of Egypt. It was a new world and a new civilization
into which the descendants of Jacob were destined to emerge when finally they
escaped from the fiery furnace of Egyptian bondage. The Egypt known to Jacob was
an Egypt over which Asiatic princes ruled, and whose vizier was himself a
Hebrew. It was the Egypt of the Hyksos conquerors, whose capital was Zoan, on
the frontiers {199} of
Asia, and whose people were the slaves of an Asiatic stranger. The Egypt quitted
by his descendants was one which had subjected Asia to itself, and had carried
the spoils of Syria to its splendid capital in the far south. The Asiatic wave
had been rolled back from the banks of the Nile, and Egyptian conquest and
culture had overflooded Asia as far as the Euphrates.

But it was not Egypt alone which had undergone a change. The Canaan of
Abraham and Jacob looked to Babylonia for its civilization, its literature, and
its laws. Its princes recognized at times the supremacy of the Babylonian
sovereigns, and the deities of Babylonia were worshipped in its midst. The
Canaan of Moses had long been a province of the Egyptian Empire; Egyptian rule
had been substituted for that of Babylon, and the manners and customs of Egypt
had penetrated deeply into the minds of its inhabitants. The Hittite invasion
from the north had blocked the high-road to Babylonia, and diverted the trade of
Palestine towards the west and the south. While Abraham, the native of Ur, and
the emigrant from Harran, had found himself in Canaan, and even at Zoan, still
within the sphere of the influences among which he had grown up, the fugitives
from Egypt entered on the invasion of a country which had but just been
delivered from the yoke of the Pharaohs. It was an Egyptian Canaan that the
Israelites were called upon to subdue, and it was fitting therefore that they
should have been made {200} ready for the task by their long sojourn in the
land of Goshen.

How that sojourn came about, it is not for us to recount. The story of Joseph
is too familiar to be repeated, though we are but just beginning to learn how
true it is, in all its details, to the facts which Egyptian research is bringing
more and more fully to light. We see the Midianite and Ishmaelite caravan
passing Dothan—still known by its ancient name—with their bales of spicery from
Gilead for the dwellers in the Delta, and carrying away with them the young
Hebrew slave. We watch his rise in the house of his Egyptian master, his
wrongful imprisonment and sudden exaltation when he sits by the side of Pharaoh
and governs Egypt in the name of the king. We read the pathetic story of the old
father sending his sons to buy corn from the royal granaries or larits of
Egypt, and withholding to the last his youngest and dearest one; of the Beduin
shepherds bowing all unconsciously before the brother whom they had sold into
slavery, and who now holds in his hands the power of life and death; of Joseph's
disclosure of himself to the conscious-stricken suppliants; of Jacob's cry when
convinced at last that "the governor over all the land of Egypt" was his
long-mourned son. "It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see
him before I die."

Jacob and his family travelled in wagons along the high-road which connected
the south of Palestine {201} with the Delta. It led past Beer-sheba and
El-Arîsh to the Shur, or line of fortifications which protected the eastern
frontier of Egypt. The modern caravan road follows its course most of the way.
It was thus distinct from "the way of the Philistines," which led along the
coast of the Mediterranean, on the northern edge of the Sirbonian Lake. In Egypt
the Israelitish emigrants settled not far from the Hyksos capital in the land of
Goshen, which the excavations of Dr. Naville have shown to be the Wâdi Tumilât
of to-day. Here they multiplied and grew wealthy, until the evil days came when
the Egyptians rose up against Semitic influence and control, and Ramses II.
transformed the free-born Beduin into public serfs.

But the age of Ramses II. was still far distant when Jacob died full of
years, and his mummy was carried to the burial-place of his fathers "in the land
of Canaan." Local tradition connected the name of Abel-mizraim, "the meadow of
Egypt," on the eastern side of the Jordan, with the long funeral procession
which wended its way from Zoan to Hebron. We cannot believe, however, that the
mourners would have so far gone out of their road, even if the etymology
assigned by tradition to the name could be supported. The tradition bears
witness to the fact of the procession, but to nothing more.

With the funeral of Jacob a veil falls upon the Biblical history of Canaan,
until the days when the {202} spies were sent out to search the land. Joseph was
buried in Egypt, not at Hebron, though he had made the Israelites swear before
his death that his mummy should be eventually taken to Palestine. The road to
Hebron, it is clear, was no longer open, and the power of the Hyksos princes
must have been fast waning. The war of independence had broken out, and the
native kings of Upper Egypt were driving the foreigner back into Asia. The
rulers of Zoan had no longer troops to spare for a funeral procession through
the eastern desert.

The Chronicler, however, has preserved a notice which seems to show that a
connection was still kept up between Southern Canaan and the Hebrew settlers in
Goshen, even after Jacob's death, perhaps while he was yet living. We are told
that certain of the sons of Ephraim were slain by the men of Gath, whose cattle
they had attempted to steal, and that their father, after mourning many days,
comforted himself with the birth of other sons (1 Chron. vii. 21-26). The
notice, moreover, does not stand alone. Thothmes III., the great conqueror of
the eighteenth Egyptian dynasty, states that two of the places captured by him
in Palestine were Jacob-el and Joseph-el. It is tempting to see in the two names
reminiscences of the Hebrew patriarch and his son. If so, the name of Joseph
would have been impressed upon a locality in Canaan more than two centuries
before the Exodus. The geographical lists of Thothmes {203} III. and the fragments of early history
preserved by the Chronicler would thus support and complete one another. The
Egyptian cavalry who accompanied the mummy of Jacob to its resting-place at
Machpelah, would not be the only evidence of the authority claimed by Joseph and
his master in the land of Canaan; Joseph himself would have left his name there,
and his grand-children would have fought against "the men of Gath."

But these are speculations which may, or may not, be confirmed by
archaeological discovery. For the Book of Genesis Canaan disappears from sight
with the death of Jacob. Henceforward it is upon Egypt and the nomad settlers in
Goshen that the attention of the Pentateuch is fixed, until the time comes when
the age of the patriarchs is superseded by that of the legislator, and Moses,
the adopted son of the Egyptian princess, leads his people back to Canaan.
Joseph had been carried by Midianitish hands out of Palestine into Egypt, there
to become the representative of the Pharaoh, and son-in-law of the high-priest
of Heliopolis; for Moses, the adopted grandson of the Pharaoh, "learned in all
the wisdom of the Egyptians," it was reserved, after years of trial and
preparation in Midian, to bring the descendants of Jacob out of their Egyptian
prison-house to the borders of the Promised Land.
{204}

CHAPTER V

EGYPTIAN TRAVELLERS IN CANAAN

Palestine has been a land of pilgrims and tourists from the very beginning of
its history. It was the goal of the migration of Abraham and his family, and it
was equally the object of the oldest book of travels with which we are
acquainted. Allusion has already been made more than once to the Egyptian
papyrus, usually known as The Travels of a Mohar, and in which a
satirical account is given of a tour in Palestine and Syria. The writer was a
professor, apparently of literature, in the court of Ramses II., and he
published a series of letters to his friend, Nekht-sotep, which were long
admired as models of style. Nekht-sotep was one of the secretaries attached to
the military staff, and among the letters is a sort of parody of an account
given by Nekht-sotep of his adventures in Canaan, which was intended partly to
show how an account of the kind ought to have been written by an accomplished
penman, partly to prove the superiority of the scribe's life to that of the
soldier, partly also, it may be, for the sake of teasing the {205} writer's
correspondent. Nekht-sotep had evidently assumed airs of superiority on the
strength of his foreign travels, and his stay-at-home friend undertook to
demonstrate that he had himself enjoyed the more comfortable life of the two.
Nekht-sotep is playfully dubbed with the foreign title of Mohar—or more
correctly Muhir—a word borrowed from Assyrian, where it primarily signified a
military commander and then the governor of a province.

Long before the days of the nineteenth dynasty, however, there had been
Egyptian travellers in Palestine, or at least in the adjoining countries. One of
the Egyptian books which have come down to us contains the story of a certain
Sinuhit who had to fly from Egypt in consequence of some political troubles in
which he was involved after the death of Amon-m-hat I. of the twelfth dynasty.
Crossing the Nile near Kher-ahu, the Old Cairo of to-day, he gained the eastern
bank of the river and made his way to the line of forts which protected Egypt
from its Asiatic enemies. Here he crouched among the desert bushes till
night-fall, lest "the watchmen of the tower" should see him, and then pursued
his journey under the cover of darkness. At daybreak he reached the land of
Peten and the wadi of Qem-uer on the line of the modern Suez Canal. There thirst
seized upon him; his throat rattled, and he said to himself—"This is the taste
of death." A Bedawi, however, perceived him and had compassion on the fugitive:
he gave him water and boiled milk, and Sinuhit for a while {206} joined the nomad
tribe. Then he passed on to the country of Qedem, the Kadmonites of the Old
Testament (Gen. xv. 19; Judges vi. 3), whence came the wise men of the East (1
Kings iv. 30). After spending a year and a half there, 'Ammu-anshi, the prince
of the Upper land of Tenu, asked the Egyptian stranger to come to him, telling
him that he would hear the language of Egypt. He added that he had already heard
about Sinuhit from "the Egyptians who were in the country." It is clear from
this that there had been intercourse for some time between Egypt and "the Upper
Tenu."

It is probable that Dr. W. Max Müller is right in seeing in Tenu an
abbreviated form of Lutennu (or Rutenu), the name by which Syria was known to
the Egyptians. There was an Upper Lutennu and a Lower Lutennu, the Upper Lutennu
corresponding with Palestine and the adjoining country, and thus including the
Edomite district of which 'Ammu-anshi or Ammi-anshi was king. In the name of
'Ammu-anshi, it may be observed, we have the name of the deity who appears as
Ammi or Ammon in the kingdom of the Ammonites, and perhaps forms the second
element in the name of Balaam. The same divine name enters into the composition
of those of early kings of Ma'in in Southern Arabia, as well as of Babylonia in
the far East. (See above, p. 64.)

'Ammu-anshi married Sinuhit to his eldest daughter, and bestowed upon him the
government {207} of a
district called Aia which lay on the frontier of a neighbouring country. Aia is
described as rich in vines, figs, and olives, in wheat and barley, in milk and
cattle. "Its wine was more plentiful than water," and Sinuhit had "daily rations
of bread and wine, cooked meat and roast fowl," as well as abundance of game. He
lived there for many years. The children born to him by his Asiatic wife grew up
and became heads of tribes. "I gave water to the thirsty," he says; "I set on
his journey the traveller who had been hindered from passing by; I chastised the
brigand. I commanded the Beduin who departed afar to strike and repel the
princes of foreign lands, and they marched (under me), for the prince of Tenu
allowed that I should be during long years the general of his soldiers."

Sinuhit, in fact, had given proof of his personal prowess at an early period
in his career. The champion of Tenu had come to him in his tent and challenged
him to single combat. The Egyptian was armed with bow, arrows, and dagger; his
adversary with battle-axe, javelins, and buckler. The contest was short, and
ended in the decisive victory of Sinuhit, who wounded his rival and despoiled
him of his goods.

A time came, however, when Sinuhit grew old, and began to long to see once
more the land of his fathers before he died. Accordingly he sent a petition to
the Pharaoh praying him to forgive the offences of his youth and allow him to
return again to Egypt. The petition was granted, and a letter {208} was despatched to the
refugee, permitting him to return. Sinuhit accordingly quitted the land where he
had lived so long. First of all he held a festival, and handed over his property
to his children, making his eldest son the chief of the tribe. Then he travelled
southward to Egypt, and was graciously received at court. The coarse garments of
the Beduin were exchanged for fine linen; his body was bathed with water and
scented essences; he lay once more on a couch and enjoyed the luxurious cookery
of the Egyptians. A house and pyramid were built for him; a garden was laid out
for him with a lake and a kiosk, and a golden statue with a robe of electrum was
set up in it. Sinuhit ceased to be an Asiatic "barbarian," and became once more
a civilized Egyptian.

The travels of Sinuhit were involuntary, but a time came when a tour in
Palestine was almost as much the fashion as it is to-day. The conquests of
Thothmes III. had made Syria an Egyptian province, and had introduced Syrians
into the Egyptian bureaucracy. Good roads were made throughout the
newly-acquired territory, furnished with post-houses where food and lodging
could be procured, and communication between Egypt and Canaan thus became easy
and frequent. The fall of the eighteenth dynasty caused only a momentary break
in the intercourse between the two countries; with the establishment of the
nineteenth dynasty it was again resumed. Messengers passed backward and forward
between Syria and the court of {209} the Pharaoh; Asiatics once more thronged into the
valley of the Nile, and the Egyptian civil servant and traveller followed in the
wake of the victorious armies of Seti and Ramses. The Travels of a Mohar
is the result of this renewed acquaintance with the cities and roads of
Palestine.

The writer is anxious to display his knowledge of Syrian geography. Though he
had not himself ventured to brave the discomforts of foreign travel, he wished
to show that he knew as much about Canaan as those who had actually been there.
A tour there was after all not much to boast of; it had become so common that
the geography of Canaan was as well known as that of Egypt itself, and the
stay-at-home scribe had consequently no difficulty in compiling a guide-book to
it.

The following is the translation given by Dr. Brugsch of the papyrus, with
such alterations as have been necessitated by further study and research. "I
will portray for thee the likeness of a Mohar, I will let thee know what he
does. Hast thou not gone to the land of the Hittites, and hast thou not seen the
land of Aupa? Dost thou not know what Khaduma is like; the land of Igad'i also
how it is formed? The Zar (or Plain) of king Sesetsu (Sesostris)—on which side
of it lies the town of Aleppo, and how is its ford? Hast thou not taken thy road
to Kadesh (on the Orontes) and Tubikhi? Hast thou not gone to the Shasu (Beduin)
with numerous mercenaries, and hast thou not trodden the way to the Maghar[at]
(the caves of the {210} Magoras near Beyrout) where the heaven is dark in
the daytime? The place is planted with maple-trees, oaks, and acacias, which
reach up to heaven, full of beasts, bears (?), and lions, and surrounded by
Shasu in all directions. Hast thou not ascended the mountain of Shaua, and hast
thou not trodden it? There thy hands hold fast to the [rein] of thy chariot; a
jerk has shaken thy horses in drawing it. I pray thee, let us go to the city of
Beeroth (Beyrout). Hast thou not hastened to its ascent after passing over the
ford in front of it?

"Do thou explain this relish for [the life of] a Mohar! Thy chariot lies
there [before] thee; thy [feet] have fallen lame; thou treadest the backward
path at eventide. All thy limbs are ground small. Thy [bones] are broken to
pieces, and thou dost fall asleep. Thou awakest: it is the time of gloomy night,
and thou art alone. Has not a thief come to rob thee? Some grooms have entered
the stable; the horse kicks out; the thief has made off in the night, thy
clothes are stolen. Thy groom wakes up in the night; he sees what has happened
to him; he takes what is left, he goes off to bad company, he joins the Beduin.
He transforms himself into an Asiatic. The police (?) come, they [feel about]
for the robber; he is discovered, and is immovable from terror. Thou wakest,
thou findest no trace of them, for they have carried off thy property.

"Become [again] a Mohar who is fully accoutred. {211} Let thy ear be filled with that which I
relate to thee besides.

"The town 'Hidden'—such is the meaning of its name Gebal—what is its
condition? Its goddess [we will speak of] at another time. Hast thou not visited
it? Be good enough to look out for Beyrout, Sidon, and Sarepta. Where are the
fords of the land of Nazana? The country of Authu (Usu), what is its condition?
They are situated above another city in the sea, Tyre the port is its name.
Drinking-water is brought to it in boats. It is richer in fishes than in sand. I
will tell thee of something else. It is dangerous to enter Zair'aun. Thou wilt
say it is burning with a very painful sting (?). Come, Mohar. Go forward on the
way to the land of Pa-'Aina. Where is the road to Achshaph (Ekdippa)? Towards
which town? Pray look at the mountain of User. How is its crest? Where is the
mountain of Sakama (Shechem)? Who can surmount it? Mohar, whither must you take
a journey to the land of Hazor? How is its ford? Show me how one goes to Hamath,
Dagara, [and] Dagar-el, to the place where all Mohars meet? Be good enough to
spy out its road; cast a look on Yâ.... When one goes to the land of Adamim, to
what is one opposite? Do not draw back, but instruct us. Guide us, that we may
know, O leader!

"I will name to thee other cities besides these. Hast thou not gone to the
land of Takhis, to Kafir-Marona, Tamnah, Kadesh, Dapul, Azai, Harnammata, {212} and hast thou not seen
Kirjath-Anab, near Beth-Sopher? and dost thou not know Adullam [and] Zidiputa?
Or dost thou not know any better the name of Khalza in the land of Aupa, [like]
a bull upon its frontiers? Here is the place where all the mighty warriors are
seen. Be good enough to look and see the chapel of the land of Qina, and tell me
about Rehob. Describe Beth-sha-el (Beth-el) along with Tarqa-el. The ford of the
land of Jordan, how is it crossed? Teach me to know the passage that leads to
the land of Megiddo, which lies in front of it. Verily thou art a Mohar, well
skilled in the work of the strong hand. Pray, is there found a Mohar like thee,
to place at the head of the army, or a seigneur who can beat thee in
shooting?

"Beware of the gorge of the precipice, 2000 cubits deep, which is full of
rocks and boulders. Thou turnest back in a zigzag, thou bearest thy bow, thou
takest the iron in thy left hand. Thou lettest the old men see, if their eyes
are good, how, worn out with fatigue, thou supportest thyself with thy hand.
Ebed gamal Mohar n'amu ('A camel's slave is the Mohar! they say'); so
they say, and thou gainest a name among the Mohars and the knights of the land
of Egypt. Thy name becomes like that of Qazairnai, the lord of Asel, when the
lions found him in the thicket, in the defile which is rendered dangerous by the
Shasu who lie in ambush among the trees. They measured four cubits from the nose
to the heel, they had a {213} grim look, without softness; they cared not for
caresses.

"Thou art alone, no strong one is with thee, no armée is behind thee,
no Ariel who prepares the way for thee, and gives thee information of the
road before thee. Thou knowest not the road. The hair on thy head stands on end;
it bristles up. Thy soul is given into thy hands. Thy path is full of rocks and
boulders, there is no outlet near, it is overgrown with creepers and
wolf's-bane. The precipice is on one side of thee, the mountain and the wall of
rock on the other. Thou drivest in against it. The chariot jumps on which thou
art. Thou art troubled to hold up thy horses. If it falls down the precipice,
the pole drags thee down too. Thy ceintures are pulled away. They fall
down. Thou shacklest the horse, because the pole is broken on the path of the
defile. Not knowing how to tie it up, thou understandest not how it is to be
repaired. The essieu is left on the spot, as the load is too heavy for
the horses. Thy courage has evaporated. Thou beginnest to run. The heaven is
cloudless. Thou art thirsty; the enemy is behind thee; a trembling seizes thee;
a twig of thorny acacia worries thee; thou thrustest it aside; the horse is
scratched till at length thou findest rest.

"Explain to me thy liking for [the life of] a Mohar!

"Thou comest into Joppa; thou findest the date-palm in full bloom in its
time. Thou openest wide {214} thy mouth in order to eat. Thou findest that the
maid who keeps the garden is fair. She does whatever thou wantest of her....
Thou art recognized, thou art brought to trial, and owest thy preservation to
being a Mohar. Thy girdle of the finest stuff thou payest as the price of a
worthless rag. Thou sleepest every evening with a rug of fur over thee. Thou
sleepest a deep sleep, for thou art weary. A thief steals thy bow and thy sword
from thy side; thy quiver and thy armour are cut to pieces in the darkness; thy
pair of horses run away. The groom takes his course over a slippery path which
rises before him. He breaks thy chariot in pieces; he follows thy foot-steps.
[He finds] thy equipments which had fallen on the ground and had sunk into the
sand, leaving only an empty space.

"Prayer does not avail thee, even when thy mouth says, 'Give food in addition
to water, that I may reach my goal in safety,' they are deaf and will not hear.
They say not yes to thy words. The iron-workers enter into the smithy; they
rummage in the workshops of the carpenters; the handicraftsmen and saddlers are
at hand; they do whatever thou requirest. They put together thy chariot; they
put aside the parts of it that are made useless; thy spokes are façonné
quite new; thy wheels are put on; they put the courroies on the axles and
on the hinder part; they splice thy yoke, they put on the box of thy chariot;
the [workmen] in iron forge the ...; they put the {215} ring that is wanting on thy whip, they
replace the lanières upon it.

"Thou goest quickly onward to fight on the battle-field, to do the deeds of a
strong hand and of firm courage.

"Before I wrote I sought me out a Mohar who knows his power and leads the
jeunesse, a chief in the armée, [who travels] even to the end of
the world.

"Answer me not 'This is good; this is bad;' repeat not to me your opinion.
Come, I will tell thee all that lies before thee at the end of thy journey.

"I begin for thee with the palace of Sesetsu (Sesostris). Hast thou not set
foot in it by force? Hast thou not eaten the fish in the brook ...? Hast thou
not washed thyself in it? With thy permission I will remind thee of Huzana;
where is its fortress? Come, I pray thee, to the palace of the land of Uazit,
even of Osymandyas (Ramses II.) in his victories, [to] Saez-el, together with
Absaqbu. I will inform thee of the land of 'Ainin (the two Springs), the customs
of which thou knowest not. The land of the lake of Nakhai, and the land of
Rehoburta thou hast not seen since thou wast born, O Mohar. Rapih is widely
extended. What is its wall like? It extends for a mile in the direction of
Gaza."

The French words introduced from time to time by Dr. Brugsch into the
translation represent the Semitic words which the Egyptian writer has employed.
{216} They illustrate
the fashionable tendency of his day to fill the Egyptian vocabulary with the
words and phrases of Canaan. It was the revenge taken by Palestine for its
invasion and conquest by the armies of Seti and Ramses. Thus armée
corresponds to the Semitic tsaba, "army," jeunesse to
na'aruna, "young men." The Egyptian scribe, however, sometimes made
mistakes similar to those which modern novelists are apt to commit in their
French quotations. Instead of writing, as he intended, 'ebed gamal Mohar
na'amu ("a camel's slave is the Mohar! they say"), he has assigned the
Canaanite vowel ayin to the wrong word, and mis-spelt the name of the
"camel," so that the phrase is transformed into abad kamal Mohar n'amu
("the camel of the Mohar has perished, they are pleasant"). (It is curious that
a similar mistake in regard to the spelling of 'ebed, "slave" or
"servant" has been made in an Aramaic inscription which I have discovered
on the rocks near Silsileh in Upper Egypt, where the name of Ebed-Nebo is
written Abed-Nebo.)

Most of the geographical names mentioned in the papyrus can be identified.
Aupa, the Ubi of the Tel el-Amarna tablets, was on the borders of the land of
the Hittites, and not far from Aleppo. The Zar or "Plain" of Sesostris makes its
appearance in the lists of conquered towns and countries which were drawn up by
Thothmes III., Seti I., Ramses II., and Ramses III., in order to commemorate
their victories in Syria. The word probably migrated from Babylonia, where the
zeru {217}
denoted the alluvial plain which lay between the Tigris and the Euphrates.
Kadesh, the southern capital of the Hittites, "in the land of the Amorites," lay
on the Orontes, close to the lake of Horns, and has been identified by Major
Conder with the modern Tel em-Mindeh. Tubikhi, of which we have already heard in
the Tel el-Amarna letters, is also mentioned in the geographical lists inscribed
by Thothmes III. on the walls of his temple at Karnak (No. 6); it there precedes
the name of Kamta or Qamdu, the Kumidi of Tel el-Amarna. It is the Tibhath of
the Old Testament, out of which David took "very much brass" (1 Chron. xviii.
8). The Maghar(at) or "Caves" gave their name to the Magoras, the river of
Beyrout, as well as to the Mearah of the Book of Joshua (xiii. 4). As for the
mountain of Shaua, it is described by the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III. as
in the neighbourhood of the northern Lebanon, while the city of the Beeroth or
"Cisterns" is probably Beyrout.

The Mohar is now carried to Phoenicia. Gebal, Beyrout, Sidon, and Sarepta,
are named one after the other, as the traveller is supposed to be journeying
from north to south. The "goddess" of Gebal was Baaltis, so often referred to in
the letters of Rib-Hadad, who calls her "the mistress of Gebal." In saying,
however, that the name of the city meant "Hidden," the writer has been misled by
the Egyptian mispronunciation of it. It became Kapuna in the mouths of his
countrymen, and {218}
since kapu in Egyptian signified "hidden mystery," he jumped to the
conclusion that such was also the etymology of the Phoenician word. In the
"fords of the land of Nazana" we must recognize the river Litâny, which flows
into the sea between Sarepta and Tyre. At all events, Authu or Usu, the next
city mentioned, is associated with Tyre both in the tablets of Tel el-Amarna and
in the inscriptions of the Assyrian kings. It seems to have been the Palætyros
or "Older Tyre" of classical tradition, which stood on the mainland opposite the
more famous insular Tyre. Phoenician tradition ascribes its foundation to Usôos,
the offspring of the mountains of Kasios and Lebanon, and brother of Memrumus,
"the exalted," and Hypsouranios, "the lord of heaven," who was the first to
invent a clothing of skins, and to sail upon the water in boats, and who had
taught mankind to adore the fire and the winds, and to set up two pillars of
stone in honour of the deity. From Usu the Mohar is naturally taken to the
island rock of Tyre.

Next comes a name which it is difficult to identify. All that is clear is
that between Zar or Tyre and Zair'aun there is some connection both of name and
of locality. Perhaps Dr. Brugsch is right in thinking that in the next sentence
there is a play upon the Hebrew word zir'âh, "hornet," which seems to
have the same root as Zair'aun. It may be that Zair'aun is the ancient city
south of Tyre whose ruins are now called Umm el-'Amûd, and {219} whose older name is
said to have been Turân. Unfortunately the name of the next place referred to in
the Mohar's travels is doubtful; if it is Pa-'A(y)ina, "the Spring," we could
identify it with the modern Râs el-'Ain, "the Head of the Spring." This is on
the road to Zib, the ancient Achshaph or Ekdippa.

"The mountain of User" reminds us curiously of the tribe of Asher, whose
territory included the mountain-range which rose up behind the Phoenician coast.
But it may denote Mount Carmel, whose "crest" faces the traveller as he makes
his way southward from Tyre and Zib. In any case the allusion to it brings to
the writer's mind another mountain in the same neighbourhood, the summit of
which similarly towers into the sky. This is "the mountain of Shechem," either
Ebal or Gerizim, each of which is nearly 3000 feet above the level of the sea.
It is the first mention that we have of Shechem outside the pages of the Old
Testament.

Shechem, however, did not lie in the path of the Mohar, and the reference to
its mountain is made parenthetically only. We are therefore carried on to Hazor,
which afterwards became a city of Naphtali, and of which we hear in the letters
of Tel el-Amarna. From Hazor the road ran northwards to Hamath, the Hamah of
to-day. Hazor lay not far to the westward of Adamim, which the geographical
lists of Thothmes III. place between the Sea of Galilee and the Kishon, and
which is {220}
doubtless the Adami of Naphtali (Josh. xix. 33). Here the tour of the Mohar
comes to an abrupt close. After this the writer contents himself with naming a
number of Syrian cities without regard to their geographical position. He is
anxious merely to show off his knowledge of Canaanitish geography; perhaps also
to insinuate doubts as to the extent of his correspondent's travels.

Takhis, the Thahash of Gen. xxii. 24, was, as we have seen, in the land of
the Amorites, not very far distant from Kadesh on the Orontes. Kafir-Marona,
"the village of Marona," may have been in the same direction. The second element
in the name is met with elsewhere in Palestine. Thus one of Joshua's antagonists
was the king of Shim-ron-meron (Josh. xii. 20), and the Assyrian inscriptions
tell us of a town called Samsi-muruna. Tamnah was not an uncommon name. We hear
of a Tamnah or Timnah in Judah (Josh. xv. 57), and of another in Mount Ephraim
(Josh. xix. 50). Dapul may be the Tubuliya of the letters of Rib-Hadad, Azai,
"the outlet," seems to have been near a pass, while Har-nammata, "the mountain
of Nammata," is called Har-nam by Ramses III., who associates it with Lebanoth
and Hebron. The two next names, Kirjath-Anab and Beth-Sopher, are of peculiar
interest, since they contain the first mention that was come down to us of
Kitjath-Sepher, the literary centre of the Canaanites in the south of Palestine,
which was captured and destroyed by Othniel the Kenizzite. In the Old {221} Testament (Josh. xv.
49, 50) Kirjath-Sannah or Kirjath-Sepher and Anab are coupled together just as
Kirjath-Anab and Beth-Sopher are by the Egyptian scribe, and it is therefore
evident that he has interchanged the place of the equivalent terms Kirjath,
"city," and Beth, "house." But his spelling of the second name shows us how it
ought to be punctuated and read in the Old Testament. It was not Kirjath-Sepher,
"the city of book(s)," but Kirjath-Sopher, "the city of scribe(s)," and Dr. W.
Max Müller has pointed out that the determinative of "writing" has been attached
to the word Sopher, showing that the writer was fully acquainted with its
meaning. Kirjath-Sannah, "the city of instruction," as it was also called, was
but another way of emphasizing the fact that here was the site of a library and
school such as existed in the towns of Babylonia and Assyria. Both names,
however, Kirjath-Sopher and Kirjath-Sannah, were descriptive rather than
original; its proper designation seems to have been Debir, "the sanctuary," the
temple wherein its library was established, and which has caused the Egyptian
author to call it a "Beth," or "temple," instead of a "Kirjath," or "city."

Like Anab and Kirjath-Sopher, Adullam and Zidiputa were also in southern
Canaan. It was in the cave of Adullam that David took refuge from the pursuit of
Saul, and we learn from Shishak that Zidiputa—or Zadiputh-el, as he calls it—was
in the south of Judah. From hence we are suddenly {222} transported to the northern part of
Syria, and the Mohar is asked if he knows anything about Khalza in the land of
Aupa. Khalza is an Assyrian word signifying "Fortress," and Aupa, the Ubi of the
Tel el-Amarna tablets, was not far from Aleppo. The allusion to the "bull" is
obscure.

Then once more we are summoned back to Palestine. In the annals of Thothmes
III. we are told that "the brook of Qina" was to the south of Megiddo, so that
the name of the district has probably survived in that of "Cana of Galilee."
Rehob may be Rehob in Asher (Josh. xix. 28), which was near Kanah, though the
name is so common in Syria as to make any identification uncertain. Beth-sha-el,
on the contrary, is Beth-el. We first meet with the name in the geographical
lists of Thothmes III., and the fact that it is Babylonian in form, Bit-sa-ili
being the Babylonian equivalent of the Hebrew Beth-el, is one of many proofs
that the lists were compiled from a cuneiform original. The name of Beth-sha-el
or Beth-el calls up that of Tarqa-el, which contains the name of the Hittite god
Tarqu. But where Tarqa-el was situated it is impossible to say.

Towards the end of the book reference is made to certain places which lay on
the road between Egypt and Canaan. Rapih is the Raphia of classical geography,
the Rapikh of the Assyrian inscriptions, where two broken columns now mark the
boundary between Egypt and Turkey. Rehoburta {223} is probably the Rehoboth where the herdsmen of
Isaac dug a well before the patriarch moved to Beer-sheba (Gen. xxvi. 22), while
in the lake of Nakhai we may have the Sirbonian lake of classical celebrity.

There still remain two allusions in the papyrus which must not be passed over
in silence. One is the allusion to "Qazairnai, the lord of Asel," the famous
slayer of lions. We know nothing further about this Nimrod of Syria, but
Professor Maspero is doubtless right in believing that Asel ought to be written
Alsa, and that the country meant was the kingdom of Alasiya, which lay in the
northern portion of Coele-Syria. Several letters from the king of Alasiya are
preserved in the Tel el-Amarna collection, and we gather from them that his
possessions extended across the Orontes from the desert to the Mediterranean
Sea. Egyptian papyri tell us that mares were imported into Egypt from Alasiya as
well as two different kinds of liquor. In the age of Samuel and Saul Alasiya was
governed by a queen.

The second allusion is to the ironsmith in Canaan. It is clear that there
were many of them, and that it was to the worker in iron and not to the worker
in bronze that the traveller naturally turned when his chariot needed mending.
Even the word that is employed to denote the metal is the Canaanitish
barzel, which has been adopted under the form of parzal. Nothing
could show more plainly how characteristic of Canaan the trade of the ironsmith
{224} must have been,
and how largely the use of iron must have there superseded the use of bronze.
The fact is in accordance with the references in the annals of Thothmes III. to
the iron that was received by him from Syria; it is also in accordance with the
statements of the Bible, where we read of the "chariots of iron" in which the
Canaanites rode to war. Indeed there seems to have been a special class of
wandering ironsmiths in Palestine, like the wandering ironsmiths of mediæval
Europe, who jealously guarded the secrets of their trade, and formed not only a
peculiar caste, but even a peculiar race. The word Kain means "a smith," and the
nomad Kenites of whom we read in the Old Testament were simply the nomad race of
"smiths," whose home was the tent or cavern. Hence it was that while they were
not Israelites, they were just as little Canaanites, and hence it was too that
the Philistines were able to deprive the Israelites of the services of a smith
(1 Sam. xiii. 19). All that was necessary was to prevent the Kenites from
settling within Israelitish territory. There was no Israelite who knew the
secrets of the profession and could take their place, and the Canaanites who
lived under Israelitish protection were equally ignorant of the ironsmith's art.
Though the ironsmith had made himself a home in Canaan he never identified
himself with its inhabitants. The Kenites remained a separate people, and could
consequently be classed as such by the side of the Hivites, or "villagers," and
the Perizzites, or "fellahin."
{225}

If the Travels of a Mohar are a guide-book to the geography of
Palestine in the age of the nineteenth Egyptian dynasty, the lists of places
conquered by Thothmes III., and engraved by his orders on the walls of his
temple at Karnak, are a sort of atlas of Canaanite geography in the age of the
eighteenth dynasty. The name of each locality is enclosed in a cartouche and
surmounted by the head and shoulders of a Canaanitish captive. The hair and eyes
of the figures are painted black or rather dark purple, while the skin is
alternately red and yellow. The yellow represents the olive tint of the
Mediterranean population, the red denotes the effects of sunburn. An examination
of the names contained in the cartouches makes it clear that they have been
derived from the memoranda made by the scribes who accompanied the army of the
Pharaoh in its campaigns. Sometimes the same name is repeated twice, and not
always in the same form. We may conclude, therefore, that the memoranda had not
always been made by the same reporter, and that the compiler of the lists drew
his materials from different sources. It is further clear that the memoranda had
been noted down in the cuneiform characters of Babylonia and not in the
hieroglyphs of Egypt. Thus, as we have seen, the name of Beth-el is transcribed
from its Babylonian form of Bit-sa-ili, the Assyrian equivalent of the Hebrew
Beth-el.

The names have been copied from the memoranda of the scribes in the order in
which they {226}
occurred, and without any regard to their relative importance. While, therefore,
insignificant villages are often noted, the names of important cities are
sometimes passed over. Descriptive epithets, moreover, like abel
"meadow," arets "land," har "mountains," 'emeq "valley,"
'ên "spring," are frequently treated as if they were local names, and
occupy separate cartouches. We must not, consequently, expect to find in the
lists any exhaustive catalogue of Palestinian towns or even of the leading
cities. They mark only the lines of march taken by the army of Thothmes or by
his scouts and messengers.

Besides the Canaanitish lists there are also long lists of localities
conquered by the Pharaoh in Northern Syria. With these, however, we have nothing
to do. It is to the places in Canaan that our attention must at present be
confined. They are said to be situated in the country of the Upper Lotan, or, as
another list gives it, in the country of the Fenkhu. In the time of Thothmes
III. accordingly the land of the Upper Lotan and the land of the Fenkhu were
synonymous terms, and alike denoted what we now call Palestine. In the word
Fenkhu it is difficult not to see the origin of the Greek Phoenix or
"Phoenician."

The lists begin with Kadesh on the Orontes, the head of the confederacy, the
defeat of which laid Canaan at the feet of the Pharaoh. Then comes Megiddo,
where the decisive battle took place, and the forces of the king of Kadesh were
overthrown. Next we have Khazi, mentioned also in the Tel {227} el-Amarna tablets, from which we learn
that it was in the hill-country south of Megiddo. It may be the Gaza of 1 Chron.
vii. 28 which was supplanted by Shechem in Israelitish days. Kitsuna, the
Kuddasuna of the Tel el-Amarna tablets, follows: where it stood we do not know.
The next name, "the Spring of Shiu," is equally impossible to identify. The
sixth name, however, is Tubikhu, about which the cuneiform tablets of Tel
el-Amarna have told us a good deal, and which seems to be the Tibhath of 1
Chron. xviii. 8. It was in Coele-Syria like Kamta, the Kumidi of the tablets,
which follows in one list, though its place is taken by the unknown Bami in
another. After this we have the names of Tuthina (perhaps Dothan), Lebana, and
Kirjath-niznau, followed by Marum or Merom the modern Meirôm, by Tamasqu or
Damascus, by the Abel of Atar, and by Hamath. Aqidu, the seventeenth name, is
unknown, but Mr. Tomkins is probably right in thinking that the next name, that
of Shemnau, must be identified with the Shimron of Josh. xix. 15, where the
Septuagint reads Symeon. That this reading is correct is shown by the fact that
in the days of Josephus and the Talmud the place was called Simonias, while the
modern name is Semûnieh. The tablets of Tel el-Amarna make it Samkhuna.

Six unknown names come next, the first of which is a Beeroth, or "Wells."
Then we have Mesekh, "the place of unction," called Musikhuna in the Tel
el-Amarna correspondence, Qana and {228} 'Arna. Both Qana and 'Arna appear in the account
of the battle before Megiddo, and must have been in the immediate neighbourhood
of that city. One of the affluents of the Kishon flowed past Qana, while 'Arna
was hidden in a defile. It was there that the tent of Thothmes was pitched two
days before the great battle. The brook of Qana seems to have been the river
Qanah of to-day, and 'Arna may be read 'Aluna.

We are now transported to the eastern bank of the Jordan, to 'Astartu in the
land of Bashan, the Ashtaroth-Karnaim of Genesis, the Tel 'Ashtarah of modern
geography. With 'Astartu is coupled Anau-repa, explained by Mr. Tomkins to be
"On of the Rephaim" (Gen. xiv. 5). At any rate it is clearly the Raphon or
Raphana of classical writers, the Er-Rafeh of to-day. Next we have Maqata,
called Makhed in the First Book of Maccabees, and now known as Mukatta; Lus or
Lius, the Biblical Laish, which under its later name of Dan became the northern
limit of the Israelitish kingdom; and Hazor, the stronghold of Jabin, whose king
we hear of in the Tel el-Amarna tablets. Then come Pahil or Pella, east of the
Jordan, famous in the annals of early Christianity; Kennartu, the Chinneroth of
the Old Testament (Josh. xi. 2, 1 Kings xv. 20), from which the Sea of Galilee
took one of its names; Shemna, the site of which is uncertain; and Atmam, the
Adami of Josh. xix. 33. These are followed by Qasuna, in which we find the
Kishion of Issachar (Josh. xix. 20); Shanam {229} or Shunem, now Sôlam, north of Jezreel; Mash-al,
the Misheal of Scripture; and Aksap or Ekdippa on the Phoenician coast. Then
after a name which cannot be identified we read those of Ta'anak, the Ta'anach
of the Bible, the Ta'anuk of to-day; Ible'am, near which Ahaziah of Jadah was
slain by the servants of Jehu; Gantu-Asna, "the garden of Asnah"; Lot-melech,
"Lot of the king"; 'Aina, "the Spring"; and 'Aak or Acre. From Acre we are taken
along the coast southward to Rosh Kadesh, "the sacred headland" of Carmel, whose
name follows immediately under the form of Karimna. Next we have Beer, "the
Well," Shemesh-Atum, and Anakhertu. Anakhertu is the Anaharath of Josh. xix. 19,
which belonged to the tribe of Issachar.

Of Shemesh-Atum we hear again in one of the inscriptions of Amenophis III. A
revolt had broken out in the district of the Lebanon, and the king accordingly
marched into Canaan to suppress it. Shemesh-Atum was the first city to feel the
effects of his anger, and he carried away from it eighteen prisoners and
thirteen oxen. The name of the town shows that it was dedicated to the Sun-god.
In Hebrew it would appear as Shemesh-Edom, and an Egyptian papyrus, now at
Leyden, informs us that Atum or Edom was the wife of Resheph the Canaanitish god
of fire and lightning. In Shemesh-Atum or Shemesh-Edom we therefore have a
compound name signifying that the Shemesh or Sun-god denoted by it was not the
male divinity {230} of
the customary worship, but the Sun-goddess Edom. In Israelitish times the second
element in the compound seems to have been dropped; at all events it is probable
that Shemesh-Atum was the Beth-Shemesh of the Old Testament (Josh. xix. 22),
which is mentioned along with Anaharath as in the borders of Issachar.

After Anaharath come two unknown Ophrahs; then Khasbu and Tasult, called
Khasabu and Tusulti in the Tel el-Amarna letters; then Negebu, perhaps the Nekeb
of Galilee (Josh. xix. 33), Ashushkhen, Anam, and Yurza. Yurza is now
represented by the ruins of Yerza, south-eastward of Ta'anach, and there are
letters from its governor in the Tel el-Amarna collection. Its name is followed
by those of Makhsa, Yapu or Joppa, and "the country of Gantu" or Gath. Next we
have Luthen or Ruthen, which is possibly Lydda, Ono, Apuqen, Suka or Socho, and
Yahem. Among the cartouches that follow we read the names of a Migdol, of
Shebtuna, the modern Shebtîn, of Naun which reminds us of the name of Joshua's
father, and of Haditha, now Hadîtheh, five miles to the west of Shebtîn.

The list has thus led us to the foot of Mount Ephraim, and it is not
surprising that the next name should be that of the Har or "Mountain" itself.
This is followed by a name which is full of interest, for it reads Joseph-el or
"Joseph-god." How the name of Joseph came to be attached in the time of Thothmes
to the mountainous region {231} in which "the House of Joseph" afterwards
established itself is hard to explain; we must remember, however, as has been
stated in a former chapter, that according to the Chronicler (1 Chron. vii. 21,
22), already in the lifetime of Ephraim his sons were slain by the men of Gath,
"because they came down to take away their cattle." (Mr. Pinches tells me that
in early Babylonian contracts of the age of Chedor-laomer he has found the name
of Yasupu-ilu or Joseph-el, as well as that of Yakub-ilu or Jacob-el. The
discovery is of high importance when we remember that Abraham migrated from Ur
of the Chaldees, and adds another to the many debts of gratitude due to Mr.
Pinches from Biblical students. See Preface for further details.)

Three names further on we find another compound with el, Har-el, "the
mount of God." In Ezek. xliii. 15 Har-el is used to denote the "altar" which
should stand in the temple on Mount Moriah, and Mount Moriah is itself called
"the Mount of the Lord" in the Book of Genesis (xxii. 14). It may be, therefore,
that in the Har-el of the Egyptian list we have the name of the mountain whereon
the temple of Solomon was afterwards to be built. However this may be, the names
which follow it show that we are in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. One after
the other come Lebau, Na'mana or Na'amah (Josh. xv. 41), Meromim "the heights,"
'Ani "the two springs," Rehob, Ekron, Hekalim "the palaces," the Abel or
"meadow" of Autar'a, the Abel, the Gantau or "gardens," the Maqerput or "tilled
ground," and the 'Aina or "Spring" of Carmel, which corresponds with the
Gath-Carmel {232} of
the Tel el-Amarna tablets, the Carmel of Judah of the Old Testament. Then we
have Beth-Ya, a name which reminds us of that of "Bithia, the daughter of
Pharaoh," whom Mered, the descendant of Caleb, took to wife, and whose stepson
was Yered, "the father of Gedor" (1 Chron. iv. 18). Beth-Ya is followed by
Tapun, which was fortified by the Greeks after the death of Judas Maccabaeus (1
Macc. ix. 50), by the Abel of Yertu or Yered, perhaps the district of the
Jordan, by Halkal, and by Jacob-el, a name formed in the same way as that of
Joseph-el. We may see in it an evidence that the memory of the patriarch was
kept alive in the south of Palestine. The next two names are unknown, but they
are followed by Rabatu or Rabbah of Judah, Magharatu, the Ma'arath of Josh, xv.
59, 'Emequ, "the valley" of Hebron, Sirta and Bârtu, the Bar has-Sirak,
or "Well of Sirah" of 2 Sam. iii. 26. Then come Beth-sa-el or Beth-el in its
Babylonian dress; Beth-Anta or Beth-Anath (Josh. xv. 59), where the Babylonian
goddess Anatu was worshipped; Helkath (2 Sam. ii. 16); the Spring of Qan'am;
Gibeah of Judah (2 Sam. vi. 3, 4; see Josh. xviii. 28); Zelah (Josh. xviii. 28),
called Zilu by Ebed-Tob of Jerusalem; and Zafta, the Biblical Zephath (Judges i.
17). The last three names in the catalogue—Barqna, Hum, and Aktomes—have left no
traces in Scriptural or classical geography.

The geographical lists of Thothmes III. served as a model for the Pharaohs
who came after him. They also adorned the walls of their temples with {233} the names of the
places they had captured in Palestine, in Northern Syria, and in the Soudan, and
when a large space had to be filled the sculptor was not careful to insert in it
only the names of such foreign towns as had been actually conquered. The older
lists were drawn upon, and the names which had appeared in them were
appropriated by the later king, sometimes in grotesquely misspelt forms. The
climax of such empty claims to conquests which had never been made was reached
at Kom Ombo, where Ptolemy Lathyrus, a prince who, instead of gaining fresh
territory, lost what he had inherited, is credited with the subjugation of
numerous nations and races, many of whom, like the Hittites, had long before
vanished from the page of history. The last of the Pharaohs whose geographical
list really represents his successes in Palestine was Shishak, the opponent of
Rehoboam and the founder of the twenty-second dynasty. The catalogue of places
engraved on the wall of the shrine he built at Karnak is a genuine and authentic
record.

So too are the lists given by the kings who immediately followed Thothmes
III., Amenophis III. of the eighteenth dynasty, Seti I. and Ramses II. of the
nineteenth, and Ramses III. of the twentieth. It is true that in some cases the
list of one Pharaoh has been slavishly copied by another, but it is also true
that these Pharaohs actually overran and subjugated the countries to which the
lists belong. Of this we have independent testimony.
{234}

At one time it was the fashion to throw doubt on the alleged conquests of
Ramses II. in Western Asia. This was the natural reaction from the older belief,
inherited from the Greek writers of antiquity, that Ramses II. was a universal
conqueror who had carried his arms into Europe, and even to the confines of the
Caucasus. With the overthrow of this belief came a disbelief in his having been
a conqueror at all. The disbelief was encouraged by the boastful vanity of his
inscriptions, as well as by the absence in them of any details as to his later
Syrian wars.

But we now know that such scepticism was over-hasty. It was like the
scepticism which refused to admit that Canaan had been made an Egyptian province
by Thothmes III., and which needed the testimony of the Tel el-Amarna tablets
before it could be removed. As a matter of fact, Egyptian authority was
re-established throughout Palestine and even on the eastern bank of the Jordan
during the reign of Ramses II., and the conquests of the Pharaoh in Northern
Syria were real and not imaginary. Such has been the result of the discoveries
of the last three or four years.

We have no reason to doubt that the campaigns of Ramses III. in Asia were
equally historical. The great confederacy of northern barbarians and Asiatic
invaders which had poured down upon Egypt had been utterly annihilated; the
Egyptian army was flushed with victory, and Syria, overrun as it had been by the
invaders from the north, was {235} in no position to resist a fresh attack. Moreover,
the safety of Egypt required that Ramses should follow up the destruction of his
assailants by carrying the war into Asia. But it is noticeable that the places
he claims to have conquered, whether in Canaan or further north, lay along the
lines of two high-roads, and that the names of the great towns even on these
high-roads are for the most part conspicuously absent. The names, however, are
practically those already enumerated by Ramses II., and they occur in the same
order. But the list given by Ramses III. could not have been copied from the
older list of Ramses II. for a very sufficient reason. In some instances the
names as given by the earlier monarch are mis-spelt, letters having been omitted
in them or wrong letters having been written in place of the right ones, while
in the list of Ramses III. the same names are correctly written.

Seti I., the father of Ramses II., seems to have been too fully engaged in
his wars in Northern Syria, and in securing the road along the coast of the
Mediterranean, to attempt the re-conquest of Palestine. At Qurnah, however, we
find the names of 'Aka or Acre, Zamith, Pella, Beth-el (Beth-sha-il), Inuam,
Kimham (Jer. xli. 17), Kamdu, Tyre, Usu, Beth-Anath, and Carmel among those of
the cities he had vanquished, but there is no trace of any occupation of
Southern Canaan. That seems to have come later with the beginning of his son's
reign.

On the walls of the Ramesseum at Thebes there {236} are pictures of the storming and
capture of the Palestinian cities. Most of them are now destroyed, but we can
still read the names of Ashkelon, of Salem or Jerusalem, of Beth-Anath and
Qarbu[tu], of Dapul in the land of the Amorites, of Merom, of Damascus, and of
Inuam. Elsewhere we have mention of Yurza and Socho, while at Karnak there are
two geographical lists which mark two of the lines of march taken by the troops
of Ramses II. The first list contains the following names: (1) the district of
Salem; (2) the district of Rethpana; (3) the country of the Jordan; (4) Khilz;
(5) Karhu; (6) Uru; (7) Abel; (8) Carmel; (9) the upper district of Tabara or
Debir; (10) Shimshon; and (n) Erez Hadashta, "the new land." In the second list
we read: (1) Rosh Kadesh, or Mount Carmel; (2) Inzat; (3) Maghar; (4) Rehuza;
(5) Saabata; (6) Gaza; (7) the district of Sala'; (8) the district of Zasr; (9)
Jacob-el; and (10) the land of Akrith, the Ugarit of the Tel el-Amarna
tablets.

We have already seen that long before the time of Ramses II. Jerusalem was an
important city and fortress, the capital of a territory of some size, known by
the name of Uru-Salim, "the city of the god of peace." "The city of Salem" could
easily be abbreviated into "Salem" only; and it is accordingly Salem which alone
is used in the fourteenth chapter of Genesis as well as in the inscriptions of
Ramses II. and Ramses III. The name of Rethpana, which follows that of Salem, is
faultily {237} written
in the list of Ramses II., and it is from that of Ramses III. that we have to
recover its true form. Ramses III., moreover, tells us that Rethpana was a lake,
and since its name comes between those of Jerusalem and the Jordan it must
represent the Dead Sea. The Canaanite form of Rethpana would be Reshpon, a
derivative from the name of Resheph, the god of fire and lightning, whose name
is preserved in that of the town Arsuf, and whose "children" were the sparks
(Job v. 7). The name was appropriate to a region which was believed to have been
smitten with a tempest of flames, and of which we are told that "the Lord rained
upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire."

Khilz, the fourth name in the list, is probably the Babylonian Khalzu,
or "fortress." At all events it was the first town on the eastern side of the
Jordan, and it may well therefore have guarded the ford across the river. Karhu
is the Korkha of the Moabite Stone, perhaps the modern Kerak, which was the
capital of Moab in the age of Ahab, and Uru is the Babylonian form of the
Moabite Ar, or "city," of which we read in the Book of Numbers (xxi. 28). The
land of "Moab" itself is one of the countries which Ramses claims to have
subdued. The Carmel mentioned in the list is Carmel of Judah, not the more
famous Carmel on the coast. As for Tabara or Debir, it will be that ancient seat
of Canaanite learning and literature, called Kirjath-Sepher and Debir in the Old
Testament, {238} the
site of which is unfortunately still unknown. It must have lain, however,
between Carmel and Shimshon, "the city of the Sun-god," with which it is
probable that the Biblical Ir-Shemesh should be identified (Josh. xix. 41). Erez
Hadashta, "the New Land," is called Hadashah in the Book of Joshua (xv. 37),
where it is included among the possessions of Judah.

The second list, instead of taking us through Judah and Moab, leads us
southward along the coast from Mount Carmel. Maghar is termed by Ramses III.
"the spring of the Maghar," and is the Magoras or river of Beyrout of classical
geography. The river took its name from the maghdrat or "caves" past
which it runs, and of which we have already heard in the Travels of a
Mohar. The two next names which represent places on the coast to the north
of Gaza are quite unknown, but Sala', which is written Selakh by Ramses III.
(from a cuneiform original), is possibly the rock-city Sela (2 Kings xiv. 7),
better known to us as Petra. Of Jacob-el we have already had occasion to
speak.

It is in the ruined temple of Medinet Habu that Ramses III. has recorded his
victories and inscribed the names of the peoples and cities he had overcome. We
gather from the latter that his armies had followed the roads already traversed
by Ramses II., had marched through the south of Palestine into Moab, and had
made their way along the sea-coast into Northern Syria. One after the other
{239} we read the
names of Hir-nam or Har-nam, called Har-Nammata in the Mohar's Travels,
of Lebanoth, of Beth-Anath and Qarbutu (Josh. xv. 59), of Carmim, "the
vineyards," and Shabuduna or Shebtîn, of Mashabir (?), of Hebron and its 'Èn or
"Spring," of the "district of Libnah," of 'Aphekah and 'Abakhi (Josh. xv. 53),
of Migdal—doubtless the Migdal-Gad of Josh. xv. 53—and Qarzak, of Carmel of
Judah and the Upper District of Debir, of Shimshon and Erez Hadasth, of the
district of Salem or Jerusalem and the "Lake of Rethpana," of the Jordan, of
Khilz the fortress, of Korkha and of Uru. A second list gives us the line of
march along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. First we have 'Akata, perhaps
Joktheel in Judah (Josh. xv. 38), then Karka and [Zidi]puth, Abel and the
district of Sela', the district of Zasr and Jacob-el, Rehuza, Saaba and Gaza,
Rosh-Kadesh, Inzath and the "Spring," Lui-el, which we might also read Levi-el,
Bur, "the Cistern," Kamdu, "Qubur the great," Iha, Tur, and finally Sannur, the
Saniru of the Assyrian texts, the Shenir of the Old Testament (Deut. iii. 9).
This brings us to Mount Hermon and the land of the Amorites, so that it is not
surprising to find after two more names that of Hamath.

One point about this list is very noticeable. None of the great Phoenician
cities of the coast are mentioned in it. Acre, Ekdippa, Tyre, Sidon, and Beyrout
are all conspicuous by their absence. Even Joppa is unnamed. After Gaza we have
{240} only descriptive
epithets like "the Spring" and "the Cistern," or the names of otherwise unknown
villages. With Kamdu in Coele-Syria the catalogue of cities begins afresh.

It is plain that the northern campaign of the Pharaoh was little better than
a raid. No attempt was made to capture the cities of the coast, and re-establish
in them the Egyptian power. The Egyptian army passed them by without any effort
to reduce them. Possibly the Philistines had already settled on the coast, and
had shown themselves too strong to be meddled with; possibly the Egyptian fleet
was acting in concert with the troops on land, and Ramses cared only to lead his
forces to some spot on the north Syrian coast, from whence, if necessary, the
ships could convey them home. Whatever may have been the reason, the fact
remains that Gaza alone of the cities of the Canaanitish coast fell into the
hands of the Pharaoh. It was only in the extreme south, in what was so soon
afterwards to become the territory of Judah, that he overran the country and
occupied the large towns.

With the lists of Ramses III. our knowledge of the geography of Patriarchal
Palestine is brought to a close. Henceforward we have to do with the Canaan of
Israelitish conquest and settlement. The records of the Old Testament contain a
far richer store of geographical names than we can ever hope to glean from the
monuments of Egypt. But the latter show how little change after all was {241} effected by the
Israelitish conquest in the local nomenclature of the country. A few cities
disappeared like Kirjath-Sepher, but on the whole not only the cities, but even
the villages of pre-Israelitish Canaan survived under their old names. When we
compare the names of the towns and villages of Judah enumerated in the Book of
Joshua with the geographical lists of a Thothmes or a Ramses, we cannot but be
struck by the coincidences between them. The occurrence of a name like Hadashah,
"the New (Land)," in both cannot be the result of chance. It adds one more to
the many arguments in favour of the antiquity of the Book of Joshua, or at all
events of the materials of which it consists. Geography, at all events, gives no
countenance to the theory which sees in the book a fabrication of later date.
Even the leading cities of the Israelitish period are for the most part already
the leading cities of the earlier Palestine. The future capital of David, for
example, was already called Jerusalem long before the birth of Moses, and
already occupied a foremost place among the kingdoms of Canaan.
{242}

CHAPTER VI

CANAANITISH CULTURE AND RELIGION

We have already learned from the annals of Thothmes III. how high was the
state of civilization and culture among the merchant princes of Canaan in the
age of the eighteenth Egyptian dynasty. Artistically finished vases of gold and
silver, rich bronzes, furniture carved out of ebony and cedar, and inlaid with
ivory and precious stones—such were some of the manufactures of the land of
Palestine. Iron was excavated from its hills and wrought into armour, into
chariots, and into weapons of war; while beautifully shaped vessels of
variegated glass were manufactured on the coast. The amber beads found at
Lachish point to a trade with the distant Baltic, and it is possible that there
may be truth after all in the old belief, that the Phoenicians obtained their
tin from the isles of Britain. The mines of Cyprus, indeed, yielded abundance of
copper, but, so far as we know, there were only two parts of the world from
which the nations of Western Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean could have
procured the vast {243} amount of tin needed in the Bronze Age—the Malayan
Peninsula and Cornwall. The Malayan Peninsula is out of the question—there are
no traces of any commercial intercourse so far to the East; and it would seem,
therefore, that we must look to Cornwall for the source of the tin. If so the
trade would probably have been overland, like the amber trade from the
Baltic.

Canaan was marked out by Nature to be a land of merchants. Its long line of
coast fronted the semi-barbarous populations of Asia Minor, of the Ægean, and of
the northern shores of Africa, while the sea furnished it with the purple dye of
the murex. The country itself formed the high-road and link between the great
kingdoms of the Euphrates and the Nile. It was here that the two civilizations
of Babylonia and Egypt met and coalesced, and it was inevitable that the
Canaanites, who possessed all the energy and adaptive quickness of a commercial
race, should absorb and combine the elements of both. There was little except
this combination that was original in Canaanitish art, but when once the
materials were given, the people of Palestine knew how to work them up into new
and graceful forms, and adapt them practically to the needs of the foreign
world.

If we would realize the change brought about by this contact of Canaan with
the culture of the stranger, we must turn to the rude figures carved upon the
rocks in some of the valleys of Phoenicia. {244} Near Tyre, for example, in the Wadi el-Qana we may
still see some of these primitive sculptures, in which it is difficult even to
recognize the human form. Equally barbarous in style are the early seals and
cylinders made in imitation of those of Babylonia. It seems at first sight
impossible to believe that such grotesque and child-like beginnings should have
ended in the exquisite art of the age of Thothmes III.

At that period, however, Canaan already had behind it a long civilized past.
The country was filled with schools and libraries, with richly-furnished
palaces, and the workshops of the artisans. The cities on the coast had their
fleets partly of merchantmen, partly of warships, and an active trade was
carried on with all parts of the known world. The result was that the wealth of
Palestine was enormous; the amount carried away by Thothmes is alone sufficient
to prove it. Apart from the natural productions of the country—corn, wine, and
oil, or the slaves which it had to furnish—immense quantities of gold, silver,
and precious stones, sometimes in their native state, sometimes manufactured
into artistic forms, were transported into Egypt. And in spite of this drain
upon its resources, the supply seems never to have failed.

The reciprocal influence of the civilizations of Canaan and Egypt one upon
the other, in the days when Canaan was an Egyptian province, is reflected in the
languages of the two countries. On the one {245} hand the Canaanite borrowed from Egypt words like
tebah "ark," hin "a measure," and ebyôn "poor," while
Canaan in return copiously enriched the vocabulary of its conquerors. As the
Travels of a Mohar have shown us, under the nineteenth dynasty there was
a mania for using Canaanitish words and phrases, similar to that which has more
than once visited English society in respect to French. But before the rise of
the nineteenth dynasty the Egyptian lexicon was already full of Semitic words.
Frequently they denoted objects which had been imported from Syria. Thus a
"chariot" was called a merkabut, a "waggon" being agolta;
hurpu, "a sword," was the Canaanitish khereb, just as
aspata, "a quiver," was ashpâh. The Canaanitish kinnor, "a
lyre," was similarly naturalized in Egypt, like the names of certain varieties
of "Syrian bread." The Egyptian words for "incense" (qadaruta), "oxen"
(abiri), and "sea" (yum) were taken from the same source, though
it is possible that the last-mentioned word, like qamhu, "wheat," had
been introduced from Syria in the earliest days of Egyptian history. As might
have been expected, several kinds of sea-going vessels brought with them their
native names from the Phoenician coast. Already in the time of the thirteenth
dynasty the larger ships were termed Kabanitu, or "Gebalite"; we read
also of "boats" called Za, the Canaanite Zi, while a transport was
entitled qauil, the Phoenician gol. The same name was imported
into Greek under the form of gaulos, {246} and we are told that it signified "a Phoenician
vessel of rounded shape."

The language of Canaan was practically that which we call Hebrew. Indeed
Isaiah (xix. 18) speaks of the two dialects as identical, and the so-called
Phoenician inscriptions that have been preserved to us show that the differences
between them were hardly appreciable. There were differences, however; the
Hebrew definite article, for instance, is not found in the Phoenician texts. But
the differences are dialectal only, like the differences which the discovery of
the Moabite Stone has shown to have existed between the languages of Moab and
Israel.

How the Israelites came to adopt "the language of Canaan" is a question into
which we cannot here enter. There have been other examples of conquerors who
have abandoned the language of their forefathers and adopted that of the
conquered people. And it must be remembered, on the one hand, that the ancestors
of Israel had lived in Canaan, where they would have learnt the language of the
country, and, on the other hand, that their original tongue was itself a Semitic
form of speech, as closely related to Hebrew as French or Spanish is to
Italian.

The Tel el-Amarna tablets have told us something about the language of Canaan
as it was spoken before the days when the Israelites entered the land. Some of
the letters that were sent from Palestine contain the Canaanite equivalents of
certain {247}
Babylonian words that occur in them. Like the Babylonian words, they are written
in cuneiform characters, and since these denote syllables and not mere letters
we know exactly how the words were pronounced. It is an advantage which is
denied us by the Phoenician alphabet, whether in the inscriptions of Phoenicia
or in the pages of the Old Testament, and we can thus obtain a better idea of
the pronunciation of the Canaanitish language in the century before the Exodus
than we can of the Hebrew language in the age of Hezekiah.

Among the words which have been handed down to us by the correspondents of
the Pharaoh are maqani "cattle," anay "a ship," súsi "a
horse," of which the Hebrew equivalents, according to the Masoretic punctuation,
are miqneh, oni, and sûs. The king of Jerusalem says
anuki, "I," the Hebrew anochi, while badiu, the Hebrew
b'yado, and akharunu, the Hebrew akharono, are stated to
signify "in his hand," and "after him." "Dust" is ghaparu, where the
guttural gh represents the Canaanitish ayyin ('); "stomach" is
batnu, the Hebrew beten; while kilubi, "a cage,"
corresponds with the Hebrew chelûb, which is used in the same sense by
the prophet Jeremiah. Elsewhere we find risu, the Hebrew rosh, "a
head," har "a mountain," samama "heaven," and mima "water,"
in Hebrew shâmayim and mayim, which we gather from the cuneiform
spelling have been wrongly punctuated by the Masoretes, as well as khaya
"living," the Hebrew {248} khai, and makhsû, "they have smitten
him," the Hebrew makhatsu.

It was the use of the definite article ha(n) which mainly
distinguished Hebrew and Phoenician or Canaanite one from the other. And we have
a curious indication in the Tel el-Amarna tablets, that the same distinction
prevailed between the language of the Canaanites and that of the Edomites, who,
as we learn from the Old Testament, were so closely related to the Israelites.
In the letter to the Pharaoh, in which mention is made of the hostilities
carried on by Edom against the Egyptian territory, one of the Edomite towns
referred to is called Khinianabi. Transcribed into Hebrew characters this would
be 'En-han-nabi, "the Spring of the Prophet." Here, therefore, the Hebrew
article makes its appearance, and that too in the very form which it has in the
language of Israel. The fact is an interesting commentary on the brotherhood of
Jacob and Esau.

If the language of Canaan was influenced by that of Egypt, still more was it
influenced by that of Babylonia. Long before Palestine became an Egyptian
province it had been a province of Babylonia. And even when it was not actually
subject to Babylonian government it was under the dominion of Babylonian
culture. War and trade alike forced the Chaldæan civilization upon "the land of
the Amorites," and the Canaanites were not slow to take advantage of it. The
cuneiform writing of Babylonia was adopted, and therewith {249} the language of Babylonia was taught
and learned in the schools and libraries which were established in imitation of
those of the Babylonians. Babylonian literature was introduced into the West,
and the Canaanite youth became acquainted with the history and legends, the
theology and mythology of the dwellers on the Euphrates and Tigris.

Such literary contact naturally left its impress on the language of Canaan.
Words which the Semites of Babylonia had borrowed from the older Sumerian
population of the country were handed on to the peoples of Palestine. The "city"
had been a Sumerian creation; until brought under the influence of Sumerian
culture, the Semite had been contented to live in tents. Indeed in Babylonian or
Assyrian—the language of the Semitic inhabitants of Babylonia and Assyria—the
word which signified "tent" was adopted to express the idea of "city" when the
tent had been exchanged for city-life. In Canaan, on the other hand, the
Sumerian word itself was adopted in a Semitic form, 'Ir, 'ar, or
uru, "city," was originally the Sumerian eri.

The Canaanitish hêkâl, "a palace," again, came from a Sumerian source.
This was ê-gal, or "great house." But it had passed to the West through
the Semitic Babylonians, who had first borrowed the compound word under the form
of êkallu. Like the city, the palace also was unknown to the primitive
Semitic nomads. It belonged to the civilization of which the Sumerians of
Chaldæa, with their agglutinative language, were the pioneers.
{250}

The borrowing, however, was not altogether one-sided. Palestine enriched the
literary language of Babylonia with certain words, though these do not seem to
have made their way into the language of the people. Thus we find words like
bin-bini, "grandson," and înu, "wine," recorded in the lexical
tablets of Babylonia and Assyria. Doubtless there were writers on the banks of
the Euphrates who were as anxious to exhibit their knowledge of the language of
Canaan as were the Egyptian scribes of the nineteenth dynasty, though their
literary works have not yet been discovered.

The adoption of the Babylonian system of writing must have worked powerfully
on the side of tincturing the Canaanitish language with Babylonian words. In the
age of the Tel el-Amarna tablets there is no sign that any other system was
known in the West. It is true that the letters sent to the Pharaoh from
Palestine were written in the Babylonian language as well as in the Babylonian
script, but we have evidence that the cuneiform characters were also used for
the native language of the country. M. de Clercq possesses two seal-cylinders of
the same date as the Tel el-Amarna correspondence, on one of which is the
cuneiform inscription—"Hadad-sum, the citizen of Sidon, the crown of the gods,"
while on the other is "Anniy, the son of Hadad-sum, the citizen of Sidon." On
the first, Hadad-sum is represented standing with his hands uplifted before the
Egyptian god Set, while behind him is the god Resheph with a helmet {251} on his head, a shield
in one hand and a battle-axe in the other. On the seal of Anniy, Set and Resheph
again make their appearance, but instead of the owner of the cylinder it is the
god Horus who stands between them.

When the cuneiform syllabary was superseded in Palestine by the so-called
Phoenician alphabet we do not know. The introduction of the new script was due
probably to the Hittite invasion, which separated the Semites of the West from
the Semites of the East. The Hittite occupation of Carchemish blocked the
high-road of Babylonian trade to the Mediterranean, and when the sacred city of
Kadesh on the Orontes fell into Hittite hands it was inevitable that Hittite
rather than Babylonian influence would henceforth prevail in Canaan. However
this may be, it seems natural to suppose that the scribes of Zebulon referred to
in the Song of Deborah and Barak (Judges v. 14) wrote in the letters of the
Phoenician alphabet and not in the cuneiform characters of Babylonia. As long,
indeed, as the old libraries remained open and accessible, with their stores of
cuneiform literature, there must have been some who could read them, but they
would have been rather the older inhabitants of the country than the alien
conquerors from the desert. When the Moabite Stone was engraved, it is clear
from the forms of the letters that the Phoenician alphabet had long been in use
in the kingdom of Mesha. The resemblance of these letters to those found in the
earliest of the Greek inscriptions {252} makes it equally clear that the introduction of
the alphabet into the islands of the Ægean must have taken place at no distant
period from the age of the Moabite Stone. Such an introduction, however, implies
that the new alphabet had already taken deep root among the merchants of Canaan,
and driven out before it the cumbrous syllabary of Chaldæa. It was in this
alphabet that Hiram and Solomon corresponded together, and it is probable that
Moses made use of it. We may even conjecture that the Israelitish settlement in
Palestine brought with it the gift of the "Phoenician" alphabet.

As we have already seen, the elements of Babylonian art were quickly absorbed
by the Canaanites. The seal-cylinder was imitated, at first with but indifferent
success, and such Babylonian ornamental designs as the rosette, the sacred tree,
and the winged cherub were taken over and developed in a special way. At times
the combination with them of designs borrowed from Egypt produced a new kind of
artistic ornament.

But it was in the realm of religion that the influence of Babylonia was most
powerful. Religion, especially in the ancient world, was inextricably bound up
with its culture; it was impossible to adopt the one without adopting a good
deal of the other at the same time. Moreover, the Semites of Babylonia and of
Canaan belonged to the same race, and that meant a community of inherited
religious ideas. With both the supreme object of {253} worship was Baal or Bel, "the lord,"
who was but the Sun-god under a variety of names. Each locality had its own
special Baal: there were, in fact, as many Baals, or Baalim, as there were names
and attributes for the Sun-god, and to the worshippers in each locality the Baal
adored there was the supreme god. But the god resembled his worshipper who had
been made in his image; he was the father and head of a family with a wife and
son. The wife, it is true, was but the colourless reflection of the god, often
indeed but the feminine Baalah, whom the Semitic languages with their feminine
gender required to exist by the side of the masculine Baal. But this was only in
accordance with the Semitic conception of woman as the lesser man, his servant
rather than his companion, his shadow rather than his helpmeet.

The existence of an independent goddess, unmarried and possessing all the
attributes of the god, was contrary to the fundamental conceptions of the
Semitic mind. Nevertheless we find in Canaan an Ashtoreth, whom the Greeks
called Astarte, as well as a Baal. The cuneiform inscriptions have given us an
explanation of the fact.

Ashtoreth came from Babylonia. There she was known as Istar, the evening
star. She had been one of those Sumerian goddesses who, in accordance with the
Sumerian system, which placed the mother at the head of the family, were on an
equal footing with the gods. She lay outside the circle of Semitic theology with
its divine family, {254} over which the male Baal presided, and the
position she occupied in later Babylonian religion was due to the fusion between
the Sumerian and Semitic forms of faith, which took place when the Semites
became the chief element in Babylonia. But Sumerian influence and memories were
too strong to allow of any transformation either in the name or in the
attributes of the goddess. She remained Istar, without any feminine suffix, and
it was never forgotten that she was the evening-star.

It was otherwise in the West. There Istar became Ashtoreth with the feminine
termination, and passed eventually into a Moon-goddess "with crescent horns."
Ashtoreth-Karnaim, "Ashtoreth with the two horns," was already in existence in
the age of Abraham. In Babylonia the Moon-god of ancient Sumerian belief had
never been dethroned; but there was no Moon-god in Canaan, and accordingly the
transformation of the Babylonian goddess into "the queen of the night" was a
matter of little difficulty.

Once domesticated in Palestine, with her name so changed as to declare her
feminine character, Ashtoreth soon tended to lose her independence. Just as
there were Baalim or "Baals" by the side of Baal, so there were Astaroth or
"Ashtoreths" by the side of Ashtoreth.

The Semites of Babylonia themselves had already begun the work of
transformation. They too spoke of Istarât or "Istars," and used the word {255} in the general sense
of "goddesses." In Canaan, however, Ashtarôth had no such general meaning, but
denoted simply the various Ashtoreths who were worshipped in different
localities, and under different titles. The individual Ashtoreth of Gebal was
separate from the individual Ashtoreth of Bashan, although they alike
represented the same divine personality.

It is true that even in the West Istar did not always become the feminine
complement of Baal. Here and there the old form of the name was preserved,
without any feminine suffix. But when this was the case, the necessary result
was that the female character of the deity was forgotten. Istar was conceived of
as a god, and accordingly on the Moabite Stone Ashtar is identified with
Chemosh, the patron-god of Mesha, just as in Southern Arabia also Atthar is a
male divinity.

The worship of Ashtoreth absorbed that of the other goddesses of Canaan.
Among them there was one who had once occupied a very prominent place. This was
Ashêrah, the goddess of fertility, whose name is written Asirtu and Asratu in
the tablets of Tel el-Amarna. Ashêrah was symbolized by a stem stripped of its
branches, or an upright cone of stone, fixed in the ground, and the symbol and
the goddess were at times confounded together. The symbol is mistranslated
"grove" in the Authorized Version of the Old Testament, and it often stood by
the side of the altar of Baal. We find it thus represented on early seals. In
Palestine it was {256}
usually of wood; but in the great temple of Paphos in Cyprus there was an
ancient and revered one of stone. This, however, came to be appropriated to
Ashtoreth in the days when the older Ashêrah was supplanted by the younger
Ashtoreth.

We hear of other Canaanitish divinities from the monuments of Egypt. The
goddess Edom, the wife of Resheph, has already been referred to. Her name is
found in that of the Gittite, Obed-Edom, "the servant of Edom," in whose house
the ark was kept for three months (2 Sam. vi. 10). Resheph, too, has been
mentioned in an earlier page. He was the god of fire and lightning, and on the
Egyptian monuments he is represented as armed with spear and helmet, and bears
the titles of "great god" and "lord of heaven." Along with him we find pictures
of a goddess called Kedesh and Kesh. She stands on the back of a lion, with
flowers in her left hand and a serpent in her right, while on her head is the
lunar disk between the horns of a cow. She may be the goddess Edom, or perhaps
the solar divinity who was entitled Â in Babylonian, and whose name enters into
that of an Edomite king A-rammu, who is mentioned by Sennacherib.

But, like Istar, a considerable number of the deities of Palestine were
borrowed from Babylonia. In the Tel el-Amarna tablets the god of Jerusalem is
identified with the warlike Sun-god of Babylonia, Nin-ip, and there was a
sanctuary of the same divinity further north, in Phoenicia. Foremost among the
deities whose first home was on the banks of {257} the Euphrates were Arm and Anat, and Rimmon. Anu,
whose name is written Anah in Hebrew, was the god of the sky, and he stood at
the head of the Babylonian pantheon. His wife Anat was but a colourless
reflection of himself, a grammatical creation of the Semitic languages. But she
shared in the honours that were paid to her consort, and the divinity that
resided in him was reflected upon her. Anat, like Ashtoreth, became multiplied
under many forms, and the Anathoth or "Anat" signified little more than
"goddesses." Between the Ashtaroth and the Anathoth the difference was but in
name.

The numerous localities in Palestine which received their names from the god
Rimmon are a proof of his popularity. The Babylonian Rimmon or Ramman was,
strictly speaking, the god of the air, but in the West he was identified with
the Sun-god Hadad, and a place near Megiddo bore the compound title of
Hadad-Rimmon (Zech. xii. 11). His naturalization in Canaan seems to belong to a
very early period; at all events, in Sumerian he was called Martu, "the
Amorite," and seal-cylinders speak of "the Martu gods." One of these has been
found in the Lebanon. The Assyrian tablets tell us that he was also known as
Dadu in the West, and under this form we find him in names like El-Dad and
Be-dad, or Ben-Dad.

Like Rimmon, Nebo also must have been transported to Palestine at an early
epoch. Nebo "the prophet" was the interpreter of Bel-Merodach of {258} Babylon, the patron of
cuneiform literature, and the god to whom the great temple of Borsippa—the
modern Birs-i-Nimrud—was dedicated. Doubtless he had migrated to the West along
with that literary culture over which he presided. There his name and worship
were attached to many localities. It was on the summit of Mount Nebo that Moses
died; over Nebo, Isaiah prophesies, "Moab shall howl;" and we hear of a city
called "the other Nebo" in Judah (Neh. vii. 33).

Another god who had been borrowed from Babylonia by the people of Canaan was
Malik "the king," a title originally of the supreme Baal. Malik is familiarly
known to us in the Old Testament as Moloch, to whom the first-born were burned
in the fire. At Tyre the god was termed Melech-kirjath, or "king of the city,"
which was contracted into Melkarth, and in the mouths of the Greeks became
Makar. There is a passage in the book of the prophet Amos (v. 25, 26), upon
which the Assyrian texts have thrown light. We there read: "Have ye offered unto
me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?
Yet ye have borne Sikkuth your Malik and Chiun your Zelem, the star of your god,
which ye made to yourselves."

Sikkuth and Chiun are the Babylonian Sakkut and Kaivan, a name given to the
planet Saturn. Sakkut was a title of the god Nin-ip, and we gather from Amos
that it also represented Malik "the king." Zelem, "the image," was another
Babylonian {259}
deity, and originally denoted "the image" or disk of the sun. His name and
worship were carried into Northern Arabia, and a monument has been discovered at
Teima, the Tema of Isaiah xxi. 14, which is dedicated to him. It would seem,
from the language of Amos, that the Babylonian god had been adored in "the
wilderness" as far back as the days when the Israelites were encamping in it.
Nor, indeed, is this surprising: Babylonian influence in the West belonged to an
age long anterior to that of the Exodus, and even the mountain whereon the
oracles of God were revealed to the Hebrew lawgiver was Sinai, the mountain of
Sin. The worship of Sin, the Babylonian Moon-god, must therefore have made its
way thus far into the deserts of Arabia. Inscriptions from Southern Arabia have
already shown us that there too Sin was known and adored.

Dagon, again, was another god who had his first home in Babylonia. The name
is of Sumerian origin, and he was associated with Ami, the god of the sky. Like
Sin, he appears to have been worshipped at Harran; at all events, Sargon states
that he inscribed the laws of that city "according to the wish of Anu and
Dagon." Along with Arm he would have been brought to Canaan, and though we first
meet with his name in the Old Testament in connection with the Philistines, it
is certain that he was already one of the deities of the country whom the
Philistine invaders adopted. One of the Canaanitish governors in the Tel
el-Amarna correspondence {260} bears the Assyrian name of Dagon-takala, "we trust
in Dagon." The Phoenicians made him the god of corn in consequence of the
resemblance of his name to the word which signifies "corn"; primarily, however,
he would have been a god of the earth. The idea that he was a fish-god is of
post-Biblical date, and due to a false etymology, which derived his name from
the Hebrew dag, "a fish." The fish-god of Babylonia, however, whose image
is sometimes engraved on seals, was a form of Ea, the god of the deep, and had
no connection with Dagon. Doubtless there were other divinities besides these
whom the peoples of Canaan owed to the Babylonians. Mr. Tomkins is probably
right in seeing in the name of Beth-lehem a reminiscence of the Babylonian god
Lakhmu, who took part in the creation of the world, and whom a later
philosophizing generation identified with Anu. But the theology of early Canaan
is still but little known, and its pantheon is still in great measure a sealed
book. Now and again we meet with a solitary passage in some papyrus or
inscription on stone, which reveals to us for the first time the name of an
otherwise unknown deity. Who, for instance, is the goddess 'Ashiti-Khaur, who is
addressed, along with Kedesh, on an Egyptian monument now at Vienna, as "the
mistress of heaven" and "ruler of all the gods"? The votive altars of Carthage
make repeated mention of the goddess Tanit, the Peni or "Face" of Baal, whom the
Greeks identified with Artemis. She must have {261} been known in the mother-land of Phoenicia, and
yet no trace of her worship there has as yet been found. There were "gods many
and lords many" in primitive Palestine, and though a comprehensive faith summed
them up as its Baalim and Ashtaroth they yet had individual names and titles, as
well as altars and priests.

But though altars were numerous, temples were not plentiful. The chief seats
of religious worship were "the high-places," level spots on the summits of hills
or mountains, where altars were erected, and the worshipper was believed to be
nearer the dwelling-place of the gods than he would have been in the plain
below. The altar was frequently some natural boulder of rock, consecrated by
holy oil, and regarded as the habitation of a god. These sacred stones were
termed beth-els, bætyli as the Greeks wrote the word, and they form a
distinguishing characteristic of Semitic faith. In later times many of them were
imagined to have "come down from heaven." So deeply enrooted was this worship of
stones in the Semitic nature, that even Mohammed, in spite of his iconoclastic
zeal, was obliged to accommodate his creed to the worship of the Black Stone at
Mekka, and the Kaaba is still one of the most venerated objects of the
Mohammedan faith.

But the sacred stone was not only an object of worship or the consecrated
altar of a deity, it might also take the place of a temple, and so be in very
truth a beth-el, or "house of God." Thus at {262} Medain Salih in North-western Arabia Mr. Doughty
discovered three upright stones, which an inscription informed him were the
mesged or "mosque" of the god Aera of Bozrah. In the great temple of
Melkarth at Tyre Herodotus saw two columns, one of gold, the other of emerald,
reminding us of the two pillars, Jachin and Boaz, which the Phoenician architect
of Solomon erected in the porch of the temple at Jerusalem (1 Kings vii. 21).
Similar columns of stone have been found in the Phoenician temple, called that
of the Giants, in Gozo, one of which is still standing in its place.

While certain stones were thus regarded as the abode of deity, the high
places whereon so many of them stood also received religious worship. The most
prominent of the mountains of Syria were deified: Carmel became a Penu-el or
"Face of God," Hermon was "the Holy One," and Mount Lebanon was a Baal. The
rivers and springs also were adored as gods, and the fish which swam in them
were accounted sacred. On the Phoenician coast was a river Kadisha, "the holy,"
and the Canaanite maiden saw in the red marl which the river Adonis brought down
from the hills the blood of the slaughtered Sun-god Tammuz.

The temple of Solomon, built as it was by Phoenician architects and workmen,
will give us an idea of what a Canaanitish temple was like. In its main outlines
it resembled a temple in Babylonia or Assyria. There, too, there was an outer
court and an inner sanctuary, with its parakku {263} or "mercy-seat," and its ark of stone
or wood, in which an inscribed tablet of stone was kept. Like the temple of
Jerusalem, the Babylonian temple looked from the outside much like a rectangular
box, with its four walls rising up, blank and unadorned, to the sky. Within the
open court was a "sea," supported at times on oxen of bronze, where the priests
and servants of the temple performed their ablutions and the sacred vessels were
washed.

The Canaanitish altar was approached by steps, and was large enough for the
sacrifice of an ox. Besides the sacrifices, offerings of corn and wine, of fruit
and oil were also made to the gods. The sacrifices and offerings were of two
kinds, the zau'at or sin-offering, and the shelem or
thank-offering. The sin-offering had to be given wholly to the god, and was
accordingly termed kalil or "complete"; a part of the thank-offering, on
the other hand, might be carried away by him who made it. Birds, moreover, might
constitute a thank-offering; they were not allowed when the offering was made
for sin. Such at least was the rule in the later days of Phoenician ritual, to
which belong the sacrificial tariffs that have been preserved.

In these sacrificial tariffs no mention is made of human sacrifices, and, as
M. Clermont-Ganneau has pointed out, the ram takes in them the place of the man.
But this was the result of the milder manners of an age when the Phoenicians
{264} had been brought
into close contact with the Greeks. In the older days of Canaanitish history
human sacrifice had held a foremost place in the ritual of Syria. It was the
sacrifice of the firstborn son that was demanded in times of danger and trouble,
or when the family was called upon to make a special atonement for sin. The
victim was offered as a burnt sacrifice, which in Hebrew idiom was
euphemistically described as passing through the fire.

Side by side with these human sacrifices were the abominations which were
performed in the temples in honour of Ashtoreth. Women acted as prostitutes, and
men who called themselves "dogs" foreswore their manhood. It was these
sensualities practised in the name of religion which caused the iniquity of the
Canaanites to become full.

It is pleasanter to turn to such fragments of Canaanitish mythology and
cosmological speculation as have come down to us. Unfortunately most of it
belongs in its present form to the late days of Greek and Roman domination, when
an attempt was made to fuse the disjointed legends of the various Phoenician
states into a connected whole, and to present them to Greek readers under a
philosophical guise. How much, therefore, of the strange cosmogony and history
of the gods recorded by Philon of Gebal really goes back to the patriarchal
epoch of Palestine, and how much of it is of later growth, it is now impossible
to say. In the main, however, it is of ancient date.
{265}

This is shown by the fact that a good deal of it has been borrowed directly
or indirectly from Babylonia. How this could have happened has been explained by
the Tel el-Amarna tablets. It was while Canaan was under the influence of
Babylonian culture and Babylonian government that the myths and traditions of
Babylonia made their way to the West. Among the tablets are portions of
Babylonian legends, one of which has been carefully annotated by the Egyptian or
Canaanite scribe. It is the story of the queen of Hades, who had been asked by
the gods to a feast they had made in the heavens. Unable or unwilling to ascend
to it, the goddess sent her servant the plague-demon, but with the result that
Nergal was commissioned to descend to Hades and destroy its mistress. The
fourteen gates of the infernal world, each with its attendant warder, were
opened before him, and at last he seized the queen by the hair, dragging her to
the ground, and threatening to cut off her head. But Eris-kigal, the queen of
Hades, made a successful appeal for mercy; she became the wife of Nergal, and he
the lord of the tomb.

Another legend was an endeavour to account for the origin of death. Adapa or
Adama, the first man, who had been created by Ea, was fishing one day in the
deep sea, when he broke the wings of the south wind. The south wind flew to
complain to Anu in heaven, and Anu ordered the culprit to appear before him. But
Adapa was instructed by {266} Ea how to act. Clad in a garment of mourning, he
won the hearts of the two guardians of the gate of heaven, the gods Tammuz and
Gis-zida ("the firmly-fixed post"), so that they pleaded for him before Anu.
Food and water were offered him, but he refused them for fear that they might be
the food and water of death. Oil only for anointing and clothing did he accept.
"Then Anu looked upon him and raised his voice in lamentation: 'O Adapa,
wherefore atest thou not, wherefore didst thou not drink? The gift of life
cannot now be thine.'" Though "a sinful man" had been permitted "to behold the
innermost parts of heaven and earth," he had rejected the food and water of
life, and death henceforth was the lot of mankind.

It is curious that the commencement of this legend, the latter portion of
which has been found at Tel el-Amarna, had been brought to the British Museum
from the ruins of the library of Nineveh many years ago. But until the discovery
of the conclusion, its meaning and character were indecipherable. The copy made
for the library of Nineveh was a late edition of the text which had been carried
from Babylonia to the banks of the Nile eight hundred years before, and the fact
emphasizes once more the Babylonian character of the culture and literature
possessed by Palestine in the Patriarchal Age.

We need not wonder, therefore, if it is to Babylonia that the cosmological
legends and beliefs of {267} Phoenicia plainly point. The watery chaos out of
which the world was created, the divine hierarchies, one pair of deities
proceeding from another and an older pair, or the victory of Kronos over the
dragon Ophioneus, are among the indications of their Babylonian origin. But far
more important than these echoes of Babylonian mythology in the legendary lore
of Phoenicia is the close relationship that exists between the traditions of
Babylonia and the earlier chapters of Genesis. As is now well known, the
Babylonian account of the Deluge agrees even in details with that which we find
in the Bible, though the polytheism of Chaldæa is there replaced by an
uncompromising monotheism, and there are little touches, like the substitution
of an "ark" for the Babylonian "ship," which show that the narrative has been
transported to Palestine. Equally Babylonian in origin is the history of the
Tower of Babel, while two of the rivers of Eden are the Tigris and Euphrates,
and Eden itself is the Edin or "Plain" of Babylonia.

Not so long ago it was the fashion to declare that such coincidences between
Babylonian and Hebrew literature could be due only to the long sojourn of the
Jews in Babylonia during the twenty years of the Exile. But we now know that the
traditions and legends of Babylonia were already known in Canaan before the
Israelites had entered the Promised Land. It was not needful for the Hebrew
writer to go to Chaldæa in order that he might learn them; when Moses was born
they {268} were
already current both in Palestine and on the banks of the Nile. The Babylonian
colouring of the early chapters of Genesis is just what archaeology would teach
us to expect it would have been, had the Pentateuch been of the age to which it
lays claim.

Here and there indeed there are passages which must be of that age, and of
none other. When in the tenth chapter of Genesis Canaan is made the brother of
Cush and Mizraim, of Ethiopia and Egypt, we are carried back at once to the days
when Palestine was an Egyptian province. The statement is applicable to no other
age. Geographically Canaan lay outside the southern zone to which Egypt and
Ethiopia belonged, except during the epoch of the eighteenth and nineteenth
dynasties, when all three were alike portions of a single empire. With the fall
of that empire the statement ceased to be correct or even conceivable. After the
era of the Israelitish conquest Canaan and Egypt were separated one from the
other, not to be again united save for a brief space towards the close of the
Jewish monarchy. Palestine henceforth belonged to Asia, not to Africa, to the
middle zone, that is to say, which was given over to the sons of Shem.

There is yet another passage in the same chapter of Genesis which takes us
back to the Patriarchal Age of Palestine. It is the reference to Nimrod, the son
of Cush, the beginning of whose kingdom was Babel and Erech, and Accad and
Calneh in {269} the
land of Shinar, and who was so familiar a figure in the West that a proverb was
current there concerning his prowess in the chase. Here again we are carried to
a date when the Kassite kings of Babylonia held rule in Canaan, or led thither
their armies, and when the Babylonians were called, as they are in the Tel
el-Amarna tablets, the Kassi or sons of Cush. Nimrod himself may be the Kassite
monarch Nazi-Murudas. The cuneiform texts of the period show that the names
borne by the Kassite kings were strangely abbreviated by their subjects; even in
Babylonia, Kasbe and Sagarta-Suria, for instance, being written for Kasbeias and
Sagarakti-Suryas, the latter of which even appears as Sakti-Surias, while
Nazi-Murudas itself is found under the form of Nazi-Rattas. Similarly Duri-galzu
and Kurigalzu take the place of Dur-Kurigalzi. There is no reason, therefore,
why Nazi-Murudas should not have been familiarly known as Na-Muruda, more
especially in distant Canaan.

Indeed we can almost fix the date to which the lifetime of Nimrod must be
assigned. We are told that out of his kingdom "one went forth into Assyria," and
there "builded" Nineveh and Calah, The cuneiform inscriptions have informed us
who this builder of Calah was. He was Shalmaneser I., who was also the restorer
of Nineveh and its temples, and who is stated by Sennacherib to have reigned six
hundred years before himself. Such a date would coincide with the reign of
Ramses II., {270} the
Pharaoh of the Oppression, as well as with the birth-time of Moses. It
represents a period when the influence of Babylonia had not yet passed away from
Canaan, and when there was still intercourse between the East and the West.
Ramses claims to have overcome both Assyria and Shinar, and though the Shinar he
means was the Shinar of Mesopotamia and not Chaldæa, it lay within the limits of
Babylonian control. The reign of Ramses II. is the latest period down to which,
with our present knowledge, we can regard the old influence of Babylonia in
Canaan as still continuing, and it is equally the period to which, if we are to
listen to the traditional teaching of the Church, the writer of the Pentateuch
belonged. The voice of archaeology is thus in agreement with that of authority,
and here as elsewhere true science declares herself the handmaid of the Catholic
Church.
{271}

INDEX
{272}

Â (deity), 256

Abel (place), 153

Abel-mizraim, 201

Abiliya, 126

Abimelech, 123,
127,
128,
129

Abram (in Babylonian), 169

Achshaph or Ekdippa, 211,
219,
229

Acre (Akku), 134,
154,
155,
157,
229,
235

Adai, 142

Adami, 219,
228

Adapa or Adama, 265

Addar, 153

Adon, 131

Adoni-zedek, 75

Adullam, 212,
221

Ahitub, 154

Ahmes I., 88,
94

Aia, 207

Ajalon, 137,
142

Akizzi, 131

Akkad, 55

Alasiya, 67,
107,
157,
223

'Aluna or 'Arna, 97,
228

Amalekites, 26,
35,
40,
41,
53

Amanus, 62,
107

Amber, 85,
242

Amenôphis II., 106,
110

Amenôphis III., 111,
112,
135

Amenôphis IV. or Khu-n-Aten, 71,
86,
112
et seq.
{273}

Ammi, 22,
64,
206

Ammi-anshi, 63,
206

Ammi-satana, 63

Ammiya, 131

Ammon, 22,
36,
38,
64,
179

Ammunira, 124

Amon (god), 87,
99,
110,
114

Amon-apt, 128,
152

Amorites, 28,
35,
36,
38,
40,
41,
42,
43
et seq., 56,
58,
65,
100,
110,
112,
119,
124
et seq., 152,
160,
163,
186,
239

Amorites, god of, 257

Amraphel, 64,
66,
67

Anab, 221

Anaharath, 229

Anakim, 36,
37

Anat, 82,
232,
257

Anu, 82,
169,
257,
259,
260

Anugas or Nukhasse, 98,
102,
107,
110

Aphekah, 239

Apphadana, 111

Aqabah, Gulf of, 26,
108

Aram-Naharaim (Mitanni), 72,
85,
86,
94,
101,
103,
108,
111,
131,
138,
149,
157,
163

Ararat, 46

Argob, 23

Ariel, 213

Arioch (see Eri-Aku), 63,
168

Arisu, 162
{274}

Arka, 26,
52,
128,
131

Article, definite, 248

Arvad, 52,
85,
100,
106,
129

Arzai, 143

Asher, 219

Ashêrah, 191,
255

Ashiti-Khaur, 260

Ashkelon, 141,
150,
160,
236

Ashtaroth-Karnaim, 35,
36,
133,
153,
161,
228

Ashtoreth, 168,
253
et seq., 264

Asphalt, 70

Assyria, 99,
105,
153,
155,
157

Aten-Ra, 113

Augustine, St., 41

Aupa (see Ube), 132

Avim, 54

Ayâb, 152,
153

Aziru, 124
et seq., 129,
131,
133

Baal, 253

Baalbek, 24

Babylon, 66,
67,
91,
102,
105

Babylonia, 55,
62,
72,
83,
100,
111,
124,
138,
142,
143

Babylonians, 87,
89

Balaam, 22,
64,
154

Bashan, 23,
35,
36,
38,
64,
95,
112,
133

Bedad, 257

Beduin, 26,
35,
53,
95,
124,
127,
133,
156,
209,
210

Beer-sheba, 180,
182,
183,
189

Bek'a, 25

Belshazzar, 175

Bene-berak, 135

Beth-anath, 157,
160,
164,
232,
235,
236,
239

Beth-el, 152,
153,
157,
190
et seq., 196,
212,
222,
232,
235

Bethels, 261
et seq.

Beth-lehem, 39,
75,
82,
197,
260

Beth-On, 192

Beth-Sannah, 143

Bethuel, 125
{275}

Beth-Ya, 232

Beya or Bâya, 151

Beyrout, 25,
124,
126,
164,
210,
211,
217

Bin-sumya, 136

Biridasyi, 133

Biridî, 134,
135

Bliss, Mr., 85,
119

Bosra, 133

Botanical Gardens at Thebes, 102

Burna-buryas, 111,
153
et seq.

Buzruna, 133

Calah, 269

Camel, 170

Cana, 222

Canaan, 41
et seq., 154,
157,
267;
art of, 243
et seq.; merchants in, 154,
243

Canaanite words, 216,
245-8

Canaanites, 41,
106

Carchemish, 44,
45,
62,
66,
86,
99,
107

Carmel of Judah, 72,
146,
157,
160,
232,
235,
236,
239

Carmel, Mount, 29,
164,
229,
236,
238,
262

Cedars, 19

Chedor-laomer, 35,
64,
168

Chimham, 157,
235

Chinneroth, 228

Chiun, 258

Circumcision, 176

Copper, 57,
62,
85,
109,
242

Creation legends, 267

Cush, 91,
149,
268

Cyprus, 57,
60,
85,
98,
103,
157,
160

Dagon, 82,
169,
259

Damascus, 24,
35,
65,
98,
133,
176,
227,
236

Dapul, 160,
220,
236

Dead Sea, 21,
22,
74,
165,
177
{276}

Debir, 80,
221,
236,
237,
239

Deluge story, 267

Dor, 26

Dothan, 227

Doughty, Mr., 262

Dragoman, 146

Dudu, 125

Ea, 87

Ebed-Asherah, 89,
126
et seq.

Ebed-Sullim, 129

Ebed-Tob, 51,
71,
72,
75,
78,
88,
118,
121,
135,
et seq., 155,
174

Ebyôn, 245

Edom, town of, 153;
god, 229,
256

Edomites, 39,
53,
108,
206,
248

Ekron, 231

Elam, 56,
63,
88

Elephants, 101

Eliezer, 176

Elimelech, 140,
148

Elimelech of Tyre, 129

Ellasar (Larsa), 64,
69

El-rabi-Hor, 131

Emim, 36,
37,
38

En-athon, 136,
154

En-gedi, 40

En-han-nabi, 153

Ephraim, Mount, 30;
sons of, 202,
231

Eri-Aku (Arioch), 63,
65
et seq.

Eta-gama (or Aidhu-gama), 129,
131,
132,
133

Ethiopia, 142,
149

Euphrates, 96,
101

Fenkhu, 104,
226

Galeed, 192

Gath, 137,
143,
144,
203,
230,
231

Gath-Carmel, 138,
143,
146,
148,
231
{277}

Hadad, 82,
257

Hadad-dan, 151

Hadad-el, 143

Hadad-Rimmon, 257

Hadad-sum, 250

Hadashah, 74,
160,
165,
236,
238,
239,
241

Hamath, 43,
53,
164,
211,
219,
227,
239

Harankal, 98,
110

Har-el, 77,
184,
231

Harran, 73,
166,
259

Havilah, 62

Hazezon-tamar, 40,
50,
179

Hazor, 94,
129,
211,
219,
228

Heber, 147

Hebrew language, 246
et seq.; words in tablets, 247

Hebron, 36,
37,
43,
46,
93,
146,
148,
164,
172,
185
et seq., 197,
201,
232,
239

Hêkâl, etymology of, 73,
249

Hêkalim, 231

Helkath, 232

Hermon, 18,
29,
52,
164,
239,
262

Herodotus, 43,
262

Hin, 245
{278}

Gath-Rimmon, 135

Gaulos, 245

Gaza, 94,
96,
110,
143,
144,
150,
157,
181,
215,
236,
239

Gaza or Khazi, 134,
226

Gebal, 43,
53,
85,
89,
94,
123
et seq., 152,
211,
217

Gebel Usdum, 178

Gerar, 181,
189

Gezer, 94,
134,
136,
141,
144,
151

Gibeah, 232

Gilu-khipa, 111

Girgashites, 43,
51

Goshen, 201

Gudea, 62,
70
{279}

Hittites, 41,
43,
46
et seq., 86,
89,
102,
104,
107,
110,
118,
124,
131,
156,
157,
163,
185,
209,
251

Hivites, 43,
52

Horites, 35,
39,
52,
64

Horus, 92

Hui, 156

Hyksos, 88,
91
et seq., 170,
201

Ibleam, 229

Ihem or Iha (see Yahem), 96,
239

Ilgi, 129

Inuam, 98,
110,
133,
157,
235,
236

Ionian, 127

'Ir, 249

Ir-Shemesh, 238

Iron, 84,
224,
242

Isaiah, 74

Israel, meaning of name, 194

Istar (Ashtoreth), 87,
168,
253

Ituraea, 23

Jabbok, 193

Jachin and Boaz, 161,
262

Jacob-el, 160,
164,
194,
202,
232,
236,
239

Jacob's well, 195

Jebusites, 43,
51

Jehovah-jireh, 77

Jephthah-Hadad, 122,
139

Jerusalem (see Salem), 29,
43,
50,
51,
71,
75,
77
et seq., 88,
142,
143,
160,
165,
173,
236,
239;
etymology of name, 73

Joktheel, 239

Joppa, 150,
151,
213,
230

Jordan, 21,
74,
212,
237,
239

Joseph, 200
et seq.

Joseph-el, 202,
230

Kadesh on the Orontes, 43,
96,
98,
104,
111,
131,
132,
157,
163,
209,
217,
226
{280}

Kadesh-barnea, 35,
39,
58,
64,
180

Kadmonites, 63,
206

Kaft, 83,
85

Kana'an, 41,
157

Kanneh, 132

Kassites, 88,
147,
149,
269

Kedesh (goddess), 256

Keilah, 71,
144,
145,
146

Kenites, 224

Khabiri, 51,
122,
138,
141,
143,
144,
146
et seq.

Khalunni, 133

Khammurabi, 62,
66

Khani, 125

Khata, 44

Khata-sil, 158

Khatip (Hotep), 125,
126

Khayapa, 127

Khazi (Gaza), 134

Khu-n-Aten (Amenôphis IV.), 71,
113
et seq., 120

Kikar, 72,
76,
142

Kinanat, 132

Kinza, 129

Kiriathaim, 35,
38

Kirjath-Sepher, 81,
161,
220,
221

Kishion, 228

Kudur-Lagamar (Chedor-lao-mer), 65,
69

Kudur-Mabug, 65,
69

Kumidi (or Kamdu), 126,
129,
133,
157,
164,
217,
227,
235,
239

Kuri-galzu, 155

Labai, 51,
134
et seq., 141,
143,
145

Lachish, 85,
119,
122,
139,
141,
148

Lagamar, 69

Laish, 25,
228

Lakhmu, 82,
260

Larsa (Ellasar), 65,
66,
69

Lebanon, 27,
60,
62,
101,
262

Levi-el, 239

Libnah, 164,
239

Lot, 65

Lotan (Lutennu), 95,
150,
156,
206
{281}

Ma'arath, 232

Mabug, 65

Machpelah, 187,
188

Mad-ga, 70

Mafkat (Sinai), 57,
109

Magan (Sinai), 57,
60

Magoras, 164,
210,
217,
238

Malachite, 109,
110

Malchiel, 135
et seq., 141,
143,
144,
146,
152

Manahath, 150

Max Müller, Dr. W., 81,
160,
206,
221

Mearah, 217

Megiddo, 30,
31,
94,
97
et seq., 134,
135,
150,
212,
226,
257

Melchizedek, 71
et seq., 173

Melkarth, 43

Meneptah, 110,
161,
162,
181

Merom, 160,
227,
236

Midian, 57,
109

Migdol, 153,
155,
165,
230,
239

Misheal, 229

Misi, 95
{282}

Mitanni (Aram-Naharaim), 86,
89,
108,
111,
124,
150,
160

Miya-Riya (Meri-Ra), 143

Mizraim, 42

Moab, 21,
36,
38,
53,
153,
165,
180,
237

Mohar, Travels of a, 84,
189,
204
et seq., 209

Moloch, 82,
258

Moriah, 77,
184
et seq.

Moses, 267

Mosheh, 153

Most High God, 173

Musikhuna, 150
{283}

Mut-Hadad, 152

Na'amah, 231

Namya-yitsa, 129,
133,
134

Naram-Sin, 57,
59,
60,
168

Nazi-Murudas, 269

Nebo, 82,
257

Negela, 26

Ni, 101,
106,
125,
131,
132

Nimrod, 91,
269

Nin-ip, 79,
144,
174,
256,
258;
Bit, 127,
144

Nukhasse (Anugas), 98,
102,
107,
116,
125,
132

On, 25,
92,
191

Pa-Hor, 126
{284}

Pakhanate, 128

Palasa, 131

Pa-ur, 142,
144

Pella, 157,
228,
235

Penuel, or Peniel, 193,
262

Perizzites, 20,
52,
162

Pethor, 22,
64

Petrie, Prof., 48,
62,
113,
120

Philistines, 17,
54,
163,
182

Phoenicia, 25,
85,
99,
152,
191

Phoenician alphabet, 251

Phoenicians, 33,
177

Pinches, Mr., 70,
231

Pu-Hadad, 150

Purple-dye, 84,
85

Qana or Qina, 97

Qatna, 107,
132

Ra, 92

Rabbah, 78,
143,
144,
146,
232

Ramses II., 21,
45,
74,
81,
110,
157
et seq., 161,
204,
234,
269

Ramses III., 21,
53,
74,
109,
110,
162
et seq., 181,
235,
240

Raphia, 222

Raphon, 37,
228
{285}

Rehob, 222,
231

Rehoboth, 189,
223

Rephaim, 35,
36,
37,
48,
228

Resheph, 21,
237,
251,
256

Rethpana, Lake of, 21,
165,
237,
239

Rianap, 150

Rib-Hadad, 89,
123
et seq., 152

Rimmon, 82,
257

Rimmon-nirari, 116

Rowlands, Dr., 39,
180

Sacrifice of the firstborn, 183,
264

Sacrifices, 263

Salem or Shalem (Jerusalem), 71,
74,
160,
165,
173,
239

Salim (god), 73,
75,
79,
144,
174

Samas-akh-iddin, 116

Sangar (see Singara), 68,
102

Saratum or Zurata, 135,
154

Sarepta, 211

Sardinians, 95,
127

Sargon of Akkad, 49,
55,
87,
167

Scheil, Dr., 121

Schumacher, Dr., 161

Seal-cylinders, 60,
83,
120,
252

Seir, 39,
53,
108,
138,
146

Sela, 160,
236,
239

Set, 251

Seti I., 41,
110,
157,
235

Seti or Suta, 134,
138

Shalem or Salem, 195

Shasu (see Beduin), 40,
41,
104

Shaveh, 71

Shechem, 29,
30,
49,
134,
160,
170,
195,
198,
211,
219

Shenir, 28,
59,
164,
239

Shiloh, 30

Shimron, 227

Shimron-meron, 220

Shinab, 70

Shinar, 67,
68,
269

Ships, 85,
247
{286}

Shunem, 135,
229

Sibti-Hadad, 152

Siddim, 35,
40,
64,
177,
178

Sidon, 42,
94,
126,
128,
129,
164,
211,
250

Sihon, 50

Sin (city), 52

Sin (god), 59,
87,
259

Sinai, 57,
58,
100,
109,
160,
259

Singara (see Sangar), 67,
108,
157

Sinuhit, 63,
205
et seq.

Sirah, 232

Sirion, 28

Sitti or Sati, 40

Socho, 160,
230,
236

Sodom, 65,
76,
172,
177,
237

Sonzar, 132

Stone of Job, 161

Subari, 87

Subsalla, 62

Sum-Adda, 154

Sumer, 55,
67

Sumerian, 249

Suri, 87

Sutarna, 111,
150

Sutatna or Zid-athon, 154,
155

Sutekh, 92

Sute, 40,
95,
127,
134,
143

Su-yardata or Su-ardatum, 137,
144,
145

Su-yarzana, 134
{287}

Taanach, 97,
150,
229

Tadu-khipa, 112

Tagi, 137,
143,
146

Takhis, 100,
110,
211,
220

Tamar (Tumur), 150

Tammuz, 262

Tanit, 194,
260

Tapun, 232

Tarqu, 222

Tebah, 245

Teie, 112,
120

Tel el-Amarna, 120
et seq.
{288}

Tel-loh, 61

Temple, 262

Terebinth, 19

Thahash, 100,
220

Thothmes II., 94,
101

Thothmes III., 36,
44,
53,
67,
78,
83,
94
et seq., 110,
146,
208,
224,
242

Thothmes IV., 110

Tibhath, 217,
227

Tidal, 64,
70

Tidanum, 59,
62

Timnah, 220

Tithes, 175

Tomkins, Mr., 37,
82

Tree, sacred, 182

Trumbull, Dr., 39,
180

Tunip, 99,
104,
107,
111,
125
et seq., 133

Turbazu, 122,
138

Tusratta, 112

Tut-ankh-Amon, 156

Tyre, 43,
85,
94,
123,
127,
129,
157,
162,
211,
218,
235,
244,
262

Ube or Ubi, 132,
216,
222

Ugarit, 106,
236

Ur, 65,
166

Uru, 73,
77

Usu, 128,
157,
211,
218,
235

Winckler, Dr., 78
{289}

Yabitiri, 150

Yabni-el, 122

Yahem (see Ihem), 230

Yamutbal, 65,
69

Yankhamu, 146,
151

Yapa-Hadad, 127

Yapakhi, 134

Yasdata, 135

Yerzeh, 150,
160,
230,
236

Yidya, 150

Yikhbil-Khamu, 140,
144

Yisyara, 121

Zahi, 83,
103

Zakkal, 163

Zamzummim, 36,
38

Zedek, 75

Zelah, 122,
139,
148,
232

Zelem, 258

Zemar, 26,
52,
100,
123,
126
et seq., 152

Zephath, 232

Zimmern, Dr., 79

Zimrida or Zimridi, 121,
122,
123,
127,
128,
129,
130,
139

Zinzar, 132

Zion, 197

Zippor, 162

Zoan, 93,
170,
198

Zorah, 137

Zurata or Saratum, 135,
154

Zuzim, 35

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