T E S T S o N . N 6 ! T S F O R T U D E . 1 D e' G E N E R A L E D I T C A ROL I NE A . S KE E L . O R S : . J , W H I TN . D L H W a rm D D . E Y D D C . P . 1. , . ! . , SELECT IONS FROM T H E T E LL EL - A MA RN A L ETT E RS C H ANDCO CK M A PE R Y , . - - BA RRI S T E R A T I . A W FO RM E R LY ASS I ST A NT T O T HE K E E P E R O F BG V PT I A N AN D A S S YR I A N S B I I I S H M S E A N T I ! UI T I E , R U UM LONDON S O C I E T Y F O R P R O M O T I N G C H R I S T I A N K N O W L E D G E NEW YORK : THE MACMILLAN COMPANY S E LE CTION S F ROM TH E TE L L E L - A M A RN A L ETTE RS INTRODU CTION I N 1887 ella rm d i in ell El , some f l , gg g at a spot called T Am 170 m iles C r of arna, about south of ai o, the site A etaton Horiz on A h ( of ton) , the new capital built by Am enh ete IV E D p . of the ighteenth ynasty , in honour of - m the sun god , came upon a cha ber containing several hundred clay tablets inscribed with cuneiform characters U d nhappily, the value of this iscovery was not at the time e L realis d , and a number were carried in sacks to uxor to be b m a and hawked a out a ong the de lers, were largely broken h 2 9 . T e 0 or damaged on the way remainder, some , found their way into museums or private collections, and on examination were found to form part of the official ete 0 . 14 1 1 B. O. o Am en . archives of h p III ( ) and his success r, e 0 1 3 7 5 for n . Am ehet p IV . ( and to consist , the most t part , of le ters addressed to these kings by local rulers , and by the i ndependent rulers of the Kingdoms of Western Asia . Th e t la ter , numbering about forty, are mainly from K Kard unia sh B A i the ings of abylonia) , ssyr a, the tt t M Alash ia C Hi i es, the itanni , and yprus) , and are ’ s m t es entially diplo atic in charac er, the writers principal object in each case being to preserve friendly relations h with t eKing of Egypt . 4 SELECTIONS FROM THE Th eletters from the local rul ers in Canaa n are of im mense value for the histo ry of Syria during the latter part of the fifteenth and the early part of the fourteenth fl B. C. i s c s centuries , and re ect the causes and c rcum tan e which led up to the disintegration of the Egyptian Em pire A h e r n t in Western sia. T y reveal a count y seethi g wi h i c t intr gue and fa tion, which the Egyptian Governmen was to s either unable suppress , or the serious con e! uences of e l which it utt rly fai ed to realise . Th etrouble partly arose from the activity of the A o i o Hittites, an nat l an people of whom c mparatively little is at present known , who were pressing their way into Northern Syria another contributing ca use being the pre s of in t d atory operation the Habiru the sou h , to whom - Abdi hiba of Jerusalem refers so fre! uently, and for pro tection against who m he implores the King of Egypt so 6 8 earnestly (see pp . , Abd i iba So far as can be gathered , b , the Governor of E s Jerusalem, maintained his loyalty to gypt, but in thi a to His respect he appe rs have been almost uni! ue . letters indicate the danger as both wides pread and imminent . th eK He entreats ing of Egypt to send troops , and adds ! ” r that if no troops arrive this year, all the count ies of the king will be utterly destroyed . ' Th eidentification of the name gabzrfi wi th Hebrews has n bee largely canvassed of late years , and the theory has o gained a go d deal of support among scholars . Whether this theory will ultimately be substantiated beyond all m i reasonable doubt or not re a ns to be seen , but the id enti fi tion ca of the Habiru with the Hebrews , who so journed i a in Egypt and made good the r esc pe at the Exodus , is s m very precariou , even assu ing the identification of the B names, and involves the repudiation of the iblical tradi tion which in th em ain there is no reason to sus pect— but a w e every reason, arch eological and other ise, to acc pt. TELL EL- AMARNA LETTERS 5 na m es Assuming the identification of the , then the Hebrews m l Habiru, or , entioned in these etters must refer to tribes which had either stayed behind at the time of the a r Isr elite immig ation into Egypt, or else had made their o way from Egypt some tw hundred years or so before . One n of the tablets, of which a translation is give below (p . is of exceptional interest, as it was found at La T El - A n chish , and obviously belongs to the ell mar a s ri M Zim rid a ees . ention is made therein of , Governor of La T El- A chish , who in one of the ell marna letters professes E loyalty to the gyptian king, and is also referred to in one ’ A - of bdi biba s letters (see p . Oneof the most interesting features about these letters is f that they are all written in the cunei orm script, and it is not merely that a Babylonian king himself uses the Babylonian script and language 1 in corresponding with K E M C the ing of gypt, but kings of the itanni and yprus , P and the local Egyptian Governors in alestine, do likewise , which shows clearly that Babylonian was the lingua franca — of the Near East at that time a striking testimony to the enduring influence of Babylonian culture in Canaan and the neighbouring countries . But B although written in the abylonian language, there C n are sporadic occurrences of a aanite words, sometimes by d i themselves , and sometimes a ded by way of explanat on of B C the abylonian e! uivalent, and these anaanite words are almost identical with Hebrew. Th etranslations given below in the main follow thoseof - . A Kn ud tz n eEl Am a a l . o Di rn Ta en J ( f ) , which takes the ’ ’ place of Hugo Winckler s edition (Kcilznsc/m ftlich eBiblio fl wk v . 1896 t , , ) as the standard edi ion . P . II. 1 A S m t n u l d to H but not t i e i ic la g age al ie ebrew identical wi h t. 6 SELECTIONS FROM THE rom Abdi - ba o erusa lem to th eKin Bei lin VA F i f J g ( , . Th . To m A - the king, y lord , hath spoken bdi h iba , thy servant At the feet of my lord seven times and s e ven ti m es d o ‘ iell m I . I have heard all the words which the king, y r B o h lo d , has sent . ! eh ld! the deed , w ich has 61511 0 what shall I news brought to th e l Let i t city Ki ti . the k ng know hat all lands have leagued in hostility against me ; let the king therefore care for . B s th et o his land ehold , the territory of Ga ri , errit ry of L t m As hkelon , and the city of a!chish! , have given he oil, i et i o . L f od , and all their necessar es the k ng therefore carefor the troops ! Let him send troops against th e people who have committed a crime against the king, my in lord If this year there are troops here , then will the th e land and the local ruler!s! remain to king , my lord ; o s but if there are no tro p here, then there will remain no lands and n o local rulers to the king . — Beh old this land of Jerusalem neither my father nor my mother gave it to me ; the mighty han d of the king . B Milkil u gave it to me ehold , this deed is the deed of , of L h and the deed the sons of a aya, who have given the B 0 land of the king to the Habiru . ehold, king , my lord , t I am innocent as regards the Kas hi.