No. I

Records of the Past, 2nd series, Vol. II, ed. by A. H. Sayce, [1888], at sacred-texts.com

p. 62

DESPATCHES FROM PALESTINE IN THE CENTURY BEFORE THE EXODUS.

No. I ¹

1. To the king, my lord,
2. my gods, ² my Sun-god, ³
3. by letter
4. I speak, ⁴ even I Su-arda-ka ⁵
5. thy servant, the dust of thy feet:
6. at the feet of the king my lord,
7. my gods, my Sun-god,
8. seven times seven do I prostrate myself.
9. The king of (the country of) … directed the mouth
10. to make war:
11. in the city of Kelte ⁶
12. he made war against thee the third time.
13. A cry (for assistance) to myself
14. was brought. My city
15. belonging to myself
16. adhered to (?) me.
17. Ebed-tob ⁷ sends
18. to the men of Kelte;

p. 63

19. he sends 14 pieces of silver, and
20. they marched against my rear;
21. and the domains of the king my lord
22. they overran. Kelte
23. my city Ebed-tob
24. removed from my jurisdiction;
25. the pleasure park (?) of the king my lord
26. and the fortress of Bel-nathan ¹
27. and the fortress of Hamor ² from
28. before him and his justice
29. he removed. Lab-api
30. the halting (?) in speech occupied
31. the fortress of … Ninu and
32. now Lab-api
33. together with Ebed-tob and
34. [his men] has occupied the fortress of … Ninu
35. …when the king to his servant

Lacuna.

On the Edge

1. As regards this matter, No!
2. twice has the king returned (this) answer.

Footnotes

62:1 No. XI in my forthcoming paper on the tablets of Tel el-Amarna.

62:2 This is a curious parallelism to the use of the plural Elohim in Hebrew for the singular "God."

62:3 The Egyptian Pharaoh was not only "the son of the Sun," but was also identified with the Sun-god himself.

62:4 Ki dhema atma.

62:5 Su-arda-ka is a purely Assyro-Babylonian name, and shows how far the cultivated classes of Western Asia had gone in adopting the Babylonian language.

62:6 The Hebrew Keilah (Josh. xv. 44, I Sam. xxiii.), now Kilâ.

62:7 Abd-Dhabba, which may, however, also be read Abd-Khima. Compare the names of Tab-Rimmon (1 Kings, xv. 18), and Tab-el (Is. vii. 6).

63:1 Written ideographically EN-MU, in Assyrian Bil-nadin.

63:2 Written with the ideograph of "ass" emer, Heb. khamôr. There is a similar play upon the name of the Amorite in the Old Testament, Gen. xxxiv. 2, etc. compared with xlviii. 22.