and I guard the city of Tubakhi for the King my Lord my God my Sun. And behold this city of Tubakhi is the city of the plains of my fathers.”
132 B.—“To the King my Lord by letter thus (says) Artabania, chief of the city Ziribasani[1] thy servant. At the feet of the King my Lord seven times, on my face, seven times I bow. Behold a message to me to speed to meet the Egyptian (bitati) soldiers. And who am I but a dog only, and shall I not march? Behold me, with my soldiers and my chariots meeting the Egyptian soldiers at the place of which the King my Lord speaks.”
78 B. M.—“To the King my Lord thus the chief of the city Gubbu[2] thy servant. At the feet of the King my Lord my Sun (permit?) that seven times, on my face, seven times I bow. Thou hast sent as to going to meet the Egyptian soldiers, and now I with my soldiers and my chariots meet the soldiers of the King my Lord, at the place you march to.”
64 B. M—“To Yankhamu[3] my Lord by letter thus Muutaddu thy servant. I bow at my Lord’s feet as this says, announcing that the enemy is hastening speedily as—my Lord—was announced to the King of the city Bikhisi[4] from friends[5] of his Lord. Let the King my Lord speed: let the King my Lord fly: for the foe is wasting in the city Bikhisi this two months, there is none . . . On account of (Bibelu?) having told me this one has asked then . . . until by the arrival of Anamarut (Amenophis IV)[6] the city of
- ↑ Dr. Sayce calls this “the fields of Bashan”; probably, when taken with the next letters, we may place the site at Zora, in Bashan, now Ezra. De Rougé and Mariette showed that Thothmes III conquered Bashan.
- ↑ “Gubbu” is perhaps Jubbata, on the south side of Hermon, near the places mentioned in the next letter.
- ↑ Yankhamu, an Egyptian commander, appears in these letters in all parts of the country, from the extreme south to the north, and in Phœnicia as well as in Bashan. His name does not seem to be Semitic.
- ↑ This letter does not say who the enemies were or in which direction they advanced. Perhaps “Bikhisi” may be regarded as the present “’Abbaseh” (by inversion of the guttural), which is fifteen miles southwest of Damascus, near the main road to the town of Jabesh, whence the letter comes.
- ↑ The word “rabizi,” which is here made equivalent to “zukini,” gives great difficulty. In Hebrew the root means “to rest,” and the word is still applied in Palestine to resting of flocks. “Zukini” appears, as Dr. Bezold points out, to be the same as the Phœnician word “Soken” (which has exactly the required letters); but the meaning of this also is doubtful. Renan translates it either “inhabitant” or “senator.” The word occurs in the Bible (1 Kings i. 2, 4; Ezek. xxviii. 14), with the meaning also doubtful, but the root means “to cherish.” Perhaps “friends” suits best the various recurrences.
- ↑ This word seems to mean “glory of the sun,” the Egyptian “Khu-en-Aten.” The explanation throws light on a difficult passage in a letter from Elishah (B. M. 5). If “Khu-en-Aten” (Amenophis IV) is intended, he may have been commander while still only a prince, since the events seem to belong to the reign of Amenophis III.
