These letters are among the most interesting of the many fascinating documents which have come to us from ancient times. They give us our first historical glimpse of Jerusalem, giving us a view of it 350 years before its capture by David. At this time its ruler was one Ebed-Hepa, a vassal of Amenophis IV, King of Egypt. Jerusalem was at the time the capital of a considerable territory. If the places mentioned have been rightly identified by scholars, its dominion extended to Mount Carmel on the northwest and as far as Rabbith in Issachar on the north. At the time these letters were written, Jerusalem was hard pressed by some invaders called Habiri, and Ebed-Hepa again and again appeals to the Egyptian king to send mercenaries in that year or all the territories of the king would be lost. Already the Egyptian army was composed in part of hired soldiers. We know from Egyptian sources that Amenophis was much more interested in religious reform than in statecraft. The desired troops were not sent, and apparently Ebed-Hepa was overcome, for his letters cease. The condition of Palestine, as revealed by these letters, is the same as that of Phœnicia as revealed by the letters of Rib-Adda. Egyptian authority was breaking up; each ruler was doing his best to look after his own interests; while invaders were overrunning the country. Who was Ebed-Hepa? All that we know of him is told in these letters. Hepa was, however, the name of a Hittite and Mitannian goddess. It has, accordingly, been inferred that Ebed-Hepa belonged to that race. Ezekiel long afterward in speaking to Jerusalem said: “The Amorite was thy father and thy mother was a Hittite” (Ezek. 16:3, 45). If this first ruler of Jerusalem known to us was a Hittite, as seems probable, it would be a striking confirmation of Ezekiel’s statement. Another interesting question is: Who were the Habiri who were invading Palestine when these letters were written? The answer to this question is not certain. Four different views have been held: 1. They have been thought to be the same as the clan Heber which was afterward a part of the tribe of Asher, and which is also mentioned in connection with Malkiel in Gen. 46:17; Num. 26:45, and 1 Chron. 7:31. The objection to this view is that the Habiri seem far too powerful in these letters to be simply the ancestors of such a clan. 2. It has been held that the Habiri were a branch of the Hittites. This view is based upon the fact that among the tablets found by Winckler at Boghaz Koi a list of Hittite gods was headed “gods of the Habiri.” This is, however, not decisive, as the gods may have been Semitic gods, whom, after the fashion of antiquity, the Hittite scribe had identified with the deities of his own country. 3. It has been held that the Habiri were Hebrews, and that we have here contemporary records of their wars of conquest. 4. Some scholars maintain that it is impossible to tell who the Habiri were.