Fresh light from the ancient monuments : $b A sketch of the most striking confirmations of the Bible, from recent discoveries in Egypt, Palestine, Assyria, Babylonia, Asia MinorSayce, A. H. (Archibald Henry)
History
Fresh light from the ancient monuments : $b A sketch of the most striking confirmations of the Bible, from recent discoveries in Egypt, Palestine, Assyria, Babylonia, Asia Minor
The expulsion of the Hyksos conquerors of Egypt, while it brought
oppression and slavery to their Semitic kindred who were left behind,
inaugurated an era of conquest and glory for the Egyptians themselves. The
war against the Asiatics which had begun in Egypt was carried into Asia,
and under Thothmes III and other great monarchs of the eighteenth dynasty
the Egyptian armies traversed Palestine and Syria, and penetrated as far
as the Euphrates. The tribes of Canaan paid tribute; the Amorites or
“hill-men” were led into captivity; and the combined armies of Hittites
and Phœnicians were defeated in the plain of Megiddo. On the temple-walls
of Karnak at Thebes, Thothmes III (B.C. 1600) gives a list of the
Canaanitish towns which had submitted to his arms. Among them we read the
names of Zarthan and Beroth, of Beth-Anoth and Gibeah, of Migdol and
Ophrah, of Taanach and Jibleam, of Shunem and Chinneroth, of Hazor and
Laish, of Merom and Kishon, of Abel and Sharon, of Joppa and Achzib, of
Beyrut and Accho, of Heshbon and Megiddo, of Hamath and Damascus. One of
the conquered places bears the curious name of Jacob-el, “Jacob the God,”
while mention is made of the Negeb, or “southern district,” which
afterwards formed part of the territory of Judah.
Two centuries later, when the troublous times which saw the close of the
eighteenth dynasty had ushered in the nineteenth, the same districts had
again to be overrun by the Egyptian kings. Once more victories were gained
over the powerful Hittites, in their fortress of Kadesh, on the Orontes,
and over the tribes of Palestine. Seti I, the father of Ramses II, records
among his conquests Beth-Anoth and Kirjath-Anab(4) in the south, as well
as Zor or Tyre. Ramses II himself, the Sesostris of the Greeks, battled
for long years against the Hittites on the plains of Canaan, and
established a line of Egyptian fortresses as far north as Damascus. The
tablets which he engraved at the mouth of the Dog River, near Beyrût,
still remain to testify to his victories and campaigns. Representations
were sculptured on the walls of Thebes of the forts of “Tabor, in the land
of the Amorites,” of Merom and of Salem; and the capture of the revolted
city of Ashkelon was celebrated both in sculpture and in song.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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