Patriarchal PalestineSayce, A. H. (Archibald Henry)
History
Patriarchal Palestine
Sayce, A. H. (Archibald Henry)
Jews -- History -- To 953 B.C.; Palestine -- History
Gaza and Joppa were at one time under the same governor, Yabitiri, who
in a letter which has come down to us asks to be relieved of the burden
of his office. Ashkelon, however, which lay between the two sea-ports,
was in the hands of another prefect, Yidya by name, from whom we have
several letters, in one of which mention is made of the Egyptian
commissioner Rianap, or Ra-nofer. The jurisdiction of Rianap extended as
far north as the plain of Megiddo, since he is also referred to by
Pu-Hadad, the governor of Yurza, now Yerzeh, south-eastward of Taanach.
But it was more particularly in the extreme south of Palestine that the
duties of this officer lay. Hadad-dan, who was entrusted with the
government of Manahath and Tamar, to the west of the Dead Sea, calls him
"my Commissioner" in a letter in which he complains of the conduct of a
certain Beya, the son of "the woman Gulat." Hadad-dan begins by saying
that he had protected the commissioner and cities of the king, and then
adds that "the city of Tumur is hostile to me, and I have built a house
in the city of Mankhate, so that the household troops of the king my
lord may be sent to me; and lo, Bâya has taken it from my hand, and has
placed his commissioner in it, and I have appealed to Rianap, my
commissioner, and he has restored the city unto me, and has sent the
household troops of the king my lord to me." After this the writer goes
on to state that Beya had also intrigued against the city of Gezer, "the
handmaid of the king my lord who created me." The rebel then carried off
a quantity of plunder, and it became necessary to ransom his prisoners
for a hundred pieces of silver, while those of his confederate were
ransomed for thirty pieces of silver.
The misdeeds of Beya or Bâya did not end here. We hear of him again as
attacking and capturing a body of soldiers who had been sent to defend
the royal palace at Joppa, and as occupying that city itself. He was,
however, subsequently expelled from it by the king's orders. Beya, too,
professed to be an Egyptian governor and a faithful servant of the
Pharaoh, to whom he despatched a letter to say that Yankhamu, the High
Commissioner, was not in his district. Probably this was in answer to a
charge brought against him by the Egyptian officer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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