Yanhamu seems to have occupied in the court of Amenhotep III (and possibly Akhenaton as well) a position comparable to the one Joseph held several generations earlier.[70] Both Yanhamu and Joseph were charged with overseeing the distribution of food supplies (cf. Gen. 42:51-57). They both had Semitic names, and the presence of Yanhamu in an Egyptian court during New Kingdom times indicates that Semites were not barred from government following the Hyksos expulsion. Rulers often find it safer to trust faithful foreigners than some of their own subjects who might be tempted to rebel. The simple tastes of the Israelite tribes in the period before the monarchy may be contrasted with the ostentation of Solomon’s harem with its thousand wives and concubines (I Kings 11:3) along with the wealth and luxury of an oriental court. The rulers of the larger states of the Amarna Age, and particularly Tushratta of Mitanni, sent their daughters to grace the harems of Amenhotep III and Akhenaton. A scarab of Amenhotep III commemorates the arrival of Giluhepa, a Mitannian princess with a retinue of three hundred seventeen maidens.[71] That Amenhotep III was actively building his harem is shown in a letter which he addressed to Milk-ili of Gezer which says, in part: I have sent Hania, the commander of the archers, to you with all sorts of things, to bring the beautiful women.... There are in all forty women; forty pieces of silver is the price of the women. Send me therefore very beautiful women among whom are no slanderers, so that the king, your lord, may say to you, “This is fine.”[72] The building of a harem had political implications for it involved an alliance of friendship. Early in Solomon’s reign he “made a marriage alliance with Pharaoh, king of Egypt; he took Pharaoh’s daughter and brought her into the City of David....” (I Kings 3:1). A large harem, moreover, was a symbol of power, wealth and prestige. Solomon was but adapting the customs of the great rulers of the ancient East when he built an enormous harem for himself. BIBLIOGRAPHY Archaeology Budge, E. A. W., _By Nile and Tigris_, I (London: 1920), pp. 133-144 Pendelbury, J. D. S., _Tell el-Amarna_ (London; 1935) Peet, Thomas Eric; Woolley Leonard; Frankfort, Henri; Pendelbury, J. D. S., _et al._ _The City of Akhenaten_ (Parts I-III), 4 volumes (London; 1923-51) History Aldred, C., “The End of the El ’Amarna Period,” _Journal of Egyptian Archaeology_ XLIII (1957), pp. 30-41 Baikie, James, _The Amarna Age_ (New York: 1926) Bratton, Fred Gladstone, _The First Heretic: The Life and Times of Ikhnaton the King_ (Boston: 1961) Gardiner, A. H., “The So-called Tomb of Queen Tiye,” _Journal of Egyptian Archaeology_, XLIII (1957), pp. 10-25 Meyer, Eduard, _Geschichte des Altertums_, II (Stuttgart: 1955), pp. 303-426