The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends of Assyria and BabyloniaPinches, Theophilus G. (Theophilus Goldridge)
Religion
The Old Testament in the Light of the Historical Records and Legends of Assyria and Babylonia
Pinches, Theophilus G. (Theophilus Goldridge)
Bible. Old Testament -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
This and two other accounts, one of which is from “Ilu-dâya, the Ḫazite,”
all agree, and show that three officials were occupying cities in the
territory known as Amki (identified with _’Amq_, a plain by Antioch, or
_’Amqa_, N.E. of Akka), when Edagama (whose name also appears as Etagama,
Etakkama, Itatkama, Itakama, Aiṭugama, and Aidaggama) joined the Hittite
troops who were hostile to Egypt. It was in consequence of this, in all
probability, that the three officials decided to write to the king of
Egypt to let him know how things were going, and this they did in
identical terms, with the same expressions, and the same peculiarities of
spelling, pointing to the probability that the same scribe wrote all three
communications. In the letter of Ili-rabiḫ, from which a quotation is
given on p. 288, Amki is called “the king’s territory,” implying that it
was a tract acknowledging Egyptian supremacy, which Etagama was trying to
wrest from the Pharaoh’s grasp. It was the king’s friends who were
occupying the king’s cities (as Bêri, Ilu-dâya, and the unknown writer
call them), because they desired to hold them against this active enemy.
With help from the Egyptian king, they thought that they would be able to
do this without difficulty. There seems to be (as far as can at present be
judged) no reason to suppose that the beginning of the expulsion of the
Egyptians from Palestine was due to the over-zeal of the supporters of
Egyptian rule in that country, who, striving to extend the influence and
the dominions of their suzerain, drew down upon him, and upon themselves,
the hostility of all the independent states of Western Asia, as well as of
those which wished to throw off the Egyptian yoke. The Egyptian kings
would surely have warned their vassals in Palestine against the danger of
such action on their part.
As an additional light upon the events here referred to, the following
extract from a letter from Akizzi of Qaṭna to Amenophis III. may be of
interest:—
“O lord, Teu(w)atti of the city L(apa)n(a) and Arzauia of the city Ruḫizzu
are setting themselves with Aiṭugama (Etagama) and the land of (U)be. He
is burning the territory of my lord with fire.
“O lord, as I love the king my lord, and likewise the king of the land
Nuḫašše, the king of the land of Nî, the king of the land of Zinzar, and
the king of the land of Tunanat; and all these kings are for the king my
lord serviceable.
“If the king my lord will, then he will go forth. (But they say) thus:
‘The king my lord will not go forth.’ Then let my lord send out
field-troops, and let them come, since this land, as also, my lord, these
kings, is well disposed towards him. (They are) my lord’s great ones, and
whatever their gifts (contributions), let him speak, and they will give
(them).
“O lord, if this land is to be off the mind of my lord, then let my lord
send forth field-troops, and let them come. The messengers of my lord have
arrived.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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