Nevertheless, allowance must be made for the uncertainty attending the introduction into the literature of a country of a name with which the people, including the scribes, are unfamiliar. Ḫumrî or Omri may have been, to the scribe who composed the account given by the Black Obelisk, very much easier to remember than the comparatively unfamiliar Sir´ilâa, and it may have been felt that the form used was not by any means certain—Isra´ilâa would, in fact, have been much better. The scribe of the monolith, however, may have inserted what he felt to be the Assyro-Babylonian form of the name, for something very similar to Sir´ilâa (or Ser´ilâa) exists in the Sar-îli of a contract tablet of the reign of Ammi-zaduga, translated in the _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society_, 1897, pp. 594-595 (cf. p. 157). But, as before remarked, the chronological difficulty still remains, the date, from Hebrew sources, being, according to Prof. Oppert, before 900 B.C. (the last year of Ahab), whilst, according to Assyrian chronology, it should be 853 B.C. (cf. Sayce in Hastings’s _Dictionary of the Bible_, vol. i. p. 272). The importance of the city of Hamath is well indicated not only by the above extract, but also by the numerous other passages where Irḫulēni (or Urḫilēni) of Hamath is referred to. The Guites were regarded by the late Geo. Smith as the Biblical Goim—a rather doubtful identification. As for the Musrites, the same scholar thought them to be the Egyptians, Muṣrâa, “Muṣrites,” coming apparently from Muṣur, the name of Egypt in the Assyrian inscriptions. Others regard them as being a people of the north, and this is more probable, though it would perhaps be better to regard the name as unidentified. The mention of “camels” in connection with Gindibu’u of the Arbâa is regarded as stamping the nationality referred to as being Arabic, and this is very probable. In Ba’asa son of Ruḫubu of the Ammonites we have the comparatively familiar Biblical names Baasha and Rehob in their Assyrian forms. It will therefore be seen that the extract translated above is of considerable interest quite independently of its historical bearings, which are of great importance, whatever may be the ultimate opinion concerning them. During the next three years Shalmaneser was occupied on the west and north-west and in Babylonia, so that it was not until 850 B.C. that he was again able to turn his attention to the neighbourhood of Palestine.