Immediately after, however, there is a reference to the receipt of tribute from “Pir’u, king of the land of Muṣuru.” This would be a natural result of the success of the Assyrians (so it seemed to the earlier Assyriologists), for surely Pir’u is Pharaoh, and Muṣuru is the Muṣur of other inscriptions, and stands for Egypt (the Heb. Misraim(101)). This however, is now denied, and Pir’u is said to be the name of a chief of an Arab tribe called Muṣuru. It reminds one of the Eri-Eaku of Larsa who is not Arioch of Elassar, contemporary of Kudur-laḫgumal of Elam who is not Chedorlaomer of Elam, and Tudḫula who is admittedly the same in name as Tidal, all of them ruling at or near the same period, but not those referred to in Gen. xiv. as contemporaries. In Assyriology, more than in any other study whatever, things are not what they seem, and must always be identified with something else. According to the annals, it would seem that Yau-bi’idi, who is there called Ilu-bi’idi, acted in concert with Sib’e of Egypt and Hanon of Gaza, the operations against him preceding those against the other two. The order of the translation given above would seem to be preferable, as it must have been in consequence of the flight of Sib’e “like a shepherd whose sheep had been lost,” that Yau-bi’idi and Hanon of Gaza were so easily defeated. The former appears to have made Qarqaru the centre from which he intended to press his claim to the throne of Hamath, and he managed so well, that he got Arpad, Simyra, Damascus, and Samaria to join him. The Assyrian king, however, soon disposed of the pretensions of this prince, whom he describes as “a loose (?) fellow, a usurper, a frivolous (?), evil man” (_ṣab ḫubši, lâ-bêl-kussī, amēlu patû limnu_). After this it is not surprising that he thought he was justified in flaying him alive. To all appearance the state of affairs in Syria was satisfactory. The great victory of the Assyrians at Raphia had convinced the leaders of the various states of the uselessness of continuing to struggle against the power of the Assyrian king, who had nothing further to fear from Egypt, and was therefore free to occupy himself with other conquests. In 719, therefore, he turned his attention to the region of the north, the kingdoms of Van and Urarṭu or Ararat, the result of the operations against the latter being, that the people were transported to Syria, or, as the original has it, “into Heth of the Amorites.” The operations in 718 B.C. were against Kiakki of Sinuḫtu, a city in Tabal.