Patriarchal Palestine

"Answer me not 'This is good; this is bad;' repeat not to me your opinion. Come, I will tell thee all that lies before thee at the end of thy journey.

"I begin for thee with the palace of Sesetsu (Sesostris). Hast thou not set foot in it by force? Hast thou not eaten the fish in the brook …? Hast thou not washed thyself in it? With thy permission I will remind thee of Huzana; where is its fortress? Come, I pray thee, to the palace of the land of Uazit, even of Osymandyas (Ramses II.) in his victories, [to] Saez-el, together with Absaqbu. I will inform thee of the land of 'Ainin (the two Springs), the customs of which thou knowest not. The land of the lake of Nakhai, and the land of Rehoburta thou hast not seen since thou wast born, O Mohar. Rapih is widely extended. What is its wall like? It extends for a mile in the direction of Gaza."

The French words introduced from time to time by Dr. Brugsch into the translation represent the Semitic words which the Egyptian writer has employed. They illustrate the fashionable tendency of his day to fill the Egyptian vocabulary with the words and phrases of Canaan. It was the revenge taken by Palestine for its invasion and conquest by the armies of Seti and Ramses. Thus armée corresponds to the Semitic tsaba, "army," jeunesse to na'aruna, "young men." The Egyptian scribe, however, sometimes made mistakes similar to those which modern novelists are apt to commit in their French quotations. Instead of writing, as he intended, 'ebed gamal Mohar na'amu ("a camel's slave is the Mohar! they say"), he has assigned the Canaanite vowel ayin to the wrong word, and mis-spelt the name of the "camel," so that the phrase is transformed into abad kamal Mohar n'amu ("the camel of the Mohar has perished, they are pleasant"). (It is curious that a similar mistake in regard to the spelling of 'ebed, "slave" or "servant" has been made in an Aramaic inscription which I have discovered on the rocks near Silsileh in Upper Egypt, where the name of Ebed-Nebo is written Abed-Nebo.)

Most of the geographical names mentioned in the papyrus can be identified. Aupa, the Ubi of the Tel el-Amarna tablets, was on the borders of the land of the Hittites, and not far from Aleppo. The Zar or "Plain" of Sesostris makes its appearance in the lists of conquered towns and countries which were drawn up by Thothmes III., Seti I., Ramses II., and Ramses III., in order to commemorate their victories in Syria. The word probably migrated from Babylonia, where the zeru denoted the alluvial plain which lay between the Tigris and the Euphrates. Kadesh, the southern capital of the Hittites, "in the land of the Amorites," lay on the Orontes, close to the lake of Horns, and has been identified by Major Conder with the modern Tel em-Mindeh. Tubikhi, of which we have already heard in the Tel el-Amarna letters, is also mentioned in the geographical lists inscribed by Thothmes III. on the walls of his temple at Karnak (No. 6); it there precedes the name of Kamta or Qamdu, the Kumidi of Tel el-Amarna. It is the Tibhath of the Old Testament, out of which David took "very much brass" (1 Chron. xviii. 8). The Maghar(at) or "Caves" gave their name to the Magoras, the river of Beyrout, as well as to the Mearah of the Book of Joshua (xiii. 4). As for the mountain of Shaua, it is described by the Assyrian king Tiglath-pileser III. as in the neighbourhood of the northern Lebanon, while the city of the Beeroth or "Cisterns" is probably Beyrout.

The Mohar is now carried to Phoenicia. Gebal, Beyrout, Sidon, and Sarepta, are named one after the other, as the traveller is supposed to be journeying from north to south. The "goddess" of Gebal was Baaltis, so often referred to in the letters of Rib-Hadad, who calls her "the mistress of Gebal." In saying, however, that the name of the city meant "Hidden," the writer has been misled by the Egyptian mispronunciation of it. It became Kapuna in the mouths of his countrymen, and since kapu in Egyptian signified "hidden mystery," he jumped to the conclusion that such was also the etymology of the Phoenician word. In the "fords of the land of Nazana" we must recognize the river Litâny, which flows into the sea between Sarepta and Tyre. At all events, Authu or Usu, the next city mentioned, is associated with Tyre both in the tablets of Tel el-Amarna and in the inscriptions of the Assyrian kings. It seems to have been the Palætyros or "Older Tyre" of classical tradition, which stood on the mainland opposite the more famous insular Tyre. Phoenician tradition ascribes its foundation to Usôos, the offspring of the mountains of Kasios and Lebanon, and brother of Memrumus, "the exalted," and Hypsouranios, "the lord of heaven," who was the first to invent a clothing of skins, and to sail upon the water in boats, and who had taught mankind to adore the fire and the winds, and to set up two pillars of stone in honour of the deity. From Usu the Mohar is naturally taken to the island rock of Tyre.

Next comes a name which it is difficult to identify. All that is clear is that between Zar or Tyre and Zair'aun there is some connection both of name and of locality. Perhaps Dr. Brugsch is right in thinking that in the next sentence there is a play upon the Hebrew word zir'âh, "hornet," which seems to have the same root as Zair'aun. It may be that Zair'aun is the ancient city south of Tyre whose ruins are now called Umm el-'Amûd, and whose older name is said to have been Turân. Unfortunately the name of the next place referred to in the Mohar's travels is doubtful; if it is Pa-'A(y)ina, "the Spring," we could identify it with the modern Râs el-'Ain, "the Head of the Spring." This is on the road to Zib, the ancient Achshaph or Ekdippa.

"The mountain of User" reminds us curiously of the tribe of Asher, whose territory included the mountain-range which rose up behind the Phoenician coast. But it may denote Mount Carmel, whose "crest" faces the traveller as he makes his way southward from Tyre and Zib. In any case the allusion to it brings to the writer's mind another mountain in the same neighbourhood, the summit of which similarly towers into the sky. This is "the mountain of Shechem," either Ebal or Gerizim, each of which is nearly 3000 feet above the level of the sea. It is the first mention that we have of Shechem outside the pages of the Old Testament.

Shechem, however, did not lie in the path of the Mohar, and the reference to its mountain is made parenthetically only. We are therefore carried on to Hazor, which afterwards became a city of Naphtali, and of which we hear in the letters of Tel el-Amarna. From Hazor the road ran northwards to Hamath, the Hamah of to-day. Hazor lay not far to the westward of Adamim, which the geographical lists of Thothmes III. place between the Sea of Galilee and the Kishon, and which is doubtless the Adami of Naphtali (Josh. xix. 33). Here the tour of the Mohar comes to an abrupt close. After this the writer contents himself with naming a number of Syrian cities without regard to their geographical position. He is anxious merely to show off his knowledge of Canaanitish geography; perhaps also to insinuate doubts as to the extent of his correspondent's travels.

Takhis, the Thahash of Gen. xxii. 24, was, as we have seen, in the land of the Amorites, not very far distant from Kadesh on the Orontes. Kafir-Marona, "the village of Marona," may have been in the same direction. The second element in the name is met with elsewhere in Palestine. Thus one of Joshua's antagonists was the king of Shim-ron-meron (Josh. xii. 20), and the Assyrian inscriptions tell us of a town called Samsi-muruna. Tamnah was not an uncommon name. We hear of a Tamnah or Timnah in Judah (Josh. xv. 57), and of another in Mount Ephraim (Josh. xix. 50). Dapul may be the Tubuliya of the letters of Rib-Hadad, Azai, "the outlet," seems to have been near a pass, while Har-nammata, "the mountain of Nammata," is called Har-nam by Ramses III., who associates it with Lebanoth and Hebron. The two next names, Kirjath-Anab and Beth-Sopher, are of peculiar interest, since they contain the first mention that was come down to us of Kitjath-Sepher, the literary centre of the Canaanites in the south of Palestine, which was captured and destroyed by Othniel the Kenizzite. In the Old Testament (Josh. xv. 49, 50) Kirjath-Sannah or Kirjath-Sepher and Anab are coupled together just as Kirjath-Anab and Beth-Sopher are by the Egyptian scribe, and it is therefore evident that he has interchanged the place of the equivalent terms Kirjath, "city," and Beth, "house." But his spelling of the second name shows us how it ought to be punctuated and read in the Old Testament. It was not Kirjath-Sepher, "the city of book(s)," but Kirjath-Sopher, "the city of scribe(s)," and Dr. W. Max Müller has pointed out that the determinative of "writing" has been attached to the word Sopher, showing that the writer was fully acquainted with its meaning. Kirjath-Sannah, "the city of instruction," as it was also called, was but another way of emphasizing the fact that here was the site of a library and school such as existed in the towns of Babylonia and Assyria. Both names, however, Kirjath-Sopher and Kirjath-Sannah, were descriptive rather than original; its proper designation seems to have been Debir, "the sanctuary," the temple wherein its library was established, and which has caused the Egyptian author to call it a "Beth," or "temple," instead of a "Kirjath," or "city."

Like Anab and Kirjath-Sopher, Adullam and Zidiputa were also in southern Canaan. It was in the cave of Adullam that David took refuge from the pursuit of Saul, and we learn from Shishak that Zidiputa—or Zadiputh-el, as he calls it—was in the south of Judah. From hence we are suddenly transported to the northern part of Syria, and the Mohar is asked if he knows anything about Khalza in the land of Aupa. Khalza is an Assyrian word signifying "Fortress," and Aupa, the Ubi of the Tel el-Amarna tablets, was not far from Aleppo. The allusion to the "bull" is obscure.

Then once more we are summoned back to Palestine. In the annals of Thothmes III. we are told that "the brook of Qina" was to the south of Megiddo, so that the name of the district has probably survived in that of "Cana of Galilee." Rehob may be Rehob in Asher (Josh. xix. 28), which was near Kanah, though the name is so common in Syria as to make any identification uncertain. Beth-sha-el, on the contrary, is Beth-el. We first meet with the name in the geographical lists of Thothmes III., and the fact that it is Babylonian in form, Bit-sa-ili being the Babylonian equivalent of the Hebrew Beth-el, is one of many proofs that the lists were compiled from a cuneiform original. The name of Beth-sha-el or Beth-el calls up that of Tarqa-el, which contains the name of the Hittite god Tarqu. But where Tarqa-el was situated it is impossible to say.

Towards the end of the book reference is made to certain places which lay on the road between Egypt and Canaan. Rapih is the Raphia of classical geography, the Rapikh of the Assyrian inscriptions, where two broken columns now mark the boundary between Egypt and Turkey. Rehoburta is probably the Rehoboth where the herdsmen of Isaac dug a well before the patriarch moved to Beer-sheba (Gen. xxvi. 22), while in the lake of Nakhai we may have the Sirbonian lake of classical celebrity.

There still remain two allusions in the papyrus which must not be passed over in silence. One is the allusion to "Qazairnai, the lord of Asel," the famous slayer of lions. We know nothing further about this Nimrod of Syria, but Professor Maspero is doubtless right in believing that Asel ought to be written Alsa, and that the country meant was the kingdom of Alasiya, which lay in the northern portion of Coele-Syria. Several letters from the king of Alasiya are preserved in the Tel el-Amarna collection, and we gather from them that his possessions extended across the Orontes from the desert to the Mediterranean Sea. Egyptian papyri tell us that mares were imported into Egypt from Alasiya as well as two different kinds of liquor. In the age of Samuel and Saul Alasiya was governed by a queen.

The second allusion is to the ironsmith in Canaan. It is clear that there were many of them, and that it was to the worker in iron and not to the worker in bronze that the traveller naturally turned when his chariot needed mending. Even the word that is employed to denote the metal is the Canaanitish barzel, which has been adopted under the form of parzal. Nothing could show more plainly how characteristic of Canaan the trade of the ironsmith must have been, and how largely the use of iron must have there superseded the use of bronze. The fact is in accordance with the references in the annals of Thothmes III. to the iron that was received by him from Syria; it is also in accordance with the statements of the Bible, where we read of the "chariots of iron" in which the Canaanites rode to war. Indeed there seems to have been a special class of wandering ironsmiths in Palestine, like the wandering ironsmiths of mediæval Europe, who jealously guarded the secrets of their trade, and formed not only a peculiar caste, but even a peculiar race. The word Kain means "a smith," and the nomad Kenites of whom we read in the Old Testament were simply the nomad race of "smiths," whose home was the tent or cavern. Hence it was that while they were not Israelites, they were just as little Canaanites, and hence it was too that the Philistines were able to deprive the Israelites of the services of a smith (1 Sam. xiii. 19). All that was necessary was to prevent the Kenites from settling within Israelitish territory. There was no Israelite who knew the secrets of the profession and could take their place, and the Canaanites who lived under Israelitish protection were equally ignorant of the ironsmith's art. Though the ironsmith had made himself a home in Canaan he never identified himself with its inhabitants. The Kenites remained a separate people, and could consequently be classed as such by the side of the Hivites, or "villagers," and the Perizzites, or "fellahin."

If the Travels of a Mohar are a guide-book to the geography of Palestine in the age of the nineteenth Egyptian dynasty, the lists of places conquered by Thothmes III., and engraved by his orders on the walls of his temple at Karnak, are a sort of atlas of Canaanite geography in the age of the eighteenth dynasty. The name of each locality is enclosed in a cartouche and surmounted by the head and shoulders of a Canaanitish captive. The hair and eyes of the figures are painted black or rather dark purple, while the skin is alternately red and yellow. The yellow represents the olive tint of the Mediterranean population, the red denotes the effects of sunburn. An examination of the names contained in the cartouches makes it clear that they have been derived from the memoranda made by the scribes who accompanied the army of the Pharaoh in its campaigns. Sometimes the same name is repeated twice, and not always in the same form. We may conclude, therefore, that the memoranda had not always been made by the same reporter, and that the compiler of the lists drew his materials from different sources. It is further clear that the memoranda had been noted down in the cuneiform characters of Babylonia and not in the hieroglyphs of Egypt. Thus, as we have seen, the name of Beth-el is transcribed from its Babylonian form of Bit-sa-ili, the Assyrian equivalent of the Hebrew Beth-el.

The names have been copied from the memoranda of the scribes in the order in which they occurred, and without any regard to their relative importance. While, therefore, insignificant villages are often noted, the names of important cities are sometimes passed over. Descriptive epithets, moreover, like abel "meadow," arets "land," har "mountains," 'emeq "valley," 'ên "spring," are frequently treated as if they were local names, and occupy separate cartouches. We must not, consequently, expect to find in the lists any exhaustive catalogue of Palestinian towns or even of the leading cities. They mark only the lines of march taken by the army of Thothmes or by his scouts and messengers.

Besides the Canaanitish lists there are also long lists of localities conquered by the Pharaoh in Northern Syria. With these, however, we have nothing to do. It is to the places in Canaan that our attention must at present be confined. They are said to be situated in the country of the Upper Lotan, or, as another list gives it, in the country of the Fenkhu. In the time of Thothmes III. accordingly the land of the Upper Lotan and the land of the Fenkhu were synonymous terms, and alike denoted what we now call Palestine. In the word Fenkhu it is difficult not to see the origin of the Greek Phoenix or "Phoenician."

The lists begin with Kadesh on the Orontes, the head of the confederacy, the defeat of which laid Canaan at the feet of the Pharaoh. Then comes Megiddo, where the decisive battle took place, and the forces of the king of Kadesh were overthrown. Next we have Khazi, mentioned also in the Tel el-Amarna tablets, from which we learn that it was in the hill-country south of Megiddo. It may be the Gaza of 1 Chron. vii. 28 which was supplanted by Shechem in Israelitish days. Kitsuna, the Kuddasuna of the Tel el-Amarna tablets, follows: where it stood we do not know. The next name, "the Spring of Shiu," is equally impossible to identify. The sixth name, however, is Tubikhu, about which the cuneiform tablets of Tel el-Amarna have told us a good deal, and which seems to be the Tibhath of 1 Chron. xviii. 8. It was in Coele-Syria like Kamta, the Kumidi of the tablets, which follows in one list, though its place is taken by the unknown Bami in another. After this we have the names of Tuthina (perhaps Dothan), Lebana, and Kirjath-niznau, followed by Marum or Merom the modern Meirôm, by Tamasqu or Damascus, by the Abel of Atar, and by Hamath. Aqidu, the seventeenth name, is unknown, but Mr. Tomkins is probably right in thinking that the next name, that of Shemnau, must be identified with the Shimron of Josh. xix. 15, where the Septuagint reads Symeon. That this reading is correct is shown by the fact that in the days of Josephus and the Talmud the place was called Simonias, while the modern name is Semûnieh. The tablets of Tel el-Amarna make it Samkhuna.

Six unknown names come next, the first of which is a Beeroth, or "Wells." Then we have Mesekh, "the place of unction," called Musikhuna in the Tel el-Amarna correspondence, Qana and 'Arna. Both Qana and 'Arna appear in the account of the battle before Megiddo, and must have been in the immediate neighbourhood of that city. One of the affluents of the Kishon flowed past Qana, while 'Arna was hidden in a defile. It was there that the tent of Thothmes was pitched two days before the great battle. The brook of Qana seems to have been the river Qanah of to-day, and 'Arna may be read 'Aluna.

We are now transported to the eastern bank of the Jordan, to 'Astartu in the land of Bashan, the Ashtaroth-Karnaim of Genesis, the Tel 'Ashtarah of modern geography. With 'Astartu is coupled Anau-repa, explained by Mr. Tomkins to be "On of the Rephaim" (Gen. xiv. 5). At any rate it is clearly the Raphon or Raphana of classical writers, the Er-Rafeh of to-day. Next we have Maqata, called Makhed in the First Book of Maccabees, and now known as Mukatta; Lus or Lius, the Biblical Laish, which under its later name of Dan became the northern limit of the Israelitish kingdom; and Hazor, the stronghold of Jabin, whose king we hear of in the Tel el-Amarna tablets. Then come Pahil or Pella, east of the Jordan, famous in the annals of early Christianity; Kennartu, the Chinneroth of the Old Testament (Josh. xi. 2, 1 Kings xv. 20), from which the Sea of Galilee took one of its names; Shemna, the site of which is uncertain; and Atmam, the Adami of Josh. xix. 33. These are followed by Qasuna, in which we find the Kishion of Issachar (Josh. xix. 20); Shanam or Shunem, now Sôlam, north of Jezreel; Mash-al, the Misheal of Scripture; and Aksap or Ekdippa on the Phoenician coast. Then after a name which cannot be identified we read those of Ta'anak, the Ta'anach of the Bible, the Ta'anuk of to-day; Ible'am, near which Ahaziah of Jadah was slain by the servants of Jehu; Gantu-Asna, "the garden of Asnah"; Lot-melech, "Lot of the king"; 'Aina, "the Spring"; and 'Aak or Acre. From Acre we are taken along the coast southward to Rosh Kadesh, "the sacred headland" of Carmel, whose name follows immediately under the form of Karimna. Next we have Beer, "the Well," Shemesh-Atum, and Anakhertu. Anakhertu is the Anaharath of Josh. xix. 19, which belonged to the tribe of Issachar.

Of Shemesh-Atum we hear again in one of the inscriptions of Amenophis III. A revolt had broken out in the district of the Lebanon, and the king accordingly marched into Canaan to suppress it. Shemesh-Atum was the first city to feel the effects of his anger, and he carried away from it eighteen prisoners and thirteen oxen. The name of the town shows that it was dedicated to the Sun-god. In Hebrew it would appear as Shemesh-Edom, and an Egyptian papyrus, now at Leyden, informs us that Atum or Edom was the wife of Resheph the Canaanitish god of fire and lightning. In Shemesh-Atum or Shemesh-Edom we therefore have a compound name signifying that the Shemesh or Sun-god denoted by it was not the male divinity of the customary worship, but the Sun-goddess Edom. In Israelitish times the second element in the compound seems to have been dropped; at all events it is probable that Shemesh-Atum was the Beth-Shemesh of the Old Testament (Josh. xix. 22), which is mentioned along with Anaharath as in the borders of Issachar.

After Anaharath come two unknown Ophrahs; then Khasbu and Tasult, called Khasabu and Tusulti in the Tel el-Amarna letters; then Negebu, perhaps the Nekeb of Galilee (Josh. xix. 33), Ashushkhen, Anam, and Yurza. Yurza is now represented by the ruins of Yerza, south-eastward of Ta'anach, and there are letters from its governor in the Tel el-Amarna collection. Its name is followed by those of Makhsa, Yapu or Joppa, and "the country of Gantu" or Gath. Next we have Luthen or Ruthen, which is possibly Lydda, Ono, Apuqen, Suka or Socho, and Yahem. Among the cartouches that follow we read the names of a Migdol, of Shebtuna, the modern Shebtîn, of Naun which reminds us of the name of Joshua's father, and of Haditha, now Hadîtheh, five miles to the west of Shebtîn.

The list has thus led us to the foot of Mount Ephraim, and it is not surprising that the next name should be that of the Har or "Mountain" itself. This is followed by a name which is full of interest, for it reads Joseph-el or "Joseph-god." How the name of Joseph came to be attached in the time of Thothmes to the mountainous region in which "the House of Joseph" afterwards established itself is hard to explain; we must remember, however, as has been stated in a former chapter, that according to the Chronicler (1 Chron. vii. 21, 22), already in the lifetime of Ephraim his sons were slain by the men of Gath, "because they came down to take away their cattle." (Mr. Pinches tells me that in early Babylonian contracts of the age of Chedor-laomer he has found the name of Yasupu-ilu or Joseph-el, as well as that of Yakub-ilu or Jacob-el. The discovery is of high importance when we remember that Abraham migrated from Ur of the Chaldees, and adds another to the many debts of gratitude due to Mr. Pinches from Biblical students. See Preface for further details.)

Three names further on we find another compound with el, Har-el, "the mount of God." In Ezek. xliii. 15 Har-el is used to denote the "altar" which should stand in the temple on Mount Moriah, and Mount Moriah is itself called "the Mount of the Lord" in the Book of Genesis (xxii. 14). It may be, therefore, that in the Har-el of the Egyptian list we have the name of the mountain whereon the temple of Solomon was afterwards to be built. However this may be, the names which follow it show that we are in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. One after the other come Lebau, Na'mana or Na'amah (Josh. xv. 41), Meromim "the heights," 'Ani "the two springs," Rehob, Ekron, Hekalim "the palaces," the Abel or "meadow" of Autar'a, the Abel, the Gantau or "gardens," the Maqerput or "tilled ground," and the 'Aina or "Spring" of Carmel, which corresponds with the Gath-Carmel of the Tel el-Amarna tablets, the Carmel of Judah of the Old Testament. Then we have Beth-Ya, a name which reminds us of that of "Bithia, the daughter of Pharaoh," whom Mered, the descendant of Caleb, took to wife, and whose stepson was Yered, "the father of Gedor" (1 Chron. iv. 18). Beth-Ya is followed by Tapun, which was fortified by the Greeks after the death of Judas Maccabaeus (1 Macc. ix. 50), by the Abel of Yertu or Yered, perhaps the district of the Jordan, by Halkal, and by Jacob-el, a name formed in the same way as that of Joseph-el. We may see in it an evidence that the memory of the patriarch was kept alive in the south of Palestine. The next two names are unknown, but they are followed by Rabatu or Rabbah of Judah, Magharatu, the Ma'arath of Josh, xv. 59, 'Emequ, "the valley" of Hebron, Sirta and Bârtu, the Bar has-Sirak, or "Well of Sirah" of 2 Sam. iii. 26. Then come Beth-sa-el or Beth-el in its Babylonian dress; Beth-Anta or Beth-Anath (Josh. xv. 59), where the Babylonian goddess Anatu was worshipped; Helkath (2 Sam. ii. 16); the Spring of Qan'am; Gibeah of Judah (2 Sam. vi. 3, 4; see Josh. xviii. 28); Zelah (Josh. xviii. 28), called Zilu by Ebed-Tob of Jerusalem; and Zafta, the Biblical Zephath (Judges i. 17). The last three names in the catalogue—Barqna, Hum, and Aktomes—have left no traces in Scriptural or classical geography.