The early history of the Hebrews

5. Thus Kharbi-Sipak, a Kassite or Kossæan, from the western mountains of Elam, is called a ‘Khabirâ’ (W. A. I. iv. 34, 2, 5). The name is probably connected with that of Khapir or Âpir, originally applied to the district in which Mal-Amir is situated, south-east of Susa, but afterwards in the Persian period extended to the whole of Elam (see my memoir on the Inscriptions of Mal-Amir in the Transactions of the Sixth Oriental Congress at Leyden, vol. ii.). Kharbi-Sipak himself, however, seems to have been employed by the Assyrian king in Palestine in the neighbourhood of the cities of Arqa and Zaqqal (Hommel in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology, May 1895, p. 203).

6. W. A. I. ii. 50, 51 (where Khubur is said to be a synonym of Subarti).

7. W. A. I. ii. 51, 4.

8. Hommel, The ancient Hebrew Tradition as illustrated by the Monuments, pp. 196, 245-262, 323-327; Glaser in the Mittheilungen of the Vorderasiatische Gesellschaft, ii. 1897.

10. That Ebir-nâri signified the country west of the Euphrates in the later days of Babylonian history is shown by a contract-tablet, dated in the third year of Darius Hystaspis, and translated by Peiser (Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, iv. p. 305), in which mention is made of ‘Ustanni, the governor of Babylon and Ebir-nâri’ (line 2). Meissner (Zeitschrift für Alttestament, Wissenschaft, xvii.) has pointed out that Ustanni is the Tatnai of Ezra, v. 3, 6; vi. 6, 13, who is there called the ‘governor of the land beyond the river’ (’Abar Nahara).

11. See Hilprecht, The Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania, i. 2, p. 31.

12. An inscription of Sargon recently published by M. Dangin (Revue Sémitique, April 1897) states that ‘the governor’ of the subjugated Amorites was Uru-Malik, where the name of Malik or Moloch is preceded by the determinative of divinity. Uru-Malik, which is an analogous formation to Uriel, Urijah, Melchi-ur (or Melchior), etc., shows that what we call Hebrew was already the language of Canaan. The inscription has been found at Tello in Southern Chaldæa.

13. Zabsali, also written Savsal(la) or Zavzal(la), probably represents the Zuzim or Zamzummim of Scripture. See my article in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology, February 1897, p. 74.

14. We possess a list of the kings of Babylonia, divided into dynasties, from the first dynasty of Babylon, to which Khammu-rabi belonged, down to the time of the fall of Nineveh. The number of years reigned by each king is stated, as well as the number of years each dynasty lasted. But, unfortunately, the compiler has forgotten to say what was the duration of the dynasty to which Nabonassar (B.C. 747) belonged; and as the tablet is broken here, the regnal years of most of the kings who formed the dynasty have been lost. There are, however, a good many synchronisms between the earlier period of Babylonian history and that of Assyria, and by means of these the chronology has been approximately restored. We can also test the date of Khammu-rabi in the following way. We learn from Assur-bani-pal that Kudur-Nankhundi, king of Elam, carried off the image of the goddess Nana from the city of Erech 1635 years before his own conquest of Elam, and therefore 2280 B.C. As Eri-Aku boasts of his capture of Erech, and as he was assisted in his wars by his Elamite kinsmen, it seems probable that the capture of the image by Kudur-Nankhundi was coincident with the capture of the city by Eri-Aku.

The discovery of Mr. Pinches has been supplemented by that of Dr. Scheil, who has found letters addressed by Khammu-rabi to Sin-idinnam of Larsa, in which mention is made of the Elamite king Kudur-Laghghamar. Sin-idinnam had been driven from Larsa by Eri-Aku with the help of Kudur-Laghghamar, and had taken refuge at the court of Khammu-rabi in Babylon. Fragments of other letters of Khammu-rabi are in the possession of Lord Amherst of Hackney (see inf. pp. 27, 28).

15. The name of Khammu-rabi himself is written Ammu-rabi in Bu. 88-5-12, 199 (Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets in the British Museum, Part 2).

16. Records of the Past, new ser., iii. p. xvi.

17. Hommel, Geschichte des alten Morgenlandes, p. 62, The Ancient Hebrew Tradition as illustrated by the Monuments, p. 96.

18. Published by Budge, Zeitschrift für Assyriologie, iii. 3, pp. 229, 230.

19. The text, which is on a stela found in the ruined temple of Isis at the south-east corner of the great pyramid of Gizeh, is now in the Cairo Museum. It has been published by M. Daressy in the Recueil des Travaux relatifs à la Philologie et à l’Archéologie égyptiennes et assyriennes (xvi. 3, 4, 1894), and is dated in the third year of king Ai. It follows from the inscription that ‘the domain called that of the Hittites’ lay to the north of the great temple of Ptah, and immediately to the south of two smaller temples built by Thothmes I. and Thothmes IV. In the time of Herodotos there was a similar district assigned to the Phœnicians, and known as ‘the Camp of the Tyrians,’ on the south side of the temple of Ptah (see my Egypt of the Hebrews and Herodotos, p. 251).

20. Amurru, ‘the Amorite god,’ was a name which had been given by the Sumerians, the earlier population of Chaldæa, to the Syrian Hadad whom the Babylonians identified with their Ramman or Rimmon (cf. Zech. xii. 11). A cuneiform text published by Reisner (Sumerisch-babylonische Hymnen nach Thontafeln griechischer Zeit, p. 139, lines 141-144) couples Amurru, ‘the lord of the mountains,’ with Asratu, the Canaanitish Asherah, ‘the lady of the plain.’ Asratu is identified with the Babylonian Gubarra.

21. W. A. I. v. 12, 47.

22. W. A. I. v. 33, i. 37.

23. Padanu also had the meaning of ‘path.’ Whether this is derived from the other or belongs to a different root is questionable. But in the sense of ‘path,’ padanu was a synonym of Kharran.

24. This does not imply that the population which founded the kingdom of Mitanni, and probably came from the mountains of Komagênê or of Ararat in the north, was unknown in early Babylonia. In fact, one of the Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets, published by the British Museum in 1896 (Bu. 91-5-9, 296), contains the names of ‘the governor’ Akhsir-Babu and other witnesses to a contract, most of which are Mitannian.

25. I have given the tablet in transliteration in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology, Nov. 1883, p. 18. The passage reads: ‘14-½ shekels of lead we have weighed in nakhur.’

26. See Sachau, Die altaramäische Inschrift auf der Statue des Königs Panammu von Sam-al and Aramäische Inschriften in the Mittheilungen aus den orientalischen Sammlungen d. K. Museums zu Berlin, ix., and the Sitzungsberichte der K. preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, xli. (1896).

27. See my Races of the Old Testament, pp. 110-117, and H. G. Tomkins in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute, Feb. 1889.

28. In a report of an eclipse of the moon sent to an Assyrian king in the eighth century B.C., the countries of ‘the Amorites and the Hittites’ represent the whole of Western Asia (R. F. Harper, Assyrian and Babylonian Letters, Part iv. p. 345).

29. The discovery of the name of Shakama or Shechem in the Travels of the Mohar is due to Dr. W. Max Müller (Asien und Europa, p. 394).

30. Or II., according to Maspero, who makes three Hyksos sovereigns of this name.

31. It is in the possession of Mr. John Ward.

32. See my Higher Criticism and the Verdict of the Monument, pp. 160, 161.

33. Recent discoveries have made it clear that the Amraphel of Genesis is the Khammu-rabi of the cuneiform texts. Khammu-rabi is also written Ammu-rabi (Bu. 88-5-12, 199, l. 17), and Dr. Lindl has pointed out that the final syllable of Amraphel is the Babylonian ilu, ‘god,’ a title which is frequently attached to the name of Khammu-rabi. We learn from the Tel el-Amarna tablets that in the pronunciation of Western Asia a Babylonian b often became p.

34. Pinches, Certain Inscriptions and Records referring to Babylonia and Elam, a paper read before the Victoria Institute, Jan. 7, 1896; see also Hommel, The Ancient Hebrew Tradition, pp. 180 sqq.

35. Some Assyriologists interpret Manda as ‘much’ or ‘many’; in this case Umman Manda, ‘much people,’ will be still more literally the Hebrew Goyyim.

36. Dr. Scheil, the discoverer of the letters of Khammu-rabi to Sin-idinnam which are now in the Museum at Constantinople, gives the following translations of them (Recueil de Travaux relatifs à la Philologie et à l’Archéologie égyptiennes et assyriennes, xix. 1, 2, pp. 40-44): (1) ‘To Sin-idinnam Khammu-rabi says: I send you as a present (the images of) the goddesses of the land of Emutbalum as a reward for your valour on the day (of the defeat) of Kudur-Laghghamar. If (the enemy) trouble you, destroy their forces with the troops at your disposal, and let the images be restored in safety to their (old) habitations.’ (2) ‘To Sin-idinnam Khammu-rabi says: When you have seen this letter, you will understand in regard to Amil-Samas and Nur-Nintu, the sons of Gisdubba, that if they are in Larsa, or in the territory of Larsa, you will order them to be sent away, and that a trusty official shall take them and bring them to Babylon.’ (3) ‘To Sin-idinnam Khammu-rabi says: As to the officials who have resisted you in the accomplishment of their work, do not impose upon them any additional task, but oblige them to do what they ought to have done, and then remove them from the influence of him who has brought them.’ All three letters were found at Senkereh, the ancient Larsa. Fragments of some other letters of Khammu-rabi are in the possession of Lord Amherst of Hackney. See above, p. 12.

37. Nicolaus of Damascus, in Josephus Antiq. i. 7, 2.

38. See my Patriarchal Palestine, pp. 160, 165. The figure and name of the god Salimmu, written in cuneiform characters, are on a gem now in the Hermitage at St. Petersburg. The same god, under the name of Shalman, is mentioned on a stela discovered at Sidon, and under that of Selamanês in the inscriptions of Shêkh Barakât, north-west of Aleppo (Clermont-Ganneau, Études d’Archéologie orientale in the Bibliothèque de l’École des Hautes Études, cxiii. vol. ii. pp. 36, 48; Sayce in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archeology, xix. 2. p. 74).

39. As Professor Hommel says (Expository Times, Nov. 1896, p. 95), ‘The “Mighty King” cannot possibly be the Pharaoh.’ But he seems to me to introduce an unnecessary element of complication into the subject by supposing that in the Tel el-Amarna letters the epithet has been transferred to the king of the Hittites from the supreme god of Jerusalem, to whom it properly belonged. It is true that in a letter of the governor of Phœnicia (Winckler und Abel, No. 76, l. 66) the title is given to the king of the Hittites, but it does not follow that the king of Jerusalem employs it in the same way.

40. It should be noticed that, according to Hesykhios (s. v.), ‘the most high God’ of the Syrians was Ramas, that is, Ramman or Rimmon, who was identified with the sun-god Hadad, the supreme deity of Syria. The Babylonians called him Amurru ‘the Amorite.’

41. Pietschmann, Geschichte der Phönizier, p. 115. The suggestion was first made by von Bunsen.

42. For a possible explanation of the origin of the practice, see H. N. Moseley in the Journal of the Anthropological Institute, vi. 4, p. 396. Bastian gives another in his description of the practice among the Polynesians (Anthropologie der Naturvölker, vi. pp. 40, 41).

43. A brilliant suggestion of Professor Hommel, however, may prove to be the true explanation of the mysterious name. In the Minæan inscriptions of Southern Arabia a long â is constantly denoted in writing by h; and Abraham, therefore, may be merely the Minæan mode of writing Abram. If so, this would show that the Hebrew scribes were once under the influence of the Minæan script, and that portions of the Pentateuch itself may have been written in the letters of the Minæan alphabet (Hommel, The Ancient Hebrew Tradition, pp. 275-277). Dr. Neubauer has suggested to me that this also may be the explanation of the name of Aaron (Aharôn), which, like Ab-raham, has no etymology. Aaron would be the graphic form of Âron, an Arabic name which appears as Aran in the genealogy of the Horites (Gen. xxxvi. 28).

44. See Berger, L’Arabie avant Mahomet d’après les Inscriptions (1885), pp. 27, 28.

45. D. H. Müller, Epigraphische Denkmäler aus Arabien (1889), p. 13.

46. Thus we have anuki ‘I,’ Heb. anochi; badiu ‘in his hand,’ Heb. b’yado; akharunu ‘after him,’ Heb. akharono; rusu ‘head,’ Heb. rosh; kilubi ‘cage,’ Heb. chelûb; har ‘mountain,’ Heb. har.

See my Patriarchal Palestine, p. 247.

47. On the question of the site of Mizpah of Gilead, see G. A. Smith, The Historical Geography of the Holy Land, pp. 586, 587.

48. Ausgrabungen in Sendschirli in Mittheilungen aus den orientalischen Sammlungen, xi. (1893).

49. Records of the Past, new ser., v. pp. vi, vii.

50. Dussaud (Revue Archéologique, iii. xxx. p. 346) states that according to the Ansarîyeh of the Gulf of Antioch the ‘Yudi’ or Hebrews formerly occupied their country, and constructed the ancient monuments found in it, one of which is called after the name of Solomon. For Neubauer’s suggestion that the Dinhabah of Gen. xxxvi. 32 is identical in name with the Dunip or Tunip of Northern Syria, see further on.

Hoffmann (Zeitschrift für Assyriologie, xi. p. 210) maintains that the origin of the Aramaic dialects is to be sought in a Bedâwin language allied to that of the Arabs and Sabæans, which underwent intermixture with Canaanitish (or Phœnician) through the settlement of its speakers in a Canaanitish country.

51. In Assyrian letters of the Second Empire mention is made of the Nabathean Â-kamaru, the son of Amme’te’, and the Arabian Ami-li’ti, the son of Ameri or Omar (Harper, Assyrian and Babylonian Letters, iii. p. 262; iv. p. 437).

52. It is stated in Deut. xxiii. 4 that Balaam was hired from ‘Pethor of Aram Naharaim,’ not only by the Moabites, but by the Ammonites as well (though it is true that in the Hebrew text the word sâkar, ‘hired,’ is in the singular). It may be noted that the mother of Rehoboam, whose name is compounded with that of Am or Ammi (compare Rehab-iah, 1 Chron. xxiii. 17), was an Ammonitess (1 Kings xiv. 21). For a full discussion of the name of ’Ammi or ’Ammu, and the historical conclusions which may be deduced from it, see Hommel, The Ancient Hebrew Tradition, pp. 89 sqq.

53. The name of Carchemish is usually written Gargamis in the cuneiform inscriptions (Qarqamish in the Egyptian hieroglyphs), but Tiglath-pileser I. (W. A. I. i. 13, 49) calls it ‘Kar-Gamis’ (the Fortified Wall of Gamis) ‘in the land of the Hittites,’ and from the Hebrew spelling in the Old Testament we may gather that Gamis was identified with the Moabite Chemosh. In Babylonian tablets of the age of Ammi-zadoq mention is made of a wood Karkamisû or ‘Carchemishian’ (Bu. 88-5-12, 163, line 11; 88-5-12, 19, line 8). It may be noted that the name ‘Jerabîs,’ sometimes assigned to the site of Carchemish instead of Jerablûs, is, according to the unanimous testimony of English and American residents in the neighbourhood, erroneous.

54. See Records of the Past, new ser., v. p. 45.

55. For the identity of the Zuzim with the Babylonian Zavzala, see my note in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology, xix. 2, pp. 74, 75.

56. See above, p. 21.

57. See above, p. 20.

58. We owe the term ‘Eurafrican’ to Dr. Brinton (see his Races and Peoples, 1890, Lecture iv.). For the relationship of the Libyan and the Kelt, see my Address to the Anthropological Section of the British Association, 1887.

59. The expression ‘mountain of the Amorites,’ which we meet with in Deut. i. 7, 19, takes us back to Abrahamic times. One of the campaigns of Samsu-iluna, the son and successor of Khammu-rabi or Amraphel, was against ‘the great mountain of the land of the Amorites’ (kharsag gal mad Martu-ki, Bu. 91-5-9, 333; Rev. 19).

60. See my Higher Criticism and the Verdict of the Monuments, p. 41; D. H. Müller, Epigraphische Denkmäler aus Arabien, p. 8 (the Minæan inscriptions of El-Oela, south of Teima, are given pp. 21 sqq.).

61. Philo Byblius in his work ‘On the Jews,’ as quoted by Eusebius (Præp. Evang. i, 10), stated that ‘Kronos, whom the Phœnicians call El, the king of the country, who was afterwards deified in the planet Saturn, had an only son by a nymph of the country called Anôbret. This son was named Yeud, which signifies in Phœnician an only son. His country having fallen into distress during a war, Kronos clothed his son in royal robes, raised an altar, and sacrificed him upon it.’ In his account of the Phœnician mythology, the same writer describes the sacrifice a little differently: ‘A plague and a famine having occurred, Kronos sacrificed his only son to his father the Sky, circumcised himself, and obliged his companions to do the same’ (Euseb. l. c.).

62. Records of the Past, new ser., v. p. 49, No. 81.

63. L’Imagerie Phénicienne (1880), p. 105.

64. Which may also be read ayyal or ‘hart.’

65. See my Races of the Old Testament, pp. 130 sq.

66. See my Races of the Old Testament, pp. 127, 132, where a photograph is given of Professor Flinders Petrie’s cast of the Ashkelon profiles.

67. Black Obelisk, lines 60, 61, compared with Monolith Inscription, ll. 90-95.

68. One feddan or acre contained 1800 sari (Reisner in the Zeitschrift für Assyriologie, xi. 4, p. 421). The area was not great, though it was calculated that not more than 120 sari could be ploughed by a single ox.

69. Published by Strassmaier in the Transactions of the Fifth Oriental Congress, ii. 1, Append. pp. 14, 15; a translation will be found in Peiser’s Altbabylonische Urkunden in the Keilschriftliche Bibliothek, iv. p. 7. The tablet was found at Tel-Sifr.

70. Published by Meissner, Beiträge zum altbabylonischen Privatrecht, No. 43 (with corrections by Pinches); a translation is given by Peiser, Keilschriftliche Bibliothek, iv. pp. 23-25.

71. Gen. xxiii. 18. The Hebrew expression ‘In the presence of’ is the same as that which is translated ‘Witnessed by’ in the Babylonian documents.

72. Babylonian shaqâlu kaspa, Hebrew shâqal [eth-hak-] keseph.

73. According to Professor Flinders Petrie, the heavy maneh or mina as fixed by Dungi and restored by Nebuchadrezzar weighed 978,309 grammes. An example of it is now in the British Museum. See Lehmann in the Verhandlungen der Anthropologischen Gesellschaft, 1893, p. 27.

74. The identification is, however, doubtful, since only potsherds of the Roman period are visible at Umm Jerâr, which, moreover, according to Palmer (Name-lists in the Survey of Western Palestine, p. 420), is merely Umm el-Jerrâr, ‘the mother of water-pots.’

75. Beti-ilu (Winckler’s Tel el-Amarna Letters, Nos. 51, 125) is associated with Tunip and the country of Nukhassê. The reading of the name is not quite certain, however, as it may be transcribed Batti-ilu or Mitti-ilu. A Babylonian of the Abrahamic age also has the name of Beta-ili.

76. The title seems to have been of Horite origin (see Gen. xxxvi. 21, 29, 30).

77. It is noticeable that the Edomite leader who was carried captive to Egypt by Ramses III. after he had destroyed ‘the tents’ of ‘the Shasu in Seir,’ is entitled ‘chieftain,’ and not ‘king.’ There is a portrait of him on the walls of Medînet Habu at Thebes.

78. For another explanation of the name, see Gen. xxv. 26; Hos. xii. 3.

79. Jacob-el is written Ya’akub-ilu; Joseph-el, Yasupu-ilu and Yasup-il, which is found in a list of slaves of the same early age (Bu. 91-5-9, 324). In the same list mention is made of land belonging to Adunum, the Heb. adon, and to Nakha-ya, which is a parallel formation to the Heb. Noah. In a tablet dated in the reign of Zabium, the founder of the dynasty to which Khammu-rabi or Amraphel belonged, we find the name of Ya-kh-ku-ub-il, i.e. Ya’qub-il (Bu. 91-5-9, 387).

80. Iqib-ilu and Asupi-ilu.

81. See Records of the Past, new ser., v. pp. 48, 51.

82. One of the scarabs of Ya’qob-el is in the Egyptian Museum of University College, London. El is written h(a)l.

83. On the summit of the hill above Beitîn, the ancient Beth-On or Beth-el, the strata of limestone rock take the form of vast steps rising one above the other.

84. Cf. the article of Mr. Pinches on ‘Gifts to a Babylonian Bit-ili’ in the Babylonian and Oriental Record, ii. 6.

85. See, for example, Peiser, Texte juristischen und geschäftlichen Inhalts (Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, iv.), p. 49, No. iii., where Ubarum hires himself out to Ana-Samas-litsi for a month, for half a shekel of silver.

86. Records of the Past, new ser., v. p. 169.

87. Deut. xxxii. 15. See also Deut. xxxiii. 5, 26; Isa. xliv. 2.

88. According to immemorial tradition, the site of the field is marked by Jacob’s Well (S. John iv. 6). Dr. Masterman in the Quarterly Statement of the Palestine Exploration Fund, April 1897, gives for the first time a satisfactory explanation why this deep well, which is often dry in summer, should have been sunk in the neighbourhood of a number of springs:—‘The springs have probably always belonged to the townsfolk (since they became settled); and, in the case of any wandering tribes with considerable flocks among them, it is exceedingly probable that the more settled inhabitants would first resent and then resist the new-comers marching twice daily into their midst to water their flocks at their springs, Probably any experienced nomad with such flocks, accustomed to such a country as this, would know pretty surely where he might, from the conformation of the hills, expect to find water. If, then, a quarrel arose, what more probable than that he should seek to make himself independent of these disagreeable neighbours. Further, if we can accept the tradition, we have, in the story of Jacob, two special facts connected with this: firstly, he bought a piece of ground on which he could make a well for himself; and then we gather from Genesis xxxiv. that his family made themselves sufficiently obnoxious to the Shechemites to make it very necessary for Jacob to be independent of their permission to use their springs.’