The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1891-02-06
LETTERS OLDER THAN soLo..


His Fathers Birth Dug Up In Egypt
The SmithsoniaA Institution has iustre-
ceived information. not yet printed or
made public in this country. of the re-
cent discovery at Tell-el-Amaria, in up
per Egypt, Of a number of tablets RE-
lating to the history of Jerusalem and
dating back 600 years earlier than any
records hitherto known. When it is
understood that these tablets of stone
are letters passed between the King Of
Jerusalem and the Pharaoh of Egypt 400
years before the birth of David, who
was the father of Solomon, some notion
will be formed Of their extreme interest.
These letters were written, so DR.. Cyrus
Adler says, about the year 1900 B. G.,
and cast a great light upon the relations
of Egypt at that ancient epoch. This
of course, was long before Jerusalem
was captured by the Jews
At that time Palestine was fedora
ton of independent cities. each of which,
like Jerusalem, was governed by spre-
fect"-this word meaning literally @king
of city. Nevertheless, these towns
paid tribute to the Pharaoh, and it was
in relation to this tribute that several of
he letters found were addressed to the
ruler of Egypt by the King Of Jerusa-
lem, Abdi- Taba. In them he tries to
Explain, with due respect, that he occu-
pies more independent position than
the other projects and oughtto be treated
accordingly. For example, in one mis-
siye he says:
Behold, this city Of Jerusalem neither
my father nor my mother has given
unto me, but the call Of mighty
King.
This refers to the ancient custom in
Palestine by which the rulers were
sometimes chosen in consequence of
supposed Divine call and without any
reference to hereditary law. Having
been summoned to his throne by the
Deity, Abdi.Taba argued that he should
be treated more leniently with regard to
tribute In another Of the letters he
says:
Behold, neither my father nor my
mother has appointed me in this
place, but the call Of the mighty King
has made me enter into the house of my
fathers. !"
That the @mighty King" spoken of
was the Deity is proven by the fact that
to him as authority is referred an ora
Gle Inscribed upon another tablet, which
says that: AS long as ship sails upon
the sea, SO long will Mesopotamia and
Babylonia conquer.
The chief aim of the three other let
ters written by Abdi-Taba is to ask the
Pharaoh for military aid against for
eign conquerors invading Palestine, and
especially the district of Jerusalem
These warlike strangers he calls people
of Habiri-in other words, they were
Hebrews 1t seems hardly probable that
the Hebrews as nation should have in
vaded Palestine at SO early date. and so
1t is likely that these were some adj
vanced tribes of Israel which settled
down west of the Jordan and made in
cursions from time to time. In one of
the letters on the subject Abdi-T
says:
4The Habiri people are conquering
the cities Of the kingr--i e., the cities
tributary to the Pharaoh therefore
the king may turn his face to his sub
J0Stc, duu 5CAu GoOpss ~ unC uAVDkt2
arrive this year, the countries of the
king. my lord, may be saved, but if no
troops arrive the countries of the king,
my lord, will exist no longer
This tremendous @find" at Tell-el-
Amaria includes 200 tablets. largely of
Babylonian cuneiform script, which is
thus discovered for the first time to
have been used in Egypt and Palestine.
Many of the other tablets are dis
patches of about the same date from
projects of other cities of Palestine to
the Pharaoh. Some of the inscriptions
are in an unknown language, which no
one has been able to translate. It is
funny to think that Solomon himself
would have looked upon these tablets
as remote antiquities