city of Khalavunni[1] has made promises to him: both have fought with Biridasia against me. Wickedly they vex us. I have marched our kinsmen—the people of Neboyapiza—but his success never fails . . . and he rebels. As for me from . . . and he sends out from . . . the city Dimasca (Damascus) behold . . . they complain . . . they afflict. I am complaining to the King of Egypt as a servant; and Arzaiaia is marching to the city Gizza,[2] and Azi(ru) takes soldiers. . . . The Lord of the city Saddu[3] declares for the men of blood, and her chief does not declare for the King my Lord; and as far as this tribe marches it has afflicted the land of Gizza. Arzaiaia with Biridasia afflicts the land (which is wretched? or Abitu), and the King witnesses the division of his land. Let not men who have been hired disturb her. Lo! my brethren have fought for me. As for me, I will guard the town of Cumidi (Kamid), the city of the King my Lord. But truly the King fogets his servant . . . his servant, O King . . . have arrayed kings . . . the men of the wretched land” (or of the land Abitu).
152 B—“. . . thus Ara (ga?) chief of the city Cumidi[4] (Kamid) . . . at the feet of the King my Lord seven times seven times I bow. Behold as to me I am thy faithful servant: let the King my Lord ask of his Pakas (chiefs) as to me, a faithful servant of the King my Lord, one whom they have ruined. Truly I am a faithful servant of the King my Lord, and let the King my Lord excuse this dog, and let him (bear me in remembrance?). But never a horse and never a chariot is mine, and let this be considered in sight of the King my Lord; and closely allied[5] is his servant; and to explain this I am despatching my son to the land of the King my Lord, and let the King my Lord deign to hear me.”
46 B. M.—“At the feet of the King my Lord seven and seven (times) I bow. Behold what this our saying tells, as to
- ↑ “Khalavunni,” or Halabunni, is the Helbon of the Bible (Ezek. xxvii. 18), now Helbon, north of Damascus, and five miles north of the middle of the pass. It must have been an important city because of the term “King.” It was noted for wine, not only in Ezekiel’s time, but, as Strabo mentions, the kings of Persia brought wine from Chalybon.
- ↑ “Gizza” is perhaps the important town Jezzin, in the Lebanon, southwest of Kamid, unless it be Jizeh, in Bashan, between Edrei and Bozrah.
- ↑ “Saddu” is perhaps Nebi Shit, south of Baalbek, or possibly, though less probably, Sh’ait, south of Kamid, on the southwest slope of Hermon.
- ↑ “Cumidi,” or Kamid, was important as a central station between Damascus and the coast cities of Sidon and Beirut.
- ↑ Or, perhaps, “hard-pressed.”
