“But do service to the King thy Lord and live. And thou thyself knowest that the King does not deem needful a subjection of the land of Canaan.[1] So he is wroth. And as I sent, truly was commanded me of the King my Lord this year and not . . . in another year. My son (this) contumacy in the sight of the King thy Lord is vain.
“And now the King thy Lord is anxious as to thee this year. If it is difficult for thee to come, then send thy son. And thou beholdest a King at whose commands many lands tremble: and dost not thou (fear?): thus truly is ordered this year concerning us; failing to go to the presence of the King thy Lord, send thy son to the King thy Lord as a hostage, and let him not delay at all.
“And now the King thy Lord hears, for I send to the King. Thus truly has the King commanded me—Khanni—a second time a messenger of the King. Truly it is to fetch to his hands men who are the foes of his house. Behold now I have been sent, as they are troublous; and moreover thou shalt bind them, and shalt not leave one among them. Now I am desired by the King thy Lord to name the men who are foes of the King in the letter from Khanni the King’s messenger; and once more I am obeying the King thy Lord; and thou shalt not leave one among them. A chain of bronze exceeding heavy shall shackle their feet. Behold the men thou shalt fetch to the King thy Lord. Sarru with all his sons; Tuia; Lieia with all his sons: Pisyari[2] with all his sons: the son-in-law of Mania with all his sons, with his wives, the women of his household: the chief of Pabaha,[3] whose wickedness is abhorred, who made the trumpet to be blown: Dasarti: Paluma: Numahe—a fugitive in the land of the Amorites.
“And knowest thou not that the glory of the King is as the Sun in heaven; his soldiers and his chariots are many. From the shore lands to the land of Gutium,[4] from the rising of the
- ↑ “Canaan” in these letters, as on the Phœnician coins and in the Bible, is used in its strict sense as a geographical term for the “lowlands” of Phœnica and Philistia.
- ↑ “Pisyari” appears to be a Hittite name, like the “Pisiris” of an Assyrian inscription (Schrader), being the Mongol “bisir” (“rich”), with the indefinite nominative in s, which marks the Hittite as a non-Semitic tongue. The other names are also apparently non-Semitic and may refer to Hittites.
- ↑ “Pabahaa” is perhaps the “Papaa,” conquered by Thothmes III (Karnak List, No. 296), which was somewhere in North Syria, not far from Tunip. The wickedness of this chief is said to have caused the war.
- ↑ Gutium, mentioned in Assyrian texts, was a country on the northeast, near the Caucasus. It has been compared with the word “Goim,” for “Gentiles,” in Hebrew. Perhaps “Jebel Judi” (“Ararat”) is intended, being Dusratta’s country allied to Egypt.
