It is seen that the spade has made wonder ful revelations, widening immensely the horizon of Palestinian history, but has dug up little of direct bearing on the Bible, beyond a long array of objets d'art too numerous to mention or even classify. Civilization after civilization, often of no mean order, is revealed surging over Canaan, the Hebrew monarchy (1000-586) appearing only as comparatively brief inter lude in the grand drama of history. The He brews themselves seem to be of dubious antece dents and connections, and we are startled at recalling the repeated charge of Ezekiel (apinst Jerusalem) : '
When we turn to the West and ask con cerning the early Egyptian connections of Israel, the gleaning is scanty. uSargon the mighty king, Icing of Agade tells of his ex posure uin a basket of reeds° and of his rescue by aAkki, waterman.° There need be no copy ing of this in the account of Moses, but rather independent elaboration of a favorite motif ; the Freudians, of course, understand it all as a part of the dream-myth of the hero-birth, the basket as the womb, and etc. Hitherto, King Merenptah (1225-15) has enjoyed the ill-fame of being the Pharaoh of the Exodus; but in 1896 Petrie discovered a stele inscribed with his roman of triumph in which, proclaiming his victory over Lybians, Hittites, Canaan, Plice nicia, he adds: alitzrael is wasted, his seed (fruit, crops?) is not.° Yet it is uncertain, f rom the absence of the udeterminative,° whether a settled people be meant. In any case, the implication that Israel had been overthrown in Palestine is puzzling and seems to call for revision of previous ideas. Hardly less be wildering is the frequent reference in the Tell el-Amarna lettersi. (to Amenophis III and IV, from the vassal King of Jerusalem, Abdi Hipa) to the inroads of Habiri, who seem to be Hebrews, nearly 150 years before the sup posed Exodus. The implication seems to be that the Hebrew invasion was a century-long process with no apparent outset from Egypt — a view not antecedently improbable. Of nearly the same date is a letter exhumed by Sellin at Tell el-Taaneh (1903) and containing the proper name Ahi-ya-mi, apparently the Babylonian for the Hebrew Ahijah or Ahi-Yahveh, attesting (as Barton thinks) the knowledge of the Holy Name Yahveh at the early period in Canaan.
Of somewhat similar purport is the dis covery of the name "Yakub-ilu" (in Hebrew, Jacob-el) of three men in Babylonia as early as 2161-44. Under Hammurapi, a fourth gave his father's name as Yakub, the first antedating "Abarame by 190, the last by 75 years. Seven hundred years later (1478-46) Thothmes III records the conquest in Palestine of a city Jacob-el (in Egyptian Ici-1-b'-ra), which com bined with the biblical history of Jacob sug gests the partial derivation of the Chosen People in Palestine from immigrants from the North East. Similar conjecture is suggested by the similar presence in a Babylonian document (c. 2200) of the name Yashub-ilu (Joseph-el), along with the city name Ya-sha-p'-ra (Jo seph( ?)-el) in Thothmes' list. The Bible ac count seems to point toward a powerful more or less independent Josephine element in the Chosen Race. The touching story of Joseph and his temptation is remark-ably paralleled in the Egyptian (Tale of the Two Brothers) (writ ten for the crown-prince, afterward Seti II, 1209-05), as well as in the case of Bellerophon and Anteia (IL vi, 160ff) and elsewhere; but again it does not seem to be borrowing, but rather independent exploiting of an obvious and favorite motif. Among the El-Amarna Letters are two of the Amorite vassal, Aziru, to Dfidu (Hebrew, David), a Semite, apparently all-powerful favorite of the ICing Amenophis. Again, an inscription published by Brugsch (1f391); dating from Ptolemy X (117-89), tells how King Zoser (2980) prayed to Khnum, god of Yeb, in time of famine, caused by the Nile's failure to overflow for seven years, while an other inscription of Baba (1500) tells how he prepared his city of El-Kab against such a famine, distributed'corn, etc., much as we read of Joseph. Whence it appears that the historical background upon which the pleasing picture in Genesis is painted is sufficiently justified and exact.
If the illumination shed by archwology on the times of the patriarchs and the Exodus is faint, scattered and uncertain, the light cast on the period of the Judges is almost "dark ness visible." Only a remarkable report of one Wen-Amon, sent from Egypt to procure logs from Lebanon "for the great and august barge of Amon-Re," might do honor to a modern consul or special envoy and sets forth in lively hues the difficulties and dangers of primitive commerce; but beyond confirming the repute of Lebanon, attesting the disorganizaticin of the maritime Palestinian dependencies of Egypt, and presenting a parallel to "Saul also among the prophets') in a noble youth whom "the god seized and cast into frenzy," this admirable state paper offers no points of contact with the contemporary Israel of Gideon and Deborah. The fame of the Lebanon cedars far antedates these Judges. Nearly 2500 years B.C. Gudea, the noted ruler of the Babylonian Lagash, in re storing the temple of Ningirsu, ((brought from Amanus, mountain of cedar, cedar wood whereof the length was 60 cubits," as well as "great cut stones from Umanu . . . mountain of Amorites." Such was the enterprise of the ancients! Not till after the establishment of the monarchy does the Hebrew step forth clearly into the light . of 'profane history. Sheshonk I (954-924)i the Shishak of I ICings xiv, 25, having plundered Jerusalem in the fifth year of Rehoboam, pictured his vic:tory on the walls of his pylon at the Karnak temple, affix ing a list of conquered towns, 120 still. legible:. indicating conquests of both Southern and Northern kingdoms, even beyond Jordan. Ashurnasirpal (884-860) boasts, "In the great sea I washed my weapons," but seems to have passed by Canaan. But his son, Shalmeneser III (860-825) claims, perhaps with exaggera tion, to have vanquished (854) an extensive alliance including "2,000 chariots, 10,000 men of Ahab, the Israelite" and "1,200 c.hariots, 1,200 horsemen, 20,000 men of Hadad-Idris (Ben hadael, in 1 Kings the determined foe of Ahab). This king has chronicled many campaigns and set up a black obelisk depicting "Jehu son of Omri," of whom be °received tribute," bowed and kneeling before him. Scripture is 'silent concerning. those exploits. Again Adad-ninni (810-782), unnamed in the Bible, b'oasts of hav ing ((conquered . . . the land of Omri . . . to the coasts of the great sea." •The warlike Tig lath-pileser IV, whose inscriptions were sadly marred by Esarhaddon, vaunts a victory over "Azariah the Yaudean," "of Yaudip (738), but this was perhaps Azariah of Yadi in North Syria, named again in Sargon's inscription of 717; the Assyrian conqueror is the Pul to whom Menahem of Israel "gave a thousand talents of silver)) as tribute, the price of his throne. Six years later, Pul swept again in full triumph over the west, Judah being saved only. by the tribute by (Jeho) Altar (2 Kings rin, 7-10), presented in person at Damascns. The muti lated inscription declares "The country of die house of Omri . . . all its people . . . I carried away unto Assyria. Pekah their king they had overthrown. Hoshea . . . over them I placed. 10 talents of gold . . . talents of silver I re ceived as tribute from them? This greatly overlaps the statement of 2 Kings xv, •29. Hoshea rebelled, and Shalmeneser V. (727-22) besieged him in Samaria but did not live till his capture, recorded by Sargon (721-706) for "my first year,"— "27,290 people from its midst I carried captive," which accords reasonably well with 2 Kings xvii, 1-6.