7. and I am very, very glad, 8. and my land and my brethren, 9. the servants of the king, my lord, 10. and the servants of Dûdu, my lord, 11. are very, very glad, 12. when there comes 13. the breath of the king, my lord, 14. unto me. From the words 15. of my lord, my god, my sun-god, 16. and from the words of Dûdu, 17. my lord, I shall not depart. 18. My lord, truly Khatib 19. stands with me. 20. I and he will come. 21. My lord, the king of the Hittites 22. has come into Nukhashshi, 23. so that I cannot come. 24. Would that the king of the Hittites would depart! 25. Then truly I would come, 26. I and Khatib. The Aziru of these letters was the chieftain or petty king of the Amorites, who were living at the time to the eastward of Phoenicia, between the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon mountains. The way in which he addresses Dûdu is significant. Dûdu is classed continually with the king. Aziru fears to offend Dûdu as he fears to offend the king; the words of Dûdu are of equal importance with those of the king. Dûdu clearly occupied a position of power with the king of Egypt similar to that ascribed to Joseph in Genesis 41. Moreover, Dûdu is a Semitic name; vocalized a little differently, it becomes David. The king to whom this letter was written was Amenophis III or Amenophis IV, in whose reigns Semitic influence was especially strong in Egypt. Amenophis III took as his favorite wife a woman named Tiy, daughter of Yuaa and Tuau, whose mummies, discovered a few years ago, show, some think, that they were Semitic. Queen Tiy was very influential during the reign of her son, Amenophis IV, and was in part the cause of the remarkable religious reform which he undertook (Part I, Chapter I, §6 (vii)). It is not, accordingly, strange to find that the chief minister of one of these kings was a Semite. Of course, Dûdu cannot be identified with Joseph, but his career shows that such careers as that of Joseph were not impossible at this period of Egyptian history. 5. The Seven Years of Famine. The following inscription was found cut on a rock between the island of Elephantine and the First Cataract, and was first published by Brugsch in 1891. It is written in hieroglyphic characters, and was apparently inscribed in the reign of Ptolemy X, 117-89 B. C. It relates how King Zoser, of the third dynasty, who began to reign about 2980 B. C., nearly 2,800 years before the inscription was written, appealed to Khnum, the god of Elephantine, because of a famine. The part of the text which interests us is as follows:1 "I am very anxious on account of those who are in the palace. My heart is in great anxiety on account of misfortune, for in my time the Nile has not overflowed for a period of seven years. There is scarcely any produce of the field; herbage fails; eatables are wanting. Every man robs his neighbor. Men move (?) with nowhere to go. The children cry, the young people creep along (?). The aged heart is bowed down; their limbs are crippled; they sit (?) on the earth. Their arms are. . . . . . The people of the court are at their wits' end. The store-houses (?) were built, but..........and all that was in them has been consumed." As Brugsch2 saw, this inscription gives a graphic account of the suffering caused by seven such years of famine as are said to have occurred in the time of Joseph (Gen. 41 : 30, 54, ff.). It cannot be the same seven-year famine as that referred to in Genesis, as it is placed several centuries too early to coincide with the time of Joseph. As the inscription is about 2,800 years later than the event it describes, its historical accuracy might be questioned, but it is probable that it was a renewal of an earlier inscription. But even if its historical accuracy be impugned, it witnesses to a native Egyptian tradition that such famines were possible. 1 Translated from the German rendering of Ranke in Gressmann's Altorientalische Texte und Bilder zum Alten Testament, Tübingen, 1909, p. 223. * See his Sieben Jahre der Hungersnol, 1891. 6. Inscription Showing Preparation for Famine. Inscription of Baba of El-Kab1 "The chief at the table of the sovereign, Baba, the risen again, speaks thus: I loved my father; I honored my mother; my brothers and sisters loved me. I went out of the door of my house with a benevolent heart; I stood there with refreshing hand; splendid were my preparations of what I collected for the festal day. Mild was (my) heart, free from violent anger. The gods bestowed upon me abundant prosperity upon earth. The city wished me health and a life of full enjoyment. I punished the evil-doers. The children who stood before me in the town during the days which I fulfilled were great and small-60; just as many beds were provided for them, just as many chairs (?), just as many tables (?). They all consumed 120 ephahs of durra, the milk of 3 cows, 52 goats, and 9 she-asses, a hin of balsam, and 2 jars of oil. "My words may seem a jest to the gainsayer, but I call the god Mut to witness that what I say is true. I had all this prepared in my house; in addition I put cream in the store-chamber and beer in the cellar in a more than sufficient number of hin-measures. "I collected corn as a friend of the harvest-god. I was watchful in time of sowing. And when a famine arose, lasting many years, I distributed corn to the city each year of famine." The Baba who wrote this inscription lived under the eighteenth Egyptian dynasty, about 1500 B. C., or a little before. Brugsch pointed out many years ago that Baba's concluding statement forms an interesting parallel to the conduct of Joseph as told in Gen. 41:47-57. Baba claims to have done for his city, El-Kab, what Joseph is said to have done for all Egypt. His statement affords striking evidence of the historical reality of famines in Egypt, and of such economic preparation for them. 1 From Brugsch's Egypt under the Pharaohs, London, 1881, I, 303, f. CHAPTER XI PALESTINE IN THE PATRIARCHAL AGE THE TALE OF SINUHE. COMMUNICATION BETWEEN EGYPT AND PALESTINE. 1. The Tale of Sinuhe. In the year 1970 B. C., when Amenemhet I died and was succeeded by Sesostris I, an Egyptian of high rank, named Sinuhe, for some reason now unknown to us, fled from Egypt to Asia. The details of his escape from Egypt are not of interest to the Biblical student, but his description of the hardships encountered in the desert and of his experiences in eastern Palestine are of great value, as they afford us our earliest description of that country outside the Bible. The following extract begins just after Sinuhe had told how he escaped the guards in the fort which stood at the eastern frontier of Egypt.1 I went on at the time of evening, As the earth brightened, I arrived at Peten. I said: "This is the taste of death." I upheld my heart, I drew my limbs together, As I heard the sound of lowing cattle, I beheld the Bedawin. That chief among them, who had been in Egypt, recognized me. He gave me water, he cooked for me milk. I went with him to his tribe, Good was that which they did (for me). One land sent me on to another, I loosed for Suan,3 I arrived at Kedem;4 I spent a year and a half there. 1 From Breasted's Ancient Records, Egypt, I, p. 237, ff. 'An Egyptian name of the northern extension of the Gulf of Suez. Some Egyptian trading-post in Asia. An early name for the region east of the Jordan and the Dead Sea. It is called Kedemah in Gen. 25: 15 and 1 Chron. 1:30; Kedemoth in Deut. 2: 26, and translated "East" in Judges 6:3, 33; 7: 12; 8: 10, 11. In Gen. and Chron. the name is applied to a person. Emuienshe,1 that sheik of Upper [Ru]tenu,2 brought me forth The Egyptians, who were there with him, bare witness of me. The Amorite chieftain then questioned Sinuhe concerning his flight. He gave evasive answers, merging with his reply a long hymn in praise of the king. After this Emuienshe said to him: "Behold, thou shalt now abide with me; Barley was there and spelt, Without end all cattle. Moreover, great was that which came to me, Which came for love of me, When he appointed me sheik of the tribe, From the choicest of his land. I portioned the daily bread, And wine for every day, Cooked flesh and fowl in roast; Besides the wild goats of the hills, Which were trapped for me, and brought to me; Besides that which my dogs captured for me. There was much-made for me, And milk in every sort of cooked dish. I spent many years, My children became strong, Each the mighty man of his tribe. The messenger going north, Or passing southward to the court, He turned in to me. For I had all men turn in (to me). The tale goes on concerning the personal prowess of Sinuhe, who, in his old age, returned to Egypt and made his peace with the king. This is an Amorite name, Ammi-anshi. It shows that the Amorites were already in this region. Later the Hebrews found Sihon, the Amorite here; see Num. 21: 21, ff. and Deut. 1: 4, ff. The Egyptian name for the higher parts of Palestine and Syria. The Egyptians had no l; they always used instead. The name is identical with the Hebrew Lotan, Gen. 36: 20, of which Lot is a shorter form. Perhaps the same name as Aiah (Ajah) of Gen. 36: 24 and 1 Chron. 1 : 40. |