Highlighting the Background to the History of the Time of Jehoram, King of Jerusalem (853-841 BC). |
| Old Arabic Phrases of the Islamic Period The Story of Job The Story of the Death of Holofernes" |
 | "Moreover the Lord stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines and the Arabians, that were near the Ethiopians; and they came up into Judah, and brake into it, and carried away all the substance that was found in the king's house, and his sons also, and his wives; so that there was never a son left to him save Jehoahaz, the youngest of his sons." 2.Chronicles 21:16-17 |
| There is no question that we find Judah here in a dangerous state. As Peter James wrote, that the situation for Judah was so dangerous and on the verge of collapse is |
| "amply reflected in the desperate letters of Abdi-Hiba, full of pleas to his Egyptian overlord [Akhnaton] for the troops needed to defend his fiefdom" `Let the king ... my lord, send troops of archers, for the king has no hands left.' El Amarna Letter #286 |
| EA 288 is most useful for the geographical information it supplies. James wrote: |
| "Abdi-Hiba defines the extent of the revolts against his authority: `Let my king take thought for his land ... is lost; in its entirety it is taken from me; there is war against me, as far as the lands of Seir and as far as Gath-Carmel (Gath-Carmel and Seir Edom are almost certainly Gath, one of the 5 old Philistine capitals, and possibly the same as Libnah)' ... From EA letter 289 we learn that Gath-Carmel was now in the hands of Tagu, an ally of Milkuli of Gezer: "Behold the land of the town of Gath-Carmel, it belongs to Tagu ..." |
| James regarded this letter 289 as a complaint of Jehoram to the pharaoh that all his subject territories from Edom to Philistia had revolted against him. Two questions come to mind: |
| 1. 2. | Did the Arabians attack together with the Philistines? or was one group responsible for the sacking of Jehoram's palace, and the other for invading Judah? Who were these Arabians that were near the Ethiopians [Cushites]? 2.Chronicles 22:1 is concerned with the succession after Jehoram and suggests that it was the Arabs, rather than the Philistines, who were responsible for the looting of Jehoram's palace and the murder of his sons. |
| "Then the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah his youngest son king in his stead: for the band of men that came with the Arabians to the camp had slain all the eldest..." |
| It could be that the clipped account here has run together the actions of the Philistines, in invading Judah, and the Arabs, in sacking Jehoram's palace, its brevity obscuring the distinction between the two. We know from literary and archaeological records that there were Arabian colonies in Ethiopia. What better description could the chronicler have used then to write `the Arabians that were near the Cushites (Ethiopians).' In conventional history, Egypt was a separate state from Ethiopia during the time of Jehoram, and was ruled by the Libyan pharaoh Takeloth II, who conducted no military campaigns into Palestine. Is it credible that a band of Arab raiders, coming from Cush, worked their way through his Libyan kingdom and into the heart of Judah? Or that a band from south-eastern Arabia were so far from their homeland and somehow in a position to plunder the king's palace? The synchronized chronology solves this problem entirely, and makes good sense out of the biblical narrative. Amenhotep III was the ruler of Ethiopia as well as Palestine. .. After the suppression of a revolt in his 5th year, the south of Egypt was at peace, and Amenhotep was able to construct two massive temples near the 3rd Nile cataract. Troops were conscripted by him in Ethiopia and these were used in Palestine, as we know from the letters of Rib-Addi of Gubla: |
| "If the heart of the king, my lord, is in favour of Gubla, then let my lord send 400 soldiers and 100 people of the Kasi lands that they may protect Gubla, the city of my lord." |
| The term `Kasi' is acknowledged to mean `Cush' or `Ethiopians'. These Arabians than were conscripts of the Egyptian army stationed in Palestine. It now remains to examine the EA letters of Abdi-Hiba for an account of a Philistine invasion, coupled with a sack of his palace by rioting troops from the `lands of Kasi', in order to leave no doubt that Jehoram of Judah was Abdi-Hiba of the EA letters. EA 287 describes the Philistine invasion in which Milkilu of Gezer and Tagu of Gath-Carmel, supported by the people from the lands of Ashkelon and Lachish, invaded Abdi-Hiba's kingdom and `caused their troops to enter the town of Rubutu'. EA 290 describes a later stage of their advance, when they were joined by the rebel Shuwardata of Keilah. - - The account of Jehoram of Judah in the Bible is found in 2.Kings 1:17; 8:16-20; 2.Chronicles 21: 1-20. The account of Jehoram, son of Ahab of Samaria, is found in 2.Kings 1:17; 3:1ff; 9:24; 2.Chr. 22:5-7. |
| "They rushed troops of Gezer, troops of Gath and troops of Keilah: They took the land of Rubutu; the land of the king went over to the `Apiru people.'" |
| According to the letter even Jerusalem itself came under grave threat. The Moabites did not reach Jerusalem. But the royal palace was looted during Jehoram's reign, EA 287: |
| "With reference to the Nubians [Kasi], let my king ask the commissioners whether my house is not very strong! Yet they attempted a very great crime; they took their implements and breached ... of the roof. If they send into the land of Jerusalem troops, let them come up with an Egyptian officer for regular service. Let my king take heed for them - for all the lands are impoverished by them - and let my king requisition for them much grain, much oil and much clothing ... the men of the land of Nubia have committed an evil deed against me; I was almost killed by the men of the land of Nubia in my own house. Let the king call them to account. Seven times and seven times let the king, my lord, avenge me." |  View of Gath many years ago |
| The impact this striking biblical incident had upon conventionally bound scholars can be seen from this reference by James: A commentator on 2.Chronicles 21:17 could hardly believe the Biblical claim that the Arabs `that were near the Cushites' had actually sacked Jehoram's palace: |
| " `This curious verse can hardly signify that the Arabians took and plundered Jerusalem' .. |
| But the letters of Abdi-Hiba confirm that this was actually done by the `men from the land of Kasi'. Evidently they had been stationed in Jerusalem as a garrison, but their Egyptian master had neglected to supply them with provisions, and they took to plundering... `for all the lands are impoverished by them.' Their looting of Abdi-Hiba's palace was evidently part of a concerted plan of the Philistines, timed to coincide with their own invasion of Judah.'" Interestingly enough a south Arabian name monograph was found on at least three locally (Jerusalem) made pottery sherds in which on one of the sherds the letter `lamed' was combined twice with the letter `khet' to create the monograph shown. Thus the name can be read as `khll'. [BAR, Mar/Apr 1988, p. 22] If these sherds are sufficient evidence to place at some, so far unknown period of time, ancient Arabian people into Jersualem the reader can decide. But our story shows they could have been there in the middle of the 9th century BC. The same distinctive circumstances could not have befallen two different kings of Jerusalem, separated in time one from the other by some 500 years, one described in the EA letters and the other in the scriptures. Bibliography 1. See Peter James article, `The Dating of the El Amarna Letters,' SIS Review (Society for Interdisciplinary Studies), Vol. II, No. 3, (London, 1977/78), pp. 80-85. |
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