[32]. See my Higher Criticism and the Verdict of the Monument, pp. 160, 161.
[33]. Recent discoveries have made it clear that the Amraphel of Genesis is the Khammu-rabi of the cuneiform texts. Khammu-rabi is also written Ammu-rabi (Bu. 88-5-12, 199, l. 17), and Dr. Lindl has pointed out that the final syllable of Amraphel is the Babylonian ilu, ‘god,’ a title which is frequently attached to the name of Khammu-rabi. We learn from the Tel el-Amarna tablets that in the pronunciation of Western Asia a Babylonian b often became p.
[34]. Pinches, Certain Inscriptions and Records referring to Babylonia and Elam, a paper read before the Victoria Institute, Jan. 7, 1896; see also Hommel, The Ancient Hebrew Tradition, pp. 180 sqq.
[35]. Some Assyriologists interpret Manda as ‘much’ or ‘many’; in this case Umman Manda, ‘much people,’ will be still more literally the Hebrew Goyyim.
[36]. Dr. Scheil, the discoverer of the letters of Khammu-rabi to Sin-idinnam which are now in the Museum at Constantinople, gives the following translations of them (Recueil de Travaux relatifs à la Philologie et à l’Archéologie égyptiennes et assyriennes, xix. 1, 2, pp. 40-44): (1) ‘To Sin-idinnam Khammu-rabi says: I send you as a present (the images of) the goddesses of the land of Emutbalum as a reward for your valour on the day (of the defeat) of Kudur-Laghghamar. If (the enemy) trouble you, destroy their forces with the troops at your disposal, and let the images be restored in safety to their (old) habitations.’ (2) ‘To Sin-idinnam Khammu-rabi says: When you have seen this letter, you will understand in regard to Amil-Samas and Nur-Nintu, the sons of Gisdubba, that if they are in Larsa, or in the territory of Larsa, you will order them to be sent away, and that a trusty official shall take them and bring them to Babylon.’ (3) ‘To Sin-idinnam Khammu-rabi says: As to the officials who have resisted you in the accomplishment of their work, do not impose upon them any additional task, but oblige them to do what they ought to have done, and then remove them from the influence of him who has brought them.’ All three letters were found at Senkereh, the ancient Larsa. Fragments of some other letters of Khammu-rabi are in the possession of Lord Amherst of Hackney. See above, p. [12].
[37]. Nicolaus of Damascus, in Josephus Antiq. i. 7, 2.
[38]. See my Patriarchal Palestine, pp. 160, 165. The figure and name of the god Salimmu, written in cuneiform characters, are on a gem now in the Hermitage at St. Petersburg. The same god, under the name of Shalman, is mentioned on a stela discovered at Sidon, and under that of Selamanês in the inscriptions of Shêkh Barakât, north-west of Aleppo (Clermont-Ganneau, Études d’Archéologie orientale in the Bibliothèque de l’École des Hautes Études, cxiii. vol. ii. pp. 36, 48; Sayce in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archeology, xix. 2. p. 74).
[39]. As Professor Hommel says (Expository Times, Nov. 1896, p. 95), ‘The “Mighty King” cannot possibly be the Pharaoh.’ But he seems to me to introduce an unnecessary element of complication into the subject by supposing that in the Tel el-Amarna letters the epithet has been transferred to the king of the Hittites from the supreme god of Jerusalem, to whom it properly belonged. It is true that in a letter of the governor of Phœnicia (Winckler und Abel, No. 76, l. 66) the title is given to the king of the Hittites, but it does not follow that the king of Jerusalem employs it in the same way.
[40]. It should be noticed that, according to Hesykhios (s. v.), ‘the most high God’ of the Syrians was Ramas, that is, Ramman or Rimmon, who was identified with the sun-god Hadad, the supreme deity of Syria. The Babylonians called him Amurru ‘the Amorite.’
[41]. Pietschmann, Geschichte der Phönizier, p. 115. The suggestion was first made by von Bunsen.