[90]. Thus the ancient Abshek, the Abokkis of classical geography, has become Abu Simbel, or ‘father of an ear of corn’; and Silsila is said to have derived its name from a ‘chain’ or silsila stretched across the Nile from the rocks on either bank, though it really has its origin in the classical Silsilis, the Coptic Joljel or ‘barrier.’
[91]. In the list of Thothmes III. the name of Nekeb of Galilee (Josh. xix. 33) is followed by that of Ashushkhen, which may be compared with Issachar, since the interchange of final n and r is not uncommon. But the substitution of kh for k (ch) is difficult to account for.
[92]. Shmâna is the thirty-fifth name in the Palestine list of Thothmes, and follows the name of Chinnereth (Josh. xix. 35; comp. also Shmânau, No. 18. See Tomkins in Records of the Past, new series, v. pp. 44, 46). One of the Tel el-Amarna tablets (W. and A. ii., No. 39) mentions ‘the Yaudu’ in the neighbourhood of Tunip, now Tennib, north-west of Aleppo. The name of the Jews is written in the same way in the cuneiform texts, though the Yaudu of the Tel el-Amarna tablets are probably to be identified with the land of Ya’di, which the inscriptions of Sinjerli place in Northern Syria. But it is noticeable that the Tel el-Amarna correspondence makes Kinza a district near Kadesh on the Orontes, close to the Lake of Homs, and Kinza is letter for letter the Biblical Kenaz. The Kenizzites, it will be remembered, formed an integral part of the later tribe of Judah.
[93]. Hommel, Aufsätze und Abhandlungen sur Kunde der Sprachen, Literaturen und der Geschichte des vorderen Orients (1890), p. 31.
[94]. The Rev. H. G. Tomkins (Quarterly Statement of the Palestine Exploration Fund, April 1885) first pointed out the true signification of the name of Beth-lehem, Lakhmu was one of the primeval gods of Chaldæan religion.
[95]. The village of Rachel, which was probably where the stone stood, is referred to in 1 Sam. xxx. 29.
[96]. E.g. Yeôr, ‘river,’ Egyptian aur; akhu, ‘herbage on the river bank’ (Gen. xli. 2), Egyptian akhu; rebid, ‘collar,’ Egyptian repit. See Ebers, Aegypten und die Bücher Mose’s, pp. 337-339.
[97]. See my Egypt of the Hebrews and Herodotos, pp. 25 sq.
[98]. See Tomkins, Life and Times of Joseph, p. 184.
[99]. Asenath is probably Nes-Nit, ‘Attached to Neith,’ as Subanda is Nes-Bandid, ‘Attached to Bandid.’