5. Egyptian Domination.—Ahmose I, 1580-1557 B. C., besieged Sharuhen (Josh. 19:6) in southern Palestine for six years and captured it, while both Amenophis I and Thothmes I between 1557 and 1501 B. C. made raids through Palestine and Syria to the Euphrates. Of their deeds in Palestine no records have survived.
(1) Thothmes III.—It is not until the reign of Thothmes III that detailed information begins. Between 1478 and 1447 B. C. this king made no less than seventeen expeditions into Palestine, Phœnicia, and Syria. At the beginning of his reign this country was dotted with petty kingdoms; before its close he had so thoroughly amalgamated it with Egypt that it remained an integral part of the Egyptian dominion for 100 years. Before his death Thothmes inscribed on the walls of the temple of Amon at Thebes a list of the places in Asia which he had conquered. Many of these were in Palestine and in Syria, and we learn in this way what towns were already places of importance a century or two before the Hebrew conquest. Among places that are mentioned in the Old Testament he names[105] Kedesh (Josh. 19:37), Megiddo, Lebonah (Judges 21:19), Addar (Josh. 15:3), two different cities named Abel; see Judges 7:22 (which mentions one situated in the Jordan valley), and 2 Sam. 20:14 (which refers to one near Dan), Damascus, Hammath[106] (Josh. 19:35), situated on the Sea of Galilee (where there are still hot springs), Beeroth (Josh. 9:17), Sharon, Tob (Judges 11:3, 5), Kanah (Josh. 19:28), Ashtaroth (Deut. 1:4; Josh. 9:20), Makkedah (Josh. 15:41), Laish (Judges 18:7, 18), Hazor (Josh. 11:1; Judges 4:2), Chinneroth (Josh. 11:2), Shunem (Josh. 19:18; 1 Sam. 28:41; 2 Kings 4:8), Achshaph (Josh. 11:1), Taanach, Ibleam (Josh. 17:11; Judges 1:27), Ijon (1 Kings 15:20), Accho, Anaharath (Josh. 19:19), Ophra (Judges 6:11), Joppa, Gath, Lod (Neh. 7:37) or Lydda (Acts 9:32), Ono (1 Chron. 8:12), Aphik (1 Sam. 4:1), Migdol, Ephes-dammim (1 Sam. 17:1), Rakkath (Josh. 19:35), Gerar (Gen. 20:1, etc.), Rabbith (Josh. 19:20), Namaah (Josh. 15:41), Rehob (Josh. 19:28), Edrei (Deut. 1:4; Josh. 12:4), Daiban (Neh. 11:25), Bethshean (Josh. 17:11), Beth-anoth (Josh. 15:59), Helkath (Josh. 19:25), Geba (Josh. 18:24), Zererah (Judges 7:22), and Zephath (Judges 1:17). In addition to these towns which are mentioned in the Bible, the list of Thothmes III contains many other names which we cannot yet identify. Among these are the names of two cities, Josephel and Jacobel, which are discussed in Part II, [p. 300]. These names, as already noted, are the same as the names of two Babylonian Amorites of the time of the first dynasty. It seems probable that two important Amorites had migrated to Palestine and had either founded new cities, or had been men of such consequence that their names were attached to cities previously in existence. A parallel to this is found in the name of Abu Gosh. He was a sheik of the nineteenth century, but his name displaced the name of the village previously called Karyet el-Ineb, between Jaffa and Jerusalem, and it is now called Abu Gosh. Conjectures differ as to the part of Palestine in which the cities Jacobel and Josephel were situated. We have in reality no certain clue as to this.
It is probable also that something similar had occurred in the case of Abraham. It has been pointed out previously that Abraham is known to have been a Babylonian name at the time of the first Babylonian dynasty. The Biblical records tell of the coming of Abraham from Mesopotamia (Gen. 11:31-12:5), and the inscriptions of Sheshonk, the Biblical Shishak, tell us some centuries later of the existence of a place, apparently in southern Judah, called “The Field of Abram.” See Part II, [p. 360].
(2) Palestine in the El-Amarna Letters.—During the 100 years of Egyptian supremacy in Palestine which Thothmes III inaugurated, the fortifications of certain strategic cities were greatly strengthened. At Gezer, for example, an entirely new wall was built. This was the “outer” wall of Mr. Macalister’s classification, a substantial structure fourteen feet wide, which completely encircled the city. This massive wall remained the city’s defence down to the Babylonian Exile.
From the El-Amarna letters we gain another glimpse of Palestine about a hundred years after the death of Thothmes III. The Biblical cities which are mentioned in these letters are Accho (Judges 1:31), Ashkelon, Arvad (Ezek. 27:8), Aroer (Num. 32:34), Ashtaroth (Deut. 1:4, etc.), Gebal (Ezek. 27:9), Gezer (Josh. 10:33, 1 Kings 9:15, etc.), Gath, Gaza, Jerusalem, Joppa, Keilah (1 Sam. 23:1), Lachish (Josh. 10:3, etc.), Megiddo, Sidon, Tyre, Shechem, Sharon, Taanach, and Zorah (Judges 13:2). One city, called in these letters Beth-Ninib, is, in all probability, Bethshemesh (Josh. 15:10, etc.). Many other towns are mentioned in the letters, but as they are not mentioned in the Bible they are not enumerated here. These letters were written just as the Egyptian dominion in Asia was breaking up, owing to the fact that King Amenophis IV was much more deeply interested in religious reform than in politics.[107] The disintegration of the empire produced great disorder. The power which Egypt had exerted in the past made the Asiatics still fear to come out openly against her, but the correspondence shows that several petty states were plotting against one another, frequently encroaching upon one another, and yet all the time professing to be loyal to Egypt. The largest number of these states were in the north in Phœnicia. The principal states were the city kingdoms of Gebal, Beirut, Tyre, Jerusalem, and the Amorites.[108] Jerusalem at this time ruled a considerable territory,[109] but its history will be discussed connectedly in a future chapter.[110] The kings of the Amorites during this period were Ebed-Ashera and Aziru. While these small kingdoms of Palestine and Phœnicia were contending with one another, and the king of Egypt was giving no attention to them, the land was invaded from the north by the Hittites under the great King Subbiluliuma,[111] who gradually conquered the Amorites and the Orontes Valley. It was at the same time invaded from the east by the Habiri, who were probably the Hebrews.[112]
With this movement of peoples there came into the west a third wave of Semitic migration, the Aramæan. We hear nothing of the Aramaic-speaking peoples in earlier time, but about 1300 B. C. they are mentioned by both Shalmaneser I, of Assyria, and Ramses II, of Egypt, as though they were in Syria and Palestine. In later time they formed the basis of the population from the east of the Euphrates to the Mediterranean coast and southward to Damascus. In Deut. 26:5 Israelites are told to say “A wandering Aramæan was my father” (R. V., margin). The reference seems to be to Jacob, though possibly Abraham is intended. In either case, it shows that the Hebrews recognized that there was an Aramæan strain in their ancestry. Perhaps the Habiri were Aramæans, or were allied with Aramæans.
At all events, in the struggles that ensued, little by little all allegiance to Egypt was thrown off by the Palestinians. Letters to Egypt ceased to be written, our sources fail us, and for more than forty years we can only conjecture what was happening in Palestine.
(3) Seti I.—With the accession of Seti I of the nineteenth Egyptian dynasty, who ruled from 1313 to 1292 B. C., some knowledge of events in Palestine begins once more to come to us. Seti in his first year entered Asia, captured an unnamed walled town on the border of the desert, pushed northward and took the towns in the Plain of Jezreel, crossed the Jordan and conquered cities in the Hauran, where he set up a pillar, discovered there a few years since by Principal George Adam Smith; he then turned west and conquered a city on the slopes of the Lebanon mountains.[113] This campaign regained for Egypt all of Palestine and southern Phœnicia. In his third year Seti was again in Asia. On this campaign he overthrew the kingdom of the Amorites in northern Galilee. They occupied the city of Kedesh in Naphtali (Josh. 19:37). This city Seti besieged and took.
(4) Ramses II.—Thus at the beginning of the reign of Ramses II, who ruled from 1292-1225 B. C., all Palestine was subject to Egypt. The practical defeat of Ramses by the Hittites at Kadesh on the Orontes in his fifth year, however, caused all Palestine to revolt, and Ramses was compelled to undertake the reconquest of the land. This he accomplished between his fifth and eighth years, beginning with the Philistine cities and overrunning the whole country to the Hauran, where he set up a pillar, as his father had previously done.[114] So far as we know, Palestine remained quietly under the rule of Ramses during the remainder of his long reign.
Ramses II, like Thothmes III, left on record a long list of cities conquered by him in Asia. Of these the following are Palestinian towns mentioned in the Bible:[115] Hammath (Josh. 19:35), Beth-shean (Josh. 17:11), Beth-anath (Josh. 19:38), and Hadasha (Josh. 15:37). Pella, a town in the Jordan valley not mentioned in the Bible, also occurs in his list, and there is also a possible mention of Jacobel in a corrupted form.