25. In the presence of Belbelshaduni,
26. In the presence of Ilumia.
27. In the presence of Ashurikhtamusur
28. In the presence of Bariku,
29. In the presence of Kennusharruni.
The significant name here is Aushezib, meaning, “Au saves.” If Au is a translation of Jeho-, the name, in its entirety, would be a translation of one of the Hebrew forms of the name Joshua. Other names, into which the name of the god Au enters, appear sometimes in the body of a contract and sometimes among the witnesses. They are ilA-u-salim, “the god Au gives peace”; A-u-iddina, “Au gives,” equivalent to the Hebrew Jonathan; A-u-akhiddin, “Au has increased the brothers”; A-u-daninani, “Au is our mighty-one”; A-u-e-ballitani, “O Au, make us live”; ilA-u-dân(?)-ilani, “Au is judge of the gods”; A-u-sabi, “Au satisfies.”[633]
The tablets were written at Kannu, the Canneh of Ezek. 27:23, which was near Haran in Mesopotamia. One text states that if the seller of the slave ever brings legal action, he shall pay ten silver manas and one gold mana “at the sanctuary of the god A-u, who dwells in Kannu.” If the god A-u be really the Hebrew Jehovah, the captives from Samaria and Galilee had built for him a temple in Kannu, as the Jews at Elephantine afterward did on the island in the Nile. (See [p. 387], f.)
The documents in which these names occur appear to be dated between 666 and 606 B. C. They are dated according to the Assyrian method of dating, which shows that they were written under the Assyrian monarchy, but the eponyms in which they are dated are not found in the extant portions of the Assyrian Eponymlist. They were therefore written after the year 666.[634] This fixes the dates of these documents in the seventh century—the century after Tiglath-pileser IV and Sargon transported to this region parts of the ten “lost tribes,” and, if A-u really is a form of the name Jehovah, these tablets afford us a little glimpse of some of these Hebrews in exile.