The enemy must have been of another race to destroy the temples. The letter is valuable because it shows that _Yankhamu_ was a contemporary of _Suyardata_, who was a contemporary with _Adonizedek_, for _Yankhamu_ was also contemporary with _Aziru_, who was living about twenty years after the death of Thothmes IV.
137 B.—“To the King my Lord my God my Sun by letter thus (says) the Lady whose name is _Basmatu_,(361) thy handmaid. At the feet of the King my Lord my God my Sun, seven times seven times, I bow. Know O King my Lord behold! there has been war in the land, and the land of the King my Lord has been wearied by rebels, by men of blood. And know O King as to his land, and know my foolishness (or disgrace). Behold the men (or chiefs) of blood have sent to the city of _Ajalon_, and to the city of _Zar’a_ (Zorah),(362) and (this is) to show that there is no place of refuge for the two sons of _Milcilu_; and know O King my Lord this request.”
138 B.—“To the King my Lord my God my Sun by letter thus (says) the Lady whose name is _Basmatu_, thy handmaid, the dust of thy feet, and at the feet of the King my Lord my God my Sun seven times seven times I bow. Let the King my Lord pluck his land from the hands of the men of blood. Am not I tired marching to the town of _Zabuba_; and because of not resting O King my Lord?”
There is only one place in Palestine called Zabuba; it is the Sububa of the fourteenth century, the modern Ezbuba, south of Taanach, west of the plain of Esdraelon. Poor Basmath had to go some sixty miles by road to reach it from her home. This interesting little letter, which shows she was not one of the ladies sent to Egypt, though probably a person of importance, seems perhaps to indicate that the central part of the country, from which no appeals for help occur in the letters, was undisturbed. The Amorite-Hittite league came down to Bashan and to Tyre, but not apparently as far as Accho. The Hebrews, on the other hand, coming from Seir, are said to have gone as far north as Rimmon and Shiloh, but were mainly fighting southward from Ajalon. Between the two theatres of war lay the whole of Samaria and lower Galilee, in which Basmath found a refuge.
OTHER LETTERS FROM THE SOUTH OF PALESTINE
