It is impossible to suppose that the letters now known (about three hundred in number) represent all the correspondence which passed between Palestine and Egypt concerning the state of the country during the reigns of Amenophis III. and IV., and from the time the troubles there commenced, complaints and applications for help must have claimed the attention of the Egyptian translator literally in shoals. One of the most remarkable of these is the letter from the people of Dunip, who say that, in consequence of the state of things in Palestine, they belong no longer to the king of Egypt, to whom they had been sending for twenty years, but their messengers had been retained. Their prince (to all appearance) had been taken back to Egypt by the king's orders, after he had allowed him to return to his country, so that they had not seen him again. "And now Dunip, thy city, weeps, and its tears flow, and there is no one to take our hands (_i.e._ help us). We have sent to the king, the lord, the king of Egypt, and not a single word from our lord hath reached us."
Were they really sorry to be no longer under Egyptian rule? or were they merely desirous that their prince should be restored to them?
During this period, naturally enough, recriminations were going on on every side. Those who were faithful very properly made complaints and uttered warnings concerning those who were unfaithful. The waverers, the unfaithful, and the hostile, on the other hand, were continually asserting their fidelity, and accusing those who were really well-disposed towards Egypt of all kinds of hostile acts against the supreme power. This is evident from the correspondence of Abdi-tâba of Jerusalem, who, in one of his letters, writes as follows--
"(T)o the king my lord say also thus: 'It is Abdi-tâba, thy servant. At the feet of my lord the king twice seven times and twice seven times I fall. What have I done against the king my lord? They back-bite--they slander(67) me before the king my lord, (saying): "Abdi-tâba has fallen away from the king his lord." Behold, (as for) me, neither my father nor my mother set me in this place--the arm of the mighty king caused me to enter into the house of my father. Why should I commit a sin against the king my lord? As the king my lord lives, I said to the commissioner of the king (my) lord: "Why love ye the Habiri and hate the gover(nors)? it is on account of this that they utter slander before the king my lord." Then he said: "The countries of the king my lord have rebelled, therefore they utter slander to the king my lord." ' "