commonly used. Ships laden with timber and corn were sailing on the Mediterranean (cf. Gn 49", Nu 24"), and often carried slaves from the north. In the time of Thothmes Iv. further ex- editions were made against the Hittites, now ieiven from Palestine to Kadesh on the Orontes. These conquests were maintained during the greater part of the long and prosperous reign of Ameno his ΠΙ. (about B.C. 1500 to 1464).
The Egyptian monuments do not mention any Exodus, though Thothmes IV. is said to have driven out the Asiatics. The notices of the place Rameses (Gn 47", Ex 1!*) do not serve to fix any date for such an event, and our only sources of informa- tion (see Jg 11%, 1 Καὶ 61) point to the 15th cent. B.C. as that during which the conquest of Palestine by the Hebrews was effected. In the ruins of Lachish the seal of Teie, the Armenian queen of Amenophis ΠΙ., is found, showing intercourse with Egypt about B.c. 1500; and the evans were in constant intercourse with Babylon, Assyria, and Armenia at this time, the royal houses being allied by marriages from the time of Thothmes Iv. A curious cuneiform tablet, sealed with a Bab. cylinder signet (Tel el-Amarna), is addressed to ‘all the kings of Canaan, servants of my brother, the king of Egypt,’ and served as a passport for an envoy. The great collections of 300 cuneiform tablets, found in 1887 at Tel el-Amarna (between Memphis and Thebes), contain letters to Amenophis ΠῚ. and Amenophis Iv. from the kings of Babylon, Assyria, and Armenia, from princes in Asia Minor, and (in about 200 instances) from chiefs of the Hittites, Amorites, Phoenicians, and Philistines, who ruled as subjects of the Pharaoh, assisted by Egyp. residents in the chief towns of the Syrian si Palestine plains, and guarded by forces of chariots. But towards the end of the reign of Amenophis I. revolutions occurred, which de- stroyed the Egyp. domination. The Canaanites sought alliance with Babylon, but this was refused. The Hittites and Cassites attacked Damascus, and overran Bashan. The Amorites made war on the Pheenicians, and besieged Tyre. The Egyp. forces were defeated and withdrawn from the north and from Jerusalem, and the king of that city wrote to Egypt to complain of the entire destruction of ‘all the rulers,’ which followed, and which was due to the conquests of a people called the Habiri or ‘Abiri. They are said to have come from Seir to Jerusalem, and to have fought at Aijalon, and subdued Gezer, Ashkelon, Zorah, Lachish, Keilah, and other cities. The date coincides with that of the Heb. conquest according to the OT notices, and it appears probable that (as Zimmern has ae sed) the Habiri are to be identified with the ebrews.
In the reign of Amenophis Iv. communication with the north was (according to these tablets) much interrupted, and about B.c. 1400 the 18th dynasty was overthrown. Seti I, a generation later, began to attempt the reconquest of the lost empire when the 19th dynasty had arisen. He
netrated to Kanana (Kana‘an) near Hebron, and into the land of Zahi, famous for its wine and corn, and thought to have lain in the south of Pal., near which apparently lived the Anaugas perl ane Anakim). Seti also fought a battle at Inuamu, perhaps Jamnia, and his famous successor, Ramses It., besieged and took Ashkelon, and the towns of Shalama, Maroma (Meiriéin), Ain Anamim (‘Ainatha), Dapur (Debirieh), and Kalopu (perhaps Shalabén), in Upper and Lower Galilee. lie ur- sued his conquests into Pheenicia, and, after taking Kadesh, entered into treaty with the Hittites, who had become independent, and marched to the
* These two statements were clearly ryritten not earlier than the time of the 19th dynasty.
PALESTINE
Baya and to Ephesus. This Degree of conquest in Galilee seems to have coincided chronologically with the oppression of Israel under Jabin τι., kin of Hazor, whose ‘captain’ (sar), with a force o iron chariots (J, Π 43), bears a name not apparently Semitic, but easily explained as Egyp., viz. Sisera, t.e. Ses-Ra, ‘the servant of Ra.’ The conquests of Ramses I. were lost about B.C. 1300 by Merenptah, who was attacked in Egypt by tribes from the north, and after his time Arisu (Hareth), a Pheenician, ruled in the Delta. The power of Egypt steadily declined, and about B.c. 1200 Ramses Ul. was attacked by northern tribes, coming both by sea and by land to Eeypt. Amon those enumerated are the Danau or Greeks, an the Pulesta, thought to be the Philistines.
Early Assyr. invasions occurred (see ARAM) about this period; and in B.C. 1150 Assur-risisi set up a monument at Beirut, and about 1120 Tiglath- pileser 1. entered the Lebanon. An Assyr. king was also buried at Abydos in the time of Ramses XIv., and may have ase through Palestine. But, after the death of Solomon, Shishak (B.c. 966-933) invaded Palestine, and took 133 cities, among which Jerusalem is perhaps mentioned last (Maspero). The only monument of this later age is the famous Moabite Stone, found at Dhibdn, which records the revolt of Moab in the 9th cent. B.C., during the reign of Ahab (cf. 2 Καὶ 3*”), But the power of the Assyrians in Palestine was not severely felt until the time of Tiglath-
ileser 111., who conquered Damascus in B.C. 732.
ior to this event Menahem of Israel and Ahaz of Judah brought tribute, as Jehu had done in the 9th cent. The fall of the Syrian power beyond Jordan was followed by the capture of Samaria in B.C. 722 by Sargon. The advance to Ashdod followed eleven years later, and the attack on