* * * * *

LETTER FROM LABAI TO AMENOPHIS IV.

“To the king my lord and my Sun-god thus (speaks) Labai thy servant and the dust of thy feet:  at the feet of the king my lord and my Sun-god, seven times seven I prostrate myself.  I have heard the words which the king has sent to me, and here am I, and the king apportions his country unto me.  Behold, I am a faithful servant of the king, and I have not sinned, and I have not offended, and I do not withhold my tribute, and I do not refuse the requests of the Commissioner that is set over me.  Behold, they have slandered me, and the king my lord will not be hard on my offence.  Again it is an offence in me that I have entered the city of Gezer and ordered the city to assemble, saying, ’The king has taken my property and the property of Malchiel.’  How could I know what Malchiel has done against me?  Again the king has written to Bin-Sumya; he does not know that Bin-Sumya has marched along with the Bedawin, and lo, I have delivered him into the hand of Adda-dan.  Again, if the king sends for my wife, how shall I withhold her; and if the king writes to myself, ‘Plunge an iron sword in thy heart and die,’ how shall I not perform the commandment of the king?”

IV

THE MOABITE STONE

(See page 112)

1.  I am Mesha the son of Chemosh-melech, king of Moab, the Dibonite.

2.  My father reigned over Moab thirty years, and I reigned

3. after my father.  I made this monument to (the god) Chemosh at Korkhah, as a monument

4. of salvation, for he saved me from all invaders, and let me see my desire upon all my enemies.  Omri

5. was king of Israel, and he oppressed Moab many days, for Chemosh was angry with his

6. land.  His son followed him, and he also said:  I will oppress Moab.  In my days [Chemosh] said: 

7.  I will see my desire on him and his house, and Israel shall surely perish for ever.  Omri took the land of

8.  Medeba (Numb. xxi. 30), and [Israel] dwelt in it during his days and half the days of his son, altogether forty years.  But there dwelt in it

9.  Chemosh in my days.  I built Baal-Meon (Josh. xiii. 17) and made therein the reservoirs; I built

10.  Kirjathain (Numb, xxxii. 37).  The men of Gad dwelt in the land of Ataroth (Numb, xxxii. 3) from of old, and the king of Israel built there

11. (the town) of Ataroth; but I made war against the town and took it.  And I slew all the [people]

12. of the town, for the pleasure of Chemosh and Moab.  I took from thence the Ariel (champion) of (the god) Doda and tore

13. him before Chemosh in Kerioth (Jer. xlviii. 24).  And I placed therein the men of Sharon and the men

14. of Me-khereth.  And Chemosh said unto me:  Go, seize Nebo upon Israel; and