A despatch, however, from Namya-yitsa, the governor of Kumidi, sets the conduct of Aziru in a more favourable light.  It was written at a somewhat later time, when rebellion against the Egyptian authority was spreading throughout Syria.  A certain Biridasyi had stirred up the city of Inu’am, and after shutting its gate upon Namya-yitsa had entered the city of Ashtaroth-Karnaim in Bashan, and there seized the chariots belonging to the Pharaoh, handing them over to the Beduin.  He then joined the kings of Buzruna (now Bosra) and Khalunni (near the Wadi ’Allan), in a plot to murder Namya-yitsa, who escaped, however, to Damascus, though his own brothers turned against him.  The rebels next attacked Aziru, captured some of his soldiers, and in league with Etu-gama wasted the district of Abitu.  Etakkama, however, as Etu-gama spells his own name, professed to be a loyal servant of the Egyptian king, and one of the Tel el-Amarna letters is from him.

We next hear of Namya-yitsa in Accho or Acre, where he had taken refuge with Suta, or Seti, the Egyptian commissioner.  Seti had already been in Jerusalem, and had been inquiring there into the behaviour of Ebed-Tob.

The picture of incipient anarchy and rebellion which is set before us by the correspondence from Phoenicia and Syria is repeated in that from the centre and south of Palestine.  In the centre the chief seats of the Egyptian government were at Megiddo, at Khazi (the Gaza of 1 Chron. vii. 28), near Shechem, and at Gezer.  Each of these towns was under an Egyptian governor, specially appointed by the Pharaoh.

The governor of Khazi bore the name of Su-yarzana, Megiddo was under the authority of Biridi, while the governor of Gaza was Yapakhi.  There are several letters in the Tel el-Amarna collection from the latter official, chiefly occupied with demands for help against his enemies.  The district under his control was attacked by the Sute or Beduin, led by a certain Labai or Labaya and his sons.  Labai, though of Beduin origin, was himself professedly an Egyptian official, the Egyptian policy having been to give the title of governor to the powerful Beduin sheikhs, and to attach them to the Egyptian government by the combined influence of bribery and fear.  Labai accordingly writes to the Pharaoh to defend himself against the charges that had been brought against him, and to assure Khu-n-Aten that he was “a faithful servant of the king”; “I have not sinned, and I have not offended, and I do not withhold my tribute or neglect the command to turn back my officers.”  Labai, it would seem, had been appointed by Amenophis III. governor of Shunem and Bene-berak (Joshua xix. 45), and had captured the city of Gath-Rimmon when it revolted against the Pharaoh; but after the death of Amenophis he and his two sons had attacked the Egyptian officials in true Beduin style, and had taken every opportunity of pillaging central and Southern Palestine.  As we shall see, Labai and his ally, Malchiel, were among the chief adversaries of Ebed-Tob of Jerusalem.