The letters of Ebed-Tob are so important that it is as well to give them in full.  They all seem to have been written within a few months, or perhaps even weeks, of one another, when the enemies of the governor of Jerusalem were gathering around him, and no response came from Egypt to his requests for help.  The dotted lines mark the words and passages which have been lost through the fracture of the clay tablets.

(I.) “To the king my lord [my] Sun-god, thus [speaks] Ebed-Tob thy servant:  at the feet of the king my lord seven times seven I prostrate myself.  Behold, the king has established his name at the rising of the sun and the setting of the sun.  Slanders have been uttered against me.  Behold, I am not a governor, a vassal of the king my lord.  Behold, I am an ally of the king, and I have paid the tribute due to the king, even I. Neither my father nor my mother, but the oracle (or arm) of the Mighty King established [me] in the house of [my] fathers....  There have come to me as a present 13 [women] and 10 slaves.  Suta (Seti) the Commissioner of the king has come to me:  21 female slaves and 20 male slaves captured in war have been given into the hands of Suta as a gift for the king my lord, as the king has ordained for his country.  The country of the king is being destroyed, all of it.  Hostilities are carried on against me as far as the mountains of Seir (Joshua xv. 10) and the city of Gath-Karmel (Joshua xv. 55).  All the other governors are at peace, but there is war against myself, since I see the foe, but I do not see the tears of the king my lord because war has been raised against me.  While there is a ship in the midst of the sea, the arm (or oracle) of the Mighty King shall conquer the countries of Naharaim (Nakhrima) and Babylonia.  But now the Confederates (Khabiri) are capturing the fortresses of the king.  Not a single governor remains among them to the king my lord; all have perished.  Behold, Turbazu, thy military officer, [has fallen] in the great gate of the city of Zelah (Josh, xviii. 28).  Behold, Zimrida of Lachish has been murdered by the servants who have revolted against the king.  Jephthah-Hadad, thy military officer, has been slain in the great gate of Zelah....  May the king [my lord] send help [to his country]!  May the king turn his face to [his subjects]!  May he despatch troops to [his] country! [Behold,] if no troops come this year, all the countries of the king my lord will be utterly destroyed.  They do not say before the face of the king my lord that the country of the king my lord is destroyed, and that all the governors are destroyed, if no troops come this year.  Let the king send a commissioner, and let him come to me, even to me, with auxiliary troops, and we will die with the king [our] lord.—­[To] the secretary of the king my lord [speaks] Ebed-Tob [thy] servant.  At [thy] feet [I prostrate myself].  Let a report of [my] words be laid before the king [my] lord.  Thy [loyal] servant am I.”