(V.) “To the king my lord thus [speaks] Ebed-Tob thy servant:  at the feet of my lord [the king] seven times seven [I prostrate myself].  Behold, Malchiel does not separate himself from the sons of Labai and the sons of Arzai to demand the country of the king for themselves.  As for the governor who acts thus, why does not the king question him?  Behold, Malchiel and Tagi are they who have acted so, since they have taken the city of Rubute (Rabbah, Josh. xv. 60).... (Many lines are lost here.) There is no royal garrison [in Jerusalem].  May the king live eternally!  Let Pa-ur go down to him.  He has departed in front of me and is in the city of Gaza; and let the king send to him a guard to defend the country.  All the country of the king has revolted!  Direct Yikhbil-Khamu [to come], and let him consider the country of the king [my lord].—­To the secretary of the king [my lord] thus [speaks] Ebed-Tob thy servant:  [at thy feet I prostrate myself].  Lay [a report] of my words [before] the king.  Mayest thou live long!  Thy servant am I.”

(VI.) “[To] the king my lord thus speaks Ebed-Tob thy servant:  at the feet of the king my lord seven times seven I prostrate myself. [The king knows the deed] which they have done, even Malchiel and Su-ardatum, against the country of the king my lord, commanding the forces of the city of Gezer, the forces of the city of Gath, and the forces of the city of Keilah.  They have seized the district of the city of Rabbah.  The country of the king has gone over to the Confederates.  And now at this moment the city of the mountain of Jerusalem, the city of the temple of the god Nin-ip, whose name is Salim (?),” (Or, adopting the reading of Dr. Zimmern, “The city whose name is Bit-Nin-ip.”) “the city of the king, is gone over to the side of the men of Keilah.  Let the king listen to Ebed-Tob thy servant, and let him despatch troops and restore the country of the king to the king.  But if no troops arrive, the country of the king is gone over to the men even to the Confederates.  This is the deed [of Su-ar]datun and Malchiel....”

The loyalty of Ebed-Tob, however, seems to have been doubted at the Egyptian court, where more confidence was placed in his rival and enemy Su-ardata (or Su-yardata, as the owner of the name himself writes it).  Possibly the claim of the vassal-king of Jerusalem to have been appointed to his royal office by the “Mighty King” rather than by the “great king” of Egypt, and consequently to be an ally of the Pharaoh and not an ordinary governor, may have had something to do with the suspicions that were entertained of him.  At all events we learn from a letter of Su-yardata that the occupation of Keilah by Ebed-Tob’s enemies, of which the latter complains so bitterly, was due to the orders of the Egyptian government itself.  Su-yardata there says—­“The king [my lord] directed me to make war in the city of Keilah:  war was made; (and now) a complaint is brought against me.  My city against myself