ho was far too much engaged in his religious
innovations to attend to such messages. What most interests us is the
mention of troublesome invaders called some times _sa-gas_ (a Babylonian
ideogram meaning "robber"), sometimes Habiri. Who are these Habiri? Not,
as was at first thought by some, specially the Israelites, but all those
tribes of land-hungry nomads ("Hebrews") who were attracted by the
wealth and luxury of the settled regions, and sought to appropriate it
for themselves. Among these we may include not only the Israelites or
tribes which afterwards became Israelitish, but the Moabites, Ammonites
and Edomites. We meet with the Habiri in north Syria. Itakkama writes
thus to the Pharaoh,[11] "Behold, Namyawaza has surrendered all the
cities of the king, my lord, to the SA-GAS in the land of Kadesh and in
Ubi. But I will go, and if thy gods and thy sun go before me, I will
bring back the cities to the king, my lord, from the Habiri, to show
myself subject to him; and I will expel the SA-GAS." Similarly Zimrida,
king of Sidon, declares, "All my cities which the king has given into my
hand, have come into the hand of the Habiri."[12] Nor had Palestine any
immunity from the Arabian invaders. The king of _Jerusalem_, Abd-Hiba,
the second part of whose name has been thought to represent the Hebrew
Yahweh,[13] reports thus to the Pharaoh, "If (Egyptian) troops come this
year, lands and princes will remain to the king, my lord; but if troops
come not, these lands and princes will not remain to the king, my
lord."[14] Abd-Hiba's chief trouble arose from persons called Milkili and
the sons of Lapaya, who are said to have entered into a treasonable
league with the Habiri. Apparently this restless warrior found his death
at the siege of Gina.[15] All these princes, however, malign each other
in their letters to the Pharaoh, and protest their own innocence of
traitorous intentions. Namyawaza, for instance, whom Itakkama (see
above) accuses of disloyalty, writes thus to the Pharaoh, "Behold, I and
my warriors and my chariots, together with my brethren and my SA-GAS,
and my Suti[16] are at the disposal of the (royal) troops, to go
whithersoever the king, my lord, commands."[17] This petty prince,
therefore, sees no harm in having a band of Arabians for his garrison,
as indeed Hezekiah long afterwards had his Urbi to help him against
Sennacherib.

From the same period we have recently derived fresh and important
evidence as to