e kingdom in the
north. In this he would have been a predecessor of Og and Sihon, whose
kingdoms were built up on the ruins of the Egyptian empire.

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 charg