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The despatches of Rib-Hadad and Ebed-Tob, however, go to show that in spite of his professions of friendship, the Babylonian monarch was ready to afford secret help to the insurgents in Palestine. The Babylonians were not likely to forget that they had once been masters of the country, or to regard the Egyptian empire in Asia with other than jealous eyes.
The female correspondents of the Pharaoh are among the most curious and interesting features of the state of society depicted in the Tel el-Amarna tablets; they entered keenly into the politics of the day, and kept the Egyptian king fully informed of all that was going on. The letters of Ebed-Tob are so important that it is as well to give them in full.
If no troops come this year, let the king send a Commissioner, and let him come to me with allies, and we will die with the king our lord. III. "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, has not Malchiel revolted to the sons of Labai and the sons of Arzai to demand the country of the king for themselves?
His enemy were the Khabiri or "Confederates," about whose identification there has been much discussion, but who were assisted by the Beduin chief Labai and his sons. One by one the towns belonging to the territory of Jerusalem fell into the hands of his adversaries, and at last, as we learn from another letter, Ebed-Tob himself along with his capital was captured by the foe.
Jerusalem did exist, and Babylonian armies threatened the independence of the Canaanite states. In one of his letters, Ebed-Tob, king of Jerusalem, tells the Pharaoh that he need not be alarmed about the Babylonians, for the temple at Jerusalem is strong enough to resist their attack. Rib-Hadad the governor of Gebal bears the same testimony.
As we have seen, Ebed-Tob describes himself as repairing the roads in that very "Kikar," or "plain," in which Sodom and Gomorrha stood. It would seem then that the priest-king of the great fortress in the mountains was already acknowledged as the dominant Canaanitish ruler, and that the neighbouring princes had to pay him homage when they first received the crown.
At all events we learn from Su-yardata's letter that Ebed-Tob eventually fell into the hands of his enemies; he was captured by Labai, and it is possible that his city became at the same time the prey of the Khabiri. But all this is speculation, which may or may not prove to be correct.
Again let the king my lord inquire whether I have taken a man, or an ox, or an ass from him or his jurisdiction. Again Labai is the conspirator who had taken our cities, and now Labai has taken Ebed-Tob, and they have taken our cities. And the king knows. To his servant let him grant power, for I did not know they had done anything until the king had sent an account of it to his servant."
The territory of which Jerusalem was the capital extended southward as far as Carmel of Judah, Gath-Carmel as it is called by Ebed-Tob, as well as in the geographical lists of Thothmes III., while on the west it reached to Keilah, Kabbah, and Mount Seir.
"To the king my lord, my gods, my Sun-god, thus speaks Suwardata thy servant, the dust of thy feet: at the feet of the king my lord, my gods, my Sun-god, seven times seven I prostrate myself. Why does Ebed-Tob send to the men of Keilah, saying: 'Take silver and march after me'? And the king my lord knows that Ebed-Tob has taken my city out of my hand.
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