Tuesday, March 15, 2022

"The Land of Shechem" in the Amarna Tablets Denoting the City and Its Adjacent Territory

  

Shechem in The Amara Period

 

While the Tell el-Amarna letters contain only a single reference to Shechem, their importance for the history of the city extends much beyond this reference. The city is referred to in letter 289, 'Abdu-kheba, prince of Jerusalem, writes to the Pharaoh (probably Akh-en-aton) for aid to wishstand the enemies who are attacking the land of the Pharaoh. If such aid does not come quickly, 'Abdu-kheba is doomed. In this context, 'Abdu-kheba raises the question: "Or should we d like Lab'ayu who gave the land of Shechem to the 'Apiru?.” Thus we have the name of Shechem and also the name of the prince of the city. "The land of Schechem" must be taken to refer to the city and the adjacent territory under its control.

 

Lab'ayu's name appears in several other letters. It is difficult to assess his precise place in the history of the Amarna period, of course, but the following general sketch appears to be fairly reliable. Lab'ayu's own letters (252-54) are addressed to the Pharaoh Amenophis III (cf. 1406-1370 B.C.). In the first of these (252) he replies in defiant terms to the charge of disloyalty and maintains that his enemies will be resisted. The dispute between him and his enemies concerns two towns, one of which is the ancestral town of Lab'ayu. This town cannot be Schechem, his capital city (on the basis of letter 289), since the loss of Shechem would have meant, we must suppose the loss of significant influence in Palestine. The other two letters from Lab'ayu depict him as a loyal vassal of the Pharaoh, although they contain his acknowledgment that in Gazri (Gezer) he had complained publicly about the Pharaoh's unfair preference of Milkilu of Gezer over him. Milkilu elsewhere is found as an ally of Lab'ayu but he apparently suffered a change of heart and renewed his loyalty, a fact which the Pharaoh has acknowledge with suitable concessions. (Walter Harrelson, "Shechem in Extra-Biblical References," The Biblical Archaeologist 20, no. 1 [February 1957]: 6)