1. To the king my lord
2. speak thus:
3. Thy servant [says], even Arudi: 3
4. [at the feet of the king] seven times seven do I prostrate myself.
5. [Thy] servant (?) … (when) a raid was made
6. by Milki the son of Marratim 4
7. against the country of the king my lord,
8. at the head of the forces of the city of Gedor, 5
9. the forces of the city of Gath
10. and the forces of the city of Keilah.
11. They took the country of the city of Rubute 6
12. dependent (?) on the country of the king,
13. belonging to the confederates;
14. and again entirely
15. the city of the land of Ururusi,
16. the city of the temple of Uras, whose name is Mar-rum, 7
17. the city of the king dependent (?)
18. on the district of the men of the city of Keilah.
19. And I overthrew [the enemies (?)] of the king …
The remaining lines are too much injured for translation.
Footnotes
65:2 No. III in my Paper on "Babylonian Tablets from Tel el-Amarna" published in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology, June 1888.
65:3 The name may also be read Aruki.
65:4 Marratim means the "sea-marshes" in Assyrian, and was specially applied to the marsh-lands in the south of Babylonia (whence the Merathaim of Jer. l. 21). The scribe has transformed the title of the prince "the king (melech or milki) the son of the salt-marshes" into two proper names, Milki and Marratim.
65:5 Gaturri-ki. Gedor (Josh. xv. 58, 1 Chr. xii. 7, 2) is the modern Gedûr north of Hebron.
65:6 "Of the princes." The scribe, however, seems to have meant Rabbah, "the capital," mentioned in Josh. xv.
65:7 The Aramaic marê, "lord." We learn from coins that Marnas was the title of the supreme god of Gaza.
- BROTHER ISAAC NEWTON
P.O. BOX 70
Larkspur CO 80118
United States
(303) 681-2028
Co-Masonry, Co-Freemasonry, Women's Freemasonry, Men and Women, Mixed Masonry