THE CUNEIFORM INSCRIPTIONS OF TEL EL-AMARNA. 19 
he uttered their requests to the men of the district of Kirjath 
(Qartt), and we defended the city of Ururusi. The men of 
the garrison whom thou hadst left in it were collected by 
Khapi (Apis), my messenger. Addasi-rakan in his house in 
the city of Gaza [sent messengers] to the land of Egypt.” 
The use of the word khabiri, which occurs here and in the 
first text I have translated, seems to show that we must 
render it by *‘ Hebronites”’ rather than as the common noun 
“ confederates.” The word may throw light on the origin of 
the city of Hebron, which grew up out of a confederacy of 
tribes worshipping at a common sanctuary, and may explain 
why the name is not met with on the Egyptian monuments. 
Kirjath is, perhaps, Kirjath-Sepher, though it may also denote 
Kirjath-Arba, the old name of Hebron. As for Milki-ar’il, 
it is formed like Melchizedek or Malchiel, and must be inter- 
preted “ Moloch is Avil.” Ar’il, the Ariel of Isai. xxix. 1, 
and the “ lion-like men ” of the A. V. in 2 Sam. xxui. 20, has 
been shown by a passage in an Heyptian papyrus to mean 
“hero,” so that when King Mesha declares on the Moabite 
Stone that he carried away the ons of ni” and m4, we 
must understand that he carried away the consecrated 
“heroes ” who protected the Israelitish shrines of Yahveh 
and Dodah. 
Dodah is the same name as that which we find in the 
varying forms of Dodo, Dod, and David, and up to now it 
has not been found outside the pages of the Old Testament, 
though the feminine Dido proves that it was known to the 
Phoenicians; and the Assyrian Dadu, corresponding to the 
Syrian Hadad, comes from the same root. But one of the 
Tel el-Amarna tablets in the Boulaq Museum now informs us 
that Diidu or David was a name employed among the Semites 
long before the age of the founder of the Empire of Israel, 
or even of the Exodus. The tablet is a letter addressed by 
Aziru to his “lord” and “ father”? Didu. We have already 
made the acquaintance of Aziru, who was one of the heu- 
tenants of Rib-Addu in Phoenicia; and it is possible that the 
letter to his father was written from that part of the world. 
The middle of the tablet is injured ; what is left of it runs as 
follows: “ To Didu, my lord (and) father, I speak, even Aziru, 
thy son, thy servant; at the feet of my father I prostrate 
myself; unto the feet of my father may there be peace! O 
Didu, now .... the foundations of the palace of my lord 
have been laid, and I have founded (them) fora temple... . 
And now, O Didu, my father, plant the gardens, and I will look 
after the daughter (of the king). [Behold], O my father 
and my lord, I will look after the girl. . . . I have directed the 
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