366 HAUPT— THE BURNING BUSH [April 23, 



it may be supposed, came over land, across the isthmus of Suez, and 

 founded the northern kingdom of Egypt in the Delta. Others came 

 across the Red Sea, near Koseir,*^ and established the Southern 

 Kingdom in Upper Egypt. The northern and the southern king- 

 doms were afterwards united by Menes, about b. c. 3300, just as 

 David united his southern kingdom with the northern kingdom of 

 Israel about 1000 b. c. 



The Israelites may have originally lived with their Edomite 

 brethren on the northeastern shore of the Red Sea, but they must 

 afterwards have sojourned for some time in Mesopotamia**^ before 

 they settled in Palestine. They may be a branch of the Semites 

 who had invaded Northern Babylonia and had afterwards gone to 

 Assyria.*^ The Edomite ancestors of the Jews invaded Palestine 

 from the south prior to b. c. 1000, but the Israelites must have come 

 to Palestine from the northeast (probably through Rakkah on the 

 Euphrates, Palmyra, and Damascus)*® prior to b. c. 1400, and settled 

 first in the northern region of the country east of the Jordan, i. e., 

 Bashan and Gilead.*^ If the Israelites sojourned in Mesopotamia, 

 we can understand the points of contact between the Israelitish law- 

 book^" in Exodus, xxi., 2 — xxii., 17 and the Code of Hammurapi 

 (B.C. 1958-1916).^^ The Decalogue (Exodus, xx., 1-17) repre- 



" On' the western bank of the Nile, at Nakadah and al-Ballas, about 

 five days' journey from Koseir, there are some of the earliest settlements in 

 Egypt. Compare also the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archceology, 

 vol. xxxi. (London, 1909) page 210, line 4. 



^^ Probably on the pasture-grounds south of Haran, between the Eu- 

 phrates and the Chaboras. Compare above, page 358, note 15, and Genesis, 

 xi., 28. 31; xxiv., 4. 10; xxvii., 43; xxviii., 2; xxxi., 18; xxxiii., 18; 

 Deuteronoiny, xxvi., 5. The Hebrew term for Mesopotamia, Ardm-N ahardim, 

 means The Arameans of the Great River, i. e., the Euphrates; see Haupt, 

 The Book of Nahum (Baltimore, 1907) page 31. 



" In Genesis, x., 11 the Authorized Version renders correctly in the 

 margin : he went out into Assyria. 



** Rakkah means bank, shore; Palmyra = Tadmor (for Titmur) : palmy, 

 abounding in palms; and Damascus seems to be a contraction of Ddr-mdski 

 well-watered region. See my paper on the Ethnology of Galilee (cited above, 

 page 360, note 22) and the Zcitschrift der Deutschcn Morgenldndischen 

 Gesellschaft, vol. xli., page 195, line 9; also Orientalistische Literaturzeitung, 

 vol. x., col. 306; vol. xii., col. 214, note 15. 



*' Compare Genesis, xxxi., 21. 47; Deuteronomy, i., 4, etc. 



°° Compare above, page 359, note 19. /^ See next page. 



