Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Niels Peter Lemche <npl AT teol.ku.dk>]

The Amarna letters are so complicated and have been so naively interpreted.
Why do you think that Lab'aya threatened Megiddo? Because its ruler said so,
of course, but some letters shows an alliance to exist between Lab'aya and
Milki-ilu of Gezer, although the only place where Lab'aya seems expressly to
have visited is Gezer. Lab'aya claims his innocence. he is accused of
ÌR-Cheba of being a renegade, and Shuweardata is accusing Ìr-Cheba of the
same crime. You cannot really pay much attention to the wording of a single
letter but has to remove noise to find message, and what is the ruler of
Megiddo really saying, that he feels threatened by Lab'aya but he cannot
produce real evidence that the threat is real. These people wee not naive,
and their letters should not be read as to show us exactly what happened.
They are highly propagandistic and distorting facts.

I cannot say that Lab'aya did not possess the land of Shechem. He was
certainly reckoned to be able to do something about this land--at least
ÌR-Cheba says so. So it is likely so, but the only safe connection between a
member of the Lab'aya family and a place name is (for the third time) Pella.

NPL