Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On 8/3/05, Dora Smith wrote:
> I previously sent this only to Yitzhak by mistake.
> 
> I am wondering; I beleive that Jerusalem actually existed for a long time,
> as a fortress; and that the archeological evidence shows that but just does
> not show that there was a city there.
> 
> But if I knew it was mentioned in the Amarna letters, I've forgotten.
> Where and in what context is Jerusalem mentioned in the Amarna letters?

It (probably) is mentioned as the seat of Abdi Heba.  See for example EA 286:
http://www.kchanson.com/ANCDOCS/meso/amarna286.html

EA 280, 286, 288: http://pirate.shu.edu/~carterch/bible/amarna.html

Part of EA 287: http://www.touregypt.net/amarna20.htm

EA 287 specifically mentions the "attic being breached" in lines 33-46, and I
think this suggests some kind of fortress.

In her hebrew translation of the letters, Tzipora Cochavi-Rainey also mentions
the following letters in connection with Jerusalem: 271, 279, 280, 285 - 291,
366

Margareet Steiner on the issue:
http://www.truthbeknown.com/jerusalem.htm

See also: Nadav Naaman, The Contribution of the Amarna Letters to the
Debate on Jerusalem's Political Status in the Tenth Century BCE, BASOR
304 (1996), p. 17-27

Amarna letters in cuneiform (translation is up to you...):
http://www.tau.ac.il/humanities/semitic/amarna.html

Yitzhak Sapir