Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Karl:
 
You wrote:  “The only significant city in Canaan during the late bronze age 
was Hazor, which was destroyed during the late bronze age, and never 
mentioned in the Amarna letters.” 
 
Wm. Moran, at p. 390 of his edition of the Amarna Letters, sees Biblical 
Hazor as being mentioned 7 times in the Amarna Letters, more than most other 
cities:
 
“Hasura [where the H is marked heth, and the s is marked ssade], biblical 
Hazor, 148: 41;  227: 3, 21;  228: 4, 15, 23;  364: 18”
 
Biblical Hazor is spelled as follows:  XCWR
 
At Amarna Letters 227 and 228, which are from Hazor, Hazor is spelled (in 
the English transliteration of Akkadian cuneiform):  ha-cu-ri, or ha-cu-ra, 
where the h is a heth, and the c is a ssade.
 
So the spellings of the city name Hazor are identical.
 
Joshua 19: 36-37 refers to Adamah, Hazor and QD$.  That’s eastern Galilee 
all the way.
 
Per Amarna Letters EA 256: 6, 3 and EA 364: 2, Wm. Moran sees Ayyab as 
being the mayor of Ashteroth, in the northern Transjordan, not too far from 
Hazor, being just east of Galilee.  In Amarna Letter EA 364, Ayyab claims 
that 
the princeling ruler of Hazor has taken 3 cities from him.
 
Looking the other direction, that is west of Hazor, Rib-Hadda of coastal 
Lebanon accuses the princeling ruler of Hazor at Amarna Letter EA 148: 41-47 
as follows:  “He has taken over the land of the king for the Apiru.  May the 
king [Akhenaten] ask his commissioner, who is familiar with Canaan.”  
 
Thus all the references to Hazor in the Amarna Letters fit historical Hazor 
perfectly.  And the spelling of Hazor is exactly the same as in the Bible.
 
Biblical Hazor is front and center in the Amarna Letters, appearing on 7 
occasions.  Your assertion that “Hazor…[is] never mentioned in the Amarna 
Letters” is not true.
 
The Amarna Letters are filled with references to princelings who have 
Amorite or Hurrian names.  The Amorites were no longer in existence after the 
Late Bronze Age, and the Hurrians were only in existence during the Late 
Bronze 
Age.  The Hittites are the baddest guys in the Amarna Letters.  The 
Hittites never threatened anyone after the Late Bronze Age, and were 
virtually 
extinct by the 1st millennium BCE.  Everything about the Amarna Letters is 
utterly redolent of the Late Bronze Age in every way:  Amorites, Hurrians, 
Hittites, and -- Hazor.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois