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Amarna tablets: Letter from Labayu of Shechem
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Canaanite cities during the Amarna period
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Letter from Labayu of Shechem

    To the king, my Lord and my God and Sun, thus speaks Labayu, your servant, the dust under your feet. At the feet of the king, my Lord and my God and Sun, seven times and seven times I prostrate myself.

    I have heard the words that the king wrote to me and who I am that the king lose his land through my fault? I am the servant of the king, and I have not rebelled and I have not sinned, and I do not retain my tribute, and I do not disregard the demands of his commissioner. They defame to me with ill will, but may the king, my Lord, not accuse me of revolting!
    Moreover, my crime is, so they say, that I entered Gezer and said in public: " Will the king take my property and not the property of Milkilu [1]? " I know what Milkilu has done against me.
    Moreover, the king wrote about my son. I did not know that my son was associated to the Hapiru [2], and I certainly would have put him into the hands of Addaya.
    Moreover, if the king wrote requesting my woman, how could I retain her? If the king wrote to me: " Sink a bronze dagger in your heart and die!", how could I disobey the order of the king?

 [1]     Ruler of Gezer
 [2]     Outlaws

 

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Regarding the Social, Political and Religious Profile of pre-Monarchic Palestine by L.M. Barré

 

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