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The Son of Tabeel (Isaiah 7: 6)Author(s): W. F. A.

Source: Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, No. 140 (Dec., 1955), pp. 34-35Published by: The American Schools of Oriental ResearchStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1355967Accessed: 11/09/2008 11:45

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Bulletin

of

the American Schools of

Oriental

Research

THE

SON OF

TABEEL

(ISAIAH

7:

6)

The current number of Iraq contains a valuable article by Mr. H. W.

F.

Saggs

on

a

group

of

letters

from

the

Assyrian

archives

of Calah

concerning Syria

and

Palestine. Here

Professor M.

E.

L. Mallowan

has

been

conducting exceedingly

important

excavations since

1949;

these

letters

are

selected from the finds

of

the 1952 season at

Nimrud. We

shall deal

with

only

one

of the

twelve

letters,

No.

XIV,1

which is one of

the best

preserved

and

the

easiest

to

interpret;

it

also

throws

light

on

an obscure

episode

in

the

history

of the Divided

Kingdom.

Mr.

Saggs'

copy

of

the cuneiform

text looks

impeccable;

his

transcription

of the

cuneiform is

formally

correct

(i.

e.,

the

characters

are

correctly

identi-

fied)

except

in line 7, where there is an unusual

slip;

the translation needs

some

revision,

as is

generally

true of first

publications.

The

Assyrian

dialect

which is

employed

in these

letters

is

not

always

easy

to under-

stand,

and

the

circumstances in

which

a letter was

written are not

described

but

must be inferred

from its

content.

[an]a

sarri

beliya

aradka

mQurdi-Agsur

l1

sulmu ana

sarri

beliya

Lu

mdr

sipri

sa

m.dAya-nu-ri

5

KUR

Ta-ab-i-la-aya

mE-za-zu sumsu kaniku

ina

qdtesu

ana

ekalli

ubala dibbi

sa

ina

libbi kanikisu

10

ina

muhhi

dli

Ma-'a-ba-aya

sunu sa

KUR

Gi-di-ra-aya

ana mat Ma-'a-ba

etiqi

[ni]

[i]

likuni

15

diktasu idakuni

ina muhhi

tstu

umd annurig

ina

qdte

L

mar

sipriya

aptiqi

(s)

su

20 ana

ekalli

ubalasu

ina

umi

29KAM

sa

arah

Sabati

isuni

To

the

king,

my

lord,

thy

servant,

Qurdi-Asfir,

may

it

be well

with the

king,

my

lord

The

messenger

of

Ayanfir,

the

Tab'elite,

Ezazu

2

by name, is bringing

a sealed document

with

him3

to

the

palace.

The words

which

are in his

sealed

document,

refer

to

a

Moabite

town

(and

say)

that

the men of the

land of Geder

into

the land of Moab

crossed,

(and)

proceeded

to

slaughter

its

people.

With

regard

to him

4

Truly, at once,

into the

care of

my messenger

I

have

entrusted

him,

to

the

palace

he will

bring

him.

On

the

29th

of

the

month

of

Shebat

they

are

leaving.

This letter was

written

toward the

end of the

reign

of

Tiglath-pileser

III

or

a

little

later,

but

in

no case

before

the fall

of

Damascus

in

732

or

after

the

transfer

of the

Assyrian

capital

from Calah

to

Dur-Sharrukin

in

the

early years

of

Sargon

(722-705

B.

C.).

Qurdi-Assur

(-lamur)

was

a high Assyrian official, who also figures in two letters about the affairs

1

See

Iraq,

XVII

(1955),

pp.

131-133 and

plate

XXXII.

2

Perhaps

an

Arabic

'Izaz.

3

The clear

ina

qdtsgu

is

transcribed

inasu Ainisu

by

the

first

editor,

who

naturally

could not

explain

the

words.

4The

masculine

pronoun

can refer

only

to

the

messenger

of

Ayanfr,

and the same

is true

of the

following

masculine

suffixes.

34

8/15/2019 W. F. a., The Son of Tabeel (Isaiah 7,6)

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Number

140

December, 1955

of

Tyre

and

Sidon.

Ayanur,

who bears

a

name

typical

of the

desert

fringes

of Palestine

and

Syria

in

this

age,5

was an

important

official

(per-

haps

"

king

")

of the

land

of

Tab'el.

Ayaniur

seems to have won

Assyrian

favor and to have been charged with the oversight of the regions south

of

Tab'el,

whose Aramaic name

points

to a

location

north

of Ammon and

Gilead.

The "land" of

Gidir

is

probably

a

Geder of

Judah,

just

as

Qedesh

of

Naphtali

is called

Qidis

in a

Neo-Babylonian

letter of

the

sixth

century;

it

may

be

Bet-gader

or

Bet-geder

in

eastern Judah.

The

gentilic

clears

up

the

mystery

of

"

the son of

Tab'el" who

was set

up by

Rezin

of Damascus and Pekah

of Israel as a

pretender

to the

throne of

Judah,

in

place

of Ahaz.6

We

have no

space

to

enter

into

a

discussion of the

so-called

Syro-Ephraimite

war,7

but

it is obvious that

our

"

son of

Tab'el" refers to a

prince

of Judah whose

maternal

home

was in the land of Tab'el in northeastern Palestine or southeastern Syria.

Like

Absalom,

whose mother

was a

princess

of

Geshur

(also

in

the north-

east),

Rehoboam,

whose

mother was an

Ammonite

princess,

and

ap-

parently

others,

the

"

son of

Tab'el"

was

presumably

son of

Uzziah or

Jotham

by

a

princess

of

Tab'el.

The war itself is

recognized

by

all to

have

been

fought

by

Rezin

and

Pekah about

733

B.

C.

in

order

to

con-

solidate their forces

before

the

impending

Assyrian

attack.

W.

F.

A.

5

See

my

paper,

"

The Biblical Tribe of

Massa'

and

Some

Congeners,"

to

appear

in

the

Levi

Della

Vida

Festschrift,

where

names

of

this

type

are

cited,

with an

explanation

of their

origin.

On

the

use of

the

patronymic

alone,

without the

personal

name,

see

especially

Albrecht

Alt,

"

Menschen ohne

Namen,"

Archiv

Orientdlni,

XVIII

(1950),

pp.

22 f.

with

specific

reference to

our

passage

(Isa.

7:

1-9),

where Pekah

is three

times

called only "son of Remaliah " whereas Rezin is always mentioned by name. Nor

should

we

forget

that

Tab'el

was

properly

a

personal

name,

so

the

full name

of

the

tribe

and land

was

doubtless

Bet-Tdb'el.

It is

now well

known that

"Hadad-ezer

son

of Rehob

"

means

"

Hadad-ezer of

Beth-Rehob,"

just

as the

Assyrian

"

Ba'sa son

of Ruhub

"

means

"

Baasha

of

Beth-Rehob."

Similarly,

"

Shamgar

son of

Anath"

means

"

Shamgar

of

Beth-Anath,"

and

the

Assyrian

"

Jehu

son of

Omri

"

means

"Jehu

of

Beth-Omri,"

the official

name of Samaria.

7

See

II

Kings

16:

5ff.,

Isa.

7:

Iff.,

and

1.

Noth,

Geschichte

Israels

(1950),

pp.

222

ff.

35

Number 140

December,

1955