Lab'aia

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Labʾāya (Labaya, Labayu or Lib'ayu) is a ruler of Shechem in the Middle Bronze Age named in the Amarna letters . He partly lived at the same time as Pharaoh Akhenaten . He himself wrote a few letters to the Pharaoh (EA 252-254). So far, the Amarna tablets are the only evidence of this ruler in Canaan .

According to the Egyptian sources, Labʾāya tried several times to advance into the lowlands and expand his dominion in all directions. So he threatened Gezer and Jerusalem and also tried to extend his rule into the Jezreel plain and to incorporate the surrounding city-states like Megiddo , Gaza and Akko .

Canaanite vassals of Egypt are supposed to arrest him under the leadership of the men in Gila and bring him to the Pharaoh. However, he died in battle. His sons around Mutbaal continued to fight the neighboring tribes . The texts prove that the northern mountain country of Ephraim had considerable military and economic potential in the Middle Bronze Age.

Some authors see Labʾāya as the biblical Abimelech ben Gideon . The British Egyptologist David Rohl sees Saul as part of his New Chronology, which has so far been controversial. He holds Mutbaal's Amarna letter EA 256 written by Saul's son Ishbaal. Both names mean "man of Baal". Mutbaal explains to the pharaoh the failure to arrest an Ayab, in which Rohl sees David's general Joab. Mutbaal asserts: "I swear that Ayab (Joab) is not in Pihilu (Pella). Rather, he has been on a campaign for two months. Just ask Benenima (Baana). Just ask Dadua (David). Just ask Yishaya (Isai) . "

literature

  • James Baikie: The Amarna Age. A Study of the Crisis of the Ancient World. Kegan Paul, London 2004, ISBN 0-7103-0914-7 .
  • Raymond Cohen, Raymond Westbrook (Eds.): Amarna Diplomacy. The Beginnings of International Relations. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2002, ISBN 0-8018-6199-3 .
  • Israel Finkelstein , Neil A. Silberman: David and Solomon. Archaeologists decipher a myth. CH Beck, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-406-54676-5 .
  • Wayne Horowitz: The Amarna Age inscribed clay cylinder from Beth-Shean. In: The Biblical Archaeologist. Vol. 60, 1997, ISSN  0006-0895 , pp. 97-100.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Lab'aia
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Labaya; Labayu; Lib'ayu
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Ruler of Shechem in the Middle Bronze Age
DATE OF BIRTH 14th century BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH 14th century BC BC or 13th century BC Chr.