Overview
In 1887-88 villagers at Tell el-Amarna found clay tablets inscribed in cuneiform. They turned out to be the foreign correspondence of Amenhotep III and Akhenaten. Barton (1916, p. 35) describes 'nearly four hundred' tablets. The archive includes letters from the great kings of Babylon, Assyria, Mitanni and Hatti, and from vassal rulers in Canaan and Phoenicia: Rib-Adda of Byblos, Lab'ayu of Shechem, and the rulers of Gezer, Lachish, Megiddo and others.
Six letters (EA 285-290) come from Abdi-Heba (older reading Ebed-Hepa), ruler of Urusalim, Jerusalem. He protests his loyalty, complains that the pharaoh's officials slander him, and begs for archers. He warns that the 'Habiru/'Apiru' are plundering the king's lands and that towns such as Gezer, Ashkelon and Lachish are aiding his enemies. His letters mention Keilah and Aijalon, which also appear in Joshua.
A complete re-edition based on collation of every extant tablet was published by A. F. Rainey (ed. W. M. Schniedewind and Z. Cochavi-Rainey, Brill 2015). A new translation by J. Lauinger and T. Yoder appeared in 2025.
In its own words
There are no lands left to the king, my lord. The Habiri plunder all the countries of the king. If there are mercenaries in this year, then there will be left countries of the king, my lord. If there are no mercenaries, the countries of the king will be lost.Ebed-Hepa (Abdi-Heba) of Jerusalem, EA 286 (Knudtzon 286 = Winckler-Abel 102), trans. G. A. Barton, Archaeology and the Bible (Philadelphia, 1916), Part II ch. XV, p. 346
What the evidence shows
- Found 1887-88 at Tell el-Amarna; Barton (1916, p. 35) gives 'nearly four hundred' tablets 'inscribed in the Babylonian language and characters'.
- EA 285-290 each open 'um-ma ARAD-hi/he-ba', 'thus Abdi-Heba' (CDLI transliterations checked for all six); CDLI places all six in the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin (VAT 1601, 1642, 1644, 1643, 1645+2709, 1646).
- EA 286 opens (CDLI transliteration): a-na LUGAL EN-ia qi-bi-ma um-ma ARAD-he-ba ARAD-ka-ma, 'To the king my lord, say: thus Abdi-Heba your servant'.
- In EA 286 Abdi-Heba says neither his father nor his mother set him in his place but 'the arm of the mighty king' (Barton 1916 p. 346).
- In EA 287 Abdi-Heba names Gezer, Ashkelon and Lachish as having given food and oil (to his enemies), the 'sons of Labaya' as giving the land to the Habiri, and 'the land of the city of Jerusalem' as granted to him by the king (Barton p. 346-347).
- EA 287 mentions a caravan captured 'in the fields near the city Aijalon' and a matter involving Keilah (Barton p. 346-347).
- Rainey's 2015 edition is based on collation of all extant tablets (Brill, HdO 110).
Open questions
- Are the Habiru the Hebrews? Barton (1916, Part I p. 188) held that the Habiri 'may have been the first wave of the Hebrew conquest', and elsewhere that they 'were probably the Hebrews'. In the letters themselves the Habiru are a force that local rulers can side with: Abdi-Heba accuses Malkiel and the sons of Labaya of having 'given the land of the king to the Habiri' (EA 287, Barton p. 347). That is, the texts describe the Habiru by what they do, not by descent. The linguistic link 'apiru / 'ibri and the social-category reading were not settled from the primary sources cited here.
- When relative to Joshua? Barton (1916, Part II p. 344) records that some readers took the letters as patriarchal-age and others as contemporary with the conquest. Which of these holds depends on the date assigned to the Exodus and conquest (1 Kgs 6:1, Judg 11:26 versus Exod 1:11). The letters themselves name no Israelite leader or tribe.
- How big was Abdi-Heba's Jerusalem? Barton (1916, p. 187-188) reads the letters as describing a walled city and a sizeable kingdom reaching Keilah and Aijalon. The excavated Late Bronze remains on the Southeastern Ridge are sparse. The texts show a ruler with a scribe and diplomatic reach; they do not measure the town.
Since 2024
- 2025-04Lauinger and Yoder publish a new English translation of the Amarna letters (Lockwood Press). [4]
- 2025-11Eric H. Cline's history of the discovery and world of the letters (Princeton UP), with a chapter on Jerusalem. [5]
Sources
- CDLI artifact records EA 285 (P271057), EA 286 (P271088), EA 287 (P271090), EA 288 (P271089), EA 289 (P271091), EA 290 (P271092); EA 252 (P270946) link museum record
- A. F. Rainey, The El-Amarna Correspondence: A New Edition of the Cuneiform Letters from the Site of El-Amarna based on Collations of all Extant Tablets, ed. W. M. Schniedewind and Z. Cochavi-Rainey, 2 vols. (HdO I/110; Leiden: Brill, 2015), DOI 10.1163/9789004281547 link editio princeps
- G. A. Barton, Archaeology and the Bible (Philadelphia: American Sunday-School Union, 1916), Part I pp. 35, 187-188; Part II ch. XV pp. 344-347 link translation
- J. Lauinger and T. Yoder, The Amarna Letters (Atlanta/Columbus: Lockwood Press, April 2025), DOI 10.5913/2025686 link translation
- E. H. Cline, Love, War, and Diplomacy: The Discovery of the Amarna Letters and the Bronze Age World They Revealed (Princeton University Press, 2025), DOI 10.1515/9780691274096 link study
Corrected from the earlier edition of this page
- Claims that the letters prove the Habiru were the Israelites: the letters say the Habiru plunder the king's lands and that local rulers gave land to them. Identifying them with the Hebrews is a reading. Barton (1916) himself wrote only 'may have been' and 'probably'.
- Claims that the Abdi-Heba letters are in the British Museum or Cairo: CDLI records put EA 285-290 in the Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin.
- Count of Abdi-Heba letters: Barton (1916, p. 35) says seven. The CDLI transliterations show six letters opening 'thus Abdi-Heba' (EA 285-290); the seventh in older counts is not identified in the sources cited here.
- Claims that the letters 'confirm the conquest narrative': they name no Israelite person or tribe. They show Canaanite city-states such as Jerusalem, Shechem, Gezer and Lachish under Egyptian overlordship, complaining of Habiru raids.
Checked against new publications through 2026-09.