Labaya
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Labaya (also transliterated as Labayu or Lib'ayu) was a Canaanite warlord who lived about contemporaneously with Pharaoh Akhenaten (14th century BCE). Labaya is mentioned in several of the Amarna Letters (abbreviated "EA", for 'el Amarna'), which is practically all we know about him.
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[edit] Career
Labaya seems to have been based out of Shachmu (Shechem). He and his sons exerted influence over a wide region in Samaria, and threatened many powerful Canaanite towns, including Jerusalem, Gezer, and Megiddo.
The Amarna letters give an incomplete look at Labaya's career. In the first of Labaya's letters thus far discovered (EA 252), he defends himself to the Pharaoh against complaints of other city rulers about him (for example, the complaint that he has hired mercenaries from among the Habiru). Labaya further admitted to having invaded Gezer and insulting its king Milkilu. He denied any knowledge of his son's alleged collaboration with the Habiru:
- To the king, my Lord and my God and Sun, thus speaks Labayu, your servant, the dirt on which you tread. I fall at the feet of the king, my Lord and my God and Sun, 7 times and 7 times. I have obeyed the orders that the king wrote to me. Who am I that the king should lose his land on account of me? The fact is that I am a loyal servant of the king! I am not a rebel and I am not delinquent in duty. I have not held back my payments of tribute; I have not held back anything requested by my commissioner. He denounces me unjustly, but the king, my Lord, does not examine my (alleged) act of rebellion. Moreover, my act of rebellion is this: when I entered Gazru, I kept on saying, "Everything of mine the king takes, but where is what belongs to Milikilu? " I know the actions of Milkilu against me! Moreover, the king wrote for my son. I did not know that my son was consorting with the Apiru. I hereby hand him over to Addaya. Moreover, how, if the king wrote for my wife, how could I hold her back? How, if the king wrote to me, "Put a bronze dagger into your heart and die", how could I not execute the order of the king? (EA 254)[1]
Other Canaanite rulers, such as Abdi-Heba of Jerusalem, complained of Labaya's depredations (e.g. EA 289)[2] but note that in later years, Abdi-Heba would himself be referred to as a "new Labaya" in EA 280.[3] Labaya was accused of capturing cities that were under Egyptian protection. Biridya, the king of Megiddo, accused him of besieging his city:
- Say to the king, my Lord and my God and Sun, message of Biridiya, the loyal servant of the king: At the feet of the king, my Lord and my God and Sun, 7 times and 7 times I prostrate myself. May the king know that since the return (to Egypt) of the [Egyptian] archers, Labayu has waged war against me. We are thus unable to do the plucking: Ka-Zira (harvesting), and we are unable to get out of the city gate...because of Labayu. When he learned that archers were not coming out, he immediately determined to take Megiddo. May the king save the city lest Labayu seize it. Look, the city is consumed by pestilence, by...So may the king give a garrison of 100 men to guard his city lest Labayu seize it. Look, Labayu has no other purpose. He simply seeks the seizure of Meggido.(EA 244)[4]
After receiving numerous complaints about Labaya's behavior, the pharaoh (probably Amenhotep III) finally ordered several Canaanite rulers to take Labaya prisoner and send him to Egypt. Biridiya, ruler of Megiddo, wrote to the pharaoh that Zurata, governor of Akko, had captured Labaya, but accepted a bribe from the latter and released him. (EA 245)[5]
Labaya was eventually killed by the citizens of Gina (Beth-Hagan, possibly modern-day Jenin). One of Labaya's sons, Mutbaal, ruled Pella in the Trans-Jordanian part of Canaan. His death was reported to the Pharaoh's agent, Balu-Ur-Sag, by Labaya's two sons. The sons of Labaya continued to campaign against other Egyptian vassals in Canaan. Biryawaza, king of Damascus, was eventually asked to take armed action against Labaya's sons (EA 250).[6]
[edit] Tenuous identifications with Biblical figures
Some scholars have identified Labaya with the biblical figure of Abimelech ben Gideon (Judges 9). Still others, such as David Rohl, have advocated a totally revised chronology of ancient Israelite and Egyptian history, and instead identify Labaya with Saul and Mutbaal with Saul's son Ishbaal or Ish-bosheth. These scholars further identify Dadua, Ayab and Yishaya, three figures mentioned by Mutbaal in a later Amarna Letter, as King David, his general Joab and his father, Jesse/Yishai. The Rohl chronology, which is recently proposed, is not, however, widely accepted. There are wide discrepancies between the Labaya of the Amarna texts and King Saul as he is described in the Books of Samuel, leading Rohl's suggestion to be dismissed by other Egyptologists, such as Kenneth Kitchen.
[edit] References
[edit] Bibliography
- Baikie, James. The Amarna Age: A Study of the Crisis of the Ancient World. University Press of the Pacific, 2004.
- Cohen, Raymond and Raymond Westbrook (eds.). Amarna Diplomacy: The Beginnings of International Relations. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002.
- Moran, William L. (ed. and trans.) The Amarna Letters. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992.
