« Teams of Horses for Teams of People
Main
November 13th - Judgment Day »
November 10, 2007
Two Thousand Horses
KTU 2.33 is a letter from Iwri-Tharruma to the queen of Ugarit. If we could be certain of the historical context of this letter, it would be of some greater importance than it is. For my purposes, I call your attention to lines 22-39 which I translate as follows:
22) And (concerning) the king my lord, why did he withhold (lit. "imposed a levy of") two thousand horses (alpm . śśwm) from his servant? (25) You have brought (lit. "spoken") disaster(?) upon me. Why did the king, my lord, not give (them)? And, behold, the enemies press against me. And I can(?) not put my wife (and) my children before the face of an enemy here. (30) Now, if the king, my lord, orders (that) these two thousand horses arrive and may the king, my lord, (also) send me an intermediary (lit. "middle man"), (35) my ambassador, (then) they will lift this disaster. Two thousand horses [ . . . ] reply.
[If you see squares, rectangles or something else that doesn't look right, please install the Charis SIL font.]
Are we really to believe that Iwri-Tharruma actually requested two thousand horses? I think not. Rather, I think the high number means "a lot of horses." Exactly how many is not clear. The expression is, almost certainly, a literary device. I take the reference to his wife and children as sarcastic. Dijkstra, 45-46, struggled with the historical setting of this letter. He saw the weight of the evidence pointing, by a small margin, to "Niqmad's conflict with the kings of Mukish, Muasse and Nija." The other choice is the last days of Ugarit. If it is from those last days of Ugarit it may relate to the invasion of the "sea people" or to the war between the Assyrians and the Hittites into which Ugarit was drawn. Iwri-Tharruma has a Hurrian name but he is no doubt in the service of Ugarit. He is extremely unhappy and hard-pressed. According to the beginning of the letter, he has retreated and is now proposing a rearguard action but he needs help. At one point, lines 12-13, he writes, "I propose that you keep your word." Iwri-Tharruma is not a happy camper.
Whatever the historical situation or the cause of Iwri-Tharruma plight, it is clear that he believed that the stables at Ugarit had sufficient horses that a lot of them could and should be committed to his campaign. In fact, he believed that the king did commit a lot of horses to his campaign before reneging on the promise.
When Virolleaud, 28, n. 2, published the editio princeps of this tablet in 1957, he noted the parallel use of "two thousand horses" in 2 Kings 18:23, "So now, make a wager with my lord, the king of Assyria (Sennacherib): I will give you two thousand horses (אַלְפַּ֣יִם סוּסִ֔ים) if you are able on your own to set riders on them."
References:
Virolleaud, Charles, Textes en Cunéiformes Alphabétiques des Archives Est, Ouest et Centrales, Le Palais Royal d'Ugarit, II (PRU II), Claude Schaeffer, ed., Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1957
Posted by Duane Smith at November 10, 2007 9:45 AM | Read more on Ugarit |
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.telecomtally.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/2316