(28) The question placed in the mouth of the Rabshakeh indicates concern not just with the political and military effects of Assyrian imperial conquests, but with the theological issues they raise: Where is the god of Hamath and of Arpad?
One example appears in the annals of Tiglath-Pileser III, who describes the extent of his conquests during his 738 campaign against Hamath by enumerating toponyms with particular reference to the mountains, which served as district borders.
The foundation of the Aramaean settlement at Syene is more difficult to date, but based on information especially from the Papyrus Amherst 63 (the unique Aramaic text in Demotic script) Porten finds their origins to have been Arash/Rash (a land between Babylonia and Elam), as well as southern Syria (Bit Agusi and
Hamath), with a migration to Samaria in the days of Assurbanipal before they came to Egypt.
"Pharaoh Necho imprisoned him in Riblah in the area of
Hamath against his reigning in Jerusalem.
Dieses Muster ist feststellbar bei Angriffen gegen Sam'al (858), Patin (858), Karkemis (857, 849, 848), Hamath (853, 848), Bit-Agusi (849, 848, 833/32), Que (839, 833/32), und Melid (835).
Die Namen der selten angegriffenen und noch seltener eroberten Reichszentren werden in Salmanassars Inschriften zumeist nur dann erwahnt, wenn, wie im Falle von Karkemis, Sam'al, Melid oder Hamath, die Hauptstadt dem dazugehorigen Reich den Namen gab.
Dalley's work, "Yahweh in
Hamath in the Eighth Century B.C.: Cuneiform Material and Historical Deductions" (VT40 [1990]: 21-32).
15) mais avec Dupont-Sommer, l'interpretation geographique du mot SBH dans des graffiti de
Hamath parait vraisemblable.
Lu-ri-[lum.sup.ki], or perhaps Lu-ri-[num.sup.ki], a royal client city, probably located on the eastern periphery of the Ebla Empire, cannot be equated with [U.sub.9]-ri-[lum.sub.ki] (also called Ur-[lu.sup.ki]/Ur-[lum.sup.ki]/Ur-[lu.sup.ki]/Ur-[lum.sup.ki]), an agricultural settlement from a frequently listed group of localities which, form the occurrences of several of them in the records of Alalah IV (including uruU-ri-lu), Ugarit, the Neo-Hittite kingdom of
Hamath, and in modern toponymy, can be assigned to a district southwest of the city of Ebla.
Further on, there is a reference to 19 nage sa URU Hammatti adi alani sa sihirtisunu sa ahi tamti sa sulmu dsamsi sa ina hitti u gullulti ana Azriyau ekimu ana misir mat Assur utirra, "nineteen districts of
Hamath with the towns around them, which are on the coast of the sea of the setting of the sun, which they had taken away for Azriyau, I restored to the territory of Assyria" (Rost 1893: ii, 22, line 131).