examine Egypt's imperial presence in the late second millennium, focusing on the New Kingdom Period. That is from roughly 1550 to 1077 B.C. now one of the most important figures from this epoch, at least for our purposes, is this handsome fellow. This is Thutmose lll, perhaps the greatest military leader in Egyptian history. In the late 15 century, fifteenth century, he conducted tours of Syria, and witnessed great victories at places like Megiddo. As a result he made Canaan, and to one of it's imperial possessions, a province in his vast empire. Thutmose extended the empire up to the borders of the Hittite Kingdom in Anatolia, that is modern day Turkey. And although he never subdued the powerful kingdom of Mitanni, in the north, Mitanni is a kingdom that not many people know about. He confined this kingdom, which was a big power player of it's day, to the east side of Euphrates, where it was separated from it's allies and it's bastilles. The contemporary superpowers of the day, Babylon, Syria, Hittites, Alasia, which is a kingdom on the island of Cyprus, immediately sent diplomatic gifts to Egypt to Thutmose. The region long known as Canaan was now securely in Egyptian hands. Initiating the first period, of what one may call the Pax Aegyptica that is the Egyptian peace, a peace that resulted from Egyptian military conquest. The burden Egypt placed on the shoulders of Canaan was extremely heavy. Thutmose taxed the land in two basic forms, produce of the land and then human lives. First he required that the inhabitants provide him with a portion of the annual harvest. This led to an impoverishment of their cities so that their means of offering military resistance was weakened. Second, he demanded human bodies for his armies, and for his labour forces. This along with the, the perennial campaigns and wars led to a depopulation of Canaan. Especially in the central hill country, where later the states of Israel and Judah would emerge. So this Egyptian piece, this Pax Aegyptical, might have meant relative peace but, it brought very little prosperity for Canaan. The second phase of the new kingdom period, includes what is called the Am, Amarna Period, Amarna which included the reigns of Amanhotep III, that is Tutmosis' grandson. And then Akhanaten, the famous king who is introduced the monotheistic reforms, so called monotheistic reforms of Egypt. And he was the father of Tutankhamum, The King Tut, the famous King Tut that everyone knows about. Now, the Amarna period is so important to the study of ancient Israel, because of the discovery of the archive of Amarna letters which I mentioned in an earlier lecture. Now although some of the letters are quite poorly preserved, the archive provides us with incomparable historical knowledge of the situation in Canaan. As I noted, many of the letters were sent from Canaanite cities to the Pharaohs. These cities were supervised by native rulers whom the Egyptians appointed as their mayors, their [FOREIGN], and the king's territories, his Imperial estates. However, when the Pharaoh was not looking the mayor's would often arrogate to themselves the right to call themselves king, that is [FOREIGN] or [FOREIGN] and they expected to be addressed as such by their people. So they may have been the governors or the mayors for the, from the Egyptian perspective, but on the ground they treated themselves as kings and they wanted to behave as such. Many of the letters consist entirely of this fetching, the comp, complaining to the Egyptian overlord, to the court. They're writing, begging for various things. And what bothers these mayors, most of all, is the action of their competitors. Those other neighbours who governed neighbouring cities yet had, these other competitors, had ambitions to expand into their territory. So they were encroaching on each others territories. So what happens, is that these local rulers, who fear loosing their lands, as well as their lives sometimes, write letters to the crown back in Egypt, and in forms comparable to prayers, they beg to see the kings face. They plead for him to make his annual visitation, visitation, and to establish justice in the land. And this justice, establishing justice, meant most of the time just sending a battalion of royal archers, these fighters, to punish rebels. Let me cite an example of one of these letters. To the king, my Lord and my God and sun, thus speaks Biridiya, governor of Megiddo, the loyal servant of the king. At the feet of the king, my Lord and my God and sun, seven times and seven times I prostrate myself. May the king know that since his archers have gone back, Labayu carries out acts of hostility against me, and that we cannot shear the wool, and that we cannot pass through the gate in the presence of Labayu, since he knows that you have not given me archers for protection. And now he intends to take Megiddo. In truth the city is destroyed by death, as a result of pestilence, and disease through this siege. May the king grant 100 garrison troops to guard the city, lest Labayu take it. Now, whether Egypt on this occasion sent military support to Megiddo, which had always been important to Egypt, is not known. But who is this Labayu? That's the question. Who was, who was besieging the city, this enemy that is reported about in the letter? Who is this guy? The place from which he rules is called Shokmul and that is, re, corresponds to the biblical Shechem or Chem. This place, of course, is known from Genesis, where a lot of the patriarchs are around, throughout Israel's history, Shechem is an important place. And Labayu, who operates there, that was his base, was attempting to expand from the Highlands into the Jezreel Valley, where Megiddo is located. Remarkably, from the biblical history, Saul, Israel's first king, is reported to have attempted to do the same thing when he's building his kingdom, his first kingdom over Israel. He, you'll remember one of the greats scenes where he dies, and he dies on Mount Gilboa. Why Mount Gilboa? That is overlooking the Jezreel Valley, where he fought a campaign. So, Saul begins in the central hill country, just like Labayu, and he, he sets his sights on the Jezreel Valley. The Jezreel valley, where he's going to build up a larger kingdom, extend it into much more robust, and more wealthy territorial state. And, so we see this in the Amarna letter's, but also in the biblical record, very similar things going on. Now, another guy in the Amarna letter's, whom his neighbours liked to complain about, is a certain, Abdi-Hepa. Abdi-Hepa reigned in Jerusalem, which is known in these letters as URU-salim, URU-salim, Jeru- salim, Jerusalem. So from this location Abdi-Hepa, attempted to expand his kingdom also like Labayu, into other territories. So we have Abdi-Hepa and Shad Labayu they have their cities in the high country and they are trying to expand. Not without warrant I think you, we can call King Saul and King David, David reigned from Jerusalem or Hevron and the Judah, and King Saul in the north. They're very similar to Labayu and Abdi-Hepa and many scholars call them Labayu or Abdi-Hepa the [FOREIGN] or resurrected. Now why did Labayu and Abdi-Hepa and their songs have such free reign, to expand from their cities and create little territorial states? From little city-states to territorial states? Why did that, why was that allowed? Why did they think they could get away with it? This insolence vis a vis the Egyptian court. The answer is that, is that these guys inhabited the hinterland, the highlands, the hill country, the region where the later states of Israel and Judea emerge. That's the core territories up here in the hill country, and it's called today the hill country of Judea and Samaria, it's also where the territories are, the Palestinian territories are today. But these are the old core territories of the states of Israel and Judea, and this is when Labayu and Abdi-Hepa, are beginning. For the Pharos, now this is important, to realize that what was most important, was not this hill country up there, the Hentiland, which was occupied, in their minds by hillbillies, and dangerous hillbillies at that. The Egyptians seemed to have thought that, what's best is to leave that element to it's own devices. In the focus attention on the coastal territories along the Medeterrainian Coast, which were not only much richer in resources, but were also essential for the lines of communication, and transport with the super powers in the north and into Mesopotamia. So from Egypt, or as we noted, to get to Mesopotamia, they had to go up along the coast, and that was the most important reason why they wanted to keep that coast clear and under control. But what was going on up the hill, highlands was not really to much of their interest, as long as they did not interfere with what's going down in the coast. Of course, one could also use the Mediterranean Sea for transporting troops to Harbor City, in the North. But if political turmoil along the Canaanite coast were, were allowed to go unheeded, then a Northern power could take advantage of the situation and expand Southwards into Canaan, and then end up right on Egypt's front door. This was on all accounts one of the worst things that could happen and it had to be avoided at all cost. So, what's important about these Amarna letters is first, they suggest that Egypt was much less interested in the highlands. The core territories of Israel and Judah, okay? And number two, that they offer us a glimpse of the unceasing desire and need of the rulers of the highlands, to expand into the lowlands. Especially into the fertile Jezreel Valley. The bread basket of the south, Southern Levant, where for example Megiddo is located. Now, as long as Egypt could defend its imperial interests, it could keep these threats confined to the small competing chieftains up in the hills, right? But, what happened, this is the question, when the Egyptian empire collapsed, and it was no longer there to keep these hill country forces at bay? The answer is, that we witness develo, the development of territorial states, Kingdoms such as Israel and Judah, and their neighbors Moab and Amon, all of those. Thus, these important letters between the Egyptian court and their imperial governors in Canaan, reveal how rulers within Canaan tried to expand their influence over larger territories, even while Egypt was keeping a relatively close eye on what was going on. And all this, helps us to imagine what would happen once Egypt withdrew from Canaan, and left these dynamics to evolve with no external imperial influence. And all we could do is imagine what would happen when these rulers had free rein to do as they pleased, without Egypt confining to their provincial territories. The same forces that work during this time, can hence, can be extrapolated over a period of centuries without external control, without the empire watching over them. As Egypt pulls out, what would happen? And what we get is a constellation of kingdoms as we have them in the first millennium. That is the time of the Bible. [BLANK_AUDIO]