CHAPTER X

JACOB AND JOSEPH

APPEARANCES OF THESE NAMES IN BABYLONIAN AND EGYPTIAN RECORDS. “THE TALE OF THE TWO BROTHERS”; ITS BEARING ON THE STORY OF JOSEPH IN GENESIS. LETTERS TO A RULER LIKE JOSEPH. THE SEVEN YEARS OF FAMINE. INSCRIPTION SHOWING PREPARATION FOR FAMINE.

=1. Jacob.=

Three different men in Babylonia at the time of the Hammurapi dynasty bore the name Jacob-el. Thus, in the reign of Apil-Sin, the fourth king of the dynasty (2161 to 2144 B. C.), two witnesses, Shubna-ilu and Yadakh-ilu gave their father’s name as _Yakub-ilu_, or Jacob-el.[427] In the same reign a witness to another document, one Lamaz, had a Jacob-el as his father.[428] In the reign of Sin-muballit, the next king, a witness named Nur-Shamash was also the son of a Jacob-el.[429] In the reign of the great Hammurapi, the next king, a witness named Sin-erbiam gave his father’s name simply as _Yakub_,[430] or Jacob. This last is clearly a shortening of Jacob-el. These men all lived from 75 to 190 years before the Babylonian Abraham, whose documents are discussed in