Original Historical Documents

The Poem of Keret

Asher, two and two are gone, [Ginsberg in `Ancient Near Eastern Texts, ed. Pritchard, translates the above line as: After two, two march.] Asher, three and three are gone, shut the houses, marched together. Go a day and two days A third one and a fourth one A fifth one and a sixth one, And on the seventh day you will meet Sapasites. And you shall come to Edom Rabbim And to Edom Serirot, Then he met the Sapasites And went to Edom Rabbot And to Edom Serirot. Don't combat Edom Rabbot Nor Edom Serirot, Depart, king of Sidon O, Keret, from my parvis! Men of Hasis went by thousands, and by myriads, as a floor [yr]. A great force of 300 times 10,000 [rbt] with harpes [hepes] of copper, with daggers [snn] of bronze.

1) In the tomb of Amenken [Breasted, `Records', Vol. 2, Sec. 802], King Amenhotep II is portrayed inspecting gifts to be distributed among his officers; these are swords described with the words "360 bronze hps (hepes)", and next to these swords are pictured 140 daggers. Since the name given to these weapons in the Egyptian records matches that we find in the poem of Keret their Egyptian origin would not be an arbitrary conclusion. Accordingly, the armed forces of Terah were armed with weapons identical with those with which Amenhotep II armed his soldiers. 2) The `Poem of Keret' was found in Ras Shamra and was first translated and interpreted by Charles Virolleaud, `La Légende de Keret, roi des Sidoniens' (Paris, 1936).

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