We next hear of Namya-yitsa in Accho or Acre, where he had taken refuge
with Suta, or Seti, the Egyptian commissioner. Seti had already been in
Jerusalem, and had been inquiring there into the behaviour of Ebed-Tob.

The picture of incipient anarchy and rebellion which is set before us by
the correspondence from Phoenicia and Syria is repeated in that from the
centre and south of Palestine. In the centre the chief seats of the
Egyptian government were at Megiddo, at Khazi (the Gaza of 1 Chron. vii.
28), near Shechem, and at Gezer. Each of these towns was under an
Egyptian governor, specially appointed by the Pharaoh.

The governor of Khazi bore the name of Su-yarzana, Megiddo was under the
authority of Biridî, while the governor of Gaza was Yapakhi. There are
several letters in the Tel el-Amarna collection from the latter
official, chiefly occupied with demands for help against his enemies.
The district under his control was attacked by the Sute or Beduin, led
by a certain Labai or Labaya and his sons. Labai, though of Beduin
origin, was himself professedly an Egyptian official, the Egyptian
policy having been to give the title of governor to the powerful Beduin
sheikhs, and to attach them to the Egyptian government by the combined
influence of bribery and fear. Labai accordingly writes to the Pharaoh
to defend himself against the charges that had been brought against him,
and to assure Khu-n-Aten that he was "a faithful servant of the king";
"I have not sinned, and I have not offended, and I do not withhold my
tribute or neglect the command to turn back my officers." Labai, it
would seem, had been appointed by Amenophis III. governor of Shunem and
Bene-berak (Joshua xix. 45), and had captured the city of Gath-Rimmon
when it revolted against the Pharaoh; but after the death of Amenophis
he and his two sons had attacked the Egyptian officials in true Beduin