reads Joseph-el or "Joseph-god." How the name of Joseph came to be
attached in the time of Thothmes to the mountainous region in which "the
House of Joseph" afterwards established itself is hard to explain; we
must remember, however, as has been stated in a former chapter, that
according to the Chronicler (1 Chron. vii. 21, 22), already in the
lifetime of Ephraim his sons were slain by the men of Gath, "because
they came down to take away their cattle." (Mr. Pinches tells me that in
early Babylonian contracts of the age of Chedor-laomer he has found the
name of Yasupu-ilu or Joseph-el, as well as that of Yakub-ilu or
Jacob-el. The discovery is of high importance when we remember that
Abraham migrated from Ur of the Chaldees, and adds another to the many
debts of gratitude due to Mr. Pinches from Biblical students. See
Preface for further details.)

Three names further on we find another compound with _el_, Har-el, "the
mount of God." In Ezek. xliii. 15 Har-el is used to denote the "altar"
which should stand in the temple on Mount Moriah, and Mount Moriah is
itself called "the Mount of the Lord" in the Book of Genesis (xxii. 14).
It may be, therefore, that in the Har-el of the Egyptian list we have
the name of the mountain whereon the temple of Solomon was afterwards to
be built. However this may be, the names which follow it show that we
are in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. One after the other come Lebau,
Na'mana or Na'amah (Josh. xv. 41), Meromim "the heights," 'Ani "the two
springs," Rehob, Ekron, Hekalim "the palaces," the Abel or "meadow" of
Autar'a, the Abel, the Gantau or "gardens," the Maqerput or "tilled
ground," and the 'Aina or "Spring" of Carmel, which corresponds with the
Gath-Carmel of the Tel el-Amarna tablets, the Carmel of Judah of the Old
Testament. Then we have Beth-Ya, a name which reminds us of that of
"Bithia, the daughter of Pharaoh," whom Mered, the descendant of Caleb,
took to wife, and whose stepson was Yered, "the father of Gedor" (1