On the walls of the Ramesseum at Thebes there are pictures of the
storming and capture of the Palestinian cities. Most of them are now
destroyed, but we can still read the names of Ashkelon, of Salem or
Jerusalem, of Beth-Anath and Qarbu[tu], of Dapul in the land of the
Amorites, of Merom, of Damascus, and of Inuam. Elsewhere we have mention
of Yurza and Socho, while at Karnak there are two geographical lists
which mark two of the lines of march taken by the troops of Ramses II.
The first list contains the following names: (1) the district of Salem;
(2) the district of Rethpana; (3) the country of the Jordan; (4) Khilz;
(5) Karhu; (6) Uru; (7) Abel; (8) Carmel; (9) the upper district of
Tabara or Debir; (10) Shimshon; and (n) Erez Hadashta, "the new land."
In the second list we read: (1) Rosh Kadesh, or Mount Carmel; (2) Inzat;
(3) Maghar; (4) Rehuza; (5) Saabata; (6) Gaza; (7) the district of
Sala'; (8) the district of Zasr; (9) Jacob-el; and (10) the land of
Akrith, the Ugarit of the Tel el-Amarna tablets.

We have already seen that long before the time of Ramses II. Jerusalem
was an important city and fortress, the capital of a territory of some
size, known by the name of Uru-Salim, "the city of the god of peace."
"The city of Salem" could easily be abbreviated into "Salem" only; and
it is accordingly Salem which alone is used in the fourteenth chapter of
Genesis as well as in the inscriptions of Ramses II. and Ramses III. The
name of Rethpana, which follows that of Salem, is faultily written in
the list of Ramses II., and it is from that of Ramses III. that we have
to recover its true form. Ramses III., moreover, tells us that Rethpana
was a lake, and since its name comes between those of Jerusalem and the
Jordan it must represent the Dead Sea. The Canaanite form of Rethpana
would be Reshpon, a derivative from the name of Resheph, the god of fire
and lightning, whose name is preserved in that of the town Arsuf, and
whose "children" were the sparks (Job v. 7). The name was appropriate to