most important in the whole paragraph. If Dr. Winckler and myself are
right in our copies, Ebed-Tob speaks of "the city of the mountain of
Jerusalem, the city of the temple of the god Nin-ip, (whose) name
(there) is Salim, the city of the king." What we read "Salim," however,
is read differently by Dr. Zimmern, so that according to his copy the
passage must be translated: "the city of the mountain of Jerusalem, the
city of the temple of the god Nin-ip is its name, the city of the king."
In the one case Ebed-Tob will state explicitly that the god of
Jerusalem, whom he identifies with the Babylonian Nin-ip, is Salim or
Sulman, the god of peace, and that his temple stood on "the mountain of
Jerusalem"; in the other case there will be no mention of Salim, and it
will be left doubtful whether or not the city of Beth-Nin-ip was
included within the walls of the capital. It would seem rather that it
was separate from Jerusalem, though standing on the same "mountain" as
the great fortress. If so, we might identify Jerusalem with the city on
Mount Zion, the Jebusite stronghold of a later date, while "the city of
Beth-Nin-ip" would be that which centred round the temple on Moriah.

However this may be, the fortress and the temple-hill were distinct from
one another in the days of the Jebusites, and we may therefore assume
that they were also distinct in the age of Abraham. This might explain
why it was that the mountain of Moriah on the summit of which the
patriarch offered his sacrifice was not enclosed within the walls of
Jerusalem, and was not covered with buildings. It was a spot, on the
contrary, where sheep could feed, and a ram be caught by its horns in
the thick brushwood.

In entering Canaan, Abraham would have found himself still surrounded by
all the signs of a familiar civilization. The long-continued influence
and government of Babylonia had carried to "the land of the Amorites"