Note 10 — Chapter I · THE HEBREW PATRIARCHS

That Ebir-nâri signified the country west of the Euphrates in the later days of Babylonian history is shown by a contract-tablet, dated in the third year of Darius Hystaspis, and translated by Peiser (Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek, iv. p. 305), in which mention is made of ‘Ustanni, the governor of Babylon and Ebir-nâri’ (line 2). Meissner (Zeitschrift für Alttestament, Wissenschaft, xvii.) has pointed out that Ustanni is the Tatnai of Ezra, v. 3, 6; vi. 6, 13, who is there called the ‘governor of the land beyond the river’ (’Abar Nahara).