Note 480 — Chapter VI · THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE MONARCHY (continued 2)

This must be the general signification of the Hebrew expression Metheg-ammah in 2 Sam. viii. i., which the Septuagint translates τὴν ἀφωρισμένην, ‘the tribute.’ The Chronicler read Gath for Metheg (1 Chron. xviii. 1), and consequently understood ammah in the sense of ‘mother-city.’ My own belief is that we have in the phrase a Hebrew transcription of a Babylonian expression which has been derived from a cuneiform document. The Babylonian mêtêg ammati (for mêtêq ammati) would signify ‘the highroad of the mainland’ of Palestine, and would refer to the command of the highroad of trade which passed through Canaan from Asia to Egypt and Arabia. Ammati is the Semitic equivalent of the Sumerian Sarsar (W. A. I. v. 18, 32 c.), which was an early Babylonian name of the land of the Amorites or Syria (W. A. I. ii. 51, 19; see Records of the Past, new ser., v. p. 107); and mêtêq is given as a rendering of kharran, ‘a highroad’ (W. A. I. ii. 38, 26).