The Ḫabiri.

Dr. Hugo Winckler, the explorer of Boghaz-Köi, who has published many interesting details of the result of his researches, states that parallel passages prove the identity of the Sa-gas (see pp. 291, 292) of the Tel-al-Amarna tablets with the Ḫabiri, and that not only the Sa-gas people, but also the Sa-gas gods are referred to. For these latter, he says, compare the image of the “valley of the 'oberim” (translated “them that pass”) in Ezekiel (xxxix. 11), in which further justification of the comparison of ḫabiri and 'eber (Eber, regarded as the ancestor of the 'Ibrim or Hebrews) results. One would like to have further details of the learned explorer's opinions upon this point. To all appearance the connection of 'oberim with 'eber would involve a change in the vocalization. For the author, the difficulty of connecting ḫabiri with 'Ibrim (Hebrews) still continues to exist. The connection of ḫabiri with 'Ibri (Hebrew) requires that the ain should have been pronounced as ghain, and the Septuagint generally gives gh when it was so pronounced.316 In 'Ibrim, however, this is not the case, and Prof. Swete has only the soft breathing in his edition.