The presence of a friend at the court was appreciated and cultivated by
the rulers of the city states. Several of the Amarna tablets are
addressed to an Egyptian official named Yanhamu who bore the title "the
king's fanbearer." He was evidently a man of considerable power, for the
king entrusted him with the issuing of supplies from a place known as
Yarimuta. For this reason the local princes in Syria and Canaan
frequently wrote to him. After outlining his needs, Rib-Addi indulged in
a little apple-polishing as he concluded, "There is no servant like
Yanhamu, a faithful servant of the king."[69]
Yanhamu seems to have occupied in the court of Amenhotep III (and
possibly Akhenaton as well) a position comparable to the one Joseph held
several generations earlier.[70] Both Yanhamu and Joseph were charged
with overseeing the distribution of food supplies (cf. Gen. 42:51-57).
They both had Semitic names, and the presence of Yanhamu in an Egyptian
court during New Kingdom times indicates that Semites were not barred
from government following the Hyksos expulsion. Rulers often find it
safer to trust faithful foreigners than some of their own subjects who
might be tempted to rebel.
The simple tastes of the Israelite tribes in the period before the
monarchy may be contrasted with the ostentation of Solomon's harem with
its thousand wives and concubines (I Kings 11:3) along with the wealth
and luxury of an oriental court. The rulers of the larger states of the
Amarna Age, and particularly Tushratta of Mitanni, sent their daughters
to grace the harems of Amenhotep III and Akhenaton. A scarab of
Amenhotep III commemorates the arrival of Giluhepa, a Mitannian princess
with a retinue of three hundred seventeen maidens.[71] That Amenhotep
III was actively building his harem is shown in a letter which he
addressed to Milk-ili of Gezer which says, in part:
I have sent Hania, the commander of the archers, to you with all sorts
of things, to bring the beautiful women.... There are in all forty
women; forty pieces of silver is the price of the women. Send me
therefore very beautiful women among whom are no slanderers, so that
the king, your lord, may say to you, "This is fine."[72]
The building of a harem had political implications for it involved an
alliance of friendship. Early in Solomon's reign he "made a marriage
alliance with Pharaoh, king of Egypt; he took Pharaoh's daughter and
brought her into the City of David...." (I Kings 3:1). A large harem,
moreover, was a symbol of power, wealth and prestige. Solomon was but
adapting the customs of the great rulers of the ancient East when he
built an enormous harem for himself.