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thumb|Amarna letter. Letter from Labaya (ruler of Shechem) to the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep III or his son Akhenaten. 14th century BCE. From Tell el-Amarna, Egypt. British Museum. ME 29844. EA 252 Labaya (Labayu or '''Lib'ayu''') was a Canaanite prince and the ruler of Shechem in the central hill country of southern Canaan during the Amarna Period (c. 1350 BC). He lived contemporaneously with the pharaoh Akhenaten. Labaya is mentioned in several of the Amarna Letters (abbreviated "EA", for 'el Amarna'). He is the author of letters EA 252–54.

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  1. Building Citizens, Not Just Athletes

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Encyclopedic overview

7 sections
Contents
  • Career
  • List of Labaya's three letters to Pharaoh
  • Theories
  • Identifications with biblical figures
  • References
  • Bibliography
  • External links

thumb|Amarna letter. Letter from Labaya (ruler of Shechem) to the Egyptian Pharaoh Amenhotep III or his son Akhenaten. 14th century BCE. From Tell el-Amarna, Egypt. British Museum. ME 29844. EA 252 Labaya (Labayu or '''Lib'ayu''') was a Canaanite prince and the ruler of Shechem in the central hill country of southern Canaan during the Amarna Period (c. 1350 BC). He lived contemporaneously with the pharaoh Akhenaten. Labaya is mentioned in several of the Amarna Letters (abbreviated "EA", for 'el Amarna'). He is the author of letters EA 252–54.

Labaya was active over the whole length of Samaria and slightly beyond, as he gave land to Ḫapiru in the vicinity of Šakmu (Shechem). He and his sons threatened powerful city-states such as Jerusalem and Gazru (Gezer) to the south and Magidda (Tel Megiddo) to the north.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Labaya” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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