July 31, 1953 Dr. Immanuel Velikovsky 4 Hartley Avenue Princeton, N. J. Dear Mr. Dyen: The time speeds and before I noticed it the month declined to its end, and I have still before me your letter of July 8th. From the section “Ahab or Jehoram” you may see that I gave much thought about the letters of Rib-Addi and their authorship. “Was their author the scriptural Ahab or Jehoram, Ahab’s son?” I ask there. The arguments for my conclusion are given in that section. You defend the autorship of Jehoram. One of your arguments is that Rib-Addi speaks of “my fathers”; however, it is possible that Omri was related to the royal house. For instance Jehu who replaced the dynasty of Omri is named in Shalmanessar’s inscription as of the house of Omri. Kings had many descendants-Ahab who had seventy wives in Samaria, must have also left many children, possible pretenders if left alive by Jehu. Your other argument in equaling Ramaja to Jehoram, I cannot check at this moment since I have not the Letters of El Amarna before me. But if the king is called persistently in cuneiform Rib Addi, why should he be called there differently? Would it not indicate, if Ramaja was really Jehoram, that he was different from Rib Addi? You have probably noticed in “Ages” that Addi means Ab in Hebrew and Rib means the elder brother or the elder son. But certainly you are justified in having your interpretation of the events and personalities of that age. Why should you not try and publish your essay, that, in this case, I would suggest to concentrate on this theme: Ahab or Jehoram, as author of El Amarna letters. I wish that more scholars would have read my book with the same attention. I reciprocate and before I wrote you my first letter, I read your paper twice, and many portions, which I marked by rand notes, a third time. Very sincerely yours, Im. Velikovsky