Fig.

40. Egyptian hieroglyphs on Merneptah stele transliterated as ‘Ysrir’

Rainey avers that the inscription denotes “Israel” as a widespread semi-nomadic people of the hill
country: “The group thus designated might be living on the level of a village culture, or could be
pastoralists still in the nomadic stage.”494 This nomadic group has been surmised to comprise the
Shasu, discussed below.

‘Poetic Text,’ Not Israel?

However, the stele is not accepted by all as proof of an Israelite people by this time. Finkelstein and
Mazar call the Merneptah stele a “poetic text” and state that the purported mention of “Israel” as a
“people” is “puzzling,” asking:

Was Israel at the end of the thirteenth century B.C.E. a sizeable confederation of tribes
posing a threat to an Egyptian empire that had ruled Canaan for almost three hundred years?
And if so, where did this Israel live? The answers to these questions continue to be disputed.
Revisionist scholars who do not accept the traditional reconstruction of the early history of
Israel attempt to dismiss the reference to Israel in this text.495

Since the personal name “Israel” already was present in Eblaite and Canaanite literature for centuries
by Merneptah’s time, and since much Semitic language was known by Egyptians of that era, one
wonders why the stele’s scribe appears so unfamiliar with the moniker as to spell it so obtusely. This
oversight would be especially peculiar if the people using this name were considered troublesome
and notorious enough to merit a record of their defeat. Surely the scribe(s) would have understood
the name to mean “El Prevails” and would have rendered it properly in Egyptian. The sense is that the
term on the stele is not the known Canaanite name of “Israel.”

Mesha Stele
In any event, there exists no other mention of Israel as an ethnicity, nation or land in the extant
historical record until the 9th century BCE, with the Mesha Stele or Moabite Stone. The monument
was set up around 850 by the Moabite king Mesha to commemorate the god Chemosh’s victory over
Israel, which previously had subjugated Moab. This stele confirms the bitter feuding between these
Amoritish peoples that continued into the reigns of Hezekiah and Josiah, leading to the Moabites as
villains in the anachronistic Pentateuchal tales.

Hapiru
A century prior to Merneptah, the Amarna letters referred to the people called ˁpr.w or
‘Apiru/Hapiru/Habiru, who have been identified with the Hyksos and Hebrews. The Amarna
correspondence includes a missive (EA 286) to Abdi-Heba of the small highland village of Jerusalem
(fl. c. 1330’s), a pre-Israelite chieftain whose name indicates he was a follower of the Hurrian goddess
Hebat. Abdu-Heba complained about these nomadic brigands sacking his village, with the result that
all the territories of the pharaoh had been lost. He blamed the Hapiru leader and Egyptian vassal
Labayu/Labaya for giving away the lands to the ruffian tribes.

In Sumerian, Egyptian, Akkadian, Hittite, Mitanni and Ugaritic texts dating from around 1800 to 1100
BCE, the Hapiru are portrayed as “nomadic or semi-nomadic, rebels, outlaws, raiders, mercenaries,
and bowmen, servants, slaves, migrant laborers” and so on. Concerning the Hapiru, Redford remarks:

Whatever the reason, the ‘Apiru, as their name suggests (“dust makers,” i.e. people who
vacate the premises with speed) display a gypsylike quality, and proved difficult for the state
authorities to bring under effective control. Their heterogeneous nature is vividly illustrated
by the census lists from Alalakh, wherein one ‘Apiru band includes an armed thief, two
charioteers, two beggars and even a priest of Ishtar.496

The Hapiru are described essentially as “a loosely defined, inferior social class composed of shifting
and shifty population elements without secure ties to settled communities.”497 Rowton traces the
development of the ‘apiru class to nomadic tribes whose impoverished members needed to move into
cities to survive, “very often entering military service.”498 Some of these nomads may have formed
“into more or less predatory bands, which urban society [viewed] as little better than gangs of
bandits.”

As other examples of this sort of societal fringe, Rowton discusses the terms “turk,” “kurd,” “kazak,”
“mawali” and, probably, ‫ עברים‬or “ʿIḇrîm,” the Old Testament word for “Hebrews.”499 Another term
used to describe West Semitic nomads is “Sutean” or “Sutȗ warriors,” referring to those who thrived
in Syro-Palestine during the middle of the second millennium.500

Multiethnic Mob
The Hapiru are identified in Sumerian by the logogram SA.GAZ and in Akkadian sources as ḫabbātu,
meaning “robber, bandit, raider.” The Hapiru included many individuals with Akkadian names, while
others are West Semitic, indicating an Amoritish origin that spread eastward. In this regard, Rowton
remarks:

...the term ‘apiru is of West Semitic origin, and it first appears in Mesopotamian urban
society at a time when that society was being penetrated by Amorites. This suggests that it
was brought in by the Amorites and that it originally denoted some aspect of tribal
society...the economically and socially uprooted....501

Contributing to this multiethnic picture, documents from the ancient city of Nuzi in Mesopotamia
describe the local Hapiru as “predominantly Hurrian, while approximately 2/3 of the Habiru names
are Semitic; of these, all are East Semitic (Akkadian), none West Semitic.”502 While there evidently
were proto-Hebrews among them, the word “Hapiru” thus seems to identify a multiethnic grouping
engaged in a nomadic “gypsy” style of living, rather than a specific ethnos or people.

Adding to the mix, the king of the Mitanni, Idrimi of Aleppo (c. 1500–1450 BCE), fled the Amorite
city of Emar in Syria503 to join with the Hapiru at “Ammija in the land of Canaan,” evidently located
near Byblos. Perhaps at this point or earlier, Indian ideas were introduced to these Semites; in this
regard, the word evidently “Syria:Surya” derives from the Vedic word “Surya,” meaning “sun,”504
demonstrating the Indic influence in the region.

Shechem

In the 14th century, the Hapiru leader Labayu enlisted a group of men to attack the Levantine town of
Megiddo, for which effort he rewarded his supporters with the village of Shechem (‫ שכם‬Shĕkem),
which had not been occupied previously, during the Intermediate Bronze Age.505 This latter town is
an important locale in the Bible, serving as the capital of the Northern Kingdom (1 Ki 12:25), where
the altar allegedly was established by Abraham and dedicated to ‫ יהוה‬Yĕhovah/YHWH. Thus, it is at
Shechem that the ethnicity of Israel swore allegiance to Yahweh, even though the book of Exodus
contradictorily claimed Abraham did not know the god, who was introduced first to Moses on Mt.
Sinai.

It is possible that this gang of Hapiru who joined Labayu were the predecessors of the northern
Israelites in significant part, mixed with other Semites.506 Another group of these rough nomads was
composed significantly of centralized Semites, as in the records by the Egyptian pharaoh Seti I (d.
1279 BCE) of Hapiru attacks from “Mt. Yarmuta.”507 As noted, there were also many Hapiru in the
kingdom of Amurru, ancestral homeland of the Amorites, who eventually occupied pre-Israelite
Jerusalem as Jebusites.

In the Amarna correspondence of the 14th century, the Hapiru had become such a nuisance to the
Egyptians in the Levant that the authorities there had complained these wandering nomads would
eventually take over the entire region. It would seem that indeed they did, as part of the Israelite
confederation, following their god El, who thus prevails. How else do we explain the rise of the
eventual Israelites? The answer may be that some of the Hapiru became the Israelites, a number of
whom in turn developed into fervent Yahwists.

Hebrews?
The position that the Hapiru/Habiru were specifically the Hebrews is based on both etymology and
the acceptance of the biblical Israel foundation stories as “history.” In one sense, the OT tales are
history, as they describe people rampaging throughout the Levant, resembling the uncivilized and
crude Hapiru/Habiru, considered robbers and sackers of cities.

The term “Hebrew” (‫' עברי‬Ibriy), however, appears to derive from the town name of Eber or
Heber 508 and to be unrelated etymologically to ‘apiru. Yet, based on a study of these terms’
connotations, Near Eastern languages expert Rowton suggests that ‘apiru and 'ibri “denote essentially
the same social element.”509 He distinguishes the former as representing an uprooted social outcast
from either a tribal or urban society, whereas the latter connotes the same element but only from the
Israelite tribal society.510 Interestingly, Philistine texts never use the term “Israelite” but only employ
'ibri to connote the Hebrews,511 indicating the former word was unknown or secondary to them.

Claiming there is “absolutely no relationship” between the Habiru and Hebrews, Rainey and others
aver that the foundation of Israel stems from the Shasu instead. Although there are significant
differences, both groups were composed of the nomadic bedu, the Egyptian term passed along as
“bedouin,” also part of the Amorite empire.

Bedu
Regarding the bedu, Redford remarks:

The bedu in the Delta roused mixed feelings among the Egyptians. Elders, traditional in
their outlook, despised these wanderers and their goats; the bedu were viewed as dirty and
unkempt in their carriage and indifferent to the civilized ways of living. But to the young
they embodied the ideal of a life of freedom from authority…512

The term Hapiru was used by the Egyptians to describe bedu brigands in the northern hill country of
Israel,513 while the Shasu of the southeastern region appear to be most influential in the southern
sections of Israel, the area that came to be known as Judah/Judea.

Egyptian Campaigns

Like many other pharaohs had done and would continue to do, in the 15th century BCE Amenhotep II
engaged in military campaigns against Canaan, a land called “Retenu” in Egyptian. Lists of prisoners
of war include 3,600 Hapiru and 15,200 Shasu. In order to protect the residents from these marauders,
Seti I also battled both the Hapiru and Shasu in Syro-Palestine: “Seti I (c. 1290 BCE) is said to have
conquered the Shasu, Arabian nomads living just south and east of the Dead Sea, from the fortress of
Taru in ‘Ka-n-'-na.’”514 This defeat too may have found its way into legend and myth about the hated
enemy, Egypt. Seti’s son was Ramesses II, the ruler most often considered to have been the pharaoh of
Exodus. As suggested previously, these facts may explain in significant part the retooling of
Canaanite and Amorite cosmological battles to represent Egypt and its ruler(s) as the enemy.

Seti also refers to the Shasu “from the fortress of Sile as far as Pa-Canaan,” including “Upper
Retenu.”515 Hence, it appears that “Shasu” here refers to an ethnicity also from northern Israel, rather
than simply confined to the south, a confused identity resembling the Amorites.

Shasu of Yhw
As we have seen, the Hyksos have been said to represent the hiq shasu/shosu, connoting “rulers of
nomad lands.”516 The troublesome š3sw/šʒśԝ/š3ś.w or Shasu are found in numerous Egyptian texts,
including a list of Transjordanian peoples from the fifteenth century. In the time of Amenhotep III (c.
1400 BCE) a topographical list was created at the temple of Amon at Soleb that was copied “later by
either Seti I or Ramesses II at Amarah-West” and that “mentions six groups of Shashu: the Shasu of
S’rr, the Shasu of Lbn, the Shasu of Sm’t, the Shasu of Wrbr, the Shasu of Yhw, and the Shasu of
Pysps.”517

Wanderers
The name “Shasu” is said to come from an Egyptian verb meaning “to move on foot,” frequently
employed to describe either journeys or the “daily motion of the sun.”518 It eventually was used to
refer to “wandering groups whom we would call bedu, with the significant distinction that unlike their
modern counterparts they lacked the camel.”519

Fig. 41. Shasu prisoner bound around arms and neck, 12 th cent. BCE. Line drawing of relief by Ramesses III at Madinat Habu, Egypt

An amalgam of these groups, the northern Hapiru and the southern Shasu, along with other Amorites
and Semitic bedu, would explain many of the characteristics of the later Israelites, as depicted in the
Old Testament and indicated by archaeological artifacts.

Plunderers
The word shasu may originate instead with the Ugaritic term ṯš- possibly meaning “plunder” and
reflected in the Egyptian š3ś.w, denoting “plundering nomads.”520 Describing the Shasu, Redford
states:

Their lawlessness and their proclivity to make raids gave rise in Canaanite (and Hebrew) to
the denominative verb šasā(h), “to plunder.”

Shasu are found in Egyptian texts from the 18th Dynasty [c. 1550–c. 1292] through the Third
Intermediate Period [1069–664]…. lists from Soleb and Amarah, ultimately of fifteenth-
century origin, suggest that an original concentration of Shasu settlements lay in southern
Transjordan in the plains of Moab and northern Edom.521

Hence, for the most part the Shasu occupied lands settled by those later called “Moabites” and
“Edomites,” possibly as their ancestors. Historians Drs. Charles F. Aling and Clyde E. Billington
surmise that the Egyptians lumped together under the name Shasu “all of the Edomites, Ammonites,
Moabites, Amalekites, Midianites, Kenites, Hapiru and Israelites,” a list that “should also probably
include the Amorites and the Arameans.”

Transjordan Origin
From the Egyptian sources, the Shasu seem to be “somewhat” different from the early Israelites in the
book of Judges. Nevertheless, while the Hyksos evidently comprised Shasu possibly from the western
region of Canaan, there is little doubt that the same “pastoral transhumants” occupied the lands from
which the Israelites emerged, previously inhabiting the Transjordanian region in the 14th to 12th
centuries BCE.

Concerning the Shasu and the settlement in the Late Bronze Age of the Israelite hill country, Rainey
concludes:

Today there is no reason to ignore Transjordan as the most probable source for the new
immigrants who established the small villages on the heights of Mt. Ephraim (the Samaria
hills). That their pottery and other artefacts show some continuity with Late Bronze material
culture is no deterrent....

The Egyptian records reveal that the Shasu pastoralists were becoming more numerous and
troublesome during the thirteenth century B.C.E. The archaeological surveys in the central
hill country indicate that the Iron I settlements initially sprang up in marginal areas where
pastoralists could graze their flocks and engage in dry farming. Later they spread westward,
cleared the forests and began building agricultural terraces. Nowadays there is no
compelling reason to doubt the general trend of the Biblical tradition that those pastoralists
were mainly immigrants from Transjordan.522

The Transjordan origin would indicate the Amorite roots of these Shasu, speaking Babylonian and
maintaining elements of that culture.

Westward Thrust
The Shasu of Moab and Edom evidently began making their push westward in earnest during the late
14th to mid-13th centuries BCE.523 In response to this migration, the Egyptians beefed up their
presence in the region, which means that any “Israelites” of the Exodus would have encountered
Egyptian forces many times during their purported sojourn in the Sinai and into Canaan. Although an
Amoritish people, at this point these Shasu were not literate,524 which means they probably were not
the Canaanitish Hyksos with sacred texts, although they may have been among them. Moreover, they
likely possessed oral traditions, possibly hymns, songs and poetry, recording myths and legends.

Pithom
An Egyptian letter from around 1192 BCE discusses the “Shasu tribes of Edom” who “pass the
fortress of Merneptah Hotep-hir-Maat...to the pools of Per Atum…which are in Tkeku.”525 The latter
city, Per-Atum, is Pithom, where the Shasu evidently settled. Hence, the inclusion of Pithom in the OT
may be based on Shasu traditions of having lived and worked there, although there were several
“Houses of Atum” with which the Shasu could have been associated. The word “Shasu:Bedouin” in
this passage has been translated as “Bedouin,”526 reflecting the relationship between the two.

Goshen and Joseph

It is surmised that the general location where the Shasu settled in Egypt was that of Goshen, traditional
home of the Hebrews, where the patriarch Joseph was said to have ended up, after fleeing a famine in
Hebron (Gen 46:28–29). Goshen and Avaris, the Hyksos capital, lie within the Nile Delta, while
Pithom lies just to the southeast of Avaris, the entire region of which, therefore, could have been
inhabited by the Hyksos/Shasu, who appear to have come in waves, possibly represented in the
different Hyksos stories previously discussed.

It is claimed that the “treatment of the Shasu Edomites by the officials of Pharaoh is reminiscent of
Pharaoh’s earlier treatment of the Israelites in Egypt during the time of Joseph,”527 this latter story
according to the Bible but not the historical record. Nor did they speak Hebrew, a later Semitic dialect
evidently produced from the admixture of Canaanite, Amorite and Babylonian speakers of the Hapiru
and Shasu tribes.

Even if the Shasu had among them proto-Israelites, and although they were taken captive in
significant numbers, there is no historical record or archaeological evidence of two to three million
of them living in an enclave as slaves in Egypt.

These Shasu may have comprised proto-Israelite Amorites who had lived in Egypt, some of whom
were also descendants of the Hyksos expelled from the delta and subsequently settling in the Judean
hill country. These Hyksos descendants may have been the western Shasu per the inscription by Seti I,
as well as the Hapiru, while the later hill settlers were drawn from the southeastern bedu as well.

Aromatic Gum
Redford describes the Shasu thus:

…Already in the second half of the fifteenth century B.C. they comprised some 36 percent
of the Palestinian captives brought back by Amenophis II… They are consistently described
as being divided into “clans,” each governed by a “chief”… Their proclivity for internecine
strife drew expressions of contempt from Egypt. Their conflict with Pharaoh and, to a
lesser extent, the latter ’s surrogates within the Canaanite principalities arose not out of
objections to taxation or the draft…but in their well-deserved reputation as robbers and
brigands whose code of conduct admitted little mercy on their victims. They lived in tents,
in mountainous districts remote from towns, where woods and predators made travel risky.
Their principal source of wealth was their cattle, and they were also renowned for an
aromatic gum, which perhaps they found in the wild. But their life must have seemed to the
Egyptians so Spartan that they contemptuously referred to them as “living like wild game.”

The Shasu settlement in the Palestinian highlands, or nascent Israel as we should

undoubtedly call it, and whatever related group had begun to coalesce in the Judaean hills to
the south, led a life of such rustic simplicity at the outset that it has scarcely left an imprint
on the archaeological record.528

The “aromatic gum” for which the Shasu were known resembles manna, possibly explaining in part
the latter motif’s inclusion in the Exodus myth. As we can see, there was much interchange between
the Shasu and Egyptians over a period of centuries, including many skirmishes, as well as ingresses
into and exoduses out of Egypt.

It is noteworthy that the vaunted frankincense and myrrh, presented along with gold to the newborn