Is the biblical Exodus, pitched in Egypt’s Old (or Middle) Kingdom, one chariot army short of reality?

Part One: Why many opt for a New Kingdom Exodus by Damien F. Mackey The stand-out candidate for the Pharaoh of the Exodus is, of course, Ramses II ‘the Great’, he being most favoured in the conventional scheme which dates the commencement of his long reign to c. 1300 BC. Who can forgot Yul Brynner as Rameses in the 1956 film, The Ten Commandments? Introduction Arguably the most serious problem facing those, such as I, who would endeavour to locate the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt during the Old, or Middle, Kingdom – {this being just the one kingdom of Egypt, according to my reconstructions} – is the total lack of representation of horses and chariotry in the reliefs for this long period of Egyptian history. There is also the naming, as Rameses, of one of the “store cities” built by the enslaved Israelites, a fact that is seized upon by those who would set the Oppression and Exodus in Egypt’s New Kingdom, during the long reign of pharaoh Ramses II ‘the Great’ (Exodus 1:11): “So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh”. While, for those who would stubbornly insist that Moses wrote the entire Pentateuch, this would necessitate that the Oppression of Israel had occurred during the reign of a pharaoh named “Rameses”, I would put it down simply to a later editorial amendment, after pharaoh Ramses had indeed built in the Goshen area once inhabited by the Israelites, but who were now long gone. Another query that gets thrown up regarding pharaoh’s horses is that one of the Plagues of Egypt is supposed to have destroyed “all the livestock” (Exodus 9:6). I have already answered this – based on the research of Edward D. Andrews – in my article: Exodus Pharaoh could still gather sufficient horses after the Plagues (2) Exodus Pharaoh could still gather sufficient horses after the Plagues The argument here considers the common tendency to stretch the meaning of the Hebrew word, kol (כָּל), “all”, to mean every thing, or every person, without exception. A study of the word shows that it can sometimes have quite a restricted meaning. Also, only the livestock “in the field”, besadeh (בַּשָּׂדֶה), was harmed (cf. Exodus 9:3). So, presumably those under shelter, in stables, as pharaoh’s finest horses, at least, customarily were housed, would have been protected. And so on. That still leaves us, though, with our major problem of the lack of depiction of horses and chariotry, for, as we read after the Plagues had struck Egypt (Exodus 145:6-7): “So [Pharaoh] had his chariot made ready and took his army with him. He took six hundred of the best chariots, along with all the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them”. That is a lot of chariots! My usual procedure (which I think has largely been successful) when confronted with a lack (or nothing at all) of visual representation for someone in antiquity who was undoubtedly great and famous – e.g., known to have raised monumental architecture – is to look for an alter ego, or even an alter kingdom, for that person. On this, see e.g. my article: More ‘camera-shy’ ancient potentates (5) More 'camera-shy' ancient potentates However, despite the fact that I have ostensibly here two entire kingdoms of Egypt with which to make comparisons, the Old and the Middle kingdoms – {which I have actually fused together} – I still cannot come up with any horses or chariot depictions. So, why not just admit that that the Exodus of Israel must have occurred later, during Egypt’s New Kingdom? New Kingdom candidates Many commentators, including revisionists, have opted for a New Kingdom Exodus, though they do not all agree on which part of Egypt’s New Kingdom is to be preferred. The stand-out candidate for the Pharaoh of the Exodus is, of course, Egypt’s Nineteenth Dynasty ruler, Ramses II ‘the Great’, he being most favoured in the conventional scheme which dates the commencement of his long reign to c. 1300 BC. Who can forgot Yul Brynner as Ramses in the 1956 film, The Ten Commandments? In support of this theory is the already-mentioned reference to Rameses in Exodus 1:11. And no one doubts that Ramses II had many horses and chariots. But even had Ramses II begun to reign in c. 1300 BC, which he didn’t (read on), that date does not accord well with the estimated biblical date for the Exodus (c. 1450 BC). No Exodus at the time of Ramses II When I, in 1981, first embarked upon a search for the historical Moses, I turned hopefully to books like that of Sir Charles Marston, The Bible is True (1936), and Werner Keller’s The Bible as History (1981), to find evidence for Moses and the Exodus. These proved to be a total disappointment. It was only when I read Dr. Donovan Courville’s two volume set, The Exodus Problem and its Ramifications (1971), that I realised that biblical history cannot be identified in a conventional ancient Egyptian history setting, but that the latter must needs undergo a radical revision. Ultimately, this would lead to my writing two post-graduate theses of revision, best explained in my article: Damien F. Mackey’s A Tale of Two Theses (DOC) Damien F. Mackey's A Tale of Two Theses Because there was no massive Exodus of foreign slaves during the reign of Ramses II – as had become quite apparent from reading the books of Sir Charles Marston and Werner Keller, who had tried to force fit the Bible to conventional Egyptian chronology – the authors were forced to reduce the biblical data. E.g. the Exodus must have involved only a few families, it was argued. Better, I would have thought, to look for a different ancient Egyptian setting. Eighteenth Dynasty candidates There are several popular choices here. The beginning of the famous Eighteenth Dynasty saw war with the Hyksos foreigners, identified by some as the Israelites themselves. The Pharaoh at the time was Ahmose, founder of this dynasty (c. 1570-1546 BC, conventional dates for him vary greatly). This era probably coincides with the Thera explosion, which, as some would argue, was the perfect backdrop for the Plagues of Egypt and the Exodus. But, were the militaristic Hyksos, who invaded Egypt and conquered the fort of Avaris, likely to have been the hard oppressed Israelites? The powerful Amenhotep II has, of late, become another popular candidate for the Pharaoh of the Exodus. However, Dr. Immanuel Velikovsky (Ages in Chaos, I, 1952) had firmly re-dated this pharaoh’s grandson, Amenhotep III, a pharaoh of the El Amarna (EA) era there known as Nimmuria (Neb-maat-Re), to the mid-C9th BC. Two of his EA contemporaries were the Amorite succession of Abdi-ashirta and Aziru, most plausibly identified by Dr. Velikovsky as the biblical Syrian succession of, respectively, Ben-Hadad and Hazael (c. 850 BC). This is a good six centuries after the Exodus! I have taken things further by equating Amenhotep II and III as just the one pharaoh, and the predecessor, Thutmose III and IV, again, as just the one pharaoh. A fortiori, this late date for the Eighteenth Dynasty completely rules out the next ruler, Akhnaton (Akhenaten) from having any possible connection with Moses - with whom some even equate Akhnaton due to the latter’s monotheism. Akhnaton, I have identified as the Syrian Aziru, both of EA (Dr. Velikovsky’s Hazael) and of the Great Harris Papyrus (GHP), who (as Arsa, Irsu) invaded Egypt and messed with the Egyptian gods: Akhnaton was Aziru (DOC) Akhnaton was Aziru Part Two: The Middle Bronze I (MBI) nomads were the Israelites “Case in point is Jericho. During the Late Bronze Age there was no city at Jericho for Joshua to destroy”. Stuart Zachary Steinberg I asked the question in Part One: “So, why not just admit that that the Exodus of Israel must have occurred later, during Egypt’s New Kingdom?” That, after all, would completely solve the problem of the horses and the chariots. And, it can also provide us with a pharaoh named Ramses (cf. Exodus 1:11). Why the new Kingdom is totally inappropriate While, superficially, a New Kingdom (Eighteenth or Nineteenth Dynasty) setting for the Exodus might appear to fit the bill, it would actually cause far more problems than it may seemingly manage to solve. For it is not sufficient simply to grab a particular phase out of history and claim that it attaches nicely to a biblical event. The Bible records a long, developing history which necessitates that the whole thing be fitted to an historical and archaeological framework. If, for instance, one were to take Ramses as the Pharaoh of the Exodus, one would then need to be able to situate, into its proper place, Joseph and the Famine at an earlier phase of Egyptian history. And Abram (Abraham), before Joseph. On this note, Dr. John Osgood has rightly, in a recent article (2024): https://assets.answersresearchjournal.org/doc/v17/jericho_dating_joshuas_conquest_of_canaan_comments_osgood.pdf Answers Research Journal 17 (2024): 221–222, “The Walls of Jericho: Dating Joshua’s Conquest of Canaan—Comments”, expressed his ‘amazement’ when those involved in biblico-historical reconstructions exclude “a whole saga of history”: …. Habermehl tells us that “we note that the Bible does not say that Hiel built a city, but only a wall.” Really, then what do the words “Hiel of Bethel built Jericho” mean? It had a foundation (not specifically of a wall) and it had gates (1 Kings 16:34). But the archaeologists have clearly and categorically found a large city during Middle Bronze on the site of Jericho and therefore before Hiel. That city needs an explanation, as it won’t go away. This is where I am amazed at the blindness of both conventional and revisionist discussions, as if the pages of the book of Judges are stuck together and a whole saga of history is excluded. Namely, there was the attack on Jericho, the city of palm trees, by Eglon of Moab, and for 20 years that site was occupied by 10,000 of his troops (Judges 3:12–30, see also Deuteronomy 34:3; Judges 1:16; 2 Chronicles 28:15—the city of palm trees). …. [End of quote] Nor will it be sufficient to focus only upon Egypt – though that nation was, admittedly, the main power during the biblical era from Abram (Abraham) to Moses. Mesopotamia, Syria, Canaan, and so on, must likewise be properly accounted for, both historically and archaeologically. Key to a biblico-historical synthesis will obviously be the Conquest of Canaan and its centrepiece, the Fall of Jericho, which outstanding episode should be archaeologically verifiable. Pharaoh Ramses II may indeed have had his wonderful horses and chariots, but, for those who hold him to have been the Pharaoh of the Exodus, these are now faced with a Late Bronze Age (LBA) archology for the Conquest, and for Jericho, that is hopelessly inadequate. Much has been written about this. Stuart Zachary Steinberg briefly sums it up here: Redating the Conquest of the Promised Land | by Stuart Zachary Steinberg | Medium “For nearly 150 years the conquest by the Israelites has been dated to the Late Bronze Age. The reason for that has been primarily placing the Exodus in the Late Kingdom to have Raamses II as the pharaoh of the Exodus, to correspond with Exodus where it states that the children of Israel built the store cities of Pithom and Raamses. The problem is that there are nearly no correspondence[s] between the destruction of various cities and archaeology in the Late Bronze Age (LBA). Most [of] the cities mentioned do not exist or were destroyed much earlier. Case in point is Jericho. During the Late Bronze Age there was no city at Jericho for Joshua to destroy”. This is the dire situation that confronts the conventional scholars and whoever else might look to situate the Exodus at the time of Egypt’s New Kingdom. The high point of the Conquest of Canaan by Joshua was the destruction of Jericho, whose walls famously fell down. However: “During the Late Bronze Age there was no city at Jericho for Joshua to destroy”. Boom, boom. Moreover, if Dr. Velikovsky was right in re-assigning El Amarna (EA) at the time of Egypt’s New Kingdom, Eighteenth Dynasty, from its conventional situation in c. C14th BC down to the c. C9th BC – as I believe he was – then the New Kingdom of Egypt now finds itself situated a good half millennium after the era of the Exodus and Conquest. A fully revised history The foundations for a firm correspondence between OT biblical history and archaeology must be Jericho and the Conquest, these being most susceptible to archaeological verification. I think that there is nothing more certain in this regard than that – as argued by some very good revisionists – the Middle Bronze I (MBI) nomadic peoples were the Exodus Israelites, who invaded an Early Bronze III/IV Canaan, and who destroyed, and/or occupied many of its cities. Any revision that does not rest upon this foundation is, I believe, doomed to failure. That the MBI people were the Exodus Israelites (not Abraham’s family as according to a conventional view) is accepted by experienced Israeli archaeologists of the south, such as Egal Israel and his colleagues. Dr. David Down, who passed away on Friday March 16, 2018, just three weeks short of his 100th birthday, told (2004) of his intriguing encounter with Israeli archaeologist, Egal Israel: …. I first met Egal Israel in 1993 when I was involved in excavations at Ein Hatzeva, 18 miles south of the Dead Sea. It all started the previous year when I talked with Dr Rudolph Cohen, then head of the Israel Antiquities Authority, who holds the same view as I do on the identification of the Middle Bronze I people with the Israelites who invaded Palestine under Joshua about 1405 BC. I told him that I would like to bring my Australian group to one of the sites under his control. He readily agreed and the following year we stayed at a moshav near the dig site and went to work. Excavations in this area are particularly relevant to the re-identification of the archaeological strata in the Middle Bronze Period because this was the area from which the Israelites first invaded Palestine. Previously Dr Cohen was in charge of the excavations at Kadesh Barnea from where Moses had sent the twelve men to spy out the land they expected to occupy. Dr Cohen realised that two million [sic] people could be expected to leave plenty of evidence of their occupation of the area and when he found a proliferation of MBI pottery he concluded that it must have been left behind by the Israelite people who were camped there for at least forty days. Numbers 13:25 says, "And they returned from spying out the land after forty days." Egal Israel was in charge of all the excavations at Ein Hatzeva and was digging with a team of labourers on the western side of the tel. Occasionally he would come to our site to see how we were getting on, and it was on one of these visits that I asked him about his views. I said, "Egal, Rudolph Cohen believes that the MBI people were the Israelites under Joshua who invaded Palestine, as described in the Bible. Do you agree with him?" "Of course I do," he replied. "We all do down here." While I was in Israel this year (2004) I phoned Egal and asked him if he still held the same views about the MBI people, and he assured me that he did, even more than before. I then made an appointment to visit him at his home which, fortuitously, was only 5 miles from where our group was excavating. On the appointed night we made our way to his house in the moshav and met Egal and his wife, a gracious lady who spoke faultless English, and spent a profitable hour there. Strange to say, Egal works at Beer Sheba and commutes the 120 km to and fro each day. He is working on excavating wells there. The Bible says that Abraham dug a well at Beer Sheba and he feels that while he is working there he is living in the land of Abraham. Egal has worked on many sites in the Negev (Southern Israel) and was a member of the team which excavated Kadesh Barnea during the period after the Six Day War which resulted in Israel occupying the Sinai Peninsula in which Kadesh Barnea is located. By virtue of his long archaeological experience he is a highly qualified archaeologist. He is a man who has convictions and forcibly expresses his views. I asked him if he had come to hold these views because he was influenced by Rudolph Cohen, or was it the result of his own observations. He was emphatic that he regarded the Middle Bronze I people to be the Israelites because of the huge weight of archaeological evidence to support this view. There was the profusion of the MBI pottery, not only at Kadesh Barnea, but at other sites along the route of the Israelite Exodus from Egypt to their promised land. There is also the evidence from Jericho, Gibeon, and other sites in Palestine showing that the MBI people were nomadic, a feature to be expected from a generation that had been born in and lived in tents all their lives. The archaeological evidence shows that they were tribal, with a different culture to the preceding Canaanite people. In the course of time they seem to have completely replaced the previous culture. This would be consistent with the Biblical record which says that the Israelites ultimately replaced the Canaanites. Egal stressed that it was a long and fluctuating process, but that is the picture the book of Judges presents. I also asked Egal if his views were coloured by his religious beliefs. Did he adopt these views because this is what the Bible says? Must we interpret archaeological evidence accordingly? He was emphatic that his conclusions were based on archaeological evidence alone. He has confidence in the historical reliability of the Hebrew writings in certain areas, but he does not regard them as a divine revelation from God. They must be submitted to the archaeological evidence, which in the case of the Exodus and the MBI period, are consistent with each other. …. For more on all of this, see e.g. my article: MBI Israel and the fall of cities Jericho and Ai (3) MBI Israel and the fall of cities Jericho and Ai Complementing this already vast biblico-historical and archaeological correlation – which cannot even dimly be perceived in a New Kingdom Exodus context – is the overwhelming Old (Middle) Kingdom evidence for Joseph and the Famine, with the massive preparatory infrastructure built in advance in anticipation of the seven years of want, like nothing else known in history: Imhotep Enigma, his pharaoh was not Djoser, and proof for Egypt’s Third Dynasty Famine (3) Imhotep Enigma, his pharaoh was not Djoser, and proof for Egypt’s Third Dynasty Famine all of this coupled with the Old (Middle) Kingdom Oppression of the Israelites, the age of Pyramid building, and abundant evidence for Moses as a high official in Egypt, and even Pharaoh for a short while, the Plagues, and departure from Egypt of the slaves: Egypt’s Twelfth Dynasty oppressed Israel (3) Egypt's Twelfth Dynasty oppressed Israel See also my relevant articles: Ini, Weni, Iny, Moses (3) Ini, Weni, Iny, Moses Egypt’s so-called Sixth Dynasty as an example of kinglist repetitions (3) Egypt’s so-called Sixth Dynasty as an example of kinglist repetitions and: Exodus Israelites departing from Egypt will be replaced by the Hyksos invaders (3) Exodus Israelites departing from Egypt will be replaced by the Hyksos invaders Part Three: Some early Egyptian evidence for horses Even if we were to find no evidence for chariots and horses in Egypt’s Old (Middle) Kingdom, that deficiency – as serious as it, admittedly, would be – would by no means outweigh the abundance of evidence already given in Part One and Part Two for that era of Egyptian history’s being the setting for Joseph and the Famine; for Moses and the Plagues; and for the Exodus and Conquest; all of which phenomenal episodes have left no plausible footprint whatsoever in the much touted New Kingdom era. However, as we are going to learn, horses were known at least in the vicinity of Egypt even as early as Predynastic times, well before Jacob, Joseph and Moses. This would make it highly unlikely that horses, apparently not indigenous to Egypt, were introduced to that land only as late as the Hyksos era, c. 1650 BC (conventional dating), as according to the consensus of archaeologists. Camels may even have been domesticated in Egypt as early as the Predynastic period. One might imagine that the Ishmaelites, who took young Joseph to Egypt, belonged to a camel, or donkey, caravan (Genesis 37:28): “Then some Midianite traders passed by, so they pulled him up and lifted Joseph out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. Thus they brought Joseph into Egypt”. Land Transport in Ancient Egypt: Carriages, Litters, Carts, Chariots | Middle East And North Africa — Facts and Details “Donkey and, later, camel caravans seem to have been the preferred mode of transport for goods along roads and tracks, as Pharaonic texts such as Harkhuf’s autobiography [Old Kingdom’s Sixth Dynasty] and the Tale of the Eloquent Peasant suggest, and as archaeological evidence—for example, the donkey hoof-prints from the Toshka gneiss-quarry road … shows. The period in which the camel was introduced into, and domesticated in, Egypt remains controversial. Most faunal, iconographic, and textual evidence points to a date sometime in the first millennium B.C., but some have argued for an introduction of the camel as early as the Predynastic Period. The question is complicated because faunal or iconographic evidence for the presence of camels does not necessarily prove camel domestication.” Chariots at the time of Jacob and Joseph The first mention of a “chariot” in the Bible occurs in Genesis 41:43: “[Pharaoh] had [Joseph] ride in a chariot as his second-in-command, and people shouted before him, ‘Make way!’ Thus he put him in charge of the whole land of Egypt”. Chariot here, Hebrew mirkebet (מִרְכֶּ֤בֶת), could possibly, perhaps, be construed as meaning a palanquin, or sedan chair, in which high officials were carried. And the same comment might likewise apply in the case of Genesis 46:29: “Joseph prepared his chariot and went up to Goshen to meet his father Israel; as soon as he appeared before him, he fell on his neck and wept on his neck a long time”. Far more plausibly, though, it referred to a cart pulled by animals (donkeys, horses?), since merkabah means: “Literally, "thing to ride in, cart," interpreted to mean “chariot”.” Merkabah — Glossary of Spiritual and Religious Secrets For I think that one might be pushing things too far to claim the involvement of a whole lot of palanquins in the account of the return to Canaan of the deceased Jacob’s body in Genesis 50:9: “There also went up with him both chariots and horsemen; and it was a very great company”. It is somewhat hard, even comical, to imagine many of such “a very great company” being borne all the way from Egypt to Canaan on palanquins. The body of Jacob himself, though, was most likely carried on an ornate sledge, as was apparently the custom for the deceased: Exploring Egyptian Sledges: Engineering Marvels of Antiquity - Ancient Civs “Egyptian sledges were diverse in type, reflecting the various needs of ancient Egyptian society. The most notable types included those designed for transporting heavy stones for construction, lighter sledges used for everyday goods, and ceremonial sledges for transporting the deceased during burials”. Of the “very great company” that accompanied Jacob’s body to Canaan, most would likely have travelled on foot, but various other modes of transport would have been available (loc. cit.): “Heidi Köpp-Junk of Universität Trier wrote: “As means of overland travel, mount animals, sedan chairs, or chariots are known—and of course walking. For donkey riding, indirect evidence exists from the Old Kingdom in the form of representations of oval pillow-shaped saddles depicted in the tombs of Kahief, Neferiretenef, and Methethi. …. Similarly, representations of donkey riding are known from the Middle Kingdom and New Kingdom. …”. Steve Vinson of Indiana University wrote: “Egypt’s most important, most visible, and best-documented means of transportation was its watercraft. However, pack animals, porters, wheeled vehicles, sledges, and even carrying chairs were also used to move goods …”. Those Horses One reads at: BC Correspondence: Horses and Chariots in Egypt Correspondence: Horses and Chariots in Egypt November 28, 2005 Dear Dr. Aardsma I find that your solution to, at least, the conquest of Jericho and Ai is brilliant. Could you perhaps explain away the problem which I perceive with the Horses? These animals are clearly mentioned in the biblical text of the Exodus, yet could not have existed in the 6th dynasty Egypt, as they were only introduced there by the Hyksos - approximately a thousand years later, together with military chariots. Thank you David Dear David, I don't know who told you that horses "were only introduced there [to Egypt] by the Hyksos"---the claim appears to be widespread---but whoever it was seems to me to have misled you in at least two ways. The first way is in regard to logic, and the second is in regard to data. Let me deal with the logic first. There is a general maxim which one must apply to archaeological evidence in all cases. This maxim is usually adhered to by competent archaeologists. The maxim is: "Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." This maxim becomes increasingly important as one moves back in the archaeological record, for at least two reasons: 1. chances of preservation of archaeological remains diminish as the elapsed time increases between creation of any object and the present, and 2. human populations diminish as one moves back in time, resulting in creation of fewer archaeological remains to begin with. The period of interest to us here---the Old Kingdom of Egypt, including the 6th dynasty---is sufficiently remote (in excess of four thousand years ago) that this maxim must certainly not be ignored. The claim that horses and chariots were only introduced into Egypt by the Hyksos falls into the "absence of evidence" category. This is easily seen by noticing that the claim would be proven false the moment any archaeological evidence was found showing the presence of horses in Egypt prior to the Hyksos. Said another way, to have a possibility of being true the claim requires that there be a complete absence of archaeological and historical evidence for horses in Egypt prior to the time of the Hyksos. But even a complete absence of evidence for horses prior to the Hyksos is insufficient to guarantee the veracity of the claim. After all, for such a remote time, evidence may be lacking for reasons having nothing to do with whether or not horses were actually present in Egypt during the Old Kingdom. For example, one can imagine that it is possible that archaeologists are in possession of so little data relevant to the fauna of Egypt's Old Kingdom that the absence of evidence of horses at that time is more or less to be expected whether horses were present there or not. And this is hardly the only possibility. No matter how many times one may hear the claim that horses were only introduced into Egypt by the Hyksos, one should not regard it as a proven fact, and then use this supposed fact to conclude that therefore horses could not have been present in Egypt's Old Kingdom. It is not a proven fact. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Now for the data. I have done some very limited reading within the technical literature regarding horses in Egypt, and this reading suggests that the claim that horses were only introduced into Egypt by the Hyksos is on very shaky empirical ground at present. Specifically, archaeological data from Nahal Tillah seem to show unequivocal presence of domesticated horses within the Egyptian sphere of activity even prior to the Old Kingdom. Nahal Tillah is situated in the northern Negev of Israel. It displays a strong Egyptian presence in its archaeological record, causing the archaeologists involved to suggest royal Egyptian trading and administration relations at this site. The excavators took care to gather all bone fragments, as is normal today, and analyzed them according to type: sheep, pig, donkey, etc. They wrote: The most surprising feature of the assemblage is the large number of equid remains, some of which are from domestic horses (Equus caballus). ... There was a general supposition that domestic horses were not introduced into the Levant and Egypt until the second millennium, but Davis (1976) found horse remains at Arad from the third millennium and small domestic horses seem to have been present in the fourth millennium in the Chalcolithic period in the northern Negev (Grigson 1993). [Thomas E. Levy, David Alon, Yorke Rowan, Edwin C. M. van den Brink, Caroline Grigson, Augustin Holl, Patricia Smith, Paul Goldberg, Alan J. Witten, Eric Kansa, John Moreno, Yuval Yekutieli, Naomi Porat, Jonathan Golden, Leslie Dawson, and Morag Kersel, "Egyptian-Canaanite Interaction at Nahal Tillah, Israel (ca. 4500-3000 B. C. E.): An Interim Report on the 1994-1995 Excavations," Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 307 (August 1997): 1--51.] Thus the archaeological data which are presently available---indeed, some of which have been available since 1976---seem to seriously undermine the claim that Egypt was without horses until the Hyksos dynasties. The work at Nahal Tillah seems to show that horses were available just next door, in the northern Negev, very early on in the history of post-Flood Egypt, and Egyptians were clearly present where these horses were present. Are we to believe that these Egyptians failed to find domestic horses, with all their unique advantages for agriculture and transportation, of no interest, and chose to leave them all next door for century after century? Might it be possible, perhaps, that the horse and military chariot were RE-introduced to Egypt by the Hyksos? After all, the time between the end of the Old Kingdom and the Hyksos is many centuries, as you have observed, and many things can happen in such a long time. Is it even possible, perhaps, that the military disaster Egypt suffered at the Exodus---the loss of the Pharaoh and all his horses and chariots in the sea---left a strong negative impression upon the Egyptians in regard to the value of the horse and chariot in military operations, causing them to abandon their further use and development for some centuries? Be that as it may, I hope that you will agree that any claim for the non-existence of horses in Egypt during the Old Kingdom appears precarious at present. [End of quote] Chariots in the Old (Middle) Kingdom of Egypt may not have been anywhere near as sophisticated as those that will emerge later, close to the New Kingdom era. More like carts, perhaps, they would have been drawn by pack animals (donkeys, horses). Whether or not the Exodus Pharaoh had suddenly come into possession of a new form of chariot, either invented in Egypt, or sold to him externally, that hypothetical new chariot force would not have had time to register on the Egyptian reliefs before it was completely destroyed in the Sea of Reeds.

Exodus Pharaoh could still gather sufficient horses after the Plagues

“The text specifies that the plague struck the livestock in the field. This detail is critical for understanding the scope of the destruction. The verse does not imply that all livestock throughout Egypt were eradicated”. Edward D. Andrews Damien Mackey’s note: Once again, now in Exodus 9:6, there appears that controversial Hebrew word, kol (כֹּל), “all”, “the whole”, “everything”, together with the Hebrew word miqneh (מִקְנֵה), “cattle”, “livestock” - the overall phrase typically being translated as “all the livestock”. As others, and I, have often explained, the word kol is not necessarily to be taken in a global context – this can happen most notably in the Flood narrative where it then serves those who would hopefully argue for a worldwide Noachic Flood. Anyway, Edward D. Andrews appears to have this matter, and others, well in hand, as he answers the question: How Did Pharaoh Obtain Horses to Pursue Moses in Exodus 14 If All the Livestock Had Died in Exodus 9? - Updated American Standard Version How Did Pharaoh Obtain Horses to Pursue Moses in Exodus 14 If All the Livestock Had Died in Exodus 9? The seeming contradiction in the biblical text regarding the survival of Pharaoh’s horses in Exodus 14 after the livestock were said to have perished in Exodus 9 has long been a topic of inquiry. To resolve this issue, a careful examination of the text using the Historical-Grammatical method of interpretation is necessary. The goal is to assess the context, word usage, and the overall narrative flow while remaining faithful to the inspired Scriptures. This examination underscores the inerrancy of the Bible and the consistency of its accounts when properly understood. ________________________________________ The Death of Livestock in Exodus 9 In Exodus 9:1-7, God sent the fifth plague upon Egypt: a devastating pestilence targeting the livestock in the fields. The passage reads: “Behold, the hand of Jehovah will fall with a very severe plague upon your livestock that are in the field, the horses, the donkeys, the camels, the herds, and the flocks. But Jehovah will make a distinction between the livestock of Israel and the livestock of Egypt, so that nothing of all that belongs to the people of Israel shall die.” (Exodus 9:3-4, ESV) The text specifies that the plague struck the livestock in the field. This detail is critical for understanding the scope of the destruction. The verse does not imply that all livestock throughout Egypt were eradicated. Rather, only those exposed in the fields succumbed to the plague. Livestock that may have been sheltered or kept in stables were unaffected. This differentiation is further emphasized in Exodus 9:6: “And the next day Jehovah did this thing. All the livestock of the Egyptians died, but not one of the livestock of the people of Israel died.” The phrase “all the livestock of the Egyptians died” reflects the totality of livestock affected by the plague in the specific category mentioned—those in the fields. It is not a statement about every single animal across all Egypt, as will be evidenced later. ________________________________________ Surviving Livestock Post-Plague The narrative of Exodus provides further clues that some Egyptian livestock survived the plague. Exodus 9:20-21, during the warning for the seventh plague (hail), states: “Then whoever feared the word of Jehovah among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses, but whoever did not pay attention to the word of Jehovah left his slaves and his livestock in the field.” This passage explicitly mentions the existence of livestock after the fifth plague. Egyptians who feared Jehovah’s warning took steps to protect their remaining animals by sheltering them indoors. This demonstrates that the earlier pestilence had not eradicated all livestock, as some were either protected or acquired after the fifth plague. These surviving animals were vulnerable to the subsequent hail plague, as described in Exodus 9:25: “The hail struck down everything that was in the field in all the land of Egypt, both man and beast.” The pattern remains consistent: animals left exposed in the fields suffered the consequences of the plague, while those sheltered survived. ________________________________________ The Role of Horses in Exodus 14 By the time of the Red Sea crossing in Exodus 14, Pharaoh had access to a significant number of horses and chariots for his pursuit of the Israelites: “And he took six hundred chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them.” (Exodus 14:7) This passage raises the question: Where did Pharaoh’s horses come from? Based on the evidence, there are several plausible explanations that align with the biblical text: 1. Surviving Horses From Earlier Plagues As established, not all livestock perished during the fifth plague. Horses kept indoors or protected during subsequent plagues would have survived. Pharaoh’s stables, housing his most valuable warhorses, would likely have been prioritized for protection, ensuring that his military capabilities remained intact. 2. Acquisition of Livestock After the Plagues Pharaoh and the Egyptians could have acquired livestock, including horses, from neighboring regions not affected by the plagues. Egypt was a major power in the ancient Near East and had trade relationships with other nations. It is reasonable to conclude that Pharaoh replenished his livestock to sustain the economy and military operations. 3. Gradual Recovery Between Plagues The plagues were not instantaneous or without intervals. The text indicates time gaps between the plagues, providing an opportunity for Egypt to recover to some extent. Livestock from regions unaffected by the plagues, such as Goshen (where the Israelites lived), may have been seized or appropriated by the Egyptians to replace their losses. ________________________________________ Contextual and Linguistic Considerations Understanding the Bible’s language and narrative style is crucial to resolving apparent difficulties. The use of phrases like “all the livestock of the Egyptians died” in Exodus 9:6 reflects a common Hebrew idiom for extensive destruction rather than absolute eradication. Similar usage is found in other biblical passages, such as: • Genesis 41:57: “All the earth came to Egypt to buy grain” does not mean every single person on the planet, but rather people from many nations. • Matthew 3:5: “Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him,” does not imply every individual. The hyperbolic style emphasizes the magnitude of the event without requiring absolute literalness in every detail. This understanding aligns with the Historical-Grammatical method, respecting the original audience’s linguistic and cultural framework. ________________________________________ Theological Implications The survival of Pharaoh’s horses and chariots underscores God’s sovereignty and strategic purpose in delivering Israel. Jehovah’s actions in the plagues demonstrated His power over Egyptian gods and the natural order, while also setting the stage for the climactic Red Sea event. Pharaoh’s pursuit and subsequent destruction serve as a powerful testimony to God’s deliverance of His people and judgment upon those who oppose Him. As recorded in Exodus 15:1, the Israelites praised Jehovah for their deliverance: “I will sing to Jehovah, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.” This passage highlights the ultimate futility of Pharaoh’s reliance on his military might, despite his ability to muster horses and chariots for the pursuit. ________________________________________ Conclusion The apparent contradiction in the survival of Pharaoh’s horses in Exodus 14 after the fifth plague in Exodus 9 is resolvable through a careful reading of the text. The plague affected only livestock in the fields, leaving others unharmed. Subsequent plagues provided additional opportunities for survival or acquisition of animals. By considering context, linguistic usage, and historical realities, the consistency of the biblical account is evident. This reinforces the reliability of Scripture and highlights the providence of God in His dealings with both Egypt and Israel.

The Plagues of Egypt intensify

by Damien F. Mackey “This plague [lice] would have been a veritable nightmare for Egypt’s religious leaders! And they were entirely powerless to stop it. Notably, it is with this plague that the magicians admitted defeat. With their homes and bodies crawling with lice, they told Pharaoh, This is the finger of God. But Egypt’s leader was unmoved. His “heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them …”.” Christopher Eames I ended my most recent article on the Plagues of Egypt with the early part of Christopher Eames’ brilliant account (2021) of them as the Lord’s war on the gods of Egypt (‘Against All the Gods of Egypt’): Old Kingdom of Egypt fearfully devastated with blood and fire (3) Old Kingdom of Egypt fearfully devastated with blood and fire His article is so good and relevant that I have decided to continue on with it here: Moses told Pharaoh: “… ‘Be it according to thy word; that thou mayest know that there is none like unto the Lord our God. And the frogs shall depart from thee, and from thy houses, and from thy servants, and from thy people; they shall remain in the river only’” (Exodus 8:6-7). Was Moses also hinting at the Israelite connection to this plague—with a prophetic description of Israel’s departure from Egypt? Nevertheless, Pharaoh’s heart was again hardened. 3. Dust to Lice “… Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man, and in beast; all the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt” (Exodus 8:17; King James Version). The Hebrew word translated as “lice” is only used in this biblical context, so the exact identity of this critter is unclear. Other translations describe “fleas,” “sandflies,” “gnats,” “ticks” or “mosquitoes.” The Hebrew word indicates a creature that digs into the skin. Regardless, the ground literally came alive with parasites. This plague would have been an affront to, among others, Geb, Egypt’s chief earth god. It was also aimed quite pointedly at a specific part of Egypt’s society: the priests and religious leaders. Egypt’s religious leaders went to extreme lengths to keep themselves clean and pure, especially of lice. Egyptian priests even removed their eyebrows and eyelashes—anything that could host parasites! This phobia for lice was noted by Herodotus, the famous fifth-century Greek historian: “The priests shave their bodies all over every other day to guard against the presence of lice, or anything else equally unpleasant, while they are about their religious duties …. [They] wear linen only, and shoes made from the papyrus plant …. They bathe in cold water twice a day and twice every night—and observe innumerable other ceremonies besides” (The Histories). This plague would have been a veritable nightmare for Egypt’s religious leaders! And they were entirely powerless to stop it. Notably, it is with this plague that the magicians admitted defeat. With their homes and bodies crawling with lice, they told Pharaoh, This is the finger of God. But Egypt’s leader was unmoved. His “heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them …” (verse 15). So the plagues continued. 4. Swarms Flies and beetles were popular charms in ancient Egypt. Flies adorned ritualistic objects; soldiers and leaders were decorated with a pendant known as the “Order of the Golden Fly.” The fly served as a symbol of relentless determination and bravery. It’s hard to imagine this affection for flies remaining after the fourth plague hit. “[B]ehold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses; and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are. … [A]nd there came grievous swarms of flies … the land was ruined by reason of the swarms of flies” (Exodus 8:17, 20). The original text does not use the word “flies”; it refers to them simply as swarms. Based on the translation of the ancient Greek Septuagint, most scholars identify this insect as the dogfly, similar to the March fly, horsefly, botfly or gadfly. As some of our readers may have experienced, these blood-sucking flies can inflict a painful bite. They can also be deadly, as they transmit various diseases such as anthrax and tularemia. The effect these flies had on Egypt was gruesome. Psalm 78:45 states that these swarms “devoured” the Egyptians. Various deities associated with flies and insects include the goddesses Wadjet, Iusaaset and Khepri, who was depicted with the head of a beetle. Bees were said to come from the tears of the sun god, Ra, and certain wasp-like insects made up part of the official royal title of the pharaoh. To end this plague, Pharaoh acquiesced and agreed to release the Israelites (ironic, given that flies symbolized unwavering Egyptian determination). But unfortunately for his people, he changed his mind again after the swarms departed. 5. Death of Livestock “Behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thy cattle which are in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the herds, and upon the flocks; there shall be a very grievous murrain. … [A]nd all the cattle of Egypt died …” (Exodus 9:3, 6). While this plague cut deep at countless Egyptian animal gods, its attack was most pointedly against cattle deities—the most significant animals in the Egyptian pantheon. Particularly important was the cow-goddess Hathor, daughter-consort of Ra and “mother of the pharaoh” (who himself was stylized as a bull). Egyptian wall art commonly depicts pharaohs suckling from the udder of Hathor. Another famous deity is the Apis bull, a “son of Hathor” and manifestation of the pharaoh. Only one such physical bull could exist at a time, and once the bull died, it was mourned almost as if Pharaoh himself had died, including being mummified and interred in a massive sarcophagus weighing up to 60 tons. Verse 6 indicates that the Apis bull at this time must have died—a blow to Pharaoh. The Egyptians considered the Israelite manner of handling livestock a blasphemous “abomination” (Genesis 46:34). So for the Egyptians to see their own cattle dying en masse while every Israelite cow was spared would have been distressing. Evidently Pharaoh himself couldn’t quite believe it and sent his own messengers to verify if the Israelite cattle truly had been spared (Exodus 9:7). Some scholars postulate that God destroyed Egypt’s livestock via a plague of anthrax. This makes sense, considering the previous plague; perhaps the swarms of flies transmitted the anthrax to the cattle. Whatever the case, this plague still did not breach Pharaoh’s hard heart. “… But the heart of Pharaoh was stubborn, and he did not let the people go” (verse 7). 6. Boils The next plague literally hobbled the nation, forcing the people to their beds. Exodus 9:11 shows that even the magicians were not able to stand upright as a result: “And the Lord said unto Moses and unto Aaron: ‘Take to you handfuls of soot of the furnace, and let Moses throw it heavenward in the sight of Pharaoh. And it shall become small dust over all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt’” (Exodus 9:8-9). This epidemic of boils was an affront to numerous Egyptian deities, such as Sekhmet, goddess of epidemics and healing; Thoth, god of medical knowledge; Isis, goddess of healing; Nephthys, goddess of health. But it was also an affront to the much-prized Egyptian doctors, famous in the ancient world for their knowledge in medicine, surgery, dentistry, even prosthetics, with known complex medical texts dating back more than 4,500 years. So venerated were the doctors that the physician Imhotep, who served under Pharaoh Djoser (circa 2600 b.c.e.), became deified as the “god of medicine.” …. The way that Moses initiated this plague, tossing ash from a furnace into the air, is also interesting. The word for furnace refers to a “kiln,” i.e. a brick-kiln—a device the Israelites would have known well. Exodus 5 describes the blistering, crippling labor forced upon the Israelites specifically in making bricks. Thus, in another apparent turn of poetic justice, the Egyptians became crippled and blistered from the same brick-making source of torment. But not even a plague of painful sores was enough to change the mind of Egypt’s king. 7. Hail and Fire The next plague would have been truly petrifying. “[A]nd the Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire ran along upon the ground …. [F]ire mingled with the hail …. And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field” (Exodus 9:23-25; kjv). This plague utterly destroyed everything and everyone not protected by substantial shelter. The sky-goddess Nut, who was supposed to protect the land from heavenly destruction, was evidently missing. So was her father, Shu, the “calming” god of the atmosphere. Gods of animals and agriculture (Set, Isis, Osiris and others) were also missing in action. This plague also would have struck at Egyptian beliefs surrounding the afterlife. The reference to fire is notable: To be incinerated was considered the worst punishment to the Egyptians. Without a body, there was nothing to mummify, which meant no afterlife. (Even the damage to victims by hail would have been problematic, as Egyptians went to great lengths to ensure that the dead bodies were preserved as intact as possible.) This afterlife-affliction was made worse by a primary crop destroyed by this plague—flax (verse 31). Flax was essential for wrapping mummies. With this plague, Pharaoh began to grow desperate. He finally admitted sin and recognized the supremacy of Israel’s God. “And Pharaoh sent, and called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto them: ‘I have sinned this time; the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. Entreat the Lord, and let there be enough of these mighty thunderings and hail; and I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer’” (verses 27-28). Why the admission of sin and wickedness—and why now? In ancient Egypt, the pharaoh was the primary intermediary between his people and the gods. The pharaoh was personally responsible for Maat, “cosmic order,” maintaining balance in the land. “Disorder had to be kept at bay,” states Encyclopedia Britannica. “The task of the king as the protagonist of human society was to retain the benevolence of the gods in maintaining order against disorder.” Perhaps Pharaoh felt he could retain some order amid the earlier plagues, but with this one—crashing hail, deafening thunder, blinding lightning, raging fires—the entire land was in utter chaos. With the hail, Pharaoh’s capacity for maintaining any semblance of Maat had vanished. And everyone knew it. When the plague ended, however, Pharaoh changed his mind again, despite the pleading of his servants to simply let the Israelites go (Exodus 10:7). 8. Locusts Plagues of locusts are not uncommon in the Middle East and Africa. But what here befell Egypt was on another level entirely. “And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt …. For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left; and there remained not any green thing, either tree or herb of the field, through all the land of Egypt” (Exodus 10:14-15). With this plague, all remaining plant life, including the new crops of wheat and spelt that had not emerged at the time of the hail (Exodus 9:32), were devoured. This plague struck at a number of important crop deities, including the grain gods Neper, Nepri, Heneb and Renenutet, as well as Isis and Set, two gods responsible for protecting the nation’s crops. With the total destruction of crops, the Egyptian population now faced the prospect of starvation. “Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste; and he said: ‘I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you. Now therefore forgive, I pray thee, my sin only this once, and entreat the Lord your God, that he may take away from me this [deadly plague]” (Exodus 10:16-17). Moses obliged, but Pharaoh again changed his mind. Judgment was now due upon the greatest Egyptian god of all. 9. Darkness Among all of Egypt’s gods, none was venerated as much as Ra, the all-powerful sun-god. This god, variously worshiped as Re, Amon-Ra, Atum or Aten, had power over all other gods. …. The ninth plague was a direct assault on Ra. “And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days; they saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days …” (Exodus 10:22-23). The New Living Translation says it was a “darkness so thick you can feel it” (verse 21). As darkness prevailed, Egypt’s greatest, most powerful god was exposed as entirely powerless. The darkness was a warning to Pharaoh himself, who was considered the “son of the sun.” To add insult to injury, verse 23 shows that while the Egyptians were covered in thick darkness, God’s people in the land of Goshen were bathed in bright sunlight! The first nine plagues built up to the 10th and thus could be categorized separately (Exodus 12:12). The number nine was significant in Egyptian religion. Regional pantheons throughout Egyptian history were worshiped as enneads, “nines,” or groups of nine deities. The most famous was the Great Ennead of Heliopolis, led by the sun god Atum and consisting of his descendants Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Isis, Osiris, Set and Nephthys (all noted among the above-described plagues). Still, the Great Ennead was occasionally worshiped with a “plus-one,” a 10th deity, the great son of Isis and Osiris: Horus. 10. Against Pharaoh (and Everything Else) The 10th and final plague struck at everything in a single stroke—from Pharaoh to commoner to rat, and any and all gods that represented them. It was a decisive blow for the nation, especially at a time when firstborn were all but revered. Exodus 12:30 shows that not a single Egyptian family was spared. “For I will go through the land of Egypt in that night, and will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord” (verse 12). The pharaoh and his family were demigods to the Egyptians. Across the nation, they were revered as part god, part human, and the offspring of the gods themselves. Like Egypt’s countless gods, Pharaoh and his family were supposed to be untouchable to the plight of common mortals. With the final plague, the God of Israel struck down the final “god” family of Egypt, in a way that would be most crippling—more so than Pharaoh’s own death. Pharaoh’s most prized possession, his own son—the child-god, part of the Pantheon of “all-powerful” deities—was killed. “And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead. And he called for Moses and Aaron by night and said: ‘Rise up, get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go, serve the Lord, as ye have said. Take both your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and be gone; and bless me also’” (verses 30-32). Deliverance Following the catastrophic final plague, the Israelites were finally freed. Egypt, its pharaoh, and its gods had been utterly humiliated, and the Egyptians “thrust” the Israelites out of the land. In fact, Pharaoh and his people were so desperate to get them out, they essentially paid the Israelites to leave, showering them with gifts. “[F]or they said: ‘We are all dead men’” (see Exodus 11:1-3; 12:33-36). With the final plague complete, Israel joyously fleeing, and Egypt wallowing in dust and ashes, God’s plan was fulfilled. God had accomplished what He set out to do: “[T]he Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch forth My hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them” (Exodus 7:5). But bringing Israel out of Egypt was the easy part. What proved to be far more difficult was bringing Egypt out of Israel. It wasn’t long after the Israelites crossed the Red Sea [sic] that the masses were pleading to return to Egypt and its gods. Encamped at the base of Mount Sinai, they erected a “golden calf” after the form of Hathor-Apis worship. Aaron proclaimed: “‘This is thy god, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt’” (Exodus 32:4). What a powerful lesson for us about human nature! Despite the many miracles—despite sparing the land of Goshen—despite the utter humiliation of the Egyptian deities—despite the freedom of an enslaved population—despite agreeing to God’s covenant at Mount Sinai (many of the terms and conditions of this covenant directly forbade the Egyptian-style pagan practices)—the Israelites simply refused to come completely out of Egypt and obey the God of Israel. Forty years later, only two of the million-plus freed adults were allowed to enter the Promised Land (Exodus 12:37; Numbers 14:26-31). The lessons of the 10 plagues hold true today. Stubborn human nature has not changed over the past 3,500 years. In many ways, we are like the ancient Israelites and the Egyptians. Even when faced with extreme adversity, human nature is determined to hold on to its own selfish, wicked ways and pursue its own evil ambitions. Like Pharaoh himself, we can find it hard to abandon our human will, even when it is exposed as corrupt. ….

Old Kingdom of Egypt fearfully devastated with blood and fire

by Damien F. Mackey “There is blood everywhere …. Lo the river is blood”. o “Groaning is throughout the land, mingled with laments”. “All is ruin!” “The land is without light”. Ipuwer Papyrus Have you ever heard of the Ipuwer Papyrus? It is an ancient document. Many believe it to be a recollection of the Ten Plagues, perhaps even by an eyewitness. Turning water to blood was one of the miraculous powers with which the Lord had invested his servant, Moses, in order to prompt his people, and even the Egyptians, to believe. The other miraculous abilities were the rod of Moses turning into a serpent, and the hand becoming leprous, but then restored to health. The water to blood phenomenon would be the last chance before Egypt would feel the full force of the Ten Plagues (Exodus 4:8-9): Then the Lord said, ‘If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second. But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground’. Amazingly, even this late - and in the face of the Lord’s powerful words about delivering his people “with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment” (Exodus 6:6) - we find Moses still reluctant to co-operate, to face Pharaoh, owing to his perceived lack of eloquence: ‘I speak with faltering lips’ (Exodus 6:1-12): Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Now you will see what I will do to Pharaoh: Because of my mighty hand he will let them go; because of my mighty hand he will drive them out of his country’. God also said to Moses, ‘I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself fully known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, where they resided as foreigners. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant. “Therefore, say to the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. I will free you from being slaves to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment. I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians. And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the Lord’.” Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and harsh labor. Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Go, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the Israelites go out of his country’. But Moses said to the Lord, ‘If the Israelites will not listen to me, why would Pharaoh listen to me, since I speak with faltering lips?’ A half century or more ago, now, this great man, Moses, had himself actually ruled Egypt as Pharaoh - as Djedefre (Djedefptah)/Niuserre Ini/Userkare. But, after a short time, he had abdicated. He was, too, a sage and a scholar, as Ptahhotep (as Kagemni), a writer of Instructions. But Moses was also Chief Vizier and Judge in Egypt. “This is the same Moses they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush” (Acts 7:35). In this official guise, as Weni (Mentuhotep), Moses would lead the armies of Egypt, against Ethiopia (Cush), and against the Bedouin. A military genius, he was also known as General Nysumontu (a Moses-like name, Nysu, like Sinuhe, and Niuserre Ini, which latter element also connects nicely with Weni/Uni). On this, see my article: Ini, Weni, Iny, Moses (DOC) Ini, Weni, Iny, Moses Yet, despite all of that, Moses was most reluctant to confront pharaoh Neferhotep. How to explain this? Perhaps because (Numbers 12:3): “… Moses was a very humble man, more so than any man on the face of the earth”. He seemed to lack the self-assurance of his predecessor, Joseph, the Man of Dreams. Had pharaoh Neferhotep even heard of Moses? That this king had apparently no personal vendetta against Moses can be assumed from Exodus 4:19: ‘Go, return into Egypt; for all the men are dead who sought thy life’. Egypt’s so-called ‘Middle’ Kingdom (which was effectively still the Old Kingdom, hence the title of this article) was now rapidly coming to its end. Egyptian Magicians emulate miracles How so? A possible explanation for this is given here at: How were Pharaoh’s magicians able to perform miracles? | GotQuestions.org How were Pharaoh’s magicians able to perform miracles? Answer The story of Pharaoh’s magicians can be found in Exodus 7–8, when Moses and Aaron confront the Pharaoh in Egypt, demanding that he free God’s people, the Israelites, from slavery. Moses and Aaron performed miracles to confirm their message, and on three occasions Pharaoh’s magicians were able to duplicate the miracles. God spoke to Moses through a burning bush and charged him to speak to Pharaoh on His behalf (Exodus 3). During that commissioning, God granted Moses the ability to perform miracles (Exodus 4:21). Knowing that Pharaoh would demand a sign, God instructed Moses and Aaron to throw down Aaron’s staff upon their first meeting with the ruler. Aaron did so, and his staff turned into a snake. Pharaoh immediately summoned his magicians, who were able to turn their own staffs into snakes. In what must have been an ominous sign for Pharaoh’s court, Aaron’s snake devoured the magicians’ snakes (see Exodus 7:8–13). Twice more, Pharaoh’s magicians were able to perform miracles to match the signs of Moses and Aaron. The first plague that Moses called down upon the Egyptians was a plague of blood. The magicians were also able to turn water to blood as Moses had done to the Nile River (Exodus 7:14–22). The second plague was a horde of frogs sent among the Egyptian people, and the magicians summoned their own frogs as well—adding to the problem rather than alleviating it (Exodus 8:1–7). After this, however, the magicians’ power stopped, as they were unable to replicate any further plagues, and they acknowledged they were witnessing “the finger of God” in Moses’ signs (verse 19). But how were the magicians of Egypt able to perform the miracles in the first place? There are two possible answers to this question. The first is that the magicians received their power from Satan. Although not as powerful as God, Satan, formerly one of God’s highest angels, has the power to deceive, emulate miracles, and even tell the future with a certain degree of accuracy (see Luke 4; 2 Corinthians 4:4; Acts 16:16–18). Satan may have given Pharaoh’s magicians the power to duplicate some of the signs God performed through Moses and Aaron. The second option, and the more probable, is that the magicians simply created illusions. Through sleight-of-hand and conjurer’s tricks, they deceived their audience into believing that they were performing the same miracles as Moses and Aaron. The first illusion, that of turning the staffs into snakes, may have been performed by snake charming, which was widely practiced in ancient Egypt (and even some today). There was a way in which snake charmers could cause a snake to stiffen like a staff and relax on command. Since the magicians were summoned after Aaron threw down his own staff, they would have had time to prepare the trick in advance. As for turning the Nile to blood, only dye is needed to make water run red. The frogs may be a more complicated illusion, but, just as modern illusionists can pull rabbits out of hats, Pharaoh’s magicians could have summoned frogs. Whether they were creating illusions or performing actual miracles, the Egyptian magicians were eventually stymied by God’s power. They were unable to summon gnats (Exodus 8:16–19), turn the sky dark (Exodus 10:21–23), call down hailstones (Exodus 9:22–26), or duplicate any of the other plagues. God’s power is great enough to defeat both man’s conniving and Satan’s power with ease. Did the Lord also use natural phenomena? So far, we have read of the Burning Bush episode and of Moses (and Aaron) being empowered to work certain miracles to generate belief among the Israelites – and, presumably, for any Egyptians of good will. The Burning Bush; the ability to turn one’s staff into a serpent; to cure a leprous hand; and to turn Nile water to blood; these are all purely miraculous manifestations. But what about the pillar of cloud, later, and the pillar of fire? (To be considered elsewhere). Many have argued that the Plagues of Egypt and the Exodus event were the result of natural catastrophism, volcanoes and/or earthquakes. There does appear to be a fair amount of tectonic activity going on during the Exodus and the sojourn in the desert. A favourite idea is that the unprecedented cataclysmic eruption of Thera (Santorini) in the Mediterranean Sea provides the explanation for the Plagues, for the pillars of cloud and fire, and for the parting of the Sea of Reeds. A tsunami engendered by that awesome hecatomb can then be proposed to explain the drowning of the Egyptian army. A possible association of Thera and the Exodus is mentioned, for instance, at Britannica.com eruption of Thera, devastating Bronze Age eruption of a long-dormant volcano on the Aegean island of Thera, about 70 miles (110 km) north of Crete. Earthquakes, perhaps contemporaneous with the eruption, shattered Knossos and damaged other settlements in northern Crete. The Thera eruption is thought to have occurred about 1500 bce, although, on the basis of evidence obtained during the 1980s from a Greenland ice-core and from tree-ring and radiocarbon dating, some scholars believe that it occurred earlier, possibly during the 1620s bce. Ash and pumice from the eruption have been found as far away as Egypt and Israel, and there has been speculation that the eruption was the source of the legend of Atlantis and of stories in the Old Testament book of Exodus. [End of quote] The truth is, though, that Thera could have had nothing to do with it! While one of the dates given in this piece above, “1500 bce”, is, as an approximation, roughly compatible with the era of Moses, this date, when properly revised downwards on the timeline, must be re-cast closer to c. 1000 BC, which is chronologically well out of range of the Exodus event. The Thera catastrophe may have occurred just a bit before the reign of King Solomon (I Kings 6:1): “In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites came out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the Temple of the LORD”. That is about half a millennium after the Exodus. Moreover, while the Thera cataclysm must have occurred close to the Late Bronze Age, the Exodus Israelites, the Middle Bronze I nomads, on the other hand, would become conquerors of Early Bronze Age civilisations. Finally, there is very little evidence for Thera, as massive as it was, impacting as far away as Egypt (some pumice finds, for instance): How Did the Eruption of Thera Affect the Egyptians? - GreekReporter.com The eruption of Thera in Egyptian chronology The exact date of the eruption of Thera is something that scholars continue to debate. This is due to conflicting evidence from radiocarbon dating and ice core evidence. Nevertheless, its relative date within Egyptian chronology is absolutely secure. The reason we can say this is that archaeologists have found various items made of pumice (rock formed from volcanic material) in Egypt from one specific time period. This is the reign of Ahmose I. The pumice in question matches that found on Thera itself, showing that it came from the Minoan eruption. Therefore, we can be absolutely sure that the eruption of Thera occurred in the reign of Ahmose I of Egypt, regardless of when the actual date really was. However, the weight of evidence places it in the 16th century BCE. [End of quote] Why I have wondered about the possibility of natural phenomena also being included amongst the miraculous in the Book of Exodus is because, after having read an account of the eruption of Mount Saint Helens in Washington State, in 198o, I was amazed how closely various of its effects seemed to parallel those of the Plagues of Egypt – though not necessarily in the same order. I read about this in Graham Phillips’ terrific book, Act of God (1998). This book also served to enlighten me mightily as to the nature of the enigmatic pharaoh, Akhnaton. According to the Old Testament account in the book of Exodus, when the pharaoh refused Moses’ demands to let the Israelite slaves leave Egypt, God inflicted the Egyptians with a series of what the Bible calls plagues, which included darkness over the land, the Nile turning to blood, fiery hail storms, cattle deaths and a plague of boils. In Act of God, Graham presents compelling evidence that these biblical plagues were real historical events - the result of a volcanic eruption so colossal that it also gave rise to the legend of Atlantis. {My own opinion about the highly popular subject of Atlantis would be that the legend about it was a composite mix of ancient catastrophes, including the Great Flood, the Thera eruption, and the Fall of Tyre}. The following is taken from The Graham Phillips Website: Act of God 1 …. There are various types of volcanic eruption: some spew forth rivers of molten lava, others produce searing mud slides, but by far the most devastating is when the pressure of the magma causes the volcano to literally blow its top. One of the largest eruptions in recent years was the Mount Saint Helens eruption in Washington State USA in 1980, when the explosion blasted away the mountainside with the power of a fifty megaton bomb. On the morning of 18 May 1980, a mass of searing volcanic material blasted outwards, killing almost every living thing or miles around. Thousands of acres of forest were flattened and molten debris covered everywhere like the surface of the moon. Within a few hours a cloud of ash thousands of feet high, containing billions of tons of volcanic material, had rolled east across three states - Washington, Idaho and Montana – where the massive volcanic cloud covered the sky and day was turned to night. Throughout the whole area ash fell like rain, clogging motor engines, halting trains and blocking roads. Thousands of square miles of lush farmland now looked like a grey desert and millions of dollars worth of crops were destroyed. Hundreds of people, as far away as Billings in Montana, over 500 miles from the volcano, were taken to hospital with sore eyes and skin rashes caused by exposure to the acidic fallout ash. For weeks afterwards fish in thousands of miles of rivers were found floating on the surface, killed by chemical pollutants in the water. Something very similar seems to have affected Egypt some three and a half thousand years ago when the Exodus story appears to be set. The Plagues of Egypt First of all there is the plague of darkness. This might have been the result of a massive cloud of fallout ash. After the Mount Saint Helens eruption the sun was obscured for hours over 500 miles from the volcano. According to Exodus 10: 21-23: And there was thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days: They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days. In Exodus 9:23-26 we are told that Egypt is afflicted by … another plague – a terrible fiery hailstorm: And the Lord sent thunder and hail… So there was hail and fire mingled with the hail… And the hail smote all throughout the land of Egypt, all that was in the field, both man and beast, and brake every tree in the field. This would be an accurate description of the dreadful ordeal suffered by people in the shadow of the Mount Saint Helens fallout cloud in 1980 - pellet-sized volcanic debris falling like hail; fiery pumice setting fires on the ground and destroying trees and houses; lightning flashing around, generated by the tremendous turbulence inside the volcanic cloud. For days volcanic debris fell like hailstones, flattening crops for miles around. The Exodus account of another of the plagues could easily be a report given by someone living in the states of Washington, Idaho and Montana, over which the volcanic fallout cloud was blown after the Mount Saint Helens eruption of 1980: And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast... (Exodus 9:9.) Fine dust causing boils and blains! Hundreds of people were taken to hospital with skin sores and rashes after the Mount Saint Helens eruption due to exposure to the acidic fallout ash, and livestock perished or had to be destroyed due to prolonged inhalation of the volcanic dust. According to Exodus 9:6: And all the cattle of Egypt died. After the Mount Saint Helens eruption fish also died and were found floating on the surface of hundreds of miles of waterways. The pungent odor of pumice permeated everything and water supplies had to be cut off until the impurities could be filtered from reservoirs. According to Exodus 7:21: And the fish that was in the river died: and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the river, and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. As well as the grey pumice ash volcanoes blast skywards, many volcanoes have another, more corrosive toxin in their bedrock - iron oxide. (This is the same red material that covers the surface of Mars.) After the Mount Saint Helens eruption thousands of tons of iron oxide were discharged into the rivers killing fish for miles around. It would certainly explain the Exodus reference to the Nile turning to blood, as iron oxide would turn the river red: And all the waters that were in the river turned to blood. (Exodus 7:20). Over the years various scholars have individually attributed these plagues to different natural phenomena. The darkness could have been due to a violent sandstorm; the hail the result of freak weather conditions; the boils caused by an epidemic; and the bloodied river may have been the result of seismic activity to the south, near the Nile’s source. However, the likelihood of them all happening at the same time seems just too remote. A volcanic eruption, however, would account for them all. …. [End of quote] The most that I could say, at this stage, is that, whilst much of what happened involving Moses and Aaron was purely miraculous, the Lord could also have allowed a natural catastrophe to trigger a series of plagues. The material and the timing, however, was all His. The Exodus account needs to be supplemented by King Solomon’s vivid description of the Plagues in the Book of Wisdom. For instance: Wisdom of Solomon 16 – God’s Justice in the Plagues: Plagues as lessons for the nations. - Pope Kirillos …. Wisdom of Solomon chapter 16 presents a profound meditation on God’s Justice and Mercy as revealed through the plagues visited upon the Egyptians and the corresponding blessings bestowed upon the Israelites. The chapter explores how God used these plagues not merely as instruments of punishment, but as pedagogical tools designed to teach both the Egyptians and the Israelites about His power, justice, and ultimately, His mercy. The plagues targeted the Egyptians’ objects of worship, demonstrating their futility. Simultaneously, the Israelites experienced miraculous deliverances, fostering faith and dependence on God. This chapter highlights the duality of God’s actions: judgment tempered with mercy, designed for both correction and salvation. We will delve into each verse, drawing from Patristic insights and Coptic Orthodox tradition, to uncover the deep spiritual truths embedded within this powerful narrative. …. War on the gods of Egypt Just prior to the last devastating Plague, the death of Egypt’s firstborn, the Lord declares his intention to smite the gods of Egypt (Exodus 12:12): ‘For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord’. This would almost certainly include Pharaoh himself (and his firstborn son), who was considered by the Egyptians to be the Divine Son of Ra (the Sun God). There have also been some excellent articles written on the Lord’s use of the Plagues to undermine the various gods of Egypt. For example, Joe LoMusio’s: “Against the Gods of Egypt” - Identifying the Ten Plagues (7) "Against the Gods of Egypt" - Identifying the Ten Plagues and Timothy Sliedrecht’s: Against All Gods: Purpose of the Ten Plagues (7) Against All Gods: Purpose of the Ten Plagues Christopher Eames has also written well on this subject (2021): ‘Against All the Gods of Egypt’ God used the 10 plagues to send a powerful message to Egypt and the Israelites—and to us. The 10 plagues of Egypt constitute one of the strangest collections of miracles in the Bible. Water turned to blood, legions of frogs, dust turned to lice, boils—nowhere else in the Bible do we see such a peculiar display of divine judgment. Have you ever wondered why God sent such an eclectic mix of plagues? And why He sent 10? He could have easily crushed Egypt and freed the Israelites through just one plague. Why didn’t God just intensify plague number seven—the hail—and be done with it? There is a fascinating reason why God performed so many powerful and peculiar miracles. He didn’t send the 10 plagues to merely free the Israelites or to punish Egypt’s Pharaoh and his people. In Exodus 12:12, God says, “[A]gainst all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the Lord.” Egypt at the time was the world’s dominant power, and it possessed one of the most widespread, complex and ancient religions on Earth. God used the plagues to warn and punish an entire religious and political system—and to free an entire civilization from slavery to false religion! The One True God …. Through the 10 plagues, God was making Himself known to the Egyptians and to the Israelites. The Israelites actually experienced the first three plagues because they needed to learn who God was! Some experts believe that Egypt had a pantheon of as many as 2,000 pagan gods and goddesses. Through the plagues, God proved that He was the one and only all-powerful, divine Being of the universe. “And God said unto Moses: ‘I am that I am’” (Exodus 3:14). …. First Blood: Snake Gods It is notable that the first words Pharaoh uttered to Moses and Aaron concerned the identity of their God. “And Pharaoh said: ‘Who is the Lord, that I should hearken unto His voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, and moreover I will not let Israel go’” (Exodus 5:2). To Pharaoh, Moses’s God was just another deity. But then Moses performed a miracle that showed God’s identity in relation to Pharaoh, his magicians and the Egyptian gods: “… Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers; and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did in like manner with their secret arts. For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods” (Exodus 7:10-12). There is more to this event than meets the eye. To the ancient Egyptians, a snake swallowing other snakes was a known religious refrain. In Egyptian mythology, the powerful primordial snake god Nehebkau is considered the “original snake.” His image was depicted as a protective deity on ivory rods. Worship of him was especially popular at this time in Egypt’s history (middle second millennium b.c.e.). According to the Coffin Text Spells (ancient Egyptian mythological accounts inscribed around 2100 b.c.e.), Nehebkau swallowed seven cobras, giving him power against harm from any magic. The Hebrew snake swallowing the Egyptian snakes, in the name of the “God of Israel,” would have been a startling display of supremacy. …. 1. Water to Blood With the first plague, God struck Egypt’s most important resource: the Nile River. “[A]nd he [Aaron] lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood” (Exodus 7:20). The Nile provided Egypt with a constant source of fresh water. Its nutrient-rich floodplains were Egypt’s breadbasket. Turning the Nile to blood was another targeted attack on one of Egypt’s most important gods: Osiris, the god of fertility, vegetation and agriculture. The Egyptians considered the Nile River to be the “bloodstream” of Osiris. As the chief god of the Nile, Osiris gave life to the Egyptian empire. When God turned the Nile to literal blood, the river (and its god) became the source of widespread death and suffering. This miracle attacked other gods as well: Khnum, god of the source of the Nile; Hapi, the god who presided over annual flooding; Sopdet, goddess of fertility-brought-to-soil-by-Nile-floodwater. It also insulted other Egyptian deities, including Nu, Naunet, Tefnut, Nehet-Weret and the fish-goddess Hatmehit. …. Although Pharaoh’s magicians successfully replicated this plague, they couldn’t make it stop (verse 22). Deities such as Taweret—the pot-bellied, hippo-headed, crocodile-tailed “Mistress of Pure Water”—were not able to cleanse the Nile or all the other water that had likewise miraculously turned to blood (verse 19). God’s onslaught on the gods of the Nile River continued for one week. But Pharaoh still refused to obey God’s command. So Moses and Aaron returned to the royal court. 2. Frogs “Thus saith the Lord: Let My people go …. And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs. And the river shall swarm with frogs, which shall go up and come into thy house, and into thy bed-chamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneading-troughs” (Exodus 7:26-28). Besides being gross, this plague would have had a dramatic impact on the Egyptian mind. The best-known Egyptian frog deity is the goddess Heqet. Heqet, and frogs in general, symbolized childbirth and midwifery, as well as resurrection. These motifs are closely tied to the Israelite story in Egypt. To stop the immense population growth of the Israelites, Pharaoh had previously ordered that all newborn males be drowned by the midwives in the Nile (Exodus 1:15-22). Now, with the second plague, Pharaoh was inundated with these symbols of childbirth, midwifery and resurrection literally pouring back out of the Nile! Surely the symbolism was not lost on Pharaoh. …. [Etc., etc.]

Chenephres was second Oppressor Pharaoh

“Merris married Khenephres and Mousos administered the land for him and became popular with the Egyptian people”. Artapanus We read this at: https://www.bereaninsights.org/nugget/moses-and-khenephres/ Moses and Khenephres … Do we have any evidence for Moses? Eusebius wrote Evangelicae Preparationis (Preparations for the Gospel) in which he refers to a Jewish historian Artapanus whose work didn’t survive. But we have chunks of it quoted by Eusebius and Clement in his Stromata. The story of Moses’ early life was recorded in some detail by Artapanus. According to Artapanus, Palmanothes was the Pharoah who persecuted the Israelites. He built a city called Kessan and founded a temple there and at Heliopolis. Mackey’s comment: The infanticidal “new king” of Exodus 1:8, who began the persecution of Israel, has various historical guises, none of which, however, corresponds really convincingly to “Palmanothes” - a name that does not appear to me to match up very well with any pharaonic name for that matter. The name of the next king, “Khenephres” (“Chenephres”), on the other hand, does match up very well with his historical counterparts, as we shall find. And the same comment goes for the woman, “Merris”, who married him. In fact, the nice correspondence between Chenephres and Merris and their respective historical counterparts - running like golden threads through various supposed dynasties - encourages me to believe that I am in quite the right era for my location of the historical Moses. Narrowing the focus for the moment, because the overall picture is extremely complex, I have fixed the era of Israel’s Oppression in the mighty Twelfth Dynasty: Egypt’s Twelfth Dynasty oppressed Israel (2) Egypt's Twelfth Dynasty oppressed Israel The abundance of pharaohs Amenemes and Sesostris in this dynasty needs to be stripped down to just two, the “new king” of Exodus 1:8, Amenemes, and his successor, Sesostris. While an imaginative person may be able to recognise “Palmanothes” in the name Amenemes, it is easy to square up Sesostris Neferkare with the same name, “Chenephres” (Ka-nefer-re). OK, but how does “Merris” fit into this reconstruction? Now it gets a bit more complicated. The way that ancient Egyptian history has been cobbled together, painfully stretched out in a kind of ‘Indian file’ fashion - with an Old Kingdom, First Intermediate Period, Middle Kingdom, and Second Intermediate Period - it has become impossible to recognise the real fact that this is basically just the one kingdom. Thus the so-called ‘Middle’ kingdom’s Twelfth Dynasty (already met) has its counterpart(s) in Egypt’s Old Kingdom. In the case of the history of Moses, we must start, then, with the famous Pyramid Age Fourth Dynasty. The obscure founder, Khufu (Cheops), now gets properly filled out with the far better known Amenemes. Whilst the Sphinx-loving Sesostris can now be attached to his famous alter ego, the Giza Sphinx building, Khafra (Chephren) (again, “Chenephres”). This now enables us to bring in the historical “Merris”, wife of “Chenephres”, for Khafre/Chephren had married a Meresankh, which is the name Merris with an ankh. “Meresankh was married to Khafre, another son of Khufu …”: https://mused.com/stories/82/who-was-queen-meresankh-iii/ And further, as I wrote in the Twelfth Dynasty article above: We may be able to trace the rise of the 4th dynasty’s Khufu (Cheops) - whose full name was Khnum-khuefui (meaning ‘Khnum is protecting me’) - to the 6th dynasty, to the wealthy noble (recalling that the founding 12th dynasty pharaoh “had no royal blood”) from Abydos in the south, called Khui. An abbreviation of Khuefui? This Khui had a daughter called Ankhenesmerire, in whose name are contained all the elements of Mer-es-ankh, the first part of which, Meres, accords phonetically with the name Eusebius gave for the Egyptian foster-mother of Moses, “Merris”. At this point we can return to the bereaninsights.org article, though we still have not finished with “Chenephres” who must also be considered in another historical guise. [Palmanothes] had a daughter named Merris. She adopted a Hebrew child who grew up to become Prince Mousos [Moses]. Merris married Khenephres and Mousos administered the land for him and became popular with the Egyptian people. Mousos led a military campaign to Ethiopia lasting 10 years. When he returned Khenephres became jealous of Mousos who fled to Arabia. He lived with Raguel, a priest and ruler of the region and married the daughter of one of his sons Hobab. Khenephres died and Mousos returned to Egypt to a new pharaoh. The plagues hit Egypt and Mousos led the Israelites out of Egypt. The names are difficult to equate with Egyptian names but Kessan is likely to be Kes, which is in the delta area and thus Goshen (after the Hebrew text). This equates with On or Heliopolis in association with the cities of Raamses and Pithom. Moses married Zipporah, the daughter of Hobab (also called Jethro) the son of Raguel. Who was Khenephres (Grk)? Manetho names the third ruler of the 5th Dynasty as Nepherkheres (Egypt). The Egyptian equivalent is Khaneferre. There is only one pharaoh in the whole of Egyptian history has taken this name. After the death of Neferhotep I, Sobekhotep became the 23rd ruler of the 13th Dynasty. Sobekhotep’s full name is Khaneferre Sobekhotep IV. So Moses birth coincided with the reign of one of the most powerful Egyptian pharaohs. Mackey’s comment: While I agree with the article that Khaneferre Sobekhotep is, once again, our “Chenephres” - the name Khaneferre being a perfect fit - I believe that this, now Egypt’s Thirteenth Dynasty, needs some re-organising. That, whilst Neferhotep here was certainly a Thirteenth Dynasty ruler, following the collapse of the famous Twelfth Dynasty, Khaneferre Sobekhotep actually preceded Neferhotep. Once again we find that the king list has things muddled up. See also my article: Chaotic King Lists can conceal some sure historical sequences (3) Chaotic King Lists can conceal some sure historical sequences Apart from his having the ideal “Chenephres” name (Khaneferre/Neferkare), befitting our second Oppressor Pharaoh, he also had a Sobek (crocodile) name, Sobekhotep. And we know from the name of the last ruler of the Twelfth Dynasty, the female pharaoh, Sobekneferure, that this dynasty worshipped the Crocodile god. The succession, Amenemhet (Amenemes) and Sobekhotep, as given in the Thirteen Dynasty king list, must now be recognised as being our Twelfth Dynasty sequence of the two Oppressor Pharaohs, Amenemes and Sesostris. Back to the bereaninsights.org article, which concludes: David Rohl estimates Sobekhotep’s reign lasted 20 years from 1529 to 1510 BC. As it seems Sobekhotep married the daughter of the delta king Palmanothes. This was likely to have been a strategic alliance marriage. Colossal statues of Sobekhotep have been found in the Delta region indicating his influence in the area. He reigned long before Pi-Ramesse was founded in the 19th dynasty but other texts associated him with the city of Avaris. What about the land of Goshen and Moses’ town? Excavations in the eastern Delta north of the town of Fakus have established this to be the site of Pi-Ramesse, capital of the 19th and 20th Dynasties. An Austrian team of archaeologists, led by Manfred Bietak, have been excavating at Tel ed-Daba since 1960. They have established that the town of Tel ed-Daba sits on top of ancient Avaris, Fakis (Egypt) or Phacusa (Grk). Faiyum is the name given to the Delta basin which surrounds the inland sea. Pa-Yam, Fa-Kus, Pa-Kes all mean “the sea” cf Yam Suph / Suf – the Red or Reed Sea (Hebrew). This is the place the Septuagint names Kessan. These places are all within a stone’s throw from Avaris – Tel ed-Daba. An ancient manuscript has been found which is now kept in Arezzo in Italy which confirms much of this detail. In contrast to the claims that the story of Moses and the Exodus are pure fiction, we will see in following Nuggets the proof which debunks that view. There are still exciting revelations ahead of us. Hang on to your seat and make sure your seatbelt is fastened securely.

Exodus Israelites departing from Egypt will be replaced by the Hyksos invaders

“These earlier Asiatics are more likely to be Joseph’s relatives. The later Asiatics were very different and were not Egyptianized at all and appear to be of Hyksos descent”. Berean Insights We read this at: https://www.bereaninsights.org/nugget/the-discoveries-at-avaris/ The Discoveries at Avaris For more than two centuries archaeologists have sought evidence for the Israelites in Egypt. No Israelite settlement has ever been found in the 19th Dynasty where the Orthodox Chronology predicted it would be. I told you in the last Nugget about the Austrian team of archaeologists, led by Manfred Bietak, who have been excavating at Tel ed-Daba since 1960, more commonly called Avaris in ancient times. Bietak and his team have made many astounding discoveries. Manfred Bietak and his team have found evidence of a long period of Asiatic settlement in Avaris. Between Stratum G/1 and F there is a definite break between two distinct phases of settlement. Both Rohl and Bietak believe this line of demarcation between Stratum G/1 and F at Tel ed-Daba likely marks the break that resulted from the biblical Exodus of the Israelites from Tell ed-Daba. Around Goshen in the Second Intermediate Period there is incontrovertible evidence for a large Asiatic population. …. The majority of the tombs in the earlier strata are of Asiatic people from Palestine and Syria. Bietak says the early Asiatics were heavily Egyptianized. These people have spent considerable time in Egypt and have taken on many of the cultural practices of the Egyptians themselves. … these people have to be Israelites. The fit for the time period perfectly matches the other indications that this indeed is the correct time period for the Exodus. These earlier Asiatics are more likely to be Joseph’s relatives. The later Asiatics were very different and were not Egyptianized at all and appear to be of Hyksos descent. In the Brooklyn Papyrus there is a list of 95 names of slaves, over 50% of which are Semitic names. There are several Biblical names in the list, e.g. Menahem, Issachar, Asher and Shiphrah. The term Apiru (the equivalent of Hebrew) appears first in the Brooklyn Papyrus. William Albright recognized the language belongs to the northwest Semitic language family which includes Biblical Hebrew. There is a high proportion of female slaves. More adult women are buried here than men. 65% of all burials are children under the age of 18 months with girls out numbering boys by a ratio of 3:1. This could be explained by the massacre of Israelite boys whose bodies were then disposed of in mass unmarked burial pits. All over the city of Avaris are shallow burial pits with multiple victims. There were no careful interments as was required under Egyptian customs. The bodies were thrown one on top of another in mass graves. There is no evidence of grave goods being placed with the corpses as was the Egyptian custom. Bietak is convinced this is direct evidence of a plague or catastrophe. The large part of the remaining population abandoned their homes and left en masse. Bietak says the site was then reoccupied after an unknown interval of time by Asiatics who were not Egyptianised. Hence the break between stratum G/1 and F. There is a strange anomaly where the Asiatic folk who inhabited Stratum F lived in poor conditions yet their graves were richly endowed with precious metals and jewellery. The sources are unconnected and yet intriguingly consistent. Putting all the pieces together one can build up a consistent story which supports the Biblical account. The break in archeological stratum between G/1 and F marks the intervening years following the exodus of the Hebrew slaves from Egypt. The repopulation of Avaris sometime afterward by the Hyksos people who moved into Egypt matches the beginning of the Second Intermediate Period of the Egyptian Pharoahs. They were Asiatic people from the same region as the Israelites but not Egyptianized as Joseph and his family had been. The facts fit the period before the Exodus well. Given the disruption at the time of plagues and the magnitude of the deaths which occurred there would have been no time to bury the dead according to Egyptian customs. The predominance of females, especially among children would have been a result of the deliberate murder of the male children by the Pharoah. Where did such poor people (slaves no less) get such riches? Simple: read Ex 11:2 which says, “Tell all the Israelite men and women to ask their Egyptian neighbours for articles of silver and gold.”