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Yahweh staying the hand of Abraham.
Painted by Rembrandt
Ramses II and three slaves. Click for details.
Battle of Gilboa
The source that introduces us to people called Hebrews is the Book of Genesis, of the Five Books of Moses, or the Old Testament, Genesis 14:13 describing a man called Abraham as a Hebrew. Genesis describes Abraham as the son of Terah and the brother of Nahor and Haran, a family that dwelled at Ur, in the land of the Chaldeans. According to Genesis, Terah took his family to Haran, where he died. And from Haran, Abraham migrated with his family into Canaan. Some believe this was toward the end of the 2000s BCE, long before the Chaldeans established themselves in Sumer. Some others speculate that Abraham's migration from Haran came much later. In recent years, archaeologists have concluded that we have no evidence as to dates regarding Abraham. [link]
The word Hebrew has been associated with the word Hiberu found in writing sent to Egypt by one of the small states that Egypt had left behind when it withdrew from Canaan in the 1300s BCE. These states were disturbed by the arrival of nomadic tribes that came in waves across generations. Hiberu meant outsider and might have referred to a great variety of migrants. The connection between the words Hebrew and Hiberu, moreover, is still being questioned.
The question remains for some whether the Hebrews were the original people on this earth or whether they derived genetically from those Homo sapiens believed to have been in Africa some 130,000 years ago - the latter suggesting that like others the Hebrews passed through a period of primitive hunting and gathering and the animism common to hunter-gatherers, including the belief that the world worked through the magic of many gods.
The Hebrews described in the Old Testament appear to have been semi-nomadic herders of sheep and goats and occasional farmers, without knowledge of metal working, sophisticated craftsmanship or a written language. Like other nomadic herders, they were tent dwellers - as Abraham is described in Genesis 13:3. And as was common among herders, the Hebrews had a masculine god of the sky and weather. The Hebrews organized themselves around their extended families, and Hebrew families were combined into kinship groups governed by a council of elders that left the head of a family with a sense of self-rule. These heads of families were males with absolute authority over their wives and children, and they were the priests for their families, each family having its own sacred images.
Typical of pastoral peoples, Hebrews saw vengeance as necessary for justice - an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. They believed in collective guilt: that an extended family, clan, or tribe was responsible for the acts of one of its members - a view that was to color their picture of divine acts of vengeance. Like other peoples, the Hebrews saw their god of the sky as concerned with them rather than as a god for all peoples. Genesis 15:18 describes their god as making a covenant with Abraham, saying:
To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.
Similar to other pastoral peoples, the Hebrews had a portable sacred box, which they called the Ark of the Covenant, described in the Old Testament as about 3 by 2 feet, with poles along its sides. And, as did other peoples, they carried their sacred box into battle, believing that it would bring divine intervention and victory.
The Hebrews had a god like the gods of others, a god with powers to be feared, a god with human characteristics such as anger and a capacity for pleasure, a god pleased by gifts - gifts created by sacrifices. Like others, the Hebrews believed that a ritual killing of an animal sent the animal as a gift to the invisible world of the gods. And, according to Chapter 22 of Genesis, Abraham was at least familiar with human sacrifice. There he is described as having been tested by the Lord's command that he make an offering of his son Isaac.
Canaan during the time of the Hebrews was a thinly populated land with relatively prosperous agricultural communities. In Canaan lived Phoenicians and Amorites, both of whom have been called Canaanites. The Amorites lived primarily in the hilly regions west of the Dead Sea and east of the Jordan River. Archaeologists are not sure whether the Hebrews were latecomers to Canaan or were themselves Canaanites. At any rate, Hebrews were settled in the more sparsely populated and less fertile hills east of the coastal plains, and some were settled in the plains of Galilee.
Some Hebrews lived in tight communities led by priests or military chieftains, and others lived in Canaanite towns, including an Amorite town that was to be known as Jerusalem. Some Hebrews practiced agriculture. Some had become tradesmen, and they became involved with the caravans that carried spices, ointments and resin across Canaan. Others were herders and wandered with their flocks to and from desert watering places. During the dry seasons some of these herdsmen migrated to the greener pastures of Egypt's Nile delta and then returned when pastures near home turned green again. Some Hebrews wandered into Egypt and stayed, and there they were despised by the Egyptians for their foreign ways.
When the pharaoh Ramses II returned from Syria with his treaty of "everlasting peace," he put slaves to work on his creation of great buildings and monuments to celebrate what he claimed was his victory. Art work from this period depicts a tall and threatening Ramses holding a Semite, an Asian and a black man by their hair - three slaves feeling the sternness of Ramses' rule.
The Old Testament's Book of Exodus describes an unnamed pharaoh ordering the slaughter of all male Hebrew infants, and it describes a Hebrew woman trying to save her infant son, Moses, by putting him adrift on the Nile in a tiny boat of reeds caulked with tar pitch. This is the Moses of Old Testament legend. It is the heart of Judaism - Moses being to Judaism what Siddhartha Gautama is to Buddhism and Jesus of Nazareth is to Christianity. It is a story that today's scholars believe was written centuries after Moses is purported to have lived and was written, some surmise, for the purpose of vindicating religious belief. [note] According to the Book of Exodus, the infant Moses was found on the banks of the Nile by the pharaoh's daughter. Despite the contempt felt for Hebrews by Egyptians, the recognition of the infant as a Hebrew and the elitism and exclusiveness of the royal family, the pharaoh allowed his daughter to rear the Hebrew child as her own, and she spoke the language of the Hebrews.
The Book of Exodus describes Moses as having maintained a Hebrew identity despite his having been raised among Egyptian royalty since infancy. Exodus describes Moses as becoming enraged when coming upon an overseer mistreating another Hebrew. Moses killed the overseer and, although he belonged to the royal family, he found it necessary to flee into the desert.
Exodus describes Moses joining a family among Bedouin people called Midianites, in the Sinai desert. The head of the family was a priest, and Moses married the priest's daughter. One day the god of his father-in-law spoke to Moses from a burning bush that did not suffer the effects of fire, and the god described himself to Moses as the god of Abraham. It was then, according to the Book of Exodus, that the Hebrews acquired the god called Yahweh - to be translated in the Middle Ages as Jehovah. [note]
According to the Book of Exodus, Yahweh instructed Moses to return to Egypt, and Moses did. There Moses converted Hebrews to the worship of "the Lord" and convinced them to flee with him from Egypt. In keeping with the common belief in collective guilt and punishment, Yahweh is also described as punishing not only Egypt's pharaoh (who alone among the Egyptians had the power to hold or release the Hebrews). Yahweh is described as punishing Egyptians far and wide, including all of their first-born. Yahweh is described as adding misery to the Egyptians in much the same manner that a Mesopotamian tale described the goddess Innana as having punished Sumer. Innana had sent three plagues against Sumer. Yahweh is described as having cast down upon the Egyptians plagues of boils, frogs, insects, hail to destroy their crops and a disease that killed their cattle
According to one interpretation of the Book of Exodus, Yahweh opened the Red Sea to let the Hebrews pass. Then he closed it again, drowning the pharaoh and all his soldiers. The Egyptians kept records of the doings of their kings, but no mention of this great event has been found by modern historians, and no mention has been found of Moses - perhaps, argue some people in modern times, because Egyptian royalty would not have wanted to admit any defeat at the hands of the Hebrews.
Rather than "Red Sea," the correct interpretation of the term yam sûf in the Hebrew text in Exodus is "Reed Sea." Some people speculate that the crossing mentioned in Exodus was a shallow, marshy area near what today is the northern end of the Suez Canal, where people on foot could have crossed but horses and chariots could have become bogged down in the mud. The Red Sea is salt water and devoid of reeds. [note]
According to the Book of Exodus, three months after leaving Egypt, Moses and his followers camped at the foot of Mount Sinai. Moses climbed the mountain. And Yahweh told him that if he and his followers obeyed, they would be his "own possession among all the peoples." Yahweh told Moses that he would appear again in three days. And three days later, with Mount Sinai rumbling and smoking as if about to erupt, with thunder and lightning from the sky above and trumpets blaring (Exodus 19:16) Yahweh descended onto Mount Sinai and beckoned Moses to ascend the mountain. In agreement with the belief common in West Asia that nearness to the gods was the privilege of a few, Yahweh told Moses to let the priests come "near the Lord" to consecrate themselves. The others, he said, should not "break through to the Lord to gaze" because it would cause many to perish. Moses assured Yahweh. Then Yahweh delivered his Ten Commandments and numerous other laws.
According to the Old Testament (Exodus 20:1-17), Yahweh commanded that Moses and his followers have no other gods, worship no idol "or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth." He commanded that they should not take his name in vain, that they should keep the Sabbath a weekly day of rest, that they should honor their father and mother, not murder one another, nor commit adultery, steal, bear false witness, and not covet their neighbor's possessions, including wives and servants.
According to the Old Testament's First Book of Kings, 6:1, Moses and his fellow Hebrews fled from Egypt 480 years before Solomon was to begin building his temple in Jerusalem. This would have placed the exodus from Egypt in 1446, around a century and a half before the rule of Ramses and during a time of no major building in Egypt. The Book of Exodus describes Moses as having come across the small kingdoms of Edom and Moab, which archaeologists believe were not settled until after 1300. [note] Those believing that the Old Testament is without error cling to 1446 as the year of the exodus. Others estimate that it was under Ramses' successor, Merneptah, that the Hebrews might have managed to flee en masse from Egypt - Merneptah having ruled from around 1224 to 1211. The mass exodus of Hebrew slaves might have occurred when Merneptah withdrew his troops from his frontier facing Canaan in preparation for a war developing on his frontier with the kingdom on his western border.
The great migrations that pushed against the Assyrians and overran Asia Minor and the Hittites around 1200 BCE also pushed on some seafaring people from the region around the Aegean Sea . These people - described as "Sea People" by the Egyptians - threatened Egypt during the reign of pharaoh Merneptah while he was warring with the kingdom on Egypt's western border. Egypt under Merneptah drove off these Sea People. Then around 1177 BCE, in the eighth year of the reign of Merneptah's successor, Ramses III, more raids came by the sea. Ramses III repelled the invaders, and he boasted of re-establishing Egyptian rule through Canaan as far north as the Plain of Jezreel. But by the time of pharaoh Ramses XI, who ruled from around 1100 to 1085, the Egyptian domination of Canaan had again ended, and along the southern coast of Canaan, in such towns as Ashkelon, Ashdod, Gath and Gaza, were the sea peoples who had been driven from Egypt. They were to become known as Philistines, from which the word Palestine is derived.
The Philistines were literate people with a language that had been spoken in Crete, Cyprus, and the southwestern portion of Asia Minor called Caria. And the script of this language echoed the script of the Mycenaean Greeks, whose civilization was among those disrupted by the great migrations of around 1200 BCE. Some have speculated that the Philistines were Greeks fleeing from the invasions that ended Mycenaean civilization. In Canaan, the Philistines mixed and probably intermarried with the Canaanites. They adopted the Canaanite language. They melded their religion with Canaanite religion and gave to their gods the names of Canaanite gods.
Two of these gods were Ba'al and El. El was described on Canaanite tablets as the creator, the majestic father and the king of gods and men. Ba'al was his son and a god of life and fertility, in continual combat with the god Mot, a god of death and sterility. Ba'al was a god of the mountains, where rainstorms began. He rode the clouds and brought rain. And worshipers of Ba'al saw him dying when the dry season came and vegetation disappeared, and they saw him as resurrected during the rainy season, when vegetation reappeared.
In their coastal cities the Philistines maintained some cohesion as a people, while the Hebrews remained scattered in the inland hills. The Hebrews were resisting occasional attacks by camel riding nomads from the east. Then the Philistines attempted to expand against them. The Philistines forced the Hebrew tribe of Dan to leave their home in the foothills and to migrate to the north.
A legendary leader from the tribe of Dan who fought the Philistines is described in the Old Testament as Samson. The Book of Judges 16:17 describes Samson as a Nazirite. The Nazirites according to some scholars were originally a Canaanite fertility cult. Now they were a movement of holy men who worshiped Yahweh. Chapter Six of the Book of Numbers describes the Nazirites as engaged in ecstatic frenzies and abstaining from wine, strong drink and cutting their hair. The Nazirites were zealous, and if they were strong enough they were inclined to take the lead in combating people they detested - and they detested the Philistines for having refused circumcision.
As described in the Old Testament, Samson was both a leader in the fight against the Philistines and had a weakness for Philistine women. The Book of Judges describes Samson as burning Philistine crops and killing a thousand Philistines in a place called Ramathlehi, which means "the hill of the jawbone." Judges 15:17 describes this as the place Samson killed Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey. According to the Samson legend, the Philistine woman Delilah learned from Samson that he was a Nazirite and that if his hair was cut he would lose his strength. As Samson slept, Delilah cut his hair - a lesson for Yahweh worshipers about the dangers of foreign women.
Having lost his strength, the Philistines overpowered Samson and gouged out his eyes. They took Samson to Gaza, bound him in chains and put him to work "as a grinder." There his hair grew back. And when the "the lords of the Philistines" assembled they had Samson brought to them so they could look upon him with amusement. Watching from the roof of the building were about 3,000 Philistine men and women. The Philistines put Samson between two pillars. Samson, according to the legend, pushed on the pillars, bringing the roof down, killing himself and all the Philistines in and on the building.
The Hebrews disrupted Philistine caravans bringing goods from the desert, and the Philistines established military outposts between their cities and hills occupied by the Hebrews. Around the year 1050, the Hebrews combined their forces for the first time and confronted an army of Philistines near the Philistine outpost at Aphek - the Philistines with iron weapons and horse drawn chariots, the Hebrews riding into battle on donkeys. As described in 1 Samuel 4:2, the Hebrews lost the battle. Hebrew elders wondered why Yahweh had allowed this, and they sent for the Ark of the Covenant, proclaiming that it would "deliver us from the power of our enemies." The ark came to the camp of the Hebrews, but the Hebrews were defeated again. The Philistines captured the ark and took it with them to their city, Ashdod. But, according to the Old Testament, this angered the Lord and he "ravaged and smote" the Philistines of Ashdod and its territories with tumors.
After the Hebrews had lost two battles, another Nazirite rose as leader among them. This was Samuel - a holy man, an oracle and a soothsayer. Samuel's military units managed to remain outside Philistine control. Samuel, perhaps at the urging of Hebrew elders, arranged the making of a monarch for the Hebrews: a warrior king to better unite the Hebrews. The monarch they chose was Saul, who had been a leader in politics and religion. Saul's kingship was a common form of rule and the kind of kingship that the Canaanites had, but for the Hebrews it was a new institution.
The First Book of Samuel, 9:15, described Saul as the Lord's choice. And in Chapter 10 of the First Book of Samuel, Saul is described as one of Yahweh's prophets. Saul appears to have been close to the worship of the Canaanite god Ba'al. He named one of his sons Eshbaal (meaning Ba'al exists) and another son he had named Meribaal (meaning Ba'al rewards). Also, one of Saul's Benjamite clansmen was Bealiah (which meant Yahweh is Ba'al).
Saul successfully engaged the Philistines in at least three battles, which were followed by the Philistines withdrawing their garrisons from around Hebrew territory. With Saul was a former shepherd boy named David, who was attached to Saul's court as a musician and shield bearer. A Philistine named Goliath challenged Saul's army, and Goliath, according to 1 Samuel 17:4, was six cubits (nine feet) tall. David alone was unafraid of Goliath. He took up the challenge and slew Goliath. David rose in standing as a warrior and in further warfare, exceeding that of Saul. As reported in 1 Samuel 18:6,7:
When David returned from killing the Philistines...the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with joy and with musical instruments. And the women sang as they played and said: "Saul has killed thousands. And David tens of thousands."
According to the Old Testament, King Saul was jealous of David and tried to kill him, and David fled from Saul and his agents to a cave in the "southern wilderness," near Hebron. There, David gathered around him a band of adventurers and debtors. He was already married to Saul's daughter, and now he took another wife - the daughter of a local, wealthy herdsman. This marriage brought him more local support. And for more advantage David allied himself with the Philistine king of Gath, Achish.
At a battle beside Mount Gilboa, overlooking the Plain of Jezreel, the Philistines apparently lured Saul and his army down from the high ground, and the Philistines, with their chariots, horsemen and Canaanite allies, overwhelmed Saul's forces. In the battle, three of Saul's sons were killed, and, rather than be taken prisoner, Saul fell on his sword. When the Philistines found Saul, they cut off his head and posted it for display in the temple of their god, Dagon. They fastened his body to the wall at the town of Beth-shan. And the Philistines took possession of the greater part of Canaan.
Saul was succeeded by his fourth son, Eshbaal, who ruled over territory that had been greatly reduced in size by the Philistines. War between the forces of David and those of Eshbaal ended with Eshbaal dead and David anointed priest-king in place of Eshbaal. From Hebron, David and his army ventured out to make his rule over Israel a reality. David captured the Amorite town of Jerusalem and various other towns.
When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king of Israel, they turned against him. David triumphed in his war with the Philistines, succeeding where Saul had failed. By force of arms, David expanded his rule - while the great powers of Assyria and Egypt were too preoccupied to challenge his expansion. According to the Old Testament, he conquered Edom, which extended south to the Red Sea, David gaining its mines of copper and iron. He conquered Moab, rich with cattle. He conquered Ammon, and he conquered northward to Damascus and beyond to the Euphrates River - which bordered the Assyrian Empire. And, like other conquerors, as David conquered he took booty and demanded tribute.
David's subjects prostrated themselves in his presence. Like conquerors before him, he claimed to be the agent of his god. David called himself the son of Yahweh. He acquired the trappings of a potentate and ruled in splendor, including a large harem. In addition to Saul's daughter and the wife he had taken while at Hebron, he took wives from his conquered territories, ostensibly to help bind his empire together. Among the women he took was Bathsheba, the wife of a local neo-Hittite, [note] and soon Bathsheba was to be the mother of David's son: a child named Solomon.
In the Old Testament, David is described as bringing to Jerusalem the Ark of the Covenant and proclaiming his intention to build in Jerusalem a temple to house the ark, connected to the worship of Yahweh. But David, like Saul, appears to have been close to the worship of the Canaanite god Ba'al. He gave one of his sons, Beeliada, a Canaanite name. David's "leaping and capering before the Lord" with music accompaniment, described in Chapter 6 of the Second Book of Samuel, was part of Ba'al worship. Polytheistic outlooks acknowledged a multiplicity of paths to truth or salvation, and no evidence exits that David, Saul or others influenced by Canaanite religion knew of the commandment said to have been given to Moses that "You shall have no other gods before Me."
Doing service at David's court were a variety of peoples, including Philistines, people from Crete and neo-Hittites. And beyond the royal court more genetic blending was taking place. However much the Hebrews were already a mix of peoples, they were becoming more of a mix. During David's rule and after, non-Hebrews, among them the Amorites, were absorbed by the Hebrews. And - like the Ubaidians and Sumerians - the Amorites were to vanish as an identifiable people.
David created what was to be called a golden age for the Hebrews. His rule benefited from the wealth taken from conquered peoples, and Israel benefited as had Egypt and Hammurabi's Babylon from a peace created by conquest. But it was a golden age that had, like other civilizations, antagonisms between rich and poor. Similar to other rulers, David taxed his subjects and forced them to labor for the state. And David's subjects rebelled. According to the Old Testament, his discontented subjects were led by his own son, Absalom. The Second Book of Samuel describes a messenger reporting to David that the "hearts of the men of Israel" are with Absalom. But David crushed the rebellion, and with it the life of Absalom.
Recommended Books
Ancient Israel: From Abraham to the Roman Destruction of the Temple, by Edward Shanks, 1999
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