Did an Immigrant Revolt Start Israel's Slavery in Egypt?

[00:00:02][music] >> So, the timeline that I want to bring about is actually goes back to our episode that we did on Joseph. It begins in the 12th Dynasty, and you'll remember the entire world is coming to Egypt to get grain from Joseph who had stored up massive quantities of grain during the famine. And so, that's in the middle of the 12th Dynasty. And we're told that massive massive numbers of people are are coming into Egypt, and they are called the Hyksos. In all of the Egyptian records, they're called the Hyksos, which is an Egyptian word that means foreign rulers. And so, they come in and they flood northern Egypt to radical numbers.

[00:00:49]And at that time at the end of Genesis, we're told that the Hebrews are put into service taking care of Pharaoh's flocks.

[00:00:57]So, in essence, they've become servants.

[00:00:59]All of Egypt by the end of Genesis is reduced to slavery under Pharaoh.

[00:01:06]And even the Israelites, even the sons of Jacob, which is where we end Genesis, are in a form of slavery, mild slavery, serving as the shepherds of Pharaoh's flocks. And so, that's where we begin, and that's where the 400-plus years of slavery for the Israelites begins the clock ticking.

[00:01:26]>> Okay, so the Hebrews are living, like you said, a mild slavery, and their life is pretty good, but it can't continue like that, right?

[00:01:32]>> Right. Now, you get to Exodus. Right at the beginning of Exodus, it tells you that the slavery is going to be intensified. We're told that, you know, the Pharaohs died, and a Pharaoh arose that did not know Joseph.

[00:01:45]And so, we're left to to question, well, which Pharaoh is this? And it doesn't happen right away because the Bible tells us that the number of Israelites grew massive to where the this new Pharaoh actually feared them. So, some time has passed and this fits perfectly with what we find in Egypt. So, we This whole story starts in the 12th Dynasty.

[00:02:05]The 15th Dynasty of Egypt is when all of those foreigners that flooded into northern Egypt actually staged an immigrant revolt, overthrow the Egyptian, and it'll be Canaanites that are in charge and they are known for ruthless slavery. So, you go from 12th Dynasty 15th Dynasty and the the the reality for the Hebrews would have changed dramatically when these people come to power and they know that the Hebrews had been favored by the Egyptians before them. And so, they're going to be considered political enemies. And even in the Bible it says, "We need to oppress them lest they rise up and join our enemies." Which is exactly the way that they would have seen the Hebrews. These Hyksos would have seen the Hebrews as threats if they grew any more. But even like respected magazines like the Smithsonian magazine said that the Hyksos Dynasty was the result of an immigrant uprising. It wasn't a hostile outside invasion. They were already there. And the most one of the most ancient sources that we have that wrote about the different Pharaohs of ancient Egypt wrote this about the Hyksos rulers. He said they treated the whole native population, which would have included the Hebrews, with the utmost cruelty, massacring some and carrying off the wives and children of others into slavery. And so, they were known for bringing about this harsh cruelty, which is exactly what the Bible says when this new Pharaoh, who did not know Joseph, arose.

[00:03:37]I mean, and you can even see evidence of their cruelty. Like when they're excavating the grounds around where the Hyksos palace was, you find pits that are filled with the severed right hands of their enemies. So, if you were an enemy of the Hyksos king, they cut off your right hand. And the idea behind that was if you were a warrior, you fight with your sword and your right hand. And if you lost that, it's like trying to play baseball left-handed if you're right-handed. It It just doesn't work. But that's the kind of cruelty that they were looking at. Which by the way, in the Bible, if you look at like through that time, through Exodus, like it's always God saved his people with his mighty >> right hand.

[00:04:15]>> right hand. And so the right hand was always seen as the symbol of your power as a warrior. It's It's how you fought.

[00:04:23]And so to be stripped of your right hand was to leave you powerless, not just for this life, but they believed for your afterlife to come as well.