Nadene Goldfoot
Thutmose III conducted no fewer than 17 campaigns from Syria to Upper Nubia, expanding Egypt's empire to its largest extent. When Thutmose III died, he was buried in the Valley of the Kings, as were the rest of the kings from this period in Egypt. He is regarded, along with Ramesses II, as one of the two most powerful and celebrated rulers of the New Kingdom Period of Ancient Egypt, itself considered the height of Egyptian power. He lived way before Jacob of our story.
Officially, Thutmose III ruled Egypt for almost 54 years and his reign is usually dated from 28 April 1479 BC to 11 March 1425 BC, from the age of two and until his death at age fifty-six; however, during the first 22 years of his reign, he was coregent with his stepmother and aunt, Hatshepsut. Egypt's military already had priority over much land for many centuries.
Previous to Jacob's migration to Egypt, Egypt had had control over Canaan. Jacob was born in about 1791 BCE. Abraham, his grandfather, was born in about 1948 BCE. So began Egypt’s domination of Canaan. For the next 250 or so years Egypt ruled Canaan with an iron fist: Egypt now ruled over a hegemonic empire in western Asia. City-states from Canaan to southern Syria acknowledged the pharaoh as their suzerain, paid tribute, and sent their children to Egypt when requested to do so—the girls as member of the royal harim, the boys as hostages who would be returned to their homes properly trained in loyalty to their overlord when their turn to rule came.
The Pharaohs that succeeded Thutmose III from both the rest of the 18thand 19th dynasty all kept an interest in Canaan with only infrequent rebellions to squash.
The pharaoh in the story of Moses would have been his peer, the same age, and they would have been students together, which would be Thutmose IV. Thutmose's grandfather Thutmose III almost certainly acceded the throne in either 1504 or 1479, based upon two lunar observances during his reign, and ruled for nearly 54 years. His successor Amenhotep II, Thutmose IV's father, took the throne and ruled for at least 26 years but has been assigned up to 35 years in some chronological reconstructions. The currently preferred reconstruction, after analyzing all this evidence, usually comes to an accession date around 1401 BC or 1400 BCE for the beginning of Thutmose IV's reign. Moses was born about 1391 BCE.
In Canaan, the people were suffering from a drought. There had been no rain for months, like what California has suffered from recently. Their crops were dried up. Jacob made the decision of pulling up stakes and move everyone to Egypt, in the South. Strangely, one would think that they would be under worse circumstances but Egypt had the Nile River, and Jacob had nothing like that in the desert of the Negev.
What causes drought?
A drought is a period of drier-than-normal conditions that
results in water-related problems.
The amount of precipitation at a particular location varies
from year to year, but over a period of years the average
amount is fairly constant. In the deserts of the Southwest, the
average precipitation is less than 3 inches per year.
Mark Mostow on Quora, an Israeli from 1984 to the present,
answered a question of how far Egypt is from Jerusalem by
walking? He said, "You'd have to cross the large Sinai Desert in
Egypt. I did that years ago by bus, but on foot you'd
have a big problem getting drinking water. You couldn't carry
enough for the whole trip (too heavy), and water is not available
there in most places. Previously you'd have to cross the Israeli
Negev Desert, where water is also a problem..
Other people thought 450 miles might be the distance by walking then and would have taken them about a month in very hot weather with a shortage of water.
Egypt.
Jacob and his family set out from Beersheba. Elderly and feeble, Jacob puts the details of the move in the hands of his sons. The sons take all their wives and children, along with all their livestock and possessions. Everything they have acquired in Canaan is loaded into the carts provided by Pharaoh. This is a migration; nothing is left behind.
"Covering 550km and taking 54 days to complete, the Sinai Trail was created by guide book writer, adventurer and Sinai obsessive Ben Hoffler. Initially covering the land of three tribes in 2014, it now passes through land belonging to all eight tribes of South Sinai, giving a unique insight into a part of Egypt that is often overlooked and misunderstood by outsiders. "
Joseph chose 5 scrawny brothers, shepherds, to speak to the pharaoh, because he was afraid that that if pharaoh was introduced to powerful men, he would enlist them in his military, so he chose the 5 who were the least impressive physically (Rashi) and he told him that they had come to sojourn in the land, since there was no grazing for your servants' flocks, for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan; now, if you please, allow your servants to dwell in the region of Goshen, and the pharaoh gave them permission.
Along with him are his sons and grandsons, his daughters and granddaughters. (Note the plural form of daughters and granddaughters.) We know of one daughter, (32nd) Dinah, but perhaps there are others. Missing from this list is any mention of Leah or Zilpah or Bilhah. It is simply unknown whether they are still alive. There is no information that any of them have passed away, but they simply are not part of this story. The Torah lists only 69 persons.
The inclusion of Jochebed (mother of Moses) who was born at the entrance to Egypt as the 70th descendant although she is not specifically listed in the Torah, follows information in the Midrash and Rashi. Jochebed was the 33rd counted. Although Numbers 26:59 states that she was born in Egypt, she had been conceived in Canaan, says Rashi.
The list of people is formulated in relation to the wives and concubines. It begins with the children of Leah, then her handmaid, Zilpah. This is followed by the sons of Rachel and her handmaid, Bilhah. Altogether Leah’s descendants number 33. Names are given to the four sons of Reuben, the six sons of Simeon, the three sons of Levi, the five sons of Judah and so on. And then there's the daughter, 32 Dinah. Zilpah’s descendants number 16. Rachel’s descendants number 14. And Bilhah’s descendants number 7. The total of all these descendants is 70. Scholars have long pointed out the prominence of the number seven and its multiples among these lists.
Leah's son, Judah was the 17th count. His sons were Shelah, Perez, and Zerah. Perez's sons were Hezron and Hamul. Er and Onan, sons of Judah, were not counted though were brothers of Shelah, their mother was a Canaanite wife, the daughter of Shuah. Shuah or Shua (Hebrew: שׁוּעַ, pronounced "Shuaʿ", was a certain Canaanite, whose unnamed daughter marries Judah. He was thereby also the grandfather of Er, Onan, Shelah Evidently they did not join the family in the trek to Egypt. Then the 23rd count was Issachar, son of Leah.
From Hebron to Beersheva is 26 miles. 389 miles is the distance from Beersheva to Egypt. They traveled about 415 miles or so.
Jacob's life ended in Goshen in Eastern Egypt at the age of 147, and was buried in the Cave of Machpelah at Hebron. As a result of Jacob's blessing (47:10) the famine ended after only 2 years instead of the 7 years foretold by Joseph (Midrash). The pharaoh had asked Jacob how old he was and he answered 130 and then Jacob blessed Pharaoh.
.jpg%20Handsome%20Moses%20in%2010%20Commandments.jpg)
A lot had happened to the land in the past 400 years; other people had entered and settled. It was not an easy return. Most of those that started on the return had died and left a new generation to return, but they were no longer facing slavery.
Resource:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thutmose_III#:~:text=Officially%2C%20Thutmose%20III%20ruled%20Egypt,Hatshepsut%2C%20who%20was%20named%20the
Genesis 46
https://www.biblewise.com/bible_study/books/genesis46-jacob-family.php
https://www.quora.com/What-was-the-distance-between-Egypt-and-the-promised-land
No comments:
Post a Comment