Joseph, The Beginning of the Hyksos or Aamu Entering Egypt

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                                          

A group of West Asiatic foreigners, possibly Canaanites, labelled as Aamu (ꜥꜣmw), including the leading man with a Nubian ibex labelled as Abisha the Hyksos (𓋾𓈎𓈉 ḥḳꜣ-ḫꜣsw, Heqa-kasut for "Hyksos").    Suggestions have been made that these could be identical with the Canaanites or the Amorites.

A drought caused a famine.  The famine extended to the land of Canaan, where Joseph's father, Jacob, and his family lived. Jacob's family ran out of food to eat, but He heard that the country of Egypt had grain to sell. Jacob instructed ten of his sons to travel to Egypt to buy some grain to prevent his family from starving.

     Mississippi Delta flooding 

Comparable to it in the USA is the Mississippi Delta Region.  The Lower Mississippi Delta is a vast and vital part of the American landscape. This broad, alluvial valley reaches from southern Illinois to the southeastern tip of Louisiana, covers more than 90,000 miles of rivers and streams, more than 3 million acres of land, and dictates much of the region’s landscape and land use. The Delta forms the most important bird and waterfowl migration corridor on the continent and supports North America’s largest wetland area and bottomland hardwood forest.

Goshen is described as the best land in Egypt, suitable for both crops and livestock. It has been suggested that this location may have been somewhat apart from Egypt, because Genesis 46:34 states, "Ye may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians". After the death of Joseph and those of his generation, the following generations of Israelites had become populous in number. The Egyptians feared potential integration or takeover, so they enslaved the Israelites.

Note: El is the general term for “deity” in Semitic languages as well as the name of the chief deity of the West Semites (Hebrews).  However, The chief god of the ancient Semitic pantheon (way back in the 1700s BCE before Abraham)  was HADAD. Often he is regarded as the god of justice and augury;  he was especially the patron of rain and thunder.  He is sometimes identified with Baal, but it is thought that HADAD was his main name and Baal a title denoting lordship of the world.

 The Hyksos came into Egypt and built the city of Avaris as their capital.  It is not known exactly when this occurred; considering calendars differ.  In texts from Ugarit; El, the supreme god of the pantheon, resides on Mount Lel (perhaps meaning "Night") and it is there that the assembly of the gods meet. Ugarit  was an ancient port city in northern Syria. Ugarit had close connections to the Hittite Empire, sent tribute to Egypt at times, and maintained trade and diplomatic connections with Cyprus (then called Alashiya). 

  

In the 12th century BCE, Canaanite traders and herders were allowed to settle in the Delta (Goshen), eventually setting up a capital of sorts at Avaris (Tell el-Daba) and a line of rulers. This was all pretty peaceful and actually became the Fourteenth Dynasty. Famine and potentially an epidemic weakened the area and allowed for an aggressive invasion from Canaanite/West Semitic people in around 1650 BCE. These people were famously known as the Hyksos about which much has been written by secular and Christian/Jewish writers and archaeologists.  Awesome.  Goshen, the Nile Delta, was a countryside, a peaceful  area to raise sheep.               

                                                                             

                 The Mississippi River forms a bird-foot delta as it empties into the Gulf of Mexico.

In Exodus, Jacob's descendants, the Israelites, continue to live in Egypt and grow numerous. The name of Goshen appears only twice in Exodus, in the narration of the Plagues of Egypt, in which Goshen, as the dwelling place of the Israelites is spared the plague of flies and plague of hail that afflict the Egyptians.   

The Sixteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty XVI) was a dynasty of pharaohs that ruled the Theban region in Upper Egypt for 70 years. This dynasty, together with the 15th and 17th dynasties, are often combined under the group title, Second Intermediate Period (c. 1650–1550 BC), a period that saw the division of Upper and Lower Egypt between the pharaohs at Thebes and the Hyksos kings of the 15th Dynasty based at Avaris.  At about 1780 a temple to Set was built. The Canaanites living at Avaris considered the Egyptian god Set to be the Canaanite god Hadad. Both had dominion over the weather.  

Avaris was the Hyksos capital of Egypt located at the modern site of Tell el-Dab'a in the northeastern region of the Nile Delta. As the main course of the Nile migrated eastward, its position at the hub of Egypt's delta emporia made it a major capital suitable for trade.

 In the 18th century BC, the Hyksos conquered Lower Egypt and set up Avaris as their capital. Kamose, the last pharaoh of the Seventeenth Dynasty, besieged Avaris but was unable to defeat the Hyksos there.

Pharaoh Ahmose was the ancient Egyptian king who made women of his age the most powerful among all the ancient kingdoms. (Image: FlavoredPixels/Shutterstock) 

 A few decades later, Ahmose I captured Avaris and overran the Hyksos. Canaanite-style artifacts dated to the Tuthmosid or New Kingdom period suggest that a large part of the city's Semitic population remained in residence following its reconquest by the Egyptians.                                      

Tomb of 12th-dynasty official Khnumhotep II, at Beni Hasan (c. 1890 BCE) is said to be a Hyksos pharaoh.

     Isaac's fraternal twin sons, Esau and Jacob , so different

 Abraham (1391-1271 BCE) came along, let's say, in 1250 BCE, making it 640 years later than entrance of Hyksos. The dates are not cooperating in saying that Jews were also Hyksos people starting with Joseph and father Jacob, even though each comes from different calendars. Jacob met the Pharaoh at age 130 when Joseph introduced them. (Gen.47:7) and Jacob was told about Goshen.  Abraham's son was Isaac, born in Sarah and Abraham's old age;  and Isaac was the father Jacob.  Abraham lived for 175 years.  Isaac married Rebecca when 40,  and was 60 when  his twins, Esau and Jacob were born.  He moved from Negev to Philistine land. 

During the reign of Senusret II, c. 1890 BCE, parties of Western Asiatic foreigners visiting the Pharaoh with gifts are recorded, as in the tomb paintings of 12th-dynasty official Khnumhotep II. These foreigners, possibly Canaanites or nomads, are labelled as Aamu (ꜥꜣmw), (perhaps Ivrim or Hebrews?)  including the leading man with a Nubian ibex labelled as Abisha the Hyksos (𓋾𓈎𓈉 ḥḳꜣ-ḫꜣsw, Heqa-kasut for "Hyksos"), the first known instance of the name "Hyksos".  The Hebrews (Jews) have been thought to have been the Hyksos.

After the end of their rule, the Hyksos kings were not considered to have been legitimate rulers of Egypt and were therefore omitted from most king lists. The fragmentary Turin King List included six Hyksos kings, however only the name of the last, Khamudi, is preserved. Six names are also preserved in the various epitomes of Manetho (see below), however, it is difficult to reconcile the Turin King List and other sources with names known from Manetho, largely due to the "corrupted name forms" in Manetho. The name Apepi/Apophis appears in multiple sources, however. 

Joseph ruled Egypt from the time he interpreted Pharaoh’s dream (30) until his death (110). 

The reason for this charge of Jews being the Hyksos comes from their history of Joseph, 11th son of Jacob, having been taken to Egypt as a slave sold to a passing camel caravan by his half-brothers who were jealous of him and wanted him gone from their life.  He became the viceroy to the pharaoh, like his 2nd in command.  It's in the torah.                      

Plutarch linked Manetho with the Ptolemaic cult of Serapis. This is the head of an anonymous priest of Serapis in the Altes Museum, Berlin.  A source, Manetho,  is believed to have been an Egyptian priest from Sebennytos who lived in the Ptolemaic Kingdom in the early third century BC, during the Hellenistic period. He authored the Aegyptiaca in Greek, a major chronological source for the reigns of the kings of ancient Egypt.  

The rulers of Sixteenth Dynasty are also identified as "shepherds" (i.e. Hyksos) rulers.  Most but not all scholars now identify the Sixteenth Dynasty as a native Egyptian dynasty based in Thebes, following Eusebius's epitome of Manetho; this dynasty would be contemporary to the Hyksos.  From the Egyptian History of Manetho, who composed his account in three books. These deal with the Gods, the Demigods, the Spirits of the Dead, and the mortal kings who ruled Egypt down to Darius, king of the Persians.

  Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avaris

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyksos

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hadad

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ugarit

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/cana/hd_cana.htm#:~:text=The%20god%20El%20was%20viewed,creation%20story%20in%20Ugaritic%20literature.

https://weareisrael.org/2014/10/28/joseph-ruled-egypt/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manetho

https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Manetho/History_of_Egypt/1*.html

https://www.nps.gov/locations/lowermsdeltaregion/history-and-culture-of-the-mississippi-delta-region.htm#:~:text=The%20Delta%20covers%2035%2C000%20square,soil%20stretches%20before%20the%20eye.

https://madainproject.com/land_of_goshen

https://www.wondriumdaily.com/the-reign-of-ahmose-the-first-king-of-the-xviiith-dynasty/