Why We Spoke In Many Languages At Time of Ivrim Slavery in Egypt Part I on Slavery: DEVELOPMENT OF SEMITES AND SLAVERY

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

What enables us to speak and gives us the power of languages? 

 

The human larynx is much lower, relative to cervical vertebrae, than that of our ancestors and other primates. The descent of the larynx, the theory held, was what elongated our vocal tract and enabled modern humans to begin making the contrasting vowel sounds that were the early building blocks of language.

When mankind went from hunters to gatherers and became farmers, they were living in tribes, which are family groups all related.  Tribes eventually grew larger into clans and clans into villages and towns, of course.  We intermarry with people close by, sharing our genes with each other.

There are a few reasons why monkeys do not talk like humans. One reason is that monkeys have a different type of larynx, or voice box, than humans. The larynx in monkeys is located higher in the throat, which makes it difficult for them to produce the same range of sounds that humans can. Additionally, the neural pathways and language centers in the brain of monkeys are not as developed as they are in humans. Humans have evolved over time to have a unique ability to learn and use complex languages, while monkeys have not.  We have developed a specialized intelligence.  

This helps to develop a language, since we are sharing the same genes, and that creates the size and development of the human larynx.  That's why people of England have a different twang from people in the USA, both speaking English.  It sounds different. Most likely the larynx has changed. 

    Not knowing the language, Moses meets the daughters of Jethro in Midian, the local priest and their flock of sheep and falls in love with Zipporah, who later gave him 2 sons, Gershom and Eliezer.  They managed to communicate.   

        Moses, born and raised in Egypt, had fled to Midian after killing an overseer of slaves because of his cruelty.  Midian, unknown to him, had some lovely women.  Midianites were a Bedouin tribe related to Abraham (Gen.25:2) who traveled in Caravans with incense from Gilead to Egypt and later to other countries; and closely connected to the Israelites.  As usual, in later history the Midianites become enemies of Israel by fighting against them with the Moabites (Num.21:29).  From 2nd Temple times, the Land of Midian was thought to be located in NW Arabia.  Knowledge gets confused.                              

What's good to know is that every man is born with a  tag as to what tribe he came from called his Y haplogroup.  J1 is very common for Jews that are the descendants of Aaron, brother of Moses, and there were a lot of them.  Muslims are also found to with J1 as their haplogroup, with the usual slightly different tag ending on their title, showing that they are a little different from Aaron's descendants, but from the same original source.  I love, just love it when science is so specific in its findings and connects with our oral and written history found in the Torah.  It just strengthens the Torah 100%.                                   

Knowing this, and now knowing that a Semite is a person who speaks Hebrew, Arabic or a related other languages, shows how they differentiate from others in a land they may have entered.  It's like having a certain different color of skin; something to identify by.  That's why some people of Spanish blood can roll their rrrrrs, and semites have sounds in the bottom of their throats, a Khhh sound and why it's hard for me to reproduce in my throat.  You larynx has to make changes.  

The same thing happened when senior-aged Jacob and his family of 70,  who were referred to as the Hebrews, or Ivrim,  went into Egypt, needing to find relief from the drought they were suffering from in Canaan, hoping they had received the blessed rain.  Unknown to them, Jacob's beloved son, Joseph had made it there when his brothers sold him to a passing caravan, and he had risen to the top, becoming the #2 man under the pharaoh.  The pyramids were already built by this time.                                                     

With Joseph's help, Jacob, his father,  led the group of 70 from Canaan to Goshen, the northern area of Egypt to live in with their sheep at about that time.  Abram was born during the 2nd millennium in about 1948 BCE, and genealogy takes us then to Jacob.      

Did the Ivrim speak the same language as the Egyptians?  Arabic is a Semitic language.  Another source said, "The Semitic Hebrew of Ancient Israel and the Semitic Afro-Asiatic but not Semitic Late Egyptian language were distantly related, but not enough for direct communication.

Ancient Egyptians spoke Egyptian. Obviously, the Ivrim had to learn and to speak Egyptian as well.  Egypt's official language is Modern Standard Arabic, which is used in most written documents and schools.

In the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Middle East, people of different languages sometimes used Akkadian as a Lingua Franca.

Akkad, in the Babylonian period, was the northern region of the valley between the Euphrates and the Tigris, which contained Babylon, Sipopar, and other important cities.  The Ancient city of Babylonia mentioned in Gen 10:10 was the residence of Sargon the Great.  The earliest Semitic language that has been suggested as a common source is Akkadian, an extinct dialect that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia, Babylonia, and Egypt [i].

In conclusion, Hebrew is the more ancient language but Arabic has preserved much more of its linguistic roots, however, both of them share a common origin.  They are both Semitic languages.  

    Coming from Canaan;  Moving into Goshen of Egypt with blessing of pharaoh because of Joseph's position.  They were Semites, speakers of Hebrew language- It is thought of in other resources like the Egyptians themselves that they were the Hyksos people who ruled Egypt from 1720 BCE to 1580 BCE and during this period, the Children of Israel entered the country and were favorably treated;  the period of bondage is believed to have begun after the expulsion of the Hyksos.  Hyksos is an Egyptian word meaning "rulers of the foreign lands";  Each people wrote their own history; and this seems to mesh with each other. Jewish and non-Jews history is always off in terms of dates.  We have Moses  from 1391 BCE to 1271 BCE, a much later date.  Jewish dates go with the history Moses wrote about.   

They loved Goshen, and stayed longer than they had planned, thriving and growing and having many children to the point where the next pharaoh was worried that they would soon dominate the land.  The worry was so great that they all were made slaves of Egypt.

           Slaves at Necropolis :  Necropolis, in archaeology, is an extensive and elaborate burial place of an ancient city. The locations of necropolises in ancient Egypt were varied; many were situated across the Nile River opposite the towns, as was western Thebes. The necropolis was typically outside the city proper in the Mediterranean world and often consisted of several cemeteries used over several centuries.  Cemetery diggers and workers, maybe even on preparing burial sites for new royal family members.  

Slavery was the way of life in those days used for manual laborers.  There were no appliances or artificial power sources except people and animals.  People could do things that animals couldn't so they were useful if under control.  People had been working so hard to improve their lot in life, and it had been a slow process, especially in building towns for human protection from wild animals  and in agriculture to feed them all.  

Notice how the 2 storage cities are located in Goshen, home of Ivrim.  

Slaves had no days off, nor any time off.  They were slaves 24 hours each day. The Israelites had entered Goshen and from then till Moses came along at age 80 to free them had been 500 years.  Perhaps out of that time they were free men for 100 years or so;  I hope so.  They were used to build the storage cities of , Pithom and Ramses.” These storage cities are not simply coterminous with Pithom and Rameses, since these two cities had a variety of buildings that included stone temples for who?  

 Joseph, who became a viceroy appointed by the pharaoh,  had saved the day by telling his pharaoh how to feed the people during a draught and how much to store and that it had to serve 7 years.  What's exciting is how this man, taken to prison and doomed to slavery, was listened to by Potiphar, the chief of Pharaoh's household when Joseph heard him ask an explanation about the dream he had.  The explanation reached the Pharaoh.  To top off the story, Potiphar's sexy wife wanted to have relations with Joseph who refused, and she then falsely accused him of rape to get even.  Who said the Bible is boring?  It told of people acting like those of today.                                         

     Fighting the Amaleks, constant enemies of the Jewish people as they had attacked the Exodus people from Egypt.  

Did slavery benefit the Ivrim?  No, not at all.  It kept them at a standstill in developing their minds for at least 400 years!  for 400 years their minds were in the survival mode only.  Oh, they no doubt thought of all the things wrong with slavery and how they wouldn't treat people like animals.  It helped to develop Moses's form of the 613 Laws who came along much later.  They were still under the care of another, Moses, as it was, who led them to freedom.  Until then, they found they had to follow his directions or die in the wilderness.  Moses knew how to survive, not them.  He had made it to Egypt at the age of 80, and now was leading them back to their ancestral homeland of Canaan, land of stories they had been told. It will take him 40 years to harden these people into a force that could stand on their own;  40 years of changing and adding what they had lost during the 400 years of slavery.      

Resource:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/human-ancestors-may-have-evolved-physical-ability-speak-more-25-million-years-ago-180973759/#:~:text=The%20human%20larynx%20is%20much,early%20building%20blocks%20of%20language.

Book:  The new Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://landioustravel.com/egypt/necropolises-ancient-egypt/

https://mosaicmagazine.com/picks/history-ideas/2020/04/what-were-the-israelites-building-in-egypt/#:~:text=And%20they%20built%20for%20Pharaoh,buildings%20that%20included%20stone%20temples.

https://www.getquranic.com/which-is-older-arabic-or-hebrew/#:~:text=In%20conclusion%2C%20Hebrew%20is%20the,them%20share%20a%20common%20ancestor.

The Land of Goshen and the Nile River and Hyksos Who Settled There

 Nadene Goldfoot                                          

                                                                

Goshen:  land where Jacob settled in Egypt.  

It is believed to have been located in the eastern Nile Delta, lower Egypt; perhaps at or near Avaris, the seat of power of the Hyksos kings.  Other maps have

shown it over the Sinai, but this makes more sense being

Rameses and Pithom were built in the area by the Hebrews.

Popular lore suggests the Hyksos, a mysterious group of foreign invaders, conquered the Nile Delta around 1638 B.C. and remained in power until 1530 B.C. But written records of the dynasty are scarce, and modern archaeologists have found few material signs of the ancient military campaign.  Now, new research lends weight to an alternative theory on the Hyksos’ origins. As Colin Barras reports for Science magazine, chemical analysis of skeletons found at the Hyksos capital of Avaris indicates that people from the Levant—an area encompassing the countries surrounding the eastern Mediterranean—immigrated to Egypt centuries before the takeover. The Hyksos dynasty, then, was likely the result of an immigrant uprising, not a hostile outside invasion.  The findings, published in the journal PLOS One, center on variations in strontium isotopes present in 75 skeletons’ tooth enamel. Strontium, a harmless metal found in water, soil and rocks, enters the body primarily through food. Comparing isotope ratios found in enamel, which forms between ages 3 and 8, with those present in a specific region, can help scientists determine whether an individual grew up there, as levels “vary from place to place,” writes Ariel David for Haaretz.  Around half of the skeletons were buried in the 350 years before the Hyksos’ takeover; the rest were interred during the dynasty’s reign. Per the paper, the researchers found that 24 of the pre-1638 skeletons were foreign-born, pointing toward significant immigration prior to the supposed invasion. Doesn't this fit with our history of Abraham, his father and wife leaving Ur for Canaan?  

Arrival of Hyksos who may also have been the Hebrews, thinking of Joseph and his coat of many colors that his father, Jacob had made

Avaris was coincidently 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. It was occupied from about the 18th century BCE until its capture by Ahmose I.

"Many of these immigrants were from Palestine and they were culturally Egyptianized, using Egyptian pottery, but also retained many aspects of their own culture, as can be seen from the various Asiatic burials including weapons of Syro-Palestinian origin. One palatial district appears to have been abandoned as a result of an epidemic during the 13th dynasty. Could the living had immunity from this that was passed on to the next generations?   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. 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. The pharaohs of the Eighteenth Dynasty set up a capital in Thebes and the palatial complex at Avaris was briefly abandoned, but areas such as the Temple of Seth and G6 region remained continuously occupied. After Ramesses II constructed the city of Pi-Ramesses roughly 2km to the north and "superseding Avaris", large portions of the former site of Avaris were used by the inhabitants of Pi-Ramesses as a cemetery."

The Nile Delta (Arabic: دلتا النيل, Delta an-Nīl or simply الدلتا, ad-Delta) is the delta formed in Lower Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas—from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, it covers 240 km (150 mi) of Mediterranean coastline and is a rich agricultural region. From north to south the delta is approximately 160 km (100 mi) in length. The Delta begins slightly down-river from Cairo.  The Nile River forms an arcuate delta as it empties into the Mediterranean Sea. Stronger waves form a cuspate delta, which is more pointed than the arcuate delta, and is tooth-shaped.  The terminology "Upper" and "Lower" derives from the flow of the Nile from the highlands of East Africa northwards to the Mediterranean Sea.

A river delta is a landform shaped like a triangle, created by deposition of sediment that is carried by a river and enters slower-moving or stagnant water. This occurs where a river enters an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, reservoir, or (more rarely) another river that cannot carry away the supplied sediment. It is so named because its triangle shape resembles the Greek letter Delta. The size and shape of a delta is controlled by the balance between watershed processes that supply sediment, and receiving basin processes that redistribute, sequester, and export that sediment. The size, geometry, and location of the receiving basin also plays an important role in delta evolution.

River deltas are important in human civilization, as they are major agricultural production centers and population centers. They can provide coastline defense and can impact drinking water supply. They are also ecologically important, with different species' assemblages depending on their landscape position.

                 Pharaohs would have lived at Cairo.                                

The Nile is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest river in the world, though this has been contested by research suggesting that the Amazon River is slightly longer.

                              Pharaoh Narmer/Menes

Menes was the name of the first Egyptian pharaoh, who supposedly founded the 1st Dynasty after unifying Egypt around 3,200 BCE. That was 5,223 years ago.  According to tradition, joined Upper and Lower Egypt in a single centralized monarchy and established ancient Egypt’s 1st dynasty.

Summary:  Israelites led by Jacob/Israel migrated to Egypt when hit by a terrible drought  when their crops were destroyed.  They had been a people coming from Abraham who lived in Ur of the Chaldees near the delta of the Euphrates River of Mesopotamia.  They settled in Egypt’s Nile Delta in the city of Avaris, where they were identified as the Hyksos people,  a major group of immigrants who also lived in this city.  They did so well tending their sheep that they multiplied faster  than Egyptians, scaring the pharaoh who thought they could turn on them and take over, which the Hyksos managed to do at some point, but at the same time, Jacob/Israel’s descendants were made slaves of Egypt, set to building the storage cities of Pithom and Rameses, also in the Nile Delta.  Passover’s 9 plagues were remnants of the Volcano erupting on the Greek island of Santorini with their effect which also took place on the island as well, with the 10^th most serious plague of the 1^st born sons dying being the most mysterious one.   A possible cause could have been something to do with circumcision, an act Egyptians practiced, which then could have only been with 1^st borns, and in a ceremony using either a special knife, food or drink connected with the act that could have poisoned the 1^st borns.  Circumsion is the only act that would have identified males from females.  Israelites were not circumcising yet, and would receive this act while on the Exodus from Moses’s teachings.   While we don’t know enough about circumcision in Egypt, we do know they practiced it.  

Resource;

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

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

Ramses II of 19th Century BCE and Thutmose III of 18th Century BCE, Contenders of Exodus History Building Pithom and Ramesses

 Nadene Goldfoot                                            

A family group of 70  children of Israel (we know him as Jacob) went to Egypt since their land in Canaan had been hit by a terrible drought, and their crops could no longer grow.  They did so well there with their sheep that the pharaoh became most worried. 

  Joseph, Jacob's son by Rachel,  on throne-chair, 2nd in command, in charge of all the land of Egypt, with a main project of the granneries.  Joseph was given the pharaoh's ring he wore, dressed in fine linen, a gold chain around his neck, and rode in the pharaoh's 2nd best chariot.  When he rode by, people yelled, Avrech! He re-named Joseph as Zaphenath-paneah and he gave him a wife, Asenath, the daughter ofPoti-phera.  Joseph's days were before this pharaoh's knowledge of previous history. These days were part of the first days of a 400 year span of living in Egypt.   

 He didn't know Joseph, the son of Jacob who had become the 2nd to the pharaoh of the day, so this was another pharaoh.  This one figured that there were more of these new people than there were of Egyptians and was afraid that they'd join Egypt's enemies and make war on them.                             

They settled in Goshen in lower Egypt near the mouth of the Nile River.  The time of the Hebrews in Egypt including slavery was 400 years. This pharaoh only knew Hebrews as the lower-classed slaves.  Maybe several pharaoh's were involved during the 400 years.   

STORE-CITIES (עָרֵ֤י מִסְכְּנﯴת׃֙, “cities of storage”; i.e. “magazines”). Under the lashes of taskmasters the Israelites built Pithom and Raamses as “store-cities” for Pharaoh (Exod 1:11). Pithom has been identified as Tell et-Retabah and Raamses as ancient Tanis. 

Solomon built a number of “store-cities” in Hamath (1 Kings 9:19) and in places throughout his realm not recorded in the Bible (1 Kings 9:19; 2 Chron 8:4, 6). During Baasha’s reign Ben-hadad concentrated upon and took the “store-cities” of Naphtali along with other cities (2 Chron 16:4). Jehoshaphat, in a program of strengthening Judah, built both “store-cities” and fortresses (17:12). Hezekiah also promoted the construction of “storehouses” (miskenoṭ; i.e., storage facilities, 2 Chron 32:28).

The “store-city” apparently had its background in the practice of Egypt to provide storage for the excessive yield of a “fat” year as a reserve against the poor yield of a “lean” year, as was the case in Joseph’s time. The storage facilities or “store-cities” are perhaps illustrated in the long, rectangular, room-like structures found at Beth-shemesh, Lachish, and other places. Beginning with Solomon and throughout the reigns of the later kings, these cities were used for storing grains and oil to be sent later to the palace personnel in Jerusalem or Samaria (for Jerusalem, see 1 Kings 4:7, 22, 23) or to be collected as an important part of government revenue, as is known from the ostraca of Samaria and other sources.

            BUILDING PITHOM AND RAMSES

The tribe of Israel were taken as slaves at this point and enslaved there, and their task was to build the storage cities of Pithom and Ramses; work with mortar and bricks, every labor of the field, and with everything they were forced to do, were treated with unbearable harshness. 

Pithom,  located near Ismailia in Al-Ismāʿīliyyah muḥāfaẓah (governorate) and mentioned in the Bible (Exodus 1:11) as one of the treasure houses built for the pharaoh by the Hebrews prior to the Exodus. Although Pithom has been identified as Tall al-Maskhūṭah, excavations at the site have revealed that, aside from an unfortified outpost of the Hyksos period (see ancient Egypt: The Second Intermediate period), the earliest layers do not predate the 7th century BCE. The monuments of Ramses II that in the past have been used as a dating criterion for the site were apparently transported to Tall al-Maskhūṭah, perhaps by the kings of the 30th dynasty (380–343 BCE; see ancient Egypt: The 28th, 29th, and 30th dynasties), to adorn this later city. This lessens Ramses being THE pharaoh of our history.  This construction at the end of the 7th century may even had been carried out by Pharaoh Necho II, possibly as part of his uncompleted canal building project from the Nile to the Gulf of Suez.  However, This name comes from Hebrew פיתום‎ Pithom which was taken from the Late Egyptian name *Pi-ʔAtōm (from earlier *Par-ʔAtāma) "House of Atum".

Pi-Ramesses"House of Ramesses") was the new capital built by the Nineteenth Dynasty Pharaoh Ramesses II (1279–1213 BC) at Qantir, near the old site of Avaris. The city had served as a summer palace under Seti I (c. 1290–1279 BC), and may have been founded by Ramesses I (c. 1292–1290 BC) while he served under Horemheb.

Midwives listening to pharaoh but secretly not complying 

Exodus 1:22.  

                Moses hidden in bullrushes in basket                                                                                       

Midwives Shifrah and Puah were called forth and told to kill all sons of these Hebrew women, but the midwives were non-compliant.  Moses's mother had hidden him in a basket and set it in the Nile River.  They were living in Goshen at the time.   

              princess finding Moses in basket, Mirium with her

Pharaoh's first command regarding infanticide was limited to the midwives (Exodus 1:16). Now Pharaoh expands his command to "all his people," or all the Egyptians. Every newborn Israeli son was to be thrown into the Nile River. He essentially decreed for the mass genocide of all infant Jewish males as told in  Exodus 1:22 . 

Moses or a Moses lived in the 13th century BCE.   Rabbinical Judaism calculated a lifespan of Moses corresponding to 1391–1271 BCE; Jerome suggested 1592 BCE, and James Ussher suggested 1571 BCE as his birth year. 1592-1391= a difference of about 201 years using Jerome. So,we have a difference of about 200 years in our calculations. 

Commonly known as Ramesses the Great, was an Egyptianpharaoh. He was the third ruler of the Nineteenth Dynasty. The 19th century BCE was the century that lasted from 1900 BCE to 1801 BCE. .Along with Thutmose III of the Eighteenth Dynasty, he is often regarded as the greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh of the New Kingdom, which itself was the most powerful period of ancient Egypt.  The 18th century BCE would run from 1800 BCE to 1701 BCE

                                        

The pharaoh ordering the deaths of the male babies could 

have been Thutmose III who was the son of Thutmose II by a

 secondary wife, Iset (or Aset). This is my pick of the pharaoh

 because he had a son who had died.   Thutmose II was the 

son of Thutmose I and a minor wife, Mutnofret.  There were 

several pharaoh's involved in the Israelites' period in Egypt. 

The most important pharaoh is thought to have been Ramses II  (ca 1303–ca 1213 B.C.)  non-Jewish math .  In fact, he is the 1st that researchers thought was the pharaoh of the Exodus history.  This was 3,326 years ago!  

"Though scholars generally do not recognize the biblical portrayal of the Exodus as an actual historical event, various historical pharaohs have been proposed as the corresponding ruler at the time the story takes place, with Ramesses II as the most popular candidate for Pharaoh of the Exodus. He is cast in this role in the 1944 novella The Tables of the Law by Thomas Mann. Although not a major character, Ramesses appears in Joan Grant's So Moses Was Born, a first-person account from Nebunefer, the brother of Ramose, which paints a picture of the life of Ramose from the death of Seti, replete with the power play, intrigue, and assassination plots of the historical record, and depicting the relationships with Bintanath, Tuya, Nefertari, and Moses.

In film, Ramesses is played by Yul Brynner in Cecil B. DeMille's classic The Ten Commandments (1956). Here Ramesses is portrayed as a vengeful tyrant as well as the main antagonist of the film, ever scornful of his father's preference for Moses over "the son of [his] body". The animated film The Prince of Egypt (1998) also features a depiction of Ramesses (voiced by Ralph Fiennes, for both the speaking and the singing), portrayed as Moses' adoptive brother, and ultimately as the film's villain with essentially the same motivations as in the earlier 1956 film. Joel Edgerton played Ramesses in the 2014 film Exodus: Gods and Kings. Sérgio Marone plays Ramesses in the 2015–2016 Brazilian telenovela series Os Dez Mandamentos (English: 'Moses and the Ten Commandments').

In the 2013 miniseries The Bible, he is portrayed by Stewart Scudamore."

Resource: Torah, Stone Edition,  Exodus 

https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2023/03/important-resources-used-to-date-exodus.html

https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2023/03/when-egypt-ruled-immigrants-came-from.html

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/ramses-ii

https://www.britannica.com/place/Pithom

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pithom#:~:text=This%20construction%20at%20the%20end,to%20the%20Gulf%20of%20Suez.

https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/encyclopedia-of-the-bible/Store-Cities

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_(Genesis)#:~:text=Impressed%20with%20Joseph's%20interpretations%2C%20Pharaoh,(Gen%2041%3A41).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi-Ramesses

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