Egypt Intertwined in Jewish History and Present Day

 Nadene Goldfoot                                           

Joseph, 11th of the 12 sons of Jacob but the 1st-born of Rachel, Jacob's true love:  The favoritism that Jacob showed to Joseph caused his brothers to be very jealous, so jealous that they decided to get rid of him.  They sold him to the Ishmaelites traveling to Egypt.  There he was bought by Potiphar, chief of the Pharaoh's household.  Handsome as he was, Potiphar's wife made a pass and he resisted, angering her, who had him put in prison.  While in prison, he interpreted the dreams of those around him.  This got to the pharaoh who also needed his frightening dreams interpreted.  All this got him to be 2nd to the pharaoh.    The story of Joseph has been dated during the Hyksos domination of Egypt (18th-16th centuries BCE by Christian dating.  Jewish dating is usually a little off of theirs.)               

  First, Jacob, grandson of Abraham b: 1948 BCE,  and his family go to Egypt from their home in Canaan.  Joseph’s brothers traveled back to Canaan and told their father Joseph is still alive and that he is the governor of Egypt now.  He wants to see his father.  Jacob settled in Goshen in eastern Egypt, dying there at the age of 147. He wanted to be buried in Canaan in the Cave of Machpelah at Hebron, so his sons walked him back and buried him there.                    

Moses was born in Egypt at a time when the Israelite population had grown, causing the pharaoh to worry.  In trying to stem the growth of the Israelites,  the pharaoh had decreed the slaughter of new-born males. His mother hid him among the reeds of the Nile River and later was found by the pharaoh's daughter who raised him in her own household, telling the pharaoh she had given birth.  When he grew up, he learned of his origin and that changed his life.  He left Egypt to escape punishment, but returned to free his people.  

Moses was born in Egypt 1391 BCE and died in 1271 BCE. His parents were Amram and Jochebed of the tribe of Levi.  When 80 years old, he returned to Egypt and won, with his brother Aaron, the argument with the pharaoh the freedom of the Israelite slaves.  So in 1311, the Exodos began.  They traveled for 40 years, reaching Canaan with 601,730 freed slaves.  Moses died at age 120 outside of Canaan.   Joshua gave all tribes but the Levites land.  Levites would live with others and be the teachers.                                                

    Being guided on the Exodus away from Egypt by:  The pillars of cloud and fire are first mentioned in chapter 13 of the Book of Exodus, shortly after Moses leads the Israelites out of their captivity in Egypt. The narrative states that the pillar of cloud went ahead of them by day to guide their way, and the pillar of fire by night, to give them light. 

By 1271 BCE, the Israelites, led by Joshua, entered Canaan.  They ruled themselves by appointing judges.  Their first king was Saul in the 11th century BCE.  David was the 2nd, ruling from 1010-970 BCE.  His son, Solomon, the 3rd king,  ruled from 961-920 BCE.  When he died, his throne was contested.  His son, Rehoboam was his heir, but Solomon's supervisor of work wanted it, too, Jeroboam.  This turned into a Civil War and the 10 northern tribes ceded from the union and Judea and Benjamin were left alone.   In Israel, Jeroboam ruled from 933-912 BCE.  In Judah, it was Rehoboam who ruled from 933-917 BCE.                                            

Shishak came from a royal Libyan lineage who had the great chief of the Meshwesh as their identity.  He ruled from 945 to 924 BCE.  He is usually identified with the pharaoh Shoshenq.

Our ancestors called Egypt "Mitzrayim."  The history of the Jewish people from our beginnings has been connected with Egypt.  The patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, all visited Egypt.  The beginnings of our Hebrew history are bound up with the 400 year bondage in Egypt and the Exodus.

The 1st Hebrew immigration into Egypt was connected with the period of domination there of the Semitic Hyksos dynasty (18th-16th centuries BCE).  It's possible they were part of that.  Egypt was at that period closely involved in affairs of Canaan, as is shown by the TEL el-AMARNA   letters, which illustrate the background of the 1st Israelite incursions there.  

Throughout the period of the Monarchy, there were constant Judea-Egyptian relations.  Solomon married an Egyptian princess and concluded a trade treaty.                             

Shishak/Sheshonk, about 925 BCE, an Egyptian king of Libyan origin.  When Jeroboam fled from Solomon, he found refuge with Shishak.  

The pharaoh, Shishak, attacked Jerusalem in about 930 BCE to assist the newly-established Northern kingdom.  Shishak's campaign against the Kingdom of Judah and his sack of Jerusalem are recounted in the Hebrew Bible, in 1 Kings 14:25 and 2 Chronicles 12:1-12. According to these accounts, Shishak had provided refuge to Jeroboam during the later years of Solomon's reign, and upon Solomon's death, Jeroboam became king of the tribes in the north, which separated from Judah to become the Kingdom of Israel. 

In the fifth year of Rehoboam's reign, commonly dated ca. 926 BCE,  Shishak swept through Judah with a powerful army of 60,000 horsemen and 1,200 chariots, in support of Jeroboam. According to 2 Chronicles 12:3, he was supported by the Lubim (Libyans), the Sukkiim, and the Kushites ("Ethiopians" in the Septuagint).

Shishak took away treasures of the Temple of Yahweh and the king's house, as well as shields of gold which Solomon had made; Rehoboam replaced them with brass ones.  According to Second Chronicles,

When Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem, he carried off the treasures of the temple of the Lord and the treasures of the royal palace. He took everything, including the gold shields Solomon had made.— 2 Chronicles 12:9

Flavius Josephus in Antiquities of the Jews adds to this a contingent of 400,000 infantrymen. According to Josephus, his army met with no resistance throughout the campaign, taking Rehoboam's most fortified cities "without fighting". Finally, he conquered Jerusalem without resistance, because "Rehoboam was afraid." Shishak did not destroy Jerusalem, but forced King Rehoboam of Judah to strip the Temple and his treasury of their gold and movable treasures.

Shishak was also related by marriage to Jeroboam. The wife of Jeroboam is unnamed in the Masoretic Text, but according to the Septuagint, she was an Egyptian princess called Ano: And Sousakim gave to Jeroboam Ano the eldest sister of Thekemina his wife, to him as wife; she was great among the king's daughters...  Therefore, Jeroboam's wife was an Egyptian named Ano.                                              

       Necho II, king of Egypt, 609-593 BCE.  Nekō) of Egypt was a king of the 26th Dynasty,  which ruled out of Sais.  At the battle of Megiddo in 608 BCE, he defeated and slew Josiah of Judah and appointed Jehoiakim in his stead.  Necho was defeated at Carchemish by Nebuchadnezzar in 603 BCE.  Necho played a significant role in the histories of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, the Neo-Babylonian Empire and the Kingdom of Judah. Necho II is most likely the pharaoh mentioned in several books of the Bible. The aim of the second of Necho's campaigns was Asiatic conquest, to contain the westward advance of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, and cut off its trade route across the Euphrates. However, the Egyptians were defeated by the unexpected attack of the Babylonians and were eventually expelled from Syria.

Josiah 637-608 BCE, became king at age 8 after the murder of his father, Amon.  When a man, he caused religious reforms, removing foreign cults from Judah and established real monotheistic religion.  He had the support of the prophets, Nahum, Zephaniah, and Jeremiah.  They repaired the Temple and in doing so found a book of the law, found by high priest Hilkiah.  In 608 BCE he tried to bar the passage of the Egyptian army under Neccoh/Necho which was moving to assist Assyria against his Babylonian allies.  He will killed at Megiddo.  

King Josiah of Judah (637-608 BCE) was killed in 608 BCE when attempting to check the march of Pharaoh Necho through his territory.  He successor, Jehoahaz (608), was deported, and Jehoiakim (608-598) was installed in his place by the Egyptians.                                                  

I'll skip to 1947 when the UN resolution on Palestine caused Arabs to respond with violence against Jews and lasted until the signing of the armistice Agreements in 1949.  This was THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. Units of Arab irregulars crossed into the country from Syria, Lebanon and Egypt.  

THE SINAI WAR 29 October  to 5 November 1956. The threat was removed and the blockade was broken.  The hostile actions, in which Egypt played a central role, had reached their climax.  USSR had been supplying Egypt and Syria with military equipment.  

THE SIX DAY WAR 5th to 11th June, 1967  Egypt spread, then used false reports saying that Israel was amassed on the border but these were false-truth coming from UN that were ignored.  

In September 1970, President Nasser of Egypt died and Sadat succeeded him.  In July 1972 Sadat expelled the majority of the Soviet military personnel from Egypt.  The war began on 6 October 1973, when the Arab coalition jointly launched a surprise attack against Israel on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, which had occurred simultaneously with the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in that year. ... The Israeli military then launched a four-day-long counter-offensive deep into Syria.   A coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria attacked Israel. 

                                                  

 On 19 November 1977, Sadat became the first Arab leader to visit Israel officially when he met with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and spoke before the Knesset in Jerusalem about his views on how to achieve a comprehensive peace to the Arab–Israeli conflict, which included the full implementation of UN Resolutions 242 and 338. He said during his visit that he hopes "that we can keep the momentum in Geneva, and may God guide the steps of Premier Begin and Knesset, because there is a great need for hard and drastic decision".

The Egypt–Israel peace treaty was signed in Washington, D.C., United States on 26 March 1979, following the 1978 Camp David Accords. The Egypt–Israel treaty was signed by Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin, and witnessed by United States president Jimmy Carter.

                                                                

Egypt's Flag Carrier Starts Direct Flights to Tel Aviv, in First Since 1979 Peace Accords.  The Cairo-Tel Aviv flight is the first official EgyptAir arrival in Israel. The route, which joins other new regular flights between Israel and the UAE, Morocco and Bahrain, will run four times a week.

                                                           

The production platform of Leviathan natural gas field is seen in the Mediterranean Sea, off the coast of Haifa

(photo credit: REUTERS/AMIR COHEN)

Israeli, Egyptian energy ministers discuss natural gas trade plans

The two ministers discussed ongoing cooperation in the field of 

natural gas, and future plans to strengthen cooperation between the

 two countries.

 

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://jewishbubba.blogspot.com/2021/09/circumcisions-beginnings-in-egypt-with.html

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/egypt-s-flag-carrier-starts-direct-flights-to-tel-aviv-in-first-since-1979-peace-1.10261606

Ten Thousand Jews Taken Into Slavery By Nebuchadnezzar

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                

Babylonia is also called the land of Shinar or of the Kasdim (Chaldees).  Genesis, 1st book in the Torah,  teaches us that Babylonia was the cradle of humanity and the scene of man's first revolt against God which was the Tower of Babel section.  Many of the early biblical stories find a parallel in Babylonian literature , like the story of the Flood,  Last of all and most importantly is that Abram (Abraham) was born here in Ur of the Chaldeans, and emigrated to Canaan where he later fought King Amraphel of Shinar as told in Genesis 14.  Babylon is regarded by the prophets as a symbol of insolent pagan tyranny, and this symbolism has been adopted by later writers.  Nebuchadnezzar II of 604-561 BCE inherited the Assyrian Empire and after his conquest of Judah in 597 and 586 exiled the Jews to Babylon.       

 Kin 24:13-14 "And Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon carried out from there all the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the king's house, and he cut in pieces all the articles of gold which Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the LORD, as the LORD had said. Also he carried into captivity all Jerusalem: all the captains and all the mighty men of valor, ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths. None remained except the poorest people of the land."  His army had done this in 597BCE and again in 586BCE.                                    

Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon at its height.  He was the Stalin of that period from 605-562 BCE.  A result of his victory over the Assyrian-Egyptian alliance at Carchemish in 605BCE resulted in conquering all the lands from the Euphrates to the Egyptian frontier, including Judah (our Jewish state, the southern part of Israel.)

According to clay tablets found, discovered in Iraq and on display at an exhibit, 100 cuneiform tablets, each no bigger than an adult’s palm, the Jews were not slaves but were just needed for their capabilities.  Imagine, highjacking great workers! 

 "One exile in 587 BC saw around 1,500 people make the perilous journey via modern-day Lebanon and Syria to the fertile crescent of southern Iraq, where the Judeans traded, ran businesses and helped the administration of the kingdom.“They were free to go about their lives, they weren’t slaves,” Vukosavovic said. “Nebuchadnezzar wasn’t a brutal ruler in that respect. He knew he needed the Judeans to help revive the struggling Babylonian economy.”The tablets, each inscribed in minute Akkadian script,  was the Semitic language oral and written; used from 4th millennium BCE and used everywhere;  the English of the day until the Greek conquests; but no doubt written by a non-Jew;  detail trade in fruits and other commodities, taxes paid, debts owed and credits accumulated.        

 I'd call being forcefully taken away from one's home and family would be for slavery-and the 2nd generation may have felt at home in Babylonia, but certainly not the first.  We have evidence of our people crying at the river for Jerusalem right in the Bible. Psalm 137 is the 137th psalm of the Book of Psalms, and as such it is included in the Hebrew Bible. In English it is generally known as "By the rivers of Babylon", which is how its first words are translated in the King James Version. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTnspbSjKVc

In 597 BCE, after Judah had revolted, he sent contingents which captured Jerusalem, replaced the   Pharoah Necoh- appointed Jewish king Jehoiachim-son of Josiah, birth name-Eliakim (king from  608-598 BCE) who reported to Egypt for 3 years, but became a Babylonian vassal;  with his own nominee, young 21 year old Zedekiah, son of Josiah (king from 597-586) birth-name was Mattaniah but took this name when bestowed as king , and exiled 8,000 of the local aristocracy to Babylon.  Nebuchadnezzar's account of these events is preserved in the British Museum.                    

8 years later, Zedekiah rebelled.  The forces of Nebuchadnezzar under Nebuzaradan against invaded Judah, captured Jerusalem in 586, and destroyed Solomon's Temple this time, laying waste the cities and exiling masses of the population.  The king was taken to Riblah, where Nebuchadnezzar had him killed.  Nebuchadnezzar also figures in a number of legends related in the Book of Daniel.  

King Nebuchadnezzar is mentioned in the Tanakh (Old Testament books) of 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Jeremiah and Ezekiel. However he is spoken of most in the book of Daniel. He is first introduced in 2 Kings 24, amidst a crop of corrupt kings of Judah. Eventually, the Babylonian army destroyed and took captive all survivors, fulfilling the prophet Jeremiah’s warnings, and God’s disciplinary action of His people.                                                             The Seleucid Empire was a Hellenistic state in Western Asia that existed from 312 BC to 63 BC. It was founded by Seleucus I Nicator following the division of the Macedonian Empire established by Alexander the Great.  Persia (Iran) would be above the Persian Gulf in Seleucid territory. Ur, home town of Abraham, is in Mesopotamia near the Persian Gulf.  As I have found out, Elam destroyed Ur and Elam was in Perisa (iran). 

Here is a map showing Mesopotamia.

Mesopotamia became Iraq. The Arabs conquered it in 637 CE. 

The name is (from the Greek, meaning 'between two rivers') was an ancient region located in the eastern Mediterranean bounded in the northeast by the Zagros Mountains and in the southeast by the Arabian Plateau, corresponding to today's Iraq, mostly, but also parts of modern-day Iran, Syria and Turkey.

Map showing modern day countries where Ur, Haran and Caanan were as Sumerian / Mesopotamian areas in Abram's time. Ur of the Chaldees is in Southern Iraq (Written in White). Canaan is shown under the word, Israel.  

Resource:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-archaeology-babylon/ancient-tablets-reveal-life-of-jews-in-nebuchadnezzars-babylon-idUSKBN0L71EK20150203

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

maps online

Natan-Melech of Judah's Seal Found in Jerusalem Parking Lot

Nadene Goldfoot
                                                                         

Sacrificing the first born in Baal worship
to bring in a great harvest-and good luck-a Babylonian and Canaanite
belief that spread to the Israelite 12 tribes. 
Baal Peor was a local Canaanite deity worshipped with sexual orgies.
This may be why it was such a popular belief!  People really change very little.  The Baal belief has a lot to do with what was recently found.  

The horse-drawn chariots used to greet the sun

Found in II Kings 23:11 is a section that tells how even the Kohenim were breaking rules in worshipping foreign religions such as Baal right in the Temple.  It happened during king Josiah's reign from 637 BCE to 608 BCE just before the Babylonian attack led by Nebuchadnezzar when the Jews of Judah were kidnapped and taken to Babylonia in 597 BCE and again in 586 BCE.  
                                                          

King Josiah learning about Judaism
Prophets Nahum, Zephaniah and Jeremiah no doubt
were educating him as well during his formative years.  

Josiah's father,  King Amon, who ruled only from 638 to 637 BCE , had been murdered when Josiah was but 8 years old so he was crowned king at that early age.  When he reached the age of manhood, probably at 21, he began a program of religious reform and removed the foreign cults which had taken hold in Judah and re-established the pure monotheistic religion of Judaism.  

Do we ever read about this period?  We get so caught up in the many holidays we have with their history and all that somehow we forget how fragile our religion is and that possibly the culture around it with its strange accompaniments to help us remember, have had reasons for their being.  Look how quickly our ancestors forgot and accepted these weird thoughts.

In the course of repairing the First Temple, the high priest Hilkiah announced the discovery of a BOOK OF THE LAW, a scroll,  which so influenced Josiah that he convened  an assembly of the entire people during Passover in 621 BCE at which a solemn covenant was made with G-d.  Many scholars have identified this book with Deuteronomy.  Josiah removed the high places and centralized worship at the Jerusalem Temple.  

Josiah was busy cleaning everything foreign out of the Temple.  First, he read out loud to the crowd of Judeans he had called for from this newly discovered  Book of the Covenant that had been found in the Temple.  To think that it had been in some corner somewhere not used is shocking, but that's what happened with a king who had been murdered which affected the whole community.  Such information stopped with him and his son had not been old enough to know the procedure.  

Manasseh had been king before Amon from 697 to 638 BCE, a long stretch of time.  

The priests during King Josiah's childhood, the Kohens-descendants of Aaron, had been burning offerings to Baal. They were the ones who should have been reading to the king from the Book of Law.    It is indeed shocking to us.  King Josiah (he) also abolished the horses that the kings of Judah had designated for worship of the sun which would race from the entrance to the Temple of Hashem to the office of Netan-melech, the officer in the outlying area of the city.  He burned the chariots of the sun in fire.  (The worship of the sun consisted in racing out towards the east at daybreak in horse-drawn chariots, to "greet" the rising sun).  
                                                       

picture from Wnd, small clay object 

We'll skip ahead in time 2,600 years and see that the Israel Antiquities Authority and Tel Aviv University discovered an ancient bulla seal impression bearing the inscription BELONGING TO NATHAN-MELECH, SERVANT OF THE KING, in the City of David (Jerusalem) just outside the Old City of Jerusalem, according to an announcement on Sunday, April 2019 as read about in the newspaper, The Jerusalem Press of April 5th.  This shows verification of history being true as originally written in Kings II.  Dr. Anat Mendael-Geberovich of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Center for the Study of Ancient Jerusalem was the one who deciphered the seal, and said in a statement that "Although it is not possible to determine with complete certainty that the Nathan-Melech, who is mentioned in the Bible, was in fact the owner of the stamp, it is impossible to ignore some of the details that link them together.  

There he is;  Natan-Melech named as an officer in the court of King Josiah.  The bulla was discovered in a 1st Temple period public building that is part of the excavations in the City of David National Park's Givati Parking Lot.  It was  "uncovered by Israeli archaeologist Yuval Gadot’s team during the ongoing Givati Parking Lot Excavation". This does verify, corroborate, substantiate, and confirm that what was written in our OLD TESTAMENT/TANAKH/II KINGS was about real people.  

Melech means king in Hebrew.  He had taken the surname of Melech.  Perhaps it would be read, Natan, of the King, meaning that he served the king.  In that period, people were like, David, son of Moshe which read as David ben Moshe.  So Natan here was not the son of the king.  ( My favorite song learned in Israel was (David, melech Yisrael, chai, chai, .vik ah yeh nu.  )...
                                                                           

Now, back in time to King  Manasseh, who ruled from 692 to 638 BCE.  He had succeeded his father, Hezekiah, at the age of 12 and was one of the worst Jewish monarchs.  Here's where our Judeans slid away from Judaism.  He was the problem.  He canceled his father's reforms, reintroduced PAGAN PRACTICES and so shocked the faithful that the destruction of the Temple was attributed to his wickedness as read in II KINGS 21: 11-17.  He had been forcefully opposed by the loyal monotheists, many of whom he put to death!  Manasseh paid tribute to Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal of Assyria and according to one report, spent some time as a captive in Babylon according to II Chron. 33:11-19.  It has been suggested that his pagan innovations were the result of Assyrian pressure.  

The Assyrians had raided the 10 Northern Tribes of Judah/Israel in 722-721 BCE and took as their slaves the best of the population.  That was only about 30 years previously, so they may have left their impression and beliefs somehow.  
                                                                     

Baal idol 

I can't blame Jezebel, because she was married to the king of Israel, Ahab, who ruled from 876 BCE to 853 BCE.  She's the one who introduced Baal to his Israelites.  She was the introduction of problems before the Assyrians had even attacked.  Maybe that's what made them weak, putting trust into clay statues instead of an unseen G-d that had showed the people strength many times over in the past.   
                                                                              

Worshipping Baal on Mt. Carmel

I think we have seen what happens to a people whose king no longer respects his people's G-dly worship.  Judaism was replaced with Baal and reintroduced whenever there was a weakness in the kingly leadership.  Baal was ugly.  They believed in human sacrifice.   Josiah came along just in time to clean house.  

Resource; Tanakh, The Stone Edition
The Jewish Press, April 5, 2019
https://www.thetrumpet.com/18864-nathan-melech-found
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia