Chapter XI

, p. 309.

The entrance of Abraham and later of Jacob and his sons into Egypt in time of famine (Gen. 12:10 and 47:5-12) is strikingly illuminated by the following reports of officials stationed at fortresses on the Egyptian border.

The first of these texts was inscribed in the tomb of Harmhab, the founder of the nineteenth dynasty, though there is reason to believe that it was written during the reign of Amenophis IV of the eighteenth dynasty (1375-1357 B. C.). Some of the lines are broken. It reads as follows:

....... Asiatics; others have been placed in their abodes ...... they have been destroyed, and their town laid waste, and fire has been thrown ......... [they have come to entreat] the Great in Strength to send his mighty sword before ....... Their countries are starving, they live like goats of the mountain, [their] children ....... saying: “A few of the Asiatics, who knew not how they should live, have come [begg]ing [a home in the domain] of Pharaoh ....., after the manner of your fathers’ fathers since the beginning under, ......... Now, the Pharaoh .... gives them into your hand, to protect their borders.”[630]

The second text comes from the reign of Merneptah (1225-1215 B. C.). It reads as follows:

Another matter for the satisfaction of my lord’s heart [to wit]: We have finished passing the tribes of the Shasu of Edom through the fortress of Merneptah-Hotephirma ... in Theku, to the pools of Pithom, of Merneptah-Hotephirma in Theku, in order to sustain them and their herds in the domain of Pharaoh ..., the good sun of every land ......... I have caused them to be brought ........ other names of days when the fortress of Merneptah-Hotephirma may be passed, ....[631]

These texts make it evident that at different periods of Egyptian history Asiatic tribes in time of famine and stress sought and found refuge in Egypt as the Israelites are said to have done.

VI

ALLEGED TRACES OF THE “TEN TRIBES” IN EXILE

To supplement Part II,