Endnote 30 – The Exodus from Egypt: Myth or Reality?

Generally, see R. G. Boling, The Early Biblical Community in Transjordan, Social World of Biblical Antiquity Series (Sheffield, UK: Almond, 1988). On Moab, see Wilson, “Egyptian Historical Texts,” ANET, p. 243; on Edom, see above for Papyrus Anastasi 6.51–61 under Merneptah. The land of (the Shasu, i.e., pastoralists of Seir (sŒ³-‘³-i-r³), later known to Israel as Edomite territory, is mentioned in Ramesses II’s Amara West hypostyle geographical list, and Ramesses III or Ramesses IV speaks of Seir as being controlled by Shasu pastoralists, whom he plundered and captured (Papyrus Harris 1.76:9), without identifying them as Edomite. A XXIst Dynasty literary text (Papyrus Pushkin 127, 5:5) may suggest that a route to Mesopotamia ran through Seir (sŒ³-‘³-i-r³), but the geography envisioned is not obvious (across northern Arabia?). The same is true of a reference to destruction of pastoralists in the hills of s-sŒ-‘-r-i (Seir?) on the east side of an obelisk of Ramesses II found at Tanis (P. Montet and G. Goyon, Kémi 5 [1935–1937], pl. 3). El Amarna letters (EA) 288:25–27, from Abdi-Hepa, governor of Jerusalem under Amenhotep III and Akhenaten, can be rendered, loosely, “I am at war—as far as the lands of Se-e-ri, as far as the town of Gath-Karmel—all the governors are at peace, and I am at war.” This text is also ambiguous, especially as to the identity of Gath-Karmel; however, whether this is identical with Judahite Carmel, with Gath-Karmel of EA 289:18–19 (to the north) or some other locus (as Philistine Gath), the passage can be construed to depict Seir as Abdi-Hepa’s southernmost (or easternmost) horizon.

For El Amarna letters, see now The Amarna Letters ed. William L. Moran (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1992). For editions of these texts concerning Edom, see M. Weippert, Edom. Studien und Materialen zur Geschichte der Edomiter auf Grundschriftlicher und archdologischen Quellen, Ph.D. dissertation (Tübingen, 1971), pp. 31–48. Ammon is not named in any record until Iron II, but was probably organized, as biblical accounts indicate (esp. Judges 10:6–12:6), in Iron I. On the appearance of Israel, and of the Arameans in Syria, in just this period, see below.