Destruction of Egypt after Exodus

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Stuart SteinbergBiblical Archaeology in Ancient Israel (& Beyond)

The Destruction of Egypt is When The Exodus of the Israelites Happened

All pieces of evidence point to the Exodus of the Israelites just prior to the Hyksos invasion around 1700 BCE (conventional dating). First if we look at the Biblical text it clearly says that the plagues caused chaos and ruin in Egypt. In Exodus 10:7 before the plague of hail Pharaoh’s officials say to Pharaoh:

“How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the people go, so that they may worship the Lord their God. Do you not yet realize that Egypt is ruined?”

So we need to look for a time when Egypt was in ruin to place the proper time for the Exodus.

If we look at the 3rd century BCE the Egyptian historian Manetho writes just prior to the Hyksos invasion

Tutimaeus [0]. In his reign, for what cause I know not, a blast of God smote us; and unexpectedly, from the regions of the East, invaders of obscure race marched in confidence of victory against our land. By main force they easily overpowered the rulers of the land, they then burned our cities ruthlessly, razed to the ground the temples of the gods, and treated all the natives with a cruel hostility, massacring some and leading into slavery the wives and children of others.

Tutimaeus is the 13th dynasty pharaoh Dudimose in Greek. Manetho’s original work on the history of Egypt was in Greek for the Ptolemy pharaohs in Alexandria. It is clear form his text that some terrible catastrophe happened to Egypt in the reign of Dudimose by God in the singular and this allowed the Hyksos to invade and even conquer Egypt without “striking a blow” This is another indicator that the destruction of Egypt recorded in the Hebrew Bible occurred before the Hyksos invasion.

The other piece of evidence is the Ipuwer Papyrus dated by the scholar John Van Seters to the end of the 13th dynasty just prior to the Hyksos invasion. In it is recorded a destruction o f Egypt such as

2:5–6 Plague is throughout the land. Blood is everywhere.

2:10 The river is blood.

2:10 Men shrink from tasting — human beings, and thirst after water

3:10–13 That is our water! That is our happiness! What shall we do in respect thereof? All is ruin.

In addition are these passages:

5:5 All animals, their hearts weep. Cattle moan…

9:2–3 Behold, cattle are left to stray, and there is none to gather them together.

4:3 (5:6) Forsooth, the children of princes are dashed against the walls.

6:12 Forsooth, the children of princes are cast out in the streets.

6:3 The prison is ruined.

2:13 He who places his brother in the ground is everywhere.

3:14 It is groaning throughout the land, mingled with lamentations

There have been many who have written about the parallels between the Ipuwer papyrus and the plagues of the Hebrew Bible. But that is not my intent here. Rather it is to show that the papyrus points to a time of destruction of Egypt.

In addition because of this destruction of Egypt the Asiatics in the North in Canaan know of it and there is a fear of invasion as it says:

15:1 The Asiatics know the condition of the land

There are some scholars today who doubt that the Hyksos invaded Egypt. However they come to this conclusion because there does not seem to be a destruction layer in the pre-Hyksos or the Hyksos period. But Manetho himself says the Hyksos were able to invade Egypt without “striking a blow” So it would make sense why there is no real destruction layer. In addition Dr. Manfred Bietak the main archaeologist of Avaris which is the area of Goshen of the Bible has found many warrior burials in stratum F which he dates to the early Hyksos period. Dr. Bietak writes

“During this period, many of the tombs belonged to warriors who were normally equipped with a dagger and battle axe” (1)

Because there were many warriors buried at this time it seems to indicate some type of invading army. Dr. Bietak also writes about these warrior burials that many included the burial or a servant alongside the warrior. As he writes

“servants were interred in front of tomb chambers of some tombs in stratum F. These servants were girls with strong bones. It appears that they were buried at the same time as their masters” (2)

This is reminiscent of Manetho who wrote concerning the Hyksos

“and treated all the natives with a cruel hostility, massacring some and leading into slavery the wives and children of others.”

The last piece of evidence pointing to this destruction by the Hyksos as the time for the plagues of the Exodus which devastated Egypt is from the writings of the 18th dynasty pharaoh Hatshepsut. It appears in the text of Speos Artemidos. It is written there:

“I have restored what was destroyed. I raised up what was formerly shattered, since Asiatics were in the midst of the Delta (at) Avaris when the nomads in their midst were destroying what had been made” (3)

From these words it seems the Asiatics i.e. the Hyksos destroyed Egypt or came into Egypt when it was destroyed. Again meaning there was destruction of Egypt both before and during the Hyksos being in the delta.

All of this points to a time when Egypt was destroyed, which is at the end of the 13th dynasty just prior to the Hyksos invasion. It was this destruction that allowed the Hyksos to invade and conquer Egypt without meeting any real resistance on the part of the Egyptian army. The reason for this was that they had been decimated by the plagues of Egypt and much of the Egyptian army was destroyed in the Sea of Reeds. This time period fits the story of the Exodus as found in the Hebrew Bible.