Thursday, July 19, 2012

Exodus - Update

No one knows when Moses lived or whom the Pharaoh of the exodus was. It is not specifically listed in the bible. P.S. The Ten Commandments movie is not necessarily accurate so it might not be Ramesses II like everyone thinks. :-)

"10 plagues of Egypt": Water turns to blood, frogs, lice, flies, disease on livestock, incurable boils, hail and thunder, locusts, darkness, death of the first-born of all Egyptian humans and animals.

Perhaps the following events were responsible for the 10 plagues. In April 16, 1178 BC, there was a solar eclipse causing the sky to darken. In 1159 BC a volcano in Iceland (Hekla 3 eruption) blew up causing drought, hail and possibly locusts, etc and other for eighteen years in Europe and Asia. Some Egyptologists blame the eruption for the Bronze Age collapse.

Between 1206 and 1150 BCE, the cultural collapse of the Mycenaean kingdoms, the Hittite Empire in Anatolia and Syria, and the New Kingdom of Egypt in Syria and Canaan interrupted trade routes and severely reduced literacy. In the first phase of this period, almost every city between Troy and Gaza was violently destroyed, and often left unoccupied thereafter: examples include Hattusa, Mycenae, and Ugarit. Maybe God was trying to say something? :-)
From Papyrus Harris, The beginning of the Great Harris Papyrus or Papyrus Harris I, which documents the reign of Ramesses III, Setnakhte was Ramesses III's father. There is no real evidence of whom this Isru character is.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setnakhte

"The land of Egypt was overthrown from without, and every man was thrown out of his right; they had no "chief mouth" for many years formerly until other times. The land of Egypt was in the hands of chiefs and of rulers of towns; one slew his neighbour, great and small. Other times having come after it, with empty years, Irsu ('a self-made man'), a certain Syrian (Kharu) was with them as chief (wr). He set plundering their (i.e.: the people's) possessions. They made gods like men, and no offerings were presented in the temples.

"But when the gods inclined themselves to peace, to set the land in its rights according to its accustomed manner, they established their son, who came forth from their limbs, to be ruler, "be well", of every land, upon their great throne, Userkhaure-setepenre-meryamun, "be well", the son of Re, Setnakht-merire-meryamun, "be well". He was Khepri-Set, when he is enraged; he set in order the entire land which had been rebellious; he slew the rebels who were in the land of Egypt; he cleansed the great throne of Egypt; he was ruler of the Two Lands, on the throne of Atum. He gave ready faces to those who had been turned away. Every man knew his brother who had been walled in. He established the temples in possession of divine offerings, to offer to the gods according to their customary stipulations."

1207 BC: Pharaoh Merneptah claims a victory over the people of Israel.
1201–1198 BC, Amenmesse (also Amenmesses or Amenmose) was the 5th ruler of the Nineteenth Dynasty in Ancient Egypt, possibly the son of Merneptah and Queen Takhat.  Rolf Krauss, followed by Aidan Dodson, suggests that Amenmesse was once a Kushite Viceroy called Messuwy
1191–1189 BC, Queen Twosret is thought to have been a daughter of Merenptah, possibly a daughter of Takhat, thereby making her sister to Amenmesse
1189–1186 BC, or Setnakht ruled.  


Exodus Chapter 12

21 Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them: 'Draw out, and take you lambs according to your families, and kill the passover lamb.
22 And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two side-posts with the blood that is in the basin; and none of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning.
23 For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when He seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side-posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.
24 And ye shall observe this thing for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever.
25 And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the LORD will give you, according as He hath promised, that ye shall keep this service.
26 And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you: What mean ye by this service?
27 that ye shall say: It is the sacrifice of the LORD'S passover, for that He passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when He smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses.' And the people bowed the head and worshipped.
28 And the children of Israel went and did so; as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they.
29 And it came to pass at midnight, that the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the first-born of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the first-born of cattle.
30 And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead.
31 And he called for Moses and Aaron by night and said: 'Rise up, get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel; and go, serve the LORD, as ye have said.
32 Take both your flocks and your herds, as ye have said, and be gone; and bless me also.'
33 And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, to send them out of the land in haste; for they said: 'We are all dead men.'
34 And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading-troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders.
35 And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses; and they asked of the Egyptians jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment.
36 And the LORD gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they let them have what they asked. And they despoiled the Egyptians.