Habiru

• cuneiform records of western Asia
• group of migrants
• labourers, slaves and mercenaries

Meaning

1. social category of nomadic raiders
2. ethnic - “Hebrew”
   • denoting descent from Eber (great-grandson of Noah)
   • peoples of Arabia, Aram, Ammon, Moab, Edom and Israel

“Sons of Eber”

• migration for centuries throughout the Near East
• Movement of small bands/families, not mass migration
• not seeking territory, but subsistence
• Were ethnic units
  • retained individuality
  • were looking for land to call their own
• Patriarchal ancestors
  • Abraham, “the Hebrew”, and his offspring
  • Entered Canaan (2nd half of 2nd millenium)
    • as distinct tribes
  • Kinship, common goal (land)

Biblical

Habiru $\neq$ Israelite

Isaelite

1. Peaceful
   • Not warriors, but herdsmen and farmers
     • seeking peace with Canaanite neighbours
2. Joshua’s conquest:
   • organised tribal alliance
   • single leader
     Habiru

• raiders & mercenaries
• hire themselves out to rival kings

However, the wandering of the Israelite tribes into Canaan was part of the spread of the Habiru groups throughout the NE. Thus Abraham’s wandering is placed in its correct historical setting.

Culture and religion

Some believe

• desert barbarians
• low C&R
• @time of Exodus and Conquest

However

• did not come from the desert
• came from Babylonia, Mesopotamia, to Canaan, then Egypt
• 40 years in desert after Exodus brief
• Lived in lands of high culture
• ethnically intermigled/intermarried,
  • Patriarchs → Aramean women
  • Judah & Simon → Canaanite
  • Tamar (ancestress of Judaite clans, Perez and Zerah) → Canaanite
  • Joseph → Asenath, an Egyptian, mother of Ephriam and Manesseh.

Elements

Ethnic conglomerate as was our early culture

• proto-ethnic times
  • not branched off main Semitic stock

1. Israeli tribal structure arose from these times
   • Canaanites (by el-Amarna period) organised in city-states
   • Israelites retained tribal organisation even after establishing a kingdom

• Form of Divination