{N}THE EXODUS AND THE PROMISED LAND{/}

{K}A SILENCE OF SEVERAL CENTURIES{/}

In the last chapter of Genesis we attend the funeral of Joseph, who is 
introduced in the Bible as one of the twelve sons of Jacob. One does not 
need to see there a report on an exact family situation and the twelve 
sons reunited under the authority of the old patriarch. By presenting 
this image of the common origin of the twelve tribes, the holy author is 
simply trying to strengthen their somewhat shaky unity. This writer from 
the time of Solomon did not have the means to reconstitute the exact 
context in which Joseph, his hero, had evolved. Even more, many 
anachronisms exist in his story, such as, for example, the egyptian names 
he cites (Sophnat-Paneah, Asnat, Poti-Phera), which are all from the 
eleventh century. However, the image presented of the relationships 
between the pharaoh, Joseph and the sons of Jacob correspond with enough 
exactness to the situation that had existed in Egypt in the seventeenth 
century. This is the probable epoch in which the patriarch lived, when 
Egypt had just fallen under the dominion of foreign princes who came from 
Palestine.
The story of {N}Joseph{/} retains the memory of frequent raids from the 
nomads driven by hunger to the farmlands of the delta, a reality that the 
same egyptian texts echoed more than once. This ancient tradition also 
suggests how some "Asians" (Amorites from Palestine and Mesopotamia), 
possibly of modest origin, came to occupy positions of high 
responsibility during the Hyksos period.
The national insurrection that ended the foreign domination in Egypt 
clarifies some pages of the holy text. In the first years of the 
sixteenth century, Kamosis, a prince from Thebas in Higher Egypt, enters 
into armed conflict with the Hyksos and leads his armies to their capital 
city, Avaris, established on the delta. His brother, Ahmosis, finishes 
the job and frees Egypt from foreign tutelage. It is easily understood 
that, after a very long occupation, a kickback brings about a rapid 
expulsion of the "Asians" of all types. Nor are the nomads who were 
installed along the eastern edge of the delta pardoned (the land of{N} 
Gosen{/} in the Bible): they also had to flee in great numbers. Following 
the route of the sea, along the northern coast of the Sinai peninsula, 
passing by the sanctuary of {N}Baal-Sefon{/}, they arrived in Palestine where 
they soon become installed. One of the two itineraries presented in the 
Book of Exodus echoes this first movement of the nomads, which we could 
call the {C}First Exodus{/}. Numerically it was the most important. However, 
it was not these shepherds, who had left in great quantities during the 
sixteenth century, whom God was going to choose to be the witnesses of 
his wonders in favor of humans and of Revelation of {N}Horeb{/}.
{K}THE EXODUS{/}

The great pharaohs returned the lost glory and the authority to the 
reunified Egypt: with Tutmosis I and Tutmosis II Egypt tightens its 
alliances and shows its force in the surrounding areas. However, Aknaton, 
the singular mystic Pharaoh, immersed the country of the Nile in a 
terrible crisis; the clergy of Amon strongly opposes the cult of Aton 
imposed by the sovereign, at the same time as the exterior provinces 
begin to rebel. It is necessary to have all the energies of Horemheb, a 
general in charge of the armies of Tutankhamon, and the unconditional 
support of the clergy of Thebas, in order to pull Egypt up from the 
abyss. They had it return to a new and final hour of glory with the 
nineteenth dynasty. Sethi and his son {N}Ramses II{/} construct 
fortifications on the eastern borders and along the sea route and the 
capital city is brought to the delta. All of these constructions required 
numerous workmen who were recruited in better and worse ways among the 
nomads who had remained after the expulsion of the Hyksos or who had 
returned taking advantage of the weakening of Egypt during the previous 
century.
It was then when some of these clans left for the desert, with the 
pretext of offering a sacrifice in accordance with their ancestral 
customs, and escaped. Under the leadership of Moses, avoiding the more 
direct way, which was also more under the control of Egypt, the sea 
route, they took the paths used by the prisoner convoys condemned to work 
the turquoise mines of Serabit-el-Khadim. And they arrived at the great 
granite mass in the south of the peninsula. It was during this long 
journey when God multiplied the signs of his Faithfulness to them. The 
Book of Exodus and the Book of Psalms tell us in very different forms 
about the wonders of God along the shores of the Sea, which in the 
biblical text is called {N}Sea{/} of the {N}Bushes{/}.
{C}THE EXIT FROM EGYPT{/}

The reading of these texts grants the exit from Egypt a capital 
importance, that is expressed in this way in Deuteronomy: {C}Never has 
there been a God who went out to look for a people and take them out from 
another nation by the strength of trials and signs {/}[Dt_4,34]. In this 
moment this means a true delivery. God brings forth a new people and 
Israel will remember from now on this exit from Egypt as the day of its 
birth as People of God.
The exit from Egypt will be linked to the revelation of Horeb, which will 
give this new born People its true identity: {C}You are a people 
consecrated to Yahweh, your God. Yahweh has chosen you from among all the 
peoples on the face of the earth, that you may be his own people. Yahweh 
has bound himself to you and has chosen you, not because you are the most 
numerous among all the peoples (on the contrary, you are the least). 
Rather, he has chosen you because of his love for you and to fulfill the 
oath he made to your fathers. Therefore, with a firm hand Yahweh brought 
you out from slavery in Egypt, from the power of Pharaoh{/} [Dt_7,6] - [Dt 
7,8].
{K}THE HOREB{/}

The number of years during which Israel wanders in the Sinai desert is 
forty according to the biblical text; but this is a symbolic figure. It 
corresponds to the number of weeks that a woman has her child in her 
womb: it is at the same time, a time of trial and a time of hope. The 
Horeb will be the most important stage of this long journey: there is 
where tradition will also establish the episode of the burning bush.
At Horeb, God manifests himself, God speaks, and Moses, barefoot and 
leading a purified people, listens to the voice of their God without 
dying:{C} Has there ever been anything as extraordinary as this? Has 
anything like this been heard of before? Has there ever been a people who 
remained alive after hearing as you did the voice of the living God from 
the midst of the fire?{/} [Dt_4,32] - [Dt_4,33].
At Horeb, God reveals himself: {C}I am Yahweh. I AM : "I AM"{/}. God says 
himself and he says himself for all time {C}That will be my name forever; 
and by this name they shall call upon me for all generations to come{/} 
[Ex_3,15].
At Horeb, God gives his Law to the people that he has chosen. Observing 
this law will be for them the way to express their fidelity to the unique 
calling who has heard at the foot of the Holy Mountain.
{K}THE ENCOUNTER IN CADES-BARNEA{/}

The testimony of the unique experience being lived by the clans leaving 
the "house of slavery" under the direction of Moses was shared during the 
next decades with the rest of the tribes that were in Palestine, or who 
had returned during the sixteenth century with the occasion of the 
xenophobic movement that accompanied the victory of Ahmosis over the 
Hyksos. This sharing of experiences took place especially in Cadesh-
Barnea, whose name signifies: {C}the holy place of Barnea{/}. This oasis, 
very abundant in springs and where cross the routes towards Egypt, 
Berseba and the gulf of Eilat, was a privileged meeting place between the 
clans led by Moses and the other tribes that were still in Palestine.
With the jealous independence of the nomads, the oral traditions evolved 
here and there in original and diverse ways, but during the following 
period the royal power efforts to unify the nation produced fusions and 
groupings, although sometimes inadequate, of these traditions. For this 
reason it is difficult to say today much more about this shared spiritual 
experience. However, it is evident that this was decisive for the future: 
the exit from Egypt and the ascent to the Promised Land remained, 
throughout the whole jewish-christian tradition, as the founding and 
initial experience of all the liberating deeds of God in behalf of his 
people, and which reaches its fullness in Jesus Christ in the Paschal 
Mystery.
{K}JOSHUA{/}

It will be Joshua who will cross the Jordan with the immigrant people 
that Moses had lead from Egypt to {N}Mount Nebo{/}. He will bring them to the 
Promised Land.
To speak of a People is to say too much. In reality it still only refers 
to a few clans, who had incorporated some new elements during the 
stopover in the holy place of Cadesh-Barnea. Even though they were few, 
these nomads entrusted now to Joshua, brought with them such an enriched 
experience that would soon be the spiritual inheritance for all peoples. 
Opposite the Canaanites that lived in the cities and farmed the 
surrounding fields, these nomads become aware little by little of their 
own originality and identity. During this period of Joshua and the Judges 
is when the people of Israel is actually formed.
The book of Joshua presents us with a systematic conquest of the country 
carried out by Joshua in the lead of the tribes; but in fact things 
happened in a very different way, and this is due to two reasons. In the 
first place, as confirmed by some archeological excavations, only some 
tribes from the south were affected by the exile to Egypt and the later 
return to the promised land. On the other hand, the nomadic clans were 
actually in an inferior situation against the city dwellers, the 
Canaanites, who, under the protection of fortifications possessed 
terrible weapons of war and chariots. As for the philistines, they had 
become experts in metal work and their port cities permitted them to do 
business with these metals. The tribes of Israel had to be rather 
prudent.
{K}CHARISMATIC LEADER{/}

The city dwellers and the nomads were very different people, and the 
obligation imposed by each side to live together in the same land surely 
produced many clashes. What is going to save the future of the tribes of 
Israel will be the aggressiveness of some of them (we are thinking about 
the tribe of {N}Ephraim{/}, whose deeds are told in the book of Joshua), as 
well as, and moreover, their confidence in the help from God that they 
experienced many times over.
After Joshua, the Israelites, who were disorganized and divided, 
regrouped during hard times around the {N}judges{/} of the tribes or the 
innate chiefs who arose from the people, such as {N}Deborah{/} or {N}Gideon{/}. 
The prophet {N}Samuel{/} was one of them and was also the last. His 
descendents were mediocre and corrupt; this, together with the advanced 
age of Samuel, were a good pretext used by the people to request a king 
like other nations had. In fact, the time of the nomads had finished and 
the tribes, now established in the land, desired a new way of functioning 
from their institutions.
{K}THE SILENCE OF THE GREAT POWERS{/}

One could find strange that this small world of Canaanites, Israelites 
and philistines, without counting the amalekites or the Midianites, or 
some of the other more or less nomadic tribes, could, during this time, 
become allies, antagonize each other and take care of their small 
problems, without provoking the least reaction from the great powers of 
the epoch. These at this time were very weakened. The twentieth dynasty 
ends pitifully in Egypt with the reign of Ramses XI, who sees his prime 
minister, the high priest of Amon, seize the throne and govern in Higher 
Egypt, while in Lower Egypt the son of the defeated pharaoh, Smendes, 
makes Tanis his capital city. In Mesopotamia, which had been for many 
centuries one of the guiding lights of civilization, things were not 
going much better. From the beginning of the eleventh century, Assyrians, 
Babylonians and Elamites had been exhausting their forces in internal 
fighting trying to impose their supremacy. Such waste of forces left 
these kingdoms lifeless when invaders came. Since Egypt and Mesopotamia 
were then out of the race, could they still expect some intervention from 
the north? The hittite empire, which in the thirteenth century had 
disturbed the Great Ramses for some time, had suffered foreign raiders in 
the following century and now the Tracios, Phrygians and Armenians were 
trying to pull it apart. In such circumstances the smaller states in the 
Near East could carry out their own projects without being bothered in 
the least by the great powers of the times.
