Were the Hyksos Ishmael's descendants & the Shasu Esau's descendants through Mahalath (daughter of Ishmael)?

Author:   Eulalio Diocson Eguia Jr.

Abstract: In this research, I will explore the possibility that the Hyksos were the descendants of Ishmael, and that an angel’s prophecy about Ishmael “dwelling in hostility toward all his brothers” was initially fulfilled shortly before the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt happened, and continued until the Hyksos took possession of the city of Avaris in the Nile Delta, from where they ruled over Lower Egypt and Middle Egypt up to Cusae:

Genesis 16:11-12 The angel of the Lord also said to her: “You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery. He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”

Genesis 25:18 His [Ishmael’s] descendants settled in the area from Havilah to Shur, near the eastern border of Egypt, as you go toward Ashur. And they lived in hostility toward all the tribes related to them.

The angel’s prophecy about Ishmael tells us that he will dwell in hostility toward all his brothers. Now who were all of Ishmael’s brothers, and when was this prophecy actually fulfilled?

According to the Book of Genesis, Hagar was an Egyptian slave, a handmaiden of Sarah, whom Sarah gave to her own husband Abraham as a wife to bear him a child. Abraham's first born son, through Hagar, Ishmael, became the progenitor of the Ishmaelites, generally taken to be the Arabs. Various commentators have connected her to the Hagrites (sons of Agar), perhaps claiming her as their eponymous ancestor.

The Hagrites (also spelled Hagarite or Hagerite, and called Hagarenes, Agarenes, and sons of Agar) were associated with the Ishmaelites mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, the inhabitants of the regions of Jetur, Naphish and Nodab lying east of Gilead. Their name is understood to be related to that of the biblical Hagar. They lived a nomadic, animal-herding lifestyle in sparsely populated land east of the Israelites.

Clearly, the Bible tells us that Ishmael’s brothers were the Israelites and the Egyptians, and that his descendants will dwell among them in hostility. But the question is how was this prophecy fulfilled?

The Hyksos ("ruler(s) of foreign lands"), in modern Egyptology, are the kings of the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt (fl. c. 1650–1550 BC). Their seat of power was the city of Avaris in the Nile Delta, from where they ruled over Lower Egypt and Middle Egypt up to Cusae.

While Manetho portrayed the Hyksos as invaders and oppressors, this interpretation is questioned in modern Egyptology. Instead, Hyksos rule might have been preceded by groups of Canaanite peoples who gradually settled in the Nile Delta from the end of the Twelfth Dynasty onwards and who may have seceded from the crumbling and unstable Egyptian control at some point during the Thirteenth Dynasty.

While most scholars believe the Hyksos started to rule Egypt during the Fifteenth Dynasty, the idea that the Hyksos started to rule lower Egypt as early and concurrent with the Thirteenth Dynasty and part of the Fourteenth Dynasty is proposed by Egyptologist Kim Ryholt who believe that the 14th Dynasty emerged during the late 12th Dynasty, ca. 1805 BC, during or shortly after Sobekneferu's rule. He contends that the local Canaanite population residing in the eastern Delta [presumably the Hyksos] declared their independence and staved off possible attempts from the 13th Dynasty Memphite kings to recover the Delta. 

However, by looking at the growth by immigration of Canaanites (presumably Hyksos) in Avaris, one can conclude that the Hyksos were already present in Egypt sometime 1830 BC during the reign of Amenemhat III,and at least 25 years earlier than Ryholt suggested:

Avaris (Egyptian: ḥw.t wꜥr.t, sometimes hut-waret) was the Hyksos capital of Egypt located at the modern site of Tell el-Dab'a in the northeastern region of the Nile Delta. Amenemhet I (12th dynasty) planned a settlement, called Hutwaret (or Avaris) located in the 19th Nome, circa 1930 BC. It was a small Egyptian town until about 1830 BC [which was during the time of Amenemhat III] when it began to grow by immigration of Canaanites (Levant Middle Bronze Age IIA).

In my previous research titled: “Amenemhat IV & Sobekneferu of the 12th Dynasty Egypt were the Pharaoh & Queen of the Exodus in 1487 BC” I proposed that the Exodus happened towards the end of Amenemhat IV’s reign and just before his wife Sobekneferu reigned in his place after he drowned in the Red Sea and leaving no male heir. And because the immigration of Canaanites (presumably the Hyksos) began to grow during the reign of Amenemhat III, the father and predecessor of Pharaoh Amenemhat IV (who I believe was the Pharaoh of the Exodus), this means the Hyksos were already living in Egypt even before the Exodus happened, according to my research.

It is easy to see why the Hyksos (if they were indeed descendants of Ishmael and his Egyptian mother Hagar) were welcomed by the Egyptians, since they were considered by the Egyptians as their brothers and sisters. Also, since I believe the Hyksos actually came shortly before the Exodus and not shortly after it, the Egyptians may have employed them as task masters over the Israelite slaves. The Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt is known to have had many Asiatic immigrants serving as soldiers, household or temple serfs, and various other jobs.

 

And because the Ishmaelites (who I believe were the Hyksos) were knowledgeable of both Hebrew and Egyptian language, this made them invaluable translators and intermediary between the Egyptians and the Israelites. Furthermore,the Ishmaelites being the taskmasters of the Israelite slaves, would have fulfilled the angel’s prophecy of Ishmael’s descendants living in hostility with their Israelite brothers.

Finally, after the overwhelming defeat and decline of Egypt after suffering the Biblical 10 plagues, and after their army was decimated in the Red Sea, the Ishmaelites (or Hyksos) started to live in hostility with their Egyptian brothers when they took control of lower Egypt as its independent rulers of the Fourteenth Dynasty. This hostility between the Ishmaelites (or Hyksos) and the Egyptians continued until their expulsion by Ahmose I, Pharaoh and founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. 

A natural alliance took place between Ishmael’s descendants and Esau’s descendants when Esau married one of the daughters of Ishmael named Mahalath:

Genesis 28: 6-9 Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him to Paddan Aram to take a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he commanded him, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman,” and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and had gone to Paddan Aram. Esau then realized how displeasing the Canaanite women were to his father Isaac; so he went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham, in addition to the wives he already had.

According to Genesis 21: 20-21 Ishmael married an Egyptian selected by his Egyptian mother, Hagar. This means Ishmael's daughter Mahalath (with his Egyptian wife) whom Esau married was Egyptian as well via the custom of matrilineality. According to a research titled ”The Ancient Egyptian Family: Kinship and Social Structure” by Troy D. Allen:

 

Scholars in Egyptology have often debated the following question: was the ancient Egyptian society organized along patrilineal or matrilineal lines? In taking a fresh and innovative look at the ancient Egyptian family, Allen attempts to solve this long-standing puzzle. Allen argues that the matrilineal nature of the ancient Egyptian family and social organization provides us with the key to understanding why and how ancient Egyptian women were able to rise to power.

Matrilineality is the tracing of kinship through the female line. Strontium isotope analysis of the Canaanite inhabitants (the Hyksos) of Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period Avaris didn't find more males moving into the region, but instead found a sex bias towards females, with a high proportion of 77% of females being non-locals. And this I believe was due to ancient Egyptians’ custom of Matrilineality.

I believe that just like the Ishmaelites, (who descended from Hagar the Egyptian, and Ishmael’s Egyptian wife), the Edomites (who descended from Esau’s Egyptian wife and daughter of Ishmael: Mahalath), were treated by the ancient Egyptians as their own brothers and sisters, which would allow them to immigrate to Egypt without opposition.  I also believe Esau’s descendants through his third wife Mahalath were the Shasu branch of the Edomites. (Esau had 2 previous wives who were both Hittites, namely Judith and Basemath and their descendants constituted 2 other branches of the Edomites - see Genesis 26: 34-35). 

Now if the Shasu were indeed Esau’s descendants through his wife Mahalath, daughter of Ishmael, it is easy to see why the Shasu were worshippers of YHWH. This is because according to Genesis 26: 34-35, “God was with the boy as he (Ishmael) grew up”  which implies that Ishmael must have been a worshipper of YHWH:

Two Egyptian texts, one dated to the period of Amenhotep III (14th century BCE), the other to the age of Ramesses II (13th century BCE), refer to tꜣ šꜣśw yhwꜣ, i.e. "The Land of the Shasu yhwꜣ", in which yhwꜣ (also rendered as yhw) or Yahu, is a toponym. Regarding the name yhwꜣ, Michael Astour observed that the "hieroglyphic rendering corresponds very precisely to the Hebrew Tetragrammaton YHWH.

Edom was an ancient kingdom that stretched across areas in the south of present-day Jordan and Israel. The Hebrew word Edom means "red", and the Hebrew Bible relates it to the name of its founder Esau, the elder son of the Hebrew patriarch Isaac, because he was born "red all over". As a young adult, he sold his birthright as firstborn to his brother Jacob for a portion of "red pottage". The Tanakh describes the Edomites as descendants of Esau.

The Edomites may have been connected with the Shasu and Shutu, nomadic raiders mentioned in Egyptian sources. Indeed, a letter from an Egyptian scribe at a border fortress in the Wadi Tumilat during the reign of Merneptah reports movement of nomadic "shasu-tribes of Edom" to watering holes in Egyptian territory. Though their homeland seems to be in the Transjordan, the Shasu also appear in Canaan, Syria and even Egypt where some of them also worked as mercenaries for Asiatic and Egyptian armies.

Matrilineality in Judaism or matrilineal descent in Judaism is the tracing of Jewish descent through the maternal line.  Orthodox Judaism maintains that matrilineal descent is an Oral Law from at least the time of the Receiving of the Torah on Mount Sinai during the time of the Exodus. Since the Shasu branch of the Edomites traced their descent from Mahalath, daughter of Ishmael, the angel’s prophecy about Ishmael’s descendants, also apply to the Shasu branch of the Edomites (as per the custom of matrilineality): 

Genesis 16:11-12 The angel of the Lord also said to her: “You are now pregnant and you will give birth to a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the Lord has heard of your misery. He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.”

I believe the Egyptians may have employed the Shasu as task masters over the Israelite slaves, just like the Ishmaelites, and together they formed the Hyksos. This is because the Shasu were knowledgeable of both Hebrew and Egyptian language (being descendants of Mahalath, daughter of Ishmael and Ishmael’s Egyptian wife), making them invaluable translators and intermediary between the Egyptians and the Israelites. Furthermore, the Ishmaelites together with the Shasu, being the taskmasters of the Israelite slaves, would have fulfilled the angel’s prophecy of Ishmael’s descendants living in hostility with their Israelite brothers.

It is interesting to note that the angel described Ishmael (and therefore, his descendants as well) as “a wild donkey of a man”. This is because the Cannanites (or Hyksos) living in Tell el-Dab’a, Egypt practiced donkey burials (which meant donkeys were sacred to their identity):

The tomb styles and methods used to bury the dead in Tell el-Dab’a were Canaanite. Servant and donkey burials are recognized as remarkable burial practices of Tell el-Dab’a. The servant and donkey burials were practiced between 1680 and 1660 BCE. They were most popular during the period of Asiatic immigration at the beginning of the Hyksos reign.