EBAL. A mountain to the north of ancient Shechem close to the modern city of Nablus, and the place of the ceremony of curses in Deuteronomy 27. Joshua built an altar at Ebal (Josh 8:30-35). According to the excavator of the summit of Ebal, this altar has been recovered. His claim has, however, been severely disputed by other archaeologists.
EBENEZER. The place where the Israelites lost the ark of God (see Ark of the Covenant) to the Philistines (1 Sam 4:1-11). It has tentatively been identified with ‘Izbet Sartah close to ancient Aphek. Ebenezer (meaning “stone of help”) shares its name with the stone put up by Samuel between Mizpah and Jeshanah (1 Sam 7:12) commemorating his victory over the Philistines.
EBLA. A city of ancient Syria, located at Tell Mardikh c. 70 kilometers south of Aleppo. Although it is not mentioned in the Old Testament, Ebla gained notoriety in the 1970s, when a large archive was found in this place dating back to the second half of the third millennium B.C.E. In the third millennium B.C.E., it was probably the political center of northern Syria but was destroyed c. 2250 B.C.E. It was rebuilt in the Middle Bronze Age but destroyed again by the Hittites c. 1600 B.C.E. Its archive, counting as much as 17,000 clay tablets, partly in a hitherto unknown West-Semitic language, was formerly believed to include important information about biblical figures. Thus the name of Abraham was identified among the kings of Ebla. However, recent analysis of the written sources from Ebla has made any equation with biblical personalities impossible.
ECONOMY. Ancient Israel was technologically a traditional Mediterranean society. Its survival was based on a mainly agrarian economy, involving more than 90 percent of the total population in the production of basic means of livelihood. That society could also afford to produce food for people in other sectors, such as administration, the army, and the palace including the royal family. The majority of the population was engaged in agriculture including animal production on a limited scale. More specialized animal production was left in the hands of herders and nomads always present but never representing more than a fraction of the total number of people in food production. Most Palestinian cities were small but heavily defended and provided shelter for the peasants in time of distress. The city would have been the center of more specialized crafts and the place where the agricultural sector sold its products. Palestine has little in the way of special products of interest to foreign traders. Its most important crop was probably olives, and the oil produced from olives. Evidently, international trade was a more important source of income, although this trade may not to any great extent have involved products of Palestine itself. However, Palestine’s location as a kind of bridge leading from western Asia to Egypt allowed for an extensive transit of goods from Mesopotamia to Egypt and vice versa, always offering an opportunity for taxation as the trade caravans moved across the Palestinian countryside.
EDOM, EDOMITES. In the Old Testament, Edom and the Edomites are the descendants of Jacob’s brother Esau. Because of this relationship, the reputation of the Edomites in the Old Testament is mixed. Sometimes they were the allies of Israel, at other times they were the subjects of Israelite kings as in the days of David and Solomon. However, more often they acted as enemies to Israel. Thus, in the time of the Israelite migrations in the desert (see Desert, Migrations in the Desert), they denied the Israelites free passage through their country (Num 20:14-21). Historically, the first references to Edom can be found in Egyptian documents of the New Kingdom. However, outside of the Old Testament no evidence is in existence that identifies Edom as a state. Basically, the material culture of the Edomites seems to have been nomadic, and settled communities were rare until late in the Iron Age. However, when Edom emerged as a state, it soon began to compete with the Kingdom of Judah for control of southern Palestine and access to the Gulf of Aqaba. When the Judean state gradually lost importance until it was finally wiped out by the Babylonians (see Assyria and Babylonia), Edom’s influence grew and it gradually won control not only over the Negeb, but also over the southern part of the Judean hill land. In the Hellenistic period, the border between Judea and Edom ran at Beth-Zur between Jerusalem and Hebron.
EGLON, PERSON. The king of the Moabites, who was killed by Ehud (Judg 3:12-30). Eglon, who is described as a “very fat man,” was killed in his bathroom, according to a story that plays mercilessly with his fatness and his servants’ inability to comprehend what was taking place.
EGLON, CITY. A city in the Judean Shephelah, conquered by Joshua (Josh 10:34-35). Its king took part in the Canaanite coalition against Joshua and the Israelites headed by the king of Jerusalem (Josh 10). Its location is disputed, many scholars believing it to be Tell el Hesi in the southern Shephelah c. 10 kilometers south of modern Qiriath Gath. A dissonant voice claims that it should be sought at Tell ‘Aitun c. 40 kilometers southwest of Jerusalem.
EGYPT. Israel’s great southern neighbor and always an important player in the history of ancient Israel and Palestine. Egypt was united at the end of the fourth millennium B.C.E. into one state stretching from the first cataracts of the Nile in the south to the Mediterranean in the north. Egypt’s history can roughly be separated into three periods of greatness—respectively the Old, Middle, and New Kingdom—and three intermediary periods. Its history is subdivided into 30 dynasties or royal families that, according to the list of Egyptian kings presented by the Hellenistic Egyptian historiographer Manetho, ruled Egypt for all of its history until Hellenistic times.
The Old Kingdom was introduced by the Early Dynastic period (c. 3100-2686 B.C.E.), covering dynasty 1-2. This early phase of the history of Egypt was followed by the blossoming era of the Old Kingdom (c. 2686-2183 B.C.E.), the period of the pyramid builders. At the end of the Old Kingdom, the First Intermediary period (c. 2181-2040 B.C.E.) followed—a period of decline and, in the eyes of later Egyptian writers, also of social unrest. In this Intermediary period the natural order was, according to later Egyptian sources, turned upside down: the rich became poor and the poor rich.
The Middle Kingdom (c. 2040-1795 B.C.E.) was the classical period of Egyptian culture and civilization. This period was also followed by one of decline, the Second Intermediary period (c. 1795-1550 B.C.E.). In the eyes of the Egyptians, the most infamous part of this period was dominated by the presence in northern Egypt of foreign rule in the time of the 15th dynasty, the Hyksos dynasty, believed to have consisted of princes of Asiatic origin. The New Kingdom (c. 1550-1069 B.C.E.) followed, a period of greatness when Egypt invaded western Asia and turned into an imperial power that ruled large parts of western Asia, bringing in its early period Egyptian armies to the banks of the Euphrates. Later, during the time of the 18th dynasty, the Hittites forced the Egyptians to reduce their presence in Syria and they had to move back to a line north of Damascus.
The New Kingdom included the Amarna period (see Amarna and the Amarna letters) as well as the time of the Ramessides. Ramesses II (1279-1213 B.C.E.)—often believed to be the Pharaoh of the Exodus—stands out among its many great rulers, not only because of the duration of his reign that covered most of the 13th century B.C.E. but also because of his political achievements and especially the number of monuments from his time that literally litters Egypt. The New Kingdom deteriorated into the Third Intermediate period (c. 1069-656 B.C.E.), when Egypt was not only seriously weakened but also at times ruled by dynasties of foreign origin, including Libyan or Ethiopian dynasties. Egypt never recovered from this weakness to regain its former greatness.
The lowest point of its political history before the conquest of Alexander the Great was reached when Esarhaddon of Assyria in 671 B.C.E. invaded Egypt. However, in the time of the 26th dynasty (664-525 B.C.E.) Egypt experienced its last political successes as an independent state before it was swallowed up at first by the Persian Empire, and, following Alexander the Great’s victory over the Persians, by the Macedonian Empire. After Alexander’s death in 323 B.C.E., Egypt was ruled by the Ptolemies (305-30 B.C.E.), a dynasty named after Ptolemy, one of Alexander’s generals. It finally became part of the Roman Empire, when Augustus removed the last traces of Egyptian independence.
EGYPT AND ISRAEL. Archaeology has excavated many indications of Egyptian presence in southern Palestine already in the days of the Old Kingdom. Indeed, the remains pointing to an Egyptian presence indicate that the southern part of the country was already in the third millennium controlled by Egypt. This presence of Egypt in southern Palestine continued during the Middle Kingdom. From this period, the collections of Execration Texts show an intimate knowledge of rulers and places in Palestine. This period ended by a reversal of fortune when Asians who had migrated to Egypt established a rule in northern Egypt that followed an Asian rather than an Egyptian pattern. It was the time of the Hyksos kings bedeviled by later Egyptian tradition. When the last Pharaohs of the 17th dynasty expelled the Hyksos rulers, Egypt in the time of the 18th dynasty (c.1550-1295 B.C.E.) pressed on and sent its armies into the rear area of the Hyksos and in this way conquered western Asia up to the Euphrates. Until the fourth century, when the Hittites appeared on the Syrian scene, Egypt ruled western Asia, including all of Palestine. From the middle of the fourth century B.C.E., Egypt was challenged by the Hittites and pressed into the defensive until Ramesses II negotiated a lasting peace with the Hittite king that divided Syria between the two great powers of that time, the Hittites and the Egyptians. To the end of the New Kingdom Egypt stayed in control of Palestine.
New studies of the evidence from Beth-Shan, a traditional Egyptian stronghold, have shown that the Egyptians were present here in force as late as the 10th century. Toward the end of the 10th century Pharaoh Shishak directed a campaign against several Palestinian cities, an event also remembered by the Old Testament tradition (1 Kgs 14:25-26), although Shishak in his inscription commemorating the campaign does not mention any Judean city including Jerusalem. After his time, any Egyptian presence in Palestine was sporadic and generally thwarted by other more powerful states. Thus Tirharkah’s abortive campaign in 701 B.C.E. against Sennacherib ended in defeat at Elteqeh. During the revival of Egyptian political aspirations in the time of the Saite dynasty, Pharaoh Necho in 609 B.C.E. moved his army against Charchemish and the Babylonians. On his way he engaged and defeated Josiah of Judah at Megiddo, but his campaign also ended in disaster when his army was routed by the Babylonians (see Assyria and Babylon) at Charchemish.
The biblical traditions about Egypt that concern relations between Israel and Egypt before the time of the monarchy, including the visits of Abraham and Jacob in Egypt, and Joseph, and the Exodus, are all legendary and the reflection of later ideas about Egypt, colored by many years of experience of being the neighbor of Egypt.
EGYPT, RIVER OF. The traditional border between Canaan and Egypt, and the southern border of Judah (Num 34:5). It is located some 10 kilometers south of Gaza. Its modern name is Nahal Besor, in Arabic Wadi Ghazzeh.
EHUD. A Benjaminite who became judge over Israel after having killed the fat King Eglon in his bathroom and in this way liberated Israel from Moab. Although the length of his office is not mentioned, he created a peace for Israel that was to last for 80 years (Judg 3:15-29).
EKRON. In the Old Testament together with Gath, Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ashdod, mentioned as one of the five leading Philistine cities (Josh 13:3). Although it was considered a part of the tribal territory of Judah (Josh 15:11), it never was in Israelite possession. It participated in an anti-Assyrian rebellion but was conquered by Sargon in 712 B.C.E. and became Assyrian territory. Recent excavations at Tel Miqne, the place of ancient Ekron, discovered a major Palestinian city that was founded in the Bronze Age but flourished during the Iron Age. During the excavations, a royal inscription surfaced dating from the early seventh century B.C.E. This inscription mentions a series of kings of Ekron, some of them already known from Assyrian sources.
ELAH. The Old Testament knows of several persons of the name of Elah. The most important is King Elah of Israel (c. 887-886 B.C.E.). He was the son and successor of Baasha but only ruled for two years before he was murdered together with his family in his palace by Zimri, an officer of the chariots (1 Kgs 16:8-14). Apart from the circumstances of his killing, nothing is known of his reign.
ELAH, VALLEY OF. Meaning “the Valley of the Terabinth,” the scene of the duel between David and Goliath, normally identified with Wadi es-Sant c. 23 kilometers southwest of Bethlehem.
ELAM. Since the end of the third millennium B.C.E., Elam was an important state located on the Iranian plateau with Susa as its capital. Most information about Elam comes from Assyrian and Babylonian documents, mainly records of wars and conquests. Toward the middle of the seventh century B.C.E., the Assyrians finally settled with Elam, when they conquered and destroyed Susa, although unable to permanently occupy its territory. In this way they paved the way for Media, a competing power of the region to the east of Mesopotamia that was to become one of its main foes toward the end of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The tradition of Elam including its language—not related to Persian or any Semitic language—survived into the time of the Persian Empire, and this may form the backdrop of the Old Testament tradition about Chedorlaomer, the king of Elam who together with three other great kings invaded Canaan but was defeated by Abraham (Gen 14).
ELEPHANTINE PAPYRI. A collection of Aramaic papyri belonging to a Jewish military colony of the fifth century B.C.E. stationed at the island of Elephantine in Upper Egypt close to Assuan. Although not mentioned in the Old Testament, the documents from this colony provide interesting information that illuminates the history of post-exilic Judaism.
ELHANAN. The name of two of David’s heroes. 1. Elhanan the son of Jair (or Jaare). According to the books of Samuel, Elhanan killed Goliath (2 Sam 21:19); in Chronicles, he killed Goliath’s brother Lahmi (1 Chron 20:5). It has since ancient times been proposed that Elhanan was David’s first name. In this case the name of David may have been a throne name which he acquired upon his ascension to the throne. 2. Elhanan, the son of Dodo from Bethlehem (2 Sam 23:24), sometimes identified with Elhanan, the son of Jair.
ELI. The priest of Shiloh in Samuel’s time (1 Sam 1-4). He is also called a judge in Israel (1 Sam 4:18). His sons took advantage of their position as priests. As a punishment for their misbehavior they were killed in the battle against the Philistines at Ebenezer, although they had carried the ark of the Covenant with them into the battle. The ark was lost to the Philistines. When the message of the catastrophe reached Eli, he fell down from his seat and died. Among his descendants, Ahijah served as a priest at Nob in the days of King Saul (1 Sam 14:3).
ELIAKIM. 1. The original name of King Jehoiakim of Judah (2 Kgs 23:34). 2. The son of Hilkiah and the vizier in Hezekiah’s days who on the kings’s order negotiated with the Assyrian envoys who were sent from Lachish to Jerusalem during the siege in 701 B.C.E. (2 Kgs 18:18-36). When he returned from the negotiations to the king with a harsh answer, Hezekiah sent him to the prophet Isaiah asking for advice and consolation to the king (2 Kgs 19:17).
ELIASHIB. High priest of Jerusalem in the days of Nehemiah. During Nehemiah’s first visit to Jerusalem, Eliashib supported his building project, the restoration of the city defenses (Neh 3:1). When Nehemiah returned from Persia, Eliashib (if it is the same priest of this name) appeared in an alliance with Nehemiah’s enemies, especially Tobiah the Ammonite (Neh 13).
ELIJAH. (Meaning “My God is Yahweh”). A prophet from Tishbe in Gilead who was in opposition to King Ahab and his religious policies. The Old Testament includes a comprehensive tradition about Elijah, mostly legendary but conforming to the Old Testament tradition of the prophets as being the opponents of kings (1 Kgs 17-2 Kgs 2). Elijah is especially famous for his harsh treatment of the priest of Baal after the ordeal at Carmel where he killed 450 prophets of Baal at the brook of Kishon (1 Kgs 18), and for his cursing Jezebel, Ahab’s queen (1 Kgs 21:23-24). This curse was fulfilled when Jehu had her killed at Jezreel (2 Kgs 9:30-37).
ELISHA. The son of Shaphat. Elisha was chosen to be a prophet by Elijah (1 Kgs 19:19-21). The comprehensive corpus of Elisha narratives (2 Kgs 2-13) is mostly legendary and without historical merit but his role as a forceful opponent of the House of Omri may reflect religious competition in the Kingdom of Israel. Elisha was the prophet that anointed Jehu to be the new king (2 Kgs 9:1-13). According to legend, he was also involved in choosing Hazael as the new king of Aram Damascus (2 Kgs 8:7-15).
ELKANAH. The Zuphite, who fulfilled his wife’s vow to God at Shiloh to present her firstborn, the later prophet Samuel, to the temple (1 Sam 1-2).
ELON. A judge in Israel, from the tribe of Zebulon, who was in office for 10 years (Judg 12:11). He belongs to the list of five judges (Judg 10:1-5; 12:8-15) who together judged Israel for 70 years but left no records about their exploits.
ELOTH, ELATH. A city at the northern end of the Gulf of Aqaba close to Ezion-geber. Eloth was Solomon’s seaport and the center of his overseas trade enterprises (1 Kgs 9:26). Eloth probably belonged to the Kingdom of Judah from David to Joram, when it became an Edomite possession (2 Kgs 8:21-22). It was retaken by Uzziah (2 Kgs 14:22), and lost again under Ahaz (2 Kgs 16:5-6). Its present location is still the subject of discussion.
EMPIRE OF DAVID AND SOLOMON. According to the Old Testament, David succeeded in creating an extensive empire that—apart from Israel and Judah—also included the territories to the east of the Jordan River. Here, David either conquered the states of Ammon, Moab, and Edom, or made them tributaries to Israel. In Syria, most of the Aramaean states of western Syria, including Damascus, submitted to Israelite rule, and the Euphrates became the ideal—if not practical—northern border of the Davidic-Solomonic Empire (1 Kgs 5:1: ET 4:24). The Philistines, although never defeated, probably became tributary to Israel, and good relations were entertained with Phoenicia. The Old Testament speaks of insurrections against David’s rule, by his son Absalom and by the tribes of northern Israel (the Rebellion of Sheba), however not about problems with the vassal states at the periphery of the empire.
Things changed during the rule of David’s successor, Solomon. Toward the end of Solomon’s rule, the empire began to fall apart. Edom and Damascus regained their independence, while Solomon handed over a part of northeastern Palestine to the Tyrians (see Tyre) as payment for their contribution to his building activities in Jerusalem. Discontent also grew among the northern Israelite tribes, and a pretender to the throne, Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, had to flee for his life to Egypt, where he was received well.
In recent years, historians have increasingly expressed doubts as to the historicity of the description of the great Israelite empire which has normally been dated to the 10th century B.C.E. One way to minimize the importance of this empire is to reduce its size considerably, claiming that it hardly covered more than Palestine, or perhaps even less, only the basic Israelite territory reaching from Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south. Some scholars simply deny its existence for a number of reasons. Some of these reasons are based on a reevaluation of the archaeological material traditionally dated to the 10th century B.C.E., including many monumental buildings formerly attributed to Solomon but increasingly felt to belong to the time of the dynasty of Omri, but also involving the very existence of Jerusalem in the 10th century B.C.E., which is now contested by a series of archaeologists. Some scholars have pointed to the impossibility of a great Israelite empire in the 10th century because of the international political situation at that time, but this evidence is less conclusive as the 10th century is in general considered a “dark” period which has left little in the way of written documents or monuments. See also UNITED MONARCHY.
EN-GEDI. A spring and oasis in the Desert of Judah close to the Dead Sea c. 55 kilometers southeast of Jerusalem. Mentioned as a city belonging to Judah (Josh 15:62), although the settlement in this place was only founded c. 600 B.C.E. En-Gedi (meaning “the Spring of Goats”) served as a place of refuge for David and his men when he was fleeing from Saul (1 Sam 24).
EPHRAIM (TRIBE). Ephraim was the eponymous father of the tribe of Ephraim. He was the youngest son of Joseph and the brother of Manasseh (Gen 41:52; 48:5). In spite of being the minor, Ephraim was blessed by his father. The tribe of Ephraim was the most important tribe living in the northern part of the central highlands of Palestine. It has been proposed that, historically, the name of Ephraim may be based on a geographical name, the Mountains of Ephraim. If this is a correct observation, the tribe of Ephraim is likely to be of Palestinian origin. The historical origin of the tribe cannot be traced in detail, but it must be related to the appearance of an extensive village culture in the highlands between 1200 and 1000 B.C.E. In the Period of the Monarchy, Ephraim seems to have lost ground to its northern neighbor, the tribe of Manasseh. The capital of the Northern Kingdom of Israel was placed, not within the territory of Ephraim, but on Manassite soil and this in spite of the fact that Jeroboam, the first king of Israel, was a man from the tribe of Ephraim. In the prophetic literature of the Old Testament, Ephraim is often used as a second name of the Kingdom of Israel.
EPHRAIM (PLACE NAME). The name of the place where Absalom murdered his brother Amnon (2 Sam 13:23), normally identified with Baal-Hazor 22 kilometers north of Jerusalem.
EPHRATA. In the Old Testament Ephrata appears as the name of a lineage or clan within Caleb or Judah. This family group was related genealogically to the family of David. Thus David’s father Jesse is reckoned among its members (1 Sam 17:12). At the same time Ephrata may also mean the area inhabited by this group, including Bethlehem, and finally Bethlehem itself.
EPHRON. A Hittite who sold his field with its cave to Abraham as Abraham’s grave cave (Gen 23).
ESARHADDON. King of Assyria (681-669 B.C.E.), the son and successor of Sennacherib. Esarhaddon was appointed heir to the Assyrian throne by his father, who at the same time ignored his older brothers. After the murder of Sennacherib (see 2 Kgs 19:37), Esarhaddon had to defend his claim to the throne against his brothers. Esarhaddon changed the Assyrian Babylonian policy that during the reign of Sennacherib had led to the destruction of the city of Babylon. Esarhaddon procured the means for the rebuilding of the famous cultural center of Mesopotamian civilization. His military activities were mostly restricted to restoring order in rebellious provinces and securing the borders of the empire. One campaign went to the capital of Urartu to arrest the murderers of Sennacherib who had fled to Urartu. From 679 B.C.E., his foreign policy changed and he sent his armies against Egypt, an enterprise that was crowned with success eight years later, in 671 B.C.E. Two years later he died on the way to Egypt, on a campaign intended to consolidate the Assyrian control over that country. Esarhaddon is only mentioned in the Old Testament in connection with the note about the murder of Sennacherib (2 Kgs 19:37). However, in his inscriptions, Esarhaddon mentions among his vassals King Manasseh of Judah.
ESAU. The oldest son of Isaac and Rebecca, and the brother of Jacob who cheated him for his right as firstborn (Gen 27). Esau married two Hittite women (Gen 26:34). With his Hittite wives he moved to Seir (Gen 36). When Jacob returned from his service in the house of his uncle Laban, he encountered Esau at Penuel and the two brothers were reconciled (Gen 33). In the Old Testament Esau is reckoned the heroic ancestor of Edom and the Edomites.
ESHKOL AND THE VALLEY OF ESHKOL. Eshkol (meaning “cluster”) was an Amorite united with Abraham (Gen 14:13-14). He is generally reckoned a personification of the valley of Eshkol close to Hebron, and visited by Moses’ spies (Num 13:23) who brought back a cluster of grapes from the Valley of Eshkol that could only be transported by two grown-up men.
ESHTAOL. A city in the territory of Dan (Josh 19:41), in the homeland of the hero Samson (Judg 13:25). Eshtaol is usually identified with an archaeological site near the Arab village of Ishwa, a few kilometers northeast of Beth-Shemesh.
ESTHER, THE BOOK OF ESTHER. The Book of Esther tells the story about Esther the Jewish queen of King Ahasuerus (that is, Xerxes) of Persia who saved her father Mordecai and her people from death and persecution. It is a romantic novel from the Hellenistic period with little or no historical foundation. It is often assumed that the name of Esther is based on the name of the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar, and the name of her father on the name of the Babylonian god Marduk.
ETHBAAL. King of Tyre and the father of Jezebel (1 Kgs 16:31). According to Josephus, who calls him Itobalos (Phoenician Ittoba’al), he ruled Tyre for 32 years (c. 887-856 B.C.E.). The Old Testament reckons Ethbaal to be king of Sidon, a confusion created by the Tyrian conquest of Sidon.
ETHIOPIA. See CUSH.
ETHNICITY. See NATION.
ETIOLOGY, ETIOLOGICAL NARRATIVES. The Old Testament includes a series of stories and short notes supposed to explain the name of a number of localities in ancient Palestine. Normally, such a place is connected with a person or event relating to Israel’s early history. Thus Achan died in the Valley of Achor (Josh 7), and the Midianite princes Oreb and Zeeb were executed on the Rock of Oreb and the winepress of Zeeb (Judg 7:25). Sometimes the Old Testament adds a note, “to this day,” as in the story of the conquest of Ai that was reduced to the ruin “it remains to this day” (Josh 8:28). It is generally assumed that such names are older than the stories attached to them as etiological narratives.
EUPHRATES, THE. One of the two great rivers, the Euphrates and Tigris, that run through Mesopotamia. The Euphrates flows to the west of the Tigris. Its offspring is in Armenia in Asia Minor, and its outlet is in the Persian Gulf. In the Old Testament it is considered one of the four rivers that come out of Paradise (Gen 2:10-14), and it serves as the ideal northern border of the Davidic-Solomonic Empire (1 Kgs 5:1: ET 4:24) (see Empire of David and Solomon). In the Old Testament, it is also called “the Great River” or just “the River”—a testimony to its importance. Also other texts of the Old Testament entertain the idea that the land of Israel ideally runs from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean. Thus, the farewell speech of Joshua at Shechem has a reference to the original homes of the forefathers of the Israelites east of the Euphrates (Josh 24:3), and Abraham transgressed all of Canaan to the west of the Euphrates. This distinction between the territories located east and west of the Euphrates is typical of the Mesopotamian tradition according to which the country to the west of the Euphrates was inhabited by Amorites and Hittites.
EVIL-MERODACH. (Babylonian Amel-Marduk) King of Babylonia (see Assyria and Babylonia) 561-560 B.C.E. Almost no details have survived from his short reign, apart from the important notice in 2 Kings that he freed Jehoiachin from prison and entertained him at the palace, something that is also illustrated by a fragmentary Babylonian inscription recording provisions for the king of Judah.
EVOLUTION MODEL. See SETTLEMENT OF ISRAEL.
EXECRATION TEXTS. The Execration Texts include two collections of Egyptian inscriptions dating from the time of the Middle Kingdom. These texts formed part of a ritual including the cursing of Egypt’s foreign enemies. The Execration Texts mention a series of Palestinian cities—including Jerusalem—and the names of their rulers. These names mainly belong to the Amorite language family. In this way they contribute considerably to the knowledge of the political and social structure of the country in the Middle Bronze Age.
EXILE. See BABYLONIAN EXILE.
EXODUS, BOOK. The second Book of Moses. The Book of Exodus can basically be divided into three sections. The first section includes the story of Moses’ birth and miraculous saving, his wrestling with the Pharaoh about the liberty of the Israelites. It also includes the narrative about the plagues of Egypt and the installation of the Passover (Exod 7-13), and the escape of the Israelites into the desert (Exod 14-15). The second part follows the route of the Israelites to Sinai where God gave his covenant and the Ten Commandments to his people. This section also includes the story of the Golden Calf (Exod 32). The final part includes the first part of the comprehensive legislation at Sinai that only ends in Numbers 10.
EXODUS, HISTORY. The story of the escape of the Israelites from Egypt. The only source of the exodus available is the Book of Exodus 1-15, recording the tribulations of the Hebrews when a Pharaoh assumed power who did not know Joseph (Exod 1:8). This story has been paraphrased by Josephus who enters additional material into his account of the exodus, and by a Jewish Hellenistic writer, Hezekiel, the tragedian (third century B.C.E.) who wrote a tragedy based on the exodus tradition. The Pharaoh of the exodus, who did not know Joseph, put the Israelites to work on the storage cities of Pithom and Rameses (Exos 1:11), but he also wanted to extinguish the Hebrew nation by killing the male children of Israel. The narrative in the Book of Exodus goes on to tell the story of Moses’ miraculous salvation, his life at the Egyptian court, and his escape to Midian. Moses returned from exile to free his people, and after the ten plagues, the Pharaoh felt compelled to let them go. When the Pharaoh followed the fleeing Israelites with his army, the miracle at the Sea of Reeds allowed the Israelites to pass unharmed but the Pharaoh and his army perished when the waters returned.
The debate about the historicity of the exodus has been intense since the 18th century C.E. when doubts were cast on the great number of Israelites leaving Egypt counting 600,000 men plus women and children (Exod 12:37), perhaps as many as 3,500,000 people. As it was said at that time, given the short distance from Egypt to Canaan, the last Israelite would not have left Egypt before the first had entered Canaan. In the 19th and 20th centuries, when scholars became able to read the Egyptian documents and inscriptions after the deciphering of the hieroglyphs, it was soon recognized that no Egyptian source mentions an exodus of any large population group as described in the Old Testament. Since the discovery of the mummies of the Pharaohs in the royal cache it has also been difficult to maintain that an Egyptian Pharaoh of the 18th or 19th dynasty drowned in the Sea of Reeds—especially not Ramesses II (1279-1212 B.C.E.), usually considered the Pharaoh of the exodus narrative. The tendency among scholars is either to reject any historicity of the exodus event, or to reduce the scale of this event considerably, turning it into an insignificant occasion totally ignored by the Egyptian authorities of the past. A third possibility is to consider the exodus story an Israelite variant of the Egyptian tradition about the expulsion of the Hyksos, something that happened not in the fourth century but in the sixth century B.C.E. This possibility was already chosen by the Jewish historiographer Josephus.
EZEKIEL. The third of the great prophets of the Old Testament. He was one of the people deported by King Nebuchadnezzar after his first conquest of Jerusalem in 597 B.C.E. He lived in the colony of deported people at Tel-Abib close to the ancient city of Nippur at the Kebar canal in central Mesopotamia. His book includes information relating to the final fall of Jerusalem in 587 B.C.E., something that indicates that he worked and prophesied between 593 and 573 B.C.E. His prophecies concentrate on the reasons for the catastrophe that struck Judah and Jerusalem. The last chapters in his book include a vision of the new temple that was going to be built sometime in the future (Ezek 40-48). Thus the Book of Ezekiel is generally believed to be a testimony to the feelings and sentiments among the exiled Judeans during the first part of the Babylonian exile.
EZION-GEBER. A seaport at the Gulf of Aqabah mentioned as a campaign station of the Israelites during their migrations in the desert (see Desert, Migrations in the Desert) (Num 33:35). It was the basis of Solomon’s trade on Ophir (1 Kgs 9:26), an enterprise which Jehoshaphat failed to reestablish (1 Kgs 22:49). Its location has not yet been firmly established, although several places have been proposed, such as Tell el-Khuleifeh close to modern Elath, and Djezirat Far‘un south of Elath.
EZRA, THE BOOK OF EZRA. In the Book of Ezra, Ezra “the Scribe” is characterized as the father of Judaism. He was sent to Jerusalem in the seventh year of Artaxerxes, the king of Persia. The aim of his mission was to teach the Jews the Law. When Ezra, himself a descendant of Aaron and of the family of the high priest, arrived, he was shocked by the general religious situation and began to reform the Jewish community in Jerusalem, among other things by banishing mixed marriages between Jews and non-Jews (Ezra 9-10). The Book of Nehemiah adds more traditions about Ezra’s mission to Jerusalem. He recited the Law of Moses in front of the assembled Jews (Neh 8), arranged for the festival of the Succoth (Neh 8), and after having confessed its sins, the people was obliged to keep the covenant (Neh 9-10).
Historically, the mission of Ezra is difficult to access. According to the Old Testament, he was the son of Sereiah and the great grandson of the high priest Hilkiah, although Sereiah was executed by the Babylonians (see Assyria and Babylonia) in 587 B.C.E. Also the date of his arrival is uncertain. He arrived in Jerusalem in Artaxerxes’ seventh year. However, there were three kings of Persia of this name, all three of them possible candidates. Ezra thus arrived in Jerusalem either in 459 B.C.E., 398 B.C.E., or 352 B.C.E. Most scholars have agreed on the year of 398 B.C.E., but the two other possibilities cannot be totally excluded. Although the Book of Nehemiah reckons Ezra to be a contemporary of Nehemiah, most scholars are of the conviction that Ezra’s mission followed later than Nehemiah’s appearance in Jerusalem and rebuilding of the city. A few scholars have entertained the idea that Ezra was a legendary rather than a historical figure.
Apart from the history of Ezra, the book carrying his name constitutes a continuation of the Books of the Chronicles. It opens with a description of the return from the Babylonian Exile and the rebuilding of the temple of Jerusalem.