Spying in the Bible 9 - 1442 BC - 1406 BC

Try Before You Spy

The consequences for Moses' failure were quite severe for both the entire nation as well as the individuals involved. The punishment for the entire nation was forty years of hard times wandering in the desert and most of them not being able to see the Promised Land. The spies who spread the bad report were immediately killed with the plague as their punishment. Moses should have never allowed these breakdowns in the Intelligence Cycle, because when he did the operation suffered from political issues. However, Caleb and Joshua were exempt from the punishment because of their faithfulness during the mission, so they were to be allowed to enter the Promised Land (Numbers 14:28-34).

“As surely as I live,” declares the LORD, “I will do to you the very thing I heard you say: In this wilderness your bodies will fall—every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me. Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected. But as for you, your bodies will fall in this wilderness. Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the wilderness. For forty years—one year for each of the forty days you explored the land—you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you.”

From Kadesh, the Israelites traveled south back toward the Red Sea, and then wandered around the desert for thirty eight more years, until God told them it was time to head back north through modern day Jordan. The Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) is the Jewish remembrance of the Hebrews living in tents and worshiping in the Tabernacle for forty years. This is celebrated around October and so was combined with a Feast of the Harvest. When the Israelites finally headed back north to begin their campaign to occupy the Promised Land, they passed through Edom (also referred to as Seir), which was given to the descendants of Esau, and then through Moab (also referred to as Ar), which was given to the descendants of Lot.

While going through these foreign lands, they were careful not to provoke them, getting permission to travel through the land, and paying for what they used. They did not want to waste their resources on a long war campaign before they even got to the land they were going to invade. When the Israelites arrived at the eastern border of Canaan, just north of the Dead Sea, they began their military campaigns to retake the Promised Land. These campaigns involved numerous recorded instances of espionage.

The first campaign in the invasion of the Promised Land began with the Amorites, just north of Moab. God told the Israelites to take possession of the land, but more interestingly from a military perspective, he told them why. This campaign was more important as a psychological operation (PSYOP) than as a military victory. God’s instruction to the Israelites was to take control of the Amorite lands, and once that was done the rest of Canaan would be afraid of them. Harming the enemy’s morale is important at this point because this was just the first battle in a long war (Deuteronomy 2:24b-25)

“See, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his country. Begin to take possession of it and engage him in battle. This very day I will begin to put the terror and fear of you on all the nations under heaven. They will hear reports of you and will tremble and be in anguish because of you.”

Moses explains his plan of entering enemy territory with a plot of denial and deception. He proposed to ask the Amorites for permission to travel through their land, just as they had passed through Edom and Moab until the cross the Jordan, north of the Dead Sea (Deuteronomy 2:26-29).

From the Desert of Kedemoth I sent messengers to Sihon king of Heshbon offering peace and saying, “Let us pass through your country. We will stay on the main road; we will not turn aside to the right or to the left. Sell us food to eat and water to drink for their price in silver. Only let us pass through on foot — as the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir, and the Moabites, who live in Ar, did for us—until we cross the Jordan into the land the Lord our God is giving us.”

Since God had already tasked them with invading this land, this was a tactic to get his army behind enemy lines and catch them by surprise. However, King Sihon did not believe that the Israelites had a peaceful intent, so he sent his army against the Israelites. This delayed the conquest because even though Israel won that battle, they could only get as far as the Ammonites led by King Og, who had a fortified border. To get past that, Moses sent out spies to find out how to infiltrate that border (Numbers 21:23-24,31-32)

But Sihon would not let Israel pass through his territory. He mustered his entire army and marched out into the wilderness against Israel. When he reached Jahaz, he fought with Israel. Israel, however, put him to the sword and took over his land from the Arnon to the Jabbok, but only as far as the Ammonites, because their border was fortified.... So Israel settled in the land of the Amorites. After Moses had sent spies to Jazer, the Israelites captured its surrounding settlements and drove out the Amorites who were there.

There is little information about how many spies were sent to Jazer or how Moses administered their mission, but it appears that Moses learned from his past mistakes. The fact that the spies are not named probably indicates he did not pick political leaders like he did thirty eight years earlier. Moses then promised the tribes of Reuben and Gad and half of the tribe of Manasseh the land they had conquered so far east of the Jordan as their inheritance. Once the Israelites had reached the Jordan River, Moses named Joshua (one of the original twelve leaders and spies) as his successor to the people, because he knew that God would not let him in the Promised Land. At this point, Moses set up a system of laws, rules, and regulations for governing once they took over the Promised Land and instituted a system of Judges to preside over them. He then said goodbye to his people, gave them a blessing, and died at 120 years old. Joshua took over as leader of the Israelites and was involved the second major espionage campaign recorded in the Bible.

Spying in the Bible 8 - 1442 BC

Moses' Disaster as Spymaster (2)

The fourth step in the intelligence cycle is supposed to be Analysis and Production, where the raw intelligence is given to analysts to integrate and interpret all known information, make connections, find patterns, establish significance, and finally make assessments and conclusions. This analysis is supposed to be documented in a “finished intelligence” product, which would be given to the policy and decision makers. However, this step was not taken by the Israelites in this mission, to their great detriment.

The fifth step in the Intelligence Cycle is Dissemination and Explanation of the finished intelligence to the end user, but because there was no analysis done to create a finished intelligence product, the raw intelligence was disseminated. Worse than that, though, the report was given directly from the spies to the people, who were the end users of the intelligence and even civilians (Numbers 13:26-29).

They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.”

The major mistake with this report is that is was given in a public forum to the people as a whole. It should have been given to a few policy makers who decided what course of action to take based on the report. Yet, even then, the spies came back with a unanimous report of the facts, regarding the towns, number and location of the enemy, land features, and the fact that the land was "flowing with milk and honey.” The one type of information they did not bring back was the attitudes and temperaments of the people. That information was not specifically tasked, which it should have been, but professionals would have known to gather it and discuss it.

Unfortunately, the debriefing of the spies did not end there, with the dissemination of the facts, but continued with the conclusions drawn by the spies and their policy recommendations based on those conclusions (Numbers 13:30-32).

Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”

But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”

This is the point where the mission actually failed. Spies should never have policy input (especially these spies, who were also end users and military leaders as described previously). Also, dissemination of the intelligence product should never include policy recommendations, which should be left to the policy makers. Even Caleb, whose intentions were pure in following God’s direction, should have kept his mouth shut like Joshua did. In this part of the report, instead of just sticking to the facts, the other spies exaggerated and added in guesses as to what the enemy thought of them. They could not actually know that they would seem like “grasshoppers” in the eyes of the enemy “giants”. This is also why the spies should not have been the ones disseminating the report. They are biased based on what they saw. Instead, analysts should have taken their information and presented it objectively, with as little bias as possible.

The last step in the Intelligence Cycle process is called Evaluation and Feedback, where the end users give their assessment of the product presented to them and make policy decisions based on the briefing. Many times new questions arise based on the information that was acquired, which can initiate more tasking to get more information. Also, feedback is often given on the information presented and what the end users thought of it, how useful it was, and the like. The Israelites populous did give the spies evaluation and feedback on this mission (Numbers 14:1-2,6-7,10).

That night all the members of the community raised their voices and wept aloud. All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, “If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this wilderness!...

Joshua son of Nun and Caleb son of Jephunneh, who were among those who had explored the land, tore their clothes and said to the entire Israelite assembly, “The land we passed through and explored is exceedingly good. But the whole assembly talked about stoning them.

The evaluation given of the intelligence was that it would have been better if the whole Hebrew people were already dead and the feedback to the spies who tried to convince them otherwise was that they should be stoned to death. The people took this position based on the personal views of the influential leaders who had done the spying, not because of the intelligence facts, which were actually all positive. The public discussion of the operation resulted in damaging Moses' authority and led to a loss of the people's confidence in their God, their leaders, and their collective abilities. Ultimately, this overall effort consisted of a successful espionage mission, but an unsuccessful campaign.

Spying in the Bible 7 - 1444 BC to 1442 BC

Moses' Disaster as Spymaster (1)

After wandering through the desert, Moses recalls how the operation to invade Canaan began with the Israelite people’s request to send spies to infiltrate enemy territory. They were to provide reconnaissance on both the land and the current inhabitants in the land back for the military to prepare for the invasion (Deuteronomy 1:20-22).

Then I said to you, “You have reached the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us. See, the Lord your God has given you the land. Go up and take possession of it as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, told you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”

Then all of you came to me and said, “Let us send men ahead to spy out the land for us and bring back a report about the route we are to take and the towns we will come to.”

Because every able-bodied man within the community was also in the army, this was an intelligence request from the military, making this the first recorded user-originated intelligence collection requirement ever recorded. Moses continues to say that he thought it was a good idea in verse twenty three, but since God had told the Israelites just to go and take the land, Moses first had to obtain approval from Him for the operation, which God grants (Numbers 13:1-2a).

“The LORD said to Moses, ‘Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites.’”

Once the user originated collection requirement was approved, it began a process called the Intelligence Cycle. The intelligence cycle is a series of steps followed in an intelligence gathering mission from the first steps of defining the requirement of the mission to the last of evaluation and feedback of the mission. It is a cycle because often time the mission will gain insights and bring up more questions, leading to more tasking an requirements for follow up missions. A diagram of the intelligence cycle is shown in the below figure.

Policy makers begin the cycle with a request for information (“a report about the route we are to take and the towns we will come to”) necessary to make a policy decision on how to meet an objective (how to invade the Promised Land). This first step in the Intelligence cycle is called Tasking and Requirements. The next step is referred to as Planning and Direction, where management (Moses) develops the “collection plan” and gives instructions to the assets (the twelve spies) on how to carry it out. So Moses picked twelve spies, each a leader from a different tribe and gave them instructions (Numbers 13:17b-21a).

“Go up through the Negev and on into the hill country. See what the land is like and whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many. What kind of land do they live in? Is it good or bad? What kind of towns do they live in? Are they unwalled or fortified? How is the soil? Is it fertile or poor? Are there trees in it or not? Do your best to bring back some of the fruit of the land.”

Here Moses used twelve important people, who were well known leaders and even named in the Bible. The twelve spies were Shammua son of Zaccur, from the tribe of Reuben; Shaphat son of Hori, from the tribe of Simeon; Caleb son of Jephunneh, from the tribe of Judah; Igal son of Joseph, from the tribe of Issachar; Joshua son of Nun, from the tribe of Ephraim; Palti son of Raphu, from the tribe of Benjamin; Gaddiel son of Sodi, from the tribe of Zebulin; Gaddi son of Susi, from the tribe of Manassah; Ammiel son of Gemalli, from the tribe of Dan; Sethur son of Michael, from the tribe of Asher; Nahbi son of Vophsi, from the tribe of Naphtali; and Geuel son of Maki, from the tribe of Gad.

There are three major problems with this decision of picking those twelve men to be the spies for the mission. First of all, the selection of tribal leaders appears to be for political reasons because as leaders they all would have had political and military responsibilities within their own tribes. This would have been a large conflict of interest, because the spies would have also been involved in any military or diplomatic action based on the information they brought back. The people collecting the intelligence should not also be the end users and they should not be in involved in political decisions regarding the use of what they learned. How could they have possibly been objective?

Second, the entire population knew about the details of the operation, including who was going and what they were doing. This is very poor operation security (OPSEC), as any foreign spies could have gotten the details of the mission from any civilian. Assets sent out for collection should remain anonymous for their protection as well as the success of the mission.

Lastly, all twelve of the spies were espionage amateurs with no training or experience, which is probably why Moses’ instructions were so detailed. It is usually best to give much broader guidance to professionals, so that they have freedom to improvise during missions. To be fair, the people were recently liberated slaves, so there probably were few to no professional spies among them. However, even with these issues the twelve spies actually, successfully completed their mission and all of its objectives, and did so without being discovered by the enemy. This information gathering to make “raw intelligence” (their overall assessment of the enemy and the territory) is the third step in the Intelligence Cycle known as collection and processing.

Spying in the Bible 6 - 1446 BC to 1444 BC

Parting of Ways (and Waves)

After Moses asked Pharoah to let his people go into the wilderness for three days, Pharaoh responded that he did not want to lose his workforce for that long, so he denied their request. Moses and Aaron then said that if they did not do it, God would kill the Israelites for disobeying and then Egypt would lose its slave labor workforce forever. Of course, this was a bluff because God had no intention of destroying his people. The Pharaoh still refused the request and continued to do so through a series of plagues that God brought upon Egypt. Pharaoh finally decided to let them go after the last plague of death to every firstborn son in Egypt, including Pharaoh’s own son. Indeed his son that later took the throne was Thutmosis IV, who was not his original heir and crown prince (Exodus 12:29-31).

At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well. Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.

During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Up! Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the Lord as you have requested.

The Angel of Death that killed all the firstborn sons passed over the doorways of the houses that had the blood of a sacrificial lamb on them. This was later commemorated as the Passover, or Pesach. And so, in c. 1446 BC, the Israelite people left their residence and bondage in Egypt. They left in such a hurry that they did not have time to add yeast to their dough. The Festival of Unleavened Bread later commemorated the first seven days of the Exodus out of Egypt. During that time, Pharaoh’s spies must have been keeping tabs on the Israelites because Pharaoh found out right away that they were running away and then went after them to not lose his nation’s workforce (Exodus 14:5-6).

When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, “What have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services!” So he had his chariot made ready and took his army with him.

The Israelites did escape though, through the parting of the sea, which also swept away Pharaoh’s army. They then spent three months traveling to Mount Sinai. On their way, the Amalekites attacked the Israelites, thinking they were easy prey to plunder, but the Israelites defeated them and vowed to fight them throughout the generations. When the Israelites arrived at Mount Sinai, God made a covenant with the people to preserve them and they made the tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant.

The Ark of the Covenant contained the stone tablets with the Ten Commandments along with a jar of manna and later Aaron’s rod, the first Torah scroll written by Moses, and probably the first Book of Kings. The Festival celebrating the covenant with God’s people and the giving of the Ten Commandments was called Pentecost, or Shavuot. In modern times Pentecost is celebrated around the month of May and so it is also marks the beginning of the harvest and the dedication of the first fruits.

However, the Israelite people resisted Moses’ attempts to unify them and lead them, even though he was the most qualified leader due to his upbringing. Moses’ response to their rebellion against him and God is that he had his loyal spies kill three thousand dissenters within their own ranks so that foreign spies would know the Israelites were a real army and not a “laughingstock” (Exodus 32:25-28).

Moses saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstock to their enemies. So he stood at the entrance to the camp and said, “Whoever is for the Lord, come to me.” And all the Levites rallied to him.

Then he said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.’” The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died.

The Israelites then continued on their way for two years, during which time they were organizing and receiving training in both spiritual and secular law as well as military training. During the giving of the law, the Feast of Trumpets, (Yom Teruah) was established. This festival involves the blowing of a ram's horn, or shofar, to call the people to prepare for the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). Later, the Feast of Trumpets became the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah) and is celebrated in September. The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) is the most solemn day of the Jewish year. On this day, the High Priest sacrificed sin offerings to atone all the sins of the people and entered the Most Holy Place in either the tabernacle or the temple to offer incense.

The Israelites were organized into twelve tribes, which were defined by the descendants of the twelve sons of Israel. Each tribe had its own tribal leaders who had essentially full control over their own tribes. Moses was the overall leader of the tribes, but only got involved in societal matters of extreme importance and by the request of the tribal leaders.

At last, the Israelites arrived in the Desert of Paran, just south of the Canaan, the Promised Land. The first thing Moses did to prepare for his move against the southern border of Canaan was to get the order of battle of his troops (the size and condition of his army). This was done by taking a census and is recorded in the book of Numbers. That is why the census results were reported in men who were able to serve in the army. The next step in the campaign was to get the order of battle for their enemy, which was done by sending twelve spies into Canaan. That campaign is the first detailed description in written history of a full intelligence operation.

Spying on the Bible 5 - 1526 BC to 1446 BC

Go Down Moses: The Effective Defector

Because Moses was adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter, who was also the heiress of Egypt, he grew up in the royal family and lived there until he was forty years old. Being raised there, he would have been given a royal education, which would have comprised political and military training, including espionage tradecraft. This assumption is verified and affirmed by Josephus (Antiquities of the Jews, Book II, Chapter 9).

Thermuthis therefore perceiving him to be so remarkable a child, adopted him for her son, having no child of her own. And when one time had carried Moses to her father, she showed him to him, and said she thought to make him her successor, if it should please God she should have no legitimate child of her own.... And the king was not hasty to slay him, God himself, whose providence protected Moses, inclining the king to spare him. He was, therefore, educated with great care.

When Moses had grown up, his adopted mother’s biological son and heir, Thutmosis III had become Pharaoh and began a war with Ethiopia. In fact, he has been called the Napoleon of Ancient Egypt for this and other campaigns. Josephus explains how Moses, because of his education and training became the General of the Army invading Ethiopia and that during that time, the Ethiopian king’s daughter fell in love with him because she admired his bravery and believed him to “be the author of the Egyptians’ success.” Moses agreed to marry her on the condition that she would help him “procure the delivering up of the city” which she did. The Bible also mentions Moses having an Ethiopian wife in Numbers 12:1. Moses agreeing to marry the Ethiopian for help with his conquest could be considered the earliest recorded instance of an espionage tactic known as a honey trap, which is involves sexual seduction, for short term gain, recruitment, or blackmail.

Even though Moses had faithfully served Egypt up to that point, when Moses was forty years old he became a defector-in-place, switching allegiances to his Israelite kinsmen, but retaining his position of authority in the royal household. Unfortunately, Pharaoh must have had informants who turned Moses in, forcing him to leave Egypt quickly and quietly (Exodus 2:11-15a).

[Moses] saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?”

The man said, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses was afraid and thought, “What I did must have become known.” When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled....

After forty years in Exile, when Amenhotep II was Pharaoh, God told the eighty year old Moses to go back to Egypt and resume his role as an agent for the Israelites. This time God appointed Moses’ biological brother Aaron as his handler, or case agent with the Israelites. Aaron would vouch for his brother’s loyalty to the Israelites and act as a liaison between them. The Israelites would probably not have accepted Moses otherwise, thinking him a spy from the royal household. Moses, being a military general, would have known that his only resource was the people, but these people were poor, uneducated, superstitious, poorly equipped, not unified, and untrained. Leading this uprising Moses would have also known that his people would be antagonists against a vastly superior force and they had no allies. Therefore, Moses would have figured out that his only military advantage was to use God’s plan of deception and the element of surprise that it gave them. Of course following that plan also took faith that God would protect and preserve his chosen people (Exodus 5:1-5).

Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go, so that they may hold a festival to me in the wilderness.’”

Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.”

Then they said, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Now let us take a three-day journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God, or he may strike us with plagues or with the sword.”

But the king of Egypt said, “Moses and Aaron, why are you taking the people away from their labor? Get back to your work!” Then Pharaoh said, “Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you are stopping them from working.”

Moses and Aaron asked Pharaoh to let the Israelites go on a three-day journey into the wilderness to let them hold a festival and make sacrifices and then return to Egypt. This was a cover story, because they had no intention of coming back to Egypt, but Pharaoh did not know that. This was a very good cover story, because saying they were required to make sacrifices would have been a good excuse to take their livestock with them, which were their most valuable possessions. Also, the wilderness they were going to was not a hospitable land and would be difficult to survive in, without God’s help. Lastly, from Pharaoh’s perspective, the Israelites would be crazy to run away, because the Egyptian army could chase them down and destroy them quite easily.

Spying in the Bible 4 - 1876 BC to 1526 BC

Israel Walks Like an Egyptian

When Joseph threw his brothers in jail, he, of course, knew that they were not spies, showing the idea that a government or government official could, and would, falsely accusing people of espionage for gain. Then, after keeping them in prison for three days, Joseph decided to let all but one of them go, instead of his original plan of only letting one go. If the brothers had been more educated on espionage, they would have realized that this was an indication he did not really believe they were spies and that he had ulterior motives. Keeping only one spy would have not been a good counterintelligence strategy, because a single country with a captured spy would not be able to force the other ten to retrieve their asset, so he would have just been disavowed and left in enemy hands. Also, most likely no single spy would have known the entire plan, so having only one to interrogate would not be as good as having ten. Lastly, having multiple spies to interrogate would increase the likelihood of “breaking” one of them to getting more information. While one might hold out, it would be unlikely all ten could.

So why did Joseph accuse his brothers of spying when he knew they were not spies? First of all, that particular story of them being spies would have been a believable cover story. A military attack from the Canaanites would have been a justified fear of the Egyptians. Just over one hundred years after this the Hyksos, who had Canaanite names and worshiped Semetic gods such as Anath and Ba’al, did invade and take over much of Lower Egypt, ushering in the Second Intermediate Period.

Foremost on Joseph’s mind though, accusing his brothers of spying was a cover story to throw them in jail as a method of keeping them around for a few days. This was done to gather intelligence about his family, since he had not seen them in at least twenty years. Then, using the knowledge he gained, he would be able to reunite with them and move them to Egypt to be closer to him. Because this event took place in the period it did of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom it was a rare time when a Semite could have risen to some degree of power and prestige within the government. In fact, only seventy four years later Egypt would have its first Semitic Pharaoh.

Shortly after the time Joseph’s family moved to Egypt, the second Intermediate Period in Egypt lasted for just over two hundred years and was full of war and disarray in Egypt. This is important because it was also a time when the Israelites could thrive as a people with their distant kinsmen (the Canaanites) in charge of the kingdom. Therefore, after around 350 years of thriving in the second half of the Middle Bronze Age, the Israelites had prospered and multiplied in Egypt (Exodus 1:6-7).

Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them.

During the time the Hyksos took over Memphis, the native ruling family in Thebes declared its independence and set itself up as the Seventeenth Dynasty. This dynasty eventually drove the Hyksos out of Egypt, allowing the Eighteenth Dynasty to begin the New Kingdom in c. 1570 BC under Ahmosis I, the grandson of the Pharoah who expelled the Hyksos. The New Kingdom, which is also referred to as the Egyptian Empire, was Egypt’s most powerful period and ushered in the Late Bronze Age. Ahmosis I was known for opening many quarries and mines and beginning a period of massive construction in Egypt. To do this he needed a lot of slave labor and the Isrealites were the logical choice. In addition to being numerous and ethnically different, it is interesting to note that one of Ahmosis I fears was the Israelites joining their cousins the Canaanite Hyksos against the Egyptians (Exodus 1:8-17).

Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”

So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites and worked them ruthlessly. They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.

After about two generations, in c. 1526, a new Pharaoh, Thutmosis I, began his rule by ordering all new male Hebrews that were born to be killed by being thrown into the Nile so that their population would not get big enough to take over Egypt. The rule of the foreigner Hyskos’ was still fresh in the Egyptians’ memories at this time and they did not want it repeated with the Israelites. One Hebrew baby boy that was born during this period was saved from this fate by being adopted by the Pharaoh’s daughter, whereupon she named him Moses. Moses would grow up to be involved in some of the most well-known and well documented cases of spying in the bible.

Spying in the Bible 3 - 1900 BC to 1876 BC

Joseph and His Many-Colored Cloak and Dagger Story

Joseph was Israel’s favorite son because he was the oldest son of his favorite wife, Rachel. To show his favoritism, Israel gave Joseph an ornate robe of many colors when he was seventeen years old, making his older brothers jealous. To make things worse, Joseph then told his brothers he had a dream that they would all bow down to him and serve him. This made them so angry that they wanted to kill him, but decided to sell him as a slave into Egypt instead to at least make some money off of getting rid of him. This happened in c. 1899 BC, which was during the Egyptian Middle Kingdom, when Sesotris I was Pharoah.

The Egyptian Middle Kingdom occurred between c. 2040 – c. 1750 BC, which corresponds to the first half of the Middle Bronze Age and encompassed the time between the First and Second Intermediate Periods. The Middle Kingdom was known for expansion of trade outside the kingdom. This expansion of trade also served to open up their borders and let more and more foreigners in, such as Joseph. The Middle Kingdom consisted of the Eleventh to the Thirteenth Dynasties, but the Twelfth Dynasty is considered by later Egyptians to have been one of the greatest, when very powerful Pharaohs ruled from c. 1991 to c. 1802 BC. By the time Joseph was thirty years old, around c. 1886 BC, he had worked his way up into employment in the Egyptian government, so he would have been in the service of one of the powerful twelfth dynasty Pharaohs. The story of how Joseph’s family, and therefore the Israelites, came to live in Egypt in c. 1876 BC has the first definite, explicit mention of spying in written history and it gives some interesting, and historically significant, information on the state of espionage in the world, at that time.

Seven years after Joseph’s promotion in the Egyptian government, there was a severe famine over the whole region and foreigners were coming to Egypt to buy grain, including Joseph’s brothers (Genesis 42:5-8,13-17).

So Israel’s sons were among those who went to buy grain, for there was famine in the land of Canaan also. Now Joseph was the governor of the land, the person who sold grain to all its people. So when Joseph’s brothers arrived, they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground. As soon as Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger and spoke harshly to them. “Where do you come from?” he asked.

“From the land of Canaan,” they replied, “to buy food.”

Although Joseph recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him. Then he remembered his dreams about them and said to them, “You are spies! You have come to see where our land is unprotected.” ...

But they replied, “Your servants were twelve brothers, the sons of one man, who lives in the land of Canaan. The youngest is now with our father, and one is no more.”

Joseph said to them, “It is just as I told you: You are spies! And this is how you will be tested: As surely as Pharaoh lives, you will not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here. Send one of your number to get your brother; the rest of you will be kept in prison, so that your words may be tested to see if you are telling the truth. If you are not, then as surely as Pharaoh lives, you are spies!” And he put them all in custody for three days.

Ironically, the brothers bowing down to Joseph here fulfilled the dream he had that prompted them to sell him to slavery in Egypt in the first place. The first century Roman, Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus also records this event, but adds in some interesting details about Joseph claiming his brothers were from spies from several countries and that he put them in jail to interrogate them when he had the time (Antiquities of the Jews, Book II, Chapter 6).

[Joseph] refused to sell them corn, and said they were come as spies of the king's affairs; and that they came from several countries, and joined themselves together, and pretended that they were of kin, it not being possible that a private man should breed up so many sons, and those of so great beauty of countenance as they were, such an education of so many children being not easily obtained by kings themselves.... [Joseph] for the present put them in prison, as intending to examine more into their affairs when he should be at leisure.

An historically important implication of this story is that spying appears to have been well established and well known to everyone by this time because it was familiar not only to Joseph, who was in a government position, but also to his brothers, who were just regular civilians. This story also shows that many espionage tradecraft ideas were well developed by this time. For example, an intelligence gathering unit of agents, who may or may not represent the interest of the same nation is referred to as an agent net. Also, there are three categories for methods of infiltration of enemy lines, which are black (clandestine), grey (through a legal crossing point, but under false documentation), or white (legal). One common grey method, of which Joseph accused his brothers, is to use a “legend”, or synthetic identity (also referred to as an alias and cover story). Joseph then accuses his brothers of coming to “see where the land is unprotected” and as “spies of the king’s affairs” showing that the idea of targeted intelligence for military and political advantages.

Lastly, by imprisoning spies with plans to interrogate them, it shows the existence of the idea of counterintelligence, and getting the enemies’ plans out of their spies. Joseph’s plan to test their story by sending one of them back, while keeping the others in prison, would have also been the logical counterintelligence thing to do in his position. If they were agents from different countries, the ten countries whose spies were not released might have pressured the eleventh to send back an imposter as their youngest brother, thus attempting to rescue the left behind spy and guarantee continued access to Egypt. Joseph would have had enough time by then to interrogate the ten separately and look for inconsistencies in their stories. If the eleventh spy did not come back, then Joseph would still have had spies from ten of the eleven countries to interrogate and punish.

Spying in the Bible 2 - 2166 BC to 1900 BC

From Abraham to the Tribes of Israel

Abraham (a Semite) was born around the beginning of the First Intermediate Period in c. 2166 BC and traveled to Egypt during the First Intermediate Period, when many other foreigners were doing so, indicating that his arrival would not have been viewed as unusual or surprising. Eventually, in c. 2091 BC, Abraham settled in Canaan, which is the land northeast of Egypt that God promised to give his family. Canaan was situated in the Middle East, between the Mediterranean and Dead Seas, which is modern day Israel, West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Southern Lebanon, and Southern Syria. Abraham settled there with his nephew, Lot, whom he had taken in when Lot’s parents died. Lot eventually settled in the Plain of Jordan (modern day Jordan), east of the Dead Sea. Once settled, God promised Abraham that his offspring with his wife Sarah would form a great nation that would be God’s chosen people (Genesis 22:17-18).

“I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”

When Sarah was old and had still not had any children, she told Abraham to have a child with her Egyptian slave, Hagar, and from that Ishmael was born. Ishmael’s descendants became the Ishmaelites and the Islamic prophet Muhammad claimed to be a direct descendant. Abraham also had another wife with whom he had multiple children. Abraham and Sarah eventually did have a son in c. 2066 BC, named Isaac, who inherited everything that Abraham owned and the rest of Abraham’s descendants were sent away to the east, presumably becoming modern day Arabs. God then told Isaac that His covenant with Abraham would be fulfilled through him (Genesis 26:3).

“Stay in this land for a while, and I will be with you and will bless you. For to you and your descendants I will give all these lands and will confirm the oath I swore to your father Abraham.”

After receiving God’s blessing, Isaac and his wife Rebecca had twin sons named Esau and Jacob in c. 2006 BC. Esau was born first, so he was the rightful heir of Isaac. However, one day after Esau had been away hunting and came back starving, Jacob sold him some red stew for his birthright. After that Esau was sometimes called Edom, which means red, and so his descendants were called Edomites. Later, when Isaac was old he became blind he called for Esau to give his blessing to him as the oldest son. Rebecca heard about this and told Jacob, who was her favorite son, to impersonate Esau to get the blessing. Esau was very hairy, so Jacob tricked his father by putting goat hair on his arms, so when his father touched him he would feel like his brother. Thus Jacob received all of Esau’s inheritance, both his birthright and their father’s blessing that was supposed to be for the oldest son. This is really the first instance of espionage and being a "secret agent" or impersonation for political gain.

Jacob was, therefore, given the lands east of the Dead Sea, extending both north and south and God gave Esau the lands south of Lot’s land (in modern day southern Jordan). Once Esau found out that Jacob had deceived him out of his birthright and his blessing, he planned to kill him. Rebecca found out about Esau’s plot of vengeance, so she told Jacob to run away to her brother, his uncle Laban. It could be said that Rebecca spied on her family to further her cause of helping her son Jacob. At any rate, the story is filled with intrigue, false identities, and deceit and sets up what is definitely a story of spying in the bible, with Jacob’s son Joseph.

While living with and working for his uncle, Joseph fell in love with Laban’s youngest daughter Rachel and agreed to work for seven years in return for marrying her. At the end of the seven years, Laban said it would not be right for her to marry before her older sister Leah, so Joseph could marry Leah and work another seven years to marry Rachel, which he agreed to. Leah had four sons with Joseph, named Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah. Rachel became jealous of her sister, so she told Joseph to have children with her maid Bilhah. Jacob then had Dan and Naphtali, with Rachel’s maid. To get back at her, Leah told Jacob to have children with her maid Zilpah as well, so Joseph had Gad and Asher with her. Then Leah had two more children named Issachar and Zebulun.

At last, Rachel conceived for the first time and had Joseph, who became Jacob’s favorite son, since he loved Rachel the most. After these eleven sons were born Jacob and his family moved back to their homeland, where he reconciled with Esau and God changed his name to Israel. At that time God confirmed that the covenant he had with Abraham and Isaac would be fulfilled through Israel and all of his male offspring (Gensis 35:11-12).

And God said to him, “I am God Almighty; be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and a community of nations will come from you, and kings will be among your descendants. The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you. ”

Rachel then died giving birth to her second son Benjamin in c. 1901 BC. These twelve sons’ descendants became the twelve tribes of Israel, known as the Israelites, or Hebrews (a language/ethnicity designation).

Spying in the Bible 1 - Before 2166 BC

Historical Background

Espionage is commonly referred to as the second oldest profession in the world. Civilizations have likely been spying on each other since their prehistoric formation and spying itself has probably been around since one of Adam’s children inconspicuously sneaked a peak to see what another was doing. Also, deception and other espionage tactics have been around since the very beginning of time. The Bible even starts, in Genesis 3 with the Devil’s deception of Adam and Eve, when he tricked them into eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Shortly thereafter, Cain deceives his brother Abel to lure him into a trap to kill him.

While the first instance of espionage in the world will never be known, the earliest recorded instance in history is in the Bible and involves Joseph and his brothers in Egypt. From that point on, cases of intrigue, deception, and espionage are quite prevalent throughout the Bible. Many major events that changed the course of God’s people in both the Old and New Testaments are tied to cases of espionage, from entering and leaving Egypt, to entering the Promised Land, to Jesus’ birth, ministry, and death, along with the formation and growth of the early Christian church.

This series of posts will take an in-depth look at all of the cloak and dagger stories in the Bible throughout the history of God’s people, from and intelligence analysis perspective. All dates that are given are approximate and some are even hotly disputed by reputable historians. Dates are given for historical context only as this work is not intended to be a biblical timeline or archeological text, but rather to explore and analyze cases of espionage throughout the Bible. The early history of the world from Creation and Adam and Eve up through Noah (a descendent of Adam and Eve’s third son Seth) and the flood likely takes place mostly in the Stone Age, before written history began. Genealogies from early Genesis appear to be incomplete, so it is very difficult, if not impossible, to date biblical figures or events before Abraham.

After the flood came God’s command to Noah’s three children Shem, Ham, and Japheth to spread throughout the world and settle it. However, people did not disperse as commanded until God confused their language during the construction of the Tower of Babel. Sometime after the tower of Babel incident is probably when the story of Job takes place. According to tradition, and more recently some genetic studies, the Semites (descendants of Shem) moved mostly into the modern day Middle East and include the Israelites and Arabs, the Hamites (descendant so Ham) moved mostly south into Africa, and the Japhites (descendants of Japheth) moved north into Indo-Europe and Russia. The language barrier, no doubt, helped to lead to the formation of nations/ethnic groups, which has been where most of the espionage in the history of the world has been focused.

The Early Bronze Age occurred between 3500 and 2200 BC and saw the rise of the first large civilizations. The first such known civilization of city dwelling people was the non-Semetic, black haired (most likely Hamitic), Sumerians from the southern Mesopotamian region (modern Iraq). Archeologist have found some commerce records written in the ancient Sumerian language that may date to very early in their culture and are generally considered to be the earliest examples of writing that we have today. It is interesting to note that other, later writings of the Sumerians include stories of a worldwide flood as well as references to a common language spoken by all people. Some also mention fire signals between villages, showing that the idea of communicating intelligence information rapidly, such as warning of an approaching army, has been around since the dawn of civilizations.

However, recorded history is generally accepted to have begun when Egyptians used hieroglyphs to describe the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under Menes in c. 3100 BC. This event started the Early Dynastic Periods of Egypt, which was the second known of the ancient great civilizations, and also likely Hamitic. A few hundred years later, the next period in ancient Egypt began, which is referred to as the Old Kingdom. After about a thousand years of a unified Egypt, many foreign invaders began moving into Egypt, greatly disrupting the fledgling nation, and starting the First Intermediate Period (c. 2160 BC – c. 2040 BC), which corresponds to the Intermediate Bronze Age.

Spying in The Bible - Introduction

Over the years I have noticed how much espionage is in the Bible. I looked for a good book on the subject, but there just isn't one.  The only book remotely touches on the subject that I have found is Rose Mary Sheldon's book "Spies of the Bible." However, Sheldon barely scratches the surface of espionage in the Bible, and instead uses her book to push her agenda of modern Biblical criticism. Also, she has a background in history, not espionage, so she is not a subject matter expert. The book is inaccurate and misleading and only has a little general military analysis information in it as a thin veil to justify the title of the book.

So, for the next little while my blog posts will go through the whole Bible/human history and tell the story through looking at the cases of espionage. I have been working on this off and on for about last five years now and think I will be able to cover most of it.