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.