Hebrew Israelite Nation

Ancient Hebrews were a small nation of people that traveled for much of their history. Their culture has influenced modern man. Eventually they settled in

Canaan which is modern Israel. This is part of their story which is written about in their holy book, the Torah.

A shepherd named Abraham lived in Ur. As you may remember, this was in Sumer. They had many gods that they worshipped at a ziggurat.

One day, he had an amazing experience which led him to believe there was only one God. He spoke to this God! He made a covenant, which is an agreement. God promised to give him a land of his own that would be filled with many of his children, grandchildren, great- grand children, and all his descendants. In return Abraham and the Hebrews that came later had to stick to worshipping only one God, Yahweh.

This is the probable route taken by Abraham and his clan as they traveled from their native land, 'Ur of the Chaldees', to Canaan

MAP of ABRAHAM'S TRAVELS

Many of the people Abraham knew thought he was crazy to only believe in one god. He did keep his part of the covenant though. Abraham still believed this God when he was very old and had not yet had a son with his wife Sarah. He and Sarah’s servant had a child, which was not unusual in those times. His name was Ishmael. That is not what Abraham should have done. The story, Hebrews believed, related that God was angry. He forgave Abraham and gave him a son, anyway. Abraham and his wife were 100 years old, and 90 years old at the time the son, Isaac was born. This was pretty amazing! Abraham is called the “Father” of the Hebrews. Many descendants came from his son Isaac.

Ishmael was then pushed out of the tribe and sent to another area. Many Muslim Arabs descend from Ishmael.This is why Muslims also call Abraham the “Father” of their religion.

Abraham about to sacrifice his son Isaac to God. Photo: Getty Images

Surprisingly, the story of Abraham also says his God asked him to sacrifice his own son to Yahweh. Just as Abraham was about to obey this command, a ram was sent to him to use as a sacrifice instead. He found the ram, stuck by its horns, in a nearby bush. Isaac grew up and had twin sons, Jacob and Esau.

Jacob was renamed Israel. (This is when the Hebrews began to be called Israelites). He had 12 sons. He made a mistake and favored one of them though! This son was Joseph. He was the oldest son of Jacob’s favorite wife, Rachel, but not Jacob’s oldest son. In those days the oldest son inherited all of the father’s wealth and led the family when the father died. This was an insult to the real oldest son.

Youtube: Maria Freedman Joseph’s Coat

Joseph’s jealous brothers sold him into slavery and he ended up in Egypt. There he was slave to a very powerful man, and eventually Joseph’s wisdom gained him a job advising this man and then the pharaoh! Joseph’s family came seeking food during a famine, and after much drama, Joseph forgave his brothers. All the Israelites moved to Egypt to avoid the famine.

A long time later another pharaoh came to power but he did not know about the good things Joseph did. Egyptians panicked at how many Israelites were being born so the pharaoh enslaved the Israelites.

Discoveryeducation “The Beginnings of the Story of Exodus”

Moses was punished by being exiled from Egypt. He came back many years later to free the Israelites. The exit of the Israelites was called the Exodus.