Wednesday, November 7, 2018

If Moses were Weni, then may not Hur be Hurkhuf?


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Historical Moses may be
Weni and Mentuhotep
 

Part Two: If Moses were Weni,
then may not Hur be Hurkhuf?
 



by
 
Damien F. Mackey
 
 
The king praised me. My father made a will for me, (for) I was excellent ......... [one beloved] of his father, praised of his mother, whom all his brothers loved.
I gave bread to the hungry, clothing to the naked, I ferried him who had no boat.
 
Inscription from tomb of Hurkhuf
 
 
 
 
Hurkhuf (var. Herkhuf, Harkhuf) comes across here as like an ancient Job (cf. Job 31:19).
 
The question I now ask, could Hurkhuf have been the biblical Hur, who, with Aaron, held up the arms of a tiring Moses against Amalek at Rephidim (Exodus 10:8-13)?
 
The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. Moses said to Joshua, ‘Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands’.
So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.
 
In Jewish tradition, Hur is indeed an exemplary character.
 

By: Emil G. Hirsch, M. Seligsohn, Joseph Jacobs, Louis Ginzberg

 

….

 
Man of Judah, the grandfather of Bezaleel, the chief artificer of the Tabernacle (Ex. xxxi. 2, xxxv. 30, xxxviii. 22). According to the fuller genealogy in I Chron. ii. 18-20, he was the first-born son of Ephrath, the second wife of Caleb ben Hezron. Besides Uri, Hur had three other sons, founders of Kirjath-jearim, Beth-lehem, and Beth-gader (I Chron. ii. 50, 51). In I Chron. iv. 4, however, Hur is called the father of Bethlehem. He is first mentioned with Moses and Aaron on the occasion of the battle with Amalek at Rephidim, when he aided Aaron to uphold the hands of Moses (Ex. xvii. 10, 12); he is again mentioned as having, with Aaron, been left in charge of the people while Moses ascended Mount Sinai (Ex. xxiv. 14). According to Josephus ("Ant." iii. 2, § 4), Hur was the husband of Miriam; in the Targum to I Chron. ii. 19, iv. 4, Hur's mother, Ephrath, is identified with Miriam. There is a tendency among modern critics to regard the Hur associated with Moses as another than Hur, grandfather of Bezaleel.
 
 
Hur was the son of Caleb, and when Moses was about to be taken by God, he appointed his nephew Hur, with Aaron, as leader of the people. While Moses tarried on the mountain, the people came to Aaron and Hur with the request to make them a god in the place of Moses (Ex. xxxii. 1). Then Hur, remembering his lineage and high position, rose up and severely reproved the people for their godless intentions; but they, aroused to anger, fell upon him and slew him. The sight of his lifeless body induced Aaron to comply with the wishes of the people, as he preferred to commit a sin himself rather than see the people burdened with the crime of a second murder (Pirḳe R. El. xliii.; Ex. R. xli. 7; Lev. R. x. 3; Num. R. xv. 21; Tan., ed. Buber, ii. 113; Sanh. 7a; comp. also Ephraem Syrus to Ex. xxxii. 1). As a reward for Hur's martyrdom, his son, Bezaleel, was the builder of the Tabernacle; and one of his descendants was Solomon, who had the Temple built (Ex. R. xlviii. 5; comp. Soṭah 11b).
[End of quote]
 
As for Hurkhuf, he was a highly important official in Old Kingdom Egypt, following very much in the mould of Weni. And, did he actually assume the gubernatorial office of Weni when the latter (as Moses) had departed Egypt for Midian?
 
Harkhuf served as Governor of Upper Egypt after Weni. Harkhuf's career is not spelled out in his autobiography in as much detail as Weni gave in his text. Though Harkhuf achieved the rank of Count and Sole Companion, he also functioned as a Lector Priest, Chamberlain, Warden of Nekhen, Mayor of Nekheb, Royal Seal Bearer, and, most importantly, as a Chief of Scouts who led four trading expeditions to Nubia. His autobiography is most informative about the nature of trade relations between Nubia (southern Egypt and the Sudan) and Egypt at the end of Dynasty 6 (circa 2350-2170 B.C.E.). His autobiography also highlights the ambiguity surrounding these expeditions and the difficulty of classifying them as trade expeditions or military maneuvers. ….
 
 
The Autobiography of Harkhuf is a tomb inscription from Ancient Egypt which is significant to Egyptology studies. Harkhuf was a governor of Upper Egypt in the 23rd century BC. His name is sometimes spelled Herkhuf, Horkhuf, or Hirkhuf.
All that is known of Harkhuf's life comes from the inscriptions in his tomb at Qubbet el-Hawa on the west bank of the Nile at Aswan, near the First Cataract of the Nile.
He was a native of Elephantine. He was appointed governor of the southern part of Upper Egypt and overseer of caravans under the pharaoh Merenre I, third king of the 6th Dynasty. His primary business was trade with Nubia,[1] forging political bonds with local leaders,[2] and preparing the ground for an Egyptian expansion into Nubia. He led at least four major expeditions during his life. On the last expedition, he brought back with him what his correspondence with the young pharaoh Pepi II referred to as a dwarf, apparently a pigmy.[3]
He travelled a considerable distance to a land called Iyam, which probably corresponds to the fertile plain that opens out south of modern Khartoum, where the Blue Nile joins the White. However, Jean Yoyotte [4] thought Iyam was located further north in the Libyan Desert.
The inscriptions in Harkhuf's tomb reflect changes in the Egyptian world view that were occurring during the Late Old Kingdom and the First Intermediate Period, with the person of the king becoming more human and displaying emotions and interests,[5] while commenting on a person leading a moral life by helping his neighbour: I gave bread to the hungry, clothing to the naked, I ferried him who had no boat.[6]  ….


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