Actually, the word Habiru in Egyptian means "dusty ones" and refered to all the different nomadic tribes which existed in the realm Egypt, and even without. The Amarna Letters (In 1847 a collection of some 300 cuneiform tablets were unearthed containing letters written to the pharaoh by the "kings" of Canaan.), written from Canaanite kings to Pharoah Akhenaten specifically ask for help from Akhenaten because the leader of the Habiru is about to take the city of Shalem. The leader is even mentioned by name - David. According to the biblical record, David does indeed take the city of Shalem (Jerusalem) and establishes the kingdom of Israel.Medicine Woman said:M*W: No, I have to stop you here and say that the Israelites didn't exist at that time and it was, in fact, the tribe of the Habiru (who later became the Hebrew Israelites) who believed in Aten the Sun God, because that is exactly why Moses was ushering them out of Egypt. They weren't slaves but shepherds.
The Amarna Letters are often misdated to the time of the Exodus but recent historical evidence places them correctly at the time of the first kings of Israel. The first king of the Habiru is named in the letters as Labiu - "the Lion". This no doubt refers to King Saul who was a head and shoulders taller than anyone else in Israel. The name Saul or Shaul means "Asked For" which is exactly what happened - the Habiru/Hebrew asked for a king - so Shual would have been his corranation name, rather than his given name (this is just the same as Rameses which is a correnation name, while his given name, or common name, is Shesha - in the bible Sheshak). The Amarna Letters record the defeat of Labiu on the slopes of mount Gilboa, which exactly correlates with the bible account of Saul and his sons and their last stand on mount Gilboa fighting the Philistines. The second king of the Habiru mentioned in the Amarna Letters is King David (it actually uses the name David - Amarna Letter EA 256), and, as is indicated above, the Canaanite king of Shalem (Jerusalem means the city of Salem) is begging for help because the Habiru are at the city gates. David does indeed take the city and no more is heard from the Canaaite King and Akhenaten does not send any help.
Akhenaten/Moses lived at the time of the first kings of Israel, not at the time of the Exodus.
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