Up until now there has been very little clear understanding of who, or what Lehabim represents. All credit must go to the work of Daniel Adam Fink who reasons that on etymological grounds since ‘Lehab’ in Hebrew means Knife - or “tip of a blade” if one wants to be completely correct - this Lehabim must refer to a “knife-people”, or a people “at the tip of the spear” in my own twist on this view point. However, we will see multiple interpretations are correct here and there are clues filled throughout the name and related terms.
Turning our attention to Egyptian records, it would be important if there were any record of a “knife people”, or “tip of the spear region”? We find exactly that, Nome ‘22’ of Upper Egypt named “MDNIT” or “Knife Land” in Egyptian. Interestingly, this is not just any Nome, but the “last” of the Upper Egyptian Nomes, and the cut off point for where Lower Egyptian nomes begin. Thus this region would be a sort of “tip of the spear” for most pharaohs attempting to control Egypt. Even more notable is that this entire region is located a step away from the Faiyum Oasis which had the largest grain output in all of Egypt well into the Roman era. The Faiyum served as a center of emigration as far back as the African Saharan period due to its exceedingly high population. However the first notable exploitation of Faiyum coincided with the reign of Pharaoh Amenemhat III of the Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt during the Middle Kingdom era.
Interestingly during this era the region was a large seat of power for the Twelfth Dynasty which was widely regarded as the peak of the Middle Kingdom’s splendor, and the most stable period in Egyptian history before the New Kingdom. From this period we get the Story of Sinuhe which parallels many near eastern legends, and includes multiple verifiable references to Canaan as a central part of the story. Even more notable is the legend of Sesostris, likely Senusret III, given to us in Greek legends from writers such as Herodotus, Manetho, and Strabo. Both Strabo and Diodorus Siculus mention this same Sesostris dividing Egypt into various administrative districts, or what were called Nomes. If the Twelfth Dynasty Pharaoh’s are Lehabim it would certainly make sense if legends call them the “dividers of the land”, as a knife would do.
These same Pharaoh’s also had their capital moved from Thebes since their very first King to a place called “Amenemhat-itj-tawy” meaning “Amenemhat the Seizer of the Two Lands”. The current location for Itjtawy is unknown, but the “seizer of the two lands” city is likely somewhere near Faiyum. This same area contains multiple pyramids and royal cemeteries, leading credence to it as a major center of power, with its own identity separate from the major cultural centers of Memphis or Thebes. Located nearby is the Arabic city of “El Lahun”, which may or may not retain the root for the Lehabim. Once again it is difficult to say where anything on the Nile is located due to the changing flood waters, and shifting course of the river; as well as the ever present political value of certain finds and grouping all of “Ancient Egypt” into one “Egyptian” history.
What is unclear is who, or what governed the Oasis regions beyond Faiyum. Major settlements such as Bahariya and Siwa, as well as the uninhabited Moghra Oasis located inside the Qattara Depression with Siwa. Since there is little to no archeology being done in these areas we have absolutely no clue what these places looked like in the Middle Kingdom, however, we do know that Siwa was the location of quite a famed Oracle of Ammon, the titular deity of the later New Kingdom Egyptians and most frequently referenced god in the entire pantheon. Due to Siwa’s ethnic identity, it is unclear if they ever had much of one, and never formed any sort of Kingdom or empire separate from Egypt.
Despite that, the Oasis near the Siwa region was the location of the “Libu” peoples, called “RDW” in Egyptian sources from the 12th century BCE, and the Qattara region was likely more habitable 4000 years ago, with a larger population base making the Libu a more significant threat. While the etymological evidence for a link between Libu and Lehabim is scant, the striking similarity of the terms and closeness to the Lehabim region cannot be ignored. The Libu do indeed become Pharaohs and the etymological root of “RBW” is unknown so there is a chance this term refers to them and we simply do not actually know the root of the term Libyan. Regardless of where the Libu fit into this picture they may better line up with Put as we will see later.
Lehabim as “Libyans” or the Libu fails to accurately capture Lehabim as a “son” of Mizraim since these people were not settled along the Nile. There is no reason to assume “Libyans” would be subsumed inside Mizraim, but this designation for the Lehabim wouldn’t exclude the inclusion of the Libu. We can therefore comfortably place Lehabim as the Faiyum people and founders of the major Middle Kingdom’s peak, and possibly representing the Libyans closest to the Nile. Whether or not the Torah’s intent was to place Lehabim towards the center for this reason is unclear. Geographical designation doesn’t tend to have meaning for the Torah’s listing of a group, but the sequence of names does often hint at a temporal order. In this sense, if we were to view the Ludim as the Proto-Egyptians at the headwater of the Nile, and the Anamim as the Old Kingdom, it would perfectly follow that the Lehabim would end up as the Middle Kingdom roughly climaxing sometime around the Twelfth dynasty.
This section is actually one of the more novel identifications in all of my work, and one that has been mostly lost to time even within Rabbinic literature. Nothing, except sheer assumption, has enabled us to accurately connect the Lehabim with any real world groups until now.
Next time we will dive into another unknown child of Mizraim, the Naphtuhim. Don’t forget to like the post, and please drop a comment so I can interact and respond with you. Every bit of support helps immensely. Thank you again for reading.
great work