The Bible In A Year 
Torah – week 4 of 8
Readings for the Week
July 30- August 4, 2018
Theme of the week: In the coming chapters, notice how many times we read the refrain, “If only we had stayed in Egypt….”
- Monday Exodus chapters 14, 15, 16, & 17
- Tuesday Psalms 105 & 136
- Wednesday Exodus chapters 18, 19 & 20
- Thursday Exodus chapters 21, 22, & 23
- Friday Exodus chapters 24, 25, 26 & 27
- Saturday Exodus chapters 28 & 29
The Bible In A Year – Torah – week 4 of 8
A Framework for Understanding
Becoming a People
During the times in which the events of the Exodus took place, throughout that region of the world there existed a socially low-class of people that probably was the origin of the Hebrew people. This lowest social class was called “Habiru” in many of the countries, and referred to as “Apiru” in Egypt. Archeology has uncovered numerous written accounts dating from this period in which the Habiru or Apiru people are mentioned.
This class of people seemed to encompass just about any outcasts from society. They are described in various documents in a wide variety of ways: as nomadic tribes, thieves, day laborers, vagrants, and also mounted bowmen & mercenaries.
The Bible tells of the immigration of Israel – the house of Jacob – to Egypt during a period of drought. It also indicates the people stayed there at least 400 hundred years, during which time the descendants of the original Israelite immigrants would have encountered, interacted, and intermarried with many others. All immigrants, the Israelites as well as other immigrants and nomadic people, would have been viewed as “apiru” by the Egyptians.
So Moses led out from Egypt a wide collection of people and cultural backgrounds – the apiru who descended from Israel and all those who became affiliated with them through marriage and work and the day to day contact of those of similar social class. Viewed in this light it becomes clear why it was necessary for the people to have a single code or set of laws to follow, and why it would take so many years of living together to become ready to inhabit a new land as a unified people, the Hebrew people.