Who were the mysterious Habiru? Were they the ancient Israelites?

The term 'Habiru' appeared in a wide range of Near Eastern texts during the second millennium BCE.

These included records from Mari, Alalakh, and the Amarna Letters of Egypt.

As an aside, while scholars once suggested that Ugarit might contain references, no clear mention of the Habiru has been found in Ugaritic records.

In these sources, record-keepers used the term Ha-pi-ru, and occasionally the Sumerogram Sa.Gaz in Akkadian to describe people who lived beyond the control of central authority.

Sa.Gaz could also refer more broadly to bandits or outlaws, and was not always synonymous with Habiru.

In the 18th century BCE, the palace of Zimri-Lim in Mari recorded frequent encounters with Habiru groups.

They described attacks on caravans, seizures of farmland, and offers of hired military service.

Each of the local rulers responded in different ways: some punished the Habiru as criminals, and others used them for construction projects or as guards.

The exact status of the Habiru people seemd to have changed depending on the region's political needs and pressures. 

However, the 14th-century BCE Amarna Letters contained the clearest record of who they were because they record repeated appeals from Canaanite vassal kings to Pharaoh Akhenaten.

These documents were diplomatic letters from Akhenaten’s reign showed that the Habiru appeared as violent forces causing unrest, who seized cities and undermined Egyptian control in the region.

Local rulers such as Abdi-Heba of Jerusalem and Labaya of Shechem warned that unless the pharaoh stepped in, the Habiru would almost certainly destroy loyal territories.

In southern Canaan in particular, the widespread presence of these groups raised questions for later historians about whether the biblical Israelites descended from the same population. 

In terms of language, the comparison of Habiru with the Hebrew word ʿIvri has drawn the most attention.

Both terms contained the consonantal root ʿ-B-R, and in Semitic languages that root expressed the sense of "crossing over" or "passing through."

It can be concluded, at lest, that both words referred to groups outside established powers.

According to biblical texts, the Hebrews wandered as outsiders, suffered in Egypt, and later fought for land in Canaan.

These features seemed to echo the descriptions of the Habiru as landless outsiders who challenged existing authority. 

Even so, there are some clear limitations to the similarities between the two groups.

Most references to the Habiru lacked any specific mention of ancestry, religion, or distinct cultural traditions that could help align them with ancient Israelites.

In contrast, the biblical Israelites have preserved lists of detailed genealogies that claimed descent from Abraham, and followed a monotheistic belief system centred on Yahweh.

The fact that the extra-biblical sources that mentioned the Habiru came from courts and officials who viewed them in terms of military threat or social disruption could explain the lack of more specific information.

Regardless, we have no surviving text that clearly suggests that the Habiru possessed a unified identity or shared belief system.

Instead, it appears that the people that were labelled as 'Habiru' actually included groups from various backgrounds, including Hurrians, Canaanites, and Akkadians.

This may show that the term may more accurately describe a social condition that any person could be part of rather than a specific ethnic group. 

Interestingly, the famous Merneptah Stele from around 1207 BCE offered the first non-biblical mention of a group called 'Israel' in the area of Canaan.

This inscription identified Israel as a distinct community. It declared, "Israel is laid waste, its seed is no more," and described them as a people defeated in battle rather than roving bands or hired soldiers.

For this reason, some scholars regarded it as confirmation that the Israelites had separated from the loosely defined category of Habiru by this point. 

In parts of the central hill country of modenr Israel, archaeologists found evidence of a new pattern of settlement between 1200 and 1000 BCE.

Small villages such as Izbet Sartah and, less commonly cited, Khirbet Raddana suddenly appeared in previously unoccupied areas.

These settlements lacked fortifications, and the builders of these sites used local materials and maintained a diet that excluded pork.

Some of them even contained simple cultic spaces that suggests an origin among Canaanite peasants.

However, the social patterns hinted at a break from lowland urban traditions. As such, among these early settlers, some may have once lived as Habiru. 

Ultimately, modern historians have defined the term Habiru as one used to describe displaced people without ties to established political structures.

To the best of our knowledge, these could included individuals from many regions who survived through raiding, mercenary work, or physical labour.

Some integrated into local communities, but others remained outside official authority.

So, while the Israelites may have included former Habiru among their number, the word is best thought of as referring to a fringe group who had left their native communities and survived at the edges of settled society.