The history of Egypt is divided into three periods, that of the old, the middle, and the new monarchy.  The first extends from the foundation of the united kingdom by Menes to the conquest of the country by the Hyksos.  The second is from this conquest by the Hyksos till their expulsion.  The third, from the re-establishment of the monarchy by Amosis to its final conquest by Persia.  The old monarchy contained twelve dynasties; the Hyksos or middle monarchy, five; the new monarchy, thirteen:  in all, thirty.

The Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings, were at first supposed to be the Hebrews:  but this hypothesis adapted itself to none of the facts.  A recent treatise by M. Chabas[174] shows that the Hyksos were an Asiatic people, occupying the country to the northeast of Egypt.  After conquering Lower Egypt, Apapi was king of the Hyksos and Tekenen-Ra ruled over the native Egyptians of the South.  A papyrus, as interpreted by M. Chabas, narrates that King Apapi worshipped only the god Sutech (Set), and refused to allow the Egyptian gods to be adored.  This added to the war of races a war of religion, which resulted in the final expulsion of the Shepherds, about B.C. 1700.  The Hyksos are designated on the monuments and in the papyri as the “Scourge” or “Plague,” equivalent in Hebrew to the Tzir’ah, commonly translated “hornet,” but evidently the same as the Hebrew tzavaath, “plague,” and the Arabic tzeria, “scourge,” or “plague."[175]

According to the learned Egyptologist, Dr. Brugsch, the Hebrew slaves in Egypt are referred to in a papyrus in the British Museum of the date of Ramses II. (B.C. 1400), in a description by a scribe named Pinebsa of the new city of Ramses.  He tells how the slaves throng around him to present petitions against their overseers.  Another papyrus reads (Lesley, “Man’s Origin and Destiny"):  “The people have erected twelve buildings.  They made their tale of bricks daily, till they were finished.”  The first corroboration of the biblical narrative which the Egyptian monuments afford, and the first synchronism between Jewish and Egyptian history, appear in the reign of Ramses II., about B.C. 1400, in the nineteenth dynasty.

It appears from the monuments and from the historians that somewhere about B.C. 2000, or earlier, this great movement of warlike nomadic tribes occurred, which resulted in the conquest of Lower Egypt by the pastoral people known as Hyksos.  It was perhaps a movement of Semitic races, the Bedouins of the desert, like that which nearly three thousand years after united them as warriors of Islam to overflow North Africa, Syria, Persia, and Spain.  They oppressed Egypt for five hundred years (Brugsch), and appear on the monuments under the name of Amu (the herdsmen) or of Aadu (the hated ones).  Their kings resided at Tanis (in Egyptian Avaris), in the Delta.  That their conquests had a religious motive, and were made, like that of Mohammed, in the interest of monotheism, seems possible.  At all events, we find one of them, Apapi, erecting a temple to Sutech (the Semitic Baal), and refusing to allow the worship of other deities.[176]