(November 19th 2019) Todays Research Interest:
The Habiru -- Hapiru -- Apiru
http://ancientneareast.tripod.com/Habiru.html
Habiru (sometimes written as Hapiru and more accurately as Apiru) is a term used in 2nd-millennium BCE texts throughout the Fertile Crescent for people variously described as rebels -- outlaws -- raiders -- mercenaries -- bowmen -- servants -- slaves and laborers (1)
(2) Apiru and the Hebrews: The Settlement of the Israelite Tribes in Palestine
by Manfred Weippert (1971) [Google Books]
http://ancientneareast.tripod.com/PDF/Weippert_Apiru_and_the_Hebrews.pdf
(3) The Hebrew Conquest of Palestine by George Mendenhall
in the Biblical Archaeologist (1962) Pages 65-87
I. Mendenhall's bold counter-suggestion to the prevailing settlement
theories (II 3) hangs, on closer inspection, by a slender
thread; namely his identification, taken by him as self-evident and
basically presupposed, of the 'hab-piru' attested in ancient Near
Eastern texts since the days of the old Assyrian trading colonies in
Asia Minor with the biblical 'Hebrews' (ibrīm) who, for their
part, are equated just as questionably with the 'Israelites' (benē
yiśrā'ēl). If Mendenhall's sociologically based equation is correct
then we need concern ourselves no further with the question
whether the ‘Israelites' before the settlement in Palestine were
'nomads' or 'semi-nomads'. This question would be answered in
the negative for the 'hab-piru' according to the unanimous testimony
of all the texts in which they appear were not a population
group of a 'nomadic' or 'semi-nomadic' type. For the time being
therefore the nomad question can be completely excluded from
our discussion. Much more important is the question whether too
much is not being demanded of the equation 'hab-piru' = ibrim
(achieved in my opinion primarily on linguistic or even emotive
