What happened to Egypt after Moses?

Answer 1

A:

Based on the account in the Book of Exodus, with the loss of 600,000 healthy adult male slaves, the Hebrew women, and much wealth, Egypt should have gone into serious economic decline. However, there is no evidence of any such decline occurring at any time during the Late Bronze Age. The copious documents were now have show that economic activity continued as before, with contracts written and honoured, etc. In fact there is no evidence outside The Bible that the Israelites were ever in Egypt or that there was any Exodus from Egypt as described in the Bible. The clear majority of scholars now say that this event never really occurred.

Answer 2

In the Exodus, Moses brought the Israelites out of the Egyptian slavery under the guidance of God, after God brought plagues upon the Egyptians (Exodus ch.1-12).

After the Israelites left, Egypt was in turmoil for decades. Though Israel was later harassed (Judges ch.3, 6 and 10) by its smaller neighbors (Ammon, Moab, Midian), not a peep was heard from Egypt for four hundred years.

Egypt's turmoil is also borne out by the Ipuwer papyri (Professor John van Seters, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology no. 50). The plagues were also described by ancient historians, including Herodotus and Diodorus. The Exodus is mentioned by Strabo, Berosus, Artapanus, Numenius, Justin, and Tacitus.

See also:

Archaeology and the Hebrew Bible

And Joshua's conquest:

Evidence of the conquest of Jericho

Answer 3

Egyptologists and archaeologists have spent more than a century looking for evidence of disruption to the Egyptian economy or way of life after the catastrophic plagues, losses of firstborn children and exodus of so many slaves, at some time during the Late Bronze Age. They were at first surprised to find no such evidence, but gradually recognised that there could not have been an Exodus as described in the Bible. The death and burial of every pharaoh over a period of centuries has been accounted for, in spite of Exodus 14:28. The events described in the Book of Exodus, had no effect on Egypt, because they never happened. We can not assume, because writers in later centuries simply assumed there had been an Exodus led by Moses, that it really happened.