Shasu
Shasu (from Egyptian š3sw, probably pronounced Shaswe) were Semitic-speaking cattle nomads in the Levant from the late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age or Third Intermediate Period of Egypt. They were organized in clans under a tribal chieftain, and were described as brigands active from the Jezreel Valley to Ashkelon and the Sinai. Some scholars link the Israelites and the Israelite god Yahweh with the Shasu.
The name's etymon may be Egyptian š3sw, which originally meant "those who move on foot". Levy, Adams, and Muniz report something similar: an Egyptian word that means "to wander", and an alternative Semitic one with the meaning "to plunder".
The earliest known reference to the Shasu is in a 15th-century BCE list of peoples in Transjordan. It is used in a list of enemies inscribed on column bases at the temple of Soleb built by Amenhotep III. Copied later by either Seti I or Ramesses II at Amarah-West, the list mentions six groups of Shasu: the Shasu of S'rr, the Shasu of Rbn, the Shasu of Sm't, the Shasu of Wrbr, the Shasu of Yhw, and the Shasu of Pysps.
There are two Egyptian texts, one dated to the period of Amenhotep III (14th century BCE), the other to the age of Ramesses II (13th century BCE) which refer to 'Yahu in the land of the Šosū-nomads' (t3 š3św yhw3), in which yhw3/Yahu is a toponym.
Regarding the name yhw3, Michael Astour observed that the "hieroglyphic rendering corresponds very precisely to the Hebrew tetragrammaton YHWH, or Yahweh, and antedates the hitherto oldest occurrence of that divine name – on the Moabite Stone – by over five hundred years." One hypothesis is that it is reasonable to infer that the demonym 'Israel' recorded on the Merneptah Stele refers to a Shasu enclave, and that, since later Biblical tradition portrays Yahweh "coming forth from Seʿir", the Shasu, originally from Moab and northern Edom/Seʿir, went on to form one major element in the amalgam that was to constitute the "Israel" which later established the Kingdom of Israel.Anson Rainey came to a similar conclusion in his analysis of the el-Amarna letters. K. Van Der Toorn concludes that, "By the 14th century BC, before the cult of Yahweh had reached Israel, groups of Edomite and Midianites worshipped Yahweh as their god."
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