From Approx 1350 B.C.:  The Amarna Letters, Clay Tablets Found Buried In the City of Ancient Pharaoh Akhenaten in Egypt, Describe How A People Called The Habiru or Apiru (sound like 'Hebrews'?) Are Attacking And Wiping Out Terrified Canaan Area Nations and Peoples Who Are Therefore Desperately Seeking the Pharaoh's Help.

     Picture from Wikipedia.  Over 380 tablets or letters were found beginning in the 1890's in the ancient ruins of the city of Amarna, Egypt.  Many had to be repurchased from the black market, as locals discovered and removed the majority of them.  They were a compilation of correspondences from a number of years in the mid 14th century B.C.  Most addressed mundane trade and political matters.  They had been sent from peoples, vassal states or trading partners of Egypt, peoples occupying parts of present day Israel and Syria and Lebanon and some adjacent areas.  They were cuneiform tablets which mainly used the Akkadian language, a widely used language for diplomatic correspondence at that time.  A couple tablets addressed dire and devastating attacks then occurring by the Apiru or Habiru peoples.  Many think that refers to 'Hebrew' people.  Many think these attacks are describing Mose' successor Joshua warring on the Canaanite and Amarru (Amorite) peoples that God instructed the Israelites to destroy.  The attackers are even referring to as 'servants' to the Pharoah being written to.  The Hebrews had indeed been servants to Egypt for hundreds of years.

     As most readers will know, Joshua received the leadership of the Israelites after Moses died.  They entered the promised land after wandering the Sinai for 40 years.  They were a toughened up people of God Almighty.  The Jordan River parted for them and they crossed into the promised land.  They circumcised all of the uncircumcised males with flint knives, then they conquered Jericho, then they went about conquering the Cannanites, whom God identified as peoples grown so evil that He wanted them wholly wiped out.  They worshiped false gods, they sacrificed their own children, they were sexually perverse, and they weren't getting any better.  And Joshua had tremendous success in this warfare...God was with them in their battles.  The Canaanites were a varied bunch.  Some were giants, many cities were warlike and fierce, but it didn't matter.  The Hebrews (Israelites) crushed people group after people group.  Sometimes they didn't leave even one breathing creature behind them.  So the Canaanites were soon enough in a great panic.  Who could stop these people, these Hebrews?

     But non-Christians often ask,"Are these stories true?  Did this really happen?"  These clay tablets, a few from among many dozens of letters written onto clay tablets and referred to as the Amarna Letters, suggest that the Bibles accounts are factual.  See if you agree:     

EA 286, letter two of six. (Not a linear, line-by-line translation, and English from French.)^[1] (Obverse & reverse):

Obverse (see here: [2])

1. Say [t]o the king, my lord:
2. Message of Abdi-Heba, your servant.
3. I fall at the feet of my lord, the king,
4. 7 times and 7 times.
5. What have I done to the king, my lord?
6. They denounce me: [ú-ša-a-ru]^[2]
7. before the king, my lord, "Abdi-Heba
8. has rebelled against the king, his lord."
9. Seeing that, as far as I am concerned, neither my father
10. nor my mother put me
11. in this place,
12. but the strong arm of the king
13. brought me into my father's house,
14. why should I of all people commit
15. a crime against the king, my lord?
16. As truly as the king, my lord, lives,
17. I say to the commissioner of the king, [my] lord, "Why do you love the
18. 'Apiru, but the mayors
19. you hate?" Accordingly,
20. I am slandered before the king, my lord.
21. Because I say, "Lost are
22. the lands of the king, my lord," accordingly
23. I am slandered before the king, my lord.
24. May the king, my lord, know that
25. (though) the king, my lord stationed
26. a garrison (here),
27. Enhamu has taken i[t al]l away. [ ... ]

Reverse, (see here: [3])

32. [Now], O king, my lord,

33. [there is n]o garrison,

34. [and so] may the king provide for his land.

35. May the king [pro]vide for his land! All the [la]nds of

36. the king, my lord, have deserted. Ili-Milku

37. has caused the loss of all the land of the king,

38. and so may the king, my lord, provide for his land.

39. For my part, I say, "I would go

40. in to the king, my lord, and visit

41. the king, my lord," but the war

42. against me is severe, and so I am not able

43. to go in to the king, my lord.

44. And may it seem good in the sight of the king,

45. [and] may he send a garrison

46. so I may go in and visit

47. the king, my lord. In truth, the king, my lord,

48. lives: whenever the commissioners have come out,

49. I would say (to them), "Lost are the lands of the king,"

50. but they did not listen to me.

51. Lost are all the mayors;

52. there is not a mayor remaining to the king, my lord.

53. May the king turn his attention to the archers

54. so that archers

55. of the king, my lord, come forth. The king has no lands.

56. (The) 'Apiru have plundered all the lands of the king.

57. If there are archers

58. this year, the lands of

59. the king, my lord, will remain. But if there are no archers,

60. lost are the lands of the king, my lord.

61. [T]o the scribe of the king, my lord: Message of Abdi-Heba,

62. your [ser]vant. Present eloquent

63. words to the king, my lord. Lost

64. are all the lands of the king, my lord.

         These Apiru were scaring them terribly.  This minor ruler foresaw utter calamity unless help was sent quickly by the Pharaoh.  According to what we read in the Book of Joshua, the Egyptians never came.  Perhaps they had learned something 40 years earlier which gave them pause, of perhaps they were facing even greater military threats in other places.  Whatever the case, this could be historical evidence of the wars Joshua fought and won against the Canaanites.