The Wandering Chalderameans

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The Arameans were not new comers to Northern Mesopotamia or Eastern Syria. Historians tell us they began settling greater Syria in the 13th century.
Settling an area indicates they came from somewhere and were not created in Syria in the 13th century BCE. The city of Ebla, in Syria was destroyed by the
Akkadian Naram-Sin in 2300 BCE. He also destroyed the city of Arman, believed to have been Aleppo. The name Aram-Naharaim means "Aram of Two Rivers," placing the area between the Euphrates and the Balikh near the city of Haran. According to the historian Cyrus Gordan:

"Although there is evidence of the Aramaic language in records of the
second millennium B.C. the historic texts begin in the eighth century in
 the city-states of Aram or inland Syria when it displaced as the lingua
 franca in Syria and nearby coastal Asia Minor. "
Cyrus Gordan author of "The Ancient Near East:

The Aramaic speaking people were related to the Hebrews, the Assyrians and the Babylonians, and tracing the ancient history of one can often lead to
evidence of the others.

   The discoveries at Calah can be traced back to the most ancient of times, when civilization first began. The ancient city had been trading with the city of Ur,
in Lower Mesopotamia. Calah was rebuilt by Shalmaneser I (1274-1245 B.C.), but had been a settled city a thousand years prior to that. Linguists agree that all languages sprung from a common one, as the Bible states. Their theory is consistent with that given in the Table of Nations. We can now say with accuracy that Abraham was a Hebrew, and that he was from the same parent group as the Arameans. He not only came from the area first settled by the Khaladu, he was a distant relative. His more distant ancestors came from a place called Eden in Mesopotamia. The Hebrews got their name from Eber, although making that claim has caused some controversy. Evidence from different sources leads to fact that the Hebrews were not only the Eberites but they were also the Habiru. As one critic is quick to point out:

“Unfortunately, recent and thorough reappraisals of these
 sources have shown beyond any doubt that the Habiru have nothing in common with the Hebrews but a similitude of name. They were neither a people nor a tribe, but a class of society made up of refugees, of 'displaced persons' as we would now say, who frequently turned into outlaws”

The Habiru and The Hebrews were wondering people with a homeland. The Book of Genesis calls the descendents of Abraham sojourners and admits that they will be until they conquer Canaan. The error in dealing with the Hebrews/Habiru is in believing that all Hebrew people were Israelites. The Hebrews were wide spread and traces of their language have been found throughout Mesopotamia, Egypt and Arabia. The ancestors of Abraham were Hebrews, but they were not Israelites. The name Hebrew originated with the Biblical Eber, whose descendents were the Elamites, Assyrians, and the Arameans The Hebrews were divided through Joktan and His brother Peleg. Their Father was a Hebrew, and the Bible traces the descedents of Joktan to Arabia. The Hebrew/Egyptian inscriptions in the southern Sinai, inscribed around 1500 bce, prove only one of two possibilities. If every Hebrew was Israelite it proves the Israelites were in the Sinai in the 15th century be. If it cannot be used as evidence for the Israelites, it is proof that not all Hebrews were Israelites. That leaves little doubt that the Habiru were the Hebrews, and that the Israelites could have possibly been in Mesopotamia and Canaan at the times the Bible claims they were.

The claim that the Habiru and Hebrews can't be bundled together is unfounded, and based on not much of anything. They are the same people that the Sumerians referred to as Sa.Gaz, which are described in other texts. They were also called Sa.gaz in several of the Amarna tablets, and Habiru in others. Aramaic texts call them ibri. The Assryians used the title ibri-niri (Nairi).The root word for Eber, abar, means to cross over, or division, depending on the historian. According to the Bible, the Semites were divided during the time of the sons of Eber. Coming from Armenia (ararat) they would also have had to “cross over” the Euphrates River to reach Syria. There was never any other group in Mesopotamia or Syria that fits the description of the Habiru. They were nomads, who sometimes hired out as mercenaries. They were known for fighting ability. It is also an error to make the claim that all Habiru were outlaws and murders. They were shown as conquerors in the Amarna Tables, but not bandits. Sumerian documents from the reign of Shulgi of Ur (around 2150 BC) describe them thus:

"These unclothed people who travel in dead silence."
“They are nomadic, without a settled home. "...
As for their men and their women Their men go where they please.
Their women carry spindle and spinning bowl,
Their encampments are wherever they pitch them,
the decrees of Shulgi,my king, they do not obey."

   The Sumerian Sa.Gaz was written with a head. The Assyrian texts show them with a head + to smash. It has been interpreted by some to mean highway robber. Other inscriptions with a smashed head have been interpreted as being warrior. The Tikunani Prism, dated from around 1550 BC, lists the names of 438 Habiru soldiers or servants of king An inscription from Idrimi of Aleppo (who lived from about 1500 BC to calls them warriors, not robbers:

"My horse, my chariot, and my groom I took and departed.
The wasteland I crossed and into the midst of the Sutu warriors I entered.
With them I spent the night in my covered chariot.
The next day I moved along and went to the land of Canaan.
In the land of Canaan the town of Amiga is located.
In Amiga dwelt people of Halab,Mukish Ni and Amau.
When they saw that I was the son of their former lord they gathered
about me and said: "It has been much for you, but it will cease.
Then I dwelt for seven years among the SA-GAZ warriors.
I interpreted(the flight of) birds;
I inspected (the intestines and livers of)lambs;
and thus seven years of Adad/Teshup turned over my head."

It is now more commonly accepted that Sa.Gaz did not indicate “head smasher”, but rather “people of Gaz.” There is little doubt; however, that some of the
Hebrews resorted to robbery.
`Deliver me from mig[hty] enemies. From the hand of the Sa.Gaz people,
the robbers, and the Šutû';

The Sutu were Bedouin, known from Egyptian inscriptions. The phrase, “people of gaz”, may have been referring to the citizens of the land of Gasu, or Girsu
and Lagas in Northern Mesopotamia There were many splinter groups of Sa.Gaz, as it is with any tribal group and one group that the Hittites seemed to equate with the Hapiru were the Lulahhu, from Lullu. The Lulallu were almost always mentioned in relation to the Hurrians and Gutians as being from the same area. Narim-Sin mentioned defeating the Lullubum in the Zagros Mountains. The Mari texts list the eastern tribes as Qutii and Lullu. Babylonian texts claim that the Lullumu people call their land Zamua. Archeologists tell us that in the ancient world the Kurdish people formed three kingdoms; the Gutium Kingdom, the Kingdom of Lullu and the Urartu Kingdom. The Bible doesn't use the name Hebrew to signify one particular ethnic group, but like the Mesopotamians show them as a wandering people. It wasn't until the Israelites were in Canaan that they became settled. Abraham owned enough land for burials, but not even the Bible refers to Him as being a citizen of Canaan. In fact the Bible tells us that Abraham would not inherit any land and that even His decedents would be strangers in the land for four generations. From the evidence presented, the Ludlum, the Gentians, the Sagas and the Hebrews originated from the same region which was near or in Armenia, the same area where Noah's Ark landed. Mesopotamian texts also portray the Lull bum as unclothed people, giving them something else in common with the Sagas. It may be referring to the men wearing a simple loincloth, much like most Egyptians did. The Hittites, in texts that mention the gods of the people of the Levant, show the god of the Habiru as being Ellil or El. The Assyrians mention their god as being el or elohim.
One Assyrian merchant, in the 2nd millennium BCE, offered a reward for the return of Habiru men who were being detained at the palace of Shalahshuwe.

"Concerning the Haberi men of the palace of Shalahshuwe who are present in custody,I sent word to you thus: "Consult there with the princes
and the chamberlains as to whether they will return them or will not
return them.Then send word to me.If they will not return them,
redeem those men.Whatever the ransom for them the palace asks of you,
let me know in your message that I may send it to you.
Let your hand seize those men.
Whatever response the palace makes to you concerning
those men, let me know in your message.The men have much ransom money."

It is very likely that the Habiru mentioned by the Egyptians were the Hebrews. Since there is no evidence that the Sumerians, Egyptians, Babylonians, Hittites
and Syrians were referring to some other group, they must have been the Hebrews. In reality there is no other group that fits the description with a name anywhere close to Habiru, Ibiri, and Eberu, which leaves the likely hood that they were the Biblical Hebrews. If archaeologists are correct that ibir and sa.gaz are the same, Habiru and Apiru are the people of ibir and ibri is the Biblical eber, then there is little question about the Egyptian Habiru being the Hebrews. The Amarna letters do not portray them as road agents, but as warriors who were conquering Canaanite cities, although some of them were fighting as mercenaries for the Canaanite kings. Archeology also makes the claim that the Israelites were indeed Hebrews. The Hebrews were the only people in Canaan or Syria that had a life style similar to the Habiru. The Bible is often more correct than even some scholars believe. For a long time it was uncertain if the Biblical Mizraim was actually referring to Egypt, although most archaeologists agreed that it was. The name Mitsri was mentioned in the Amarna tablets several time in reference to the king of Egypt. The ancient Egyptians called their fertile land along the Nile, Khemet, which may not have indicated black land as some believe. It probably originated in Cush, and refers to black people rather than black land.

   The book of Genesis mentions names such as Aram, Naram, Padan-Aram and Haran, which are all variations of the root Nairi, and is an indication of Abram's homeland. According to the Book of Ezekiel, there is some truth in the Hebrews coming out of Armenia:
Ezekiel Chapter 16:3
"Thus said the Lord Jehovah to Jerusalem: Thy birth and thy nativity are of the land of the Canaanite, Thy father the Amorite, and thy mother a Hittite."

The Hittites are believed to have come from north of present day Armenia. They eventually settled the area of the Biblical Magog and Tubal, just north of
Syria. The Kaldi gods became the Katti or ( Hatti).

Samuel Noah Kramer “The Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character.”