Were the Hyksos of Hebrew Origin?

Identification as Hurrians or Semites

The German Egyptologist Wolfgang Helck once argued that the Hyksos were part of massive and widespread Hurrian and Indo-Aryan migrations into the Near East. According to Helck, the Hyksos were Hurrians and part of a Hurrian empire that, he claimed, extended over much of Western Asia at this period. While most scholars have rejected this theory and Helck has himself recently abandoned them[11], it is generally thought that the Hyksos were likely Semites who came from either Canaan or Mesopotamia although this has not been proven beyond all doubt.[12][13] The Danish Egyptologist Kim Ryholt sums up the complex situation by stating that "there are only vague indications of the origin of the Fifteenth Dynasty" and concurring that the small number of surviving names of the Fifteenth Dynasty are "too few to allow for general conclusions" about the Hyksos true background in his 1997 study of the Second Intermediate Period.[14] Furthermore Ryholt stresses that "we also lack positive indications that any of the rulers of the Fifteenth Dynasty were related by blood, and, accordingly we could be dealing with a dynasty of mixed ethnic origin."[15]

Kamose's explicit statement about the Asiatic origins of Apophis is the strongest evidence for a Canaanite background for the majority of the Hyksos. Kamose, the last king of the Theban 17th Dynasty, refers to Apophis as a "Chieftain of Retjenu (ie. Canaan)" in a stela which implies a Canaanite background for this Hyksos king. The issue of Sakir-Har's name, one of the three earliest 15th Dynasty kings, also leans towards a West Semitic or Canaanite origin for the Hyksos rulers--if not the Hyksos peoples themselves. As Ryholt notes, the name Sakir Har:

is evidently a theophorous name compounded with hr, Canaanite harru, [or] 'mountain.' This sacred or deified mountain is attested in at least two other names which are both West Semitic (Ya'qub-Har and Anar-Har) and so there is reason to suspect that the present name also may be West Semitic. The element skr seems to be identical with śkr, 'to hire, to reward', which occurs in several Amorite names. Assuming that śkr takes a nominal form as in the names sa-ki-ru-um and sa-ka-ŕu-um, the name should be transliterated as either Sakir-Har or Sakar-Har. The former two names presumably mean 'the Reward'...Accordingly, the name here under consideration would mean 'Reward of Har.'[16]
Finally, Khyan's name "has generally been interpreted as Amorite Hayanu (reading h-ya-a-n) which the Egyptian form represents perfectly, and this is in all likelihood the correct interpretation."[17] Ryholt furthermore observes the name Hayanu is recorded in the Assyrian king-lists for a remote ancestor of Shamshi-Adad I (c.1800 BC) of Assyria which suggests that it had been used for centuries prior to Khyan's own reign.[18] Since the names of at least two of the 6 Hyksos kings contain Canaanite elements, this may suggest a Canaanite or West Semitic origin for this dynasty.

The Georgian and Russian professors, T. V. Gamkrelidze and V. V. Ivanov mention the Armenian leader Hayk combined with Hayasa, strongly resembling the Hyksos.