CHAPTER III. ISRAEL IN EGYPT AND IN THE WILDERNESS. A WORD of introduction is necessary before entering upon the period covered by the present chapter. Introductory. Like the book of Genesis, Exodus is of composite structure, and bears traces of the handiwork of three or even four different schools of writers. Instead of a contemporaneous account of the Exodus and the subsequent history of the Benê Israel, we find combined in a single book three different views or studies of that primitive age in the nation's history; studies deeply coloured by the circumstances of the much later period at which they were compiled, and pervaded by ideas that are fundamentally religious. It is impossible now to disentangle the real facts and incidents of the history from the interpretation put upon them by the different authors of the record. Each document has its peculiar standpoint and its own special merits. The two 'Prophetical' narratives lay great stress on the nature, character, and requirement of Israel's merciful God and deliverer. They love to trace in the traditional story of the wanderings, the divine providence guiding, sustaining, and chastening the tribes as they traversed those 'paths of ancient pilgrimage' that led them through the desert to Canaan. They insist upon the moral conditions of Jehovah's covenant with Israel: the need of righteousness, obedience, and faith in those who would render Him acceptable service. The document of the 'Priestly' writer, probably compiled in the Exilic or post-Exilic period, cannot claim to possess independent value as a narrative of incidents that occurred in so remote an age. It is rather the work of a devout idealist who ascribes to primitive times the peculiar laws and institutions befitting a purely religious community such as Israel became after its return from Babylon. The writer loses sight of the rough and simple conditions of the nation's childhood; he depicts the facts, actual or traditional, of the wilderness life in such a way as to exhibit their typical significance. He traces to the Mosaic age ceremonies, laws, and forms of worship which foreshadowed the spiritual realities of the kingdom of God. Valuable as his representation is from a purely religious point of view, it would be a mistake to employ it as a historical document. It bears witness to the faith, the devotion, the aspirations of Judaism; it is not in any strict sense a record of the facts of primitive Hebrew history. The present chapter will for the most part describe the events of the Exodus and the wanderings in accordance with the Hebrew tradition, without attempting to distinguish minutely between the actual incidents of the history, and the form in which they have been clothed by the devout idealism of the writers.1 Israel in Egypt. It is characteristic of the biblical history that large tracts of time are occasionally passed over in silence. We do not know what interval elapsed between the settlement of the Benê Israel in Egypt and the accession of the new king over Egypt which knew not Joseph. It may be fairly assumed that Joseph's elevation took place under one of the later Hyksôs or Shepherd kings, a foreign dynasty whose capital had been fixed at Zoan, a city in the Delta. The Hyksôs were of Asiatic origin, and their invasion of Egypt (about the year 2100 B.C.) had opened the 1 A symbolic narrative of the kind here alluded to is the sublime account of the Vision of Jehovah in Exod. xxiv. 8-11. country to Semitic and specially to Canaanitish immigrants. Accordingly the Hebrews were for a long time peacefully engaged in pastoral pursuits, observing in all probability their own peculiar religious and social customs; but they were left unmolested by the Egyptian government, which treated them with benevolent neutrality. Meanwhile their numbers and wealth. continually increased. In time, however, circumstances arose which rendered them formidable to the Egyptians. At the period when the Hebrew tribes first entered Palestine, the Pharaohs were busily engaged in extending their conquests in Western Asia. The reign of Thothmes III. (c. 1503-1449) may be specially mentioned as one of exceptional splendour. He claimed the suzerainty of the whole of Palestine; he even received tribute from Assyria and extended his conquests as far south as the Soudan. It is noteworthy that among the titles of Palestinian cities which brought tribute to Thothmes, and of which a list is inscribed on the great temple of Karnak, occur those of two places, called Jacob-el and Joseph-el: names which seem to imply some reminiscence of Hebrew patriarchs or tribes. After the death of Thothmes, however, the influence of Egypt in Western Asia declined. Some of the vassal princes of Palestine revolted, and we hear of the rise of a powerful Hittite kingdom in Northern Syria. After an ineffective campaign, Sethos (Seti I.), one of the earliest kings of the nineteenth dynasty, was compelled to recognize the independence of the Hittites, and to content himself with securing the allegiance of the petty states of Palestine. His son Ramses II. renewed the struggle with the Hittites, but though he claims to have broken their power, he was in reality obliged to conclude a treaty of peace with Khata-sar 'the great king of the Hittites' on equal terms, and peace was presently cemented by the marriage of Ramses with the daughter of his adversary. As the Hebrews had now grown from being a mere family of settlers into a powerful community of organized tribes, we |