CHAP. VIII. Of the death of Jacob and Joseph. * But 1. Now when Jacob had lived seventeen years in Egypt, he fell into a disease, and died in the presence of his sons; but not till he made his prayers for their enjoying prosperity, and till he had told to them, prophetically, how every one of them was to dwell in the land of Canaan. this happened many years afterward. He also enlarged upon the praises of Joseph; how he had not remembered the evil doings of his brethren to their disadvantage; nay, on the contrary, was kind to them, bestowing upon them so many benefits, as seldom are bestowed on men's own benefactors. He then commanded his own sons that they should admit Joseph's sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, into their number, and divide the land of Canaan in common with them; concerning whom we shall treat hereafter. However, he made it his request, that he might be buried at Hebron. So he died, when he had lived full an hundred and fifty years, three only abated, having not been behind any of his ancestors in piety towards God; and having such a recompense for it as it was fit those should have who were so good as these were. But Joseph, by the king's permission, carried his father's dead body to Hebron, and there buried it, at a great expense. Now his brethren were at first unwilling to return back with him, because they were afraid, lest, now their father was dead, he should punish them for their secret practices against him, since he was now gone for whose sake he had been so gracious to them. But he persuaded them to fear no harm, and to entertain no suspicions of him: so he brought them along with him, and gave them great possessions, and never left off his particular concern for them. 2. Joseph also died when he had lived an hundred and ten years; having been a man of admirable virtue, and conducting all his affairs by the rules of reason; and used his authority with moderation, which was the cause of his so great felicity among the Egyptians, even when he came from an * As to this encomium upon Joseph, as preparatory to Jacob's adopting Ephraim and Manasseh into his own family, and to be admitted for two tribes, which Josephus here mentions, all our copies of Genesis omit it, ch. xlviii. nor do we know whence he took it, or whether it be not his own embellishment only. other country, and that in such ill circumstances also, as we have already described. At length his brethren died, after they had lived happily in Egypt. Now the posterity and sons of these men after some time carried their bodies, and buried them at Hebron: but as to the bones of Joseph, they carried them into the land of Canaan afterward, when the Hebrews went out of Egypt, for so had Joseph made them promise him upon oath. But what became of every one of these men, and by what toils they got the possession of the land of Canaan, shall be shown hereafter, when I have first explained upon what account it was they left Egypt. Concerning the afflictions that befell the Hebrews in Egypt, during * four hundred years. 1. Now it happened that the Egyptians grew delicate and lazy, as to pains taking, and gave themselves up to other pleasures, and in particular to the love of gain. They also became very ill-affected towards the Hebrews, as touched with envy at their prosperity for when they saw how the nation of the Israelites flourished, and were become eminent already in plenty of wealth, which they had acquired by their virtue, and natural love of labour, they thought their increase was to their own detriment. And having, in length of time, forgotten the benefits they had received from Joseph, particularly the crown being now come into another family, they became very abusive to the Israelites, and contrived many ways of afflicting them; for they enjoined them to cut a great number of channels for the river, and to build walls for their cities, and ramparts, that they might restrain the river, and hinder its waters from stagnating, upon its running over its own banks. They set them also to † build pyramids, * As to the affliction of Abraham's posterity for 400 years, see Antiq. B. i. ch. x. § 3. And as to what cities they built in Egypt under Pharaoh Sesostris, and of Pharaoh Sesostris's drowning in the Red Sea; see Essay on the Old Test. append. p. 139-162. + Of this building of the pyramids of Egypt by the Israelites, see Perizonius Orig. Ægyptiæ, ch. xxi. Tis not impossible they might build one or more of the small ones, but the large ones seem much later; only, if they be all built of stone, this does not so well agree with the Israelites labours, which are said to have been in brick, and not in stone: as Mr. Sandys observes in his Travels, p. 127, 128. and by all this wore them out; and forced them to learn all sorts of mechanical arts, and to accustom themselves to hard labour. And four hundred years did they spend under these afflictions; for they strove one against the other which should get the mastery, the Egyptians desiring to destroy the Israelites by these labours, and the Israelites desiring to hold out to the end under them. 2. While the affairs of the Hebrews were in this condition, there was this occasion offered itself to the Egyptians, which made them more solicitous for the extinction of our nation. One of these sacred* scribes, who are very sagacious in foretelling future events truly, told the king, that about this time there would be a child born to the Israelites, who, if he were reared, would bring the Egyptian dominion low, and would raise the Israelites: that he would excel all men in virtue, and obtain a glory that would be remembered through all ages. Which thing was so feared by the king, that, according to this man's opinion, he commanded that they should cast every male child, which was born to the Israelites, into the river, and destroy it: that besides this, the Egyptian midwives should watch the labours of the Hebrew women, and observe what is born, for those were the women who were enjoined to do the office of midwives to them; and by reason of their relation to the king, would not transgress his commands. He enjoined also, that if any parents should disobey him, and venture to spare their ‡ male children alive, *Dr Bernard informs us here, that instead of this single priest or prophet of the Egyptians, without a name in Josephus, the Targum of Jonathan names the two most famous antagonists of Moses, Jannes and Jambres. Nor is it at all unlikely, that it might be one of these who foreboded so much misery to the Egyptians, and so much happiness to the Israelites, from the rearing of Mores. + Jo-ephus is clear that these midwives were Egyptians, and not Israelites, as in our other copies; which is very probable, it being not easily to be supposed that Pharaoh could trust the Israelite midwives to execute so barbarons a command against their own nation. Consult, therefore, and correct hence our ordinary copies, Exod. i. 15-22. And, indeed, Josephus seems to have had much completer copies of the Pentateuch or other authentic records now lost, about the birth and actions of Move, than either our Hebrew, Samaritan, or Greek Bibles afford us, which enabled him to be so large and particular about him. Of this grandfather of Sesostris, Ramestes the great, who slew the Israelite infants, and of the inscription on his obelisk, containing, in my opinion, one of the oldest records of mankind; see Essay on the Old Test. append. p. 139. 145. 217-220. Vol. I. Р they and their families should be destroyed. This was a severe affliction indeed to those that suffered it, not only as they were deprived of their sons, and while they were the parents themselves, they were obliged to be subservient to the destruction of their own children, but as it was to be supposed to tend to the extirpation of their nation, while upon the destruction of their children, and their own gradual dissolution, the calamity would become very hard and inconsolable to them. And this was the ill state they were in. But no one can be too hard for the purpose of God, though he contrive ten thousand subtle devices for that end: for this child, whom the sacred scribe foretold, was brought up and concealed from the observers appointed by the king; and he that foretold him, did not mistake in the consequences of his preservation, which were brought to pass after the manner following. 3. A man whose name was Amram, one of the nobler sort of the Hebrews, was afraid for his whole nation, lest it should fail, by the want of young men to be brought up hereafter, and was very uneasy at it, his wife being then with child, and he knew not what to do. Hereupon he betook himself to prayer to God; and entreated him to have compassion on those men who had no ways transgressed the laws of his worship, and to afford them deliverance from the miseries they at that time.endured, and to render abortive their enemies hopes of the destruction of their nation. Accordingly, God had mercy on him, and was moved by his supplication. He stood by him in his sleep, and exhorted him not to des pair of his future favours. He said farther, that he did not forget their piety towards him, and would always reward them for it, as he had formerly granted his favour to their forefathers, and made them increase from a few to so great a multitude. He put him in mind, that when Abraham was come alone out of Mesopotamia into Canaan, he had been made happy, not only in other respects, but that when his wife was at first barren, she was afterward by him enabled to conceive seed, and bare him sons. That they left to Ishmael, and to his posterity, the country of Arabia; as also to his sons by Keturah, Troglodytis; and to Isaac, Canaan. That by my assistance, said he, he did great exploits in war, which, unless you be yourselves impious, you must still remember. As for Jacob, he became well known to strangers also, by the greatness of that prosperity in which he lived, and left to his sons, who came into Egypt with no more than seventy souls, while you are now become above six hundred thousand. Know, therefore, that I shall provide for you all in common what is for your good, and particularly for thyself what shall make thee famous; for that child, out of dread of whose nativity the Egyptians have doomed the Israelite children to destruction, shall be this child of thine, and shall be concealed from those who watch to destroy him: and when he is brought up, in a surprising way, he shall deliver the Hebrew nation from the distress they are under from the Egyptians. His memory shall be famous while the world lasts; and this not only among the Hebrews, but foreigners also. All which shall be the effect of my favour to thee, and to thy posterity. He shall also have such a brother, that he shall himself obtain my priesthood, and his posterity shall have it after him to the end of the world. 4. When the vision had informed him of these things, Amram awaked, and told it to Jochebed, who was his wife. And now the fear increased upon them, on account of the prediction in Amram's dream; for they were under concern, not only for the child, but on account of the great happiness that was to come to him also. However, the mother's labour was such as afforded a confirmation to what was foretold by God, for it was not known to those that watched her, by the easiness of her pains, and because the throes of her denvery did not fall upon her with violence. And now they nourished the child at home privately for three months; but after that time, Amram, fearing he should be discovered, and by falling under the king's displeasure, both he and his child should perish, and so he should make the promise of God of none effect, he determined rather to intrust the safety and care of the child to God, than to depend on his own concealment of him, which he looked upon as a thing uncertain, and whereby both the child, so privately to be nourished, and himself, should be in imminent danger; but he believed that God would some way for certain procure the safety of the child, in order to secure the truth of his own predictions. When they had thus determined, they made an ark of bulrushes, after the manner of a cradle, and of a bigness sufficient for an infant to be laid in, without being too much straightened: they then daubed it over with slime, which would naturally keep out the water from entering between the bulrushes, and put the infant into it, and setting it afloat upon the river, they |