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EGYPTIAN WINE Curs.

sible that Joseph may have intended to convey some intimation of this sort to his brethren. Rosenmüller, in his Alte und Neue Morgenlande, i. 210,

speaks of this practice of divining by cups. He refers to Jamblichus (On the Mysteries of the Egyptians, iii. 14), who says, that by means of certain figures reflected by the rays of light in clear water, future circumstances were prognosticated; and to Augustine (De Civitate Dei, vii. 35), who quotes a lost work of Varro, wherein it is said that this sort of divination originated with the Persians. The manner of divination is stated to have been as follows: Small pieces of gold or silver leaf, or thin plates of the same, were cast into a vessel, intermingled with precious stones, on which certain characters were engraven. Then the inquirer used certain forms of adjuration, and invoked the infernal powers. The answer was communicated in various ways; sometimes by an intelligible voice; some. times by the same signs appearing on the surface of the water as had been engraven on the precious stones; sometimes by exhibiting the image of the person concerning whom the applicant would inquire. Cornelius Agrippa (De Occulta Philosophia, i. 57) mentions also that many were accustomed to throw melted wax into a vessel of water, and from the forms which it assumed to infer the answer to their proposed questions. If such superstitions existed in the time of Joseph, there is no evidence or probability that he practised them; but both he and the steward may have accommodated their language to the ideas prevalent in those times.

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28. And I said.'-Literally, and I said in myself,' which is the Hebrew mode of expressing 'I thought.' This may call to mind Forster's statement, that among the savages of some of the Pacific islands they use the phrase 'to speak in the belly' for to think.'

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THEN Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him; and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren.

2 And he 'wept aloud and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard.

3 And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph; doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him; for they were "troubled at his presence.

4 And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.

5 Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life. 6 For these two years hath the famine been in the land and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.

1 Heb. gave forth his voice in weeping.

2 Acts 7. 13. 5 Chap. 50. 20.

7 And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

8 So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

9 Haste ye, and go up to my father, and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me lord of all Egypt: come down unto me, tarry not:

10 And thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou, and thy children, and thy children's children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast :

11 And there will I nourish thee; for yet; there are five years of famine; lest thou, and thy houshold, and all that thou hast, come to poverty.

12 And, behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaketh unto you.

13 And ye shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen; and ye shall haste and bring down my father hither.

14 And he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck, and wept; and Benjamin wept upon his neck.

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6 Heb. to put for you a remnant.

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15 Moreover he kissed all his brethren, and | changes of raiment; but to Benjamin he wept upon them: and after that his brethren gave three hundred pieces of silver, and five talked with him. changes of raiment.

16 And the fame thereof was heard in Pharaoh's house, saying, Joseph's brethren are come and it pleased Pharaoh well, and his servants.

17 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Say unto thy brethren, This do ye; lade your beasts, and go, get you unto the land of Canaan;

18 And take your father and your housholds, and come unto me: and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the fat of the land.

19 Now thou art commanded, this do ye; take you wagons out of the land of Egypt for your little ones, and for your wives, and bring your father, and come.

20 Also regard not your stuff; for the good of all the land of Egypt is your's.

21 And the children of Israel did so: and Joseph gave them wagons, according to the 'commandment of Pharaoh, and gave them provision for the way.

22 To all of them he gave each man 'Heb. was good in the eyes of Pharaoh.

23 And to his father he sent after this manner; ten asses laden with the good things of Egypt, and ten she asses laden with corn and bread and meat for his father by the way.

24 So he sent his brethren away, and they departed: and he said unto them, See that ye fall not out by the way.

25 And they went up out of Egypt, and came into the land of Canaan unto Jacob their father,

26 And told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt. And "Jacob's heart fainted, for he believed them not.

27 And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said unto them and when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived:

28 And Israel said, It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die.

8 IIeb. let not your eye spare,

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Verse 10. The land of Goshen.'- Concerning the situation of the land of Goshen,' observes Michaelis, authors have maintained very different opinions; but have withal made it impossible for themselves to ascertain the truth, by concurring in the representation of Goshen as the most beautiful and fertile part of Egypt. But is it at all probable that a king of Egypt would have taken the very best part of his territory from his own native subjects to give it to strangers, and these too a wandering race of herdsmen, hitherto accustomed only to traverse with their cattle the deserts and uncultivated commons of the East?' (Commentaries, vol. i. p. 64, Smith's translation.) Without entering into verbal criticism, we may observe that the expression rendered 'best of the land' (ch. xlvii. 6), as applied to Goshen, has been satisfactorily proved to mean no more than that it was the best pasture ground of Lower Egypt, and therefore best adapted to the uses of the Hebrew shepherds. This land lay along the east side of the Pelusiac or most easterly branch of the Nile; for it is evident that the Hebrews did not cross the Nile in their exode from Egypt, as they must otherwise have done. It may thus have included part at least of the nome or district of Heliopolis, of which the 'On' of the Scriptures is supposed to have been the capital, and which lay on the eastern border of the Delta. To the east of the river the land of Goshen apparently stretched away into the desert, where the nomade shepherds might find sustenance for their flocks. In this direction it may in some places have extended to the neighbourhood of the Gulf of Suez. The land of Goshen, thus defined, included a quantity of fertile land more extensive in length and breadth than at present. This arises from the general failure of the eastern branches of the Nile; the main body of that river verging more and more to the west continually, and deepening the channels on that side. (On this subject see Bryant, Michaelis, Rennel, Robinson, etc. See also note on ch. xlvi. 34.)

There was another Goshen in the territory of the tribe

of Judah; so called, probably, from being a district chiefly appropriated to pasture. (See Josh. x. 41; xi. 16.)

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22. To all of them he gave each man changes of raiment; but to Benjamin he gave · five changes of raiment.'-For

the custom of bestowing honorary dresses, see note on ch. xli. 42. It is not customary in Persia to bestow more than one such dress, the distinction being constituted by the quality and class of the articles of which it consists. But in Turkey, where the dresses of honour are all of nearly the same description and quality, the distinction, as in the instance before us, is made by the number of the dresses bestowed on the person intended to be honoured, more or fewer being given according to the rank of the person, or to the degree of favour intended to be indicated.

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27. When he saw the wagons,' etc.-The Hebrew word seems to be fairly rendered by the word 'wagons.' Wheel carriages of some kind or other are certainly intended; and as, from other passages, we learn that they were covered, at least sometimes, the best idea we can form of them is, that they bore some resemblance to our tilted waggons. With some small exception, it may be said that wheel carriages are not now employed in Western Asia or Africa; but that they were anciently used in Egypt, and in what is now Asiatic Turkey, is attested not only by history, but by existing sculptures and paintings. It would seem that they were not at this time used in Palestine, as when Jacob saw them, he knew they must have come from Egypt. Perhaps, however, he knew this by their peculiar shape. The only wheel-carriages in Western Asia with which we are acquainted are, first, a very rude cart, usually drawn by oxen, and employed in conveying agricultural produce; and then a vehicle called an arabah, used at Constantinople, and in some other towns towards the Mediterranean. It is a light covered cart without springs; and being exclusively used by women, children, and aged or sick persons (see v. 19), would seem both in

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CHAPTER XLVI.

1 Jacob is comforted by God at Beer-sheba; 5 Thence he with his company goeth into Egypt. 8 The number of his family that went into Egypt. 28 Joseph meeteth Jacob. 31 He instructeth his brethren how to answer Pharaoh.

AND Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beer-sheba, and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac.

2 And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I.

3 And he said, I am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation:

4 I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again: and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes.

5 ¶ And Jacob rose up from Beer-sheba : and the sons of Israel carried Jacob their

1 Josh. 24. 4. Psal. 105. 23 Isa. 52. 4. 150

2 Exod. 1. 1. and 6. 14.

father, and their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him.

6 And they took their cattle, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, 'Jacob, and all his seed with him:

7 His sons, and his sons' sons with him, his daughters, and his sons' daughters, and all his seed brought he with him into Egypt.

8 ¶ And these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons: "Reuben, Jacob's firstborn.

9 And the sons of Reuben; Hanoch, and Phallu, and Hezron, and Carmi.

10 And 'the sons of Simeon; Jemuel, and Jamin, and Ohad, and Jachin, and Zohar, and

Shaul the son of a Canaanitish woman.

11 And the sons of 'Levi; Gershon, Kohath, and Merari.

3 Numb. 26. 5. 1 Chron. 5. 1.

51 Chron. 6. 1.

Exod. 6. 15. 1 Chron. 4. 94.

seven.

12 And the sons of Judah; Er, and Onan, she bare these unto Jacob: all the souls were and Shelah, and Pharez, and Zarah: but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan. And the sons of Pharez were Hezron and Hamul.

13 And the sons of Issachar; Tola, and Phuvah, and Job, and Shimron.

14 And the sons of Zebulun; Sered, and Elon, and Jahleel.

15 These be the sons of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob in Padan-aram, with his daughter Dinah all the souls of his sons and his daughters were thirty and three.

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16 And the sons of Gad; Ziphion, and Haggi, Shuni, and Ezbon, Eri, and Arodi, and Areli.

17 And the sons of Asher; Jimnah, and Ishuah, and Isui, and Beriah, and Serah their sister and the sons of Beriah; Heber, and Malchiel.

18 These are the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter, and these she bare unto Jacob, even sixteen souls.

19 The sons of Rachel Jacob's wife; Joseph, and Benjamin.

20 And unto Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, which Asenath the daughter of Poti-pherah 10priest of On bare unto him.

21 "And the sons of Benjamin were Belah, and Becher, and Ashbel, Gera, and Naaman, Ehi, and Rosh, Muppim, and Huppim, and Ard.

22 These are the sons of Rachel, which were born to Jacob: all the souls were fourteen. 23 And the sons of Dan; Hushim. 24 And the sons of Naphtali; Jahzeel, and Guni, and Jezer, and Shillem.

25 These are the sons of Bilhah, which Laban gave unto Rachel his daughter, and

1 Chron. 2. 3, and 4. 21. Chap. 38. 3.
11 Chron. 7. 6, and 8. 1.

71 Chron. 7. 1. 12 Heb. thigh.

26 All the souls that came with Jacob into Egypt, which came out of his loins, besides Jacob's sons' wives, all the souls were threescore and six ;

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27 And the sons of Joseph, which were born him in Egypt, were two souls: all the souls of the house of Jacob, which came into Egypt, were threescore and ten.

28 ¶ And he sent Judah before him unto Joseph, to direct his face unto Goshen; and they came into the land of Goshen.

29 And Joseph made ready his chariot, and went up to meet Israel his father, to Goshen, and presented himself unto him; and he fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while.

30 And Israel said unto Joseph, Now let me die, since I have seen thy face, because thou art yet alive.

31 ¶ And Joseph said unto his brethren, and unto his father's house, I will go up, and shew Pharaoh, and say unto him, My brethren, and my father's house, which were in the land of Canaan, are come unto me;

32 And the men are shepherds, for '*their trade hath been to feed cattle; and they have brought their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have.

33 And it shall come to pass, when Pharaoh shall call you, and shall say, What is your occupation?

34 That ye shall say, Thy servants' trade hath been about cattle from our youth even until now, both we, and also our fathers: that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians.

8 1 Chron. 7. 30. 9 Chap. 41. 50. 10 Or, prince. 13 Deut. 10. 22. 14 Heb. they are men of cattle.

Verse 34. Every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians.'-Various causes have been assigned to account for this aversion of the Egyptians to shepherds. It has been sought for in the animal worship of that extraordinary people, which naturally rendered them averse to persons who fed on creatures which they considered sacred. But this cause must have been limited in its operation; for the Egyptians, as a people, by no means concurred in the objects of veneration. Almost every nome, or district, had a different usage. Thus the inhabitants of Mendes worshipped goats and ate sheep, while those of Thebes, on the contrary, fed on goats and rendered homage to sheep. In Thebes also, and all around the Lake Maris, crocodiles were venerated, whilst at Elephantine they were killed without mercy. In fact, the Egyptians were divided into a great number of societies distinguished from, and prejudiced against, one another, by their different objects and rites of worship. We believe that the influence of the animal worship

of the Egyptians was much less considerable in its operation upon the rearing of cattle than is commonly imagined. Of the larger cattle, the cow alone was considered sacred; we doubt that any strong feeling on its account could have arisen against the nomade shepherds, as they never kill cows for food, and rarely even oxen; and it does not appear that they often offered cows in sacrifice, for in all the Old Testament, previously to the exode from Egypt, we read of only one heifer sacrificed (Gen. xv. 9). The Egyptians did not worship bulls or oxen; the worship of the bull Apis being restricted to an individual animal: other bulls were used in sacrifices, and are so represented in sculptures. The priests themselves ate beef and veal without scruple. There was even a caste of herdsmen among the Egyptians; and herds of black cattle are represented in sculptures and paintings, some of which are preserved in the British Museum. The ox was used as food, and in agricultural labour, and in the same ancient remains

is continually represented as drawing the plough. Even Pharaoh himself was a proprietor of cattle (see ch. xlvii. 6), and wished to have men of ability to superintend them; and he would scarcely have offered this employment to the brothers of his chief minister, if the employment of rearing cattle had in itself been considered degrading. We conclude, however, that so far as the hatred of the Egyp tians to shepherds arose from their religious prejudices, it was connected almost entirely with the cow-the only pastured animal which they generally considered sacred. Any objection connected with sheep and goats could only have operated locally, since the Egyptians themselves sacrificed or ate them in different districts.

We are therefore inclined, following out a hint furnished by Heeren, to consider that the aversion of the Egyptians was not so exclusively to rearers of cattle as such, as to the class of pastors who associated the rearing of cattle with habits and pursuits which rendered them equally hated and feared by a settled and refined people like the Egyptians. We would therefore understand the words of the text in the most intense signification, and say that 'every nomade shepherd was an abomination to the Egyptians; for there is no evidence that this disgrace attached, for instance, to those cultivators who, being proprietors of lands, made the rearing of cattle an important part of their business. The nomade tribes, who pastured their flocks on the borders or within the limits of Egypt, did not in general belong to the Egyptian nation, but were of Arabian or Libyan descent; whence the prejudice against them as nomades was superadded to that against foreigners in general. The turbulent and aggressive disposition which usually forms part of the character of nomades-and their entire independence, or at least the imperfect and uncertain control which it is possible to exercise over their tribes-are circumstances so replete with annoyance and danger to a carefully organized society like that of the Egyptians, as sufficiently to account for the hatred and scorn which the ruling priestly caste strove to keep up against them; and it was probably in order to discourage all intercourse, that the regulation precluding Egyptians from eating with them was first established.

In further illustration of this matter we must not overlook the circumstances connected with the history of the Shepherd-kings,' which Josephus and other ancient writers have handed down to us in extracts from an Egyptian priest named Manetho, who lived under Ptolemy Philadelphus. These circumstances, so far as they can be understood, are of very great importance for the right apprehension of the events recorded at the latter end of Genesis and the beginning of Exodus; for it is the general conclusion that they belong to the period immediately preceding the Egyptian history of Joseph, and must have had great influence upon the ideas and habits of the time, and upon the circumstances which determined the condition of the Hebrews in Egypt, and their location in the land of Goshen. We shall give the account offered by Manetho, and then offer a few remarks in elucidation of it. Manetho states that In the reign of king Timæus there came up from the east men of an ignoble race, who had the confidence to invade our country; and easily subdued it without a battle, burning the cities, demolishing the temples, slaying the men, and reducing the women and children to slavery. They made Salatis, one of themselves, king. He reigned at Memphis, and made the Upper and Lower regions [of Egypt] tributary; garrisoned fit places, particularly in the eastern frontier, through fear the Assyrians should invade the country. He rebuilt and strongly fortified the city of Avaris, in the Saïte nome, upon the east of the Bubastite channel, and garrisoned it with 250,000 men, as a treasure city. He reigned nineteen years.' Then follow the names of five successors-the sum of the six reigns being 284 according to one copy of Manetho's account, but 250 according to another (that of Eusebius).

Manetho calls his 16th dynasty Hellenic, Shepherdkings; and states that it was composed of 32 kings, who reigned 518 years.

His 17th dynasty is composed of 43 Shepherd-kings and 43 (contemporary) Theban kings, of Diospolis, who reigned for 151 years.

Now with respect to these dynasties, he says,- All this nation was called Hyksōs, or Shepherd-kings; for the first syllable, Hyk, in the sacred dialect, means a king, and sʊs, in the vulgar tongue, a shepherd: some say they were Arabs. These Shepherd-kings and their descendants retained possession of Egypt 511 years.'

It is then stated, that eventually the kings of the Thebaïd and the other (i. e. Lower) Egypt rose against the shepherds, and after a long war, Alisphragmuthosis drove the shepherds, or captives as they were sometimes called, out of the other parts of Egypt, and confined them to the district of Avaris, which they strongly fortified to protect their property. Amosis, or Thummosis, his son, besieged them in their stronghold, with 480,000 men; reduced them to capitulate, and they left Egypt in number 240,000, and marched through the desert towards Syria, and built the city of Jerusalem, in the country now called Judæa, which they fortified against the Assyrians.'

The dynasty founded by Amosis consisted of 16 kings, who together reigned 263 years. The last of these kings, Amenophis, or one of his immediate predecessors, being warned by the priests to cleanse the whole country of lepers and unclean persons, gathered them together, and sent them, to the number of 80,000, to work at the quarries on the east side of the Nile. And there were among them some learned priests equally affected with leprosy. When they had been for some time in that miserable state the king set apart for them the city Avaris, which had been left empty by the shepherds. When they had possession of the city they revolted, and made Osarsiph, a priest of Heliopolis, their ruler, who afterwards changed his name to Moses. He made many laws directly opposed to the customs of the Egyptians, forbidding them to worship their gods and sacred animals. He sent ambassadors to Jerusalem, to the shepherds whom Tethmosis had driven out, who gladly sent 200,000 men to their assistance, in hopes of regaining the dominion of Egypt. Amenophis at first retreated to Ethiopia, whose king was his friend: but, returning with a great force, slew many of the shepherds, and pursued the rest into Syria.'

Such is the statement of Manetho. Without stopping now to indicate the confusion produced by his mixing up the affairs of the Jews with those of his shepherds, and the slur he attempts to cast upon them as unclean and leprous persons, let us endeavour to establish some chronological principle which may help us through this obscurity.

We may dismiss the 16th, or Hellenic shepherd dynasty, which seems to have been contemporary with the others, and to have been composed of settlers on the coast, who were expelled about the same time as the 17th dynasty. The whole period of the intrusion of the shepherds is stated at 511 years, and it is clear that these years are made to terminate at the exode of the Israelites. This is an important element. Now if we take Hales' date of 16-18 B.C. for that of the exode, and count back 511 years, we come to 2159 B.C., which, according to the same authority, was six years before the birth of Abraham. We take that, therefore, as the date of the first appearance of the Shepherd-kings in Egypt. After a rule of 250 years, this 15th, or 'Phoenician' dynasty, was expelled by Amosis. Counting 250 years from the birth of Abraham, we come to 1909 B.C. as the date of that expulsion; and this was seven years before the birth of Joseph, the date of which is placed by Hales in 1902 B.C. It follows, therefore, that the king who ruled in Lower Egypt at the time of Abraham's visit to that country, was one of the Shepherdkings; but when Joseph was brought down to Egypt, and became the trusted minister of the king, this shepherd dynasty had lately been expelled from their last stronghold, and the native power was again paramount. And this event was so recent that the Egyptians were still imbued with a deep sense of the wrong and humiliation they had sustained under a foreign yoke; by which not

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