for the proximate interval between this event and the Exodus, and deduct the sum from 430, the whole duration of the sojourn, it will give us the 64th year of the sojourn for the date of the fall of Memphis, which is 6 years only before the death of Joseph. When we further consider that the durations of the reigns of these Pharaohs are taken from the Greek lists, which are by no means certainties, frequently err, and always in excess, it follows that the death of Joseph and the fall of Memphis (the first great blow to the kingdom of his patron) are very nearly synchronous: which is exactly what the ancient history of the whole world would have led us to anticipate, where the personal character of the ruler had so much to do with the prosperous or adverse circumstances of his kingdom.

NOTE-The single trait of the manners and customs of Israel in Egypt at this epoch, which the Bible has recorded, is their association with the pure worship of the patriarchal tradition, that of these idols of Egypt. This fact is hinted at in the book of Deuteronomy xxix. 16, 17. It is stated distinctly in general terms by the prophet Ezekiel xx. 7, 8. The traces of this their false worship also appear in other passages. They worshipped the steer or ox ay. Exod. xxxii. 4, &c. This would doubtless be the bull Mnevis, the sacred animal of On or Heliopolis. The goat likewise was one of the gods of their idolatry Leviticus xvii. 7, in which we recognise the sacred

animal of the Mendesian nome.

That the worship of Israel should be thus assimilated with that of Egypt, was a natural consequence of their present circumstances. They were the prosperous and thriving subjects of a settled, well-ordered, and tranquil state. They therefore adopted in a measure its religion.

"AND Joseph died and all his brethren, and all that generation. And the children of Israel were fruitful and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them." Exod. i. 6.

We once more bring the text upon which we are engaged before the reader's eye, in order that he may perceive how exactly and to the minutest particular, all that we have found upon the monuments regarding the last days of the Xoite kingdom in the Delta corresponds with the terms of it. "Israel waxed exceeding mighty:" therefore first Heth is expelled from Egypt. Soon afterwards Arvad also loses his influence there. The circumstances that both tribes had been among the first settlers in the Delta, had assisted Saites in the taking of Memphis, and had also been among the first to make peace with the conqueror after its recapture by Amosis, availed nothing. They were the hereditary enemies of Israel. They were of another race, and therefore they must depart to make room for the kindred of the reigning tribe, the children of Lot. This result of our inquiry furnishes, we submit, a proof neither wire-drawn nor weak, that we have

interpreted aright, both the sacred text and the hieroglyphic inscriptions.

"And the land was filled with them." The entire extent of the kingdom in which Israel sojourned, is the obvious import of this phrase. We shall find no difficulty in demonstrating that Israel was scattered over the whole Delta, and that this district "was filled with them,” when we come to consider the events of the Exodus.

"Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.

"And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we! Come on, let us deal subtilly with them, lest they multiply; and it come to pass, that when there falleth out any war, he also [Israel] be among those that hate us, and fight against us, and so get the ascendancy over the land." Ver. 8-10.

Israel has now acquired great political influence in the Xoite kingdom. We have already detected the clearly visible traces of it on the cotemporary monuments of Egypt. The present text would suggest the probability that it was the fear of the rapid increase of this influence, that had induced Si-phtha, or his council, to seek the alliance of the Theban Pharaoh, and to submit to the conditions of it.

When Ramses had annexed the Delta to his own monarchy, he found the process going on there, of which the annals of modern colonization furnish us with so many parallel examples. One of the two races that inhabited it was extinguishing the other. The sons of Mizraim were rapidly disappearing before the Abrahamic immigrants that thronged the Delta. Ramses dealt with both the intruding races. Moab, as we have seen, left Egypt

T

under treaty. With Israel his mode of dealing was suggested by the antipathy of races in himself and in his subjects; a perfect hallucination of the mind, and one of all others the least under the control of reason, and the most difficult to assign to any rational cause. Yet has it been a most powerful motive at all periods of the history of man. Sparta and Messene is a familiar example of its prevalence in the days of old; and, not to multiply modern instances, negro slavery in the present day.

"Therefore they did set over them task-masters to afflict them with their tasks. And they built for Pharaoh magazines [fortresses], even Pithom and Rameses." Ver. 11.

This was the beginning of the captivity. The children of Israel have no more in Egypt the immunities which had been granted them by Aphophis in consideration of the counsels and services of Joseph, and which placed them exactly on a level with the native Egyptians. The decree of the 21st of Rameses, deprives them of all these, and places them in the position of sojourners there, as strangers within or without the gates of the cities; thereby rendering them liable to the forced services which were exacted of tribes so situated, according to the practice of the ancient world. The universality of this custom is so perfectly established by another place in the subsequent history of Israel, that we give the passage at length.

* * *

*

"And Hiram the king of Tyre answered in writing, which he sent to Solomon, We will cut wood out of Lebanon, according to all thy need: and we will bring it to thee in floats by sea to Joppa; and thou shalt carry it up to Jerusalem.

"And Solomon numbered all the strangers in the

land of Israel, after the numbering wherewith David his father had numbered them; and they were found 153,600.

"And he set 70,000 of them to be bearers of burdens, and 80,000 to be hewers in the mountains, and 36,000 overseers to set the people a work." 2 Chron. ii. 11,

16-18.

It is surprising that the illustration of the bondage in Egypt afforded by this remarkable passage has not before been noticed.

The names of the two strongholds built by the Israelites will now require our attention.

פתם,Pithom

We have elsewhere expressed our conviction that this was the city originally built by Sethos the father of Rameses on the easternmost branch of the Nile, which was named after it the Phathmetic, i. e. Pithometic branch; in the same way as all the other branches took the names of the principal cities on their banks. The hieroglyphic names of this city was

p-stmei, "the lock or seal of Egypt;" written in the Coptic texts, it was tamiati, omitting the p at the beginning, which is the definite article. It retains the same name to this day, Damietta. It is several years since we published this our conviction: our present enquiry entirely confirms it. The constructions of Israel at Damietta would doubtless consist of extensive fortifications, walls, and other military works.

רעמסס,Ramses

*

It was the custom of the kings of Egypt, at all times and from the first, to call by their own names the districts or lands reclaimed and added to the actual surface of Egypt Proper, by the engineering

* "Egypt, her testimony," &c.