The kind monarch seems to have heard the circumstance with pleasure, which is a pleasing evidence of the esteem in which Joseph was held at court. He immediately sent for Joseph, and authorized him to express his kindest intentions towards his father and his brethren; and, seeing that it would be best for them to come to Egypt, he had the consideration to direct that they should be well supplied with provisions for the way, and that they should be furnished with conveyances, in which the aged patriarch, with the women and children, might travel from Canaan to Egypt with comfort, Gen. xlv. 16-20. Good old Jacob heard the news of his Joseph's exaltation with caution; but when he was convinced of it, in the exuberance of his joy, he exclaimed, "It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive I will go and see him before I die," ver. 21-28. Towards this country, therefore, he sojourned, pausing at Beersheba to offer sacrifices in that place. Here he was favoured with a dream which relieved him of all fears about the ultimate success of the step he was taking. He was assured in that dream that his sojourn in Egypt was a part of the Divine plan concerning his race, which should there be fostered into a great nation, and then brought forth from thence. Thus encouraged, Jacob proceeded on his way, and he finally entered Egypt with all his family, about 1863 years B. C. See Gen. xlvi. 1-27. Without having consulted the king, Joseph, it would appear, had fixed upon the land of Goshen as the future abode of his father's family; and that, not only as being suited to a pastoral people, but as that which the Egyptians, under all circumstances, would be the most willing to see in their occupation. Accordingly, the land of Goshen, being a border district, in the direction of Palestine, was the first part which Jacob reached, and Joseph, after the first emotions of their tender meeting had subsided, Gen. xlvi. 2830, directed that they should remain there, while he went to make known his arrival to the king, and learn his pleasure concerning them. For this purpose, he took with him five of his brethren, who, after he himself had carried the news to the king, were introduced into the royal presence. The king asked them what was their occupation; and they, as they had been taught, answered, they were shepherds, as all their fathers had been. They then added, that they had come to sojourn in Egypt, for in the land of Canaan the drought had been so severe that they could find no pasture for their flocks, and they concluded with a request, that they might be allowed to remain among the pastures of Goshen. The king, turning to Joseph, told him that the whole land was at his disposal, to place them in the best part of it-in Goshen, if that district seemed the most suitable for them. He farther desired him, if among his brothers there were men of sufficient ability, to make them overseers of his (the king's) own cattle, Gen. xlvii. 1-6. The policy of the Egyptian court, says Dr. Hales, in giving a possession or establishment to Joseph's family, in the land of Goshen especially, was wise and liberal. This country stretched 66 along the Bubastic or Pelusiac branch of the Nile, and formed the eastern barrier of Egypt, towards Palestine and Arabia, the quarters from which they most dreaded invasion; whose nakedness" was now covered, in a short time, by a numerous, a brave, and an industrious people; amply repaying, by the additional security and resources which they gave to Egypt, their hospitable reception and naturalization. Joseph having succeeded in his plan of placing his father's family in the land of Goshen, he introduced the aged patriarch, also, to the king. Jacob respectfully saluted the monarch, in acknowledgment of the consideration and favour with which he had been treated; and the king, struck by his venerable appearance, entered into conversation with him, particularly inquiring his age. The answer of Jacob was impressive: "The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their_pilgrimage." After some further conversation, Jacob, having again saluted Pharaoh, and blessed him, withdrew from his presence, Gen. xlvii. 7—10. This is all the information we have concerning this monarch of Egypt: how long a period he reigned, and when he died, is not known. The brief notice we have of him, however, in the sacred page, shows that he was a good and wise prince, and had the interest of his people at heart. Joseph, his prime minister, died about 1792 years B. C. Concerning the other monarchs, who reigned during this period, we have still briefer notice. There appears to have been two, Amun-m-gori, and Osirtasen II., of whom Mr. Wilkinson says, that independent of the encouragement given by them to the agricultural interests of the country, they consulted those who were employed in the inhospitable desert; and the erection of a temple, and a station to command the wells, and to serve for their abode in Wady Jasoos, proved that they were mindful of their religious rites as well as of their temporal protection. The breccia quarries of the Kossayr, or Cosseir road, were already opened, and probably also the emerald mines of Gebel Zabara. Besides these monarchs, Dr. Hales places a queen of the name of Nitocris (called Nicaule by Josephus) in this period, and fixes the date 1742 years B. C. Concerning this queen, Herodotus relates a singular stratagem, devised by her, to revenge the murder of her brother and predecessor. She invited a number of the Egyptians to an entertainment, in a large subterraneous apartment, which she had built; and, by a private canal, let in the waters of the river upon the company, and drowned them all; and afterwards destroyed herself. The names of the monarchs who reigned immediately after Nitocris, cannot be specified with any degree of certainty. It was during this period, however, that the Israelites were cruelly oppressed in Egypt. After recording the death of Joseph, with "his brethren, and all that generation," the sacred narrative goes on to say, "Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph," Exod. i. 8. This new stances would certainly furnish a colourable plea, which would, doubtless, be taken advantage of to oppress the Israelites; but such cannot be king is regarded, by Faber and Wilkinson, as the But the monarch whom Wilkinson conjectures to have been him by whom the Hebrews were first oppressed, lived, according to Dr. Hales, at the time of the exode of the Israelites, and as there must have been more than one reigning monarch in Egypt during the period of their cruel bondage, there is no alternative left us but to pursue this portion of Egyptian history with reference to those various monarchs under their general Scripture name of Pharaoh, as before. What were the motives by which Pharaoh was actuated in this line of policy towards the Hebrews, cannot be positively asserted. Josephus says, that the act was intimately connected with the expulsion of the shepherds, and the same author also tells us, that the shepherds were yet lingering on the frontiers, and fortifying the city Aouaris, and that they did again rally and overrun Egypt a second time in the reign of the last king of the eighteenth dynasty. These circum The course which this monarch adopted to subdue the Israelites to his yoke, was by compelling them to relinquish their mode of life as tent-dwelling shepherds, and by fixing them down as cultivators of that soil originally granted them for pasturage. This, to a free people, unaccustomed to labour, he supposed, and that naturally, would have the effect, not only of subduing their spirits, but of reducing their numbers. In the first place, as we learn from Exod. i., he required that they should make bricks, and with them build towns and villages, a mode of labour hitherto unknown to them. Pithom and Raamses, as before stated, were erected by them. These cities were probably intended to be held by the Egyptians, to enforce the new measures, as well as to furnish secure places to which they might bring, and in which they might treasure up the corn and other produce paid to the king for the rent of his lands. The situation of these treasure cities is not exactly known; but there is no doubt, as all accounts show, that they were placed in the land occupied by the Hebrews. But before the land could be made available for the purposes of cultivation, it was necessary to cut canals, construct dams, and to execute many other works requiring much drudgery; and such undertakings as these, would be very hateful to a pastoral people; they would be so felt at the present day by the Bedouins. They would not, indeed, have executed such, unless by compulsion. This Pharaoh knew, and the execution of his orders was therefore confided to "taskmasters," who were charged with responsibilities which caused them to exact the services required with rigour. Thus, in the emphatic language of the sacred historian, "they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour," Exod. i. 14. But the more the Israelites were oppressed, the more they multiplied and grew, and the more Pharaoh and the Egyptians were alarmed. A new expedient, therefore, was sought to check their increase. The Hebrew midwives were ordered to destroy all the male children that should be born. But this command was not obeyed; the midwives alleging that the Hebrew were more lively than the Egyptian women, and consequently did not require their assistance. Upon this, the cruel monarch issued an edict that all the male infants should be destroyed, Exod. i. 15-22. This cruel decree was in force at the birth of Moses, sixty-four years after the death of Joseph, and was probably enacted soon after the birth of his elder brother Aaron, who was not subject to the decree. This illustrious legislator of the Hebrews was of the tribe of Levi, in the line of Kohath and of Amram, whose son he was. By a singular providence, the infant Moses, when exposed on the river Nile, in a frail bark of papyrus, coated on the outside with bitumen, and inside with the slime of that river, through fear of the royal decree, after his mother had hid him three months, was taken up and adopted by Pharaoh's own daughter, and nursed by his own mother, whom she hired at the suggestion of his sister Miriam. When the child needed a nurse no longer, he was taken home to the house of the princess by whom he was saved, thus finding an asylum in the very palace of his intended destroyer. Here he was instructed in all that wisdom of the Egyptians which was the admiration and proverb of all surrounding nations, Exod. ii. 1-10. It does not appear that the murderous edict against the Hebrew infants was long in force. We are, however, unacquainted with the considerations which led to its repeal. It is possible, that the people of Lower Egypt, generally, were not prepared to go to this extent with the court in such a barbarous measure against the Hebrews, and that their murmurs were heard and respected. Or it may be, as has been supposed, that this daughter of Pharaoh had interest enough with her father to induce him to revoke this fulminating decree. Another alternative may be, that, as this measure seems to have been adopted at the latter part of this king's reign, the accession of a new king was attended with a change of policy towards the Hebrews, which involved the preservation of their infants, and which may to this extent have been influenced by the monarch's sister. It may be mentioned, indeed, that some conclude, from the fragments of Manetho, and the hieroglyphics on the sculptures, that Ammoph I., who bears the character of "a great encourager of the arts of peace,' began his reign about this period, and that he was succeeded by Ameuse, his sister, the patroness of Moses, and Thothmes I., her husband, whose accession to the throne took place about the time that Moses comes again under our notice in the Egyptian history, as recorded in Scripture, and as noticed in the succeeding paragraph. But if new monarchs had arisen, if the order to destroy the Hebrew children was withdrawn, and the policy of the Egyptian state was changed towards that people, their "hard bondage" was by no means relieved; they were still doomed to toil under the inspection of taskmasters." But the day of their redemption drew nigh. When Moses was grown to manhood, and was full forty years of age, it would appear that he was moved by a Divine impulse to undertake the deliverance of his countrymen. See Acts vii. 23-25. He left the court of Pharaoh, and took part with the despised and afflicted bondsmen. He "refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season," Heb. xi. 24, 25. But in the height of his zeal to redress their grievances, going forth one day, he saw a Hebrew atrociously maltreated by an Egyptian officer, and kindling at the sight, he delivered him by *The well-known design of Jews at work, brick-making, is found in the tomb of Kekshari, who was his superintendent of public works. Hence, that he was one of the oppressors of the Hebrews, appears to be an authenticated fact. | slaying his oppressor. This deed became known to the monarch, who sought to slay him, but he fled for his life to the land of Midian, in Arabia Petrea, where he married Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro, or Reuel, prince and priest of Midian, and he, as a shepherd, kept his flocks in the vicinity of Mount Horeb, or Sinai, for forty years, Exod. ii. 11—25. At the end of that time, it is recorded in Scripture that "the king of Egypt died," Exod. ii. 23. It is, however, the opinion of some that Thothmes I. died after a reign of twenty-seven years, and that he was succeeded by a queen whom Mr. Wilkinson calls, Amun-neit-gori, who has hitherto given rise to more doubts and questions than any other sovereigns of this period. This author says of Amun-neit-gori: Whether she was only regent during the reign of Thothmes II. and III., or succeeded to the throne in the right of Thothmes I., in whose honour she erected several monuments, is still uncertain, and some have doubted her being a queen. The name has been generally erased, and those of the second and third Thothmes are placed over it; but sufficient remains to prove that the small temple of Medeenet Haboo, the elegant edifice under the Qoorneh rocks, and the great obelisks of Karnak, with many other handsome monuments, were erected by her orders, and the attention paid to the military caste is testified by the subjects of the sculptures. In what character this princess operated, in the reigns of Thothmes II. and III., cannot now be known, and therefore we proceed to notice the latter monarch. It is said, that the reign of Thothmes II. lasted ten years, and that consequently the fortieth year from the flight of Moses fell in the reign of his successor, Thothmes III. If this be correct, he is to be regarded, therefore, as the Pharaoh who so madly opposed Israel's deliverance. At this period, the oppression of the Israelites was come to the full, and they cried to God for succour. Their cry was heard. Moses was leading his flocks round the eastern arm of the Red Sea into the peninsula of Sinai, and when near the mountain of Horeb, "the God of glory" appeared to him in a flame of fire, from the midst of a bush, and announced himself as "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob," and commissioned him first to make known to the Israelites the Divine will for their deliverance; and next to go with the elders of Israel to Pharaoh, requiring him, in the name of "the LORD God of the Hebrews," to suffer the people to go three days' journey into the wilderness, to sacrifice unto the Lord their God, Exod. iii. Charged with this high and arduous mission, Moses departed from the shores of the Red Sea, to return to the banks of the Nile. As he advanced towards Egypt, Aaron received the Divine command to go forth and meet his brother in the wilderness, and to assist him in his mission: and afterwards they proceeded together to the land of Goshen, Exod. iv. On appearing before the king, Aaron announced that JEHOVAH, the God of the Hebrews, had appeared to them, and had sent them to require the king to allow the Israelites to hold a feast to him in the wilderness. The monarch was doubtless astonished at such a demand. He replied, "Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." But they still persisted in their demand, explaining more particularly, that they wished the people to go three days' journey into the wilderness to offer sacrifices to God, and intimating that the Israelites might expect to be visited by "the pestilence or the sword" unless they were obedient. The king did not deign to reply to this, but dismissed them with a reprimand for putting such wild notions into the heads of the people, and calling away their attention from their occupations, Exod. v. 14. The same day, the king, affecting to attribute this application to a leisure life, determined to bring down their spirits by adding to their burdens: "Let there more work be laid upon the men,” said he, “that they may labour therein; and let them not regard vain words." It was now, indeed, ordered that they should no longer be furnished with the straw wherewith they compacted the bricks, but that they should collect it for themselves, while the same number of bricks should be exacted which they had formerly been required to supply. Under these circumstances the work could not be done, and they were beaten for deficiencies which they could not prevent, ver. 5-23. The prophet and his minister came again unto Pharaoh, and at this second interview, in obedience to the Divine command, again required him to let the children of Israel go out of his land. Pharaoh, as foretold, demanded of them a miracle in proof of their commission. Aaron accepted the challenge; he cast down his rod, and it became a serpent before Pharaoh, Exod. vii. 1-10. | Jewish traditions, were the chief of their opponents. This miracle was therefore abortive with regard to its effect upon the king. It seems, indeed, not to have been understood by the Hebrews themselves; on which the same writer remarks: "The incredulity of Pharaoh on this occasion only resembled the incredulity of the Israelites themselves, when the same miracle was wrought before them; and it was not considered as decisive, even by THE LORD, when he supposed they might not be convinced till the third miraculous sign, as was actually the case; Exod. iv. 8, 9, compared with iv. 30, 31. In both cases, therefore, the reality of the transformation might have been doubted-by Pharaoh, as well as by the Israelites, on the supposition that it might have been the effect of legerdemain." But the monarch was soon undeceived; for THE PLAGUES OF EGYPT followed in its train. The design of these visitations, growing more awful and tremendous in their progress, was to make Pharaoh know and confess that the God of the Hebrews was THE SUPREME LORD; and to exhibit his power and his justice in the strongest light to all nations of the earth, Exod. ix. 16; 1 Sam. iv. 8, etc.: to execute judgment upon the Egyptians, and upon all their gods, inanimate and bestial, for their cruelty to the Israelites, and for their grovelling polytheism and idolatry, Exod. vii. 14-17; xii. 12. As it may be of some importance to understand the time of the year in which these plagues occurred, we introduce the following satisfactory statement, from the pen of Dr. Hales: "Neither the season of the year, nor the time at which the plagues commenced, is any where history. The exode of the Hebrews, after the tenth plague, was about the vernal equinox, or beginning of April, on the fifteenth day of the first month, Abib, Exod. xii. 6; but by the seventh plague, that of hail, the barley was smitten, but not the wheat and rye, those plants being of later growth. Now Egmont, Hayman, and Hasselquist, all concur in stating that the barley harvest in Egypt is reaped in March and April; and Le Brun states that he found the whole to be over at Cairo upon the nineteenth of April. This coincides with the sacred historian's account, that 'the barley was in the ear,' though not yet fit for reaping; but the wheat and the rye were not grown up,' Exod. ix. 31, 32. This judgment, therefore, must have occurred about a month before the exode, or in the beginning of March, before the barley harvest, so as to leave space for the three succeeding plagues. If we count backwards two months, upon the same principles, for the first six plagues, it will bring the first about the beginning of January, when the winter season commences, at which time the river Nile was lowest, and its waters clearest." This gave occasion to, perhaps, the most extra-specified; but both may be collected from the ordinary contest on record. The king called upon his wise men and magicians, to know if they could do as much by the power of their gods, and "they also did in like manner with their enchantments. For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods," ver. 11, 12. This feat, however, is particularly easy of explanation. The ancient Egyptians were, as the modern Egyptians now are, very famous in the art of charming serpents. They can perform operations upon them, which will strike the ignorant with amazement. At their command, they will sleep, and become torpid, and lie as if dead: they will come at the call of the charmer, and lie in the folds of their garments, or twine around their necks without hurting them. The Egyptians also have always been, and are now, skilful jugglers, and able with great address to substitute one object for another. Hence, these men might have brought live serpents and adroitly substituted them for their staves; and although Aaron's serpent swallowed up the other serpents, thereby showing the superiority of the true miracle over the false, it might, as Dr. Hales observes, only lead the king to conclude, that Moses and Aaron were more expert jugglers than Jannes and Jambres who opposed them, 2 Tim. iii. 8, who, as St. Paul informs us, from THE FIRST PLAGUE. The river Nile was the principal divinity of the Egyptians, and, as such, it was honoured with feasts and sacrifices, and rites of ceremonial worship. One morning, as the king went forth towards its banks, probably to render it an act of worship, he was there met by Moses and Aaron, who repeated their demand. Being again refused, they announced, in the name of JEHOVAH, an act which they intended to perform upon the river, and the object for which they would perform it, that Pharaoh might know that it was THE LORD that wrought by their hands. Then, in the presence of the king and his servants, the prophet lifted up his rod, and smote the river, and its pure waters were forthwith changed into blood. The change even operated upon all the rivers of Egypt, the numerous canals and reservoirs which were fed by the Nile, and upon that water which had been preserved in vessels of wood and stone for domestic use. This calamity continued for seven days, during which all the fish that were in the river died; many of which were worshipped by the Egyptians, and most of which formed a large and principal article of diet among them. This, therefore, was a complicated, and must have been a grievous calamity to them. They loathed, indeed, to drink of those streams they once adored, and which were held more pleasant and salutary than any other which the earth could offer; and they began to dig the ground for pure water. This they found, and the magicians operating upon it, probably by chemical means, so as to give it a blood-like appearance, Pharaoh's heart was hardened a second time, and he would not let the Hebrews go, as was demanded, Exod. vii. 14-25. THE SECOND PLAGUE. Moses and Aaron again delivered a message to Pharaoh: "Thus saith the Lord, Let my people go, that they may serve me." But they were again unheeded; and Aaron, directed by Moses, smote the river again; when lo! (together with another of the Egyptian gods, the frog, which was consecrated to the sun, and considered as an emblem of divine inspiration in its inflations) it was once more made the instrument of their punishment. The frogs came up from the river, and covered the land of Egypt, penetrating every where, and polluting and defiling every thing they touched; their beds, ovens, and kneadingtroughs, not being exempt. This the Egyptian priests contrived, also, to imitate on some small scale; but, as they could do nothing for the removal of the plague, Pharaoh began to be troubled. He sent for Moses and Aaron, and entreated them to pray to Jehovah to remove the frogs, and then he would let the Hebrews go to render him sacrifice. The frogs were removed on "the morrow," but when Pharaoh saw there was a respite, his heart was hardened a third time, and he forewent his promise, Exod. viii. 1-15. THE THIRD PLAGUE. The next plague, which was that of lice, was produced without any previous intimation to Pharaoh. "Aaron," it is said, "stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice in man, and in beast; all the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt." This must have been peculiarly offensive to a people so superstitiously nice and cleanly as the Egyptians, and above all to their priests; who, as Herodotus informs us, used to shave their whole bodies every third day, that no vermin might be found upon them while they were employed in serving their gods. Plutarch says, also, that they never wore woollen garments, but linen only, because linen is least apt to produce vermin. The magicians themselves were, moreover, disgraced by this miracle. They tried to imitate it, but failed on account of the minuteness of the objects; and they were forced to confess, that this was no human feat of legerdemain, but wrought by "the finger of God," or, as they meant, by some supernatural agency. Thus was their folly made manifest unto all men. But, notwithstanding this declaration, the heart of Pharaoh was hardened a fourth time, and he hearkened not unto Moses and Aaron, Exod. viii. 16-19. THE FOURTH PLAGUE. This plague, since the word Arob, by which it is described, denotes a mixture, is of doubtful interpretation. Some have concluded that it consisted of an immense number of beasts of prey; but it is more probable that every kind of annoying insect is intended; and this is the sense in which the words are considered by the English translators of the Bible. Amongst these insects may be enumerated the gadfly, or hornet, and the Egyptian beetle, both of which insects, brought forth in great numbers, would have been a fearful scourge. If these were a part of this plague, then the Egyptians, in this event, also, were punished through the medium of their idols; for both occupied a place among their sacred creatures. It is not said whether the magicians imitated this plague, but it is described as being so severe, that it extorted Pharaoh's partial consent: "Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land;" and when Moses and Aaron represented the offence they would give to the Egyptians, who would stone them for sacrificing animal sacrifices, he reluctantly consented that they should go beyond its borders; "only," he added, "ye shall not go very far away.' He further desired them to "entreat" for him that the plague might be removed. Moses expressed his readiness to intercede with Jehovah for the removal of the plague, at the same time venturing to add this caution, "Let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully any more in not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord." But no sooner had this calamity passed away, than the pledge of this king was again broken; he "hardened his heart at this time also, neither would he let the people go," Exod. viii. 20-32. This new breach of promise, however, drew down on the land of Egypt still more severe visitations. THE FIFTH PLAGUE. This plague was of a more deadly description than any of the preceding. This was the plague of murrain, under the effects of which, great |