The History of Antiquity, Vol. 1 (of 6)

But what could induce the children of Jacob to go to Egypt, or the Egyptians to give them a pasture-land on their north-eastern border? We arrived above at the conclusion that the tribe of Jacob was a branch of the Edomites, whose dwelling-place is fixed by tradition in the mountains between the north-east point of the Arabian Gulf and the Dead Sea, where in fact we find them in historical times. This tribe, therefore, both at the time when in union with the Edomites it passed along the eastern and southern borders of Canaan, and after separating from the Edomites – who may have already taken Mount Seir from the Horites, or have pastured their flocks in the vicinity – was at no great distance from Egypt. When divided from the Edomites, the fear of the stronger part of the tribe from which they had separated, and the desire to find more fruitful pastures in the neighbourhood of the Nile, or want of corn, as the tradition says, might have induced the sons of Jacob to leave the borders of Canaan for the borders of Egypt. The tribes, or families of shepherds, who pastured their flocks in the neighbourhood of Canaan, may have been accustomed to purchase corn when their own cultivation was insufficient, from the corn-growers in Canaan. A blight in Canaan would therefore compel them to turn to the abundance of corn in Egypt. And to a shepherd tribe, which sought her protection, and submitted voluntarily to her rule, Egypt would be the more inclined to give up the pastures beyond the Nile, if this tribe was in unfriendly or hostile relations to the Semitic tribes in the neighbourhood.

If we attempt to fix the date at which the tribe of Jacob may have exchanged the pastures on the border of Canaan for the more fruitful regions on the Tanitic arm of the Nile, it soon becomes clear that the accounts of the Hebrews cannot be maintained. The older text puts 215 years between the time when Abraham entered Canaan and the arrival of the sons of Jacob into Egypt, and exactly twice this amount between their arrival in and exodus from Egypt. The fixed proportion between the two numbers, and the further circumstance that tradition can only mention a few generations of the sons of Jacob,612 leads to the conclusion that those numbers do not spring from any record or actual remembrance, but have been invented upon reflection. The date of the exodus also is fixed by a round sum; from the exodus to the building of the temple 480 years are said to have elapsed.613 The Hebrews reckoned 40 years to the generation; hence they put twelve generations between the exodus and the building of the temple, and fixed the interval on this computation; yet their scriptures could only mention by name nine or ten generations in this period.614 Hence the dates 2140 B.C., and 1925 B.C., which are deduced from the older text for the entrance of Abraham into Canaan, and of Jacob into Egypt, if the beginning of the building of the temple is fixed according to traditional assumption in the year 1015 B.C., must be given up, as well as the year 2115 B.C. for the entrance of Abraham into Canaan, and the year 1900 B.C. for the settlement of Jacob in Egypt, which results from the fixing the beginning of the building of the temple in the year 990 B.C. The only fact in the ancient tradition which admits of an approximate date is the campaign of Kudur-Lagamer of Elam, mentioned in the Ephraimitic text. This campaign we ventured to place about the year 2000 B.C. Genesis represents him as defeating the nations on the east and south of Canaan, and the Horites on Mount Seir, while at the separation of Esau and Jacob Mount Seir is no longer the abode of the Horites, but of the tribe of Esau. But we must contest the claim of tradition to bring the history of Abraham into connection with this campaign of the Elamites to the west. On the other hand we may regard it as settled that the tribe of Jacob did not arrive in Egypt at the time when the valley of the Nile was under the dominion of the Hyksos, i. e. in the period from 2101 B.C. to 1591 B.C., which we have assumed for this dominion, and that during this time it did not dwell in Egypt. The tradition of the Hebrews was not likely to forget that their ancestors came to the Nile, not as fugitives, but as kinsmen of the ruler of Egypt, or that their race had once shared in the rule over Egypt, and thus they might have dropped the slavery and imprisonment, and the position of Joseph in Pharaoh's service. And if these grounds are not held to be sufficient – if the tribe of Jacob was in Egypt under the dominion of the Hyksos, it must have been involved in their overthrow and expulsion.

Thus it may be assumed as proved that the admission of the sons of Jacob into Egypt did not take place till after the complete expulsion of the Hyksos, i. e. till Tuthmosis III. had forced the shepherds to leave the region to which they were at last confined, i. e. till after the year 1591 B.C. And it can hardly have taken place immediately after this event. We cannot suppose any inclination among the Egyptians, immediately after the expulsion of foreign shepherd tribes, to admit shepherds of the same nationality to the Nile. But when Tuthmosis III. had carried his weapons as far as the Euphrates, and received yearly tribute from the Syrians, the Cheta, and the Retennu, there would be no scruples felt about allotting pastures on the edge of the desert to an inconsiderable shepherd tribe. Hence the settlement of the sons of Jacob in Goshen may be placed about the middle of the sixteenth century B.C.

The tradition of the Hebrews informed us that their ancestors were compelled to build the two treasure-cities Pithom and Ramses for Pharaoh. This statement is in the Ephraimitic text, while the Judæan text calls the land given to the Hebrews Ramses.615 The ruins of Pithom and of Ramses we found on the canal which Sethos I. and Ramses II. intended to carry from the Nile at Bubastis into the Arabian Gulf, and which was completed as far as the Lake of Crocodiles (p. 157). The depression of the Wadi Tumilat, which the canal followed, crosses the land of Goshen. Cities could not be founded here till the canal from the Nile had provided water in sufficient quantity. A city of the name of Pa-Rameses, i. e. abode of Ramses, could only be founded by a prince of that name. Being situated on the canal of Ramses II. and further to the east than Pithom, the city could only have been built by the prince whose reign we have placed from 1388 B.C. to 1322 B.C. As a fact his image is found here on a block of granite in the ruins between the gods Ra and Tum, and the bricks in the remains of the outer walls are mixed with cut straw, the use of which in moulding the bricks for these buildings is mentioned by the revision.616 This city of Ramses must have been of considerable importance for the district allotted to the Hebrews, as the whole region was called after it. Hence the sons of Jacob were in the land of Goshen in the reign of Ramses II. The tradition allows them to remain unmolested in Egypt for a long time – "not till the land was full of them," so runs the older text, without ascribing any other motive, "did the Egyptians force the children of Israel to work in clay and brick, and in the fields."617 In the former class of works comes the building of these two cities. Hence the Israelites must have reached Goshen before the time of Ramses II.

The desired evidence of the presence of the children of Jacob in Egypt could be obtained from Egyptian writings and monuments if it were certain that a name used in them referred to the Hebrews. On a hieratic papyrus (now at Leyden) an officer intreats his superiors to give him corn "for the soldiers and the Apuriuu who drag stones to the great fortress of the house of Ramses, beloved of Ammon," i. e. king Ramses II.618 In other places in the same papyrus the name occurs as Apruu. Another papyrus observes under date of Ramses III. (p. 163) – "2083 Apruu at this place" i. e. at Heliopolis.619 In an inscription in the quarries at Hamamat it is said that 800 Apuriu or Apriu are mentioned as workmen.620 But is the Egyptian name of the Hebrews really Apru or Apuriu? The wife of Potiphar, it is true, calls Joseph "the Hebrew servant" (p. 421); but did the sons of Jacob really bear the name of Hebrews —i. e. men of the other side – when they came to Egypt? Does not the meaning of the name in the places quoted seem rather to be of a general kind, than to denote any one particular stock?

The kings Sethos I. and Ramses II. (1439-1322 B.C.) were engaged in battle, as we have seen, with the Schasu, i. e. the shepherd tribes between Egypt and Canaan, with the Hittites, who possessed the south of Canaan, and other tribes of Syria (p. 150). Even though they obtained successes over these nations, and Sethos I. once forced his way to the Euphrates, and Ramses II. as far as the coasts of the Phenicians, yet the Schasu, like the Cheta, continued to be dangerous enemies of Egypt. If this were not so, why should Sethos have hit upon the plan of protecting the eastern frontier from Pelusium to Heliopolis, by a vast fortification? What induced Ramses, after several campaigns in Syria, to conclude a peace with the Cheta in the year 1367 B.C. (p. 152), in which the advantage was not with Egypt? Ramses III. had again to fight with the Schasu, the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Philistines (p. 164). But if Egypt had to take measures to keep off the shepherds and the Syrians, they would hardly suffer doubtful subjects of the same nation within their own borders; in the peace just mentioned it was expressly stipulated that neither party should receive the subjects coming to him from the other side (p. 153). Under such circumstances it was necessary to take measures that the Hebrews should "not join with the enemies," as the second text says.621 The attempt had to be made to settle and assimilate them, and make them Egyptians. The fortifications from Pelusium to Heliopolis included just the region allotted to the Hebrews. These works required hands to build them. There was also the project of the canal from the Nile to the Arabian Gulf. As the fortification surrounded Goshen, so the canal ran athwart it, from Bubastis to the Lake of Crocodiles. If this canal, as well as the fortifications, required a great number of hands – and naturally those who were nearest would be first employed – the water brought by the canal made it possible to change the pastures along the canal into arable land, and to build cities upon it. From all this it is not improbable that the oppression of which the Hebrews speak commenced under the reign of Sethos I. continued under Ramses II, and was increased by the building of those two cities.

The tradition of the Hebrews maintains that the Hebrew nation arose in Egypt; in that country the family became a nation. The Egyptians could endure a tribe of shepherds on their borders, but not a powerful nation. With seventy souls, according to the first text, Jacob came into Egypt, and at the end of their sojourn the Hebrews, according to the same authority, had increased to 600,000 men, besides women and children.622 Supposing the seventy to be a sacred number, and reckoning into the total "a number of strangers," who according to the revision joined the Hebrews, it is still quite impossible, even if the tribe which, as we assume, exchanged the pastures of the south of Canaan for those on the Nile about the middle of the sixteenth century numbered its thousands at the time of the change, that they should have increased to 600,000 full-grown men, i. e. to more than two millions of souls, within the given period of something less than the 250 years, to which the length of their settlement on the Nile will be shown to be limited. Even if we assume that the strangers made up a third of the whole total, this is impossible. At a much later time the number of the fighting men among the Hebrews can scarcely be reckoned higher than from two to three hundred thousand. Even if we regard the total as including the whole population, and not confined to the fighting men, it still appears very high. Granting, too, that an enumeration was not in itself impossible (the Hebrews had long had before them the pattern of the enumerations in Egypt), yet a closer examination shows, that the total is founded upon an average of 50,000 souls for each of the twelve tribes. This total therefore must be given up as a mere attempt to glorify the ancient times.623 The events which follow show that the Israelites did really increase from a tribe to a nation under the protection of Egypt, and could put in the field from fifty to sixty thousand warriors, – a growth and increase which in their old pastures, the proximity of the far more powerful Edomites, Hittites, Midianites, and Amalekites, could hardly have allowed sufficient space.

The twelve tribes, into which the nation of the Hebrews was divided, were carried back to the sons of Jacob, who were thought to be their ancestors. This fact has obviously influenced the number and position of these sons in the tradition. The tribes which claimed to be the oldest must have sprung from the oldest sons of Jacob; those who boasted of the purest descent must have for their progenitors sons born in lawful marriage; those whose blood was less pure were derived from sons born to Jacob by the handmaids of his wives. We found above (p. 409) that Leah, sprung from the true blood of the fathers, while yet in Haran, had borne Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulon. The oldest families of the Hebrews were named after Reuben. These, "the sons of Reuben," were "brave men who carried the sword and the shield, and drew the bow, and were skilful in war;"624 but even in later times they still pursued the old pastoral mode of life in the mountain glades on the east of Jordan, and hence had no important influence on the development of the nation. This remarkable insignificance of the oldest tribe is accounted for in the revision by a sin of the ancestor, who lay with Bilhah, his father's handmaid.625 According to the same prophetic authority, Simeon and Levi also had done an unclean deed, and Judah had once been equally guilty.626 It is for his account of Judah only that we must make this narrator entirely responsible. For the deeds of Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, he has merely developed hints contained in the "Blessings of Jacob," a poem of the time of the Judges, which he found existing in the Ephraimitic text.627 That poem says expressly that Reuben, though the firstborn, was not to have the pre-eminence; and Simeon and Levi, "because in their anger they slew a man, and in their passion lamed a bull," were to be scattered in Israel, i. e. were to have no district specially their own. In contrast to the tribes of Reuben, Simeon, and Levi, this poem celebrated the tribe of Joseph – under which name the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh were included – whose praise has been already given, and it brings into prominence the tribe of Judah. The strength of the nation rested on the tribes of Ephraim and Judah; they had done the best service at the conquest of Canaan, and were the foremost in defending the land. The tribe of Ephraim was first in battle, and it retained this superiority for centuries. The tribe was not sprung from the oldest, but from the most beloved son of Jacob, the late-born son of Rachel. Ephraim was the younger of the two sons born to Joseph by the Egyptian woman, but Jacob had placed his right hand on the head of the younger son, and said, "By thee shall Israel bless."628 Such is the account of the Ephraimitic text. In the Judæan Jacob is made to say, "Ephraim and Manasseh shall be as my two firstborn."629 The fathers of the tribes of Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher were considered to have been born to Jacob by his handmaids.

CHAPTER IX.

THE LIBERATION OF THE HEBREWS

The oppression which, according to the Pentateuch, the Egyptians exercised upon the sons of Jacob when settled in the land of Goshen, by field-labour and tasks of building, may be regarded as a historical fact. It is proved by the position of Egypt and her relations to her neighbours on the north-east in the fourteenth century B.C., and it agrees with the arrangements and aims entertained and carried out in this border-land by Sethos I. and Ramses II. It must have been a grievous burden for the Hebrews to pass from the easy life of shepherds to the work of agriculture, and abandon the old life with their flocks. In addition there were the heavy tasks of the fortifications, the canal, and the new cities. Were they to give up the memory of their fathers, and their attachment to their customary mode of life, in order to perform taskwork for the Egyptians and become Egyptians? Was it possible to escape this grievous oppression? How could they be freed from the mighty power of the Pharaohs? Could the Hebrews, a peaceful nation and without practice in war, venture to resist the numerous, disciplined, and drilled armies of Egypt?

The Hebrew tradition gives the following account of the liberation of their forefathers, connecting it with the supposed command of Pharaoh to throw into the Nile all the male children born to the Israelites, and to allow the daughters only to live. The son of Levi, the son of Jacob, was Kahath, and Kahath's son was Amram. Amram had a son born to him by his wife Jochebed. When Jochebed saw that the boy was fair, she hid him for three months; and when she could hide him no longer, she took an ark of reeds and daubed it with resin and pitch, and placed the boy in it, and put the ark in the reeds on the bank of the Nile, and the boy's sister was placed near to see what would come to pass. Then Pharaoh's daughter came with her maidens to bathe in the river. She saw the ark, and caused it to be brought to her, and when she opened it the boy wept. It is one of the children of the Hebrews, she said, and had pity on it. Then the sister came and offered to find a nursing-woman from among the Hebrews, and brought her mother. When the child grew up, Pharaoh's daughter took him for her son, and called him Moses. One day Moses went out to his brethren and saw their burdens, and when an Egyptian smote a Hebrew, and Moses perceived that no one was at hand, he slew the Egyptian, and fled before Pharaoh into the land of Midian. And as he rested at a well, the seven daughters of Jethro came to water the sheep of their father, but the other shepherd prevented them, and drove them away. Then Moses came to their help, and watered their sheep, and their father Jethro took him in, and Moses found favour in his eyes, and took Zipporah, one of his daughters, to wife, and kept Jethro's sheep. After many days the king of Egypt died, and the sons of Israel sighed by reason of their burdens; and God heard their complaint, and thought of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then Moses, as he was keeping the flocks of Jethro, and led them behind the desert, and came to Mount Horeb, saw a bush burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. And Moses approached, and Jehovah spoke to him out of the bush, and said: I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; come not near; put thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place where thou standest is holy ground. Then Moses veiled his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. Then Jehovah said: I have seen the misery of my people in Egypt, and I will deliver them. Thou shalt go to Pharaoh and lead my people away to Canaan, to a land flowing with milk and honey. Moses answered: O my Lord, I am not a man of words; I cannot speak to the children of Israel, for I am dull of speech and heavy of tongue. Go, said Jehovah, I will be with thy lips, and will teach thee what to say; and Aaron thy brother, the priest, can speak. Then Moses took his wife and his sons and put them upon the ass, and turned back to Egypt, and Aaron his elder brother met him in the desert. Moses told him the commands of Jehovah, and they gathered the elders of Israel together, and the people believed their words.

Then Moses and Aaron came into the presence of the king of Egypt, and said: Let us go with our people three days' journey into the desert and sacrifice to our God Jehovah, that He may not visit us with the pestilence or the sword. The king answered: Would ye free the people from their tasks? Go to your work. And he ordered the taskmasters and the overseers to increase the work of the Israelites, and make their service heavier, and to give them no more straw for their bricks, so that they might be compelled to gather straw for themselves. But the daily tale of bricks remained the same, and the chiefs of the Israelites were beaten because they could not make up the sum. Then Moses and Aaron went again to Pharaoh, and Aaron threw down his rod before the king, and lo! it became a serpent. Then the wise men and magicians of Egypt cast their rods down, and they also became serpents, but Aaron's serpent consumed the rest. And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the water in the stream was turned into blood, and the fish died, and the water became foul and noisome. But the magicians of Egypt did the same by their art. Then Aaron stretched out his hand over the stream, and the frogs came up over the fields, into the houses, the chambers, the beds, the ovens and kneading-troughs. Then Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron to take away the frogs from him and his land; he was willing to let them go. And the frogs died away out of the houses, the courts, and the fields. But when Pharaoh was delivered he hardened his heart, and would not let the Hebrews go. Then Aaron turned the dust of the earth into flies, and Moses and Aaron took at Jehovah's bidding ashes of the oven and sprinkled them in the air, and the dust of the ashes became boils and blains, breaking out on man and beast, on the magicians, and all the Egyptians. And Moses stretched out his hand to heaven, and Jehovah caused it to thunder and hail, and fire came down, and the hail smote all that was in the field, man and beast, and all the herbs of the field; and all the trees were destroyed; only in the land of Goshen there was no hail. And Moses stretched out his hand over all Egypt, and Jehovah brought the east wind, and in the morning the east wind brought swarms of locusts, and they ate up all that the hail had left in the field: there was nothing green in the field and in the trees. And Moses stretched his hand towards heaven, and there was a thick darkness in the land of Egypt for three days. And now the king was willing to let Israel go, but their flocks and herds must remain behind. Moses answered that not a single hoof should remain, and went in wrath from the presence of Pharaoh. But to the Israelites he said: At midnight Jehovah will go forth and smite all the firstborn of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh to the firstborn of the woman behind the mill, and all the firstborn of cattle. But they were to slay a yearling lamb without blemish for each household, and to eat it roast, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. With loins girded, with shoes on their feet, and staff in hand, they were to keep the feast. With the blood of the lamb they were to strike the door-posts and the lintel of their houses, that Jehovah might see the blood and pass by their doors. In the morning there was not a house of the Egyptians in which there was not one dead. There was a great cry in Egypt, and the king called Moses and Aaron and said: Depart with your people, your flocks, and your herds.

Then the children of Israel set forth from Ramses to Succoth – 600,000 men on foot, besides children. And with them went a number of strangers, and many flocks and herds. And they went from Succoth, and encamped at Etham, on the edge of the desert; and from Etham they went to Pihahiroth, and encamped over against Baalzephon. But Pharaoh was grieved that he had let the people go from their service; he pursued them with all his chariots, his horsemen, and his army, and found them encamped on the sea at Pihahiroth, over against Baalzephon. But Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and Jehovah caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind through the whole night, and made the sea into dry land, and the Israelites passed through the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall upon their right hand and a wall upon their left. And the Egyptians pursued and came after them with their chariots and their horsemen into the sea. Then Moses again stretched out his hand, and the sea returned towards morning into its bed, and covered the chariots and the horsemen of Pharaoh, so that not one of them was left.

And Moses and the children of Israel sang: I will sing of Jehovah, for he is glorious; the horses and chariots he whelms in the sea; Jehovah, the God of my father, will I praise. Jehovah is a man of war; Thy right hand, O Jehovah, shatters the enemy. The chariots of Pharaoh and his might he threw into the sea; his chosen charioteers were drowned in the reed-sea. The floods covered them; like stones they sank in the pit. At the breath of Thy nostrils the waters rose in a heap; the floods stood like a bank; the floods ran in the midst of the sea. The enemy said: I will pursue, and overtake, and divide the spoil; I will satisfy my lust upon them; I will draw my sword, and destroy them with my hand. Thou didst blow with Thy mouth, O Jehovah, and the sea covered them; they sank like lead in the mighty waters. Who among the gods is like unto thee, Jehovah?630