CHAPTER IV. Illustrations of the Pentateuch and Bible

passages from the egyptian monuments.

The first of the Hebrew patriarchs who had intimate deahngs with the Egyptians was the Chaldean Abraham. From his eastern home he wandered towards the West, and under the guidance of El-Shaddai the already aged man directed his journey to Canaan. During his journey through this land his God appeared to him/ and declared the promise that his seed should be its possessors. Now Abraham journeyed on towards the south.^ Centuries must have elapsed since Egypt had become a settled monarchy with absolute monarchs, and a regular system of rule prevailed over the land. The care with which the Nile inundation was watched, how its waters were used for the irrigation of the country, the fertility of the land, its immense resources and its riches ; the report of all these things would become the common property of the nations around, and hence the stranger Abraham journeying through Canaan would hear that even though there was a scarcity of food in Canaan, there was a certainty of food in Egypt. So towards Egypt he bent his steps,

' Gen. xii. 7. ^ Qg^. xii. 9.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PENTATEUCH, ETC. 8 J

meaning to remain there for a time.^ But the patriarch dreaded lest his wife should be taken from him, and lest himself should be slain. ^ The possibility of such a thing being done has made some argue that the manners of the Egyptians must have been savage and barbaric. In the inscriptions, however, we meet two facts which bear upon this point ; the first is recorded in the * Tale of Two Brothers,' where we are told that a king of Egypt sent two armies to bring a beautiful woman to him, and to murder her husband ; and the second is a statement in a papyrus pointed out by M. Chabas, which states that the wife and children of a foreigner are by right the lawful property of the king. The kindness of the Pharaoh of Abraham is too well known to need any mention, and after receiving rich presents the patriarch went up out of Egypt.

It has been very generally supposed that Abraham's visit to Egypt took place under the reign of one of the kings of the twelfth dynasty, but which king has not yet been satisfactorily made out. Egypt, like every country where the supply of water is irregular, was exceedingly liable to terrible famines, and history tells us that it was Amenemha III. who was the first king that appreciated the full danger of this calamity, for he gave all his attention to building the huge reservoir called Lake Moeris in the Fayoum. Connected with this lake was a series of locks, dykes, and channels, by which the whole land might receive a regulated supply

^ Gen. xii. lo, 2 q^^ ^-jj j2. ]QIa^

S2 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE.

of water. Even modern engineers have admired the remains of this construction, and it has been said that the Egypt of to-day would be a great gainer if the work could be restored, and a new lake made. Hence some Biblical critics have considered that Amenemha III. was king of Egypt when Abraham came there, and others that Usertsen I. was king, and that Amenemha was the Pharaoh of the time of Joseph ; but in any case the fact that Abraham came there adout that time is generally accepted.

The next and most important of all the relations which ever existed between the Jews and Egyptians, was that begun by the arrival of Jacob's darling child in Egypt. Sold by his brethren to a company of Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver,^ he was in turn sold by them in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's, and the captain of the guard or executioners. Here the youthful and handsome Hebrew showed his devotion to his master, and eventually became so trusted that he was set over all his house. The next part of his history is illustrated by an extract from the D'Orbiney Papyrus in the British Museum, containing the Story of the Two Brothers.- The papyrus was written by the scribe Enna, and was originally in the possession of Scti H., a king of the nineteenth dynasty, so that it is as old as the stay of the Jews in Egypt. A paraphrase of the whole story is given in the chapter on Egyptian literature, p. 115.

^ Gen. xxxvii. 28. ^ See ' Records of the Past,' ii. p' 137.

ILT,USTRATIONS OF THE PENTATEUCH, ETC. 83

When Potiphar had heard his wife's story, Joseph was cast into prison, where again he held a superior position, and where he interpreted the dreams of the butler and baker, the former of whom was pardoned on the king's birthday. Later he is called upon to interpret the dreams of Pharaoh. In all these narratives we find passages in which the testimony of the Bible and of the monuments go hand in hand. Cups such as the king would have taken his wine from are portrayed ; baskets such as the baker would have carried his 'bakemeats' in are used even unto this day, and may be seen in the British Museum. We know from the Rosetta Stone (line forty-six of the Greek text) that as late as that period (195 B.C.) it was customary to make great rejoicings on the king's birthday/ to consider it holy, and to do no work on it, and that the Pharaoh would pardon his butler as an act of grace is more than probable.

In the seven cows which Pharaoh saw feeding in the meadow, Dr. Birch has seen a reference to the seven cows of Athor, pictured in the vignette of the one hundred and forty-eighth chapter of the Book of the Dead ; and the Hebrew Bible has preserved the Egyptian word for ' reed grass ' in the word which has been translated * meadow.'

During the period of Pharaoh's anxiety to have his dreams interpreted, the butler remembered his former prison companion, Joseph, and made mention of him to ^ Wilkinson, ' Ancient Egyptians,' iii. p. 330.

F 2

his lord. Before Joseph entered the presence he shaved, and changed his raiment.^ Here again the monuments and profane history offer us illustrations. The Egyptians only allowed their hair to grow during the times of mourning, and to neglect the hair was considered very slovenly and dirty ; when a man of low station had to be represented, the artist always drew him with a beard. The artists carried this so far, that Rameses

Egyptian Barbers at Work.

VII., who was negligent about his dress, is portrayed on his tomb at Thebes with the addition of a stubbly beard of some few days' growth. The heads of the Egyptians were shaved, only locks being left here and there, and the priests shaved the whole body every three days, while the Jews and other foreign nations delighted in long beards. The British Museum possesses Egyptian razors, and in a tomb at Beni-Hassan the act of shaving ' Gen. xli. 14.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PENTATEUCH, ETC. S5

is actually represented. The razors are of various shapes, and were carried about in a bag from place to place. The scribe who wrote the hymn in praise of learning has contrasted the hard work of the barber with that of the scribe. The scribe holds places of honour ; from his youth he is a counsellor, and is sent on royal commissions ; but

The barber is shaving till evening.

When he places himself to eat he places himself on his

elbows. He places himself at street after street to seek after shaving. He wearies his hands to fill his belly, as bees feed by their labour.^

When Pharaoh had told his dream, and had heard its interpretation, he determined to accept the advice given by Joseph, and straightway appointed him lord over all Egypt, second only to the king, at the same time giving him rich and valuable presents. He first gave him a ring, the supreme emblem of the king's authority, which by that gift was transferred to Joseph ; he next arrayed him in fine linen, for which Egypt was so celebrated, and which was the material of which the dress of the Egyptian priests was made ; and putting a chain of gold about his neck, he made him ride through the land as ruler, while all the people shouted before him words of praise. The gift of a chain or collar of

^ Dr. Birch, 'Records of the Past,' vlii. p. 148.

86 THE DWELLERS O^S THE NILE.

gold to a high officer was apparently a custom with the kings of Egypt. When Ahmes, the chief of the sailors, and afterwards king of Egypt, cut off the head of a dead enemy at Avaris and brought it to the king, a collar of gold was given to him as a reward ; and after another battle, in which he had shown the same prowess, he received another chain or collar from the hands of the grateful king. The word or words which the Egyptians cried out before Joseph offer much difficulty of explanation ; some have said that they should be translated ' Bow the head,' and others think it means * Rejoice ; ' but so far its real meaning is a mystery, though, should the word be Hebrew, the rendering 'Bow the knee' is probably good. Besides all this, Pharaoh gave Joseph an Egyptian name, and he married Asenath, the daughter of a priest of On. The name of his former master, Potiphar, appears to be a perfectly good Egyptian name, and Egyptologists have pointed out that its probable equivalent in hieroglyphics is : —

D /^ □ ^^ ^^^^ ® % i.e., ' devoted to the Sun-god.'

Pa-ta-pa-Ra

So likewise has Joseph's new name Zaphnath-paaneah been shown by Mr. Le Page Renouf and others to be

^ ^ ^-^ 0 ^ ^ i.e., ' Storehouse of the house

K-^ln ^ T © ofLife.'i

t'eft-ent-pa-an;^

* Brugsch makes it, 'Governor of the district of the place of Life.' — * Egypt under the Pharaohs,' ii. p. 265.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PENTATEUCH, ETC ^y

The name of his wife, Asenath, is said to mean * devoted to Neit,' while the city On is the Annu, m ^ or

Heliopolis of the Egyptians. The gift of a new name to Joseph reminds us of Daniel being called Belteshazzar by Nebuchadnezzar, and the new names of Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael ; while a parallel case of a foreigner being raised to so high a position in Egypt is given by the papyrus relating to the story of Saneha. The subsequent history of Joseph, his divining cup, his giving his brethren changes of garments, the land of Goshen being set apart for his father and brethren, because the shepherd was an abomination to the Egyptians, and the embalming of his father, exhibit in a striking manner the rigid accuracy of the Bible in its many references to Egyptian habits and customs.

Joseph would, of course, be held in the highest honour by the Pharaoh and his successors for the wonderful policy by which he ' bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh ;' and he proved beyond all doubt that it was possible for the crops of the years of plenty to be stored up, so that the inhabitants of the land should not perish in the years of drought or scarcity. So when we read that the people said to Joseph, * Thou hast saved our lives,'* we must understand that it was not said with the lips only and without meaning ; but that it was the truth, and represented the heartfelt and grateful thanks

' Gen. \lvii. 2v

88 THE DWELLERS ON THE NH.E.

of a native to the man who was, as his Egyptian name signified, * the storehouse of the house of Life.'

After the days had multiphed, and the good and grjat things which Joseph had done for Egypt had been forgotten by the ruling dynasty, ' there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.'^ It is generally accepted now that Joseph was sold into Egypt at the time when the Hyksos were in power ; and it is also generally accepted that the Exodus took place after the death of Rameses II., and under the reign of Merenptah or Meneptah. Now the children of Israel were in captivity in Egypt for four hundred,^ or four hundred and thirty years ;' and as they went out of Egypt after the death of Rameses II., it was probably some time about the year 1350 B.C.

There is little doubt that the Pharaoh who persecuted the Israelites so shamefully was Rameses II.; though there are some who say that it was Ahmes or Amasis I. The Pharaoh first set the Israelites hard and difficult burdens, and then appointed overseers to look after them and see that they did their work. Both tradition and the monuments prove and supplement this statement ; for Diodorus'* tells us that Rameses II. or Sesostris put up an inscription in each of his buildings saying that it had been erected by captives, and that not a single native Egyptian was employed on the work. Again, this king set up a brick factory, or field as we should say, and by

» Ex i. 8. 2 Gen. xv. 13.

^ Ex. xii. 40. ■* i. 56; Herod, ii, 108.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PENTATEUCH, ETC.

BRICK STAMP OF RAMESES II.

employing the labour of captives and others was enabled to sell his bricks at a lower price than any other maker.^ Rameses II., like Nebuchadnezzar and the other kings of Babylon, had a stamp made, and his bricks were impressed with it.^ They were made with or without straw, and it was a common custom not to burn the bricks, but to dry them in the sun ; for in that dry country, where rain seldom comes, the sun-dried brick was just as useful for the purpose of building as the baked. The Jews appear to have lived upon their own land, and some members of each family no doubt tilled it, that the others might have food. They were not the only nations so employed, for the monuments show us people who are certainly not Jews making bricks and performing other servile work. They worked in detachments, each superintended by a taskmaster, and they were compelled to make so many bricks per day.^ When Pharaoh wished to increase their labour, he ordered them to use stubble instead of strawy and so the already overtasked labourers were obliged to go into the fields where the reapers had been, and to cut off the stalks

' Wilkinson, * Ancient Egyptians,' i. p. 343.

- Sun-dried bricks of Rameses II., Tholhmes III,, &c., may be seen in the British Museum (first Egyptian Room) ; as also a piece of burnt brick of Thothmes III.

^ Ex. V. 13.

90 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE.

that remained, to chop them small, and then to mix them with the mud. Whatever the Pharaoh ordered had to be done. Dr. Birch mentions the endorsement of a papyrus referring to twelve brick-makers employed to build a house, where it is said, * Let there be no relaxation that they should make their number of bricks daily in the new house in the same manner, to obey the messages sent by my lord.' So then, together with slaves of other nations, the Jews were forced to build for their oppressor the treasure cities of Pithom and Raamses.^ The town Raamses was called after the name of its builder Rameses II. ; and the remains of a town called Pithom — whose name means the ' Temple of Tmu ' — have been found by M. Naville at a place which the monuments there call Thuku or TJuikiit, and which is said to be the Succoth of the Old Testament. There are difficulties in the way of accepting this theory, but their discussion here would be tedious to the non-expert, and quite out of place.

' We have in a papyrus a description of the happy town of Raamses contained in a poem, the conckiding lines of which run : —

There is a supply of provisions there daily.

Gladness dwells within it.

None speak scorn of it.

There are sweet drinks in Aa-nechtu ;

its liquors are like sugar,

its syrups like the taste of

caroobs surpassing honey.

Joy remains there prolonged, unceasing. Rameses, the war-god of the world, is its god

3 ^

bJO ,

H S

^^TfWF^

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PENTATEUCH, ETC. 93

In addition to the cruelty already exercised toward the children of Israel, the Pharaoh next gave orders to throw all the new-born male children into the river Nile : though, in spite of all the watchfulness employed in this matter, the child Moses was saved by being put in an ark of bulrushes, and laid among the reeds of the river. This ark was made of the papyrus plant, and it has been pointed out that the mother made the ark of this substance because it was imagined by the Egyptians to be a preservative against the attacks of crocodiles and other noxious beasts. When Pharaoh's daughter found the child, she decided to adopt it and bring it up ; and there can be little doubt that the future of the Jewish nation was much influenced by her act. As soon as he was of a sufficient age he would be sent to the Egyptian schools ; there he would learn all that the most celebrated and profound masters of the day could teach : and after some years he w^ould return, being skilled in writing and mathematics, and learned in all matters relating to the Egyptian religion, including its numerous branches of legend, myth, and history. The manners and customs of the best of the Egyptians would be familiar to him, as well as the rules of government : and such learning was a fitting help for his divine mission, as it enabled him to fight Pharaoh with his own weapons, while it taught the great deliverer of his race how to rule, and judge, and to' provide for the necessities of the people of Israel in future day?.

There is no direct mention of the Israelites on the'

94 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE.

monuments or in the papyri, it is true, neither is there any representation of their servitude ; but it will be seen from what has been said above that the references and allusions in the Bible to Egypt and the Egyptians are perfectly accurate. The Amu, the representatives of the Semitic race generally, are depicted as brick-makers, and literally hewers of wood and drawers of water : hence none need expect that every family or tribe of this numerous and wide-spreading race would be portrayed on the temples, or walls, or tombs. Also, there is no mention of the plagues which came upon the oppressors ; but the nations of antiquity were not given to chronicling the misfortunes that overtook them. The persecution which Ramescs II. began was continued with vigour by

Meri-en-Ptah or Meneptah( ^"""^ ^ 8 =^= ^^ ^^ ^ 9 J

The bricks had to be made just the same, and the appointed * tale ' brought at the end of the day. Relying upon the long-sufferance and the captivity of the hosts of Israel, he increased their burdens, and made their lives so hard that their groans mounted up to the throne of God. The edict of deliverance came, the people went out in haste, but with riches, and the hearthardened Pharaoh and the chiefs of his host were destroyed. The route of the Exodus has been a subject of much discussion and much conjecture ; but it will suffice to say that each of the theories hitherto laid down offers many difficulties, and a mere enumeration

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PENTATEUCH, ETC. 95

of them here would occupy much space, and give no satisfactory result.

After Israel had gone forth out of Egypt, for some two or three centuries there were no friendly relations between the two nations until Solomon's time, when we are told that ' Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter, and brought her into the city of David ; ' ^ but meanwhile the twentieth dynasty had enjoyed its rule, and made way for the twenty-first dynasty, whose first king was called Harhor or Herher, and was a priest of the god Amen. The Egyptians again come in contact with Israel under the reign of Sheshank, or Shishak, the first king of the twenty-second dynasty. * In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had transgressed against the Lord, with twelve hundred chariots, and threescore thousand horsemen : and the people were without number that came with him out of Egypt ; the Lubims, the Sukkiims and the Ethiopians. And he took the fenced cities which pertained to Judah, and came to Jerusalem.'- A list of the towns captured by Shishak is given on a wall at Thebes ;'and among them we find Bethhoron, Ajalon, Megiddo, Edom, and * Judah-melek,' which Dr. Birch considers to be the royal city of Judah, i.e., Jerusalem.^

By the time of the twenty-fifth dynasty Egypt had

^ I Kings iii. I. - 2 Chron xii. 2-4.

•^ ' History of Egypt,' p. 157.

96 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE.

become divided into a number of small principalities, which the Ethiopian prince Pi-ankhi ruled over at Noph.^ During the latter years of his reign, a rebellion of the native princes, headed by Nimrod the prince of Hermopolis. the chief of Menouthes, and others, broke out ; but the Ethiopian prince assembled his forces, and having beaten the rebels in a series of successful battles, he became lord of all Egypt. Concerning Tirhakah,- a successor of Pi-ankhi, we derive very important information from the Assyrian inscriptions. Tirhakah had been defeated by Esarhaddon, who had divided the country of Egypt into a number of districts, generally under Egyptian governors ; some of the rulers were, however, Assyrian, and a few of the Egyptian towns were re -named with Assyrian names. Tirhakah had incited the king of Tyre to rebel against the Assyrian authority, and hence he brought down upon himself Esarhaddon's attack, which resulted in his subjugation in the twenty-third year of his reign. The Ethiopian kings had offered help to the Jewish nation if they would resist the Assyrians ; but Egypt's growing weakness was well known, for Rab-shakeh, remembering the successful attacks that Shalmaneser had made against dependencies of Egypt, taunted Hezekiah with the forlornness of any hope which was based upon

1 Is. xix. 13 ; Jer. ii. 16; xlvi. 14, 19 ; Ezek. xxx. 13-16.

' The Tiihakah of 2 Kings xix. 9 ; Is. xxxvii. 9 ; and the

( p^-| y^ j of the hieroglyphs.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE PENTATEUCH, ETC. 97

Egyptian assistance, and compared Egypt's king to ' a bruised reed.'^ In the beginning of the reign of Assurbanipal, Esarhaddon's son, Tirhakah made another attempt to become sole king of Egypt ; and having collected a large army he entered Memphis and scattered the Assyrian rulers. Assurbanipal marched promptly against the rebel, and defeated him with great slaughter. Tirhakah then fled to Napata, where he with others made arrangements for another rebellion ; and he succeeded so well that he conquered Upper Egypt, and actually gained possession of Thebes. Assurbanipal sent an army against him, and Tirhakah was compelled to retire to Napata, where he died, and so the twentyfifth dynasty came to an end.

Two of the kings of the next dynasty are mentioned in

the Bible, Pharaoh Necho f ^^^^^^ \J _p j and Pharaoh

Hophra f O | O j. The first met Josiah, king of Judah,

in battle at Megiddo, where Josiah was slain, and set up Jehoiakim as king in the place of Josiah's eldest son Jehoahaz, the lawful heir. His power was, however, broken by Nebuchadnezzar II., king of Babylon, and we read that ' the king of Egypt came not again any more out of his land.'^ The second, Pharaoh Hophra, assisted Jehoiakim and Zedekiah, kings of Judah, to rebel against their lord, Nebuchadnezzar ; but this was merely inviting the conquest of Egypt at the hands of the Babylonian king, and a few years after the prophecies of

^ 2 Kings xviii. 21. ^ 2 Kings xxiv. 7.

G

98 THE DWELLERS ON THE NILE.

Ezekiel and Jeremiah regarding its destruction were fulfilled. During the reign of Psammetichus I. the great temples at Sais, Thebes, Memphis and elsewhere were repaired. This king made use of the Greeks in the battle-field, and after the wars gave them a settlement near Bubastis.

There was one among the last kings who caused the fast-fading light of Egypt's glory to flicker brightly, and this was Amasis II. After his death the country was invaded by Cambyses the Persian, who became king, and was the first of the Persian dynasty of Egyptian kings. Thdr rule lasted for about one hundred years ; and following them came a few Egyptian kings of little importance ; their reigns were very short, and they in their turn were succeeded by another Persian dynasty. For some time past Egypt had ceased to be Egyptian ; the various conquerors of the country had caused new customs to spring up; the use of the old system of hieroglyphics had now practically died out ; the national spirit was broken, and from this time forward Egypt was a dependency and tributary to whatever king arose and had power to seize it. The nation with a history that numbered thousands of years, and the country that had shed the light of civilization abroad when those round about were steeped in barbarism and ignorance, now sank into a darkness which obscured and eventually swallowed up the glory and majesty of the Pharaohs and their land.