well as many others, has continued even to modern times, is shown by a remarkable passage in Norden's Travels.* When the author with his companions had arrived at Derri, the most remote extremity of Egypt, or rather in Nubia, where they were able to deliver themselves from a perilous condition only through great presence of mind, they sent one of their company to a malicious and powerful Arab, to threaten him. He answered them: "I know what sort of people you are. I have consulted my cup and found in it that you are from a people of whom one of our prophets has said: There will come Franks under every kind of pretence to spy out the land. They will bring hither with them a great multitude of their country-men, to conquer the country and to destroy all of the people." The Arrival of Jacob and his Family in Egypt, and their Settlement in Goshen. A remarkable parallel to the description of the arrival of Jacob's family in Egypt, chap. xlvi, is furnished by a scene in a tomb at Beni Hassan: "strangers" who arrive in Egypt.† They carry their goods with them upon asses. The number 37 is written over them in hieroglyphics. The first figure is an Egyptian scribe, who presents an account of their arrival to a person in a sitting posture, the owner of the tomb and one of the principal officers of the reigning Pharaoh.‡ The next, likewise an Egyptian, ushers them into his presence, and two of the strangers advance, bringing presents, the wild goat and the gazelle, probably as productions of their country. Four men with bows and clubs follow leading an ass, on * Vol. III. p. 68. Edit. Langlés, quoted from Burder in Rosenm. Alt. u. Neu. Morgenl. Th. I. S. 212. + Wilkinson, Vol. II. p. 296 and 7, and plate. Comp. the phrase, "Princes of Pharaoh," in chap. 12: 15. which there are two children in panniers, accompanied by a boy and four women. Last, another ass laden and two men, one of whom carries a bow and club, and the other a lyre, which he plays with the plectrum. "All the men have beards, contrary to the custom of the Egyptians, although very general in the East at that period, and represented in their sculptures as a peculiarity of foreign uncivilized nations." Some believe that this painting has a direct reference to the arrival of Jacob with his family in Egypt. On the contrary, Wilkinson remarks, the expression, "captives," which appears in the inscription, makes it probable that they are of the number of prisoners so frequently occurring, who were taken captive by the Egyptians during their wars in Asia. But in his more recent work, he considers this circumstance as no longer decisive. "The contemptuous expressions," he says, "common among the Egyptians in speaking of foreigners, might account for the use of this word." In fact, it speaks very decidedly against the idea of their being prisoners, that they are armed. Whether this painting has a Rosellini, who speaks at length on this representation, in a separate section, Vol. III. 1. 66 48 seq., p. Concerning a picture of the tombs of Beni Hassan, representing some foreign slaves which are sent by king Osirtasen II. as a present to a military chieftain," considers it certain, that these individuals are captives, since they are so designated in the inscription. But even the inscription, when it is allowed to have its just and certain significance, gives no support to this opinion, since the epithet, captives, as Wilkinson supposes, may be adequately accounted for by the pompous style of the Egyptians, and their disdainful arrogance, which would not allow them to speak of foreigners except in connection with victory and captivity. At any rate, the picture is more to be relied on than the inscription, and in this, in addition to the fact that they are armed, which has already been mentioned, the circumstance, that the persons delineated bring gifts and play on musical instruments, things which captives are not and cannot be found represented as doing on the Egyptian monuments, is decisive. direct reference to the Israelites will of course ever remain problematical, but it is at any rate very noticeable, as it furnishes proof that emigration with women and children, into the Egyptian State, and formal admission, took place even in very ancient times, or more correctly yet, in these times. Joseph charges his brothers, chap. 46: 34, that they shall say to Pharaoh, that they are shepherds, in order that they may obtain a residence apart from the Egyptians in the land of Goshen. "For," adds the author, "every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians." The monuments even now furnish abundant evidence of this hatred of the Egyptians to shepherds. The artists of Upper and Lower Egypt vie with each other in caricaturing them. In proportion as the cultivation of the land was the more unconditionally the foundation of the Egyptian State, the idea of coarseness and barbarism was united with the idea of a shepherd among the Egyptians.t The region in which the Israelites received their residence, the land of Goshen, is designated, Gen. 47: 6, 11, as the best of the land. This statement has occasioned interpreters some perplexity, but it is justified by what Wilkinson, without reference to this passage, says of the nature of this eastern district: "It may not be irrelevant to observe, that no soil is better suited to many kinds of produce than the irrigated edge of the desert, (it is generally composed of lime mingled with sand,) even before it is covered by the fertilizing deposit of the inundation." Since the reference of the Pentateuch to the geographical relations of Egypt are most numerous in the chapters now under consideration, it will appear proper that we make them the subject of a connected examination in this place. * Wilk. II. p. 16. f Concerning the causes of this hatred of the Egyptians, see especially Rosellini, I. 1. p. 178 seq., also Heeren, S. 149. Wilk. I. p. 222. The bearing and importance of these separate notices can be correctly understood only when thus seen in connection. REFERENCES OF THE PENTATEUCH TO THE GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES OF EGYPT. The Land of Goshen. The references of the Pentateuch to the geographical features of Egypt, as we should naturally expect in a book of sacred history, are neither numerous nor particular; yet enough of these references exist to show that its author possessed an accurate knowledge of the topography of the country to which he alludes. And the more scattered, incidental and undesigned these notices are, the more certain is the proof which they afford, that the author's knowledge was of no secondary character, was not laboriously produced for the occasion, but on the contrary, natural, acquired from his own personal observation, and was such as to preserve him from every mistake, without the necessity of his being constantly on his guard. Let us direct our attention, first, to what the author says of the land of Goshen. He nowhere gives a direct and minute account of the situation of this land. But it is evident that this must be referred to some other cause than his ignorance, since he communicates in reference to it, a great number of separate circumstances which, although some of them appear at first view to be entirely at variance with each other, are yet found to be entirely consistent when applied to a particular district. The land of Goshen appears, on the one hand, as the eastern border-land of Egypt. Thus it is said, Gen. 46: 28: “And he [Jacob] sent Judah before him unto Joseph, to direct his face unto Goshen." That Jacob should send Judah before him, to receive from Joseph the necessary orders for the reception of those entering the country, is entirely in accordance with the regulations of a well-organized kingdom, whose borders a wandering tribe is not permitted to pass unceremoniously. This account also agrees accurately with the information furnished on this point by the Egyptian monuments.* That Jacob did not obtain the orders of Joseph until he was at Goshen, shows that this was the border-land. We come to the same result also from chap. 47: 1: "And Joseph came and told Pharaoh, and said, My father and my brethren are come out of the land of Canaan, and behold they are in the land of Goshen." It is most natural that they should remain in the border-province until the matter was laid before the king. This is also confirmed by Gen. 46: 34: “And ye shall say, Thy servant's trade hath been about cattle-from our youth even until now-that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians;" for this passage can only be explained on the supposition that Goshen is a frontier province, which could be assigned to the Israelites without placing them in close contact with the Egyptians, who hated their manner of life. Finally, the circumstance, that the Israelites under Moses, after they had assembled at the principal town of the land, had reached in two days the confines of the Arabian desert, points to Goshen as the eastern boundary. On the other hand, Goshen appears again as lying in the neighborhood of the chief city of Egypt. Thus in Gen. 45: 10: "And thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near to me" (to Joseph who dwelt in the principal city of Egypt).† The Pentateuch nowhere expressly mentions which was this chief city of Egypt, just as the surname of no one of the reigning Pharaohs is mentioned by Moses, and for the same reason. Yet the necessary data for * See remarks upon Gen. xlvi. p. 39 seq. † So also in chap. 46: 28, 29. |