Chapter I: The Israelites in Egypt

=1. How long after the death= of Joseph the Israelites remained in Goshen until they were enslaved has not as yet been determined. The account in the book of Exodus opens with the significant expression that “there arose up a new king over Egypt who knew not Joseph.” It has been supposed that Joseph was governor under the last of the Shepherd Kings, but this supposition is uncertain, and perhaps wrong, for the long life of Joseph after he came into Egypt, namely 80 years, added to the necessarily advanced age of the Pharaoh who was upon the throne on the arrival of Joseph, would, with greater probability, lead us to suppose that Joseph’s sojourn in Egypt was extended through more than one reign of the Shepherd Kings.

=2. But at the end= of the happy, quiet Shepherd era, among the descendants of Jacob in Goshen there came a change. The Israelites became enslaved, for the mandate of the Pharaoh of the period went forth to set over them taskmasters and to afflict them with burdens, the object being to put a stop to their excessive growth in numbers.

=3.= As we have said, =the Shepherd Kings= ruled Egypt for about 500 years. Towards the close of their rule and, as it is generally supposed, under a king whose name is recorded as Apopi, or, as the Greek historians spell the name, Aphobis, Joseph came into Egypt, and the long war between the legitimate kings and the uprising rulers was continued for about 80 years.

Finally these Shepherd Kings were driven out of the Delta by a Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty,[64] and from that period about 400 years transpired, during which the 18th dynasty passed away and a new dynasty, the 19th, came into power. Of this 19th dynasty two kings passed away before the celebrated Seti I. began to reign. Rameses II. was the son of Seti I., and his reign (67 years) was the longest of any of this dynasty.

=4. Moses, at the age of forty=, was driven into the desert of Sinai, on the east of Egypt, where he escaped from the wrath of the reigning Pharaoh, and where he remained 40 years, until the death of the king. The Pharaoh with whom Moses’ name is thus associated must have reigned a long time, and the reign of Rameses II. meets the conditions of the history, not only as to time, but also as to the name. It is for these reasons that the Egyptian Rameses II. is supposed to be the Pharaoh alluded to in the first chapter of the book of Exodus, as the Scripture Rameses.

=5. After the death of Rameses=, Moses returned to Egypt from his 40 years’ residence in the desert of Sinai. As his life in those parts was spent in the shepherd occupation, he was well acquainted with the region, and in a large degree fitted for the work to which he was called by the Lord, to take charge of the deliverance of the Israelites from the bondage in Egypt.

By divine command he appeared before the reigning Pharaoh and demanded, in the name of Jehovah, the release of his brethren, who, in all, must have been about 2,000,000. This number, though not stated, may be supposed to be correct as based upon the fact that at the departure from Egypt the able men numbered 600,000.

=6. The unwillingness of the king= to let the people go was finally subdued by a series of remarkable plagues. The most singular feature of these inflictions is found in the fact that in every case they seem to have attacked the Egyptians in the most important elements of either their national greatness or in the direction of their greatest comforts and reliance. Another singular feature in the whole course of affliction was their progressive seriousness.

=7. The first plague= appeared in the sudden change of the waters of the Nile into blood. The Nile was not only the great source of water supply, but was supposed to be under the immediate care of the gods of Egypt. Hymns have come down to us composed in the honor of the personified Nile. These were composed before the time of Moses, and give the names of their chief gods to the waters of the great river. The Nile was “the representative of all that was good.” This plague made it necessary that the people should begin digging wells near the banks of the river and elsewhere throughout all Egypt.

=8. The second plague=, of frogs, attacked in like manner, but more directly, the religious superstitions. The frog-headed deity Heki was the wife of the god of the cataracts of the Nile, who also was represented with a frog’s head. The frog was the symbol of renewed life after death, and was worshipped as such.

=9. The third plague= was more intense; it afflicted man and brute alike. The ground brought forth insects, “lice” so called, in such abundance that even the priests could not cleanse themselves. The priests were not allowed to use woollen in any of their garments, because of the likelihood that it would harbor this vile evil, which was one greatly abhorred. Insects of every kind, even gnats, were considered unclean. Priests and people were alike unclean.

=10. The fourth plague=, of flies, was somewhat similar, being an insect curse, but now the curse was winged.

=11. The fifth plague=, of “murrain,” was far more serious, as it not only touched the honor of the Egyptian faith in the worship of Isis and Osiris, to whom the cattle were sacred, but caused the death of the cattle throughout Egypt. It troubled in yet more serious degree the temple and the market, the priest and the people.

=12. The sixth= was yet more distressing, for it sent boils and “blains” upon man and beast, not even the magicians being able to stand in the presence of Moses “because of the boils.”

=13. The seventh plague= was one not only of hail, but of fearful displays of lightning and peals of thunder, such as were never before known in the land.

=14. The eighth= was a terrific visitation of locusts which began, in unprecedented numbers, to eat up all vegetation left by the hail.

=15. The ninth= was intense darkness, in which plague not only was there an exceeding discomfort felt throughout the land, but the sun, which was the most sacred object of reverence, the supreme god of Egypt, withdrew his light before the command of Moses, as servant of the most high God.

=16. The tenth plague= was by far the most fearful of all. It was to the Egyptians both distressing and ominous. The first-born was, in a most loving sense, the most important member of the family――the one, above all the rest, upon whom the privileges of birthright were laid and who was, accordingly, regarded with special attention and love. Besides, in this fearful and sudden death of the first-born in every place there was felt, as never before, the presence of some awful power immediately back of this plague, which seemed to them to presage the approach of the destruction of the entire nation, and hence their outcry, “We be all dead men,” Exod. 12:33.

The Exodus, or the “departure,” began immediately, and Moses and Aaron, who had anticipated the result of this last plague, had prepared all the Israelites by giving them sufficient notice for a hurried flight.