(5.) They had their own form of government, and preserved their tribe and family divisions, and their internal organization throughout, though still a province of Egypt, and tributary to it.  Ex. ii. 1, and xii. 19, 21, and vi. 14, 25, and v. 19, and iii. 16, 18.

(6.) They seem to have had in a considerable measure, the disposal of their own time,—­Ex. xxiii. 4, and iii. 16, 18, and xii. 6, and ii. 9, and iv. 27, 29-31.  Also to have practised the fine arts.  Ex. xxxii. 4, and xxxv. 32-35.

(7.) They were all armed.  Ex. xxxii. 27.

(8.) All the females seem to have known something of domestic refinements; they were familiar with instruments of music, and skilled in the working of fine fabrics.  Ex. xv. 20, and 35, 36.

(9.) They held their possessions independently, and the Egyptians seem to have regarded them as inviolable.  This we infer from the fact that there is no intimation that the Egyptians dispossessed them of their habitations, or took away their flocks, or herds, or crops, or implements of agriculture, or any article of property.

(10.) Service seems to have been exacted from none but adult males.  Nothing is said from which the bond service of females could be inferred; the hiding of Moses three months by his mother, and the payment of wages to her by Pharaoh’s daughter, go against such a supposition.  Ex. ii. 29.

(11.) So far from being fed upon a given allowance, their food was abundant, and had great variety.  “They sat by the flesh-pots,” and “did eat bread to the full.”  Ex. xvi. 3, and xxiv. 1, and xvii. 5, and iv. 29, and vi. 14.  Also, “they did eat fish freely, and cucumbers, and melons, and leeks, and onions, and garlic.”  Num. xi. 4, 5, and x. 18, and xx. 5.

(12.) That the great body of the people were not in the service of the Egyptians, we infer (1) from the fact, that the extent and variety of their own possessions, together with such a cultivation of their crops as would provide them with bread, and such care of their immense flocks and herds, as would secure their profitable increase, must have furnished constant employment for the main body of the nation.

(2.) During the plague of darkness, God informs us that “ALL the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.”  We infer that they were there to enjoy it.

(3.) It seems improbable that the making of brick, the only service named during the latter part of their sojourn in Egypt, could have furnished permanent employment for the bulk of the nation.  See also Ex. iv. 29-31.

Besides, when Eastern nations employed tributaries, it was, as now, in the use of the levy, requiring them to furnish a given quota, drafted off periodically, so that comparatively but a small portion of the nation would be absent at any one time.