in the land, was deemed necessary for its destruction.  It is probable that the men were divided into classes, ministering in rotation—­each class a few days or weeks at a time.  As the priests whose assistants they were, served by courses in rotation a week at a time; it is not improbable that their periods of service were so arranged as to correspond.  This service was their national tribute to the Israelites, for the privilege of residence and protection under their government.  No service seems to have been required of the females.  As these Gibeonites were Canaanites, and as they had greatly exasperated the Israelites by impudent imposition and lying, we might assuredly expect that they would reduce them to the condition of chattels, if there was any case in which God permitted them to do so.

IV.  EGYPTIAN BONDAGE ANALYZED. Throughout the Mosaic system, God warns the Israelites against holding their servants in such a condition as they were held in by the Egyptians.  How often are they pointed back to the grindings of their prison-house!  What motives to the exercise of justice and kindness towards their servants, are held out to their fears in threatened judgments; to their hopes in promised good; and to all within them that could feel, by those oft repeated words of tenderness and terror!  “For ye were bondmen in the land of Egypt”—­waking anew the memory of tears and anguish, and of the wrath that avenged them.  But what was the bondage of the Israelites in Egypt?  Of what rights were they plundered and what did they retain?

1. They were not dispersed among the families of Egypt,[A] but formed a separate community.  Gen. xlvi. 34.  Ex. viii. 22, 24; ix. 26; x. 23; xi. 7; iv. 29; ii. 9; xvi. 22; xvii. 5; vi. 14. 2. They had the exclusive possession of the land of Goshen,[B] “the best part of the land” of Egypt.  Gen. xlv. 18; xlvii. 6, 11, 27; Ex. viii. 22; ix. 26; xii. 4.  Goshen must have been at a considerable distance from those parts of Egypt inhabited by the Egyptians; so far at least as to prevent their contact with the Israelites, since the reason assigned for locating them in Goshen was, that shepherds were “an abomination to the Egyptians;” besides, their employments would naturally lead them out of the settled parts of Egypt to find a free range of pasturage for their immense flocks and herds. 3. They lived in permanent dwellings.  These were houses, not tents.  In Ex. xii. 7, 22, the two side posts, and the upper door posts, and the lintel of the houses are mentioned.  Each family seems to have occupied a house by itself.  Acts vii. 20.  Ex. xii. 4—­and judging from the regulation about the eating of the Passover, they could hardly have been small ones, Ex. xii. 4; probably contained separate apartments, as the entertainment of sojourners seems to have been a common usage.  Ex. iii. 23; and also places for concealment.  Ex. ii. 2, 3; Acts