Subjects for Further Study.

(1) The Origin and Literary Form of the Joseph Narratives.  Kent, Student’s O. T.  I, 126-127; Hastings, Dict.  Bible II, 767-769; Smith, O.  T. History, 54-55.

(2) Contemporary Parallels to the Joseph of the Biblical Narratives.  Hastings’ Dict.  Bible II, 772-775.

(3) Compare and Contrast the Achievements of Joseph, Bismarck and Cecil Rhodes.

STUDY VIII

THE TRAINING OF A STATESMAN.

MOSES IN EGYPT AND THE WILDERNESS.—­EX. 1:1; 7:5.

Parallel Readings.

  Goodnow, F. J., Comparative Administrative Law.
  Hist.  Bible I, 151-69.

And he went out on the following day and saw two men of the Hebrews striving together; and he said to the one who was doing the wrong, Why do you smite your fellow-workman?  But he replied, Who made you a prince and a judge over us?  Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?  Then Moses was afraid and said, Surely the thing is known.  When, therefore, Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to him Moses.  But Moses fled from the presence of Pharaoh and took up his abode in the land of Midian.

And Jehovah said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people that are in Egypt, and have heard their cry of anguish, because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows; and I am come down to deliver them out of the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a land, beautiful and broad, to a land flowing with milk and honey; Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, Jehovah, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, hath appeared to me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt, and I have said I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to a land flowing with milk and honey.  And they shall hearken to thy voice; and thou shalt come, together with the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt, and ye shall say to him, “Jehovah, the God of the Hebrews, hath appeared to us; and now let us go, we pray thee, three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to Jehovah our God.”—­Hist.  Bible.

Hold on; hold fast:  hold out—­patience is genius.

Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us dare to do our duty as we understand it.—­Lincoln.

I.

THE EGYPTIAN BACKGROUND OF THE BONDAGE.

The one contemporary reference to Israel thus far found in the Egyptian inscriptions comes from the reign of Merneptah the son of Ramses II.  It implies that at the time at least part of the Hebrews were in the land of Palestine: 

  Plundered is Canaan with every evil;
  Askalon is carried into captivity,
  Gezer is taken;
  Yenoam is annihilated,
  Israel is desolated, her seed is not,
  Palestine has become a widow for Egypt. 
  All lands are united, they are pacified. 
  Every one who is turbulent has been found by King Merneptah.