The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 1 — Section 30

One-third of this number would be from Behold, the ohildren of Israel are more 2,300,000 to 2,600,000. and mightier than we. Literallr,, " great Th!' writ.er 0£ Exodus does not, however, 8.9 and strong in compo.rison with us. ' Actual vet, me.kc e.nything like e. definite calcule.tion. numerical superiority is not, perhaps, mellDt; He is merely bent on ha,;ng it nnderstood that yet the expression is no doubt an exaggemted there had b!'en e. r,reat mnltiplication, and one, beyond the truth-the sort of exaggera- that the " family " had grown into a "nation." tion in which 1mprincipled persons indulge To emphasise his statement, he uses four when they would justify themselves for taking nearly synonymous verbs (" were fruitful, an extreme and unusual course. and increased abundantly, and multiplied, Ver. 10.-Come on. The "Come then'' of and wa.xed-mighty "). adding to the last a Kalisch is better. Let us deal wisely, "The duplicated edYerb, bim'od m'od," much, much." children of this world ere in their lfeneration Clearly, e.n astonishing increase is intended. wis~ than the children of light.' Severe Ver. S.-There arose up a new king. It grinding la.hour he.s often been used as q is asked, Does this mean merely another king, means of keeping down the aspirations of a or a cmnpl,et,ely different king, one of a new people, if not of actuolly diminishing their dyruisty or a new family, not bound by pre- numbers, llDd has been found to answer. cedent, but free to adopt and likely to adopt Aristotle (Pol. v. 9) ascribes to this motive the quite new principles of government? The building of the Pyramids and the great wo1·ks latter seems the more probable supposition ; of Polycrates of Se.mos, Pisi.stre.tus of Athens, but it is probable only, not certain. Asruming and the Cypselidm of Corinth. The con- it to be what is really meant, we have to ask, structions of the last Tarquin are thought to Vl'bat changes of dvnasty fe.11 within the pro- ha.-e he.d the same object (Liv. i. 56; Niebuhr, bable period of the Israelite sojourn in Egypt, 'Roman History,'vol. i. p. 479). Leet, when and to which of them is it most likely that there fe.lleth out any wa.r, they join also allusion is here made ? Some writers ( as to our enemies. At the accession of the Kalisch) have supposed the Hyksos dynasty nineteenth dynasty, though there was peace, to be meant, and the "new king " to be Set, war threatened. While the Egyptians, under or Sale.tu;, the first of the Hyksos rulers. But the later monarchs of the eighteenth dynasty, the date of Salatis appears to us too early. H had been quarrelling among themselves, a Joseph was, as we suppose, the minister of great nation upon their borders "had been Apophis, the Iast Hyksos king, two changes of growing up to e.n importance and power which dynasty only can come into consideration- began to endanger the Egyptie.n supremacy in that which took place about B.c. 1700 ( or, W estem Asia " (Brngsch, 'History of Egypt,' according to some, B.c. 1600), when the vol. ii. p. 2). Both Re.meses I. and his son Hyksos were expelled; and that which fol- Seti had almost immediately after their 11cces- lowed abont three centnries la.ter, when the sion to engage in a war, which W8B rather eighteenth dynasty was superseded by the defensive than offensive, with the J{hita, or nineteenth. To us it seems that the former of Hittites, who were the great power of Syria these occasions, though in many respects suit- (i'b. pp. 9, 15, 16). At the commencement able, is (a) too near the going down into of bis reign, Seti may well have feared a Egypt to allow time for the multiplication renewed invasion like that of the Hyksos, which evidently took place before this king which would no doubt have been greatly arose (see ver. 7), and (b) unsuitable from the helped by a rising of the Israelites. And so circumstAnce that the first king of this dynasty get them up out of the le.nd. Literally, was not e. builder of new cities ( see ver. 11 ), "And go up out of the land." The Pharaoh but only a repairer of temples. We therefore already fears that the Israelites will quit conclude that the "new king" was either Egypt. As men of peeceful and industrious Re.meses I., the founder of the nineteenth habits, and in some caBes of considerable dynasty, or Seti L, his son, who within little wealth (Joseph.' Ant. Jud.' ii. 9, § I), they at more than a year succeeded him- It is evi- once increased the strength of Egypt and the dent that this view receives mu.eh confirmation revenue of the monarch. Egypt was always from the name of one of the cities built for ready to receive refugees, and loth to lose the king by the Hebrews, which was Raamses, them. We find in a treaty made by Ba- or Re.meses, a name now appearing for the meses II., the son of Seti, with the Hittites, a first time in the Egyptian dynaBtic lists. proviso that e.ny Egyptian subjects who quit Who knew not .Toaeph. Who not only the country, and transfer themselves to the he.d no personal knowledge of Joseph, but W8B dominion of the Hittite king, shall be sent be.ck whollv ignorant of bis history. At the to Egypt (' Records of the PaBt,' vol. iv. p. 30). di.sumce of from two to three centuries the Ver. 11.-They di.cl set over them task- benefits conferred by Joseph upon Egypt, masters. Literallf, "lords of tribute," or more especially as they were conferred nnder " lords of service.' The term used, sarey 11. foreign and hated dynasty, were forgotten. massim, is the Egyptian official title for over- Yer. 9 -And he aa.id unto hill people, lookers of forced labour It occurs in thi.9 Cll, I, 7-14.] THE BOOK OF EXODUS. 11