monument.ii evidence that in the reign of sometimes as many as 700 or 800 ; and (2) the Pharaohs the Egyptian Indies ex_posed it is certain that asses appear on the earl;r their faces, though the custom was d1scon- monuments (cf. 'Records of the Past,' vol. it. tinuocl after the Persian conquest (vide Heng- p. 26). And men-servants, and maid-serv- st~n berg's 'Egypt and the Books of Moses,' ants, and she asses. A tMn ,· from athan, to p. 199). And commended her before Pha- walk with short steps; so named from its raoh: and the woman was taken. Capta slowness (eh. xxxii. 16), though "the ass in (Targum of Jonathan), rapta (Arab.), ab- Egypt is of a very superior kind, tall, hand- ducta (Pagnini), capta et deducta (Rosen- some, docile, swift" (Kitto's 'Cyclopedia,' mi.iller) ; nil implying more or less the idea art. Egypt). And camels. Gamiil (from of violence, which, however. besides being qwmul, to repay, because the camel is an ani• not warranted by the text, was scarcely likely ma! that remembers past injuries (Bochart) ; in the circumstances, the king being perfectly or from a cognate Arabic root hmnala, mean- honourable in his proposals, and Abram and ing he or it carried, with reference to its Sarai by their deception having rendered it being a beast of burden (Gesenius) ; both of impossible to object without divulging their which derivations Stuart Poole declares far- secret. Into Pharaoh's house. Or harem, fetched, and proposes to connect the term with a view to marriage as a secondary ,vife. with the Sanskrit kramela, from kram, to Cf. the Papyrus D'Orbiney, now iu the walk or step, which would then signify the British Museum, but belonging to the age of walking animal (vide Kitto, art. Camel). Cf. Rameses II., in which the Pharaoh of the with the Hebrew the Sanskrit as above, the time, acting on the advice of his counsellors, Arab je1nel or qemel, the Egyptian sjamoul, sends two armies to fetch a beautiful woman Greek ,caµ71>..o,, Latin cametus) is the well- by force, and then to murder her husband. known strong animal belonging to Palestine A translation by M. Renouf will be found (Ezra ii. 67), Arabia (Judges vii 12), Egypt in The Tale of the Two Brothers, in 'Records (Exod. ix. 3), Syria (2 Kings viii 9), which of the Past,' vol. ii. p. 138. serves the inhabitants of the desert for travel- Yer. 16.-And he entreated Abram well- ling (eh. x.uv. 10; xxxi. 17) as well as for literally, did good to Abram; ,ii •xpfiuavTo carrying burden~ (Isa. xxx. 6), and for war- (LXX., Hieronymus, Poole) supposes that like operations (eh. xxi. 7), and in which their the court of Pharaoh or the Egyptian people riches consisted (Job i. 3 ; xlii. 21). Though generally confeITed favours on the patriarch, the camel does not thrive well in Egypt, and which is not at all so probable as that Pha- seldom appears on the monuments, the his- raoh did-for her sake. Marriage negotia- torian has not necessarily been guilty of an tions in Oriental countries nre usually nccom- "inaccuracy and a blunder" in assigning it panied by presents to the relatives of the to Abram as one of Pharaoh's presents bride as a sort of payment. " The marriage (Bohlen) ; for (1) the camel thrives better :erice is d_i_stinctly mcntione_d in Sc1~pture in Egypt than it does anywhere else out of (Exod. xxn. 15, 16; Ruth 1v. 10; 1 Sam. its own proper habitat; (2) if camels were not xviii. 23, 25 ; Hosea iii. 2) ; was commonly generally kept in Egypt, this Pharaoh may demanded by the nations of antiquity, as by have been " one of the shepherd kings who the Babylonians (Herod., i. 196), Assyrians partly lived at Ava.ris, the Zoan of Scripture," (lElian Y. H., iv. 1; Strabo, xvi. 745), the a region much inhabited by strangers (Poole ancient Greeks(' Odyss. ,' viii. 318 ff.), and the in Kitto, art. Camel) ; and (3) if =els have Germans (Tacit.,' German.,' xvi ii.) ; and still not been discovered among the delineations obtnins in the East to the present clay" (vide on the monuments, this may have been be- Kitto's 'Cyclopedia,' art. Marriage, by Dr. cause of its connection with the foreign con- Ginsburg), And he had-literally, there was queror of Egypt, which caused it to be re- (given) to /iim-sheep, and oxen. Flocks of garded as a beast of ill omen ; though (4) small cattle and herds of larger quadrupeds, according to Heeren they do appear on the together constituted the chief wealth of monuments (Hiivernick, § 18, p. 142). That nomads (cf. eh. xiii. 6; Job i. 3). And he horses, though tho glory of E&Jpt, were not asses. Chamor, so named from the reddish included nmong the monarc11's gifts wns colour wl1ich in southern countries belongs doubtless owin~ to the fact that they could not only to the wild, but also to the common not have been ot much service to the patriarch. or domestic, ass (Gescnius). The mention of Yer. 17.-And the Lord plagued (literally, asses among Phnraoh's presents has been struck) Pharaoh and his house with great regarded as an "inaccuracy" and a "blun- plagues (or strokes, either of disease or death, der," at once a sign of the lnte origin of or some other calamity-an indication that Genesis and a proof its author's ignorance of Pharaoh was not entirely innocent) because Egypt (Bohlen, Introd., eh. vi.); but (1) of Sarai Abram's wife. The effect of this asses wero among the most common of Egyp- was to lead to the discovery, not through the tian animals, a single individual, according aid of tho Egyptian priests (Josephus), but to Wilkinson (vol. iiL p. 34), possessing either through a special revelation granted 190 THE BOOK OF GENESIS. [oH. XII. 10-20,
to him, RS afterwa1·ds (cl1. xx. 6) to Abimelooh able purpose towards Sttrai and of B1ml1'1 in a dream (Chrysostom), or through the con- unsullied purity): now therefore behold th:, fession of Sarni herself (A Ll\pi,lc), or through wife, ta.ke her, and go thy way. According the serl'ants of Abmhnm (Kmtz). to Josephus(' Bell. Jud.' v. ix. 4) S1nah wa, Yen,. 18, 19.-And Pharaoh oalled Abram only one night in Pharaoh's house: but thia and said, What is this that thou hast done is ob'l"iously incorrect. unto me 1 why didst thou not tell me ahe Ver. 20.-And Pba.raoh commanded bis was thy wif.i 1 In which case we are bound men (i. ~. certain officers designated for the to believe the monarch that he would not purpose) concerning him (to seo to his do• ha'l"e taken her. Why eaidat thou, She is parture): and they sent him e.way, and his my sister! so I might have taken her to me wife, and all tha.t he ha.d. to wife (which as yet ho had not done ; an The partitionists nssign this ontiro sccti-ln indirect proof both of the monarch's honour- to the J ehovist.