of the earth.' (Num. xii. 3.) And no man, indeed, had greater trials or more occasion for meekness, and his humility was equal thereto. His backwardness afterwards to undertake that mission to which he was destined from the womb, was no less remarkable than his forwardness before."*

We will now note what happened during these forty years in Egypt.

The prince, Thothmes I., at the beginning of whose reign Moses fled from Egypt, reigned twenty-seven years. "Some buildings of his time still exist; but the second of that name has left little to mark the history of his reign. Between these two monarchs appears to have intervened a queen (whom Mr. Wilkinson calls), Amun-neit-gori, and who has hitherto given rise to more doubts and questions than any other sovereign of this dynasty. But whether she was only regent during the reign of Thothmes II. and III., or succeeded to the throne in right of Thothmes I.,† in whose honour she erected several monuments, is still uncertain, and some have doubted her being a queen. The name has been generally erased, and those of the second and third Thothmes are placed over it; but sufficient remains to prove that the small temple of Medeenet Haboo, the elegant edifice under the Qoorneh rocks, and the great obelisks of Karnak, with many other handsome monuments, were erected by her orders, and the attention paid to the military caste is testified by the subjects of the sculptures."

Leaving this princess, and the question how and in what character she operated in the reigns of Thothmes II. and III., we may proceed to state that the reign of the first of these princes lasted ten years, and that, consequently, the fortieth year from the flight of Moses fell in the reign of his successor, Thothmes III., who is, therefore, to be regarded as the Pharaoh so celebrated in the history of Israel's deliverance. That deliverance is placed by Mr. Wilkinson in the fourth year of his reign. Until towards the end of these forty years, the condition of the Hebrews seems to have remained much as it had been before Moses left. That it had not grown worse, and was such as we have represented it, appears to be shown from the fact that the Ephraimites were in a condition to undertake that expedition against the Philistines which proved so disastrous for them, and to which we have already alluded.§ But Thothmes III. appears from the sculptures to have been an enterprising prince both in the arts of war and peace. He was a great improver and builder;-a character which could not but operate unfavourably for the Hebrews by creating a great demand for labour. It may seem, indeed, to have been a sort of rule that the best kings for the Egyptians were the worst for the Hebrews. Heavier exactions upon their services appear to have been made: the tasks required from them were more onerous; and the alternating periods of rest allowed to the several gangs of workmen were probably abridged, if they did not entirely cease. Never was their bondage so bitter-their affliction so heavy as now. Their lot became too hard even for their tried patience to bear any longer. But none of their chiefs seemed disposed to risk the consequences of moving for the deliverance of Israel; and in themselves they found no help. What then could they do? They bethought them of crying to God,―to the God whose promises to their fathers offered a large inheritance of hope. They did cry and God heard them.

At this time Moses had led his flocks round the eastern arm of the Red Sea into the peninsula of Sinai, and penetrated to the green and wall-watered valleys which are involved among the mountains of its central region. He was near the mountain of Horeb, when he beheld before him a thorn-bush on fire, a circumstance not in itself unusual in that region; but the wonder was that the bush continued to burn without being consumed, and without any subsidence of the flame. Moses advanced to view this strange sight more closely; but, as he drew nigh, he heard a voice, from the midst of the burning bush, calling him by his name. Astonished, he answered, "Here am I." Then the voice cried, "Approach not hither. Pull

Hales, ii. 184.

+ We have ourselves already hazarded it as the most probable conjecture, that she was the daughter of Thothmes I. aud Amense, and that, as in the previous case, her husband ascended the throne with her under the name of Thothmes II.; the succeeding monarch, Thothmes III., would then appear to have been their son,-which fact would account for the appearance of her name in his reign also. We can see no explanation which seems so fully to agree with circumstances as this.

thy sandals from thy feet: for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground."

The baring of the feet, thus required, was a mark of respect, common to all Oriental nations. The voice then said, "I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." Then Moses hid his face in his robe; for he was afraid to look at God: and thus, barefooted and with veiled face, he stood to receive the Divine commands. The voice now said, "I have surely beheld the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry on account of their task-masters; and am come down to deliver them from the hand of the Egyptians; and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land-a land flowing with milk and honey. Lo, as now the cry of the sons of Israel hath come unto me, and I have also seen the oppressions with which the Egyptians oppress them: come, now, therefore, and I will send thee to Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring my people, the sons of Israel, from the land of Egypt."

Moses heard this announcement, as regarded himself, with surprised and unwilling ears. "Who am I," said he, " that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel from

• Pococke speaks of a bush planted in the garden by the monks, which they affirm to be the real one in which God appeared. "There is no sign of this at present," says Mr. Arundale, who has furnished the drawing for the present engraving. This is true; and Pococke must have misunderstood the monks, who certainly never pointed out any such bush to the older travellers any more than they do now. They have always described this chapel as covering the site of the burning bush. It seems to be now in the same state as when seen by Morison; and from his account it appears to have been built by the Empress Helena over the spot which tradition indicated as that on which the burning bush had stood, and, consequently, preceded the erection of the convent itself and the great church by Justinian. It adjoins the church, and is counted the most holy spot in Sinai. The walls are covered with mosaics and old Greek paintings, and from the ceiling are suspended thirty silver lamps (presented to the chapel by different persons at different times), which are all alight during the celebration of Divine service, which, in this chapel, is every Sunday and on the feast days of the Virgin. The precise spot which the bush is supposed to have occupied is marked by an oblong slab of white marble, over which is an altar sustained by four small columns, also of white marble. From under the table of this altar are suspended three small lamps of silver which are kept always burning.

That this marks the site of the burning bush is doubtful enough; but a degree of curiosity and interest still attaches to the structures and memorials by which, amidst these solitudes, men have sought to commemorate the remarkable events which occurred in them

the land of Egypt ?" He bowed to the sufficiency of the answer-"I will be with thee;" but still was most reluctant to undertake an enterprise, the difficulties of which were well known to him. Great as the difficulty was of dealing with the Egyptians in such a case, that, to a man of his knowledge, appeared so much less arduous than the task of securing the confidence and support of the Israelites themselves-slaves in heart, as he knew them to be—and of making them true to their own cause, that the other was quite lost and forgotten in it. Even after he had been told how he was to proceed;-that he was, on his arrival in Egypt, to assemble the elders of Israel, and announce his mission to them, with the assurance that they would believe him, his mind still dwelt on this most serious point. "Behold," he said, "they may not believe me, or hearken unto my voice; for they may say, JEHOVAH hath not appeared unto thee.” Then, to give him the confidence he so much wanted, as well as to enable him to vouch to the Israelites his divine commission, the Lord empowered him to work three signal wonders,the first, of turning his rod into a serpent, and of restoring it again; the second, of making his hand leprous as snow, when he first drew it forth from his bosom, and of restoring it again, when he next drew it out; and the third, of turning water taken from the river Nile into blood.

He was also instructed how he was to act with the Egyptians; but, as his proceedings were in strict conformity with those instructions, they will presently come before us in another shape. But Moses was now eighty years of age;—and, although this was probably not more than equivalent to the age of sixty years in our own days, the fire of his youth had subsided; and, accustomed as he had been for forty years to a quiet and solitary life, he felt sincerely reluctant to embark anew in scenes of trouble and difficulty, by undertaking the high but arduous emprise now imposed upon him. The self-confidence of his earlier life had also passed away; and he was deeply sensible of his own inadequacy to meet the requirements of such a task. This he ventured to intimate, dwelling particularly on the fact that he was not an eloquent man, and that his slow and impeded utterance would divest all his statements of any weight which they might otherwise claim. Even the answer, "I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say," did not satisfy one who so anxiously desired to be excused; and, without making any more objections, which he found so well answered, he distinctly begged that the Lord would be pleased to transfer his choice to some one more competent than himself for such high service. But the divine purpose was not thus to be moved. He was told that his brother Aaron, who possessed all that eloquence which he deemed so necessary, would come forth to meet him as he approached Egypt, and would be most glad to see him once more; he could act as the spokesman of his brother, who, through him, could deliver, with all due solemnity, the messages with which he might be charged.

Moses no longer withstood the divine appointment. His hesitation and resistance had been that of a man who was but too well aware of the heavy duties of the high office to which he was called, and who knew that they must be discharged, and was determined to discharge them. So, henceforth, we hear no more of doubt or difficulty. The youth of his mind was renewed; and, from that day to the last of his protracted life, all its powerful energies were devoted to the deliverance and welfare of Israel.

Now Moses departed from "the mount of God," and returned to Jethro. He made him not acquainted with his high mission, but requested,-"Let me go, I pray thee, to my brethren in Egypt, and see if they be yet alive." Jethro answered, "Go in peace." But before Moses went, it pleased God to relieve him from any apprehensions of personal danger from the cause which had occasioned his flight from Egypt, by conveying to him the assurance that all those were dead who had sought his life.

mortal, Moses de

His wife and two

CHARGED with the highest and most arduous mission ever confided to a parted from the shores of the Red Sea to return to the banks of the Nile. sons were with him, riding upon asses.(1) But at the caravanserai, on the way, Moses was threatened with death because he had left his youngest son uncircumcised; and Zipporah, understanding this, and perceiving that her husband was so smitten as to be unable himself to execute the act of obedience, took a sharp flint, and herself performed the operation. She was, however, so much annoyed by this occurrence, that she returned with her two sons to her father.*

As the future Deliverer advanced towards Egypt, Aaron received the divine command to go forth and meet his brother in the wilderness. They met, and embraced each other; after which Moses made Aaron acquainted with all that had happened to him, and the commission which he had received. They then proceeded together to the land of Goshen.

It appears that the patriarchal government still subsisted among the Hebrews, not having

That she went, in the first instauce, with Moses and afterwards returned to her father appears from a comparison of Exod. iv. 20, and xviii. 2. Howell ingeniously conjectures that the occurrence took place, not on the journey to Egypt, but on the journey from Horeb to Midian; and that Moses left his wife and sons there with Jethro before departing for Egypt. But we fear the text will not allow this somewhat desirable explanation.

VOL. I.

Y

been interfered with, or, certainly, not destroyed by the Egyptians. Under this form of government, the chief authority-such as a father exercises over his grown children-was vested in the heads of tribes, and, subordinately, in the heads of clans, or collections of families. As these were generally men well advanced in years, they are called collectively "elders" in the Scriptural history. On arriving in Egypt these elders were assembled, and the eloquent Aaron declared to them what he had heard from his brother, and the errand on which he was now come. They concluded by displaying the marvels which Moses had been authorized to work. The people, who, as we have seen, had already been brought to look to the Lord for their deliverance, recognised in this the answer to their supplications. "They believed and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshipped."

Moses and Aaron then proceeded to follow, to the letter, the instructions which had been given in the mount.

They went to the court of Pharaoh, and were probably attended by the more influential of the elders, although we only read that the two brothers entered the presence. It also appears that the mission produced so much excitement among the Hebrews, that many of those engaged in labour left their work to watch the result.

On appearing before the king, Aaron announced that JEHOVAH, the God of the Hebrews, had appeared to them, and had sent them to require the king to allow the Israelites to go into the wilderness, to hold a feast to Him there. Pharaoh was doubtless astonished to receive this demand. He replied, "Who is JEHOVAH, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not JEHOVAH, neither will I let Israel go." But the brothers still insisted on their demand, explaining, more particularly, that they wished the people to go three days' journey into the wilderness, there to offer sacrifices to their God; and intimated that the Israelites might expect to be visited by "the pestilence and the sword," unless they were obedient, which, reflectively, hinted to the king himself that he might expect to be punished if he prevented their obedience. To this the king deigned no answer, but dismissed them with a severe reprimand for putting such wild notions into the heads of the people, and calling away their attention from their work, to which they were all commanded to return.

That same day, the king, affecting to attribute this application to the too idle life which the Hebrews were allowed to lead, determined to bring down the rising spirit by making their burdens heavier upon them. "Let there be more work laid upon the men," he said, "that they may labour therein; and let them not regard vain words."

Hitherto, those who laboured in the brick-fields had been furnished all the materials for their work, not only the clay with which the bricks were formed, but the straw with which they were compacted; but now it was ordered that they should no longer be furnished with straw, but should collect it for themselves, while the same number of bricks should be exacted which they had formerly been required to supply. This was a grievous alteration; seeing that much of the time which should have been employed in making the bricks was now consumed in seeking for straw. And this burden must have become more heavy every day, in proportion as the straw thus hunted up became scarce in the neighbourhood of the brick-fields. It became at last necessary to employ stubble instead of straw. This was a common enough resource when straw could not be easily procured; and old sun-dried bricks, compacted with stubble instead of straw, are at this day found not only in Egypt but in Babylonia. Under all these circumstances the work could not be done the required tale of bricks could not be given in to the taskmasters.

It appears that under the Egyptian taskmasters there were Hebrew "officers" in charge of each gang of labourers, and who were personally accountable for the work which the gang had to perform the taskmasters themselves being responsible to the government for the work of larger bodies of Hebrew bondsmen. Yet the Hebrew officers had access to Pharaoh as well as the Egyptian taskmasters, and when he issued any orders respecting the "burdens" of the Israelites, it was his custom to send for both. Nevertheless, the taskmasters finding the required number of bricks was not produced, ordered the Hebrew officers to be beaten,