Bible History of the Old Testament

No. 30

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    The Children of Israel in Egypt  - The Residences, Occupations, Social Arrangements, Constitution, and Religion    

Part   1

Three and a half centuries intervened between the close of the Book of Genesis and the events that are told about at the beginning of Exodus.  During that period much of the history of the Children of Israel is a blank.  All that was written down was family names without any chronicle of that family history.  The final condition of the people is told, but we are not given any specifics as to their social or national development.  There are only a few brief allusions scattered through the Old Testament as to their state during all these hundreds of years.  Otherwise, we know nothing of their state, their life, or their religion during this interval.  This silence is almost awful in its grandeur, like the loneliness of Sinai, the mount of God.

There are two things had been foretold that would mark this period, and both of these two alone appear as outstanding facts in the Biblical narrative.  Genesis 46: 3 - Fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation.  Then the Book of Exodus opens with the record that this promise had been fulfilled.  Exodus 1:7 - The children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them. 

Then there was another prophecy that had been made centuries before to Abraham that was to be fulfilled.  Genesis 15: 13-16  -  His seed was to be "a stranger in a land not theirs," and there they would be enslaved and afflicted.  As the appointed centuries came to a close, there "arose up a new king over Egypt".  This king treated the people terribly, and it was surely the darkest period of their bondage.  We wonder if they understood that the last part of the prophecy would come true also:  "I will bring thee up again with great substance."  Here we also see that the promised future stands in marked contrast to the actual state of things.  God always keeps His Word in His Time, though.

The start of the closing years of the three and a half centuries since their entrance into Egypt found Israel peaceful, prosperous, and probably assimilated to the Egyptians around them.  The land of Goshen where they lived is to this day considered the richest province of Egypt.  Even now it could easily support a million or more inhabitants. 

Goshen lay between Palestine and the most eastern of the seven ancient mouths of the Nile.  This border-land was probably occupied by the more nomadic branches of the family of Israel.  Its wide tracts of land would have afforded excellent pasturage for their livestock.  The rich banks of the Nile and its canals were the best of places that one could live who pursued any kind of agriculture.  There are also traces of the Israelites that have been found across the banks of the Nile and into some of the cities of Egypt. 

In the cities they would have acquired a knowledge of the arts and industries of the Egyptians.  It probably would have been quite natural that many of them would have begun to settle down in this beautiful land instead of roaming from place to place with their herds.  In this day and age also, a similar change has been noticed in the nomads who settle in Egypt.  In his great mercy and grace, God had given them the best of the land of Egypt and He blessed them immensely while they were there.  When the land had been given to Jacob and his sons, it had been given to them "for a possession", which implied fixed and hereditary proprietorship.  Their later reminiscences of the land when they were in the wilderness hold accordance with this view. 

They looked back with sinful longing to the time when they had caught an abundance of fish from the Nile, and when their gardens and fields had yielded rich crops of cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic.  Afterwards when Moses described to them Canaan, he contrasted it with Egypt because of its wonderful, rich land.  Where the people of Israel were mostly nomadic shepherds tending to their vast amounts of flocks earlier, they eventually changed to agricultural pursuits.  They had previously had many camels to help them in their work, but after this there is no reference made to them in the narrative of their descendants.  This change of occupations also served a higher purpose.  Settlement and agriculture implied becoming more civilized, and this trait was much needed in them before they could really become  a nation.  They could never become a real nation while they were moving around all the time from place to place.

We also have evidence that they acquired most of their arts and industries from Egypt also.  The preparation of the various materials for the construction of the Tabernacle imply this as well.  We have direct statements that some of the families of Judah were carpenters, weavers of fine Egyptian linen, and potters, as only instances of the various trades they had learned in Egypt.  Their separation in Goshen was not one of total isolation.  They were the chief inhabitants, but not the only ones.  Therefore they would have been able to mingle with their Egyptian neighbors in the towns of that district.  They must have mingled very well by the appointed time that God had chosen to deliver them.  It was necessary that they apply blood on their doorposts to distinguish the houses of the Israelites from those of the Egyptians.  This probably also accounts for the "mixed multitude" that accompanied Israel at the Exodus and in the wilderness.  There were probably offspring that went with them that were the results of marriages between Jewish women and Egyptian husbands.  (Lev. 24:10)

While many of the Israelites had acquired the more settled and civilized habits of a nation, the inhabitants of the border-district between Goshen and Canaan still continued on in their nomadic life.  This explains how the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh possessed  flocks that were so much larger than their brother tribes.  This could also be why they wanted the wide pasture-lands that were in the east of the Jordan. 

Whether the people were nomadic or settled, though, they preserved their ancient constitution and religion.  We do notice some modifications and adaptations that came out of their long stay in Egypt, though.  The original division of Israel was into 12 tribes after the sons of Jacob.  The tribe of Levi became the priests, so the sons of Joseph became two tribes (Ephraim and Manasseh).  These twelve tribes were again subdivided into families, or clans, or which these were mostly founded by the grandsons of Jacob.  They amounted to about 60 according to Numbers 26.  By the time of Joshua 7: 14, these families had subdivided more into "households", and then again to what is described by the expression "man by man".  The latter terms seems to mean each mother, father, and children. 

The heads of the families, or clans, were called chiefs, while those of the tribes were called princes.  The twelve princes were "the rulers of the congregation".   These "rulers" formed a sort of hereditary aristocracy.  There were two classes of elected officials that served as representatives of the congregation.  In Deuteronomy 29: 10, they were designated as elders and officers. 

The institution of elders, or scribes, had already existed among the children of Israel in Egypt before the time of Moses.  For when God told Moses what he wanted him to do in leading the people of Israel to freedom, he gathered the "elders of Israel together" to tell them what God had told him.  Also the mention of scribes occurs even earlier than that of elders.  It is to the scribes, or lettered class, that the Egyptian taskmasters seem to have entrusted to be superintendents of the people as they were doing the back-breaking labor before their Exodus.  Then scribes, then, would naturally have been intermediaries between the Israelites and the Egyptians because of the job that they had been given. 

The art of writing is also generally admitted to have been known to the Israelites at the time of Moses.  The advanced Egyptian learning had also penetrated into Canaan itself, and Joshua found its inhabitants mostly in a very advanced state of civilization, with one of the towns being called a name that meant "city of books", or "university town". 

In reference to just the religion of Israel, during the three and a half centuries since the death of Jacob, any prophecy, vision, or all communication wholly ceased from Heaven so far as we know.  Even the birth of Moses was not preceded by any kind of Divine announcement.  In these dire circumstances, the children of Israel had to depend on the knowledge that they had already acquired from their "fathers".  They were very good storytellers, so undoubtedly this knowledge had been passed on from generation to generation. 

The rest of their story will be told in the next text - Part 2. 

For more information from this book, go to the Archives Page at my site   www.cathydeaton.com    There are other articles of interest there also.

This text is taken from the book Bible History Old Testament written by Alfred Edersheim.  This book has been used by permission.