doubt, either because they became extinct, or else because they were removed from their places through

some judgment. Nor does it seem strange to find the names of the future heads of families beforehand

enumerated in this catalogue. Do we not similarly read, that in Abraham yet unborn generations of Levi had

given tithes to Melchizedek? Indeed, Scripture constantly expresses itself on this wise. Thus we read that

God said to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob: "I will give thee the land," when, as yet, they were but

strangers and pilgrims in it; and, many centuries before the event took place: "In thee shall all nations of the

earth be blessed;" while to Jacob himself God spake: "I will bring thee up again," from Egypt. For with God

nothing is, in the real sense, future. "He seeth the end from the beginning." But when the sacred text sums

up the genealogical table with the statement that "all the souls" were "threescore and ten," we think of the

s ignificance of the number, seven times ten, seven being the sacred covenant number, and ten that of

On his journey Jacob sent Judah in advance, to inform Joseph of his arrival. He hastened to receive his

father in the border-land of Goshen. Their meeting, after so long a parting, was most affectionate and

touching. The Hebrew expression, rendered in our Authorized Version: "Joseph . . . presented himself unto

him," implies extraordinary splendor of appearance. But when in the presence of his Hebrew father, the great

Egyptian lord was once more only the lad Joseph. He "fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while."

It now became the duty of Joseph to inform Pharaoh of the actual arrival of his family in Egypt, so as to

obtain at the same time a fresh welcome, and a temporary concession of the land of Goshen for their

settlement. For this purpose Joseph went first alone to the king, and next introduced five of his brothers.

Both he and they laid stress on the fact that by occupation the family were shepherds. This would secure

their stay in Goshen, as the district was most suitable for pasturage, and at the same time most remote and

most isolated from the great bulk of the people. For the Egyptian monuments show that shepherds were

considered as the lowest class or caste, probably because their nomadic habits were so opposed to the

settled civilization of the country. Another point which the sons of Jacob were specially to bring out before

Pharaoh was this, that they had come only "to sojourn ," not to settle in the land, so that, as they had arrived

at the first upon the express invitation of the king, they might be at liberty freely to depart when the time for

it came. It is of importance to notice this in connection with the wrong afterwards done in the forcible

detention of their descendants. It happened as Joseph had expected. Pharaoh assigned to them a dwelling-

place "in the best of the land," that is, in the portion most suitable, in fact, in almost the only district suitable

for pasturage - in the borderland between Canaan and Egypt, the land of Goshen, or of Rameses, as it is

sometimes called from the city of that name. A careful and able scholar 76 has thus expressed himself on the

subject: "The land of Goshen lay between the eastern part of the ancient Delta, and the western border of

Palestine; it was scarcely a part of Egypt Proper, was inhabited by other foreigners besides the Israelites,

and was in its geographical names rather Semitic than Egyptian; it was a pasture -land, especially suited to a

shepherd people, and sufficient for the Israelites, who there prospered, and were separate from the main

body of the Egyptians." 77

Before settling him in Goshen, Joseph presented his father to Pharaoh, who received him with the courtesy

of an Eastern monarch, and the respect which the sight of age, far exceeding the ordinary term of life in

Egypt, would ensure. In acknowledgment of Pharaoh's kindness, "Jacob blessed" him; and in answer to the

question about his age, compared "the days of the years" of his own "pilgrimage" with those of his fathers.

Abraham had lived one hundred and seventy-five, Isaac one hundred and eighty years; while Jacob was at

the age of only one hundred and thirty, apprehending the approach of death. Compared to theirs, his days

had not only been "few" but "evil," full of trial, sorrow, and care, ever since his flight from his father's

house. Yet, however differing in outward events, the essential character of their lives was the same. His and

theirs were equally a "pilg rimage." For,