A. M. 2276. A. C. 1728; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3548. A. C. 1863. GEN. CH. xxxvii. TO THE END. were consulted upon all affairs of consequence; and, upon a vacancy, generally some one of them succeeded to the crown. It was not likely, therefore, that persons of their high rank and station wanted Joseph's assistance to strengthen their interest, for the obtaining of any immunities; nor is it apparent that they had it. On the contrary, it seems evident from the text, that whatever peculiar favours they were vouchsafed, proceeded all, not from Joseph's good-will, but from the king's immediate direction and appointment; for the land of the priests bought he not,' says Moses, (ci chok le cohanim meeth Pharaoh) because Pharaoh had made a decree expressly against it, or, in analogy to our translation, 'because there was an appointment for the priests, even from Pharaoh ; and the portion, which he gave them, they did eat, and therefore sold not their lands.' That the memory of Joseph, and of the wonderful benefits he did, during the time of his administration, was preserved among the Egyptians, under the worship of Apis, Serapis, and Osiris; that the Egyptian manner of interpreting dreams was taken from what occurs in his history; and that the Charistia, mentioned by 2 Valerius and Ovid, namely, festival entertainments, either for confirming friendship, or renewing it when broken, were transcripts of the feast which Joseph made for his brethren, is the general opinion of such learned men as have made the deepest inquiry into these matters. That the patriarch Jacob went down with his whole family into Egypt, where he found his son Joseph in great power and prosperity, is reported by several pagan writers, who are cited by Eusebius; that the Egyptians, according to what Moses tells of them, had an unaccount 7 5 6 Why Pharaoh, when he thought fit to lessen the pro-able antipathy to shepherds, especially foreigners, is perty of his common subjects, did not, at the same time, related by Herodotus; that the priests in that country attempt to reduce the exorbitant riches of the priests, we enjoyed several high privileges, and were exempted from may in some measure account for, if we consider, that paying all taxes and public imposts, is every where according to the constitution of the kingdom, the Egyp- apparent from Diodorus; and that Joseph was just tian priests were obliged to provide all sacrifices, and to such a person as Moses has represented him, the testibear all the charges of the national religion, which, in mony of Justin, with which we conclude the patrithose days, was not a little expensive; so very expen- arch's story, is enough to convince us. "Joseph, the sive, that we find, in those countries where the soil was youngest of his brethren," says he, “ had a superiority not fruitful, and consequently the people poor, men did of genius, which made them fear him, and sell him to not well know how to bear the burden of religion; and foreign merchants, who carried him into Egypt, where therefore Lycurgus, when he reformed the Lacedemonian he practised the magic art with such success as rendered state, instituted sacrifices, the meanest and cheapest that him very dear to the king. He had a great sagacity in he could think of. But Egypt, we know, was a rich and the explanation of prodigies and dreams; nor was there fertile country, and therefore, in all probability, the king any thing so abstruse, either in divine or human knowand people being desirous that religion should appear ledge, that he did not readily attain. He foretold a with a suitable splendour, made settlements upon the great dearth, several years before it happened, and priests from a the very first institution of government prevented a famine's falling upon Egypt, by advising among them, answerable to the charges of their function. the king to publish a decree, requiring the people to Add to this, that the priests of Egypt were the whole make provision for divers years. His knowledge, in body of the nobility of the land; that they were the king's short, was so great, that the Egyptians listened to the counsellors and assistants in all the affairs which con- prophecies coming from his mouth, as if they had procerned the public; were joint agents with him in some ceeded, not from man, but from God himself.” things, and in others, his directors and instructors. Add again, that they were the professors and cultivators of astronomy, geometry, and other useful sciences; that they were the keepers of the public registers, memoirs, CHAP. III.—Of the Person and Book of Job. and chronicles of the kingdom; and, in a word, that, under the king, they were the supreme magistrates, and THAT Job was a real person, and not a fictitious charfilled all prime offices of honour and trust and consider-acter, and his story matter of fact, and not a parabolical ing them under these views, we may possibly allow, that representation, is manifest from all those places in Pharaoh might think that they had not too much to support Scripture where mention is made of him; and, therethe station they were to act in, and for that reason, ordered that no tax should be raised upon them. 1 Thus we have endeavoured to clear the sacred history from all imputations of improbability or absurdity, as well as Joseph's conduct, both private and public, from all unjust censure, during this period of time; and may now produce the testimony of several heathen writers, in confirmation of many particulars related herein. 1 Diodorus Siculus, b. 1. a It is the opinion of some, that Mizraim, the founder of the Egyptian monarchy, might, in memory of some Noachical tradition, set apart, at the very first, a maintenance for the priesthood, however degenerate and corrupt. Be this as it will, it is certain, that, in process of time, their allotment increased to such a degree, that they became possessors of one-third part of the whole land, according to Diodorus, b. 1. 4 b * Diodorus Siculus, b. 2. c. 1. 3 De Fast. b. 2. Prep. Evan. b. 9. Ib. b. 2. c. 47. Ib. b. 1. lb. b. 36. c. 2. Nay, upon the supposition that the whole book were a dramatic composition, this would not invalidate the proofs which we have from Scripture, of the real existence of this holy patriarch, or the truth of his exemplary story. On the contrary, it much confirms them; seeing it was the general practice of dramatic writers, of the serious kind, to choose any illustrious character, and well known story, in order to give the piece its due dignity and efficacy; and yet, what is very surprising. the writers on both sides, as well those who hold the book of Joh to be dramatical, as those who hold it to be historical, have fallen into this paralogism, that, if dramatical, then the person and history of Job is fictitious: which nothing but their inattention to the nature of a dramatic work, and to the practice of dramatic writers, could have occasioned.-Warburton's Divine Legation, vol. 3. b. 6. A. M. 2276. A. C, 1728; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3548. A. C. 1863. GEN. CH. xxxvii. TO THE END. fore when, in the Old Testament, we find Job put in company with Noah and Daniel, and equally distinguished for his righteousness, as in the New he is commended for his patience, we cannot well suppose that the Spirit of God, in both these places, intended to delude us with a phantom, instead of presenting us with a real man. Whether we allow that the book of Job is of divine revelation or not, we cannot but perceive, that it has in it all the lineaments of a real history; since the name, the quality, the country of the man, the number of his children, the bulk of his substance, and the pedigree of his friends, together with the names and situations of several regions, can give us the idea of nothing else; though it must not be dissembled, that in the introduction more especially, there is an allegorical turn given to some matters, which, as they relate to spiritual beings, would not otherwise so easily affect the imagination of the vulgar. 'Job, according to the fairest probability, was in a direct line, a descended from Abraham, by his wife Keturah: for by Keturah, the patriarch had several sons, whom he, being resolved to reserve the chief patrimony entire for Isaac, portioned out, as we call it, and sent | them into the east to seek their fortunes, so that most of them settled in Arabia; and for this reason perhaps it is, that the author of his history records of Job, that before his calamities came upon him, he was the greatest of all the men of the east.' 36 The character which God himself gives of Abraham is this, 3 I know him that, he will command his children, and his household after him, and that they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment;' which may well afford another argument for Job's being descended from the house of Abraham, since we find dispersed everywhere in his speeches, such noble sentiments of creation and providence, of the nature of angels and the fall of man, of punishments for sin and justification by grace, of a redemption, resurrection, and final judgment,-notions which he could never have struck out from the light of nature, but must have had 3 'Spanheim's History of Job, c. 5, * Job, 1. 3. Gen. xviii. 19. 4 Spanheim's History of Job, c. 10. a At the end of the Greek, the Arabic, and Vulgate versions of Job, we have this account of his genealogy, which is said to have been taken from the ancient Syriac:-"Job dwelt in Ausitis, upon the confines of Idumea and Arabia. His name at first was Jobab. He married an Arabian woman, by whom he had a son called Ennon. For his part, he was the son of Zerah, of the posterity of Esau, and a native of Bozrah; so that he was the fifth from Abraham. He reigned in Edom, and the kings before him reigned in this order:-Balak, the son of Beor, in the city of Dinhabah; and after him, Job, otherwise called Jobab. Job was succeeded by Husham, prince of Teman; after him reigned Hadad, the son of Bedad, who defeated the Midianites in the field of Moab. Job's friends, who came to visit him, were Eliphaz, of the posterity of Esau, king of Teman; Bildad, king of the Shuhites; and Zophar, king of the Naamathites. 19 5 them originally from the instruction of his parents, as they successively derived them from the first father of the faithful,' who had them immediately from God. But, what is an undoubted matter of fact, by his wife Ketu. rah, Abraham had a son, whose name was Shuah; and therefore when we read of Bildad the Shuhite, we may well suppose, that he was a descendant from that family; who living in the neighbourhood perhaps, might think himself obliged by the ties of consanguinity, to go and visit his kinsman, in such sad circumstances of distress. In what part of the world the land of Uz lay, various opinions have been started, according to the several families from whence Job is made to descend; but, upon supposition that he sprung from one of Keturah's sons, his habitation is most properly placed in that part of Arabia Deserta which has to the north, Mesopotamia and the river Euphrates; to the west, Syria, Palestine, and Idumea; and to the south, the mountains of the Happy Arabia. And this description receives some farther confirmation from the mention which the history makes of the Chaldeans and Sabæans plundering his estate, who were certainly inhabitants in these parts. According to this account, Job must be contemporary with Moses, and the three friends who came to see him must be kings. But the learned Spanheim, who has examined this matter to the bottom, finds reason to think, that Job was a distinct person from Jobab; was sprung from Abraham by his wife Keturah; and lived several years before the time of Moses. Calmet's Dictionary, on the word Job; and Spanheim's life of him. In what age of the world this great exemplar of suffering lived, the difference of opinions is not small, even though there be some criterions to direct our judgment in this matter. That Job lived in the world much earlier than has been imagined, is, in some measure, evident from his mentioning with abhorrence, that ancient kind of idolatry, the adoration of the sun and moon, and yet passing by in silence the Egyptian bondage, which, upon one occasion or other, could have hardly escaped the notice either of him or his friends, had it not been subsequent to their times. That he lived in the days of the patriarchs therefore is very probable, from the long duration of his life, which, continuing an hundred and forty years after his restoration, could hardly be less in all than two hundred; a longer period than either Abraham or Isaac reached. That he lived before the law, may be gathered from his making not so much as one allusion to it through the whole course of his life, and from his offering, even with God's order and acceptance, such sacrifices in his own country as were not allowable after the promulgation of the law, to be offered in any other place, but that which the Lord had chosen in one of the tribes of Israel;' and that he lived after Jacob may be inferred from the character given him by God, namely, that for uprightness and the fear of God, there was none like unto him upon the earth,' which large commendation could not be allowed to any whilst Jacob, God's favourite servant, was alive; nor can we suppose it proper to be given to any, even while Joseph lived, who, in moral virtues and other excellencies, made as bright a figure as any in his time. 5 Gen. xxv. 2. 6 Job ii. 11. 7 Spanheim, c. 3. 8 Deut. xii. 13, 14. The Rev. Dr Hales, from a variety of historical and astronomical deductions, calculates the time of Job's trial as happening B. C. 2337, or 818 years after the deluge, 184 years before the birth of Abraham, 474 years before the settlement of Jacob's family in Egypt, and 689 years before their departure from that country. Taking this view of the era of Job-and it is the best supported of any yet advanced-the deduction in the text from the words, and there was none like unto him upon the earth,' A. M. 2276. A. C. 1728; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3548. A. C. 1863. GEN. CH. xxxvii. TO THE END. 1 Thus may the computation be reduced to a very narrow compass; and though it be extremely difficult to point out the precise time, yet the general opinion is, that he lived in the time of the children of Israel's bondage, and therefore his birth is placed in the very same year wherein Jacob went down into Egypt, and the beginning of his trial in the year when Joseph died; though it might probably be less liable to exception, if his birth were set a little lower, much about the time of Jacob's death; and then Joseph, who survived his father about four and fifty years, will be dead about sixteen years, at which time Job might justly deserve the extraordinary character which God gave him, and have no man then alive, in virtue and integrity, able to compare with him. How considerable a figure Job made in the world, both in temporal and spiritual blessings, the vastness of his stock, which was the wealth of that age, consisting of seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yokes of oxen, and five hundred she-asses; the largeness of his family, consisting of seven sons and three daughters; and the excellency of the character which God was pleased to give him, together with the greatness of his sentiments, and the firmness and constancy of his mind in all he suffered, are a sufficient demonstration: and yet we see, that as soon as God submitted him to the assaults of his spiritual enemy, what a sad catastrophe did befall him. The Sabæans ran away with his asses; the Chaldeans plundered him of his camels; a fire from heaven consumed his sheep and servants; a wind overwhelmed all his children; and while the sense of these losses lay heavy upon his spirits, his body was smitten with a sore disease, insomuch that he who but a few hours before, was the greatest man in the country, in whose presence the young men were afraid to appear, and before whom the aged stood up,' to whom princes paid the most awful reverence, and whom nobles, in humble silence, admired; divested of all honour, sits mourning on a bed of ashes, and instead of royal apparel, has his flesh clothed,' as himself expresses it,' with worms and clods of earth,' and is all overspread with sores and ulcers. 26 According to the symptoms which Job gives us of himself, his distemper seems to have been a leprosy, but a leprosy of a more malignant kind, as it always is in hot countries, than our climate, blessed be God, is acquainted with; and those who would have it to be a malady of a more opprobrious name, lose all the sting 'Howell's History of the Bible. * Job vii. 5. that he must have lived after Jacob, because such "large commendation could not be allowed to any whilst Jacob, God's favourite servant, was alive," cannot hold, but must rather be applied to prove, that he lived before Jacob, or any of the patriarchs of Israel. It may be observed, however, that, according to scripture idiom, the passage may be construed to signify merely, that there was none like Job in the land of Uz. Among other reasons for assigning to Job the high antiquity given him by Dr Hales, may be mentioned the following: He is silent respecting the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, which cities lay near Idumea, where the scene of his sufferings is laid. He lived to a patriarchal age, surviving his trial 140 years, while he must have been old when that took place. The manners and customs described correspond critically with all that is known of that early period. But, above all, the astronomical allusions of Job have enabled astronomers to determine his era (as given above) by calculating the precession of the equinoxes.-ED. of the sarcasm, when they are told, that this distemper, be it what it will, was not of Job's contraction, but of Satan's infliction, not the effect or consequence of his vice, but the means appointed for the trial of his virtue. Their opinion, however, seems to be well founded, who make this distemper of Job not one simple malady, but a complication of many. For since the great enemy of mankind, saving his life, had a full license to try his patience to the uttermost, it is not to be questioned but that he played all his batteries upon him; and accordingly we may observe, that besides the blains pustulated to afflict his body, the devil not only instigated his wife to grieve his mind, but disturbed his imagination likewise to terrify his conscience. For when the holy man complains, Thou scarest me with dreams, and terrifiest me with visions,' the analogy of the history will not suffer us to interpret, that God himself did inject these affrightening dreams, but that the devil, to whose temptations he had submitted him, did raise gloomy thoughts, and frame horrid and ghastly objects in his imagination, thereby to urge him to melancholy and despair. 46 His How long this load of various calamity lay upon him, is nowhere mentioned in Scripture; and therefore since it is submitted to conjecture, they who, to magnify the sufferings, prolong the duration of them to a year, and, as some do, to seven, seem to be regardless of the tender mercies of the Lord; especially when there are some circumstances in the story, which certainly do countenance a much shorter time. The news of the misfortunes which attended his goods and family, came close upon the heels of one another, and we carmot suppose a long space before he was afflicted in his body. three friends seem to have been his near neighbours; and they came to visit him, as soon as they heard of the ill news, which usually flies apace. When they saw his misery, seven days they sat with him in silence; after this, they entered into a discourse with him, and at the end of this discourse, which could not well last above another week, God healed his sores before his friends who being men of eminence in their country, may be supposed to have business at home, as soon as this melancholy occasion was over) were parted from him. Bedford's Scripture Chronology, b. 3. c. 4. a Some of the Jewish doctors imagine, that Dinah, the daughter of Leah, was this wife of Job's; but this seems to be a mere fiction. The moroseness and impiety of the woman, as well as the place of her habitation, do no ways suit with Jacob's daughter; and therefore the more probable opinion is, that his wife was an Arabian by birth, and that though the words which we render 'curse God and die,' may equally bear a quite contrary signification, yet are they not here to be taken in the most favourable sense, because they drew from her meek and patient husband so severe an imprecation, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What! shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?' (Job ii. 10.)—Spanheim's History of Job, c. 6. b Eliphaz, the Temanite, was the grandson of Esau, and son of Teman, who dwelt in a city of the same name in Idumea, not far from the confines of Arabia Deserta. Bildad, the Shuhite, was descended from Shuah, the son of Abraham and Keturah. It is almost impossible to find out who Zophar the Naamathite was, though some will have him descended from Esau; but as for Elihu, who comes in afterwards, he was the grandson of Buz, the son of Nahor; lived in the southern parts of Mesopotamia; and upon the supposition of Job's being sprung from Abraham, was his distant relation.-Spanheim's Life of Job, c. 11. A. M. 2276. A. C. 1728; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3548. A. C. 1863. GEN. CH. xxxvii. TO THE END. Now, since all this may be included in the space of a month, and a month may be thought time enough for God to have made trial of his faithful servant; when once such trial was made, we have reason to believe, that he would withdraw his heavy hand, because his character in Scripture is, that he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.' ed his faith and piety, with a portion of earthly felicity, double to what he had before, and with the prolongation of his life, beyond the common extent of those times. The unaccountable greatness of Job's calamities had led his friends into a misconception of him, and made them surmise, that it must be the vindictive hand of God, either for some deep hypocrisy, or some secret enormity, that fell so heavy upon him; and therefore Eliphaz, in three orations, Bildad in as many, and Zophar in two, argue from common topics, that such afflictions as his could come from no hand but God's; and that it was inconsistent with his infinite justice to afflict without a cause, or punish without guilt; and thereupon charging Job with being either a grievous sinner, or a great hypocrite, they endeavoured by all means to extort a confession from him. But Job, conscious of his sincerity to God, and innocence to man, confidently maintains his integrity; and in speeches returned to every one of theirs, refutes their wicked suggestions, and reproves their injustice and want of charity; but always observes a submissive style and reverence when he comes to speak of God, of whose secret end, in permitting this trial to come upon him, being ignorant, he often begs a release from life, lest the continuance of his afflictions should drive him into impatience. During these arguments between Job and his friends, there was present a young man, named Elihu, who having heard the debates on both sides, and disliking both their censoriousness, and Job's justification of himself, undertakes to convince them both, by arguments drawn from God's unlimited sovereignty and unsearchable wisdom, that it was not inconsistent with his justice to lay his afflictions upon the best and most righteous of the sons of men; and that therefore, when any such thing came upon them, their duty was to bear it without murmuring, and to acknowledge the divine goodness in every dispensation. the When every one had spoken what he thought proper, and there was now a general silence in the company, Lord himself took up the matter, and out of a whirlwind directed his speech to Job; wherein with the highest amplifications, describing his omnipotence in the formation and disposition of the works of the creation, he so effectually convinced him of his inability to understand the ways and designs of God, that with the profoundest humility he breaks out into this confession and acknowledgment: Behold, I am vile, what shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth. Once have I spoken, but I will not answer: yea twice, but I will proceed no farther.' This acknowledgment pleased God so well, that he declared himself in favour of Job against his injurious friends, and hereupon putting an end to his sufferings, cured him of all his grievances, and reward 2 This is a brief analysis of the book of Job: and whoever looks into it with a little more attention, will soon perceive, that the author of it, whoever he was, ' has put in practice all the beauties of his art, to make the four persons, whom he brings upon the stage, keep up each his proper character, and maintain the opinions which they were engaged to defend; will soon perceive, that for its loftiness of style, and sublimeness of thoughts, for its liveliness and energy of expression, for the variety of its characters, the fineness of its descriptions, and the grandeur of its imagery, there is hardly such another composition to be found in all the records of antiquity, which has raised the curiosity of all ages to find out the person who might possibly be the author of it. 4 Some have imagined, that as it has been no uncommon thing in all ages, for persons of distinction to write their own memoirs, Job himself, or some of his friends at least, who bore a part in the series of this history, might set about the inditing it, if not for any other reason, at least in compliance to his request. 'Oh that my words were now written, that they were printed in a book!' But though some family records may possibly be kept of events so remarkable as those that occur in Job's life, yet the poetical turn which is given to the latter part of the book more especially, seems to savour of a more modern composition than suits with the era wherein we suppose Job to have lived. Others therefore suppose, that the story of Job was at first a plain narrative, written in the Arabian tongue, but that Solomon, or some other poetical genius like him, gave it a dramatic cast; and in order to make the subject more moving, introduced a set of persons speaking alternately, and always in character. But though this was certainly the mode of writing then in vogue, yet how there came so much of the Arabian and Syrian dialect to creep into a book that was composed at a time when the Hebrew tongue was in its very height of perfection, we cannot conceive; nor can we be persuaded, but that, in 4 Job xix. 23. 'Universal History, b. 1. c. 7. perfectly cured, and restored to health again.—Calmet's Dic tionary under the word Job. 6 St Jerome, in his preface to the book of Job, informs us, that the verse, in which it is chiefly composed, is heroic. From the beginning of the book, to the third chapter, he says, it is prose; &c., (chap. iii. 3.) unto these words, Wherefore I abhor mybut from Job's words, 'Let the day perish wherein I was born, self, and repent in dust and ashes,' (chap. xlii. 6.) the verses are hexameter, consisting of dactyls and spondees, like the Greek verses of Homer, and the Latin of Virgil. Marianus Victorius, in his note upon this passage of St Jerome, says, that he has examined the book of Job, and finds St Jerome's observation to be true. Only we must observe, that the several sentences directing us to the several speakers, such as these, 'Moreover, the Lord answered Job and said,' (chap. xl. 1.) 'Elihu also proceeded and said,' (chap. xxxvi. 1.) Elihu spake moreover and said,' (chap. xxxv. 1., &c.) are in prose and not in verse. St Jerome makes this farther remark, that the verses in the book of Job do not always consist of dactyls and spondees, but that other feet do frequently occur instead of them; that we often meet in them a word of four syllables, instead of a dactyl and spondee; and that the measure of the verses frequently differs in the number of the syllables of the several feet, but allowing two short syllables to be equal to one long, the sums of the measure of the verses are always the same.-Shuckford's Connection, vol. 2. b. 9. 1 A. M. 2433. A. C. 1571; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3683. A. C. 1728. EXOD, CH. i.-xiii, reading the whole, we taste an antiquity superior to that of David or Solomon's time. And yet, this notwithstanding, some have endeavoured to bring down the author of the book of Job to the times of the Babylonish captivity, and suppose the book to have been written for the consolation of the captives in distress. But if we suppose it written for the sake of the Jews, is it not strange, that in a discourse of such a kind, there should not be one single word of the law of Moses, nor so much as one distant allusion to any rite or ceremony of it, or to any of the forms of idolatry, for which the Jews suffered in the time of their captivity? The Jews, I say, certainly suffered for their iniquity; but the example of Job is the example of an innocent man, suffering for no demerit of his own. Now apply this to the Jews in their captivity, and the book contradicts all the prophets before, and at the time of their captivity, and seems to be calculated, as it were, to harden the Jews in their sufferings, and to reproach the providence of God for bringing them upon them. Without troubling ourselves therefore to examine, whether the conjectures of these, who carry the date of this book even lower than the captivity, and impute it to Ezra, that ready scribe in the law of Moses, as he is styled, have any good foundation to support them, we may sit down contented with what is the common, and as far as I can see, as probable an opinion as any, namely, that Moses, as soon as God put it in his heart to visit his people, either while he continued in Egypt, or while he lived in exile in Midian, either translated this book from Arabic, in which some suppose it was originally, or wrote it entirely by a divine inspiration for the support and consolation of his countrymen the Jews, groaning under the pressure of the Egyptian bondage; that by a proper example, he might represent the design of providence in afflicting them, and at the same time give them assurance of a release and restoration in due time. 2 This is what most of the Jews, and several Christian writers have affirmed, and believed, concerning the book of Job; but the author from whom I have compiled a great part of this dissertation, has by several arguments, hardly surmountable, gone a great way to destroy the received opinion, and left nothing to depend on but this, -That the writer of this book was a Jew, and assisted therein by the Spirit of God; that it has always been esteemed of canonical authority; is fraught with excellent instructions; and, above all, is singularly adapted to administer comfort in the day of adversity. Not to quit therefore this subject without an exhortation to this purpose, Ye have heard of the patience of Job,' says the apostle, and have seen the end of the Lord' and, therefore, when we find our spirits begin to flag under the sense of any affliction, or bodily pain; when our patience begins to be tired with sufferings, which are greater than we can bear, and our trust in God to be shaken, because he pours down his judgments upon us; let us enliven our fainting courage, by setting before us such noble patterns as this; and let us be ashamed to 56 6 Bishop Sherlock's Use and Intent of Prophecy, Dissertation 2. Warburton's Divine Legation, vol. 3. b. 6; et Sentimens de quelques Theol. de Hol. p. 183, &c. Ezra vii. 6. sink under our burdens, in their weight far disproportionate to those, which a man made of the same flesh and blood as we are, and supported by no other helps than are afforded us, without murmuring against God, without lessening his confidence in him, without impeaching his justice, and without desponding of his goodness, both patiently endured, and triumphantly overcame. SECT. V. CHAP. I.-The sufferings of the Israelites, and the means of their Deliverance out of Egypt. THE HISTORY. Nor long after the death of Joseph, there happened a revolution in Egypt, and a new king, who had no knowledge of the great services which Joseph had done the crown, perceiving the vast increase of the Israelites, began to fear, that in case of an invasion, they possibly might side with the enemy, and depose him; and therefore he called a council, wherein it was resolved, not only to impose heavy taxes upon the people, but to confine them likewise to the hard labour of bearing burdens, and digging clay, making bricks, and building strong cities a The original words, sare massim, which we translate taskmasters, do properly signify tax-gatherers, and the burdens are afterwards mentioned as distinct things, under another name; so that the resolution in council was, both to lay heavy tributes upon them to impoverish, and heavy burdens to weaken them. Philo, in his life of Moses, tells us, that they were made to carry burdens above their strength, and to work night and day, that they were forced at the same time to be workers and servers both; that they were employed in brick-making, digging, and building; and that if any of them dropped down dead under their burdens, they were not suffered to be buried. Josephus in his Jewish Antiquities, (b. 2. c. 9.) tells us in like manner, that they were compelled to learn several laborious trades, to rivers into channels, and cast up dykes and banks to prevent build walls round cities, to dig trenches and ditches, to drain inundations. And not only so, but that they were likewise put upon the erection of fantastical pyramids, which were vast piles of building, raised by the kings of Egypt in testimony of their when dead. Thus, by three several ways, the Egyptians endea splendour and magnificence, and to be repositories of their bodies voured to bring the Israelites under; by exacting a tribute of them, to lessen their wealth; by laying heavy burdens upon them, to weaken their bodies; and by preventing, by this means, as they imagined, their generating and increasing. The two cities here mentioned, namely, Pithom and Raamses, are said, in our translation, to be treasure-cities, but not places where the king reposited his riches, but rather his grain or corn; for such repositories seem to have been much in use among the Egyptians ever since the introduction of them by Joseph. Considering, however, the name and situation of these two cities, that Pithom, according to Sir John Marsham, was the same with Pelusium, the most ancient fortified place in Egypt, called by Ezekiel, (xxx. 15,) the strength of Egypt;' and by from Syria; and that Raamses, in all probability, was a frontier Suidas, long after him, the key of Egypt,' as being the inlet town which lay in the entrance of Egypt from Arabia, or some of the neighbouring countries; it seems hardly consistent with good policy to have granaries, or store cities in any other than the inland parts of a country; and therefore, as these were situated in the out parts of Egypt, it is much more likely that they were fortified places, surrounded with walls, and towers, and deep ditches, which would cost the Hebrews an infinite deal of labour in building, than that they were repositories, either for corn or treasure.-Patrick's Commentary, and Wells' Geography of the Old Testament, vol. 2. |