tural in the mouth of Jacob, though not in the mouth of David or Solomon.

This rendering of the Vss. is supported by the early Christian writers, as Justin M. ('Dial.'§ 120) and many others. It is thought that Ezekiel (xxi. 27) actually quotes the words, "Until he come whose right it is," expanding them a little, and St Paul (in Gal. iii. 19) is supposed to refer to them.

On the whole, rejecting confidently the senses 1, 2, 3, we may safely adopt either 4 or 5; 4, if the reading be correct; 5, if the reading without the yod be accepted.

All Jewish antiquity referred the prophecy to Messiah. Thus the Targum of Onkelos has "until the Messiah come, whose is the kingdom;" the Jerusalem Targum, "until the time that the king Messiah shall come, whose is the kingdom." The Targum of Pseudo-Jonathan, "till the king the Messiah shall come, the youngest of his sons." So the Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrim,' cap. II. fol. 982), "What is Messiah's name? His name is Shiloh, for it is written, Until Shiloh come." So likewise the Bereshith Rabba, Kimchi, Aben-ezra, Rashi, and other ancient Rabbins. The more modern Jews, pressed by the argument, that the time appointed must have passed, refer to David, Saul, Nebuchadnezzar and others (see Schottgen, 'Hor. Heb.' p. 1264). There can be no doubt that this prophecy was one important link in the long chain of predictions which produced that general expectation of a Messiah universally prevalent in Judæa at the period of the Christian era, and which Suetonius, in the well-known passage in his life of Vespasian, tells us had long and constantly pervaded the whole of the East. With the Jewish interpreters agreed the whole body of Christian fathers, e.g. Justin M. 'Apol.' 1. §§ 32, 54; Dial.' §§ 52, 20; Iren. IV. 23; Origen, C. Cels.' I. p. 41, Hom.' in Gen. 17; Cyprian, C. Jud.' 1. 20; Cyril. Hieros. Cat.' XII.; Euseb. 'H. E.' 1. 6; Chrys. Hom. 67, in Gen.'; Augustine, 'De Civ. D.' XVI.41; Theodoret, 'Quæst. in Gen.' 110; Hieron. Quæst. in Gen.', &c.

The only arguments of any weight against the Messianic character of the prophecy, except of course a denial that prophecy is possible at all, seem to be the following.

I. 1. The patriarchal age had no anticipation of a personal Messiah, though there may have been some dim hope of a future deliverance. This is simply a gratuitous assertion. Admitting even that the promise to Adam may have been vaguely understood, we cannot tell how much the rite of sacrifice, the prophecies of men like Enoch and Noah, and the promises to Abraham and Isaac, had taught the faith of the fathers. There is the highest of all authority for saying that "Abraham rejoiced to see the day of Christ; he saw it, and was glad" (Joh. viii. 56). It was not indeed to be expected, that much beyond general intimations should be given in very early times, the light gradually increasing as the Sun-rise was drawing near: but there seems no more likely time for a special teaching on this vital point than the time of Jacob's death. He was the last of the three patriarchs to whom the promises were given. He was leaving his family in a foreign land, where they were to pass some generations surrounded by idolatry and error. He was foretelling their future fortunes on their promised return to Canaan. What more natural than that he should be moved to point their hopes yet farther forward to that, of which the deliverance from Egypt was to be an emblem and type?

2. The New Testament does not cite this as a prediction of Christ.

Bishop Patrick has well observed, that the fulfilment of the prophecy was not till the destruction of Jerusalem, when not only the Sceptre of Royalty, but even the tribal authority, and the Sanhedrim or council of elders (the lawgiver") wholly passed from Judah. Then, and not till then, had the foretold fortunes of Judah's house been worked out. The sceptre and the lawgiver had departed, and "He, whose right it was," had taken the kingdom. The "Prince of peace" had come, and nations were coming into His obedience. But it would have been no argument to the Jew to cite this prophecy, whilst the Jewish nation was still standing and still struggling for its freedom, still possessing at least a shadow of royal authority and judicial power. There is therefore abundant reason why the New Testament should not refer to it.

+ Heb. wept.

29.

father: and the physicians embalmed Israel.

3 And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed: and the Egyptians mourned for him threescore and ten days.

t

4 And when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spake unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying,

a chap. 47. 5 My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die: in my grave which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. Now therefore let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come again.

6 And Pharaoh said, Go up, and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear.

cians of Egypt were famous in other lands also (Herod. III. 1, 129). It is not wonderful therefore that Joseph, with all his state, should have had several physicians attached to his establishment. Physicians, however, were not ordinarily employed to embalm, which was the work of a special class of persons (Herod. II. 85; Diodor. 1. 91); and the custom of embalming and the occupation of the embalmer were probably anterior to Moses and to Joseph. Very probably the physicians embalmed Jacob because he was not an Egyptian, and so could not be subjected to the ordinary treatment of the Egyptians, or embalmed by their embalmers.

3. And forty days were fulfilled for him] The account given by Diodorus (1.91) is that the embalming lasted more than 30 days, and that when a king died they mourned for him 72 days. This very nearly corresponds with the number in this verse. The mourning of 70 days probably included the 40 days of embalming. Herodotus (II. 86), who describes at length three processes of embalming, seems to speak of a subsequent steeping in natron (i.e. subcarbonate of soda) for 70 days. He probably expresses himself with some inaccuracy, as both the account in Genesis, which is very much earlier, and the account in Diodorus which is later, give a much shorter time for the whole embalming, i.e. either 30 or 40 days, and seem to make the whole mourning last but 70 days. It is possible, however, to understand Herodotus

7¶ And Joseph went up to bury his father: and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt,

8 And all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father's house: only their little ones, and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen.

9 And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen and it was a very great company.

10 And they came to the threshingfloor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days.

II And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians: wherefore the name

7. with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh] Such large funeral processions are often seen on the Egyptian monuments (Rosellini, II. p. 395; Hengstenb. p. 71; Wilkinson, A. E. Vol. v. ch. XVI. and plates there).

10. threshing floor of Atad] Or "GorenAtad,” or “ the threshingfloor of thorns."

beyond Jordan] i.e. to the West of Jordan. Moses wrote before the Israelites had taken possession of the land of Israel, and therefore whilst they were on the East of Jordan. This accords with what we hear of the site of Goren-Atad and Abel-Mizraim; for Jerome ('Onom.' s. v. Area-Atad) identi

+ Heb. charged.

14 And Joseph returned into Egypt, he, and his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his father, after he had buried his father.

15 ¶ And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us, and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him.

16 And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,

17 So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake

unto him.

fies it with Beth-Hoglah, which lay between the Jordan and Jericho, the ruins of which are probably still to be seen (Rob. I. 544; see Smith's 'Dict. of Bible,' 1. p. 200.)

11. Abel-mizraim] Means either "the field of Egypt," or "the mourning of Egypt," according to the vowel-points. The violence of the Egyptian lamentations is described by Herodotus (II. 85). See also Wilkinson, A. E.' ch. XVI.

19. Am I in the place of God?] i.e. it is God's place to avenge, not mine. See Rom.

xii. 19.

23. Were brought up upon Joseph's knees] Lit. "were born on Joseph's knees." Comp. the phrase ch. xxx. 3. It seems as if they were adopted by Joseph as his own children from the time of their birth.

26. They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin] The word for coffin is literally "ark" or "chest;" a word used always of a wooden chest, elsewhere almost exclusively

18 And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy ser

vants.

19 And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of a chap. 45God?

20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.

21 Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.

22 ¶ And Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he, and his father's house: and Joseph lived an hundred and ten years.

5.

+ Heb. to their hearts.

e

32. 39.

23 And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation: the Numb. children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were brought up upon Jo-b seph's knees.

Heb.

22.

24 And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely Heb. 11. visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

of "the ark of the covenant." Herodotus, after describing the embalming, says, "The relatives inclose the body in a wooden image which they have made in the shape of a man. Then fastening the case, they place it in a sepulchral chamber, upright against the wall. This is the most costly way of embalming the dead" (II. 86). which we commonly call a mummy-case. The description is of that Such coffins, made of wood, chiefly of sycamore wood, were the commonest in Egypt; and though some very rich people were buried in basaltic coffins, yet, both from Herodotus' description above and from other sources, we know that wooden coffins were frequent, for great men, even for kings. The coffin of king Mycerinus, discovered A.D. 1837 in the third Pyramid of Memphis, is of sycamore wood. The command of Joseph and the promise of the Israelites, that his bones should be carried back into Canaan, were reason enough for preferring a wooden to a stone coffin. (See Hengstenb. ' Egypt,' pp. 71, 72. Various coffins of wood, stone, and

26 So Joseph died, being an hundred and ten years old: and they

earthenware are described and engraved in Wilkinson's A. E.' Vol. v. p. 479.) The coffin was, no doubt, deposited in some sepulchral building (see Herod. above) and guarded by his own immediate descendants till the time of the Exodus, when it was carried up out of Egypt and finally deposited in Shechem (Josh. xxiv. 32). The faith of Joseph (Heb. xi. 22) must have been a constant

embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

remembrance to his children and his people, that Egypt was not to be their home. His coffin laid up by them, ready to be carried away according to his dying request whenever God should restore them to the promised land, would have taught them to keep apart from Egypt and its idolatries, looking for a better country, which God had promised to their fathers.

§ 1. THE Book of Exodus consists of two distinct portions. The former (cc. i-xix) gives a detailed account of the circumstances under which the deliverance of the Israelites was accomplished. The second (cc. xx-xl) describes the giving of the law, and the institutions which completed the organization of the people as "a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation," c. xix. 6.

These two portions are unlike in style and structure, as might be expected from the difference of their subject-matter: but their mutual bearings and interdependence are evident, and leave no doubt as to the substantial unity of the book. The historical portion owes all its significance and interest to the promulgation of God's will in the law. The institutions of the law could not, humanly speaking, have been established or permanently maintained but for the deliverance which the historical portion records.

The name Exodus, i. e. "the going forth," applies rather to the former portion than to the whole book. It was very naturally assigned to it by the Alexandrian Jews, by whom the most ancient translation was written. Like their forefathers they were exiles in Egypt, and looked forward to their departure from that land as the first condition of the accomplishment of their

Sinai shown by the author, § 4 Argument from the account of the Tabernacle, § 5 Chronology, § 6

.

PAGE

244

247 248

hopes. The Hebrews of Palestine simply designated the book by its first words Elleh Shemoth, i. e. "these are the names," regarding it not as a separate work, but as a section of the Pentateuch.

The narrative, indeed, is so closely connected with that of Genesis as to shew not only that it was written by the same author, but that it formed part of one general plan. Still it is a distinct section; the first events which it relates are separated from the last chapter in Genesis by a considerable interval, and it presents the people of Israel under totally different circumstances. Its termination is marked with equal distinctness, winding up with the completion of the tabernacle.

The book is divided into many smaller sections; each of which has the marks which throughout the Pentateuch indicate a subdivision. They are of different lengths, and were probably written on separate parchments or papyri, the longest not exceeding the dimensions of contemporary documents in Egypt'. They

A single page of Egyptian papyrus contains very frequently as much subject-matter as is found in any section of the Pentateuch. Thus, for instance, the 17th chapter of the Ritual in a papyrus, of which a facsimile has been published by M. de Rougé, occupies one page of 49 lines: each line is equivalent to three lines of Hebrew, as may be proved by transcription of the two languages in Egyptian and Phoenician