The Storehouses of the King

Joseph was the son of Jacob's old age, and consequently he loved him more than any of his other sons, by which Joseph incurred the envy and hatred of his brothers, and they, knowing that the lad carried evil reports of their conduct to their father, determined to do him some harm. Besides, Joseph was always having strange dreams, which he related to his father in the presence of his brothers, which dreams were interpreted to mean some great advancement in the life of the dreamer. The brothers watched for an opportunity to get rid of this favourite child.

The opportunity presented itself, and they availed themselves of it. Jacob sent Joseph to see the state of affairs in the field where the flocks were fed, and to bring him word; so Joseph, in obedience to his father's command, went, and when the brothers who were guarding the flocks saw him approaching, they agreed to kill him. But one of the elder ones said that it would be a great sin to shed the blood of their relative, and that it would be better to throw him into a pit and leave him there to die; to which suggestion the rest consented. When Joseph came up to them, they insulted him, and stripped him of the coat which his father, in his fondness for him, had made for him, and, unheeding the lad's cries and remonstrances, they threw him into a pit. After this cruel deed, the men went to their meal; and whilst eating it they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites, and to them they sold Joseph, who was taken out of the pit and given to them. The Ishmaelites, fearing that Joseph was not a slave, judging from his handsome face and noble carriage, sold him to a company of Midianites, merchants going down to Egypt. When these merchants arrived in Egypt, they sold him as a slave to an Egyptian nobleman. Here he was kindly treated by his master, who had confidence in his integrity, and was made an overseer of his master's property. Joseph was seventeen years old when he was taken away from his home and country, and his father mourned for him as dead. This took place in the year 1728 B.C.

The ways of the Almighty God are mysterious, and far above human comprehension. God blessed Joseph, and he grew into man's estate goodly and well-favoured.

His master's wife noticed him and became madly enamoured; losing all self-control, she made criminal advances to him, which he repelled, and entreated her to remember that he was her husband's trusted servant, and that she should not induce him to commit such wickedness against his master and sin in the sight of God. She still persisted, till at last she used force, and he fled from her presence, leaving a piece of his coat by which she held him. Seeing that he was not to be overcome, she hated him, and, to revenge herself on him, she reversed the story and told it to her husband, who, believing her tale, became very angry with Joseph and prosecuted him. Though the Court wherein he was tried found him innocent, yet the nobleman persuaded the judge to place Joseph in confinement, that his wife's conduct might not be made public; and, as Joseph had neither friends nor means, he was helpless, and consequently was sent to prison, where he remained many years.

In his solitude, the mind of the captive must have often recalled scenes of home, and all the lessons that he had learnt orally-as was the custom in the East-and remembered the great deeds and renown of his ancestors, and the marvellous acts of God towards Noah and Abraham and Isaac, and his own father Jacob, who was surnamed by God Israel. In regarding his miserable condition he must have thought of the visit to Egypt of his great-grandfather, Abraham, who came as a prince, and was treated by the king as his friend; and how the king, when he found he was misinformed by Abraham regarding his wife, made honourable amends, and gave him flocks and herds as presents; and when the famine in Canaan was over, he and his wife and their nephew left Egypt in state (the Egyptian historians call these visitors "Shepherd Kings"); and how when there was another famine in Canaan, in the lifetime of Isaac, there was corn in Egypt, and Isaac would have visited Egypt as did his father, but that he was forbidden by God.

Thus time sped till Joseph was thirty years old, when Pharaoh, King of Egypt, was warned in dreams of the approach of the great and memorable famine, which was to last seven long years, during which time the earth would make its sabbath, and produce no food for man or beast. It was then that the unhappy captive was remembered by a fellow-prisoner, whose dream Joseph had interpreted, and which was realised as he predicted; so that, when all the wise men of Egypt could not tell the King the meaning of his dreams, and when the King in his disappointed rage was about to condemn them to death, Joseph was called.

He was taken from the prison and brought before the King, who, seeing in him a superior deportment and a stately person, came down from his throne and addressed him as an equal; he told him his dreams, and said there was none who could interpret them, and that he had heard that he understood dreams and could interpret them. Joseph answered the King with humility, and told him what was the will of God regarding the land of Egypt; that there would be seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt, and after them seven years of famine; that all the plenty would be forgotten in the land of Egypt, and the famine would consume the land. Joseph advised Pharaoh to look out for a man discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt; to appoint officers over the land, and to take up the fifth part of the produce of the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years; to let them gather all the food of those good years that were to come, and lay up corn under the hand of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the cities, that it might be for store to the land against the seven years of famine which should be in the land of Egypt, that the land might not perish through the famine.

Pharaoh was greatly pleased, both at the interpretation and the advice; and, as there was none like him, in whom was the spirit of God, Pharaoh made Joseph the Viceroy of Egypt; and Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand and put it upon Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck; and he made him ride in the second chariot which he had, and the people cried before him, "Bow the knee!" or "Bend the knee!" and Pharaoh made him ruler of all the land of Egypt.

And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, "I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt." And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnath-paaneah, or "Preserver of the Age."

Consequently Joseph had absolute power vested in him. The King also gave him to wife Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah, priest of On. And Joseph went throughout all the land of Egypt. And in the seven plenteous years the earth brought forth by handfuls. And he gathered up all the food of the seven years, which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities; the food of the field, which was round about every city, laid he up in the same. And Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the sea, very much, until he left off numbering; for it was without number.

The land of Egypt is six hundred miles long, and is bounded by two ranges of naked limestone hills which sometimes approach, and sometimes retire from each other, leaving between them an average breadth of seven miles. Northwards they part and finally disappear, giving place to a marshy meadow plain which extends to the Mediterranean coast. To the south they are no longer of limestone, but of granite; they narrow to a point; they close till they almost touch; and through the mountain gate thus formed the river Nile leaps with a roar into the valley, and runs due north towards the sea. This land and its neighbourhood was first inhabited by the descendants of Ham, the third son of Noah; Mizraim, the second son of Ham, occupied Egypt. The noble river Nile is recorded in the Scriptures as the second river which parted from the main stream which went out of Eden to water the garden where Adam and Eve were placed by their Creator.

In the winter and spring it rolls a languid stream through a dry and dusty plain; but in the summer an extraordinary thing happens. The river grows troubled and swift, it turns red and then green; it rises, it swells, till at length, overflowing its banks, it covers the adjoining lands to the base of the hills on either side. The whole valley becomes a lake, from which the villages rise like islands, for they are built on artificial mounds. The land of Egypt is by nature a rainless desert, which the Nile, the mysterious Nile only, converts into a fruitful garden every year.

The task that Joseph had been entrusted with was stupendous. He had to build storehouses that would contain all the fifth part of the produce of the plenteous years of the fertile land of Egypt that were gathered up during the seven years. Before he set himself to the building of these vast receptacles he must have searched for models, and whilst doing this the building of the Tower of Babel must have come to his recollection, for the father of Abraham was the chief officer of King Nimrod who built it. This was a grand model, and that he followed it is evident from what we see in the Pyramids, or Storehouses of the King, in this, the nineteenth century of our Lord.

When the Temple at Jerusalem was about to be built by Solomon, he must have read how the storehouses were built, and he must have been aware for what use they were intended, as well as by whom they were built. Solomon married the daughter of Pharaoh, King of Egypt, and as son-in-law of the King he must have had free access to all the secret buildings and records of the land of Egypt.

This is the account of the building of the Temple: Solomon laid the foundations of the Temple very deep in the rock of Moriah, and the materials were strong stones, and such as would resist the force of time; these were to unite themselves with the rock, and become a basis and a sure foundation for that superstructure which was to be erected over it. They were to be so strong in order to sustain with ease those vast superstructures and precious ornaments, whose own weight was to be not less than the weight of those other high and heavy buildings which the King designed to be very ornamental and magnificent. He erected its entire body, quite up to the roof, of white stone; its height was sixty cubits, its length was the same, and its breadth was twenty. There was another building erected over it, equal to it in its measures, so that the entire altitude of the Temple was a hundred and twenty cubits. Its front was to the east.

Now the whole structure of the Temple was made, with great skill, of polished stones, laid together so very harmoniously and smoothly that there appeared to the spectators no signs of any hammer, or other instrument of architecture, but as if, without any use of them, the materials had naturally united themselves together, the agreement of one part with another seeming rather to be natural, than to have arisen from the force of tools upon them. The King also had a fine contrivance for an ascent to the upper room over the Temple, and that was by steps in the thickness of its wall; for it had no large door on the east end, as the lower house had, but the entrances were by the sides, through very small doors. He also overlaid the Temple, both within and without, with boards of cedar, that were kept close together by thick chains, so that this contrivance was in the nature of a support and strength to the building.

The Temple was built on the crown of Moriah, "the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite" (2 Chr. iii. 1), with a surrounding platform six hundred and twelve feet square. The building called the Naos would seem to have stood on the summit of the rock, in which graduated platforms were cut, forming the courts of the Jews and women. The Naos was small (sixty by twenty cubits), and was divided into the Holy of Holies and Holy Place, the former used once a year, the latter occupied only by the priests performing daily service. In the former was the Ark; in the latter the altar of incense, with the table of Shew-bread on its one side, and golden candlestick on the other. These two parts were separated by a veil, which was rent at the crucifixion (Matt. xxvii. 51). The court of the Gentiles surrounded the Naos, but was on a lower platform, separated by a trellis fence. The Naos was, like Mount Sinai, the sanctuary of Jehovah, fenced off from the Gentiles' court, the plain below.

Solomon must have referred to the discovery that he had made regarding these buildings (the Pyramids) and to the builder of them, when he said: "Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished. For out of prison he cometh to reign; whereas also he that is born in his kingdom becometh poor" (Eccl. iv. 13, 14).

Joseph built these storehouses near the fields of every city, according to the size of the city and the number of its inhabitants. In the north, near the Delta, he built many and large, according to the amount of corn the fields there yielded. He was occupied seven years in building them, and during the time thus occupied, he must often have recalled the fond memories of home, and of his aged father, and his youngest brother, the son of his deceased mother; and doubtless the three largest Pyramids of Jeezeh he dedicated to the memory of his ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

So Joseph laid the foundations of each storehouse very deep in the rock on which it was built, and the materials were strong stones, such as would resist the force of time; these were to unite themselves with the rock, and become a basis and a sure foundation for that superstructure which was to be erected over it. They were to be so strong in order to sustain with ease those vast superstructures whose own weight was to be not less than the weight of the casing stones which he designed to be used. He erected its entire body, quite up to the roof, of stone. Its base was square, the sides rising up slantwise, till there was only a small square aperture left unfinished; these sides were in steps, so that the labourers could ascend to the aperture.

The interior had chambers for the officers to reckon the quantity of corn stored, and for the measure a stone coffer or box to measure the corn with. There were vast chasms and receptacles with passages like tubes leading to them, all the length from the walls, with their mouths outside the walls, which Egyptologists call air passages, so that the men could get to them from the exterior by the steps. The corn was thrown into these vast spaces from outside, from the apertures in the sides, and the aperture at the summit. When the whole receptacle was well filled with the corn, which was as plentiful as the sand of the sea, then all the apertures were stopped with stones, like stoppers of bottles, made for the purpose. The side steps were then encased, from the base to the summit, with large casing stones, so that the sides became level, and, with the coatings of cement, the entire building outside became level and smooth, and the top in a peak.

The corn within this grand storehouse was hermetically sealed, utterly impervious to the sun, rain, and wind. The doors of it, as in Solomon's temple, were small, and in the sides. Now the whole of this structure was made, with great skill, of stones, and those laid together so very harmoniously and smoothly that there appeared to the spectators no signs of any hammer or other instrument of architecture, but as if, without any use of them, the materials had naturally united themselves together, the agreement of one part with another seeming rather to be natural than to have arisen from the force of tools upon them.

The foresight and discretion of Joseph were rewarded by Pharaoh, who gave him the powers of a king and the attributes of a god.

And the seven years of plenteousness that was in the land of Egypt were ended, according as Joseph had said, and the dearth was in all lands; but in all the land of Egypt there was bread. And the famine was over all the face of the earth. Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold corn unto the Egyptians; and all countries came into Egypt to Joseph to buy corn, because the famine was sore in all lands. Now Joseph's thoughts reverted to his father's home, and he knew that his brothers would be obliged to come to Egypt to purchase food, for the famine was very grievous in the land of Canaan. He gave orders that no man desiring corn should send his servant to purchase it, but that the head of each family should personally appear as a purchaser; he also proclaimed that no man should be allowed to purchase corn in Egypt to sell it again in other countries, but only such as he required for the support of his immediate family; neither should any purchaser be allowed to buy more corn than one animal could carry. He put guards at all the gates of Egypt, and every man who passed through the gates was obliged to record his name and the name of his father in a book, which was brought by the guards every night for Joseph's inspection. By doing this he ascertained when his brethren entered Egypt. When they came and stood before him, they wondered at his magnificence, the handsome appearance and the majestic presence of the powerful man, but they did not recognise in him their brother. He sold them corn, but contrived to entrap them, so that they should bring down with them his own brother Benjamin, who did not come with them this time; they departed, leaving an hostage with Joseph, and on their next visit to buy corn they brought with them his brother Benjamin, and a letter and presents from Jacob. When Joseph recognised his father's hand, his feelings grew too strong for him; the recollections of his youth overpowered him, and, retiring into a side apartment, he wept bitterly. He entertained all his brothers, and sold them corn, but the price thereof he returned without their knowledge into the sacks of each of his brothers. Before they left Egypt he made himself known to them, and, after greetings and explanations, he presented his brothers to Pharaoh; and Pharaoh, seeing they were goodly men, was much pleased and very gracious towards them. Then it was arranged that Jacob should come with all his family into Egypt; and Pharaoh gave his chariots for their accommodation. In due time Jacob and all his family came into Egypt. Joseph went to meet his father, dressed in royal robes, with the crown of state upon his head; and when he came within fifty cubits of his father's company, he descended from his chariot and walked to meet his father. Now when the nobles and princes of Egypt saw this, they too descended from their steeds and chariots and walked with him. And when Jacob saw all this great procession he wondered exceedingly, and he was much pleased thereat, and, turning to Judah, he asked, "Who is the man who marcheth at the head of this great array in royal robes?" Judah answered, "This is thy son." And when Joseph drew nigh to his father he bowed down before him, and his officers also bowed low to Jacob. And Jacob ran towards his son and fell upon his neck and kissed him, and they wept and shed tears of joy and gratitude. Joseph greeted his brethren with affection. And Joseph brought his father and presented him to Pharaoh; and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. And the King said unto Jacob, "How old art thou?" And Jacob answered him, and said, "The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been, and have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage."

And Joseph placed his father and his brethren, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded. And Joseph nourished his father, and his brethren, and all his father's household, with bread according to their families (1706 B.C.).

And there was no bread in all the land; for the famine was very sore, so that the land of Egypt and all the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine. And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, for the corn which they bought: and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house. When all their money was spent they brought their cattle unto Joseph, and he gave them bread in exchange for horses, and for the flocks, and for the cattle of the herds, and for the asses: and he fed them with bread for all their cattle for that year. After this, Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them: so the land became Pharaoh's. And as for the people, he removed them to cities from one end of the borders of Egypt, even to the other end thereof. Only the land of the priests bought he not; for the priests had a portion assigned them of Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave them: wherefore they sold not their lands.

During these seven years of famine the Egyptians sold all they had, and that being insufficient they sold themselves, so that from subjects they became servants to Pharaoh. Joseph again showed his forethought and discretion, and called the people and said to them, Behold, I have bought you this day and your land for Pharaoh: lo, here is seed for you, and you shall sow the land. And it shall come to pass in the increase, that ye shall give the fifth part unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for them of your households, and for food for your little ones. Thus they became serfs. The wretchedness and poverty of the people was complete; as if the curse of Noah on his son Ham was accomplished to the letter.

After this Jacob died, and his sons buried him in great state in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which Abraham bought with the field for a possession of a burying-place, in the land of Canaan (1689 B.C.).

Joseph had two sons by his wife Asenath. At the age of one hundred and ten years this remarkable man died, and they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt, and afterwards laid in the ground near the banks of the Nile. And all Egypt wept for Joseph seventy days, and his brethren mourned for him seven days, as they did for Jacob his father.

Then Pharaoh took the dominion in his own hands, and governed the people wisely and in good faith.

The narrative in connection with the Storehouses of the King would be incomplete without a brief survey of the life of the inspired writer who recorded all the particulars regarding them; and as almost every existing religion is derived from his writings, it will not be deemed superfluous. Moses was born in 1571 B.C. At this time a proclamation was issued throughout the land of Egypt, dooming every male born to the Hebrews to immediate destruction.

The elders and wise men advised the King to do this, because they feared that a war might come upon them, and they feared that the Israelites might so increase and spread in the land that they might drive them away from their own country. At first they gave the Israelites hard work to reduce their numbers, but, as that was unavailing, they advised the King, who did not know Joseph, nor remember all the good that he had done for the Egyptians, to adopt this barbarous method of reducing the numbers of the Israelitish inhabitants of Goshen.

It was foretold to Amram, a descendant of Levi, the son of Jacob, that the child, out of dread of whose nativity the Egyptians had doomed the Israelite children to destruction, should be his, and be concealed from those who watched to destroy him; and having been brought up in a surprising way, he should deliver the Hebrew nation from the distress they were under from the Egyptians. His memory should be famous while the world lasts; and this not only among the Hebrews, but foreigners also; and that this child should also have such a brother that he would himself obtain God's Priesthood, and his posterity should have it after him to the end of the world. Amram and his wife Jochebed were in great perplexity, and fear increased upon them on account of this prediction. And when the child was born they nourished him at home privately for three months. But after that time Amram-fearing he would be discovered, and, by falling under the King's displeasure, both he and his child would perish, and so he should make the promise of God of none effect-determined rather to entrust the safety and care of the child to God, than to depend on his own concealment of him, which he looked upon as a thing uncertain, and whereby both the child, so privately to be nourished, and himself should be in imminent danger; but he believed that God would in some way procure the safety of the child, in order to realise the truth of his own predictions. When they had thus determined, they made an ark of bulrushes, after the manner of a cradle, and of a size sufficiently large for an infant to be laid in without being too straitened. They then daubed it over with slime, which would naturally keep the water from entering between the bulrushes, and put the infant into it, and setting it afloat upon the river, they left its preservation to God; so the river received the child, and carried him along. Now Thermuthis, the daughter of Pharaoh, was diverting herself by the banks of the river; and seeing a cradle borne along by the current, she sent some that could swim, and bade them bring the cradle to her. When those that were sent on this errand came to her with the cradle, and she saw the little child, she was greatly in love with it, on account of its largeness and beauty. Thermuthis bade them bring her a woman that might afford her breast to the child. Now Miriam, the sister of Moses, was standing near when this happened, and, when she had this order given her, she went and brought the mother, and the child gladly took her breast, and seemed to stick close to it; and so it was that, at the Queen's desire, the nursing of the child was entirely entrusted to its mother.

The following names were given to Moses by the different persons interested in him:-

Moses, "I have drawn him from out the water," by Thermuthis, Pharaoh's daughter.

Heber, "Because he was reunited to his family," by his father Amram.

Yekuthiel, "I hoped in God," by his mother Jochebed.

Yarah, "I went down to the river to watch him," by his sister Miriam.

Abigedore, "For God had repaired the breach in the house of Jacob, and the Egyptians ceased from that time to cast the infants into the water," by his brother Aaron.

Abi Socho, "For three months he was hidden," by his grandfather Caath.

Shermaiah Ben Nethaniel, "Because in his day God heard their groaning and delivered them from their oppressors," by the children of Israel.

Moses became as a son to Thermuthis, the daughter of Pharaoh, as a child belonging rightly to the palace of the King.

The first exploit of Moses was as a general of the Egyptian army, which he led into Ethiopia; he marched by land, and on the way gave a wonderful demonstration of his sagacity. The ground was difficult to be passed over, because of the multitude of serpents; these it produces in vast numbers, and, indeed, is singular in some of those species, which other countries do not breed, and yet such as are worse than others in power and mischief, possessing unusual keenness of sight. Some of these serpents ascend from the ground unseen, and also fly in the air, and so come upon men unawares, and do them mischief. Moses invented a wonderful stratagem to preserve the army safe and without hurt; for he made baskets, like unto arks, of sedge, and filled them with ibises, Egyptian birds, and carried them along with them. These birds are the greatest enemies to serpents imaginable, for they fly from them when they come near them, and as they fly they are caught and devoured by them. As soon, therefore, as Moses came to the land which bred these serpents, he let loose the ibises, and by their means repelled the serpentine kind; using them as his assistants before the army came upon that ground. When, therefore, he proceeded thus on his journey he came upon the Ethiopians before they expected him; and, joining battle with them, he beat them and overthrew their cities, and, indeed, made a great slaughter of the Ethiopians. Moses laid siege to Saba, afterwards called Mero?, the capital of Ethiopia, a strong city encompassed by the Nile and by two other rivers, Astapus and Astaboras, and strongly fortified with great ramparts, insomuch that when the waters come with the greatest violence it can never be overthrown; these ramparts also make it next to impossible for even such as have crossed over the rivers to take the city. However, while Moses was uneasy at the army's lying idle (for the enemies durst not come to battle), this accident or incident occurred: Tharbis, the daughter of the King of Ethiopia, happened to see Moses as he led the army near the walls, and fought with great courage, and admiring the subtlety of his undertakings, and taking him to be the author of the success of the Egyptians, she fell deeply in love with him, and sent to him the most faithful of all her servants to discourse with him about their marriage. He thereupon accepted the offer, on condition that she would procure the delivering up of the city; and gave her the assurance of an oath to make her his wife, and that when he had once taken possession of the city he would not break his oath to her. No sooner was the agreement made than its condition was fulfilled; and when Moses had cut off the Ethiopians he gave thanks to God, and consummated his marriage, and led the Egyptians back to their own land.[2]

Now the Egyptians, after they had been preserved by Moses, entertained a hatred to him, and were very eager in compassing their designs against him, suspecting that he would take occasion, from his great success, to raise a sedition and bring innovations into Egypt; so they told the King he ought to be slain. The King had also some intentions of his own to the same purpose; and, being instigated by the elders and wise men, he was ready to undertake to kill Moses. But when Moses learned this he went away privately and joined the army of Kikanus, the King of Ethiopia, at that time suppressing a rebellion in Assyria, and soon became a great favourite with the King and with all his companions. Then Kikanus became sick and died in Ethiopia, and his soldiers buried him and reared a monument over his remains, inscribing upon it the memorable deeds of his life. After the death of King Kikanus the army appointed Moses to be their King and leader. This took place in the hundred and fifty-seventh year after Israel went down into Egypt. The Ethiopians placed Moses upon their throne and set the crown of state upon his head, and they gave him the widow of Kikanus for a wife; but the widow of Kikanus was a wife to Moses in name only. When Moses was made King of Ethiopia the Assyrians again rebelled as they had done before; but Moses subdued them and placed them under yearly tribute to the Ethiopian dynasty. Moses reigned in Ethiopia in justice and righteousness. But the dowager Queen of Ethiopia, Adonith, who was a wife to Moses in name only, said to the people: "Why should this stranger continue to rule over you? Would it not be more just to place the son of Kikanus upon his father's throne, for he is one of you?" The people, however, would not vex Moses, whom they loved, by such a proposition; but Moses voluntarily resigned the power which they had given him, and departed from their land. And the people of Ethiopia made him many rich presents, and dismissed him with great honours.[3] Moses being still fearful of returning to Egypt, travelled towards Midian, and sat there to rest by a well of water. And the seven daughters of Jethro, the priest of Midian, came there and drew water and filled the troughs to water their father's flock; and Moses helped them, and at the invitation of their father he dwelt with them, and married Zipporah, one of his daughters.

And in process of time the King of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage; and God sent Moses to them to deliver them. After the enthronement of the next King, Moses and his brother Aaron came before Pharaoh and asked permission for the Israelites to leave Goshen on a three days' journey into the wilderness, to hold a religious festival unto the Lord their God. But Pharaoh refused; and thereupon Moses and Aaron showed miraculous signs and deeds. Still the King persisted in his refusal; till at last the anger of the Lord became great towards Pharaoh. God then commanded Moses and Aaron to prepare the Passover sacrifice, saying: "I will pass over the land of Egypt and slay the first-born, both of man and beast." The Israelites did as they were commanded, and at midnight the angel of the Lord passed over the land and smote the first-born of Egypt, both of man and beast. Then there was a great and grievous cry through all the land, for there was not a house without its dead; and Pharaoh and his people rose up in alarm and consuming grief, and called for Moses and Aaron and bade them be gone, supposing that, if once the Hebrews were gone out of the country, Egypt would be freed from its miseries. They also gave the Israelites gifts, some in order to get them to depart quickly, and others on account of their neighbourhood, and the friendship they had with them.[4]

So the Hebrews went out of Egypt, while the Egyptians wept, and repented that they had treated them so hardly. And Moses took the bones of Joseph, the builder of the Storehouses of the King, with him; for Joseph had strictly sworn the children of Israel, saying: "God will surely visit you; and ye shall carry up my bones away hence with you." And they took their journey from Goshen, and encamped in Etham, in the edge of the wilderness. This was in the eightieth year of the age of Moses, and the eighty-third of his brother Aaron.

But the King soon regretted that he had let the Hebrews depart, so he resolved to go after them to bring them back. Accordingly he pursued after them with six hundred chariots, fifty thousand horsemen, and two hundred thousand footmen, all armed. On coming up to the Hebrews they seized on the passages by which they imagined the Hebrews might fly, shutting them up between precipices and the sea; for there was on each side a ridge of mountains that terminated at the sea, which were impassable by reason of their roughness, and obstructed their flight. Wherefore they were in great distress, as they had no weapons of war for defence, nor was there a way of escape. So there was sorrow and lamentation among the women and children, who had nothing but destruction before their eyes, being encompassed with mountains, the sea, and their enemies, and discerned no way of flying from them.

At this juncture Moses called all the people, and when they were ready he stood on the sea-shore and prayed to God in these words: "Thou art not ignorant, O Lord, that it is beyond human strength and human contrivance to avoid the difficulties which we are now under; but it must be Thy work altogether to procure deliverance to this army, which has left Egypt at Thy appointment. We despair of any other assistance or contrivance, and have recourse only to that hope we have in Thee; and if there be any method that can promise us an escape by Thy providence, we look up to Thee for it. And let it come quickly, and manifest Thy power to us; and do Thou raise up this people to good courage and hope of deliverance, who are deeply sunk into a disconsolate state of mind. We are in a helpless place, but still it is a place that Thou possessest; still the sea is Thine, the mountains also that enclose us are Thine, so that these mountains will open themselves if Thou commandest them; and the sea also, if Thou commandest it, will become dry land. Nay, we might escape by a flight through the air, if thou shouldst determine we should have that way of salvation."[5] When he ended his prayer, Moses lifted up his hand and smote the sea with his rod, which parted asunder at the stroke, and, receding, left the ground dry, as a road and a place of flight for the Hebrews. Seeing the assistance of the Almighty thus vouchsafed in answer to his prayer, he entered in first, and made the Hebrews follow him; they obeyed and went on earnestly, as led by God's presence. The Egyptians supposed at first that they were distracted, and were going rashly upon manifest destruction. But when they saw that they were going a great way without any harm, and that no obstacle or difficulty fell in their journey, they made haste to pursue them, hoping that the sea would be calm for them also. They put their horse foremost, and went down themselves into the sea. By this time the Hebrews had got over to the land on the opposite side without any hurt. Whence the others were encouraged, and more courageously pursued them, as hoping no harm would come to them; but they were mistaken, for as soon as ever the whole Egyptian army was within it, the sea flowed to its own place, and came down with a torrent raised by storms of wind, and encompassed the Egyptians. Showers of rain also came down from the sky, and dreadful thunder and lightning, with flashes of fire. Thunderbolts also were darted upon them; nor was there anything which used to be sent by God upon men as indications of His wrath which did not happen at this time, for a dark and dismal night oppressed them. And thus did the King of Egypt and all his men perish, so that there was not one man left to be a messenger of this calamity to the rest of the Egyptians.[6] On the next day Moses gathered together the weapons of the Egyptians, which were brought on shore by the current of the sea, the force of the winds assisting it; and he armed the Hebrews with them. After returning grateful thanks for this miraculous deliverance, he led the people to Mount Sinai, as he was ordered by God beforehand. Here he instructed them, and prepared them against the time when they should enter the land of Canaan, which country they considered their inheritance, and to which they looked as the destination of their journey. And Moses gave them, among other lessons, the Ten Commandments, which were engraved upon two stone slabs or tables, five on each table, and two and a half upon each side of them. The First Commandment taught that there is but one God, and that they ought to worship Him only; the Second commanded them not to make the image of any living creature, to worship it; the Third, that they must not swear by God in a false matter; the Fourth that they must keep the seventh day, by resting from all sorts of work; the Fifth, that they must honour their parents; the Sixth, that they must abstain from murder; the Seventh, that they must not commit adultery; the Eighth, that they must not be guilty of theft; the Ninth, that they must not bear false witness; the Tenth, that they must not admit the desire of anything that is another's.[7] These two tables were, for security, placed in a box or ark, made of wood that was naturally strong and could not be corrupted. This ark was called, in the Hebrew language, Eron. Its construction was thus: its length was five spans, but its breadth and height were, each of them, three spans. It was covered all over with gold, both within and without, so that the wooden part was not seen. It had also a cover united to it by golden hinges in a wonderful manner; which cover was every way evenly fitted to it, and had no irregularities to hinder its exact conjunction. There were also two golden rings fastened to each of the longer boards, and passing right through the wood; through them gilt bars passed along each board, that it might thereby be moved and carried about as occasion should require; for it was not drawn in a cart by beasts of burden, but borne on the shoulders of the priests. Upon this cover were two images, which the Hebrews call cherubims; they are flying creatures, but their form is not like to that of any of the creatures which men have seen, though Moses said he had seen such beings near the throne of God.[8]

As the people were dwelling in tents, and were marching towards the land of Canaan by easy marches, Moses made a tent called the Tabernacle, in which he placed the ark containing the two tables. This Tabernacle served as a church in the wilderness, and wherever they travelled they carried it about with them. Moses appointed his brother Aaron to be the High Priest; and after the death of Aaron, Eleazar, his son, became his successor, and the garments of his high office were put upon him. The family of the Levites were the priests.

Moses remained with the Hebrews forty years, and laboured to make them a religious and God-fearing people; but they frequently revolted against him, murmuring whenever they were in distress, and tried his patience to the utmost, till he forgot himself, and also complained against God, for which he was forbidden to enter the land of Canaan. Therefore, when he had admonished and repeated to the people all the laws he had given them, he brought them to the border of Canaan, and gave over the charge of the Hebrews to Joshua, his disciple and their commander. Now, as Moses went from them to the place where he wished to vanish out of their sight, they all followed after him weeping; but he beckoned with his hand to those that were remote from him, and bade them stay behind in quiet, while he exhorted those that were near him that they would not mourn so at his departure. Whereupon they thought they ought to grant him that favour, to let him depart according as he himself desired; so they restrained themselves, though weeping still towards one another. All those who accompanied him were the Senate, and Eleazar the High Priest, and Joshua, their commander. Now as soon as they were come to the mountain called Abarim (which is a very high mountain, situate over against Jericho, and one that affords, to such as are upon it, a prospect of the greatest part of the excellent land of Canaan), he dismissed the Senate; and, as he was going to embrace Eleazar and Joshua, and was still discoursing with them, suddenly a cloud stood over him, and he disappeared in a certain valley out of their sight.[9]

Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he left the camp of the Israelites. He spent forty years of his life in teaching the Laws of God to the people in the wilderness. He was one that exceeded all men that ever were in understanding, and made the best use of what that understanding suggested to him. He had a very graceful way of speaking and addressing himself to the multitude; and as to his other qualifications, he had such a full command of his passions, as if he had hardly any such in his soul, and only knew them by their names, as rather perceiving them in other men than in himself. He was also such a general of an army as is seldom seen, as well as a king and a prophet as was never known, and this to such a degree, that whatsoever he pronounced one would think he heard the voice of God Himself. So the people mourned for him thirty days, nor did any grief so deeply affect the Hebrews as did this upon the departure of Moses; nor were those who had witnessed his conduct the only persons who desired him, but those also who perused the laws he left behind him greatly longed for him, and from those laws learned the extraordinary virtue he was master of.[10] At this period of his life his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. "And Joshua, the son of Nun, was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid his hands upon him; and the children of Israel hearkened unto him, and did as the Lord commanded Moses. And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, in all the signs and the wonders, which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land, and in all that mighty hand, and in all the great terror which Moses showed in the sight of all Israel."[11] Although he wrote in the holy books that he died, it was for fear lest they should say that, because of his extraordinary virtue, he went to God.[12]

Moses was as we shall see, a great traveller, and acquainted with the vast wilderness that extends from the centre of Africa to the jungles of Bengal, that consists of rugged mountains and of sandy wastes; it was traversed by three river-basins or valley plains. In its centre was the basin of the Tigris and Euphrates. On its east was the basin of the Indus; on its west was the basin of the Nile. Each of these river systems was enclosed by deserts; the whole region resembling a broad yellow field with three green streaks running north and south. The inhabitants of these regions were not in the habit of travelling beyond the confines of their own valleys. They resembled islanders, and they had no ships. But the intermediate seas were navigated by the wandering tribes, who sometimes pastured their flocks by the waters of the Indus, sometimes by the waters of the Nile. It was by their means that the trade between the river-lands was carried on. They possessed the camels and other beasts of burden requisite for the transport of goods. Their numbers and their warlike habits, their intimate acquaintance with the watering-places and seasons of the desert, enabled them to carry the goods in safety through a dangerous land; while the regular profits they derived from the trade, and the oaths by which they were bound, induced them to act fairly to those by whom they were employed. At this time, 1451 B.C., a mighty tide of the Aryans immigrated to the basin or valley plain of the Indus. They called themselves Arya, or noble, and spoke a language the common source of Sanskrit, Prakrit, Zand, Persian, and Armenian in Asia. They settled down as agriculturists in the districts surrounding the Indus, their wealth consisting of flocks and herds; thence, after a time, they overran by successive irruptions the plains of the Ganges, and spread themselves over the regions called Aryavarta, occupying the whole of Central India. They were the promoters of the moral and intellectual progress and civilization in India; and notwithstanding all the diversities of the Hindoo populations throughout India, their religious faith has been preserved in their one language and one literature, furnishing a good evidence of the original unity of the Indo-Aryans. Their leader and legislator was known by the name of Manu, who was no other than Moses. After leaving the camp of the Israelites he travelled to the Indus; the form of Government he established there was the counterpart or duplicate of the one he established among the Hebrews; the laws and customs were the very same; the most careful comparison will confirm the fact. Moses was afraid that the Hebrews would trace his footsteps, so he sank his identity by assuming a foreign name: thus, for Moses he used Manu; for Abraham, Brahman; for Amram, Ram. All the remarkable Biblical events are familiar to the Brahmans, and the record of the creation as contained in the Bible was given in the Rig-veda of the Hindoos. The narrative of the finding of Moses by the daughter of Pharaoh has a corresponding record, but as he was more than one hundred and twenty years old when he arrived in India, the account is that the Lawgiver was cradled by a large sea-serpent on the bosom of the great waters for ages, whilst he was in a state of somnolence.

The origin of the belief in the Transmigration of the Soul is also taken from an event in the life of Moses, which is recorded in the Hebrew Talmud thus: The Lord said to Moses, "Behold, thy days approach that thou must die." On this Moses thought that he had committed but a slight offence, which would be pardoned; for ten times had Israel tempted God's wrath and been forgiven through his intercession, as it is written: "And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word." But when he became convinced that he would not be pardoned, he made the following supplication: "Sovereign of the universe, my trouble and my exertion for Israel's sake is revealed and known before Thee. How I have laboured to cause thy people to know Thee, and to believe in Thy Holy Name, and practise Thy holy law, has come before Thee. O Lord, as I had shared their trouble and their distress, I hoped to share their happiness. Behold, now, the time has come when their trials will cease, when they will enter into the land of promised bliss, and Thou sayest to me, Thou shalt not pass over this Jordan. O Eternal, great and just, if thou wilt not allow me to enter into this goodly land, permit me at least to live on here in this world."

Then God answered Moses, saying: "If thou wilt not die in this world, how canst thou live in the world to come?" But Moses continued: "If thou wilt not permit me to pass over this Jordan, let me live as the beasts of the field; they eat of the herbs and drink of the waters, and live and see the world; let my life be even as theirs."

And God answered: "Let it suffice thee; do not continue to speak unto me any more on this matter." Yet again Moses prayed: "Let me live even as the fowls; they gather their food in the morning, and in the evening they return unto their nests. Let my life be even as theirs."

And again God said: "Let it suffice thee; do not continue to speak to me any more on this matter." Then Moses proclaimed: "He is the Rock; His work is perfect, and His ways are just; the God of Truth, just and upright is He."[13]

The Persians, known in India as Parsees, are worshippers of the element of fire. This fire-worship originated from an event that took place in Persia when the Hebrews were captives in that country. The King of Persia gave the Hebrews leave to sacrifice to the Lord as Moses had commanded them; and when the prophet Nehemiah had prepared the sacrifice, the priests and the Israelites offered up this prayer: "O Lord, Lord God, Creator of all things, Who art fearful and strong, and righteous and merciful, and the only and gracious King, the only giver of all things, the only just, almighty, and everlasting, Thou that deliverest Israel from all trouble, and didst choose the fathers, and sanctify them: Receive the sacrifice for Thy whole people Israel, and preserve Thine own portion, and sanctify it. Gather those together that are scattered from us, deliver them that serve among the heathen, look upon them that are despised and abhorred, and let the heathen know that Thou art our God. Punish them that oppress us, and with pride do us wrong. Plant Thy people again in Thy holy place, as Moses hath spoken." And the priests sang psalms of thanksgiving.

Now when the sacrifice was consumed, Nehemiah commanded the water that was left to be poured on the great stones. When this was done, there was kindled a flame; but it was consumed by the light that shined from the altar. So when this matter was known, it was told the King of Persia that, in the place where the priests that were led away had hid the fire, there appeared water, and that Nehemiah had purified the sacrifices therewith. Then the King, inclosing the place, made it holy, after he had tried the matter and convinced himself of the fact.[14]

The Mohammedans are the followers of Mohammed, and the Koran that he gave them, he told his followers, "is not a new invented fiction, but a confirmation of those Scriptures which have been revealed to Moses before it, and a distinct explication of everything necessary in respect either to faith or practice, and a direction and mercy unto people who believe."[15]

As for the Israelites, though they are now scattered over the face of the whole earth, yet the Tabernacle, and the Altar of Incense, and the Ark containing the two Stone Tables on which were engraven the Ten Commandments given by God, by the hand of Moses, are still in Mount Abarim, hidden there by Jeremiah the prophet, before the sack and burning of the Temple of Solomon by the Babylonians. They are in a cave, wherein Jeremiah laid them and stopped the door, saying, "As for that place, it shall be unknown until the time that God gather his people again together, and receive them unto mercy. Then shall the Lord show them these things, and the glory of the Lord shall appear, and the cloud also, as it was showed under Moses, and as when Solomon desired that the place might be honourably sanctified."[16]

After the departure of the Israelites from the land of Egypt, that country was reduced to the lowest depth of misery. The King, with all his chariots, horsemen, and footmen were all overwhelmed and destroyed; there was no firstborn of man (or beast) to mourn the loss of their kindred. The land was desolate, and the Storehouses of the King stood out in their grandeur to remind the survivors of their ingratitude to the relatives of the man who built them, to preserve the Egyptians during the seven years of the grievous famine that afflicted the land of Egypt. They must have avoided the sight of these monuments, thereby to forget the misery and desolation they had brought on themselves by their cruel treatment of the Hebrews. The Egyptian priests knew what these buildings were, for they were the historians of their country; but when Herodotus visited Egypt and made minute inquiries regarding the Pyramids, they gave him a confused account, telling him, however, that for one hundred and six years the Egyptians suffered all kinds of calamities, and that for this length of time the temples were closed and never opened. From the hatred they bore them, the Egyptians were not willing to mention the names of their kings, but called the large Pyramids after Philition (Zaphnath-paaneah, Psothom Phanech), a shepherd who at that time kept his cattle in those parts.[17] Philition is a corruption of the other two names given to Joseph by Pharaoh; while the shepherds were the brothers of Joseph, and Goshen-Gizeh of our time-the region where they dwelt, as commanded by the King. The Greeks could make nothing out of the information gathered by Herodotus.

In course of time the first Republic of France sent a traveller into Upper and Lower Egypt, and the inhabitants of the land of Egypt had so far forgotten the events of the past that they showed him an enclosed space as the granaries of Joseph. The traveller says: "You see at ancient Cairo the granaries of Joseph, if the name of granaries can with propriety be given to a vast space of ground surrounded with walls twenty feet in height, and divided into a sort of courts which have no roof, or any other covering whatever, in which are deposited the grains brought out of Upper Egypt for the revenue, where they are the food of a multitude of birds, and the receptacle of their ordure. The walls of this enclosure are of a bad construction; they have nothing in their appearance which announces an ancient building, and the love of the marvellous alone could have attributed its elevation to the patriarch Joseph."[18] The French Government gained nothing, and its attention was diverted from the Storehouses of the King. Since that time many explorers have gone to the Pyramids, and spent princely fortunes in trying to solve the mystery as to what they were and who built them. But the Arabs are too cunning and too indolent to tell the truth; for they know from experience that, if the truth were known, they would be made to assist in repairing the Storehouses of the King, just as many of the people were set to cut the Suez Canal, when the French discovered an old undertaking of the reign of Necho, which had been left unfinished because the oracle declared that the king was making the canal for a barbarian. Wherefore the Arabs reckon that, ignoring all knowledge, they gain a good livelihood as guides, by taking travellers to the Pyramids, which is little trouble to them, but brings them "plenty backsheesh."

The Pyramids were, without doubt, copied from and built after the model of the Tower of Babel. At the time that Joseph was entrusted by Pharaoh with the task of making provision against the approaching famine that he predicted would take place, the building of the City and Tower of Babel by Nimrod the son of Cush, the son of Ham, the son of Noah, and the confusion of tongues that followed, were of comparatively recent date. Abraham's father Terah was in the service of King Nimrod during their erection.

We are told in the Scriptures that "the whole earth was of one language and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth."[19]

In this description the motive assigned for the building of the above-mentioned city and tower is that the people over whom Nimrod reigned might be preserved together with renown. They found a plain by the river Euphrates that suited their purpose, resembling the plain of Egypt by the river Nile. In Shinar there was no stone, so brick was used in its stead. This plain was fertile and produced much corn. The settlers anticipated another Deluge, and on that account they provided themselves with the means of subsistence when that calamity might recur on the earth. The precaution they took for this event was to build a place of safety, with a granary that would hold a sufficient amount of corn to last during the whole period of the visitation. They built a gigantic granary resembling the great Pyramid of Jeezeh, which they filled with corn. Joseph imitated this example in Egypt.

The same event is thus recorded in the Talmud:-"Cush, the son of Ham and grandson of Noah, married in his old age a young wife, and begat a son, whom he called Nimrod, because in those days the people were beginning to rebel again against the Lord's command, and Nimrod signifies 'Rebellion.' Now Nimrod grew up, and his father loved him exceedingly, because he was the child of his old age. When Nimrod was forty years old his brethren, the sons of Ham, quarrelled with the sons of Japhet. And Nimrod assembled the tribe of Cush, and went forth to battle with the sons of Japhet. And he addressed his army, saying, 'Be not dismayed, and banish fear from your hearts. Our enemies shall surely be your booty, and ye shall do with them as ye please.' Nimrod was victorious, and the opposing armies became his subjects. And when he and his soldiers returned home rejoicing, the people gathered around and made him king, and placed a crown upon his head. And he appointed counsellors, judges, chiefs, generals, and captains. He established a national government, and he made Therach, the son of Nahor, his chief officer. When Nimrod had thus established his power he decided to build a city, a walled town, which should be the capital of his country. And he selected a certain plain and built a large city thereon, and called it Shinar. And Nimrod dwelt in Shinar in safety, and gradually became ruler over all the world; and at that time all the people of the earth were of one language and of one speech. Nimrod in his prosperity did not regard the Lord. He made gods of wood and stone, and the people copied his doings. His son Mordan served idols also, from which we have, even to this day, the proverb, 'From the wicked wickedness comes forth.'

"And it came to pass about this time that the officers of Nimrod and the descendants of Phut, Mitzrayim, Cush, and Canaan took counsel together, and they said to one another, 'Let us build a city, and also in its midst a tall tower for a stronghold, a tower the top of which shall reach even to the heavens. Then shall we truly make for ourselves a great and mighty name, before which all our enemies shall tremble. None will then be able to harm us, and no wars may disperse our ranks.' And they spoke these words to the King, and he approved of their design. Therefore these families gathered together and selected a suitable spot for their city and its tower on a plain towards the east in the land of Shinar.

"And while they were building rebellion budded in their hearts, rebellion against God, and they imagined that they could scale the heavens and war with Him. They divided into three parties. The first party said, 'We will ascend to heaven and place there our gods and worship them.' The second party said, 'We will pour into the heavens of the Lord and match our strength with His.' And the third party said, 'Yea, we will smite Him with arrow and with spear.'

"And God watched their evil enterprise and knew their thoughts, yet they builded on. If one of the stones which they had raised to its height fell, they were sad at heart, and even wept; yet when any of their brethren fell from the building and were killed, none took account of the life thus lost. Thus they continued for a space of years, till God said, 'We will confuse their language.' Then the people forgot their language, and they spoke to one another in a strange tongue. And they quarrelled and fought on account of the many misunderstandings occasioned by this confusion of language, and many were destroyed in these quarrels, till at last they were compelled to cease building.

"The tower was exceedingly tall. The third part of it sank down into the ground, a second third was burned down, but the remaining third was standing until the time of the destruction of Babylon. Thus were the people dispersed over the globe, and divided into nations."[20]

In this narrative the object of these wicked idolaters was to ascend and carry war into heaven against God. To accomplish this object or design they built the city and tower; the latter served for the granary as well as the stronghold of the new city.

Abraham was born about this time. His father Terah was then in the service of King Nimrod, in Babylon. Owing to the idolatry and the wickedness of the people, Abraham left the country with his wife and nephew, and settled in the land of Canaan. When Joseph was a child he must have heard from his father the story of those eventful times, when Abraham dwelt in the country wherein he was born. In due time he availed himself of the knowledge thus imparted to him in his early days.

Modern travellers have found many remains of Pyramids in the ancient kingdom of Babylonia. There was, therefore, nothing new or wonderful in the fact of Joseph erecting granaries throughout Egypt when a severe famine was expected. These granaries or Pyramids began in the Delta, which was most fertile and yielded the largest amount of corn. The Pyramids here are the finest as well as the largest; the rest are erected along the western shore of the Nile as far as Ethiopia, which was a province of Egypt. This province revolted in the lifetime of Moses. He went there as commander of the Egyptian forces and suppressed the rebellion. The ruins in Mero? and Axum, and other places in Ethiopia, attest the truth of this statement.

Egyptologists have spent much time and labour in pursuit of their science, but, very unfortunately, their researches have been directed by misleading guides.

The authorities they took for their guidance were the Greek and Roman writers, who knew nothing about the events that took place before Egypt became a province of Alexander the Great and of the emperors of Rome.

The oldest and best records of Egypt and the ancient world were written by the inspired historian Moses, and these records, or a small portion of them, were translated from the Hebrew into the Greek language by seventy Jewish elders for the King Ptolemy Philadelphus in the year 284 B.C.; so that before this time the outer or the Gentile world was in utter ignorance regarding the history of Egypt, as well as that of the Jews. The authors held in veneration by Egyptologists are Manetho and Herodotus. Manetho's ignorance as to the history of his own country is shown by Flavius Josephus; and Herodotus wrote his account of the Pyramids from hearsay. The priests who related the anecdotes concerning the kings Cheops and his brother Chephren, and the shepherd Philition, knew nothing themselves as to the real truth, for the whole account is in confusion, worse confounded by their stupendous ignorance.

The writings of these two authors have misled every Egyptologist. Had the Bible, the Jewish records called the Talmud, and Flavius Josephus been studied instead, Egyptologists would have learnt the truth, and nothing but the truth, and their time and labour would have been rewarded most satisfactorily. The reader of this work will find extracts in the later portion of it, which will repay the trouble of perusal.

The testimony of recent travellers proves the reality of the existence of granaries in Babylon, and the indisputable fact that the Pyramids were built in imitation of them. The following is an instance:-[21]

"On the 9th December 1811 Mr. Rich made an expedition to the Birs-i-Nimrúd. He found vestiges of mounds all round it to a considerable extent, and the country traversed by canals in every direction. The soil round it is sandy. Close to the Birs, or at about a hundred yards from it, and parallel with its southern front, is a high mound, almost equal in size to that of the Kasr.

"'The Birs,' says he, 'is an enormous mound. At the north end it rises, and there is an immense brick wall, thirty-seven feet high and twenty-eight in breadth, upon it. This wall is not in the centre of the north summit of the mound, but appears to have formed the southern face of it. The other parts of the summit are covered by huge fragments of brickwork, tumbled confusedly together; and what is most extraordinary is that they are partly converted into a solid vitrified mass. The layers are in many parts perfectly distinguishable; but the whole of these lumps seem to have undergone the action of fire. Several lumps of the same matter have rolled down, and remain partly on the side of the mound and partly in the plain. The large wall on the southern face of the summit is built of burnt bricks, with writing on them, and so close together that no cement is discoverable between the layers. Small square apertures are left, which go quite through the building, and are arranged in a kind of quincunx form. Down the face of the wall the bricks have been separated, leaving a large crack. On the side towards the mound of Ibrahím Khalil, the mound slopes gradually down, and up nearly half its height is a flat road running round this part of it, twenty of my paces broad.

"'From this the mound slopes more gradually to the plain or valley between it and the mound of Ibrahím Khalil, and is worn into deep ravines or furrows, like the Mujelibé. On the other or north face of this pile it slopes down more abruptly at once into the plain, with only hollows or paths round it, the road before mentioned, which from that part appears to surround the building, losing itself before it reaches this. On the north-west face, where it also slopes down into the plain, are vestiges of building in the side, exactly similar in appearance and construction to the wall on the top, with the holes or apertures which are mentioned in the description of that. At foot of all is, seemingly, a flat base of greater extent, but very little raised above the level of the plain. The whole sides of the mound are covered with pieces of brick, both burnt and unburnt, bitumen, pebbles, spar, black stone, the same sand or limestone which covers the canal at the Kasr, and even fragments of white marble. No reeds were to be seen in any part of the building, though I saw one or two specimens of burnt bricks which evidently had reeds in their composition, and some had the impression of reeds on their cement. I saw also several bricks which were thickly coated with bitumen on their lower face. In the lowest part of the mound opposite Ibrahím Khalil, the mounds are most evidently composed of unburnt bricks, the layers being in great measure visible. This would lead one to suppose that it was not originally part of the great pile, were not specimens of this kind of bricks found in it also.

"'The circumference of the base-not the low one-is 762 yards. The whole height of it, from this measured base to the summit of the tower or wall, is 235 feet; but there can be no doubt that it was much higher. The form is more oblong than square. I found the longest side to be 248 of my paces. Fortunately for the preservation of the ruin, it is too far from the Euphrates for the Arabs to think it worth their while to excavate for bricks; while they are so closely joined together, that it is impossible to procure them quite unbroken.'

"Mr. Rich will not admit this tower to be that of Belus, because, according to his view, it is on the wrong side of the river.

"The whole height of the Birs-i-Nimrúd above the plain to the summit of the brick wall is 235 feet. The brick wall itself, which stands on the edge of the summit, and was undoubtedly the face of another stage, is 37 feet high. In the side of the pile, a little below its summit, is very clearly to be seen part of another brick wall, precisely resembling the fragment which crowns the summit, and still encasing and supporting its part of the mound. This is clearly indicative of another stage of greater extent.

"Without forming any conjecture as to what might have been its original construction, the impression made by the sight of it is, that it was a solid pile, composed in the interior of unburnt brick, and perhaps earth or rubbish; that it was constructed in receding stages, and faced with kiln-burnt bricks having inscriptions on them, laid in a very thin layer of lime cement; and that it was reduced by violence to its present ruinous condition. The upper stones have been forcibly broken down, and fire has been employed as an implement of destruction, though it is not easy to say how or why. The facing of fine bricks has been partly removed and partly covered by the falling down of the mass which it supported and kept together.

"A still later traveller, Mr. Buckingham, is of opinion that the traces of four stages are clearly discernible.

"As to Major Rennell's doubt whether the ruin was artificial, Mr. Rich observes that, 'so indisputably evident is the fact of the whole mass being from top to bottom artificial, that he should as soon have thought of writing a dissertation to prove that the Pyramids are the work of human hands as of dwelling upon this point. The Birs-i-Nimrúd,' he adds, 'is, in all likelihood, at present nearly in the state in which Alexander saw it, if we give any credit to the report that ten thousand men could only remove the rubbish, preparatory to repairing it, in two months. If, indeed, it required one half of that number to disencumber it, the state of dilapidation must have been complete.

"'The immense masses of vitrified brick which are seen on the top of the mound appear to have marked its summit since the time of its destruction. The rubbish about its base was probably in much greater quantities, the weather having dissipated much of it in the course of so many revolving ages; and possibly portions of the interior facing of fine brick may have disappeared at different periods.'"