“109. THE HARD BONDAGE—EXODUS 1”

The Hard Bondage—Exodus 1

When we read of the numerous facts and incidents pictorially registered in the monuments of Egypt, and understand that some of them can be traced up to the time of Moses, the question naturally arises, Whether we may not hope to find among them some record of the events, so important in Egyptian history, connected with the residence of the Israelites in the land of Egypt, and their departure from it. As the principal and most ancient monuments of this kind are in Upper Egypt, we should not look for any memorials of that portion of public history with which the name of Joseph is connected in our minds, because that history belongs to Lower Egypt, which was not then, as we apprehend, under the same crown with the upper country. Neither should we expect to find any record of the remarkable circumstances connected with the plagues of Egypt and the exodus of the Israelites; for although the upper and lower countries were then under one crown—and although such events as the death of the first-born, and the overthrow in the Red Sea, were of sufficient national importance for such commemoration—we do not find that nations, and certainly not the Egyptians, manifest any readiness to perpetuate their own dishonor. But if there be any circumstance in the history of Israel’s sojourn in the country, which tends to exalt the glory and power of Egypt, of that we might not unreasonably expect to find some trace on the monuments.

Accordingly, the only representation which has been supposed by the students of Egyptian antiquity to have any reference to the Israelites, exhibits them in the state of oppression and humiliation, when it became the policy of the new dynasty from Upper Egypt, “which knew not Joseph” and his services, to depress the Hebrew population, and reduce them to a servile condition, by making “their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field.”

This representation, which has been regarded with great interest by scholars and travellers, is found painted on the walls of a tomb at Thebes. A copy and explanation of it was first furnished by the distinguished Italian professor, Rossellini, in his great work on the monuments of Egypt. His account of it is headed, “Explanation of a picture representing the Hebrews as they were engaged making brick.” In this picture some of the laborers are employed in transporting the clay an vessels; some in working it up with the straw; others are taking the bricks out of the moulds and setting them in rows to dry; while others, by means of a yoke upon their shoulders, from which ropes are suspended at each end, are seen carrying away the bricks already dried. Among the supposed Hebrews, four Egyptians, very distinguishable by their figure and color, are noticed. Two of them, one sitting and the other standing, carry a stick in their hand, superintending the laborers, and seemingly ready to fall upon two other Egyptians, who are represented as sharing the labors of the supposed Hebrews.

This scene does certainly illustrate, in all points, the labors of the Israelites, for we are told, not only that they wrought in the making of bricks—which was a government work in Egypt, and bricks bearing the royal stamp have been found—but that the king “set over them task-masters to afflict them with their burdens;” and that, “all the service wherein they made them serve was with rigor.” We also know that the bricks were compacted like these with straw; for at a later period we are told that the crown would not allow them the straw with which to compact their bricks, but left them to provide it for themselves, without the tale of bricks previously exacted being at all diminished—“And the taskmasters hasted them, saying, Fulfill your works—your daily tasks, as when there was straw.” The straw was used to compact the mass of clay, and not as some have supposed to burn the bricks. These being only dried in the sun, which suffices in a dry climate, the straw, which would be destroyed were the bricks burned, remains perfect and undiscolored in bricks nearly 4000 years old. That the sticks of the taskmasters were no idle insignia of authority, is shown by the complaints of the Israelites—“There is no straw given unto thy servants, and they say to us, make bricks; and behold thy servants are beaten.”—See the whole passage, Exo_5:7-16.

The picture is found at Thebes, in the tomb of a person called Roscherê. The question hence arises, how, if it represent the labors of the Hebrews, it came to be there, and in the tomb of this person. It is answered, that Roscherê was a high court officer of the king, being overseer of the public buildings, and, consequently, having charge of all the works undertaken by the crown. In the tomb are found other objects of a like nature—two colossal statues, a sphinx, and even the laborers who hewed the stone-works, which he, by virtue of his office, had caused to be made in his lifetime. This high officer being entombed at Thebes, any important labor in any part of the kingdom would naturally be represented there, for the kingdom was one, and the whole department seems to have been under his control; and it is now admitted that the inscription does not so expressly declare, as was at first imagined, that the bricks were made for a building at Thebes. But even were this the case, the difficulty is not insuperable. It is true that the Israelites during their bondage occupied their ancient home (so far as the men were allowed to enjoy a home) in Goshen, which was far distant from Thebes; but we know of nothing, either in Scripture or elsewhere, which would confine their labors to Goshen. On the contrary, when they were ordered, in this very business of brick-making, to find straw for themselves, we are constrained to suppose that they were at work for the royal monopolist of this manufacture in all parts of Egypt; for in Exo_5:12, we read, “So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt.” This certainly does not convey the idea that they were making bricks in Goshen only. There is indeed reason, from other testimony, to suppose that the usage in the working of the Israelites was to send them out in gangs, or classes, under overseers, for a considerable time, making these gangs necessarily relieve each other; and there can, therefore, be no objection to the opinion that some of these gangs may have been sent even so far as Thebes for the sake of their work at the place where there was most demand for it. We may be certain, that no considerations of humanity were likely to prevent this among such a people as the Egyptians. Indeed, it was evidently for the interest of the Egyptian oppressors, who alleged the numbers of the Israelites as the ground of their apprehensions, to scatter them in small bodies over all Egypt, as much as might be practicable.

Upon the whole, therefore, although it is not alleged that anything like positive certainty can be attained, there is nothing to render improbable the conclusion to which the complexion and peculiar physiognomy of the workmen, and the age of the monument, would lead, that these brickmakers were really Israelites, and that they are represented in the execution of the very labors which the Scripture commemorates. The complexion is such as the Egyptian artists usually give to the natives of Syria. The dress might have afforded some farther and interesting evidence, as the artists were very particular in preserving the details of costume; for the figures are represented as unclad, save for the short trousers or apron which they wear at their labor. It may be doubted, however, whether, after such long residence in Egypt—which was indeed the native country of all the Israelites of that age—they had preserved the style of dress which the single family of Jacob brought with it from Canaan. It is far more likely that they had by this time conformed, in this respect, to the habits of the country, which were better suited to the climate than any costume their ancestors could have brought from the less fervid climate of Syria. This partly also meets the objection which has been made to the want of beards in these figures. They are not to be regarded as strangers come freshly to Egypt with all their foreign usages about them, but as tribes long settled in the country, many of the customs of which they had necessarily adopted. They may to some extent have adopted the Egyptian habit of shaving the beard—or such of them as were in government employment may have been compelled to do so. We have already Note: See Twelfth Week, Saturday.] had occasion to notice that the Egyptians compelled their servants, of whatever nation, to shave their beards. In this representation, however, all the figures are not beardless. Upon the whole, we see no reason why the reader should deny himself the satisfaction of believing, that in this scene he contemplates a representation, by Egyptian artists, of the very scene which the Sacred Books describe. Note: This subject is fully discussed by Rosellini, as above quoted by Sir J.G. Wilkinson, in his Ancient Egyptians; by Hengstenberg, in his Egypt and the Books of Moses; by Osburn, in Egypt’s Testimony; and recently by an American writer, Dr. Hawks, in his work on the Monuments of Egypt.]

Autor: JOHN KITTO