Exodus 4

Moses fell back upon his own unworthiness. He forgot the promise, “Certainly I will be with thee.” The moment we get away from Divine promise and forget great principles, we degrade all service. Self-consciousness is the ruin of all vocations. Let a man look into himself and measure his work by himself, and the movement of his life will be downward and exhaustive. Let him look away from himself to the

Inspirer of his life and the Divine reward of his labors, and he will not so much as see the difficulties which may stand ever so thickly in the way. J. P.

Would that there were no Christians who, like Moses, we might almost say, delight in heaping up objections, and in answering that grand, irrevocable “Yea” of God’s word with an everlasting “But!” This was forgiven Moses; he was, moreover, wholly cured of it. The Lord will bear with this in you too, ye who are upright in heart. God gives complete solution of the trifling difficulties and objections which we raise; but after that, we must advance at his appointed time. Then, in God’s name, advance! from faith to stronger faith, and straightway, too, from light to greater light, from strength to strength, from victory to victory,—still on! Even in the darkest night, only let that name shine on you as if it were inscribed with stars, the name which God gives himself, I AM. He lives, and he abides; then, whether it be here on earth or up in heaven, we must all live by him, for him, with him! Van O.

18. AND Moses went and returned to Jethro his father in law, and said unto him, Let me go, I pray thee, and return unto my brethren which are in Egypt, and see whether they be yet alive. And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace. And the LORD said unto Moses in Midian, Go, return into Egypt: for all the men are dead which sought thy life. And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt: and Moses took the rod of God in his hand. And the LORD said unto Moses, When thou goest back into Egypt, see that thou do before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, and he will not let the people go. And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, my firstborn: and I have said unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me; and thou hast refused to let him go: behold, I will slay thy son, thy firstborn. And it came to pass on the way at the lodging place, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him. Then Zipporah took a flint, and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet; and she said, Surely a bridegroom of blood art thou to me. So he let him alone. Then she said, A bridegroom of blood art thou, because of the circumcision. 27 And the LORD said to Aaron, Go into the wilderness to meet Moses. And he went, and met him in the mountain of God, and kissed him. And Moses told Aaron all the words of the LORD wherewith he had sent him, and all the signs wherewith he had charged him. And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel: and Aaron spake all the words which the LORD had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs

31 in the sight of the people. And the people believed : and when they heard that the LORD had visited the children of Israel, and that he had seen their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped. 5 : 1 And afterward Moses and Aaron came, and said unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. 2 And Pharaoh said, Who is the LORD, that I should hearken unto his voice to let Israel go? 3 I know not the LORD, and moreover I will not let Israel go. And they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with us : let us go, we pray thee, three days’ journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice unto the LORD our God ; lest he fall upon us with pestilence, or with the 4 sword. And the king of Egypt said unto them, Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, loose 5 the people from their works ? get you unto your burdens. And Pharaoh said, Behold, the 6 people of the land are now many, and ye make them rest from their burdens. And the 7 same day Pharaoh commanded the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying, Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore : let them go and gather 8 straw for themselves. And the tale of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them ; ye shall not diminish aught thereof : for they be idle ; therefore they cry, 9 saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God. Let heavier work be laid upon the men, that 10 they may labour therein ; and let them not regard lying words. And the taskmasters of the people went out, and their officers, and they spake to the people, saying, Thus saith Pharaoh, I will not give you straw. Go yourselves, get you straw where ye can find it : for 11 nought of your work shall be diminished. So the people were scattered abroad throughout 12 all the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw. And the taskmasters were urgent, saying, 13 Fulfil your works, your daily tasks, as when there was straw. And the officers of the children of Israel, which Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten, and demanded, Wherefore have ye not fulfilled your task both yesterday and to-day, in making brick as 14 heretofore ? Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried unto Pharaoh, saying, Wherefore dealest thou thus with thy servants ? There is no straw given unto thy servants, and they say to us, Make brick : and, behold, thy servants are beaten ; but the fault 15 is in thine own people. But he said, Ye are idle, ye are idle ; therefore ye say, Let us go 16 and sacrifice to the LORD. Go therefore now, and work ; for there shall no straw be given 17 you, yet shall ye deliver the tale of bricks. And the officers of the children of Israel did see that they were in evil case, when it was said, Ye shall not minish aught from your bricks, 18 your daily tasks. And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the way, as they came forth 19 from Pharaoh : and they said unto them, The LORD look upon you, and judge ; because ye have made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us. And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou evil entreated this people ? why is it that thou hast sent 20 me ? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath evil entreated this people ; 21 neither hast thou delivered thy people at all. And the LORD said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh : for by a strong hand shall he let them go, and by a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land.

20. It pleased God, who could have wrought his wonders without any visible signs, that Moses should use the rod in external demonstration of the divine power : yet the Lord uses such means as have no power of themselves, or likelihood to effect that which is wrought, that the work should not be ascribed to the means. Willet.

21. I will harden his heart. The hardening of Pharaoh’s heart is in this narrative ten times ascribed to the Lord. But it is also twice ascribed to Pharaoh himself. In seven other passages it is stated simply as a fact, without assigning any cause. It is evident of itself that this fact is ascribed to God and to Pharaoh in different respects ; so that the two assertions are consistent with each other. It is equally plain that the act in question belongs to Pharaoh, as the moral agent by whose intention it was performed. It belongs to God as the Designer, Creator, and Supreme Governor of the existing universe, of which free agents and their voluntary actings form a part. M.—Calamities which do not subdue the heart harden it ; and the effects of God’s judgments being foreknown are willed by him. We should not therefore adopt a forced interpretation of this expression in order to explain away its apparent harshness. The hardening itself is judicial, and just, when it is a consequence of previously formed habits; in the case of Pharaoh it was at once a righteous judgment, and a natural result of a long series of oppressions and cruelties. Theodoret thus deals with the question: “The sun by the action of heat makes wax moist, and mud dry, hardening the one while it softens the other, by the same operation producing exactly opposite results; thus from the long-suffering of God some derive benefit and others harm, some are softened while others are hardened.” The reason why the action of God rather than the character of Pharaoh is dwelt on in this passage would seem to be that it was necessary to sustain the spirit of Moses and the people during the process of events, which they were thus taught were altogether foreseen and predetermined by God. Cook. [See Section 85.]

22. God had promised him (v. 12), I will teach thee what thou shalt say; and here he does teach him. He must deliver his message in the name of the great Jehovah, Thus saith the Lord; this is the first time that preface is used by any man, which afterward is used so frequently by all the prophets: whether Pharaoh will hear or whether he will forbear, Moses must tell him, Thus saith the Lord. H.

My son, my firstborn. By calling Israel His son, God claims liberty for him. By calling him His firstborn, He prefers him to the other nations; as though He had said that he was raised to the primogeniture and was superior to all the world. Calv.—Only those who are begotten according to the counsel of salvation can be called sons of Jehovah. Israel was not called a son of Jehovah merely, but the firstborn son, who would be followed by other sons, begotten in the same manner. The election of Abraham, with all the consequent leadings and promises, the blessings and chastisements, had made Israel a son. K.

24-26. This surprising occurrence must be accounted for by remembering that Moses was an Israelite, bound to God by the covenant of circumcision, and that he was bringing his family to Egypt uncircumcised, having apparently conceded this point to the national habits of his wife. God had attached to the neglect of circumcision the penalty of death (Gen. 17:14). How God met with him we are left to surmise: possibly in a dangerous stroke of illness or sudden incapacity, as would appear from his inability to circumcise his own child. This took place not in the inn (A. V.), for there were not and are not in the East any buildings corresponding to our inns, but at the resting-place for the night. Alf.—The most obvious explanation of the passage is that Moses had omitted the circumcision of his son—his eldest son, it seems—probably because Zipporah, the mother, objected to the dangerous operation. For this he is punished; for, as Knobel well observes, “he who is to bring Pharaoh to do his duty to God’s firstborn must fulfil his own duty to the firstborn son who is under him, but belongs to God.” To save her husband, Zipporah performs the circumcision, but tells him that she is united to him in a marriage the children of which must be bought with blood. O.—Omissions are sins, and must come into judgment, and particularly the contempt and neglect of the seals of the covenant; for it is a sign that we undervalue the promises of the covenant. God takes notice of, and is much displeased with, the sins of his own people; if they neglect their duty, let them expect to hear of it by their consciences, and perhaps to feel from it by cross providences. H.

After this transaction and the developments attending it, we must suppose that Moses (prudently) sent back his wife and the two children to remain with her father until the redeemed Israelites should reach the home of Jethro. We hear no more of her and her children till the narrative in Ex. 18 brings them to view thus: “When Jethro had heard all that the Lord had done for Moses and Israel, he took Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her back, and her two sons and brought them to Moses.” H. C.

27. The Lord said to Aaron. By some secret movement on Aaron’s mind or by some voice, he was now directed to go and meet his brother Moses, and so correctly was the information given to both that they arrived at the same time on the sacred mountain. A. C.—Aaron, although the elder, not only paid honor to his brother, whom he knew to be a Prophet of the Lord; but willingly submitted himself to him as to an angel. The kiss is mentioned as a sign of recognition, by which he testified the firmness of his faith. Calv.—28. Moses was met by Aaron, as God had foretold, on the very spot where he had received the revelation, which he rehearsed to his brother, with its attendant miracles, in the mount of God. P. S.—29. Elders of Israel. Their existence and office seems to infer an organization in Israel, which must have arisen in Egypt before the days of their oppression began. Alf.

5 : 1. The Pharaoh under whom the Exodus actually took place could not have been Rameses II. himself, but his son and successor, Meneptah II. His reign lasted but a short time, and it was disturbed not only by the flight of the Children of Israel, but also by a great invasion of Northern Egypt by the Libyans, which was with difficulty repulsed. This took place in his fifth year. Sayce.

Came unto Pharaoh. The kings of Egypt probably held that sort of open court or divan, usual in oriental monarchies, in which any one may appear who would claim justice or petition for favor. Moses and Aaron stand before this throne, and solicit the temporary release of all their people, that they may offer sacrifice to their God. Milman.

2. Who is the Lord.** Rather, “Who is Jehovah? I know not Jehovah.” This title should here be rendered verbatim, “Jehovah,” rather than “Lord,” since it is mentioned as the peculiar name of the God of Israel; whereas the title “Lord” was common to the heathen deities, many of them being called “Baalim,” “Lords.” This makes Pharaoh’s answer more emphatic, “Who is Jehovah?"—a name of which he had never before heard. From the despised character of the people of Israel, he formed his estimate of the God whom they professed to serve. Their God was no more entitled to reverence as a deity than they were to respect as a people. Bush.—Egypt was then the most powerful nation of the world. Exposed on either side to the invasion of nomadic hordes, it had of necessity its standing army, and its kings, in consequence, were haughty and boastful. No other nation at that era could have produced the Pharaoh of Moses’ age. And in this Pharaoh was represented—nay, as it were, concentrated—the spirit of the people. S. R.

He says he does not know Jehovah; he does not recognize his authority or admit his claims. His soul is full of practical unbelief in God—a fact which commonly lies at the bottom of all the hardening of sinners’ hearts in every age. Pharaoh did not at first contemplate crossing swords and measuring strong arms with the Almighty God. If he had taken this view of the case, he might have paused awhile to consider. So it usually is with sinners. Unbelief in God conduces to launch them upon this terrible conflict. Once committed, they become more hardened; one sin leads on to more sinning till sin becomes incurable—shall we say it?—an uncontrollable madness. H. C.

3. Lest he fall upon us.** Lest he send a plague upon us for our neglect of him. They neither wrought any miracle nor threatened any punishment upon Pharaoh on their first application to him, but told him the danger to which they were themselves exposed, if they did not obey their God. Patrick.—All that Moses was instructed to ask for was permission to go into a part of the desert where the people might offer sacrifices without interruption from the Egyptians. It is evident from Pharaoh’s answer that he did not see in the request any indication of an intention to escape from Egypt. Cook.—The request for a three days’ pilgrimage into the wilderness to sacrifice unto God was all the more reasonable, that Israel’s sacrifices would have been “an abomination” to the Egyptians, and might have led to disturbances. It was infinite condescension to Pharaoh’s weakness, on the part of God, not to insist from the first upon the immediate and entire dismissal of Israel. Less could not have been asked than was demanded of Pharaoh, nor could obedience have been made more easy. Only the most tyrannical determination to crush the rights and convictions of the people, and the most daring defiance of Jehovah, could have prompted him to refuse such a request, and that in face of all the signs and wonders by which the mission of Moses was accredited. Thus at the first his submission was to be tried where it was easiest to render it. A. E.

4-19. Instead of completing at one blow what he had promised his people and threatened Pharaoh, the Lord commences with this refusal of the king a series of trials for Israel and chastisements for Pharaoh. He purposes neither to subdue the king by the mere exercise of power, nor to assist the people without the trial of their faith. The immediate consequence of the first appeal to Pharaoh is that their condition becomes worse, and their belief in the word of promise is contradicted by the present appearance of affairs. Gert.

4. 5. Pharaoh takes no notice of what Moses and Aaron had said to him respecting the liberation of the people, but treats them merely as the disturbers of the peace of his kingdom. 6. The taskmasters and their officers. These “taskmasters,” lit. “exactors,” constituting the highest grade of officers, were Egyptians appointed to exact labor of the Israelites. But those termed “officers” appear (vs. 14-16) to have been Israelites set over their brethren, under the taskmasters. Bush.

One of the most interesting tombs at Thebes is that of Rochscore, “the overseer of public buildings,” under Thommes III. On the walls of this tomb the monarch is seen presenting obelisks to the divinity, and these obelisks are found at this day in the temple of Karnac. Here, too, is depicted the whole process of brick- making—the slaves of the king shaping the mud of the Nile into crude brick, just as the fellahs are seen doing at this day. Taskmasters with whips are stationed at intervals among the workmen, a pictorial representation of the scenes that daily occurred among the Israelites in their cruel bondage. In this picture some of the laborers are employed in transporting the clay in 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.

13-17. The result was, that the taskmasters, who were responsible to the government for the production of the bricks, reprimanded and even beat the Hebrew overseers (officers), who were accountable to them. The beating is characteristic of the people; for one needs only to look into a book of Egyptian antiquities to see how freely the stick was administered to people of all ages, and of either sex. In fact, from the evidence this people have themselves left to the world in their monuments, it would seem as if Egypt was, as much as China at the present day, ruled by the rod. The overseers were at length urged to carry their complaints to the king. But the stern answer was, “Ye are idle, ye are idle: therefore ye say, let us go and do sacrifice to Jehovah. Go therefore now and work.” Kit.

22. Moses could not reconcile the adverse providence with the promise and commission he had received. He had indeed been taught to anticipate Pharaoh’s refusal to let the people go, but he was taken by surprise on finding their burdens increased. It seemed that his mission was utterly abortive, and that thus far not one step had been taken toward their deliverance. But we can put a more correct construction upon this apparently mysterious style of dispensation. To us it is not a strange spectacle to see the most merciful counsels of God ushered in by a train of events apparently the most disastrous; to see his dearest servants reduced to the utmost straits just when he is ready to appear for their deliverance. This result is suffered to take place that we may learn to cease from man, and that the divine interpositions may be more endeared to the hearts of those that wait for them. Bush.—If Moses did amiss in repining, he did well in “returning unto the Lord,” and making his complaint, not to others, but to him. So did David, the man after God’s own heart: “When I am in heaviness,” saith he, “I will think upon God; when my heart is vexed, I will complain” (Ps. 77 : 3). So did Paul, when buffeted by the messenger of Satan he applied himself to God for relief, and besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from him; but the answer was (and he acquiesced in it), “My grace is sufficient for thee.” Wogan.—With every fresh movement of God’s grace in the inner life, fresh difficulties and questions are raised. If we will bring these before the Lord, though it should be with the expression of trembling and grief, yet are they not to be regarded as signs of unbelief, but rather of the struggles and contests of faith; and the Lord is patient toward the doubtings of human shortsightedness. Gerl.

6 : 1. To the almost reproachful utterance of Moses, God answers patiently, saying that it is his glory to see that what he has promised and predicted will come to pass. It is not ours to question that God will fulfil his promises; it is ours always and everywhere to fulfil the obligations that he has laid upon us. God says, that, so far from Pharaoh succeeding, he will be glad to let these poor brickmakers and slaves go forth from his land. There is something very encouraging in this; that God, instead of rebuking strongly the unbelief of his servants, gives another manifestation of his greatness to their senses, in order to overcome by love, instead of repressing by rebuke, their unbelief and suspicions. J. C.

The first interview of Moses with Pharaoh served to determine the relationship of all parties in reference to the Divine command. It had brought out the enmity of Pharaoh, ripening for judgment; the unbelief of Israel, needing much discipline; and even the weakness of Moses. A. E.

The period now commonly assigned to the Exodus is the reign of Meneptah, son of Rameses II. The father, Rameses (the great “Sesostris”), would thus have been on the throne at Moses’ birth, and in his long reign of sixty-six years would have been the great oppressor. His policy and sceptre passing into the hands of his feebler son, brought on the crisis and the deliverance. This is the view of Rouge, Mariette, Lenormant, Maspero, Ebers, Brugsch, Bunsen, Birch, and Poole. The name of the stronghold, “Rameses,” points at once to a monarch of that name; and there is nothing to connect the only previous monarch of that name, Rameses I. (the grandfather of Rameses II.), obscure and short-lived, with the enterprise. But the long reign of Rameses II., his boastful spirit, his foreign wars, his vast public works, including numerous temples, the canal, and a line of fortresses on his eastern frontier

(a circumstance which coincides with the fears expressed in Ex. 1:10), and the air of oppression which the monuments ascribe to his reign, all furnish a strong basis for the theory. No name is so boastfully and ubiquitously spread over the buildings of Egypt as that of Rameses II. Of his son Menetphah’s reign, the notices are exceedingly slight. No monumental record of his bears date later than his second year, although a tablet describing a victory over the Libyanis is referred to his eighth year, soon after which the Exodus is supposed to have taken place. In the time of Menetphah Egypt was a mighty empire of ancient civilization. Most of her huge edifices, including nearly all the vast structures of Thebes, were in existence. The complication of her social life, even to the elaborate cuisine, may be read in the tombs of the kings and men of wealth. The skill of her jewellers in the eighteenth dynasty may be admired in the museum at Boolak. The processes of her goldsmiths in the twelfth dynasty are seen delineated at Beni-Hasan. The temper of her cutting tools may be witnessed in the multitudinous and deep inscriptions on her granite obelisks. The greatness of her revenues is exhibited in the records of Theotnes III. Her military resources in the time of Menetphah’s father are boastfully set forth in the poem of the Pentaur. S. C. B.

If Menetphah I., the son and successor of Rameses II., was the Pharaoh of the Exodus, it follows necessarily that his father, the great Rameses, was the king of Ex. 2, from whom Moses fled, and after whose death he was directed to quit Midian and return into Egypt for the purpose of delivering his brethren (ch. 2:23; 4:19). But as Moses was eighty years old at this time (ch. 7:7), it is evident that the Pharaoh from whom he fled cannot be the same with the one who, more than eighty years previously, gave the order for the destruction of the Hebrew male children (ch. 1:22). The narrative of Exodus must speak of three Pharaohs, of the first in ch. 1, of the second in ch. 2, and of the third in chs. 5-14. If the second of these is Rameses II., the father of Menetphah I., the first must be Seti I., the father of Rameses II. Now, it happens that Seti I. and Rameses II. are among the most distinguished of all the Egyptian monarchs, great warriors, great builders, setters-up of numerous inscriptions. We know them almost better than any other Egyptian kings, are familiar with their very countenances, have ample means of forming an estimate of their characters from their own words. Seti I. may well be the “new king, which knew not Joseph.”

Rameses II. was associated on the throne by his father when he was ten or eleven years of age. The two kings then reigned conjointly for about twenty years. Rameses outlived his father forty-seven years, and probably had the real direction of the government for about sixty years. There is no other reign in the New Empire which reaches nearly to the length of his. He was less of a warrior than his father, and more of a builder. Among his principal works was the completion of the city of Rameses (Pi-Ramesu), begun by his father, and made by Rameses the residence of the court, and one of the chief cities of the empire. He appears also to have completed Pithom Pi-Tum), and to have entirely built many other important towns. All his works were raised by means of forced labor; and for the purpose of their construction he required an enormous mass of human material, which had to be constantly employed under taskmasters in the most severe and exhausting toil. Besides his suitability in character to be the Pharaoh who continued the severe oppression begun by Seti I., Rameses II., by the great length of his reign, exactly fits into the requirements of the Biblical narrative. He alone verges upon the time at which the severe oppression must necessarily be placed. It can scarcely be a coincidence that Egyptian tradition should point out Menetphah I. as the Pharaoh of the Exodus, and that, the Biblical narrative assigning to his predecessor an exceptionally long reign, the monuments and Manetho should agree in giving to that predecessor the exceptionally long reign of sixty-six or sixty-seven years.

The portraits of the first and second Pharaohs mentioned in the Book of Exodus are only faintly and slightly sketched. That of the third monarch—“the Pharaoh of the Exodus,” as he is commonly termed—is, on the contrary, presented to us with much clearness and distinctness, though without effort or conscious elaboration. He is an oppressor as merciless as either of his predecessors, as deaf to pity, as determined to crush the aspirations of the Hebrews by hard labor. To him belongs the ingenious device for aggravating suffering, which has passed into the proverbial phraseology of modern Europe, the requirement of “bricks without straw.” He disregards the afflictions of his own countrymen as completely as those of his foreign slaves, and continues fixed in his determination not to “let Israel go,” until he suffers the loss of his own firstborn. When finally he has been induced to allow the Hebrews to withdraw themselves from his land, he suddenly repents of his concession, pursues after them, and seeks, not so much to prevent their escape, as to destroy them to the last man (15:9). To this harshness and cruelty of temper he adds a remarkable weakness and vacillation—he will and he will not; he makes promises and retracts them; he “thrusts the Israelites out” (11:1; 12:31), and then rushes after them at the head of all the troops that he can muster (14:5-9). Further—and this is most remarkable—unlike the generality of Egyptian monarchs, he seems to be deficient in personal courage; at any rate, there is no appearance of his having imperilled himself in the attack made on the Israelites at the Red Sea,—“the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen” (14:23); but not, so far as appears, Pharaoh himself. Neither the narrative in Exod. 14 nor the song of rejoicing in the following chapter contains the slightest allusion to the Pharaoh’s death, an omission almost inconceivable if he really perished with his warriors. Further the Pharaoh of the Exodus seems to have been grossly and abnormally superstitious, one who put trust in magicians and sorcerers, and turned to them in times of difficulty.

What, then, does profane history tell us of

the Meneptah whom we have shown to be at once the traditional “Pharaoh of the Exodus” and the king pointed out by chronological considerations as the ruler of Egypt at the period? M. Lenormant begins his account of him by observing, “He was neither a soldier nor an administrator, but one whose mind was turned almost exclusively toward the chimeras of sorcery and magic.” “The Book of Exodus,” he adds, “is in the most exact agreement with historical truth when it depicts him as surrounded by priest-magicians, with whom Moses contends in working prodigies, in order to affect the mind of the Pharaoh.” Later on in his history of Meneptah, M. Lenormant has the following passage, referring to his repulse of the great Libyan invasion in his fifth year. “Sending forward in advance, first of all, his chariot-force and his light-armed auxiliaries, the Pharaoh promised to join the battle array with the bulk of his troops at the end of fourteen days. But he was not personally fond of actual fight, and disliked exposing himself to the chance of defeat. An apparition of the god Phthah, which he saw in a dream, warned him that his lofty rank required

him not to cross the river. He therefore sent his army to the combat under the command of some of his father’s generals, who were still living.” The dream is clearly a convenient fiction, by means of which he might at once conceal his cowardice and excuse the forfeiture of his word. The Egyptian monuments thus confirm three leading features in the character of Meneptah,—his superstitiousness, his want of courage, and his weak, shitty, false temper.