A Class-Book of Biblical History and Geography / with numerous maps

by H. S. Osborn

Finally these Shepherd Kings were driven out of the Delta by a Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty,[64] and from that period about 400 years transpired, during which the 18th dynasty passed away and a new dynasty, the 19th, came into power. Of this 19th dynasty two kings passed away before the celebrated Seti I. began to reign. Rameses II. was the son of Seti I., and his reign (67 years) was the longest of any of this dynasty.

4. Moses, at the age of forty, was driven into the desert of Sinai, on the east of Egypt, where he escaped from the wrath of the reigning Pharaoh, and where he remained 40 years, until the death of the king. The Pharaoh with whom Moses’ name is thus associated must have reigned a long time, and the reign of Rameses II. meets the conditions of the history,not only as to time, but also as to the name. It is for these reasons that the Egyptian Rameses II. is supposed to be the Pharaoh alluded to in the first chapter of the book of Exodus, as the Scripture Rameses.

5. After the death of Rameses, Moses returned to Egypt from his 40 years’ residence in the desert of Sinai. As his life in those parts was spent in the shepherd occupation, he was well acquainted with the region, and in a large degree fitted for the work to which he was called by the Lord, to take charge of the deliverance of the Israelites from the bondage in Egypt.

By divine command he appeared before the reigning Pharaoh and demanded, in the name of Jehovah, the release of his brethren, who, in all, must have been about 2,000,000. This number, though not stated, may be supposed to be correct as based upon the fact that at the departure from Egypt the able men numbered 600,000.

6. The unwillingness of the king to let the people go was finally subdued by a series of remarkable plagues. The most singular feature of these inflictions is found in the fact that in every case they seem to have attacked the Egyptians in the most important elements of either their national greatness or in the direction of their greatest comforts and reliance. Another singular feature in the whole course of affliction was their progressive seriousness.

7. The first plague appeared in the sudden change of the waters of the Nile into blood. The Nile was not only the great source of water supply, but was supposed to be under the immediate care of the gods of Egypt. Hymns have come down to us composed in the honor of the personified Nile. These were composed before the time of Moses, and give the names of their chief gods to the waters of the great river. The Nile was “the representative of all that was good.” This plague made it necessary that the people should begin digging wells near the banks of the river and elsewhere throughout all Egypt.

8. The second plague, of frogs, attacked in like manner, but more directly, the religious superstitions. The frog-headed deity Heki was the wife of the god of the cataracts of the Nile, who also was represented with a frog’s head. The frog was the symbol of renewed life after death, and was worshipped as such.

9. The third plague was more intense; it afflicted man and brute alike. The ground brought forth insects, “lice” so called, in such abundance that even the priests could not cleanse themselves. The priests were not allowed to use woollen in any of their garments, because of the likelihood that it would harbor this vile evil, which was one greatly abhorred. Insects of every kind, even gnats, were considered unclean. Priests and people were alike unclean.

10. The fourth plague, of flies, was somewhatsimilar, being an insect curse, but now the curse was winged.

11. The fifth plague, of “murrain,” was far more serious, as it not only touched the honor of the Egyptian faith in the worship of Isis and Osiris, to whom the cattle were sacred, but caused the death of the cattle throughout Egypt. It troubled in yet more serious degree the temple and the market, the priest and the people.