Bondage in Egypt. (2)

The pretended fear of Pharaoh, lest in the event of war the Hebrews might make common cause with the enemy, was a sufficient pretext with his own people for oppressing the Jews, at the same time that it had the effect of exciting their prejudices against them. Affecting, therefore, some alarm at their numbers, he suggested that so numerous a body might avail themselves of the absence of the Egyptian troops, and endanger the tranquillity and safety of the country, and that prudence dictated the necessity of obviating the possibility of such an occurrence (Exodus 1:10). With this view they were treated like the captives taken in war, and were forced to undergo the gratuitous labor of erecting public granaries and other buildings for the Egyptian monarch (Exodus 1:11). These were principally constructed of crude brick; and that such materials were commonly used in Egypt we have sufficient proof from the walls and other buildings of great size and solidity found in various parts of the country, many of which are of a very early period. The bricks themselves, both at Thebes and in the vicinity of Memphis, frequently bear the names of the monarchs who ruled Egypt during and prior to this epoch. The crude brick remains about Memphis are principally pyramids; those at Thebes consist of walls enclosing sacred monuments and tombs, and some are made with and others without straw. Many have chopped barley and wheat straw, others bean haulm and stubble (Exodus 5:12). In the tombs we find the process of making them represented among the sculptures. But it is not to be supposed any of these bricks are the work of the Israelites, who were never occupied at Thebes; and though Josephus affirms they were engaged in building pyramids, as well as in making canals and embankments, it is very improbable that the crude brick pyramids of Memphis, or of the Arsinoite nome, were the work of the Hebrew captives (Wilkinson, Anc. Egyptians). (See BRICK).