temples and palaces, the ruins of which are still in existence, were begun by the Pharaohs of this illustrious line. Every thing that was undertaken by them indicates the possession of enormous wealth, and times of the utmost prosperity. The treasures accumulated by the shepherd-kings under the administration of Joseph seem to have produced the usual effect of enervating the possessors, and exciting the cupidity of their still formidable neighbours the hereditary Pharaohs at Abydos. They became in their turn the aggressors, attacked their ancient conquerors, dispoiled them of their wealth and expelled them once more from the limits of Egypt, of the whole of which they afterwards retained possession. This event took place during the sojourn of Israel in Goshen, after the death of Joseph and his brethren and all that generation. The prosperity of the Israelites in this dependency of Egypt, and the circumstance that they had come thither originally from Canaan the land of the shepherds, would naturally excite the jealousy of the conquerors. Goshen lay between Egypt and Canaan. In this country dwelt "a people more and mightier than they." It was, therefore, perfectly conformable to the suggestions of worldly policy that they should enslave and cruelly maltreat them, "lest when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies and fight against us" (Ex. i. 10). "The new king over Egypt which arose up and knew not Joseph" (Ex. i. 8) was either Amosis or one of his immediate successors; so that the epochs of the eighteenth dynasty and the captivity coincide, or nearly so.[1]
- ↑ The tomb of Rekshare at Thebes, which contains the well-known picture of the captive Jews making bricks, is dated in the reign of Thothmosis III. (Moeris), the fifth monarch of this dynasty.
