of living, for they would shift here and there, and lodge the women in child-bed out of the way to save their children. Pharaoh therefore built them houses, and obliged them to a more settled habitation, that the people he had set over them, might know where to find every family, and take account of all the children that should be born. This was a very cunning contrivance of Pharaoh, in order to have his charge more strictly and effectually executed than it could otherwise have been; and was a remarkable particular not to be omitted in Moses' account of this affair. But as to houses built for the midwives, it seems impossible to give any account why they should be built, or how, or by whom. It will here be asked, but how can the words of Moses be reconciled to what I have offered? I answer, if they be faithfully translated, they can bear no other meaning whatsoever; which will be very evident from the following translation of the place, which is word for word agreeable to the Hebrew; and which I have distinguished into verses, as I think the passage ought really to have been distinguished. Verse 18. And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, why have ye done this thing, and saved alive the children? Ver. 19. And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, because the IIebrew women are not as the Egyptian women, for they are lively, and are delivered before the midwife comes to them. Ver. 20. And God dealt well with the midwives. And the people multiplied and waxed very mighty: (" veyehi, i. e.) And this happened, (or was SQ, or came to pass,) because the midwives feared Gon. * Ver. 21. And Pharaoh, built them, [i. c. the Israelites] houses, and charged all his people saying, and every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, every daughter ye shall save alive. Thus, if I may take the liberty to suppose the passage not rightly pointed as to the stops, which were the ancient marks at the end of verses,' the words may well be rendered as I would take them. The division of the Hebrew Bible into verses is certainly very an cient, but not carlier than the captivity; and I do not find, that the best writers suppose the sections were made by an unerring hand. I think the verses of which I am treating, have been divided, as they now are, injudiciously by some careless transcriber; but it is evident, that they were thus parted before the LXX translation was made, for the Lxx render the 21st verse thus, ('Επει δε εφοβοντο αι μαίας τον Θεον, εποίησαν εαυταις οικίας) And because the midwives feared GoD, they made themselves houses. And hence it is evident that the LXX found a difficulty in the verse, and thought it absurd to say that GoD built the midwives houses, and so turned the expression another way; but their version cannot be right, for the Hebrew words are not they, but he built, and in The Hebrew words are, עמי suo populo omni Pharaoh præcepit et domos illis fecit et Our English translators should have considered that the nominative case to two verbs is commonly put after the second verb, in other languages, though our English will the original la hem, signifies for them, and not for themselves. I do not at present see any way to give a clear account of the place so easy, as to suppose the punctuation wrong, as I have imagined. Some of the commentators have indeed offered a conjecture, at first sight very promising, to explain the expression as it now stands. They would take the words made them houses, metaphorically, and say that they mean, either that God gave the midwives many children, or that he made them prosperous in their affairs. The former of these interpretations is that of St. Ambrose; and it is said that the expression is thus used, Gen. xvi. 2. xxx. 3. Deut. xxv. 9. Ruth iv. 11.; but in this point these interpreters make a great mistake; the expression before us is nashah beith, but the expression in the passages cited is a very different one, it is banah beith, and not nashah. Had the expression here before us been, bunah beithim lahem, it might have signified, Gon built up their houses or families, by making them numerous; but nashah beithim lahem, are words of a very different meaning. But in the second place, it is said, that, nashah beithim, signifies, that, GoD prospered them, or provided for them, and Gen. xxx. 30. is cited to justify this interpretation. The words in that passage are, And now, when shall I make or provide for my own house also? But here again the instance fails: the expression cited, is not nashah beith, but it is nashah le beith, not, when shall I make my house? but, when shall I make for my house, or, when shall I do for my house? between which two expressions, there is evidently a difference. THE SACRED AND PROFANE HISTORY OF THE WORLD CONNECTED. a BOOK VIII. SALATIS, the new king of Egypt, not only oppressed the Israelites, but, by the violence of his conquests, so terrified the ancient inhabitants of the land, that many persons of the first figure thought it better to leave their native country, than to sit down under the calamities, which they feared might be brought upon them; from whence it happened, that several companies made the best way they could out of Egypt, in hopes of gaining a happier settlement for themselves in some foreign country. Ister, a writer cited by Eusebius, and by Clemens Alexandrinus, who lived in the time of Ptolemy Euergetes, wrote a particular account of the colonies which removed out of d Josephus cont. Appion. lib. 1. p. 1337. a Marsham. Can. Chron. p. 107. C с Stromat. lib. 1. Egypt into other nations. His work would, perhaps, have been very serviceable in this place; but this and other performances of Ister are long since lost. However, Diodorus Siculus has particularly remarked, that Egypt sent many colonies into divers parts of the world; and we may collect from him, and from hints of other ancient writers, that Cecrops, Erichthonius, and the father of Cadmus, left Egypt about the time we are treating of; and Danaus and Belus followed them not long after. Belus was the son of Neptune. Who this Neptune was we are not informed; but it seems to be an Egyptian name; for, the Egyptians called the shores which the sea waves beat upon, Nepthun. Most probably the person called by this name was an inventor of shipping, and from thence came to be called the god of the sea; and this tradition of him was embraced by the Cretans. Herodotus observes, that he had divine honours paid him in a country adjacent to Egypt, where his wife seems to have lived; and where perhaps he might go to live, when his son Belus left Egypt. But because he died not in Egypt, or because he lived in these troublesome times, when the natives of Egypt were under a foreign power, which had invaded them; his name was not recorded among the great and eminent Egyptian ancients; • Lib. 1, p. 24. Plutarch, in Iside & Osiride, p. 366. Diodor. Sic. lib. 5, p. 337. * Lib. 2, c. 50. His wife was called A/C, Diodor. lib. 1, p. 24. -3 |