10

"bread, and we and our land will be servants," i. e. amenable, "to Pharaoh." It seems plain that this people must have been before independent, and their lands not liable to fine or taxation. They suffered therefore no injury from what was enjoined them; being only reduced, from a state of misrule, to be on the same level as people of all other nations were, that lived in obedience to a king: for before they were licentious and lawless. This distribution of land in Egypt, and the happy consequences that ensued upon it, are mentioned by the above cited author; who tells us that Joseph taught them to separate their fields, and to distinguish them by proper boundaries; which put an end to the many feuds and acts of violence that had before subsisted among them.

Και πρότερον ατακτως των

10" Am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul?" that is, subjects. 1 Sam. 17. v. 8.

"Artapanus apud Euseb. Præp. Evang. lib. 9. cap. 23. This could not have been effected by Joseph, if the kingdom had been still in a disunited state: his influence could not have reached "from one end of the borders of Egypt even to the other end thereof." He therefore had reduced the people under one monarchy and it is from hence plain that Artapanus has mixed the accounts of two different persons; and has, in the former passage, attributed to Moses what relates only to Joseph. He moreover says, that Joseph appointed a particular portion of land for the priests: but, according to Moses, he meddled not with their lands: nor do they seem to be considerable: for the priests were

Αιγυπτιων γεωμοραντων, δια το την χώραν αδιαίρετον είναι, και των ελασσόνων ύπο των κρεισσόνων αδικουμένων· τετον [Ιωσηφ] πρωτον την τε γην διελειν, και ὅροις διασημηνασθαι, και την πολλήν χερσευομενην γεωργήσιμον αποτέλεσαι, και τινας των αβερων τοις ἱερευσιν αποκληρωσαι. By this compromise and establishment, which Joseph so happily enacted, the king was invested with the property of the land: but four parts out of five of the produce was secured to the people. All this was done for the general good, to which each particular in his turn was obliged to contribute. And this tax for

dependent on the king, and "had a portion assigned them of “ Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave them ; "wherefore they sold not their lands. The land of the priests "only became not Pharaoh's." Gen. 47. v. 22. &c. In after times the lands of the soldiers, as well as those of the priests, were held under peculiar exemptions: the soldiers had assigned them each man 12 arouræ, i. e. a square of 100 Egyptian cubits every way. Γερέα δε σφι [Καλασυρίοις] ην ταδε εξαραιρημενα μενοισι Αιγυπ τιων παρεξ των ίρεων· αρέξαι εξαίρετοι δυωδεκα έκαςῳ ατελεες· ἡ δε αρέρα ἑκατον σηχίων ἔσι Αιγυπτίων παντῇ. Ο δε Αιγυπτιος πηχυς τυγχανει ισος των τῷ Σαμίῳ. Herod. lib. 2. cap. 168. 12 arouræ are equal to 9 acres and 165 millesimals. See Bp. Cumberland on Jewish measures and weights, pag. 16. Some interpret this passage (Gen. 47. v. 22.) in a different manner. Εισι δε έτοι παντων το ατελείς, και δευτερεύοντες μετα τον βασιλεα ταις δε δόξαις και ταις εἰ εξω σιαις. Diod. Sic. of the Egyptian priests, lib. 1. pag. 46. Αλλ' ε με Αιγυπτιοι ὧν νυν δη εμνήσθην, κατα τας θρησκείας τας σφων εσκεδανται. Clement. Alex. Cohort. ad Gentes. vol. 1. pag. 33. edit. Potter. Η δε δη εξαίρεσης των όρων, καὶ ἡ καύσις, αλλη περί αλλο δρον σφι κατέτηκε» Herod. lib. 2. cap. 40.

the services of the crown, and maintenance of so great a monarchy, was certainly a light one. The removal of the Egyptians into new and different allotments, from one end of the kingdom to the other, was an instance of great policy. It was the very thing that many ages after was practised by that consummate commander Hannibal; in which he was copied by the Romans. The kings of Assyria are observed to have acted in the same manIt was a sure way to prevent innovation and rebellion. That Egypt had originally many different tribes, if not nations, we learn from Scripture; and that they were not all equally subordinate to the principal person of the land, but had their separate attachments and jurisdictions, I have shewn. It appears farther from the many various and opposite customs which prevailed among them, even to the times of the Romans. Each of the portions into which the land was cantoned out having its particular succession of kings; there has arisen from it great confusion and uncertainty in the chronology of Egypt: which seems to be inexplicable. From the first peopling of the country I imagine this variety of governments to have subsisted; which defect in the national establishment was in great measure remedied by Joseph: whence arose a very powerful monarchy, and one of the longest duration in history. It is not however meant that Egypt after the days of Joseph continued always uniformly under one head. It was at times divided, and lapsed into a kind of oligarchy: but

still it recovered itself, and flourished for many ages: and the means of such recovery, and the original form of their government, which they returned to, were owing to the primeval institutions of this great patriarch. "Some have thought that the memory of Joseph was preserved in the Egyptian rites and symbols, though it has been long obscured; and that divine honours were paid to him. This may perhaps be doubtful: but thus far we may be assured, that every honour that a grateful people could in reason pay to a benefactor, this wonderful man deserved at the hands of the Egyptians.

12 See Marsham Пhxorçanın Egypti, ad Sec. XVI. pag. 470. Vossius de Orig. et Progr. Idol. lib. 1. cap. 28.