At long last, we start Exodus. As I have mentioned before, scholars belief this was written during the Babylonian exile, in the 6th Century BCE, with revisions in the 5th Century. There is no historical evidence for the Egyptian captivity. The work is fiction, but it may be in some ways a response to the Babylonian exile. It is the foundational myth of the Jews, central to identity. Here we go.
These are the names of the sons of Israel who went to Egypt with Jacob, each with his family: 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah; 3 Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin; 4 Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher. 5 The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all; Joseph was already in Egypt.
6 Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, 7 but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them.
So the Hebrew population went from 70 to something like 1 million (Exodus 12:37) in a few hundred years.
8 Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. 9 “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. 10 Come, we must deal shrewdly
with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks
out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”
11 So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites 13 and worked them ruthlessly. 14 They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.
15 The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, 16 “When
you are helping the Hebrew women during childbirth on the delivery
stool, if you see that the baby is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl,
let her live.” 17
There are only 2 midwives producing this population explosion.
The midwives, however, feared God and did not do what the king of Egypt had told them to do; they let the boys live. 18 Then the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and asked them, “Why have you done this? Why have you let the boys live?”
19 The
midwives answered Pharaoh, “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women;
they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.”
20 So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. 21 And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.
22 Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”
Consider how implausible this is. If the Hebrews are enslaved, they don't have any weapons and can't join Pharaoh's enemies in war. On the contrary, slave owners usually want to increase their holdings. There is no comparable historical event.
3 comments:
Cervantes wrote, "Consider how implausible this is. If the Hebrews are enslaved, they don't have any weapons and can't join Pharaoh's enemies in war. On the contrary, slave owners usually want to increase their holdings. There is no comparable historical event."
But the story is incredibly compelling, and as you wrote, the basis for Jewish identity.
Is there not a modern-day analog to the Israeli treatment of the "captive" Palestinian population under the autocratic rule of the Israeli government? A contemporary projection of the Jewish people's (my people's) central myth, perhaps?
Well, the Palestinians aren't slaves. But they lack political rights. There are lots of analogies for that situation of course, including apartheid South Africa and indigenous people in the U.S. But slaves are property, you want them to increase.
Right, that was my point--I'm assuming the Palestinian population of the occupied West Bank is increasing, but perhaps that's not true. Either way, I'm very disturbed by the continuing support of so many Israelis for Netanyahu, as I am by people here for Shitler, as both are reprehensible individuals, devoid of spiritual or ethical values. In Shitler's case, he's also mentally ill and has dementia. So the fact that people support him at all is so shocking to me.
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