"I appear before them as a lion. I have pursued them as a hawk. 1 have annihilated their wicked souls.

"I have passed over their rivers: I have set on fire their castles.

66 I am to Egypt what the God Mandoo has been. I have vanquished the barbarians.

"Amoun Re, my father, subdued the whole world under my feet. "I am King on the throne for ever.' 99*

66

It may be instructive to compare these proud Pharaohs with other ancient despots, whose hearts have been lifted up. It was the blasphemous boast of the King of Babylon,-" I will ascend into heaven; I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High." Parallel to this is the haughty defiance which Sennacherib hurled at Jehovah, to his own discomfiture and destruction. "Beware lest Heze

kiah persuade you, saying the LORD will deliver us. Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath and Arphad? where are the gods of Sepharvaim? and have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? who are they among all the gods of these lands that have delivered their land out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?" +

It appears that the Egyptian monarchs were accustomed to surround themselves with a council of confidential and responsible advisers; persons emi

* Champollion.
Isaiah xiv. 13, 14.

Id. xxxvi. 18-20.

nent for wisdom and prudence. `These were chosen from the priestly caste. "They associated with the monarch, whom they assisted in the performance of his public duties, and to whom they explained, from the sacred books, those moral lessons which were laid down for his conduct, and which he was required to observe; and by their great experience, their knowledge of the past, and their skill in augury and astronomy, they were supposed to presage future events, and to foresee an impending calamity, or the success of any undertaking."*

These are "the princes of Zoan" to whom Jehovah by the prophet Isaiah alludes, and the hollowness of whose pretences He exposes in the following words:

Surely the princes of Zoan are fools; the counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh is become brutish: how say ye unto Pharaoh, I am the son of the wise, the son of ancient kings? Where are they? where are thy wise men ? and let them tell thee now, and let them know what the Lord of hosts hath purposed upon Egypt. The princes of Zoan are become fools; the princes of Noph are deceived: they have also seduced Egypt, even they that are the stay of the tribes thereof.— Isa. xix. 11-13.

We find allusions to the same persons in other passages of the Word of God; as the "Princes of Pharaoh" who commended Sarai before Pharaoh ; † as the "Servants of Pharaoh" who coincided with himself in approbation of the advice of Joseph, and whom he consulted on the propriety of making him governor of Egypt; and again as "the House of Pharaoh," whose mediation Joseph sought on the occasion of his father's decease, and as "the Elders Gen. xli. 37, 38.

* Wilkinson, i. 257.

+ Gen. xii. 15.

of his (Pharaoh's) house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt," who accompanied the funeral procession into Canaan.*

The civil dignity enjoyed by the Egyptian priesthood will suggest the reason of the matrimonial alliance formed by Pharaoh for his Hebrew vizier. "The name Potiphera Пет-р& (he who belongs to the sun,) is very common on the Egyptian monuments. This name is especially appropriate for the Priest of On or Heliopolis. Since Pharaoh evidently intended by this act to establish the power bestowed on Joseph upon a firm basis, it is implied in this account,-first, that the Egyptian high-priests occupied a very important position, and secondly, that among them the high-priest of On was the most distin

guished. Both these points are confirmed by history. ... . It is scarcely necessary to mention that the stations of the high-priests in the principal cities in Egypt were first and highest. They were in a manner hereditary princes, who stood by the side of the kings, and enjoyed almost the same prerogatives. Their statues were placed in the temples.

When they are introduced into history, they appear as the first persons of the state. Among the Egyptian colleges of priests, that at On or Heliopolis took the precedence; consequently the high-priest of On was the most distinguished. The great antiquity of religious worship at On is also attested by the monuments."*

We learn from the following passage, that in the pressure of the seven years of famine, the people of * Hengstenberg, Egypt and Moses, § ii.

Egypt sold to the government the right of possession in land, which before had been freehold, but which henceforward was leased to the cultivators on the consideration of one-fifth part of the annual produce.

When that year was ended, they came unto him the second year, and said unto him, We will not hide it from my lord, how that our money is spent ; my lord also hath our herds of cattle; there is not ought left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our lands: wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh and give us seed, that we may live, and not die, that the land be not desolate. And Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh ; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them: so the land became Pharaoh's. And as for the people, he removed them to cities from one end of the borders of Egypt even to the other end thereof. Only the land of the priests bought he not; for the priests had a portion assigned them of Pharaoh, and did eat their portion which Pharaoh gave them: wherefore they sold not their lands. Then Joseph said unto the people, behold, I have bought you this day and your land for Pharaoh ; lo, here is seed for you, and ye shall sow the land. And it shall come to pass in the increase, that ye shall give the fifth part unto Pharaoh, and four parts shall be your own, for seed of the field, and for your food, and for them of your households, and for food for your little ones. And they said, Thou hast saved our lives: let us find grace in the sight of my lord, and we will be Pharaoh's servants. And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt unto this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth part; except the land of the priests only, which became not Pharaoh's. Gen. xlvii. 18-26.

To this general transfer of possession, the priesthood formed an exception, and that, as we are expressly told, because their subsistence depended not upon the produce of their land, but upon a public allowance, a "portion which Pharoah gave them," so that the cause which induced the other classes to alienate their property, affected not the priests, but as long as the king had bread, they also would have