Yacob And All His Family Go To Egypt
Yoseph's eleven brothers set out again for the land of Canaan. It was an imposing caravan: there was a herd of donkeys laden with sacks of corn and presents for the patriarch; there were beasts of burden with the provisions necessary for Yacob's approaching journey, and Egyptian wagons to transport the wives and children across the sandy or stony plains of Paran and Zin between the Negeb and the Delta.
On their arrival at Hebron Yacob's sons told him the glad and wonderful news: 'Yoseph is still alive. Indeed it is he who is administrator of the whole land of Egypt.'16 The old man, who in the first part of his life as a shepherd had frequently tricked his fellows, refused to believe the news. But he was soon obliged to yield before the evidence, the rich presents and sumptuous gifts sent by his son, whom he had believed lost for ever.
For nomads the move from Hebron to the borders of the Delta, a mere 220 miles of traveling, presented no difficulties. The tents were folded and the baggage was loaded on the donkeys. Sons and grandsons, wives and concubines, were not long in setting off; they were accompanied, of course, by the throng of servants, slaves, and shepherds whose responsibility it was to lead the flocks. In short, the whole establishment took the road to Mizraim, as the Semites called the land of Egypt.
A halt was called at Beersheba, the set apart spot where formerly Abraham had camped. At a later date Yitschaq too had dwelt there for a time. And it was from here, it will be remembered, that, after his serious disagreement with Esau, Yacob left for Haran in Upper Mesopotamia to go to his uncle Laban. Beersheba was the obvious place to halt; it enabled Yacob to offer a sacrifice to YAHWEH. In answer YAHWEH appeared to the patriarch; HE enjoined on HIS chosen one to continue the journey to Egypt when his descendants would become a great nation. In addition HE told Yacob that his son Yoseph's hand should close his eyes.
16 Not the whole, only that part contained within the Delta, but by no means an insignificant part.
Establishment Of The Hebrew Clan In The Land Of Goshen
Informed of the approach of his family Yoseph took his chariot and went out to meet his father. The meeting was a touching one. Shortly afterwards, through Yoseph's good offices, Yacob was officially presented to Pharaoh who received him with special kindness, giving orders that his minister's relations should be assured the very best living conditions. But where was the Hebrew camp established?
In the land of Goshen, according to the topographical details given on several occasions17 by Yoseph (Yahwistic tradition); 'In the best region of the land, namely the land of Rameses', Pharaoh ordered (Priestly tradition).18
Once again we have two discordant versions which, as usual, the scribe has not been concerned to harmonize. The arguments between scholars may well be imagined but now the problem seems to be settled. It is thought that the Hyksos Pharaohs allowed the Yisraelites to settle in the Wadi Tumilat region (see map below). Geographical information about this region will not be out of place here.
To begin with it must be explained why the Scriptures speaks of the land of Rameses. This is an anachronism, though almost an excusable one. A fair number of the Yisraelites, but at a much later period, did dwell in the land of Rameses, that is in the region near Avaris which was for a time the Hyksos' capital.19 The Yisraelites, or at least some of them, had been deported there by the Egyptian national forces after the expulsion of the Hyksos, and had been obliged to work as slaves on the profane and religious buildings put up to the glory of Rameses II. It was from this 'land of Rameses' that the Yisraelites left for their Exodus in about 1200 under the leadership of Mosheh.
It can be well understood how the name of this 'land of Rameses', the accursed country, remained fixed in the ancestral memory of the Yisraelites, while through a very human psychological process they gradually forgot the existence of the land of Goshen where, free and happy, they had lived for several centuries right at the beginning of their Egyptian adventure.
The land of Goshen (or Gessen as some writers spell it) was very suitable for a clan engaged in sheep rearing. It was a rather unusual kind of steppe land extending to the east from the easternmost branch of the Nile (the Pelusiac branch) between the last branch of the river and the line of lakes (Bahlia and the Bitter Lakes). The region could be regarded as a kind of no-man's-land separating the Delta from the wilderness. As was said above it was in a particular corner -the Wadi Tumilat -that Yacob's family settled. Along the whole length of this wadi, nowadays occupied by the canal connecting the Pelusiac branch with Lake Timsah, excavators have found traces of a channel supplied by the Nile which at the time of the Pharaohs enabled this little valley to be flooded every year (June to September). The Tumilat steppe which had originally been infertile changed in the autumn into fertile cultivated land. Of course, the owners of the flocks took their sheep to the nearby pastures which were not reached by the flooding.
We possess interesting information on the subject of the agricultural wealth of the Wadi Tumilat derived from the violent recriminations of the Yisraelites when they were very dissatisfied (to say the least) at the interminable stay imposed on them by Mosheh in the dry harsh plain of Sinai. The Book of Bemidbar relates a series of protests revealing a somewhat disquieting spirit of revolt. think of the fish we used to eat free in Egypt 'they complained, 'the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic! Further on we discover in the same book, and for the same reasons, their fond memories of the land of Goshen where they had only to sow in order to harvest and where figs, wine and pomegranates grew. To maintain the courage of the people marching in the Sinai wilderness Mosheh spoke of the Promised Land and told them of their entry soon into a land where milk and honey flowed (Shemoth 3:8,17). But he was careful to tell the Hebrews that they were not to count on finding in Canaan so wonderful a land as Goshen: 'For the land which you are to enter and make your own is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you sowed your seed and watered it by tread [with a water wheel, a primitive apparatus operated by foot and used to raise the irrigation water from the streams] like a vegetable garden' (Devarim 11:10).
Although this part of the Delta should not be regarded as the best land of Egypt (to repeat Pharaoh's exaggerated description) it is obvious that in the eyes of these Arameans, obliged to go from pasture to pasture in search of grass which only too often proved to be burnt up by the sun, the land of Goshen in general and the Wadi Tumilat in particular rapidly came to be regarded almost as a sort of fairy land.
In this frontier province, a little apart from the life of Egypt, Yoseph's tribe was able to increase and multiply in comfort. And this geographical situation away from the important centres enabled Yisrael to remain shepherds, for they were gardeners or farmers only from time to time. In addition, as Maspero pertinently remarks, in this corner of the country, isolated from the principal manifestations of Egyptian civilization, 'the Hebrews did not leave YAHWEH of their fathers to bow down before the triads and enneads of the Egyptians'.
At this point the scribe, drawing on the Kohenly code (which always emphasizes the genealogical factor), inserted a list of the names of Yisrael's sons who went to Egypt with the Patriarch Yacob. Together with Yoseph and the two sons 20 that he had at this time by his wife Asenath, the number of Yacob's male descendants amounted to seventy.
17 'You shall live in the country of Goshen,' Yoseph informs Yacob through Yahudah (Gen 45: 10) Yoseph had his chariot made ready and went up to meet his father Yisrael in Goshen (Gen 46 29) 'You will be able to stay In the land of Goshen' (Gen. 46 34) 'My father and brothers… are now In the land of Goshen,' Yoseph told Pharaoh in speaking of the members of his tribe (Gen 47 1).
18 'I will give you the best the land of Egypt offers, and you shall feed on the fat of the land' -it is Pharaoh who is speaking -(Gen 45 18) Yoseph gave them a holding in the land of Egypt, and in the best region of the land, namely the land of Rameses, according to Pharaoh's command Gen. 47 11)
19 In succession this city bore the names of Hotuarit (of which the Greeks made Avaris). of Pi- Rameses (under the Rameses -1300-1100). and lastly of Tanis.
20 At the time of the arrival of Yacob's caravan in the land of Goshen, Yoseph had two sons by his wife Asenath, Manasseh ('he has made me forget,' that is YAHWEH has made me forget my sorrow and all my father's family) and Ephraim ('he has made me fruitful' to which must be added 'in the land of my misfortune')
THE EASTERN DELTA OF THE NILE showing the Land of Goshen
Yoseph Index Yoseph Sitemap Scripture History Through the Ages Yoseph Egyptian Adventure Yoseph Scriptures and Dreams The Plot Against Yoseph Yoseph's Brothers Cruel Seqel Yoseph In The House Of Potiphar Yoseph In Prison Pharaoh's Strange Dreams Yoseph Slave Becomes Viceroy Of Egypt Yoseph's Unexpected Family Reunion The Ten Brothers Before Yoseph Yacob Goes To Egypt Yoseph and the Death Of Yacob YAHWEH's Sword History Further Anxieties Of Yoseph's Brothers Yisraelites Remain In Egypt Period Of The Great Persecution