The exodus would have been impossible if Joseph's bones had remained
behind. Therefore Moses made it his concern to seek their
resting-place, while the people had but the one thought of gathering in
the treasures of the Egyptians. [1] But it was not an easy matter to
find Joseph's body. Moses knew that he had been interred in the
mausoleum of the Egyptian kings, but there were so many other bodies
there that it was impossible to identify it. Moses' mother Jochebed
came to his aid. She led him to the very spot where Joseph's bones lay.
As soon as he came near them, he knew them to be what he was seeking,
by the fragrance they exhaled and spread around. [2] But his
difficulties were not at an end. The question arose, how he was to
secure possession of the remains. Joseph's coffin had been sunk far
down into the ground, and he knew not how to raise it from the depths.
Standing at the edge of the grave, he spoke these words. "Joseph, the
time hath come whereof thou didst say, 'God will surely visit you, and
ye shall carry up my bones from hence.'" No sooner had this reminder
dropped from his lips than the coffin stirred and rose to the surface.
And even yet the difficulties in Moses' way were not removed wholly.
The Egyptian magicians had stationed two golden dogs at Joseph's
coffin, to keep watch,. and they barked vehemently if anyone ventured
close to it. The noise they made was so loud it could be heard
throughout the land, from end to end, a distance equal to a forty day's
journey. When Moses came near the coffin, the dogs emitted their
warning sound, but he silenced them at once with words, "Come, ye
people, and behold the miracle! The real, live dogs did not bark, and
these counterfeit dogs produced by magic attempt it!" [3] What he said
about real, live dogs and their refraining from barking had reference
to the fact that the dogs of the Egyptians did not move their tongues
against any of the children of Israel, through they had barked all the
time the people were engaged in burying the bodies of their smitten
first-born. As a reward God gave the Israelites the law, to cast to the
dogs the flesh they themselves are forbidden to eat, for the Lord
withholds due recompense from none of His creatures. [4] Indeed, the
dogs received a double reward, for their excrements are used in tanning
the hides from which the Torah scrolls are made, as well as the Mezuzot
and the phylacteries. [5]
Joseph's coffin in the possession of Moses, the march of the Israelites
could begin. The Egyptians put no manner of obstacle in their way.
Pharaoh himself accompanied them, to make sure that they were actually
leaving the land, [6] and now he was so angry at his counselors for
having advised against letting the Israelites depart that he slew them.
[7]
For several reasons God did not permit the Israelites to travel along
the straight route to the promised land. He desired them to go to Sinai
first and take the law upon themselves there, and, besides, the time
divinely appointed for the occupation of the land by the Gentiles had
not yet elapsed. Over and above all this, the long sojourn in the
wilderness was fraught with profit for the Israelites, spiritually and
materially. If they had reached Palestine directly after leaving Egypt,
they would have devoted themselves entirely each to the cultivation of
his allotted parcel of ground, and no time would have been left for the
study of the Torah. In the wilderness they were relieved of the
necessity of providing for their daily wants, and they would give all
their efforts to acquiring the law. On the whole, it would not have
been advantageous to process at once to the Holy Land and take
possession thereof, for when the Canaanites heard that the Israelites
were making for Palestine, they burnt the crops, felled the trees,
destroyed the buildings, and choked the water springs, all in order to
render the land uninhabitable. Hereupon God spake, and said: "I did not
promise their fathers to give a devastated land unto their see, but a
land full of all good things. I will lead them about in the wilderness
for forty years, and meanwhile the Canaanites will have time to repair
the damage they have done." [8] Moreover, the many miracles preformed
for the Israelites during the journey through the wilderness had made
their terror to fall upon the other nations, and their hearts melted,
and there remained no more spirit in any man. They did not venture to
attack the Israelites, and the conquest of the land was all the easier.
[9]
Nor does this exhaust the list of reasons for preferring the longer
route through the desert. Abraham had sworn a solemn oath to live at
peace with the Philistines during a certain period, and the end of the
term had not yet arrived. Besides, there was the fear that the sight of
the land of the Philistines would awaken sad recollections in the
Israelites, and drive them back into Egypt speedily, for once upon a
time it had been the scene of a bitter disappointment to them. they had
spent one hundred and eighty years in Egypt, in peace and prosperity,
not in the least molested by the people. Suddenly Ganon came, a
descendant of Joseph, of the tribe of Ephraim, and he spake, "The Lord
hat appeared unto me, and He bade me lead you forth out of Egypt." The
Ephraimites were the only ones to heed his words. Proud of their royal
lineage as direct descendants of Joseph, and confident to their valor
in war, for they were great heroes, they left the land and betook
themselves to Palestine. [10] They Carried only weapons and gold and
silver. They had taken no provisions, because they expected to buy food
and drink on the way or capture them by force if the owners would not
part with them for money.
After a day's march they found themselves in the neighborhood of Gath,
at the place where the shepherds employed by the residents of the city
gathered with the flocks. the Ephraimites asked them to sell them some
sheep, which they expected to slaughter in order to satisfy their
hunger with them, but the shepherds refused to have business dealings
with them, saying, "Are the sheep ours, or does the cattle belong to
us, that we could part with them for money?" Seeing that they could not
gain their point by kindness, the Ephraimites used force. The outcries
of the shepherds brought the people of Gath to their aid. A violent
encounter, lasting a whole day, took place between the Israelites and
the Philistines. The people of Gath realized that alone they would not
be able to offer successful resistance to the Ephraimites, and they
summoned the people of the other Philistine cities to join them. The
following day an army of forty thousand stood ready to oppose the
Ephraimites. Reduced in strength, as they were, by their three days'
fast, they were exterminated root and branch. Only ten of them escaped
with their bare life, and returned to Egypt, to bring Ephraim word of
the disaster that had overtaken his posterity, and he mourned many
days.
This abortive attempt of the Ephraimites to leave Egypt was the first
occasion for oppressing Israel. Thereafter the Egyptians exercised
force and vigilance to keep them in their land. As for the disaster of
the Ephraimites, it was well-merited punishment, because they had paid
no heed to the wish of the father Joseph, who had adjured his
descendants solemnly on his deathbed not to think of quitting the land
until the redeemer should appear. Their death was followed by disgrace,
for their bodies lay unburied for many years on the battlefield near
Gath, and the purpose of God in directing the Israelites to choose the
longer route from Egypt to Canaan, was to spare them the sight of those
dishonored corpses. Their courage might have deserted them, and out of
apprehension of sharing the fate of their brethren they might have
hastened back to the land of slavery. [11]