Download Goshen - the land where Israel became a nation

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The Testimony, June 2004
point of difference in this type is the fact that
Samson betrayed his vows. The Lord Jesus kept
his allegiance to God, even to the end. Like the
Lord, Samson was tortured, humiliated and
taunted by his enemies.
The spiritual quality of Samson shines brightest, not when he is at the zenith of his power, but
when he is at his lowest, for he saw past the
anguish to the mercy of the Most High God. Just
as his shame is written for all to see, so is his
faith, in his naming in the roll of honour in Hebrews 11. We do not remember David for his
sin, but for his faith. Let us accord the same
honour to Samson.
Pat Wilson
Nottingham
Goshen
The land where Israel became a nation*
Deborah Hurn
G
OSHEN, OR THE land of Rameses, was
the district in which the descendants of
Jacob settled upon their migration to
Egypt (Gen. 45:10; 47:11). From the description
of Jacob and Joseph’s reunion it is clear that
Goshen lay between Egypt and southern Canaan along the nomads’ route, the Way of Shur.
As Jacob approached Egypt from Beersheva
(46:5), Joseph went out to him from the palace,
and they met each other in Goshen (v. 29). Goshen also lay at the end of the Way of the Wilderness of the Red Sea, from Sinai and Arabia
(Ex. 13:18). The region is sometimes described as
though it was separate from Egypt proper, as,
for example, with the last seven plagues, which
did not affect the habitations or possessions of
the Hebrews.
The land of Goshen must, however, have bordered on the Egyptian royal precincts of that era
(Gen. 45:10). Regular contact between the Israelites and the Egyptians is recorded from the time
of Joseph, indicating a convenient proximity.
During the oppression, Moses’ mother placed
the baby’s ark in the river at the place where
Pharaoh’s daughter came to bathe, and returned
home (a short distance) leaving Miriam to keep
watch (Ex. 2:4,5). When Moses decided to visit
his brethren and witness their toil, he came on
successive days (vv. 11,13). During the time of
the plagues, Moses went back and forth between
the Hebrew district and Pharaoh’s palace at short
notice. When the last great plague had obtained
their release, the Israelites had Egyptian neighbours (other than the mixed multitude) from
whom they ‘borrowed’ valuable items (12:35).
Crops, flocks and herds
While in Egypt, the Israelites lived in houses
with lintels and doorposts (Ex 12:22,23), indicating that they were now permanent residents and
not nomads. They also practised agriculture in
addition to their flock- and herd-rearing heritage (Num. 11:5; Deut. 11:10). Sheep may be adequately grazed on wilderness pastures, but
cattle are kept close to agricultural settlements
as there is generally not enough pasture in semiarid regions. The primary use of cattle was the
cultivation of the land: ploughing, sowing and
transportation. They were indispensable to ancient agricultural societies and were much in
evidence throughout the Nile delta, as they are
today.
Generally, each farm or household would have
had an ox or two to work the crops, and Pharaoh
owned large herds (Gen. 47:6). As crops, sheep
and cattle require quite different conditions, land
suitable for all these uses could only be found
at the interface of the fertile region and the wilderness.
To the Egyptians every shepherd was an
“abomination”, as Joseph warned his brethren
(46:34). The Egyptians owned flocks (47:17; Ex.
9:3), so it was evidently not sheep they abhorred,
but rather the work of the shepherd. This was a
form of cultural elitism, and has varied according to the material development of societies in
all eras. Whereas the nomadic Semites considered that possession of, and dependence upon,
*
Quotations from the RSV unless stated otherwise.
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The Testimony, June 2004
flocks was honourable, the Egyptians (Hamites)
saw such a lifestyle as foreign and less civilised
than farming, preferring to leave the work of
raising sheep to slaves or their poorer citizens.1
Israel’s Egyptian neighbours in Goshen may have
been of this sort, and, as the lower class in Egyptian society, had the most to gain by joining
Israel in the flight from Egypt as the “mixed
multitude” (12:38).
Moses, raised with Egyptian values, may have
had to adjust his outlook on shepherding when
he kept the flocks of Jethro, a Semitic Kenite.
Among the modern Bedouin, whose main occupation has always been stock rearing, the task of
shepherding is now regarded as very lowly, and
women and children usually attend the flocks.
This may be related to the fact that Bedouin now
drive pick-up trucks, mount solar hot-water tanks
by their tents and watch pay-TV. Values also
changed for the ancient Hebrews as their society
settled and developed. By the time of the Israelite kingdom, David’s role as the family’s shepherd showed that he was the least among his
brothers (1 Sam. 17:28; 1 Chron. 17:7).
Security concerns
Goshen was also, perhaps surprisingly, described
as “the best of the land” (Gen. 45:18; 47:6,11),
implying a reliable source of water and fertile
soil. It might be asked why the best of the land
was not already filled with Egyptians, and was
both Pharaoh’s and Joseph’s choice for settlement by nomadic people (47:5,6). From a geographical point of view it is helpful to remember
that deserts surround Egypt on all sides. The
borders were difficult to penetrate except for
one natural, convenient opening, which formed
the gateway to the countries to the east.
The Egyptians avoided settling in proximity
to Canaan for fear of war, and preferred to live
in relative safety ‘behind’ their royal palace, army
base, store cities 2 and administration centre. In
this early period, these were all situated along
the ancient Pelusiac branch of the Nile, which
formed the eastern border of the delta. No one
wanted to be caught by an invading army beyond the centre of population and defensible
borders. Moreover, the great majority of Egyptians were farmers, as the economy was completely based upon agriculture.
There is no other country in the world quite
like Egypt, in that its whole existence is dependent on one physical feature—the river. Without
the Nile the nation of Egypt could not exist. The
summer monsoon rains in the mountains of
Ethiopia and the southern Sudan cause the annual inundation, though the ancient Egyptians
never understood the reason. Most of the land in
the Nile valley and the delta remained under
water for some ten weeks between August and
November, and each year a fresh deposit of sediment rich in organic matter was left behind.3
The years when there was a satisfactory inundation of the Nile were ‘good years’, while a poor
inundation, or none at all, meant famine or ‘bad
years’.
Hence, for reasons of subsistence and security, the people generally clung to the heart of
the delta, where there were “rivers . . . canals
. . . ponds, and . . . pools of water” (Ex. 7:19).
Except for border fortresses that were built along
the routes, we may assume that the frontier region of Goshen was not intensively inhabited
prior to the Israelite immigration.
The Egyptians were very security conscious,
for they had much to protect. The perennial fertility of the Nile gave them the wealth and the
free time necessary to develop their culture to a
very high level. Other nations admired and coveted their power and self-sufficiency. Thus Joseph was acting very true to the type of Egyptian
officials when he accused his brothers of being
spies (Gen. 42:9,14), and the men rightly trembled with fear over the unpredictable nature of
his apparent paranoia.
Much later, when the nation of Israel had
multiplied and spread throughout the land of
Goshen, the great fear of the Egyptian populace
was that the Hebrews might join with Egypt’s
enemies and fight against them. Consequently
they were “in dread of the people of Israel” (Ex.
1:8-12). The ordinary Egyptians truly suffered
from the devastating plagues and, when Pharaoh finally relented, they sent the Israelites “out
of the land in haste; for they said, ‘We are all
dead men’” (12:33). The unthinkable had finally
happened, and mighty Egypt was ruined (10:7).
After the Hyksos invaded the delta,4 the Egyptian capital was transferred to Thebes in Upper
Egypt (in the south) for fear of further conquests
1.
2.
3.
4.
The Sinai Journeys, Har-El, M., 1983, p. 306.
The enslaved Israelites built two store cities for Pharaoh, Raamses and Pithom (Ex. 1:11).
In the Shadow of the Pyramids: Egypt During the Old
Kingdom, Malek, J., 1986, pp. 14-15.
This is on the basis of the revised chronology put
forward by Immanuel Velikovsky in Ages in Chaos.
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The Testimony, June 2004
The function of the ancient stream has been replaced by the Ismailia Canal
Bolbitine
Bucolic
that lies between one and
Canobic
five kilometres to the north
Mendesian
of the stream bed (see picPelusian
ture opposite). With this
Tanite
‘sweet water’ the region to
the west of Ismailia is now
irrigated, and supports agricultural villages, unlike
Ismailia
the other city districts of
Zoan?
Zagazig
L. Timsah
the Suez Canal, which are
Canal
Wadi Tumilat
deserts. Lake Timsah, howBitter
ever, has been a salt-water
Lakes
Succoth
lake since 1862, when water
from the Mediterranean Sea
filled the Canal, then constructed as far as Ismailia.
In ancient times the valley served as a major transit
route into Egypt from the
Map of the Nile Delta region, showing the Wadi Tumilat where the
land of Goshen was situated.
eastern deserts, providing
fresh water and pasture a
by strangers, and the royal “field of Zoan” (Ps.
full seventy kilometres before the delta was
78:12,43, AV) lay desolate for many years.5
reached. It also served as the main eastern gateway to Egypt for nomads wishing to obtain protection from the kings of Egypt in order to keep
A river valley
themselves and their stock alive.7 Lush agriculIn the view of most major scholars, the land of
ture and abundant fresh water must have been a
Goshen is centred in the Wadi Tumilat (meaning
welcome sight to desert-weary tribes fleeing
‘water’), a narrow fertile valley lying fifty-six
drought conditions. The Bedouin of Sinai still
kilometres (thirty-five miles) to the north of the
use Wadi Tumilat whenever they come and go
latitude of Cairo. It stretches from the edge of
from the delta region.8
the Nile Delta, near the town of Zagazig, to the
That the most ancient Egyptian capital lay at
eastern frontier of Egypt as far as the Suez Isththe end of the nomads’ route to Egypt through a
mus, a distance of about sixty-five kilometres
fertile valley is found in a ‘lost’ Biblical reference
(forty miles). Wadi Tumilat, about three kilometo Zoan. The Jordan Valley of Abraham’s time is
tres (two miles) wide and with a cultivable area
described as “well watered every where, before
about one-hundredth the size of the delta,6 conthe LORD [Yahweh] destroyed Sodom and Gotains the only lateral stream of the Nile. That is,
morrah, even as the garden of the LORD [Yahweh],
it separates out from the other generally northlike the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar”
flowing branches of the Nile Delta, and flows
(Gen. 13:10, AV). Zoar was the name of a city
east towards the Suez depression.
associated with Sodom, but the structure of the
At the far end of Wadi Tumilat, in the line
sentence here indicates that an Egyptian city is
of the Suez Canal, lies Lake Timsah (meaning
‘crocodile’), with the large, modern city of
Ismailia on its northwestern shore. A contempo5. Biblical Archaeology, Wright, G. E., 1962, pp. 58-59,
rary road and railway run parallel to the wadi,
cited by Har-El, op. cit., p. 305.
traversing the length of ‘Goshen’. Paved and
6.
Har-El,
op. cit., p. 208.
constructed between 1848 and 1863 by Abbas I
7. As detailed in Papyrus Anastasi V, Ancient Near Eastand Sa’id Pasha, they reach from the Zagazig
ern Texts Relating to the Old Testament, Pritchard, J. B.,
region on the Pelusiac branch of the Nile east1954, p. 259, cited by Har-El, op. cit., p. 307.
ward to Ismailia, continuing thence southward
8. Van Seters, J., Correspondence, Biblical Archaeology
to Suez.
Review, Jan./Feb. 1982, p. 12.
Mouths of the river
Sebennyt
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The Testimony, June 2004
The Ismailia Canal near Tel Maskhuta, the Succoth of Exodus 12:37.
intended. Thus ‘Zoar’ should probably read
‘Zoan’, the Hebrew letters resh and nun (in final
form) being easily confused. To illustrate the
legendary original fertility of the Jordan Valley,
Moses compares it with the approach through
his native Goshen (Wadi Tumilat) to the lush
“field of Zoan” (Ps. 78:12) in Egypt (cf. Num.
13:22).
“The best of the land”
Further support for the location of Goshen in the
Wadi Tumilat lies in its description as “the best
of the land” (Gen. 45:18; 47:6,11). The quality of
the alluvial soils eroded from the Nile at high
tide and deposited on the banks of the wadi
sustained its fertility. The valley has comfortable climatic conditions relative to the zones in
the south of the delta, and very few swamps due
to its narrowness and slope towards the depression of the eastern lakes. Hence the Israelites
were able to cultivate not only irrigated plants—
cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic
(Num. 11:5)—but cereal crops, from which came
the straw for brick-making. Besides all this, they
had an abundance of ‘free’ fish available to them
(v. 5), freshwater Nile species that had migrated
to Lake Timsah, and possibly also ocean varieties found in the Bitter Lakes extension of the
Suez Gulf.9 Despite their enslavement, the people of Israel thrived throughout the Egyptian
period, “and grew, and multiplied exceedingly”
(Gen. 47:27, AV; cf. Ex. 1:7).
Another advantage to the Israelites was the
proximity of Goshen to the eastern lakes, where
there was fresh pasture throughout the year for
both sheep and cattle. Only in this district were
conditions suitable (that is, dry enough) for sheep
farming. The tribes of Israel were possibly strung
along the length of the valley, with Levi and
Judah close to the delta and the royal residence,
and Reuben, Gad and Manasseh further east
where they maintained large flocks and herds
(Num. 32:1; Deut. 3:12,19). Fertile soil and reliable water, as well as perfect conditions nearby
for their livestock and ready access to all the
news from the eastern countries, meant, in short,
that the people of Israel had it all . . . except their
freedom.
9.
“Badgers’ [dugong, NIV] skins” (AV) and the scarlet
dye of the murex mollusc are both ocean products
used in the construction of the tabernacle (Ex. 25:5).