DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14564#0029
INTRODUCTORY.
'3
stranger. Thus the Hebrew prophets, writing in days
when the memory of the sojourn had passed away, take
the Nile in flood-time as a figure for the onrush of a
mighty army of invasion (Jer. xlvi. 7, 8), and also for
utter destruction when a land is swept clean of its in- ,
habitants (Amos ix. 5).
The desert-like Egypt had a twofold aspect to the
Hebrews as it has to all who have since known it. To
the wayfarer it is terrible in its loneliness, its vastness, its
silence, its lack of all that makes the earth pleasant to
the eye with signs of life and verdure, with offer of food
and water. It is a dry and thirsty land, and that means
more than all the rest when the sun beats with unremit-
ting force till the earth is as heated iron beneath a sky of
molten brass. Yet it had another face. There have
always been those who chose the desert life because they *
desired to leave mankind for a time to be alone with *
God. Abraham preferred the border of the desert to the
pleasant plain of Jordan. Moses fled to the desert for
those many years in which he prepared to be the leader
and lawgiver. Elijah went to Horeb when he would
solve the question whether he was indeed the last of the
faithful. In the desert the Baptist passed his early days,
'3
stranger. Thus the Hebrew prophets, writing in days
when the memory of the sojourn had passed away, take
the Nile in flood-time as a figure for the onrush of a
mighty army of invasion (Jer. xlvi. 7, 8), and also for
utter destruction when a land is swept clean of its in- ,
habitants (Amos ix. 5).
The desert-like Egypt had a twofold aspect to the
Hebrews as it has to all who have since known it. To
the wayfarer it is terrible in its loneliness, its vastness, its
silence, its lack of all that makes the earth pleasant to
the eye with signs of life and verdure, with offer of food
and water. It is a dry and thirsty land, and that means
more than all the rest when the sun beats with unremit-
ting force till the earth is as heated iron beneath a sky of
molten brass. Yet it had another face. There have
always been those who chose the desert life because they *
desired to leave mankind for a time to be alone with *
God. Abraham preferred the border of the desert to the
pleasant plain of Jordan. Moses fled to the desert for
those many years in which he prepared to be the leader
and lawgiver. Elijah went to Horeb when he would
solve the question whether he was indeed the last of the
faithful. In the desert the Baptist passed his early days,