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Show THE DATE OF THE EXODUS. " It Would Seem to JAe Between the Tears 1430 and 1300 B. C. Although the monuments and papyri give us no direct information upon the subject of the exodus, they do indirectly indirect-ly indicate a certain period within which it must have taken place. Thoth-mes Thoth-mes III, who was the most powerful king of that dynasty (the eighteenth) which finally drove tho Hyksos invaders invad-ers out of Eypt and reunited the whole country under one scepter, extended his conquests as far as Mesopotamia, overrunning over-running Palestine on his way. He left lists of the conquered nations, but does not mention the Israelites among thena. Rameses II of the nineteenth dvnastv. the supposed oppressor,, who reigned about 200 years later, also subdued Palestine and left lists of the conquered peoples, but he, again, does not mention men-tion the Israelites among them. What is perhaps still more important impor-tant is that, while the Israelites have left records of invasions by Mesopota-inians, Mesopota-inians, Moabites,Canaanites, Midianites and Philistines, they do not mention any invasion by tho Egyptians, and the conclusion is that the Israelites were not settled on tho west side of the Jordan Jor-dan till after the wars waged by Rameses Ram-eses II at the commencement of his reign, which began not earlier than , 13S3 B. C, or, as some now say, 1206 B.C. It has been attempted to explain this difficulty away by suggesting that Rameses Ram-eses II kept closo to the 6eacoast on his march through Palestine and did not strike inland till he was some distance to the north of the Israelites, but it is inconceivable that he should not have secured his long line of communications by establishing posts so far inland that they must have been brought into contact con-tact with the Hebrews if the latter had at that time been settled in their own country. The earliest date, therefore, at which the Egyptian history will permit the exodus to have taken place, even when full allowance is made for the time spent by the Jews in the wilderness and in conquering Palestine, would seem to be about 1430 B. C, while, if the shorter chronology be adopted, it could not have been much earlier than 1300 B. C. Scribner's Magazine. |