Following the brief story of the death of Jo'seph, the history of Is'ra-el is passed over in silence for a period of one hundred and forty-five years. During this century and a half important changes took place among the royal families which ruled E'gypt, and control of the government passed from the hands of the shepherd kings, who were not members of the original E'gyp-tian royalty, back to native E'gyp-tian rulers. The shepherd kings had treated the He'brews with great kindness, but the E'gyp-tian rulers who followed looked upon them with suspicion and jealousy.
In the Covenant promise made to A'bra-ham, the founder of the He'brew people, God had told him that for four hundred and thirty years his descendants should be under the rule of foreign people, and that in the closing years of this period they would be treated very harshly. Two hundred and fifteen years of this time passed before Ja'cob and his family went down into E'gypt. During this time A'bra-ham, his son I'saac, and then Ja'cob and his family, had lived much of the time in Ca'naan, not as owners of the land, but as wandering strangers.
The land of Ca'naan was largely occupied by various tribes which were all known under the general name of Ca'naan-ites. God had promised A'bra-ham that his descendants should be like the stars of the heavens and the sands of the sea in numbers. Up to the time of the removal of Ja'cob to the land of E'gypt the immediate family of the chosen race had increased to only seventy, including Jo'seph and his family. As a result of God's will in keeping them separate from the E'gyp-tians, and in giving them a land of great fertility, the passing of two hundred years had left the family greatly increased in both numbers and prosperity.
Jo'seph had been ruler in E'gypt for ten years before the removal of Ja'cob and his family to that land, being forty years old at the time, and he ruled for seventy years after the settling of his father and brothers in the land of Go'shen. These were years of good fortune for the children of Is'ra-el, and their numbers increased very rapidly. They remained in the land of E'gypt for one hundred and forty-five years after the death of Jo'seph, and for at least half a century of that period continued to enjoy the kindest of treatment from the E'gyp-tian rulers. The hardships and oppression which followed began shortly before the opening of our next story.
During the years of kind treatment by the rulers of E'gypt, and while they were increased in numbers and wealth, the children of Is'ra-el had been faithful in serving the one true God, and had kept themselves almost entirely free from the idol worship practiced in E'gypt. They lived far away from most of the E'gyp-tians, and were careful not to mingle with them in either marriage or religion. Thus the customs and worship of the Is'ra-el-ites was kept pure, and they soon became a large and powerful band of united people. The tribal life of each of Ja'cob's eleven sons, and of the two sons of Jo'seph, was carefully preserved, and each group was determined to do its part in making Is'ra-el a great nation. They all looked forward to the time when they might return to the land of Ca'naan, where they would be free to prosper as the LORD had promised. In these worthy hopes and ambitions the children of Is'ra-el were misunderstood by the E'gyp-tians, who were greatly alarmed by their growth and power, but who were still unwilling to let them leave the country.
