NOTICES IN EXODUS.
147
further appears, from several short inscriptions, that of the city was Pa-Turn, or Pithom ; and there is no reasonable doubt that one of the two cities built by the Israelites has been laid bare, and answers completely to the description given of it. Of the twin city, Ramescs, the remains have not yet been identified. know, however, from the inscription, that it was in the immediate vicinity of Tanis, and that it was built perhaps in part by Seti I., but mainly by his son Ranieses II. It lends additional interest to the discovery of Pithom that the city is found to be built almost entirely of brick. It was in brick-making that the Israelites are said in the Book of Exodus (ch. i. 14 ; v. 7-19) to have been principally said to have been occupied to employed. They are also some extent " in mortar " (ch. i. 14) and the bricks of the store-chambers of Pithom are " laid with mortar in regular " " tiers." * They made their bricks with straw until no straw was given them, when they were reduced to straits It is in accordance with this part of the (ch. v. 7-19). narrative, and sheds some additional light upon it to find that the bricks of the Pithom chambers, while generally containing a certain amount of straw, are in some instances The king's cruelty forced the Israelites destitute of it. to produce in some cases an inferior article. The military organization of the Egyptians at the time of the Exodus is represented as very complete. The king is able, almost at a moment's warning, to take the field with a force of six hundred picked chariots, and numerous others of a more ordinary description, together with a considerable body of footmen. It does not appear that" he has any cav" horsemen in our version alry, for the word translated in riders the chariots. Each squadthe probably designates ron of thirty chariots is apparently under the command of a " " The entire force, large as it is, is (ch. xiv. 7). captain ready to take the field in a few days, for otherwise the Israelites would have got beyond the Egyptian border It acts before the Pharaoh could have overtaken them.
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;
promptly and bravely, and only suffers disaster through circumstances of an abnormal and indeed miraculous character. Now it appears by the Egyptian monuments that the military system was brought to its highest perfection by Seti I. British Quarterly Review, July 1883,
p. 110.