question still remains whether they
are not a correct gloss. The genealogy of Levi's family (Exod. 6:16-20)
decidedly favors the interpretation, which divides the period of four
hundred and thirty years between Egypt and the land of Canaan. To make
this table consistent with a sojourn of four hundred and thirty years in
Egypt, it would be necessary to assume, with some, that it is an
_epitome_, not a full list, which does not seem probable.

Before we can draw any certain argument from the increase of the
people in Egypt, we must know the _basis of calculation_. It
certainly includes not only the seventy male members of Jacob's
family, with their wives and children, but also the families of
their male-servants (circumcised according to the law, Gen.
17:12, 13, and therefore incorporated with the covenant people).
From the notices contained in Genesis, we learn that the
families of the patriarchs were very numerous. Gen. 14:14;
26:14; 32:10; 36:6, 7. If Abraham was able to arm three hundred
and eighteen "trained servants born in his own house," how large
an aggregate may we reasonably assume for the servants connected
with Jacob's family, now increased to seventy male souls? We
must not think of Jacob going into Egypt as a humble personage.
He was a rich and prosperous _emir_, with his children and
grandchildren, and a great train of servants. With the special
blessing of God upon his children and all connected with them,
we need find no insuperable difficulty in their increase to the
number mentioned at the exodus.

Provision was made in a miraculous way for the sustenance of the
Israelites in the wilderness. The question has been raised: How
were their flocks and herds provided for? In answer to this, the
following remarks are in point: (1.) We are not to understand
the word "wilderness" of an absolutely desolate region. It
affords pasturage in patches. Robinson describes Wady Feiran,
northwest of Sinai, as well watered, with gardens of fruit and
palm trees; and he was assured by the Arabs that in rainy
seasons grass springs up over the whole face of the desert. The
whole northeastern part of the wilderness, where the Israelites
seem to have dwelt much of the thirty-eight years, is capable of
cultivation, and is still cultivated by the Arabs in patches.
(2.) The Israelites undoubtedly marched n