kindly and even with affection, remembering their long sojourn
as strangers in Egypt. Ex. 22:21: "Thou shalt neither vex a stranger,
nor oppress him: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt."

Ex. 23:9: "Also thou shalt not oppress a stranger: for ye know the
heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt."

They were "denizens," but not citizens of Egypt four hundred years.

Lev. 19:33, 34: "And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye
shall not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be
unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself;
for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God."

This class of denizens or sojourners was also to be treated with the
same kindness as their own blood.

Lev. 25:35, 36: "And if thy brother be waxen poor, and fallen in decay
with thee, then thou shalt relieve him: yea, though he be a stranger,
or a _sojourner_; that he may live with thee. Take thou no usury of
him, or increase: but fear thy God: that thy brother may live with
thee."

The sojourner or denizen is here distinguished from the stranger who
had been naturalized, adopting their faith.

3. There was another class called strangers. This class was limited to
the inhabitants of their promised land.

Robinson's Bible Encyclopedia says, on this clause: "'Unto a stranger
thou mayest lend upon usury.' In this place God seems to tolerate
usury toward strangers: that is the Canaanites and other people
devoted to subjection, but not toward such strangers against whom the
Hebrews had no quarrel. To exact usury is here, according to Ambrose,
an act of hostility. It was a kind of waging war with the Canaanites
and ruining them by means of usury."

God withheld his chosen people from taking possession of the promised
land until "their iniquity was full" and the divine sentence of
condemnation had been pronounced against them. They were to be rooted
out of the land and utterly destroyed for their sins, and their land
given to the chosen people. God declared that he would execute his
sentence, driving them out before them, as his people should increase
and be able to occupy the land. Ex. 23:23, 28-32: "For mine angel
shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the Amorites, and the
Jebusite, and I will cut them off. And I will send hornets before
thee, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanite, and the
Hittite, from before thee. I will not dri