- description
- # JACOB BEFORE PHARAOM
## Overview
This entity is a chapter titled *JACOB BEFORE PHARAOM*, extracted from a larger text document. It spans lines 468 to 509 of the source and covers content across pages 70 to 77 of the original publication. The chapter discusses the biblical narrative of Jacob and his family’s migration to Egypt, their settlement in Goshen, and the theological and historical significance of the Israelites' sojourn in Egypt. It is part of the [More Classics](arke:01KFXT0KM64XT6K8W52TDEE0YS) collection, which includes works from the Western literary and religious canon.
## Context
The chapter originates from a structured digital archive where documents are processed and segmented into logical units. It was extracted automatically by the [Structure Extraction](arke:01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H) service and later manually edited. The source file is part of a PDF document likely titled *Bible Stories for Young Readers*, given its thematic content and placement within the [More Classics](arke:01KFXT0KM64XT6K8W52TDEE0YS) collection, which also includes similar religious and educational texts.
## Contents
The chapter explores the story of Jacob’s audience with Pharaoh and the subsequent settlement of his seventy-member household in Egypt during the famine. It emphasizes Joseph’s integrity as the reason for the family’s favorable treatment and highlights the divine purpose behind the Israelites’ prolonged stay in Egypt: to become a distinct, chosen people. The text argues that Egypt, as the most advanced civilization of its time, provided the Israelites with valuable knowledge—such as the rudiments of writing—while they maintained religious and cultural separation, particularly through their identity as shepherds, a class despised by Egyptians. Moses, described as “learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians,” exemplifies this synthesis of divine guidance and worldly knowledge. The chapter concludes with reflections on moral integrity, the preservation of ancestral values, and the importance of learning from others without compromising core principles. It transitions into the next section, titled *Making Bricks in Egypt*, accompanied by an illustrative image ([img-0.jpeg](arke:01KFXV7GFY403HQJQJ7WTD8MV6)).
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- description_title
- JACOB BEFORE PHARAOM
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- 509
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- 2026-01-26T19:08:53.929Z
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- text
- 331 JACOB BEFORE PHARAOM
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332 .
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334 the household of his father, seventy in number, came out of Palestine, and when the aged patriarch stood in Pharaoh’s presence, and when the whole family settled down in the rich land of Goshen, the cause was as plain as noonday—Joseph had been above reproach, and the father was honored for his sake. One of the strongest impulses towards a spotless character and a blameless life should be, in every young person’s mind, the certainty that such a life will bring honor upon every one in the whole family.
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336 Jacob and his sons and all the family remained as a permanent part of the Egyptian population. More than that, they founded in their new home a separate people. Perhaps Joseph had a view to the necessity of keeping the family entirely apart from the Egyptians for all time to come when he told his brothers to tell to Pharaoh their real character—that they were shepherds. Now the Egyptians had once been conquered by a shepherd race, and they despised the
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340 shepherd class ever afterwards. There was therefore no danger of the Egyptians ever intermarrying with the descendants of Jacob. The Israelites grew strong from century to century, developing with great rapidity, preserving their faith and ancestral memories and attachments, and never acquiring the least sympathy with the corrupt faith of the people among whom they lived.
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342 Did the Israelites gain anything by remaining in Egypt? Would it not have been just as well if they had gone back to Palestine after the famine was over, or have developed into a nation there? Not at all. God had a purpose in their remaining in Egypt. They were to be a chosen people. They were to be the teacher of all nations. They were to be a nation which should possess the truth of God for universal distribution. They were to be the people out of whom should come the Messiah for the salvation of the world. Now for this purpose the Israelites were not only to be kept separate from all nations,
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345 so as to preserve their own pure faith, but should learn lessons of perpetual value from the greatest, the most learned, the most advanced nation of the world.
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347 This is just what Egypt was. The Egyptian civilization was far beyond that of any other people. The great Israelitish deliverer, Moses, was “learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.” He was a direct descendant of Jacob, and at the same time he knew all that Egypt could give him. He was therefore able to lead, to teach, and to establish, as God’s best instrument, the legislation for the Jewish people, and through them for the whole later world.
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349 But it is the peculiarity of the good disciple that he can often improve upon the lessons of an earlier day. While the Israelites learned much in Egypt, they improved upon some of their lessons. For example, they learned in Egypt the art of writing, but only its very elements. The square letters of the Hebrew alphabet they acquired there, but these were little
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352 more than hieroglyphic signs. But the Israelites developed them afterwards into an alphabet, and founded for all time the principle of regular writing, or the making a sign to represent a sound. But in the joint matter of religion and philosophy the people of Israel received their instruction only from the divine Teacher. When they had been long enough in the country to grow into a vast people, and had learned all that they needed for the fulfilment of their great mission as the world's teacher, the proposition for their deliverance was made by the oppressive ruler of Egypt himself. The Israelites were cruelly treated. They made ready for their departure, escaped from the despotic Pharaoh of the time, and started on their pilgrimage for the Land of Promise. In Egypt they reached the great result—one which we all need to reach—of never surrendering the good principles which we learn at home in early days, and at the same time of learning all the useful lessons we can from those with whom we associate.
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353 # Making Bricks in Egypt
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355 
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356 .
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- title
- JACOB BEFORE PHARAOM