THE WEEK OF SEVEN DAYS. 389 



is recorded in very early times ; that is to say, at a date long preceding 

 Moses or any of the books written by him. The proof of this is to be 

 found in such passages as the following : Genesis xxix, 27, where Ja- 

 cob is desired by Laban to " fulfill her week," that is, Leah's week, in 

 order that he might also receive Rachel. The week appears to express 

 the time given up to nuptial festivities. So afterward, in Judges xiv, 

 where Samson speaks of " the seven days of the feast." So also on 

 occasion of the death of Jacob, Joseph " made a mourning for his 

 father seven days " (Genesis 1, 10). But " neither of these instances," 

 as remarked in the article to which reference has been already made, 

 " any more than Noah's procedure in the ark, go further than showing 

 the custom of observing a term of seven days for any observance of 

 importance. They do not prove that the whole year, or the whole 

 month, was thus divided at all times, and without regard to remark- 

 able events." They do not, indeed, prove this, but they suggest the 

 division as common and familiar, and in some early period recognized 

 as an institution. 



When, therefore, the children of Israel went down to Egypt for 

 what proved to be a very long sojourn in that country, they possibly 

 were familiar with the practice of dividing time by weeks, and at all 

 events the notion of seven days as a convenient portion of time for 

 the affairs of life would not seem altogether strange to them. It is 

 exceedingly probable that on arriving in Egypt they found the week 

 established by the practice of the country. It will be observed that 

 it was in Egypt that Joseph mourned seven days for Jacob ; and it is 

 possible, though there seems to be no necessity to assume the fact, 

 that in so doing he was conforming to the custom of the country, as 

 he did with regard to the embalming and chesting of his father's 

 remains. But independently of any such consideration, it would seem 

 highly probable that the Israelites found themselves in Egypt among 

 a people who divided the time by weeks of seven days. We know 

 that they did so at a later period ; why might they not have com- 

 menced as early as before the sojourn of the Israelites ? The Egyp- 

 tians were in fact a people very likely to be advanced in such a matter 

 as this ; order and government, both ecclesiastical and civil, were un- 

 doubtedly in a remarkable state of perfection at the time to which 

 reference is now made ; and it would seem much more probable than 

 otherwise that so convenient an institution as the subdivision of the 

 month into short periods had already been established. 



It may be noted, with reference to the number seven and its recog- 

 nition in some form or another as a special number among the Egyp- 

 tians, that we have incidental evidence in the dream of Pharaoh ; the 

 special form of the dream, as presenting seven fat and seven lean 

 kine, may be supposed to have been connected with some familiarity 

 in Pharaoh's mind with the number seven during his waking hours. 



And as regards the Israelites, it may be observed that the period 



