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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



of the Exodus of the IsraeHtes by the 

 discovery of the famous Stele of Meren- 

 ptah. It is well known that Merenptah, 

 son and successor (1234-1214 B. C.) of 

 the great Rameses II, is the king in 

 whose reign the majority of Egyptolo- 

 gists have concurred in placing the Ex- 

 odus, though the opinion is held by some 

 that an earlier date, in the preceding dy- 

 nasty, is preferable. Up till the year 

 1896 no unequivocal reference to the 

 people of Israel had ever been found on 

 the monuments, the earlier identification 

 of the Hebrews with the Aperiu men- 

 tioned in the eighteenth dynasty inscrip- 

 tions having been finally abandoned by 

 general consent as untenable. 



WHEN DID ISRAEL COME OUT 01^ EGYPT? 



In 1896, however, the long-desired in- 

 scription came to light. In that year 

 Professor Petrie excavated the remains 

 of the funerary temple of Merenptah on 

 the western plain of Thebes. Among 

 other finds of greater or less importance, 

 he discovered a large black granite stele 

 (memorial pillar) of Amenhotep III, en- 

 graved with a description of the erection 

 of his own funerary temple, now repre- 

 sented only by the well-known Colossi 

 (see page 982). On the rough back of 

 this stele Merenptah had engraved a long 

 inscription, which proved to be of great 

 historical importance. 



It related to the victory which the king 

 gained in the 5th year of his reign over 

 the army of Libyan invaders which had 

 been devastating western Egypt. The 

 details of the story in the main follow 

 lines already familiar from other sources ; 

 but evidence is added that the victorious 

 king followed up his victory by a cam- 

 paign in Syria, in which a number of 

 towns in Palestine were captured and 

 sacked. The part of the inscription in 

 question runs as follows : 



"Seized is the Kanaan with every evil; 

 Led away is Askelon, 

 Taken is Gezer, 

 Yenoam is brought to nought, 

 The people of Israel is laid waste, 

 Their crops are not." 



Unfortunately this inscription, so long 

 sought for, only seems to add to the con- 

 fusion. The mention of Israel in con- 

 nection with Palestinian towns makes it 

 evident that in the reign of Merenptah 

 there were Israelites in Palestine, and 

 the fact that their name occurs next to 

 that of Yenoam suggests that they were 

 in north Palestine ; but, if the Exodus 

 took place in the reign of Merenptah, no 

 room is afforded for the wanderings of 

 the Israelites in the desert, occupying, 

 according to the biblical records, many 

 years. On the other hand, no earlier 

 date can be suggested for the Exodus 

 which does not encounter insuperable 

 objections on other grounds. 



We are faced with the fact that the 

 reign of Merenptah seems the only pos- 

 sible point at which the Exodus can be 

 fitted into the historical scheme, while 

 yet at that time there were already Is- 

 raelites living in Palestine in sufficient 

 numbers to render their overthrow a 

 matter worthy of record in an important 

 historical inscription. The only sugges- 

 tion which seems in the least to meet the 

 case is that offered by Petrie and Spiegel- 

 berg, namely, that when the family of 

 Jacob came down into Egypt in the time 

 of Joseph the migration was not so com- 

 plete as we have supposed. Some mem- 

 bers and dependents of the family must 

 have remained behind in Palestine, and 

 it was their descendants who were over- 

 thrown by Merenptah in his Syrian cam- 

 paign. This supposition is not without 

 its own obvious difficulties, but it seems 

 to remain at present the only possible 

 solution of the new enigma which has 

 been raised by Professor Petrie's dis- 

 covery. 



Further exploration may yield us more 

 light upon the subject. Meanwhile we 

 have to be content with the bare fact that 

 an unmistakable mention of the Israelites 

 has at last been found on an Egyptian 

 monument of the period in which the 

 Exodus is believed to have occurred, 

 though the mention is such as to puzzle 

 rather than to enlighten us. 



