(2.) _They had the exclusive possession of the land of Goshen_[B], _one of the richest and most productive parts of Egypt_. Gen. xlv. 18, and xlvii. 6, 11, 27. Ex. xii. 4, 19, 22, 23, 27.
[Footnote B: The land of Goshen was a large tract of country, east of the Pelusian arm of the Nile, and between it and the head of the Red Sea, and the lower border of Palestine. The probable centre of that portion, occupied by the Israelites, could hardly, have been less than 60 miles from the city. From the best authorities it would seem that the extreme western boundary of Goshen must have been many miles distant from Egypt. See "Exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt," an able article by Professor Robinson, in the Biblical Repository for October, 1832.]
(3.) _They lived in permanent dwellings_. These were _houses_, not _tents_. In Ex. xii. 6, the two side _posts_, and the upper door _posts_ of the houses are mentioned, and in the 22d, the two side posts and the lintel. Each family seems to have occupied a house _by itself_--Acts vii. 20, Ex. xii. 4--and from the regulation about the eating of the Passover, they could hardly have been small ones--Ex. xii. 4--and probably contained separate apartments, and places for seclusion. Ex. ii. 2, 3; Acts vii. 20. They appear to have been well apparelled. Ex. xii. 11. To have had their own burial grounds. Ex. xiii. 19, and xiv. 11.
(4.) _They owned "a mixed multitude of flocks and herds_," and "_very much cattle_." Ex. xii. 32, 37, 38.
(5.) They had their own form of government, and preserved their tribe and family divisions, and their internal organization throughout, though still a province of Egypt, and _tributary_ to it. Ex. ii. 1, and xii. 19, 21, and vi. 14, 25, and v. 19, and iii. 16, 18.
(6.) _They seem to have had in a considerable measure, the disposal of their own time_,--Ex. xxiii. 4, and iii. 16, 18, and xii. 6, and ii. 9, and iv. 27, 29-31. Also to have practised the fine arts. Ex. xxxii. 4, and xxxv. 32-35.
(7.) _They were all armed_. Ex. xxxii. 27.
(8.) _All the females seem to have known something of domestic refinements; they were familiar with instruments of music, and skilled in the working of fine fabrics_. Ex. xv. 20, and 35, 36.
