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The Fundamentals. were held together failed) to gather for themselves stubble which should serve the purpose of straw, and finally, when even the stubble failed, to make brick without straw (Ex. 5). Now, as these store pits at Pithom were uncovered by Mr. Petrie, they were found (unlike anything else in Egypt) to be built with mortar.. Moreover, the lower layers were built of brick which contained straw, while the middle layers were made of brick in which stubble, instead of straw, had been used in their formation, and the upper layers were of brick made without straw. A more perfect circumstantial confirma tion of the Bible account could not be imagined. Every point in the confirmation consists of unexpected discoveries. The use of mortar is elsewhere unknown in Ancient Egypt, as is the peculiar succession in the quality of the brick used in the construction of the walls. Thus have all Egyptian explorations shown that the writer of the Pentateuch had such familiarity with the country, the civilization, and the history of Egypt as could have been ob tained only by intimate, personal experience. The leaf which is here given is in its right place. It could not have been in serted except by a participant in the events, or by direct Di vine revelation. THE HITTITES. In Joshua 1 :4, the country between Lebanon and the Eu phrates is called the land of the Hittites. In 2 Sam. 24:6, according to the reading of the Septuagint, the limit of Joab’s conquests was that of “the Hittites of Kadesh,” which is in Coele Syria, some distance north of the present Baalbeck. Solomon is also said to have imported horses from “the kings of fhe Hittites” ; and when the Syrians were besieging Samaria, according to 2 Kings 7 :6, they were alarmed from fear that the king of Israel had hired against them “the kings of the Hittites.” These references imply the existence of a strong nation widely spread over the northern part of Syria and the regions beyond. At the same time frequent mention is made
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