Page:A Jewish Interpretation of the Book of Genesis (Morgenstern, 1919, jewishinterpreta00morg).pdf/215

 The Well of to in

be

the

197

Covenant

be with it as He was with the patriarchs of old, and the end Israel's mission must be fulfilled, and the world filled

with peace and love and knowledge of God.

NOTES V. 1. In time of famine it was not uncommon for the people of Usually they sought refuge Palestine to migrate in search of food. The monuments in Egypt, or, as here, in the fertile Philistine plain. of ancient Egypt record many instances of Semitic peoples coming

A

Semitic Family Seeking Entrance into Egypt

down to Egypt for this purpose. Similarly the Bible tells that Abraham went down to Egypt in time of famine (XII, 10), as did likewise Jacob and his sons (XLV, 9ff), and that on a similar occasion Elimelech and his family sought refuge in Moab (Ruth I, 1). The Bible commits a very noticeable anachronism here in calling Abimelech king of the Philistines. From a great mass of evidence, much of which is derived from the Bible itself, we know that the Philistines were not natives of Palestine, but like the Israelites entered the land as strangers and invaders, and conquered the southwestern portion of the country and settled there. They came over the sea from the west, and seem to have been of Cretan, and thereThey entered Palestine probably during the fore non-Semitic stock. 12th century B. C, shortly after the great body of Israelite tribes had gained a ftrm foothold in the country. Consequently they could not have been

in

the land already in the time of

Abraham.

XX

is