HOW JOSEPH WAS SOLD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 170, 20 July 1935, Page 2 (Supplement)

HOW JOSEPH WAS SOLD.

REALM OF THE PHARAOHS

The English "War Cry" is giving a series of interesting and informing articles on "Bible Trails in the Realm of the Pharaohs." Here is a passage from one of them in connection with the sale of Joseph. It makes sad reading. They would do good business with this young fellow, for he had a light complexion which was appreciated by Egyptians and looked genteel. He must coiiie of good stock, that was evident from his robe. A coloured coat such as he wore, with wide sleeves and line

embroidery, was worn only by Syrian princes. So they struck a bargain, and continued their journey into thj desert which divides Asia from Africa.

Travelling had bjcome _ much pleasanter than it had been in Abraham s days. To facilitate commercial rclat'.ons between Egypt and the lands of the Eiit, far-sighted Pharaohs had constructed stations in !.'i? desert and had dug wells. They Itad even built temples, so that travellers might be able to call upon their gods. What a riot of feelings must have surged through the soul of the young slave on this lonely journey! Or lie .vere the glories £nd comfort of life in his father's splendid, roomy tent Th? future wa« dark. What would it bring? Would it lead him into the miseries of tbd gold mines or into the inhumanly hard compulsory labour of the granite quarries. In far away Nubia the sun blazed down upon rocks from which was broken quartz to be pulverised in mills in the search for grains of gold. Here toiled hundreds of men, women and children enduring an existence which could hardly be called life. As late as a century before Christ the historian Diodor gives a terrifying description of the sufferings of these unfortunates. Joseph, who had known only the tent dwellings of his father, must have gazed in amazement when he entered P o *".'" pliar's palace. He also gives a vivid description of gold mining. The hard stone was softened by fire and then struck off with pickaxes. Children dragged the pieces of stone out to where thev were reduced to small bits and then pulverised by women and old men and washed out on slanting tables till only the gold remained. In the valley of Esliuranib 300 huts with the granite hand-mills have been discovered.

What must have been the condition in the stone quarries of Syene (Assuan), where the gigantic stone blocks for the pyramids and temples were quarried? It must have taken infinite, to us hardly imaginable toil and trouble to blast ofT and hew these blocks, more than (:oft long and 10ft thick, with tools, not of iron, but of stone! And how difficult must have been the transport of these stone blocks, weighing scores of tons each!