There the sons of Israel
abode for several centuries. Coming hither but seventy in number, they
multiplied, according to the Bible, until they became six hundred
thousand men, without counting women and children.
=The Call of Moses.=--The king of Egypt began to oppress them,
compelling them to make mortar and bricks for the construction of his
strong cities. It was then that one of them, Moses, received from God
the mission to deliver them. One day while he was keeping his herds on
the mountain, an angel appeared to him in the midst of a burning
bush, and he heard these words: "I am the God of Abraham, the God of
Isaac, the God of Jacob. I have seen the affliction of my people which
is in Egypt, I have heard their cry against their oppressors, I know
their sorrows. And I am come down to deliver them out of the hands of
the Egyptians and to bring them to a land flowing with milk and honey,
to the place of the Canaanites.... Come now therefore and I will send
thee unto Pharaoh that thou mayest bring forth my people, the children
of Israel, out of Egypt."[41] The Israelites under the guidance of
Moses fled from Egypt (the Exodus); they journeyed to the foot of
Mount Sinai, where they received the law of God, and for an entire
generation wandered in the deserts to the south of Syria.
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