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Well Fed Slaves Of Egypt
Israel was heavily burdened by the Egyptian taskmasters. Nevertheless they multiplied and grew. And God did not want them to become like their oppressors.
Exodus 1:11 (NKJV)
Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh supply cities, Pithom and Raamses.
Exodus 1:12 (NKJV)
But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were in dread of the children of Israel.
Exodus 1:14 (NKJV)
And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, in brick, and in all manner of service in the field. All their service in which they made them serve was with rigor.
Exodus 3:7 (NKJV)
And the LORD said: ^I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.
Exodus 22:21 (NKJV)
You shall neither mistreat a stranger nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Apparently Egyptians had cattle but no sheep. They loathed shepherds. Goshen, the land Israel was given to live on, was the best of Egyptian land. It was good pasture land for the flocks as well as good farming land. Israel had possessions there and multiplied exceedingly and eventually filled the land. The scriptures also tell us that they had plenty of meat, fish, bread, grain and vegetables to eat to keep them full.
Genesis 46:34 (NKJV)
that you shall say, ^Your servants occupation has been with livestock from our youth even till now, both we and also our fathers,^ that you may dwell in the land of Goshen; for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.
Genesis 47:4 (NKJV)
And they said to Pharaoh, ^We have come to dwell in the land, because your servants have no pasture for their flocks, for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. Now therefore, please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen.
Genesis 47:6 (NKJV)
The land of Egypt is before you. Have your father and brothers dwell in the best of the land; let them dwell in the land of Goshen. And if you know any competent men among them, then make them chief herdsmen over my livestock.
Genesis 47:11 (NKJV)
And Joseph situated his father and his brothers, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded.
Genesis 47:27 (NKJV)
So Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions there and grew and multiplied exceedingly.
Exodus 1:7 (NKJV)
But the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, multiplied and grew exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.
Exodus 9:31 and 32 (NKJV)
Now the flax and the barley were struck, for the barley was in the head and the flax was in bud. But the wheat and the spelt were not struck, for they are late crops.
Exodus 16:3 (NKJV)
And the children of Israel said to them, ^Oh, that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full!
Numbers 11:5 (NKJV)
We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic;
Exodus 12:38 (NKJV)
A mixed multitude went up with them also, and flocks and herds, a great deal of livestock.
The abundance of sheep was evident at the Passover. At that time there would have been hundreds of thousands of households in Goshen.
Exodus 12:3 to 5 (NKJV)
Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ^On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man^s need you shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats.
So it is evident that even though Israel was in hard bondage by the Egyptians they did not go hungry and apparently, to the contrary, had an abundance and a variety of food throughout their 430 years in Egypt with the possible exception of during the seven year famine. But during the famine Joseph was still alive and still on very good terms with the Pharaoh and his family would have been well taken care of. There were only about seventy Israelites at that time.
2016 Jacques Gauvin
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