was one of the Hyksos or Shepherd kings, as has been the common view,
and if the Pharaoh "that knew not Joseph" was, as is the general
belief, Rameses II, the period of 430 years would about correspond to
the historical data.

Their oppression grew out of the fear of the king lest they should
assist some of the invaders that constantly harassed Egypt on the
North. They may have assisted the shepherd kings under whom Joseph has
risen and who had just been expelled. To cripple and crush them there
was given them hard and exhaustive tasks of brick making under cruel
task-masters. There still remains evidence of this cruelty in the many
Egyptian buildings built of brick, made of mud mixed with straw and
dried in the sun. When it was found that they still increased in
number in spite of the suffering. Pharoah tried, at first privately
then publicly, to destroy all the male children. This order does not
seem to have been long in force but was a terrible blow to a people
like the Hebrews whose passion for children, and especially for male
children, has always been proverbial.

It is difficult to gather from this narrative the varied influence of
this sojourn upon the Hebrews themselves. They doubtless gained much
of value from the study of the methods of warfare and military
equipment of the Egyptians. They learned much of the art of
agriculture and from the social and political systems of this
enlightened people. No doubt many of their choicest men received
educational training that fitted them for future leadership. Their
suffering seems on the one hand to have somewhat deadened them,
destroying ambition. On the other, it bound them together by a common
bond and prepared the way for the work of Moses, the deliverer, and
for the real birth of the nations.