The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-10-02
An Explanation of the Marvellous Increase in the Family of the Patriarch Jacob During Their So-
 journ in Egypt
journ in Egypt

1 which gives an insight into the nut merical extent of Abrams household dependencies
 The kings of the North made war against the kings of Godom and Go- morrah and neighboring kings and carried them captivex together with Lot and his family and possessions. ! When Abrarn heard that Lot was ta- ken captive, he armed his trained ser wants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen (s18l and pur- sued them even unto Dan. (Gen. l14:14.0
 There can be no question but that these trained servants warriors in peace, husbandmen and herdsrnen, at tending to the manifold interests of their patriarehal chief. Heads of families, were represented by each of the gallant warriors, as also by the l attendants who of necessity remained at home performing the multiplied duties devoIving upon them in the absence of their more active and ! war1ike brethren. We may safely suggest that the dependant household l of Abraham at this time numbered four hundred (40O) fanailies which ship of at least sixteen hundred per- sons. A few years later, on his re- turn from Gerar, King Abinelech ad- ded sheep and oxen. men servants and l woman servants. unto Abraham's pos sessions
 Isaac.
 Like his father Abraham, Isaac was forced by famine, to seek susten- ance in the more fertile south coun- try and came unto Abinelech King of the Philisttnes at Gerar. where he dweIt for a long time, land waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great For he had possessions of docks and pos sessions of herds. and great store Of servants.p Gen. 26:13,1 ,14.
 Jacob.
 Jacob to escape the vengeance of his brother Esau, fled into Paden- Aram, married Leah and Rachael, and served their father twenty years. ssAnd the man increased exceedingly, and had much cattle, and maid ser wants, and men-servants, and cam els, and asses on his return to Ca naan after an absence of twenty years.
 On the death and burial of Isaac, Jacob and Esau divided their fathers estate, Esau returned to Mount Seir, while Jacob remained in Canaan dur ing the next ten years, when he and his family, at the instance of his son Joseph, and King Pharoah, went down into Egypt to escape the rigors of distressing famine.
 As has been shown above, the household dependencies of Abram soon after he entered Canaan, could not have numbered less than sixteen hundred, and from the advent of Abram into Canaan, to the descent of Jacob into Egypt, was two hundred and fifteen years (seven or eight gen erations.)
 The increase in the families of the dependencies, and the additions that came to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob during these two hundred and fifteen years, natural increase, and coInmer- cial intercourse with friendly nations, would aggregate many thousands
 It cannot be supposed that Jacob would leave these thousands of hu- man dependencies, who were his hus- bandmen and herdsnen. in whom, and in their families, consisted in part, not only his wealth, but also his power and influence as patriarchaI Sheik, to die of starvation in Canaan; the only natural and human sequence would be, that they accompanied Ja- cob and his sons into Egypt.
 Egypt.
 The human dependencies of the pa,- triarchal families were mostly of the same Semitic origin as the patriarchs themselves, and the inter marriage of Jacobs family, with tile families of his husbandmen, was the most natur- al sequence of their enyironed situa- ton, in their Egyptian isolation. The IscomningIing of the blood of the Pa triareh Jacob, with the blood of his