Arcana Coelestia #1703
1703. That the name 'a Hebrew' is used in the Word in reference to things which have to do with some form of service is clear from the following places: In Moses,
When your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, and serves you for six years, then in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. Deuteronomy 15:12.
Here the expressions 'a Hebrew men' and 'a Hebrew women' are used because servitude is the subject. In Jeremiah,
At the end of seven years you shall let go every man his brother that is a Hebrew who has been sold to you and has served you for six years. Jeremiah 34:9, 14.
Here similarly the name 'Hebrew' occurs because servitude is the subject, though the sons of Jacob are not called Hebrews in other places in the Prophets. In Samuel,
The Philistines said, Take heart and acquit yourselves like men, lest you be slaves to the Hebrews as they have served you. 1 Samuel 4:9.
Here the meaning is similar.
[2] In Moses,
Jehovah said to Moses, Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, Thus said Jehovah the God of the Hebrews, Let My people go so that they may serve Me. Exodus 9:1, 13; 10:3.
Here too because of their servitude they were called Hebrews. Potiphar's wife referred to Joseph as a Hebrew,
She called to the men of her house, and said to them, See, he has brought us a Hebrew man to make sport of us. Genesis 39:14.
He is called 'a Hebrew' because he was a slave there. The chief of the cup-bearers said to Pharaoh,
There was with us a Hebrew lad, a slave of the chief of the guards, and he interpreted our dreams to us. Genesis 41:12.
In addition the Egyptians called the children of Israel Hebrews, because they were slaves, or in slavery, as is well known from Exodus 1:15-16, 19, and elsewhere.
Exodus 2
1
A man of the house of Levi went and took a daughter of Levi as his wife.
2
The woman conceived, and bore a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months.
3
When she could no longer hide him, she took a papyrus basket for him, and coated it with tar and with pitch. She put the child in it, and laid it in the reeds by the river's bank.
4
His sister stood far off, to see what would be done to him.
5
Pharaoh's daughter came down to bathe at the river. Her maidens walked along by the riverside. She saw the basket among the reeds, and sent her handmaid to get it.
6
She opened it, and saw the child, and behold, the baby cried. She had compassion on him, and said, "This is one of the Hebrews' children."
7
Then his sister said to Pharaoh's daughter, "Should I go and call a nurse for you from the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for you?"
8
Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Go." The maiden went and called the child's mother.
9
Pharaoh's daughter said to her, "Take this child away, and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages." The woman took the child, and nursed it.
10
The child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, and said, "Because I drew him out of the water."
11
It happened in those days, when Moses had grown up, that he went out to his brothers, and looked at their burdens. He saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, one of his brothers.
12
He looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no one, he killed the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand.
13
He went out the second day, and behold, two men of the Hebrews were fighting with each other. He said to him who did the wrong, "Why do you strike your fellow?"
14
He said, "Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Do you plan to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian?" Moses was afraid, and said, "Surely this thing is known."
15
Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and lived in the land of Midian, and he sat down by a well.
16
Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters. They came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flock.
17
The shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock.
18
When they came to Reuel, their father, he said, "How is it that you have returned so early today?"
19
They said, "An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and moreover he drew water for us, and watered the flock."
20
He said to his daughters, "Where is he? Why is it that you have left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread."
21
Moses was content to dwell with the man. He gave Moses Zipporah, his daughter.
22
She bore a son, and he named him Gershom, for he said, "I have lived as a foreigner in a foreign land."
23
It happened in the course of those many days, that the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage.
24
God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
25
God saw the children of Israel, and God was concerned about them.
