Eastern Manners and Customs: "The Fish Which We Did Eat in Egypt Freely"

 •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 8
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The word translated freely in this verse really signifies gratuitously. It is rendered for naught in Gen. 29:1515And Laban said unto Jacob, Because thou art my brother, shouldest thou therefore serve me for nought? tell me, what shall thy wages be? (Genesis 29:15); Job 1:99Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? (Job 1:9); for nothing, Ex. 21:22If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. (Exodus 21:2): nothing, 2 Sam. 24:2424And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. (2 Samuel 24:24); and the French Bible gives it " sans qu' il nous en coutat rien." Even in the present day fish is so abundant in some parts of Egypt, that it is to be had for the asking, that is, literally given away. A missionary long resident in Egypt has recently written:-It was my privilege a little more than a year ago to make a week's ramble through the field of Zoan,' and the land of Goshen.' All Europeans who have traveled in Egypt know that they, as wearers of hats' are expected by the natives to pay at least double price for all they get... We ate fish freely, both in the sense of abundantly and gratuitously. We did not beg them, nor did any one seem to think of asking us to pay for them. It is true, not of the whole land of Egypt... that men may eat fish gratuitously, but only of the eastern section of the Delta-the land of the sojourn of the Israelites."