Greatest of the legacies which Babylon gave the world was that of the worship of a single all-powerful god. The Hebrews were descendants of the Babylonians, and brought with them in their migration from their ancient home the germ of their noble religious thought. Thus not only our intellectual and material culture, but some spark of our spiritual faith as well, dates back to Babylon. The mighty city has lived on in that wonderful race of her children, the Israelites.
Wandering forth from Babylonia in its early days, more than two thousand years before the time of Christ, the Hebrews spent centuries as a nomadic tribe, until one of their number, the lad Joseph, entered Egypt as a slave. He won notice as an interpreter of dreams. Magic was accepted with full faith in those days, and played an important part in the ordering of life. So Joseph rose to power as one of the "magi," or wise men, of the court of the Pharaohs, and became finally the regent or chief vizier of the king. He then sent for his people to join him in Egypt; and our picture shows the moment when he presents to Pharaoh his father, the aged patriarch Jacob. Thus the family of Jacob or Israel, as he was called, settled in Egypt. Their descendants dwelt there for several centuries, and increased in numbers until from a small tribe they had become a nation.
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