In fact, intimations of a deterioration in the Israelite situation are already discernible in the closing chapters of Genesis. Jacob, on his deathbed, feels the need to give his family the reassurance that “God will be with you and bring you back to the land of your fathers.”7 Joseph voices his anxiety for the future even more strongly. He tells his brothers, “God will surely take notice of you and bring you up from this land to the land that He promised on oath to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”8