The Joseph story also records the gestation of the nation of Israel as it chronicles the migration of Jacob’s embryonic clan to Egypt, where it would grow to full-term in the womb of the Nile. Some four hundred years later, Israel burst fully formed from Egypt, fulfilling the Lord’s prophecy to Abram: “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the
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