f the king who, if either tradition or chronology can be
depended on, was the actual great oppressor of Israel--the king who
sought the life of Moses--the king from whom Moses fled, and until whose
death he did not dare to return out of the land of Midian.

According to the almost unanimous voice of those most conversant with
Egyptian antiquities, the "great oppressor" of the Hebrews was this
Ramesses. Seti may have been the originator of the scheme for crushing
them by hard usage, but, as the oppression lasted close upon eighty
years (Ex. ii, I; vii. 7), it must have covered at least two reigns, so
that, if it began under Seti, it must have continued under his son and
successor. The bricks found at Tel-el-Maskoutah show Ramesses as the
main builder of Pithom (Pa-Tum), and the very name indicates that he was
the main builder of Raamses (Pa-Ramessu). We must thus ascribe to him,
at any rate, the great bulk of that severe and cruel affliction, which
provoked Moses (Ex. ii, 12), which made Israel "sigh" and "groan" (ib.
23, 24), and on which God looked down with compassion (ib. iii. 7). It
was he especially who "made their lives bitter in mortar, and in brick,
and in all manner of service in the field"--service which was "with
rigour." Ramesses was a builder on the most extensive scale. Without
producing any single edifice so perfect as the "Pillared Hall of Seti,"
he was indefatigable in his constructive efforts, and no Egyptian king
came up to him in this respect. The monuments show that he erected his
buildings chiefly by forced labour, and that those employed on them were
chiefly foreigners. Some have thought that the Hebrews are distinctly
mentioned as employed by him on his constructions under the term
"Aperu," or "Aperiu"; but this view is not generally accepted. Still,
"the name is so often used for foreign bondsmen engaged in the very work
of the Hebrews, and especially during the oppression, that it is hard
not to believe it to be a general term in which they are included,
though it does not actually describe them."[27]

[Illustration: HEAD OF SETI]

[Illustration: BUST OF RAMESSES II.]

The physiognomies of Seti I. and Ramesses II., as represented on the
sculptures,[28] offer a curious contrast Seti's face is thoroughly
African, strong, fierce, prognathous, with depressed nose, thick lips,
and a heavy chin. The face of Ramesses is Asiatic. He has a good
forehead, a large, well-formed, slightly aquiline nose,