WITH the death of Joseph the Patriarchal Age of Israel’s history may be said to close. The _Family_ had now thrown out many branches, and was on the point of merging into the _Nation_. At this juncture, then, it may be well to look back, and review some of the chief features of Patriarchal Life. i. And the first of these that claims attention is its _Nomadic character_. Unlike the founders of Egypt, of Babylon, of Nineveh, the Patriarchs were not the builders of cities and towns, but _pilgrims and sojourners, dwellers in tents_ (Heb. xi. 9). But they were very different from rude hordes, like the Amalekites and other “sons of the desert,” abhorring any higher mode of life. Abraham was no stranger to the highest form of civilization that his age afforded. He was acquainted with Ur, with Nineveh, with Damascus, with Egypt; he had left his home in one of the chief cities of Mesopotamia, not from choice, but in consequence of a direct personal call from God. Moreover, so far from regarding his present mode of life as an ultimate end, he and Isaac and Jacob, were ever looking forward to a time when it would close, when their descendants should be _settled_ in the Land of Promise, and become a great _nation_, when the portable _tent_ should give way to the _city that had foundations_ (Heb. xi. 10, 13–16; comp. Gen. xxiv. 7; xxviii. 4; xlix. 1–27; l. 24). Hence, from time to time, as opportunity offered, we see the wandering life freely and willingly laid aside. Lot settled in Sodom (Gen. xiii. 10–12); Abraham in Egypt went direct to Pharaoh’s court (Gen. xii. 14); at Hebron he settled and became a “prince of God” in the midst of the Hittites (Gen. xxiii. 6); Isaac not only lived near the Philistines, but occupied a _house_ opposite the palace (Gen. xxvi. 8), and practised _agriculture_ (Gen. xxvi. 12); and Joseph’s _dream of the sheaves_ points out that this was also continued in the time of Jacob (Gen. xxxvii. 7)[48].