I. _Period of the nomad state from Abraham to the conquest of Palestine._--Under Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, nothing more at first than a single nomad family; which, however, during its sojourn in Lower Egypt, where, during four hundred and thirty, or, according to others, two hundred and fifty years, it roved about in subjection to the Egyptian Pharaohs,--increased to a nomad nation, divided into twelve tribes. The nation, however, becoming formidable from the great increase of its numbers, the Pharaohs, following the usual policy of the Egyptians, wished to compel the Jews to build and inhabit cities. Unaccustomed to restraint, they fled from Egypt under the conduct of Moses; and conquered, under him and his successor Joshua, Palestine, the land of promise. Moses and his legislation.--What he borrowed and what he did not borrow from the Egyptians?--The worship of Jehovah in the national sanctuary, and by national festivals, celebrated with ceremonies rigidly prescribed, the point of union for the whole nation, and the political bond which held the tribes together.--The caste of Levites, compared with the Egyptian caste of priests. J. D. MICHAELIS, _Mosaic Law_. Gottingen, 1778, etc. 6 vols. 8vo.; translated into English by Dr. ALEXANDER SMITH. Lond. 1814, 4 vols. 8vo. The commentator frequently sees more than the lawgiver. II. _Period of the federative republic._ From the occupation of Palestine to the establishment of monarchy, 1500-1100. 1. General character of this period as the heroic age of the nation, which, after the gradual adoption of fixed dwellings and agriculture, was engaged in constant feuds with its neighbours, the vagrant Arabs, the Philistines, and the Edomites. Impossibility of exterminating entirely the ancient inhabitants according to the intention of Moses.--Hence the worship of Jehovah was never the _only_ religion in the land. 2. Political organization. In consequence of the division of land, according to tribes, and their separation from one another, the government long remained patriarchal. Each tribe preserved its patriarch or elder, as in the nomad state. All, however, had, in the worship of Jehovah, one common bond, uniting them into one federate state. Magistrates were likewise appointed in the cities, to whom scribes are conjoined out of the Levite caste. 3. The permanent union of the nation, and preservation of the Mosaic law, were likewise promoted by the distribution of the Levite caste into forty-eight separate towns, situated in various parts of the country, and by making the high priesthood hereditary in Aaron's family.