It does not appear that intermarriage with the Egyptians was forbidden or even discouraged. On the contrary, an intimate social intercourse seems to have existed between the two nations. Even at the very time of the Exodus, we find that it was not unusual for the Hebrews to receive the Egyptians as guests or tenants into their houses.[1] It is not an improbable supposition that such close domestic relations might in many instances lead to marriage. But we have positive evidence that marriages of this kind actually did take place, and are in no way reprehended. Thus we find mention made incidentally of “the son of an Israelitish woman”, whose _father was an Egyptian_ (_Lev._, xxiv. 10). He was condemned to death for blasphemy when the Israelites were encamped under Mount Sinai: he must, therefore, have been born during the sojourn in Egypt. Again we are told of an Israelite who gave his daughter in marriage to an Egyptian servant (_I. Paralip._, ii. 34, 35). This occurred certainly after the Exodus. But if the two nations _sometimes_ intermarried when they lived in _different_ countries, may we not suppose that they _frequently_ intermarried whilst they were living in the _same_ country? Hence we conclude (1ᵒ) that the mutual relations which subsisted between the Egyptians and the Hebrews, would naturally lead to frequent intermarriage; (2ᵒ) that there is not a particle of evidence to make such a supposition improbable; (3ᵒ) that there is positive testimony in its favour. As regards the plurality of wives or concubines,[2] the Israelites had before them the example of Abraham, who had at least three (_Gen._, xvi. 1, 3; xxv. 1, 6), and of Jacob, who had four (_Gen._, xxix. 20, 30; xxx. 4, 9). The practice of polygamy, therefore, had the highest and the holiest sanction in the eyes of the Hebrew people. It cannot be objected that, during the sojourn in Egypt, there is no explicit mention of polygamy in the Mosaic narrative. Moses did not undertake to write a history of the period. A single chapter in the beginning of Exodus, contains all that he records of what took place from the death of Jacob to the birth of Moses. Neither could we expect much information on this point from the genealogies which are given elsewhere in the Bible. Every one knows that it was not the ordinary custom of the Jews to mention the _mothers_ of those whose pedigree was traced, but only the _fathers_.