Leah probably lived for some years after Jacob reached Hebron. Whether she ever found grace in his sight is not stated. However, in Jacob’s differences with Laban both Leah and Rachel appeared to be attached to him with equal fidelity, while later, in the critical moment, when he expected an attack from Esau, his discriminate regard for the several members of his family was again shown by his placing Rachel and her child hindermost, in the least exposed situation, Leah and her children next, and the two hand-maids, with their children, in front. Of her death nothing is said. From the expression, “There I buried Leah,” (Gen. xlix, 31), we are led to believe that she died at Hebron before Jacob went down into Egypt. She was buried in the family sepulchre, “in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre.” Since Hebron is only twenty-five miles from Rachel’s tomb, near Bethlehem, it is quite strange that Jacob did not bury his beloved Rachel in the family sepulchre, along with Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Leah, and where he was himself finally buried. CHAPTER III. Womanhood During the Egyptian Bondage and in the Desert of Sinai. JOCHEBED--HER REMARKABLE COURAGE--THONORIS--HER COMPASSION--HEROIC LABORS SEEMINGLY UNREWARDED--ZIPPORAH, THE MIDIANITE SHEPHERDESS--GLORIFYING DAILY LABOR--AT A WAYSIDE INN--MIRIAM--HER SONG OF TRIUMPH AT THE RED SEA--HER AFFLICTION AT HAZEROTH--AN EVENTFUL LIFE. The history of the human race runs on from the tomb of Rachel for over four hundred years without bringing to our notice any woman in White Raiment until Jochebed, the mother of Moses, is reached. In the meantime, the dreams of Joseph are told, his wandering in the fields of Shechem, and the finding of his brethren in Dothan, the heartless transaction with the Midianites, who, in turn, sold Joseph into Egypt, his prison life followed by his elevation next to the throne and a seven years’ famine, when Jacob and his sons, as Abraham had done before them, went down into Egypt, the years of favor in the house of Pharaoh, and the bondage, bitter and hard, all are told. But, in spite of all, the suffering Israelites, because blessed of God, prospered and “increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceedingly mighty; and the land was filled with them.” The reigning Pharaoh became alarmed at this state of affairs, and, to repress the Israelites, “made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field.” But, as a stream in a spring freshet bursts through every obstruction, so the Israelites overleaped every barrier thrown in their way by the Egyptian taskmasters. At length a decree was issued that every son born to the Israelites should be cast into the Nile.