Exodus 5:6-9

6-9. Increase of the oppression is the fierce and despotic reply to their request . Two grades of officers are now mentioned in addition to the sarim, or Egyptian superintendents, mentioned Exodus 1:11, namely, the (Egyptian) overseers rendered taskmasters and (Hebrew) scribes, ( shoterim,) rendered officers. These Hebrew shoterim, or scribes, were so called because of the great amount of writing which the Egyptian method of supervision required. Writing was used as much in the ancient Egyptian business as it is in the American business of to-day. Wilkinson relates that in the accounts which the overseers of shepherds were required to present to the steward’s scribes, “Every egg was noted and entered, with the chickens and goslings. And, in order to prevent any connivance, or a question respecting the accuracy of a report, two scribes received it from the superintendent at the same moment. Every thing was done in writing. Bureaucracy was as consequential in Egypt as in modern Austria or France. Scribes were required, on every occasion, to settle public or private questions; no bargain of consequence was made without the voucher of a written document.… They would have been in an agony of mind to see us so careless and so duped in many of our railway and other speculations.” Egyptian deeds and conveyances were documents most formidable for length, and bristled with circumlocution and circumstantiality enough to gladden the heart of a modern lawyer.

The following cut, from a Theban monument, represents a superintendent of an estate giving an account of stock to two scribes.

It will thus be seen how thoroughly the Hebrews were trained in writing during their Egyptian sojourn, and were thus providentially qualified to prepare and preserve the most valuable documents in the world. Yet we are not to think of them as learning the art in Egypt, for, as Ewald shows, ( Hist. Israel, i, p. 51,) this great art was known in the alphabetic form among the Shemitic nations before the time of Moses.