cumcision was a real assurance from God that Israel was again
the covenant people. The following passages serve to illustrate
this : Ex. xxxii. 12, " Wherefore should the Egyptians speak,
and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in
the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the
earth?" Num. xiv. 13 sqq. ; Deut. ix. 28. Jer. ix. 25,' 26,
has also been appealed to. But this passage rather furnishes
a proof that, even in the comparatively late time of Jere-
miah, circumcision was not universal among the Egyptians.
