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| | CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Israel |
 | | According to the Biblical classification of the descendants of Noe (Gen., x), it is clear that the semitic group included the Arabs, Babylonians, Assyrians, Arameans, and Hebrews, to which peoples modern ethnographers add, chiefly on linguistic grounds, the Phoenicians and Chanaaneans. |
 | | He employed them on field labour (Ex., i, 14); engaged them upon the store cities of Phithom (the ruins of which, eleven or twelve miles from Ismailia, show that it was built for that monarch) and Ramesse, thus called after his name; and finally made a desperate attempt to reduce their numbers by organized infanticide. |
 | | The object of the present article is distinctly geographical and ethnographical, leaving, as far as possible, the other topics connected with the Israelites to be dealt with in the article on JEWS AND JUDAISM, or in particular articles on the leading personages or events in Israel's history. |
| www.newadvent.org /cathen/08193a.htm (2629 words) |
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