The Exodus Canaanite origin for ancient Israel. The story of the Exodus is told in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, the last four of the five books of the Torah (also called the Pentateuch). It begins with the Israelites in slavery. Their prophet Moses leads them out of Egypt and through the wilderness to Mount Sinai, where Yahweh reveals himself to his people and establishes the Mosaic covenant: they are to keep his "torah" (i.e. law, instruction), and in return he will give them the land of Canaan. The Israelites accept the covenant and receive their laws, and, with
August Dillmann ihrer politischen Wirksamkeit" (1868). In 1869 appeared his commentary on "Hiob", (4th edition 1891) which stamped him as one of the foremost Old Testament exegetes. His renown as a theologian was mainly founded on the series of commentaries, based on those of August Wilhelm Knobel's "Die Genesis" (Leipzig, 1875); "Die Bücher Exodus und Leviticus", 1880; "Die Bücher Numeri, Deuteronomium und Josua", with a dissertation on the origin of the Hexateuch, 1886; "Der Prophet Jesaja", 1890. In 1877 he published the "Ascension of Isaiah" in Ethiopian and Latin. He was also a contributor to Daniel Schenkel's "Bibellexikon", Brockhaus's "Conversationslexikon", and Johann