Ver. 10. And wateredst it with thy foot— That is, with labour; for it is not Moses's design to compare the countries with respect to fertility; but with respect to the labour which it took in one to receive the fruits of the earth, and the facility with which they were received in the other; at the same time making the people sensible that they were to depend immediately, and in an especial manner, upon God's providence. As Egypt was not watered from heaven, but by the Nile only, they were used to supply the want of rain in an artificial manner. Dr. Shaw, upon this subject, observes, that "such vegetable productions as require more moisture than what is occasioned by the inundation, are refreshed by water drawn out of the river by instruments, and lodged afterwards in capacious cisterns. Archimedes's screw seems to have been the first that was made use of upon these occasions; though at present the inhabitants serve themselves with leathern buckets, or else with a sakiah (as they call the Persian wheel), which is the general as well as the most useful machine. However, engines and contrivances of both these kinds are placed all along the banks of the Nile, from the sea quite up to the cataracts; and as these banks, i.e. the land itself, become higher in proportion as we advance up the river, the difficulty of raising water becomes so much the greater. When therefore their various sorts of pulse, safranon, or carthamus, musa, melons, sugar-canes, &c. all of which are commonly planted in rills, require to be refreshed, they strike out the plugs that are fixed in the bottoms of the cisterns; and then the water gushing out, is conducted from one rill to another, by the gardener, who is always ready as occasion requires, to stop and divert the torrent, by turning the earth against it with his foot, and opening at the same time with his mattock a new trench to receive it. This method of conveying moisture and nourishment to a land rarely or ever refreshed with rain, is often alluded to in the Holy Scriptures, where also it is made the distinguishing quality betwixt Egypt and the land of Canaan." See Travels, p. 408. Another writer observes, that, "as there was very little rain in Egypt, and as the water of the Nile could not be conveyed to all parts of the country without labour, it was therefore watered with the feet in some places. How this was done, we seem not to know, but probably in some such manner as is used to this time among the Chinese, who convey water from one place to another, by treading on certain pieces of wood, or cogs, fixed to an engine. The cogs force the water from a low ground, through a tube into a higher ground. On the coast of Coromandel they also water the land with the feet, but in a different manner; a man walks backwards and forwards on a board, suspended properly, to one end of which a tub is affixed, which falls into the water and fills; the man by walking back, brings the tub up, which is emptied by another man on the ground, whence it runs where it is wanted, and then the first man walks on again. This method is not so good as the Chinese, in which the feet only are employed. It is however watering the land by the feet." The land of Canaan, as well as the land of Egypt, was sometimes subject to drought, and watered by labour. The editor of the observations remarks, that "This drought in summer occasions frequent watering in Judea. Bishop Pococke, in his journey from Acre to Nazareth, observes a well, from whence water, drawn up by oxen, was carried by women in earthen jars up a hill, to water plantations of tobacco. He mentions another well presently after, whose water was drawn up by boys in leathern buckets, and carried off in jars by women, as before. See Pococke's Travels, vol. 2: p. 61. If it should be asked, how does this agree with the present passages, which distinguish the Holy Land from Egypt, by its drinking the rain from heaven, (ver. 11.) while Egypt was watered with the foot? The answer, I imagine, which should be returned, is this: These passages themselves suppose gardens of herbs, and consequently such plantations as these were to be watered by art in the Jewish country; and the difference to be pointed out, was the necessity the Egyptians were under of watering their corn-lands in the same manner to prepare them for sowing; whereas the lands of Judea are prepared by the descent of rain. These lands of Egypt, indeed, are watered by the overflowing of the Nile, and are thereby so saturated with moisture, that, as Maillet assures us, they want no more watering for the producing of corn, and several other things, though the gardens require fresh supplies of moisture every three or four days; but then it is to be remembered, that immense labour was requisite to conduct the waters of the Nile to many of their lands. Maillet himself celebrates those works of the ancient kings of Egypt, by which they distributed the waters of the Nile through their whole country, as the greatest, the most magnificent, and the most admirable of all their works; and these, which they caused their subjects to undergo, were doubtless designed to prevent much heavier, which they must otherwise have submitted to. Perhaps there might be an emphasis in these words of Moses, which has not of late been at all understood: for the last mentioned author tells us, that he was assured, that the large canal which filled the cisterns of Alexandria, and is at least fifteen leagues long, was entirely paved, and its sides lined and supported by walls of brick, which were as perfect as in the times of the Romans. See Maillet's Descript. de l'Egypte, par. 1: p. 45. 144 and par. 2: p. 5, 6. If these bricks were used in the construction of their more ancient canals, and if those made by the Israelites in Egypt were designed for purposes of this kind, they must have heard with great pleasure the words of Moses, assuring them that the country, to which they were going, would want no canals to be dug, no bricks to be prepared for paving and lining them, in order to water it: labours, which had been so bitter to them in Egypt. This account is certainly favoured by Exodus 1:14 where hard bondage in mortar and in brick is joined with the other services of the field.
Philo understands these hard services, of digging canals and cleansing them; and in this view, the mortar and the brick are very naturally joined with them. See de Vit. Mosis, lib. 1: Dr. Shaw has explained the term, watering with the foot: May I take the liberty of adding to it, that this way of watering, by conveying a little stream to the roots of plants, is so universal, that though the Misna forbids all watering of plants in the seventh year, as contrary to the law; yet R. Eleazar, (in Tit. Shebush) allows the watering the leaf of a plant, though not the root? A stranger to the eastern management would hardly know what to make of this indulgence." See Scheuchzer on the place.