not מְנוּחָה) "place מַסָּע

that only three days intervened between the departure of the Israelites on the night of the passover, and their encampment by the sea at Baal-Zephon, since only three places of encampment are named (Succoth, Etham, and Baal-Zephon). But it has already been repeatedly shown (Raumer Beitr. p. 2 sqq., Lengerke, Kenaan i. 432), that the word y did not denote a day's journey, but a station or place of encampment, where the tents were set up and every preparation was made for a longer period of rest than usual. The day's journeys are called We may see from Num. xxxiii. 8, how great the difference was between a day's journey and a station. According to this passage, the Israelites, after passing through the Red Sea, went three days' journeys () through the desert of Etham, and then encamped in Marah. Here, then, there was evidently a journey of three days between two stations. So also do we read in Num. x. 33: "And they deparated from the Mount of the Lord three days' journey, and the ark of the covenant of the Lord went before them in the three days' journey, to show them a restinga place of encampment). And even supposing (though we do not grant it), that the place of encampment and place of rest were identical, it is in itself a very improbable thing, that the Israelites only spent three days in their journey from Raemses to their place of encampment at Baal-Zephon by the Red Sea. Even if they only travelled three days, it would certainly be necessary to assume, as Tischendorf does (de Israel. transitu, p. 23), that there were periods of rest of longer duration, i.e., actual days of rest between the three marching days. Just fancy two million men, with large herds of cattle, and all the baggage of emigrants, with their wives, children, and old men, obliged to start in the most hurried way (chap. xii. 33)! What confusion, what difficulties would inevitably impede them during the first days of their journey! An ordinary caravan may travel fifteen or twenty miles a day; but such a procession would hardly be able to do the half of this. Let it be remembered, too, that fresh parties were constantly joining them, and that this must have caused some disturbance and delay. (We cannot imagine it possible that two millions of Israelites, whose residences were scattered over the whole of the land of Goshen, should all have met together

in Raemses, many of them merely to retrace their steps: moreover, if we consider that they were ordered to eat the passover at the early part of the night in their own houses, and not to leave their houses till the morning (chap. xii. 22), we shall see that it must have been actually impossible for them all to meet in Raemses on the next morning, many of them from the most distant parts of Goshen. Raemses was the capital of the province. There, no doubt, Moses and Aaron were residing. The procession started thence; and after the main body had set out, smaller parties came from all directions as speedily as possible, and joined it at the point of the road nearest to their own dwellings). The following considerations also serve to show, that the Israelites must necessarily have spent more than three days, on their march from Raemses to their encampment by the sea. It is true that the site of Raemses is not precisely known. But it is certain that it must have stood somewhere in the immediate neighbourhood of the king's palace; sufficiently near, at all events, for a communication to pass from one city to the other in a very few hours. Now, whether we suppose the palace to have been in Heliopolis, Bubastis, or Zoan (and we have certainly only these three points to choose from, cf. § 41. 2), the shortest route from Raemses to the sea, taking into account the circuitous way by which the Israelites went (chap. xiv. 2), would be so long that it would be necessary to travel seventeen or twenty miles a day in order to accomplish the whole in three days. Others may believe it if they please; but I cannot believe that such a procession as we have described, could keep up a journey of seventeen or twenty miles a day for three days running. Again, we find from chap. xiv. 5, that information was brought to the king that the Israelites had turned round at Etham, and entered the Egyptian desert on the west of the Red Sea. This message must have been sent to the king from Etham itself, and of course it was not sent till after the Israelites had changed their course in the manner described. Now the Israelites had already occupied two days at least in going in a straight course from Raemses to Etham; and the king's palace was certainly farther from Etham than Raemses was. Hence the messenger, who was sent from Etham, may be safely supposed to have taken one day in reaching the king; and Pharaoh's chariots and army (even if, to please our opponents,

we assume the possibility of that which is certainly impossible) must also have required at least one day (!) to travel by a forced march from Heliopolis, Bubastis, or Zoan, to the neighbourhood of Baal-Zephon on the sea-coast. Thus, even granting the correctness of our opponents' premises, at least four days must have intervened between the departure from Raemses and the passage through the sea. This will show how little foundation there is for the assertion, that "the longest space of time allowed by the biblical narrative for these events is three days."

GEOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION TO THE EXODUS.

LITERATURE: J. Clericus, Diss. de Maris Idumaei trajectione, ad calcem comment. in Exod.-S. Deyling, Observv. ss. P. iii. p. 45 sqq. and P. v. p. 31 sqq.-4. Calmet, Biblical researches, with notes by Mosheim, ii. 56 sqq.-Du Bois Aymé, Description de l'Egypte, T. viii. sur le séjour des Hébreux en Egypte. —K. v. Raumer, der Zug. der Israeliten aus Aegypten nach Kanaan. Leipzig, 1837; Beiträge zur bibl. Geogr. Lpz. 1843, p. 1-5; and Palästina Ed. 3 Lpz. 1850, p. 437-442.-J. V. Kutscheit, H. Prof. Dr Lepsius u. d. Sinai. Berlin, 1846.-Const. Tischendorf, de Israelitarum per mare rubrum transitu Lps. 1847; and Reise in d. Orient, i. 174 sqq.-J. G. Stickel, der Isracliten Auszug aus Aeg. bis zum rothen Meere, in the Studien und Kritiken 1850, ii. p. 328–398.—Robinson, Palestine i. 74 sqq.-Hengstenberg, Egypt and the Books of Moses, p. 55-60 transl.-L. de. Laborde, commentaire géographique sur l'Exode et les Nombres. Paris and Leipzig 1841, p. 75 sqq.-C. v. Lengerke, Kenaan i. 430 sqq.-Ewald, Geschichte ii. 52 sqq.

§ 37. The district, which forms the subject of our present remarks, is bounded on the south by the so-called Valley of Error; on the west and north-west by the Nile and its Tanitic or Bubastic arm; on the north by Lake Menzaleh; and on the east by a line drawn from the southern point of Lake Menzaleh, and

through the Birket-Temseh (the so-called Crocodile Lake), the Bitter Lakes and the Heroopolitan gulf. We will commence with a minute description of the southern boundary. The Valley of Error (Wady et-Tih) runs due east from the village of Besatin on the Nile to the Red Sea, and terminates in the broad plain of Baideah on the coast. The name Wady et-Tih is frequently restricted to the western end of the valley; further east it is then called the Wady er-Ramlijeh and still nearer to the sea the Wady et-Tawarik. The whole valley, from the Nile to the sea, is shut in on both sides, viz., on the north and south, by high mountain-ranges. Of these the northern range deserves a closer investigation. It rises from the valley of the Nile, not far from Cairo, stretches in a straight line towards the east, and terminates at the Isthmus of Suez in the promontory of (Ras-) Atâkah. But near the centre the range is entirely broken. About twenty-three miles from Besatin, not far from the fountain of Gandelhi (the only drinkable water in the whole Wady), another valley branches off from the Wady et-Tih. This valley runs in a north-easterly direction through the northern range of mountains to the north of the gulf. The western half of the range is called Jebel Mokattem, the eastern Jebel Atakah. At the present day caravans sometimes travel from Cairo to Suez through the Wady et-Tih, but they naturally turn into the north-eastern valley at the fountain of Gandelhi. This road is now called the Derb el-Besatin. In ancient times it was, no doubt, the regular road from Memphis to Klysma (or Suez) and thence into Asia.

Let us now turn to the western boundary, and follow it from the village of Besatin along the Nile and its two eastern arms to the Lake Menzaleh, into which the latter empty themselves. On the Nile itself we first of all arrive at the ancient Latopolis or Babylon (ancient Cairo); a little farther north is Cairo, and somewhat to the east of this, at a distance from the Nile, the old

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city of On or Heliopolis. Within the limits of this district the Pelusiac arm branches off from the main stream, and about thirty miles further north the Bubastic arm. The latter flows into Lake Menzaleh on the western side, and not far off, on the southern side, the Tanitic arm. Near the mouth of the latter stood ancient Zoan or Tanis, and further to the south on the Bubastic arm, near the point at which it leaves the main stream, Bubastis (now Pi Beset). The Pelusiac arm flows into the bay at the south of Lake Menzaleh. On the fertile strip of land which fringes this arm on the eastern side stand, or stood, the important cities of Belbeis (Raemses ?) and Abasich (Pithom or Tum), both towards the south. The northern boundary is formed by the southern side of Lake Menzaleh.

§ 38. The eastern boundary causes the greatest difficulty, when we attempt to form a precise conjecture as to its condition in the time of Moses. For the moveable sand has been driven about by violent winds, and has evidently made considerable changes in the face of the country during the four thousand years, which have intervened between our days and the age of Moses, and the ground has not yet been surveyed with sufficient care, to enable us to determine with certainty of what nature these changes have been. At present the principle features are the following: The breadth of the isthmus, measured in a straight line from the southern point of Lake Menzaleh to the northern extremity of the Gulf of Suez is about eleven geographical miles. From the isthmus to Ras Atakah (§ 37. 1) there is a road, about eighteen miles long, on the western coast of the gulf. To the south of this promontory the Wady et-Tawarik opens into the plain of Baideah, and to the north there is a narrow pass, which widens at Suez into a large, barren plain. At this point, too, a tongue of land runs into the gulf to such a distance, that, acccording to Niebuhr, it is not more than 3450 feet or