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which Dr. Shaw could, and did, travel from Etham to Suez, by way of Baideah valley and the shore of the Red Sea to Suez, then there was a pass-way for the children of Israel to reach the same point by the same road; and all of the hifalutin talk of the D. D.'s, and of the Reverends, about the Israelites being wholly dependent for their deliverance on the special interposition of divine agency to reverse the order of Nature by scooping out a hole in the waters, and stacking them up on the right hand and on the left "making a wall" of them-is all bosh, worse than that, it is duplicity, and a direct fraud on each listener, every time that the story is rehearsed; likewise, every book which contains this fabrication is a gull-trap set by a knave to entrap the honest-minded, or the work of ignorance and perverted religious devotion, the influence of which is to mislead the confiding.

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SEC. 11. The quotations from the Mosaic record which stand at the head of this Chapter, say that the Israelites encamped before Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the Sea, over against Bael-zephon; or, in other form of expression, before Pi-hahiroth, before Migdol, and before Baal-zephon. Above, I have proved pretty clearly, I think, that the Pi-hahiroth mentioned in the texts above quoted was a valley, and that valley was that which now is called Baideah. For the better satisfaction of those who require accumulative testimony on this point, I will quote a few extracts from eminent Hebraists who have written on this subject, and given their views on the meaning of the Hebrew original of the word, Pi-hahiroth.

Richard Watson, in his explanatory remarks, says: "The Hebrew word 'pi' answers to the modern Arabic word 'fum,' signifying, 'mouth;' and is generally applied to the passage in the mountains. In English and Septuagint versions, Hahiroth is taken as a proper name; and the whole word would imply the mouth or pass of Hahiroth or Hiroth, whatever particular origin or signification may belong to that word."

In commenting on the words, "Encamp before Pi-hahiroth," Bishop Patrick says it means: Before the straits of two great mountains; full of dangerous holes: as many think the word Hiroth imports. And 'pi,' in Hebrew, signifying a 'mouth,' and this word Pi-hahiroth may properly be translated in our language ‘the chaps of Hiroth.' The former day they had marched about eight miles; but now they doubled their pace, and marched sixteen miles from Etham hither."

Adam Clarke says: "Pi-hahiroth was the mouth, strait, or bay of Chiroth."

Dr. Shaw says: "Pihahhiroth, or Hhiroth rather, without regarding the prefixed part of it, may have a more general signification, and denote the valley of that whole space of ground which extended itself from the edge of the wilderness of Etham to the Red Sea: for that particular part only, where the Israelites were ordered to encamp, appears to have been called Pihahhiroth, i. e., mouth of Hhiroth; for when Pharaoh overtook them, it was in respect to his coming down upon them, chap. XIV: 9, beside or at the mouth, or the most advanced part, of Hhiroth to the eastward. Likewise in Num. XXXIII: 7, where the Israelites are related to have encamped before Migdol, it follows, ver. 8, that they departed from before Hhiroth, and not before Pihahhiroth, as it is rendered in our translation."

SEC. 12. By the light of what has been adduced in this Chapter, I think that no careful reader of it will long remain in doubt as to what it was, and where was, the Pi-hahiroth mentioned in the texts first quoted above. And I am fully confident that all such will agree with me that that Pi-hahiroth was a valley; and, that the same now is called Baideah; and, that that valley extended from the Red Sea, in a northwesternly direction, to the west of the wilderness of Etham; and, that the children of Israel traveled in it before they came to their encamping ground in Etham; and, that the mouth of this valley was only a few miles south of the present city of Suez-the northern border of

the valley being not more than six, or eight, miles below the city. The exact width of Pi-hahiroth, on the line of the beach, is not ascertainable from any data which is before me. But this much is evident from the testimony of Dr. Shaw, that there was a free and unobstructed road-way all the way from the edge of the wilderness to their encampment on the sea-coast; this statement and the biblical recorded testimony coincide. Then, it is likewise evident from the testimony of Dr. Shaw that, as a thing of necessity, since the bay of Chiroth, or "Tiah Beni Israel," set up into the mouth of the Pi-hahiroth, or heavily indented the land, that the line of this semi-circular shore, across Pi-hahiroth, must be quite a distance; hence, the southern border of the valley, at the foot of the Gewoubee ridge, must be several miles below the city of Suez.

SEC. 13. The point being settled, what was, and where was, Pi-hahiroth, the next step in the argument is to settle the question, where was Migdol and Baal-zephon, alluded to in the texts quoted at the head of this Chapter? It is a matter of no moment, either to the argument or as it concerns the main question under consideration, what Migdol and Baal-zephon were-it was their locality only that I care anything about, at this time. It is evident, from the record, and from the concurrent testimony adduced, that when the children of Israel were "encamped before Pi-hahiroth," they were encamped also "before Migdol," and "before Baal-zephon, and on, or near, the sea-shore," in the valley of Baideah; and, when the direction took, and the distance traveled by, the Israelites, from Etham are taken into consideration, it is obvious that that encampment must have been the northern border of the valley, and only a few miles below the present city of Suez.

SEC. 14. If Hebraists and biblical commentators disagree, irreconcilably, about Pi-hahiroth, and the particular locations of Migdol and Baal-zephon, the majority do not disagree, widely, as to what Migdol and Baal-zephon were. The preponderance of testimony on this is, that Migdol was a

"tower," and that Baal-zephon was an idol, and it was called "the lord of the north "it is claimed that the name imports this. The evidence makes it well nigh a surety that one of these objects lay to the right of the road extending from Etham to Suez, by the way of the valley and sea-shore, and the other lay to the left of it; but there is no testimony on the subject which settles the point, definitely, which of the two objects lay to the right hand, or to the left-south, or north, of the road.

SEC. 15. From the reading of the texts quoted, and from the uses to which the objects themselves were put, or judging from the purposes for which they were erected, there can arise very little, if any, doubt that the watch-tower, Migdol, stood a short distance inland at the extreme southeastern angle of the wilderness of Etham, on the promontory formed by the, so called, mountains of Suez-the Attackah ridge— just at the edge of the wilderness bordering the valley of Pi-hahiroth, hence to the north of the road and valley. From this eminence, and that observatory structure, could be overlooked the valley of Hiroth, otherwise called, in the record, Pi-hahiroth, on the south and west; the wilderness of Etham to the west, the far north, and over the sea to the east; the sandy plains to the north, round about the head of the Gulf; and the Red Sea to the north, the east, and the south. From the same data, and by taking a like rational view of the question, it is not difficult, in the least, to locate Baal-zephon. This place of heathen worship, the idol, stood in the valley near the sea shore, not very far from the converging point of the promontory of Attackah, the road, and the sea coast-to the southeast of, and over the road-way from, against, Migdol. It was here, “before Baal-zephon," "between Migdol and the Sea," and "by the Sea," where the children of Israel encamped for their third encampment; and, according to the record, here they were encamped when their pursuers, the Egyptians, hove in sight, in their rear. Here I will leave them, with their pursuers in sight, till I take them up in the next Chapter.

CHAPTER XII.

MOSES THE ISRAELITES-THEIR TRAVELS FROM PI-HAHIROTH TO MARAH.

"And they departed from before Pi-hahiroth, and passed through the midst of the sea into the wilderness, and went three days journey in the wilderness of Etham, and pitched in Marah."

[Num XXXIII: 8.

"And the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward; but lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it; and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. * * * And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left. And the Lord said unto Moses, stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and upon their horsemen. And the waters returned, and covered the chariots and the horsemen, and all the hosts of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them; there remained not so much as one of them. And Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea-shore."

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[Ex. XIV: 15-30.

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SECTION 1. Before starting from Pi-hahiroth on the route of the children of Israel, I will bring before the mind of the reader a few facts which have an important bearing in the argument which comprises this Chapter. The reader will bear in mind that the space now being traveled over, in these Chapters, was no by-way among trackless mountains, but that it was a thoroughfare between the valley of the Nile and Arabia Petræa, and it had been so used from time immemorial. Be it likewise remembered, that Moses was learned in all the wisdom of his age; that he had spent the whole time of his life within a few miles of the shores of the Rod Sea: that he had passed over the intermediate space

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