Page images
PDF
EPUB

this arm of the Red Sea called the Gulf of Suez, so designated from the town of Suez standing at its extremity, which is the gulf crossed by the Hebrews. Not only are there numerous marine appearances on the dry soil, but the town of Kolsoum, which was formerly a seaport, is now three quarters of a mile inland. There is nothing in the appearance of the soil about the Isthmus of Suez to discountenance the hypothesis that the Red Sea was in ancient times a strait, uniting the Mediterranean with the Indian Ocean, thus insulating the whole of Africa, and that the Isthmus of Suez was formed by drifting sands from the adjoining deserts. This, however, as it has been well remarked, " is a mere hypothesis; but there is nothing hypothetical in the statement that the Gulf once extended more to the north than at present; and this fact is of importance, because it enables us to see that nothing less than a miraculous interposition of the Divine power could have enabled the Israelites to cross the bay even at the highest of the points which has been selected by those who, perhaps, were influenced by the wish to diminish the force of the miracle, or to account for it on natural principles."

We are told by Moses that "the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light," and that those singular and miraculous appearances were continually before the Israelites. We are here doubt less to understand the Shechinah, or Divine glory, which appeared to Moses in the bush and on other occasions, and which was in this instance manifested as a glorious cloud and pillar of fire, to conduct the Hebrews, and to assure them that they were under the Divine protection.

We are not to conclude that the great Jehovah himself moved from place to place, for He is every where present, but this cloud was moved by Him as a token that He was guiding his people. "He who in this chapter," says Archbishop Tenison, "is called the Lord, is in the next called the angel of God, who, as

formerly he had gone before the camp for their guidance, so now, the Egyptians pursuing, stood behind it as their defence. It was the opinion of the primitive church that He who thus accompanied the Israelites with the pillar of a cloud was the same who had formerly appeared to the Patriarchs in the figure of a man; and, indeed, whilst Moses is not contented with the promise of an assistant angel, but expressly petitions for the continuance of God's presence, he leaves us not in want of a commentator to tell us what kind of angel was present with him.”

The Israelites were now ordered to turn and encamp before Pihahiroth, "between Migdol and the Sea, over against Baalzephon," that is, instead of proceeding from Etham round the head of the Gulf of Suez, and coasting along its eastern, they were to turn southward along its western shore, where there was an opening in the great chain of the Attaka mountains which line the western coast, called Pihahiroth, opposite to Baal-zephon on the eastern coast. To estimate the importance of this move from Etham to Pihahiroth, it must be recollected that the original petition of the Israelites to Pharaoh was to go "three days' journey into the Wilderness to offer sacrifices." This being at length granted, the Israelites had arrived at Etham, situated somewhere near the Gulf of Suez, three days' journey from the Nile, and on the edge of the Wilderness, in or near the spot which, in terms of this application, was to form the limit of their journey. Whatever move they made from Etham, therefore, would be regarded as indicating their future intentions; and this was the great crisis of the undertaking, and was obviously so regarded by Pharaoh, who had granted the three days' journey, but who no sooner heard of a subsequent movement than he commenced the pursuit. Shuckford appropriately observes, that from the time the Israelites arrived at Succoth to their passing the Red Sea into Midian, it does not appear that Moses led them one step by his own conduct or contrivance, and that according to his narrative

of their several movements, he was not left to his own judgment where to lead the people. This view is ably supported by Mr Faber in his "Hora Mosaicæ," who completely proves that Moses was no self-appointed leader, but was acting under direction and control. He was at the head of 600,000 men, besides women and children, and encumbered with flocks and herds; but this immense host, perhaps amounting in all to upwards of 2,000,000 persons, was merely an undisciplined crowd, dispirited by bondage, and utterly unfit for war, which was the reason why he deviated from the regular track, and avoided the southern and nearest portion of the country, to which the expedition was directed, then occupied by the Philistines-a distinguished military people, allied to those very Pali or Shepherds who had so long oppressed them in Egypt, and who, with the other tribes of Canaan, could not be expected to resign their dominions without a struggle, while the Israelites themselves were not in a condition to engage in an immediate war. Thus, when Moses arrived at Etham, he had precisely three alternatives, one of which has been mentioned; and the second was to take a south-east direction into the Desert. But dangerous as a hostile collision with the herdsmen of Palestine would have been, the other was scarcely preferable, for Moses, who had some experience of the country when he fed the flocks of his father-in-law Jethro in Midian, well knew that the Desert could afford no resources for the subsistence even of a few weeks of the immense host he was leading thither. His alternatives were, thus-war on the one hand, without any reasonable prospect of success, and, on the other, starvation in the Desert. His third and only other resource was to perform the sacrifices and return to Egypt. The route which he had previously followed from the Nile, along the southern shore of the Gulf of Suez, the common road to Arabia, instead of taking the northern course, which appears to have always formed the road to Palestine, indicated his original purpose

for the Desert; and hence Pharaoh, before their move from Etham, could have no suspicion of his ultimate intention, because Moses had all along mentioned the Desert as the scene of the sacrifices. The Egyptian king, who evidently kept a steady watch upon the proceedings of the Israelites, notwithstanding the dreadful calamity which had befallen his kingdom, appears to have held himself in readiness to act according to what they did at the end of the three days' journey, for he never intended that they should be allowed to depart finally out of the country. Hence, the march from Etham was the decisive announcement of the intentions of the Hebrew leader, and this march was neither to return to Egypt, nor to proceed round the head of the Gulf into the Arabian peninsula of Sinai, nor to strike off towards Palestine, but to turn southward, and apparently shut himself up and involve himself between the mountains and the western shore of the Gulf of Suez in the Valley of Bedea, to tempt Pharaoh to pursue him when the Israelites were "entangled in the land," and "shut in by the Wilderness" on their rear and flanks, and by the Red Sea in their front. This step, which proves that neither Moses nor any other person would have done so if he had been acting on his own conclusions, left the Israelites no other way of pursuing their journey than a passage through the Red Sea, unless they turned back or retreated. Niebuhr alleges they would never have suffered themselves to be led into a situation which involved their inevitable destruction; he says that one need only travel with a caravan which meets with the least obstacle, such as a small torrent. to be convinced that the Orientals do not allow themselves to be led like fools by their caravan bashi, or leader of the caravan; and he infers accordingly that the Hebrews did not go into this dangerous situation, but argues that the passage was not made lower down than Suez. This, however, is entirely unsupported by any evidence. It is clear that Moses acted under the Divine direc

tion, and that the Israelites believed that he did so. There was to be a grand catastrophe to the great events which had been lately witnessed in Egypt. There was no apparent necessity for the Israelites going down the Gulf at all, because they might as easily have entered the Peninsula of Sinai by marching round it; but it was the inscrutable arrangement of Him who had done so many wonders in Egypt, and whose pillar of cloud denoted his divine superintendence, to induce Pharaoh to follow the Israelites to his destruction, by holding out to him the advantage he might obtain in attacking them in their difficult situation. overthrow of the Egyptian host was the contemplated result of the move down the Gulf, by which Pharaoh received his complete punishment; and the security and success of the Israelites were assisted by it, for the fate of the Egyptians made a deep impression on the neighbouring tribes, who were alarmed and intimidated at the stupendous event, and who, with the exception of the Amalekites, did not venture on any hostile encounter with the Hebrews for a considerable time afterwards.

The

The Egyptians, having recovered from the terror caused by the death of the firstborn, were probably induced by revenge to retaliate upon the Hebrews. The time of the request-the three days' journey had also expired; and the movement from Etham showed that Moses did not intend to return. This had been communicated to Pharaoh, who was evidently relapsing into a belief that all the recent disasters of the Egyptians had been procured by the magical contrivances of Moses. Besides, whatever he might have thought of the conduct of the Israelites in their extraordinary march from Etham, there was no mistaking the intention of flight which it indicated; and the prospect of thus losing the services of his bondsmen at once determined him to pursue them. "The Egyptians," says Josephus, "made haste in their pursuit; and indeed that land is difficult to be travelled over, not only by armies, but by single persons."

VOL. I.

Moses says that Pharaoh "took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots of Egypt, and captains over every one of them;" and we learn from the Jewish historian that the whole Egyptian army which accompanied the king amounted to fifty thousand horsemen and two hundred thousand foot. The military chariots here mentioned were of a curious construction. Unlike those of other ancient nations, the Egyptian soldier stood erect in his chariot in full warlike action, with the reins lashed round his waist, and seeming to control the horses by the movements of his body. There were commonly two horses to each, which were adorned with rich trappings, having plumes of feathers on their heads. The warrior, who had scarcely more than standing room in his car, was generally furnished with bow and arrows, and a javelin, but sometimes he held in his hand a weapon not unlike a reaping hook. The chariot warriors are sometimes represented as fighting on foot, while the heads of those they had slain were fixed on different parts of the car; and sometimes captives were dragged behind the chariot of the conqueror.

The Egyptian host advanced on the Israelites as they lay encamped on the sea side near Pihahiroth, and opposite to Baal-zephon. They beheld the approach of their oppressors with dismay; they were without arms, a rude undisciplined host, and the most certain destruction apparently awaited them unless they voluntarily surrendered to the Egyptians. They now assailed Moses with reproachful language, Exod. xiv. 11, 12; and Josephus informs us that they even pelted him with stones when he promised them deliverance, concluding that he was mocking their distress. But Moses was firm:"Fear not," he said, "stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you to-day; for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever; the Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace." A miraculous sign was the prelude to the great event. The angel of

2 K

God, who went before the camp of the Israelites, removed and went behind them; and thus the pillar of the cloud intervened between them and the Egyptian army, to whom "it was a cloud and darkness," while "it gave light by night" to the Israelites. In this condition they lay all night. "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." The Egyptians at first thought the Israelites were voluntarily destroying themselves, and looked with amazement on their deliberate rush towards the divided Gulf; but when they perceived their mistake, they were impelled to the pursuit. The whole Egyptian army, commanded by Pharaoh himself, instantly entered the Gulf after the Hebrews, who had all reached the other side. But they soon perceived their error; their chariot wheels got entangled among the rocks, mud, and other impediments in the bed of the Gulf, and when about the middle of the passage, they resolved to return. The description of the rush of the waters is graphically given by the Jewish historian. "As soon as ever the whole Egyptian army was within it, the sea flowed to its own place, and came down with a torrent raised by storms of wind, and encompassed the Egyptians. Showers of rain also came down, and dreadful thunders, and lightnings, with flashes of fire. Thunderbolts were also dashed upon them; and thus did all these men perish, so that there was not one left to be a messenger of their calamity to the rest of the Egyptians." Although nothing is said in our version of Exodus of this storm of wind, thunder, and lightning at the drowning of Pharaoh's army, the statement of Josephus appears to be confirmed by David in the 77th Psalm. "Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians, and the people feared the Lord, and

[ocr errors]

believed the Lord, and his servant Moses." In commemoration of this astonishing deliverance, Moses composed a song of thanksgiving, which is also a sublime prophecy, foretelling the powerful effect of this appalling judgment on the neighbouring nations of Edom, Moab, Palestine, and Canaan, the erection of the Temple and Sanctuary, and the perpetuity of the worship of the true God. "I will sing," said the exulting Hebrew, "unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is his name."

Many objections have been urged to this miracle, some either detracting from its magnitude, or endeavouring to account for it by natural causes. The description given by Moses seems purposely intended to guard against any possible hypothesis which has been or may yet be adduced. The natural operation of a wind could only have driven back the water from the extremity of the Gulf, and even this could not have been effected by an east wind, which was certainly best calculated to strike a passage through the Gulf; but no wind, not even an east wind, could have effected this in the manner described, without an extraordinary exhibition of Divine Power. But the fact that the waters were not simply driven back from the head of the Gulf of Suez, either by a wind or by a fall of the tide, is proved from this circumstance, that they could not in that case have been divided, but merely driven back—they could not have been "a wall unto them on their right hand and their left," but only on the right. It is also impossible to admit that the Israelites passed at a ford known to Moses, or at any shallow place, for we are expressly told that they passed on dry land; and it cannot be supposed that, encumbered as they were with flocks and herds, and threatened by an implacable enemy in their rear, they could have got through even a small depth of water. The natural agency of an east wind was employed, but no wind alone, we repeat, could have caused this separation; and

if it could, there is still the miracle-the wind being made to rise, to blow as long as it was wanted, and to cease at the very instant when the Egyptian host was to be destroyed. But the east wind is itself a miracle, there being no natural east wind in the Red Sea, the monsoons flowing steadily from the north during one part of the year, and from the south during the other. We can only account for this event by ascribing it to the sovereign power of God, who by it manifested himself to the Israelites and the neighbouring nations, while he completed the punishment of Pharaoh. It is undeniable that the Hebrews believed in its miraculous reality, and we find their historians, prophets, and poets, more frequently referring to it than to any other of the displays of Omnipotence recorded in the Old Testament.

Some particulars connected with the exact locality of the passage of the Israelites are considered in other parts of the present work (see ISRAELITES and RED SEA), and we merely observe, that the notion of the Egyptians having been drowned by the return of the tide is refuted by the fact, that the tide seldom rises in this part of the Red Sea above three feet. Another objection is, that the Red Sea is supposed, at the place where the Israelites passed, to be above thirty miles broad, and that therefore so great an host as 600,000 men, besides women and children, could not pass over in one night; but Thevenot, who surveyed minutely this part of the Gulf, informs us that for about five days' journey it is no where more than eight or nine miles broad, and in one place only from four to five, according to De Lisle's map. This is farther proved from the present appearance of the Gulf of Suez, as seen from Ras Mohammed, on the south-west coast of Arabia Petræa. At the place where the Israelites are supposed to have entered the dried channel of the Gulf the breadth is at present 1514 paces, and has a sand bank running across to the opposite shore; but at that time it must have been upwards of 2000 paces across,

and much deeper than it is now. It is worthy of observation, that the only parallel to this miracle in ordinary history is the transit of Alexander the Great through the Pamphylian Sea, recorded by Callisthenes, Strabo, Arrian, and Appian, and noticed also by Josephus. These authorities are cited by his translator, Mr Whiston. Callisthenes wrote how the Pamphylian Sea not only opened a passage for Alexander, but, by rising and elevating its waters, rendered him homage as a king! Strabo's account of it is to the following effect:-" About. Phaselis is that narrow passage by the sea-side through which Alexander led his army. There is a mountain called Climax, which adjoins the Sea of Pamphylia, leaving a narrow passage on the shore, which in calm weather is so bare as to be passable by travellers, but when the sea overflows it is covered to a great degree by the waves. Now, the ascent of the mountain being round about and steep, in calm weather they make use of the road along the coast; but Alexander fell into the winter season, and committing hin'self chiefly to fortune, he marched on before the waves retired, and it so happened that they were a whole day in journeying over it, and were under water up to the navel." The reader may contrast this rational statement by Strabo, which is a complete reply to the extravagant one of Callisthenes, with the account by Arrian and Appian. "When Alexander," says the former," removed from Phaselis, he sent some parts of his army over the mountains of Perga, a road which the Thracians showed him; he himself, however, conducted those that were with him by the sea-shore. The road is impassable at any other time than when the north wind blows; if the south wind prevail, there is no passing by the shore. Now, at this time, after the strong south winds, a north wind blew, and that not without the divine providence, as both he and they that were with him supposed, and afforded him an easy and quick passage." Appian, comparing Cæsar and Alexander, says, "They both depended on their bold

« PreviousContinue »