Vers. 15-29. The words of Jehovah to Moses, " What criest thou to Me?" imply that Moses had appealed to God for help, or laid the complaints of the people before Him, and do not convey any reproof, but merely an admonition to resolute action. The people were to move forward, and Moses was to stretch out his hand with his staff over the sea and divide it, so that the people might go through the midst on dry ground. Vers. 17 and 18 repeat the promise in vers. 3, 4. The command and promise were followed by immediate help (vers. 19-29). Whilst Moses divided the water with his staff, and thus prepared the way, the angel of God removed from before the IsraeHtes, and placed himself behind them as a defence against the Egyptians, who were following them. " Upon his chariots^ and upon his horsemen" (ver. 17), is in apposition to ^^ all his host;" as Pharaoh's army consisted entirely of chariots and horsemen (cf. ver. 18). — Yer. 20. ^' And it was the clond and the darkness (sc, to the Egyptians), and lighted up the nijht (sc. to the Israelites)." Fuit nubes partini lucida et partiui tenehricosa, ex una parte tenehricosa fait ^gi/piiis, ex altera lucida Israelitis (Jonathan). Although the article is striking in "^^''^01? the difficulty is not to be removed, as Ewald proposes, by substituting "H^T:']"!? " and as for the cloud, it caused darkness;" for in that case the grammar would require the imperfect with i consec. This alteration of the text is also rendered suspicious from the fact that both Onhelos and the LXX. read and render the word as a substantive. — Vers. 21, 22. AVhen Moses stretched out his hand with the staff (ver. 16) over the sea, " Jehovah made the water go (flow away) hi/ a strong east wind the ichole night, and made the sea into dry (ground), and the icater split itself" {i.e. divided by flowing northward and southward); " and the Israelites went in the midst of the sea (where the water had been driven away by the wind) i?i the dry, and the icater was a wall (i.e. a protection formed by the damming up of the water) on the right and on the left" CJ''"|i^, the cast wind, which may apply either to the south-east or northeast, as the Hebrew has special terms for the four quarters only. Whether the wind blew directly from the east, or somewhat from the south-east or north-east, cannot be determined, as we do not know the exact spot where the passage was made. In any case, the division of the water in both directions could only have been effected ty an east wind; and although even now the ebb is strengthened by a north-east wmd, as Tischendorf says, and the flood is driven so much to =the south by a strong north-west wind that the gulf can be ridden through, and even forded on foot, to the north of Suez (v. Schub. Eeise ii. p. 269), and " as a rule the rise and fall of the water in the Arabian Gulf is nowhere so dependent upon the wind as it is at Suez" (Wellsted, Arab. ii. 41, 42), the drying of the sea as here described cannot be accounted for by an ebb strengthened by the east wind, because the water is all driven southwards in the ebb, and not sent in two opposite directions. Such a division could only be produced by a wind sent by God, and working with omnipotent force, in connection with which the natural phenomenon of the ebb may no doubt have exerted a subordinate influence.^ The passage was effected in the night, through the whole of which the wind was blowing, and in the morning watch (between three and six o'clock, ver. 24) it was finished.
As to the possibility of a whole nation crossing with their flocks, 7i^o^n'«so72 concludes that this might have been accomplished within the period of an extraordinary ebb, which lasted three, or at the most four hours, and was strengthened by the influence of a miraculous wind. '^ As the Israelites," he observes, " num-
bered more than two millions of persons, besides flocks and herds, they would of course be able to pass but slowly. If the part left dry were broad enough to enable them to cross in a body one thousand abreast, which would require a space of more than half a mile in breadth (and is perhaps the largest supposition admissible), still the column would be more than two thousand persons in depth, and in all probability could not have extended less than two miles. It would then have occupied at least an hour in passing over its own length, or in entering the sea; and deducting this from the largest time intervening, before the Eg3''ptians also have entered the sea, there w^ill remain only time enougli, under the circumstances, for the body of the Israelites to have passed, at the most, over a space of three or four miles." (Kesearches in Palestine, vol. i. p. 84.)
But as the dividing of the water cannot be accounted for by an extraordinary ebb, even tliough miraculously strengthened, we have no occasion to limit the time allowed for the crossing to the ordinary period of an ebb. If God sent the wind, which divided the water and laid the bottom dry, as soon as night set in, the crossing might have begun at nine o'clock in the evening, if not before, and lasted till four or five o'clock in the morning
' Cut as the ebb at Suez leaves the shallow parts of the gulf so far dry, when a strong wind is blowing, that it is possible to cross over them, we may understand how the le!j,end could have arisen among the Ichthyophagi of that neighbourhood {Diod. Sic. 3, 39) and even the inhabitants of Memphis {Eusch. prsep. ev. 9, 27), that the Israelites took advantage of a strong ebb, and how modern writers like Clericns have tried to show that the passage through the sea may be so accounted for.
(see ver. 27). By this extension of the time we gain enough for the flocks, which Robinson has left out of his calculation. The Egyptians naturally followed close upon the Israelites, from whom they were only divided by the pillar of cloud and fire; and when the rear of the Israelites had reached the opposite shore, they were in the midst of the sea. And in the morning watch Jehovah cast a look upon them in the pillar of cloud and fire, and threw their army into confusion (ver. 24). The breadth of the gulf at the point in question cannot be precisely det^- mined. At the narrowest point above Suez, it is only two-thirds of a mile in breadth, or, according to Niehuhr, 3450 feet; but it was probably broader formerly, and even now is so farther up, opposite to Tell Kolzum (Bob. i. pp. 84 and 70). The place where the Israelites crossed must have been broader, otherwise the Egyptian army, with more than six hundred chariots and many horsemen, could not have been in the sea and perished there when the water returned. — '' And Jehovah looked at the army of the Egyptians in (with) the pillar of cloud and fire, and troubled it^ This look of Jehovah is to be regarded as the appearance of fire suddenly bursting forth from the pillar of cloud that was turned towards the Egyptians, which threw the Egyptian army into alarm and confusion, and not as " a storm with thunder and lightning," as Josephus and even Rosenmuller assume, on the ground of Ps. Ixxviii. 18, 19, though without noticing the fact that the psalmist has merely given a poetical version of the event, and intends to show " how all the powers of nature entered the service of the majestic revelation of Jehovah, when He judged Egypt and set Israel free" (Delitzsch), The fiery look of Jehovah was a much more stupendous phenomenon than a storm; hence its effect was incomparably grander, viz. a state of confusion in which the wheels of the chariots were broken off from the axles, and the Egyptians w^ere therefore impeded in their efforts to escape. — Ver. 25. " And (Jehovah) made the wheels of his (the Egyptian's) chariots give way, and 7nade, that he (the Egyptian) di^ove in difficulty.^* J^i^ to drive a chariot (2 Sam. vi. 3, cf. 2 Kings ix. 20).— Yers. 26^, 27. Then God directed Moses- to stretch out his staff again over the sea, and the sea came back with the turning of the morning (when the morning turned, or approached) to its position Q^''^ perennitaSy the lasting or permanent position), and the Egyptians were flying to meet it. " Wlicn the cast wind which divided the sea ceased to blow, the sea from the north and souih began to flow together on the western side;" wliereupon, to judge from chap XV. 10, the wind began immediately to blow from the west, and drove the waves in the face of the flying Egyptians. " And iluis Jehovah shook the Egyptians (i.e, plunged them into the greatest confusion) in the midst of the sea,^^ so that Pharaoh's chariots and horsemen, to the very last man, were buried in the waves.
Vers. 30, 31. This miraculous deliverance of Israel from the power of Egypt, through the mighty hand of their God, produced so wholesome a fear of the Lord, that they believed in Jehovah, and His servant Moses. — Ver. 31. " The great hand:" i.e. the might which Jehovah had displayed upon Egypt. In ad» dition to the glory of God through the judgment upon Pharaoh (vers. 4, 17), the guidance of Israel through the sea was also designed to establish Israel still more firmly in the fear of the Lord and in faith. But faith in the Lord was inseparably connected with faith in Moses as the servant of the Lord. Hence the miracle was wrouMit throu^rh the hand and staff of Moses. But this second design of the miraculous guidance of Israel did not exclude the first, viz. glory upon Pharaoh. From this manifestation of Jehovah's omnipotence, the Israelites were to discern not only the merciful Deliverer, but also the holy Judge of the ungodly, that they might grow in the fear of God, as w^ell as in the faith which they had already shown, when, trusting in the omnipotence of Jehovah, they had gone, as though upon dry land (Heb. xi. 29), between the watery walls which might at any moment have overwhelmed them.
In the song of praise which Moses and the children of Israel sang at the lied Sea, in celebration of the wonderful works of Jehovah, the congregation of Israel commemorated the fact of its deliverance and its exaltation into the nation of God. By their glorious deliverance from the slave-house of Egypt, Jehovah had practically exalted the seed of Abraham into His own nation; and in the destruction of Pharaoh and his host. He had gloriPf^d Himself as God of the gods and King of the heathen, whom no power on earth could defy with impunity. As the fact of Israel's deliverance from the power of its oppressors is of everlastinsr importance to the Church of the Lord in its conflict with the ungodly powers of the world, in which the Lord continually overthrows the enemies of His kingdom, as He over threw Pharaoh and his horsemen in the depths of the sea: so Moses' song at the Red Sea furnishes the Church of the Lord with the materials for its songs of praise in all the great con> flicts which it has to sustain, during its onward course, with the powers of the world. Hence not only does the key-note of this song resound through all Israel's songs, in praise of the glorious works of Jehovah for the good of His people (see especially Isa. xii.), but the song of Moses the servant of God will also be sung, along with the song of the Lamb, by the conquerors who stand upon the " sea of glass," and have gained the victory over the beast and his image (Rev. xv. 3).
The substance of this song, which is entirely devoted to the praise and adoration of Jehovah, is the judgment inflicted upon the heathen power of the world in the fall of Pharaoh, and the salvation which flowed from this judgment to Israel. Although Moses is not expressly mentioned as the author of the song, its authenticity, or Mosaic authorship, is placed beyond all doubt by both the contents and the form. The song is composed of three gradually increasing strophes, each of which commences with the praise of Jehovah, and ends with a description of the overthrow of the Egyptian host (vers. 2-5, 6-10, 11-18). The theme announced in the introduction in ver. 1 is thus treated in three different ways; and whilst the omnipotence of God, displayed in the destruction of the enemy, is the prominent topic in the first two strophes, the third depicts with prophetic confidence the fruit of this glorious event in the establishment of Israel, as a, kingdom of Jehovah, in the promised inheritance. Modern criticism, it is true, has taken offence at this prophetic insight into the future, and rejected the song of Moses, just because the wonders of God are carried forward in vers. 16, 17, beyond the Mosaic times. But it was so natural a thing that, after the miraculous deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt, they should turn their eyes to Canaan, and, looking forward with certainty to the possession of the promised land, should anticipate with believing confidence the foundation of a sanctuary there, in which their God would dwell with them, that none but those who alto<:^ether reject the divine mission of Moses, and set down the mighty works of God in Egypt as myths, could ever deny to Moses this anticipation and prospect. Even JEwald admits that this grand song of praise " was probably the immediate effect of first enthusiasm in the Mosaic age," thouirh he also ignores the prophetic character of the song, and denies the reality of any of the supernatural wonders of the Old Testament. There is nothing to prevent our understanding the words, " then sang Moses," as meaning that Moses not only sang this song with the Israelites, but composed it for the congregation to the praise of Jehovah.
Vers. 16-5. Introduction and first strophe. — The introduction, which contains the theme of the song, " Sing will I to the Lord, for highly exalted is lie, horse and his rider He hath thrown into the sea" was repeated, when sung, as an anti-strophe by a chorus of women, with Miriam at their head (cf. vers. 20, 21); whether after every verse, or only at the close of the longer stroplies, cannot be determined, nxa to arise, to grow up, trop. to show oneself exalted; connected with an inf, ahs. to give still further emphasis. Jehovah had displayed His superiority to all earthly power by casting horses and riders, the proud army of the haughty Pharaoh, into the sea. This had filled His people with rejoicing: (ver. 2), " My strength and song is Jah, He became my salvation; He is my God, whom I extol, my father s God, whom I exalt.^^ TV strength, might, not praise or glory, even in Ps. viii. 2. ri"jpT, an old poetic form for nnpT, from "ipj, primarily to hum; thence "i?3T y^aXkeuv, to play music, or sing with a musical accompaniment. Jah, the concentration of Jehovah, the God of salvation ruling the course of history with absolute freedom (cf. vol. i. p. 74), has passed from this song into the Psalms, but is restricted to the higher style of poetry. " For He became salvation to me, granted me deliverance and salvation:" on the use of vav consec. in explanatory clauses, see Gen. xxvi. 12. This clause is taken from our song, and introduced in Isa. xii. 2, Ps. cxviii. 14. vX riT: this Jah, such an one is my God. in'i^i^: Hiphil of ^)'\, related to TW^:^^ niW, to be lovely, delightful, Iliph. to extol, to praise, So^daco, glorificaho (LXX,, Vulg.). " Ilie God of my father:" i.e. of Abraham as the ancestor of Israel, or, as in chap. iii. 6, of the three patriarchs combined. What He promised them (Gen. xv. 14, xlvi. 3, 4) He had now fulfilled. — Ver. 3. '' Jehovah is a man of war:" one who knows how to make war, and possesses the power to destroy His foes. " Jehovah is Ills name:" i.e. He has jiist proved Himself to be the God who rules with unlimited might. For (ver. 4) " Pliaraolis chariots and his might (his military force) He cast into the sea, and the choice (the chosen ones) of his knhjhts (shelishim, see cliap. xiv. 7) icere drowned in the Red S^a." — Ver. 5. '^ Floods cover them (^vypy^ defectively written for VpD^ = ^331^ and the suffix 1^ for ^^, only used here); thei/ go down into the deep like stone,' which never appears again.
Vers. 6-10. Jehovah had not only proved Himself to be a true man of war in destroying the Egyptians, but also as the glorious and strong one, who overthrows His enemies at the very moment when they think they are able to destroy His people. — Ver. 6. " TJuj right hand, Jehovah, glorified in power (gloriously equipped with power: on the Yod in ''']'^^^-'., see Gen. xxxi. 39; the form is masc, and Tp), which is of common gender, is first of all construed as a masculine, as in Prov. xxvii. IG, and then as a feminine), 7'A// rigid hand dashes in pieces the oiemy^^ TV'] = rV^: only used here, and in Judg. x. 8. The thought is quite a general one: the right hand of Jehovah smites every foe. This thought is deduced from the proof just seen of the power of God, and is still furtiier expanded in ver 7, " In the fulness of TJuj majesti/ Thou jmllest down lldne opponents.'* Din generally applied to the pulling down of buildings; then used figuratively for the destruction of foes, who seek to destroy the building (the work) of God; in this sense here and Ps. xxviii. 5. D'^PP: those that rise up in hostility against a man (Deut. xxxiii. 11; Ps. xviii. 40, etc.). " Tliou lettest out TJiy burning heat, it devours them like stubhleJ' V^, the burning breath of the wrath of God, which Jehovah causes to stream out like fire (Ezek. vii. 3), was probably a play upon the fiery look cast upon the Egyptians from the pillar of cloud (cf. Isa. ix. 18, x. 17; and on the last words, Isa. v. 24, Nah. i. 10). — Vers. 8-10. Thus had Jehovah annihilated the Egy})tians. ''And hy the breath of Thy Jiostrils {i.e. the strong east wind sent by God, which is described as the blast of the breath of His nostrils; cf. Ps. xviii. 16) the waters heaped themselves up {^nhd themselves up, so that it was possible to go between them like walls); the flowing ones stood like a Jieap' pp. cumulus; it occurs in Josh. iii. 13, IG, and Ps. xxxiii. 7, Ixxviii. 13, where it is borrowed from this passage. C3vp: the running, flowing ones; a poetic epithet applied to waves, rivers, or brooks, Ps. Ixxviii. 16, 44; Isa. xliv. 3). " The waves congealed in the heart of the sea:" a poetical description of the piling up of the waves like solid masses.
Ver. 9. ^^ The enemy said: I pursue^ overtake^ divide spoil, my soul becomes fall of them; I draw my sword, my hand will root them outr By these short clauses following one another without any copula, the confidence of the Egyptian as he pursued them breathing vengeance is very strikingly depicted. t^'?Dp: the soul as the seat of desire, i.e, of fury, which sought to take vengeance on the enemy, " to cool itself on them." t^^')in: to drive from their possession, to exterminate (cf. Num. xiv. 12). — Yer. 10. '' Thou didst blow with Thy breath: the sea covered them, they sank as lead in the mighty watersT One breath of God was sufficient to sink the proud foe in the waves of the sea. The waters are called C:''V'ns, because of the mighty proof of the Creator's glory which is furnished by the waves as they rush majestically along.
Vers. 11-18. Third strophe. On the ground of this glorious act of God, the song rises in the third strophe into firm assurance, that in His incomparable exaltation above all gods Jehovah will finish the work of salvation, already begun, fill all the enemies of Israel with terror at the greatness af His arm, bring His people to His holy dwelling-place, and plant them on the mountain of His inheritance. What the Lord had done thus far, the singer regarded as a pledge of the future. — Ver. 11. '^ Who is like unto Thee among the gods, 0 Jehovah (i^Y^ • not strong ones, but gods, Elohim, Ps. Ixxxvi. 8, because none of the many so-called gods could perform such deeds), who is like unto Thee, glorified in holiness f" God had glorified Himself in holiness through the redemption of His people and the destruction of His foes; so that Asaph could sing, " Thy way, O God, is in holiness" (Ps. Ixxvii. 13). ^^'?, holiness, is the sublime and incomparable majesty of God, exalted above all the imperfections and blemishes of the finite creature (yid. chap. xix. 6). '^Fearful for praises, doing wonders^ The bold ex- pression H^nr iTj)^ conveys more than summe venerandus^ s. colendus laudibus, and signifies terrible to praise, terribiUs laudibiis. As His rule among men is fearful (Ps. Ixvi. 5), because He performs fearful miracles, so it is only with fear and trembling that man can sing songs of praise worthy of His wondrous works. Omnium enim laudantium vires, linguas et mentes superant ideoque magno cum timore et tremore eum laudant omnes angeli et sancti (^C. a Lap.). " Thou stretchest out Thy hand, the earth swallows tliem,^^ AYith these words the singer passes in survey all the mighty acts of the Lord, which were wrapt up in this miraculous overthrow of the Egyptians. The words no longer refer to the destruction of Pharaoh and his host. What Egypt had experienced would come upon all the enemies of the Lord and His people. Neither the idea of the earth swallowing them, nor the use of the imperfect, is applicable to the destruction of the Egyptians (see vers. 1, 4, 5, 10, 19, where the perfect is applied to it as already accomplished). — Ver. 13. " Thou leadest through Thy mercy the people xchom Thou redeemest; Thou guidest them through 'Thy might to Thy holy habitat ion. ^^ The deliverance from Egypt and guidance through the Red Sea were a pledge to the redeemed people of their entrance into the promised land. The holy habitation of God was Canaan (Ps. Ixxviii. 54), which had been consecrated as a sacred abode for Jehovah in the midst of His people by the revelations made to the patriarchs there, and especially by the appearance of God at Bethel (Gen. xxviii. 16 sqq., xxxi. 13, xxxv. 7). — Yer. 14. '^ People hear, they are afraid; ti^embling seizes the inhabitants of Philistia.^^ — Yer. 15. " Then are the princes (alluphim, see Gen. xxxvi. 15) of Edom confounded; the mighty men of Moab, trembling seizes them,; all the inhabitants of Canaan despair.''* ^:?!*? like D\^^i< in 2 Kings xxiv. 15, scriptio plena for ^y^, strong, powerful ones. As soon as these nations should hear of the miraculous "[uidance of Israel through the Ked Sea, and Pharaoh's destruction, they would be thrown into despair from anxiety and alarm, and would not oppose the march of Israel through their land. — Yer. 16. ''Fear and dread fall upon them; for the greatness of Thine arm (the adjective ^n2 placed as a substantive before the noun) they are dumb (^"oy from ^^'^) as stones, till Thy people pass through, Jehovah, till the people which Thou hast purchased pass through^ Israel was still on its march to Canaan, an evident proof that vers. 13-15 do not deicribe what was past, but that future events were foreseen in spirit, and are represented by the use of perfects as being quite as certain as if they had already happened. The singer mentions not only Edom and Moab, but Philistia also, and the inhabitants of Canaan, as enemies who are so paralyzed with terror, as to offer no resistance to the passage of Israel through their territory; whereas the history shows that Edom did oppose their passing through its land, and they were obliged to go round in consequence (Num. xx. 18 sqq.; Deut. ii. 3, 8), whilst Moab attempted to destroy them through the power of Balaam's curse (Num. xxii. 2 sqq.); and what the inhabitants of Philistia and Canaan had to fear, was not their passing through, but their conquest of the land.^ We learn, however, from Josh. ii. 9, 10 and ix. 9, that the report of Israel's miraculous passage through the Ped Sea had reached to Canaan, and filled its inhabitants with terror. — Ver. 17. " Thou wilt bring and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance, the place which Thou hast made for Thy dwelling-place, Jehovah, for the sanctuary. Lord, which Thy hands prepared^ On the dagesh dirim. in ^^\^fp, see chap. ii. 3. The futures are not to be taken as expressive of wishes, but as simple predictions, and are not to be twisted into preterites, as they have been by KnoheL The ^'mountain of JehovaKs inheritance^^ was not the hill country of Canaan (Deut. iii. 25), but the mountain which Jehovah had prepared for a sanctuary (Ps. Ixxviii. 54), and chosen as a dwelling-place through the sacrifice of Isaac. The planting of Israel upon this mountain does not signify the introduction of the Israelites into the promised land, but the planting of the people of God in the house of the Lord (Ps. xcii. 14), in the future sanctuary, where Jehovah would perfect His fellowship with His people, and where the people would show themselves by their sacrifices to be the " people of possession," and would
^ The fact that the inhabitants of Philistia and Canaan are described in the same terms as Edom and Moab, is an. unquestionable proof that this song was composed at a time when the command to exterminate the Canaanites had not yet been given, and the boundary of the territory to be captured by the Israelites was not yet fixed; in other words, that it was sung by Moses and the Israelites after the passage through the Bed Sea. In the words ^hy iy in ver. 16, there is by no means the allusion to, or play upon, the passage through the Jordan, which Knohel introduces.
serve Him for ever as their King. This was the goal, to which the redemption from Egypt pointed, and to which the prophetic foresiglit of Moses raised both himself and his people in this song, as he beholds in spirit and ardently desires the kingdom of Jehovah in its ultimate completion.^ The song closes in ver. 18 with an inspiring prospect of the time, when " Jehovah will be King (of His people) /o?^ eve?' and ever;^^ and in ver. 19, it is dovetailed into the historical narrative by the repetition of the fact to which it owed its origin, and by the explanatory " for," which points back to the opening verse.
Vers. 19-21. In the words ^' Pharaoh^ s horse^ iciih his chariots and horsemen,^^ Pharaoh, riding upon his horse as the leader of the army, is placed at the head of the enemies destroyed by Jehovah. In ver. 20, Miriam is called " the prophetess" not ob poeticam et nutsicam facultateni (/t?c>.<f.), but because of her prophetic gift, which may serve to explain her subsequent opposition to Moses (Num. xi. 1, G); and " the sister of Aaron/* though she was Moses' sister as well, and had been his deliverer in his infancy, not "because Aaron had his own independent spiritual standing by the side of Closes" (Baumg.), but to point out the position which she was afterwards to occupy in the congregation of Israel, namely, as ranking, not with Moses, but with Aaron, and like him subordinate to Moses, who had been placed at the head of Israel as the mediator of the Old Covenant, and as such was Aaron's god (chap. iv. 16, Kurtz).
point: " In spirit Moses already saw the people brought to Canaan, which Jehovah had described, in the promise given to the fathers and repeated to him, as His own dwelling-place where He would abide in the midst of His people in holy separation from the nations of the world. When the first stage had been so gloriously finished, he could already see the termination of the journey."... "■ The nation Avas so entirely devoted to Jehovah, that its own dwelling-place fell into the shade beside that of its God, and assumed the appearance of a sojourning around the sanctuary of Jehovah, for God went up before the people in the pillar of cloud and fire. The fact that a mountain is mentioned in ver. 17 as the dwelling-place of Jehovah is no proof of a vaticinium post event.um^ but is a true prophecy, having its natural side, however, in the fact that mountains were generally the sites chosen for divine worship and for temples; a fact with which Moses was already acquainted (Gen. xxii. 2; Ex. iii. 1, 12; compare such passages as Num. xxii. 41, xxxiii. 52, Micah iv. 1, 2). In the actual fulfilment it was Mount Zion upon which Jehovah was enthroned as King in the midst of His people.
As proplietess and sister of Aaron she led the chorus of women, who rcpHcd to the male chorus wltli timbrels and dancing, and by taking up the first strophe of the song, and in this way took part in the festival; a custom that was kept up in after times in the celebration of victories (Judg. xi. 34; 1 Sam. xviii. 6, 7, xxi. 12, xxix. 5), possibly in imitation of an Egyptian model (see my Archiiologie, § 137, note 8).
ISRAEL CONDUCTED FROM THE RED SEA TO THE MOUNTAIN OF GOD. — CHAP. XV. 22-XVII. 7.
Chap. XV. 22-27. March from the Red Sea to Marah AND Elim. — Being thus delivered from Egypt and led safely through the Red Sea, Israel was led into the desert to the sanctuary of Sinai, to be adopted and consecrated by Jehovah as His possession. — Ver. 22. Leaving the Red Sea, they went into the desert of SJmr. This name is given to the tract of desert which separates Egypt from Palestine, and also from the more elevated parts of the desert of Arabia, and stretches from the Mediterranean to the head of the Arabian Gulf or Red Sea, and thence along the eastern shore of the sea to the neighbourhood of the Wady Gharandel. In Num. xxxiii. 8 it is called the desert of Ethaniy from the town of Etham, which stood upon the border (see chap. xiii. 20). The spot where the Israelites encamped after crossing the sea, and sang praises to the Lord for their gracious deliverance, is supposed to have been the present ^?/ini Musa (the springs of Moses), the only green spot in the northern part of this desolate tract of desert, wb'^re water could be obtained. At the present time there are several springs there, which yield a dark, brackish, though drinkable water, and a few stunted palms; and even till a very recent date country houses have been built and gardens laid out there by the richer inhabitants of Suez. From this point the Israelites went three days without finding water, till they came to Marahj where there was water, but so bitter that they could not drink it. The first spot on the road from Ayun Musa to Sinai where water can be found, is in the well of Howdra^ 33 English miles from the former. It is now a basin of 6 or 8 feet in diameter, with two feet of water in it, but so disagreeably bitter and salt, that the Bedouins consider it the worst water in the whole neighbour- hood (Rohinson, i. 90). The distance from Ayun Musa and the quality of the water hoth favour the identity of Houdra and jlfarah. A whole people, travelling with children, cattle, and baiiiiao-e, could not accom])lish the distance in less than three days, and there is no other water on the road from Ayun!Musa to Ilowara. Hence, from the time of Burckhardt, who was the first to rediscover the well, Ilowdra has been regarded as the Marah of the Israelites. In tlie AYady Amara, a barren valley two hours to tlie north of Ilowara, where Ewald looked for it, there is no water to be found; and in the ]Vady Gliarandel^ two hours to the south, to which Lrpsius assigned it, the quality of the water does not anrree with our account.^ It is true that no trace of the name has been preserved; but it seems to have l)een given to the place by the IsraeHtes simply on account of the bitterness of the water. This furnished the people with an inducement to murmur against Moses (ver. 24). They had probably taken a supply of water from Ayun ^lusa for the three days' march into the desert. l>ut this store was now exhausted; and, as Luther says, '^ when the supply fails, our faith is soon gone." Thus even Israel forgot the many proofs of the grace of God, which it had received already. — Ver. 25. When Moses cried to the Lord in consequence. He showed him some wood which, Avhen thrown into the water, took away its bitterness. The Bedouins, who know the neighbourhood, arc not acquainted with such a tree, or with any other means of making bitter water sweet; and this power was hardly inherent in the tree itself, though it is ascribed to it in Ecclus. xxxviii. 5, but was imparted to it through the word and power of God. We cannot assign any reason for the choice of this particular earthly means, as the Scripture says nothing about any " evident and intentional contrast to the change in the Nile by which the sweet and pleasant water was rendered unfit for use " (^Kurtz). The word XV '^wood'^ (see only Num. xix. 6), alone, without anything in the context to explain it, does not point to a " living tree" in con-
'' The small quantity of water at Howdra, " which is hardly sufficient for a few hundred men, to say nothing of so large an army as the Israelites formed" {Seetzeii)^ is no proof that Ilowara and Marah are not identical. Foi the spring, which is now sanded up, may have flowed more copiously at one time, when it was kept in better order. Its present neglected state is the cause of the scarcity.
trast to the " dead stick." And if any contrast had been intended to be shown between the punishment of tlie Egyptians and the training of tlie Israelites, this intention would certainly have been more visibly and surely accomplished by using the staff with which Moses not only brought the plagues upon Egypt, but afterwards brouixht water out of the rock. If by YV we understand a tree, with which "il?^?5, however, hardly agrees, it would be much more natural to suppose that there was an allusion to the tree of life, especially if we compare Gen. ii. 9 and iii. 22 with Rev. xxii. 2, " the leaves of the tree of life were for the healing of the nations," though we cannot regard this reference as established. All that is clear and undoubted is, that by employing these means, Jehovah made Himself known to the people of Israel as their Physician, and for this purpose appointed the wood for the healing of the bitter water, which threatened Israel with disease and death (2 Kings iv. 40).
By this event Jehovah accomplished two things: (a) " tJiere He put (made) for it (the nation) an ordinance and a right, ^ and (b) ''there He proved it^ The ordinance and right which Jehovah made for Israel did not consist in the words of God quoted in ver. 26, for they merely give an explanation of the law and rio;ht, but in the divine act itself. The leadino; of Israel to bitter water, which their nature could not drink, and then the sweetening or curing of this w^ater, were to be a \>h for Israel, i.e.j an institution or law by which God would always guide and govern His people, and a tOQTO or right, inasmuch as Israel could always reckon upon the help of God, and deliverance from every trouble. But as Israel had not yet true confidence in the Lord, this was also a trial, serving to manifest its natural heart, and, through the relief of its distress on the part of God, to refine and strengthen its faith. The practical proof which was given of Jehovah's presence was intended to impress this truth upon the Israelites, that Jehovah as their Physician would save them from all the diseases which He had sent upon Egypt, if they would hear His voice, do what was right in His eyes, and keep all His commandments.
Yer. 27. Elim, the next place of encampment, has been sought from olden time in the Wady Gharandel, about six miles south of Howdra; inasmuch as this spot, with its plentiful supply of comparatively good water, and its luxuriance of palms, tamarisks, acacias, and tall grass, which cause it to be selected even now as one of the principal halting-places between Suez and Sinai, quite answers to Elim, with its twelve wells of water and seventy palm-trees (cf. Roh. i. pp. 100, 101, 105). It is true the distance from Howara is short, but the encampments of such a ])rocession as that of the Israelites are always regulated by the supply of water. Both Baumgarten and Kurtz have found in EHm a place expressly prepared for Israel, from its bearing the stamp of the nation in the number of its wells and palms: a well for every tribe, and the shade of a palm-tree for the tent of each of the elders. But although the number of the wells corresponded to the twelve tribes of Israel, the number of the elders was much larger than that of the palms (chap. xxiv. 9). One fact alone is beyond all doubt, namely, that at Elim, this lovely oasis in the barren desert, Israel was to learn how the Lord could make His people lie down in green pastures, and lead them beside still waters, even in the barren desert of this life (Ps. xxiii. 2).
Chap. xvi. Quails and Manna in the Desert of Sin. — Ver. 1. From Elim the congregation of Israel proceeded into the desert of Sin. According to Num. xxxiii. 10, they encamped at the Red Sea between Elim and the desert of Sin; but this is passed over here, as nothing of importance happened there. Judging from the nature of the ground, the place of encampment at the Red Sea is to be found at the mouth of the Wady Taiyiheli, For the direct road from the AY. Gharandel to Sinai, and the only practicable one for caravans, goes over the tableland between this wady and the AYady Useit to the upper end of the W. Taiyihelij a beautiful valley, covered with tamarisks and shrubs, where good water may be found by digging, and which winds about between steep rocks, and opens to the sea at Ras Zelimeh. To the north of this the hills and rocks come close to the sea, but to the south they recede, and leave a sandy plain with numerous shrubs, which is bounded on the east by wild and rugged rocky formations, and stretches for three miles along the shore, furnishing quite space enough therefore for the Israelitish camp. It is about eight hours' journey from Wady Gharandel, so that by a forced march the Israelites might havs accomplis^ied it In one day. From this point they went " to the desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai.'* The j)lace of encampment here is doubtfuL There are two roads that lead from W. Taiyibeh to Sinai: the lower, which enters the desert plain by the sea at the Murkha or Morcha well, not far from the mouth of the Wady eth Thafary, and from which you can either go as far as Tur by the sea-coast, and then proceed in a northeasterly direction to Sinai, or take a more direct road through Wady Shelldl and Badireh into Wady Mukatteh and Feirdn, and so on to the mountains of Horeb; and the upper road, first pointed out by Burckhardt and Robinson, which lies in a S.E. direction from W. Taiyibeh through W. Shuheikeh, across an elevated plain, then through Wady Humr to the broad sandy plain of el Dehhe or Dehhet en Nash, thence through Wady Nash to the plain of Dehhet er Ramleh, which stretches far away to the east, and so on across the Wadvs Chamile and Seich in almost a straight line to Iloreb. One of these two roads the Israelites must have taken. The majority of modern writers have decided in favour of the lower road, and place the desert of Sin in the broad desert plain, which commences at the foot of the mountain that bounds' the Wady Taiyibeh towards the south, and slretches along the sea-coast to Has Muhammed, the southernmost point of the peninsula, the southern part of which is now called el Kda, The encampment of the Israelites in the desert of Sin is then supposed to have been in the northern part of this desert plain, where the well Murkha still furnishes a resting-place plentifully supplied with drinkable water. Ewald has thus represented the Israelites as following the desert of el Kda to the neighbourhood of Tur, and then going in a north-easterly direction to Sinai. But apart from the fact that the distance is too great for the three places of encampment mentioned in Num. xxxiii. 12-14, and a whole nation could not possibly reach Rephidim in three stages by this route, it does not tally with the statement in Num. xxxiii.,12, that the Israelites left the desert of Sin and went to Dofkah; so that Dofkali and the places that follow were not in the desert of Sin at all. For these and other reasons, De Lahorde, v. Raumer, and others suppose the Israelites to have gone from the fountain of Murkha- to Sinai by the road which enters the mountains not far from this fountain through Wady Shellal, and so continues through Wady Mukatteb to
WaJy Feiran (Robinson, i. p. 105). But this view is hardly reconcilable with the encampment of the Israelites " in the desert of Sin, which is between Elini and Sinai." For instance, the direct road from W. Gharandel (Elim) to Sinai does not touch the desert plain of el Kda at all, but turns away from it towards the north-east, so that it is difficult to understand how this desert could be said to lie between Elim and Sinai. For this reason, even Kurtz does not regard the clause " which is between Elim and Sinai" as pointing out the situation of the desert itself, but (contrary to the natural sense of the words) as a more exact definition of that part or point of the desert of Sin at which the road from Elim to Sinai crosses it. But nothing is gained by this explanation. There is no road from the place of encampment by the lied Sea in the Wady Taiyibeh by which a whole nation could pass along the coast to the upper end of this desert, so as to allow the Israelites to cross the desert on the way from Taiyibeh to the W. Shellal. As the mountains to the south of the W. Taiyibeh come so close to the sea again, that it is only at low water that a narrow passage is left (Burckhardt, p. 985), the Israelites would have been obliged to turn eastwards from the encampment by the Red Sea, to which they had no doubt gone for the sake of the water, and to go all round the mountain to get to the Murkha spring. This spring (according to Burckhardtj p. 983, '' a small lake in the sandstone rock, close at the foot of the mountain") is "the principal station on this road," next to Ayun Musa and Gharandel; but the water is " of the worst description, partly from the moss, the bog, and the dirt with which the well is filled, but chiefly no doubt from the salt of the soil by which it is surrounded," and men can hardl}- drink it; whereas in the Wady Tliafary, a mile (? five English miles) to the north-east of ^lurkha, there is a spring that " yields the only sweet water between Tor and Suez" (p. 982). Now, even *if we were to assume that the Israelites pitched their camp, not by tliis, the only sweet water in the neighbourhood, but by the bad water of ^lurkha, the ^lurkha spring is not situated in the lesert of el Kda, but only on the eastern border of it; so that if they proceeded thence into the Wady Shellal, and so on to the Wady Feiran, they would not have crossed the desert at all. In addition to this, although the lower road through the valley of Mukatteb is described by Bmrkhardt as " much easier and more frequented," and by Robinson as " easier" than the upper road across Nasseb (Nasb), there are two places in which it runs through very narrow defiles, by which a large body of people like the Israelites could not possibly have forced their way through to Sinai. From the Murkha spring, the way into the valley cf Mukatteb is through " a wild mountain road," which is shut out from the eyes, of the wanderer by precipitous rocks. " We got off our dromedaries," says Dieterici, ii. p. 27, " and left them to their own instinct and sure tread to climb the dangerous pass. We looked back once more at the desolate road which we had threaded between the rocks, and saw our dromedaries, the only signs of life, following a serpentine path, and so climbing the pass in this rocky theatre Nakb el Butera." Strauss speaks of this road in the following terms: "We went eastwards through a large plain, overgrown with shrubs of all kinds, and reached a narrow pass, only broad enough for one camel to go through, so that our caravan emerged in a very pictorial serpentine fashion. The wild rocks frowned terribly on every side." Moreover, it is only through a " terribly wild pass" that you can descend from the valley Mukatteb into the glorious valley of Feiran (^Strauss, p. 128).^
For these reasons we must adopt KnoheVs conclusions, and seek the desert of Sin in the upper road which leads from
^ This pass is also mentioned by Graul (Reise ii. p. 226) as " a wild romantic mountain pass," and he writes respecting it, *' For five minutes the road down was so narrow and steep, that the camels stept in fear, and we ourselves preferred to follow on foot. If the Israelites came up here on their way from the sea at Ras Zelime, the immense procession must certainly have taken a long time to get through the narrow gateway." To this we may add, that if Moses had led the people to Sinai through one^ of these narrow passes, they could not possibly have reached Sinai in a month from the desert of Sin, to say nothing of eight days, which was all that was left for them, if, as is generally supposed, and as Kurtz maintains, their stay at the place of en-: campment in the desert of Sin, where they arrived on the 15th day of the second month (xvi. 1), lasted full seven days, and their arrival at Sinai took place on the first day of the third month. For if a pass is so narrow that only one camel can pass, not more than three men could walk abreast. Now if the people of Israel, consisting of two millions of men, had gone through such a pass, it would have taken at least twenty days for them all to pass through, as an army of 100,000 men, arranged three abreast, would reach 27 English miles; so that, supposing the pass to be not more than five minutes walk long, 100,000 Israelites would hardly go through in a day, to say nothing at all about their flocks and herds.
Gharandel to Sinai, viz. in the broad sandy table-laud el Dehbe or Dehhet er Ramie, which stretches from the Tih mountains over almost the whole of the peninsula from N.W. to S.E. (yid, Mohinsorij i. 112), and in its south-eastern part touches the northern walls of the Horeb or Sinai range, which helps to explain the connection between the names Sin and Sinai, though the meaning " thorn-covered" is not established, but is merely founded upon the idea that TP has the same meaning as npp. This desert table-land, which is essentially distinguished from the limestone formations of the Tih mountains, and the granite mass of Horeb, by its soil of sand and sandstone, stretches as far as Jebel Humr to the north-west, and the Wady Khamile and Barak to the south-west (yid. Rohinson, i. p. 101, 102). Now, if this sandy table-land is to be regarded as the desert of Sin, we must look for the place of Israel's encampment somewhere in this desert, most probably in the north-western portion, in a straight line between Elim (Gharandel) and Sinai, possibly in Wgdy Nash, where there is a well surrounded by palm-trees about six miles to the northw^est of Saxhut el Khadim, with a plentiful supply of excellent water, which Robinson says was better than he had found anywhere since leaving the Nile (i. 110). The distance from W. Taiyibeh to this spot is not greater than that from Gharandel to Taiyibehj and might therefore be accomplished in a hard day's march.