might be no confufion or quarrel among that vast and mixed multitude, and that they might be ready to face about and ftand in their own defence, in cafe of a purfuit, or of their meeting with any difficulty or obstruction from the nations through whofe territories they were to pafs. However, to prevent thefe, or any other accidents which might make the people think of returning to Egypt, GOD was pleafed to forbid Mofes to take the nearest way to the land of Canaan, that is, through that of the Philistines, and ordered him to wheel about along the coafts of the Red Sea towards Arabia Petræa. He likewife made them march, not like runaways in confufion Order of and diforder, but like a regular army in battle-array; in their which order they went from Succoth to Etham, towards march. Arabia Deferta, which is therefore called in the original Second enthe wilderness, near the borders of which Etham was campment fituate, where they arrived on the fecond day after their departure out of Egypt. This route Mofes made them take, defigning probably to get to mount Sinai by the point of the Red Sea ; but GOD made him take another on the next day, and to turn towards Pi-hahiroth, which lies between the Red Sea, and Migdol and Baal-zephon (O). Herein Exod. xiii. p. tot. (O) We know but little of the geography of all thefe places. As for the Succoth here mentioned, we must not confound it with that which Jacob called by that name when he came out of Mefopotamia (47), though the former may have been fo called in imitation of the latter, upon account of the booths or tents which the If raelites fet up there. Fofephus calls it Letopolis, where he fays Babylon was afterwards built, when Cambyfes invaded Egypt (48) it is thought by many to be that region which was called Troglodytis, by the Red Sea (49). As for Ramefes, though there feems to be men (47) Gen. xxxiii. 17. Willet. tion made of two, and them tower. Baalzephon feems (48) Ant. l. ii. c. 15. (49) Vid. Simler Cc 2 Herein GOD was pleased to fhew his care for them in another miraculous manner: for though he might have notified to them when and whither to march, or where to halt and encamp, as he did his other commands, by the mouth of Mofes and Aaron; yet, confidering the untractableness of their temper, and how apt they would be to murmur againft them at every fuppofed wrong ftep, he condefcended to conduct them by a more visible way, namely, by a pillar of light in the night-season, and by a column of smoke in the day-time. These columns of fire and smoke never forfook them during their forty years wandering in the wilderness; but were their conftant They are guide throughout their forty-two encampments, and diled by the rected them when and whither to march, according as miraculous they faw it before them, and when to halt when they The mira culous pil. lar of fire and Smoke. pillar. GOD bout to wards Pi-hahi" roth. perceived it to ftop. But, whether it was given to them at their firft, fecond, or third march, at Succoth, or Etham, is not eafy to guess at by the text ". In the mean time GoD, who knew what was tranfacting at Pharaoh's court, and what measures that monarch, and his no less infatuated subjects, were taking to pursue them, commanded Mofes to wheel about, and to march from Etham towards Pi-hahiroth; which is makesthem between the fea and Migdol, over-againft Baal-zephon; wheel a- and to encamp before it. For by this time the Egyptians began to repent of their parting with the Ifraelites, and lofing the benefit of their fervitude; and, thinking that they might easily catch them intangled between the mountains, and fatigued with their march, had prepared a confiderable army, together with fix hundred of the choiceft chariots, befides all the chariots of war that could be found in Egypt, and a vast multitude of officers and foldiers, who were all in full march after them. Mofes has not given us any further particulars concerning that army; but Jofephus, who feldom fails to improve the text, whenever it ferves for the honour of his nation, makes it u Exod. xiii. ver. ult. Pharaoh pursues after, Egypt. Eufebius takes it not (52) Loc. Hebr. of the Red Sea, where the an tients, especially the Jews, think the Ifraelites paffed it, and where ftands to this day a Chriftian monaftery (53). xiv, & differt, on the passage of the Red Sez, (53) Vid. Calm, bift. V. T. comm. in Exed. amount amount to fix hundred chariots, fifty thousand horse, and two hundred thoufand foot ; and Ezechiel, the poet quoted by Eufebius, hath increased it to a million of men. But whatever the army was, Pharaoh put himself at the head of it, and led it with fuch speed, that he overtook them at Pi-bahiroth, and encamped there in full fight of and over the Ifraelites; but, whether it were, that his army was takes them. too much fatigued with their march, or that he thought himself fure of them, there being no vifible way for them to escape him, unless they flung themfelves into the fea; or laftly, that Providence prevented his immediate falling upon them; nothing hoftile was undertaken against them that night (O). On the other hand, the pufillanimous Ifraelites, inured to bondage, could not behold the Egyptian army, encamped fo near, without the utmost confternation and dread; and, inftead of having recourfe to that mighty arm, that had fo vifibly ftretched itfelf out in their favour, ran in a tumultuous manner to Mofes's tent, complaining that he had brought them to be butchered in the wilderness; and that they had now nothing to expect, but the most cruel death in that difmal place. This ungrateful language, to which Mofes had already been used, though nothing fo much as he was afterwards, rather moved his pity than his anger; but he, looking upon it as the effect of their extreme danger, and cowardly temper, instead of upbraiding them with it, comforted them with the affurance, Mofes that this would be laft time of their feeing the Egyptians ". comforts HE had no fooner difmiffed them, than he went and the demade his application to GOD; who was immediately spairing pleased to order the people to begin their march towards Ifraelites. the fea, directing him at the fame time to ftretch out his rod over it, and affuring him, that the waters of it would forthwith divide themfelves, and make way for them to The Red Sea is di vided. go through it as on dry land; whilft Pharaoh, and his whole army, venturing to purfue them, fhould be finally overwhelmed by its waves. Mofes obeyed, and, whilst a ftrong eaft wind was dividing that arm of the fea, to open a paflage to them, and the Ifraelites were beginning their march towards it, the angel of the LORD, who conducted them in the pillar of fire, removed from the front to the rear of the army, and ftood between them and that of the Egyptians; fo that the column of fire produced a double effect, giving light to the Ifraelites in their march, and cafting a darknefs over Pharaoh's camp, to prevent his perceiving what was doing in that of the Hebrews. Whilft thefe were paffing through the fea, the facred hiftorian tells us, that the waves arofe in heaps, and ftood as a wall on each fide of them (P). By this (P) Though it would be endlefs to trouble our readers with an inquiry into all the particulars with which the generality of commentators have amufed themselves, with refpect to this wonderful paffage, it will not be amifs, we hope, to make a fhort inquiry into the main and moft material point, namely, whether it was really miraculous, or not; that is, whether the fea was really divided by a fupernatural power, or whether Mofes and his hoft did only coaft fome part of it, or, at moft, crofs over a small nook at lowwater, and timed it fo well, that Pharaoh, endeavouring to do the like, perished in the attempt. This is fo far from being a new queftion, that Artaphanes, an antient writer (54), affures us, that both thefe opinions were held by the Egy (54) Ap. Eufeb. 1. iv. c. 27. Gregor. Turon. bift. l. i. c. 10. xiv. 19. Lud. Burgenf. in loc. in ver. 19. Exod. xiv. Vatabl. &al. mult. T. in time ptian priefts; that is, the former by thofe of Heliopolis, and the latter by thofe of Memphis. The last of these has been alfo followed by many eminent men, both Jews and Chriftians (55), who, without denying the main part of this tranf action to be miraculous, have fallen into the notion of the Ifraelites only coafting it along, and making, as it were, a femicircle round the fea-fhore at low-ebb; or croffing it only at one narrow point, whilft the fea was gone off. Where we beg leave to obferve, that such an opinion cannot be maintained, without a manifeft deviation, 1. from the exprefs words of Mofes, and severalother places of holy writ, where this tranfaction is mentioned: 2. from reafon and experience, founded on the knowlege we have of the ebb (55) Abenez. & al, rabbin. ap. Fagium. Aquin, in 1 Cor. i. Toftat. qu. in Exod. Genebr, in chronic. ad ann. 2239. Grat. loc. Le Clerc differt. de trøject. Mar. Idum, time the Egyptians, perceiving that the Ifraelites were marching off, and that the cloud which conducted them ing and flowing of the Red Sea, and the impoffibility of fuch a numerous hoft performing fuch a coafting, or croffing, in fo little a time as that admits of: 3. from the known chara&ter of Mofes as a bare hiftorian, and from fome concurring teftimonies of antiquity to his account and, laftly, from the far greater majority of authors of all religions and ages, who have all along maintained, and fome of them proved, the contrary opinion. As to the firft, nothing is plainer than that the whole tenor of MoJes's account is pointblank contrary to fuch a notion. We need mention but fome few paffages of it; fuch as, that, upon his fretching out his rod, by GoD's command, over the waters, a mighty wind arofe, and divided them; that they food up on heaps, and were as a wall on the right and left; that the bottom of the fea was dried up, and that the Ifraelites marched through it as on dry land, and the like (56): that GOD divided the Red Sea into parts or divifions, and made Ifrael pass through the midft of it: that he led them by the right-hand of Mofes, dividing the waters before them, to make himself an everlasting name; and that he had led them through the deep, as an horfe in the wilderness; that was he walked, or rather caufed Ifrael to walk, through the fea (57); and many more of the like nature; to fay nothing of the apocryphal books, which abound with the fame expreffions. If it be objected, that the laft-quoted paffages out of the pfalms and prophets are poetical, and confequently not to be taken in their literal fenfe, all that can be inferred from thence is, that they convey to us loftier ideas of this wonderful event, than Mofes, whofe ftyle is far from being fwoln, has done in his acconnt of it; but it would be unreafonable to say, that they were only defigned to exprefs a tranfaction fo purely natural and eafy, as the other fide fuppofes it to have been. Whether Jofephus defigned to leffen the miracle, or to make it more credible, when he tells us (58), that the Pamphilian fea opened a way to Alexander, in his expedition against the Perfians, is not very material; for, though we fhould grant that to be the right meaning of his words, and that he met with that account in fome book then extant; or even that 2. Curtius intimates fomething like it, when he fays (59), that that conqueror had opened a new way by the fea; yet Strabo will foon fet us right, who tells us, "that (56) Exod. xiv. & xv. pafl. Num. Deuteron. &c. 13, 14. & alib. Ifa. Ixiii. 12, 13. Habak. iii. 15. (59) Lib. v. 16. (57) Pf. cxxxvi. (58) Ant. l. ii. c. CC 4 "there |
