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period of seven days, during which leavened bread was neither to be eaten nor found in any of the houses of the Israelites. On receiving from Moses the Lord's commands respecting this Feast, the elders of Israel, partakers with him of a like faith in the certainty of the events about to be enacted (Heb. xi. 28), bowed their heads and worshipped. On the tenth day of Nisan, the Month of Redemption, each household selected a lamb or kid, kept it till the fourteenth day, slew it, sprinkled the blood upon the side-posts and the upper door-post of their houses, and at midnight were eating of it with the prescribed ceremonies, when suddenly the last and most awful of all the Ten Plagues began. The Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon unto the firstborn of the mighty Pharaoh himself, and all the firstborn of cattle. In the darkness of that awful night the monarch rose up, he and all his servants, and all the Egyptians, and a loud frantic cry arose throughout the land, for there was not a house where there was not one dead. Terrified and confounded the stubborn king could no longer resist the power of Jehovah. He implored Moses and Aaron, as an act of kindness, to depart with the utmost speed. And not only he, but all his people joined in the petition, and pressed upon the Israelites jewels of silver and jewels of gold, earrings, signet-rings, necklaces, and festal apparel. Thus furnished by the Egyptians themselves with costly ornaments befitting the great day of their deliverance1, the whole host of the Israelites, numbering 600,000 men capable of bearing arms, besides women and children and a mixed multitude from the lower orders of the

1 Moses had already before the tenth day of Nisan (Ex. xi. 1-3) notified to the elders (xii. 21) what was to be done respecting the Departure, and, therefore, ample preparations had doubtless been made.

Egyptians, went forth from RAMESES, and in the darkness and cool of the night pursued their way (Ex. xii. 37, 38).

The nearest route to Canaan would have been the usual caravan route, which runs in a north-easterly direction along the coast of the Mediterranean, and would not have occupied more than a few days. But it would have brought the host into collision with the warlike and powerful nation of the Philistines, and for such an encounter they were as yet totally unfit. From RAMESES, therefore, which was probably on the eastern skirts of the Delta in the Wady Tumeilat, they proceeded in a southerly course, and after a day's journey halted for the first time at SUCCOTH (Ex. xii. 37), the place of booths, "formed by the luxuriant foliage of tamarisk, sycamore, and palm " at the verge of the cultivated land of Egypt. The next day's halt was at Etham in the edge of the wilderness (Ex. xiii. 20). At this point the Lord Himself in an outward and visible form assumed the direction of their march, appearing by day in a Pillar of Cloud, and by night in a Pillar of Fire. Such a miraculous intervention was indeed needed to confirm the faith of the host, for instead of being conducted round the northern extremity of the Red Sea, so as to escape with all speed beyond reach of their Egyptian oppressors, they were commanded to turn and encamp before Pihahiroth (the place of sedge), between Migdol (a frontier Watchtower) and the western side of the Red Sea over against Baal-. zephon. Here they had scarcely encamped, when lifting up their eyes the Israelites discerned the terrible horses and chariots of Pharaoh pursuing after them. Astonished that the people had not made good their flight into Asia, and deeming them entangled in the land and shut in by the wilderness, the monarch had directed all his forces to give chase to the fugitives.

In wild alarm the Israelites cried out to Moses, and already complained of their deliverance from the bondage of Egypt. But the faith of their leader was not shaken. He bade the trembling, panic-stricken host stand still and see the salvation of the Lord.

They had not long to wait. For at this moment the Angel of God, who went before the host of Israel in the Pillar of Cloud and Fire, stationed himself behind them so as to deepen the gloom in which the Egyptians were advancing, and afford light and encouragement to the Israelites. Simultaneously, Moses advanced towards the Red Sea, either at the present fords of Suez, or at some point higher up, and stretched over it his rod. Thereupon a strong East wind began to blow, the waters were divided, the bottom of the sea was exposed, and amidst walls of water standing up on either side of them on their right hand and on their left, the caravan of the Israelites defiled in long procession. All night the wondrous passage continued, and as the morning broke they had safely landed on the further shore. Meanwhile their foes, determined to prevent the second escape of their prey, had rushed on amidst the pitchy darkness that surrounded them into the same awful pass. But, at the morning watch, when they had reached the midst of the sea, the Lord looked upon them from the Pillar of Fire and of the Cloud, and troubled their hosts, and caused their heavy chariotwheels to sink in the sand, so that they drave them heavily. In wild confusion they shouted to one another to turn back, but it was too late. Again the hand of Moses was uplifted, and straightway the waters, till now congealed from their lowest depths (Ex. xv. 8), began to break and give way, and the sea to return to his strength. All efforts to escape were fruitless, fast and furious the sea swept on, the engulphing waves closed over them, horse and chariot and horseman sank

like lead in the mighty waters. Then from the Israelitish leader, and the host which had stood still and seen the deliverance Jehovah had wrought for them, there burst forth a noble song of praise and thanksgiving, while Miriam his sister, and her women, accompanied them with timbrels and dances. Together they sang the praises of Him who had triumphed gloriously, who had cast Pharaoh's chariots and his host into the sea, and drowned his chosen captains in the waves, whose right hand become glorious in power had dashed in pieces the enemy, who had blown with His wind, and gathered the waters with the blast of His nostrils, and in His mercy led forth the people which He had redeemed. (Ex. xv. 1-19. Comp. Ps. lxxvii. 16—19.)

Thus, at length, the word of the Most High, which He spake to the patriarch Abraham at least 400 years before, was fulfilled. The seed of the Patriarch had grown into a great nation; they had been strangers in a land that was not theirs; they had suffered cruel affliction and degradation; but the oppressing nation had been judged, and with much substance the oppressed had come forth. The jewels of silver and gold and the festal apparel, which their late tyrants had forced upon them, well became this their national birthday. Once slaves, they were now free; once a degraded tribe, they were now an independent people. They had left behind them Egypt with its grinding tyranny, and its memories of years of suffering. They had been baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea (1 Cor. x. 2), their faces were set towards a Promised Land, their hopes fastened on a glorious Future.

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CHAPTER IV.

THE JOURNEY FROM THE RED SEA

TO REPHIDIM.

EXOD. XV.-XIX. B. C. 1491.

ND now the ransomed people commenced their journey. Skirting the eastern shore of the Red Sea, they "entered" the wilderness of Shur (or Etham, Num. xxxiii. 8), on the western base of the high tableland which forms the northern portion of the peninsula of Sinai1. A three days' march brought them to a well, probably Ain Howâra, plentifully supplied, indeed,

1 The triangular peninsula of Sinai, bounded on the west by the Gulf of Suez, and on the east by the Gulf of Akaba, consists of three main divisions. (i) The northern part, the desert of Et-Tih, or "the Wanderings," is a high tableland of limestone, of which the western portion is called in Scripture the wilderness of SHUR (Ex. xvi. 22), and the eastern, the wilderness of PARAN. (ii) To this succeeds a range called Jebel-et-Tîh, which extends in a curved direction from the upper end of the Gulf of Suez to that of the Gulf of Akaba, and skirts the sea for some distance on either side. (iii) South of this ridge, and separated from it by "a narrow plain or belt of sand" is the great triangular mass of red granite mountains called the Tôr (rock), the approach to which from its three sides is through rugged passes leading upwards to the cliffs and mountains, "beginning in a gradual, but terminating usually in a very steep ascent-almost a staircase of rock." Of this mountain-mass the chief heights are (a) on the N.W. Jebel-Serbál, overlooking Wady Feiran Rephidim; (b) in the centre, Jebel Katherin (5705 ft.) and Jebel Mousa (7560 ft.); (c) on the S. Um Shômer (8850 ft.). On which summit the Law was given is uncertain, but not improbably it was the majestic height of Ras Sasafeh at the N.W. end of Jebel Mousa, which overlooks the plain of Er-Raheh. The country between the Jebel-et-Tth and the Gulf of Suez is called in Scripture the wilderness of ETHAM (Num. xxxiii. 8); that between the Gulf and the western base of the Tôr the wilderness of SIN (Num. xxxiii. II, 12) the N. portion of the present plain of El-Kda, which must be

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