Exodus 15

Ex. 15 1 THEN sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the LORD, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously : The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. 2 The LORD is my strength and song, And he is become my salvation : This is my God, and I will praise him ; My father’s God, and I will exalt him. 3 The LORD is a man of war : The LORD is his name. 4 Pharaoh’s chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea : And his chosen captains are sunk in the Red Sea. 5 The deeps cover them : They went down into the depths like a stone. 6 Thy right hand, O LORD, is glorious in power, Thy right hand, O LORD, dasheth in pieces the enemy. 7 And in the greatness of thine excellency thou overthrowest them that rise up against thee : Thou sendest forth thy wrath, it consumeth them as stubble. 8 And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were piled up, The floods stood upright as an heap ; The deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea. 9 The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil : My lust shall be satisfied upon them ; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. 10 Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them : They sank as lead in the mighty waters. 11 Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods ?

Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, Fearful in praises, doing wonders ?

12. Thou stretchedst out thy right hand, The earth swallowed them.

13. Thou in thy mercy hast led the people which thou hast redeemed : Thou hast guided them in thy strength to thy holy habitation.

14. The peoples have heard, they tremble : Pangs have taken hold on the inhabitants of Philistia.

15. Then were the dukes of Edom amazed ; The mighty men of Moab, trembling taketh hold upon them : All the inhabitants of Canaan are melted away.

16. Terror and dread falleth upon them ; By the greatness of thine arm they are as still as a stone ; Till thy people pass over, O LORD, Till the people pass over which thou hast purchased.

17. Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, The place, O LORD, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, The sanctuary, O LORD, which thy hands have established.

18. The LORD shall reign for ever and ever.

19. For the horses of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and the LORD brought again the waters of the sea upon them ; but the children of Israel walked on dry land in the

20 midst of the sea. And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand ; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam answered them,

21. Sing ye to the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously ; The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.

1. Then sang Moses. On this memorable deliverance Moses composed a thanksgiving, which he and the Israelites sang unto the Lord. It is also a sublime prophecy, foretelling the powerful effect of this tremendous judgment on the neighboring nations of Edom, Moab, Palestine, and Canaan; the future settlement of the Israelites in the promised land; the erection of the temple and sanctuary on Mount Sion; and the perpetuity of the dominion and worship of God. Hales.—The most ancient of all poems now extant is this thanksgiving ode of Moses after the passage of the Red Sea: it is at the same time most perfect in its kind. It shows the early connection which subsisted between poetry and religion, and is an example of that species of poetical composition which the Hebrews cultivated more than all others, and in which they particularly excelled—namely, the rendering of public thanks in songs of triumph to God for prosperity in their enterprises and for success in war. Bp. Lowth.

As the Jewish nation produced men of great genius, without considering them as inspired writers, they have transmitted to us many hymns and Divine odes, which excel those that are delivered down to us by the ancient Greeks and Romans in the poetry, as much as in the subject to which it was consecrated. Addison.—The poetry of the Hebrew was the handmaid of his religion; there is therefore in the poetry of the Bible something which elevates it above all other literature of the same kind. It is the supreme excellence of Hebrew poetry that it raises the strain not of courage and virtue only, mighty as these are, but of truth and holiness, of faith and hope, of progress and perfection, of fidelity to God and unbroken trust in his goodness and love. Ever since it was poured forth from the full hearts of the singers of Israel, the world has been drinking deep draughts of life and strength from its stream. Whatever dreams of future glory humanity shapes for itself, the poetry of the Bible is not excluded, but is welcomed as the music of the kingdom of heaven. Aglen.

If this poem contains parts which, it might seem, could not well have been sung in that period, it must be remembered that the temple, the holy places, and the land which the Israelites were destined to occupy existed already clearly in God’s and Moses’s minds; and the latter prepared the people successfully for the exertions and sacrifices necessary for the realization of their hopes. Herder.—This song is honored among the Jews by being commonly call Shirah, the song, par excellence. It is not only publicly recited in the synagogues on the seventh day of the Passover, when the transit of the Israelites is believed to have taken place, but it has been embodied in the daily prayers. Kulisch.

The song of Moses is a proof of the miraculous passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea. There has been no period since the Hebrew nation left Egypt in which this song was not found among them, as composed on that occasion and to commemorate that event. It may be therefore considered as completely authentic as any living witness could be who had himself passed through the Red Sea, and whose life had been protracted through all the intervening ages to the present day. It is a song of triumph for the deliverance of the people of God; and it was intended to point out the final salvation and triumph of the whole Church of Christ. A. C.—This song of thanksgiving and triumph, repeated every Sabbath in the temple when the drink-offering of the festive sacrifice was poured out, reminded Israel that to all time the kingdom was surrounded by the hostile powers of this world; that there must always be a contest between them; and that Jehovah would always himself interpose to destroy his enemies and to deliver his people. Thus that great event for all times has been a prophecy, a comfort, and a song of anticipated sure victory to the Church. A. E.

Of this song, “composed on the instant of deliverance, and chanted to the music of the timbrel,” Milman justly says: “What is the Roman arch of triumph or the pillar crowded with sculpture compared, as a memorial, to the Hebrew song of victory, which, having survived so many ages, is still fresh and vivid as ever, and excites the same emotions of awe and piety in every human breast susceptible of such feelings which it did so many ages past in those of the triumphant children of Israel?” How the act of victorious judgment this ode celebrates was intended to foreshadow the final putting down of all power that exalts itself against the kingdom of Christ, is manifest from Rev. 15:3, where the glorious company above are represented as singing at once the song of Moses and of the Lamb, in the immediate prospect of the last judgments of God, and of all nations being thereby led to come and worship before him! P. F.

This very incident has for its last echo in Scripture that wonderful scene in the Apocalypse where, in the pause before the seven angels bearing the seven plagues go forth, the seer beholds a company of choristers, like those who on that morning stood on the Red Sea shore, standing on the bank of the “sea of glass mingled with fire”—which symbolizes the clear and crystalline depth of the stable Divine judgments, shot with fiery retribution—and lifting up by anticipation a song of thanksgiving for the judgments about to be wrought. That song is expressly called “the song of Moses” and “of the Lamb,” in token of the essential unity of the two dispensations, and especially of the harmony of both in their view of the Divine judgments. Its ringing praises are modelled on the ancient lyric. It, too, triumphs in God’s judgments, regards them as means of making known his name, as done not for destruction, but that his character may be known and honored by men, to whom it is life and peace to know and love him for what he is. That final victory over “the beast,” whether he be a person or a tendency, is to reproduce in higher fashion that old conquest by the Red Sea. There is hope for the world that its oppressors shall not always tyrannize; there is hope for each soul that, if we take Christ for our deliverer and our guide, he will break the chains from off our wrists, and bring us at last to the eternal shore, where we may stand, like the ransomed people, and as the unsettling morning dawns see its beams touching with golden light the calm ocean, beneath which our oppressors lie buried forever, and lift up glad thanksgivings to him who has “led us through fire and through water, and brought us out into a wealthy place.” A. M.

All this is rich in spiritual suggestion for us. They who are now the people of God are not only rescued from bondage, but are baptized into Christ, and, being made partakers of his resurrection, sing to the Lord a new song, and then set out on a new career. That career must be in separation from the world, and lowly dependence on Christ for bread and water of life, and for victory over those that war against their souls. It is a walk by faith, not sight, and though marred by murmuring and folly on the part of the pilgrims, it is guarded day and night by the power of God, and reveals the riches of his long-suffering grace. D. F.—And when it is considered that the whole of this transaction shadowed out the redemption of the human race from the thraldom and power of sin by the LORD JESUS, and the final triumph of the Church of God over all its enemies, we also may join in the song and celebrate Him who has triumphed so gloriously, having conquered death and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. A. C.

1-11. The night of doom to Pharaoh was the night of redemption to Israel. With the morning light they “saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea-shore.” Men in their armor of battle, horses in the proud trappings of Egypt, broken chariots, all powerless now, are dashed up by the waves of the turbid sea and lie strewn upon the eastern shore—memorials at once of the danger that was and of the victory and triumph that are to be the joy of God’s redeemed people. Most fifty the deep emotions of the people seek expression in song. The oldest song known to history and one of the grandest is here before us. “I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously.” It was the Lord who wrought the victory, who went down alone into that eventful battle, and who came back the mighty conqueror! “The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.” Over and over this central idea appears: “Pharaoh’s chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea; his chosen chariots also are drowned in the Red Sea.” “Thou didst blow with thy wind; the sea covered them; they sank as lead in the mighty waters.” Let the Great God of Israel be praised for all this! Appropriately this is the burden of the song: “The Lord is my strength and my song, and he is become my salvation.” “Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like to thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?” H. C.

The burden of this magnificent ode sank into the hearts of the Hebrew race and fired the genius of inspired poets century after century, reappearing again and again in psalm and prophecy. As here, the strain of all these allusions to the great deliverance is, that “not unto us, not unto us, O Lord, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy and for thy truth’s sake.” Geikie.—1. This song is sung “to Jehovah.” The people are filled with the thought of him and his great act. It has been rightly called the marriage hymn of Israel; as the bride rejoices in the bridegroom, so the people here rejoice in God. Auberlen.—Its most characteristic and outstanding feature is the entire absence of self-glorification or mere national exultation. From the beginning to the end it celebrates the praises of Jehovah, the Redeemer of Israel. J. M. G.

The entire hymn consists of two parts. The first looks back on the past, on the mighty deed of Jehovah just experienced; the other looks forward with confidence to the future—the rest and peace in Canaan—and so becomes at the same time a prayer. Thankfulness for the mercy received is the ground of hope that the Lord will not leave the work he has begun. We find in this hymn the first traces of that arrangement of Hebrew poetry which divides each verse into two, and often more, lines. Apparently these hymns were sung from the first responsively or antiphonally. As soon as the chorus of men had finished, the chorus of women repeats the whole. The song, by the peculiar force and beauty with which it sets the whole history before us, had also the purpose of being a living, continual witness to the great event. It was intended to declare to posterity through all ages that so many hundred thousands beheld the great works of the Lord which gave existence to his people, and left behind them such a monument for their children. Therefore we find in many poetical parts of the prophets echoes of this song of Moses. Gerl.

3. The Lord—i.e., JEHOVAH, is his name. He has now, as the name implies, given complete existence to all his promises. A. C.—In the story of the exodus deliverance breathes out from every line, and “JEHOVAH” is the great Deliverer. Jehovah destroys the Egyptians, “passes over” the dwellings of his people, and institutes the great feast of the “Passover,” to be perpetuated as a “memorial” together with his “memorial name” to all generations. That great feast, to be called by the Israelites “JEHOVAH’S Passover,” is still observed throughout all Christendom, with a change, and yet a correspondence of emblems, in commemoration of the deliverance of “Christ our Passover,” and is called “the Lord’s Supper”—thus perpetuating the great “memorial” of Israel’s deliverance from bondage, and the yet greater deliverance foreshadowed in the prophetic name of JEHOVAH. So also the great and final act of JEHOVAH in delivering his people from the power of the Egyptians is commemorated in a song of Moses and the hosts of Israel, which song also is in the Revelation represented as sung by the redeemed hosts of Christ the Deliverer. “And they sing the song of Moses, and the song of the Lamb.” The union of the song of Moses with that of the Redeemed through Christ is a union of the two great historic divisions of the Church in a common song of deliverance. And deliverance is the grand representative idea of the Jewish system. He who was to become the Theocratic Head of the nation, their Lawgiver and King, takes upon himself the name of Deliverer, and in illustration of that name, introduces his government by a glorious act of deliverance. Thus in the history of Israel as a nation, before the idea of the Lawgiver and the subject, comes that of Redeemer and Redeemed. McWhorter.

11. Lit.: “Who is as thou among the gods, Jehovah? who is as thou, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doer of wonders?” His matchless greatness forces itself on the observance of those who consider his deeds. Among the gods. He compares the Lord with all heathen deities. The expression is a bold poetic figure of speech, by which the nothingness of the gods is designated. God is glorious in holiness: all the glorious attributes of his Divine nature are pervaded and animated by his holiness. Gerl.—It is this which makes all his attributes beautiful, for which he claims the supreme reverence and delight of angels and men, and for which he is the highest object of complacent delight to his own infinite mind. H. B. Smith.

The Divine holiness is so familiar a thought with us, enters so necessarily into all our conceptions of God, that it is difficult for us to realize its coming into the minds of men as something entirely new. But so it was. The heathen nations were destitute of the idea; and the people of God had to be taught it for the first time at the period of the exodus. The word “holy” does not occur in Genesis. The first introduction of it is at the burning bush: “Put off thy shoes from off thy feet; for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.” 13. The biblical idea of holiness is, throughout, associated with that of love and mercy; and herein we see the appropriateness of this reference in the Red Sea Song of salvation: “Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed.” Just as it is through “the apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ” that a sinner is led to true repentance, so the revelation of the Divine love is the path through which alone we can reach the knowledge of the Divine holiness. J. M. G.

14. The peoples. An expression now justified by usage, and necessary in this passage to give the true meaning. The inhabitants of Philistia—i.e., the country of the Philistines. They were the first who would expect an invasion, and the first whose district would have been invaded but for the faintheartedness of the Israelites. It is obvious that the order of thoughts would have been very different had the song been composed at a later period, since in fact Philistia was the last district occupied by the Israelites. Cook.—15, 16. In this magnificent hymn of thankfulness there breathes for the first time a consciousness of the high destiny that was in store for them.

Already they seem to see the Philistines, the Edomites, the Moabites, and all the inhabitants of Canaan “amazed” and “melting away” before their triumphant march, and themselves, the redeemed of Jehovah, entering upon their long promised inheritance, the Holy Land or “sanctuary,” where Jehovah should reign over them “for ever and ever.” J. P. N.

The signal display of Divine power for their protection must have deeply impressed them with a conviction of the Lord’s goodness and power. Their tendency to distrust and unbelief must have been greatly checked by it; and although that tendency broke out in repeated acts of discontent and rebellion, nothing can more clearly show the strong, salutary impression produced than the prominent manner in which this event is set forth and the pointed way in which it is referred to in all the subsequent literature of the people, especially in the Psalms of David. Kit.—Two ways this great deliverance was encouraging. First, it was such an instance of God’s power as would terrify their enemies and quite dishearten them (verses 14-16). The very tidings of the overthrow of the Egyptians would be more than half the overthrow of all their other enemies; it would sink their spirits, and that would go far toward the sinking of their powers and interests. The Philistines, Moabites, Edomites, and Canaanites (with each of which nations Israel was to grapple) would be alarmed by it, and would conclude it was in vain to fight against Israel when a God of such power fought for them. It had this effect: the Edomites were afraid of them (De. 2:4), so were the Moabites (Nu. 22:3), and the Canaanites (Josh. 2:9, 10). Thus God sent his fear before them (ch. 23:27), and cut off the spirit of princes. Next, it was such a beginning of God’s favor to them as gave them an earnest of the perfection of his kindness. This was but in order to something further (verse 17). Thou shalt bring them in. If he thus bring them out of Egypt, notwithstanding their unworthiness and the difficulties that lay in the way of their escape, doubtless he will bring them into Canaan; for has he begun (so begun), and will he not make an end? Our experiences of God’s power and favor should be improved for the support of our expectations: “Thou hast—therefore not only thou canst, but we trust thou will,” is good arguing. H.

20. “Miriam the Prophetess, the sister of Aaron,” whose name now first appears in the history of the Church, afterward to become so renowned through its Grecian and European form of Maria and Mary, came forth, as was the wont of Hebrew women after some great victory, to meet the triumphant host, with her Egyptian timbrels and with dances of her country-women. A. P. S.—Miriam is called a “prophettess,” but this often means in Scripture only one who says or makes known the doings of God or his praises, whether with or without musical instruments. Thus the singers appointed by David are called “prophets,” and are said “to prophesy with harps,” etc., and “to give thanks and to praise the Lord” (1 Ch. 25:1-3). Geikie.—Miriam is described as the sister of Aaron. At the very outset the position is indicated which she afterward occupied in the community of Israel. She is called the sister of Aaron, and not the sister of Moses, because her position was co-ordinate with that of Aaron, but subordinate to that of Moses. Although Aaron was the brother of Moses, yet in his official position he was only the mouth, the prophet of Moses. In the same way Miriam was placed in a position of subordination to the brother she had saved; for Jehovah had chosen him to be the mediator of his covenant, and placed him at the head of Israel. Hence she entirely mistook her position when at a later period she took upon herself to rebuke him. K.

The monuments reproduce this scene in all its parts. Separate choirs of men and women are represented on them, singing in alternate responses; the timbrel, or tambourine, is represented as the instrument of the women, as the flute is that of the men; and the playing of the tambourine, unaccompanied, as here, by other instruments, is represented in connection with singing and the dance. Further, it appears from the monuments that music had eminently a religious destination in Egypt, that the timbrel was specially devoted to sacred uses, and that religious dances were performed in the worship of Osiris. E. C. W.—In the tombs at Thebes timbrels, like Miriam’s, round and square, are seen in the hands of women; while pipes, trumpets, sistrums, drums, and guitars are there in great abundance and variety, and harps not much unlike the modern instrument, with varying numbers of strings up to twenty-two. The colored pictures of the harp and the player in one of the tombs are as fresh as those of a Roman gallery. S. C. B.

The history of the Jewish exodus, or deliverance from Egypt under the direction of Moses, was undoubtedly preserved in the Egyptian records, and from thence was derived the strange and disfigured story which we read in Diodorus, Strabo, Justin, and Tacitus. Unfortunately, the ancient enmity between the Egyptian and Hebrew people was kept alive by the civil, religious, and literary dissensions and jealousies under the reign of the Ptolemies in Alexandria. Josephus, in his treatise against Apion, has extracted the contradictory accounts of his ancestors from three Egyptian historians, Manetho, Chæremon, and Lysimachus. In each of these there is the same attempt to identify or connect the Jews with the earlier shepherd-kings, the objects of peculiar detestation to the Egyptian people. So much is their history interwoven, that some learned writers, probably Josephus himself, considered the whole account of the fierce and conquering shepherds a fable, built on the history of the Israelites. He states, though in somewhat ambiguous terms, that in another copy of Manetho the word Hyksos, usually translated shepherd-kings, was also rendered shepherd-captives. Yet the Egyptian monuments conclusively prove the existence of this distinct race of conquerors. Mibman.

One of the most enlightened, discriminating, and cautious of scholars—Sir Gardner Wilkinson—bears this distinct and important testimony: “Wherever any fact is mentioned in the Bible history, we do not discover anything on the monuments which tends to contradict it.” In all the references to Egypt contained in the Pentateuch, though so many and so various, though scattered through every part of the writing and mixed up with almost every topic which it embraces, there cannot be detected a single element which is not clearly and decisively Egyptian. Could a fictitious narrative, fabricated in a remote country and a distant age, accomplish such a result? Equally with the extent and accuracy of the writer’s knowledge of Egypt, does the manner in which he brings it out seal the trustworthiness of the narrative. This is always so incidental, so unpremeditated, so undesigned, so perfectly inartificial, and so destitute of all explanatory remarks as not necessary for his immediate readers, as to constitute an indubitable signature of truth. Such a manner would be quite natural in Moses, but most unnatural, and indeed impossible, in a mythic historian. It is a manner which cannot be assumed by an impostor. We have here, then, both in the Egyptian knowledge of the author and in the manner of its exhibition, a strong internal proof of the credibility of the Pentateuch, of its composition in the age of Moses, and consequently of its Mosaic origin. He who is not convinced by it of the genuineness and authenticity of the work, is certainly very far removed from credulity; but then he stands at an equal distance from that intelligent candor which feels and owns the force of truth. E. C. W.

THREE STAGES ONWARD FROM THE RED SEA: I. MARAH; BITTER WATERS SWEETENED. II. ELIM, WITH ITS SPRINGS AND PALM TREES. III. ENCAMPMENT BY THE SEA.

Ex. 15 22 And Moses led Israel onward from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter; therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a tree, and he cast it into the waters, and the waters were made sweet. There he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them; and he said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his eyes, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases upon thee, which I have put upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee. And they came to Elim, where were twelve springs of water, and threescore and ten palm trees: and they encamped there by the waters.

Nu. 33 8 And they went three days’ journey in the wilderness of Etham, and pitched in 9 Marah. And they journeyed from Marah, and came unto Elim: and in Elim were twelve springs of water, and threescore and ten palm trees; and they pitched there. 10 And they journeyed from Elim, and pitched by the Red Sea.

In studying the geography of the peninsula, the first lesson to be learned is to know what is meant by a wady. Destitute as these broad stretches of barrenness are of springs or running brooks, yet at times they are swept by terrific storms, when torrents dash down the mountain-side, and plough deep furrows in the sandy waste. The dry beds which they leave behind are wadies. These wadies, depressed below the level of the surrounding plain, are the favorite places for pitching tents, as the banks on either side furnish a shelter from the winds that sweep over the desert. Several of these we crossed today, in which the half-dried mud showed that there had been recent rains. Wherever the moisture had touched, there were signs of vegetation. Field.

Ayun Musa [or Wells of Moses, opposite Suez] is an oasis reclaimed from the hopeless sand by a supply of unpalatable water, which is arrested and brought to the surface by the labor of infinitesimal insects. The only springs which are still left in their natural state are at the extreme south of the locality, outside of all the enclosures. But the principal flow of water is now found (or diverted) elsewhere; for at a short distance to the north is a series of five large gardens or plantations, enclosed by high reed fences, and partly filled with palms, tamarisks, apricots, pomegranates, and other trees, and occupied chiefly by beds of vegetables and herbs, irrigated by the water from these wells. Some of these enclosures contain small summerhouses, and are places of resort from Suez. In the southernmost of these plantations was a large pool a hundred and sixty-five feet in circumference, as I paced it, kept full by a spring which bubbles up vigorously near the centre and flows off at the side. The traditional name, “Moses’s Wells,” carries with it intrinsic probability. A situation so important, with fountains at a suitable distance to supply the van and the rear of the immense host, could hardly have failed to be a place of encampment, even though the place of crossing had not been in the immediate neighborhood, and much more if it was. S. C. B.

Israel now entered on the long march in the wilderness, through which he was to reach the Promised Land. The Red Sea is divided on the north side into two long bays, that of Heroopolis and Ælan—or, as they are now called, of Suez and Akaba. Between these two is situated the peninsula which, together with the breadth of desert to the north, on the Mediterranean and south border of Palestine, is called Arabia Petraea. Gerl.—Their route lay southward down the east side of the Gulf of Suez, and at first along the shore. The station of Ayun Musa (the Wells of Moses), with its tamarisks and seventeen wells, served for their gathering after the passage. They marched for three days through the wilderness of SHUR or ETHAM, on the southwest margin of the great desert of Paran (et-Tih), where they found no water. The tract is a part of the belt of gravel which surrounds the mountains of the peninsula, and is crossed by several wadies, whose sides are fringed with tamarisks, acacias, and a few palm-trees. P. S.—As the Israelites, leaving Ayun Musa, turned their faces southward away from the land of their bondage and the scene of their great deliverance, they must have gazed on the same features that now strike the eye of the traveller on his way from Suez to Jebel Musa, for the general aspect of the desert can have altered little. On their left would be the long level range of Er-Rahah; in front, the terraced plain several miles broad, sloping gently down to the bright blue sea, and beyond the sea westward the picturesque line of cliffs, on one point of which the name of Ras Atakah (Mount of Deliverance) still lingers. Wilson.

22. The wilderness of Shur. This name has before occurred in Gen. 16:7; 20:1; 25:18. The wilderness includes the district lying east of Egypt between the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. It is called in Nu. 33:8, “the wilderness of Etham,” and Josephus renders it by “the desert of Pelusium.” Mr. Holland says of the desert east of Suez: “Some twelve or fifteen miles from the coast, and parallel to it, runs Jebel er-Rahah, appearing in the distance as a long flat-headed range of white cliffs, which form as it were a wall enclosing the desert on the north.” Alf.—When Hagar fled from Palestine to Egypt, the angel of the Lord found her by a fountain in the desert on the way to Shur. Abram lived for some time at Gerar, between Kadesh and Shur. According to the other passages, Shur stood “in front of Egypt.” The whole of these passages lead to the conclusion that the desert of Shur was the entire tract of desert by which Egypt was bounded on the east. K.

A favorite identification of Shur [Holland, Palmer, Wilson, etc.] has been in a range of mountains a little to the eastward from the Gulf of Suez, having the appearance of a wall, and bearing the name Jebel er-Rahah, being in fact the northwestern end, or extension, of Jebel et-Tih. But Jebel er-Rahah does not stand “before Egypt as thou goest to Assyria” (Gen. 25:18). It is too far south for that. “Shur” means “a wall;” and from its meaning, as well as from the various references to it in the text (Gen. 16:7, 14; 20:1; 25:18; 1 Sam. 15:7; 27:8), it would seem clear that Shur was a border wall, or extended line of fortifications, across the entire northeastern front of Lower Egypt, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Gulf of Suez. This wall was the closure of the only entrance by land to Egypt from the East; and it was from the East alone that there was, in those days, any special danger of invasion. References to this wall are found in the Egyptian records, both before and after the supposed date of the exodus. Its earliest mention, as yet ascertained, is in what is known as the St. Petersburg Papyrus, which treats of Egyptian history prior to the tenth dynasty. There, according to Golenischeff as cited by Meyer, it is known as “the Royal Wall for defence against the ‘Amu,’” or Amorites. Again it finds mention in a papyrus of the twelfth dynasty, prior to the Hykshos invasion. It is there spoken of as a barrier “which the king had made to keep off the Sakti,” or Eastern enemies of Egypt. Yet again it is brought into notice in a papyrus of the nineteenth dynasty, in a manner which seems to indicate its extended stretch. The historic data thus cited cover a period from before the days of Abraham to Moses. If, indeed, there were no corroboratory facts or traditions, these Egyptian references to the border wall of Egypt would, in themselves, be sufficient to justify a conviction of its existence; for the term which is employed in its mention is recognized by Egyptologists generally as indicative of a continuous wall, or of an extended line of fortifications, which in reality amounts to a defensive wall. But, on the other hand, there is no lack of corroboratory facts and traditions. H. C. T.—[For a full discussion of this interesting question, see “Kadesh-Barnea,” pp. 44-58, and Sunday-school Times, May 14th, 1887.]

Journey to Marah; Murmuring of Israel; Sweetening of the Waters (verses 22-26).

22. Three days. The distance between

Ayun Musa and Hawara, the first spot where any water is found on the route, is thirty-three geographical miles. Cook.—With such a host, encumbered as they were with women and children, and flocks and herds, the distance of a day’s march cannot have averaged more than twelve miles. How striking to find that even now a journey of about thirty-five miles has to be made before water is reached, and then that the water is bitter and unwholesome, as were the waters of Marah! Holland.

23. The place of encampment at MARAH has been almost universally recognized, since the time of Burckhardt, as identical with the well (Ain) Hawara, which had never been mentioned before. It is situated at a distance of fifteen or sixteen hours’ journey from the wells of Moses—a distance which answers admirably to the three days’ journey of the Israelites. The country between is a sandy desert, entirely destitute of water. The water of the Hawara well is impregnated with alum and salt, and more bitter than any other water that is met with in the ordinary routes of the peninsula. The basin, whose white rocky substance has evidently been formed in the course of time by a precipitate from the water, is said by Robinson to be six or eight feet across, while the water is about two feet deep. K.—The soil throughout this part of the country, being strongly impregnated with natron, produces none but bitter or brackish water; and the first of these springs with which we meet, Ain Hawara, is reached on the third day of our desert journey to Sinai. Palmer.

The heat continued oppressive till we reached Hawara. We did not wonder that the Israelites, who passed along here perhaps a month later in the season, after their long, hot, and dreary march, and their fresh recollections of the water of the Nile, were dreadfully discouraged when they reached Marah and found no good water. This fountain varies somewhat from time to time in the surroundings and in the quality of the water. At times, probably when the flow is very copious after rains, the water is drinkable, but statedly it is disagreeable, and sometimes even nauseous. The palm-bushes near it are the first that the traveller encounters after leaving Ayun Musa. In favor of this place as the Marah of the Scriptures, there are the distances from Ayun Musa (a fair “three days’ journey” for such a company), the fact that it is the first water lying directly on their track, and the expectation naturally awakened by the palm-bush indications, the quality of the water itself, still presented and still recognized, the correspondence of the next station, Elim, and perhaps we may add the not unsuitable camping-ground a little beyond the place. S. C. B.

24-26. The people, tormented with thirst, murmured against Moses, who, at the command of God, cast a certain tree into the waters which made them sweet. This was the first great trial of their patience; and God who had healed the waters, promised to deliver them from all the diseases of Egypt, if they would obey him, and confirmed the promise by the name of “Jehovah the Healer.” P. S.—Here is the first handsel that God gives them in their voyage to the Land of Promise—thirst and bitterness. Satan gives us pleasant entrances into his ways, and reserves the bitterness for the end: God inures us to our worst at first, and sweetens our conclusion with pleasure. The same God that would not lead Israel through the Philistines’ land lest they should shrink at the sight of war, now leads them through the wilderness, and fears not to try their patience with bitter potions. If he had not loved them, the Egyptian furnace or sword had prevented their thirst, or that sea whereof their enemies drunk dead; and yet see how he diets them. Never any have had so bitter draughts upon earth as those he loves best; the palate is an ill judge of the favors of God. Bp. H.

To realize their suffering, to have an adequate idea of it, we should need to be put in their situation, beneath a burning sun, a cloudless sky, surrounded by the bare, dry, gray, shining desert. This seemed indeed a deplorable commencement of their journey. They thought when God had brought them safely through the Red Sea, that that was the way in which he would cause them to triumph continually. They knew very little of themselves, still less of God. They knew very little of God’s methods of discipline, very little of their own need of that discipline. They could sing God’s praises on occasion of a great deliverance, provided Moses would prepare an ode for them. But their obligations to God and their dependence upon him they had scarcely begun to realize. All the discipline of faith they were yet to experience. And therefore, after the first triumph, after God had brought them safely out of Egypt, and across the Red Sea, their first experience was trial and disappointment. Cheever.

24. These Israelites, instead of praying, murmur; instead of praying to God, murmur against Moses What hath the righteous done? He made not either the wilderness dry or the waters bitter; yea, if his conduct were the matter, what one foot went he before them without God?

The pillar led them, and not he; yet Moses is murmured at. Never any prince so merited of a people. He thrusts himself upon the pikes of Pharaoh’s tyranny. He brought them from a bondage worse than death. His rod divided the sea, and shared life to them, death to their pursuers. Who would not have thought these men so obliged to Moses, that no death could have opened their mouths or raised their hands against him? Moses took not on him their provision but their deliverance. He was in the same want of water with them, in the same distaste of bitterness, and yet they say to him, “What shall we drink?” Bp. H.

Never once during his twelve months of conflict with the power of Pharaoh had the faith or courage of Moses quailed. Contemned, cajoled, threatened, spurned from the royal presence, he had never faltered. And now his triumph over Egypt was complete. But the far greater difficulties of his task had yet to begin. As he had learned forty years before, to crush the oppressor is easier than to discipline and educate the oppressed. The very people who but now were singing the praises of Jehovah, and feeling as though the Promised Land was already in their grasp, were three days later “murmuring against Moses” because the waters of the wilderness were bitter. J. P. N.

25. What course doth Moses now take? That which they should have done and did not: they cried not more fervently to him than he to God: if he were their leader, God was his; that which they unjustly required of him, he justly requires of God, that could do it; he knew whence to look for redress of all complaints; this was not his charge, but his Maker’s, who was able to maintain his own act. It is to thee, O God, that we must pour out our hearts, who only canst make our bitter waters sweet. Bp. H.—Ye who are bravely battling for the right, the pure, the benevolent, whether it be in the sweeping out of corruption from political offices, or in the closing of those pestilential houses which are feeding the intemperance of our streets, or in the maintenance in the churches of the faith once delivered to the saints—take heart of grace from Moses here. Go with your causes to the Lord, and be sure that they who are on his side are always in the end victorious. W. M. T.

He cried unto the Lord. Moses was not only their leader, but also their mediator. Of prayer and dependence on the Almighty, the great mass of the Israelites had little knowledge at this time. Moses, therefore, had much to bear from their weakness; and the merciful

Lord was long-suffering. A. C.—The hand of faith never knocked at heaven in vain: no sooner hath Moses shown his grievance than God shows him the remedy; yet an unlikely one, that it might be miraculous. He that made the waters could have given them any savor; the same hand that created them might have immediately changed them. But Almighty Power still works by means; and the glory of Omnipotence is manifested by the improbability of the means which He employs. Elisha with salt, Moses with wood, shall sweeten the bitter waters. Let no man despise the means, when he knows the Author. Bp. II.

The water is bitter—so bitter as to be loathsome even to their intense agony of thirst. Pity them; but judge them not too severely if, in that awful moment of disappointed hope, with the waters of Marah before their faces and the waters of the Nile before their thoughts, they did murmur, they did complain that they had been brought from unfailing waters to perish in that thirsty desolation. They should have trusted in God. They had been rescued from more imminent danger; and it was no arm of flesh, but the sacred pillar of cloud, which had indicated their way, and brought them to that place. They should have prayed to their Divine Protector to supply their wants, as he was well able to do; and although there is much in the real misery they suffered to extenuate this offence, their forgetfulness and neglect was most blameworthy. Yet, in consideration of their sufferings, God himself excused them in this more readily than man has done. It will be seen in the sacred record that he dealt tenderly with them. He did not, as on other occasions, when they sinned in like manner without the like excuse, reprove them; but when Moses cried to him for help, he, in the tenderness of his great pity, at once healed the waters, and made them sweet and salutary. Kit.

God sends trial for the purpose of teaching faith, and when that is somewhat accomplished, his wisdom and love are glad to bestow blessings. It was infinitely better to have bitter water with God’s healing, than the best of water without God. The very trials and disappointments of a Christian, if God comes with them, are better than all the blessings of the worldling. It was better to have the disappointment at first, and God’s interposition afterward, than to have found a sweet fountain at once. Cheever.—Of all gifts, Christ is the sweetest gift. As the tree “sweetened the bitter waters,” so this gift, the Lord Jesus, sweetens all other gifts that are bestowed upon the sons of men. He turns every bitter into sweet, and makes the sweet more sweet. Brooks.

There he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved them. The “statute,” or principle, and “the ordinance,” or right, was this, that in all seasons of need and seeming impossibility the Lord would send deliverance straight from above, and that Israel might expect this during their wilderness journey. This “statute” is, for all times, the principle of God’s guidance, and this “ordinance” the right or privilege of our heavenly citizenship. But he also ever “proves” us by this, that the enjoyment of our right and privilege is made to depend upon a constant exercise of faith. A. E.

26. The scriptural record expressly describes the event at Marah under the aspect of a trial. They had left Egypt, with its abundance of sweet and wholesome water, for the purpose of escaping from slavery; but the desert, the place of freedom, the asylum of safety, threatened them with death from exhaustion. Then they murmured against Moses; and to murmur against Moses was, in fact, to murmur against Jehovah. How ungrateful and unbelieving, and yet how natural! But this was just the intention of the trial. The unholy, natural root of the heart was to be laid bare, that it might be healed and sanctified by the discipline and mercy of God; it was necessary that the murmuring should be heard, in order that it might be brought to shame, and counteracted by the mercy and faithfulness of God. This really occurred: the bond by which Israel was united to his God was thus drawn closer and knit more firmly; and, as a seal thereof, God gave the people on this occasion “a statute and an ordinance,” and said: “If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of Jehovah thy God, and do that which is right in his sight, I will put none of these diseases upon thee which I have brought upon the Egyptians, for I am Jehovah, thy Physician.” Thus the difference which Jehovah had already made in Egypt between Israel and the Egyptians was to be still perpetuated so long as Israel would maintain its own distinction from the heathen, as the people of God, by obedience to Jehovah’s will. K.—The prophet Jeremiah, a thousand years afterward, referred to it to show, that from the very earliest period of Israel’s covenant relation to God, their sacrifices had been held as of no account compared with obedience (Jer. 7: 22, 23), “For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burntofferings or sacrifices: But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you.” Nor is it less important for us at this day to be assured that God will deal with us according as we demean ourselves toward to him. The retribution may not indeed be now so visibly marked by outward signals, but it will be no less real in secret visitations upon the spirit, in the conscious well or ill being of the inner man. And in many cases the frown or the smile of God will be evident in the dispensations of his Providence. Bush.

God taught his people by actions, as well as words. This entrance showed them their whole journey; wherein they should taste of much bitterness, but at last, through the mercy of God, sweetened with comfort. Bp. II.—Two great objects God had in view: first to show the people themselves, and next to show them himself. Neither of these lessons can be taught at a sitting. It is only by degrees that we learn how poor and weak and helpless we are; and how great and loving and helpful God is; and so we need not wonder that, with a people so slow to learn, the lesson should extend over forty years. But though it takes a long time to teach it practically, we can see it very readily in a picture; and it is painted there in characters quite large and striking, on this Marah page of Israel’s history. What had become of that splendid faith in God which found expression in the Red Sea song? Why did it never occur to these people that he who had opened a way through the sea could very easily provide for them in the desert? The truth is, that while faith is very easy after a great deliverance, it is exceeding hard before it. When our hearts are filled with gratitude to God at a time when there is nothing to try us, let us not build too much upon it as an evidence of Christian character, for it may not be so certain after all whether it is God or self we are in love with. The test will be when sorrow comes, when you are thirsty, and, stooping down to drink, you find the waters bitter—then if you can still praise God, and trust his love and power, you prove yourself a disciple indeed. But with many the time of trial is a time of humiliating disclosures of weakness and faithlessness, as it was in the case of Israel so lately triumphant, but whose very first trouble was too much for them. But God does not leave his people thus. Having taught them the sad lesson of what they are, he presently comforts them by showing them what he is. As soon as they cried to him he found (how easily) a way to make the bitter waters sweet, and thus made himself known as Jehovah the Healer (verse 26). He had already fully revealed himself as Jehovah the Saviour, their great Deliverer from Egyptian bondage. His work as the healer of his people follows next in order. “Bless Jehovah, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases.”

The Marah “statute and ordinance” is the first trace of Law in God’s dealing with his people. Up to this time it has been all Gospel. They have had simply to “stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord.” Not a word has been said to them about “doing that which is right in his sight,” and “keeping his statutes,” till now. Thus we find that the order of the New Testament is also the order of the Old. It is not, “obey and be saved,” but “be saved and obey.” It is not, “obey in order that you may be saved,” but “obey because you have been saved.” There had been certain acts of obedience, of course; but these were all in the way of accepting a salvation already provided, as for instance when they killed the lamb and sprinkled the blood, which was simply their acceptance of the atonement provided by the Lord; or again, when at the word of the Lord they walked through the sea; but up till this time there is not a single intimation of good deeds as a condition of blessing. God did not give them his Law in Egypt and tell them if they kept it he would bring them out. No: he first brings them out, and then says, “Keep my Law.” J. M. G.

Elim, with its Twelve Springs and Seventy Palms.

Ex. 15:27; Nu. 33:9. Wady Gharandel may be safely identified with Elim. The whole desert is almost absolutely bare and barren, but Wady Gharandel is fringed with trees and shrubs, forming a charming oasis. Here are the stunted palms, with their hairy trunks and dishevelled branches. Here, too, are the feathery tamarisks, with gnarled boughs, their leaves dripping with what the Arabs call manna; and here is the acacia, with its gray foliage and bright blossoms, tangled by its desert-growth into a thicket. Pleasant is the acacia to the sight wearied by the desert-glare; but it has a higher and holier interest, as the tree of the “Burning Bush” and the “shittim-wood” of the tabernacle. J. L. P.—The Wady Gharandel is one of the most fertile valleys in the desert. It descends from the east along the base of a ridge of limestone fully two thousand feet in elevation. To the west, bordering the sea, was the corresponding limestone ridge of Jebel Hamman, at the base of which breaks forth the warm springs of the Hamman Faroun. Hull.

Just below the point where the road crosses [Wady Gharandel], several water holes are found, which have been frequently described. But it is not generally known how large a supply of water is to be found about two miles lower down the wady. A stream here gradually oozes out from the bed of the wady, and soon forms considerable pools of water, which are overgrown with rushes, and affords a favorite resort for wild ducks and other birds. An abundant supply of water is to be found here during the whole year. The banks of the stream and dry pools from which the water has evaporated are often covered with a white deposit of natron, and the standing water is brackish and unwholesome; but when running briskly and freshly drawn, it is very drinkable, and the traveller’s water-skins are generally filled here on his way to and from the south. The lower portions of Wady Gharandel are well clothed with tamarisks and palms. Hollond. —A very large area around was enclosed by a sheltering circle of hills, perhaps sixty feet high; and as we looked back upon the place on leaving it, we could not help thinking what an admirable and inviting spot for a large encampment. The water we found to be excellent—as good as the Nile water. And nowhere on the peninsula except at Wady Feiran did we find it so copious. Nearly every traveller and scholar from the time of Burckhardt have recognized this as the Elim of the Bible, where were twelve wells of water and threescore and ten palm-trees. The relative situation, next to Marah and a very short march from it, the abundant water and the trees, and all the peculiarly marked and inviting features of the place, make the supposition in the highest degree credible, and render it even improbable that it should not have been occupied as a camping-place. S. C. B.

This refreshing valley may be regarded as the first resting place of the sons of Israel after their departure from Egypt. Here, accordingly, they remained for the space of three weeks (16 : 1), during which they had leisure to accommodate themselves in some measure to desert life and to the habits of freedom and independence. M.

Elim presents the same contrast to Marah as the temptation on the part of God to the fruit of that temptation, or as the state of heart evinced by the murmuring people to the loving-kindness and mercy of Jehovah. Marah was the representative of the desert, so far as it was the scene of trial and discipline; Elim, so far as it was the place in which a covenant was made with God, and his gracious guidance was enjoyed. Elim was a place expressly prepared for Israel, for it bore the characteristic mark of the nation, in the number of its wells and palm-trees; there was a well for every tribe ready to refresh both man and beast, and the shade of a palm-tree for the tent of every one of the elders of the people (ch. 24 : 9). K.

Their bitter disappointment at first, and God’s merciful interposition, had begun to teach them that everything of good must come from God. They were beginning to learn this great lesson of faith; and now these twelve wells and seventy palm-trees were from him also; and his previous discipline with them made them feel this. It is one lesson of faith, perhaps the latest learned, and also it is one of the greatest proofs of faith, to receive our daily mercies as from God. This is the life of faith amid sense. What are our daily mercies but daily miracles, daily and remarkable interpositions of God’s mercy, preventing the ordinary course of nature? It is quite out of the course of nature for a rebellious race to receive mercies, and it is only by God’s interposition in Christ that we do receive them; a greater miracle by far than when God interposed to heal the fountain in the desert. Justice to the full would be the course of nature, but the supernatural cross intervenes, and miracles of mercy are wrought for us. Our life is a perpetual miracle. It is a proof of faith to feel this, and it is a blessed life of faith to live thus upon God. Cheever.

Is there ever a Marah without an Elim near it, if only we follow on in the way the Lord marks out for us through the wilderness? The notice of Elim occupies less than four lines, while there are as many verses in the record of Marah, and a whole chapter following about the Wilderness of Sin; and we are apt to draw the hasty inference that the bitter experiences were the rule, and the delightful ones the exception. And so it often seems in the checkered life of the tried disciple of the Lord. But look again. The bitter time at Marah was quite short, though it occupies a great deal of space in the history. These four verses tell the story probably of as many hours or less. But the four lines about Elim are the story of three weeks, during which “they encamped there by the waters.” When troubles come, the time seems long; when troubles have gone, the time seems short; and so many are apt to think that they are hardly dealt with, whereas if they would look more carefully into the Lord’s dealings with them, they might find that they have far more to be thankful for than to grieve over. Hours at Marah are followed by weeks at Elim. J. M. G.

No. 33 : 10. Encampment by the Red Sea. After passing the Wady Tayibeh, the route descends through a defile on to a beautiful pebbly beach, the ENCAMPMENT BY THE RED SEA, which is mentioned in Numbers next to Elim, but is omitted in Exodus. Here the Israelites had their last view of the Red Sea and the shores of Egypt. P. S.—The plain at the mouth of Wady Tayibeh has been suggested as the probable site of the Encampment by the Red Sea. As from a comparison of the various routes we (of the Ordnance Survey) were unanimously of opinion that the Israelites must have taken the lower route by the sea-shore, and as the Wady Tayibeh is the only valley by which they could have descended to the sea-shore after crossing Wady Gharandel, we acquiesced in this identification. Palmer. (See map, Sec. 98.)

If they proceeded south from the Wady Gharandel or the Wady Useit, they cannot have reached the Red Sea by any other route than through the Wady Tayibeh; for there is a range of mountains at the south of the Wady Useit which approaches so nearly to the sea as to render it impossible to pass along the shore. The Israelites must therefore have gone round these mountains. The next valley, the Wady Thal, which passes through the mountains to the sea merely as a narrow gorge, must also have been crossed. They then arrived at Wady Shebekeh, from which the Wady Tayibeh branches off toward the east and leads to the sea-shore. “We reached,” says Strauss (p. 142), “the broad and beautiful valley of Tayibeh, which is covered with tamarisks and fresh herbage. The valley winds about between steep rocks, and frequently appears to lead into an enclosure from which there is no outlet, until suddenly an opening is discovered at the side. After travelling about eight hours from Gharandel, we arrived once more at the Red Sea (near Ras Zelimeh). To the north the mountains and rocks came close upon the sea, but toward the south a plain opened before us, which was bounded on the east by wild and rugged rocky formations.” This was undoubtedly the station of the children of Israel by the Red Sea. The sandy plain, on which there is a great quantity of vegetation, runs along by the sea-shore for three or four miles, and is about three quarters of a mile in breadth; but after this the rocky wall approaches so nearly to the sea, that it is only at the ebb that there is any road at all. K.

Suddenly the cliffs opened, and before us lay the Red Sea, beyond which was a range of mountains, the line of which was broken by peaks shooting up here and there, like the cliffs of Capri or the islands of the Greek Archipelago. It was now five o’clock, and the sun was sinking in the west, so that every point of that long serrated ridge stood up sharp and clear against the sky. Here was a scene which no artist could transfer to canvas. We had before us at once the mountains and the sea, and mountains on both sides of the sea. Field.—Turning the corner at the end of the valley, our tents stood on the left, the Red Sea glistened and rippled in front, and a spacious area lay spread out between the hillside and the water’s edge. It was a sandy plain, extending some four or five miles along the shore, shut in by a range of wild cliffs, and terminated by a high promontory on the north, and a rocky wall approaching close to the sea on the south. There is scarcely room for doubt that here was the “Encampment by the Sea,” and that down this very valley of Tayibeh the Israelites had travelled before us. Here was room for a great camp. S. C. B.

In a host like that of the Israelites, consisting of more than two millions of people, with many flocks, it can hardly be supposed that they all marched in one body. More probably the stations, as enumerated, refer rather to the headquarters of Moses and the elders, with a portion of the people, who kept near them; while other portions preceded or followed them at various distances, as the convenience of water and pasturage might dictate. Robinson.

Distance from the Wells of Moses to the Convent 153 Miles.

Camel’s Journey a day 20 to 25 Miles.

Route

Camps

Ras Mohammed