did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilder 12 PIs not this the word that we | and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to-day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to-day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. 14 rThe LORD shall fight for you, shall hold your peace. ness. 13 And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, P Ch. 5. 21. & 6. 9. 42 Chron. 20, 15, 17. Isai. 41. 10, 13, 14. of their alarms, and be ashamed of their unjust suspicions and complaints. 12. Is not this the word, &c. We do not indeed previously read of their uttering these precise words, but this was the spirit, the drift, of their desponding expostulations with Moses and Aaron when they found their burdens increased. The language breathes the most deplorable sordidness and pusillanimity of soul, as if their spirits had been utterly broken down and crushed by their long bondage. Because their liberty was attended with some dangers and difficulties, they speak of it with virtual contempt, as if a state of servitude were to be preferred! Had they possessed the generous spirits of men, they would have said it was better, if needs be, to die on the field of honor than to live in the chains of slavery. Why should the idea of a grave in the wil. derness be so dreadful to them? Why should they prefer to it a grave in Egypt? It was but a grave at the worst; only if they died now, they died at once; died like men defending their lives, liberty, and families; not pour ing out their lives, drop by drop, under the whip of a cruel taskmaster. But slavery had done its work in extinguish ing the nobler impulses of their nature, and the native unbelief and depravity of the human heart had put the finishing stroke to their perverseness. 13. Fear ye not, stand still. Heb. hithyatzebu, stand firm; waver not stagger not, in your minds. and ye S r ver. 25. Deut. 1. 30. & 3. 22. & 20. 4. Josh. 10. 14, 42. & 23. 3. 2 Chron. 20. 29. Neh. 4. 20. İsai. 31. 4. İsai. 30. 15. T See the salvation of the Lord. That is, experience, enjoy the salvation. See on this peculiar use of the word 'see' the Note on Gen. 42. 1. For the Egyptians whom ye have seen, &c. Heb. 'For in what manner ye have seen the Egyptians to-day ye shall not add to see them any more for ever;' i. e. ye shall not see them alive any more. 14. Ye shall hold your peace. Heb. taharishun, ye shall be silent ; a term denoting here, as in many other instances, not so much a cessation from noise as from action, equivalent to remaining still, quiet, or inert. Thus, 2 Kings, 19. 11, 'Why are ye the last to bring the king back from his house? Heb. 'Why are ye silent from bring. ing,' &c.; i. e. why are ye negligent? Ps. 83. 1, 'Keep not thou silence, O God;' i. e. do not forbear to act. Ps. 5. 3, 'Our God shall come and not keep silence;' i. e. shall not remain inactive. By this usage of the term we are assist. ed in the interpretation of Rev. 8. 1, 'And when we had opened the seventh seal there was slence in heaven about the space of half an hour;' i. e. there was a respite from action; the vari ous symbolical agents who had hitherto been so busily employed in the vision. ary heaven, came to a temporary pause, representing some epoch in the state of the church when a series of stirring and momentous events, a succession of wars and commotions, were followed by a profound, though not a lasting calm. Such is the import of the symbol, and 1 15 And the LORD said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward: 16 But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, t ver. 21, 26. ch. 7. 19. it is the province of the prophetic expositor to ascertain from the records of history with what era of the church the vision corresponds. In the case before us, the prophet's words are strikingly pertinent, Isa. 30. 7, 'Therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still.' and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. 17 And I, behold, I will u harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them: and I will u ver. 8. ch. 7. 3. chambers, and shut the door upon us, and commune with our own hearts and with God-often times when it might be well for us even to spend whole nights in prayer-often also sudden emergencies when we must cry with our whole souls to God. But there are other times when we are required to exert ourselves actively, and to show our faith in the promises of God by entering without fear or care or delay into the greatest straits and dangers.- —¶ Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward. Though the sea was directly before them, and its depths seemed utterly to deny them a passage, yet as the power that made the sea bade them advance, it was certain that he would either di vide, or congeal, or exhaust it, so that it should offer no obstruction to their crossing. This is no strange language to the Christian. In the most difficult and appalling circumstances, the command is often to be heard by us, 'Go forward.' Though there may be moun tains of opposition, or waves of trouble, or seas of danger, in the path of duty, yet the word is 'Go forward.' Faith has its most perfect work in the hour of darkness. Follow its guidance and 'a way shall be made in the sea, and à path in the mighty waters.' 15. Wherefore criest thou unto me? As nothing has been before said of Moses' crying or praying to the Lord in express words, we may suppose either that his crying on this occasion was in strong inward ejaculations and groan. ings, mingled perhaps with an undue perturbation of spirit, or that Moses is here addressed as the representative of the people; not as crying in his own person, but in that of the collective body of which he was the head. The first is the most probable supposition, and it naturally suggests the inquiry how it could be wrong for Moses to pray under these circumstances? Does not God himself say, Ps. 4. 15, 'Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me.' To this it may be answered, that in the present case there was no occasion to cry to the Lord; for he had already manifested so decidedly that he was › determined to deliver his people, that neither they nor Moses ought to have 16. Lift thou up thy rod—and divide had a doubt about it. And again, this it. Heb. Typ bekaëhu, cleave it. Gr. was no time for prayer. There was | ρηξον αυτην, rend it. No efficacy of something else to be instantly done. It was the time for him and them to act. 'Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward.' Let us remember that every thing is beautiful in its season. Times there often are when it is proper and necessary that we should enter our course is to be attributed on this or any former occasion to the rod, or even to Moses, in producing an effect to which Omnipotence alone was competent. But it was proper that Moses as an instru ment should appear conspicuous in the transaction, in order that God might * get me honour upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen. 18 And the Egyptians y shall know that I am the LORD, when I have gotten me honour upon Pharaoh, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen. 19 And the angel of God z which went before the camp of Israel, removed, and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them: a See Isai. 8. 14. 2 Cor. 4. 3. b ver. 16 c Ps. 66. 6. d ch. 15. 8. Josh. 3. 16. & 4. 23. I ver. 4. y ver. 4. z ch. 13. 21. & 23. 20. & Neh. 9. 11. Ps. 74. 13. & 106. 9. & 114. 3 32. 34. Numb. 20. 16. Isai. 63. 9. Isai. 63. 12. thus give a new attestation, in the sight of the whole host, to the authority with which he was clothed, in order to secure for him a suitable degree of respect, honor, and obedience in all their subsequent relations. 19. And the angel of God-removed, &c. The Israelites were still in their encampment, waiting with trembling solicitude the crisis of their fate. What must have been their astonishment to see, all at once, the pillar of the cloud, which was in front of them, move round in silent majesty through the air, and take its place in their rear! 'The glory of the Lord became their rere-ward!' Yet it appears that some delay was still to occur before they began to enter upon the bed of the sea, as a strong east wind was to be raised, and by its action the waters so disposed of as to facilitate the passage. As to the relation of the terms 'Angel of God' and 'pillar of the cloud,' see the Remarks at the close of the preceding chapter. 20. It was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these. The supplementary words in our version show that the Hebrew here is elliptical. The sense, however, is undoubtedly correctly rendered. Chal. 'It was an obscure cloud to the Egyptians, but a light during all the night to the Israelites.' Jerus. Targ. 'It was a cloud half lucid and half dark; the light gave light unto Israel, and the darkness gave darkness unto the Egyptians.' Thus the word and the providences of God have a two-fold aspect, a black and dark side towards sin and sinners, a bright and pleasant side towards those that are Israelites indeed. On the former the Most High looks frowningly in wrath; on the lat ter his countenance shines brightly with favor. That which is a savor of life unto life to the one, is a savor of death unto death to the other. The distinction thus made in this respect between the two hosts is a preintimation of the eternal distinction which will be made between the inheritance of the saints in light, and that utter darkness which will for ever be the portion of hypocrites. 21. The Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind. Heb. y beruah kadim azzah. The imme. diate effect of the stretching out of Moses' hand and wielding the potent rod, was not the division of the waters, but the raising of the wind, which thenceforward continued to blow through the rest of the night. The circumstance, as read in our version, creates some difficulty in reconciling every part of the narrative. Although the original does not necessarily imply that the wa 22 And ethe went into the ever. 29. ch. 15. 19. children of Israel | & 78. 13. Isai. 63. 13. 1 Cor. 10. 1. Hebr. 11. 29. upon the dry ground: and the waters were fa wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left. f Hab. 3. 10. the east wind (D) hath broken thee in the midst of the seas;' i. e. any kind of fierce and tempestuous wind. So Job, 27. 20, 21, speaking of the wicked rich man; Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest stealeth him away in the night. The east wind (D) car. rieth him away, and he departeth; and as a storm hurleth him out of his place.' Here it can only be by a rhetorical figure that any particular wind is specified. The idea is obviously that of violent wind in general. Comp. Jer. 18. 17, and Is. 27. 8, in the latter of which places with npm rough wind.—¶ Were divided. Heb. 1 yibbake-u, were cloven, were violently sundered; usual. of rocks, wood, the earth, or solid substances in general, and consequently a term not well suited in itself to describe the effects of the wind. ters 'went back' from the western shore of the Gulf, inasmuch as there is no word answering to 'back,' yet there is the utmost probability that this was the fact, as otherwise it would be more natural to say that the Lord caused the waters to come,' than 'to go.' But how is this to be reconciled with the inevitable effects of a strong east wind acting upon the same mass of waters? This would have been to drive the waters from the eastern and heap them up to a great depth on the western side, where the Israelites were to make their entrance. As the sea was undoubtedly east wind is made synonymous cloven asunder by miraculous power over and above any effect produced by the wind, it would matter little to Omnipotence whether it was swollen mostly applied to the cleaving or splitting on the eastern or western coast. But from a comparison of all the incidents we rather infer that the body of the waters had been rolled up as it were by the force of the wind from the western 22. The children of Israel went into, to the eastern side of the sea, and that &c. From the calm and unimpassioned it was through this agglomerated fluid tone of the narrative, we should scarcely mass that the passage was opened. To imagine that the writer was describing this view of the subject it will of course one of the most stupendous miracles be objected that the wind in question is ever wrought in the view, or for the expressly said to have been the east benefit, of mortals. While the immense wind. But we reply that the original congregation stands in mute expectaterm kadim, has rather a generic tion, with its countless eyes fastened than a specific import, and denotes any on Moses and Aaron, whose movements uncommonly strong or violent wind, would be a signal for their own, these from whatever quarter it blows. Ac- venerated leaders advanced together incordingly it is rendered by the Vulg. in to the untrodden path, and at once the this very passage, 'a vehement and burn-yielding waters divide, and contrary to ing wind,' and Rosenmuller adduces the all the laws of fluids stand erect on following passages as confirming the above interpretation: Ps. 48. 7, 'Thou breakest the ships of Tarshish with an east wind (D);' i. e. as expressly rendered in the Gr. ev пvevμarı ßiacy, with a violent wind. Ezek. 27.26, 'Thy row. ers have brought thee into great waters: either hand like walls of solid ice! The bed of the sea appears between them, and lost in amazement on this high. way of the Lord's ransomed they pass through dry-shod and reach in safety the opposite shore! "The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they were 23 ¶ And the Egyptians pursued, of the sea, even all Pharaoh's horses, and went in after them, to the midst his chariots, and his horsemen. afraid the depths also were troubled. Thy way is in the sea, and thy path in the great waters, and thy footsteps are not known. Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.' Ps. 77. 16-20. the mountains and the sea, which we have supposed the Israelites to have taken. At the distance of about fifteen miles below Suez, occurs Ras (Cape) Addagi projecting into the sea, and which is formed by the termination of a cluster of hills about five miles in length, which now interpose on the left between the valley and the sea, so that the road in this part has mountains on either hand for several miles. Was the 23. And the Egyptians pursued, &c. It is by no means clear that the Egyptians knew or thought they were follow ing the Israelites into the bed of the sea. Considering the darkness additional to that of the night, which had been super-entrance of this defile the mouth of the induced between the pursuers and the pursued, it is not probable that they had any clear perception of the course in which they were moving, and least of all that they imagined themselves travelling on the bared bed of the divided waters. They could hear the noise of the flying host before them, and could see confusedly a little way about their feet, but in all likelihood were utter ly unable to distinguish the localities around them, and may even have thought that they were following the Israelites up the valley of Bedea on their return to Egypt. But by the time the day broke they became aware of their condition, and a fearful discovery did it prove to them. Hiroth, or pass, before which the He brews encamped? The cape on the op posite coast is called Ras (Cape) Moses, and near this are the Fountains of Moses (Ain Mousa), which one of the most distinct traditions points out as the scene of the miracle. The claims of Ain Mousa above Suez in the present, and indeed in any, state of the gulf, are, that if the Israelites crossed here, they must have been more completely shut in' than at Suez, between the mountains, the wilderness, and the sea-that it is far enough from the bottom of the gulf to account for the Egyptians not going round to intercept them as they came up from the sea-that the waters being here deeper and broader, the miracle would be the more conspicuous and un We may here remark that although the precise place of the Israelites' cross-questionable, and at the same time the ing the western Gulf of the Red Sea is by many writers placed higher up in the immediate vicinity of Suez, yet to our mind the evidence decidedly predominates in favor of a point some ten or twelve miles farther south. It is true that Niebuhr, Leclerc, Rosenmuller, Prof. Robinson, and others, advocate the claims of the former locality, but after the thorough canvassing of their arguments by the Editor of the Pictorial Bible, we cannot refuse our assent to the conclusions to which he comes in the following Note on Ex. 14. 2: 'Let us then proceed down the valley between waters would be the more adequate to overwhelm the Egyptian host; while still the channel is not too broad for the Hebrew host to pass through in a single night. It is true that Dr. Shaw does not think the water deep enough even here; but there is every reason to conclude that the water was deeper formerly than at present, and the same objection certainly applies with still greater force to the passage at Suez. Let us however proceed southward, and having traversed the pass, and continued our course along the shore, we come to an expansion or bay, forming the mouth, |
