A. M. 2513. A. C. 1491; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3763. A. C. 1648. EXOD. CH. xiii-xxxiv. 24. 2 Bacchus' doing the same with his Thyrsus, in order to | had some honour and modesty in him; and yet if he had, extract water for the relief of the virgin Aura, had its | we can hardly conceive how he durst have recorded so original: and, to name no more, that from Moses' palpable an untruth, supposing this passage to have receiving the law on Mount Sinai, most of the lawgivers | nothing miraculous in it, when there was such a multiof other nations took the hint to borrow their institutions tude of living witnesses to confront him; or what posfrom some god or goddess or other; Minos, from Jupi-sible artifice he could use to persuade above two millions ter; Lycurgus, from Apollo; Zeleucus, from Minerva; of persons that God, by his hand, had wrought a stupenNuma, from Egeria, &c.; so well was the world per-dous miracle, when they knew as well as he that there suaded of the truth and authority of the Jewish legislator, when they seemed to agree in this,-That even a distant imitation of him was enough to give sanction to their several fictions. CHAP. III. Of the Israelites passing the Red Sea. THE passage of the Israelites through the Red Sea is what we have reserved for the subject of our dissertation, because it is one of the most remarkable events in this period, if not in the whole Jewish history; and yet has had the misfortune to meet with more suggestions against its miraculousness, than any other that we find upon record. was no such thing transacted. Among such a contuma- the unless we can suppose that they were all combined to impose upon us, we cannot but assent to the truth of the fact itself, how poetical soever we may think the words of that sacred hymn to be wherein Moses endeavours to display it: " By the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the flood stood upright as an heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea." What has contributed to this perverseness, may not unlikely be the fond conceits which some ancient doctors, both of the Jewish and Christian church, have been pleased to affix to this miracle, namely, that God divided the sea into twelve passages, according to the twelve tribes; that to facilitate their passage, he pulled up the weeds, removed huge stones, levelled the rugged places, and made the sand at the bottom as hard as a rock; that the waters, upon being divided, were immediately congealed, and stood in array, like a wall of glass; and that some fragments of the Egyptian chariot-authority, asserting the wonderfulness of this passage, wheels may even to this day be seen at the bottom, as far as the sight can reach. For it is not improbable, that in prejudice to these extravagant fancies, others have exercised all their wit and learning to depreciate the miracle by asserting,―That there was no more in it, even as Josephus himself seems to insinuate, than in Alexander's passing the sea of Pamphylia; that the Red Sea, especially in the extreme part of it, where the Israelites passed, is not above two or three miles over, and very often dry, by reason of the great reflux of the tide; and that Moses, who perfectly understood the country, and had made his observations upon the flux and reflux of the sea, led down his men at the time of ebb, when, being favoured by a strong wind blowing from the shore, he had the good luck to get safe to the other side; while Pharaoh and his army, hoping to do the same, but mistaken in their computation, had the misfortune to be lost. And therefore, to give this matter a fair hearing, we shall first endeavour to establish the truth of the miracle, and then examine into the preten-wise, namely, that the king, following the Jews going sions of those who are willing either to ascribe it to natural causes, or to compare it with other events, as they suppose, of the like nature. 1 Without entering far into Moses' character, we will suppose him at present a man of common sense, and who 1 See Le Clerc's Dissertation concerning the Passage of the Red Sea. 8 In an event so wonderful and so unaccountable to human reason, it cannot be expected but that traditions should differ, and accounts be various but certainly it is no small confirmation of the testimony which the sacred writers give us of it that we find Antipanus, in his history of the Jews, as he is quoted by Eusebius, and ' Clemens of Alexandria, giving us this narration of the matter. "The people of Memphis tell us, that Moses, who was acquainted with all the country, knowing the time when the tide would be out, carried over all his army at low water: but those of Heliopolis say other away with what they had borrowed of the Egyptians, carried with him a great army; but that Moses, by an order from heaven, struck the sea with a rod, whereupon the waters immediately separated, and he led over his A. M. 2513. A. C. 1491; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3763. A. C. 1648. EXOD. CH. xiii-xxxiv. 24. forces in a dry track; but that the Egyptians, attempting | Israelites, when there is so manifest a disparity between the same passage, were dazzled by lightning, and as the them. The Israelites crossed over a sea, where no hiɛsea returned upon the paths they were in, were all torian makes mention of any persons, but they, that ever destroyed either by fire or water." So that if the joint found a passage; whereas Alexander only marched testimony both of friends and foes can have any weight upon the shore of the sea of Pamphylia, where the several with us, we cannot but believe that this passage of the historians who most magnify the divine providence in Israelites, as it is recorded by Moses, was certainly matter protecting him, do all freely allow, that any one may at of fact, and a fact so very wonderful and miraculous, any time go, when the tide retreats, and the same wind that nothing in history can stand in competition with it. blows that favoured him. The passage of Alexander the Great over the sea of Pamphylia bears no manner of resemblance to this of the Israelites. Alexander, as Arian, a and others relate it, was to march from Phaselis, a seaport, to Perga, an inland city of Pamphylia. The country near Phaselis, upon the shore of the Pamphylian sea, was mountainous and rocky; so that he could not find a passage for his army, without either taking a great compass round the mountains, or attempting to go over the strand between the rocks and the sea. The historian remarks, that there is no passing along this place unless when the wind blows from the north; and therefore Alexander, when he came to Phaselis, perceiving that the wind blew from this quarter, laid hold of the opportunity, and having sent some of his army over the mountains, went himself with the rest along the shore. But now what miracle was there in all this, unless we call the wind's blowing opportunely for Alexander's purpose a miracle? It is certain that, according to Plutarch's account of the thing, Alexander himself thought that there was nothing extraordinary in it; and therefore we may justly wonder at Josephus' comparing this passage with that of the 2 What the breadth of the Red Sea may be at the place where the Israelites passed over, is not so easy a matter to determine, because both geographers and travellers mightily differ in their computations. But if, according to some of the lowest accounts, we suppose it to be much about two leagues, most writers agree, that the sea in this place is very boisterous and tempestuous, which is hardly consistent with a shallowness, much less a total desertion of water, upon any hasty reflux. The wind, it must be owned, if it blew from a right quarter, might both forward the ebb, and retard the flux; but the wind, which blew at this time, we are told, was an east wind, whereas it must have been a west, or north-west wind, to have driven the water from the land's end into the main body of the sea, as any one who looks into a map may easily perceive. But now the east wind blows cross the sea, and the effect of it must be, to drive the waters partly up to the extremity of the bay, and partly down to the ocean, which probably is the meaning, if we must allow an hyperbole in the expression, of the waters being a wall to the Israelites on their right hand, and on their left,' because they so defended them on both sides, that the Egyptians could no way come at them, Exped. Alex. b. 1; and Shuckford's Connection, vol. 2. b. 9. but by pursuing them in the same path which they took. In Alexand. p. 674. a Strabo relates the matter thus. "About Phaselis there are straits towards the sea, through which Alexander passed his army. There is also a mountain called Climax, which lies to the Pamphylian sea, leaving a strait passage to the shore, which is quite bare in good weather, but when the waves arise, it is for the most part covered with them. Now, the road by the mountain is about, and difficult; and therefore, in calm weather, they go by the shore. But Alexander coming hither in stormy weather, and trusting to his fortune, would go over before the waves were abated, which made his soldiers go all day up to the navel in water." (b. 14.) And much to the same purpose is the account which Plutarch gives us. "The march through Pamphylia," says he, "has been the subject to many historians of mighty wonder, and fine declamation, as if the sea, by order of the gods, gave place to Alexander, which almost always is rough there, and does very rarely open a smooth passage under those broken rocks. But Alexander himself, in his epistles, speaks of no miracle, but only says, that he passed by Climax, as he came from Phaselis." (Vita Alex.) Now, by the joint authority of these two excellent historians, this passage is no more than an ordinary thing; but the Mosaic transit must still remain a miracle, until we find as good historians to vouch for a passage over the Red Sea.-Nicholls' Conference, part 2. 3 Why they ventured to pursue the Israelites, the sacred historian seems plainly to intimate, when he tells us, that the angel of the Lord, which went before the camp, removed, and went behind them: it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel, and was a cloud and darkness to the one, but gave light by night to the other:' so that the true reason why the Egyptians went in after the Israelites into the midst of the sea, was, that they knew not where they were. They imagined, perhaps, that they were still upon the land, or at least upon the shore, whence the sea had retired; the darkness of the night, and the preternatural darkness of the cloud, not suffering them to see the mountains of water on each side. But when the Lord looked on the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire,' that is, when he turned the bright side of the cloud upon them, to let them see the danger they were in, and at the same time, as Josephus adds, poured out a storm of thunder and lightning, and hailstones upon them from the cloud, ' 4 Exod. xiv. 19, 20. Exod. xiv. 19. 5 Exod. xiv. 25. for the passage of the Macedonian army, when the matter of fact was no such thing. b The words of Josephus are these. "I have been more particular in these relations, because I find them in holy writ; and let no man think this story incredible of the sea's dividing to save the Hebrews, for we find it in ancient records, that this hath been seen before, whether by God's extraordinary will, or c One affirms that the sea is six leagues wide at this place; by the course of nature, it is indifferent. The same thing hap-another makes it but fifteen furlongs; one says it is narrow, and pened one time to the Macedonians, under the command of long like a river, and another allows it to be the breadth of one Alexander, when, for want of another passage, the Pamphylian league. Thevenot makes it eight or nine miles in breadth, but sea divided to make them way, God's providence making use of Andricomius will have it to be no more than six. The transit Alexander at that time as his instrument for destroying the most probably took place at the embouchure of the valley of Bedea, Persian empire." (b. 2. c. 16.) But it is evident that Josephus or about twenty miles below Suez, at which point, according to was ignorant of the account of the above cited historians, other- Bruce, the gulf is three leagues over, with fourteen fathoms of wise he would have said nothing of the Pamphylian sea's dividing water in the channel. 3 A. M. 2513. A. C. 1491; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3763. A. C. 1648. EXOD. CH. xiii-—xxxiv. 24. 'Let us flee,' cried they, from the face of Israel, for security by it, is evident from the nature of its motion. the Lord fighteth for them.' Every one knows, that in the flux of the sea, its waters come on gradually, and for the space of six hours, swell higher and higher upon the banks; and then continuing in this state for about a quarter of an hour, they sink by degrees for six hours more, and retreating from the shores, which is called the reflux, they remain at their lowest ebb, as long as they had done at their highest flux, and then begin to change their course, and creep in towards the shore again; and in this revolution they always go on, with the variation only of three quarters of an hour, and some minutes, in each tide. It is not to be questioned, but that Moses was a person of excellent judgment: by his being so long a general of an army, he could not but know the proper advantages that might be made in marches and retreats; and yet he seems to give no great specimen of his skill, by declining the mountains, which possibly were inaccessible to the chariots and horsemen, and marching his men along the sea coasts, where Pharaoh's army might make after him, as we find they did, had not God commanded him to take this route, and foretold him the event. Upon the approach of the Egyptian army, Moses has sufficiently described the consternation which the Israelites were in; and can any one suppose, that such a situation of things was matter of their own choice, or that their leader would of his own head have brought them into a place where there was no possibility of escaping the fury of their enemies, without crossing the sea? Had Pharaoh laid hold of this advantage, and nothing but a miraculous interposition could have hindered him, how could Moses, with all his sweet words, and address, have prevailed with his people to run into the sea? Or, supposing that he trusted to the tide at ebb, how could he know for certainty, that this ebb would begin precisely at the close of the day, and that the Egyptians would allow him time to decamp, without their guards giving them intelligence, or their forces pursuing him in his retreat; which had they done, to what dismal extremities must he and his people have been reduced? If we suppose that this was an hasty resolution, which the difficulties he found himself in compelled him to take; yet we shall still be at a loss to know, how he could possibly answer for the event, or with what face he could promise the people, that the Lord would fight for them; that they should stand still and see the salvation which he would show them;' and that the Egyptians, who had given them so much molestation, they should see them again no more for ever ?' He might not be ignorant perhaps of the course of the tide, and might easily discern the favourable disposition of the wind; but was there never a man in all the great army which Pharaoh brought with him, of equal observation and skill? It is incongruous to think, that the Egyptians, who excelled at that time all other nations in their knowledge and observation of celestial bodies, should be ignorant of the fluxes and refluxes of the sea, in their own country, in their own coast, and in their own most trading and frequented ports and havens, and if they were not ignorant of the time of the reflux, it is hardly to be imagined, that any eagerness of pursuit would have made them venture into the gulf, when they could not but be sensible, that in case they miscomputed, the returning waves would devour, and swallow them up. But the truth is, their taking the tide at the ebb would serve the purposes, neither of the Israelites escaping, nor the Egyptians pursuing them. That it badly answered the design of the Egyptians is plain from the event; and that the Israelites could promise themselves no 1 Calmet's Dissertation on the Passage of the Red Sea. 2 Exod. xiv. 13, 14. That the Red Sea does ebb and flow like other seas that have communication with the main ocean, we readily grant; but then we are told by those who have made the exactest observations, that the greatest distance that it falls from the place of high water, is not above three hundred yards, and that these three hundred yards, which the sea leaves uncovered at the time of low water, cannot continue so above half an hour at most; because, during the first six hours, the sea does only retire by degrees, and in less than half an hour, it begins to flow again towards the shore; so that upon a moderate computation, the most that can be allowed, both of time and space of passable ground, is but about two hundred yards, during six hours, and an hundred and fifty during eight. But now it is plain, that a multitude of above two millions of men, women, and children, encumbered with great quantities of cattle and household stuff, could never be able to cross, even though we suppose it to be that arm or point of the sea, which is not far distant from the port of Suez, and allow them withal a double portion of time, and a double space of ground to perform it in; whereas the general tradition is, that the place where the Israelites entered the Red Sea on the Egyptian side, is two or three leagues below this northern point, at a place called Kolsum; and the place where they came out of it, on the Arabian side, is at present called Corondal, where the sea is about eight or nine miles in breadth. 4 From the breadth of the sea, and the Israelites coming out of it at a place of the same name with that of their entrance, some have imagined, that they did not cross from shore to shore, but only took a short compass along the strand that was left dry at low water, and so came out a little farther in the bay, which the Egyptians attempting to do, by the unexpected return of the tide, were all lost. Now, besides the incongruity, as we said before, of supposing the Israelites better judges of the tide than the Egyptians were, we do not find, that the Scriptures any where determine the length of time which the former employed in passing this sea. In the morning watch,' which continued from two to six in the morning, it is said indeed, that the Lord troubled the host of the Egyptians, and took off their chariot wheels ;' but how long the Israelites might have entered the channel, before the Egyptians met with this obstruction, is nowhere said; so that the computation of time will depend upon the supposed breadth of the sea. Supposing then, as we said before, that the breadth of Calmet's Dissert. ibid. Thevenot's Voyage de Levant. Compare Exod. xiii. 20. with Num, xxxxiii. 6, s. 6 Exod. xiv. 21, 35. A. M. 2514. A. C. 1490; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3764. A. C. 1647. EXOD. xxxiv. 28—NUM. xviii. the sea, was about eight miles in all, we cannot but | footsteps are not known. Thou art a God that doest wonders, and hast declared thy power among the people.' CHAP. VI. On the passage of the Red Sea, and journeyings of the Israelites. SUPPLEMENTAL THE following very satisfactory article on the geography of the Israelites' route from Egypt to Canaan, is taken from Mansford's Scripture Gazetteer, the best recent work on Scripture geography that we have met with. "The Almighty having punished the Egyptians for their blindness and obduracy by the plagues which they had suffered, and prepared his people, by their miraculous preservation during these scenes of terror, to place an unlimited confidence in their leader, moved the hardened mind of Pharaoh that he should order their departure in the middle of the night. And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants; and he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, Rise up, and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel, and go, serve the Lord as ye have said. And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste: for they said, We be all dead men. And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth." Rameses was a city built by the Israelites in the land of Goshen, a little to the south of the Babylon of the Persians, the Grecian Letopolis, and about six or eight miles above the modern Cairo. Here they assembled, and from hence they took their departure; making their first march towards the east, or to Succoth, which is estimated to have been about thirty miles. imagine, that a people, full of strength and vigour,' as1 the Psalmist represents them, pursued by so dreadful and enraged an enemy, would make the best of their way; nor can we see any absurdity, in an event so abounding with miracles, to suppose one more. Now, if God interposed his power to disable the chariots of Pharaoh, lest the return of the waters should excite the Egyptians' fears, and their fears, by improving their diligence, save them from destruction, why might not God interpose the same power, if there was occasion, to quicken and accelerate the Israelites, and make them perform their passage in due time? Nay, if we will allow his own words to be a good comment upon his actions, we cannot but suppose that he did so, when we find him, after all was over, recounting his kindness to them thus: "Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I did bear you on eagle's wings,' where the expression certainly denotes some extraordinary assistance given them in their passage, and brought you unto myself.' It cannot be denied, indeed, but that some ambiguity may arise as to the place where the Israelites came on shore, since they were at Etham but two days before, and now landed in a wilderness of the same name; yet if we will but suppose that there were two Ethams, the one a town where they encamped on the Egyptian side, and the other, on the Arabian side, a wilderness; or if we will needs have the wilderness of Etham denominated from the town, supposing that the town was situated near the upper part of the Red Sea, and gave denomination to a great desert, which surrounded the head of the bay, and reached down a considerable space on both sides of it, we may easily perceive that though the Israelites, in the evening, marched from the wilderness of Etham cross the gulf, yet, upon their landing in the morning, they would but be in another part of the wilderness of Etham still. Upon the whole, therefore, it appears, that the Israelites coasting it along the Egyptian shore, in a kind of semi-incline a little to the north, to round the mountain called circle, is both a needless and groundless supposition. For had this been all, upon the return of the tide the drowned Egyptians must have been brought back upon their own shore; whereas the scripture account of this matter is, that, as soon as Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, it returned to its strength, and the waters returned, and covered the Egyptians who fled against them;' which certainly can denote no less, than that the mountains of waters were first dissolved where they were first congealed, that is, on the Egyptian side, and that there beginning to reunite, in order to stop the Egyptians' return, they came rushing upon them in vast inundations, and of course swept them away to the contrary, that is, the Arabian shore, where all the host of Israel was safely arrived. Thus we have endeavoured to evince the reality of this miraculous event, and to examine the pretences of those who have either compared it with others recorded in profane story, or ascribed it to natural causes, or espied some seeming contradictions in it; and have nothing now more to do, but, with the grateful Psalmist, to acknowledge upon this occasion, "Thy way, O Lord, is in the sea, and thy paths in the great waters, and thy In this first part of their route, they were obliged to the mountain of Arabia, which shuts in the valley of Egypt on the eastern side through its whole length, and which sinks into the plain towards the north at a line nearly parallel with the point of the Delta. Succoth implies nothing more than a place of pens or booths; and was probably either a halting-station in the route towards the Desert, or an enclosure for cattle during the inundation of the Nile. Their stay here appears to have been short. And they took their journey from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, on the edge of the Wilderness.' This was a long march of not less than sixty miles, according to the present computed distance; which, as no intervening place of halt is mentioned, must be considered as having been performed at once. But it must be remembered, that they were flying from a treacherous and inexorable enemy, whose pursuit they had reason to fear; and that they were besides experiencing the particular protection and support of that power which could as easily prevent their being wearied in a forced march of sixty miles, as he could save their shoes from being worn out, or find them a passage through the Red Sea. But the real distance was probably not then so much by twelve or fifteen miles as at the 6 Exod. xii. The precise site of this miracle has much engaged the attention of travellers and of the learned; who have differed more or less according to their respective views and prejudices. The first step in our inquiry for the situation of this place, must obviously be to fix that of the previous encampment. Before taking up this encampment, it will be recollected that the last position was at Etham, at the bottom of the gulf, which will be found in the map twelve miles north-west of its present termination at Suez; and which carries up that position to meet the road towards Caanan, and makes the subsequent 'turn' completely retrograde. This turn was to bring them by another day's march beside Pi-hahiroth, before Migdol, and over against Baal-Zephon. The Hebrew word Pi answers to the modern Fum of the Arabic, and implies an opening in the mountains. Pihahiroth, then, means an opening or cleft in the mountain leading into the valley of that name. If, then, such an opening at a proper distance from Etham can be found, the situation of Pi-hahiroth may be considered as fixed. Just such an opening, and no other, presents itself about twenty miles to the south of Suez, and thirty A. M. 2514. A. C. 1490; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3764. A. C. 1647. EXOD. xxxiv, 24-NUM. xviii. present day; as, according to the concurrent reports of the God of Israel, ventured to pursue, and were quickly travellers, there are undoubted marks of the gulf having overwhelmed in the water. extended several miles in a north-west, or N.N.W. direction beyond its present limits. This was precisely in the route of the Israelites, and was just so much taken from their day's march, reckoning to where Suez now stands; the traveller having now to bend considerably to the south-east, to arrive at that place, after rounding the Arabian mountain, or Djibel Atakka. Etham is said to have been in, or upon, the edge of the wilderness. But it must not be imagined from hence that the wilderness began here. It is probable that the whole way from Succoth to this place was, as it is at this day, the same kind of parched and stony desert: but here, at the northern extremity of the Red Sea, it first assumed the name of Etham; which it bore for some distance to the north, east and south. Arrived at this place, the Israelites may be said to have been safe from all fear of the Egyptians, as another such a march as that from Succoth would carry them into the heart of a desert, where no army, without a miracle, could subsist. They were now on the high road to Canaan, with nothing to interrupt their progress: but in the midst of their hopes and rejoicings, an order comes to turn. This must have been a grievous disap-two or thirty-five from the ancient position of Etham: pointment: such an order, indeed, as no body of people in their senses, unless convinced of the Divine appointment and supernatural power of their leader, would ever have complied with. Just congratulating one another on their escape, they were directed to return in the very face of their enemy; and not only so, but to place themselves in a situation where they would be rendered incapable either of resistance or of flight. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of | Israel, that they turn, and encamp before Pi-hahiroth (or Phi-Hiroth), between Migdol and the sea, over against Baal-Zephon; before it shall ye encamp by the sea.' The situation into which their obedience to this decree brought them, was a narrow defile, shut in by the mountains on the west, the sea on the east, and closed up on the south by a small bay or inlet of the latter: they were, indeed, " entangled in the land." Some of them, at least, must have been acquainted with the position they were about to occupy; but they entered, and gave vent to no murmur until they saw themselves all at once in the power of their enemy, who stood before them in the only opening by which, without a miracle, it was possible to escape. At this sight their faith and courage failed; and they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness?' But the God who brought them there, was about to show his power by again interposing in their behalf. And the Lord said unto Moses, Speak anto the children of Israel that they go forward: but lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it; and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground; and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left.' While the Egyptians, hardened as usual, and blind to the power of which answers exactly to the required distance; and being the only one of the kind, leaves little doubt of its identity. Into this opening, which runs quite through the mountains to the valley of Egypt, an inlet of the Red Sea, now dry, extended itself; closing up all possibility of advance in that direction. The situation of Migdol and Baal-Zephon are not so clear; but from the precision with which that of Pi-hahiroth can be fixed, their exact recognition is not so material. Migdol implies a fortress; and nothing can be more likely than that the Egyptians should station a garrison at this important entrance into their country. Such might be inferred from strong probability; but there are, in fact, distinct historical traces of such a fortress in this situation. Mr Bryant, in his learned Dissertation on the Egyptian Plagues, cites a passage from Harduin's Notes on Pliny to the following purpose: "At this present time, in the cosmography which was made during the consulships of Julius Cæsar and Mark Antony, I find it written, that a part of the river Nile flows into the Red Sea, near the city Ovila and the Camp of Monseus (Monse):' the last word is evidently a misprint for Mousei. This document is invaluable from the traditional evidence it bears of the situation of the miracle being at this place: and the " Camp of Moses" must imply either the place of encampment of the Israelites, or the fortress which always existed at the embouchure of the valley, to which the natives might probably enough have given the name of Moses. Mr Bryant thinks the former: but here, too, on the same spot, were the gougron, or Præsidium Clysmatis of Ptolemy, and the Castrum Clysmatis of Hierocles; both undoubtedly referring to the same fortress, or Migdol of the Egyptians. Of Baal-Zephon we have no traces. The name implies the god of the watch-tower; and it was probably a beacon for mariners on the opposite coast, over against which the camp was to be pitched. The position of this camp is now determined. It was in front of Pi-hahiroth, or the gorge in the mountains opening into the valley of |