Etham, through the Wilderness of Sinai, than to lead the People into the mountainous and rocky Country, on the Egyptian Borders of the Red-Sea, out of which he could not expect to find any Paffage into Midian, without coming back to Etham again. 2. As far as I am able to judge, this had been a much fafer, as well as a much nearer Way. When

Pharaoh heard that the People had taken this Rout, he immediately concluded that he could eafily deftroy them; for he faid, they were entangled in the Land, fhut up in the rocky and unpaffable Parts of a wild and uncultivated Country (c). I cannot poffibly fee, why Mofes fhould lead them fo much out of their Way, and into fuch a disadvantageous Country,

but upon the View of the miraculous Deliverance which God defigned them at the Red-Sea. But 3. It is evident, that from Succoth to the Red-Sea the Ifraelites travelled under the efpecial Guidance of Heaven; for the Pillar of the Cloud, and of Fire, which went before them, directed them where to go. Mofes had no room left him to choose the Way, for the Lord went before them by Day in a Pillar of a Cloud, to lead them in the Way, and by Night in a Pillar of Fire to give them Light: to go by Day and Night. He took not away the Pillar of the Cloud by Day, nor the Pillar of Fire by Night from before the People (d). Mofes had only to obferve the

(c) Exodus xiv. 3.

(4) Chap. xiii. 21, 22.

Guidance

Guidance of this glorious and miraculous Direction, and to follow as that led him from Succoth to Etham, to Pihahiroth between Migdol and Baalzephon, and to the Sea.

After the Ifraelites were gone out of Egypt, Pharaoh repented of his having given them Leave to depart, efpecially upon its being remonstrated to him that the People were fled (e); that they were not gone a few Days Journey merely to ferve the Lord their God, but that they defigned never to return to him any more. The Lofs of fo many Slaves was a very fenfible Diminution of his Grandeur as well as Wealth, and the Manner in which they were extorted from him, inglorious both to him and his Kingdom; and the hearing, that Mofes had led them into a Part of the Country, where he thought it would be easy to distress them, made him refolve to follow them, and to try if poffible to redrefs his Loffes, or revenge himself upon them. He therefore immediately fummoned together his Forces, and with a numerous (f) Army pursued the Ifraelites, and overtook them at their encamping near the RedSea (g). At the Approach of Pharaoh, the Ifraelites were afraid; they gave over their Lives for loft, and were ready to mutiny

(e) Chap. xiv. 5. (f) Jofephus fays, that Pharaoh's Army with which he pursued the Ifraelites, confifted of 600 Chariots, 50000 Horfe, and 200000 Feet Soldiers. Antiq. Jud. Lib. 2. c. 15. (g) Exodus xiv.

against

against Mofes for bringing them out of Egypt (b): But Mofes exhorted the People 'to fear nothing, affuring them, that they should not be exposed to the Difficulty of a Battle, but that they fhould fee the Salvation of God that God would give them a miraculous Deliverance, and destroy all the Egyptians that purfued them (i). It was Night when Mofes thus fpake to them, and foon after He had done fpeaking, the wonderful Appearance of the Pillar of Fire, and of the Cloud, which went before them to direct their Journéý, removed and placed it felf between them and the Egyptians, with its fhining or bright Side towards the Ifraelites, and with its dark or cloudy Side towards the Egyptians; so that the Ifraelites had Light to be moving forwards towards the Sea, and the Egyptians not being able fo well to fee their Way, could not follow fo faft as to get up with them (k). When the Ifraelites were come to the Sea, they made a Stop for fome Hours. Mofes held up his Hand over the Sea, and God was pleafed by a mighty Wind to divide the Waters, and to make a fpace of dry Ground from one fide of the Sea to the other, for the Ifraelites to pass over. Hereupon Mofes and Aaron led the Way (), and the Ifraelites followed them

into

(b) Exodus xiv. 11. (i) Ver. 13. (k) Ver. 19. 20. (1) Some of the Hebrew Writers reprefent, that when Moses had divided the Sea, the Jews were afraid to attempt to go over it, but that

the

into the midst of the Sea; and the Waters ftood on Heaps on each Side of them, and were as a Wall to them on their right Hand, and on their Left, all the Way they paffed. The Egyptians came on after them, and it being Night, and they not having the Light of the Pillar, which guided the Ifraelites, finding themselves upon dry Ground, all the Way they purfued, might perhaps not at all fufpect that they were off the Shore; for I imagine, that if they had feen the miraculous Heaps of Waters on each Side the Ifraelites, they would not fo eagerly have ventured ftill to prefs after a People faved by fo great a Miracle. When the Ifraelites were got fafe on the Land over the Sea, towards Morning, the Lord looked from the Pillar of Fire, and of the Cloud upon the Egyptians, and troubled their Hoft, and took off their Chariot Wheels, that they drave them heavily (m). The Egyptians began to find their Paffage not fo eafy; the Waters began to come upon them, and their Chariot Wheels to fink and stick faft in the

the Head of the Tribe of Judah led the Way, and that as a Reward for the Courage of this Tribe in this Attempt, they were appointed to march foremost in all the future Journeyings of the Ifraelites; but the Pfalmift feems to hint that Mofes and Aaron went before the Ifraelites into the Sea, Pfalm lxxvii and this Fiction about the Tribe of Judah has no better Foundation than the numerous other Fancies of thefe Writers, one of which relating to this Passage over the Red Sea is wonderfully extravagant. They fay that God in dividing the Waters, made twelve different Paths, that each Tribe might have a Path to it felf; but Conceits of this fort want no Refutation. (m) Exodus xiv. 25.

VOL. II,

Kk

muddy

muddy Bottom of the Sea, fo that they could get no further, and Mofes at the Command of God ftretched forth his Hand over the Sea; the Egyptians began now at Day-break to see where they were, and to fear their Ruin, they turned back as fast as they could, and endeavoured to get back to Shore; but the Waters came upon them in their full Strength, and overwhelmed them. And thus Pharaoh and his whole Army were loft in the Red-Sea.

Some Writers have imagined, that there might be no real Miracle in this Paffage of the Ifraelites over the Red-Sea. Mofes was a great Mafter of all Science and Learning, and had lived in Midian, a Country near the Borders of this Sea, forty Years. He had had Time and Abilities, whilst he kept the Flocks of Jethro in this Country, to obferve with great Accuracy the Ebb and Flow of it. The Red-Sea at its Northern End divides it felf into two Branches, one of which, namely that over which Mofes led the Ifraelites, from Toro, where the two Armies divide, up to the Shore upon the Wilderness of Etham, is about thirty Leagues or ninty Miles in Length: At Toro this Sea is about three Leagues or nine Miles over, and it continues of much about the fame Breadth for twenty Six Leagues or feventy eight Miles upwards, from thence for about two Leagues it is three Miles over, and fo it continues up to the Land's End for about fix Miles, three or four Miles over all the Way. The adjacent Places, Migdol,