desired-and they usually accomplish their journeys in the time prescribed, without serious loss, except perhaps of the animals.

The rendezvous, and first resting-place of the host at Succoth, seems to have been in a bosky region, where were found tamarisk, and sycomore, and palm, so that they were able to rest and recruit their strength in "booths" or leafy huts, which afforded shelter from the sun's heat by day and from the cold dews of night. They were nearly at the edge of the cultivated ground; they were perhaps inclined to linger before confronting the hardships of the actual desert. But their energetic leader would not suffer them to rest. The order speedily went forth, that the host was to resume its march, and to follow the course indicated by a "pillar of cloud," which moved miraculously in front of them during the day, and on its stopping pointed out where they were to rest at night. From Succoth the course taken seems to have been towards the north-east. In this direction lay the route ordinarily traversed by Egyptian armies and caravans, when they proceeded from Egypt into Syria, the line running first south of Lake Serbonis, and then along the coast by Raphia and Rhinocolura to Gaza and Ashdod. The family of Jacob had probably travelled to Egypt along this route, and their descendants deemed that they were now about to retrace it. But God had determined otherwise. God knew that the undisciplined and unarmed mass of slaves, which he was leading out of Egypt, was quite unfit to contend against the warlike nation of the Philistines, and had it in his designs to train them and win them gradually, during a long term of years, to military discipline and martial virtue. Ere long, therefore, he changed their course, causing them to make a sudden turn (Exod. xiv. 2) to the south, and to proceed in that direction for several marches, finally encamping before Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the Sea, over against BaalZephon.

It has been thought that these names point to a northern rather than to a southern locality, and proposed to find them all in the vicinity of Lake Serbonis-that famed “Serbonian bog" which has more than once proved fatal to armies. But the specious arguments employed by the author of this theory never had power to seduce very many, and the question raised by them may be said to have been finally set at rest by the

labours of Ebers, Greville Chester, and Dr. Trumball. It is understood that the great geographer, who originally broached the theory, is no longer inclined to maintain it, or at any rate does not now press it as anything more than a theory. The old belief has consequently re-asserted itself; and the movement of the Israelites from their second halting-place, Etham, may be regarded as almost certainly southward, along the western edge of the Bitter Lakes to the vicinity of Suez. Migdol may be placed at the modern Muktala (which is the old word slightly changed in the vocalization), Pi-hahiroth at Ajrood, and Baal-Zephon on the flanks of Mount Attâkah. Here, in this cul-de-sac, with a desert on one side of them, the Red Sea on the other, and the impassable mountain chain of the Jebel Attâkah in the front, the host of Israel took up its position, as commanded, about five or six days after it had set forth.

The position was an extraordinary one, which any leader of ordinary capacity would have avoided, and which, unless divinely commanded, Moses would certainly never have occupied. There was no natural egress from it, except by turning round and retracing one's steps. That egress might easily be blocked. Never was faith more conspicuously shown, than when the Hebrew leader, trusting in God's power to deliver, took his people calmly into a position of such peril. But Moses "knew in whom he had believed." His was that perfect, undoubting, unquestioning trust, which never fails, never wavers; God's word was passed for Israel's deliverance; that word was sure; how the deliverance was to be effected it was for God to determine; Moses felt that he had only to accept God's way. He must, more or less, have expected Pharaoh's coming, since he had been apprised of his feelings concerning the Israelites, and warned that he was following on their footsteps (vers. 3, 4). But he did not allow himself to be troubled. He "put his trust in God, and did not fear what flesh could do anto him." He knew that "they which were with him were more than they which were against him." In God was his hope; he knew that He who keepeth Israel "fainteth not, neither is weary ”—“ slumbers not nor sleeps."

Meanwhile the Pharaoh had recovered from his first shock of alarm. No more deaths had followed those of the one terrible night. The pestilence, as he no doubt thought it, was stayed. Perhaps, his priests persuaded him that they had

But

stayed it by their prayers and sacrifices, and that he had now nothing to fear. Moreover, the lapse of time naturally blunted his sorrow and lessened his dread. He had lost his first-born son; but he had, at least, one other son, probably several : and the death of the Erpa suten sa threatened no danger to the succession. Thus he was free from any immediate personal anxiety; and, naturally, his thoughts reverted into their accustomed channel. For months he had been resolving with himself that he would not lose the services of his half-million labourers-nothing should induce him to consent to it. now he had consented, and he was losing them. Israel had quitted their abodes, which stood empty; whole tracts of land were left nearly bare of inhabitants; the labours in the brickfields had ceased; the works which he had been carrying on were interrupted. Would it be possible ever to resume them? Common sense had told him all along, that, if the Israelites once went forth beyond the borders of Egypt, they would never return thither. And now he would remember that Moses had never pledged himself to a return. And the circumstances of his departure were such as to make a voluntary return almost inconceivable. He and His people had been "thrust out." They had been bidden to quit, told-" Rise up, get you forth, go-take your flocks and your herds, and be gone" (Exod. xii. 31, 32). Parting gifts had been given them, and they had gone forth enriched with all the wealth of Egypt. They had taken with them their wives, their children, their cattle, their beasts, the best of their furniture, their tools and implements. What was there to induce them even to think of returning? As Pharaoh reflected on all that, the idea occurred to him, that, after all, the flight might perhaps be stopped. He and his people were at one on the subject. They too had repented, and had begun to ask themselves-"Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us?" (Exod. xiv. 5) They were full of regret; they feared lest their own burdens might be increased; they were willing to abet their king in any attempt that he should make to stop the exodus, and recall the fugitives.

When such was the position of affairs, intelligence reached the king, that, instead of quitting his land at Etham, and there entering the wilderness, when they stood upon its verge, the Israelites had made a retrograde movement, had edged off from

the wilderness, clung to the cultivated soil, which gave susten. ance to their ficcks and herds, and proceeded southwards along the eastern frontier of Egypt, still keeping within the borderline, till they had occupied a position from which it was not easy to see how they could extricate themselves. The wilderness shut them in" on one side (ver. 3), the Red Sea upon the other; the Jebel Attâkah blocked up further passage to the south. They seemed to him “entangled in the land”—so situated that, if he marched against them, they could not escape, but must submit on any terms that he chose to offer them. He therefore hastily collected such forces as were within reach, and, following up the line of the Israelite retreat, came upon the host still encamped "by the sea, beside Pi-hahiroth, before BaalZephon" (ver. 9). "The Israelites were encamped on the western shore of the Red Sea, when suddenly a cry of alarm ran through the vast multitude. Over the ridges of the desert hills were seen the well-known horses, the terrible chariots of the Egyptian host. Pharaoh had pursued after the children of Israel, and they were sore afraid."' Pharaoh had gathered together six hundred of his best chariots, a force which constituted the very élite of his army: with these were united a large body of the ordinary class of chariots, and a considerable force of foot. It is doubtful whether he was accompanied by any cavalry. The" horses" and "horsemen," or riders," of Exodus xiv. and xv. are probably the chariot horses and the riders in the chariots, not cavalry soldiers mounted on the backs of steeds." The Egyptians scarcely used cavalry at this period. But the array, whatever it may have been, was sufficient; it was felt to be irresistible. Utter destruction was expected. "Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness?" said the spokesman of the host to Moses (ver. 11)—“Wherefore hast thou thus dealt with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?”

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It was indeed a fearful situation, humanly speaking. On the one side was an unarmed and undisciplined host-men, women, and children, cattle, baggage animals intermixed-wholly unprepared for war, ignorant of it, without arms, without train: Stanley, "Lectures on the Jewish Church," vol. i. p. 127; Philo, “Vit. Mosis." i. 30.

* See Hengstenberg, Ægypten und Mose," pp. 187-129; Denison •History of Cavalry," pp. 7, 8; "Pulpit Commentary," vol. ii. p. 321.

ing, without discipline. On the other side were the trained bands, the veteran troops, which the great Ramesses had so often led to victory, and which had recently confronted and destroyed the hosts of Marmaiu, son of Deid, who had threatened Egypt with conquest. Let but Pharaoh give the word, and launch his armed force against the unarmed multitude, and how could these latter escape being slaughtered like sheep, falling in heaps upon heaps under the swords, and the bows, and the spears, and the hoofs of the horses, and the chariot wheels? And this fate was what the Israelites fully expected (ver. 12). But Moses had no such fear. In bold strong words he addressed the multitude, and quieted it. "Fear ye not," he said; "stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will show to you to-day; for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to-day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. The Lord shall fight for

you and ye shall hold your peace" (vers. 13, 14). Moses did not even yet know what the manner of the deliverance would be, whether hail would fall and destroy the Egyptian host, or the earth gape and swallow them up, or a pestilence fall upon them and lay them dead in their tents during the night; but he was confident that, in one way or another, Israel would be delivered. Still, as the peril was great and pressing, and only God could give deliverance, Moses, having comforted and encouraged the people, himself turned to God, and "cried to Him (ver. 15)—cried to Him from the depths of his soul, beseeching His interference. And the cry was promptly answered. The mode of the deliverance was revealed. Immediate safety was secured to the panic-stricken Israelites by a sudden movement of the pillar of the cloud; and the way whereby they were to make their escape was declared in the plainest words.

The Egyptians had arrived on the ridges of the desert hills about sundown, after a long and hasty march, and had then encamped (ver. 20). Their prey was in their sight, and apparently could not escape them. Israel's camp lay below them, directly in their view; every sound that was made in it could be heard, every movement seen. By the passage of the pillar of the cloud from the head of the Israelite column to its rear, and its interposition between the host of Israel and the host of Egypt, this condition of things was wholly changed. A thick darkness spread itself in front of the Egyptian lines—a dark