Chapter 16.
HOW THE SEA WAS DIVIDED ASUNDER FOR THE HEBREWS, WHEN THEY
WERE PURSUED BY THE EGYPTIANS, AND SO GAVE THEM AN OPPORTUNITY OF ESCAPING
FROM THEM.FJAJ 2.96
1. WHEN Moses had said this, he led them to the sea, while the Egyptians
looked on; for they were within sight
Now these were so distressed by
the toil of their pursuit, that they thought proper to put off fighting
till the next day
But when Moses was come to the sea-shore, he took his
rod, and made supplication to God, and called upon him to be their helper
and assistant; and said "Thou art not ignorant, O Lord, that it is
beyond human strength and human contrivance to avoid the difficulties we
are now under; but it must be thy work altogether to procure deliverance
to this army, which has left Egypt at thy appointment
We despair of any
other assistance or contrivance, and have recourse only to that hope we
have in thee; and if there be any method that can promise us an escape
by thy providence, we look up to thee for it
And let it come quickly,
and manifest thy power to us; and do thou raise up this people unto good
courage and hope of deliverance, who are deeply sunk into a disconsolate
state of mind
We are in a helpless place, but still it is a place that
thou possessest; still the sea is thine, the mountains also that enclose
us are thine; so that these mountains will open themselves if thou commandest
them, and the sea also, if thou commandest it, will become dry land
Nay,
we might escape by a flight through the air, if thou shouldst determine
we should have that way of salvation."FJAJ 2.97
2. When Moses had thus addressed himself to God, he smote the sea with
his rod, which parted asunder at the stroke, and receiving those waters
into itself, left the ground dry, as a road and a place of flight for the
Hebrews
Now when Moses saw this appearance of God, and that the sea went
out of its own place, and left dry land, he went first of all into it,
and bid the Hebrews to follow him along that divine road, and to rejoice
at the danger their enemies that followed them were in; and gave thanks
to God for this so surprising a deliverance which appeared from him.FJAJ 2.98
3. Now, while these Hebrews made no stay, but went on earnestly, as
led by God's presence with them, the Egyptians supposed first that they
were distracted, and were going rashly upon manifest destruction
But when
they saw that they were going a great way without any harm, and that no
obstacle or difficulty fell in their journey, they made haste to pursue
them, hoping that the sea would be calm for them also
They put their horse
foremost, and went down themselves into the sea
Now the Hebrews, while
these were putting on their armor, and therein spending their time, were
beforehand with them, and escaped them, and got first over to the land
on the other side without any hurt
Whence the others were encouraged,
and more courageously pursued them, as hoping no harm would come to them
neither: but the Egyptians were not aware that they went into a road made
for the Hebrews, and not for others; that this road was made for the deliverance
of those in danger, but not for those that were earnest to make use of
it for the others' destruction
As soon, therefore, as ever the whole Egyptian
army was within it, the sea flowed to its own place, and came down with
a torrent raised by storms of wind, (30)
Of these storms of wind, thunder, and lightning, at this drowning of Pharaoh's
army, almost wanting in our copies of Exodus, but fully extant in that
of David, Psalm 77:16-18, and in that of Josephus here, see Essay on the
Old Test. Append. p. 15,1, 155.
and encompassed the Egyptians
Showers of rain also came down from the
sky, and dreadful thunders and lightning, with flashes of fire
Thunderbolts
also were darted upon them
Nor was there any thing which used to be sent
by God upon men, as indications of his wrath, which did not happen at this
time, for a dark and dismal night oppressed them
And thus did all these
men perish, so that there was not one man left to be a messenger of this
calamity to the rest of the Egyptians.FJAJ 2.99
4. But the Hebrews were not able to contain themselves for joy at their
wonderful deliverance, and destruction of their enemies; now indeed supposing
themselves firmly delivered, when those that would have forced them into
slavery were destroyed, and when they found they had God so evidently for
their protector
And now these Hebrews having escaped the danger they were
in, after this manner, and besides that, seeing their enemies punished
in such a way as is never recorded of any other men whomsoever, were all
the night employed in singing of hymns, and in mirth.FJAJ 2.100
(31)
What some have here objected against this passage of the Israelites over
the Red Sea, in this one night, from the common maps, viz. that this sea
being here about thirty miles broad, so great an army conld not pass over
it in so short a time, is a great mistake. Mons. Thevenot, an authentic
eye-witness, informs us, that this sea, for about five days' journey, is
no where more than about eight or nine miles over-cross, and in one place
but four or five miles, according to De Lisle's map, which is made from
the best travelers themselves, and not copied from others. What has been
further objected against this passage of the Israelites, and drowning of
the Egyptians, being miraculous also, viz. that Moses might carry the Israelites
over at a low tide without any miracle, while yet the Egyptians, not knowing
the tide so well as he, might be drowned upon the return of the tide, is
a strange story indeed ! That Moses, who never had lived here, should know
the quantity and time of the flux and reflux of the Red Sea better than
the Egyptians themselves in its neighborhood! Yet does Artapanus, an ancient
heathen historian, inform us, that this was what the more ignorant Memphites,
who lived at a great distance, pretended, though he confesses, that the
more learned Heliopolitans, who lived much nearer, owned the destruction
of the Egyptians, and the deliverance of the Israelites, to have been miraculous:
and De Castro, a mathematician, who surveyed this sea with great exactness,
informs us, that there is no great flux or reflux in this part of the Red
Sea, to give a color to this hypothesis; nay, that at the elevation of
the tide there is little above half the height of a man. See Essay on the
Old Test. Append. p. 239, 240. So vain and groundless are these and the
like evasions and subterfuges of our modern sceptics and unbelievers, and
so certainly do thorough inquiries and authentic evidence disprove and
confute such evasions and subterfuges upon all occasions.
Moses also composed a song unto God, containing his praises, and a thanksgiving
for his kindness, in hexameter verse.FJAJ 2.101
(32)
What that hexameter verse, in which Moses's triumphant song is here said
to be written, distinctly means, our present ignorance of the old Hebrew
metre or measure will not let us determine. Nor does it appear to me certain
that even Josephus himself had a distinct notion of it, though he speaks
of several sort of that metre or measure, both here and elsewhere. Antiq.
B. IV. ch. 8. sect. 44; and B. VII. ch. 12. sect. 3.FJAJ 2.102
5. As for myself, I have delivered every part of this history as I found
it in the sacred books; nor let any one wonder at the strangeness of
the narration if a way were discovered to those men of old time, who were
free from the wickedness of the modern ages, whether it happened by the
will of God or whether it happened of its own accord; - while, for the
sake of those that accompanied Alexander, king of Macedonia, who yet lived,
comparatively but a little while ago, the Pamphylian Sea retired and afforded
them a passage (33)
Take here the original passages of the four old authors that still remain,
as to this transit of Alexander the Great over the Pamphylian Sea: I mean,
of Callisthenes, Strabu, Arrian, and Appian. As to Callisthenes, who himself
accompanied Alexander in this expedition, Eustathius, in his Notes on the
third Iliad of Homer, (as Dr. Bernard here informs us,) says, That "this
Callisthenes wrote how the Pamphylian Sea did not only open a passage for
Alexander, but, by rising and did pay him homage as its king." Strabo's
is this (Geog. B. XIV. p. 666): "Now about Phaselis is that narrow
passage, by the sea-side, through which his army. There is a mountain called
Climax, adjoins to the Sea of Pamphylia, leaving a narrow passage on the
shore, which, in calm weather, is bare, so as to be passable by travelers,
but when the sea overflows, it is covered to a great degree by the waves.
Now then, the ascent by the mountains being round about and steep, in still
weather they make use of the road along the coast. But Alexander fell into
the winter season, and committing himself chiefly to fortune, he marched
on before the waves retired; and so it happened that were a whole day in
journeying over it, and were under water up to the navel." Arrian's
account is this (B. I. p. 72, 73): Alexander removed from Phaselis, he
sent some part his army over the mountains to Perga; which road the Thracians
showed him. A difficult way it was, but short. he himself conducted those
that were with him by the sea-shore. This road is impassable at any other
time than when the north wind blows; but if the south wind prevail, there
is no passing by the shore. Now at this time, after strong south winds,
a north wind blew, and that not without the Divine Providence, (as both
he and they that were with him supposed,) and afforded him an easy and
quick passage." Appian, when he compares Caesar and Alexander together,
(De Bel. Civil. B. II. p. 522,) says, "That they both depended on
their boldness and fortune, as much as on their skill in war. As an instance
of which, Alexander journeyed over a country without water, in the heat
of summer, to the oracle of [Jupiter] Hammon, and quickly passed over the
Bay of Pamphylia, when, by Divine Providence, the sea was cut off � thus
Providence restraining the sea on his account, as it had sent him rain
when he traveled [over the desert]."
N. B. � Since, in the days of Josephus, as he assures us, all the
more numerous original historians of Alexander gave the account he has
here set down, as to the providential going back of the waters of the Pamphylian
Sea, when he was going with his army to destroy the Persian monarchy, which
the fore-named authors now remaining fully confirm, it is without all just
foundation that Josephus is here blamed by some late writers for quoting
those ancient authors upon the present occasion; nor can the reflections
of Plutarch, or any other author later than Josephus, be in the least here
alleged to contradict him. Josephus went by all the evidence he then had,
and that evidence of the most authentic sort also. So that whatever the
moderns may think of the thing itself, there is hence not the least color
for finding fault with Josephus: he would rather have been much to blame
had he omitted these quotations.
through itself, had no other way to go; I mean, when it was the will of
God to destroy the monarchy of the Persians: and this is confessed to be
true by all that have written about the actions of Alexander
But as to
these events, let every one determine as he pleases.FJAJ 2.103
6. On the next day Moses gathered together the weapons of the Egyptians,
which were brought to the camp of the Hebrews by the current of the sea,
and the force of the winds resisting it; and he conjectured that this also
happened by Divine Providence, that so they might not be destitute of weapons.
So when he had ordered the Hebrews to arm themselves with them, he led
them to Mount Sinai, in order to offer sacrifice to God, and to render
oblations for the salvation of the multitude, as he was charged to do beforehand.FJAJ 2.104