• Where pain of unextingfuishable fire Must exercise us wittiout hope of end ' ;
and Par, Reg. L 156 —
* But first I mean To exercise him in the wilderness.'
Ab a tubst. : 1. Wis 8" ' in the exercise of conference with her, prudence ' (iv avyyviivaaif 6/iiX(o5, RV ' a.ssiduons communing,' RVm ' practice of communion ') ; 1 Ti 4' ' bodily exercise profiteth little' [aupuiTiKi) yv/j.fairta). 2. In 1 Mac 1" and 2 Mac 4» the complaint is made that a Greek "jdace of exercise ' had been erected in Jerusalem. The Gr. is yviiyi<rioy. See Games. In 2 Mac 4" iv ra\al<rrp<f is similarly translated ' in the place of exercise,' RV 'in the pahestra.' See Palaestra.
J. Hastings.
EXILE.— See Israel.
EXODDS AND JOURNEY TO CANAAM.—
i. Route of the Exodus- ii. From E<,',^-}tt to .SinaL iii. From Sinai to Kadesh. iv. From Kadesh to the Jordan.
i. Route of the Exodus.— The question of the route of the Exodus has had a good deal oi light thrown upon it in recent times, from ths standpoint both of archaeology and of literature. On the one hand, the work of excavation of lost cities and monuments has gone far to negative certain hj'potheses as to the Exodus, if not to render them impossible ; and, on the other hand, the decipherment of inscriptions and papj'ri be- longing to the time of the Exodus has furnished us with geographical and historical annotationi of the highest value. It must not be supposed that the result is an unmixed confirmation of the biblical account. A recently-deciphered Egyptian inscription, for example, shows that the Btn6- Israel were already in Palestine at the time of the Exodus, so that the migration must have been partial and not national. But with this point we are not concerned in the present article, whose business is to indicate what was the route of the Exodus on the hypothesis that it actually took place.
Even though we are not yet in a position to completely vindicate the historical character of the Exodus, we may do much to extract a correct geography from the accounts, and so to prepare the way for accurate history. The researches, for instance, of NaWlle have practically settled the first stages in the line of march ; and in the same way a closer knowledge of the Sinaitic peninsula encourages the belief that there is more to be urged in favour of the traditional Sinai than can be brought forward against it. [See SiNAI.] We acquire in this way what are almost fixed points in the route, ^^^thout being troubled by d priori consideral ions as to whether the whole of the story is historical or whether any of it is miraculous. Indeed this last consideration might altogetlier be omitted ; for as regards such a question as the actual passage of the sea, the configuration of the land at the head of the Gulf of Suez and across the Isthmus is such that the shallow waters of the sea and detached lakes furnish exactly the situation for such a transit as is poetically called a passage ' in the heart of the Red Sea.' Moreover, the action of wind upon shallow water has been constantly the cause of phenomenal ett'ccts which are not far removed from the miraculous statements in Exodus. For example, the Russians in 1738 entered the Crimea, which was strongly fortified against them by the Turks, at the Isthmus of Perekop, by a passage made for them by the wind through the shallow waters of the Putrid Sea at the N.W. corner of the Sea of Azov. And Major-General Tulloch has recorded an instance even more to the point, when, as he himself observed, under a strong east wind the waters of Lake Menzaleh at the entrance to the Suez Canal receded for a distance of 7 miles (see Journal of Victoria Institute, vol. xxviii. p. 267). Other instances of the same efi'ect, which would be counted miracuJous if they had been biblical, may be found in a paper by Naville {Jour. Vict. Instit. xxvi. p. 12). We may therefore lay on one side any question of direct miraculous agency : where the phenomena are so nearly natural to the country, we may be content to sav that they are not necessarily unhis- torical, and tliat the question of miracle is merely one of interpretation. Nor need we be delayed in our inquiry by considerations as to whether the story has sutiered from over-colouring ; both the numbers of the persons involved and the length of their supposed stay in the desert may be deferred,
5
CAllAATi
ILLUSTRATING THE EXODUS
TIm E>liiil>ur^ flmp ^Jifl laatUuiB
.1,iURH«luJ«i.r«A ■'■>
EXODUS TO CANAAN
EXODUS TO CANAAN
803
if thought lit, for future examination. The account is not to be judged from its weakest points.
The best way to form an idea as to wliat such a migration would be like, is to compare it with an annual phenomenon of a similar character, viz. the Mecca pilgrimage from Cairo. The analogy is a good one, inasmuch as the account in the ISk of Exodus expres.sly suggests that the Israelites wished to go into the wilderness for the purpose of a haj (the Heb. word in Exodus 10* hng is, in fact, the same that is applied to the modern festival, and to the route taken by the pilgrims). What point was aimed at in the proposed three dajs' journey itito the wilderness must remain uncertain ; it has been suggested that it was Sarbut el- Khadeem, on the northern road to Mt. Sinai, where the remains of famous Egyptian temples are still to be seen. But, wherever it was, the Israelites could do what the Mecca pilgrims are in the habit of doing ; nor is there any a priori reason why we should regard the account of the migiation as ant«cedently improbable.