Again, De Wette objects to the call of Moses that he could not have thus formed the resolve to become the saviour of his people, which, as Havernick justl}' re- marks, is a dogmatical, not a critical decision.
It has been alleged that the place, according to the
original narrative, where God first appeared to Mosea was Egypt, God making himself known as Jehovah, that being tlie first intimation of the name (Exod. vi, 2). Another account, it is further alleged, places the scene at Horeb (ch. iii, 2), God appearing as the God of the ])atriarchs (ver. (J), and declaring his name Je- hovah (ver. 14) ; while a third makes Midian the scene of the interview (ch. iv, 19). These assumptions re- quire no refutation. It need only be remarked that the name Jehovah in ch. vi, 2 necessarily presujjposes the explanation given of it in chap, iii, 14. Further, Moses's abode in Midian, and connection with Jethro, were matters, Knobel afiirms, quite unknown to the older writer, while his statement that Moses was eighty years old when he appeared before Pharaoh (chap, vii, 7), is declared irreconcilable with the supplementary narrative which represents him as a young man at the time of his liight from Egypt (ch. ii, 11), and a son by Zipporah, whom he iwaxvikA jyrobahly on his arrival in Midian, is still young when he returned to Eg}'pt (ch. iv, 20, 25 ; xviii, 2). There can be no question that from Moses's leaving Egypt till his return thither a consideraljle time elapsed. It is stated in Exod. ii, 23 as " many days," and by Stephen (Acts vii, 30) as forty years. But it is not necessary to suppose that his abode in Midian extended over the whole- of that pe- riod. The expression 5'Ij]^^, "he sat down," or set- tled (Exod. ii, 15), may only 'point to Midian as the end of his wanderings ; or if otherwise, his marriage need not have followed immediately on his arrival, or there may have been a considerable interval between the birth of his two sons. The silence, indeed, of this part of the narrative regarding the birth of the second son ma}' possibly be referrible to this circumstance, more probably indicated, however, by the difl:erent feel- ings of the father as expressed in the names Gershom and Eliezer (ch. ii, 22 ; xviii, 4). The order of these names is perplexing to expositors who conceive that the first thoughts of the fugitive would have been thankfulness for his safety, and that only afterwards would spring up the feelings of exile. But if the name Eliezer was bestowed in connection with the prepara- tion to return to Egypt, and particularly with the in- timation " all the men are dead which sought thy life" (ch. iv, 10), the whole is strikingly consistent. An- other instance of the alleged discrepancies is that, ac- cording to one account, Moses's reception from his brethren was very discouraging (chap, vi, 9), wliereas the other narrative describes it as quite the reverse (ch. iv, 31). De Wette calls this a striking contradic- tion, but it is only such when the intermediate section (ch. V, 19-23), which shows the change that in the in- terval had occurred in the prospects of the Israelites, is violentl}' ejected from the narrative — a process fitted to produce contradictions in any composition. See Moses.
The only alleged anachronism of importance in this book is the remark relative to the continuance of the manna (chap, xvi, 35), which would seem to extend it beyond the time of Moses, particularly when compared with Josh. V, 11, 12, according to which the manna ceased not until after the passage of the Jordan. But, as remarked by Hengstenberg, it is not of the cessa- tion of the manna that the historian here writes, but of its continuance. Besides, "forty years" must be taken as a round numljer, for the manna, strictly speaking, lasted about one month less (ch. xvi, 1). See Manxa.
The ten plagues are physically, many of them, what might be expected in Egypt, although in their intens- ity and in their rapid succession they are clearly su- pernatural. Even the order in which they occur is an order in whicli physical causes are allowed to operate. The coiTuption of the river is followed l)y the plague of frogs. From the dead frogs are bred the gnats and flies ; from these came the murrain among the cattle
EXODUS
414
EXODUS
and the boils on men ; and so on- Most of the plagues, iiulei'd, thout^h of course in a much less agij;ravated form, and without sucli succession, are actually expe- rienced at this day in Egypt. Of the plague of locusts it is expressly remarked that "before them were no such locusts, neither after them shall be such." And all travellers in Egyi)t have observed swarms of lo- custs, brought generally by a south-west wind (Denon, however, mentions their coming with an east wind), and in the winter or spring of the year. This last fact agrees also with our narrative. Le.psius speaks of be- ing in a " regular snow-drift of locusts," which came from the desert in hundreds of thousands to the val- lev. "At the edge of the fruitful plain," he saj'S, "they fell down in showers." This continued for six davs, indeed in weaker flights much longer. He also saw Jutil in Egypt. In January, 1843, he and his party were siu"prised by a storm. "Suddenly," he writes, "the storm grew to a tremendous hurricane, such as I have never seen in Europe, and hail fell upon us in such masses as almost to turn day into night." He notices, too, an extraordinary cattle murrain " which carried off 40,000 head of cattle" {Letters from Egtjpt, Eng. transl. p. 49, 27, 14). See Plagues (<if Egypt). The institution of the Passover (ch. xii) has been subjected to severe criticism. This has also been call- ed a mythic fiction. The alleged circumstances are not historical, it is said, liut arise out of a later attempt to explain the origin of the ceremony and to refer it to the time of Moses. The critics rest mainly on the dif- ference between the directions given for the observ- ance of this the first, and those given for subsequent passovers. But there is no reason why, considering the very remarkable circumstances under which it was instituted, the first Passover should not have had its own peculiar solemnities, or why instructions should not then have lieen given for a somewhat different ob- servance for the future. See Passover.