Moses fled into Midian, B.C. 1698. Beyond the fact that it was in or near the peninsula of Sinai, its precise situation is unknown. Arabian tradition points to the country east of the (iulf of Akaba (see Laborde). Jose- phus (Ant. ii, 11, 1) makes it *' by the Red Sea." There was a famous well (" the well," Exod. ii, 15) surrounded by tanks for watering the flocks of the Bedouin herds- men. By this well the fugitive seated himself "at noon" (Joseph, ib.), and watched the gathering of the sheep. There were the Arabian shepherds, and there were also seven maidens, whom the shepherds rudely drove away from the water. The chivalrous spirit (if we may so apply a modern phrase) which had already broken forth in behalf of his oppressed countrymen, broke forth again in behalf of the distressed maidens. They returned unusually soon to their father, and told him of their adventure. Their father was a person of whom we know but little, but of whom that little shows how great an influence he exercised over the future career of Moses. It was Jethro, or lieuel, or Hobab, chief or priest (" Sheik" exactly expresses the union of the religious and political influence) of the Midianitish tribes. Moses, who up to this time had been " an Egyp- tian" (Exod. ii, 19), now became for a long period, indi- cated by the later tradition as forty years (Acts vii, SO), an Arabian. He married Zipporah, daughter of his host, to whom he also became the servant and shep- herd (Exod. ii, 21 ; iii, 1).
The blank which during the stay in Egypt is filled up by Egyptian traditions can here only be supplied from indirect allusions in other parts of the O. T. The alliance between Israel and the Kenite- branch of the Midianites, now first formed, was never broken. See Kexite. Jethro became their guide through the des- ert. If from Egj'pt, as we have seen, was derived the secular and religious learning of Moses, and with this much of their outward ceremonial, so from Jethro was derived the organization of their judicial and social ar-
rangements during their nomadic state (Exod. xviii, 21-23). Nor is the conjecture of Ewald {Gtsc/i. ii, 59, 60) improbable, that in this pastoral and simple relation there is an indication of a wider concert than is directly stated between the rising of the Israelites in Egypt and the Arabian tribes, who, under the name of " the Shep- herds," had recently been expelled. According to Ar- tapanus (Euseb. Proej). Ev. ix, 27), Reuel actually urged Moses to make war upon Egypt. Something of a joint action is implied in the visit of Aaron to the desert (Exod. iv, 27 ; comp. Artapanus, id svp.) ; something also in the sacredness of Sinai, already recognised both by Israel and by the Arabs (Exod. viii, 27 ; comp, Jo- seph. Ant. ii, 12,1).
But the chief effect of this stay in Arabia was on Moses himself. It was in the seclusion and simplicity of his shepherd-life that he received his call as a proph- et. The traditional scene of this great event is in the valley of Shoeib, or Hobab, on the north side of Jebel Miisa. Its exact spot is marked by the convent of St. Catharine, of which the altar is said' to stand on the site of the Burning Bush. The original indications are too slight'to enable us to fix the spot with any certainty. To judge from the indications given in the Bible (Exod. iv, 27 ; Numb, x, 30)", Jethro must have resided south- east of that mountain (Keil. ii, 325; Antonini Placent. Itinerar. c. 37 ; A eta Sanct. INIaji, ii, 22). It is remarka- ble that the time of the caUing of Moses in the mount of God was contemporaneous with the extraordinary spirit of prayer among the oppressed nation in Ecvp't (Exod. ii, 23). The call itself was at " the back"" of " the wilderness" at Horeb (Exod. iii, 1) ; to which the Hebrew adds, while the Sept. omits, " the mountain of God." Josephus further particularizes that it was the loftiest of all the mountains in that region, and the best for pasturage, from its good grass ; and that, owing to a belief in its being inhabited by the Divinity, the shep- herds feared to approach it {Ant. ii, 12, 1). Philo (T. M. i, 12) adds that it was " a grove" or " glade." Upon the mountain was a well-knoAvn briery shrub or tree (^.;?'!'> fhe seni'h, A. Y. "a bush" — the definite article may indicate either "the particular celebrated tree," .sacred perhaps already, or •' the tree" or " vegetation peculiar to the spot"), usually thought to have been the acacia or the thorn-tree of the desert, spreading out its tangled branches, thick set with white thorns, over the rocky ground ; but perhaps only a bramble, or some one of the bristly plants with which the desert abounds. Comp. Reichlin-^Ieldeg, Mos. (Jesch. r. hrennenden Doin- husch (Frieb. 1831). See Shittiji ; Tjiokn. It was this bush which became the symbol of the divine I'resence, in the form of a flame of fire in the midst of it, in which the dry branches would naturally have crackled and burned in a moment, but which plaj-ed around it with- out consuming it. In Philo ( I'. M. i, 12) " the angel" is described as a strange but beautiful creature. Artapa- nus (Euseb. P?-.l,>. ix,27) represents it as a fire suddenly bursting from the bare ground, and feeding itself with- out fuel. But this is far less expressive than the Biblical image. Like all the visions of the divine Presence re- corded in the O. T. as manifested at the outset of a pro- phetical career, this was exactly suited to the circum- stances of the tribe. It was the true likeness of the con- dition of Israel — in the furnace of affliction, yet not de- stroyed (comp. Philo, r. M. i, 12). The place too, in the desert solitude, was equally appropriate, as a sign that the divine protection was not confined either to the sanctu- aries of Egypt or to the Holy Land, but was to be found with any faithful worshipper, fugitive and solitary though he might be. The rocky ground at once became " holy," and the shepherd's sandal was to be taken off no less than on the threshold of a palace or a temple. It is this feature of the incident on which St. Stephen dwells as a proof of the universalitj- of the true religion (Acts vii, 29-33). The call or revelation M-as twofold— (1.) The declaration of the Sacred Name expressed the eternal