Has Atakah, too, seems to correspond to the geo- graphical features of the case. The point where the Israelites struck the western coast-line of the bed Sea is (as we have seen above) explicitly defined in three passages of the sacred itinerary, which we translate lit- erally: "Speak to the sons of Israel, and they shall re- turn ^i'^'*") and encamp before ("IS?) Pi-ha-Chiroth, between Migdol and the sea; before ("IE?) Ba'al-Tse- phon, opposite it (irQ3) shall ye encamp upon (b?) the sea" (Exod. xiv, 2). "And they [ the Egyptians] over- took (W'ffijl) them [the Israelites] encamping upon the sea; upon (5") Pi-ha-Chiroth, which is before Ba'al-Tsephon" (ver. 0). "And they [the Israelites] removed from Etham, and he [Israel] returned (~'^^y> upon (??) Pi-ha-Chiroth, which is before Ba'al-Tse- phou; and they encamped before Migdol" (Numb, xxxiii, 7). The meaning of Pi-hahirotb, if it be He- brew, can only be mouth of tin' gorges (root "I'lH, to hoy,); or, if Egyptian (as (ie-enius and Eiirst prefer), it is doubtless sedgy spot ( Coptic, pi-achi-roth, " the place of meadows," according to Jablonski). In either etymology it would most probably designate a grassy shore, as at the opening of a valley with a brook into the sea. Such a spot is found in the reedy plain (some- times called Badeah) at the mouth of a wide valley just south of .lehel Atakah. The writer's Egyptian drago- man, who was thoroughly familiar with these localities, called it W&drGhubbeh ("cane-valley"); Robinson calls it Wady Tawdrik, others Wady Musa, and still other names are assigned to it. Itaal-zephon is doubtless a Hebrew rendering of the name of a place "sacred to Typhon," the Greek form of the Egyptian malignant, deity, of whose haunt in this vicinity there are traces in ancient writers (see the I lebrew lexicographers :. In
that case it was probably a mountain, or at least an eminence, in accordance with the heathen preference for hills as sites of shrines. Migdol i^ the common I bbrew word for a tOVX r. and was, t hcrefore. most like- ly also a commanding position. It occurs, however, as the name of a town in this quarter of Egypt (Jer. xliv, 1; xlvi, 14), and may he nothing more than a Hebra- ized form of the Coptic megtol, " many hills" (see the authorities in Gesenius). In Ezek. wix. 10; xxx, 6, it recurs in the phrase n:."p i^lSp, which may most
RED SEA
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RED SEA
naturally be rendered from Migdul of Seventh ; in the English Eible, "from the tower of Syene," after the Vulg. a turre Syene; but the rendering of the Sept., airb MaycwXov 'iwQ [once Kai] 1vi]vr)Q, suggests that the latter name should be pointed FI31&, to Seven, thus marking out the natural limits of Egypt, from Migdul on the north to Assuan on the south, precisely as to- day ; and this conclusion is generally adopted by mod- ern scholars. Flirst, in his Hebrew Lexicon, gives a cu- rious interpretation of this whole geographical question: "From Migdol a road led to Baal-zephon, the later He- robpolis on the Red Sea, and therefore the Red Sea is mentioned with it, Exod. xiv, 2 ; Numb, xxxiii, 7." Most readers, however, will prefer to see in these texts, so carefully worded in almost exact agreement with each other, a precise indication of the very spot where the Israelites crossed ; and if the above reasons be cor- rect, we ought to find on each side of the crossing-place a conspicuous landmark, probably a mountain. This we exactly have at the valley in question, with Jebel Ata- kah (" hill of liberty") on the north, and Jebel Abu- Daraj (" hill of the father of steps," that is, long march) on the south, and a fine well -watered plain between suitable for an encampment. In this position the Is- raelites would be effectually hemmed in by the sea in front, the mountains on either hand, and the Egyptians in their rear. The enemy, of course, came directly down from Memphis along Wady et-Tih ("the valley of wandering"), which terminates in the wady in ques- tion, thus intercepting the Israelites, who could not es- cape along the narrow, rocky margin of the shore around the point called Ras Atakah. The writer tried to trav- el that rough coast and found it impracticable enough. Small companies, as was the case with Dr. Durbin, may, indeed, pass slowly along it, but not so great and encum- bered a multitude as the Israelites. Besides, it is about a day's march by this route from Ras Atakah to Suez. and the Egyptians might readily have intercepted the fugitives by sending a detachment around the other side of the mountain.
The particular path by which the Israelites reached Ras Atakah from Ajrud has not been agreed upon by the advocates of this point of crossing. Sicard thought they came down Wady et-Tih from Memphis; but this, as we have seen, is not at all likely. Most others sup- pose that they came first to Suez, and then along the shore. But if they came that way, why might they not escape by the same ? As we have just seen, they could do neither. There remains, therefore, the supposition that they passed around partly behind and across Jebel Atakah. This exactly tallies with the command to " turn" back from Etham. From Ajrud the route would thus be not merely a deflection, but in part an actual ret- rogression, as the accompanying map shows. A path is laid down on several of the maps of this region between the highest and westernmost summits of Jebel Atakah, which the fugitives would most naturally take. By this route the distance for the third day's march from Ajriid to the spring on the shore at the mouth of Wady Ta- warik would be a little less than thirty miles, the aver- age allowed above for each of the previous days' travel. Thence to the extremity of Ras Atakah is not quite ten miles, and thence to Ayun Musa is scarcely seven miles more. The journey does not seem to us to be an im- practicable one under the urgency of the circumstances. It might be materially shortened for each of the suc- ceeding days, especially the last, by locating Etham on the Haj route, somewhat to the west of Ajrud — a sup- position not at all forbidden by any known fact.