captivity. Yet there was not even then an end put to their troubles : on the contrary, their danger be- came speedily more imminent than ever. Though they went forth out of Egypt, they soon found them- selves enclosed by mountains and morasses on either side of them ; by the sea before them, and by the Egyptian army in their rear : now their fears rose as high as ever, and they regretted that they had come out of Egypt at all. " They said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness ? Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians ? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness™." Then did God open a way for them through the Red Sea ; and complete their deliverance, by making a channel through the great deep a path to Israel, and a grave to Egypt.
The deliverance of Israel from Babylon, also, was scarcely more within the reach of reasonable expec- tation. It might possibly be hoped, that, after having kept them seventy years in a state of rigorous servi- tude, their Babylonish oppressors should relent, and suffer them to return to their own country. But who would have supposed, that the Persian conqueror of Babylon should confer on them so great a benefit ? Yet was that very conquest the means of their de- liverance ; and Cyrus, as had been foretold three hundred years before, freely dismissed them to their own land, laden with the spoils which Nebuchad- nezzar had taken from them. How surprising this event was to them, may be seen in a psalm composed on the occasion ; " When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream"." As Peter, when rescued from prison by an angel, could not believe the fact, but thought he saw a vision ; so the people of Israel, when liberated by Cyrus, could scarcely believe that so great a mercy had been vouchsafed to them ; so strange was it in itself, and so contrary to all human expectation.
m Exod. xiv. 11, 12. n Ps. cxxvi. 1 — 3.