The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 1 — Section 295

EXPOSITION. Yen;. 37-89.-Tm: DEPARTURE, There Rnmescs II. and Menephtha.h. (See Brugsch, 11,rc, no doubt':., great difficulties in conceiving H,'st. of Egypt, vol. ii. pp. 96 and 1~8.) thl' departure on one day, from one place, of Buocoth. The me1m1ng of the word " Suc- "six hundred thou~and that -Wl'Cre men, beside coth" is II booths." Mr. Greville Chester tolls us that " huts made of reeds " a.re corn• children." The difficulty is increued when mon at the present day in the tract south-east we find (from Num. i. 8--48) that by "men" of Ta.uis, and suggests that the Succotll here is meant males above twenty yell.l'& of age. mentioned may have been at Sala.hiyeh, fifteen Thi' entire body of Israelites is thus raised miles due south of Tanis. Tel-Dcfneh, at from o,·er half a million to over two millions. the same distance to the south-east, is perhaps a more probable site. Si.z hundred thousand. Thi' 'l"'hok narrative, however, supposes some See the Introductory para.graph. At the ~uch number; and it is accepted by the best time of the numbering recorded in Nwn. i., rritir1,. as Ewald. Kalisch, Kurtz, Ca.non Cook, the males above twenty years of age were and others. As these two millions must have 625,550. Beside ohildren, Rather, 11 beside lived dispersed over a. considerable space, a.nd families." The word used includes all the women, and the children under twenty. t.here could ha,·e been no advantage in their Ver.SB.-.& mi.zed multitude went up also all assembling at Rameses (Tanis), we are with them. Kalisch supposes that these probably to suppose the main body with strangers were native Egyptians, a.n:.a:ious to Moses and Aaron to have started from that escape the tyranny of the kings. Co.non place, while the others, obeying orders pre- Cook suggests that they were II remains of the old Semitic population " of the Ea.stem ,,ously given, started from all parts of provinces. Perhaps it is more probable that Goshen, and converged upon Succoth, which they consisted of fugitives from other subject W&S the first rendezvous. Each body of races (as the Sha.rtana.) oppressed by the travellers wa.s accompanied by its flocks and Pha.ra.ohs. We have a.gain mention of this herds, and followed by a. number of slaves, "mi.zed multitude" in Num. xi. 4, where we find that they were the first to regret the dependants, and sympathisers not of Hebrew ":flesh and the :fish, the cucumbers, the birth (ver. 88), which still further enlarged melons, the leeks, the onions, and the gar- their numbers. The extremely open charac- lick" which they had ea.ten in Egypt freely ter of the country, and the firmness of the (ib. 5). They thus set a. bad example, which i;oil at the time of year, would facilitate the the lsre.elites followed. .And :flooks, and herda, even very muoh oa.ttle. Compare jonrney. There was no marching a.long roads, eh. x. 26. It has been noticed that this is which indeed did not exist. Ea.eh company important, 88 lessening the difficulties con- could spread itself out at its pleasure, and go nected with the sustenta.tion of the Israelites it.s own pace All knew the point of meeting, in the wilderness. But it increases, on the and marched towards it, in converging lines, other hand, the difficulties connected with the march, and with the possibility of finding there being no obstacle to hinder them. pa.stnre for such large :flocks and herds in the Arrived in the vicinity of Snccoth, they could Sina.itic peninsula. bivouac without hnrt, in that fine climate, in Ver. 39. Unlea.vened oa.kes. Some of the the open air modem Arabs make such cakes by simply mixing :flonr with water, and attaching :flat Ver. 37.-From Bameaea. It has been circular pieces of the dough thus formed to doubted whether this " Rameses" is the same the sides of their ovens after they have heated place e.s the " Re.amse.s " of eh. i. 11. But the them. (Niebuhr, Description de Z'..il.rabie, doubt scarcely seems to be rea.sone,ble. The p. 45, and pl. I, F.) Others put a. lump of two words differ only in the pointing. Brugsch dough into the ashes of a. wood fire, and cover has clearly shown that Bameses (Pa.-B.a.mesu) it over with the embel'I! for a. short time was a. town newly built in the reign of (La.yard, Ni-eh and IlabgZon, p. 288). All Rameses II., partly erected by himself, in the Arab bread is unleavened. They were thrut immediate vicinity of the old city of Tan.is or out at Egn,t. Compare ver. 33 z.c.n It was· the fa.vourite ea.pita.I of both on. xn. 37, 38.) 'rIIE DOOK Olt' EXODUS. 289