EXPOSITION. Vers. 5-9.-TJm PURSUIT OP lsRAEL BY placing as much distance as they could be- TllE EGYPTIANS. A short respite from suffer- tween themselves and the Egyptian head- ing ,..-w; snfficient to enable Pharaoh to recover quarters. But this report a.Ione would scarcely from his extreme a.1a.rm. No further deaths have moved Pharaoh to action. U was in the 9:0companying circumstances, in the particular had followed on the destruction of the first. line of route, that he thonght to find his born ; and he might think no fnrther danger opportunity. The people "were entangled" was to be apprehended. The worst of Moses' (ver. 3). They might be ta.ken at a dis- threats had been accomplished - perhaps advantage, and might be rednced to choosing J ehoTil.h had no more arrows in his qniver. between starvation and a return to Egypt The heart of Pharaoh, and of his servants, At any rate, as he realised to himself what was tnrned against the people. The re- it would be to lose altogether the services of action of feeling was not confined to Pharaoh. so ..-&st a body of slaves, many of them highly His snbjects participated in it. The loss of skilled in different arts, he more and more re- snch a large body of labourers would be gretted the pemussion which he had given. generally felt as a severe blow to the pro- sperity of the nation. It would affect all Under these circumstances intelligence was classes. The poor labourers might be bene- brought him of the change which the Israel- fited; but the employers of labour are the ites had made in their ronte, and the influential classes, and they would be injured. dangerous position into which they had So " Pharaoh's servants" were of one mind brought themselves. Upon this he resolved with their master, and they "turned against•• the Israelites. Why have we done this 1 In to start in pnmrit, with snch troops as he the retrospect, the &ffl.ictions which they had could hastily muster. As his chariots were suffered did not seem so very great. They at six hnndred. we may presame that his foot- any rate had survived them, and were not per- men were at least 100,000, all trained and haps even seriously:.el~verished. Royal favour disciplined soldiers, accnstomed to warfare. will find a way of • g up any losses which court minions have suffered, out of the general The timid horde of escaped slaves, nnused to taxation of the conntry. But in prospect, the war, though it might be five or six times as loss of 600,000 (more or less skilled) labourers namerous as his host, was not likely to resist it. appeared a terrible thing. The official cl88S Pharaoh no donbt expected an unconditional was qnite ready to make a strenuous effort to surrender on the part of the Israelites, as soon avert the loss. Ver. 6.-lle made ready his chariot. The as they saw his forces Egyptian monarchs, from the time of the Ver. 5.-It WBB told the King of Egypt eighteenth dynasty, always went out to war in that the people :!led. Pharaoh, when he let a chariot. The chariots were, like the Greek the Isra.elites go, mnst have felt tolerably and the Assyrian, open behind, and consisted certain that they would not voluntarily re- of a semicircular standing-board of wood, turn. Formally, however, he had only con- from which rose in a graceful curve the sented to their going a tliree days' journey antyx or rim to the height of about two feet; into the wilderness (eh. xii. 31). When, and a half above the standing-board. The being at Etham, on the edge of the wilder- chariot had two wheels and a pole, and was ness, they did not enter it, but marched drawn by two horses. It ordinarily contained ~outhward to Pi-hahiroth, the Egyptians two men only, the we.rr:ior and the charioteer. might naturally report that instead of sacri- . Ver. 7.-Bix hundred chosen ohariota. ncing, they were flying-hastiD.g forwards- Diodorus Siculus assigns to one Egyptian llll, XIV. 5-\J,] THE BOOK OF EXODUS. 321
king a force of 27,000 chariots (i. 54, § 4), There is no " and~ in the original. Ris which however is probably beyond the truth. horsemen, Rather " his riders," or "mounted But the 1200 assigned to Shishak (2 Ch. men "-i.e., those who rode in the chariots. xii. 3) may well be regarded 88 historical; That the Egyptians had a powerful cavalry at and the grco.t kings of the nineteenth dynasty a. later date appears from 2 Chron. xii. 3 ; would possess at leBBt o.n equal number, The but the Hebrew text of Exodus, in remark- ·• six hundred chosen cha.riots " set in motion able accordance with the native monuments on this occasion probably constituted a division of the time, represents the army of this of the royal body-guard (Herod. ii. 168). Pharaoh as composed of two descriptions of The remo.ining force would he collected from troops only-a chariot and an infantry force the neigh bonring cities of Northem Egypt, as (See Hengstenberg, Aegypten und Moae, Memphis, Heliopolis, Bubo.stis, Pithom, and pp. 127-9). Overtook them. It is =certain Pelusium. Captains over every one of them. how -,long the Israelites remained encamped Rather, "Captains over the whole of them." at Pi-hahiroth. They would wait so long as So the LXX. the Vulgate o.nd Syriacversion. the pillar of the cloud did not move (Num. ix Some, however, understand" warriors in each 18-20). It must have ta.ken Pharaoh a day of them 11 (Gesenius, Riidiger, Ke.lisch). to hear of their march from Etham. at least Ver. 8.-The Children of Israel went out another day to collect his troops, and' three or with a high hand-i.e., boldly and confidently, four days to effect the march from Tanis to not as fugitives, but as men in the exercise of Pi-hahiroth. The Jewish tradition that the their just rights-perhaps with a. certain Red Sea was crossed on the night of the 21st 11.mount of ostentation. of Niso.n (Abib) is therefore, conceivably, a Ver. 9.-All the horses and cha.riots of true one. Pharaoh. Rather, " a.II the chariot horses."