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1. So the Hebrews went out of Egypt, while the Egyptians wept,
and repented that they had treated them so hardly. - Now they
took their journey by Letopolis, a place at that time deserted,
but where Babylon was built afterwards, when Cambyses laid Egypt
waste: but as they went away hastily, on the third day they came
to a place called Beelzephon, on the Red Sea; and when they had
no food out of the land, because it was a desert, they eat of
loaves kneaded of flour, only warmed by a gentle heat; and this
food they made use of for thirty days; for what they brought with
them out of Egypt would not suffice them any longer time; and
this only while they dispensed it to each person, to use so much
only as would serve for necessity, but not for satiety. Whence it
is that, in memory of the want we were then in, we keep a feast
for eight days, which is called the feast of unleavened bread.
Now the entire multitude of those that went out, including the
women and children, was not easy to be numbered, but those that
were of an age fit for war, were six hundred thousand.
2. They left Egypt in the month Xanthicus, on the fifteenth day
of the lunar month; four hundred and thirty years after our
forefather Abraham came into Canaan, but two hundred and fifteen
years only after Jacob removed into Egypt. It was the
eightieth year of the age of Moses, and of that of Aaron three
more. They also carried out the bones of Joesph with them, as he
had charged his sons to do.
3. But the Egyptians soon repented that the Hebrews were gone;
and the king also was mightily concerned that this had been
procured by the magic arts of Moses; so they resolved to go after
them. Accordingly they took their weapons, and other warlike
furniture, and pursued after them, in order to bring them back,
if once they overtook them, because they would now have no
pretense to pray to God against them, since they had already been
permitted to go out; and they thought they should easily overcome
them, as they had no armor, and would be weary with their
journey; so they made haste in their pursuit, and asked of every
one they met which way they were gone. And indeed that land was
difficult to be traveled over, not only by armies, but by single
persons. Now Moses led the Hebrews this way, that in case the
Egyptians should repent and be desirous to pursue after them,
they might undergo the punishment of their wickedness, and of the
breach of those promises they had made to them. As also he led
them this way on account of the Philistines, who had quarreled
with them, and hated them of old, that by all means they might
not know of their departure, for their country is near to that of
Egypt; and thence it was that Moses led them not along the road
that tended to the land of the Philistines, but he was desirous
that they should go through the desert, that so after a long
journey, and after many afflictions, they might enter upon the
land of Canaan. Another reason of this was, that God commanded
him to bring the people to Mount Sinai, that there they might
offer him sacrifices. Now when the Egyptians had overtaken the
Hebrews, they prepared to fight them, and by their multitude they
drove them into a narrow place; for the number that pursued after
them was six hundred chariots, with fifty thousand horsemen, and
two hundred thousand foot-men, all armed. They also seized on the
passages by which they imagined the Hebrews might fly, shutting
them up between inaccessible precipices and the sea; for
there was [on each side] a [ridge of] mountains that terminated
at the sea, which were impassable by reason of their roughness,
and obstructed their flight; wherefore they there pressed upon
the Hebrews with their army, where [the ridges of] the mountains
were closed with the sea; which army they placed at the chops of
the mountains, that so they might deprive them of any passage
into the plain.
4. When the Hebrews, therefore, were neither able to bear up,
being thus, as it were, besieged, because they wanted provisions,
nor saw any possible way of escaping; and if they should have
thought of fighting, they had no weapons; they expected a
universal destruction, unless they delivered themselves up to the
Egyptians. So they laid the blame on Moses, and forgot all the
signs that had been wrought by God for the recovery of their
freedom; and this so far, that their incredulity prompted them to
throw stones at the prophet, while he encouraged them and
promised them deliverance; and they resolved that they would
deliver themselves up to the Egyptians. So there was sorrow and
lamentation among the women and children, who had nothing but
destruction before their eyes, while they were encompassed with
mountains, the sea, and their enemies, and discerned no way of
flying from them.
5. But Moses, though the multitude looked fiercely at him, did
not, however, give over the care of them, but despised all
dangers, out of his trust in God, who, as he had afforded them
the several steps already taken for the recovery of their
liberty, which he had foretold them, would not now suffer them to
be subdued by their enemies, to be either made slaves or be slain
by them; and, standing in midst of them, he said, "It is not just
of us to distrust even men, when they have hitherto well managed
our affairs, as if they would not be the same hereafter; but it
is no better than madness, at this time to despair of the
providence of God, by whose power all those things have been
performed he promised, when you expected no such things: I mean
all that I have been concerned in for deliverance and escape from
slavery. Nay, when we are in the utmost distress, as you see we
ought rather to hope that God will succor us, by whose operation
it is that we are now this narrow place, that he may out of such
difficulties as are otherwise insurmountable and out of which
neither you nor your enemies expect you can be delivered, and may
at once demonstrate his own power and his providence over us. Nor
does God use to give his help in small difficulties to those whom
he favors, but in such cases where no one can see how any hope in
man can better their condition. Depend, therefore, upon such a
Protector as is able to make small things great, and to show that
this mighty force against you is nothing but weakness, and be not
affrighted at the Egyptian army, nor do you despair of being
preserved, because the sea before, and the mountains behind,
afford you no opportunity for flying, for even these mountains,
if God so please, may be made plain ground for you, and the sea
become dry land."
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