Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 40:38

For the cloud of the LORD [was] upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.

38. and there was fire therein, &c.] i.e. in the cloud. Cf. Num 9:15-16 (P).

The book thus closes with the fulfilment of the promise given in Exo 29:43; Exo 29:45 (see on Exo 29:43-46). The Dwelling is complete, and Jehovah, with His protecting and sanctifying Presence, has taken up His abode in it, in the midst of His people. For the noble and impressive symbolism by which this great idea is expressed, see p. 113.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Verse 38. For the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day] This daily and nightly appearance was at once both a merciful providence, and a demonstrative proof of the Divinity of their religion: and these tokens continued with them throughout all their journeys; for, notwithstanding their frequently repeated disobedience and rebellion, God never withdrew these tokens of his presence from them, till they were brought into the promised land. When, therefore, the tabernacle became fixed, because the Israelites had obtained their inheritance, this mark of the Divine presence was no longer visible in the sight of all Israel, but appears to have been confined to the holy of holies, where it had its fixed residence upon the mercy-seat between the cherubim; and in this place continued till the first temple was destroyed, after which it was no more seen in Israel till God was manifested in the flesh.

As in the book of GENESIS we have God’s own account of the commencement of the WORLD, the origin of nations, and the peopling of the earth; so in the book of EXODUS we have an account, from the same source of infallible truth, of the commencement of the Jewish CHURCH, and the means used by the endless mercy of God to propagate and continue his pure and undefiled religion in the earth, against which neither human nor diabolic power or policy have ever been able to prevail! The preservation of this religion, which has ever been opposed by the great mass of mankind, is a standing proof of its Divinity. As it has ever been in hostility against the corrupt passions of men, testifying against the world that its deeds were evil, these passions have ever been in hostility to it. Cunning and learned men have argued to render its authority dubious, and its tendency suspicious; whole states and empires have exerted themselves to the uttermost to oppress and destroy it; and its professed friends, by their conduct, have often betrayed it: yet librata ponderibus suis, supported by the arm of God and its own intrinsic excellence, it lives and flourishes; and the river that makes glad the city of God has run down with the tide of time 5800 years, and is running on with a more copious and diffusive current.

Labitur, et labetur in omne volubilis aevum.

“Still glides the river, and will ever glide.”

We have seen how, by the miraculous cloud, all the movements of the Israelites were directed. They struck or pitched their tents, as it removed or became stationary. Every thing that concerned them was under the direction and management of God. But these things happened unto them for ensamples; and it is evident, from Isa 4:5, that all these things typified the presence and influence of God in his Church, and in the souls of his followers. His Church can possess no sanctifying knowledge, no quickening power but from the presence and influence of his Spirit. By this influence all his followers are taught, enlightened, led, quickened, purified, and built up on their most holy faith; and without the indwelling of his Spirit, light, life, and salvation are impossible. These Divine influences Are necessary, not only for a time, but through all our journeys, Ex 40:38; though every changing scene of providence, and through every step in life. And these the followers of Christ are to possess, not by inference or inductive reasoning, but consciously. The influence is to be felt, and the fruits of it to appear as fully as the cloud of the Lord by day, and the fire by night, appeared in the sight of all the house of Israel. Reader, hast thou this Spirit? Are all thy goings and comings ordered by its continual guidance? Does Christ, who was represented by this tabernacle, and in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, dwell in thy heart by faith? If not, call upon God for that blessing which, for the sake of his Son, he is ever disposed to impart; then shalt thou be glorious, and on all thy glory there shall be a defence. Amen, Amen.

On the ancient division of the law into fifty-four sections, see the notes at the end of Genesis. See Clarke on Ge 50:26. Of these fifty-four sections Genesis contains twelve; and the commencement and ending of each has been marked in the note already referred to. Of these sections Exodus contains eleven, all denominated, as in the former case, by the words in the original with which they commence. I shall point these out as in the former, carrying the enumeration from Genesis.

The THIRTEENTH section, called shemoth, begins Ex 1:1, and ends Ex 6:1.

The FOURTEENTH, called vaera, begins Ex 6:2, and ends Ex 9:35.

The FIFTEENTH, called bo, begins Ex 10:1, and ends Ex 13:16.

The SIXTEENTH, called beshallach, begins Ex 13:17, and ends Ex 17:16.

The SEVENTEENTH, called yithro, begins Ex 18:1, and ends Ex 20:26.

The EIGHTEENTH, called mishpatim, begins Ex 21:1, and ends Ex 24:18.

The NINETEENTH, called terumah, begins Ex 25:2, and ends Ex 27:19.

The TWENTIETH, called tetsavveh, begins Ex 27:20, and ends Ex 30:10.

The TWENTY-FIRST, called tissa, begins Ex 30:11, and ends Ex 34:35.

The TWENTY-SECOND, called vaiyakhel, begins Ex 35:1, and ends Ex 38:20.

The TWENTY-THIRD, called pekudey, begins Ex 38:21, and ends Ex 40:38.

It will at once appear to the reader that these sections have their technical names from some remarkable word, either in the first or second verse of their commencement.

MASORETIC Notes on EXODUS

Number of VERSES in Veelleh shemoth, (Exodus,) 1209.

The symbol of this number is ; where aleph denoting 1000, , resh 200, and teth 9.

The middle verse is Ex 22:28: Thou shalt not revile God, nor curse the ruler of thy people.

Its parashioth, or larger sections, are 11. The symbol of this is the word ei, Isa 66:1. WHERE is the house that ye will build unto me? In which aleph stands for 1, and yod for 10.

Its sedarim are 29. The symbol of which is taken from Ps 19:2, yechavveh: Night unto night SHOWETH FORTH knowledge. In which word, yod stands for 10, cheth for 8, vau for 6, and he for 5; amounting to 29.

Its pirkey, perakim, or present chapters, 40. The symbol of which is belibbo, taken from Ps 37:31: The law of God is IN HIS HEART. In this word, beth stands for 2, lamed for 30, beth for 2, and vau for 6; amounting to 40.

The open sections are 69. The close sections are 95. Total 164. The symbol of which is yisadecha, from Ps 20:2: STRENGTHEN THEE out of Zion. In which numerical word ain stands for 70, samech for 60, caph for 20, yod for 10, and daleth for 4; making together 164.

Number of words, 16,513; of letters 63,467.

But on these subjects, important to some, and trifling to others, see what is said in the concluding note on GENESIS. See Clarke on Ge 50:26.

ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE TRAVELS OF THE ISRAELITES THROUGH THE WILDERNESS

IN the preceding notes I have had frequent occasion to refer to Dr. Shaw’s account of the different stations of the Israelites, of which I promised an abstract in this place. This will doubtless be acceptable to every reader Who knows that Dr. Shaw travelled over the same ground, and carefully, in person, noted every spot to which reference is made in the preceding chapters.

After having endeavoured to prove that Goshen was that part of the Heliopolitan Nomos, or of the land of Rameses, which lay in the neighbourhood of Kairo, Matta-reah, and Bishbesh, and that Cairo might be Rameses, the capital of the district of that name, where the Israelites had their rendezvous before they departed out of Egypt, he takes up the text and proceeds thus: –

“Now, lest peradventure (Ex 13:17) when the Hebrews saw war they should repent and return to Egypt, God did not lead them through the way of the land of the Philistines, (viz., either by Heroopolis in the midland road, or by Bishbesh, Tineh, and so along the seacoast towards Gaza and Ascalon,) although that was the nearest, but he led them ABOUT through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea. There are accordingly two roads through which the Israelites might have been conducted from Kairo to Pihahhiroth, on the banks of the Red Sea. One of them lies through the valleys, as they are now called, of Jendily, Rumeleah, and Baideah, bounded on each side by the mountains of the lower Thebais. The other lies higher, having the northern range of these mountains, (the mountains of Mocattee) running parallel with it on the right hand, and the desert of the Egyptian Arabia, which lies all the way open to the land of the Philistines, on the left. About the middle of this range we may turn short upon our right hand into the valley of Baideah through a remarkable breach or discontinuation, in which we afterwards continued to the very bank of the Red Sea. Suez, a small city upon the northern point of it, at the distance of thirty hours or ninety Roman miles from Kairo, lies a little to the northward of the promontory that is formed by this same range of mountains, called at present Attackah, as that which bounds the valley of Baideah to the southward is called Gewoubee.

“This road then through the valley of Baideah, which is some hours longer than the other open road which leads us directly from Kairo to Suez, was, in all probability, the very road which the Israelites took to Pihahhiroth, on the banks of the Red Sea. Josephus then, and other authors who copy after him, seem to be too hasty in making the Israelites perform this journey of ninety or one hundred Roman miles in three days, by reckoning each of the stations that are recorded for one day. Whereas the Scriptures are altogether silent with regard to the time or distance, recording the stations only. The fatigue, likewise, would have been abundantly too great for a nation on foot, encumbered with their dough, their kneading-troughs, their little children and cattle, to walk at the rate of thirty Roman miles a day. Another instance of the same kind occurs Nu 33:9, where Elim is mentioned as the next station after Marah, though Elim and Marah are farther distant from each other than Kairo is from the Red Sea. Several intermediate stations, therefore, as well here as in other places, were omitted, the holy penman contenting himself with laying down such only as were the most remarkable, or attended with some notable transaction. Succoth, then, the first station from Rameses, signifying only a place of tents, may have no fixed situation, being probably nothing more than some considerable Dou-war of the Ishmaelites or Arabs, such as we will meet with at fifteen or twenty miles’ distance from Kairo, in the road to the Red Sea. The rendezvous of the caravan which conducted us to Suez was at one of these Dou-wars; at the same time we saw another at about six miles’ distance, under the mountains of Mocattee, or in the very same direction which the Israelites may be supposed to have taken in their marches from Goshen towards the Red Sea.

“That the Israelites, before they turned towards Pihahhiroth, had travelled in an open country, (the same way, perhaps, which their forefathers had taken in coming into Egypt,) appears to be farther illustrated from the following circumstance: that upon their being ordered to remove from the edge of the wilderness, and to encamp before Pihahhiroth, it immediately follows that Pharaoh should then say, they are entangled in the land, the wilderness (betwixt the mountains we may suppose of Gewoubee and Attackah) hath shut them in, Ex 14:3, or, as it is in the original, ( sagar), viam illis clausit, as that word is explained by Pagninus; for, in these circumstances the Egyptians might well imagine that the Israelites could have no possible way to escape, inasmuch as the mountains of Gewoubee would stop their flight or progress to the southward, as the mountains of Attackah would do the same towards the land of the Philistines; the Red Sea likewise lay before them to the east, whilst Pharaoh closed up the valley behind them with his chariots and horsemen. This valley ends at the sea, in a small bay made by the eastern extremities of the mountains which I have been describing, and is called Tiah-Beni Israel, i.e., the road of the Israelites, by a tradition that is still kept up by the Arabs, of their having passed through it; so it is also called Baideah, from the new and unheard – of miracle that was wrought near it, by dividing the Red Sea, and destroying therein Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen. The third notable encampment then of the Israelites was at this bay. It was to be before Pihahhiroth, betwixt Migdol and the sea, over against Baal-tsephon, Ex 14:2; and in Nu 33:7 it was to be before Migdol, where the word liphney, (before, as we render it,) being applied to Pihahhiroth and Migdol, may signify no more than that they pitched within sight of, or at a small distance from, the one and the other of those places. Whether Baal-tsephon then may have relation to the northern situation of the place itself, or to some watch tower or idol temple that was erected upon it, we may probably take it for the eastern extremity of the mountains of Suez or Attackah, the most conspicuous of these deserts, inasmuch as it overlooks a great part of the lower Thebais, as well as the wilderness that reaches towards, or which rather makes part of, the land of the Philistines. Migdol then might lie to the south, as Baal-tsephon did to the north, of Pihahhiroth; for the marches of the Israelites from the edge of the wilderness being to the seaward, that is, towards the south-east, their encampments betwixt Migdol and the sea, or before Migdol, as it is otherwise noted, could not well have another situation.

“Pihahhiroth, or Hhiroth rather, without regarding the prefixed part of it, may have a more general signification, and denote the valley or that whole space of ground which extended itself from the edge of the wilderness of Etham to the Red Sea: for that particular part only, where the Israelites were ordered to encamp, appears to have been called Pihahhiroth, i.e., mouth of Hhiroth; for when Pharaoh overtook them, it was in respect to his coming down upon them, Ex 14:9, i.e., beside or at the mouth, or the most advanced part, of Hhiroth to the eastward. Likewise in Nu 33:7, where the Israelites are related to have encamped before Migdol, it follows, Nu 33:8, that they departed from before Hhiroth, and not from before Pihahhiroth, as it is rendered in our translation.

“There are likewise other circumstances to prove that the Israelites took their departure from this valley in their passage through the Red Sea, for it could not have been to the northward of the mountains of Attackah, or in the higher road, which I have taken notice of; because as this lies for the most part upon a level, the Israelites could not have been here, as we find they were, shut in and entangled. Neither could it have been on the other side, viz., to the south of the mountains of Gewoubee, for then (besides the insuperable difficulties which the Israelites would have met with in climbing over them, the same likewise that the Egyptians would have had in pursuing them) the opposite shore could not have been the desert of Shur where the Israelites landed, Ex 15:22, but it would have been the desert of Marah, that lay a great way beyond it. What is now called Corondel might probably be the southern portion of the desert of Marah, the shore of the Red Sea, from Suez, hitherto having continued to be low and sandy; but from Corondel to the port of Tor, the shore is for the most part rocky and mountainous, in the same manner with the Egyptian coast that lies opposite to it; neither the one nor the other of them affording any convenient place, either for the departure of a multitude from the one shore, or the reception of it upon the other. And besides, from Corondel to Tor, the channel of the Red Sea, which from Suez to Sdur is not above nine or ten miles broad, begins here to be so many leagues, too great a space certainly for the Israelites, in the manner they were encumbered, to pass over in one night. At Tor the Arabian shore begins to wind itself round about Ptolemy’s promontory of Paran, towards the gulf of Eloth, whilst the Egyptian shore retires so far to the south-west that it can scarce be perceived. As the Israelites then, for these reasons, could not, according to the opinion of some authors, have landed either at Corondel or Tor, so neither could they have landed at Ain Mousa, according to the conjectures of others. For if the passage of the Israelites had been so near the extremity of the Red Sea, it may be presumed that the very encampments of six hundred thousand men, besides children and a mixed multitude, which would amount to as many more, would have spread themselves even to the farther or the Arabian side of this narrow isthmus, whereby the interposition of Providence would not have been at all necessary; because, in this case and in this situation, there could not have been room enough for the waters, after they were divided, to have stood on a heap, or to have been a wall unto them, particularly on the left hand. This, moreover, would not have been a division, but a recess only of the water to the southward. Pharaoh likewise, by overtaking them as they were encamped in this open situation by the sea, would have easily surrounded them on all sides. Whereas the contrary seems to be implied by the pillar of the cloud, Ex 14:19-20, which (divided or) came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel, and thereby left the Israelites (provided this cloud should have been removed) in a situation only of being molested in the rear. For the narrow valley which I have described, and which we may presume was already occupied and filled up behind by the host of Egypt, and before by the encampments of the Israelites, would not permit or leave room for the Egyptians to approach them, either on the right hand or on the left. Besides, if this passage was at Ain Mousa, how can we account for that remarkable circumstance, Ex 15:22, where it is said that, when Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, they went out into (or landed in) the wilderness of Shur? For Shur, a particular district of the wilderness of Etham, lies directly fronting the valley from which I suppose they departed, but a great many miles to the south-ward of Ain Mousa. If they landed likewise at Ain Mousa, where there are several fountains, there would have been no occasion for the sacred historian to have observed, at the same time, that the Israelites after they went out from the sea into the wilderness of Shur, went three days in the wilderness, always directing their marches toward Mount Sinai, and found no water; for which reason Marah is recorded, Ex 15:23, to be the first place where they found water, as their wandering so far before they found it seems to make Marah also their first station, after their passage through the Red Sea. Moreover, the channel over against Ain Mousa is not above three miles over, whereas that betwixt Shur or Sedur and Jibbel Gewoubee and Attackah, is nine or ten, and therefore capacious enough, as the other would have been too small, for covering or drowning therein, Ex 14:28, the chariots and horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh. And therefore, by impartially weighing all these arguments together, this important point in the sacred geography may with more authority be fixed at Sedur, over against the valley of Baideah, than at Tor, Corondel, Ain Mousa, or any other place.

“Over against Jibbel Attackah and the valley of Baideah is the desert, as it is called, of Sdur, (the same with Shur, Ex 15:22,) where the Israelites landed after they had passed through the interjacent gulf of the Red Sea. The situation of this gulf, which is the Jam suph, the weedy sea or the tongue of the Egyptian sea in the Scripture language; the gulf of Heroopolis in the Greek and Latin geography; and the Western arm, as the Arabian geographers call it, of the sea of Kolzum; stretches itself nearly north and south, and therefore lies very properly situated to be traversed by that strong east wind which was sent to divide it, Ex 14:21. The division that was thus made in the channel, the making the waters of it to stand on a heap, (Ps 78:13,) their being a wall to the Israelites on the right hand and on the left, (Ex 14:22,) besides the twenty miles’ distance, at least, of this passage from the extremity of the gulf, are circumstances which sufficiently vouch for the miraculousness of it, and no less contradict all such idle suppositions as pretend to account for it from the nature and quality of tides, or from any such extraordinary recess of the sea as it seems to have been too rashly compared to by Josephus.

“In travelling from Sdur towards Mount Sinai we come into the desert, as it is still called, of Marah, where the Israelites met with those bitter waters or waters of Marah, Ex 15:23. And as this circumstance did not happen till after they had wandered three days in the wilderness, we may probably fix these waters at Corondel, where there is still a small rill which, unless it be diluted by the dews and rain, still continues to be brackish. Near this place the sea forms itself into a large bay called Berk el Corondel, i.e., the lake of Corondel, which is remarkable from a strong current that sets into it from the northward, particularly at the recess of the tide. The Arabs, agreeably to the interpretation of Kolzum, (the name for this sea,) preserve a tradition, that a numerous host was formerly drowned at this place, occasioned no doubt by what is related Ex 14:30, that the Israelites saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore, i.e., all along, as we may presume, from Sdur to Corondel, and at Corondel especially, from the assistance and termination of the current as it has been already mentioned.

“There is nothing farther remarkable till we see the Israelites encamped at Elim, Ex 15:27, Nu 33:9, upon the northern skirts of the desert of Sin, two leagues from Tor, and near thirty from Corondel. I saw no more than nine of the twelve wells that are mentioned by Moses, the other three being filled up by those drifts of sand which are common in Arabia. Yet this loss is amply made up by the great increase of the palm-trees, the seventy having propagated themselves into more than two thousand. Under the shade of these trees is the Hamman Mousa or bath of Moses, particularly so called, which the inhabitants of Tor have in great esteem and veneration, acquainting us that it was here where the household of Moses was encamped.

“We have a distinct view of Mount Sinai from Elim, the wilderness, as it is still called, of Sin lying betwixt them. We traversed these plains in nine hours, being all the way diverted with the sight of a variety of lizards and vipers that are here in great numbers. We were afterwards near twelve hours in passing the many windings and difficult ways which lie betwixt these deserts and those of Sinai. The latter consists of a beautiful plain, more than a league in breadth, and nearly three in length, lying open towards the north-east, where we enter it, but is closed up to the southward by some of the lower eminences of Mount Sinai. In this direction likewise the higher parts of this mountain make such encroachments upon the plain that they divide it into two, each of them capacious enough to receive the whole encampment of the Israelites. That which lies to the eastward may be the desert of Sinai, properly so called, where Moses saw the angel of the Lord in the burning bush, when he was guarding the flocks of Jethro, Ex 3:2. The convent of St. Catharine is built over the place of this Divine appearance. It is near three hundred feet square, and more than forty in height, being built partly with stone, partly with mud and mortar mixed together. The more immediate place of the shechinah is honoured with a little chapel which this old fraternity of St. Basil has in such esteem and veneration that, in imitation of Moses, they put off their shoes from off their feet whenever they enter it. This, with several other chapels dedicated to particular saints, is included within the church, as they call it, of the transfiguration, which is a large beautiful structure covered with lead, and supported by two rows of marble columns. The floor is very elegantly laid out in a variety of devices in Mosaic work. Of the same tessellated workmanship likewise are both the floor and the walls of the presbyterium, upon the latter whereof are represented the effigies of the Emperor Justinian, together with the history of the transfiguration. Upon the partition which separates the presbyterium from the body of the church, there is placed a small marble shrine, wherein are preserved the skull and one of the hands of St. Catharine, the rest of the sacred body having been bestowed at different times upon such Christian princes as have contributed to the support of this convent.

“Mount Sinai, which hangs over this convent, is called by the Arabs, Jibbel Mousa, i.e., the mountain of Moses, and sometimes only, by way of eminence, El Tor, i.e., the mountain. The summit of Mount Sinai is not very spacious, where the Mohammedans, the Latins, and the Greeks, have each of them a small chapel.

“After we had descended, with no small difficulty, down the other or western side of this mount, we come into the plain or wilderness of Rephidim, Ex 17:1, where we see that extraordinary antiquity, the rock of Meribah, Ex 17:6-7, which has continued down to this day without the least injury from time or accidents. This is rightly called, (De 8:15,) from its hardness, a rock of flint, ; though, from the purple or reddish colour of it, it may be rather rendered the rock of or amethyst, or the amethystine or granite rock. It is about six yards square, lying tottering as it were, and loose, near the middle of the valley; and seems to have been formerly a part or cliff of Mount Sinai, which hangs in a variety of precipices all over this plain. The waters which gushed out and the stream which flowed withal, Ps 78:20, have hollowed, across one corner of this rock, a channel about two inches deep and twenty wide, all over incrustated like the inside of a tea-kettle that has been long used. Besides several mossy productions that are still preserved by the dew, we see all over this channel a great number of holes, some of them four or five inches deep and one or two in diameter, the lively and demonstrative tokens of their having been formerly so many fountains. Neither could art or chance be concerned in the contrivance, inasmuch as every circumstance points out to us a miracle; and in the same manner, with the rent in the rock of Mount Calvary in Jerusalem, never fails to produce the greatest seriousness and devotion in all who see it.

“From Mount Sinai the Israelites directed their marches northward, toward the land of Canaan. The next remarkable encampments therefore were in the desert of Paran, which seems to have commenced immediately upon their departing from Hazaroth, three stations’ or days’ journey, i.e., thirty miles, as we will only compute them from Sinai, Nu 10:33, and Nu 12:16. And as tradition has continued down to us the names of Shur, Marah, and Sin, so it has also that of Paran; the ruins of the late convent of Paran, built upon the ruins of an ancient city of that name, (which might give denomination to the whole of that desert,) being about the half way betwixt Sinai and Corondel, which lie at forty leagues’ distance. This situation of Paran, so far to the south of Kadesh, will illustrate Ge 14:5-6, where Chedorlaomer, and the kings that were with him, are said to have smote the Horites in their Mount Seir unto El Paran, (i.e., unto the city, as I take it, of that name,) which is in or by the wilderness. From the more advanced part of the wilderness of Paran, (the same that lay in the road betwixt Midian and Egypt, 1Ki 11:18,) Moses sent a man out of every tribe to spy out the land of Canaan, Nu 13:2-3, who returned to him after forty days, unto the same wilderness, to Kadesh Barnea, Nu 32:8; De 1:10; 9:23; Jos 14:7. This place or city, which in Ge 14:7 is called Enmishpat, (i.e., the fountain of Mishpat,) is in Nu 20:1; 27:14; 33:36, called Tzin Kadesh, or simply Kadesh, as in Ge 16:14; Ge 20:1; and being equally ascribed to the desert of Tzin (,) and to the desert of Paran, we may presume that the desert of Tzin and Paran were one and the same; or may be so called from the plants of divers palm grounds upon it.

“A late ingenious author has situated Kadesh Barnea, a place of no small consequence in Scripture history, which we are now inquiring after, at eight hours’ or twenty miles’ distance only from Mount Sinai, which I presume cannot be admitted for various reasons, because several texts of Scripture insinuate that Kadesh lay at a much greater distance. Thus in De 1:19, it is said, they departed from Horeb through that great and terrible wilderness, (which supposes by far a much greater extent both of time and space,) and came to Kadesh Barnea; and in De 9:23, when the Lord sent you from Kadesh Barnea to possess the land; which, Nu 20:16, is described to be a city in the uttermost parts of the border of Edom; the border of the land of Edom and that of the land of promise being contiguous, and in fact the very same. And farther, De 1:2, it is expressly said, There are eleven days’ journey from Horeb, by the way of Mount Seir, to Kadesh Barnea; which from the context, cannot be otherwise understood than of marching along the direct road. For Moses hereby intimates how soon the Israelites might have entered upon the borders of the land of promise, if they had not been a stubborn and rebellious people. Whereas the number of their stations betwixt Sinai and Kadesh, as they are particularly enumerated Num. xxxiii., (each of which must have been at least one day’s journey,) appear to be near twice as many, or twenty-one, in which they are said with great truth and propriety, Ps 107:4, to have wandered in the wilderness out of the way; and in De 2:1, to have compassed Mount Seir, rather than to have travelled directly through it. If then we allow ten miles for each of these eleven days’ journey, (and fewer I presume cannot well be insisted upon,) the distance of Kadesh from Mount Sinai will be about one hundred and ten miles. That ten miles (I mean in a direct line, as laid down in the map, without considering the deviations which are everywhere, more or less) were equivalent to one day’s journey, may be farther proved from the history of the spies, who searched the land (Nu 13:21) from Kadesh to Rehob, as men come to Hamath, and returned in forty days. Rehob, then, the farthest point of this expedition to the northward, may well be conceived to have been twenty days’ journey from Kadesh; and therefore to know the true position of Rehob will be a material point in this disquisition. Now it appears from Jos 19:29-30, and Jdg 1:31, that Rehob was one of the maritime cities of the tribe of Asher, and lay (in travelling, as we may suppose, by the common or nearest way along the seacoast) , Nu 13:21, (not as we render it, as men come to Hamath, but,) as men go towards Hamath, in going to Hamath, or in the way or road to Hamath. For to have searched the land as far as Hamath, and to have returned to Kadesh in forty days, would have been altogether impossible. Moreover, as the tribe of Asher did not reach beyond Sidon, (for that was its northern boundary, Jos 19:28,) Rehob must have been situated to the southward of Sidon, upon or (being a derivative perhaps from btd, latum esse) below in the plain, under a long chain of mountains that runs east and west through the midst of that tribe. And as these mountains called by some the mountains of Saran, are all along, except in the narrow road which I have mentioned, near the sea, very rugged and difficult to pass over, the spies, who could not well take another way, might imagine they would run too great a risk of being discovered in attempting to pass through it. For in these eastern countries a watchful eye was always, as it is still, kept upon strangers, as we may collect from the history of the two angels at Sodom, Ge 19:5, and of the spies at Jericho, Jos 2:2, and from other instances. If then we fix Rehob upon the skirts of the plains of Acre, a little to the south of this narrow road (the Scala Tyriorum as it was afterwards named) somewhere near Egdippa, the distance betwixt Kadesh and Rehob will be about two hundred and ten miles, whereas, by placing Kadesh twenty miles only from Sinai or Horeb, the distance will be three hundred and thirty miles. And instead of ten miles a day, according to the former computation, the spies must have travelled near seventeen, which for forty days successively seems to have been too difficult an expedition in this hot and consequently fatiguing climate, especially as they were on foot or footpads, as (their appellation in the original) may probably import. These geographical circumstances therefore, thus corresponding with what is actually known of those countries at this time, should induce us to situate Kadesh, as I have already done, one hundred and ten miles to the northward of Mount Sinai, and forty-two miles to the westward of Eloth, near Callah Nahur, i.e., the castle of the river or fountain, (probably the Ain Mishpat,) a noted station of the Mohammedans in their pilgrimage to Mecca.

“From Kadesh the Israelites were ordered to turn into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea, (Nu 14:25; De 1:40,) i.e., they were at this time, in punishment of their murmurings, infidelity, and disobedience, to advance no farther northward towards the land of Canaan. Now, these marches are called the compassing of Mount Seir, De 2:1, and the passing by from the children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir, through the way of the plain of Eloth and Ezion-gaber, De 2:8. The wandering, therefore, of the children of Israel, during the space of thirty-eight years, (De 2:14,) was confined, in all probability to that neck of land only which lies bounded by the gulfs of Eloth and Heroopolis. If then we could adjust the true position of Eloth, we should gain one considerable point towards the better laying down and circumscribing this mountainous tract, where the Israelites wandered for so many years. Now, there is a universal consent among geographers that Eloth, Ailah, or Aelana, as it is differently named, was situated upon the northern extremity of the gulf of that name. Ptolemy, indeed, places it forty-five minutes to the south of Heroopolis, and nearly three degrees to the east; whereas Abulfeda, whose later authority, and perhaps greater experience, should be more regarded, makes the extremities of the two gulfs to lie nearly in the same parallel, though without recording the distance between them. I have been often informed by the Mohammedan pilgrims, who, in their way to Mecca, pass them both, that they direct their marches from Kairo eastward, till they arrive at Callah Accaba, or the castle (situated below the mountains) of Accaba, upon the Elanitic point of the Red Sea. Here they begin to travel betwixt the south and south-east, with their faces directly towards Mecca, which lay hitherto upon their right hand; having made in all, from Adjeroute, ten miles to the north northwest of Suez, to this castle, a journey of seventy hours. But as this whole tract is very mountainous, the road must consequently be attended with great variety of windings and turnings, which would hinder them from making any greater progress than at the rate, we will suppose, of about half a league an hour. Eloth, then, (which is the place of a Turkish garrison at present, as it was a prsidium of the Romans in former times,) will lie, according to this calculation, about one hundred and forty miles from Adjeroute, in an east by south direction; a position which will likewise receive farther confirmation from the distance that is assigned to it from Gaza, in the old geography. For, as this distance was one hundred and fifty Roman miles according to Pliny, or one hundred and fifty-seven according to other authors, Eloth could not have had a more southern situation than latitude twenty-nine degrees, forty minutes; neither could it have had a more northern latitude, insomuch as this would have so far invalidated a just observation of Strabo‘s, who makes Heroopolis and Pelusium to be much nearer each other than Eloth and Gaza. And, besides, as Gaza is well known to lie in latitude thirty-one degrees, forty minutes, (as we have placed Eloth in latitude twenty-nine degrees, forty minutes,) the difference of latitude betwixt them will be two degrees or one hundred and twenty geographical miles; which converted into Roman miles, (seventy-five and a half of which make one degree,) we have the very distance (especially as they lie nearly under the same meridian) that is ascribed to them above by Strabo and Pliny. Yet, notwithstanding this point may be gained, it would be too daring an attempt, even to pretend to trace out above two or three of the encampments mentioned Num. xxxiii., though the greatest part of them was in all probability confined to this tract of Arabia Petra, which I have bounded to the east by the meridian of Eloth, and to the west by that of Heroopolis, Kadesh lying near or upon the skirts of it to the northward.

“However, one of their more southern stations, after they had left Mount Sinai and Paran, seems to have been at Ezion-gaber; which being the place from whence Solomon’s navy went for gold to Ophir, 1Ki 9:26, 2Ch 8:17, we may be induced to take it for the present Meenah el Dsahab, i.e., the port of gold. According to the account I had of this place from the monks of St. Catharine, it lies in the gulf of Eloth, betwixt two and three days’ journey from them,–enjoying a spacious harbour; from whence they are sometimes supplied, as I have already mentioned, with plenty of lobsters and shell fish. Meenah el Dsahab therefore, from this circumstance, may be nearly at the same distance from Sinai with Tor; from whence they are likewise furnished with the same provisions, which, unless they are brought with the utmost expedition, frequently corrupt and putrefy. I have already given the distance between the northwest part of the desert of Sin and Mount Sinai, to be twenty-one hours; and if we farther add three hours, (the distance betwixt the desert of Sin and the port of Tor, from whence these fish are obtained,) we shall have in all twenty-four hours; i.e., in round numbers, about sixty miles. Ezion-gaber consequently may lie a little more or less at that distance from Sinai; because the days’ journeys which the monks speak of are not, perhaps, to be considered as ordinary and common ones; but such as are made in haste, that the fish may arrive in good condition.

“In the description of the East, p. 157, Ezion-gaber is placed to the south-east of Eloth, and at two or three miles only from it; which, I presume, cannot be admitted. For, as Eloth itself is situated upon the very joint of the gulf, Ezion-gaber, by lying to the south-east of it would belong to the land of Midian; whereas Ezion-gaber was undoubtedly a sea-port in the land of Edom, as we learn from the authorities above related, viz., where King Solomon is said to have made a navy of ships in Ezion-gaber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom. Here it may be observed that the word which we render beside Eloth, should be rendered, together with Eloth; not denoting any vicinity between them, but that they were both of them ports of the Red Sea, in the land of Edom.

“From Ezion-gaber the Israelites turned back again to Kadesh, with an intent to direct their marches that way into the land of Canaan. But upon Edom‘s refusing to give Israel passage through his border, (Nu 20:18,) they turned away from him to the right hand, as I suppose, toward Mount Hor, (Nu 20:21,22,) which might lie to the eastward of Kadesh, in the road from thence to the Red Sea; and as the soul of the children of Israel is said to have been here much discouraged because of the way, it is very probable that Mount Hor was the same chain of mountains that are now called Accaba by the Arabs, and were the easternmost range, as we may take them to be, of Ptolemy’s above described. Here, from the badness of the road, and the many rugged passes that are to be surmounted, the Mohammedan pilgrims lose a number of camels, and are no less fatigued than the Israelites were formerly in getting over them. I have already hinted, that this chain of mountains, the of Ptolemy, reached from Paran to Judea. Petra, therefore, according to its later name, the metropolis of this part of Arabia, may well be supposed to lie among them, and to have been left by the Israelites on their left hand, in journeying toward Moab. Yet it will be difficult to determine the situation of this city, for want of a sufficient number of geographical data to proceed upon. In the old geography, Petra is placed one hundred and thirty-five miles to the eastward of Gaza, and four days’ journey from Jericho, to the southward. But neither of these distances can be any ways accounted for; the first being too great, the other too deficient. For, as we may well suppose Petra to lie near, or upon the borders of Moab, seven days’ journey would be the least: the same that the three kings took hither, 2Ki 3:9, (by fetching a compass, as we may imagine,) from Jerusalem, which was nearer to that border than Jericho. However, at a medium, Petra lay in all probability about the half way between the south extremity of the Asphaltic lake, and the gulf of Eloth, and may be therefore fixed near the confines of the country of the Midianites and Moabites at seventy miles distance from Kadesh, towards the north-east; and eighty-five from Gaza, to the south. According to Josephus, it was formerly called Arce, which Bochart supposes to be a corruption of Rekem, the true and ancient name. The Amalekites, so frequently mentioned in Scripture, were once seated in the neighbourhood of this place, who were succeeded by the Nabathans, a people no less famous in profane history. From Mount Hor, the direction of their marches through Zalmona, Punon, &c., seems to have been between the north and north-east. For it does not appear that they wandered any more in the wilderness out of the direct way that was to conduct them through the country of Moab, (Nu 33:35-49,) into the land of promise.” – SHAW’S Travels, chap. v., p. 304, &c.

A CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE

OF THE

PRINCIPAL EVENTS RECORDED IN THE BOOK OF EXODUS

SHOWING IN WHAT YEAR OF THE WORLD, IN WHAT YEAR BEFORE CHRIST, IN WHAT YEAR FROM THE DELUGE, AND IN WHAT YEAR FROM THEIR DEPARTURE FROM EGYPT, EACH EVENT HAPPENED; INTERSPERSED WITH A FEW CONNECTING CIRCUMSTANCES FROM PROFANE HISTORY, ACCORDING TO THE PLAN OF ARCHBISHOP USHER.

A.M.	B.C.		An.Dil.	An.Ex.
2365	1639	Levi, the third son of Jacob, dies in the 137th year of his age, Ex 6:16. – N.B. This event is placed twenty years later by most chronologists, but I have followed the computation of Mr. Skinner and Dr. Kennicott. See Clarke on “Ge 31:41”.	709
2375	1629	About this time Acenchres, son of Orus, began to reign in Egypt, and reigned twelve years and one month.	719
2385	1619	The Ethiopians, from the other side of the Indus, first settle in the middle of Egypt.	729
2387	1617	Rathotis, the brother of Acenchres, began about this time to reign over the Egyptians, and reigned nine years.	731
2396	1608	Acencheres, the son of Rathotis, succeeds his father and reigns twelve years and six months.	740
2400	1604	About this time it is supposed the Egyptians began to be jealous of the Hebrews, on account of their prodigious multiplication.	744
2409	1595	Ancencheres succeeds Acencheres, and reigns twelve years and three months.	753
2421	1583	Armais succeeds Ancencheres, and reigns four years and one month.	765
		About this time Kohath, the son of Levi, and grandfather of Moses, died in the 133d year of his age; Ex 6:18. – N. B. There are several years of uncertainty in the date of this event.
2425	1579	Rameses succeeds Armais in the government, and reigns one year and four months.	769
2427	1577	Rameses Miamun succeeds Rameses, and reigns sixty-seven years.	771
2430	1574	Aaron, son of Amram, brother of Moses, born eighty-three years before the exodus of the Israelites; Ex 6:20; Ex 7:7.	774
2431	1573	About this time Pharaoh (supposed to be the same with Rameses Miamun) published an edict, ordering all the male children of the Hebrews to be drowned in the Nile, Ex 1:22.	775
2433	1571	Moses, the Jewish lawgiver, born; Ex 2:2.	777
2448	1556	The kingdom of the Athenians founded about this time by Cecrops.	792
2465	1539	In this year, which was the eighteenth of Cecrops, the Chaldeans waged war with the Phnicians.	809
2466	1538	About this time the Arabians subdued the Chaldeans, and took possession of their country.	810
2473	1531	Moses, being forty years of age, kills an Egyptian, whom he found smiting a Hebrew; in consequence of which, being obliged to fly for his life, he escapes to the land of Midian, where becoming acquainted with the family of Jethro, he marries Zipporah; Ex 2:11-22.	817
2474	1530	The birth of Caleb, the son of Jephunneh.	818
2494	1510	Rameses Miamun, king of Egypt, dies about this time in the sixty-seventh year of his reign, and is succeeded by his son Amenophis, who reigns nineteen years and six months.	838
2495	1509	The death of Amram, the father of Moses, is supposed to have taken place about this time.	839
2513	1491	While Moses keeps the flock of Jethro at Mount Horeb, the Angel of God appears to him in a burning bush, promises to deliver the Hebrews from their oppression in Egypt, and sends him to Pharaoh to command him to let Israel go; chap. iii.	857
		Aaron and Moses assemble the elders of Israel, inform them of the Divine purpose, and then go to Pharaoh and desire him, in the name of the God of the Hebrews, to let the people go three days’ journey into the wilderness to hold a feast unto the Lord. Pharaoh is enraged, and increases the oppression of the Israelites; chap. v.
		Aaron throws down his rod, which becomes a serpent. The Egyptian magicians imitate this miracle; chap. vii.
		Pharaoh refusing to let the Israelites go, God sends his FIRST plague upon the Egyptians, and the waters are turned into blood: Ex 7:19-25.
		Pharaoh remaining impenitent, God sends immense numbers of frogs, which infest the whole land of Egypt. This was the SECOND plague; Ex 8:1-7.
		This plague not producing the desired effect, God sends the THIRD plague, the dust of the ground becoming lice on man and beast; Ex 8:16-20.
		Pharaoh’s heart still remaining obdurate, God sends the FOURTH plague upon the nation, by causing great swarms of flies to cover the whole land; Ex 8:20-32.
		The Egyptian king still refusing to dismiss the Hebrews, God sends his FIFTH plague, which is a universal murrain or mortality among the cattle; Ex 9:1-7.
		This producing no good effect, the SIXTH plague of boils and blains is sent; Ex 9:8-12.
		Pharaoh still hardening his heart, God sends the SEVENTH plague, viz., a grievous hail which destroyed the whole produce of the field; Ex 9:22-26.
		This, through Pharaoh’s obstinacy, proving ineffectual, the EIGHTH plague is sent, immense swarms of locusts, which devour the land; Ex 10:1-20.
		Pharaoh refusing to submit to the Divine authority, the NINTH plague, a total darkness of three days’ continuance, is spread over the whole land of Egypt; Ex 10:21-24.
		Pharaoh continuing to refuse to let the people go, God institutes the rite of the passover, and sends the TENTH plague upon the Egyptians, and the first-born of man and beast died throughout the whole land. This was in the fourteenth night of the month Abib. The Israelites are driven out of Egypt, Ex 12:1-36; and carry Joseph’s bones with them; Ex 13:19.
2513	1491	The Israelites march from Succoth to Etham; thence to Pi-hahiroth, the Lord guiding them by a miraculous pillar; Ex 13:20-22; Ex 14:1-2.	857	Isr. 1 Abib
		Towards the close of this month, Pharaoh and the Egyptians pursue the Israelites; God opens a passage for these through the Red Sea, and they pass over as on dry land, which the Egyptians essaying to do, are all drowned; chap. xiv; Heb 11:29.
		The Israelites come to Marah, and murmur because of the bitter waters; Moses is directed to throw a certain tree into them, by which they are rendered sweet; Ex 15:23-25.
		About the beginning of this month the Israelites Ijar or come to Elim; Ex 15:27.		Ijar or Zif
		On the fifteenth day of this month the Israelites come to the desert of Sin, where, murmuring for want of bread, quails are sent, and manna from heaven; chap. xvi.
		Coming to Rephidim they murmur for want of water, and God supplies this want by miraculously bringing water out of a rock in Horeb, Ex 17:1-7.
		The Amalekites attack the Israelites in Rephidim, and are discomfited; Ex 17:8-16.
		The Israelites come to the wilderness of Sinai. God calls Moses up to the mount, where he receives the ten commandments and other precepts; chap. xix.-xxiv.: is instructed how to make the tabernacle; xxv.-xxviii. Aaron and his sons are dedicated to the priest’s office; chap. xxviii.		Sivan
		Moses delaying to come down from the mount, the people make a molten calf, and worship it. Moses, coming down, sees their idolatry, is distressed, and breaks the tables; three thousand of the idolaters are slain; and, at the intercession of Moses, the rest of the people are saved from destruction; chap. xxxii.		Ab
		Moses is again called up into the mount, where God renews the covenant, and writes the two tables afresh. Moses desires to see the Divine glory; his request is partially granted; Ex 33:18-23; Ex 34:1-27.
		Moses, after having been in the mount forty days and forty nights, during which time he ate nothing, comes down with the two tables of stone: his face shines so that he is obliged to cover it with a veil; Ex 34:29-35.		Elul
2514	1490	From this time to the month Adar, including Marcheshvan, Cisleu, Thebet, and Sebat, Bezaleel, Aholiab, and their assistants are employed in constructing the tabernacle, &c., according to the pattern delivered to Moses on the mount; chap. xxxvi.-xxxix.	858	Tisri
		On the first of the month, being the first month of the second year after their departure from Egypt, the tabernacle is reared up, and Aaron and his sons set apart for the priest’s office; Ex 40:17-32. – N. B. The ceremonies attending this consecration form the chief part of the following book, LEVITICUS.	858	Isr 2
2514	1490	Jethro brings Zipporah and her two sons to Moses in the wilderness, and gives him wholesome directions concerning the best mode of governing the people, which Moses thankfully accepts, and God approves; chap. xviii, and see the notes there.		Abib or Nisan Ijar or Zif

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

The same pillar which in the day-time was like a cloud, in the night-time had the appearance of fire. See Exo 13:21.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

38. the cloud of the Lord was uponthe tabernacle, c.While it had hitherto appeared sometimes inone place, sometimes in another, it was now found on the tabernacleonly so that from the moment that sanctuary was erected, and theglory of the Lord had filled the sacred edifice, the Israelites hadto look to the place which God had chosen to put His name there, inorder that they might enjoy the benefit of a heavenly Guide (Nu9:15-23). In like manner, the church had divine revelation forits guide from the firstlong before the WORDof God existed in a written form; but ever since the setting up ofthat sacred canon, it rests on that as its tabernacle and there onlyis it to be found. It accompanies us wherever we are or go, just asthe cloud led the way of the Israelites. It is always accessible andcan be carried in our pockets when we walk abroad; it may be engravedon the inner tablets of our memories and our hearts; and so true,faithful, and complete a guide is it, that there is not a scene ofduty or of trial through which we may be called to pass in the world,but it furnishes a clear, a safe, and unerring direction (Col3:16).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

For the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day,…. Or over it g, it covered it, when it abode upon it, and rested; and stood on high over it when it moved and the people journeyed:

and fire was on it by night; the same phenomenon which had the appearance of a cloud in the day time shone like fire in the night time: or “fire was in it” h; that is, in the cloud; so it appeared in the night, and was, as the Targum of Jonathan here calls it, a pillar of fire; the same with the pillar of cloud and fire, which departed not from the people all the while they were in the wilderness,

Ex 13:21 and this was

in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys; whether by night or by day; for in hot countries they travel much by night; and as the cloud was both a shelter from the heat of the sun in the daytime, and a direction of their way; so the fire by night was of the same use for direction, and might be also terrifying to wild beasts in the wilderness, who are afraid of fire, and so be a security to the Israelites from them; all which is an emblem of the guidance and protection, light, joy, and comfort, the church of God has from his gracious presence, while in the wilderness of this world; see Isa 4:5.

g “supra tabernaculum”, Drusius. h “in ea”; Fagius, Junius Tremellius Drusius.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

38. For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle. Moses more distinctly explains what he had said generally respecting the cloud, viz., that by night a fiery column appeared, because the cloud would not have been visible amidst the darkness. A second explanation is also added, that this did not happen once or twice only, but “in all their journeys;” so that they were never without a sight of the cloud, which might be a witness of God’s presence, whether, being settled on the tabernacle, it commanded them to rest, or, by its ascension, gave them the sign for removing the camp. Now, the equability of this proceeding, in all the variety of times and marches, did not a little conduce to certainty; for, if the cloud had daily accomplished the same course, this very regularity would have obscured the power’ of God; but when for a whole year it did not move, and then frequently proceeded to a new place, and now by its. guidance pointed out a longer journey, now a shorter one, by this very diversity the paternal care of God, who was never unmindful of His people, more conspicuously manifested itself.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

FROM THE SEA TO MOUNT SINAI

Exo 15:22 to Exo 40:38

So Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water (Exo 15:22).

For the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys (Exo 40:38).

WE concluded our last study with the song of victory started by Moses, joined in by the Children of Israel and completed by Miriam.

One could easily imagine that after the experience of such a miracle as all Israel had witnessed, further confidence in God would be easy and constant, but alas for changing circumstances and the shift of human emotions! The very opening verse of this study holds a hint of trouble!

They went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. The verses that follow, Exo 15:23-26, report the murmurings of the people against Moses, and the necessity of a new miracle from God to silence their complaint. And yet, when one understands all the circumstances incident to this complaint, while he may not justify the Israelites, his condemnation of them will surely be softened. Burton, in his third edition of Meccal! (145), speaking of the atmosphere in this vicinity, says, At dawn it is mild and balmy as an Italian spring, and inconceivably lovely in the colors it sheds on earth and sky; but presently the sun bursts up from the sea, a fierce enemy that will force every one to crouch before him. For two hours his rays are endurable, but after that they become a fiery ordeal. The morning beams oppress you with a feeling of sickness. Their steady glow blinds your eyes, blisters your skin and parches your mouth, till you have only one thought: When will evening come? At noon the heat, reverberated by the glowing hills, is like the blast of a lime-kiln. The wind sleeps on the reeking shore; the sky is white; men are not so much sleeping as half senseless. They feel that a few more degrees of heat would be death. It is easy to see, therefore, how two or three millions of people, encumbered in travel by great herds and many little children, seeing the supply of water fail utterly from the skin-bottles, and nothing ahead but a parched plain and scorching mountains, should wonder how life could long be sustained, and even ask what profit to escape from Egyptian oppression and witness Pharaohs overthrow, if we are so soon to perish?

This is the beginning of the journey from

THE SEA TO SINAI

And this is only the beginning of Israels trials. They are thirsting for water now. Shortly they will be in want of bread, and as hunger grows, cry out,

Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh-pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger (Exo 16:3).

And, again at Rephidim, they will be without water, murmuring against Moses and saying,

Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst (Exo 17:3)?

But it is only in our hours of extremity that we learn the most valuable lessons; and out of these experiences Israel learned that meat and drink is from the Lord. At Marah the Lord directed Moses to cast a certain tree into the waters and they were made sweet (Exo 15:25), and from Marah they removed to Elim, where were twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees; and they encamped there by the waters (Exo 15:27). When, some six weeks later, they cried for bread, the Lord said unto Moses,

Speak unto them saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall he filled with bread (Exo 16:12). * * And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp; and in the morning the dew lay round about the host (Exo 16:13).

To this day it is not an unusual thing for quails to be found migrating in that country in enormous numbers, and being birds of low and heavy flight, they become easily exhausted in their migrations and can be picked up by those in need of them. An edible lichen is often blown from the spots where it grows and carried by the winds to the valley below and showered there inches deep, and some have argued that God fed them by natural means, but when it is remembered that this manna was continued along the course of their travel from Egypt to Canaan through the entire forty years, it is seen to have been a miraculous gift from God. We have been taught to pray, Give us this day our daily bread, and God has answered the prayer for those of us living in this land by means so natural and so abundant, that even His own people almost forget that every good and every perfect gift comes from Him.

We are in danger from the very abundance of our blessing of bearing the mark of Gentile corruption, of which Paul speaks, when of them he says, When they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful. It is when one is brought into the severest straights; it is when one has reached the end of human ingenuity, that God can best reveal Himself to him as the giver of all good.

Henry M. Stanley, giving an account of his relief expedition in his search of Emin Pasha, speaks of a time when he and his comrades, after the utmost economy in their diet, were out of food and ready to perish. In their extremity they made their appeal to God, and lo, there was a sound as of a large bird whirring through the air, and just as they looked it dropped in their midst, and the little fox-terrier snapped the prize and held it fast as in a vice of iron; and when they had discovered that it was a fine, fat guinea-fowl, sufficient in flesh to meet all the immediate demands, they agreed that the God who sent quails and manna to Israel, and fed Elijah with the ravens at the Brook Cherith, was still able and willing to care for them who put their trust in Him.

But when God causes the dry rock in Horeb to gush forth a refreshing stream, He has not put an end to all of Israels troubles. In our times of trial, we are prone to think, If only God would do for me this greatly needful thing, I would never be in such want again. But no man knows what a day may bring forth. There are enemies more dangerous than hunger and thirst.

The rise of Amalek represents a greater need.

Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim (Exo 17:8).

It is easy to imagine how unfit for war Israel was at this time. The march had been a weary one; the intense heat and the want of water had exhausted them, and it would seem an easy thing for this Bedouin chief and his followers to strike them a blow that would mean little less than a slaughter of the whole company. That Joshua was able to discomfit him and his people with the edge of the sword prevailing, while Moses hands were held up in prayer, gave good occasion for the adoption of the new battle cry, Jehovah-nissi (Jer 17:15)Jehovah is my banner. And, when one remembers that Amalek was likely a grandson of Esau, and so a fit representative of the flesh, he is encouraged to hope for victory against all the lusts that would defeat the progress of the Christian on his way to the promised land. And when the Church remembers that the flesh is also her greatest enemy, this bit of ancient history ought to come as an encouragement to victory through the intervention of the same mighty God.

Arthur Pierson, in The Miracles of Missions, calls attention to the fact that when, in 1851, the king on the throne, ruling over Siam, was a foe to missions, and the thirty-three years of work which Christians had done in that country seemed threatened with defeat by him, suddenly on April 3rd the king died. And do you remember also that in 1850 the outlook for missions in Turkey was dark indeed, because the Sultan had issued a decree that all missionaries were to leave the land and the missions were to be closed? It is related that when one of our American missionaries, having failed to get the decree revoked, called on a brother laborer and told him the final decision, the brother replied, The Sultan of the universe can reverse it, and the next morning the tyrannical Mahmud was dead, and his successor in office favored the continuance of the work.

But where in the annals of history has there occurred a more marked intervention of this same Jehovah than that reported in connection with the siege of Pekin in the Boxer movement. You will remember that as the weary days wore on, and the native Christians and allies were cooped up in the English Compound, they longed for a loaded cannon, knowing full well that to fire once upon the cowardly enemy would be to fill them with fear lest arms had been secretly smuggled to the allies. It fell out just then that an old rusty gun was discovered in the French Quarters. It had not been loaded for thirty years and it was hardly known whether it would stand the strain of a single fire. They were also embarrassed by the want of ammunition. But suddenly some of the Russian soldiers remembered to have brought with them a little powder and some balls, and when they were brought, the ball fitted perfectly to the cannon. Then a young man from America volunteered to touch it off, expecting that the gun would explode and that he might lose his life in the act. But, knowing the importance that might possibly attach to it, he stood ready to make the sacrifice. Imagine the surprise and joy, therefore, of the besieged when they saw the gun act perfectly. The ball went crashing through the Chinese quarters, killing one or two and striking terror to the multitude of the besiegers. In the confusion the Chinese exploded a sunken mine, blew up their own building, killed many of their soldiers, and created the universal impression that the allies had been reinforced and supplied with fire-armsJehovah is my banner. If Israel had a right to that as a watchword in her war with Amalek, the Christian, conquering through Jesus Christ and the Church, seeing enemy after enemy overthrown, has repeated occasion to employ the same term.

Passing over the 18th chapter, which contains the return of Moses wife and children to him, and Jethros counsel resulting in the appointment of the seventy judges, we are brought to Sinai, and are ready for

THE GIVING OF THE LAWS

It ought to be remembered that Sinai is the southernmost point in this journey to Canaan, and it is of interest to get in mind the physical features of the land.

George Dana Boardman speaks of the plain lying at the foot of this mountain as a sandy plateau some 4000 feet above the Mediterranean, two miles long and half a mile wide, while Cunningham Geikie makes claim for a still larger open space. The mountain that rises out of it about 2200 feet high, is made up of granite deeply fissured, and presents an august mien. It was upon this imposing mount that the Lord descended, and the Psalmist, centuries afterwards, pictures with an inspired pen the wonderful phenomena associated with Gods visit to the earth.

The earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken. * * He bowed the heavens also, and came down; and darkness was under His feet. And He rode upon a cherub, and did fly; yea,

He did fly upon the wings of the wind. He made darkness His secret place; His pavilion round about Him were dark waters and thick clouds of the skies (Psa 18:7-11). The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God; even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God, the God of Israel (Psa 68:8).

He first voices the Ten Commandments. Those commandments have remained to this hour the divinest of all moral laws. They oppose polytheism; they put an injunction on idolatry; they render sacred the Name of Jehovah; they set aside one-seventh of time for rest; they honor age and parenthood; they insist upon the sacredness of human life; they demand chastity; they protect property; they call for the truth and they inveigh against covetousness. Truly, as Joseph Parker has said, The old world has no need of new commandments, for we know that there are none better than those delivered millenniums gone to Moses. If it were not for the fact that we are to give a series of nine sermons to the Ten Commandments, this chapter would not suffice to attempt even a brief exposition of each; but I am not content to pass the subject of the Decalogue without calling attention to the wonderful way in which it was given.

First of all, God spake all these words (20:1). No wonder that after having heard His voice, the people were filled with fear and said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die (Exo 20:19). A little later God writes with His own finger these Ten Commandments on two tables of stone, but Moses breaks these, and in the 34th chapter, verse 1 (Exo 34:1), we find God renewing them.

It has ever been the custom of God to give His laws clearly, to choose the very words in which they should be expressed, and then to preserve them in a supernatural way. George E. Merrill, in The Parchments of the Faith, speaking of the wonderful way in which the scribes copied the sacred Scripture, declares that any manuscripts which contained mistakes were destroyed, saying, Very slight mistakes were enough to vitiate a synagogue roll. Three errors of a scribe upon a single sheet, the blurring of letters * * any mutilation of the text by ordinary wear, and many other causes, condemned a document. There are people who are troubling themselves these days to know whether what we have is the Word of God. If all such spent their time instead in familiarizing themselves with the sacred pages of the Bible, God would be speaking His commandments afresh, yea, even writing them upon the tablets of their hearts, and they might be the medium to the world of the best expression of Gods Word to man.

Following the giving of the Law is Gods legislation for social order. No man can read the 21st, 22nd and 23rd chapters of Exodus without being impressed with the fact that God is here providing for a nation, and it would be difficult, also, to enact statutes that represented more of wisdom and of justicelaws for servants, laws for murder, ill-treatment of parents, injury to ones fellows, theft, trespasses, borrowing, uncleanness, idolatry, the poor, slander, charity, Sabbath, feasts, in fact, everything that would likely arise in the life of this young nation. And, as we have studied this bit of legislation together with that which comes at a later time in the Pentateuch, we have been constrained to feel that a state built upon it would be beautiful and strong and free from the very evils that now threaten the overthrow of the most advanced governments of the world. If the social order here suggested had prevailed, slavery would have been impossible; the saloon would never have risen; trusts and corporations could never have occurred; or, if they had, would have been dissolved utterly every fifty years, and the wealth thus combined so scattered that an absolutely new start by new people would have been the result. Under this legislation, war would have had no occasion, and if it had occurred with the people who would not regard God, it could never have been waged for greed of gain.

There are able interpreters of the Bible who believe that in the Millennium every legislation will be regnant, and that for the first time the world will behold a Christian state. If one would take the pains to trace the sayings of Jesus that relate to social order, he would see that they did not oppose this legislation, but simply interpreted it, and plead its need. And we are among those who believe that many of the revolutions of the past, some of the uprisings of the present, and certain of those that will characterize the future, are all ordained of God, and are the Divine effort to bring back men from legislation that has been unjust, oppressive, immoral, to the statutes of Him who never spake other than a sacred law.

Exo 24:1 to Exo 33:23 take us from the subject of social legislation to that of the Tabernacle, and the apostasy of Israel, which might be stated as the Pattern in the Mount, and Apis on the plain!

You remember God called Moses into the mount to give him the pattern of the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle expressed Gods purpose to dwell in the midst of His people. And yet, while He was talking with Moses, out-lining in minutia every single particle of that wonderful tent in which Jehovah Himself was to dwell, the people on the plain were pleading with Aaron, Up, make us gods (Exo 32:1)! According to tradition, Hur opposed this appeal, and perished at the hands of the would-be idolators. Aaron yielded to it, and while he saved himself, he brought about the slaughter of 3000 of his brethren (Exo 32:28), disannulled the covenant of Gods grace, and for a time, at least, threw the whole camp of Israel outside Gods saving and keeping power. How often we may miss the very blessing that God has planned for us, and is in the act of providing in our behalf, by turning to worship before some idol, who can tell? And how easy it is to let our affections turn back to some object that fascinated us when we were in Egyptian bondageunregeneracy, and thereby lose the favor of the King Himself, forfeit the wisdom of His counsels, and render inoperative His most beneficent purposes. It is not easy for a modern believer to hear Moses cry, as he beseeches the Lord to forgive this sin, and take Israel to His heart again, without remembering that many a time he has had occasion to say with William Cowper,

O for a closer walk with God,

A calm and heavenly frame,

A light to shine upon the road

That leads me to the Lamb!

Where is the blessedness I knew

When first I saw the Lord?

Where is the soul-refreshing view

Of Jesus and His Word?

What peaceful hours I then enjoyed!

How sweet their memory still!

But they have left an aching void

The world can never fill.

Return, O Holy Dove, return,

Sweet messenger of rest;

I hate the sins that made thee mourn,

And drove thee from my breast.

The dearest idol I have known,

Whateer that idol be,

Help me to tear it from Thy throne,

And worship only Thee.

A few words then on the

TABERNACLE AND THE PRIESTHOOD

by way of a hasty glance through the remaining chapters. We shall not attempt a description of the tabernacle. That would require many discourses. But no student of Scripture ought to be satisfied until he has made a close study of its every part and appointment, aided by some such exposition as Geikies Hours with the Bible. It was about 15 feet high, 15 feet in width and 45 feet in length. The Holy of Holies was a 15-foot cube, while the Holy Place was 15 by 30, and the whole was located in an open court 75 by 150 feet, enclosed by curtains seven and a half feet high.

It was to be provided by a free-will offering from the people. If one imagines it an inexpensive building, he need only read of the talents that were invested (Exo 38:24-30). The building in which we now worship did not cost so much, and yet this people, without a foot of land, with herds and flocks insufficient to satisfy the hunger incident to their journeys, and yet leave seed and sacrifices, rose in response to Gods appeal, and made an offering that ought to be at once an inspiration and an example to present-day followers of Jesus Christ. Here is the record of it,

And, they came, both men and women, as many as were willing hearted, and brought bracelets, and earrings, and rings, and tablets, all jewels of gold: and every man that offered an offering of gold unto the Lord. And every man, with whom was found blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen, and goats hair, and red skins of rams, and badgers skins, brought them. Every one that did offer an offering of silver and brass brought the Lords offering; and every man with whom was found shittim wood for any work of the service, brought it. And all the women that were wise-hearted did spin with their hands, and brought that which they had spun, both of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine linen. And all the women whose heart stirred them up in wisdom spun goats hair. And the rulers brought onyx stones, and stones to be set, for the ephod, and for the breastplate; And spice, and oil for the light, and for the anointing oil, and for the sweet incense. The Children of Israel brought a willing offering unto the Lord, every man and woman, whose heart made them willing to bring for all manner of work, which the Lord had commanded to be made by the hand of Moses (Exo 35:22-29).

And all the wise men, that wrought all the work of the sanctuary, came every man from his work which they made; And they spake unto Moses, saying, The people bring much more than enough for the service of the work, which the Lord commanded to make. And Moses gave commandment, and they caused it to be proclaimed throughout the camp, saying, Let neither man nor woman make any more work for the offering of the sanctuary. So the people were restrained from bringing. For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and too much (Exo 36:4-7).

It was to be planned after the pattern shown in the mount. Three times in this Book, God reminds Moses of that fact: Exo 25:40; Exo 26:30; Exo 27:8.

Paul, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, refers to this fact, and quotes, See, saith He, that thou make all things according to the pattern shown to thee in the mount.

There are two suggestions in this worthy our consideration. First, let men be slow to change from the Divine order, or dissent from the Divine Word. It is written, Ye are My friends if ye do whatsoever I command you. The temptation in this time is to do to suit ourselves, and to frame philosophies of life that correspond to conduct rather than follow the letter of Gods Word. Men have even gone so far as to brave the Divine challenge.

If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are in this Book; and if any man shall take away from the words of the Book of this Prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life, and out of the Holy City, and from the things which are written in this Book.

Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley

REFLECTIONS

Reader! before we take our leave of this precious book of Exodus, pause once more, and remark with me in what a multitude of instances Moses wrote of Christ. Blessed book of God I would say, mayest thou be my constant guide under the teachings of the Holy Ghost, to lead my soul unto Jesus: and do thou, Almighty Teacher, be frequently taking of the things of Jesus that are in it to show unto me.

In this tabernacle let me behold a type of my adored Redeemer, founded in the eternal counsels anti purposes of God my Father, and reared up in his glorious work of redemption, for the everlasting salvation of his people. In him all the holy furniture, the altar, ark, mercy-seat, show-bread, anointing oil, and incense, have their completion, for in him it hath pleased the Father that all fulness should dwell. And may I not consider this sanctuary opened for divine worship, as a resemblance also of the gospel tabernacle, the church of the living God, which he hath pitched among men. Here may my soul he frequently found waiting at the throne, and seeking for communion by means of his blood and righteousness, which are the laver, light, and purification of ail gospel worship. And here, Lord, may I find my solace, and my joy, rejoicing in the manifestations of thy presence and favour, until I have forever done with the worship of my God and Saviour in the shadow of ordinances, and am sat down at the fountain head of divine and everlasting realities, in the temple that is above. Hasten Lord in thine own time these felicities, that the enjoyment of Jehovah, in his threefold character of persons, may be my portion, with all the church of the firstborn forever, and ever. Amen.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

on it: i.e. in the cloud.

house of Israel. See note on Exo 16:31.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

the cloud: Exo 13:21, Num 9:15

fire: Psa 78:14, Psa 105:39, Isa 4:5, Isa 4:6

Reciprocal: Exo 3:12 – ye shall Exo 10:25 – sacrifices Exo 39:32 – all the Exo 39:33 – the tent Num 9:16 – General Num 11:25 – came down Num 12:5 – General Num 14:14 – thy cloud Deu 31:15 – General Neh 9:19 – the pillar

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

40:38 For {h} the cloud of the LORD [was] upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.

(h) Thus the presence of God preserved and guided them night and day, till they came to the land promised.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes