5. THE PASSAGE OF THE RED SEA.
The Israelites had made their preparations to depart out of Egypt a month before the call came to escape.
And when all was ready, Moses called together the elders of the people and said to them, “When Joseph died, he ordered his descendants to take up his bones, or ever they went out of the land, and to bear them to the cave of Machpelah, where lie the bones of his father Jacob. Where are the bones of Joseph?”
The elders answered him, “We do not know.”
Now there was an old Egyptian woman, named Miriam, and she believed in the Lord. She said to Moses, “I will show thee where is the tomb of Joseph, if thou wilt swear unto me that thou wilt take me with thee from Egypt, and that thou wilt ask the Most High to admit me into Paradise.”
Moses said, “I will do these things that thou askest.”
Then the woman said, “The tomb of Joseph is in the middle of the river Nile, which flows through Memphis, at such a spot.”
Moses prayed to God, and the water fell till the bed of the river was left dry; and then he and the woman went into it, and came on the tomb of Joseph; it was a sarcophagus of marble without joints.[[507]]
Moses made preparations for departure, and said to the children of Israel, “God will destroy the Egyptians, and will give you their precious things.”
Then every one among the Hebrews who had an Egyptian neighbour said to him, if he was rich: “I am going to a feast in the country, I pray thee lend me jewels of gold and silver to adorn my wife and children.”
The Egyptians lent their precious things, and the Israelites by this means found themselves possessed of borrowed jewels in great abundance. Then Moses said, “We will leave Egypt this night when the Egyptians are asleep. Let every housekeeper softly desert his house, and bring with him his precious things, and meet outside the town. And let every one slay a lamb, and sprinkle with the blood the lintel and door-posts of the house, that the neighbours may know, when they see the blood, that the house is empty.”
When the middle of the night was passed, the Israelites were assembled outside Memphis, at the place which Moses had appointed. Then the host was numbered, and it contained six hundred thousand horsemen, not including those who were on foot, the women, the children, and the aged. All who were under twenty were accounted infants, and all who were over sixty were accounted aged.
After that, Moses placed Aaron in command of the first battalion, and he said to him, “March in the direction of the sea, for Gabriel has promised to meet me on its shores.” At that time one branch of the Nile (the Pelusiac branch) flowed into the Red Sea, which extended over where is now sandy desert to Migdol.
Moses made the host follow Aaron, troop by troop, and tribe by tribe; and he brought up the rear with a strong guard of picked men.
It was dawning towards the first day of the week when Israel escaped out of Egypt.
And when day broke, behold, they were gone away. Then the Egyptians came and told Pharaoh. He sent to search all the houses of the Israelites, but they were all empty, only their lamps were left burning. Pharaoh said, “We will pursue them.” The Egyptians said, “They have borrowed our jewels; we must follow after them, and recover what is our own.”
Now Moses had used craft touching these ornaments, in order that the Egyptians might be constrained to follow. For if the Israelites had gone without these, the Egyptians would have rejoiced at their departure. But because they had borrowed of the Egyptians, therefore the Egyptians went after them to recover their ornaments, and by this means rushed into destruction.
And Israel marched all day through the wilderness protected by seven clouds of glory on their four sides: one above them, that neither hail nor rain might fall upon them, nor that they should be burned by the heat of the sun; one beneath them, that they might not be hurt by thorns, serpents, or scorpions; and one went before them, to make the valleys even, and the mountains low, and to prepare them a place of habitation.[[508]]
Also, when the morning dawned, there was not a house in all Egypt in which there was not a first-born dead. And this delayed the people from pursuing after the Israelites; for they were engaged in bewailing their dead, and in digging graves for them. Thus they were not at leisure to follow after their former slaves, till they had escaped clean away.
Also that night was every metal image in Egypt molten, and every idol of stone was broken, and every idol of clay was shattered, and every idol of wood was dissolved to dust.[[509]]
The same day Pharaoh sent into all the cities of Egypt and collected an army. When even was come the whole army was assembled about the king, and Pharaoh said to Dathan and Abiram, who had remained behind,[[510]] “The Israelites are few in number, they are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in.” For all the way was full of marshes and canals of water and desert tracts. “They have acted wrongly by us, for they have carried away the ornaments and jewels of our people; and Moses, by magic, has slain all our first-born, so that there is not a house in which there is not one dead.”
On the morrow—it was the second day of the week—the army was reviewed, and Pharaoh numbered the host, and he had six hundred chosen chariots, and two million foot soldiers, and five million horsemen, and, in addition, there were one million seven hundred thousand horses, and on these horses were black men.
When the sun rose on the third day, Pharaoh marched out of Memphis, and he pursued for half a day with forced marches. At noon, Pharaoh had come up with Moses, and the fore-front of Pharaoh’s army thrust the rear-guard of the army of Moses. Then the children of Israel cried unto the Lord, and they said to Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?”
They were divided into four opinions. One set said, “Let us fling ourselves into the sea.” Another set said, “Let us return and surrender ourselves.” The third set said, “Let us array battle against the Egyptians.” The fourth recommended, “Let us shout against them, and frighten them away with our clamour.”[[511]]
And Moses said unto the people, “Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.”[[512]]
Then Moses raised his rod over the sea, and it divided, and let twelve channels of dry land appear traversing it, one for each of the twelve tribes. “When Moses had smitten,” says the Koran, “the sea divided into twelve heaps, and left twelve ways through it, and each heap was as a great mountain.”[[513]]
The Israelites hesitated to enter; for they said, “O Moses! the bottom of this sea is black mud, and when we place our feet on it we shall sink in and be swallowed up.”
But Moses prayed to God, and He sent a wind and the rays of the sun, and the wind and the sun dried the mud, and it became as sand.
Then Gabriel and Michael appeared to Moses, and said, “Pass on, and lead the people through. As for us, we have orders to tarry for Pharaoh.” So Moses galloped forward into the sea, crying, “In the name of the merciful and glorious God!” and all the people went in after him. But as they marched by twelve ways, and there were walls of water between, they could not see each other, and they were in fear; therefore Moses prayed to the Lord, and the Lord made the water-heaps rise and arch over them like bowers, and shelter them from the fire of the sun; and He made the watery walls so clear they were as sheets of glass, and through them the columns of the advancing army were visible to each other.
Moses traversed the sea in two hours, and he came forth with all the people on the other side.
Then Pharaoh and his host came to the water’s side, but he feared to enter in. Now Pharaoh was mounted on an entire horse of great beauty. He reined in his steed and would not go forward, for he thought that this was part of the enchantment of Moses.
But now Gabriel appeared mounted on a mare, and this was the cherub Ramka.[[514]] And when the horse of Pharaoh saw the mare of Gabriel, he plunged forward and followed the mare into the sea. Then, when the Egyptian army saw their king enter fearlessly into one of the channels, they also precipitated themselves into the ways through the deep.
They advanced till they reached the middle of the Red Sea, and then Gabriel reined in and turned and unfurled before Pharaoh the order he had given for the destruction of Moses in the water, and it was signed by Pharaoh and sealed with his own signet.
“See!” exclaimed the angel. “What thou wouldest do to Moses, that shall be done to thee; for thou art but a man, thou who fightest against God.”
Then the twelve heaps of water overwhelmed the host. But Pharaoh’s horse was so fleet of foot that he outfled the returning waters, and he brought the king to the shore. He would have been saved, had not Gabriel smitten him on the face, and he fell back into the sea and perished with the rest. Then said Miriam, as he sank, “Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea.”[[515]]
Another curious incident is related by Tabari. When the water reached Pharaoh, and he knew that he must perish, he cried out, “I believe in the God of Israel!” Gabriel, fearing lest Pharaoh should repeat these words, and that God in His mercy should accept his profession of faith, and pardon him, passed his wing over the bottom of the sea, raised the earth, and threw it into the mouth of Pharaoh so as to prevent him from swallowing again, and said, “Now thou believest, but before thou wast rebellious; nevertheless, thou art numbered with the wicked.”[[516]]
It was the ninth hour of the day when the children of Israel stood on dry land on the further side of the sea.
On the morrow, the children of Israel assembled around Moses, and said to him, “We do not believe that Pharaoh is drowned, for he had peculiar power. He never suffered from headache, nor from fever, nor from any sickness, and was internally moved but once a week.”
Then Moses clave the sea asunder with his rod, and they saw Pharaoh and all his host dead at the bottom of the sea. The bodies of the Egyptians were covered with armour and much gold and silver, and on the corpse of Pharaoh were chains and bracelets of gold. The children of Israel would have spoiled the dead, but Moses forbade them, for he said, “It is lawful to spoil the living, but it is robbery to strip the dead.” Nevertheless many of the Hebrews went in and took from the Egyptians all that was valuable. Then God was wroth, because they had disobeyed Moses, and the sea was troubled, and for ten days it raged with fury, and even to this day the water is not at rest where the Israelites committed this sin. And the name of that place at this day is Bab el Taquath.[[517]]