* This explanation of the wanderings of the Israelites has
been doubted by most historians: it has a cogency, once we
admit the reality of the sojourn in Egypt and the Exodus.
The traditions collected in their sacred books described at length their marches and their halting-places, the great sufferings they endured, and the striking miracles which God performed on their behalf.*
* The itinerary of the Hebrew people through the desert
contains a very small number of names which were not
actually in use. They represent possibly either the stations
at which the caravans of the merchants put up, or the
localities where the Bedawin and their herds were accustomed
to sojourn. The majority of them cannot be identified, but
enough can still be made out to give us a general idea of
the march of the emigrants.
Moses conducted them through all these experiences, continually troubled by their murmurings and seditions, but always ready to help them out of the difficulties into which they were led, on every occasion, by their want of faith. He taught them, under God’s direction, how to correct the bitterness of brackish waters by applying to them the wood of a certain tree.* When they began to look back with regret to the “flesh-pots of Egypt” and the abundance of food there, another signal miracle was performed for them. “At even the quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning the dew lay round about the host; and when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, ‘What is it? ‘for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, ‘It is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.’”**
* Exod. xv. 23-25. The station Marah, “the bitter waters,”
is identified by modern tradition with Ain Howarah. There is
a similar way of rendering waters potable still in use among
the Bedawin of these regions.
** Exod. xvi. 13-15.
“And the house of Israel called the name thereof ‘manna: ‘and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.” * “And the children of Israel did eat the manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat the manna until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan.” ** Further on, at Eephidim, the water failed: Moses struck the rocks at Horeb, and a spring gushed out.*** The Amalekites, in the meantime, began to oppose their passage; and one might naturally doubt the power of a rabble of slaves, unaccustomed to war, to break through such an obstacle. Joshua was made their general, “and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill: and it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed, and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side, and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.” ****
* Exod. xvi. 31. Prom early times the manna of the Hebrews
had been identified with the mann-es-sama, “the gift of
heaven,” of the Arabs, which exudes in small quantities from
the leaves of the tamarisk after being pricked by insects:
the question, however, is still under discussion whether
another species of vegetable manna may not be meant.
** Exod. xvi. 35.
*** Exod. xvii. 1-7. There is a general agreement as to
the identification of Rephidim with the Wady Peîrân, the
village of Pharan of the Græco-Roman geographers.
**** Exod. xvii. 8-13.
Three months after the departure of the Israelites from Egypt they encamped at the foot of Sinai, and “the Lord called unto Moses out of the mountain, saying, ‘Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto Myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me from among all peoples: for all the earth is Mine: and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.’ The people answered together and said, ‘All that the Lord hath spoken we will do.’ And the Lord said unto Moses, ‘Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and may also believe thee for ever.’” “On the third day, when it was morning, there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of a trumpet exceeding loud; and all the people that were in the camp trembled. And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet God; and they stood at the nether part of the mountain. And Mount Sinai was altogether on smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. And when the voice of the trumpet waxed louder and louder, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice.” *
* Exod. xix. 3-6, 9, 16-19.
Then followed the giving of the supreme law, the conditions of the covenant which the Lord Himself deigned to promulgate directly to His people. It was engraved on two tables of stone, and contained, in ten concise statements, the commandments which the Creator of the Universe imposed upon the people of His choice.