plague increases frightfully, and speedily takes off those who are attacked by it. Legh also gives a similar account: "A salutary influence (on the pestilence then raging) was also expected from the Nokla, or the rise of the Nile, which begun on the eighteenth of June. The unhealthiness of the season of the year preceding this month is ascribed to the chamsin, or the wind from the desert, which commonly begins to blow about Easter-Monday and continues fifty days, and to the stagnant condition of the Nile. This notion is so settled among the Arabs that they are accustomed when it ceases to congratulate each other on account of having survived this period. The two or three months before the summer solstice are esteemed so unhealthy, that it is said, that the plague always rages during this time, even in Cairo. During the same period, the small-pox is also very dangerous." Compare also the Description, where, in accounting for this sickness, it is imputed mainly to the chamsin; and it is remarked, that great inundations which leave numerous morasses, always precede destructive epidemics. 2 That the Egyptians are swept off by an epidemic is indeed · probable, and much more than probable, from chap. ix. 15. What the Lord there says he had long been able to do, that he now really does; since the reasons here given in verse 16, which, until now, have prevented him from proceeding to this last resource, have now ceased; since, in short, he has by a series of acts sufficiently unfolded his omnipotence and grace. For the sparing of the Israelites, certain things in nature analogous may be referred to, but they by no means serve to obscure the divine favour in the preservation, since this divine favour insured nothing less than absolute safety. Here may be quoted, first, what Minutoli says in reference to the plague: "It is remarkable that fear increases the susceptibility to it, but fearlessness protects against it." Further, what Prokesch says of the Egyptian Bedawy, is appropriate here: "His health is unalterably good. Some ascribe the disease of the eyes in Egypt, which rages among the Fellahs, and even in the cities, to the dew and dust of the desert. But the Bedawy sleeps in the open air, and Reise in Aeg. D. Weim. 1818, S. 142. 3 ranges from desert to desert, and this pest has never spread among these tribes." With this agrees what Michaud says: "The Bedawîn are in general very temperate. They have no physicians and little sickness. The disease of the eyes, which is so prevalent an evil in Egypt, is almost unknown in the desert. The plague seldom extends its ravages among them." Those who are disposed to take offence at the analogies in nature, which we have adduced for the plagues, are referred, first, to what we have said in the beginning of this chapter, concerning the miraculous character of these occurrences, notwithstanding the analogy of nature. They are also reminded, that it cannot be denied that similar analogies are generally allowed to exist in relation to the wonders of the desert, the manna and the quails. But we wish the advocates of the mythic interpretation of the Pentateuch to know, that precisely that part of it which appears to them the strongest bulwark for their view, is most decidedly opposed to it.2 1 Th. 7. p. 29. It would require more space than the limits of a note allow, to examine the theory of the plagues, advocated by Dr Hengstenberg; it must however be remarked, that all the sacred writers who have referred to the Exodus, insist strongly on the direct interference of Jehovah to effect the deliverance of his chosen people, and speak of "the signs and wonders in the land of Ham," as marvels without a parallel in human experience. Dr Hengstenberg's effort to show that they were natural calamities in an exaggerated form, leaves still the greatest of all the wonders unexplained, the occurrence of ten such dreadful visitations in such rapid succession. T. CHAPTER IV. EXODUS, Chapters XIV. and xv. THE MILITARY FORCE OF THE EGYPTIANS. In our section on the references of the Pentateuch to the geographical features of Egypt, we have spoken of some things which come within the range of our inquiry in connection with these chapters of Exodus. We have pointed out the agreement of the fact, that a considerable army stood ready, at the command of Pharaoh, to pursue the fugitive Israelites, with the declarations of Herodotus, which show that the principal stations of the military caste were in the vicinity of the scene of these transactions, in the Delta. It remains for us to make here the following remarks. 4 1. "Wherever," says Rosellini, 2 "the armies are represented on the great monuments of Egypt, they are composed of troops of infantry, armed with the bow or lance, and of ranks of chariots drawn by two horses." Chariots appear also in Homer 3 as the principal strength of the Egyptian army. Upon the Egyptian monuments, says the same author, neither a king nor any other person of consequence is represented in any other way, than on foot, upon a chariot or throne, or in a litter. The few figures upon horses almost all belong to foreigners. Wilkinson 5 agrees with Rosellini in the principal point, namely, that chariots composed the main military force of the Egyptians, and the cavalry took only a subordinate place. That the Egyptians had no horsemen at all he does not admit,—although he concedes that 1 Page 48, 57 seq. Compare in reference to this last fact also Rosellini, II. 3. p. 200. 2 II. 3. p. 232. 3 Iliad, 9.383, where it is said of Thebes : Aíð' ¿karóμπvλoí ¿ioi, diŋkóoioi δ ̓ ἀν ἑκάστην ̓Ανέρες ἐξοιχνεῦσι σὺν ἵπποισιν καὶ ὄχεσφιν. 4 II. 3. p. 240. 5 Vol. 1. p. 288, 335. no representations of them are found on the monuments,―relying upon the authority of Herodotus, 2, 162, where Amasis appears on horseback, (the more important passage, chap. 108, he omits,) the declaration of Diodorus, according to which Sesostris had, besides 27,000 who fought upon chariots, also 24,000 horsemen, and the fact that in the hieroglyphics the "command of the cavalry" is represented as a very honourable post, generally occupied by the most distinguished among the sons of the king. This last argument, however, Rosellini attempts to set aside, by remarking that the designation is properly overseer of horses, and probably has reference to the care of the breed of horses. Champollion 3 says of the war chariots: "This was the cavalry of the age, cavalry properly speaking did not exist then in Egypt." 2 It is accordingly certain, that the cavalry, in the more ancient period of the Pharaohs, was but little relied on, and it is doubtful whether it generally existed. The question now is: What relation the declarations in our passage have to this result? Were the common view, according to which riding on horses is superadded with equal prominence to the chariot of war, in our passage, the right one, there would arise strong suspicion against the credibility of the narrative. But a more accurate examination shows, that the author does not mention Egyptian cavalry at all, that according to him the Egyptian army is composed only of chariots of war, and that he therefore agrees in a wonderful manner with the native Egyptian monuments. And this agreement is the more minute, since the second division of the army represented upon them, the infantry, could not, in the circumstances of our narrative, take part in the pursuit. The first and principal passage concerning the constituent parts of the Egyptian army which pursued the Israelites, is that in chap. xiv. 6, 7: "And he made ready his chariot, and took his people with him; and took 600 chosen chariots, all the chariots of Egypt, and chariot-warriors upon all of them." Here Pharaoh's preparation for war is fully described. It consists, first, of chariots, and secondly, of chariot-warriors. Cavalry are no more mentioned than infantry. This passage, which is so plain, explains the second one, verse 9, where the arrival of this same army, in sight of 1 Wilk. Vol. I. p. 292. 2 II. 3. S. 259. Brussels Ed. 3 Page 442 of the German Translation of his Letters. the Israelites, is plainly and graphically described, in order to place distinctly before the reader the impression which the view made upon the Israelites: "And the Egyptians followed them and overtook them, where they were encamped by the sea, all the chariot-horses of Pharaoh and his riders and his host." If riders here be understood in the common sense, (chariot-warriors rather than riders upon horses might so much the sooner be mentioned, since the Egyptian war-chariot was very small and light,) where then are the chariot warriors? The author would not leave them out, since it is to his purpose to be minute, and since he evidently intended to accumulate circumstances as much as possible. Also in verse 17: "I will get me honour upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host, upon his chariots, and upon his riders," the riders again correspond with the chariot-warriors in verse 7. If there were then chariot-warriors and riders, how strange that they are never spoken of together.' In verse 23: "And the Egyptians pursued them and went in after them, all the horses of Pharaoh, his chariots and his riders," the three constituent parts of the Egyptian warlike preparation are fully designated. If riders were here understood in the common way, it would be surprising that horses and chariots were named, and that chariot-warriors, who are most important, were left out. Finally, the meaning of the passage, chap. xv. 1, "Horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea," is clear from verse 4 of the same chapter, where only the overwhelming of the chariots and chariot-warriors is spoken of. 2. The number of chosen chariots of Egypt is limited in chap. xiv. 6 (7) to 600. If we compare with this other declarations with regard to the strength of the Egyptian hosts of war, we shall be the better prepared to appreciate these moderate statements, so inappropriate in a mythic representation. Josephus adds, from his own resources, to the 600 chariots which Pharaoh brought into the field, 50,000 horsemen and 200,000 footmen. The Jewish tragic poet, Ezekiel, says that the Egyptian hosts of war amounted to a million. According to Diodorus,2 Sesostris had 600,000 footmen, and 24,000 horsemen, and 27,000 chariots of war. He gives an equally extravagant number in chap. xlv. 47.3 It is cer In the Illustrations of the Bible from the monuments of Egypt, I took a different view of this passage, but on further examination, I am convinced that I was wrong, and that Dr Hengstenberg is right. T. a Compare Rosellini, Vol. II. 3. p. 231. 21. 54. |