Egypt.'

39. There is no indication, however, in the story that they ever did live in booths, nor is it conceivable when they could have done so. For it cannot surely be supposed that, in the hurry and confusion of this flight, they had time to cut down 'boughs and bushes' to make booths of, if even there were trees from which to cut them. But, however this may be, they must have needed from the first some kind of shelter from the heat and cold, and privacy in some way or other for the necessities of social life. And we are required to believe that they had tents, at all events, as these are repeatedly mentioned in the story; whereas booths are only spoken of in this single passage of the book of Leviticus.

bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders,' as well as all other necessaries for daily domestic use, for sleeping, cooking, &c., there were the infants and young children, who could scarcely have gone on foot twenty miles a day as the story requires; there were the aged and infirm persons, who must have likewise needed assistance; they must have carried also those goods of various kinds, which they brought out of their treasures so plentifully for the making of the Tabernacle; and, above all this, they must have taken with them grain or flour enough for at least a month's use, since they had no manna given to them till they came into the wilderness of Sin,

'On the fifteenth day of the second month

after their departing out of the land of Egypt,

E.xvi.1.

42. There were the cattle certainly, which might have been turned to some account for this purpose, if trained to act as pack-oxen. But then what a prodigious number of trained oxen would have been needed to carry these 200,000 tents! One ox will carry 120 lbs., and a canvas tent, that will hold two people and a fair quantity of 40. Now, allowing ten persons for luggage,' weighs from 25 to 40 lbs. each tent, (a Zulu hut in Natal contains (GALTON'S Art of Travel, pp.33,177). on an average only three and a half,)- Of such tents as the above, with poles, two millions of people would require pegs, &c., a single ox might, possibly, 200,000 tents. How then did they ac- carry four, and even this would require quire these? Had they provided this 50,000 oxen. But these would be of enormous number in expectation of the lightest modern material, whereas marching, when all their request was the Hebrew tents, we may suppose, to be allowed to go 'for three days into were made of hair, E.xxvi.7, xxxvi.14, the wilderness,' Ě.v.3? For they were or, rather, of shin, E.xxvi. 14, xxxvi.19, not living in tents in the land of Egypt, and were, therefore, of course, much as we gather from the fact, that they heavier. Also, these latter were family were to take of the blood of the paschal tents, not made merely for soldiers or lamb, and strike it on the two side-travellers, and required to be very much posts, and on the lintel or upper door-larger for purposes of common decency post,' of their houses, E.xii.7, and none and convenience. One ox, perhaps, of them was to go out at the door of his house until the morning,' v.22.

41. But, further, if they had had these tents, how could they have carried them? They could not have borne them on their shoulders, since these were already occupied with other burdens. And these burdens themselves were by no means insignificant. For, besides their 'kneading troughs,' with the dough unleavened,

might have carried one such a tent, large enough to accomodate ten persons, with its apparatus of pole and cords: and thus they would have needed for this purpose 200,000 oxen. But oxen are not usually trained to carry goods upon their backs as pack-oxen, and will by no means do so if untrained.

43. THE ISRAELITES ARMED. 'The children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt.' E.xiii.18.

The Hebrew word which is here rendered harnessed,' appears to mean 'armed' or 'in battle array,' in all the other passages where it occurs, viz.— Jo.i.14, But ye shall pass before your brethren armed, all the mighty men of valour, Jo.iv.12, And the children of Reuben, and the children of Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh, passed over armed before the chilJu.vii.11, Then went he down, with Phurah his servant, unto the outside of the

and help them;

dren of Israel, as Moses spake unto them;

armed men that were in the host."

44. It is, however, inconceivable that this down-trodden, oppressed people should have been allowed by Pharaoh to possess arms, so as to turn out at a moment's notice 600,000 armed men. If such a mighty host,-nearly nine times as great as the whole of Wellington's army at Waterloo, (69,686 men, ALISON'S History of Europe, xix.p.401),-had had arms in their hands, would they not have risen long ago for their liberty, or, at all events, would there have been no danger of their rising? Besides, the warriors formed a distinct caste in Egypt, as HERODOTUS tells us, ii. 165,— 'being in number, when they are most numerous, 160,000, none of whom learn any mechanical art, but apply themselves wholly to military affairs.'

Are we to suppose, then, that the Israelites acquired their arms by 'borrowing' on the night of the Exodus? Nothing whatever is said of this, and the idea itself is an extravagant one. But, if even in this, or in any other, way they had come to be possessed of arms, is it to be believed that 600,000 armed men, in the prime of life, would have cried out in panic terror, 'sore afraid,' E.xiv. 10, when they saw that they were being pursued?

45. The difficulty of believing this has led many commentators to endeavour to explain otherwise, if possible, the meaning of the word. Accordingly, in the margin of the English Bible we find suggested, instead of harnessed' or 'armed,' in all the above passages except Jo.iv.12, 'by five in a rank.' And others again explain it to mean 'by fifties,' as the five thousand were arranged in the wilderness of Bethsaida, Mark vi.40.

46. It will be seen, however, that|

these meanings of the word will not at all suit those other passages. And, indeed, by adopting the first of them, we should only get rid of one difficulty to introduce another quite as formidable, For, if 600,000 men marched out of Egypt 'five in a rank,' allowing a yard for marching room between each rank, they must have formed a column 68 miles long, and it would have taken several days to have started them all off, instead of their going out altogether that self-same day,' E.xii. 41,42,51. On the second supposition, they might have formed a column seven miles long, which was certainly possible in the open, undulating, desert between Cairo and Suez. But it cannot surely be supposed that the strong, able-bodied, men kept regular ranks, as if marching for war, when they were only hasting out of Egypt, and when their services must have been so much required for the assistance of the weaker members of their families, the women and children, the sick, infirm, and aged.

47. It has been suggested, indeed, that the Hebrew word may have been used originally of warriors, with reference to their marching in ranks of five or fifty, but may here be used in a metaphorical sense, to express the idea that they went out of Egypt 'with a high hand,' E.xiv.8, in a spirited and orderly manner, not as a mere hurrying, confused, rabble.

48. But, if this be admitted, we must still ask where did they get the armour, with which, about a month afterwards, they fought the Amalekites, E.xvii. 8-13, and 'discomfited them with the edge of the sword'? And whence came the 'swords' and 'weapons' mentioned in E.xxxii.27, D.i.41? It may, perhaps, be said that they had stripped the Egyptians, whom they saw lying dead upon the sea-shore,' E.xiv.30. And so writes JOSEPHUS Ant.II.xvi.6:—

On the next day, Moses gathered together the weapons of the Egyptians, which were brought to the camp of the Hebrews by the assisting it. And he conjectured that this also happened by Divine Providence, that so they might not be destitute of weapons.

current of the sea and the force of the winds

It is plain that JOSEPHUS had per

Let us now see what the above statement really implies, when translated into simple every-day matter of fact. 52. Moses called for all the elders of Israel.'

ceived the difficulty. The Bible-story, | nomena, arising, as will appear herehowever, says nothing about this strip- after, from interpolations having been ping of the dead, as surely it must have made by a later writer in the original done, if it really took place. And, document. though body-armour might have been obtained in this way, would swords, and spears, and shields, in any number, have been washed upon the shore by the waves, or have been retained, still grasped in the hands of drowning men? We must suppose, then, that the 49. If, then, the historical veracity of elders' must have lived somewhere this part of the Pentateuch is to be main-near at hand. But where did the two tained, we must believe that 600,000 millions live? And how could the men in the prime of life, of whom some order, to keep the Passover, have been portion at least were armed, had, conveyed, with its minutest particulars, by reason of their long servitude, be- to each individual household in this come so debased and inhuman in their vast community, in one day,—rather, cowardice, (and yet they fought in twelve hours, since Moses received bravely enough with Amalek a month the command on the very same day, afterwards,)—that they could not strike on which they were to kill the Passa single blow for their wives and chil-over at even, E.xii.6? dren, if not for their own lives and liberties, but could only weakly wail, and murmur against Moses, saying,

THE INSTITUTION OF THE PASSOVER.

50. Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, and said unto them, Draw out, and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the Passover. And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side-posts with the blood that is in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morning.... And the children of Israel went away, and did as Jehovah had commanded Moses and Aaron: so did they.' E.xii.21-28.

That is to say, in one single day, the whole immense population of Israel, as large as that of LONDON, was instructed to keep the Passover, and actually did keep it. I have said in one single day'; for the first notice of any such Feast to be kept is given in v.3 of this very chapter, and we find it written in

v.12,

'I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast.'

53. It must be observed that it was absolutely necessary that the notice should be distinctly given to each separate family. For it was a matter of life and death. Upon the due performance of the Divine command it depended whether Jehovah should 'pass-over,' i. e. stride across,' the threshold, (Is.xxxi.5,) and protect the house from the angel of death, or not.

54. And yet the whole matter was perfectly new to them. The specific directions,-about choosing the lamb, killing it at even, sprinkling its blood, eating it with unleavened bread,'not raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire,' 'with their loins girded, their shoes on their feet, and their staff in their hand,'

were now for the first time communicated them to the people. These directions, to Moses, by him to the elders, and by therefore, could not have been conveyed by any mere sign, intimating that they thing about which they had been inwere now to carry into execution someformed before. They must be plainly and fully delivered to each individual head of a family, or to a number of them gathered together; though these, of course, might be ordered to assist in spreading the intelligence to others, but so that no single household should be left uninformed upon the matter.

51. It is true that the story, as it now stands, with the directions about 'taking' the lamb on the tenth day, and 'keeping' it till the fourteenth, is perplexing and contradictory. But this is only one of many similar phe-most easily, if we could suppose that

54. This would, of course, be done

required for the poorer half of LONDON going hurriedly to borrow from the richer half, in addition to their other anxieties in starting upon such a sudden and momentous expedition.

the whole Hebrew community lived as | borrowed from her that 'sojourned in closely together as possible, in one her house.' Thus we should have now great city. In that case, we should to imagine the time that would be have to imagine a message of this nature, upon which life and death depended, conveyed, without fail, to every single family in a population as large as that of LONDON, between sunrise and sunset, and that, too, without their having had any previous notice whatever on the subject, and without any preparations having been made beforehand to facilitate such a communication.

57. The story, however, will not allow us to suppose that they were living in any such city at all. Having so large flocks and herds, " even very much cattle,' E.xii.38, many of them must have lived scattered over the large extent 55. Further, we are told that— of grazing-ground, required under their "Every woman was to borrow of her neigh-circumstances; and, accordingly, they bour, and of her that sojourned in her house,

jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and rai

ment.' E.iii.22.

From this it would seem to follow that the Hebrews were regarded as living in the midst of the Egyptians, mixed up freely with them in their dwellings. And this appears to be confirmed by the statement, E.xii.35,36, that, when suddenly summoned to depart, they hastened, at a moment's notice, to borrow' in all directions from the Egyptians, and collected such a vast amount of treasure, in a very short space of time, that they 'spoiled the Egyptians.'

56. But the supposition of their borrowing in this way, even if they lived in such a city, involves prodigious difficulties. For the city, in that case, could have been no other than Rameses itself, from which they started, E.xii.37, a 'treasure-city,' which they had 'built for Pharaoh,' E.i.11-doubtless, therefore, a well-built city, not a mere collection of mud-hovels. But, if the Israelites lived in such a city together with the Egyptians, it must have been even larger than LONDON, and the difficulty of communication would have been thereby greatly increased. For we cannot suppose that the humble dwellings of these despised slaves were in closest contiguity with the mansions of their masters. And, in fact, several of the miracles, especially that of the 'thick darkness,' imply that the abodes of the Hebrews were wholly apart from those of the Egyptians, however difficult it may be to conceive how, under such circumstances, each woman could have

are represented as still living in the land of Goshen,' E.ix.26. But how large must have been the extent of this land? We can form some judgment on this point by considering the number of lambs, which (according to the story) must have been killed for the Passover, for which the command was,

8

'They shall take to them every man lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house: and, if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour, next unto his house, take it according to the number of the souls; every man, according to his eating, shall make your count for the lamb, E.xii.3,4.

58. Now JOSEPHUS (Jew. War, VI. ix.3) reckons ten persons on an average for each lamb; but, he says, ' many of us are twenty in a company.' KURTZ allows fifteen or twenty. Taking ten as the average number, two millions of people would require about 200,000 lambs; taking twenty, they would require 100,000. Let us take the mean of these, and suppose that they required 150,000. And these were to be all 'male lambs of the first year,' E.xii.5. We may assume that there were as many female lambs of the first year, making 300,000 lambs of the first year altogether.

59. But these were not all. For, if the 150,000 lambs that were killed for the Passover comprised all the males of that year, there would have been no rams left of that year for the increase of the flock. And, as the same thing would take place in each successive year, there would never be any rams or wethers, but ewe-sheep innumerable.

Instead, then, of 150,000, we may sup- | district of 400,000 acres, that is, twentypose 200,000 male lambs of the first five miles square, larger than Hertfordyear, and 200,000 female lambs, making shire (391,141 acres). But then the diffi400,000 lambs of the first year alto-culty of informing such a population gether. Now a sheepmaster, experi- would be enormously increased, as well enced in Australia and Natal, informs as that of their borrowing, when summe that the total number of sheep, in moned in the dead of night, E.xii.29-36, an average flock of all ages, will be to the extent implied in the story. For, about five times that of the increase in even if we supposed the first message, one season of lambing. So that 400,000 to prepare, kill, and eat the Paschal lambs of the first year implies a flock lamb, communicated to the whole of 2,000,000 sheep and lambs of all people within the twelve hours, and ages. Taking, then, into account the acted on, when they were abroad in fact, that they had also large herds, full daylight, or that they actually 'even very much cattle,' we may fairly had had a previous order, several days reckon that the Hebrews, though so before as some suppose, to 'take' the much oppressed, must have possessed at lambs on the tenth day, and 'keep' this time, according to the story, more them to the fourteenth,-yet how than two millions of sheep and oxen. could the second notice, to start, have been so suddenly and completely circulated?

60. What extent of land, then, would all these have required for pasturage? Having made enquiries on the subject from experienced sheepmasters, I find that in New Zealand there are a few spots, where sheep can be kept two to the acre; in other places, one can be kept per acre; but, generally, two acres are obliged to be allowed for one sheep. Another writes as follows:

In Australia, some sheep-runs are estimated to carry one sheep to an acre, and these, I think, are of the best quality. Others are estimated at different numbers of acres to a sheep, until as many as five acres are allowed for one sheep by the Government, for the purposes of assessment. Natal is able to support a much greater number, principally from its climate, as well as from the fact that the proportion of good land is incomparably greater with reference to the extent of poor land. But I think that I am within the mark, when I say that three sheep will hereafter be found to be supported by an acre of land.

Let us allow five sheep, or goats, E.xii.5, to an acre. Then the flocks alone of the Israelites would have required 400,000 acres of grazing land, -an extent of country considerably larger than the whole county of Hertfordshire or Bedfordshire, and more than twice the size of Middlesex,besides that which would have been required for the herds of oxen.

61. We must, then, abandon altogether the idea of the people living together in one city, and must suppose a great body of them to have been scattered about in towns and villages, throughout the whole land of Goshen, in a

62. Let us look at this matter more closely. We are told that not one was to go out at the door of his house until the morning,' E.xii.22. Consequently, they could not have known anything of what had happened in Pharaoh's house and city, as also among his people throughout the whole land of Egypt,' E.xii. 29, until the summons from Moses, or, at least, the news of the event, reached each individual house. The whole population of Hertfordshire, by the census of 1851, was considerably under 200,000 (167,298). We are to imagine then its towns and villages increased more than tenfold in size or in number. And then we are to believe that every single household, throughout the entire county, was warned in twelve hours to keep the Feast of the Passover, was taught how to keep it, and actually did keep it!

63. Or, even if we suppose that they were warned and taught to keep the Passover some days previously, yet still the story represents that this vast population, spread over a large extent of country, was warned again suddenly at midnight, to start in hurried flight

*

* Allowing even that one lamb or kid sufficed for a hundred persons, as some have the people would be spread over 53,333 acres of land.

asserted, it would still follow, as above, that