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SECTION VI.

INSTITUTION OF THE PASSOVER-THE DESTRUCTION OF THE FIRST-BORN OF ALL THE EGYPTIANS-THE EXODUS.

AFFAIRS were now coming to a crisis. The Lord commanded Moses to speak to the people, that every man and every woman should borrow, or rather, ask of their neighbours, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold. "And the Lord gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh and his servants; and in the sight of the people.'

And Moses made known to the people that about midnight, the Lord would go forth into the midst of Egypt, and would slay all the first-born in the land of Egypt; from the first-born of Pharaoh on the throne, to the first-born of the maid-servant, that sitteth behind the mill; and all the first-born of beasts. But that against the children of Israel not a dog should move his tongue, against man or beast. "And Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh, and the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, that he would not let the children of Israel go out of his land.'

"And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month in the year to you. Speak ye to all the children of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month, they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house. And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next to his house, take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating, shall make your count for the lamb. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year; ye shall take it out from the sheep or from the goats. And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month; and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side-posts, and on the upper door-post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it. And they shall eat the flesh in that night; roasted with fire, and unleavened bread, and with bitter herbs shall they eat it. Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roasted with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof. And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning, ye shall burn with fire. And thus shall ye eat it with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste:

it is the Lord's passover. For 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; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment. I am the LORD. And the blood shall be to you a token upon the houses where you are; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you, when I smite the land of Egypt. And this day shall be unto you for a memorial, and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord, throughout your generations: ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever. Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread, even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses; for whosoever eateth leavened bread, from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel."

Thus the solemn feast of the passover was instituted, to be a memorial of the deliverance of the children of Israel from the desolating plague which fell on every house of the Egyptians, by means of the sprinkled blood of a lamb on the door-posts of their houses. And it can hardly be doubted, that this same ceremony of a slaughtered lamb and sprinkled blood, had a prospective as well as a retrospective aspect; it was a type of the deliverance to be effected by the LAMB OF GOD, as well as a memorial of a deliverance from the destroying angel, who passed through Egypt.

It was ordained that the passover should be celebrated annually, on the same day of the month; that all the Israelites, by families, should partake of it; but that no stranger should be admitted, until all his males were circumcised. And they were directed, when they came to the land of Canaan, and their children should inquire, "What mean you by this service?" they should say, "This is the sacrifice of the Lord's passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses."

The commands of God were immediately obeyed by the Israelites. And at midnight the Lord smote all the first-born of Egypt; "and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead." Pharaoh now gave orders in good earnest, that Moses and Aaron and all the people of Israel should depart from Egypt. "And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste, for they said, We be all dead men. This strong desire to get rid of a people who seemed to be the occasion of such dreadful judgments, seems to have had much influence in disposing them to give them whatever they asked; so that the Israelites went out of Egypt, as had been predicted to them, laden with the spoils of the Egyptians, which they had voluntarily given into their hands.

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SECTION VII.

NUMBER OF THE PEOPLE-TIME OF SOJOURNING-CHANGE OF THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE YEAR-REDEMPTION OF THE FIRST-BORN-THE WAY WHICH THEY WERE LED-JOSEPH'S BONES-SUCCOTH-PILLAR OF FIRE AND CLOUD.

THE number of persons, besides children and a mixed multitude, who went up out of Egypt that night, was six hundred thousand men. And their first journey was from Rameses, in Goshen, to Succoth, so called from the booths which they erected there.

"Now," says Moses, "the sojourning of the children of Israel, [in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan] was four hundred and thirty years." The period, as here given, commences with the first promise made to Abraham, (Gen. xii. 2,) after he entered the land of Canaan, which was thirty years before the time when it was foretold that his seed should be oppressed and afflicted in a strange land, four hundred years. It was especially commanded that no part of the flesh should be carried out of the house where the paschal lamb was eaten; and a more important regulation was, "a bone of him shall not be broken."

This month had been originally called Abib, and was the seventh of the civil year of the Hebrews, but its name was now changed to Nisan; and they were directed to reckon it henceforward, the first month of their year.

In consequence of the redemption of the first-born of Israel as above related, God laid claim to every first-born of man and beast, among the Hebrews. When it happened to be of clean animals, appointed to be used in sacrifice, it was offered as a burnt-offering to the Lord; but when it was an unclean animal, as an ass, it was redeemed by a lamb, or its neck was directed to be broken. And all the first-born of the children of Israel were considered as consecrated to the Lord, and must be redeemed; but, afterwards, the Lord took the whole tribe of Levi as a substitute for the first-born, as will be related hereafter.

From the land of Egypt to Canaan, there was a direct way, which the sons of Jacob had passed with ease, several times; but the Lord led not the people along this way, which led through the territory of the Philistines, although that was near; because these people were hostile and warlike; and it would have discouraged the hearts of the people to have encountered such enemies, immediately after commencing their journey, and they might have been disposed to return again to Egypt; but "God led the people through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea," which was a circuitous route.

The people were not forgetful of the solemn injunction of Joseph to carry his bones with them, when God should visit them, and bring them up out of the land of Egypt.

Succoth has been mentioned as the first stage which they made after leaving Egypt; their next was Etham, in the edge of the wilderness. In conducting this great host, God was pleased to become their guide, in a very extraordinary and miraculous manner. Before the armies of Israel, in the day time, there appeared a bright cloud in the form of a pillar, and at night it appeared like a pillar of fire, which constantly went before them, in their marches, and never forsook them, during the forty years that they wandered in the wilderness. From Etham they were directed to take their route by Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, over against Baal Zephon. As far as can be judged from the present topography of the country, this route led them in a southern direction along the coast of the Red Sea, until they could in that direction proceed no further.

SECTION VIII.

PHARAOH PURSUES THE ISRAELITES, AND OVERTAKES THEM AT THE EDGE OF THE RED SEA-ALARM OF THE PEOPLE-PROMISE OF DELIVERANCE-THE SEA DIVIDED BY THE ROD OF MOSES.

As soon as Pharaoh and his people had time to recover from their consternation on account of the death of the first-born, and it was told to the king that the people fled, he began to repent that he had let them go, and thus was deprived of the services of this great multitude, who had been treated as slaves. Pharaoh, therefore, quickly summoned an army of chariots of war, and of horsemen, to pursue after the Israelites, and overtook them encamping near the sea, in the place before mentioned. And when the Israelites saw the Egyptians marching towards them, they were greatly alarmed, and cried unto the Lord. They also reproached Moses for bringing them out of Egypt, and said, "Because there were no graves in Egypt hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness, wherefore hast thou dealt with us to carry us out of Egypt? It had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than to die in the wilderness." And Moses said, "Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show you to-day; for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace. And the Lord said unto Moses, wherefore criest thou unto me? Speak unto the children of Israel,

upon all

that they go forward. But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thy hand over the sea, and divide it, and the children of Israel shall go on dry land, through the midst of the sea. And I, behold I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them, and I will get me honour on Pharaoh and his host, and upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen." And now, lest the Egyptians should make a sudden assault upon this great multitude of unprepared people, the angel of the Lord who had hitherto gone before the host in a pillar of cloud and fire, removed, and went behind them; and came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and while it furnished light to the latter, to the former it occasioned dense darkness; so that during the whole night they did not approach near to the Israelites. And when Moses stretched his rod over the sea, the waters were divided; for "the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind, all that night, and made the sea dry land. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground; and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left. And the Egyptians pursued and went in after them, to the midst of the sea." And towards the morning watch, the Lord impeded the progress of the Egyptians, and took off their chariot wheels, that they drew them heavily; and the Egyptians began to think of flight; for they said, "The Lord fighteth for them." By this time the Israelites having reached the opposite shore-for the channel of the sea at this place was narrow-Moses was directed again to reach forth his hand over the sea, and the waters immediately returned, and overwhelmed the flying Egyptians, their chariots, and their horsemen, and all their host; so that of this powerful army not one remained alive. "Thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hands of the Egyptians; and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the sea-shore; and the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD, and his servant Moses."

On this occasion, Moses composed a song, the oldest poetic composition in existence, unless we should suppose that the book of Job was written before this time. "And Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances." And they sung the song which Moses had composed, and accompanied it with their instruments.

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