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MOSES and the Israelites joined in a song of thanksgiving for their deliverance from the Egyptians ; after which they moved from the Red Sea into the wilderness of Shur," where they wandered three days and could find no water. At Marah they found water, but could not drink it, because it was bitter;" And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried unto the LORD, and the LORD shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet. We are informed,' that GoD at this time gave Moses some particular command, and proved him, or made trial of his obedience; for this must be the sense of the place. Our English translators have evidently

* Exodus xv.

• Syncell. Chron. p. 128. Joseph. Antiq. lib. 3, c. 1. • Ver. 25.

b Ver. 22. Philo de Vità Mosis, lib. 1., Exodus xv. 23.

d

f Ver. 26.

mistaken the words of Moses: They render the passage, There he made for THEM a statute and an ordinance, and there he proved THEM. This translation seems to hint, that some laws were here given to the Israelites, and that they were the persons here proved; but the commentators are at a loss to ascertain any laws given at this time. If we attend to the Hebrew text, the affix used by Moses does not signify THEM, but HIM; and Moses himself was the person, here applied to, and not the Israelites, and the statute and ordinance here given was to him, not to them. This agrees with the 26th verse, where the text is justly translated, not, If ye will hearken; but, If THOU wilt diligently hearken, &c. When the Israelites were got over the Red Sea, we do not read that the pillar of the cloud and of fire went before them into the wilderness of Shur. Moses very probably led them thither, without any special direction from God; they travelled here three days without water, and when they found water it was bitter, and they could not drink it. In their distress they murmured, and Moses prayed to Gon for assistance : GOD accepted his prayer, and gave him (chok ve Mishpat), a special order and appointment what to do; namely, to take a bough from a tree to which he was directed, and to put it into the waters, and by. this he proved or tried him." He gave him an op

g

See Pool's Synopsis in locum.

h We meet many instances in the Scriptures, of GOD's appointing persons applying to him for favours, to do some

portunity to shew his readiness strictly to perform whatever orders should be enjoined him; and hereupon God promised him, that if he would thus punctually observe all his appointments, that then he would continually extricate him out of every dif ficulty.

We read of no place called Marah in the profane authors; for indeed, the Israelites gave the place this name, because the waters they found here were bitter, the word Marah in their language signifying to be bitter; but the best, heathen writers agree, that there were lakes of bitter waters in those parts where the Israelites were now travelling. Diodorus informs us, that there were such waters at some little distance from the city Arsinoe. Strabo says the same thing; and Pliny carries on Trajan's river from the Nile to the bitter fountains." Now these bitter fountains, and the bitter lakes mentioned by Strabo and Diodorus,

k

act as a proof of their entire submission and obedience to him. Jacob was ordered to use peeled rods, Gen. xxx. Naaman to wash in the river Jordan, 2 Kings v. And in Exodus xvi. the Israelites were proved in this manner. They were ordered to gather of the manna a certain rate every day, that Gon might prove them, whether they would walk in his law or not. Thus was Moses here proved, he was ordered to put a bough into the water; a thing in itself insignificant, but his doing it testified his readiness to observe any in junction which Gon should think fit to give him.

+ Diod. Sic. 1. 3, p. 120.

Strabo, Goog. 1. 17, p. 804.

Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. 6, c. 29.

VOL. 111.

E

and the bitter waters which the Israelites found at Marah, may easily be conceived to be the same. The city Arsinoe, agreeably to both Strabo's and Dio dorus' position of it, was situate near the place of the present Suez; and not far from the neighbourhood of this place reached Trajan's river, which was carried on to the bitter lakes, whither the Israelites may be conceived to have wandered. They went from the Red Sea into the wilderness of Shur, through which they could not pass towards Canaan, for want of water; then they turned about towards Egypt where they hoped to find plenty, and came to Marah upon the coast of Suez.

Josephus gives a very idle account of the change of the taste of the waters of Marah." He supposes that the country they were now in, afforded no water naturally; that the Israelites sunk wells, but could not find springs to supply enough for their occasions; and that what they did find was so bitter, that they could not drink it; that they sent out every way to search, but could hear of no water; that there was indeed a well at Marah, which afforded some water, but not a quantity sufficient for them; and that what it supplied them with was so bitter, that even their eattle could not drink it; that upon the Israelites uneasiness with Moses, he prayed to Gop, and took his rod, and split it down in the middle, and persuaded the people that God had heard his prayers, and would

Diodor. & Strabo ubi sup.
Josephus Antiq. lib. 3, e. 1.

make the water fit for them to drink, if they would do as he should order them. Upon their asking what he would have them do, he directed them to draw out of the well, aud pour away the greatest part of the water; the doing this, he says, stirring and dashing about the waters by the buckets they drew with, purged, and by degrees made them potable. But 1, This account of Josephus differs from what the profane writers, as well as Moses, relate concerning the country where the Israelites now were. Josephus represents it as a place where no water was to be had; but according to Moses, the people were in extremity at Marah, not for want of water, but of good water. To this Strabo agrees, who supposes water enough in this place, many large lakes and fosses, though he tells us they were in ancient days bitter, until by a communication P of the river, the late inhabitants of the country found out the way to meliorate their taste. 2. Had the Israelites found a well, as Josephus supposes; if the supply of water it afforded was too scanty for their occasions; what relief would it have been to them to draw off and throw away the greatest part of their defective supply, in order to sweeten a small remainder? Or 3. How could the dashing water about at the bottom of a well, sufficiently purify

Ο διώρυγος πλειες και λίμναι πλησιάζεσαι αυταίς. Strabo lib. 17. p. 804.

* Των πικρών καλημένων λιμνών, αι προτερον μεν ήσαν πικραι, τμηθείσης δε της διώρυγος μεταβάλλοντο τη ραντίσει τα ποταμια Id. ibid.

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