Exodus 13:18

But God led the people about,.... Instead of their going to the west, or northwest, towards Gaza, c.

But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red sea: and the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt.

Or, armed, or girt with swords and belts about the fifth rib, as the Hebrew word may imply. But it doth not appear how or whence they should get their arms, nor how the Egyptians would permit so numerous a people to have and to keep arms, especially when they had a long time oppressed and exasperated them, and made them desperate. It is true, some few of them might procure arms, but this word is here used concerning the whole body of them. Others render it by fives, five and five in a rank, that is, by a usual synecdoche, in military order, not doubtfully and fearfully, but confidently and courageously; not confusedly, as men that steal or run away, but in good order, so as one might not hinder another. Which interpretation is strengthened by comparing . It may be rendered girt, to wit, about the fifth rib, as the word implies, the place where men used to gird their garments, this being the usual posture for travellers: he implies that they went out resolved upon and prepared for their journey.

Exodus 13:18 But God led the people about, [through] the way of the wilderness of the Red sea: and the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt.Ver. 18. God led the people about.] Philo writeth, that it was not much above three days’ journey from Egypt to Canaan the other way: Sed Dei voluntas est summa necessitas. Tertul.

(18) But God led the people about.—Or, led the people a circuit—took them, not by the direct route, through Pelusium, past Lake Serbônis, to Rhinocolura and Gaza, but led them by the most circuitous route possible—the way of the Red Sea and the wilderness of Sinai to the Transjordanic region, the land of the Amorites, and so across Jordan to Canaan proper. The passage seems to dispose altogether of Dr. Brugsch’s theory, that the “Red Sea” of the writer of Exodus was the Lake Serbônis, and that it was not until after this lake was passed that their journey was deflected to the south. The children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt.—It is generally agreed that this is a wrong translation. Very few of the Israelites can have possessed suits of armour until after the passage of the Red Sea, when they may have stripped the bodies of the slain Egyptians. Nor has the word used ever the force of “harnessed.” It might mean “with their loins girded,” but such an exposition would deprive the statement made of any force. Loins were always girded in preparation for a journey, and there would be no need to mention the fact. The best explanation is, that the word here means “organised,” “in military order” (Saadia, Gesenius, Lee, Knobel, Cook). It was clearly necessary, to prevent confusion, that a military order should have been adopted, and there are not wanting indications that during the year of contention with Pharaoh such an organisation was introduced and proceeded with. (See Exodus 4:29; Exodus 4:31; Exodus 6:26; Exodus 12:3; Exodus 12:21; Exodus 12:51.) It must have been brought to a high pitch of perfection for the Exodus to have taken place, as it seems to have done, without serious confusion or entanglement.

Verse 18. But God led the people about] Dr. Shaw has shown that there were two roads from Egypt to Canaan, one through the valleys of Jendilly, Rumeleah, and Baideah, bounded on each side by the mountains of the lower Thebais; the other lies higher, having the northern range of the mountains of Mocatee running parallel with it on the right hand, and the desert of the Egyptian Arabia, which lies all the way open to the land of the Philistines, to the left. See his account of these encampments at the end of Exodus. See Clarke on Exodus 40:38. Went up harnessed] חמשים chamushim. It is truly astonishing what a great variety of opinions are entertained relative to the meaning of this word. After having maturely considered all that I have met with on the subject, I think it probable that the word refers simply to that orderly or well arranged manner in which the Israelites commenced their journey from Egypt. For to arrange, array, or set in order, seems to be the ideal meaning of the word חמש chamash. As it was natural to expect that in such circumstances there must have been much hurry and confusion, the inspired writer particularly marks the contrary, to show that God had so disposed matters that the utmost regularity and order prevailed; and had it been otherwise, thousands of men, women, and children must have been trodden to death. Our margin has it by five in a rank; but had they marched only five abreast, supposing only one yard for each rank to move in, it would have required not less than sixty-eight miles for even the 600,000 to proceed on regularly in this way; for 600,000 divided by five gives 120,000 ranks of five each; and there being only 1,760 yards in a mile, the dividing 120,000 by 1,760 will give the number of miles such a column of people would take up, which by such an operation will be found to be something more than sixty-eight miles. But this the circumstances of the history will by no means admit.-Harmer. The simple meaning therefore appears to be that given above; and if the note on the concluding verse of the preceding chapter be considered, it may serve to place this explanation in a still clearer point of view.

18. Instead of leading them straight on, across the N. part of the isthmus of Suez, by the direct route mentioned above, God led the people about (or round), in the direction of the wilderness,—i.e. the Egyptian wilderness, S. of the Wβdy Ṭ ?umξlβt, and West of the N. end of the Gulf of Suez (a shallow extension of which reached perhaps at this time as far N. as L. Timsβḥ ?: see p. 125 ff.),—to the Red Sea (the Gulf of Suez, or its ancient Northern extension, just referred to). the Red Sea] Heb., as always, the Sea of sϋph; probably, the Sea of reeds. The origin of the name is uncertain. Sϋph (outside this expression) is used of reeds or rushes (cf. Luther’s Schilfmeer, ‘Reed-sea’) growing along the Nile (Exodus 2:3 [see note], 5, Isaiah 19:6 †), and of sea-weed (Jonah 2:6 †): it seems also to correspond to the late Eg. thuf, Copt. joouf, ‘papyrus.’ Reeds or rushes however do not grow in the salt water of the Red Sea, though (Di.) clumps of them have been found on spots S. of Suez, where fresh water mixes with the salt; but they abound in Lake Timsβḥ ?. ‘This lake with its large marshes full of reeds, exactly at the entrance of Goshen, would fulfil all conditions for the Exodus and for the Heb. name’ (W. M. Mόller, EB., Red Sea). If it is true that there was once a shallow extension of the Gulf of Suez reaching to L. Timsβḥ ?, it is possible that it was called by the Hebrews, from these growths, the ‘Sea of reeds’; and that afterwards the name was extended to the ‘Red Sea’ generally (so Di. as well as W. M. Mόller). armed] The Heb. word is a rare one (Joshua 1:14; Joshua 4:12, Judges 7:11 †; read also conjecturally by many in Numbers 32:17), and its precise meaning is uncertain. It in any case implies that the Israelites were prepared for hostile encounters.

Harnessed - More probably, “marshalled” or “in orderly array.” There is not the least indication that the Israelites had been disarmed by the Egyptians, and as occupying a frontier district

MARCH FROM SUCCOTH TO ETHAM, Exodus 13:17-22. 17, 18. God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines — The direct route to Palestine was northeast, by way of Pelusium and Gaza, along