the Israilu of Minephtah are regarded as a tribe still dwelling among the mountains of Canaan, while the greater part of the race had emigrated to the banks of the Nile, there is no need to seek long after Minephtah for a date suiting the circumstances of the Exodus.  The years following the reign of Seti II. offer favourable conditions for such a dangerous enterprise:  the break-up of the monarchy, the discords of the barons, the revolts among the captives, and the supremacy of a Semite over the other chiefs, must have minimised the risk.  We can readily understand how, in the midst of national disorders, a tribe of foreigners weary of its lot might escape from its settlements and betake itself towards Asia without meeting with strenous opposition from the Pharaoh, who would naturally be too much preoccupied with his own pressing necessities to trouble himself much over the escape of a band of serfs.

Having crossed the Red Sea, the Israelites pursued their course to the north-east on the usual road leading into Syria, and then turning towards the south, at length arrived at Sinai.  It was a moment when the nations of Asia were stirring.  To proceed straight to Canaan by the beaten track would have been to run the risk of encountering their moving hordes, or of jostling against the Egyptian troops, who still garrisoned the strongholds of the She-phelah.  The fugitives had, therefore, to shun the great military roads if they were to avoid coming into murderous conflict with the barbarians, or running into the teeth of Pharaoh’s pursuing army.  The desert offered an appropriate asylum to people of nomadic inclinations like themselves; they betook themselves to it as if by instinct, and spent there a wandering life for several generations.*

     * This explanation of the wanderings of the Israelites has
     been doubted by most historians:  it has a cogency, once we
     admit the reality of the sojourn in Egypt and the Exodus.

The traditions collected in their sacred books described at length their marches and their halting-places, the great sufferings they endured, and the striking miracles which God performed on their behalf.*

* The itinerary of the Hebrew people through the desert contains a very small number of names which were not actually in use.  They represent possibly either the stations at which the caravans of the merchants put up, or the localities where the Bedawin and their herds were accustomed to sojourn.  The majority of them cannot be identified, but enough can still be made out to give us a general idea of the march of the emigrants.

Moses conducted them through all these experiences, continually troubled by their murmurings and seditions, but always ready to help them out of the difficulties into which they were led, on every occasion, by their want of faith.  He taught them, under God’s direction, how to correct the bitterness of brackish waters by applying to them the wood of a certain tree.*