m in the parts where the Israelites were now travelling. Diodorus informs us, that there were such waters at some little distance from the city Arsinoe1; Strabo says the same thing; and Pliny carries on Trajan's river from the Nile to the bitter fountains1; and these bitter fountains, and the bitter lakes mentioned by Strabo and Diodorus, 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 Diodorus's 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; and hither the Israelites may be conceived to have wandered. They went from the Red sea into the wilderness of Shur; they could not pass through towards Canaan for want of water; they turned about towards Egypt, where they hoped to find a 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 cattle could not drink it: that upon the Israelites' uneasiness with Moses, he prayed to God, and took his rod and split it down in the middle, and persuaded the people that God had heard his prayers, and would 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, and pour away the greatest part of the water; the doing this, he says, stirring and dashing i Diodor. Sic. 1. iii. c. 39. k Strabo, Geog. 1. xvii. p. 804. ed. Par. 1620. 1 Plin. Nat. Hist. 1. vi. c. 29. n Josephus Antiq. 1. iii. c. 1. 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 of 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; and to this Strabo agrees; he supposes water enough in this place, many large lakes and fosseso, though he tells us they were in ancient days bitter, until, by a communication P of the river, the later inhabitants of the country found out a way to meliorate the taste of them. 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 it from its mineral taste, which most probably was given it from the very earth against which they must thus dash it? But it must be needless to refute at large this fancy of Josephus. The writer of the book of Ecclesiasticus hints a different reason for the cure of those bitter waters. He suggests, that the wood which Moses was directed to use had naturally a medicinal virtue to correct the taste of the waters at Marah: Was not, says he, the water made sweet with wood, that the virtue thereof might be known? But I cannot think that the opinion of this writer can be admitted: for, 1. It does not seem probable that Moses here used a whole and large tree; rather he took a little bough, such as he himself could put into the water, and immediately the taste of the waters changed. 2. If it could be thought that Moses employed the people to take down a very large Ο Διώρυγες πλείους καὶ λίμναι πλησιάζουσαι αὐταῖς. Strabo, l. xvii. p. 804. ed. Par. 1620. - Τῶν πικρῶν καλουμένων λιμνῶν, αἱ πρότερον μὲν ἦσαν πικραὶ, τμηθείσης δὲ τῆς διώρυγος μετεβάλλοντο τῇ κράσει τοῦ Tотаμοû. Id. ibid. q Ecclus. xxxviii. 5. tree, and convey it into the water, can we suppose that even the largest tree, steeped in a lake, should immediately communicate a sufficient quantity of its natural sweetness, to correct the taste of water, enough for the occasions of so many hundred thousands of people? But, 3. We have great reason to think that there was no tree in these parts of this virtue. Had there been such an one, after the virtue of it was thus known, especially Moses having recorded this his use of it, it would certainly have been much used by others, and as much inquired after by the naturalists: but though Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, and Pliny, have all remarked, that there were bitter waters in these parts of the world, yet they knew of no trees of a medicinal quality to correct the taste of them. Pliny tells us of a method afterwards invented to meliorate the taste of such watersr: but though he has treated largely of the powers and virtues of trees and plants, and of the trees in these parts of the world particularly; yet he never heard of any of this sort, and therefore undoubtedly there were not any. The author of Ecclesiasticus was a very learned man, and had much given himself to the reading the writings of his fathers, and had carefully collected their sentiments, and added some observations of his own to them"; and this seems to have been his own: had it been a received opinion of the Jewish writers, I should think Josephus would have had it; or had there really been a tree of this nature, the heathen naturalists would have observed it; but from their entire silence, I imagine that the author of Ecclesiasticus, speculating, in the chapter where we find this hint, upon the medicines which God hath created out of the earth, offered this hint purely from his own fancy, without any authority for it. The book of Ecclesiasticus is but a modern composure in comparison of Moses's writings; it was first published in Egypt about one hundred and thirtytwo years before Christy, and, being published in Egypt, r Nitrosæ aut amaræ aquæ polenta addita mitigantur, ut intra duas horas bibi possint. Plin. Nat. Hist. 1. xxiv. C. 1. s Plin. Nat. Hist. 1. xxiv. per tot. lib. t Ibid. c. 12. u Prologue to Ecclus. y Prideaux, Connect. p. ii. b. i. vol. iii. §. 7. was much read by the Jews of Alexandria; and accordingly Philo, who lived there about our Saviour's time, was acquainted with the opinion of this author; but he very justly doubts the truth of it, and queries whether the wood here used had naturally, or whether God was not pleased to give it its virtue for this particular occasion2. From Marah the Israelites removed to a place where they found twelve fountains of water and threescore and ten palm trees. A place not unlike this is described by Strabo a; the Israelites called it Elim. From hence, after some days rest, they marched first to the Red sea", perhaps to the very place where they came over out of Egypt, and from thence they went into the wilderness of Sin, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt; i. e. exactly a month after their leaving Egypt; for they left Egypt soon after midnight of the fourteenth day of the first month. The wilderness of Sin was a barren desert, not capable of supplying them with provision, which as soon as they felt the want of, they were ready to mutiny, and most passionately wished themselves in Egypt again. But God was here pleased miraculously to relieve them by great flights of quails, a sort of birds very common upon the coasts of the Arabian or Red seaf; and, besides sending these, he rained them bread from heaven. Every morning, when the dew was off, there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost upon the grounds; it was like coriander seed, of a white colour, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. The Israelites, when they saw it, knew not manna, some of them perhaps deduced what it was, and therefore asked one another NJ man hua, for they are two Hebrew words, and signify what is this? man signifies what, and hua this; and not knowing what name to give it, they called it man, or what, i. e. is it, ever afteri. The Israelites were ordered, every head of a family, to gather as many omersk of this manna every morning as he had persons in his family; but as they went out to gather without taking measures with them, it so happened that some gathered more than their quantity, and some less; but they corrected this before they carried their gatherings home; for they measured what they had gathered with an omer, and he that had gathered more than his quantity gave to him that had gathered less, so that every one had his just quantity made up, and no more. The words of the 18th verse, as our English version renders them, seem to imply, that God was here pleased miraculously to adjust the several quantities that were gathered. We translate the place, The children of Israel gathered some more, some less: and when they did mete it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; which words may be thought to hint, that God was pleased miraculously so to order it, that when they came to measure, the store of him that had gathered too much was diminished to the exact number of omers which he was to The authors of Talmud Joma and Lib. Zohar say, the manna had all sorts of tastes, except the tastes of the plants and sallads which grew in Egypt. But there is no end of pursuing or refuting the fancies of these writers. Moses says of the manna here in Exodus, that its taste was like wafers made with honey. In Numbers xi. 8. he says, the cakes made of it had the taste of fresh oil; so that we may conjecture, that it had a sweetness when gathered, which evaporated in the grinding, beating, and baking. It tasted like honey when taken off the ground, but the cakes made of it were as cakes of bread kneaded with oil. The Israelites used it as a sort of bread; they had the quails instead of flesh, Exodus xvi. 12. Numbers xi. The manna is represented to have had no high taste, Numbers xi. 6. and we have not any hint from Moses of its being so variously delightsome to the palate, as the author of the Book of Wisdom seems to suggest. i Our English word manna, Exod. xvi. 15. seems to intimate, that the Israelites put the two words man hua together, as the name of this food: but they used but one of them; for they called it man, and not manhua. See Exod. xvi. 15, 31, 35. Numb. xi. 6, 7, 9. Deut. viii. 3, 16. Joshua v. 12. Nehem. ix. 20. Psalm lxxviii. 24, &c. k An omer is the tenth part of an ephah, probably about three pints and a half of our measure. 1 Exod. xvi. 16. |