Passage of the Red Sea

The Passage of the Red Sea refers to the Biblical account of the passage of the Red Sea by Moses, leading the Hebrews (Israelites) on their journey out of Egypt and across the Red Sea as described in the Book of Exodus, chapters 13:17 to 15:21, in order to enter the Promised Land (Canaan) following the stations of the Exodus. Moses somehow uses miracle powers and parts the sea.

Information on the site of the crossing is provided by the Priestly source, at Exodus 14:2, where God says to Moses: "Speak to the Children of Israel, and have them turn back and encamp before Pi-Hahiroth,(an Egyptian phrase) between Migdol (a semitic word meaning a height) and the sea, before Baal-zephon;('Lord of the North') you shall encamp opposite it, by the sea."

The stations of the Exodus after the crossing are in and around Elat at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba near Mt. Horab the place where Moses tended the flocks of his father in law in ancient Midian.

The years in the wilderness

When the people arrived at Marah, the water was bitter, causing the people to murmur against Moses. Moses cast a tree into the water, and the water became sweet. Later in the journey, after crossing the Red Sea from Elim to Elat the people began running low on supplies and again murmured against Moses and Aaron and said they would have preferred to die in Egypt, but God's provision of manna from the sky in the morning and quail in the evening took care of the situation. When the people camped in Rephidim, there was no water, so the people complained again and said, "Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?" At Alush on Mt Horeb Moses struck a rock with his staff, and water came forth.

Amalekites, the indigenous people of Canaan, Edom, and the Seir arrived and attacked the Israelites. In response, Moses bade Joshua lead the men to fight while he stood on Mt. Horeb with the rod of God in his hand. As long as Moses held the rod up, Israel dominated the fighting, but if Moses let down his hands, the tide of the battle turned in favor of the Amalekites. Because Moses was getting tired, Aaron and Hur had Moses sit on a rock. Aaron held up one arm, Hur held up the other arm, and the Israelites routed the Amalekites.

Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, came to see Moses at Mt. Horeb where Moses had tended Jethro's flocks and brought Moses' wife and two sons with him. After Moses had told Jethro how the Israelites had escaped Egypt, Jethro went to offer sacrifices to the Lord, and then ate bread with the elders. The next day Jethro observed how Moses sat from morning to night giving judgement for the people. Jethro suggested that Moses appoint judges for lesser matters, a suggestion Moses heeded.

When the Israelites came to Mt. Horeb, they pitched camp near the mountain. Moses commanded the people not to touch the mountain. Moses received the Ten Commandments orally (but not yet in tablet form) and other moral laws. He then went up with Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders to see the God of Israel. Before Moses went up the mountain to receive the tablets, he told the elders to direct any questions that arose to Aaron or Hur. While Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving instruction on the laws for the Israelite community, the Israelites went to Aaron and asked him to make gods for them. After Aaron had received golden earrings from the people, he made a golden calf and said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." A "solemnity of the Lord" was proclaimed for the following day, which began in the morning with sacrifices and was followed by revelry. After Moses had persuaded the Lord not to destroy the people of Israel, he went down from the mountain and was met by Joshua. Moses destroyed the calf and rebuked Aaron for the sin he had brought upon the people. Seeing that the people were uncontrollable, Moses went to the entry of the camp and said, "Who is on the Lord's side? Let him come unto me." All the sons of Levi rallied around Moses, who ordered them to go from gate to gate slaying the idolators.

Following this, according to the last chapters of Exodus, the Tabernacle was constructed, the priestly law ordained, the plan of encampment arranged both for the Levites and the non-priestly tribes, and the Tabernacle consecrated. Moses was given eight prayer laws that were to be carried out in regards to the Tabernacle. These laws included light, incense and sacrifice.

Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses on account of his marriage to an Ethiopian, Josephus explains the marriage of Moses to this Ethiopian in the Antiquities of the Jews [this primary source citation needs verification] and about him being the only one through whom the Lord spoke. Miriam was punished with leprosy for seven days.

The people left Hazeroth and pitched camp in the wilderness of Paran. (Paran is a vaguely defined region in the northern part of the Sinai peninsula, just south of Canaan) Moses sent twelve spies into Canaan as scouts, including most famously Caleb and Joshua. After forty days, they returned to the Israelite camp, bringing back grapes and other produce as samples of the regions fertility. Although all the spies agreed that the land's resources were spectacular, only two of the twelve spies (Joshua and Caleb) were willing to try to conquer it, and are nearly stoned for their unpopular opinion. The people began weeping and wanted to return to Egypt.

Moses turned down the opportunity to have the Israelites completely destroyed and a great nation made from his own offspring, and instead he told the people that they would wander the wilderness for forty years until all those twenty years or older who had refused to enter Canaan had died, and that their children would then enter and possess Canaan. Early the next morning, the Israelites said they had sinned and now wanted to take possession of Canaan. Moses told them not to attempt it, but the Israelites chose to disobey Moses and invade Canaan, but were repulsed by the Amalekites and Canaanites. According to the Quran, Moses encourages the Israelites to enter Canaan, but they are unwilling to fight the Canaanites, fearing certain defeat.

Moses responds by pleading to Allah that he and his brother Aaron be separated from the rebellious Israelites.

The Tribe of Reuben, led by Korah, Dathan, Abiram, and two hundred fifty Israelite princes accused Moses and Aaron of raising themselves over the rest of the people. Moses told them to come the next morning with a censer for every man. Dathan and Abiram refused to come when summoned by Moses. Moses went to the place of Dathan and Abiram's tents. After Moses spoke the ground opened up and engulfed Dathan and Abiram's tents, after which it closed again. Fire consumed the two hundred fifty men with the censers. Moses had the censers taken and made into plates to cover the altar. The following day, the Israelites came and accused Moses and Aaron of having killed his fellow Israelites. The people were struck with a plague that killed fourteen thousand seven hundred persons, and was only ended when Aaron went with his censer into the midst of the people. To prevent further murmurings and settle the matter permanently, Moses had each of the chief princes of the non-Levitic tribes write his name on his staff and had them lay them in the sanctuary. He also had Aaron write his name on his staff and had it placed in the tabernacle. The next day, when Moses went into the tabernacle, Aaron's staff had budded, blossomed, and yielded almonds.

After leaving Sinai, the Israelites camped in Kadesh. After more complaints from the Israelites, Moses struck the stone twice, and water gushed forth. However, because Moses and Aaron had not shown the Lord's holiness, they were not permitted to enter the land to be given to the Israelites. This was the second occasion Moses struck a rock to bring forth water; however, it appears that both sites were named Meribah after these two incidents.

Now ready to enter Canaan, the Israelites abandon the idea of attacking the Canaanites head-on in Hebron, a city in the southern part of Canaan. Having been informed by spies that they were too strong, it is decided that they will flank Hebron by going further East, around the Dead Sea.

This required that they pass through Edom, Moab, and Ammon. These three tribes are considered Hebrews by the Israelites as descendants of Lot, and therefore cannot be attacked. However they are also rivals, and are therefore not permissive in allowing the Israelites to openly pass through their territory. So Moses leads his people carefully along the eastern border of Edom, the southernmost of these territories. While the Israelites were making their journey around Edom, they complained about the manna. After many of the people had been bitten by serpents and died, Moses made the brass serpent and mounted it on a pole, and if those who were bitten looked at it, they did not die. According to the Biblical Book of Kings this brass serpent remained in existence until the days of King Hezekiah, who destroyed it after persons began treating it as an idol. When they reach Moab, it is revealed that Moab has been attacked and defeated by the Amorites led by a king named Sihon. The Amorites were a non-Hebrew Canaanic people who once held power in the Fertile Crescent. When Moses asks the Amorites for passage and it is refused, Moses attacks the Amorites (as non-Hebrews, the Israelites have no reservations in attacking them), presumably weakened by conflict with the Moabites, and defeats them. The Israelites, now holding the territory of the Amorites just north of Moab, desire to expand their holdings by acquiring Bashan, a fertile territory north of Ammon famous for its oak trees and cattle. It is led by a king named Og. Later rabbinical legends made Og a survivor of the flood, suggesting the he had sat on the ark and was fed by Noah. The Israelites fight with Og's forces at Edrei, on the southern border of Bashan, where the Israelites are victorious and slay every man, woman, and child of his cities and take the spoil for their bounty.

Balak, king of Moab, having heard of the Israelites' conquests, fears that his territory might be next. Therefore he sends elders of Moab, and of Midian, to Balaam (apparently a powerful and respected prophet), son of Beor (Bible), to induce him to come and curse the Israelites. Balaam's location is unclear. Balaam sends back word that he can only do what God commands, and God has, via a dream, told him not to go. Moab consequently sends higher ranking priests and offers Balaam honours, and so God tells Balaam to go with them. Balaam thus sets out with two servants to go to Balak, but an Angel tries to prevent him. At first the Angel is seen only by the ass Balaam is riding. After Balaam starts punishing the ass for refusing to move, it is miraculously given the power to speak to Balaam, and it complains about Balaam's treatment. At this point, Balaam is allowed to see the angel, who informs him that the ass is the only reason the Angel did not kill Balaam. Balaam immediately repents, but is told to go on.

Balak meets with Balaam at Kirjath-huzoth, and they go to the high places of Baal, and offer sacrifices at seven altars, leading to Balaam being given a prophecy by God, which Balaam relates to Balak. However, the prophecy blesses Israel; Balak remonstrates, but Balaam reminds him that he can only speak the words put in his mouth, so Balak takes him to another high place at Pisgah, to try again. Building another seven altars here, and making sacrifices on each, Balaam provides another prophecy blessing Israel. Balaam finally gets taken by a now very frustrated Balak to Peor, and, after the seven sacrifices there, decides not to seek enchantments but instead looks on the Israelites from the peak. The spirit of God comes upon Balaam and he delivers a third positive prophecy concerning Israel. Balak's anger rises to the point where he threatens Balaam, but Balaam merely offers a prediction of fate. Balaam then looks on the Kenites, and Amalekites and offers two more predictions of fate. Balak and Balaam then simply go to their respective homes. Later, Balaam informed Balak and the Midianites that, if they wished to overcome the Israelites for a short interval, they needed to seduce the Israelites to engage in idolatry. The Midianites sent beautiful women to the Israelite camp to seduce the young men to partake in idolatry, and the attempt proved successful.

Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron, put an end to the matter of the Midianite seduction by slaying two of the prominent offenders, but by that time a plague inflicted on the Israelites had already killed about twenty-four thousand persons. Moses was then told that because Phinehas had averted the wrath of God from the Israelites, Phinehas and his descendents were given the pledge of an everlasting priesthood. After Moses had taken a census of the people, he sent an army to avenge the perceived evil brought on the Israelites by the Midianites. Numbers 31 says Moses instructed the Israelite soldiers to kill every Midianite woman, boy, and non-virgin girl, although virgin girls were shared amongst the soldiers. The Israelites killed Balaam, and the five kings of Midian: Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba.

Moses appointed Joshua, son of Nun, to succeed him as the leader of the Israelites. Moses then died at the age of 120.

Death

After all this was accomplished, Moses was warned that he would not be permitted to lead the nation of Israel across the Jordan river, but would die on its eastern shores (Num. 20:12). He therefore assembled the tribes, and delivered to them a parting address, which forms the Book of Deuteronomy. In this address it is commonly accepted that he recapitulated the Law, reminding them of its most important features. When Moses finished, and he had pronounced a blessing on the people (Deut. 28:1-14), he went up Mount Nebo to the top of Pisgah, looked over the promised land of Israel spread out before him, and died, at the age of one hundred and twenty, on 7 Adar (about Feb-Mar 1271 BC). God Himself buried him in an unknown grave (Deut. 34:6). Moses was thus the human instrument in the creation of the nation of Israel by communicating to it the Torah. More humble than any other man (Num. 12:3), he enjoyed unique privileges, for "there hath not arisen a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the HaShem knew face to face" (Deut. 34:10).

Date of the Exodus

The Bible gives a date for the Exodus of c 1450 BC based on it being 480 years before the building of the temple in the 4th year of the reign of King Solomon and 430 years after the first arrival of Abraham in Egypt. Conjectures about the Exodus having taken place at other times are generally intended to demonstrate its agreement with other historic sources, archaeology, textual artifacts such as the form of contracts and the price of slaves, the geopolitical context, Egyptian campaign accounts and various king lists. Suggested dates range from 1450 to 1208 BC in the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt and the Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt. At any time in this period the capital of Egypt is at Thebes and the crossing of the Red Sea from Thebes Red Sea Port Elim to Elat would be made in the company of Hatshepsuts Red Sea Fleet which was engaged in bringing mortuary supplies to the Temple of Karnak where frankincense, myrrh, bitumen, natron and linen from across the Red Sea were used in mummification.

Based on the passages which say that Moses was born in a time when war threatened and there was a new Pharaoh who knew Joseph not and the passages in Genesis 14 describing Abrahams encounter with Chedolaomers campaign the geo political context suggests the Exodus occurred sometime around expulsion of the Hyksos by Kamose and the formation of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt by Amose. The building of a Red Sea fleet by Hatshepsut c 1458 BC and the campaign of Thutmosis III in pursuit of the Hyksos which lead up to the Battle of Megiddo c 1470 BC are considered compatible with the Bibles dating.

It is thought to have occurred in the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, because this is the period when the Amarna letters, found in the library of Akhenaton at Amarna detailing the events that occurred in the reigns of himself and his predecessors Amenhotep III and Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten) tell of Canaan being invaded by "Ha ibru". Inscriptions portraying the battle of kadesh show ha ibru (the horsemen plural) as mounted bowmen serving as couriers for the Egyptians a couple of centuries later. This is the period when the Bible tells of the people of the Exodus attacking the same cities mentioned in the Egyptian accounts and placing them under the ban. There were also campaigns by Chedarlaomer against the cities of the Amalek along the Seir in the time of the Hebrew patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob some centuries before the Exodus. Doubt is thrown on the literal dating of the Bible suggesting that "forty years" might be just an idiom for "a long period of time", in the Old Testament despite the correlations. Further doubt arrises in that some scholars view the Habiru as members of a social underclass of people the MARTU, SAGAZ, KUR and apiru who are notorious as displaced semitic agricultural workers. Certainly there are plenty of brigands, vagrants, drifters, and nomadic pastorialists causing trouble throughout the Ancient Near East. Offshore its waters are full of sea people and pirates its trade routes regularly traversed by warlords, their campfollowers, sacred prostitutes, mercenaries, Shashu, bedouin raiders, warlike Amalek giants, Hittites, Mitanni and other trouble makers inclined to prey upon its merchant caravans and unwalled cities and villages. The sons of Israel are not the only candidates for hapiru or habiru anymore than they are a group of tribes, gene, oinkos and phratre confined to Egypt.

A century ago some scholars thought the Exodus may have occurred during the 13th century BC, if the pharaoh of that time, Ramesses II, could be considered to be the pharaoh with whom Moses squabbled — either as the 'Pharaoh of the Exodus' himself, or the preceding 'Pharaoh of the Oppression', who is said to have commissioned the Hebrews to "(build) for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses." These cities are now know known not to have been built under either Seti I or Rameses II, and are in fact the remains of a Twelfth dynasty of Egypt canal system. It was conjectured by some that the stele of Merneptah might refer to campaigns in Canaan and even to refer to Israel making him the 'Pharaoh of the Exodus until it was realized that there were problems with the reading of the inscription made by Fliders Petrie in 1896. The phrase he translated as mentioning "the people of YISRAEL their seed is not" actually refers the campaigns of his predecessors against Syrians. This is considered plausible by those who view the famous claim of the Year 5 Merneptah Stele (ca. 1208 BC) that "Israel is wasted, bare of seed," as propaganda to cover up this king's own loss of an army in the Red Sea. Taken at face value, however, the primary intent of the stela was clearly to commemorate Merneptah's victory over the Libyans and their Sea People allies. The reference to Canaan occurs only in the final lines of the document where Israel is mentioned after the city states of Ashkelon, Gezer and Yanoam perhaps to signal Merneptah's disdain or contempt for this new entity. In Exodus, the Pharaoh of the Exodus did not cross into Canaan since his Army was destroyed at the Red Sea. Hence, the traditional view that Ramesses II was the Pharaoh of either the Oppression or the Exodus is affirmed by the basic contents of the Merneptah Stele. Under this scenario, the Israelites would have been a nation without a state of their own who existed on the fringes of Canaan in Year 5 of Merneptah. This is suggested by the determinative sign written in the stela for Israel — "a throw stick plus a man and a woman over the three vertical plural lines" — which was "typically used by the Egyptians to signify nomadic groups or peoples without a fixed city-state," such as the Hebrew's previous life in Goshen.

An unverified theory places the birth and/or adoption of Moses during a minor oppression in the reign of Amenhotep III, which was soon lifted, and claims that the more well-known oppression occurred during the reign of Horemheb, followed by the Exodus itself during the reign of Ramesses I. This is supported by the Haggadah of Pesach, which suggests that they were oppressed and then re-oppressed quite a few years later by Pharaoh. The Bible and Haggada suggest that the Pharaoh of the Exodus died in year 2 of his reign, matching Ramses I. The fact that Pi-Tum and Raamses were built during the reign of Ramses I also supports this view. Seti I records that during his reign the Shasu warred with each other, which some see as a reference to the Midyan and Moab wars. Seti's campaigns with the Shasu have also been compared with Balaam's exploits. However, many Egyptologists reject these comparisons as spurious.[citation needed]

A more recent and non-Biblical view places Moses as a noble in the court of the Pharaoh Akhenaten (See below). A significant number of scholars, from Sigmund Freud to Joseph Campbell, suggest that Moses may have fled Egypt after Akhenaten's death (ca. 1334 BC) when many of the pharaoh's monotheistic reforms were being violently reversed. The principal ideas behind this theory are: the monotheistic religion of Akhenaten being a possible predecessor to Moses' monotheism, and the "Amarna letters", written by nobles to Akhenaten, which describe raiding bands of "Habiru" attacking the Egyptian territories in Mesopotamia.

David Rohl, a British historian and archaeologist, author of the book "A Test of Time", places the birth of Moses during the reign of Pharaoh Khaneferre Sobekhotep IV of the 13th Egyptian Dynasty, and the Exodus during the reign of Pharaoh Dudimose (accession to the throne around 1457–1444), when according to Manetho "a blast from God smote the Egyptians".