The Books of MosesFact or Fiction?

Session 8

The Exodus from Egypt

The Exodus from Egypt

Table of ContentsIntroduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Joseph in Egypt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Slide into Slavery. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Moses and the Plagues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

The Passover. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5The Exodus Begins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Where are They?.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Other Exodus Routes and Crossing Places. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Sea of Reeds, Balla Lake, Bitter Lake.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Crossing at the Gulf of Suez. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Crossing at the Straits of Tiran. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

The Journey to Nuweiba. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Crossing the Soph Sea. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Israel in Midian. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24Some Issues to Consider. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Archeological Evidence to Support this Crossing Place. . . . . 25Israelite Population Growth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26How Could Pharaoh’s Military Catch up to the Israelites?. . 26Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Exodus. . . 27Could They Have Crossed the Soph Sea Using Boats?. . . . . . 29

Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; andJehovah caused the sea to depart during a fierce east windthat night. He made the sea into dry land, and the waterswere split.So the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea onthe dry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on theirright hand and on their left. Exodus 14:21 & 22

The Exodus 1

IntroductionIn our last session we looked at Nimrod, Babel and the Confusion ofLanguages, which resulted in the dispersion of various descendants ofNoah to their lands throughout the world.

This session, we will quickly review how the Israelites became slavesin Egypt, and focus on how that led to their Exodus via a series ofmiracles.

Joseph in EgyptThere are traditions that Harran, the likely site of Babel, was namedafter Abraham’s brother, Haran, and Abraham was born in the Harranplain area. Eventually, one of Abraham’s descendants, Joseph, was soldas a slave and wound up in Egypt in about 2218 After Creation, or 1787BCE. This is about 212 years after the Babel event we looked at lastsession. Joseph was eventually put into prison, but from there he wastaken to Pharaoh to interpret his dream. God had given Joseph themeaning of Pharaoh’s dream of seven fat cows that were swallowed upby seven starving cows, which remained starving. There was to beseven years of plenty followed by seven years of drought, and Jehovahalso gave Joseph wisdom in how to use the situation to save manypeople from death during the drought and also to use it to the Pharaoh’sadvantage (Genesis chapters 37 to 41). It is very likely that the Pharaohin question was Djoser and Joseph’s Egyptian name was Imhotep.1 Djoser was grateful to Joseph and gave Goshen2 to his family as a thankyou when they moved to Egypt during the years of drought. Goshen

1 For details of the corrections needed to the Egyptian timeline and ther e s u l t i n g c o r r e s p o n d e n c e w i t h t h e B i b l e , s e ewww.creationsixdays.net/2013_ICC_Habermehl_Joseph.pdf and Exodus,Myth or History, by David Rohl.

2 Means drawing near in Hebrew. This area is also called Rameses by theEgyptians as in Gen 47:11.

2 The Books of Moses

was the best land in the Nile river delta (see Genesis 45:1 to 21). It islikely that all the Israelites moved to Egypt about 2237 AC (1768 BCE)

The thank you was well-deserved. Joseph, as Vizier to the Pharaoh, hadmade Egypt into a Superpower and Pharaoh the owner of virtually allof Egypt . For some time the Israelites were respected because of whatJoseph had done for the Pharaohs, but over time there was a change ofdynasty and a change of heart in the Egyptian rulership.

Slide into SlaveryExo 1:8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not knowJoseph.

As the Egyptians’ memory of Joseph waned, things began to go wrongfor the Israelites. By about 2375 After Creation, or 1630 BCE theIsraelites have, within 133 years, become slaves in Egypt. And despitedesperate attempts by this Pharaoh to kill off all the male Israelitechildren, their numbers continued to grow rapidly even while theEgyptian oppression and cruelty grew:

Exo 1:9 And he said to his people, “Look, the people of the children ofIsrael are abundant and mightier than we;Exo 1:10 “come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, andit happens, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fightagainst us, and so go up out of the land.”Exo 1:11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them withtheir burdens. And they built supply cities for Pharaoh, Pithom andRaamses.Exo 1:12 But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied andgrew. And they were in dread of the children of Israel.Exo 1:13 So the Egyptians made the children of Israel serve withbrutality.Exo 1:14 And they made their lives bitter with severe bondage; inmortar, in brick, and in all manner of work in the field. All their workin which they made them serve was with brutality.Exo 1:15 Then the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of

The Exodus 3

whom the name of one was Shiphrah and the name of the other Puah;Exo 1:16 and he said, “When you do the duties of a midwife for theHebrew women, and see them on the birthstools, if it is a son, then youshall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.”Exo 1:17 But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king ofEgypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive.Exo 1:18 So the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said to them,“Why have you done this thing, and saved the male children alive?”Exo 1:19 And the midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrewwomen are not like the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and givebirth before the midwives come to them.”Exo 1:20 Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the peoplemultiplied and grew very mighty.Exo 1:21 And so it was, because the midwives feared God, that Heprovided households for them.Exo 1:22 So Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, “Every son whois born to the Hebrews you shall cast into the waterways, and everydaughter you shall save alive.”

This command leads to the infant Moses being placed in a waterproofbasket and put into the Pharaoh’s daughter’s bathing pool on the side ofthe Nile. Moses then grows up in the palace, but when he is 40 hestrikes and kills an Egyptian who was beating an Israelite. He has toflee for his life. He spends the next 40 years living in Midian, on theeast side of the Gulf of Aqaba.

So another eighty years have elapsed, and it is now about 2451 AfterCreation, or 1554 BCE.

Moses and the PlaguesIt is in Midian that Moses sees the burning bush which is not consumedand Jehovah commands him to return to Egypt to lead the Israelites out:

Exo 3:7 And Jehovah said: “I have surely seen the oppression of Mypeople who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of theirtaskmasters, for I know their sorrows.

4 The Books of Moses

Exo 3:8 “So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of theEgyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land,to a land flowing with milk and honey....Exo 3:10 “Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that youmay bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”Exo 3:11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh,and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?”Exo 3:12 So He said, “I will certainly be with you. And this shall be asign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people outof Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”

Moses and his brother Aaron return to Egypt and God brings tenplagues of increasing severity on the Egyptians, until Pharaoh finallyallows them to leave.The plagues are:1: Nile river turns to blood for seven days. Exodus 7:14-252: Frogs by the millions come out of the Nile. Exo 8:1-153: Lice from the dust. Exo 8:16-204: Flies everywhere, but not on the Israelites, nor any of the

following plagues. Exo 8:21-325: Livestock: all die from diseases. Exo 9:1-76: Boils cover the Egyptians and their new animals. Exo 9:8-127: Severe hail kills all people and animals outside, and destroys

their barley and flax. Exo 9:13-358: Locusts eat all the plants that remain. Exo 10:1-209: Blackness, total lack of light for three days and nights.

Exodus 10:21-2910: Passover, all the first-born of people and animals die.

Exo 11:1 to 12:51

Every one of these plagues is a direct attack on one or more of theEgyptian gods, and against Pharaoh, who claims to be a god. Thesesupposed gods are named in Figure 1. And in every case, Jehovahshows that He is the true God and the Egyptian ‘gods’ are powerlessfrauds. In the final plague, all the Egyptians, including Pharaoh and

The Exodus 5

Figure 1: Jehovah’s Judgements on the Egyptian ‘Gods’, a BarnesBible Chart.

many of whom were murdering the sons of the Israelites, have their ownfirst-born killed.

The PassoverAs the last plague is the trigger that begins the Exodus, we will look atit in more detail:

It is Jehovah’s Passover.Exo 12:12 ‘For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, andwill strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from man and beast; andI will execute judgement on all the gods of Egypt: I am Jehovah.Exo 12:13 ‘Now the blood shall be for a sign for you on the houses which

6 The Books of Moses

you are in. And I will see the blood and I will pass over3 you; and theplague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike in the land ofEgypt.4

Exo 12:14 ‘So this day shall be a memorial for you; and you shallcelebrate it as a feast to Jehovah throughout your generations. You shallcelebrate it as an everlasting statute.Exo 12:15 ‘Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. Indeed, on thefirst day you shall remove leaven from your houses. For anyone who eatsanything leavened from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shallbe cut off from Israel....

Exo 12:29 And it came to pass at midnight that Jehovah struck all thefirstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat onhis throne to the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and allthe firstborn of livestock.Exo 12:30 So Pharaoh rose in the night, he, all his servants, and all theEgyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a housewhere there was not one dead.Exo 12:31 Then he called for Moses and Aaron by night, and said, “Riseand go out from among my people, both you and the children of Israel. And go, serve Jehovah as you have said.

The Exodus BeginsSo while the Egyptians were burying their dead, God began leadingthem out of Egypt:

Exo 12:51 So it came to pass, on that very same day, that Jehovah led thehost of the children of Israel away from the land of Egypt.

3 This is the “pass over” from which the “Passover” acquires its name. Asthis happens during the “Night of Solemn Observance” on the First Day ofUnleavened Bread, this is also why the First Day is also often called thePassover, as well as the preceding Preparation Day on which the PassoverLamb was sacrificed.

4 John 1:29, Acts 8:32, 1 Pet 1:19

The Exodus 7

That ‘very same day’ was the First Day of the Feast of UnleavenedBread. God also commanded them to always remember what He haddone, and made it into the Mark of God:

Exo 13:9 “It shall be a sign to you on your hand and a reminder betweenyour eyes,5 that Jehovah’s Instructions may be in your mouth; for witha strong hand Jehovah brought you out of Egypt.Exo 13:10 “You shall therefore keep this statute in its season from yearto year.

First the Israelites assembled at Rameses and then began their march outof Egypt:Exo 12:37 Then the children of Israel departed from Rameses towardsSuccoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, plus their families.Exo 12:38 A mixed crowd went up with them also, and flocks and herds;a great deal of livestock.

So we have two landmarks: Rameses, where they assembled andprepared to depart, and Succoth, their first stop on their Exodus.

Where are They?Rameses is the Egyptian name for the land of Goshen, the land whichDjoser gave to them (Gen 45:10 and 47:11). So they assembled on theirown land. They did not assemble at Raamses, which was one of thepharaoh’s guarded supply cities.

It is very likely that the Pharaoh in power during the Exodus was

5 These are the Marks of God, ‘the hand’ signifying that we keep and‘between the eyes’ that we know Jehovah’s Instructions. This passage tiesthese signs to keeping the Passover. Others tie them more broadly to keepingand understanding Jehovah’s Instructions, such as Deut 6:8, Deut 11:8, Rev7:3, Rev 14:1 and Rev 22:4. The Beast’s marks are similar: its marks on itsfollowers’ hands and between their eyes means that they obey its commandsand believe what it tells them (Rev 13:16, Rev 20:4).

8 The Books of Moses

Amenemhat IV and he, or his predecessor, built Raamses to control theIsraelites. Amenemhat IV was the last powerful pharaoh before the neartotal collapse of Egypt near the end of the 12th dynasty. Both he and hisson appear to have disappeared without a trace. Soberkneferu, hissuccessor and a woman, ignored his existence and linked her claim topower to his father, Amenemhat III. This would be consistent with herfather dying in disgrace and her brother dying young, as the Exodusaccount indicates. See Habermehl, Revising the Egyptian Chronology,for more details.

Goshen was the area around the modern city of Qantir, Markaz Fakous,Egypt today. Extensive excavation at the nearby Tell el-Daba by theAustrians, lead by Manfred Bietak, have revealed the remains of a largecity built in a distinctive Israelite style, and which appears to have beensuddenly abandoned (Location 30.7864N 31.8231E, Elev 9m). TheEgyptians later called the city Avaris, and it seems that the Hyksos, whoinvaded the almost defenseless Egypt after the Exodus, then made theabandoned city their capital and built over it.6 Nearby Qanteir was thesite of Raamses.

So we have the starting point for their Exodus. However, the Israelitesdid not take the northern road towards the Promised Land of Canaan:Exo 13:17 Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, thatGod did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although thatwas near; for God said, “Lest perhaps the people change their mindswhen they see war, and return to Egypt.”Exo 13:18 So God led the people around by way of the wilderness of theSoph Sea. And the children of Israel marched7 out of the land of Egypt.

6 See Exodus, Myth or History, by David Rohl.

7 The Hebrew indicates that they marched out in an orderly manner organisedlike an army. There is nothing to indicate that they obtained weapons untilafter crossing the Gulf of Aqaba.

The Exodus 9

So we know that their first stop was at Succoth, and that they are beingtaken towards the Soph Sea. And of course there are many ideas aboutwhere Succoth was, and even about what is the Soph Sea.

To get some idea of where to look for Succoth, first we need to sort outwhere the Soph Sea is. Much of the confusion comes frommistranslations of Soph Sea. The Hebrew is Soph Yam, and everyoneagrees that Yam means Sea. But some scholars think that Soph isderived from an Egyptian word which means Reeds, so they render thephrase as the Sea of Reeds. This makes them look for a very shallowsea or lake full of reeds.8 Others think the word is derived from aHebrew root meaning “red”, so they translate it as the Red Sea. But theusual Hebrew meaning for Soph is “Ending", so we have the Sea ofEnding. Various Bible verses confirm this is the sea called the "Gulf ofAqaba" today. One is Exo 10:19, when a strong westerly wind blowsthe locusts of the plague from Egypt into the Soph Sea and drown them. This means the Soph Sea is east of Egypt and fairly large to drown allof those locusts. Another is 1 Kings 9:26, which talks of KingSolomon’s shipyard on the Soph Sea. The remains of Solomon'sshipyard have been located at the northern end of the Gulf of Aqaba,which the Israelis call the Gulf of Elat(h) today. And Solomon’sshipyard is indeed where the sea ends. Soph Sea probably also includesall of the Rea Sea, the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf. See TheExodus Case, by Dr. Lennart Moller and The Lost Sea of Exodus byGlen Fritz for much more detail.

And why would Jehovah take them in this direction, which actuallytakes them farther from the Promised Land? They are going there toworship Jehovah at the mountain where Moses saw the burning bush,as we were told before in Exodus 3:12. And where is this mountain?–In Midian, which is on the east side of the Soph Sea (Gulf of Aqaba).

8 We will discuss this option later in the context of the crossing.

10 The Books of Moses

Jehovah plans to give them their laws and organise them into a nationthere, as we will explore in the next session. Then they are to movenorth to Canaan and take over the Promised Land.

But for completeness, we will briefly look at the other proposed routesand crossing places.

Other Exodus Routes and Crossing PlacesSea of Reeds, Balla Lake, Bitter Lake: Rohl essentially follows theSea of Reeds scenario, in which he claims that Moses made numerouserrors in leading the Israelites out of Egypt, and after several days waseventually trapped only a day’s walk north-east from where they began,on the west shore of the small and shallow Balla Lakes. This is on thePhilistine route that the Bible says they DID NOT take (Exo 13:17above). There are also no hills or mountains in this area to trap theIsraelites, so crossing these lakes would not have been their only optionfor escape.

Rohl then suggests that a strong wind blew back the water, like a naturalevent that happened in 1882 which exposed about a seven mile longsection of a lake bottom which was five feet (1.5 m) deep. Rohl claimsthe actual Balla(h) Lake crossing they used was only half a mile (800m)across and up to ten feet (3m) deep. My Figure 2 shows his location,which today has a more generous 4.4 km crossing point. This smallshallow lake, entirely in Egypt, is clearly not the Soph Sea, as explainedabove. There would be no walls of water, and it is difficult to see howthe slow return of the water as the wind died down and across hisnarrow crossing would drown anyone, let alone the elite of the Egyptianarmy. And once out of the lake bed, the calvary could quickly ride theshort distance around the lake, recapture their slaves and slaughter theirleaders. There would have been no Exodus. Rohl proposes thispathetic scenario so he can offer “a rational, non-miraculous

The Exodus 11

Figure 2: Sea of Reeds Crossing Point as Proposed by Rohl. Hemust increase the lake size to make it seem even slightly plausible.

explanation” of the Exodus crossing.9 His crossing is indeed non-miraculous, but it is not rational. One wonders why he bothered towrite a book about these miracles when he clearly does not reallybelieve in the accuracy of the Bible, in Jehovah God or in God’s abilityto perform miracles.

Similar problems also apply to the scheme which suggests they crossedat a neck of the nearby Lake Tanis at Kedua (by Carl Drews). Ditto forthe Bitter Lakes, which are only about 85 km (17 hours walk) fromRameses, but southward this time. Again, they are too close, there areno mountains or wilderness to entrap them, the lakes can easily beridden around and these lakes are not the Soph Sea.

9 Rohl, pg 189-190

12 The Books of Moses

And every one of these lake crossings fail on this Scripture too:

Isa 51:15 But I am Jehovah your God, who divided the sea whose wavesroared. Jehovah of Hosts is His Name.

These small lakes are not capable of having waves large enough to roar.

Crossing at the Gulf of SuezAshton and Down, on pg 204 of Unwrapping the Pharaohs, dosomewhat better. They suggest a crossing that begins at modernAdabiya, close to the top of the Gulf of Suez. At least they do not usethe way of the Philistines. And if one assumes that the Israelites onlywalked by day, and camped each night, it is a reasonable 150 km, or 30hour (3 day) distance from Rameses. And the crossing is about 9 km,which would be possible. But as Figure 3 shows, it is a senselesscrossing place. A mounted armed force could ride around the top of theGulf almost as quickly as the Israelites could walk through the dividedwaters, so there would be no need for Pharaoh’s military to enter thedangerous looking channel in the water. They picked this locationbecause the water was “only a maximum of 26 feet (8 m) deep”. Apparently their god couldn’t handle water any deeper than this.

Ain Sokhna would seem a better Suez crossing location, as it is asignificant distance down the Gulf and their way farther south is largelyblocked by mountains. It is a 185 km, 37 hour walk, which could beachieved in three hard days. The crossing would be 31 kilometersacross and up to 60 meters deep. However, it would be impossible toget the Israelites across such a distance in the few hours that the Biblesays they had. But both of these locations suffer from another fatalflaw: Moses was taking the Israelites to Midian, which was west-south-west from Rameses. Why would he, or God, take them south, and thusdeeper into Egyptian territory, when they were fleeing from Egypt?

The Exodus 13

Figure 3: Ashton and Down’s Gulf of Suez Crossing Path. TheEgyptian army could have easily rode around the top of the Gulfrather than enter the path through the water.

Crossing at the Straits of Tiran, at the south end of Gulf of Aqaba:This crossing point is championed by Steve Rudd. Details are at http://www.bible.ca/archeology/bible-archeology-exodus-route-straits-of-tiran.htm and in Figure 4.It is 560km from Rameses to Nabq-Tiran. It would take 5.15 day andnight walks to cover this distance, which is more time than I believethey had as they crossed the Sea on the Last Day of Unleavened Bread(see below). There was not enough time to have the two night campsmentioned in Scripture.

Rudd avoids this problem by giving them 25 days to very slowly walkto this site, even though he admits that with only two camps, theymostly walked day and night. But walking at this rate, the Egyptianswould have caught up with them weeks before they reached the Straits.

14 The Books of Moses

Figure 4: Straits of Tiran Exodus and Crossing, by Steve Rudd. Notethe great distance to the Straits and the doubling back from ‘Etham’.

To trap them on his route, he has them march about 20 km past theircrossing point, wait there for the Egyptians to catch up to them (see thelast sentence), then march back down to the crossing point. None ofthese details are consistent with the Bible account. And Figure 5 showsthat the proposed Strait crossing routes have sections which have steepslopes, making this crossing route dangerous, and probably impossible.

The Exodus 15

Figure 5: Steep Slopes making Tiran Crossing Impossible.

So, the only real contender for the Soph Sea is the Gulf of Aqaba, andas we will see, the crossing point is from Nuweiba Beach.

The Journey to NuweibaNow we have a starting point and a destination. How did they get fromRameses to the Soph Sea? Where was their first stop, Succoth?

Succoth was a stopping place on the road from the Nile Delta to the topof the Soph Sea (Gulf of Aqaba). As we are looking at an enormousgroup of about 2.5 million people plus their livestock, we need a large,flatish area for them to set up camp. Just for the people, they wouldhave required an area of at least 5 square kilometers. To allow space formixed multitude and the animals, they may have needed three or fourtimes this area. So, where on the route do we find such camping areas

16 The Books of Moses

at the distances that would be required? A likely place is near the ElGefgafa Supply Bureau at 30.445N 33.128E Elev 303m. The cross thatappears on the ground at this location is likely an abandoned airfield.

Exo 13:20 So they took their journey from Succoth10 and camped inEtham11 at the edge of the wilderness.Exo 13:21 And Jehovah went before them by day in a pillar of cloud tolead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to goby day and night.Exo 13:22 He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillarof fire by night from before the people.

It is important to note this aspect of their journey: Jehovah led them,and they were strengthened and enabled to travel both day and night. Even their walking to the crossing point involved miraculous support. Here are two verses which confirm this:

Num 9:21 So it was, when the cloud remained only from evening untilmorning: when the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they wouldjourney; whether by day or by night, whenever the cloud was taken up,they would journey.

Psa 105:37 He also brought them out with silver and gold, and there wasnone who stumbled among His tribes.

So we see above that Etham was on the edge of the wilderness, and thatit is also where they turned south, as detailed in this passage from theBook of Numbers:

Num 33:3 They departed from Rameses in the first new moon, on thefifteenth day of the first new moon; on the day after the Passover the

10 Means “Booths”

11 Means “Their plowshare with them”

The Exodus 17

children of Israel went out with boldness in the sight of all the Egyptians.Num 33:4 For the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn, whomJehovah had killed among them. Also on their gods Jehovah hadexecuted judgements.Num 33:5 Then the children of Israel moved from Rameses and campedat Succoth.Num 33:6 They departed from Succoth and camped at Etham, which ison the edge of the wilderness.Num 33:7 They moved from Etham and turned to Pi Hahiroth, whichfaces Baal Zephon; and they camped before Migdol.

Etham is a better defined location than Succoth, and is at 29.6504N34.6913E Elev 696m. Like Succoth, it also has a large flat area wherethere was plenty of room for the Israelites to set up camp for that night. Etham is where there is a south branch off the road to Midian that leadsto Pi Hahiroth and Migdol, which are called Nuweiba Beach today. Thesouth road runs down Wadi Watir, a usually dry river valley betweenthe mountains, shown in Figure 6. Exodus also tells us about this area:

Exo 14:1 Now Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying:Exo 14:2 “Speak to the children of Israel, that they turn and campbefore Pi Hahiroth,12 between Migdol13 and the sea, facing Baal Zephon;14

you shall camp opposite it by the sea.

These locations have the Israelites set up camp on the seaward area ofthe Nuweiba Beach. As the beach has an area of over 22 squarekilometers, there is plenty of room for both the Israelites and Pharaoh’s

12 The Hebrew may mean “Mouth of the Gorge”. The location is probablywhere the Wadi opens onto Nuweiba Beach on the Gulf of Aqaba.

13 Meaning ‘fortress’ or ‘tower of mountains’.

14 ‘Lord of the North’, likely a mountain on the east side of the Gulf ofAqaba.

18 The Books of Moses

Figure 6: My Proposed Route to the Exodus Crossing at Nuweibaa. This route is based on modern roads which follow ancient routes.

military force.

It is likely that Pi-Hahiroth was where the road through the wadi openedonto the beach area (28.9891N 34.6417E) and Migdol was an Egyptianfortress built near the Wadi to prevent anyone using this beach and roadto invade Egypt. The remains of a fortress can be seen there today. Toboth the north and south of the beach the mountains run down to thesea, blocking these directions so the Israelites were physically trappedon the beach. See Figure 7. Baal Zephon was a mountain (probably at28.9891N 34.9112E, perhaps with a fortress near it) on the Midian(eastern) side of the Soph Sea (Gulf of Aqaba).

Exo 14:3 “For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, ‘They arebewildered by the land; the wilderness has closed them in.’Exo 14:4 “And I have strengthened Pharaoh’s heart, so that he willpursue them; and I will gain honour over Pharaoh and over all his might,that the Egyptians may know that I am Jehovah.” And they did so.Exo 14:5 Now the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, andthe heart of Pharaoh and his servants was turned against the people andthey said, “Why have we done this? Why have we let Israel go from

The Exodus 19

serving us?”Exo 14:6 So he made his chariot ready and took his people with him.Exo 14:7 Also, he took six hundred choice chariots, and all the chariotsof Egypt with captains over every one of them.Exo 14:8 And Jehovah strengthened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt,and he pursued the children of Israel. And the children of Israel wentout with boldness.Exo 14:9 So the Egyptians pursued them with all the horses and chariotsof Pharaoh, his horsemen and his might, and they overtook themcamping by the sea near Pi Hahiroth, facing Baal Zephon.Exo 14:10 And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel liftedtheir eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they werevery afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to Jehovah.

The Egyptians had four powerful reasons for pursuing them. First:losing their slaves made them look weak, second: losing their slavesmeant that they now had to all the work themselves, third: the Israeliteshad taken all of their valuables and fourth: they wanted revenge for thedeath of their firstborn children. But their pursuit was all part ofJehovah’s plan: Exo 14:15 And Jehovah said to Moses, “Why do you cry to Me? Tell thechildren of Israel to go forward.Exo 14:16 “Now lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the seaand split15 it. And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground throughthe midst of the sea.Exo 14:17 “And I indeed will strengthen the hearts of the Egyptians, andthey shall follow them. So I will gain honour over Pharaoh and over allhis might, his chariots, and his horsemen.Exo 14:18 “Then the Egyptians shall know that I am Jehovah, when Ihave gained honour for Myself over Pharaoh, his chariots, and hishorsemen.”Exo 14:19 And the Angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel,moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud went from before

15 From baqa, the same word used to describe the splitting apart of the crustthat released the Fountains of the Deep to initiate the Great Flood (Gen 7:11).

20 The Books of Moses

them and stood behind them.Exo 14:20 So it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the campof Israel. Thus it was a cloud and darkness to the one, and it gave lightby night to the other, so that the one did not come near the other all thatnight.Exo 14:21 Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and Jehovahcaused the sea to depart during a fierce east wind that night. He madethe sea into dry land, and the waters were split.16

Crossing the Soph SeaSo we see that the Bible account explains how Jehovah kept theEgyptians from attacking them that night. And it also tells us thatJehovah split the sea open. It does not say that the wind split the sea,only that God split the sea while the wind was blowing. It seems thatthe wind was used to dry the sea floor.

And now we are looking at the greatest miracle of the entire Exodus, atleast from an engineering perspective. Crossing the Gulf of Aqaba atthis place is not a simple operation. Indeed, some parts of the Gulf arevery deep: the northern basin is 900m deep and the southern basin is1900 meters deep. The seabed between Migdol and Baal Zephon isshallower, but still has a maximum depth of 785 metres. It is also 16.8kilometers from shore to shore. If we assume that God selected thesmoothest crossing path for them, their path, based on Google Map infoand detailed seafloor sounding by the Israeli navy, their Nuweiba BeachCentral Crossing Start Point would be 29.003N 34.686E, and their BaalZephon Crossing Finish Point would be 29.001N 34.861E as shown inFigure 8.

This route would have a maximum downwards slope off Nuweiba of

16 Verse 16 shows that the splitting of the sea was done miraculously by Godwhen Moses obeyed Him. The east wind was only there to dry the newlyexposed seabed so they could cross easily.

The Exodus 21

Figure 7: Probable path across the Soph Sea (Gulf of Aqaba),showing likely width of 600m.

Figure 8: A 1:1 Graph of the Floor of the Gulf across the ProposedCrossing Path. There are no steep sections that would make thecrossing difficult.

0.131 and a maximum upwards slope of 0.214 about three kilometersfrom the Baal Zephon beach. All of these slopes would be easy for fitpeople to walk through. Only three kilometers, from about four to onekilometers off the Baal Zephon beach would present major difficultiesfor chariots if the surface was somewhat soft (See Figure 9). And onceon land again, the Baal Zephon beach would provide plenty of space forthe Israelites and their animals.

22 The Books of Moses

The depth and length of the crossing is where the engineeringchallenges come in. How does the scale of these walls compare to ourlargest human-built dam - the Three Gorges Dam, and how much waterpressure was it required to withstand? Table 1 below shows this datafor one side of the channel. Both sides will of course double theExodus values, so the channel through the sea required the two dams tohave ninety times the area and over 560 times the strength of the ThreeGorges Dam. And unlike the 3GD, which took eighteen years to build,these dams were formed in within minutes by transforming water intosomething much stronger than concrete and steel and then separatingthem to empty the channel.

Table 1: Comparison of Exodus ‘Dam’ to Three Gorges DamAqaba (Exodus) 3GD Ratios

Length (km) 16.8 2.34 7.2Max Water Depth (m) 785 110 7.1

Face Area (km^3) 6.69 0.15 44.6Wall Pressure 1,998,610,000 7,102,780 281.4

The depth of the channel makes the following verse very true, as a 785meter high channel wall is exceeded in height by human engineers onlyby the needle-like Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai:

Exo 14:22 So the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea on thedry ground, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand andon their left.17

A related issue is how wide would the crossing need to be, as they hadto get about 2.5 million people plus their livestock across in just a fewhours before dawn? If the crossing was 600 meters wide, 750 peoplecould cross side by side. Allowing similar space for their livestock, the

17 1 Cor 10:3

The Exodus 23

time taken from the first person to enter the channel until the last onecame out of it on the Baal Zephon side would be five hours. The widthof it would make the towering walls seem less intimidating,encouraging this action:

Exo 14:23 And the Egyptians pursued and went after them into themidst of the sea; all of Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen.

And so they sealed their fate:Exo 14:24 Now it came to pass, in the morning watch, that Jehovahlooked down upon the Egyptian forces through the pillar of fire andcloud, and He troubled the Egyptian forces.Exo 14:25 And He took off their chariot wheels, so that they drove themwith difficulty; and the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the face ofIsrael, for Jehovah fights for them against the Egyptians.”Exo 14:26 Then Jehovah said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over thesea, that the waters may come back upon the Egyptians, on theirchariots, and on their horsemen.”Exo 14:27 And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and when themorning appeared, the sea returned to its full depth, while the Egyptianswere fleeing into it. So Jehovah overthrew the Egyptians in the midst ofthe sea.Exo 14:28 Then the waters returned and covered the chariots, thehorsemen, and all the might of Pharaoh that came into the sea afterthem. Not so much as one of them remained.Exo 14:29 But the children of Israel had walked on dry land in the midstof the sea, and the waters were a wall to them on their right hand and ontheir left.Exo 14:30 So Jehovah saved Israel that day out of the hand of theEgyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.Exo 14:31 Thus Israel saw the great work which Jehovah had done inEgypt; so the people feared Jehovah, and believed Jehovah and Hisservant Moses.

The Egyptians were trapped at the bottom of the crossing, withincreasingly soft and slippery slopes working against them in both

24 The Books of Moses

directions. Then hundreds of meters of water pounded down uponthem.

As I have pointed out, if one believes the Biblical account of the Exodusand the crossing of the Soph Sea, there can be no doubt that this wasindeed an amazing miracle, and is one which no natural phenomena canachieve. And if you are wondering, Psalm 136:15 confirms thatPharaoh died in the Soph Sea with mighty chariots and calvary.

Israel in MidianThe Israelites spent the rest of that day celebrating their release from theEgyptians and praising their awesome God:

Exo 15:1 Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song toJehovah, and spoke, saying: “I will sing to Jehovah, for He hastriumphed gloriously! The horse and its rider He has thrown into thesea!Exo 15:2 “Jah is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation;He is my God, and I will praise Him; my father’s God, and I will exaltHim.Exo 15:3 “Jehovah is a man of war; Jehovah is His Name.Exo 15:4 “Pharaoh’s chariots and his might He has cast into the sea; Hischosen captains also are drowned in the Soph Sea.Exo 15:5 “The depths have covered them; they sank to the bottom likea stone.Exo 15:6 “Your right hand, O Jehovah, has become glorious in power;Your right hand, O Jehovah, has dashed the enemy in pieces.Exo 15:7 “And in the abundance of Your excellence You haveoverthrown those who rose against You; You sent forth Your wrathwhich consumed them like stubble.Exo 15:8 “And with the spirit of Your anger the waters were heapedtogether; the liquid stood upright in a heap; the depths congealed in theheart of the sea.Exo 15:9 “The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will dividethe spoil; my soul shall be satisfied on them. My sword is hungry, myhand shall seize them.’

The Exodus 25

Figure 9: Column on NuweibaPeninsula, possibly erected by KingSolomon.

Exo 15:10 “You blew with Your breath, the sea covered them; they sanklike lead in the mighty waters.Exo 15:11 “Who is like You, O Jehovah, among the gods? Who is likeYou, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?Exo 15:12 “You stretched out Your right hand; the earth swallowedthem.

Some Issues to Consider

Archeological Evidence toSupport this Crossing

PlaceA large number of artifactshave been found whichsupport the idea that this isthe actual Soph Sea crossingpoint. Most of these are fromThe Exodus Case by Moller.Perhaps the first to mentionare the two large red granitecolumns that were placed onthe opposite shores atessentially the same positionsas we would have expectedthe Israelites to have enteredand exited from the Gulf. The columns are 4.7 meterstall and weigh about 11.5tons. There is no red granitein the vicinity (Figure 10).

There is also what appears to

26 The Books of Moses

be a smooth roadway across the floor of the Gulf, with the larger rockspushed to the north and south. This could have happened when Jehovahpushed the two ‘dam’ walls apart to create the path for the Israelites. There is no logical natural way for this to have happened.

There have also been numerous parts of chariots, including wheels andaxles, as well as both horse and human bones and bone fragments foundon this underwater path and also to the sides of it. Given the force withwhich these massive walls would have collapsed, one would expectsubstantial swirling and distribution of the Egyptian military’s remains. Moller has extensive photos and explanations of these artifacts in hisbook (pgs 243 to 258). No other proposed crossing site has any of theseartifacts.

Israelite Population GrowthHow could the Israelites expand from 75 males (Genesis 46:27 -assumed to be 120 fertile adults) to over two million people (Exodus12:37, plus 12:38) in about 215 years?If the average Israelite woman had 6.5 children, beginning at 20 andhaving one every two years, and if the average person lived to 110 yearsold, there could have been up to 2.6 million of them alive by the timeof the Exodus, as shown in Table 2. As the estimated population ofEgyptians by then was about two million, it is not surprising that thePharaohs were trying, though unsuccessfully, to control their numbers.

Table 2: Israelite Population Growth While in Egypt

The Exodus 27

How Could Pharaoh’s Military Catch up to the Israelites?The Israelites had at least a one day head start on the Egyptians, plusthey walked all night for three nights. The Egyptians could catch upbecause they were pursuing them on horseback and in horse drawnchariots. The horses were able to trot for long periods of time, at aspeed of 13 to 19 km/hr (8 to 12 miles/hour). If we assume they keptan average pace of 15 km/hr and rode for 11 hours per day, it wouldtake them 2.9 days to cover the 478 km from Rameses to Pi-Hahiroth. As they had six days from when the Israelites left until the Egyptiansarrived at Pi-Hahiroth, they had three days to decide they wanted topursue them, learn where they had gone and rapidly organise their armyand supplies. This would all have been done with great urgency, as theyhad to recapture the Israelites before they left their territory.

Clearly it was only the Egyptians’ top soldiers, with their calvary andcharioteers, who would have arrived in time to enter the Gulf of Aqaba. The rest, including the foot soldiers and most of their supplies, wouldhave lagged behind. But the entire force that had made it to Pi-Hahiroth

28 The Books of Moses

with Pharoah was drowned in the Soph Sea, as the Bible states.18 Which meant that in one stroke, Egypt lost their Pharaoh, all of theircalvary, all of their chariots, all of their commanders and virtually all oftheir high ranking officers. And this was in addition to all of the first-born sons that they had lost. They immediately sank from being asuperpower to a disorganised, impoverished and leaderless rabble.

Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the ExodusThese Annual Holy Days are all connected intimately to the Exodus. Aswe saw above, the Passover was the trigger which caused Pharaoh toput the Israelites out of Egypt. The Israelites spent that day preparingto leave Egypt. The Bible teaches that the Passover lambs, whichprotected the Israelites, were killed at the end of the Passover,19 whichoccurs at dusk, as Biblical days go from dusk to dusk. This means thatthe lambs were cooked and eaten that evening, which was now the FirstDay of Unleavened Bread, the first annual Holy Day. And as the skybegan to brighten into dawn, Moses and Aaron were called to seePharaoh and told to leave Egypt. They then assembled the people andleft that morning. All of this happened on that same 24 hour day, theFirst Day of Unleavened Bread.

What many people do not understand is that the entire week ofUnleavened Bread was embedded in the Exodus. They spent six days,with the exceptions of the weekly Sabbath and one night, fleeing fromEgypt. Biblical Chronology places the year of Exodus at 1550 BCE

18 Many translations imply that Pharaoh’s entire army was with him and theyall drowned in the Soph Sea. But the Hebrew actually says that Pharoah’smight was with him, which would mean his heavy-hitting mounted military,the horsemen and chariots as it explained.

19 The New covenant teaches that these lambs represented Jeshua theAnointed (Jesus Christ), who was also killed on Passover, and is called theLamb of God (See John 1:29-36 and Rev 5:1-10).

The Exodus 29

plus or minus perhaps five years. Bible calendar considerations placethe year of Exodus at 1553 BCE. On that year, the Passover could havebeen on Wednesday, 21 April using the Proleptic Gregorian calendar. This is the same day of the week as the Passover in the year of Jeshua’simpalement. This means the day they began leaving Egypt was onThursday 22 April. They walked all of that day, the next night and thenext day (Friday). On days where they walked day and night, I allowfor them to take three 45 minute (or four 34 minute) breaks to havemeals, etc. They arrived at Succoth in the late afternoon, set up theircamp and made dinner. Then dusk came and they began their Sabbathrest. They remained in Succoth that night and the following day(Saturday). After dusk they had dinner, packed up their camp andbegan walking again, with the pillar of fire leading the way. Theywalked all that night, the next day (Sunday), the next night and most ofthe next day (Monday). Then they set up camp and spent that night atEtham.

The next morning the cloud changed direction, and led them southinstead of east on the road towards the top of the Gulf of Aqaba. Thisput them on the road to Pi-Hihiroth, which went down the Wadi Watir,between mountains. It was when Pharaoh discovered they had takenthis road that he decided that they had made a mistake and themountains were going to trap them. This is because that Wadi led to adead end at Pi-Hahiroth. It opened onto the Nuweiba Beach on the Gulfof Aqaba that was blocked by mountains to both the north and south. The Egyptian army raced down the wadi, confident that they wouldsoon be recovering their slaves, all the valuables they had taken fromthem and their reputation as a superpower. They had already forgottenthat they were also taking on Jehovah God again.

Could They Have Crossed the Soph Sea Using Boats?Not in the time they had. Even if we assume that there were twenty-fivelarge fishing and trading boats there that they could use exclusively, andthe average boat could take thirty passengers each trip, and the average

30 The Books of Moses

return time per trip was five hours, and they sailed day and night, itwould take at least 695 days for them to transfer all the people across. Their livestock would likely take that long as well.

ConclusionThere is considerable evidence that the Israelites became a largecommunity in Egypt, that Jehovah God’s plagues devastated Egypt, thatthe Israelites miraculously crossed the Yam Soph (Gulf of Aqaba) fromNuweiba Beach, and that the Egyptian Calvary perished there.

It is therefore reasonable to believe that Moses’ account is correct andthat Jehovah’s Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread are annualreminders of these amazing events.

Next SessionWhere is Mount Sinai, and what happened there?

Written by Bruce ArmstrongM App Sci

Published byCENTRAL HIGHLANDS CHRISTIAN PUBLICATIONS

PO Box 236, Creswick, Vic 3363 AustraliaEmail info@chcpublications.net

Web Page http://www.chcpublications.net

Copyright © 2018, 2019

Permission is given to copy and distribute this documentprovided it is not altered and copied in full. Copies must begiven away. We ask only that you notify us if you are makingnumerous copies.

Scripture quotes are from our CHCG translation.