37. The children of Israel journeyed from Rameses--now generally
identified with the ancient Heroopolis, and fixed at the modern
Abu-Keisheid. This position agrees with the statement that the
scene of the miraculous judgments against Pharaoh was "in the field of
Zoan"
[Ps 78:12, 43].
And it is probable that, in expectation of their departure, which the
king on one pretext or another delayed, the Israelites had been
assembled there as a general rendezvous. In journeying from Rameses to
Palestine, there was a choice of two routes--the one along the shores
of the Mediterranean to El-Arish, the other more circuitous round the
head of the Red Sea and the desert of Sinai. The latter Moses was
directed to take
(Ex 13:17).
to Succoth--that is, booths, probably nothing more than a place
of temporary encampment. The Hebrew word signifies a covering or
shelter formed by the boughs of trees; and hence, in memory of this
lodgment, the Israelites kept the feast of tabernacles yearly in this
manner.
six hundred thousand . . . men--It appears from
Nu 1:3
that the enumeration is of men above twenty years of age. Assuming,
what is now ascertained by statistical tables, that the number of males
above that age is as nearly as possible the half of the total number of
males, the whole male population of Israel, on this computation, would
amount to 1,200,000; and adding an equal number for women and children,
the aggregate number of Israelites who left Egypt would be
2,400,000.
JFB.
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