Pharaoh and the Egyptians let their dead lie unburied, while they
hastened to help the Israelites load their possessions on wagons, to
get them out of the land with as little delay as possible. When they
left, they took with them, beside their own cattle, the sheep and the
oxen that Pharaoh had ordered his nobles to give them as presents. The
king also forced his magnates to beg pardon of the Israelites for all
they had suffered, knowing as he did that God forgives an injury done
by man to his fellow only after the wrong- doer has recovered the
good-will of his victim by confessing and regretting his fault.[230]
"Now, depart!" said Pharaoh to the Israelites, "I want nothing from you
but that you should pray to God for me, that I may be saved from
death."[231]
The hatred of the Egyptians toward the Israelites changed now into its
opposite. They conceived affection and friendship for them, and fairly
forced raiment upon them, and jewels of silver and jewels of gold, to
take along with them on their journey, although the children of Israel
had not yet returned the articles they had borrowed from their
neighbors at an earlier time. This action is in part to be explained by
the vanity of Pharaoh and his people. They desired to pretend before
the world that they were vastly rich, as everybody would conclude when
this wealth of their mere slaves was displayed to observers. Indeed,
the Israelites bore so much away from Egypt that one of them alone
might have defrayed the expense of building and furnishing the
Tabernacle.
On their leaving the land only the private wealth of the Egyptians was
in their hands, but when they arrived at the Red Sea they came into
possession of the public treasure, too, for Pharaoh, like all kings,
carried the moneys of the state with him on his campaigns, in order to
be prepared to hire a relay of mercenaries in case of defeat. Great as
the other treasure was, the booty captured at the sea far exceeded
it.[232]
But if the Israelites loaded themselves down with goods and jewels and
money, it was not to gratify love of riches, or, as any usurer might
say, because they coveted their neighbors' possessions. In the first
place they could look upon their plunder as wages due to them from
those they had long served, and, secondly, they were entitled to
retaliate on those at whose hands they had suffered wrong. Even then
they were requiting them with an affliction far slighter than any one
of all they had endured themselves.[233]
The plagues did not stay the cruelty of the Egyptian oppressors toward
the Hebrews. It continued unabated until the very end of their sojourn
in the land. On the day of the exodus, Rachel the daughter of Shuthelah
gave birth to a child, while she and her husband together were treading
the clay for bricks. The babe dropped from her womb into the clay and
sank out of sight. Gabriel appeared, moulded a brick out of the clay
containing the child, and carried it to the highest of the heavens,
where he made it a footstool before the Divine throne. In that night it
was that God looked upon the suffering of Israel, and smote the
first-born of the Egyptians,[234] and it is one of the four nights that
God has inscribed in the Book of Memorial. The first of the four is
that in which God appeared to create the world; all was waste and void,
and darkness brooded over the abyss, until the Lord came and spread
light round about by His word. The second night is that in which God
appeared unto Abraham at the covenant of the pieces. In the third night
He appeared in Egypt, slaying the first-born of the Egyptians with His
right hand, and protecting the first-born of the Israelites with His
left. The fourth night recorded will be that in which the end of the
redemption will be accomplished, when the iron yoke of the wicked
kingdom will be broken, and the evil-doers will be destroyed. Then will
Moses come from the desert, and the Messiah from Rome, each at the head
of his flock, and the word of God will mediate between them, causing
both to walk with one accord in the same direction.
Israel's redemption in future days will happen on the fifteenth of
Nisan, the night of Israel's redemption from Egypt, for thus did Moses
say, "In this night God protected Israel against the Angels of
Destruction, and in this night He will also redeem the generations of
the future."[235]
Though the actual deliverance from Egypt took place in that night, the
Hebrews did not leave the land until the following day.[236]
During the same night God requited the Egyptians for their evil deeds
in the sight of all the people, the night being as bright as day at the
time of the summer solstice. Not one could escape the general
chastisement, for by Divine dispensation none was absent from home at
the time, so that none could fail to see the chastisement.[237]
The angels in heaven learnt what was happening on earth. When they were
about to begin their song of praise to God, He silenced them with the
words, "My children on earth are singing now," and the celestial hosts
had to stop and listen to the song of Israel.[238]
Great as the joy of the Hebrews was at their deliverance from the
Egyptian bondage, it was exceeded by that of Pharaoh's people at seeing
their slaves depart, for with them went the dread of death that had
obsessed them. They were like the portly gentleman riding an ass. The
rider feels uncomfortable and longs for the moment of alighting, but
his longing cannot compare in intensity with that of the ass groaning
under the corpulent burden, and when their journey's end is reached,
the ass rejoices more than his master. So the Egyptians were happier to
be rid of the Hebrews than these were to be free.[239]
In general, the Israelites were not in a joyous mood. The strength of
men is readily exhausted, mentally and physically, by the strain of a
sudden change from slavery to freedom. They did not recover vigor and
force until they heard the angel hosts sing songs of praise and joy
over the redemption of Israel and the redemption of the Shekinah, for
so long as the chosen people is in exile, the Shekinah, who dwells
among Israel, is also, as it were, in exile. At the same time, God
caused the earth to exhale and send aloft a healing fragrance, which
cured them of all their diseases.[240]
The exodus of the Israelites began at Raamses, and although the
distance from there to the city of Mizraim, where Moses abode, was a
forty days' journey, yet they heard the voice of their leader urging
them to leave the land. They covered the distance from Raamses to
Succoth, a three days' march, in an instant. In Succoth God enveloped
them in seven clouds of glory, four hovering in front, behind, and at
the two sides of them, one suspended above them, to keep off rain,
hail, and the rays of the sun, and one under them to protect them
against thorns and snakes. The seventh cloud preceded them, and
prepared the way for them, exalting the valleys and making low every
mountain and hill.[241] Thus they wandered through the wilderness for
forty years. In all that time no artificial lighting was needed; a beam
from the celestial cloud followed them into the darkest of chambers,
and if one of the people had to go outside of the camp, even thither he
was accompanied by a fold of the cloud, covering and protecting
him.[242] Only, that a difference might be made between day and night,
a pillar of fire took the place of the cloud in the evening.[243] Never
for an instant were the people without the one or the other to guide
them: the pillar of fire glowed in front of them before the pillar of
cloud retired, and in the morning the cloud was there before the fire
vanished.[244] The clouds of glory and the pillar of fire were sent for
the protection of Israel alone, for none beside, not for the heathen
and not for the mixed multitude that went up with them; these had to
walk outside of the cloud enclosure.[245]
The cavalcade consisted of six hundred thousand heads of families
afoot, each accompanied by five children on horseback, and to these
must be added the mixed multitude, exceeding the Hebrews vastly in
number.[246]
So profound was Israel's trust in the Lord, that they followed Moses
unmurmuringly into the wilderness, without supplying themselves with
provisions.[247] The only edibles they took were the remains of the
unleavened bread and the bitter herbs, and these not to satisfy their
hunger, but because they were unwilling to separate themselves from
what they had prepared lovingly at the command of God. These
possessions were so dear to them that they would not entrust them to
the beasts of burden, they carried them on their own shoulders.[248]