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 home, and these, really of later origin, have thus been thrown back to the earlier period in order to give them the stamp of authority. So, although a certain amount of the narrative could date from the days of Moses, the Exodus story has been made the vehicle for the aims and ideals of subsequent ages, and has been adapted from time to time to the requirements of later stages of thought. The work of criticism has brought to light important examples of fluctuating tradition, singular lacunae in some places and unusual wealth of tradition in others, and has demonstrated that much of that which had long been felt to be impossible and incredible was due to writers of the post-exilic age many centuries after the presumed date of the events.

The book of Genesis closes with the migration of Jacob’s family into Egypt to escape the famine in Canaan. Jacob died and was buried in Canaan by his sons, who, however, returned again to the pastures which the Egyptian king had granted them in Goshen. Their brother Joseph on his death-bed promised that God would bring them to the land promised to their forefathers and solemnly adjured them to carry up his bones (Gen. 1.). In the book of Exodus the family has become a people. The Pharaoh is hostile, and Yahweh, the Israelite deity, is moved to send a deliverer; on the events that followed see occasioned the change in Egyptian policy (e.g. the expulsion of the Hyksos), but if the Israelites built Rameses and Pithom (Ex. i. 11), cities which, as excavation has shown, belong to the time of Rameses II. (13th century ), earlier dates are inadmissible. On these grounds the Exodus may have taken place under one of his successors, and since Mineptah or Merneptah (son of Rameses), in relating his successes in Palestine, boasts that Ysiraal is desolated, it would seem that the Israelites had already returned. On the other hand, it has been suggested that when Jacob and his family entered Egypt, some Israelite tribes had remained behind and that it is to these that Mineptah’s inscription refers. The problem is complicated by the fact that, from the Egyptian evidence, not only was there at this time no remarkable emigration of oppressed Hebrews, but Bedouin tribes were then receiving permission to enter Egypt and to feed their flocks upon Egyptian soil. It might be assumed that the Israelites (or at least those who had not remained behind in Palestine) effected their departure at a somewhat later date, and in the time of Mineptah’s successor, Seti II., there is an Egyptian report of the pursuit of some fugitive slaves over the eastern frontier. The value of all such evidence will naturally depend largely upon the estimate formed of the biblical narratives, but it is necessary to observe that these have not yet found Egyptian testimony to support them. Although the information which has been brought to bear upon Egyptian life and customs substantiates the general accuracy of the local colouring in some of the biblical narratives, the latter contain several inherent improbabilities, and whatever future research may yield, no definite trace of Egyptian influence has so far been found in Israelite institutions.
 * . It has been thought that dynastic changes

No allusions to Israelites in Egypt have yet been found on the monuments; against the view that the Aperiu (or Apury) of the inscriptions were Hebrews, see S. R. Driver in D. G. Hogarth, Authority and Archaeology, pp. 56 sqq.; H. W. Hogg, ''Ency. Bib.'' col. 1310. The plagues of Egypt have been shown to be those to which the land is naturally subject (R. Thomson, Plagues of Egypt), but the description of the relations of Moses and Aaron to the court raises many difficult questions (H. P. Smith, O.T. Hist. pp. 57-60). Those who reject Ex. i. 11 and hold that 480 years elapsed between the Exodus and the foundation of the temple (1 Kings vi. 1, see (Thothmes) III., and suppose that the hostile Ḥabiri (Khabiri) who troubled Palestine in the 15th century are no other than Hebrews (the equation is philologically sound), i.e. the invading Israelites. But although the evidence of the Amarna tablets might thus support the biblical tradition in its barest outlines, the view in question, if correct, would necessitate the rejection of a great mass of the biblical narratives as a whole.
 * Chronology) place the former about the time of Tethmosis

In the absence of external evidence the study of the Exodus of the Israelites must be based upon the Israelite records, and divergent or contradictory views must be carefully noticed. Regarded simply as a journey from Egypt into Palestine it is the most probable of occurrences: the difficulty arises from the actual narratives. The first stage is the escape from the land of (q.v.), the district allotted to the family of Jacob (Gen. xlvi. 28-34, xlvii. 1, 4, 6). As to the route taken across the Red Sea (Yam Sūph) scholars are not agreed (see W. M. Müller, Ency. Bib. col. 1436 sqq.); it depends upon the view held regarding the second stage of the journey, the road to the mountain of Sinai or Horeb and thence to Kadesh. The last-mentioned place is identified with Ain Kadīs, about 50 m. south of Beersheba; but the identification of the mountain is uncertain, and it is possible that tradition confused two distinct places. According to one favourite view, the journey was taken across the Sinaitic peninsula to Midian, the home of Jethro. Others plead strongly for the traditional site Jebel Mūsā or Serbāl in the south of the peninsula (see J. R. Harris, Dict. Bible, iv. pp. 536 sqq.; H. Winckler, Ency. Bib. col. 4641). The latter view implies that the oppressed Israelites left Egypt for one of its dependencies, and both theories find only conjectural identifications in the various stations recorded in Num. xxxiii. But this list of forty names, corresponding to the years of wandering, is from a post-exilic source, and may be based merely upon a knowledge of caravan-routes; even if it be of older origin, it is of secondary value since it represents a tradition differing notably from that in the earlier narratives themselves, and these on inspection confirm Judg. xi. 16 seq., where the Israelites proceed immediately to Kadesh.

Ex. xvi.-xviii. presuppose a settled encampment and a law-giving, and thus belong to a stage after Sinai had been reached (Ex. xix. sqq.). They are closely related, as regards subject matter, &c., to the narratives in Num. x. 29–xi., xx. 1-13 (Sinai to Kadesh), and the initial step is the recognition that the latter is their original context (see G. F. Moore, Ency. Bib. col. 1443 [v.]). Further, internal peculiarities associating events now at Sinai-Horeb with those at Kadesh support the view that Kadesh was their true scene, and it is to be noticed that in Ex. xv. 22 seq. the Israelites already reach the wilderness of Shur and accomplish the three days’ journey which had been their original aim (cf. Ex. iii. 18, v. 3, viii. 27). The wilderness of Shur (Gen. xvi. 7, xx. 1; 1 Sam. xv. 7, xxvii. 8) is the natural scene of conflicts with Amalekites (Ex. xvii. 8 sqq.), and its sanctuary of Kadesh or En Mishpat (“well of judgment,” Gen. xiv. 7) was doubtless associated with traditions of the giving of statutes and ordinances. The détour to Sinai-Horeb appears to belong to a later stage of the tradition, and is connected with the introduction of laws and institutions of relatively later form. It is foreshadowed by the injunction to avoid the direct way into Palestine (see Ex. xiii. 17-19), since on reaching Kadesh the Israelites would be within reach of hostile tribes, and the conflicts which it was proposed to avoid actually ensued. The forty years of wandering in the wilderness is characteristic of the Deuteronomic and post-exilic narratives; in the earlier sources the fruitful oasis of Kadesh is the centre, and even after the tradition of a détour to Sinai-Horeb was developed, only a brief period is spent at the holy mountain.

From Kadesh spies were sent into Palestine, and when the people were dismayed at their tidings and incurred the wrath of Yahweh, the penalty of the forty years’ delay was pronounced