15. All these things are done accordingly, 16. The tabernacle is erected, and all its utensils, &c. placed in it on the first of the first month of the second year, 17-33. 12 And thou shalt bring Aaron and his The cloud covers the tent, and the glory of the Lord fills the tabernacle, 34; so that even Moses is not able to enter, 35. When they were to journey, the cloud was sons unto the door of the tabernacle of the contaken up; when to encamp, the cloud rested on the tabernacle, 36, 37 A cloud by day and a fire by night, was upon the tabernacle, in the sight of all the Israelites, gregation, and wash them with water.

21 And he brought the ark into the tabernacle, and set up the veil of the covering, and covered the ark of the testimony; as the LORD commanded Moses.

22 And he put the table in the tent of the congregation, upon the side of the tabernacle northward, without the veil.

23 h And he set the bread in order upon it before the LORD; as the LORD had commanded Moses.

24 And he put the candlestick in the tent of the congregation, over against the table, on the side of the tabernacle southward.

25 And he lighted the lamps before the LORD; as the LORD commanded Moses. 26

And he put the golden altar in the tent of the congregation before the veil: 27 m And he burnt sweet incense thereon; as the LORD commanded Moses.

28 And he set up the hanging at the door of the tabernacle.

29 And he put the altar of burnt-offering, by the door of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation, and offered upon it the burntoffering and the meat-offering, as the LORD commanded Moses.

30 And he set the laver between the tent

Ch. 26. 33 & 35 12-g Ch. 25. 35-h Ver. 4.-i Ch. 26, 35.-k Ver. 4. Ch. 25. 37-1 Ver. 5. Ch. 30. 6.- Ch. 30. 7.-n Ver. 5. Ch. 26. 36-0 Ver. 6.-p Ch. 29. 39, &c.-q Ver. 7. Ch. 30. 18.-r Ch. 30. 19, 20-s Ver. 8. Ch. 27. 9, 16.-t Ch. 29. 43.

Verse 20. He put the testimony in the ark] That is, the two tables, on which the ten commandments had been written. See chap. xxv. 16. The ark, the golden table with the show-bread, the golden candlestick, and the golden altar of incense, were all in the tabernacle, within the veil, or curtains, which served as a door, 22, 24, 26. And the altar of burnt-offerings was by the door, ver. 29. And the brazen laver between the tent of the congregation and the brazen altar, ver. 30. Still farther outward, that it might be the first thing the priests met with, when entering into the court to minister; as their hands and feet must be washed before they could perform any part of the holy service, ver. 31, 32. When all these things were thus placed, then the court that surrounded the tabernacle, which consisted of posts and hangings, was set up, ver. 33. Verse 34. Then a cloud covered the tent] Thus God gave his approbation of the work, and as this was visible, so it was a sign to all the people that Jehovah was among

them.

And the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle] How this was manifested we cannot tell it was probably by some light or brightness, which was insufferable to the sight; for Moses himself could not enter in, because of the cloud, and of the glory, ver. 35. Precisely the same happened, when Solomon had dedicated his temple; for it is said, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord; so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of the Lord. 1 Kings viii. 10, 11. Previously to this, the cloud of the divine glory had rested upon that tent, or tabernacle, which Moses had pitched without the camp, after the transgression in the matter of the molten calf; but now, the cloud removed from that tabernacle, and rested upon this one, which was made by the command, and under the direction of God himself. And there is reason to believe, that this tabernacle was pitched in the centre of the camp, all the twelve tribes pitching their different tents in a certain order around it.

Verse 36. When the cloud was taken up] The subject of these three last verses has been very largely explained in the notes on chap. xiii. 21. to which, as well as to the general remarks on that chapter, the reader is requested immediately to refer.

| of the congregation and the altar, and put water there, to wash withal.

31 And Moses, and Aaron, and his sons washed their hands and their feet thereat:

32 When they went into the tent of the congregation, and when they came near unto the altar, they washed; as the LORD commanded Moses. 33 ¶ And he reared up the court round about the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the hanging of the court gate. So Moses finished the work.

34 Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.

35 And Moses " was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon; and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.

36 And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel w went onward in all their journeys:

37 But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up. 38 For the cloud of the LORD was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.

Lev. 16. 2 Numb. 9. 15. 1 Kings 8. 10, 11. 2 Chron. 5. 13. & 7. 2. Isai. 6. 4. Hag. 2. 7,9. Rev. 15. 8.-u Lev. 16. 2. 1 Kings 8. 11. 2 Chron. 5. 14.- Numb, 9. 17. & 10. 11. Neh. 9. 19.-w Heb. journeyed.-x Numb. 9. 19–22.--y Ch. 13. 21. Numb. 9. 15.

residence upon the mercy seat, between the cherubim: and in this place continued, till the first temple was destroyed; after which, it was no more seen in Israel, till God was manifested in the flesh.

As in the book of GENESIS, we have God's own account of the commencement of the WORLD, the origin of nations, and the peopling of the earth: so in the book of EXODUS, we have an account, from the same source of infallible truth, of the commencement of the Jewish CHURCH, and the means used by the endless mercy of God, to propagate and continue his pure and undefiled religion in the earth; against which, neither human nor diabolic power or policy have ever been able to prevail! The preservation of this religion, which has ever been opposed by the great mass of mankind, is a standing proof of its divinity. As it has ever been in hostility against the corrupt passions of men, testifying against the world, that its deeds were evil, these passions have ever been in hostility to it. Cunning and learned men have argued, to render its authority dubious, and its tendency suspicious; whole states and empires have exerted themselves to the uttermost, to oppress and destroy it; and its professed friends, by their conduct, have often betrayed it; yet, librata ponderibus suis, supported by the arm of God, and its own intrinsic excellence, it lives and flourishes, and the river that makes glad the city of God, has run down with the tide of time 5800 years, and is running on with a more copious and diffusive current.

Labitur, et labetur in omne volubilis ævum.

"Sull glides the river, and will ever glido."

We have seen how, by the miraculous cloud, all the movements of the Israelites were directed. They struck or pitched their tents, as it removed or became stationary. Every thing that concerned them, was under the direction and management of God. But these things happened unto them for ensamples; and it is evident from Isai. iv. 5. that all these things typified the presence and influence of God in his church, and in the souls of his followers. His church can possess no sanctifying knowledge, no quickening power, but from the presence and influence of his Spirit. By this influence, all his followers are taught, enlightened, led, quickened, purified, and built up on their most holy faith; and without the indwelling of his Spirit, Verse 38. For the cloud of the Lord was on the taber-light, life, and salvation, are impossible. These divine nacle by day] This daily and nightly appearance, was, at influences are necessary not only for a time, but through once, both a merciful providence, and a demonstrative all our journeys, ver. 38. through every changing scene proof of the divinity of their religion: and these tokens of providence, and through every step in life. And these continued with them throughout all their journeys: for, the followers of Christ are to possess, not by inference, or notwithstanding their frequently repeated disobedience inductive reasoning, but consciously. The influence is to and rebellion, God never withdrew these tokens of his be felt, and the fruits of it to appear as fully as the cloud presence from them, till they were brought into the pro- of the Lord by day, and the fire by night, appeared in mised land. When, therefore, the tabernacle became the sight of all the house of Israel. Reader, hast thou this fixed, because the Israelites had obtained their inherit- Spirit? are all thy goings and comings ordered by its conance; this mark of the divine presence was no longer tinual guidance? Does Christ, who was represented by visible in the sight of all Israel, but appears to have been this tabernacle, and in whom dwelt all the fulness of the confined to the Holy of Holies, where it had its fixed Godhead bodily, dwell in thy heart by faith? If not, call

then may have relation to the northern situation of the place itself, or to some watch-tower or idol temple that was erected upon it; we may probably take it for the eastern extremity of the mountains of Suez or Attackah, the most conspicuous of these deserts, inasmuch as it overlooks a great part of the lower Thebais, as well as the wilderness that reaches toward, or which rather makes part of the land of the Philistines. Migdol then might lie to the south, as Baal-tzephon did to the north of Pihahiroth; for the marches of the Israelites from the edge of the wilderness being to the seaward, that is, toward the S. E., their encampments between Migdol and the sea, or before Migdol, as it is otherwise noted, could not well have another situation.

"Pihahiroth, or Hhiroth, rather, without regarding the prefired part of it, may have a more general signification, and denote the valley, or that whole space of ground which extended itself from the edge of the wilderness of Etham to the Red sea; for that particular part only, where the Israelites were ordered to encamp, appears to have been called Pihahiroth, i. e. mouth of Hhiroth; for when Pharaoh overtook them, it was in respect to his coming down upon them, Exod. xiv. 9. naby i. e. besides or at the mouth, or the most advanced part of Hhiroth to the eastward. Likewise in Numb. xxxiii. 7. where the Israelites are related to have encamped before Migdol, it follows, ver. 8. that they departed, from before Hhiroth, and not from before Pihahiroth, as it is renuered in our trans

lation.

room for the Egyptians to approach them, either on the right hand or on the left. Besides, if this passage was at Ain Mousa, how can we account for that remarkable circumstance, Exod. xv. 22. where it is said, that when Moses brought Israel from the Red sea, they went out into (or landed in) the wilderness of Shur. For Shur, a particular district of the wilderness of Etham, lies directly fronting the valley, from which I suppose they departed, but a great many miles to the southward of Ain Mousa. If they landed likewise at Ain Mousa, where there are several fountains, there would have been no occasion for the sacred historian to have observed, at the same time, that the Israelites, after they went out from the sea into the wilderness of Shur, went three days in the wilderness, always directing their marches toward Mount Sinai, and found no water; for which reason Marah is recorded, ver. 23. to be the first place where they found water, as their wandering so far before they found it, seems to make Marah also their first station, after their passage through the Red sea. Moreover, the channel over against Ain Mousa is not above three miles over, whereas that betwixt Shur or Sedur and Jibbel Gewoubee and Attackal, is nine or ten, and therefore capacious enough, as the other would have been too small, for covering or drowning therein, Exod. xv. 28. the chariots and horsemen, and all the host of Pharaoh. And therefore by impartially weighing all these arguments together, this important point in the sacred geography, may with more authority be fixed at Sedur, over against the valley of Baideah, than at Tor, Corondel, Ain Mousa, or any other place.

"There are likewise other circumstances to prove that the Israelites took their departure from this valley in "Over against Jibbel, Attackah, and the valley of Baitheir passage through the Red sea, for it could not have deah, is the desert, as it is called, of Sdur, the same with been to the northward of the mountains of Attackah, or Shur, Exod. xv. 22. where the Israelites landed, after in the higher road, which I have taken notice of; because they had passed through the interjacent gulf of the Red as this lies for the most part upon a level, the Israelites sea. The situation of this gulf, which is the Jam suph could not have been here, as we find they were, shut in the weedy sea, or the tongue of the Egyptian sea, and entangled. Neither could it have been on the other in the Scripture language; the gulf of Heroopolis in the side, viz. to the south of the mountains of Gewoubee, for Greek and Latin geography; and the western arm, as then, (besides the insuperable difficulties which the Israel- the Arabian geographers call it, of the sea of Kolzum, ites would have met with in climbing over them, the same stretches itself nearly north and south, and therefore lies likewise that the Egyptians would have had in pursuing very properly situated, to be traversed by that strong eastthem) the opposite shore could not have been the desert of wind which was sent to divide it, Exod. xiv. 21. The Shur, where the Israelites landed, Exod. xv. 22. but it division that was thus made in the channel; the making the would have been the desert of Marah, that lay a great waters of it to stand on a heap, (Ps. lxxviii. 13.) their way beyond it. What is now called Corondel might pro- being a wall to the Israelites, on the right hand and on bably be the southern portion of the desert of Marah, the the left; Exod. xiv. 22. besides the twenty miles distance, shore of the Red sea, from Suez, hitherto having continued at least, of this passage, from the extremity of the gulf, to be low and sandy; but from Corondel to the port of are circumstances which sufficiently vouch for the miracuTor, the shore is for the most part rocky and mountain- lousness of it, and no less contradict all such idle supposious, in the same manner with the Egyptian coast that tions as pretend to account for it, from the nature and lies opposite to it; neither the one nor the other of them quality of tides, or from any such extraordinary recess affording any convenient place, either for the departure of of the sea, as it seems to have been too rashly compared a multitude from the one shore, or the reception of it upon to, by Josephus. the other. And besides, from Corondel to Tor, the channel of the Red sea, which from Suez to Sdur is not above nine or ten miles broad, begins here to be so many leagues, too great a space certainly for the Israclites, in the manner they were encumbered, to pass over in one night. At Tor the Arabian shore begins to wind itself round about Ptolemy's promontory of Paran, toward the gulf of Eloth, while the Egyptian shore retires so far to the southwest that it can scarce be perceived. As the Israelites then, for these reasons, could not, according to the opinion of some authors, have landed either at Corondel or Tor, so neither could they have landed at Ain el Mousah, according to the conjectures of others. For if the passage of the Israelites had been so near the extremity of the Red sea, it may be presumed that the very encampments of six hundred thousand men, besides children, and a mixed multitude, which would amount to as many more, would have spread themselves, even to the farther, or the Arabian side of this narrow isthmus, whereby the interposition of Providence would not have been at all necessary: because, in this case, and in this situation, there could not have been room enough for the waters, after they were divided, to have stood on a heap, or to have been a wall unto them, particularly on the left hand. This, moreover, would not have been a division, but a recess only of the water to the southward. Pharaoh, likewise, by overtaking them as they were encamped in this open situation by the sea, would have easily surrounded them on all sides. Whereas the contrary seems to be implied by the pillar of the cloud, Exod. xiv. 19, 20. which (divided, or) came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel, and thereby left the Israelites (provided this cloud should have been removed) in a situation only of being molested in the rear. For the narrow valley which I have described, and which we may presume was already occupied and filled up behind by the host of Egypt, and before by the encampments of the Israelites, would not permit or leave

"In travelling from Sdur towards mount Sinai, we come into the desert, as it is still called, of Marah, where the Israelites met with those bitter waters, or waters of Marah, (Exod. xv. 23.) And as this circumstance did not happen till after they had wandered three days in the wilderness, we may probably fix these waters at Corondel, where there is still a small rill, which, unless it be diluted by the dews and rain, still continues to be brackish. Near this place, the sea forms itself into a large bay, called Berk el Corondel, i. e. the lake of Corondel; which is remarkable from a strong current, that sets into it from the northward, particularly at the recess of the tide. The Arabs, agreeably to the interpretation of Kolzum (the name for this sea) preserve a tradition, that a numerous host was formerly drowned at this place, occasioned, no doubt, by what is related Exod. xiv. 30. that the Israelites saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore, i. e. all along, as we may presume, from Sdur to Corondel; and at Corondel especially, from the assistance and termination of the current, as it has been already mentioned.

"There is nothing farther remarkable, till we see the Israelites encamped at Elim, Exod. xv. 27. Numb. xxxiii. 9. upon the northern skirts of the desert of Sin, two leagues from Tor, and near thirty from Corondel. I saw no more than nine of the twelve wells that are mentioned by Moses; the other three being filled up by those drifts of sand, which are common in Arabia. Yet this loss is amply made up by the great increase of the palm-trees, the seventy having propagated themselves into more than two thousand. Under the shade of these trees is the Hammam Mousa, or bath of Moses, particularly so called, which the inhabitants of Tor have in great esteem and veneration; acquainting us that it was here, where the household of Moses was encamped.

"We have a distinct view of mount Sinai from Elim; the wilderness, as it is still called, of Sin, ro lying between them. We traversed these plains in nine hours; being all

"Mount Sinai, which hangs over this convent, is called by the Arabs, Jibbel Mousa, i. e. the mountain of Moses; and sometimes only, by way of eminence, El Tor, i. e. the mountain. The summit of mount Sinai is not very spacious; where the Mohammedans, the Latins, and the Greeks, have each of them a small chapel.

the way diverted with the sight of a variety of lizards | Horites in their mount Seir unto El Paran, (i. e. unto and vipers, that are here in great numbers. We were the city, as I take it, of that name,) which is in, or by the afterward near twelve hours in passing the many windings wilderness. From the more advanced part of the wilderand difficult ways, which lie between these deserts and ness of Paran, (the same that lay in the road between those of Sinai. The latter consists of a beautiful plain, Midian and Egypt, 1 Kings xi. 18.) Moses sent a man more than a league in breadth, and nearly three in length; out of every tribe to spy out the land of Canaan, Numb. lying open toward the northeast, where we enter it, but is xxiii. 3. who returned to him after forty days, unto the closed up to the southward, by some of the lower eminences same wilderness, to Kadesh Barnea, Numb. xxxii. 8. of mount Sinai. In this direction, likewise, the higher Deut. i. 10. and ix. 23. Josh. xiv. 7. This place or city, parts of this mountain make such encroachments upon the which in Gen. xiv. 7. is called Enmishpat (i. e. the founplain, that they divide it into two, each of them capacious tain of Mishpat) is (in Numb. xx. 1. xxvii. 14. xxxiii. 36.) enough to receive the whole encampment of the Israelites. called Tzin Kadesh, or simply Kadesh (as in Gen. xvi. That which lies to the eastward, may be the desert of 14. xx. 1.) and being equally ascribed to the desert of Tzin Sinai, properly so called, where Moses saw the angel ofry and to the desert of Paran, we may presume that the the Lord in the burning bush, when he was guarding the desert of Tzin and Paran were one and the same, s or flocks of Jethro, Exod. iii. 2. The convent of St. Catha- may be so called from the plants of divers palm rine is built over the place of this divine appearance. It grounds upon it. is near three hundred feet square, and more than forty in "A late ingenious author has situated Kadesh Barnea, height, being built partly with stone, partly with mud and a place of no small consequence in Scripture history, which mortar mixed together. The more immediate place of the we are now enquiring after, at eight hours or twenty miles shekinah is honoured with a little chapel, which this old distance only, from mount Sinai, which I presume cannot fraternity of St. Basil has in such esteem and venerabe admitted for various reasons. Because several texts tion, that, in imitation of Moses, they put off their shoes of Scripture insinuate, that Kadesh lay at a much greater from off their feet, whenever they enter it. This, with distance. Thus in Deut. i. 9. it is said, they departed from several other chapels dedicated to particular saints, are Horeb through that great and terrible wilderness (which included within the church, as they call it, of the trans- supposes by far a much greater extent both of time and figuration; which is a large beautiful structure covered space,) and came to Kadesh Barnea; and in chap. ix. 23. with lead, and supported by two rows of marble columns. when the Lord sent you from Kadesh Barnea to possess The floor is very elegantly laid out in a variety of devices the land: which Numb. xx. 16. is described to be a city in Mosaic work. Of the same tesselated workmanship, in the uttermost parts of the border of Edom; the borlikewise, are both the floor and the walls of the presby-der of the land of Edom and that of the land of promise terium, upon the latter whereof is represented the effigies being contiguous, and in fact the very same. And farther, of the emperor Justinian, together with the history of the Deut. 1. 2. it is expressly said, there are eleren days transfiguration. Upon the partition which separates the journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir to Kapresbyterium from the body of the church, there is placed desh Barnea: which, from the context, cannot be othera small marble shrine, wherein are preserved the skull wise understood, than of marching along the direct road. and one of the hands of St. Catharine; the rest of the For Moses hereby intimates, how soon the Israelites sacred body having been bestowed at different times, upon might have entered upon the borders of the land of prosuch Christian princes as have contributed to the support mise, if they had not been a stubborn and rebellious people. of this convent. Whereas the number of their stations between Sinai and Kadesh, as they are particularly enumerated, Numb. xxxiii. (each of which must have been at least one days' journey,) appear to be near twice as many, or twenty-one, in which they are said with great truth and propriety (Ps. cvii. 4.) to have wandered in the wilderness out of the way; and in Deut. ii. 1. to have compassed mount Seir, rather than to have travelled directly through it. If then we allow ten miles for each of these eleven days' journey (and fewer I presume cannot well be insisted upon) the distance of Kadesh from mount Sinai will be about one hundred and ten miles. That ten miles a day (I mean in a direct line, as laid down in the map, without considering the deviations, which are every where, more or less) were equivalent to one day's journey, may be farther proved from the history of the spies, who searched the land (Numb. xiii. 21.) from Kadesh to Rehob as men come to Hamath, and returned in forty days. Rehob then, the farthest point of this expedition to the northward, may well be conceived to have been twenty days' journey from Kadesh; and therefore to know the true position of Rehob, will be a material point in this disquisition. Now it appears from Josh. xix. 29, 30. and Judg. i. 31. that Rehob was one of the maritime cities of the tribe of Asher; and lay (in travelling, as we may suppose, by the common or nearest way along the seacoast) on 25 Numb. xiii. 21. (not, as we render it, as men come to Hamath, but) as men go toward Hamath, in going to Hamath, or in the way, or road to Hamath. For to have searched the land as far as Hamath, and to have returned to Kadesh in forty days, would have been altogether impossible. Moreover, as the tribe of Asher did not reach beyond Sidon (for that was its northern boundary, Josh. xix. 28.) Rehob must have been situated to the southward of Sidon, upon, or (being a derivative perhaps from a latum esse) below in the plain, under a long chain of mountains, that runs east and west, through the midst of that tribe. And as these mountains, called by some the mountains of Saran, are all along, except in the narrow road, which I have mentioned, near the sea, very rugged, and difficult to pass over, the spies, who could not well take another way, might imagine they would run too great a risk of being discovered, in attempting to pass through it. For in these eastern countries a watchful eye was always, as it is still, kept upon strangers, as we may collect from the history of the two angels at Sodom, Gen. xix. 5. and of the spies at Jericho, Josh. ii. 2. and from other instances. If then, we fix Rehob upon the skirts of the plains of Acre, a little to the south of this narrow road, (the Scala Tyriorum, as it was afterwards named) somewhere near Egdippa, the distance between Kadesh and Rehob will be about two

"After we had descended, with no small difficulty, down the other, or western side of this mount, we come into the plain or wilderness of Rephidim, Exod. xvii. 1. where we see that extraordinary antiquity, the rock of Meribah, Exod. xvii. 6. which has continued down to this day with out the least injury from time or accidents. This is rightly called, from its hardness, Deut. viii. 15. a rock of flint, Though from the purple or reddish colour of it, it may be rather rendered the rock of on or non amethyst, or the amethystine, or granite rock. It is about six yards square, lying tottering, as it were, and loose, near the middle of the valley, and seems to have been formerly a part or cliff of mount Sinai, which hangs in a variety of precipices all over this plain. The waters which gushed out, and the stream which flowed withal, Psal. Ixxviii. 20. have hollowed across one corner of this rock, a channel about two inches deep, and twenty wide, all over incrustated like the inside of a tea-kettle that has been long used. Besides several mossy productions, that are still preserved by the dew, we see all over this channel a great number of holes, some of them four or five inches deep, and one or two in diameter: the lively and demonstrative tokens of their having been formerly so many fountains. Neither could art or chance be concerned in the contrivance; inasmuch as every circumstance points out to us a miracle: and in the same manner, with the rent in the rock of mount Calvary in Jerusalem, never fails to produce the greatest seriousness and devotion in all who see it.

"From mount Sinai, the Israelites directed their marches northward, toward the land of Canaan. The next remarkable encampments, therefore, were in the desert of Paran, which seems to have commenced immediately upon their departing from Hazaroth, three stations, or days' journey, i. e. thirty miles, as we will only compute them, from Sinai, Numb. x. 33. and xii. 16. And as tradition has continued down to us the names of Shur, Marah, and Sin; so it has also that of Paran; the ruins of the late convent of Paran, built upon the ruins of an ancient city of that name, (which might give denomination to the whole of that desert,) being about the half-way between Sinai and Corondel, which lie at forty leagues distance. This situation of Paran, so far to the south of Kadesh, will illustrate Gen. xix. 5, 6. where Chederlaomer, and the kings that were with him, are said to have smote the