"forewarned of the king's approach, took boat, and shifted "themselves into the sea, lying near them." From Elim

down by the For it seem

he returned again towards the south, and sat banks of the Red sea; the seventh mansion. eth that he had knowledge of Amalek, who prepared to resist his passage through that part of Arabia. And Moses, who had not as yet trained those of the Hebrews appointed to bear arms, nor assured the minds of the rest, who encountering with the least misery were more apt to return to their quiet slavery, than either to endure the wants and perils which every where accompanied them in that passage, or at this time to undertake or sustain so dangerous an enemy; he therefore made stay at this mansion, until the fifteenth of the second month called Zim, or Ijar, and made the eighth mansion in the desert of Zin; where the children of Israel mutinied against Moses the third time, having want of food. In the sixteenth chapter of Exodus, Moses omitteth this retreat from Elim to the Red sea, but in the collection of every several encamping, in the thirty-third of Numbers, it is set down.

Here it pleased God to send so many flights of quails, as all the country about their encamping was covered with them. The morning following it also rained manna, being the sixteenth of their month, which served them instead of bread. For now was the store consumed which the people carried with them out of Egypt. And though they had great numbers of cattle and sheep among them, yet it seemeth that they durst not feed themselves with many of those; but reserved them, both for the milk to relieve the children withal, and for bread to store themselves when they came to the land promised.

From hence towards Raphidim they made two removes of twenty miles; the one to Daphca, the other to Alus, distant from Raphidim six miles. Here being again pressed with want of water, they murmured the fourth time, and repented them of their departure from Egypt, where they rather contented themselves to be fed and beaten after the

manner of beasts, than to suffer a casual and sometimes necessary want, and to undergo the hazards and travels which every manly mind seeketh after, for the love of God and their own freedoms. But Moses, with the same rod which he divided the sea withal, in the sight of the elders of Israel, brought waters out of the rock, wherewith the whole multitude were satisfied.

SECT. II.

Of the Amalekites, Midianites, and Kenites, upon occasion of the battle with the Amalekites, and Jethro's coming; who being a Kenite, was priest of Midian.

AND while Moses encamped in this place, the Amalekites, who had knowledge of his approach, and guessed that he meant to lead the children of Israel through their country, (which being barren of itself, would be utterly wasted by so great a multitude of people and cattle,) thought it most for their advantage to set upon them at Raphidim ; where the want of water, and all other things needful for the life of man, enfeebled them. On the other side Moses perceiving their resolutions, gave charge to Joshua, to draw out a sufficient number of the ablest Hebrews to encounter Amalek. Between whom and Israel, the victory remained doubtful for the most part of the day; the Hebrews and Amalekites contending with equal hopes and repulses for many hours. And had not the strength of Moses's prayers to God been of far greater force, and more prevalent, than all resistance and attempt made by the bodies of men, that valiant and warlike nation had greatly endangered the whole enterprise. For those bodies which are unacquainted with scarcity of food, and those minds whom a servile education hath dulled, being beaten, and despaired in their first attempts, will hardly or never be brought again to hazard themselves.

After this victory Jethro repaired to Moses, bringing with him Moses's wife, and his two sons, which either Jethro forbare to conduct, or Moses to receive, till he had

by this overthrow of Amalek the better assured himself of that part of Arabia. For it is written, Exodus xviii. 1. When Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses' father-in-law, heard all that God had done for Moses, &c. of which the last deed, to wit, the overthrow of Amalek, gave Jethro courage and assurance, he then repaired to his son-in-law Moses, at Sinai; where, amongst other things, he advised Moses to appoint judges, and other officers, over Israel; being himself unable to give order in all causes and controversies, among so many thousands of people full of discontentment and private controversy.

This Jethro, although he dwelt amongst the Midianites, yet he was by nation a Kenite, as in Judges iv. 11. 17. it is made manifest, where it is written, Now Heber the Kenite, which was of the children of Hobab, to wit, the son of Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, was departed from the Kenites, and pitched his tents until the plain of Zaanaim, which is by Kedesh. Likewise in the first of Samuel, fSaul commanded the Kenites to depart from among the Amalekites, lest he should destroy them with the Amalekites. For the Kenites inhabited the mountains of Sin Kadesh, and the Amalekites dwelt in the plains, according to the saying of Balaam, speaking of the Kenites; Strong is thy dwellingplace, and thou hast put thy nest in the rock. And that "Saul spared this nation, he giveth for cause, that they shewed mercy to all the children of Israel when they came up from Egypt. For these Kenites were a nation of the Midianites, and the Midianites were of the issues of Midian, one of the six sons which Abraham begat on Keturah; and might also take that name of Kenites from Keturah, of whom they descended by the mother, who, as it seemeth, kept the knowledge of the true God among them, which they received from their parent Abraham. For Moses, when he fled out of Egypt into Midian, and married the daughter of Jethro, would not (had he found them idolaters) have made Jethro's daughter the mother of his children. And although the

f 1 Sam. xv. 16. Numb. xxiv. 21.

I Sam. xv. i Gen. xxv.

pro

Kenites are named amongst those nations which God mised that the seed of Abraham should root out, and inherit their lands; yet it cannot be meant by these, who are descended from Abraham himself; but by some other nation bearing the same name, and in all likelihood of the race of Chus. For in Genesis xv. 19. these Kenites, or Chusites, are listed with the Hittites and Perezites, with the Amorites, Canaanites, Gergesites, and Jebusites, which were indeed afterwards rooted out. But these Kenites descended from Abraham, had separated themselves from among the rest, which were altogether idolatrous. For, as is before remembered, 1 Heber the Kenite, which was of the children of Hobab, was departed from the Kenites, that is to say, from those Kenites of Canaan, and inhabited in Zaanaim, which is by Kedesh, or Kadesh. Again, Moses nameth that nation of the Kenites, before Midian, or any of Abraham's other sons were born; which he did (referring myself to better judgment) rather, because they were more ancient, than by anticipation.

And as of the Kenites, so we may consider of the m Midianites, parted by Moses into five tribes. For some of them were corrupted, and heathens; as those of Midian by the river Zared, afterwards destroyed by Moses. But the Midianites near the banks of the Red sea, where Moses married his wife Zipporah, and with whom he left her and his children, till after the overthrow of Amalek, seem likewise not to have been corrupted. For these Midianites with the Kenites assisted Israel, and guided them in the deserts. But the Midianites in Moab, and to the north of the metropolis of Arabia, called Petræa, were by Israel rooted out, when those adjoining to the Red sea were not touched.

And though it may be doubted, whether those of Midian, of whom Jethro was priest, and the other cities in Moab were the same, yet the contrary is more probable. For Moses would not have sent 12,000 Israelites, as far back as the Red sea, from the plains of Moab, to have destroyed that Midian where his wife's kindred inhabited; seeing 1 Judg. iv. 11.

* Gen. xv.

m Gen. xxv. 4.

himself coming with 600,000 able men was encountered by Amalek in that passage. Neither could Moses forget the length of the way through those discomfortable deserts, wherein himself and Israel had wandered forty years.

That Jethro or Jothor, Raguel or Reuel, and Hobab, were but one person, the scriptures teach us. For the Vulgar and Septuagint, which call him Raguel, and our English, Reuel, Exod. ii. 18. call him Jethro, or Jothor, Exod. iii. 1. iv. 18. xviii. 1, and 6, 9, 10, 12. and in Numbers x. 29. Hobab. Others take Jethro and Hobab to be the same, but not Raguel.

SECT. III.

Of the time when the law was given; with divers commendations of the invention of laws.

THE rest of the months of this year 2515 were spent in the desert of Sinai, near the mountain of Sinai or Horeb, the twelfth mansion. Eusebius thought that Sinai or Horeb were distinct mountains; Jerome, to be but one, of a double name; and so it appeareth by many scriptures. For in Exod. iii. 1. it is called Horeb; and in Exod. xxiv. 16. it is written Sinai. In Psalm cvi. 19. Horeb; in Exod. xix. 11. Sinai. And so it is called Galatians iv. 24. and again, Deut. iv. 10, 15. and Deut. v. 2. Horeb. And so it is in the 1st of Kings, viii. 6. and the 2d of Chron. v. 10. and in Malachi iv. 4. Finally, in Ecclesiasticus xlviii. 7. they are named as one: Which heardest, saith Ecclesiasticus, the rebuke of the Lord in Sinai, and in Horeb the judgment of the vengeance. Somewhat they are disjoined at the top by the report of Peter Belonius, who in the year 1588 passed out of Egypt into Arabia, with monsieur de Fumet of France, and travelled to the top both of Sinai and Horeb, Sinai being by far the higher hill. From the side of Horeb, saith he, there falleth a very fair spring of water into the valley adjoining; where he found two monasteries of Christian Marronites, containing some 100 religious persons of divers nations, who had pleasant gardens, delicate