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NO WOE ZONE
Exact Dating of the Exodus
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THE EXODUS as Moses wrote It
Out of Egypt happened fast with a wind setdown on the Nile reeds. The Israelites crossed from the green delta into the wilderness.
The Exodus with the parting of the Red Sea qualifies as the #1 event in bringing the Israelites together. Moses did the setup with Pharaoh and provided us a detailed accounting. The Lord overlaid the events with Passover, Parting, Mount Sinai and on to the Promised Land. Now we are challenged to understand scripture, geography, and archaeology with today’s blurred understanding of the intent of Moses’ words.
Moses wrote his words in Proto-Sinaitic, later translated into Paleo-Hebrew, and then into the new Hebrew in the 6th century BC. Our earliest Exodus scraps are 2nd century BC from Qumran, the first complete text 10th century AD. Then English in the King James in 1611.
The exit was from Egypt, which Moses called Mizraim, a son of Ham. This is the green delta area where Mizraim settled, the Israelites later in the areas of Goshen and Rameses. “Out of Egypt” would be one step from green delta into the wilderness, not to later boundary extensions. The Israelites were still in the delta at the Parting and there “shut in by the wilderness.” (Exodus 14:1-4)
Moses never wrote Red Sea, but Yam Suph, Reed Sea. He faced Pharaoh at Rameses, identified as the site of Avaris in the delta. There the Locusts plagued Egypt until, “the Lord changed the wind to a very strong west wind, which caught up the locusts and carried them into the Red Sea (Reed Sea).” (Exodus 10:19) The west wind blew toward Canaan and the eastern Pelusiac branch of the Nile where it spread into the Mediterranean. The locusts were not blown toward the south to the Gulf of Suez or Gulf of Aqaba, where reeds don’t grow. The locusts were stopped in the Reed Sea at the eastern edge the green delta.
The timing from Rameses to Sukkoth to Etham to Pi-Hahiroth and the Parting of the Reed Sea was short, within 2 weeks. Moses intertwined descriptions of the Passover in the first month on Aviv 15 and the following Feast of Unleavened bread. Shortly after leaving Mizraim the Israelites were reminded, “Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread. For seven days eat bread made without yeast, as I commanded you. Do this at the appointed time in the month of Aviv, for in that month you came out of Egypt.” (Exodus 34:18) The Israelites were out of Egypt by the last day of the first month on Aviv 29. The celebration has become a perpetual tradition since the days it happened, that 7th day now celebrated on Aviv 21 when the Lord parted the sea.
The Israelites departed Rameses with full bellies from the Passover meal. They were in the millions, from newborn to older than Moses at 80, and shepherding with them millions of livestock. They left Rameses without food except unleavened dough in kneading troughs.
The first night they stopped at Sukkoth and there the 12 tribes came together. Sukkoth means temporary huts, and there they camped. There they consecrated their own surviving firstborn. For food they baked their unleavened dough, producing sufficient flatbread for 7 days.
The Israelites moved on slowly, the elderly resting and herders prodding their grazing livestock. After several days and nights of heading southeast (Exodus 13:18) they arrived at the edge of the wilderness at Etham, the beginning of the Desert of Etham. (Numbers 33:8) They were still in the green Delta.
Then the Lord told Moses to turn back and camp at Pi-Hahiroth between Migdol and the sea, opposite Baal Zephon. This wandering caught the attention of the Egyptians who decided to bring back their slaves. The Israelites went into panic mode. Migdol indicates a tower or raised area where the charioteers came together. Baal Zephon was the Canaanite storm god who was protector of maritime trade, suggesting a sailor’s sanctuary on the Mediterranean. Pi-Hahiroth was in the green Delta, separated from the wilderness by the reed sea. (Numbers 33:8)
Moses calmed the Israelites when he raised his staff and spread his arms symbolically to part the sea of reeds, and a strong east wind blew all night to make it happen. (Exodus 14:21). This suggests a more exact location where the Pelusiac Nile spread into a true sea of reeds and the Mediterranean Sea. The wind across the upper Nile shifted the flow into the western branches, drying up the eastern Pelusiac branch. The sea of reeds was blown flat for the Israelites to cross, the remaining water held back by the wind like a retaining wall. The Lord boosted a weather anomaly with exact location and timing and made it happen. This is technically known as a wind setdown, the calculations carefully made. Exodus Wind.pdf
The Egyptian charioteers followed as the wind shifted and rushed the water flow back into the Pelusiac Nile. Muddy flats grabbed their wheels. A wall of water washed Pharaoh’s army out to the Mediterranean.
The Israelites crossed the Reed Sea on Aviv 21 with little food and the Delta water behind them. After 3 days their thirst overtook them at bitter Marah where the Lord made the water drinkable. They moved on to Elim with water and shade then into the Desert of Sin, toward Mount Sinai. They moved for several weeks carrying water with food gone when in the second month on Ziv 15, their empty stomachs cried to Moses to go back to Egypt. Then the Lord provided quail and manna.
The Israelites crossed the sea and wandered in the wilderness for 40 years, stopping at Mount Sinai, and then headed north into their Promised Land. The location of the parting of the Reed Sea satisfies scripture with Passover, starting geography and archaeology, but the ongoing journey needs more digging and timing.
We need to step past the 480 years (1 Kings 6:1) as an unexpected inclusion comparing the beginning of the Tabernacle with the beginning of Solomon’s Temple. Back toward 1550 BC the Egyptian Pharoah Ahmose conquered the Hyksos Pharaoh Khamudi whose army has been washed into the sea. Avaris was abandoned. At this time Thera erupted in the Mediterranean, accounts for some of the plagues and unexpected winds. Possible dating is at https://nowoezone.com/OT_Chronology.htm.
Moses had slain the Egyptian and retreated from Pharaoh on the trade route toward the copper mines at Timna and the start of Midian. He stopped just past at the first good well at the settlement (Tell Hujayrat al-Ghuzlan, today Aqaba) at the head of the Gulf of Aqaba, and settled there with Zipporah. Mount Sinai was within grazing distance. https://nowoezone.com/Mount_Sinai.htm.
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