Biblical Hebrew Forum

[<tladatsi AT charter.net>]

Peter,

Not to beat a dead ox, but text of Exodus 12:36 clearly 
states that Yahweh intervened in some fanatastic way to 
cloud the minds of the Egyptians.

*The L ORD caused the Egyptians to look favorably on the 
Israelites, and they gave the Israelites whatever they 
asked for. So, like a victorious army, they plundered the 
Egyptians!*

The Israelites were able to plunder the Egyptians because 
of divine intervention,i.e. a miracle.  The very possession 
of the cattle was the result of a miracle.  

I will certainly grant you the existance of the carts is an 
open question.  On the one hand, wagons are not mentioned 
in the plundering and the 600,000 men were explicity *on 
foot*.  On the other hand, it is only the men who are 
described as being on foot, not the women and children.  I 
think the *implication* is that the women and children did 
not walk.  They could have wrode wagons or donkeys, or 
camels, etc.  There are great herds mentioned without 
identifying what sort of herds other than that they were in 
addition to the cattle.

There is precsious little wood in the Sinai suitable for 
building carts.  So even if the Israelites built the wagons 
in the Sinai, the availability of suitable wood is 
something of a miracle, although I will confess, I am not 
certain that the author's intent was to convey that 
particular aspect as miraculous, it would in fact be one.




Jack Tladatsi