Biblical Hebrew Forum

[<tladatsi AT charter.net>]

Vadim,

You have missed my point.  The author of the Exodus story 
clearly intended to reader to understand the events 
described were the result of divine intervention, i.e 
miracles.  Miracles not need *explanations*.  Yahweh can do 
whatever Yahweh wants to do.

In any event, as the later text unmistakely states, the 
cattle are in danger of dying from thrist (as are the 
Israelites).  So the author is conveying a dry, desolate 
Sinai, rather like the real one today.  The author is 
saying that the cattle and Israelites would have died of 
thirst in a barren wasteland without Yahwehs help.  
Climatology is not the issue.

Jack Tladatsi