God led the people about through the way, &c.— Dr. Shaw is of opinion, that the first settlement of the Israelites was at Heliopolis; and that Kairo was the Rameses, the capital of the district of that name, where the Israelites had their rendezvous, before they departed out of Egypt. God is said here to have led them ABOUT through the way of the wilderness, &c. "There are accordingly two roads," says the doctor, (who, certainly, on these subjects is to be depended upon,) "through which the Israelites might have been conducted from Kairo to Pi-hahiroth on the banks of the Red sea. One of them lies through the vallies, as they are now called, of Jendily, Rumeleah, and Baideah, bounded on each side by the mountains of the Lower Thebais. The other lies higher, having the northern range of the mountains of Mocattee running parallel with it on the right hand; and the desert of the Egyptian Arabia, which lies all the way open to the land of the Philistines, on the left. About the middle of this range, we may turn short upon the right hand into the valley of Baideah, through a remarkable breach or discontinuation, in which we afterwards continued to the very bank of the Red sea. Suez, a small city on the northern point of it, at the distance of thirty hours, or ninety Roman miles, from Kairo, lies a little to the northward of the promontory which is formed by this same range of mountains, called at present Attackah; as that which bounds the valley of Baideah to the southward is called Gewoubee. This road then, through the valley of Baideah, which is some hours longer than the other open road which leads directly from Kairo to Suez, was, in all probability, the very road which the Israelites took to Pi-hahiroth on the banks of the Red sea.
Josephus then, and other authors who copy after him, seem to be too hasty in making the Israelites perform this journey of ninety or a hundred Roman miles in three days, by reckoning each of the stations which are recorded, for one day; whereas the Scriptures are altogether silent with regard to the time or distance, recording the stations only. The fatigue, likewise, would be abundantly too great for a nation on foot, incumbered with their dough, their kneading-troughs, their little children and cattle, to walk at the rate of thirty Roman miles a day." Travels, p. 307.
Through the way of the wilderness— Or, Towards the wilderness.
Went up harnessed— Well-girt, or ready-girt. The primary sense of the word חמשׁים chamushim, according to Parkhurst, is armed, equipped. So the LXX, ευζωνοι, equipt, διασκευασμενοι, prepared, furnished. Vulg. armati, armed. Targum, girded, harnessed. See Joshua 1:14; Joshua 4:12. The word is first applied to the fifth day of the creation, when the world was completely furnished and ready for the reception of man and animals. Hence, as a verb, it signifies to take a fifth part; and so has occasioned the mistakes which some commentators have fallen into of the children of Israel's marching five in a rank.