136 Preface فَانتَقَمنا مِنهُم فَأَغرَقناهُم فِي اليَمِّ بِأَنَّهُم كَذَّبوا بِآياتِنا وَكانوا عَنها غافِلينَYusuf AliSo We exacted retribution from them: We drowned them1 in the sea, because they rejected Our Signs and failed to take warning from them.2When at last Israel left Egypt, they selected, not the highway to Canaan, along the Mediterranean and by Gaza, because they were unarmed and would have encountered immediate opposition there, but by way of the wilderness of Sinai. They crossed the Red Sea, while Pharaoh’s host which came in pursuit was drowned. Cf. 2:50. (R).Where was the Council of Pharaoh held in which Moses addressed Pharaoh? Egypt’s primary capital in the XVIIIth Dynasty was Thebes ( = No-Ammon), but that was more than 400 miles to the south of the Delta, in whose corner Israel dwelt. Memphis, on the apex of the Delta, a little south of where Cairo is now, was also over 100 miles from Israel’s habitations. The interview must have been either in a Palace near Goshen, where the Israelites dwelt, or in Zoan ( - Tanis), the Deltaic capital built by a former dynasty, which was of course still available for the reigning dynasty, and which was not far from the Israelite settlement.