Exodus 2:11

And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown,.... To man's estate; some of the Jewish writers say he was eighteen, others twenty years of age (e), but Stephen, who is most to be credited,

And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren.

In those days, whilst Moses lived at court, and was owned as the son of Pharaoh’ s daughter, and, as some write, designed to succeed Pharaoh in the throne. Moses was grown to maturity, being forty years old, . He went out unto his brethren; partly by natural affection and inclination, that he might learn the state of his brethren, and help them, as occasion should offer itself; and partly by Divine instigation, and in design that he might give some manifestation to them that he was raised and sent of God to deliver them; as may be gathered from .

Exodus 2:11 And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren.Ver. 11. When Moses was grown.] In stature and authority, being "mighty in words and deeds," being a great orator, a great warrior. He was, as Pliny saith of Cato Censorius, optimus Orator, optimus Imperator, optimus Senator, omniumque bonarum artium magister, a man every way accomplished. That he went out unto his brethren.] Associating himself to them, though afflicted, and refusing the pleasures and "treasures of Egypt: for he had respect to the recompense of reward" - he cast an eye, he stole a look from glory, when he was on his journey, and so got fresh encouragement.

(11) In those days.—Notes of time are used with considerable latitude by the sacred writers. (Comp. Genesis 38; 2 Kings 20:1.) According to the tradition followed by St. Stephen (Acts 7:23), Moses was “full forty years old “when he took the step here indicated. We might have expected him to have come forward sooner; but there may have been difficulties in his so doing. It is remarkable that he does not tell us anything of his life during youth or early manhood. Later tradition was full of details (Stanley, Lectures on the Jewish Church, pp. 107-9), which, however, are worthless. He went out unto his brethren.—It is probable that Pharaoh’s daughter had never concealed from Moses that he was not her own child, but one of the oppressed race. She may even have allowed him to hold communication with his family. It is not, however, a mere visit that is here spoken of, but a complete withdrawal from the palace, and renunciation of his position at the court. “By faith, Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season” (Hebrews 11:24-25). It is the first sign of that strong sympathy and tender affection for his people which characterises him throughout the narrative, and culminates in the pathetic cry, “Forgive them; and if not, blot me out of thy book” (Exodus 32:32). Looked on their burthens—i.e., examined into their condition, watched their treatment, made himself acquainted with it by personal inspection. He spied an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew.—Probably a taskmaster chastising one of the labourers, whom he accused of idling. St. Stephen regards the act as one of “oppression” and “wrong-doing” (Acts 7:24). Moses must certainly have viewed it in this light, or he would not have been so moved to indignation as to kill the Egyptian. Though not a cruel nation, the Egyptians, no doubt, like other slave-drivers, occasionally abused their power, and treated the unfortunate labourers with cruelty.

Verse 11. When Moses was grown] Being full forty years of age, as St. Stephen says, Acts 7:23, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, i.e., he was excited to it by a Divine inspiration; and seeing one of them suffer wrong, by an Egyptian smiting him, probably one of the task-masters, he avenged him and smote - slew, the Egyptian, supposing that God who had given him commission, had given also his brethren to understand that they were to be delivered by his hand; see Acts 7:23-25. Probably the Egyptian killed the Hebrew, and therefore on the Noahic precept Moses was justified in killing him; and he was authorized so to do by the commission which he had received from God, as all succeeding events amply prove. Previously to the mission of Moses to deliver the Israelites, Josephus says, "The AEthiopians having made an irruption into Egypt, and subdued a great part of it, a Divine oracle advised them to employ Moses the Hebrew. On this the king of Egypt made him general of the Egyptian forces; with these he attacked the AEthiopians, defeated and drove them back into their own land, and forced them to take refuge in the city of Saba, where he besieged them. Tharbis, daughter of the AEthiopian king, seeing him, fell desperately in love with him, and promised to give up the city to him on condition that he would take her to wife, to which Moses agreed, and the city was put into the hands of the Egyptians." - Jos. Ant. lib. ii., chap. 9. St. Stephen probably alluded to something of this kind when he said Moses was mighty in deeds as well as words.

11–14. The first acts of Moses’ manhood. He chivalrously interposes, first on behalf of an Israelite maltreated by an Egyptian, and then in a quarrel between two Israelites. On account of his slaughter of the Egyptian, he is obliged to flee to Midian. Cf., in St Stephen’s speech, Acts 7:23-29.

Went out unto his brethren - At the end of 40 years. The Egyptian princess had not concealed from him the fact of his belonging to the oppressed race, nor is it likely that she had debarred him from

MOSES’S FAILURE, AND FLIGHT FROM EGYPT, Exodus 2:11-22. 11, 12. Looked on their burdens — Looked with sympathy and longed to help. St. Stephen says (Acts 7:23) that he was now forty years old.