Exodus 8:22

And I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell,.... Distinguish it from other parts of the land of Egypt: that no swarms of flies shall be there; which was a very wonderful

And I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there; to the end thou mayest know that I am the LORD in the midst of the earth.

Either, 1. Of the whole earth, and consequently of Egypt, that I am not only the Lord of Israel, but of thee and thy dominions too. God is here spoken of after the manner of earthly princes, who use to reside in the midst of their kingdoms, that they may more conveniently rule and influence them. Or rather, 2. Of Goshen; the words being properly thus rendered, that I the Lord am in the midst of that land, to wit, the land of Goshen now spoken of, to defend and preserve it. For God is said to be in the midst of them whom he protects, 23:14 ; and not to be in the midst of others whom he forsakes, and designs or threatens to destroy, 31:17. Compare , with .

Exodus 8:22 And I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms [of flies] shall be there; to the end thou mayest know that I [am] the LORD in the midst of the earth.Ver. 22. And I will sever.] Heb., Marvellously separate, by setting upon them my signum salutare. So that the worst that are "shall return and discern betwixt the righteous and the wicked." See Exodus 33:16. In the midst of the earth.] Not in heaven only, whereunto Aristotle and other atheists would confine his providence. Lysippus made Alexander’ s picture with this poesy: - “ Iupiter asserui terram mihi, tu assere coelum. ” Docuit Aristoteles Providentiam Dei ad coelum Lunae usque protendi, non ultra.

(22) I will sever in that day the land of Goshen.—This was a new feature, and one calculated to make a deep impression both on king and people. The “land of Goshen” can only have been some portion of the Eastern Delta, a tract in unwise different from the rest of Egypt—low, flat, well-watered, fertile. Nature had put no severance between it and the regions where the Egyptians dwelt; so the severance to be made would be a manifest miracle.

Verse 22. I will sever in that day] הפליתי hiphleythi, has been translated by some good critics, I will miraculously separate; so the Vulgate: Faciam mirabilem, "I will do a marvellous thing." And the Septuagint, παραδοξασω, I will render illustrious the land of Goshen in that day; and this he did, by exempting that land, and its inhabitants the Israelites, from the plagues by which he afflicted the land of Egypt.

22. ‘Such swarms may advance along particular lines, and so spare a given district. The promise here given may stand in some connexion with this fact’ (Di.). sever] as Exodus 9:4, Exodus 11:7 (EVV. put a difference): both J. the land of Goshen] to which, according to J, the Israelites were confined (Exodus 9:26; Genesis 45:10; Genesis 46:28 b, Genesis 46:29; Genesis 46:34, Genesis 47:1; Genesis 47:4; Genesis 47:6; Genesis 47:27, Genesis 50:8 : all J); E pictures them as living side by side with the Egyptians (Exodus 3:22, Exodus 11:2). The site of Goshen has been fixed by recent discoveries. Ancient hieroglyphic lists of the ‘nomes’ of Egypt mention Kesem as the 20th nome of Lower Egypt, and state that its religious capital was P-sapṭ ?, i.e. the modern ‘Ṣ ?afṭ ? el-Ḥ ?enna,’ a village about 40 miles NE. of Cairo, the ancient name of which M. Naville ascertained in 1885, from inscriptions found on the spot, to be Kes. ‘Goshen’ (LXX. Γεσεμ) must thus have been the fertile district around Ṣ ?afṭ ?, where the Wβdy Ṭ ?umξlβt opens out at its W. end towards Bubastis, ‘within the triangle lying between the villages of Ṣ ?afṭ ?, Belbeis, and Tel el-Kebir’ (Naville), embracing an area of 60–80 sq. miles (Petrie, Sinai, p. 208), about 40–50 miles NE. of Cairo. The Wβdy Ṭ ?umξlβt is a narrow strip of cultivated soil stretching out, like an arm from the Delta (see the map), across the desert, about 50 miles NE. of Cairo, to Lake Timsβḥ ?: in pre-historic times, a branch of the Nile ran down it1[123], discharging its waters into a northern extension of the Gulf of Suez’ (see p. 126); within the historic period canals have been at different times constructed along it, connecting the Nile with the Red Sea (p. 4 n.); on each side of this strip of soil the country is desert, but the Wβdy itself is irrigated by a fresh water canal, and fertile: and the part of the Delta adjoining it on the W. (where ‘Goshen’ will have been) affords excellent arable land and pasture (cf. Dawson, Egypt and Syria, p. 55 f.). See further Goshen in DB. or EB. [123] Borings revealed at the depth of 22ft. below the surface the shells of fresh-water mussels of species still living in the Nile (ZDPV. Exodus 1885, p. 227).On Kes, the ancient town of ‘Goshen,’ see Duncan, Exploration of Egypt and the OT. (1908), pp. 106 f., 113 ff.: few remains of it are now visible. The cemetery of Kes was excavated in 1905–6 by Petrie, and found by him to contain numerous tombs of the 18th and 19th dynasties; but the tombs, as the objects found in them shewed, were entirely those of Egyptians. If, therefore, as J represents (see esp. Genesis 46:34), the Israelites lived apart from the Egyptians, we must suppose that the Egyptians in Goshen lived only in the town, while the Israelites were in the country. to the end … that, &c.] Cf. Exodus 8:10, with the references.

I will sever ... - This severance constituted a specific difference between this and the preceding plagues.

22. I will sever in that day the land of Goshen — Here also is now a marked advance, a more distinctive character in the judgment.