Exodus 2

15-22. The new Pharaoh oppresses them cruelly; they are a prey to the miseries of slavery, the contagion of idolatry, to all the evils, all the perils, physical and moral, which can afflict a nation numerically weak, fallen under the yoke of one powerful and civilized. The Hebrews nevertheless persist in their religious faith, cling to their national reminiscences; they do not suffer their nationality to be lost in and confounded with that of their masters; they endure without offering any active resistance; they await their Deliverer. Guizot.

21. Made them houses. They married Hebrews and became mothers in Israel. The expression is proverbial (see 2 Sam. 7 : 11, 27). Cook.—As they preserved the people and promoted their increase, therefore God blessed them in the preservation and increase of their families. Gerl.—Scripture has preserved the names of these courageous women, and told us that their motive was “fear of God” (in the Hebrew with the article, “the God,” as denoting the living and true God). And as they were the means of “making” or upbuilding the houses of Israel, so God “made them houses.” It is true that, when challenged by the king, they failed to speak out their true motive; but, as Augustine remarks, “God forgave the evil on account of the good, and rewarded their piety, though not their deceit.” A. E.

22. In the whole of this history, as in so many in the Old Testament, sin and its punishment are shown to us in a close relation to each other. As the children of the Israelites were thrown into the water, so do we find that the Egyptians themselves perish in the water. Gerl.—All these plans of Pharaoh are destined to come to naught. Persecution and death cannot damage the Church of God. The Christian is not weakened thereby; but the Church ever increases under the Cross, under the tyranny of the world and of the Devil: as an old doctor of the Church, Tertullian, hath said, “The Church is watered by the blood of Christians.” Luther.—The church was lying on the burning coals of persecution—a hard duty; but great good must ever have its birth in the house of great sorrows. Then followed the school-days, when the church sat down before Sinai, received the Law, and the rites and ceremonies embodying great principles and great truths. The Levitical was the material age, when the child must be instructed by pictures, disciplined and corrected till ripe for something better. Todd.

It is no new thing for Egypt to be unkind and cruel to Israel. Israelites and Egyptians are of contrary dispositions and inclinations; the delight of one is the abomination of the other. Besides, it is the duty of Israel to depart out of Egypt. Israel is in Egypt in respect of abode, not of desire. Egypt is not Israel’s rest. If Egypt were an House of hospitality, it would more dangerously and strongly detain the Israelites, than in being an house of bondage. The thoughts of Canaan would be but slight and seldom, if Egypt were pleasant. It is good that Egyptians should hate us, that so they may not hurt us. When the world is most kind, it is most corrupting; and when it smiles most, it seduceth most. Were it not for the bondage in Egypt, the food and idols of Egypt would be too much beloved. Blessed be God, who will by the former wean us from the latter; and will not let us have the one without the other: far better that Egypt should oppress us, than we oppose God. Jenkyn.

1. And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. And the 2 woman conceived, and bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child, she hid 3 him three months. And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bul- rushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch; and she put the child therein, and laid it 4 in the flags by the river’s brink. And his sister stood afar off, to know what would be done

5 to him. And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river side; and she saw the ark among the flags, and sent her handmaid to fetch it. And she opened it, and saw the child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews’ children. Then said his sister to Pharaoh’s daughter, Shall I go and call thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child’s mother. And Pharaoh’s daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it. And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses, and said, Because I drew him out of the water. 11 And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown up, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he saw an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren. And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he smote the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand. And he went out the second day, and, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together; and he said to him that did the wrong, Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow? And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? thinkest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? And Moses feared, and said, Surely the thing is known. Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian: and he sat down by a well. Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters: and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. And the shepherds came and drove them away: but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock. And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, How is it that ye are come so soon to-day? And they said, An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and moreover he drew water for us, and watered the flock. And he said unto his daughters, And where is he? why is it that ye have left the man? call him, that he may eat bread. And Moses was content to dwell with the man: and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter. And she bare a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a sojourner in a strange land.

1-10. By the cruel edict which required the Hebrews to cast all their male children into the river Nile, Pharaoh intended to check the growing greatness of a nation whose numbers he began to dread. But God designed it as the occasion of the adoption of Moses by no less a personage than the daughter of the reigning sovereign; and this to the intent that the future leader and lawgiver of the Hebrew people might be educated for his responsible office. E. C. W.—The decree designed by Pharaoh to inflict the death-blow on Israel’s hopes of honor and enlargement, was made to prepare and fashion the living instrument through whom these hopes were soon to be carried forth into victory and fruition. Forced by the very urgency of the danger on the notice of Pharaoh’s daughter, and thereafter received under her care and patronage into Pharaoh’s house, the child Moses possessed in the highest degree the opportunity of becoming “learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians,” and grew up to manhood in the familiar use of every advantage which it was possible for the world at that time to confer. P. F.—Divine Providence had determined to raise up that man who was to release this oppressed people, and after having seen and intimately known the civil and religious institutions of this famous country was deliberately to reject them, to found a polity on totally different principles, and establish a religion the most opposite to the mysterious polytheism of Egypt; a polity and a religion which were to survive the dynasty of the Pharaohs and the deities of their vast temples, and exercise an unbounded influence on the civil and religious history of the most remote ages. Milwan.

Everything here is strictly Egyptian; even some of the terms used in the Hebrew are derived from the Egyptian. The papyrus no longer grows below Nubia, but the Egyptian monuments exhibit many such “arks” and boats made of the plant, and similarly prepared. The “flags” were a smaller species of papyrus. A. E.—The story of Moses reproduces the country and the times. The branches of the Nile were anciently lined with reeds. The papyrus was woven into baskets, mats, and even little boats, which were made water-tight with the resin, or bitumen, in common use for mummy-wrappings. The sanitary customs of the Egyptians united with their religious feeling to recommend bathing in the sacred river; and the monuments show, that, in ancient Egypt, women had much greater freedom than is now accorded them in Oriental countries.

Thus everything is here pictured to the life. J. P. T.

No romance could have been more skilfully framed for the purpose of setting all the affections in play, than this simple and beautiful story—the placing of the babe by the river side—the watching of him by his sister—the approach of Pharaoh’s daughter to the spot—the crying of the child and its influence on the sensibilities of a woman’s heart—the offer of the sister to call a nurse, and thus the restoration of the babe to its own mother again. In the epistle to the Hebrews this act of Moses’ parents is said to have been by faith: and we cannot doubt that all was overruled by the providence of God, even to the very suggestion which prompted the measure they took with their child. Whether they had in any degree the light of a revelation for what they did, they must at least have left a certain confidence in the protection of Him who is invisible, else they would not have been remarked by the Apostle among the Old Testament worthies who through faith obtained a good report. T. C.

We shall study the history of Moses without the key if we overlook the point made by the writer to the Hebrews (11:23): “By faith Moses when he was born was hid three months because they saw that he was a proper child, and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment.” Faith in God made them fearless of Egypt’s cruel king. It may sometimes happen that profound interest in a babe of apparently rare promise shall run in a very low and selfish channel, suggesting how much he may do to comfort their own hearts, or to build up the glory of their house or of their name;—but when by a heavenly faith it takes hold of useful work for God, when it prompts to a special consecration of all the possibilities of his future to the kingdom of Christ, it is morally sublime. Such seems to have been the faith of the parents of the child Moses. How their faith prompted ingenious methods of concealment; how it wrought in harmony with God’s wise providence, not only to preserve the life of this consecrated child, but to give him a place in the heart of Pharaoh’s daughter, and thus open to his growing mind all the wealth of Egypt’s culture and wisdom, we learn somewhat from this story. H. C.

1. A daughter of Levi. The idiom which calls even a remote descendant the son or daughter is common to the Old and New Testament, and this passage may be understood to mean that both parents of Moses were of the house and lineage of Levi. Thus the Vulgate renders the verse, “and he took a wife of his own family;” the LXX. has “a wife of the daughters of Levi.”

2. Bare a son. Not her firstborn, Aaron and Miriam were older than Moses. The object of the writer is simply to narrate the events which led to the Exodus, and, as usual, he omits to notice what had no direct bearing upon that object. E. H. B.

3. She took for him an ark of bulrushes. The bulrush is the papyrus or paper-reed of the ancients. It grows in marshy places, and was once most abundant on the banks of the Nile; but now that the river has been opened to commerce it has disappeared, save in a few unfrequented spots. It is described as having “an angular stem from three to six feet high, though occasionally it grows to the height of fourteen feet; it has no leaves; the flowers are in very small spikelets, which grow in thread-like, flowering branchlets, which form a bushy crown to each stem.” It was used for many purposes by the Egyptians; for shoes, baskets, vessels of different sorts, and boats; but it was especially valuable as furnishing the material corresponding to our paper, on which written communications could be made. To obtain this last fibre, the coarse exterior rind was taken off, and then with a needle the thin concentric layers of the inner cuticle, sometimes to the number of twenty in a single plant, were removed. These were afterward joined together with a mixture of flour, paste, and glue; and a similar layer of strips being laid crosswise in order to strengthen the fabric, the whole sheet was subjected to pressure, dried in the sun, beaten with a mallet, and polished with ivory. When completed and written over, the sheets were united into one, and rolled on a slender wooden cylinder. Thus was formed a book, and the description of the process gives the etymology and primal significance of our own word “volume.” W. M. T.

Laid it in the flags. The mother of Moses laid the ark by the river’s brink. She could not have laid it so courageously upon the Nile, if she had not first devoutly laid it upon the care and love of God. We are often surprised at the outward calmness of men who are called upon to do unpleasant and most trying deeds; but could we have seen them in secret we should have known the moral preparation which they underwent before coming out to be seen of men. Be right in the sanctuary, if you would be right in the market-place. Be steadfast in prayer, if you would be calm in affliction. J. P.

4. The mother has done her part. The rushes, the slime, and the pitch were her prudent and necessary preparations; and the great God has been at the same time preparing his materials, and arranging his instruments. He causes everything to concur, not by miraculous influence, but by the simple and natural operation of second causes, to bring about the issue designed in his counsels from everlasting. Bush.

5. Daughter of Pharaoh. God fetches her thither, to deliver the deliverer of his people. His designs go beyond ours. We know not, when we set our foot over our threshold, what he hath to do with us. This event seemed casual to this princess, but predetermined and provided by God, before she was: how wisely and sweetly God brings to pass his own purposes, in our ignorance and regardlessness! She saw the ark, opens it, finds the child weeping; his beauty and his tears had God provided for the strong persuasions of mercy. This young and lively oratory prevailed. Her heart is struck with compassion, and yet her tongue could say, “It is a Hebrew child.” Bp. II.—6. The princess “saw the child.” That single sentence contains an argument. It was an appeal to the woman’s heart. It mattered not that she was a princess, nor that she belonged to the proudest class of the most exclusive nation in the world. Rank, caste, nationality, all melted before the great fact of womanhood. She was a woman, and before her lay an outcast child. F. W. R.

In the fact that the deliverer of Israel from the power of Egypt was himself first delivered by the daughter of the king of Egypt, we find the same interweaving of the history of Israel with that of the Gentiles already observed in the history of Joseph; and we may now regard it as a law, that the preference shown to Israel when it was selected as the chosen seed on whom the blessings were first bestowed, was to be counterbalanced by the fact that the salvation of Israel could not be fully effected without the intervention of the Gentiles. This was the opinion of Cyril of Alexandria, which he expressed in his usual allegorical style by saying: “the daughter of Pharaoh is the community of the Gentiles.” Bawm.—Thereby he meant to illustrate this great truth, which we trace throughout history, that somehow the salvation of Israel was always connected with the instrumentality of the Gentiles. It was so in the history of Joseph and even before that; and it will continue so till at the last, through their mercy, Israel shall obtain mercy. A. E.

The phrase “special providence” is liable to be misunderstood. The teaching of this book is, not that God overrules some things more than others, but that he is in all alike, and is as really in the falling of a sparrow as the revolution of an empire. God was as truly in the removal of the little ones that were taken away, as he was in the saving of Amram’s son; and there were lessons of love and warning from the one, no less than of love and encouragement from the other. Nay, more, God is in the daily events of our households precisely as he was in those of the family of the tribe of Levi long ago. The births and the bereavements; the prosperity and the adversity; the joys and the sorrows of our homes, are all under his supervision. He is girding us when we know it not; and his plan of our lives, if we will only yield ourselves to his guidance, will one day round itself into completeness and beauty. Every one of us here has as really been preserved from childhood to this hour by the providence of God, as Moses was delivered on the occasion before us. It is not only when one is snatched out of visible danger, that we should speak of God’s care. The protection is as real, though we may not be so conscious of it when no danger is seen. W. M. T.

8. Mother. So, by a merciful arrangement of God’s providence, the mother received her child back again, and kept it with her until its third year, when children were wont to be weaned. Gerl.—There is a higher destiny for Jochebed than that she should be merely nurse to her own child, for she is also to become the early guide of him who shall be Israel’s guide. Nor will he leave her ere the grand traditions of God’s covenant with his friend, of Jacob’s death, and Joseph’s last command, of Canaan as the land destined for Israel, and of the great deliverance that has been promised for the world, have all been impressed upon his mind. And can we Christians doubt that the relationships of early life must have conduced to bring us where God’s hand has afterward conducted us; that every one of us has his own special destiny, for which, like Moses, we are frequently prepared, though all unconsciously, throughout a series of years; that even our first impressions, like the later lessons we receive, are all appointed and arranged by higher wisdom than our own? Van O.—The seeds of his world-conquering faith must have been dropped early into his tender mind. This hired Hebrew nurse, permitted to come into the royal palace by some back-way, was indulged this privilege freely, we know not precisely how long; but let us presume that the same faith and prayer kept this door open, at least for her occasional visits in his future years. How many testimonies of God’s love to the fathers of their nation she dropped into his youthful ear; how much she told him of God as “the exceeding great reward” of his believing people; how well she put the contrast between “the treasures of Egypt” and the treasures laid up for God’s then persecuted people:—these points are rather left to our inference than definitely stated; but we may be very sure that the faith of Moses took hold of these grand truths of then extant revelation; fixed its hold early; and held fast through all his future life. H. C.

He became her son. Her adopted son. Accordingly she gave him a princely education; and caused him to be instructed “in all the wisdom of the Egyptians” (Acts 7:22). Bp. Patrick.—Thus did he find an asylum in the very palace of his intended destroyer; while his intercourse with his own family and nation was still most naturally maintained. And while he was instructed “in all the wisdom of the Egyptians,” and bred up in the midst of a luxurious court, he acquired the knowledge of the promised Redemption of Israel: and, “by faith in the REDEEMER CHRIST,” refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. Hales.

Those whom God designs for great services, he finds out ways to qualify and prepare beforehand. Moses, by having his education in a court, is the fitter to be a prince and king in Jeshurun; by having his education in a learned court (for such the Egyptian then was), is the fitter to be an historian; and by having his education in the court of Egypt, is the fitter to be employed, in the name of God, as an ambassador to that court. H.—The adopted son of the daughter of an Egyptian king must have been trained in all the wisdom of Egypt. This is also in harmony with the tradition reported by Manetho, which makes Moses a priest of Heliopolis, and therefore presupposes a priestly education. It was precisely this education in the wisdom of the Egyptians, which was the ultimate design of God in all the leadings of his providence, not only with reference to the boy, but, we might say, to the whole of Israel. For it was in order to appropriate the wisdom and culture of Egypt, and to take possession of them as a human basis for divine instruction and direction, that Jacob’s family left the land of their fathers’ pilgrimage, and their descendants’ hope and promise. But the guidance and fate of the whole of Israel were at this time concentrated in Moses. “As Joseph’s elevation to the post of grand-vizier of Egypt placed him in a position to provide for his father’s house in the time of famine, so was Moses fitted by the Egyptian training received at Pharaoh’s court to become the leader and lawgiver of his people.” (Baum.)—There can be no doubt that the foster-son of the king’s daughter, the highly-gifted and well-educated youth, had the most brilliant course open before him in the Egyptian state. Had he desired it, he would most likely have been able to rise like Joseph to the highest honors. But affairs were very different now. Moses could not enter on such a course as this without sacrificing his nation, his convictions, his hopes, his faith, and his vocation. But that he neither would, nor durst, nor could. And hence it is with perfect truth that the author of the epistle to the Hebrews, when tracing the course of the history, says (ch. 11:24-26): “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; esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.” K.

Faith breaks the force of opposite propensities and attractions. If the world stand in the way of duty, “faith overcometh the world;” partly by bringing Christ into the combat for us, partly by spiritual replies and arguments. Reason urges “we must be for ourselves;” Faith tells us “we must be for God.” Reason says, “If I take this course I shall undo myself.” Faith, by looking within the veil, declares it is the only way to be saved. Reason presents the treasures of Egypt, Faith the recompense of reward. Manton.—It is not a question of rationality, as between the conduct of the Christian and other men. It is a question, rather, as to the relative value of the things which he gives up and those which he is seeking to attain, Moses thought the reproach of Christ was greater riches than the treasures in Egypt. If he was right in so thinking, his choice was every way rational. But was he right? Let the nobleness of his character, the influence of his writings, and, more especially, his appearance in glory by the side of Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, answer. He was right in his estimate; he was justified in acting on it; and this decision was the first step in that ascending ladder of which the other rounds were Horeb, Sinai, Pisgah, Heaven. W. M. T.

“Christ” is the Greek word corresponding to the Hebrew “Messiah.” If we inquire whether the Hebrews in the age of Moses knew of a promised Messiah, we answer in the affirmative. Indeed it may be assumed and defended that they knew far more than the current opinion of this nineteenth century gives them credit for. To Abraham, God gave new forms of Messianic promise. The lips of the dying Jacob made yet another fresh addition under the name “Shiloh,” who should “come” (Gen. 49:10). We have seen that a wealth of promise lay garnered in the birthright of the sons in Abraham’s line. A promised Messiah was no inconsiderable element of that wealth. At this late hour of the Christian centuries men are beginning to learn that “all the wisdom of Egypt” had a larger significance than had been dreamed of for ages, and that it behooves us to be more reserved in fixing limitations upon the extent of their knowledge. The idea of a divine incarnation—some form of God, taking upon himself human flesh—has been current ever since the world began, wherever human thought has reached any considerable culture; and it seems more philosophical to find the origin of this idea in the fact of revealed promise than in the fancy of uninspired minds. H. C.

11-15. Moses records no incident of his life during the following years. His object, as Ranke observes, was not to write his own biography, but to describe God’s dealings with his people. Later tradition would have been full of details. At the end of 40 years, when, according to Stephen, Moses visited his brethren, the princess was probably dead, as Syncellus relates, and the events which follow took place under another Pharaoh. Cook.

We have three co-ordinate narratives of the early years of Moses; that given in Heb. 11:24-27, very brief, and touching only its specially religious side; while that of Stephen (Acts 7:20-29) is full, even somewhat more full than the narrative here. Particularly Stephen adds that Moses was “learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and mighty in words and in deeds”—a man like Joseph of immense efficiency:—also that he was “full forty years old” when it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel—a statement which shows that he distinctly recognized this relationship of brethren. Seeing a brother Hebrew abused by an Egyptian he interposed, smote the Egyptian dead, and buried him in the sand. Stephen’s words suggest that this was not merely one of those quick, spontaneous impulses felt by noble souls in view of outrageous wrong, but was a first step toward a contemplated career of interposed force for the rescue of his people from their oppression. “For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them; but they understood not” (Acts 7:25). H. C.—The attachment to his own people and to their God must have accompanied him throughout and have matured his final resolve. Even so we may infer had his patriotism been growing and coming to a head, before the incident here related could have taken place. As Stephen shows, he must have in his mind matured his view of himself as the future deliverer and judge of Israel, before he undertook thus first to deliver and then to judge between his brethren. Faith was throughout his guiding principle, dependence on his divine mission, and on God, who called him to it. Observe the stress laid on the word his brethren. It was this feeling which was uppermost in his mind, the tie which bound him to Israel, and his mission of deliverance. Alf.

Oppressions may not be righted by violence, but by law. The redress of evil by a person unwarranted, is evil. Moses knew that God had called him; he knew that Pharaoh knew it not; therefore he hides the Egyptian in the sand. Those actions which may be approved unto God are not always safe with men; as contrarily, too many things go current with men, which are not approved of God. Bp. II.—While we cannot approve of the rashness of Moses, we must admire his decision; for now he fully and conclusively gave up all the advantages of an Egyptian prince, and cast in his lot with the people of God. W. M. T.—By his “refusing to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,” we are to understand that he positively declined all the honor and aggrandizement implied in that relation. This was his deliberate choice, and no man was ever called to make a choice under circumstances more trying, or made one which redounded more to his credit. It is to be remembered that Moses was at this time of mature age, “full forty years old,” says Stephen. It was a decision formed under circumstances in which deep principle must have been the ruling motive; for while in a worldly sense he had nothing to hope from a transfer of himself, he had everything to lose. Bush.

13,14. The same fire of patriotism which thus roused him as a deliverer from the oppressors, turns him into the peacemaker of the oppressed. It is characteristic of the faithfulness of the Sacred records that his flight is occasioned rather by the malignity of his countrymen than by the enmity of the Egyptians. And in Stephen’s speech it is this part of the story which is drawn out at greater length than in the original, evidently with the view of showing the identity of the narrow spirit which had thus displayed itself equally against their first and the last Deliverer. A. P. S.

15. Sought to slay Moses. This was perhaps not so much with a view to avenge the death of a single individual of the Egyptian race, as because Moses had by this act discovered himself to be a friend and favorer of the oppressed Israelites, and given the king reason to suspect that he was secretly cherishing the purpose of one day attempting to effect their liberation. His only safety therefore was in flight. Bush.

Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh. Though he could satisfy his own conscience in having killed the Egyptian, yet he had not received a commission from God to act publicly as the deliverer of the Israelites, and so could not justify his action to Pharaoh: nor had he reason to expect that God would protect him in an extraordinary manner since his safety could be provided for by ordinary means; namely, by withdrawing from Egypt. Dr. Wells.

The time for deliverance was not yet come. The Israelites as a whole were not sufficiently prepared for it; and Moses himself also was far from being ready for his peculiar task. Before he was qualified to take the government of such a people, and be a fit instrument for executing his difficult and complicated part, he needed to have trial of an altogether different kind of life; amid the desolation and solitude of the desert to become habituated to solemn converse with God, and formed to the requisite gravity, meekness, patience, and subduedness of spirit. Thus God overruled his rash interference with the affairs of his kindred to the proper completion of his own preparatory training, and provided for him the advantage of as long a sojourn in the wilderness to learn divine wisdom, as he had already spent in learning human wisdom in Egypt. P. F.

15. Midian was the son of Abraham, and half-brother of Isaac. The Midianites were, therefore, the kinsfolk of Moses. A great part of Arabia, indeed, was occupied with descendants of Heber, the ancestor of Abraham and the Israelites. Thither it was natural for Moses to flee. M.—We should look for the settlements of this tribe of Midianites somewhere to the east or north-east of Sinai, but still on the western side of the gulf. But we must at all events regard the Midianitish tribe of which Reuel was the head as a nomadic branch, which had separated from the main body of the nation, and never united with the rest again; for while the great mass of the Midianites always maintained a hostile position toward Israel, the descendants of Reuel continued friendly to the last. K.

18. Reuel their father. The name of the priest of Midian was Jethro (ch. 3:1): so that either Reuel was his name as well as Jethro; or else Reuel was the father of Jethro, and grandfather of these young women. Bp. Patrick.—It appears probable that Reuel was the grandfather, Jethro the father, and Hobab the brother, of Zipporah. Hence, after forty years, Reuel is no more spoken of. Walter.—Reuel, here called “father,” was the grandfather, and probably the hereditary office of the priesthood was exercised by Jethro in conjunction with his father; or, perhaps, before the events mentioned (ch. 3), Reuel was dead and Jethro had succeeded to his office. Gerl.—The treatment of Jethro and Hobab by Moses perfectly accords with the above view, which recognizes the former as his father-in-law, and the latter as his brother-in-law. B.

18-20. Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, is described in general terms as the priest and prince of Midian—combines in himself, therefore, both sacerdotal and royal functions. More particularly, he is the chief of the Kenites, a clan of the vast tribe of Midian, dwelling on the shores of the Gulf of Akaba. He is the very type of the Arab chief, such as he remains to the present day. His numerous flocks feed round the well of Midian, tended by the seven daughters for whom, when the rough shepherds would have driven them from the well, Moses stood up. He is very grateful to “the Egyptian” who “delivered his daughters out of the hand of the shepherds, and drew water, and watered their flocks.” He treats him with the princely hospitality and courtesy which are still to be found in the Arabian tents, and gives him one of the seven daughters to wife. Cox.

21. Was content to dwell with the man. This conveys the true sense of the Hebrew. It implies that Moses recognized in Reuel a man in whom he could confide; and in his family a fitting home. So quietly, and yet so impressively, Moses records the entrance upon a long period, extending over forty years of mature life. Cook.

21. He gave Moses Zipporah his daughter. The sacred authors do not relate all the particulars of a story, but such only as are material. We may therefore suppose that a great many things intervened between Moses’

entrance into Jethro’s family, and his marriage to his daughter; especially considering that his children were so young at his return into Egypt after an absence of forty years. Stack-house.

Moses was certainly not yet ripe for the arduous contests which awaited him; having been brought up in the Court, he was not prepared for the great and continual anxieties of which the sequel of the history will show him the conqueror. Therefore God withdrew him that He might gradually render him fit and equal to undertake so difficult a task. For the experience of forty years in a laborious and ascetic mode of life did not a little avail to prepare him for enduring any hardships; so that the Desert may well be called the school in which he was taught, until he was invited to his more difficult charge. Culc.—Egypt accomplished him for a scholar, a statesman, a soldier, all which accomplishments would be afterward of use to him; but yet lacketh he one thing. He that was to do all by divine revelation, must know, by a long experience, what it was to live a life of communion with God; and in this he would be greatly furthered by the solitude and retirement of a shepherd’s life in Midian. By the former he was prepared to rule in Jeshurun, but by the latter he was prepared to converse with God in Mount Horeb, near which mount he had spent much of his time. Those that know what it is to be alone with God in holy exercises, are acquainted with better delights than ever Moses tasted in the court of Pharaoh. H.—It is in solitude that the heroic soul must be matured for its grand destiny; God’s friends are always formed in such a way. It is just in the stillness of that same Arabian desert that Paul ripens into the Moses of the New Covenant, whose it shall be to lead out Christianity from the hard bondage of the law. The training-time of Moses is a long one,—just as long as his life-task. But that which is most excellent, both in the natural and moral world, is always slowest in attaining full maturity. Respectful silence, careful choice, complete obedience,—such are the leading lessons taught by his experience in his training-time. Van O.

Little did Moses dream that in the very practice of this art of waiting he was preparing for a life the reverse of asceticism. While through these forty years “he endured as seeing him who is invisible, he imagined that he was being trained for separation from the world; in truth, he was being trained for life in the world, not the life of the world-worshipper, but the career of the world-reformer. Endurance was to be, indeed, the very key-note of his destiny. His life was to be one long waiting, only not the waiting for an invisible but for a visible glory, the glory of God in the world. In the wilderness of Midian he was enduring silence, solitude, the sense of spiritual elevation above the brotherhood of humanity. But the object which God was preparing him to endure was the brotherhood of humanity itself; this, and not the study of the invisible, was the yoke which was to try his meekness; it was for this he was being exercised in the long practice of waiting. Matheson.

23 And it came to pass in the course of those many days, that the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God saw the children of Israel, and God took knowledge of them.

3: 1 Now Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the back of the wilderness, and came to the mountain of God, unto Horeb. And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will turn aside now, and see this great sight, why the bush

4 is not burnt. And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him 5 out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither : put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon 6 thou standest is holy ground. Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face ; for he was 7 afraid to look upon God. And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters ; for 8 I know their sorrows ; and I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey ; unto the place of the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the 9 Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite. And now, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me ; moreover I have seen the oppression where- 10 with the Egyptians oppress them. Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt. 11 And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should 12 bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt ? And he said, Certainly I will be with thee ; and this shall be the token unto thee, that I have sent thee : when thou hast 13 brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you ; and they shall say to me, What is his 14 name ? what shall I say unto them ? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM : and he 15 said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you : this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto 16 all generations. Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, hath appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt : 17 and I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanite, and the Hittite, and the Amorite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the 18 Jebusite, unto a land flowing with milk and honey. And they shall hearken to thy voice : and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, hath met with us : and now let us go, we pray thee, three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD 19 our God. And I know that the king of Egypt will not give you leave to go, no, not by a 20 mighty hand. And I will put forth my hand, and smite Egypt with all my wonders which 21 I will do in the midst thereof : and after that he will let you go. And I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians : and it shall come to pass, that, when ye go, 22 ye shall not go empty : but every woman shall ask of her neighbour, and of her that sojourneth in her house, jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment : and ye shall put them upon your sons, and upon your daughters ; and ye shall spoil the Egyptians. 4 : 1 And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto 2 my voice : for they will say, The LORD hath not appeared unto thee. And the LORD said 3 unto him, What is that in thine hand ? And he said, A rod. And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent ; and Moses fled from 4 before it. And the LORD said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail : 5 (and he put forth his hand, and laid hold of it, and it became a rod in his hand :) that they may believe that the LORD, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God 6 of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee. And the LORD said further- more unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his 7 bosom : and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous, as while as snow. And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. (And he put his hand into his bosom again ; and when he took it out of his bosom, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh.) 8 And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the 9 first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign. And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe even these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land : and the water which

10 thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land. And Moses said unto the LORD, Oh Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: for I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue. And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh a man dumb, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? is it not I the LORD? Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt speak. And he said, Oh Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses, and he said, Is there not Aaron thy brother the Levite? I know that he can speak well. And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee: and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart. And thou shalt speak unto him, and put the words in his mouth: and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do. And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and it shall come to pass, that he shall be to thee a mouth, and thou shalt be to him as God. And thou shalt take in thine hand this rod, wherewith thou shalt do the signs.

2:24, 25. The whole history of Israel is foreshadowed in these words. The accumulation of so-called anthropomorphic terms in this passage is remarkable. God heard, remembered, looked upon, and knew them. It evidently indicates the beginning of a crisis marked by a personal intervention of God. Cook.—God heard. The name of God is here emphatically prefixed to four different expressions of a kind intention toward them. Their groaning. He took notice of their complaints. The groans of the oppressed cry loud in the ears of the righteous God, to whom vengeance belongs; especially the groans of God’s spiritual Israel.

God remembered his covenant. Which he seemed to have forgotten, but of which he is ever mindful. God looked upon the children of Israel. Moses looked upon them and pitied them (v. 11); but now God looked upon them and helped them. God had respect unto them. A favorable respect unto them as his own. Now we are to expect something great. Opus Deo dignum—A work worthy of God. His eyes which run to and fro through the earth, are now fixed upon Israel, to show himself strong, to show himself a God in their behalf. H.

God heard their groaning. He hears all groanings. He also remembered his covenant with their fathers. He not only heard, but saw the sons of Israel under the oppressor. He not only observed with the outward senses, but knew with the inward mind, took knowledge, and acknowledged them to be the seed of the covenant. Such is the manner in which the narrator lays emphasis on the earnest attention with which the Lord regards the affliction of his people. M.—The bondage of the Israelites was wisely permitted, that they might with less reluctance leave a country where they had suffered the greatest oppression and indignities. Had they not suffered severely, no inducements could have been sufficient to have prevailed on them to leave it. And yet their leaving it was of infinite consequence in the order both of grace and providence, as it was indispensably necessary that they should be a people separated from all the rest of the world, that they might see the promises of God fulfilled under their own eyes, and thus have the fullest persuasion that their law was divine, their prophets inspired by the Most High, and that the Messiah came according to the prophecies before delivered concerning him. A. C.

Ch. 3: Forty years were spent by Moses in the land of Midian. To Moses it was the middle period of life, ordinarily the period of strongest action, of sternest realities. Yet this was the period in which he lived in seclusion and quiet, preferring the humble duties of pastoral life. He married; he had two sons; he led his flock to the pastures and the waters. These few acts form, as far as regards him, the history of that period of life which is to other men the time of the most vehement action. Kit.—A mind so active as that of Moses could not want occupation these forty years. It would be employed partly in devotional thoughts, in communing with that God whose works he now beheld; and partly in digesting the learning, and the knowledge of the ways and workings of mankind acquired in Egypt, and in considering how these might be turned to practical account. Unconsciously to himself, Moses would thus be preparing for the arduous task of judging and governing his people, when he should have led them out of Egypt. W. G. B.

The years of the life of Moses are remarkably divided into three forties; the first forty he spent as a prince in Pharaoh’s court, the second a shepherd in Midian, the third a king in Jeshurun. He had now finished the second forty, when he received his commission to bring Israel out of Egypt. Sometimes it is long before God calls his servants out to that work which he designed them for, and has been graciously preparing them for. Moses was born to be Israel’s deliverer, and yet not a word is said of it to him till he is eighty years of age. H.

3 : 1. Of the second forty-year period in the life of Moses, little is reported save its first scenes and its last. This verse opens the latter. Moses is keeping the flock of his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. He has “led them to the back side of the desert”—i.e. to the west side of it, for in designating the points of compass the Hebrews always turned the face toward the east. The east is in front—before; and of course the west is behind. Horeb and Sinai lay on the western margin of the great Arabian desert. H. C.—The peninsula of Sinai is about 150 miles in greatest breadth, and in greatest length 200. Its more northern part is hilly, rather than mountainous; but toward the southern angle the mountains are crowded together with bewildering profusion; and some of them rise to the height of 9000 feet. The two great characteristics of the region are,—majesty and desolation. W. G. B.

The mountain of God, Horeb. A proof that the call of Moses took place on the very same spot which was afterward to be the scene of the calling of the people, the conclusion of the covenant, and the giving of the law. Even now it was holy ground; so that when Israel departed from Egypt to offer sacrifice to the Lord in the desert, they had a definite spot in view and one which had been already appointed by God. K.

The southern end of the peninsula of Sinai consists of a confused mass of peaks, some of dark green porphyry, but mostly red granite of different hues, broken by strips of sand or gravel, intersected by wadies or glens, which are the beds of winter torrents, and dotted here and there with green spots, chiefly due to perennial fountains. The great central group among these mountains is that of Horeb, and one special height in it Sinai, the “mount of God.” Here amid this awful desolateness the most fertile places in “the wilderness” are found. Even in our days part of this plateau is quite green. Fruit-trees grow in rich luxuriance in its valleys, and “the neighborhood is the best watered in the whole peninsula, running streams being found in no less than four of the adjacent valleys.” It was thither that Moses, probably in the early summer, drove Reuel’s flock for pasturage and water. Behind him, to the east, lay the desert; before him rose in awful grandeur the mountain of God.

The stillness of this place is unbroken; its desolateness only relieved by the variety of coloring in the dark green or the red mountain peaks. 2, 3. All at once truly a “strange sight” presented itself. On a solitary crag, or in some sequestered valley, one of those spiked, guarled, thorny acacia trees, which form so conspicuous a feature in the wadies of “the desert,” of which indeed they are “the only timber tree of any size,” stood enwrapped in fire, and yet “the bush was not consumed.” At view of this, Moses turned aside “to see this great sight.” A. E.

Not consumed. The fire which lights up but does not consume points, on the one hand, to the tribulations which then visited the people of Israel; on the other hand, light and fire are constant emblems of the Divine glory. The figures combined represent that the affliction is sent from God; that by means of it God will reveal himself to his people, but not consume them. The emblem of the Scottish Church is a burning bush, with the words, “nec tamen consumebatur,” “and yet was not consumed.” Gerl.

From this time the chosen people of God are frequently and variously referred to under the figure of a bush or tree. The Fraz is always used in the Scriptures as a symbol of divine holiness. And this is the case here; for the record expressly says that the presence of God was made known in the fire: “the angel of the Lord appeared to him in the flame of fire out of the midst of a bush;” God spake “out of the midst of the bush;” Moses had to take off his shoes, because the place on which he stood was rendered holy by this appearance; he “hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.” The burning brier, therefore, was a symbol of the community of God, in which the holiness of God had its abode. The brier was in the fire, and it was a miracle that it was not consumed. And thus was it also a miracle of mercy, that the holiness of God could dwell in a sinful community without consuming it. There was also another fact of great importance represented by this symbol, viz., that the fire of divine holiness, which burned in Israel without consuming it, served also as an outward defence. “I will be unto her a wall of fire rowed about,” said the Lord by the prophet Zechariah (2 : 4), “and will show my glory in the midst of her.” Pharaoh was soon to find this out. K.

5,6. That the angel here spoken of was no created being is plain from the whole context, and especially from his saying, “I am the Lord God, the Jehovah.” No angel, without blasphemy, could take these titles; and since neither God the Father nor God the Holy Ghost is called an angel, that is, a messenger; whereas God the Son is called “the Angel of the Covenant” (Mal. 3 : 1), it seems to follow that this was God the Son, who might properly be called an Angel because, in the fulness of time, he was to be sent into the world in our flesh as a messenger from God. Sackhouse.—The ancient teachers of the Church have rightly understood that the Eternal Son of God is so called in respect to his office as Mediator, which he figuratively bore from the beginning, although he really took it upon him only at his Incarnation. And Paul expounds this mystery to us when he plainly asserts that Christ was the leader of his people in the Desert (1 Cor. 10 : 4). Nor had the saints ever any communication with God except through the promised Mediator. It is not then to be wondered at if the Eternal Word of God, of one Godhead and essence with the Father, assumed the name of “the Angel” on the ground of his future mission. Cale.—That the Messiah, the Angel of the Covenant, was present with the Church of the Fathers, and that his upholding power was manifested in miraculous interferences for their welfare, was a truth acknowledged no less by the Jew than by the Christian. Alf.

5. Holy ground.** The place was holy by reason of God’s special presence and of his intention to select it in the future as the spot for proclaiming his holy law. But the soles of Moses’ sandals had come into contact with much that was polluted, and were too impure to tread upon consecrated ground. In thus commanding, God speaks not of a holiness belonging to the spot which lay in his own mind, but accommodates himself to the apprehension of the finite mind. To a creature like man one spot might be more holy than another, because it suggested to his thoughts some special manifestation of the divine presence; and Moses, in order to show his sense of this holiness or his reverence for God, might with reason be called upon to perform a symbolical act which was suited to the genius of the age, was the natural language of the sentiment, and without which the sentiment would be chilled or stifled. Woolsey.

6. Hid his face.** The respect due from the feet to the clean place, represented the reverence with which the inward man should approach the Holy One. As soon as Moses perceived that God was in the fire, he hid his face; a sinful man cannot look openly and freely at the self-revealing holiness of God, and therefore he shuts or hides his eyes. K.—This was his first meeting with God; further acquaintance makes him familiar, and familiarity makes him bold, frequency of conversation gives us freedom of access to God; and makes us pour out our hearts to him, as fully and as fearlessly as to our friends. But now at first he made not so much haste to see as to hide his eyes. And if Moses cannot abide to look upon God’s glory when he descends to us in mercy, how shall wicked ones abide to see his fearful presence when he sets upon vengeance! In this fire he flamed, and consumed not, but in his revenge “our God is a consuming fire.” Bp. II.

The signs of God’s presence do not now force themselves upon our eyes; so that we may, if we choose, walk on our own way, without turning aside to see and observe them. And thus we do not see God, and do not, therefore, hide our faces for fear of him, but go on, and feel no fear, till the time when we cannot help seeing him. And it may be, that this time will never come till our life, and with it our space of trial, is gone forever. Here, then, is our state, that God will manifest himself no more to us in such a way as that we cannot help seeing him. The burning bush will be no more given us as a sign; Christ will no more manifest himself unto the world. And yet, unless we do see him, unless we learn to fear him while he is yet an unconsuming fire, unless we know that he is near and that the place whereon we stand is holy ground, we shall most certainly see him when he will be a consuming fire, and when we shall join in crying to the mountains to fall on us, and to the hills to cover us.

Every person who thinks at all must be satisfied that our great want, the great need of our condition, is this one thing—to realize to ourselves the presence of God. Thoughtfulness, in one sense, is indeed likely to come with advancing years: we are more apt to think at forty than at fifteen; but it by no means follows that we are more apt to think about God. In this matter we are nearly at a level at all times of our life: it is with all of us our one great want, to bring the idea of God, with a living and abiding power, home to our minds. Arnold.

6. I am the God of thy father.** In this, the first revelation that had been made for 400 years, God announced himself as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. All that God had effected and promised during the first stage of the covenant, was summed up in the name, “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” This name was now inscribed on the portal of the further historical development of the covenant (in the form of a nation), and it continued to be the seal of that covenant, till the Old Testament expanded into the New, till the covenant with one nation gave place to the covenant with all, and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob became the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; until the time arrived in which the new Israel found in Christ the author and finisher of faith, and in the Spirit of God the fountain of life. K.—Those favored men of old were happy in being permitted to enjoy such immediate intercourse with God; but happier we who enjoy the full revelation of the gospel. Whatever the promises given to them, we are in possession of better. Whatever the covenant made with the fathers, a better one has been established with us, their spiritual descendants. Whatever the encouragement granted to them, we have still greater afforded to us in every part of the work which we have to do, in every trial and danger to which we may be exposed. We do not now draw nigh unto a burning bush or a flaming mount, but to a mercy-seat to which we are commanded to come with filial boldness to obtain all needed grace. Bush.

God doth not say, “I was the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob;” but, “I am.” The patriarchs still live, after so many thousand years of dissolution. No length of time can separate the souls of the just from their Maker. Bp. H.—For God to be one’s God necessarily implies a present relation that God hath to him; and no relation can continue when either of the parties ceases and is taken away; whence it clearly follows that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were alive, and did subsist (that is, in their spirits) when God spake these words to Moses, that is, many ages after the death of their bodies. Bp. Bull.—According to the authoritative interpretation of our Saviour, the doctrine not only of a future life, but even of a resurrection from the dead, is taught in this passage. It must therefore be regarded as containing something more than a mere hint of another life. It is a distinct revelation of it. E. C. W.—God calls himself the “God of Abraham;” and Christ tells us (Luke 20 : 37) that in this simple announcement was contained the promise that Abraham should rise again from the dead. God did not say the God of Abraham’s soul, but simply of Abraham. He blessed Abraham, and he gave him eternal life; not to his soul only without his body, but to Abraham as one man. Newman.

When Jesus argues from the fact that God calls himself the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, that the patriarchs and their true seed shall rise again, because God is not a God of the dead but of the living (Matt. 22 : 31), we may all the more certainly conclude that these men during their earthly life were in communion with God, and must have attained to a high degree of faith. God would not otherwise have taken them into his august title—as it were, into his own name. With this name which God gives himself, the Mosaic revelation properly begins. And it is thus expressly and fundamentally connected with the Patriarchal. Even Ewald admits there is a connection between the religion of these great patriarchs and Mosaism. “Among all the reminiscences, even the oldest, of the Mosaic religion,” he says now, “none stand more sure than this, that the God to the worship of whom Moses summoned the people is the same God who was once the God of the fathers, different from the gods of the other nations, but essentially the same that the great ancestors of this one people worshipped.”

11. Who am I? These words indicate humility, not fear. Among the grounds which he alleges for his hesitation, in no instance is there any allusion to personal danger; what he feared was failure owing to incompetency, especially in the power of expression. This shrinking from self-assertion is the quality which seems to be specially intimated by the word rendered “meek” in Numbers 12 : 3. Cook.

Why did God select Moses to be the lawgiver and guide of his people during their forty years’ pilgrimage? Why did he confer on one man, for nearly half a century, powers almost absolute? Not because the Levite was slow of speech; not because he was a meek man, any further than his meekness was a qualification for his work. Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, as well as in that practical experience which he had acquired in his long sojourn in the deserts of Arabia. A man was demanded for the service, of great powers of mind, ready to meet emergencies, whose acknowledged talents would overawe the fractious multitude, whose clear intellect, co-operating with the Divine teaching, could frame a wise system of laws, and also enable him to act as the only historian of the world for almost one half of its duration thus far. God did not alight upon Moses by accident. He selected him as probably the only man in the nation competent to the work. Again, why were the principal writers of the Old Testament taken from the most intelligent men of their times, some of them priests, who were required to be educated? Moses, David, Solomon, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, the writer of the book of Job, considered merely in an intellectual point of view, would have been the glory of any age. B. B. E.

13. What is his name?** The meaning of this question is evidently: By which name shall I tell them the promise is confirmed? Each name of the Deity represented some aspect or manifestation of his attributes. El, Elohim, or Shaddai would speak of majesty or might. What Moses needed was not a new name, but direction to use that Name which would bear in itself a pledge of accomplishment. Cook.

14,15. It is clear from the whole interview at which Moses received his commission, that the difficulties and discouragements which pressed most upon his mind were those connected with the sunk and degenerate condition of the covenant people themselves, who appeared to have lost heart in regard to the promise of the covenant, and even to have become well-nigh estranged from the God of their fathers. His concern on the latter point led him to ask what he should say to them when they inquired for the name of the God of their fathers, at whose command he was to go to them. His question was met with the sublime reply, “I AM THAT I AM: thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, JEHOVAH, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.” P. F.

I AM THAT I AM. The margin of the Revised Old Testament reads thus: “Or, I AM, BECAUSE I AM; or, I AM WHO I AM; or, I WILL BE THAT I WILL BE.” What Moses needed to sustain him in his great commission and also to encourage the people was a deeper and more intimate knowledge of the true name and character of the God of their fathers. What they needed was a firm hold on the Divine perfections; and to this the message corresponds. It is grand, simple, majestic, worthy of the living God to reveal, and to place as the very foundation of his written messages of truth and holiness. Birks.

The word “I AM” in Hebrew is equivalent in meaning to JEHOVAH, and differs from it very slightly in form. This is much obscured by our substitution of LORD for JEHOVAH. The name, which Moses was thus commissioned to use, was at once new and old; old in its connection with previous revelations; new in its full interpretation, and in its bearing upon the covenant of which Moses was the destined mediator. Cook.

My name forever. This name is to be the enduring appellation of God to the Jewish people. The Jews do not, and have not for ages, pronounced this name, and the very vowels with which it is to be enunciated are matter of dispute, having been lost and replaced by others from the word Adonai, Lord, which they use instead of this name. Our English version, by following that example, has occasioned much confusion and loss of force in passages like the present, where it is of importance. Observe, that this saying of God to Moses stamps for all ages the Unity and Personality of God as the centre of belief respecting him. Aff.

This name asserts the self-existence, the eternity, and immutability of the Deity. Only God can say I AM. His creatures are not, except as he gives them life and keeps them living. We are what God has made us, what he enables us to be. He is that he is, the only self-existing, self-upholding Being, God over all and in all. I AM expresses also the eternity of the Godhead—that was, and is, and is to come. Past and future are included in this name; or, rather, there can be no past nor future in respect of God. His years are not spent, as ours are, like a tale that is told. In his existence there is neither beginning nor end; nothing transitory or successive; nothing bygone or to come. Before his sight all things, past, present, and to come, are constantly outspread. God “inhabiteth eternity:” as he fills all space and is everywhere present, so he fills all time, not passing through it, but dwelling in every part of it. Before all worlds he Is; now while we speak of him he Is; and hereafter, in that eternity on which we all shall enter, he already Is. By this name the immutability of the Godhead likewise is declared, “I AM that I AM.” What God is now he has always been, and always will be. With him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Change is a consequence of imperfection. God can never be greater or less than he is. I AM includes all that God can be. It sums up all the attributes of perfectness; it is the standard from which there can be no departure and no change. T. S. Millington.

The God of the Bible is no sterile abstraction; he is the one God at the present time as in the origin of all things, the personal God, living, acting, and presiding efficiently over the destinies of the world that he has created. The God of the Bible has no biography, neither has he any personal adventures. Nothing occurs to him, and nothing changes in him; he is always and invariably the same, a Being real and personal, absolutely distinct from the finite world and from humanity, identical and immutable in the bosom of the universal diversity and movement. “I AM That I AM,” is the sole definition that he vouchsafes of himself, and the constant expression of what he is in all the course of the history of the Hebrews, to which he is present and over which he presides without ever receiving from it any reflex of influence. Such is the God of the Bible, in evident and permanent contrast with all the gods of polytheism, still more distinct and more solitary by his nature than by his Unity. Amid all the vicissitudes and errors of the people of the Bible, the God of the Bible remains invariably the same, without any alteration in the idea which the Hebrews conceive of his nature, either during their fidelity or disobedience to his Commandments. It is always the God who has said, “I AM That I AM,” of whom his people demand no other explanation of himself, and who, ever present and sovereign, pursues the designs of his providence with men, who either use or abuse the liberty of action which that God had accorded to them at their creation. Guizot.

“Jesus said to the Jews, Before Abraham was, I am.” In these tremendous words the speaker institutes a double contrast, in respect both of the duration and of the mode of his existence, between himself and the great ancestor of Israel. Abraham had come into existence at a given point of time. He did not exist until his parents gave him birth. But, I am. Here is simple existence, with no note of beginning or end. He claims pre-existence, but not merely pre-existence; he unveils a consciousness of eternal Being. He speaks as one on whom time has no effect and for whom it has no meaning. He is the I AM of ancient Israel; he knows no past as he knows no future; he is unbeginning, unending Being; he is the eternal “Now.” This is the plain sense of his language. H. P. L.—We know not how to resist the conclusion that there was a real identity in the essential nature of the two speakers, so that whatever was meant by Jehovah in saying to Moses, “I AM hath sent me to you,” the same was meant by the saying of Jesus, “Before Abraham was, I AM.” And thus the Jews would appear to have understood it, for they immediimmediately took up stones to cast at him, as being guilty of the highest blasphemy in thus appropriating to himself the incommunicable name of God.

15. This is my memorial unto all generations.** The name or character by which I will be remembered, celebrated, and invoked in all time to come. Accordingly, in allusion to this declaration, we have Hos. 12 : 5, “Even the Lord (Jehovah) God of Hosts; the Lord (Jehovah) is his memorial.” Ps. 135, “Thy name, O Lord (Jehovah), endureth forever; and thy memorial, O Lord (Jehovah), unto all generations.” The words were evidently adapted, as they were intended, to bring the chosen people to a devout recognition of God as emphatically and pre-eminently the God of their race, and to wake up to more lively actings that faith which had become dormant under the pressure of long-continued affliction. Their protracted bondage, though it had not utterly extinguished the light of the great truth respecting the divine Being and his perfections, yet had no doubt very much obscured it. They had lost the practical sense of their covenant relation to Jehovah. Bush.

The vision of Horeb was the birth-hour of the Jewish nation. Out of the lurid flame there flashed before the eyes of the future lawgiver the spectacle of a kingdom of God on earth. That spectacle was Judea’s pillar of fire. Through the long night of her national history it led her people on. It conducted them over the desert and through the waters of Jordan. It lighted them to the possession of the throne of David. It pointed them to the hope of a higher throne than David’s,—the Messianic empire of the world. It was the light that illumined all hearts; it was the vision of the king, of the priest, and of the prophet; bequeathed from spiritual sire to son until it found at once its culmination and its new beginning in the visible embodiment of him who was the prophet like unto Moses. Judea has passed away, but the vision has not faded; we still look for the church in the world. G. Matheson.

18. Three days’ journey.** A journey which would occupy three days in going and returning. The request which the Israelites were instructed to make was therefore most probably not a permission to go beyond the frontier, but into the part of the desert adjoining Goshen. In this there was no deception. The Israelites were to ask what could not reasonably be refused, being a demand quite in accordance with Egyptian customs. Cook.—The Israelites were not lawfully his bondmen, and owed him no service which was incompatible with this demand. By refusing this trifling petition, and thereby intimating that he designed to perpetuate their servitude among a heathen people, he justly fell under the Divine judgment. God designed from the first to lead out the people of Israel, but he would not put any force on Pharaoh’s will. His unrighteous tyranny in refusing a just demand must first be brought to light, ere God would show in him his might. Geri.—The presentation of the demand in this mild form, so far from being a piece of cunning policy, was in reality a merciful probation given by God to Pharaoh; and if he had possessed the wisdom to improve it by granting the favor asked, no plagues had been sent to waste his land, but the richest blessings which the Lord could bestow would have descended on him and on his people. W. M. T.

21,22. The Israelites are not to go out empty-handed. The sojourn of Joseph in Egypt as a bond-slave had been the means of preserving the inhabitants of that country from extermination by a seven years’ famine. The residence of his kindred in Goshen had always been a benefit and not a burden to Egypt. And for the last two or three generations the Israelites had been bond-slaves, toiling for the prosperity and aggrandisement of the nation. They had, therefore, an undoubted right to ask, and the Egyptians were eventually glad to give them some aid for their journey. Shail ask, as a gift, if not a compensation for long unrequited services. M.—The Hebrew word, which our translators have rendered borrow, does not signify to borrow, but to ask one to give. It is the very word used in Ps. 2: 8, “ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen.” When they were leaving Egypt, the Children of Israel asked the Egyptians for “jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment;” and the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they gave them what they asked for freely. Shuckford.

The abundant use of personal ornaments by the Egyptians, and especially of ornaments in silver and gold, implied in the direction given to the Israelites to “ask” such things of their neighbors and lodgers before their departure from Egypt, and in the “spoil” which they thus acquired (ch. 12: 36), is among the facts most copiously attested by the extant remains. Ornaments in gold and silver have been found in the tombs, not only of the great and opulent, but even of comparatively poor persons; they were frequently worn by the men, and probably few women were without them. Among the articles obtained from the tombs are “rings, bracelets, armlets, necklaces, ear-rings, and numerous trinkets belonging to the toilet.” Most of these articles were common to the two sexes; but earrings were affected especially, if not exclusively, by the women. G. R.—No traveller up the Nile will have failed to see in the tombs of the twelfth dynasty at Beni Hassan—where the fluted Doric columns antedate by one or two thousand years those of Greece—the picture of the whole process of washing the ore, fusing the metal with the help of the blow-pipe, making it into ornaments, weighing it in scales peculiar to this use, together with the various operations of the goldsmith. But this, though older far than the Exodus, is not the earliest indication. “The same mode of washing and working it is figured on monuments of the fourth dynasty.” Any one who has seen but a part of the Egyptian jewelry that is scattered in the museums of the world, and especially the superb collection in the Boulak Museum, largely from the tomb of queen Ah-hotep, the mother of Aahmes, will need no commendation of the Egyptian jeweller’s skill, even to the art of imitating the emerald, amethyst and lapis-lazuli in glass. S. C. B.

Chap. 4. Moses relates in this chapter how hesitatingly he obeyed God, not from stubbornness but from timidity, for he does not shake off the yoke, but shrinks away that it may not be placed upon him. We must carefully distinguish between the timidity which delays our progress and the bold refusal which is allied to contempt. Moses seems, indeed, to murmur and to enter into altercation with God; but he knew that his countrymen were depraved and almost intractable; disburdening himself of this anxiety into the bosom of God, he desires to be confirmed by a fresh promise. Cale.—Moses knew that One was sending him who had a right to send him and whom he ought to obey. He felt in himself an utter incapacity for the work which was laid upon him; he had a desire to shrink from it, and to bury himself in the earth, rather than undertake it. And with this cowardice he had the courage to speak it out; he believed that the Being who was holding converse with him desired truth in his inward parts, and would bear no prevarication. He could tell all that was in him, because he was sure that there was One near who understood him, and could set him right; of all assurances the most helpful to a man who craves to be right himself; the most indispensable to one who has a great task to fulfil for his brethren. Maurice.

With this chapter begins the series of miracles which resulted in the deliverance of Israel. It is clear that unless a spiritual miracle transcending outward marvels had been wrought in the hearts both of the Israelites and of their oppressors, some special manifestations of divine power were indispensable. The first miracle was wrought to remove the first obstacle, viz. the reluctance of Moses, conscious of his own weakness, and of the enormous power with which he would have to contend. Cook.

1-9. God had said (ch. 3 : 18), They shall hearken to thy voice. It God says, They will, does it become Moses to say, They will not? Surely, he means, “Perhaps, they will not at first,” or “Some of them will not.” If there should be some gainsayers among them who would question his commission, how should he deal with them? And what course should he take to convince them? He remembered how they had once rejected him, and feared it would be so again. H.—The future is made known to him in its details, that he may be even now prepared for the first disappointment. And three signs are given him, just like credential letters, so that every doubt, even the most obstinate, may finally give way. Here are the first recorded miracles of sacred history; and these first miracles were medicines applied to the dejected soul of the great prophet of the Old Economy. False confidence in his own strength has been destroyed in Moses’ heart; but now the real confidence of faith has yet to be stirred up and strengthened, and to this great work the Lord here turns, employing types and sacred symbols to express his promises. Van O.—The gift of miracles was communicated with especial reference to Moses himself. His doubts and incredulity were to be overcome by the consciousness that he was the possessor of such powers; and the miracles themselves were of such a nature as to furnish a type and guarantee of the progress and success of his mission. K.

These miracles were intended to be like “a voice” from heaven, bearing direct testimony to the truth of Moses’ commission. But while this was the general purpose of the three signs now displayed—first to Moses himself—each had also its special reference: the first to Pharaoh, the second to Israel, and the third to the might of Egypt. In the first sign Moses was bidden to look at the rod in his hand. It was but an ordinary shepherd’s staff. At God’s command he was to cast it on the ground, when presently it was changed into a serpent, from which Moses fled in terror. Again God commands, and as Moses seized the serpent by the tail, it once more “became a rod in his hand.” The meaning of this was plain. The shepherd’s staff should be the wonder-working “rod of God,” and the humble shepherd, who would have fled from Pharaoh, should, through Divine strength, overcome all the might of Egypt. The second sign shown to Moses bore direct reference to Israel. The hand which Moses was directed to put in his bosom became covered with leprosy; but the same hand, when a second time he thrust it in, was restored whole. This miraculous power of inflicting and removing a plague, universally admitted to come from God, showed that Moses could inflict and remove the severest judgments of God. The third sign given to Moses, in which the water from the Nile when poured upon the ground was to become blood, bore special reference to the land of Egypt. The Nile, on which its whole fruitfulness depended, and which the Egyptians worshipped as divine, was to be changed into blood. Egypt and its gods were to be brought low before the absolute power which God would manifest. A. E.

8. The voice of the first sign.** By a beautiful figure these signs are described as having a voice, because they speak to the people of the presence and power of God with his messenger. M.

10. Formerly he had burned with eager desire to appear as the deliverer of his people, and had offered to effect it of his own accord; but now he sought in every way to excuse himself from the divine command, by which he was called and equipped for the task. The discipline of his desert-school had taught him humility, and had made him conscious of his utter weakness. But he still wanted that true and proper confidence in the power and wisdom of God, by which the weak can be made strong. Not that he had any doubt as to the power of God; but he doubted his own fitness to serve as the organ of this power, although God himself had called him. With inexhaustible patience God follows the windings of his false humility, meeting his difficulties with promises and assurances of strength, and his refusals with mildness, but with firmness also.

11-12. Jehovah has an answer to every doubt, a promise for every fear, an inexhaustible supply for every want, and divine strength for every human weakness, which he lays in the scale. We look with heartfelt joy at the manner in which one fear after another is taken away from the trembling Moses. And when at length his fears are all exhausted, and he has no more excuses left, we expect to find him yield, and to hear at length his “yea and Amen.” But no, hitherto his refusal has been conditional, but now it is unconditional. All that God has spoken, and promised, and done, appears to be thrown away, and to have been utterly in vain. K.—“O Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send.” But he was the man appointed for that task; for this he had been born; for this preserved; for this trained; and there was no escape for him. God knew his fitness better than Moses knew himself, and the command became imperative upon him. Kd.

14. The anger of the Lord was kindled.** But this anger was still attended by the love which assists the weak. Moses was told that Aaron, his brother, should be sent by Jehovah to meet him, and should stand by his side to assist him in his arduous task. The eloquence of Aaron would thus hide his brother’s want of the gift of speech, and supply the deficiency. “He shall be thy mouth, and thou shalt be his God.” We may see how necessary it was that all the weakness and faint-heartedness, the incredulity and unbelief which Moses displayed, should be brought out and overcome before he entered upon his mission, when we consider how serious and dangerous the slightest manifestation of it at a later period would have been, whether in the presence of Pharaoh or of the people. Then the reproach of Moses would have been the reproach of God, and his fall would have ruined his work. It was necessary that he should stand before God weak and fainthearted, despairing and of little faith, in order that he might be strengthened by God to stand firm before Pharaoh and the people, as a divine hero possessed of undaunted courage and unshaken confidence. K.—It is clear that distrust was at the bottom of the extreme reluctance shown by Moses to accept of the commission to rescue the Israelites; for afterward, when he found himself supported and backed by that Being under whom he acted, his proceedings were prompt, and his courage and zeal never failed. Forsyth.

He cometh forth to meet thee. Among the most confirming signs given by God to Moses, we must reckon the interview with his brother Aaron; which, being predicted by God and directly happening, was very convincing to Moses. Aaron would not have taken a long journey from Egypt to Mount Sinai unless he had been well assured of the authority which sent him. Neither could he have expected to find Moses where he did find him, unless by Divine direction; since the place, afterward called “the Mount of God,” was then unfrequented. Inasmuch as Aaron was a sign to Moses by meeting him there, so Moses was a sign to Aaron. Aaron joined Moses after the affair of Zipporah; no doubt, he related to Moses the events in Egypt and the death of the former Pharaoh. Calmet.

16. And he shall be thy spokesman.** God destroys the pretext for his exemption by assigning to his brother the office of spokesman, and yet does he not put the other in his place; nay, while he yields to his servant’s prayer, he yet confers honor upon him in spite of himself. The offices are thus divided—Moses is to have the authority, Aaron is to be the interpreter. Calv.—According to the foregoing appointment, when the people and elders of Israel were assembled, it was Aaron “who spake all the words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses, and did all the signs in the sight of the people” (ver. 30). And in every subsequent conference with Pharaoh and the whole deliverance from Egypt, Aaron is the inseparable companion of Moses, and always acts the same subordinate but necessary and important part. Graves.

Inspiration apart, Moses possessed all those endowments and qualities which form the consummate statesman and chief magistrate:—an intellect of the highest order: a perfect master of all the civil wisdom of the age: a penetrating, comprehensive, and sagacious judgment: great promptness and energy in action: patriotism, which neither ingratitude, ill-treatment, nor rebellion could quench, or even cool: a commanding and persuasive eloquence: a hearty love of truth: an incorruptible virtue: an entire freedom from selfish ambition: an invincible hatred of tyranny and injustice: a patient endurance of toil: a courageous contempt of danger: and a greatness of soul, in which he has never been surpassed by the most admired heroes of ancient or modern times. E. C. W

If God called any one man to special work, we are entitled to reason that God has a special work for every man to do. It is impossible that God has called us into existence without having some purpose for us to work at within the limit of time. To be here at all is to be in possession of a destiny. It is an awful power with which we are endowed, that we can shut our eyes to destiny beckoning us to duty, and can so pervert and misinterpret circumstances as to press them into a justification of self-will and apostasy. To know that my life may be called to a unique vocation excites me with very

anxious emotion. What if I have mistaken the Divine will? What if I am pursuing the wrong road? What if I have been judging by appearances and neglecting the teaching of reality? Has self-interest determined my action? Has self-indulgence wrought its unholy spell upon my energies and affections? Have I been earnestly listening to hear the voice which teaches the way of duty and the path of sacrifice? Spirit of the Living God, reveal my destiny to me, though it mean pain or loss, continual discipline of fear, or the blessed experience of daily joy. If I may but know thy purpose, such knowledge shall itself be inspiration and defence.