THE SECOND BOOK OF MOSES, -CALLED EXODUS. Year before the coinmon Year of Christ, 1706.-Julian Period, 3009.-Cycle of the Sun, 7-Dominical Letter, F.-Cycle of the Moon, 2-Indiction, 15-Creation from Tiari or September, 2298. CHAPTER I. The names and number of the children of Israel that went down into Egypt, 1-5. posterity, 7. The cruel policy of the king of Egypt to destroy them, 8-11. They increase greatly, notwithstanding their affliction, 12 Account of their hard bond dren, 15, 16. The midwives disobey the king's commandment, and on being questioned, vindicate themselves, 17-19. God is pleased with their conduct, blesses them, and increases the people, 20, 21. Pharaoh gives a general command to the Egyptians to drown all the male children of the Hebrews, 22. NOTES ON CHAPTER I. Verse 1. These are the names] Though this book is a continuation of the book of Genesis, with which probably it was in former times conjoined, Moses thought it necessary to introduce it with an account of the names and number of the family of Jacob when they came to Egypt, to show, that though they were then very few, yet in a short time, under the especial blessing of God, they had multiplied exceedingly; and thus the promise to Abraham had been literally fulfilled.-See the notes on Gen. xlvi. Verse 6. Joseph died, and all his brethren] That is, Joseph had now been some time dead, as also all his brethren; and all the Egyptians, who had known Jacob and his twelve sons: and this is a sort of reason why the important services performed by Joseph were forgotten. Verse 7. The children of Israel were fruitful] paru, a general term, signifying that they were like healthy trees, bringing forth an abundance of fruit. And increased] yishretsu, they increased like fishes, as the original word implies.-See Gen. i. 20. and the note there. Abundantly] yirebu, they multiplied: this is a separate term, and should not have been used as an adverb by our translators. B. C. 1635. 6 And Joseph died, and all his bre- A. M. 2009. thren, and all that generation. 7 And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them. A. M. cir. 2400. 8 Now there arose up a new king Cir. 1904 over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. 9 And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: 10 Come on, let us i deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land. 11 Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their 1 burdens. g Psa. 105. 24-h Paa. 10. 2. & 83. 3, 4.-i Job 5. 13. Psa. 105. 25. Prov. 16.25 & 21. 30. Acts 7. 19.-k Gen. 15. 13. Ch. 3. 7. Deut. 26. 6. Ch. 2. 11. & 3. 4, 5. Psa. 81.6. ledge the obligations under which the whole land of Egypt was laid to this eminent prime minister of one of his predecessors. Verse 9. He said unto his people] He probably summoned a council of his nobles and elders to consider the subject; and the result was, to persecute and destroy them, as is afterward stated. Verse 10. They join also unto our enemies] It has been conjectured, that Pharaoh had probably his eye on the oppressions which Egypt had suffered under the shepherd kings, who for a long series of years had, according to Manetho, governed the land with extreme cruelty. As the Israelites were of the same occupation, viz. shepherds, the jealous, cruel king found it easy to attribute to them the same motives; taking it for granted, that they were only waiting for a favourable opportunity to join the enemies of Egypt, and so overrun the whole land. Verse 11. Set over them task-masters] "w sarey missim, chiefs or princes of burdens, works, or tribute— TICTATES TOY Bey, Sept. overseers of the works. The persons who appointed them their work, and exacted the performance of it. The work itself being oppressive, and the manner in which it was exacted still more so, there is some room to think that they not only worked them And wared exceeding mighty] AND ANY Dunmercifully, but also obliged them to pay an exorbitant yaâtsmu be-meod meod, and they became strong beyond tribute at the same time. measure-superlatively, superlatively-so that the land Treasure cities] mopy ârey miscenoth, store cities (Goshen) was filled with them. This astonishing increase-public granaries. Calmet supposes this to be the name was, under the providence of God, chiefly owing to two of a city, and translates the verse thus: "They built cities, causes; 1. The Hebrew women were exceedingly fruitful, viz. Miscenoth, Pithom, and Rameses." Pithom is supsuffered very little in parturition, and probably often brought posed to be that which Herodotus calls Patumos. Raamforth twins. 2. There appears to have been no premature ses, or rather Rameses, for it is the same Hebrew word as deaths among them. Thus in about two hundred and in Gen. xlvii. 11. and should be written the same way here fifteen years they were multiplied to upwards of 600,000, as there, is supposed to have been the capital of the land independently of old men, women, and children. of Goshen, mentioned in the book of Genesis by anticipation; for it was probably not erected till after the days of Joseph, when the Israelites were brought under that severe oppression described in the book of Exodus. The Septuagint add here, xx1 Qv, n sotiv HAUS, and ON, which is Heliopolis: i. e. the city of the Sun. The same reading is found also in the Coptic version. Verse 8. There arose up a new king] Who this was, it is difficult to say. It was probably Ramesses Miamun, or his son Amenophis, who succeeded him in the government of Egypt, about A. M. 2400, before Christ 1604. Which knew not Joseph.] The verb y yada, which we translate to know, often signifies to acknowledge or approve, see Judges ii. 10. Psal. i. 6. xxxi. 7. Hos. ii. 8. Some writers suppose, that, besides these cities, the Isand Amos iii. 2. The Greek verbs, and γινωσκο, are raelites builded the Pyramids. If this conjecture be wellused precisely in the same sense in the New Testament, founded, perhaps they are intended in the word 200 Bee Matt. xxv. 12. and 1 John iii. 1. We may therefore miscenoth, which from o sacan, to lay up in store, might understand by the new king's not knowing Joseph, his be intended to signify places where Pharaoh laid up his diapproving of that system of government which Joseph treasures; and from their structure, they appear to have had established, as well as his haughtily refusing to acknow-been designed for something of this kind. If the history A. M. CIR. 2400. B. C. CIR. 1604. And they built for Pharaoh, treasure cities, 12 But the more they afflicted them, the more 14 And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, P in mortar, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour. 15 And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah: m Gen. 47. 11.--n Heb. And as they afflicted them, so they multiplied, &c.-o Ch. 2. 23.& 6. 9. Numb. 20. 15. Aets 7. 19, 34. of the pyramids be not found in the book of Exodus, it is nowhere else extant; their origin, if not alluded to here, being lost in their very remote antiquity. Diodorus Siculus, who has given the best traditions he could find relative to them, says, that there was no agreement either among the inhabitants, or the historians, concerning the building of the pyramids. Bib. Hist. lib. 1. cap. lxiv. Josephus expressly says, that one part of the oppression suffered by the Israelites in Egypt, was occasioned by building pyramids.-See on ver. 14. In the book of Genesis, and in this book, the word Pharaoh frequently occurs, which, though many suppose to be a proper name, peculiar to one person, and by this supposition confound the acts of several Egyptian kings; yet it is to be understood only as a name of office. It may be necessary to observe, that all the Egyptian kings, whatever their own name was, took the surname of Pharaoh when they came to the throne; a name, which in its general acceptation, signified the same as king or monarch; but in its literal meaning, as Bochart has amply proved, it signifies a crocodile, which being a sacred animal among the Egyptians, the word might be added to their kings, in order to procure them the greater reverence and respect. Verse 12. But the more they afflicted them] The margin has pretty nearly preserved the import of the original-And as they afflicted them, so they multiplied, and so they grew. That is, in proportion to their afflictions was their prosperity; and had their sufferings been greater, their increase would have been more abundant. Verse 13. To serve with rigour] T be-pherec, with cruelty, great oppression, being ferocious with them. The word fierce is supposed by some to be derived from the Hebrew, as well as the Latin ferox, from which we more immediately bring our English term. This kind of cruelty to slaves, and ferociousness, unfeelingness, and hard-heartedness, were particularly forbidden to the children of Israel. See Levit. xxv. 43, 46. where the same word is used-thou shalt not rule over him with RIGOUR, but shalt fear thy God. Verse 14. They made their lives bitter] So that they became weary of life through the severity of their servitude. With hard bondage] np naya be-âbodah kashah, with grievous servitude. This was the general character of their life in Egypt; it was a life of the most painful servitude, oppressive enough in itself, but made much more so, by the cruel manner of their treatment, while performing their tasks. In mortar and in brick] First in digging the clay, kneading and preparing it, and secondly, forming it into bricks, drying them in the sun, &c. Service in the field] Carrying these materials to the places where they were to be formed into buildings, and serving the builders, while employed in those public works. Josephus says the Egyptians contrived a variety of ways to afflict the Israelites: for they enjoined them, says he, to cut a great number of channels for the river, and to build walls for their cities and ramparts, that they might restrain the river, and hinder its waters from stagnating, upon its overrunning its own banks: they set them also to build pyramids, guida To avoidμOVTIS, and wore them out, and forced them to learn all sorts of mechanic arts, and to accustom themselves to hard labour.-Antiq. lib. ii. cap. ix. sect. 1. Philo bears nearly the same testimony, p. 86. Edit. Mangey Verse 15. Hebrew midwives] Shiphrah and Puah, which are here mentioned, were probably certain chiefs, under whom all the rest acted, and by whom they were instructed in the obstetric art. Aben Ezra supposes, there could not have been fewer than five hundred midwives among the Hebrew women at this time; but that very few Verse 16. Upon the stools] Dann by al ha-abenayim. Verse 17. The midwives feared God] Because they knew that God had forbidden murder of every kind: for though the law was not yet given, Exod. xx. 13. being Hebrews, they must have known that God had from the beginning declared, Whosoever sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, Gen. ix. 6. Therefore they saved the male children of all to whose assistance they were called. See ver. 19. Verse 19. The Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women] This is a simple statement of what general experience knows to be a fact, viz. that women, who, during the whole of their pregnancy, are accustomed to hard labour, especially in the open air, have comparatively little pain in parturition. At this time the whole Hebrew nation, men and women, were in a state of slavery, and were obliged to work in mortar and brick, and all manner of service IN THE FIELD, ver. 14. and this at once accounts for the ease and speediness of their travail. With the strictest truth the midwives might say, the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women: the latter fare delicately, are not inured to labour, and are kept shut up at home; therefore they have hard, difficult, and dangerous labours: but the Hebrew women are lively, non chaiyoth, ere the midwives come in unto them. In such cases, we are strong, hale, and vigorous, and therefore are delivered may naturally conclude, that the midwives were very seldom even sent for. And this is probably the reason why we find but two mentioned; as in such a state of society, there could be but very little employment for persons of that profession, as a mother, an aunt, or any female acquaintance or neighbour, could readily afford all the assistance necessary in such cases. Commentators, pressed with imaginary difficulties, have sought for examples of easy parturition in Ethiopia, Persia, and India, as parallels to the case before us; but they might have spared themselves the trouble, because the case is common in all parts of the globe where the women labour hard, and especially in the open air. I have known several instances of the kind myself, among the labouring poor. I shall mention one: I saw a poor woman in the open field at hard labour-she staid away in the afternoon; but she returned the next morning to her work, with her infant child, having in the interim been safely delivered! She continued at her daily work, having apparently suffered no inconvenience! wives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty. 21 And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that he made them houses. See 1 Sam. 2. 35. 2 Sam. 7. 11, 13, 27, 29. 1 Kings 2. 24. & 11. 33. Psa. 127. 1. I have entered more particularly into this subject, because, through want of proper information (perhaps from a worse motive) certain persons have spoken very unguardedly against this inspired record-"The Hebrew midwives told palpable lies, and God commends them for it: thus we may do evil that good may come of it, and sanctify the means by the end." Now, I contend that there was neither lie direct, nor even prevarication in the case. The midwives boldly state to Pharaoh a fact, (had it not been so, he had a thousand means of ascertaining the truth) and they state it in such a way, as to bring conviction to his mind, on the subject of his oppressive cruelty on the one hand, and the mercy of Jehovah on the other. As if they had said, "The very oppression, under which, through thy cruelty, the Israelites groan, their God has turned to their advantage: they are not only fruitful, but they bring forth with comparatively no trouble; we have scarcely any employment among them." Here then is a fact, boldly announced in the face of danger: and we see that God was pleased with this frankness of the midwives, and he blessed them for it. Verse 20. Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty] This shows an especial providence and blessing of God; for though in all cases where females are kept to hard labour, they have comparatively easy and safe travail; yet in a state of slavery, the increase is generally very small; as the children die for want of proper nursing, the women, through their labour, being obliged to neglect their offspring; so that in the slave countries, the stock is obliged to be recruited by foreign imports; yet, in the case above, it was not so; there was not one barren among their tribes; and even their women, though constantly obliged to perform their daily tasks, were neither rendered unfruitful by it, nor taken off by premature deaths, through the violence and continuance of their labour, when even in the delicate situation mentioned above. Verse 21. He made them houses] Dr. Shuckford thinks that there is something wrong both in the punctuation and translation of this place, and reads the passage thus, adding the 21st to the 20th verse. "And they multipled and waxed mighty; and this happened ( vayehi) because the midwives feared God: and he (Pharaoh) made on lahem, (masc.) them (the Israelites) houses; and commanded all his people, saying, Every son that is born,' &c. The doctor supposes that previous to this time the Israelites had no fixed dwellings, but lived in tents, and therefore had a better opportunity of concealing their children: but now Pharaoh built them houses, and obliged them to dwell in them, and caused the Egyptians to watch over them, that all the male children might be destroyed, which could not have been easily effected had the Israelites continued to live in their usual scattered manner in tents. That the houses in question were not made for the midwives, but for the Israelites in general, the Hebrew text seems pretty plainly to indicate: for the pronoun lahem, to them, is the masculine gender: had the midwives been meant, the feminine pronoun n lahen, would have been used. Others contend, that by making them houses, not only the midwives are intended, but also that the words mark an increase of their families, and that the objection taken from the masculine pronoun is of no weight, because these pronouns are often interchanged; see 1 Kings xxii. 17. where on lahem is written, and in the parallel place, 2 Chron. xviii. 6. 1 lahen is used. So na bahem, in 1 Chron. x. 7. is written na bahen, 1 Sam. xxxi. 7. and in several other places. There is no doubt that God did bless the midwives; his approbation of their conduct is strictly marked; and there can be no doubt of his prospering the Israelites; for it is particularly said that the people multiplied and waxed very mighty. But the words most probably refer to the Israelites, whose houses or families, were built up by an extraordinary increase of children, notwithstanding the cruel policy of the Egyptian king. Vain is the counsel of man, when opposed to the determinations of God! All the means used for the destruction of this people, became in his hand instruments of their prosperity and increase. How true is the saying, if God be for us, who can be against us? Verse 22. Ye shall cast into the river] As the Nile, which is here intended, was a sacred river among the Egyptians, is it not likely that Pharaoh intended the young Hebrews as an offering to his god, having two objects in view, 1. To increase the fertility of the country by thus procuring, as he might suppose, a proper and sufficient annual inundation; and 2. To prevent an increase of population among the Israelites, and in process of time procure their entire extermination? It is conjectured, with a great show of probability, that the edict, mentioned in this verse, was not made till after the birth of Aaron; and that it was revoked soon after the birth of Moses; as, if it had subsisted in its rigour, during the eighty-six years, which elapsed between this and the deliverance of the Israelites, it is not at all likely that their males would have amounted to six hundred thousand, and those all effective men.. IN the General Preface to this work, reference has been made to ORIGEN's method of interpreting the Scriptures, and some specimens promised. On the plain account of a simple matter of fact, related in the preceding chapter, this very eminent man, in his 2d homily on Exodus, imposes an interpretation, of which the following is the sub stance. Pharaoh king of Egypt, represents the devil;-the male and female children of the Hebrews, represent the animal and rational faculties of the soul. Pharaoh, the devil, wishes to destroy all the males, i. e. the seeds of rationality and spiritual science, through which the soul tends to, and seeks heavenly things; but he wishes to preserve the females alive, i. e. all those animal propensities of man, through which he becomes carnal and devilish. Hence, says he, when you see a man living in luxury, banquetings, pleasures, and sensual gratifications; know, that there the king of Egypt has slain all the males, and preserved all the females alive. The midwives represent the Old and New Testaments; the one is called Sephora, which signifies a sparrow, and means that sort of instruction, by which the soul is led to soar aloft, and contemplate heavenly things. The other is called Phua, which signifies ruddy or bashful, and points out the Gospel, which is ruddy with the blood of Christ, spreading the doctrine of his passion over the earth. By these, as midwives, the souls that are born into the church are healed; for the reading of the Scriptures corrects and heals what is amiss in the mind. Pharaoh, the devil, wishes to corrupt those midwives, that all the males, the spiritual propensities, may be destroyed; and this he endeavours to do, by bringing in heresies and corrupt opinions. But the foundation of God standeth sure. The midwives feared God, therefore he builded them houses. If this be taken literally, it has little or no meaning, and is of no importance; but it points out, that the midwives, the law and the Gospel, by teaching the fear of God, build the houses of the church, and fill the whole earth with houses of prayer. Therefore these midwives, because they feared God, and taught the fear of God, did not fulfil the command of the king of Egypt-they did not kill the males: and I dare confidently affirm, that they did not preserve the females alive; for they do not teach vicious doctrines in the church, nor preach up luxury, nor foster sin, which are what Pharaoh wishes, in keeping the females alive; for by these virtue alone is cultivated and nourished. By Pharaoh's daughter, I suppose the church to be intended, which is gathered from among the Gentiles: and although she has an impious and iniquitous father, yet the prophet says unto her, Hearken, O daughter, and consider, incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father's house, so shall the king greatly desire thy beauty. Psal. xlv. 10. 11. This, therefore, is she who comes to the waters to bathe, i. e. to the baptismal font, that she may be washed from the sins which she has contracted in her father's house. Immediately she receives bowels of commiseration, and pities the infant-That is, the church, coming from among the Gentiles, finds Moses, the law, lying in the pool, cast out, and exposed by his own people, in an ark of bulrushes daubed over with pitch, deformed and obscured by the carnal and absurd glosses of the Jews, who are ignorant of its spiritual sense; and while it continues with them, is as a helpless and destitute infant; but as soon as it enters the doors of the Christian church, it becomes strong and vigorous; and thus Moses, the law, grows up, and becomes, through means of the Christian church, more respectable even in the eyes of the Jews themselves, ac A. M. CIR. 2432. B. C. CIR. 1572. Amram and Jochebed marry, 1. Moses is born, and is hid by his mother three months, 2 Is exposed in an ark of bulrushes on the river Nile, and watched by his sister, own mother, and has him educated as her own son, 59. When grown up he is 3,4. He is found by the daughter of Pharaoh, who commits him to the care of his brought to Pharaoh's daughter, who receives him as her own child, and calls him Moses, 10. Finding an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, he kills the Egyptian, and hides him in the sand, 11,12 Reproves two Hebrews that were contending together, one of whom charges him with killing the Egyptian, 13, 14. Pharaoh hearing of the death of the Egyptian, sought to slay Moses, who being alarmed, escapes to the land of Midian, 15. Meets with the seven daughters of Reuel priest of Midian, who came to water their flocks, and assists them, 16, 17. On their return, they inform their father Reuel, who invites Moses to his house, 18-20. Moses dwells with him, and receives Zipporah his daughter to wife, 21. She bears him a son, whom he calla Gershom, 21 The children of Israel, grievously oppressed in Egypt, ery for deliverance, 23 God remembers his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and hears their prayer, 24, 25. ND there went a man of the house of A Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi. 2 And the woman conceived, and bare a son: cording to his own prophecy-I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation, Deut. xxxii. 21. Thus taught by the Christian church, the synagogue forsakes idolatry; for when it sees the Gentiles worshipping the true God, it is ashamed of its idols, and worships them no more. In like manner, though we have had Pharaoh for our father, though the prince of this world has begotten us by wicked works, yet when we come unto the waters of baptism, we take unto us Moses, the law of God, in its true and spiritual meaning; what is low or weak in it, we leave; what is strong and perfect, we take and place in the royal palace of our heart. Then we have Moses grown up; we. no longer consider the law as little or mean-all is magnificent, excellent, elegant-for all is spiritually understood. Let us beseech the Lord Jesus Christ, that he may reveal himself to us more and more, and show us how great and sublime Moses is; for he, by his Holy Spirit, reveals these things to whomsoever he will. To him be glory and dominion for ever and ever! Amen. Neither the praise of piety, nor the merit of ingenuity, can be denied to this eminent man, in such interpretations as these. But who, at the same time, does not see, that if such a mode of exposition were to be allowed, the trumpet could no longer give a certain sound. Every passage and fact might then be obliged to say something, any thing, every thing, or nothing, according to the fancy, peculiar creed, or caprice of the interpreter. She laid it in the flags] Not willing to trust it in the stream, for fear of a disaster; and probably choosing the place to which the Egyptian princess was accustomed to come, for the purposes specified in the note on the following verse. Verse 5. And the daughter of Pharaoh] Josephus calls her Thermuthis, and says, that "the ark was borne swim after it-that she was struck with the figure and unalong by the current, and that she sent one that could common beauty of the child: that she inquired for a nurse-but that he having refused the breasts of several, his sister, proposing to bring a Hebrew nurse, his own mother was procured." But all this is in Josephus's manner, as well as the long circumstantial dream, that he gives to Amram concerning the future greatness of Moses, which cannot be considered in any other light than To wash herself at the river] Whether the daughter that of a fable, and not even a cunningly devised one. of Pharaoh went to bathe in the river through motives of pleasure, health, or religion: or whether she bathed at all, the text does not specify. It is merely stated by the sacred writer, that she went down to the river to WASH; for the word herself, is not in the original. Mr. Harmer, Observat. vol. iii. p. 529. is of opinion that the time referred to above, was that in which the Nile begins to rise; and as the dancing girls in Egypt are accustomed now to plunge themselves into the river at its rising, by which act they testify their gratitude for the inestimable blessing of its inundations, so it might have been formerly; and that Pharaoh's daughter was now coming down to the 191 river on a similar account.-I see no likelihood in all this. child: and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children. 7 Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? 8 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went, and called the child's mother. 9 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. b Acts 7. 21.- That is, drawn out.-d Acts 7. 23, 24. Hebr. 11. 24, 25, 26. If she washed herself at all, it might have been a religious ablution, and yet extended no farther than to the hands and face: for the word yn rachats, to wash, is repeatedly used in the Pentateuch to signify religious ablutions of different kinds. Jonathan in his Targum says, that God had smitten all Egypt with ulcers, and that the daughter of Pharaoh came to wash in the river in order to find relief; and that as soon as she touched the ark where Moses was, her ulcers were healed. This is all fable. I believe there was no bathing in the case, but simply what the text states, washing, not of her person, but of her clothes, which was an employment that even kings' daughters did not think beneath them in those primitive times. Homer, Odyss. vi. represents Nausicaa, daughter of Alcinous, king of the Phaacians, in company with her maidens, employed at the sea side, in washing her own clothes, and those of her five brothers! While thus employed they find Ulysses just driven ashore, after having been shipwrecked; utterly helpless, naked, and destitute of every necessary of life. The whole scene is so perfectly like that before us, that they appear to me to be almost parallels. I shall subjoin a few lines. The princess having piled her clothes on a carriage drawn by several mules, and driven to the place of washing, commences her work, which the poet describes thus : In the text of Moses, the Egyptian princess, accompanied with her maids my naârotcyah, comes down to the river, not to bathe herself, for this is not intimated, but merely to wash, pr lirechots: at the time in which the ark is perceived, we may suppose that she and her companions had finished their task, and like the daughter of Alcinous and her maidens, were amusing themselves, walking along by the river's side, as the others did by tossing a ball, quipy Tai T' up sm, when they as suddenly and as unexpectedly discovered Moses adrift on the flood, as Nausicaa and her companions discovered Ulysses, just escaped naked from shipwreck. In both the histories, that of the poet, and this of the prophet, both the strangers, the shipwrecked Greek, and the almost drowned Hebrew, were rescued by the princesses, nourished and preserved alive! Were it lawful to suppose that Homer had ever seen the Hebrew story, it would be reasonable to conclude that he had made it the basis of the 6th book of the Odyssey. Verse 6. She had compassion on him] The sight of a beautiful babe in distress, could not fail to make the impression here mentioned; see on ver. 2. It has already been conjectured, that the cruel edict of the Egyptian king did not continue long in force; see chap. i. 22. And it will not appear unreasonable to suppose, that the circumstances related here might have brought about its abolition. The daughter of Pharaoh, struck with the distressed state 10 And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water. B. C. 1531. 11 And it came to pass in those days, A. M. 2473. when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, one of his brethren. 12 And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand. 13 And when he went out the second day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove toge e Ch. 1. 11.-f Acts 7. 24.-g Acts 7. 26. of the Hebrew children, from what she had seen in the case of Moses, would probably implore her father to abolish this sanguinary edict. Verse 7. Shall I go and call-a nurse?] Had not the different circumstances marked here, been placed under the superintendence of an especial Providence, there is no human probability that they could have had such a happy issue. The parents had done every thing to save their child, that piety, affection, and prudence could dictate, and having done so, they left the event to God. By faith, says the apostle, Heb. xi. 23. Moses was hid, when he was born, three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. Because of the king's commandment they were obliged to make use of the most prudent caution to save the child's life; and their faith in God enabled them to risk their own safety; for they were not afraid of the king's commandment-they feared God, and they had no other fear. Verse 10. And he became her son] From this time of his being brought home by his nurse, his education commenced, and he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, Acts vii. 22. who, in the knowledge of nature, probably exceeded all the nations then on the face of the earth. And she called his name] moshch, because A 10 min ha-mayim, out of the waters, meshitihu, have I drawn him. no mashah signifies to draw out, and mosheh is the person drawn out: the word is used in the same sense, Psal. xviii. 17. and 2 Sam. xxii. 17. What name he had from his parents we know not; but whatever it might be, it was ever after lost in the name given to him by the princess of Egypt. Abul Farujius says that Thermuthis delivered him to the wise men, Janees and Jimbrees, to be instructed in wisdom. Verse 11. When Moses was grown] Being full forty years of age, as St. Stephen says, Acts vii. 28. it came into his heart to visit his brethren-i. e. he was excited to it by a divine inspiration-and seeing one of them suffer wrong-by an Egyptian smiting him; probably one of the task-masters-he avenged him and smote, slew the Egyptian; supposing that God, who had given him commission, had given also his brethren to understand, that they were to be delivered by his hand, see Acts vii. 23-25. Probably the Egyptian killed the Hebrew, and therefore on the Noahic precept, Moses was justified in killing him: and he was authorized so to do, by the commission which he had received from God, as all succeeding events amply prove. Previous to the mission of Moses to deliver the Israelites, Josephus says, the Ethiopians having made an irruption into Egypt, and subdued a great part of it, a divine oracle advised them to employ Moses the Hebrew. On this, the king of Egypt made him general of the Egyptian forces; with these he attacked the Ethiopians, defeated and drove them back into their own land, and forced them to take refuge in the city of Saba, where he besieged them. That Tharbis, daughter of the Ethiopian king, seeing him, fell desperately in love with him, and promised to give up the city to him, on condition that he would take her to wife, to which Moses agreed, and the city was put into the hands of the Egyptians. Jos. Ant. lib. ii. chap. 9. St. Stephen probably alluded to something of this kind, when he said MOSES was mighty in deeds as well as words. Verse 13. Two men of the Hebrews strove together] How strange, that in the very place where they were suffering a heavy persecution, because they were Hebrews, that the very persons themselves, who suffered it, should be found persecuting each other! It has been often seen, that in those times in which the ungodly oppressed the church of Christ, its own members have been separated from each |