terminations 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, it is not unlikely 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show of probability, that the edict mentioned in this verse was not made till after the birth of Aaron, and that it was revoked soon after the birth of Moses; as, if it had subsisted in its rigour during the eighty-six years which elapsed between this and the deliverance of the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 substance. B. C. cir. 1573. 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, Psa. xlv. 10, 11. This therefore is she who is come 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, according 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 mag "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 heal-nificent, excellent, elegant, for all is spiritually undered, 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 stood. 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 domínion 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 Moses is born, CHAP II and put into an ark. allowed, the trumpet could no longer give a certain | sible to trifle with the testimonies of God, and all the 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. I have given this large specimen from one of the ancients, merely to save the moderns, from whose works on the sacred writings I could produce many specimens equally singular and more absurd. Reader, it is pos while speak serious things; but if all be not done according to the pattern shown in the mount, much evil may be produced, and many stumbling blocks thrown in the way of others, which may turn them totally out of the way of understanding; and then what a dreadful account must such interpreters have to give to that God who has pronounced a curse, not only on those who take away from his word, but also on those who add to it, CHAPTER II. Amram and Jochebed marry, 1. Moses is born, and is hidden by his mother three months, 2. Is exposed in an ark of bulrushes on the river Nile, and watched by his sister, 3, 4. He is found by the daughter of Pharaoh, who commits him to the care of his own mother, and has him educated as her own son, 5-9. When grown up, he is brought to Pharaoh's daughter, who receives him as her own child, and calls him Moses, 10. Finding an Egyptian smiting a 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 or prince 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. daughter to wife, 21. She bears him a son whom he ously oppressed in Egypt, cry for deliverance, 23. and Jacob, and hears their prayer, 24, 25. Moses dwells with him, and receives Zipporah his calls Gershom, 22. The children of Israel, grievGod remembers his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, B. C. 1571. 3 And when she could not longer A. M. 2433. hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink. 4 And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him. b Acts vii. 20; Heb. xi. 23.- - Ch. xv. 20; Num. xxvi. 59. beautiful; hence the Septuagint translate the place, Verse 1. There went a man] Amram, son of Ko-Idovres de avтo aσтelov, Seeing him to be beautiful, hath, son of Levi, chap. vi. 16-20. A daughter of Levi, Jochebed, sister to Kohath, and consequently both the wife and aunt of her husband Amram, chap. vi. 20; Num. xxvi. 59. Such marriages were at this time lawful, though they were afterwards forbidden, Lev. xviii. 12. But it is possible that daughter of Levi means no more than a descendant of that family, and that probably Amram and Jochebed were only cousin germans. As a new law was to be given and a new priesthood formed, God chose a religious family out of which the lawgiver and the high priest were both to spring. Verse 2. Bare a son] This certainly was not her first child, for Aaron was fourscore and three years old when Moses was but fourscore, see chap. vii. 7 and there was a sister, probably Miriam, who was older than either; see below, ver. 4, and see Num. xxvi. 59. Miriam and Aaron had no doubt been both born before the decree was passed for the destruction of the Hebrew male children, mentioned in the preceding chapter. Goodly child] The text simply says Nn ki tob hu, that he was good, which signifies that he was not only a perfect, well-formed child, but that he was very which St. Stephen interprets, Hy αotelos TW Oεw, He was comely to God, or divinely beautiful. This very circumstance was wisely ordained by the kind providence of God to be one means of his preservation. Scarcely any thing interests the heart more than the sight of a lovely babe in distress. His beauty would induce even his parents to double their exértions to save him, and was probably the sole motive which led the Egyptian princess to take such particular care of him, and to educate him as her own son, which in all likelihood she would not have done had he been only an ordinary child. na tebath Verse 3. An ark of bulrushes] gome, a small boat or basket made of the Egyptian reed called papyrus, so famous in all antiquity. This plant grows on the banks of the Nile, and in marshy grounds; the stalk rises to the height of six or seven cubits above the water, is triangular, and terminates in a crown of small filaments resembling hair, which the ancients used to compare to a thyrsus. This reed was of the greatest use to the inhabitants of Egypt, the pith contained in the stalk serving them for food, and the woody part to build vessels with; which ves Pharaoh's daughter sees A. M. 2433. B. C. 1571. d B. C. 1571. 5 And the daughter of Pharaoh | river's side; and when she saw A. M. 2433. came down to wash herself at the the ark among the flags, she sent river; and her maidens walked along by the her maid to fetch it. Acts, chap. vii. 21. sels frequently appear on engraved stones and other monuments of Egyptian antiquity. For this purpose they made it up like rushes into bundles, and by tying them together gave their vessels the necessary figure and solidity. "The vessels of bulrushes or papyrus," says Dr. Shaw, "were no other than large fabrics of the same kind with that of Moses, Exod. ii. 3, which from the late introduction of planks and stronger materials are now laid aside." Thus Pliny, lib. vi., cap. 16, takes notice of the naves papyraceas armamentaque Nili, "ships made of papyrus and the equipments of the Nile:" and lib. xiii., cap. 11, he observes, Ex ipsa quidem papyro navigia texunt: "Of the papyrus itself they construct sailing vessels." Herodotus and Diodorus have recorded the same fact; and among the poets, Lucan, lib. iv., ver. 136: Conseritur bibula Memphitis cymba papyro, "The Memphian or Egyptian boat is constructed from the soaking papyrus." The epithet bibula is particularly remarkable, as corresponding with great exactness to the nature of the plant, and to its Hebrew name ND gome, which signifies to soak, to drink up. See Parkhurst sub voce. 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 along by the current, and that she sent one that could swim. after it; that she was struck with the figure and uncommon beauty of the child; that she inquired for, a nurse, but that he having refused the breasts of several, and 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 that of a fable, and not even a cunningly devised one.. To wash herself at the river] Whether the daughter 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 river on a similar account. I see no likelihood in all this. 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 'n 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 Móses 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 seaside in washing her own clothes and those of her five brothers! While thus employed they find Ulysses just driven ashore afterhaving 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: Ται δ' απ' απήνης Είματα χερσιν έλοντο, και εσφόρεον μελαν ύδωρ. ODYSS., lib. vi., ver. 90. "Light'ning the carriage, next they bore in hand When this task was finished we find the Phæacian princess and her ladies (Kovpn 8 ek Oaλapoio—aμḍtToho a22a) employed in amusing themselves upon the beach, till the garments they had washed should be dry and fit to be folded up, that they might reload their carriage and return. In the text of Moses the Egyptian princess, accompanied by her maids, naarotheyha, comes down to the river, not to bathe herself, for this is not intimated, but merely to wash, p lirchots; 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, opaipn rai rap Edov, when they as suddenly and as unexpectedly discovered Moses adrift on the flood, as Nausicaa Moses is given to his mother. A. M. 2433. B. C. 1571. B. C. 1571. 6 And when she had opened it, 10 And the child grew, and she A. M. 2433. she saw the child: and, behold, the brought him unto Pharaoh's daughbabe wept. And she had compassion on him, ter, and he became her son. And she called and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children. his name f Moses: and she said, Because I 7. Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, drew him out of the water. 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. B. C. 1531. 11 And it came to pass in those A. M. 2473. days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their h burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, one of his brethren. 9 And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, 12 And he looked this way and that way, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and and when he saw that there was no man, I will give thee thy wages. And the woman he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in took the child, and nursed it. e Acts vii. 21. That is, drawn out. the sand. Acts vii. 23, 24; Heb. xi. 24, 25, 26. Chapter i. 11.- Acts vii. 24. 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 Ho mer 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 circumstance related here might have brought about its abolition. The daughter of Pharaoh, struck with the distressed state 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, when he was born, was hid 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-vil. 22, who in the knowledge of nature probably exceeded all the nations then on the face of the earth. ́ And she called his name】 non mosheh, because min hammayim, out of the waters meshithihu, have I drawn him. mashah signifies to draw out; and mosheh is the person drawn out; the word is used in the same sense Psa. 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 Farajius says that Thermuthis delivered him to the wise men Janees and Jimbrees to be in structed in wisdom. Verse 11. When Moses was grown] Being full forty years of age, as St. Stephen says, Acts vii. 23, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, i. e., he was excited to it by a Divine inspiration; and seeing one of them suffer wrong, by an Egyptian smiting him, probably one of the task-masters, he avenged him and smote slew, the Egyptian, supposing that God who had given him commission, had given also his brethren to understand that they were to be delivered by his hand; see Acts 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. Previously to the mission of Moses to deliver the Israelites, Josephus says, "The Æthiopians 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. 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 Moses flees from Pharaoh, B. C. 1531. EXODUS. B. C. 1531. and goes to Midian. A. M. 2473. 13 And when he went out the 16 Now the priest of Midian A. M. 2473. second day, behold, two men of had seven daughters: and they the Hebrews strove together: and he said to came and drew water, and filled the troughs him that did the wrong, Wherefore smitest to water their father's flock. thou thy fellow? 14 And he said, 'Who made thee ma prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? And Moses feared, and said, Surely this thing is known. 15 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. Acts vii. 26. Acts vii. 27, 28. m Heb. a man, a prince; Gen. xiii. 8. Acts vii. 29; Heb. xi. 27. Gen. xxiv. 11; xxix. 2.-P Chap. iii. 1. 17 And the shepherds came and drove them away but Moses stood up and helped them, watered their flock. and of this kind when he said Moses was mighty in deeds ran, Jokshan, Medan and Midian, Raguel, Jethro ; 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, 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 other by disputes concerning comparatively unessential points of doctrine and discipline, in consequence of which both they and the truth have become an easy prey to those whose desire was to waste the heritage of the Lord. The Targum of Jonathan says that the two persons who strove were Dathan and Abiram. Verse 14. And Moses feared] He saw that the Israelites were not as yet prepared to leave their bondage; and that though God had called him to be their leader, yet his providence had not yet sufficiently opened the way; and had he stayed in Egypt he must have endangered his life. Prudence therefore dictated an escape for the present to the land of Midian. see Gen. xxv. 1. But Calmet contends that if Jethro had been of the family of Abraham, either by Jokshan, or Midian, Aaron and Miriam could not have reproached Moses with marrying a Cushite, Zipporah, the daughter of Reuel. He thinks therefore that the Midianites were of the progeny of Cush, the son of Ham; see Gen. x. 6. Verse 16. The priest of Midian] Or prince, or both; for the original cohen has both meanings. See it explained at large, Gen. xv. 18. The transaction here very nearly resembles that mentioned Gen. xxix. concerning Jacob and Rachel; see the notes there. Verse 17. The shepherds-drove them] The verb Divyegareshum, being in the masculine gender, seems to imply that the shepherds drove away the flocks of Reuel's daughters, and not the daughters themselves. The fact seems to be, that, as the daughters of Reuel filled the troughs and brought their flocks to drink, the shepherds drove those away, and, profiting by the young women's labour, watered their own cattle. Moses resisted this insolence, and assisted them to water their flocks, in consequence of which they were enabled to return much sooner than they were wont to do, ver. 18. Verse 15. Pharaoh sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh] How can this be reconciled with Heb. xi. 27: By faith he (Moses) Verse 18. Reuel, their father] In Num, x. 29 this forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king? person is called Raguel, but the Hebrew is the same Very easily. The apostle speaks not of this forsak-in both places. The reason of this difference is that ing of Egypt, but of his and the Israelites' final de- the y ain in Sy is sometimes used merely as vowel, parture from it, and of the bold and courageous manner sometimes as g, ng, and gn, and this is occasioned by in which Moses treated Pharaoh and the Egyptians, disregarding his threatenings and the multitudes of them that pursued after the people whom, in the name and strength of God, he led in the face of their enemies out of Egypt. the difficulty of the sound, which scarcely any European organs can enunciate. As pronounced by the Arabs it strongly resembles the first effort made by the throat in gargling, or as Meninski says, Est vox vituli matrem vocantis, "It is like the sound made by Dwelt in the land of Midian] A country generally a calf in seeking its dam." Raguel is the worst supposed to have been in Arabia Petræa, on the east-method of pronouncing it; Re-u-el, the first syllable ern coast of the Red Sea, not far from Mount Sinai. This place is still called by the Arabs the land of Midian or the land of Jethro. Abul Farajius calls it the land of the Arabs. It is supposed that the Midianites derived their origin from Midian, the fourth son of Abraham by Keturah, thus :-Abraham, Zim 298 strongly accented, is nearer to the true sound. A proper uniformity in pronouncing the same word whereever it may occur, either in the Old or New Testament, is greatly to be desired. The person in question appears to have several names. Here he is called Reue!; in Num. x. 29, Raguel; in Exod. iii. 1, Jethor i |