their great redeemer and deliverer: not, continued he, that Pharaoh will let you go at your firft or fecond afking, nor indeed at all, till I have convinced him both of my juftice and power, by the terrible punishment I shall fend upon him and his land, for their oppreffion of my people : nor fhall the Hebrews come away altogether unre bring his warded for their long and cruel fervitude; for I will in. people out fpire the Egyptians with fuch fentiments of pity and huof bondage. manity towards them, that they fhall part with their fumptuous raiments, and choiceft jewels, to them, and make them thus far amends for their paft labours and hardships * (X).

and to

AFTER fuch ample affurances, one would hardly expect, that Mofes would have started any new difficulties, at least without receiving fome fevere rebuke for it: nevertheless, he freely owns, that his doubts were far from being wholly difpelled; he knew the temper of the Ifraelites too well, not to foresee, that they would most likely call his miffion in queftion. He therefore begged to be * Exod. iii. p. tot.

but, as they allow, that the
name may be lawfully written,
though the word nakab do fig-
nify alfo to write; nay, fince
they allow, that the high-prieft
may and doth actually ufe it in
that public bleffing, which is
prefcribed by Gon himself (33),
Jehovah bless thee, and keep
thee, &c. it is plain the prohi-
bition is not against naming,
but against blafpheming, or
ufing it with contempt or dif-
dain, or to an ill purpose, as
to curfe our neighbours, and
the like; as the word kallal
ufed in the foregoing part of
this prohibition fufficiently
fhews (34).

2

however, we do not pretend to anfwer all the objections, which have been raised against this action. We think it fufficient to fay, that the former were fpoiled with the fame juftice for their unheard of oppreffion to the latter, as the Canaanites, and other nations, were deftroyed for their abominable wickedness. God indeed could alone appoint those punishments, and make ufe of what inftruments he pleased to inflict them; but, fince Moses gave fufficient proof of his being authorized by GoD, we cannot fee where the injuftice is in either cafe, nor the pretended ill tendency of fuch a precedent, fince it is allowed on all hands, that it is in no cafe to be followed, unless it be evidently commanded by the fame divine authority. (34) Simler, Villet, Munft, & al, in lec.

(X) That fome retaliation was due, in ftrict juftice, from the Egyptians to the Hebrews, for the great fervices they had done to them, is what can hardly be denied: (33) Numb. vi. 24.

-informed what he must do in fuch a cafe; and GoD was pleased to clear this doubt alfo by two miracles, which he wrought in his prefence. The firft was by turning his rod into a frightful ferpent, and then into a rod again. The fecond was by fmiting one of his hands with leprofy, upon his pulling it out of his bofom, and then healing it again by the fame way; adding moreover, that if the working of thefe two miracles before the Ifraelites did not give a fufficient fanction to his meffage, he fhould then have liberty to try the fuccefs of a third, by taking fome water out of the Nile, which, upon its being spilt on the ground, would immediately turn the river into blood,

MOSES had ftill, as he thought, one material objection to make; namely, an impediment in his fpeech, which the faid rendered him unfit to fpeak either before Pharaoh and his court, or even to the Ifraelites. But this alfo the Divine Being was pleased to remove by telling him, that his brother Aaron, who was now by his appointment to meet him, fhould be his interpreter both to Pharaoh, and to the Hebrews". There was certainly fomething very furprifing in this reluctancy of Mofes, as well as in the patience with which God heard him: yet when he found, that he had removed all the obftacles which his diffidence had fuggefted to him, he could not forbear having recourse to prayers, earneftly begging of GOD, who certainly knew Males many among the Hebrews more fit for the work than him- begs to be felf, to make choice of fome other to execute his com- excused. mand. Had Mofes been lefs fincere, he would hardly have recorded this extreme weakness of his, fo little to his credit; and which nothing could excufe or extenuate, but this free and ingenuous confeffion of it. Being therefore afraid, left he should incur the divine difpleasure by a further refufal, he made the beft of his way towards Obeys at Midian, in order to prepare himself for his journey, and last, and to meet his brother Aaron.

leaves

WHETHER he acquainted Jethro with his commiffion, Midian. or, as he tells us, only expreffed a defire to go and vifit his brethren in Egypt, he eafily obtained his difmission ; and, taking his wife Zipporah, and his two fons, with him, the leaft of which, being too young to walk, he fet upon

Exod. iv. 9.

Ibid. ver. 13. ad 17. * Ibid. ver. 18.

an

Aaron's children

an afs; with this mean equipage, and the miraculous rod in his hand (Z), he marched directly for Egypt.

DURING Mofes's retreat in Midian, Aaron his brother had married Elizabeth, the fifter of Naaffon, both deduring his fcended from Judah by their father Aminadab, the fon of

brother's abfence.

(2) Concerning this ftaff, from which Zipporah had her name, the Jews tell us a wonderful ftory; viz. that it grew in Jethro's garden, was called zaphir, and had the Tetragrammaton written upon it: that it had been created in paradife on the fixth day, and brought away by Adam; and had paffed from him to Noah, Abraham, Ifaac, Jacob, and Joseph, and from him to Pharaoh : that Jethro had been one of his mildeft counsellors, and daily advised him to lighten the burden of the Ifraelites, whilft Balaam, courtier-like, peftered him with contrary counfels: that, being forced to fly the court, and retire into the land of Midian, he had privately conveyed this miraculous rod away, and fuck it in his garden, where it took fuch deep root, that no force could pluck it up that when Mofes came first to him, and acquainted him with what happened to him in Egypt, Jethro caufed him to be closely confined, intending to fend him back to the king of Egypt. In the mean time Zipporah being fallen in love with him, and having acquainted her father with it, he confented that he should be fet at liberty, and marry her, if he could pluck up the zaphir rod which grew in his garden; and

at the fame time iffsued out a proclamation, that the man that could pull up the plant, fhould have his daughter in marriage: that immediately a great number of lufty men came and tried their strength in vain; for Mofes alone was the man that could perform the feat, which he did with wonderful ease, by virtue of the name of GoD, with the true pronunciation of which he was perfectly acquainted, and fo obtained Jethro's daughter. They add, that he got the rod into the bargain, by which he afterwards wrought all his wonders in Egypt (14). Thefe abfurd fables would hardly be worth mentioning, were it not to fhew into what monstrous extremes of credulity men are apt to fall, who have once denied the plainest truths. Were those reverend gentlemens heads as long as their beards, they could never think, that fuch stories can be of any credit either to their great lawgiver, or to the inventors of them. Neither have the Arabians been more fparing of their fabulous conceits of Jethro and his rod: but, as they are ftill more abfurd than the Jewish ones, we fhall refer our readers for them to the author quoted in the margin (15).

(14) RR. Taacl um. M chit. & Scip. Sgambat. l.ii. arch. Vet. Teft. (15) Herbelot's bibl. orient. fub voc. Schobalib.

Ezron.

goes to

Ezron. He had already had four fons by her, viz. Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar y; the firft of whom had likewife a fon named Phineas, by a daughter of Phutiel. This was the state of Aaron's family, when GoD commanded him to go and meet his brother 2; but before he could reach the mount of GOD (Horeb), a dread- He ful accident was like to have happened to Mofes, the meet him particular occafion and circumftances of which we are at Horeb. left to guefs at, he not having thought fit to commit them to writing. The account we have of it, being but darkly expreffed in the original, and having been misunderstood, and miftranflated in moft verfions, and particularly our own, we fhall venture to depart from it, where the original, and the authority of thofe, who, by their diligent application to it, have been able to give it a better light, will bear us out, not forgetting to make our explication good by proper marginal notes.

Year of

flood 857

Bef. Chr.

1491.

. MOSES was upon his firft day's journey, as is probably fuppofed by the fmall diftance between Midian and Horeb, where he afterwards met his brother; when GOD appeared again to him, and charged him to perform all those wonders which he had fhewed him, before the king of Egypt, and to demand of him the difmiffion of his people Ifrael, whom he calls here, by way of excellency, his firft-born; affuring him that he would be with him, and that in cafe of an obftinate refufal, which he forefaw he would certainly meet with, he would flay all the firstborn of Egypt. Mofes was juft arrived at the inn, when he was ftruck with a terrible disease (A): he doth not Mofes tell fmitten by the angel Exod. vi. 23. z Ibid. ver. 25. a Ibid. cap. iv. 27. in the inn.

(A) The reader may remember, that we have already hinted fomething concerning this adventure, in the history of Midian(20); but referved the examination of the particulars of it to this place, to which they more properly belong. The greateft part of commentators and expofitors have fuppofed, that Mofes was troubled with a turbulent wife, which

is the cafe of many a meek
man; and that she had con
ceived fuch an averfion to the
ceremony of circumcifion, that
he had been forced, for peace
and quietnefs, to neglect the per
forming it upon his youngest
fon, till the danger fhe faw her
husband or the child in (for
the text is not plain which of
the two it was) obliged her,
not without great reluctancy

(20) Vid. fupr. vol. ii. p. 154.

and

tell us, whether the divine anger was occafioned by his incumbering himself with a wife and two children, when

(22) Theodoret. & al. in loc.

(24) Auguft. ferm. de temp. Munft, Villet. & al.