PREFACE TO EXODUS. crops with grievous storms of hail, accompanied with the most terrible thunder and lightning. 8. Desolated the whole land by innumerable swarms of locusts. 9. He spread a palpable darkness all over Egypt; and, 10. In one night slew all the first-born, both of man and beast, through the whole of the Egyptian territories. What proved the miraculous nature of all these plagues most particularly was, 1st, Their coming exactly according to the prediction and at the command of Moses and Aaron. 2dly, Their extending only to the Egyptians, and leaving the land of Goshen, the Israelites, their cattle and substance, entirely untouched. After relating all these things in detail, with their attendant circumstances, Moses describes the institution, reason, and celebration of the passover; the preparation of the Israelites for their departure; their leaving Goshen and beginning their journey to the promised land, by the way of Rameses, Succoth, and Etham. How Pharaoh, repenting of the permission he had given them to depart, began to pursue them with an immense army of horse and foot, and overtook them at their encampment at Baal-zephon, on the borders of the Red Sea. Their destruction appearing then to be inevitable, Moses farther relates that having called earnestly upon God, and stretched his rod over the waters, they became divided, and the Israelites entered into the bed of the sea, and passed over to the opposite shore. Pharaoh and his host madly pursuing in the same track, the rear of their army being fairly entered by the time the last of the Israelites had made good their landing on the opposite coast, Moses stretching his rod again over the waters, they returned to their former channel and overwhelmed the Egyptian army, so that every soul perished. Moses next gives a circumstantial account of the different encampments of the Israelites in the wilderness, during the space of nearly forty years: the miracles wrought in their behalf; the chief of which were the pillar of cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night, to direct and protect them in the wilderness; the bringing water out of a rock for them and their cattle; feeding them with manna from heaven; bringing innumerable flocks of quails to their camp; giving them a complete victory over the Amalekites at the intercession of Moses and particularly God's astonishing manifestation of himself on Mount Sinai, when he delivered to Moses an epitome of his whole law, in what was called the TEN WORDS OF TEN COMMANDMENTS. Moses proceeds to give a circumstantial detail of the different laws, statutes, and ordinances which he received from God, and particularly the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, and the awful display of the Divine Majesty on that solemn occasion; the formation of the ARK, holy Table and Candlestick; the TABERNACLE, with its furniture, covering, courts, &c., the brazen Altar, golden Altar, brazen Laver, anointing oil, perfume, sacerdotal garments for Aaron and his sons, and the artificers employed on the work of the Tabernacle, &c. He then gives an account of Israel's idolatry in the matter of the golden calf, made under the direction of Aaron; God's displeasure, and the death of the principal idolaters; the erection and consecration of the Tabernacle, and its being filled and encompassed with the Divine glory, with the order and manner of their marches by direction of the miraculous pillar; with which the book concludes.. VOL. I. ( 20 )TM 289 THE SECOND BOOK OF MOSES, CALLED EXOD U S. Year before the common Year of Christ, 1706.-Julian Period, 3008.-Cycle of the Sun, 7.-Dominical Letter, F.-Cycle of the Moon, 2.-Indiction, 15.-Creation from Tisri or September, 2298. CHAPTER I. The names and number of the children of Israel that went down into Egypt, 1-5. Joseph and all his brethren of that generation die, 6. The great increase of their 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 bondage, 13, 14. Pharaoh's command to the Hebrew midwives to kill all the male children, 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. 5 And all the souls that came out of the filled with them. NOTES ON CHAP. 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. Gen. 1. 26; Acts vii. 15.- Gen. xlvi. 3; Deut. xxvi. 5; 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] 13 yirbu, they multiplied; this is a separate term, and should not have been used as an adverb by our translators. ויעצמו במאד מאד And waxed exceeding mighty] vaiyaatsmu bimod meod, and they became strong beyond measure-superlatively, superlatively so that the land (Goshen) was filled with them. This astonishing increase was, under the providence of God, chiefly owing to two causes: 1. The Hebrew women were exceedingly fruitful, suffered very little in parturition, and probably often brought forth twins. 2. There appear to have been no premature deaths among them. Verse 7. The children of Israel were fruitful] 175 Thus in about two hundred and fifteen years they were 290 ( 20* ) The Hebrews are persecuted A. M. cir. 2400. not Joseph. CHAP. I. by the Egyptians. f 8 Now there arose up a new against us, and so get them up A. M. cir. 2400. king over Egypt, which knew out of the land. 9 And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: B. C. cir. 1604. 11 Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their 1burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses. And 10 Come on, let us ideal wisely with 12 But the more they afflicted them, them; lest they multiply, and it come to the more they multiplied and grew. pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they were. grieved because of the they join also unto our enemies, and fight Acts vii. 18.- -5 Psa. ev. 24.- Psa. x. 2; lxxxiii. 3, 4. Job v. 13; Psa. cv. 25; Prov. xvi. 25; xxi. 30; Acts vii. 19. of Israel. Gen. xv. 13; chap, iii. 7; Deut. xxvi. 6.v. 4, 5; Psa. lxxxi. 6.- m Gen. xlvii. 11.they afflicted them, so they multiplied, &c. children Chap. ii. 11; n Heb. and as multiplied to upwards of 600,000, independently of old dotus calls Patumos. Raamses, or rather Rameses, men, women, and children. 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 yr yada, which we translate to know, often signifies to acknowledge or approve. See Judges ii. 10; Psa. i. 6; xxxi. 7; Hos. ii. 8; Amos iii. 2. The Greek verbs eidw and yivwokw are used precisely in the same sense in the New Testament. See Matt. xxv. 12, and 1 John iii. 1. We may therefore understand by the new king's not knowing Joseph, his disapproving of that system of government which Joseph had established, as well as his haughtily refusing to acknowledge 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 afterwards 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 favoúrable opportunity to join the enemies of Egypt, and so overrun the whole land. works. Verse 11. Set over them task-masters] sarey missim, chiefs or princes of burdens, works, or tribute; εжLOTагás тwv εруwy, Sept. overseers of the 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 unmercifully, but also obliged them to pay an exorbitant tribute at the same time. Treasure cities] arey miscenoth, store cilies-public granaries. Calmet supposes this to be the name of a city, and translates the verse thus: "They built cities, viz., Miscenoth, Pithom, and Rameses." Pithom is supposed to be that which Hero (for it is the same Hebrew word as in Gen. xlvii. 11, and should be written the same way here as there,) is supposed to have been the capital of the land of Goshen, mentioned in the book of Genesis by antici pation; 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, ka v, † eotiv Hovπoλis and ỌN, which is Heliopolis; i. e., the city of the Sun. The same reading is found also in the Coptic version. Some writers suppose that beside these cities the Israelites built the pyramids. If this conjecture be well founded, perhaps they are intended in the word misćenoth, which, from 1 sachan, to lay up in store, might be intended to signify places where Pharaoh laid up his treasures; and from their structure they appear to have been designed for something of this kind. If the history 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. i.,-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 it to be a proper name peculiar to one person, and by this supposition confound the acts of several Egyptian kings, yet 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 The midwives are commanded A. M. cir. 2400. with rigour : EXODUS. to destroy the male children 13 And the Egyptians made | a midwife to the Hebrew women, A. M. cir. 2100. the children of Israel to serve and see them upon the stools; made their lives bitter with 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 : B. C. cir. 1604. if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live. 17 But the midwives a feared God, and did as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive. 18 And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men children alive? $ 19 And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, 16 And he said, When ye do the office of Because the Hebrew women are not as the • Chapter ii. 23; vi. 9; Num. xx. 15; Acts vii, 19, 34. 9 Prov. xvi. 6. Dan. iii. 16, 18; vi. 13; Acts v. 29. P Psa. lxxxi. 6. See Josh. ii. 4, &c. ; 2 Sam. xvii. 19, 20. and so they grew. Verse 13. To serve with rigour] bepharech, 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 Lev. 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. poses there could not have been fewer than five hundred midwives among the Hebrew women at this time; but that very few were requisite see proved on verse 19. Verse 16. Upon the stools] `n by al haobnayim. This is a difficult word, and occurs nowhere else in the Hebrew Bible but in Jer. xviii. 3, where we translate it the potter's wheels. As signifies a stone, the obnayim has been supposed to signify a stone trough, in which they received and washed the infant as soon as born. Jarchi, in his book of Hebrew roots, gives a very different interpretation of it; he derives it from ben, a son, or banim, children; his words must not be literally translated, but this is the sense: "When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and ye see that the birth is broken forth, if it be a son, then ye shall kill him.” Jonathan ben Uzziel gives us a curious reason for the baabodah kashah, command given by Pharaoh to the Egyptian women: This was the general cha-“Pharaoh slept, and saw in his sleep a balance, and behold the whole land of Egypt stood in one scale, and a lamb in the other; and the scale in which the lamb was outweighed that in which was the land of Egypt, Immediately he sent and called all the chief magicians, and told them his dream. And Janes and Jimbres, (see 2 Tim. iii. 8,) who were chief of the magicians, opened their mouths and said to Pharaoh, A child is shortly to be born in the congregation of the Israelites, whose hand shall destroy the whole land of Egypt." Therefore Pharaoh spake to the midwives, &c.". With hard bondage] with grievous servitude. racter 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 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, (πvрaμidas тe avoiкodoμovvtes,) 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., sec. 1. Philo bears nearly the same testimony, p. 86, Edit. Mangey. Verse 15. Hebrew midwives] Shiphrah and Puah, who 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 sup 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 shows 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 The midwives refuse, B. C. cir. 1604. CHAP. I. A. M. cir. 2400. Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them. and God blesses them. B. C. cir. 1604. midwives and the people mul- A. M. eir. 2400. tiplied, and waxed very mighty. 21 And it came to pass, because the mid20 Therefore God dealt well with the wives feared God," that he made them houses. t 'Proverbs xi. 18; Eccles. viii. 12; Isaiah iii. 10; Heb. vi. 10. 1 Samuel ii. 35; 2 Samuel vii. 11, 13, 27, 29; 1 Kings ii. 24; xi. 38; Psa. cxxvii. 1. 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 death through the violence and continuance of their labour, when even in the delicate situation mentioned above. 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, Drn chayoth, are strong, hale, and vigorous, and therefore are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them. In such cases we 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, Verse 21. He made them houses.] Dr. Shuckford an aunt, or any female acquaintance or neighbour, thinks that there is something wrong both in the could readily afford all the assistance necessary in punctuation and translation of this place, and reads such cases. Commentators, pressed with imaginary the passage thus, adding the 21st to the 20th verse: difficulties, have sought for examples of easy parturi-"And they multiplied and waxed mighty; and this tion in Ethiopia, Persia, and India, as parallels to the happened ( vayehi) because the midwives feared case before us; but they might have spared them- God; and he (Pharaoh) made (Onh lahem, masc.) selves the trouble, because the case is common in all them (the Israelites) houses; and commanded all his parts of the globe where the women labour hard, and people, saying, Every son that is born, &c." The especially in the open air. I have known several in- doctor supposes that previously to this time the Isstances of the kind myself among the labouring poor. raelites had no fixed dwellings, but lived in tents, and I shall mention one: I saw a poor woman in the open therefore had a better opportunity of concealing their field at hard labour; she stayed away in the afternoon, children; but now Pharaoh built them houses, and but she returned the next morning to her work with obliged them to dwell in them, and caused the Egypher infant child, having in the interim been safely de- tians to watch over them, that all the male children livered! She continued at her daily work, having might be destroyed, which could not have been easily apparently suffered no inconvenience! effected had the Israelites continued to live in their I have entered more particularly into this subject usual scattered manner in tents. That the houses in because, through want of proper information, (perhaps question were not made for the midwives, but for the from a worse motive,) certain persons have spoken Israelites in general, the Hebrew text seems pretty very unguardedly against this inspired record: "The plainly to indicate, for the pronoun on lahem, to them, Hebrew midwives told palpable lies, and God com- is the masculine gender; had the midwives been meant, mends them for it; thus we may do evil that good the feminine pronoun 1 lahen would have been used. may come of it, and sanctify the means by the end." Others contend that by making them houses, not only Now I contend that there was neither lie direct nor the midwives are intended, but also that the words even prevarication in the case. The midwives boldly mark an increase of their families, and that the objec❤ state to Pharaoh a fact, (had it not been so, he had a tion taken from the masculine pronoun is of no weight, thousand means of ascertaining the truth,) and they because these pronouns are often interchanged; see state it in such a way as to bring conviction to his 1 Kings xxii. 17, where on lahem is written, and in mind on the subject of his oppressive cruelty on the the parallel place, 2 Chron. xviii. 6; 1 lahen is used. one hand, and the mercy of Jehovah on the other. As So D bahem, in 1 Chron. x. 7, is written ɔ bahen, if they had said, There "The very oppression under which, 1 Sam. xxxi. 7, and in several other places. through thy cruelty, the Israelites groan, their God has is no doubt that God did bless the midwives, his apturned to their advantage; they are not only fruitful, probation of their conduct is strictly marked; and but they bring forth with comparatively no trouble; there can be no doubt of his prospering the Israelites, we have scarcely any employment among them." for it is particularly said that the people multiplied and Here then is a fact, boldly announced in the face of waxed very mighty. But the words most probably danger; and we see that God was pleased with this refer to the Israelites, whose houses or families were frankness of the midwives, and he blessed them for it. built up by an extraordinary increase of children, notVerse 20: Therefore God dealt well with the mid-withstanding the cruel policy of the Egyptian king. wives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very Vain is the counsel of man when opposed to the de |