CHAPTER XI.

OPPRESSION OF THE ISRAELITES.-BIRTH AND MISSION OF MOSES. THE PLAGUES OF EGYPT,

(Exod. i.-xii. 36.)

AFTER the death of Joseph, the Israelites increased rapidly in numbers, and peopled the land of Goshen, where, under God's blessing, they lived in great prosperity. At length, however, in the order of the Divine dispensations, they were called to suffer a great reverse in their condition. "There arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph;' that is to say, a new dynasty was established, the representatives of which set no value upon the past services of this ancient member of the Hebrew race. Some modern writers suppose that this new dynasty consisted of the Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings, the heads of a Phoenician (or Arabian) pastoral race, who made a successful invasion of Egypt, and held supreme power in that country for a considerable time. Others, however, assign to this dynasty an earlier date, regarding it as contemporary with Abraham, some placing its final expulsion before the time of Joseph (a date, however, which appears to be too early), while others suppose that it continued in power till a later period, and that it was under the protection of these Shepherd Kings that Joseph lived, and the people were multiplied in Goshen. In accordance with these latter views, it has been thought that the new dynasty, under which the oppression of the Israelites began, was one which commenced with the accession of a king from Upper Egypt.* But, be this as it may, certain it is that the new sovereign regarded the existing generation of Israelites with jealousy, dreading a revolt, or even expecting to find them engaged in formidable alliance with some of the enemies of Egypt. He resolved, therefore, to crush their power; and with this view he reduced them to a state of slavery, charging them with forced field-labour, the manufacture of sun-dried bricks, and hard service in the erection

[It may be worth while to point out that this statement cannot be reconciled with the date (B.C. 1525), which Mr. Riddle mentions on p. 23 as assigned by some for the end of the Hyksos dynasties-that date being (according to the common chronology which Mr. Riddle follows) no less than 110 years after the death of Joseph, and nearly 50 years after the birth of Moses. In Smith's Dict. (Art. Egypt), the above-mentioned date (1525) is adopted, but an entirely different system of Biblical chronology is followed, the Exodus being placed in 1652, that is, 161 years before the common date. According to this view the whole sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt belongs to the Hyksos period. It seems impossible at present to arrive at any certainty in the matter.

of public buildings.* The exact duration of this state of things is unknown; but it has been thought probable that the oppression lasted, with greater or less severity, about a century. Under these circumstances the Israelites built for Pharaoh treasure cities (store cities), Pithom and Raamses,† situate somewhere in Lower Egypt, on the east of the Nile. Still, however, the Hebrew population continued to increase; and the king then had recourse to the cruel expedient of endeavouring to procure the destruction of all their male children at the time of birth; and when this failed, he issued an edict requiring that all the new-born sons should be drowned in the Nile.

In these times of affliction and danger, Jochebed (God-glorified), the wife of Amram (a high people), of the tribe of Levi -who was already the mother of two elder children, Aaron (of uncertain meaning) and Miriam (bitterness)-gave birth to a son (B. c. 1571) whom God designed to employ as the leading instrument of His power in the future deliverance of Israel. For the space of three months Jochebed succeeded in concealing the child; but at length, finding concealment no longer possible, having prepared an ark, or strong basket, of bulrushes (more properly, perhaps, marsh rushes), and coated it with bitumen § (within), and pitch (without), she placed the child in this frail vessel, and laid it in the flags (more properly, in a bed of rushes or reeds ) on the margin of the river, thus committing the child, apparently to the waters of the Nile, but really, in faith, to the care of a watchful Providence; while

*The Egyptians were notorious for their inhospitality and aversion to strangers. See Diod. Sic. i. 56; Plin. H. N. xxx. 15. Even Homer describes the cruelty of the Egyptians against strangers, whom they either killed, or preserved alive in order to use them for slavish works. See Od. xiv. 272, xvii. 441.' -Commentary on Exodus, i. 10, by Dr. Kalisch, a learned Jew.

† Pithom was probably the city which Herodotus (ii. 158), calls Patumos, the Arabian city. Raamses lay perhaps somewhere to the north-east of Heliopolis. From the Septuagint version of Gen. xlvi. 28, 29, some conclude that Raamses was Heroopolis; but there is no proof of this.-Sce more in Kalisch on Exodus, i. 11, from which note I extract the following remark: The tyrant of Egypt hoped to annihilate, by unremitting exertions and breathless labour, the energies and self-respect of the Israelites, so completely, that they would neither have the courage, nor the desire, nor the leisure, for planning schemes of deliverance.. From a similar principle Tarquinius Superbus constantly occupied the plebeians with the construction of trenches and sewers. (Liv. i. 56.)' Kalisch also quotes Aristotle, Polit. v. 11.

Especially, papyrus Nilotica, which the Egyptians used as a material for shoes, baskets, and various other utensils, especially boats; Plin. H. N. xiii. 21– 26; comp. Isa. xviii. 2. The inner rind was used as a material for writing on; hence our word' paper.'

§ Concerning bitumen, see Herodotus, i. 179; Joseph. Antiq. i. 4; Plin. H. N. XXXV. 51; Vitruv. viii. 3.

Alga Nilotica, called by the Egyptians Sari, described by Plin. H. N. xiii. 23; a rush, reed, sea-grass, sea-weed, from which the Red Sea takes its name in He brew, Sea of Rushes or Weeds. See more in Kalisch on Exodus ii. 3.

his sister Miriam waited on the bank to see what would become of the infant. Then the designs of Heaven began to take effect. At that moment the daughter of Pharaoh (called by Josephus, Thermuthis) came to the spot for the purpose of bathing; and when she saw the ark among the flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. And when she had opened it, she saw the child; and, behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrews' children. Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child's mother. And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child, and nursed it. And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses; and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.' (Exod. ii. 5-10.)*

Moses (drawn out of water), thus divinely preserved and introduced to the court of Pharaoh, received the best education which Egypt could bestow. But this education was combined with that knowledge of God and of His ways, which had, doubtless, been already instilled into his mind by his mother, and had been cherished by intercourse with other pious Israelites and hence it was that, having reached the age of 40 years (Acts vii. 23), Moses quitted the court of Egypt, with a view to take up his residence among his own people, and to serve God by ministering to their welfare-an act which is distinctly set forth to us in Scripture as an illustrious result of godly faith. (See Heb. xi. 24-27.) Moses was now grieved at witnessing the sufferings of his brethren; and, on one occasion, seeing an Egyptian in the act of striking a Hebrew, he slew the aggressor, and buried his body in the sand. This affair having become known, Moses was exposed to the displeasure of Pharaoh, and to the operation of the stringent Egyptian law against manslaughter; † and he was therefore obliged to seek safety in flight, carrying with him, perhaps, a lesson to the effect that the deliverance of Israel was not to be accomplished by mere bodily prowess, or by reliance on any human agency. He took refuge (B. C. 1531) among the Midianites-who were, most probably, a Cushite tribe, dwelling on the eastern arm of the Red Sea, on the borders of the Desert; or, as others suppose, a tribe descended from one of the sons

*Compare the (more or less fabulous) accounts of the birth and infancy of Semiramis (Diod. Sic. ii. 4)--Cyrus (Herodot. i. 113)-Romulus (Liv. i. 4)-Augustus (Sueton. cap. 94). † Diod. Sic. i. 6.

of Abraham by Keturah.* (Gen. xxv. 2, 4.) Here Moses was well received by Reuel or Raguel (Jethro), the priest of the country, to whom he became favourably known by the courtesy and courage which he displayed in protecting his daughters against some shepherds who attempted to hinder them from watering their father's flock. One of these daughters, Zipporah (little bird), became the wife of Moses, by whom he had two sons, Gershom (expulsion, or, a stranger here), and Eliezer (God the helper). Moses remained in Midian forty years (Acts vii. 30), engaged in keeping the flocks of his father-in-law. Some suppose that during this time he wrote the book of Genesis; but this, of course, is only a conjecture.

And now the time had come (B. c. 1491) in which it pleased God to deliver the Israelites from their place of bondage, and to employ Moses as His chief instrument in that great work;— with a view to the still further purpose of preserving the Jewish people, during a succession of ages, apart from the idolatry and superstition of the other nations of the world, as the depositaries of true religion, the recipients and guardians of a progressive revelation, and the means of its eventual propagation, in its most perfect form, throughout the earth. In tracing the course of the Divine dispensations, we shall do well to observe that Joseph was a forerunner of Moses: in his age began that growth of Israel into a nation which had since been proceeding by the continual augmentation of numbers, and was now to be politically completed by the special interposition of Divine Providence, and by the ministry of that remarkable man whom God had raised up for this purpose. And as the evil jealousy of Joseph's brethren had led to the removal of Jacob into Egypt, so now the cruel tyranny of Pharaoh became the occasion of the departure of the Israelites, as a nation, from that country, and their establishment in the promised land. It is also worthy of remark that the position of Moses was, in some respects, higher, as his office was more arduous, than that of any of the patriarchs. They were called to receive, to believe, and to act upon the Divine covenant promises, for themselves, and in the way of influential example: but Moses was a prophet, commissioned to impart the revelation which he received, and to excite the faith of others with regard to it; and, at the same time, he was a lawgiver, appointed to promulgate positive statutes and ordinances, the observance of which should be the work, or manifestation, of faith. This faith and its work had direct and

* [The latter seems to be the more correct view. See Smith's Dict. ii. 355, note.]

special relation to temporal promises; but the Mosaic Law was designed by these very means to effect a moral discipline, and to train up the people of God to the apprehension of higher benefits, the cultivation of a heavenly mind, and the practice of more spiritual obedience.

Moses had, on one occasion, conducted his flock to Horeb, in Arabia Petræa (the peninsula of Sinai); and here 'the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush [probably, the wild accaia, Mimosa Nilotica, called by the natives Sumt or Sunt]; and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And He said, Draw not nigh hither; put off thy shoes from off thy feet; for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Moreover He said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.' (Exod. iii. 2–6.) Here, be it observed, we find the great link, or point of contact, between the patriarchal and Mosaic dispensations. The Most High declares Himself as the God of Abraham, who first received the promise that in his seed all the families of the earth should be blessed, whereby the original promise of the great Deliverer was limited to the line of his posterity (p. 21)—the God of Isaac, who was pronounced to be the heir of the promise, as distinguished from Ishmael and the other children of Abraham (pp. 27, 29)-and the God of Jacob, who, by the spirit of prophecy, singled out Judah, from among his brethren, as the patriarch from whom the promised Deliverer (Shiloh) should eventually come (p. 48). It was with special reference to the promises thus far already made that God gave His commission to Moses; declaring that He had seen the oppression of the Israelites, that He had heard their cry, and was come down to deliver them; and adding, 'Come now, therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth My people the children of Israel out of Egypt.' Moses, pleading his own incapacity, and afraid of the unbelief of the Israelites, sought to decline the mission:* but God gave him confidence-by the solemn promise of ultimate success, after which he, with the people, should worship Him upon the mountain (Horeb) where he then stood-by the declaration of His great name I AM,

* Compare the cases of Samuel (1 Sam. xvi. 2)-Jonah (Jonah i. 3)-Jeremiah (Jer i. 6).