A. M. 2433. A. C. 1571; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3683. A. C. 1728. EXOD. CH. i–xiij.

for the king; thereby to impoverish their spirits, as well as wear out and enfeeble their bodies.

This resolution of council was soon put in execution, and task-masters accordingly set over the people, who should keep them to drudgery, and use them with cruelty, and do all they could, in short, to make their lives miserable; but such was the goodness of God to them, that the more they were oppressed, the a more they multiplied; insomuch that the king, finding that this expedient would not do, sent for two of the most eminent of their midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, and gave them strict charge, that whenever they were called to do their office to any Hebrew woman, they should privately strangle the child, if it was a male, and leave only the * females alive. But they abhorring such a cruel and impious practice, had no regard to the king's command,

a Commentators observe, that in this passage of Scripture, where Moses describes the vast increase of the Israelites, he emplays a great variety of words in expressing it; and because the words he makes use of are six in all, some of the Hebrew expositors have thence concluded, that the women brought forth six children at a birth, Aristotle, indeed, in his history of animals, (b. 7. c. 4.) tells us that the country of Egypt, where the Hebrew women bred so plentifully, was so strangely prolific, that some of their women, at four times, brought twenty children. But without having recourse to such prodigious births as happened but seldom, we need but suppose, that the Israelites, both men and women, were very fruitful; that they began soon, and continued long in begetting; and then there will be no impossibility for 70 males, in the compass of 215 years, to have multiplied to the number specified, even at the rate of one child every year. For according to Simler's computation, 70 persons, if they beget a child every year, will, in 30 years' time, have above 2000 children; of which, admit that one third part only did come to procreate, in 30 years more, they will amount to 9000. The third of them will, in 30 years more, be multiplied to 55,000; and, according to this calculation, in 210 years, the whole amount will be at least 2,760,000. So that, if there was any thing miraculous or extraordinary in all this, it was, that they should be able to multiply at that rate, notwithstanding their hard labour and cruel bondage.-Patrick's Commentary, and Universal History, b. 1. c. 7.

b Josephus tells us, that there was a certain scribe, as they called him, a man of great credit for his predictions, who told the king, that there was a Hebrew child to be born about that time, who would be a scourge to the Egyptians, and advance the glory of his own nation, and if he lived to grow up, would be a man eminent for virtue and courage, and make his name famous to posterity; and that by the counsel and instigation of this scribe it was, that Pharaoh gave the midwives orders to put all the Hebrew male children to death.-Jewish Antiquities, b. 2. c. 9. e For this distinction in his barbarity the king might have several reason3. As, 1. To have destroyed the females with the males had been an unnecessary provocation and cruelty, because there was no fear of the women's joining to the king's enemies, and fighting against him.' 2. The daughters of Israel exceeded very much their own women in beauty, and all advantages of person; and therefore their project might be to have them preserved for the gratification of their lust. Philo tells us, that they were preserved to be married to the slaves of the Egyptian lords and gentry, that the children descended from them might be slaves even by birth. But suppose they were married to freemen, they could have no children but such as would be half Egyptians, and in time be wholly ingrafted into that nation. But, 3. Admitting they married not at all, yet as the female sex, among the Hebrews, made a very considerable figure in Egypt for their sense and knowledge, the care of their families, and application to business, and for their skill and dexterity in many accomplishments that were much to be valued for the use and ornament of life, such as the distaff and the loom, dyeing, painting, embroidering, &c., such women as these would make excellent servants and domestics for the Egyptian ladies, who had no relish of spending their time any other way than in idleness and pleasure.-Bibliotheca Biblica in locum.

but saved male and female alike; and when the king sent for them, and reprimanded them for their disobedience, they had this answer in readiness :- That the Hebrew women being of a much stronger constitution than the Egyptian, were generally delivered before they came.

This was a piece of service not unacceptable to God, but to Pharaoh it seemed no more than a mere evasion; and therefore resolving upon a more effectual method to extirpate the Hebrews, he published an edict, wherein he commanded all their male children to be thrown into the river; and that they might be more subject to the inspection of his searchers, he built them houses, and obliged them to live in settled habitations.

e

Some years before this edict, Amram, who was of the

d It is generally supposed that the midwives, upon this occasion, told a lie; but there is no reason for such a supposition, though possibly they might conceal some part of the truth, which is not unlawful, but highly commendable, when it is to preserve the innocent; for many of the Hebrew women might be such as are here described, though not every one of them. The answer of the midwives therefore is so far from being a sneaking lie to save their lives, that it is a bold confession of their faith and piety, to the hazard of them, namely, that they saw so plain an evidence of the wonderful hand of God, in that extraordinary vigour in the travail of the women, that do what Pharaoh would, they durst not, would not, strive against it, because they would not strive against God.'-Lightfoot's Sermon on 2 Sam. xix. 29. e The making the midwives houses,' is, by most interpreters, ascribed to God, and the thing is supposed to have been done in a metaphorical sense, that is, God gave them a numerous offspring or family, and a very lasting succession or posterity. For there are five things, say they, which go to complete the greatness or eminence of a family, as such; its largeness, its wealth, its honours, its power, and its duration. And therefore, since the midwives hazarded their own lives to save those of the Hebrew children, and to preserve the Israelites a numerous progeny and posterity, the God of Israel, in return, not only made their own lives long and prosperous, but gave them very numerous families, and an enduring posterity, in whom they might be said to live after death, even from generation to generation. But all this is a very forced construction, and what the original words will by no means bear. We should therefore rather think, these houses were built, not for the midwives but for the Israelites, and that it was not God, but Pharaoh, who built them. The case seems to be this:-Pharaoh had charged the midwives to kill the male children that were born of the Hebrew women; the midwives feared God, and omitted to do what the king had commanded them, pretending in excuse for their omission, that the Hebrew women were generally delivered before they could get to them. Pharaoh hereupon resolving to prevent their increase, gave charge to his people to have all the male children of the Hebrews thrown into the river; but his command could not be strictly executed, whilst the Israelites lived up and down the fields in tents, which was their ancient and customary way of living; for they would shift here and there, and lodge the women in childbed out of the way, to save their children. Pharaoh therefore built them houses, and obliged them to a more settled habitation, that the people whom he had set over them might know where to find every family, and to take an account of all the children that should be born. So that this was a very cunning contrivance of Pharaoh, in order to have his charge more strictly and effectually executed than it could otherwise have been done; and was a particular too remarkable not to be inserted in Moses' account of this affair. The only seeming difficulty is, to reconcile the words in the text to what has been here advanced; but this will be none at all, if the words be rightly translated, and the verses rightly distinguished in this manner:-Exod. i. 20,

And God dwelt with the midwives, and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty, and this happened' (or was so, or came to pass,) because the midwives feared God.' Ver. 21, 22. 'And Pharaoh built them' (that is, the Israelites,) 'houses, and charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born, ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive'.Shuckford's Connection, vol. 2. b. 7.

A. M. 2433. A. C. 1571; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3683. A. C. 1728. EXON. CH. ¡—xiii.

house of Levi, had married a woman named a Jochebed, | inquire for a nurse, offered her service to go and fetch of the same tribe, and by her had a daughter, whose one out of the neighbourhood; which when she was orname was Miriam, and four years after that, a son whom dered to do, she hastened to her mother, who came with they called Aaron; and in the time of this cruel perse-all speed, and took the child from the princess, who procution, his wife was again delivered of a fine lovely boy, mised to see her well paid for her care in nursing it. whom she was very desirous to preserve. For three When the child was of an age fit to be weaned, his months therefore she kept him concealed; but fearing mother carried him to court, to show him to the princess; at length a discovery, she resolved to commit him to the who d soon grew so fond of him, that she adopted him providence of God: and accordingly having made a for her own, and in remembrance of his being taken out little basket or boat of rushes, she plastered it within of the river, gave him the e Egyptian name of Moses. and without with bitumen or pitch, to make it keep out But his father and mother, who brought him up in his the water. Into this she put the poor infant; and leaving it among the flags, by the bank of the river, she placed his sister at a proper distance to observe the

c The princess is called by Josephus Thermuthis; by Arta-called enigmatical philosophy; that from the Chaldeans he learned phanes, as he is cited by Eusebius, (Præp. b. 9 c. 4.) Mercis; and in the Alexandrian Chronicle, Myrrina. But Josephus adds farther, that Thermuthis having sent for several wet nurses, one

A. M. 2433. A. C. 1571; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3683. A. C. 1728. EXOD. CH. i-xiii. infancy, had taken care to instruct him in such things as | Egypt, and to secure himself by flying into the country related to the religion and history of his ancestors; and of Midian beyond the Red Sea. therefore when he arrived to maturity, he left the court, and coming to live among his brethren, was himself an eye-witness at what a merciless rate the Egyptian taskmasters treated them.

This raised his resentment and indignation to such a degree, that seeing one day an Egyptian abuse a Hebrew in a very gross manner, he stepped in to his assistance, and perceiving nobody near, slew the Egyptian, and buried his body in the sand.

The next day, as he walked out again, he found two Hebrews in contest with one another; whereupon he admonished them to consider that they were brethren, and would have decided the quarrel between them: but he who was the aggressor, rejected his arbitration with contempt, and upbraided him with the murder of the Egyptian the day before. This gave Moses some uneasy apprehensions, that as the thing was now blown, it might not be long before it reached Pharaoh's ear, and endanger his life; so that he thought it the best way to leave

In the plains of Midian, there is a well, common to all the natives of the place: here it was that Moses had stopped to refresh himself, when seven of the daughters of Jethro, the chief man of the country, came to draw water for their flocks; but when they had filled their troughs, a parcel of rude shepherds, being minded to serve their own turn first, seized on their water, and frightened the damsels away; which Moses perceiving, went to their assistance, and forcing the shepherds to retire, drew the young virgins more water, and gave it to their flocks.

Hereupon taking their leaves, they made haste home; and while their father was wondering at their speedy return, they informed him how civil a certain stranger had been, both in watering their flocks, and protecting them from the insults of the rustics; which made Jethro send and invite him to his house, and treat him in a manner suitable to the civility he had shown to his daughters; insomuch that Moses, after he had tarried there some time, was so pleased with his courteous reception, that he expressed a willingness to take up his abode with him, and become his shepherd. This pro

reputation, was resolved to rid himself of him; but Moses having some suspicion of it made his escape, and not daring to go by the common roads, for fear of being stopped by the king's guards, was forced to pass through a great desert to reach the land of Midian.”

b The word cohen signifies indifferently either priest or prince; and accordingly, in these early ages, both these offices were frequently united in one and the same person. It seems, however, that Jethro was scarce a prince in that country; for then one would think that the shepherds would not have dared to have been so insolent to his daughters; and yet if he was a priest, it is made a matter of some contest between two famous rabbins, whether he was an idolater, or a worshipper of the true God. Aben Ezra is of opinion, that as he was descended from Midian, the son of Abraham, by Keturah, in all probability he professed the true religion; nor can he suppose that Moses would have married his daughter, had he been bred up in a false one: whereas Moses, it is plain, not only owns his alliance with his family, but, upon his arrival in the camp of Israel, invites him to offer sacrifices to the Lord, (Exod. xviii. 11, 12.) as one who adored the same God with the Israelites. Kimchi, however, on the other hand, affirms, that at first he was an idolatrous priest, but afterwards, when he came to Moses in the wilderness, and was particularly informed of all those great and wonderful things which God had wrought in Egypt for the deliverance of the Hebrews, he became a convert to the worship of the true God; and for this he produces a passage in the same chapter, ver. 11,

of the world in all sorts of learning, to send for masters from Greece, which rather stood in need of Egyptian teachers; for to 'be learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians,' as St Stephen asserts of Moses, (Acts vii. 22,) was to have the best and most liberal education that the whole world could at that time afford. a Josephus, who has given us several particulars of Moses' life, which in modesty perhaps he might not think proper to record of himself, has assigned a farther reason for his leaving Egypt, of which it may not be improper, in this place, to give the reader this short abstract. "When Moses was grown to man's estate, he had an opportunity offered him of showing his courage and conduct. The Ethiopians, who inhabited the upper land on the south side of Egypt, had made many dreadful incursions, plundered and ravaged all the neighbouring parts of the country, beat the Egyptian army in a set battle, and were become so elated with their success, that they began to march towards the capital of Egypt. In this distress, the Egyptians had recourse to the oracle, which answered, that they should make choice of an Hebrew for their general. As none was more promising than Moses, the king desired his daughter to consent that he should go, and head his army; but she, after having first expostulated with her father, how mean a thing it was for the Egyptians to implore the assistance of a man whose death they had been complotting, would not agree to it, until she had obtained a solemn promise upon oath, that no practices or attempts should be made upon his life. When Moses, by the princess's persuasion, had at last accepted the commission, he made it his first care to come up with the enemy before they were aware of him; and to this purpose, instead of marching up the Nile as the custom was before, he chose to cross the country, though the passage was very dangerous, by reason of the poisonous flying serpents which infested those parts: but for this he had a new expedient. The bird ibis, though very friendly to every other creature, is a mortal enemy to all serpents; and therefore having got a sufficient number of these, he carried them along with him in cages, and as soon as they came into any dangerous places, he let them loose upon the serpents, and by their means and protection, proceeded without any harm or molestation. He entered the enemy's country, took several of their cities, and obliged them at last to retreat into Saba, the metropolis of Ethiopia. Moses sat down before it; but as it was situate in an island, with strong fortifications about it, in all probability it would have cost him a longer time to carry it, had not Tharbis, the king of Ethiopia's daughter, who had the fortune once to see him from the walls behaving himself with the utmost gallantry, fallen in love with him. Whereupon she sent privately to let him know, that the city should be surrendered to him upon condition that he would marry her immediately after. Moses agreed to the proposal; and having taken possession of the place, and of the princess, returned with his victorious army to Egypt. Here, instead of reaping the fruits of his great achieve-ology, b. 3. c. 4. ment, the Egyptians accused him of murder to the king, who c It can hardly be supposed, but that a person of Moses' educahaving already taken some umbrage at his valour and great tion would, in the space of forty years, which he abode fu Midian

Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods; for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly he was above them.' But besides this, there is a farther difficulty in relation to this Jethro. In Exod. iii. 1. he is expressly called 'the father-in-law of Moses;' and yet the father of the young women, whom Moses defended at the well, and whereof he certainly married one, is said to be Reuel, (ii. 18,) and not Jethro: either therefore this Reuel must be their grandfather, who, being head of the family, might, in a larger sense, be called father, as we find instances of the like nature in Gen. xxxi. 43; 2 Kings xiv. 14, &c.: or, as others will have it, this Reuel, or Jethro, was one and the same person, under different denominations. Upon supposition, therefore, that he was descended from the family of Cush, it is imagined, that while he continued in Idumæa, his name might be Reuel, but upon his removal into Midian, to avoid the wars and tumults in his own country, he came to be called Jethro, as being the only remainder (for so the word signifies) of the Cushites in that country.-Bibliotheca Biblica, and Bedford's Scripture Chron

A. M. 2433. A. C. 1571; OR, ACCORDING TO HALES, A. M. 3683. A. C. 1728. EXOD. CH. i-xiii.

posal Jethro very readily embraced; and to attach him | Horeb, he saw a bush on fire, and, as he thought, flaming the more to his interest, gave him his a daughter Zip- for a considerable while, but, what occasioned his porah in marriage, by whom he had two sons, whereof astonishment, not in the least damaged or consumed. the elder he named Gershom, which signifies a stranger, This raised his curiosity to go a little nearer, and see alluding to his own condition in that country; and the if he could discover the cause of it; but as he was younger Eliezer, importing, God my help, in grateful approaching, d he heard a voice out of the bush, calling acknowledgment of God's having delivered him from the unto him, and ordering him to pull off his shoes, hands of Pharaoh, who sought his life.

While Moses lived in the family of Jethro, the king, who was upon the Egyptian throne when he left the country, died; but his successor, who was no less a tyrant, and oppressor of the Israelites, laid such heavy burdens upon them, as made their lives extremely miserable, till at length their complaints reached heaven; and as the time of their deliverance grew near, God remembering the covenant which he had made with their forefathers, began to look upon them with an eye of pity and compassion.

Moses was to be his instrument in bringing about their deliverance and therefore, while he was feeding his father-in-law's flock, and as they wandered in their feeding, followed them as far into the desert as Mount

find some other employment for himself than keeping sheep; and therefore some have imagined, that in this time he wrote the book of Job, as we mentioned before, to comfort the Israelites, by the example of his admirable patience, under their heavy oppression in Egypt, and the book of Genesis likewise, that they might the better understand what promises had been made to their ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and that the time for their accomplishment was approaching. Nor can we suppose, but that the several arts and sciences, which he had been taught in his youth, he took care, in this place of happy retirement, to cultivate and improve.-Patrick's Commentary.

a It may be made a standing observation, that divine authors do not relate all the passages of a story, as other authors delight to do, but such only as are most material. We may therefore suppose, that a great many things intervened between Moses' entrance into Jethro's family, and his marriage to his daughter; especially considering that his children were so young at the time of his return into Egypt. The observation of Philo, however, is not altogether to be neglected, namely, "That men of a great genius quickly show themselves, and are not made known by length of time;" and therefore he thinks, "That Jethro, being first struck with admiration of his goodly aspect, and then of his wise discourse, immediately gave him the most beautiful of all his daughters to be his wife, not staying to inquire of any body who he was, because his own most excellent qualities sufficiently recommended him to his affection."—De Vita Mosis,

b. 1.

b Horeb is a mountain in Arabia Petræa, at so small a distance from Mount Sinai, that they seem to be no more than two tops belonging to the same mountain. Sinai lies to the east, and Horeb to the west; but we find them frequently in Scripture used promiscuously. For, whereas the author of the Hebrews several times asserts, that God gave his law to the Israelites at Horeb, though other places expressly say, that it was at Sinai, this is easily agreed, by observing, that they both made but as it were one mountain with two tops, whereof that of Sinai is much the higher, though that of Horeb exceeds it in fruitfulness and pleasure. It is not for that reason, however, no nor yet for its vast height, that it obtained the title of the mount of God. Josephus indeed tells us, (b. 2. c. 12.) that the people of the country had a tradition, that God, in a more particular manner, dwelt there; and that therefore, in reverence to the place, they always declined feeding their flocks upon it: but the true reason of its being so called is, that, in after ages, it became famous for sundry events, and at this time received its name by way of anticipation. For here it was, 1. That God appeared to Moses in the bush; 2. That he manifested his glory at the delivery of the law; 3. That Moses, with his rod, brought water out of the rock; 4. That by lifting up his hands, he made Joshua prevail against the Amalekites; 5. That here he fasted twice forty days

and forty nights; 6. That from hence he brought the two tables of the law; and, 7. That here Elijah was vouchsafed a noble vision; with some others of the like nature.-Calmet's Diction

ary, Universal History, b. 1. c. 7, and Wells' Geography of the

Old Testament, vol. 2.

c Exod. iii. 2. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire.' The traditionary notion of a miraculous light or fire being the token of a divine presence, prevailed among the Greeks in the time of Homer; for after relating that the goddess Minerva attended on Ulysses with her golden lamp, or rather torch, and afforded him a refulgent light, he makes Telemachus cry out to his father in rapture,

What miracle thus dazzles with surprise?
Distinct in rows the radiant columns rise.
The walls, where'er my wondering sight I turn,
And roofs, amidst a blaze of glory burn:

Some visitant of pure ethereal race

With his bright presence deigns the dome to grace.-ED.

d In the text it is said, that the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire, out of the midst of the bush,' Exod. iii. 2. But whether it was a created angel, speaking in the person of God, or God himself, or, as the most received opinion is, Christ the Son of God, has been matter of some controversy among the learned. Those who suppose it no more than an angel, seem to imply, that it would be a diminution of the majesty of God to appear upon every occasion, especially when he has such a number of celestial ministers, who may do the business as well. But considering that God is present everywhere, the notification of his presence, by some outward sign, in one determinate place, which is all we mean by his appearance, is, in our conception, less laborious (if any thing laborious could be con ceived of God) than a delegation of angels, upon every turn, from heaven, and seems in the main to illustrate, rather than debase, the glory of his nature and existence. But however this be, it is plain, that the angel here spoken of was no created being, from the whole context, and especially from his saying, 'I am the Lord God, the Jehovah,' &c., since this is not the language of angels, who are always known to express themselves in such humble terms as these, I am sent from God, I am thy fellow servant,' &c. It is a vain pretence to say, that an angel, as God's ambassador, may speak in God's name and person; for what ambassador of any prince ever yet said, 'I am the king?' Since therefore no angel, without the guilt of blasphemy, could assume these titles, and since neither God the Father, nor the Holy Ghost, are ever called by the name of an angel, that is, a mes senger, or person sent, whereas God the Son is called by the prophet Malachi, chap. iii. 1, the angel of the covenant, it hence seems to follow, that this angel of the Lord was God the Son, who might very properly be called an angel; because, in the fulness of time, he was sent into the world in our flesh, as 3 messenger from God, and might therefore make his temporary apparitions, presages, and forerunners, as it were, of his more solemn mission.-Poole's Annotations.

e Justin Martyr, in his second apology, is of opinion, that the custom of putting off the shoes, both among the Jews and Gentiles, before they began to officiate in holy things, took its rise from this precept given to Moses; but our learned Mr Mede seems to be of a different opinion, namely, that Moses did not give the first occasion to this rite, but that it was derived from the patriarchs before him, and transmitted to future ages from that ancient general tradition. It is certain that Pythagoras, who took his institutes chiefly from the Egyptians, delivers it as a rule in his Rubric, "he who sacrifices, should put off his shoes, and so approach to the holy ordinance;" and therefore God, in the compliance to an ancient custom, then in practice among Egyptians, might speak to Moses, who was a person well acquainted with their ceremonies, to decalceate, as very well knowing, that it would be a means to create in him a greater