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What event happened to the king of Egypt in the process of time, and how is the suffering condition of the Israelites spoken of in this connection? v. 23.

What is represented as having been the effect of the groanings and supplications which ascended to heaven from the Israelites in their house of bondage? v. 24, 25.

'God looked upon the children of Israel;' i. e. compassionately regarded. See note on v. 11. And God had respect unto (them); Heb. 'God knew (them);' i. e. knew them in their afflictions; as much as to say, he tenderly cared for them. On the peculiar import of the word 'know,' see note on Ex. 1. 8.

HEADS OF PRACTICAL REFLECTION.

V. 2. No policies or cruelties of man can prevent the Most High from raising up saviors to his church. V. 3. A right view of our dependence upon God will teach us, that our children while sleeping in their cradles under a mother's eye are no less the charge of a watchful providence, than Moses in his bulrush-ark exposed on the banks of the Nile.

V. 6. The tender compassion of a daughter may reprove and condemn the hard-heartedness of a father.

V. 10. The spirit of piety will prompt to the bestowment of such names upon children as shall be a memorial of the mercies attending their birth or preservation. V. 11. The example of Moses in going out to 'look upon' the burdens of his brethren, enjoins upon the rich and the honored in this world the duty of acquainting themselves with the suffering condition of the poor and needy.

V. 11. Moses, we are informed, 'chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;' from which we learn, 1. That affliction is the ordinary lot of God's people on earth; 2. That the pleasures of sin are short lived; and 3.

That God will sometimes he honored by the sufferings instead of the services of men in high places.

V. 14. The evil passions of men prompt them to question and spurn any authority which would interpose to suppress their outbreaking.

V. 15. The ears of despotic oppressors are ever open to receive injurious reports of the meek of the earth, and they are not slow in acting upon the intelligence.

V. 17. Where the fear of God is absent, the strong will invariably oppress the weak. Such a spectacle however never fails to awaken the virtuous indignation of good men, and to prompt all possible aid in behalf of the injured.

V. 20. The kindness shown to others is frequently followed, under providence, by speedier returns of mercy than was anticipated.

V. 21. Those who are forced to fly to a distant land for no other cause than honest attempts to do God service, are often brought to happier homes than those which they leave behind.

V. 23. The sighing and crying of the oppressed does not always cease with the death of their original persecu

tors.

V. 24. When the groans and tears extorted by the violence of oppression reach the ears of God as coming from humbled and penitent hearts, they are a presage of approaching deliverance.

V. 24. There is a pitch of oppression which will not fail to awaken the vengeance of heaven. 'When the bricks are doubled Moses is at hand.'

V. 25. If temporal bondage draws forth such strong cries for deliverance, how intense should be our breathings for freedom from the servitude of sin.

CHAPTER III.

What is related of Moses in the commencement of this chapter? v. 1.

'Kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law.' He who is

before, ch. 2. 18, called Reuel, is here deno:ninated Jethro. In Num. 10. 29, he is called Raguel, and is said to have been the father of Hobab.-Led the flock to the backside of the desert; Sept. 'into the wilderness;' Vulg. into the interior parts of the desert;' Chal. 'to the place of fair pasturage in the desert.' The expression is probably equivalent to--a great way into the desert.-"To the mountain of God, even to Horeb;' denominated the 'mountain of God,' not so much from its great height, as tall cedars are called cedars of God, &c. (See note on Gen. 23. 6) as by anticipation, from several very remarkable events having afterward occurred upon this memorable mount tending to confer upon it a sacred character; for it was here 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 to prevail against Amalek; 5. that he fasted twice forty days and forty nights; 6. that from hence he brought the two tables of the law; and 7. that Elijah was vouchsafed a glorious vision. The Chal. renders it, 'the mount where the glory of the Lord was revealed.' Horeb, i. e. dryness, barrenness, is a mountain in Arabia the Rocky, at so small a distance from Mount Sinai that they seem to be no more than two distinct summits belonging to the same mountain, as we find the same events are in several instances related to have happened promiscuously at the one or the other of them. Comp. Ex. 19. 20, with Deut. 5 2-4. It is not improbable, however, that the name Sinai' arose from the circumstance mentioned in the ensuing verse; on which see note.

What other individuals are mentioned in sacred story as having been called from the pastoral employment to places of distinction among God's people? Ps. 78. 70-72. Amos, 7. 14.

What was Moses' age at this time? Acts, 7.30.

What wondrous spectacle did he here witness, and what resolution did he consequently adopt? v, 2, 3.

The angel of the Lord appeared unto him.' It is plain from the whole context that the angel here spoken of was no created being, as he is represented, v. 6, as styling himself the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob;' and he who is called an Angel in the beginning of the appearance is expressly called 'Jehovah' (Lord) in the further account of it, v. 4. Moses also in blessing the tribes in the name of the Lord, Deut. 33. 16, invokes upon Joseph the good will of him that dwelt in the bush,' who, it is to be inferred from this fact, could not be a created being. The Chal. rightly renders it, Of him whose habitation is in heaven.' It cannot, we think, be regarded as a sufficient explanation of this passage to say that an angel, as God's ambassador, might speak in God's name and person; for however ample and honorable may be the credentials and titles of an envoy or ambassador, it may be doubted whether they were ever such as to warrant one in saying 'I am the King.' We see therefore no adequate reason to depart from the commonly received opinion, that the person here mentioned was the Son of God in his divine nature, anticipating by a temporary and occasional apparition his visible advent in the flesh.-'In a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush.' This appeared to Moses a natural fire burning with great vehemence in the midst of the bush, yet we may suppose it to have been the supernatural fiery splendor which constituted the Shechinah, the symbol of the divine presence. The Hebrew word for 'bush' (properly bramble-bush') is 'Seneh,' and from the 'bush' here mentioned, in connection with the divine appearance, the Jewish writers, not improbably, suppose that this mountain and desert were afterward called by the Israelites Mount Sinai,' and the wilderness of Sinai.' Thus in Pirke Eliezer, ch. 41. From the beginning of the world this mount was called Horeb, and when God appeared unto Moses out of the midst of the bramble-bush, from the name of the bramble (Sench) it was called Sinai,'-The incident which so much excited the wonder of Moses is generally supposed to have been designed as a representation of the condition of the Israelites in Egypt. The burning bush,' says Philo, was a symbol of the oppressed, and the flaming fire of the oppressors; that what was burning but not consumed, did portend that these who were afflicted by

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the violence of their enemies should not perish; and that the attempts of their enemies should be frustrated; and that the present troubles of the afflicted should have a good issue.'-'Why the bush is not burnt' or Heb. ' eaten up;' i. e. burnt up, consumed, for that it was actually burning we are expressly informed in v. 2. A fire in the scriptures is frequently said to 'eat' as Lev. 6. 10, 'And take up the ashes which the fire hath consumed; Heb. 'hath eaten. Ps. 50. 3. 'Our God shall come and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him.' It was matter of aston ishment to Moses that this was not the effect in the present instance.

How was Moses accosted as he turned aside, and what direction was given him? v. 4. 5.

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'And he said, here am I ;' a common expression, indica tive of readiness to hearken and obey.- Draw not nigh hither;' i. e. approach not any nearer than thou art.—' Put off thy shoes from off thy feet.' By' shoe' is here meant the leathern, or wooden sole attached to the bottom of the foot by shoe-latchets' passing round the instep and ancle. See on Genesis 18. 4. Jerus. Targ. 'Sandelok,' thy sandal. The act of discalceation was practised, in token, 1. of grief and mourning; 2 Sam. 15. 30. Ánd David went up by the ascent of Mount Olivet, and wept as he went up, and had his head covered, and he went barefoot, Ezek. 24. 17. Forbear to cry, inake no mourning for the dead, bind (not) the tire of thy head upon thee, and put (not) thy shoes upon thy feet.' 2. Of yielding up, or foregoing one's right; Deut. 25, 9. 10. Then shall his brother's wife come unto him in the presence of the elders and loose his shoe from off his foot, and his name shall be called in Israel, 'the house of him that hath his shoe loosed.' Ruth 4. 7. Now this was the manner, in former time, in Israel, concerning redeeming, and concerning changing, for to confirm all things; a man plucked off his shoe, and gave it to his neighbor; and this was a testimony in Israel.' 3. Of religious worship and veneration; Josh. 6. 15. 'And the captain of the Lord's host said unto Joshua, loose thy shoe from off thy foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy. From this command to Moses the Jews inferred

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