THE

SECOND BOOK OF MOSES,

CALLED

EXODUS.

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.

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5 And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already.

'Gen. xlvi. 8. Ch. i. 14 b Heb. thigh- - Gen. xlvi. 26, 27. Ver. 20. Deut. x. 22.

NOTES ON CHAP. I. Verse 1. These are the names] Though this book is a continuation of the bock 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

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 and so they grew. That is, In proportion to their afflictions was their prosperity; and had their sufferings been greater, their increase would have been still more abundant.

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.

With hard bondage] п baabodah kashah, with grievous servitude. This was the general character 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.

16 And he said, When the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye shall kill him: but if it be a daughter, then she shall live.

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17 But the midwives feared God, and did not 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 menchildren alive?

C

c Prov. xvi. 6.

d Dan. iii. 16, 18. vi. 13. Acts v. 29.

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., sect. 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 supposes 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] by al haobnayim. This is a difficult word, and occurs no where else in the Hebrew Bible but in Jer. xviii. 3, where we translate it the potter's wheels. As a 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 a 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 command given by Pharaoh to the Egyptian women: "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 Service in the field] Carrying these materials to magicians, opened their mouths and said to Pharaoh, the places where they were to be formed into build-A child is shortly to be born in the congregation of ings, and serving the builders while employed in the Israelites, whose hand shall destroy the whole those public works. Josephus says "the Egyptians land of Egypt.' Therefore Pharaoh spake to the contrived a variety of ways to afflict the Israelites; midwives, &c." 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 (vpaμidas te avoirodoμovvtes), and

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.

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,

19 And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them.

20 Therefore God dealt well with the midwives and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty.

See Josh. ii. 4, &c. 2 Sam. xvii. 19, 20.Eccles. viii. 12. Isai. iii. 10. Hebr. vi. 10.

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21 And it came to pass, cause the midwives feared God, that he made them houses. 22 And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.

d

A. M. cir. 2431.
B. C. cir. 1573.

2 Sam. vii. 11, 13, 27, 29. 1 Kings ii. 24. xi. 38. Ps. cxxvii. 1.- d Acts vii. 19. Ch. vii. 19-21. Rev. xvi. 4-6.

even prevarication in the case. The midwives boldly state to Pharaoh a fact (had it not been so, he had a thousand means of ascertaining the truth), and they state it in such a way as to bring conviction to his mind on the subject of his oppressive cruelty on the one hand, and the mercy of Jehovah on the other. As if they had said, "The very oppression under which, through thy cruelty, the Israelites groan, their God has turned to their advantage; they are not only fruitful, but they bring forth with comparatively no trouble; we have scarcely any employment among them." Here then is a fact, boldly announced in the face of danger; and we see that God was pleased with this frankness of the midwives, and he blessed them for it.

b Prov. xi. 18. c 1 Sam. ii, 35. 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 knows 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 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 Verse 20. Therefore God dealt well with the midhome, therefore they have hard, difficult, and dan- wives: and the people multiplied, and waxed very gerous labours; but the Hebrew women are lively, mighty.] This shows an especial providence and ♫ chayoth, are strong, hale, and vigorous, and there- blessing of God; for though in all cases where females fore are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them. are kept to hard labour they have comparatively easy In such cases we may naturally conclude that the and safe travail, yet in a state of slavery the inmidwives were very seldom even sent for. And this crease is generally very small, as the children die is probably the reason why we find but two mentioned; for want of proper nursing, the women, through their as in such a state of society there could be but very labour, being obliged to neglect their offspring; so little employment for persons of that profession, as a that in the slave countries the stock is obliged to be mother, an aunt, or any female acquaintance or neigh-recruited by foreign imports; yet in the case above bour, could readily afford all the assistance neces- it was not so; there was not one barren among sary in such cases. Commentators, pressed with imaginary difficulties, have sought for examples of easy parturition in Ethiopia, Persia, and India, as parallels to the case before us; but they might have spared themselves the trouble, because the case is common in all parts of the globe where the women labour hard, and especially in the open air. I have known several instances of the kind myself among the labouring poor. I shall mention one: I saw a poor woman in the open field at hard labour; she staid away in the afternoon, but she returned the next morning to her work with her infant child, having in the interim been safely delivered! She continued at her daily work, having apparently suffered no inconvenience!

I have entered more particularly into this subject because, through want of proper information (perhaps from a worse motive), certain persons have spoken very unguardedly against this inspired record: "The Hebrew midwives told palpable lies, and God commends them for it; thus we may do evil that good may come of it, and sanctify the means by the end." Now I contend that there was neither lie direct nor

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.

lahem, masc.)

Verse 21. He made them houses.] Dr. Shuckford thinks that there is something wrong both in the punctuation and translation of this place, and reads the passage thus, adding the 21st to the 20th verse: "And they multiplied and waxed mighty; and this happened (vayehi) because the midwives feared God; and he (Pharaoh) made ( them (the Israelites) houses; and commanded all his people, saying, Every son that is born, &c." The doctor supposes that previously to this time the Israelites had no fixed dwellings, but lived in tents, and therefore had a better opportunity of concealing their children; but now Pharaoh built them houses, and obliged them to dwell in them, and caused the Egyptians to watch over them, that all the male children might be destroyed, which could not have been easily effected had the Israelites continued to

Observations on

CHAP. I.

the preceding chapter.

live in their usual scattered manner in tents. That | but he wishes to preserve the females alive, i. e., all the houses in question were not made for the mid- those animal propensities of man, through which he wires but for the Israelites in general, the Hebrew becomes carnal and devilish. Hence," says he, "when text seems pretty plainly to indicate, for the pro-you see a man living in luxury, banquetings, pleasures, noun□ lahem, to them, is the masculine gender; and sensual gratifications, know that there the king had the midwives been meant, the feminine pronoun of Egypt has slain all the males, and preserved all the lahen would have been used. Others contend that females alive. The midwives represent the Old and by making them houses, not only the midwives are New Testaments: the one is called Sephora, which intended, but also that the words mark an increase of signifies a sparrow, and means that sort of instructheir families, and that the objection taken from the tion by which the soul is led to soar aloft, and conmasculine pronoun is of no weight, because these template heavenly things; the other is called Phua, pronouns are often interchanged; see 1 Kings xxii. which signifies ruddy or bashful, and points out the 17, where □ lahem is written, and in the parallel gospel, which is ruddy with the blood of Christ, place, 2 Chron. xviii. 6, lahen is used. So n spreading the doctrine of his passion over the earth. bahem, in 1 Chron. x. 7, is written bahen, 1 Sam. By these, as midwives, the souls that are born into xxxi. 7, and in several other places. There is no the church are healed, for the reading of the scriptures doubt that God did bless the midwives, his appro- corrects and heals what is amiss in the mind. Phabation of their conduct is strictly marked; and there | raoh, the devil, wishes to corrupt those midwives, that can be no doubt of his prospering the Israelites, for all the males-the spiritual propensities, may be deit is particularly said that the people multiplied and stroyed; and this he endeavours to do by bringing waxed very mighty. But the words most probably in heresies and corrupt opinions. But the foundation refer to the Israelites, whose houses or families were of God standeth sure. The midwives feared God, built up by an extraordinary increase of children, therefore he builded them houses. If this be taken notwithstanding the cruel policy of the Egyptian literally, it has little or no meaning, and is of no king. Vain is the counsel of man when opposed to importance; but it points out that the midwives-the the determinations of God! All the means used for law and the gospel, by teaching the fear of God, build the destruction of this people became in his hand the houses of the church, and fill the whole earth with instruments of their prosperity and increase. How houses of prayer. Therefore these midwives, because true is the saying, If God be for us, who can be they feared God, and taught the fear of God, did not against us? fulfil the command of the king of Egypt-they did not kill the males, and I dare confidently affirm that they did not preserve the females alive; for they do not teach vicious doctrines in the church, nor preach up luxury, nor foster sin, which are what Pharaoh wishes in keeping the females alive; for by these virtue alone is cultivated and nourished. By Pharaoh's daughter I suppose the church to be intended, which is gathered from among the Gentiles; and although she has an impious and iniquitous father, yet the prophet says unto her, Hearken, O daughter, and consider, incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father's house, so shall the king greatly desire thy beauty, Ps. xlv. 10, 11. This therefore is she who is comes to the waters to bathe, i. c., to the baptismal font, that she may be washed from the sins which she has contracted in her father's house. Immediately she receives bowels of commiseration, and pities the infant; that is, the church, coming from among the Gentiles, finds Moses-the law, lying in the pool, cast out, and exposed by his own people in an ark of bulrushes, daubed over with pitchdeformed and obscured by the carnal and absurd glosses of the Jews, who are ignorant of its spiritual sense; and while it continues with them is as a helpless and destitute infant; but as soon as it enters the doors of the Christian church it becomes strong and vigorous; and thus Moses-the law, grows up, and becomes through means of the Christian church more respectable even in the eyes of the Jews themselves, according to his own prophecy: I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation, Deut. xxxii. 21. Thus taught by the Christian church, the

Verse 22. Ye shall cast into the river] As the Nile, which is here intended, was a sacred river among the Egyptians, it is not unlikely that Pharaoh intended the young Hebrews as an offering to his god, having two objects in view: 1. To increase the fertility of the country by thus procuring, as he might suppose, a proper and sufficient annual inundation; and 2. To prevent an increase of population among the Israelites, and in process of time procure their entire extermination.

It is conjectured, with a great show of probability, that the edict mentioned in this verse was not made till after the birth of Aaron, and that it was revoked soon after the birth of Moses; as, if it had subsisted in its rigour during the eighty-six years which elapsed between this and the deliverance of the Israelites, it is not at all likely that their males would have amounted to six hundred thousand, and those all fective men.

In the general preface to this work reference has been made to ORIGEN's method of interpreting the scriptures, and some specimens promised. On the plain account of a simple matter of fact, related in the preceding chapter, this very eminent man, in his 2nd Homily on Exodus, imposes an interpretation, of which the following is the substance.

"Pharaoh, king of Egypt, represents the devil; the male and female children of the Hebrews represent the animal and rational faculties of the soul. Pharaoh, the devil, wishes to destroy all the males, i. e., the seeds of rationality and spiritual science through which the soul tends to and seeks heavenly things;