A Prophecy of Esau and Jacob

Exodus 3

¹ Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the back side of the desert and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.

— Horeb; also called Sinai, Exodus 19:1; that is, “dry,” “desert,” was the general name for the mountainous district in which Sinai is situated, and of which it is a part.

— mountain of God; so named either according to Hebrew idiom from its great height, as “great mountains,” Hebrew, “mountains of God” (Ps 36:6); “goodly cedars,” Hebrew, “cedars of God” (Ps 80:10);

² And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. — the “angel of the Lord” is certainly not “the Lord” hence he is an angel;

— but sometimes the Son appears as an angel: Malakh or messenger; hence this being in the fire could be a created angel or he could be the Son;

³ And Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.”

⁴ 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.”

— the name of the Lord, יהוה, is comprised of 3 different letters that form the words for;

‘was’, היה, PAST
‘is’, הוה PRESENT
‘will be’, יהיה FUTURE

⁵ And He said, “Draw not nigh hither. Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.”

⁶ 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.

— many commentators mistakenly identify this Being “the Lord” is the Son; but more events that followed were to revealed (regarding the Temple, even the Son says this is my Father’s House, not the Son’s; and as such the Being in the Holy of Holies, accepting the sacrificial blood sprinkled upon the Mercy Seat during the Day of Atonement) this Being is certainly the Father;

⁷ And the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. — and have heard their cry, by reason of their taskmasters; who were set over them to see that they did their work;

— and to lay heavy burdens on them, and afflict them by all manner of ways they could devise; and who abused and beat them for not doing what was not to be done, which made them cry out because of their barbarous usage of them, and cry unto God for help and deliverance;

⁸ And I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey, unto the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites, and the Amorites and the Perizzites, and the Hivites and the Jebusites.

— the enumeration of the nations here mentioned are only five of the ten whose land was promised to Abraham (Genesis 15:19-21) being expressly mentioned. One, however, that of the Hivites, is added;

— but the “the Kenites and the Kenizzites and the Kadmonites,” were not mentioned here; perhaps they, being the children of Esau, over four hundred years later, had already moved to Spain; for a more indepth study of Esau or Edom, see Obadiah;

⁹ Now therefore behold, the cry of the children of Israel hath come unto Me, and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them. — and I have also seen the oppression wherewith the Egyptians oppress them; which is repeated to emphasis he took of their suffering;

¹⁰ Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” — to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up to a good and broad land, to the place of the Canaanites;

¹¹ And Moses said unto God, “Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?” — who am I, that I should go? the men most fit for great missions are apt to deem themselves unfit. When God called Jeremiah to be a prophet, his reply was, “O Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a child” (Jeremiah 1:6).

¹² And He said, “Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee that I have sent thee: when thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.” — God replies – “Thou wilt not be unfit, since I will be with thee – I will supply thy deficiencies;

¹³ And Moses said unto God, “Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel and shall say unto them, ‘The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you,’ and they shall say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say unto them?” — what is his name; the meaning of this question is evidently: “By which name shall I tell them that the promise is confirmed?”

— Israel’s God had had no name that could be called a proper name more than any other. He had been known as “El,” “the High;” “Shad-dai,” “the Strong;” and “Yehovah,” “the Existent;” but these terms had all been felt to be descriptive epithets, and none of them had passed as yet into a proper name.

¹⁴ And God said unto Moses, “I Am That I Am.” And He said, “Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, ‘I Am hath sent me unto you.’” — the name of the Lord, יהוה, is comprised of 3 different letters that form the words for;

‘was’, היה, PAST
‘is’, הוה PRESENT
‘will be’, יהיה FUTURE

— the true meaning of the Hebrew, אהיה אשׁר אהיה, ’Ehyeh ’ăsher ’ehyeh: Yehovah promises that He will be, to Moses and His people, what He will be—something which is undefined;

— thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you; or as the Targum has it, “I am he that is, and that shall be.”

¹⁵ And God said moreover unto Moses, “Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel: ‘The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob hath sent me unto you.’ This is My name for ever, and this is My memorial unto all generations.

— the Lord God of your fathers; Hebrew, Yehovah, God of your fathers. The “I AM” of the preceding verse (‘ehyeh) is modified here into Yehovah, by a substitution of the third person for the first. The meaning of the name remains the same;

— lastly, God’s name in Hebrew is the four-letter Hebrew word יהוה‎ YHVH Yehovah (not Jehovah since the letter J wasn’t around but only after the sixteenth century);

¹⁶ Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, ‘The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob appeared unto me, saying, “I have surely visited you and seen that which is done to you in Egypt;

— the elders; either by age, or rather by office and authority. For though they were all slaves to the Egyptians, yet among themselves they retained some order and government, and had doubtless some whom they owned as their teachers and rulers, or heads of tribes and families;

¹⁷ and I have said I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites, and the Amorites and the Perizzites, and the Hivites and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.”’ — the same 6 tribes as mentioned in verse 8 above;

¹⁸ And they shall hearken to thy voice; and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, ‘The Lord God of the Hebrews hath met with us; and now let us go, we beseech thee, three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’

— they shall hearken; the pronoun “they” refers to “the elders” and they appeared to be persuaded easily, and at once.

¹⁹ And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand. — no, not by a mighty hand; rather, not even under a mighty hand. Pharaoh, even when chastised by God’s mighty hand, will not voluntarily permit of their departure;

²⁰ And I will stretch out My hand and smite Egypt with all My wonders which I will do in the midst thereof; and after that he will let you go. — and I will stretch out my hand; or “therefore” he would stretch out his mighty hand, exert his almighty power; and for this purpose was Pharaoh raised up, and his heart hardened, that God might show his power in him, and on him;

— and smite Egypt with all my wonders, which I will do in the midst thereof: with those wondrous plagues, the amazing effects of his almighty power, which were wrought by him in the midst of Egypt, by which their land, their rivers, their persons, and their cattle, were smitten;

— and after that he will let you go; this is said for their encouragement, that their faith and patience might hold out, who otherwise seeing him so obstinate and inflexible, might be ready to despair of ever succeeding.

²¹ And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. And it shall come to pass that, when ye go, ye shall not go empty, — not only will the Egyptians then let the Israelites go, but God will give them favour in the eyes of the Egyptians, and they will bestow many valuables upon them.

²² but every woman shall borrow of her neighbor and of her that sojourneth in her house jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment; and ye shall put them upon your sons and upon your daughters, and ye shall despoil the Egyptians.”

— Egypt had spoiled Israel by the tributary labour so unjustly enforced, and now Israel carried off the spoil of Egypt-a prelude to the victory which the people of God will one day obtain in their conflict with the power of the world;

— oppressed, wronged, down-trodden, miserably paid for their hard labour during centuries, the Israelites were to obtain at the last something like a compensation for their ill-usage; the riches of the Egyptians were to be showered on them.

Exodus 4

¹ And Moses answered and said, “But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice; for they will say, ‘The Lord hath not appeared unto thee.’” — they will say, The Lord hath not appeared; it is very probable that the people would have said this if Moses had not had any credentials to produce;

— this on the background that they had been no appearance of God to any one for over two hundred years in Egypt; and the Israelites, who had not seen Moses for forty years, would not know whether he was a veracious person or not;

² And the Lord said unto him, “What is that in thine hand?” And he said, “A rod.” — a rod; the word seems to denote the long staff, from three to six feet in length; such as shepherds use in the management of their flocks, for Moses was now feeding the flock of his father-in-law. It was usually made of acacia wood.

³ And He said, “Cast it on the ground.” And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it. — it became a serpent; it changed into a fiery serpent; whereby it was intimated and frightful what and how pernicious his rod should be to the Egyptians.

⁴ And the Lord said unto Moses, “Put forth thine hand and take it by the tail.” And he put forth his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand— — the tail was the dangerous part; whereby God would try Moses’s faith, and prepare him for the approaching difficulties.

⁵ “that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob hath appeared unto thee.”

— that they may believe; the sign was to convince the Israelites, in the first instance, and cause them to accept the mission of Moses (see verses 30, 31). It was afterwards to be exhibited before Pharaoh (verse 21), to try him and prove him, but not to convince him.

⁶ And the Lord said furthermore unto him, “Put now thine hand into thy bosom.” And he put his hand into his bosom; and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow. — and when he took it out, behold, his hand was a leprosy of the white sort, and which is reckoned the worst and most difficult to be cured;

⁷ And He said, “Put thine hand into thy bosom again.” And he put his hand into his bosom again and plucked it out of his bosom, and behold, it was turned again as his other flesh. — it was turned again as his other flesh; the inflicting of this disease, and curing it in an instant, was so much the greater miracle, as the leprosy is a disease generally reckoned incurable by any human;

⁸ “And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign. — that they will believe the voice of the latter sign; which had a voice in it commanding belief that he was a messenger of God; the first sign respects his rod, the other his hand, a miracle with leprosy.

⁹ And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river and pour it upon the dry land; and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land.”

— and pour it upon the dry land, and the water which thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land; by which it would appear how easily the Lord could destroy the land of Egypt, and make it a barren land;

¹⁰ And Moses said unto the Lord, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore nor since Thou hast spoken unto Thy servant; but I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue.” — I am not eloquent; not able to deliver thy message acceptably and decently, either to Pharaoh or to the Israelites.

¹¹ And the Lord said unto him, “Who hath made man’s mouth? Or who maketh the dumb or deaf, or the seeing or the blind? Have not I, the Lord? — God could and would have cured the defect in Moses’ speech, whatever it was;

— could and would have added eloquence to his other gifts, if he had even at this point yielded himself up unreservedly to his guidance and heartily accepted his mission; nothing is too hard for the Lord. He gives all powers – sight, and hearing, and speech included – to whom he will.

¹² Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say.” — by my Spirit to direct and assist thee what and how to speak. Whence Moses, though he still seems to have remained slow in speech, yet was in truth mighty in words as well as deeds, Acts 7:22.

¹³ And he said, “O my Lord, send, I pray Thee, by the hand of him whom Thou wilt send.” — send by whom thou wilt send, by any but me; hence the anger of the Lord was kindled;

¹⁴ And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and He said, “Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee; and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart. — Aaron; this is the first mention of Aaron; the words “he can speak well,” probably imply that Aaron had both the power and will to speak;

— he cometh forth to meet thee, by my instigation and direction; which, because I see thou art still diffident, I give thee for a new sign to strengthen thy belief that I will carry thee through this hard work.

¹⁵ And thou shalt speak unto him and put words in his mouth; and I will be with thy mouth and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do. — I will be with thy mouth and with his mouth; Even Aaron that could speak well, yet could not speak to purpose, unless God were with his mouth; without the constant aids of divine guidance, the best gifts will fail.

¹⁶ And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people; and he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him instead of God. — instead of God; God did not speak to Aaron directly, but only through Moses.

— Aaron was to recognise in Moses God’s mouthpiece, and to consider what Moses told him as coming from God. Moses had still, therefore, the higher position.

¹⁷ And thou shalt take this rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs.” — take this rod; the staff or crook he carried as a shepherd, that he might not be ashamed of the mean condition out of which God called him. “This rod must be his staff of authority, and must be to him instead of either the sword or sceptre.

¹⁸ And Moses went and returned to Jethro his father-in-law, and said unto him, “Let me go, I pray thee, and return unto my brethren who are in Egypt and see whether they are yet alive.” And Jethro said to Moses, “Go in peace.” — Jethro said, Go in peace; Jethro’s character is altogether one of which kindness and understanding are his main elements.

¹⁹ And the Lord said unto Moses in Midian, “Go, return into Egypt; for all the men are dead who sought thy life.” — all the men which sought thy life; not only the Pharaoh, but the kindred of the murdered man, and the officials empowered by the Pharaoh to arrest Moses. As forty years had elapsed since the homicide, this is readily conceivable.

²⁰ And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set them upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the rod of God in his hand.

²¹ And the Lord said unto Moses, “When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh which I have put in thine hand; but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.

— but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go; that is, not directly, not for some time, not until all the wonders are wrought, and plagues inflicted to bring him to it;

²² And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, ‘Thus saith the Lord: Israel is My son, even My firstborn.

²³ And I say unto thee, “Let My son go, that he may serve Me.” And if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn.’” — Israel is my son, even my firstborn; as dear to him as a man’s firstborn is, or as his only son;

²⁴ And it came to pass, on the way at the inn, that the Lord met him and sought to kill him. — the Lord met him; the Septuagint and the Targum, “an angel of the Lord;“

²⁵ Then Zipporah took a sharp stone and cut off the foreskin of her son, and cast it at his feet and said, “Surely a bloody husband art thou to me.” — Zipporah took a sharp stone; she perceived, it seems, the danger of her husband;

— and he being disabled from performing the office, whether by some stroke of affliction, or the terror of so dreadful and unexpected an appearance, and a delay in a matter of such moment being dangerous, she performed the work herself;

— a bloody husband art thou to me; some think she spake to the child, whom she calls her spouse, as some late rabbins affirm the infant used to be called, when it was circumcised;

²⁶ So He let him go; then she said, “A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision.” — so he let him go; God let Moses go, allowed him to recover; accepted Zipporah’s act as sufficient, albeit tardy, reparation, and spared the life of her husband.

²⁷ And the Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.” And he went and met him on the mount of God, and kissed him. — the scene suddenly shifts. Moses is left in the wilderness to recover his strength and make such arrangements with respect to his wife and children as he thinks best under the circumstances.

²⁸ And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord who had sent him, and all the signs which He had commanded him. — Aaron met him in the mount of God, and kissed him; after a separation of forty years, their meeting would be mutually happy.

²⁹ And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel. — all the elders; the Israelites retained their own national organization; their affairs were administered by their own elders, who called a public assembly Exodus 4:31 to hear the message brought by Moses and Aaron.

³⁰ And Aaron spoke all the words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people. — Aaron did the signs; by the direction of Moses; hereby full proof was given to the people of the divine mission of Moses and their concurrence was gained before he applied to Pharaoh in their behalf.

³¹ And the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that He had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshiped. — then they bowed their heads, and worshipped;

— expressing their thankfulness for the notice he took of them, and signifying their readiness to obey all instructions and directions that should be given them.

~ by Joel on October 29, 2023.

Posted in Books of Moses