A Prophecy of Esau and Jacob

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Exodus 21

¹ “Now these are the judgements which thou shalt set before them: — now these are the judgements; the judicial laws and legal precedents, respecting the state of the people of Israel, so called because they are founded on justice and equity, and are according to the judgement precedents before;

² If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve; and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. — if thou buy an Hebrew servant; every Israelite was free-born; but slavery (through poverty, debt, or crime) was permitted under certain restrictions.

³ If he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself; if he was married, then his wife shall go out with him. — if he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself; that is, if he came into his servitude on his free will;

— if he were married, then his wife shall go with him; that is, if he had a wife, a daughter of Israel, as the Targum of Jonathan says; “but if (he be) the husband of a wife, a daughter of Israel, his wife shall go out with him.”

⁴ If his master has given him a wife, and she has borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master’s, and he shall go out by himself.

— if his master have given him a wife; if, however, the Hebrew slave, being previously unmarried, had been allowed by his master to take to wife one of his female slaves, then, when the husband claimed his freedom, both she and her children remained in his master’s stronghold.

⁵ And if the servant shall plainly say, ‘I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free,’ — if a man has no rights, he is thankful for small mercies, and responds with warm feeling to those who treat him kindly.

⁶ then his master shall bring him unto the judges (Elohim). He shall also bring him to the door or unto the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him for ever. — his master shall bring him unto the judges (Elohimin in the original Hebrew); a formal act, a divine act, santifies by God as if they are God’s envoy, hence these judges are acting as Elohim; “for my name is in him” Exodus 23:21

⁷ “And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do. — if a man sell his daughter; Hebrew girls might be redeemed for a reasonable sum. But in the event of her parents or friends being unable to pay the redemption money, her owner was not at liberty to sell her elsewhere.

⁸ If she please not her master who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed. To sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her. — then shall he let her be redeemed, either by herself or friends, or any other person that will redeem her, but not selling her to a foreigner.

⁹ And if he has betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters. — he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters; as if she was his daughter, and give her a dowry: or the son shall treat her after the manner the daughters of Israel are treated when married;

¹⁰ If he take for himself another wife, her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage shall he not diminish. — her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish; neither deny it her in whole, nor lessen it in part, but give her her full due of each.

¹¹ And if he does not do these three unto her, then shall she go out free, without money. — then shall she go out free without money; be dismissed from her servitude, and not obliged to pay anything for her freedom;

¹² “He that smiteth a man so that he die shall be surely put to death. — shall surely be put to death; by the order of the civil magistrate, and by the hand of such as shall be appointed by him; for this is the law of God;

¹³ And if a man lie not in wait, but God deliver him into his hand, then I will appoint thee a place whither he shall flee. — his life is taken away by him, though not purposely and maliciously; a distinction being drawn between accidental and intentional killing, then I will appoint thee a place, an asylum, whither he shall flee;

¹⁴ But if a man come presumptuously upon his neighbor to slay him with guile, thou shalt take him from Mine altar, that he may die. — if a man come presumptuously; rather, if a man come maliciously, or with premeditation; the Targum says then he may be slain by the sword by the priests;

¹⁵ “And he that smiteth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death. — so sacred and inviolable is that reverence which children owe to their parents, that, by the law of God, it was death not only to strike them, but even to curse or outrageously revile them, Exodus 21:17;

¹⁶ “And he that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he shall be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.

¹⁷ “And he that curseth his father or his mother shall surely be put to death. — and he that curseth his father, or his mother; though he does not smite them with his hand, yet if he smites them with his tongue, or speaks evil of them, shall surely be put to death; or be killed by casting stones, as the Targum of Jonathan, or with stoning;

¹⁸ “And if men strive together and one smite another with a stone or with his fist, and he die not but keepeth to his bed, — the law imposed a fine, which was to be fixed at such an amount as would at once compensate the sufferer for the loss of his time, and defray the cost of his cure in his sick bed.

¹⁹ if he rise again and walk abroad upon his staff, then shall he that smote him be acquitted; he shall only pay for the loss of his time, and shall cause him to be thoroughly healed.

²⁰ “And if a man smite his servant or his maid with a rod, and he die under his hand, he shall be surely punished. — and if a man smite his servant or his maid with a rod; a Canaanitish servant or maid, as the Targum of Jonathan says;

²¹ Notwithstanding, if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished; for he is his money. — for he is his money; that is, his possession bought with his money; 

²² “If men strive and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no misfortune follow, he shall be surely punished according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. — the husband may impose a fine, and if it be unreasonable, the judges shall have a power to moderate it.

²³ And if any misfortune follow, then thou shalt give life for life, — the Targum of Jonathan, “but if there is death in her, then ye shall judge or condemn the life of the murderer for the life of the woman;’

— God intends it to be “life for life” especially against a woman with child; but men feel it too excessive hence soften it to a pecuniary or monetary compensation to be paid;

²⁴ eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, — in civil cases, it was given to regulate the procedure of the public magistrate in determining the amount of compensation in every case of injury, but did not encourage feelings of private revenge;

— but the Son of God says something radically different later, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say unto you that ye resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. Matthew 38-39;

²⁵ burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. — the Targum of Jonathan says, the price of the pain of burning for burning, and indeed, in everyone of these cases, the law could not be well literally executed;

²⁶ “And if a man smite the eye of his servant or the eye of his maid, that it perish, he shall let him go free for his eye’s sake. — this law was made to deter masters from using their servants with cruelty, since they would loose their own profit and advantage.

²⁷ And if he smite out his manservant’s tooth or his maidservant’s tooth, he shall let him go free for his tooth’s sake. — all other principal members of the body, which they reckon to be twenty four, are included, as the fingers, toes and so on;

²⁸ “If an ox gore a man or a woman, so that they die, then the ox shall be surely stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the ox shall be acquitted. — injuries to the person might arise either from man or from animals; protection from both was needed;

— an ox killed by stoning would not be bled in the usual way, and would be “unclean” for food; the flesh should not even be disposed of to the Gentiles, but had to be buried.

²⁹ But if the ox were wont to push with his horn in times past, and it hath been testified to his owner, and he hath not kept him in so that he hath killed a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned and his owner also shall be put to death.

³⁰ If there be laid on him a sum of money, then he shall give for the ransom of his life whatsoever is laid upon him.

— MSG (28-32)

“If an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox must be stoned. The meat cannot be eaten but the owner of the ox is in the clear.

But if the ox has a history of goring and the owner knew it and did nothing to guard against it, then if the ox kills a man or a woman, the ox is to be stoned and the owner given the death penalty.

If a ransom is agreed upon instead of death, he must pay it in full as a redemption for his life. If a son or daughter is gored, the same judgment holds. If it is a slave or a handmaid the ox gores, thirty shekels of silver is to be paid to the owner and the ox stoned.

³¹ Whether he hath gored a son or hath gored a daughter, according to this judgment shall it be done unto him.

³² If the ox shall push a manservant or a maidservant, he shall give unto their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.

³³ “And if a man shall open a pit, or if a man shall dig a pit and not cover it, and an ox or an ass fall therein,

— the MSG (33-34)

“If someone uncovers a cistern or digs a pit and leaves it open and an ox or donkey falls into it, the owner of the pit must pay whatever the animal is worth to its owner but can keep the dead animal.

the owner of the pit shall make it good and give money unto the owner of them, and the dead beast shall be his.

³⁵ And if one man’s ox hurt another’s, so that he die, then they shall sell the live ox and divide the money from it, and the dead ox also they shall divide.

³⁶ Or if it be known that the ox used to push in times past and his owner hath not kept him in, he shall surely pay ox for ox, and the dead shall be his own.

— the MSG (35-36)

“If someone’s ox injures a neighbor’s ox and the ox dies, they must sell the live ox and split the price; they must also split the dead animal. But if the ox had a history of goring and the owner knew it and did nothing to guard against it, the owner must pay an ox for an ox but can keep the dead animal.”

The cases mentioned above give rules of justice then, and the British developed their common law from there, and is still in use for deciding similar matters in many of the Commonwealth of Nations.

We are taught by these laws, that we must be very careful to do no wrong, either directly or indirectly. If we have done wrong, we must be very willing to make it good, and be desirous that nobody may lose by any wrong doing.

Exodus 22

¹ “If a man shall steal an ox or a sheep, and kill it or sell it, he shall restore five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep. — five oxen . . . four sheep; the principle of the variation is not clear; perhaps the theft of an ox was regarded as involving more audacity, and so more guilt in the thief.

² “If a thief be found breaking in and be smitten so that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him. — if a thief, in breaking into a dwelling in the night, was slain, the person who slew him did not incur the guilt of blood;

³ If the sun be risen upon him, there shall be blood shed for him, for he should make full restitution. If he have nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft. — if the sun be risen upon him. If the entry is attempted after daybreak. In this case it is charitably assumed that the thief does not contemplate murder;

— a robber breaking into a house at midnight might, in self-defense, be slain with impunity; but if he was slain after sunrise, it would be considered murder, for it was not thought likely an assault would then be made upon the lives of the occupants. In every case where a thief could not make restitution, he was sold as a slave for the usual term.

⁴ If the theft be certainly found in his hand alive, whether it be ox or ass or sheep, he shall restore double. — if the theft be certainly found in his hand alive; or “in finding be found” be plainly and evidently found upon him, before witnesses; so that there is no doubt of the theft; 

— he shall restore double; two oxen for an ox, two asses for an ass, and two sheep for a sheep; the thief being convicted in his own conscience of his evil, makes confession, or, however, the creatures are found with alive, and so more useful being restored;

⁵ “If a man shall cause a field or vineyard to be eaten, and shall put in his beast and shall feed in another man’s field, of the best of his own field and of the best of his own vineyard shall he make restitution.

⁶ “If fire break out and catch in thorns, so that the stacks of corn or the standing corn or the field be consumed therewith, he that kindled the fire shall surely make restitution.

⁷ “If a man shall deliver unto his neighbor money or stuff to keep, and it be stolen out of the man’s house, if the thief be found, let him pay double.

⁸ If the thief be not found, then the master of the house shall be brought unto the judges to see whether he has put his hand unto his neighbor’s goods.

⁹ “For all manner of trespass, whether it be for ox, for ass, for sheep, for raiment, or for any manner of lost thing which another challengeth to be his, the cause of both parties shall come before the judges; and whom the judges shall condemn, he shall pay double unto his neighbor.

¹⁰ “If a man deliver unto his neighbor an ass, or an ox, or a sheep, or any beast to keep, and it die or be hurt or driven away, no man seeing it,

¹¹ then shall an oath of the Lord be between them both that he hath not put his hand unto his neighbor’s goods; and the owner of it shall accept thereof, and he shall not make it good.

¹² And if it be stolen from him, he shall make restitution unto the owner thereof.

¹³ If it be torn in pieces, then let him bring it for witness, and he shall not make good that which was torn.

¹⁴ “And if a man borrow aught from his neighbor, and it become hurt or die, the owner thereof being not with it, he shall surely make it good.

¹⁵ But if the owner thereof be with it, he shall not make it good; if it be a hired thing, it came for his hire.

¹⁶ “And if a man entice a maid who is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall surely endow her to be his wife.

The cases mentioned above give rules of justice then, and the British developed their common law from there, and is still in use for deciding similar matters in many of the Commonwealth of Nations.

We are taught by these laws, that we must be very careful to do no wrong, either directly or indirectly. If we have done wrong, we must be very willing to make it good, and be desirous that nobody may lose by any wrong doing.

¹⁷ If her father utterly refuse to give her unto him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins. — if her father refused to give her to him, he was to weigh (pay) money equivalent to the dowry of maidens, that is, to pay the father just as much for the disgrace brought upon him by the seduction of his daughter, as maidens would receive for a dowry upon their marriage.

¹⁸ “Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. — the fact that witchcraft is often nothing but jugglery to deceive the people, and only those witches were to be put to death who would not give up their witchcraft assisted by evil spirits when it was forbidden. —

¹⁹ “Whosoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to death. — according to the Targum of Jonathan, the death of such a person was by stoning, for it says, he “shall be stoned to death.”

²⁰ “He that sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the Lord only, he shall be utterly destroyed. — according to the Targum of Jonathan, the death of such a person “shall be slain with the sword;”

²¹ “Thou shalt neither vex a stranger nor oppress him, for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. — thou shall not vex a stranger; one that is not born in Israel, but comes into another country to sojourn;

— nor oppress him; by taking his goods, by refusing to assist him with advice when asked, to trade with him, or to give him lodging, and furnish him with the necessaries of life.

²² Ye shall not afflict any widow or fatherless child. — law against oppressing widows and orphans. With the stranger are naturally placed the widow and orphan; like him, weak and defenceless; like him, special objects of God’s care.

²³ If thou afflict them in any wise, and they cry at all unto Me, I will surely hear their cry; — I will surely hear their cry; the Targum of Jonathan says, “I will hear the voice of their prayer, and will avenge them.”

²⁴ and My wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with the sword; and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless. — and I will kill you with the sword; with the sword, says the Targum of Jonathan;

— it designs one of God’s sore judgments, the sword; the meaning is, that when such evils should become frequent among them, God would suffer a neighbouring nation to break in upon them in an hostile way, and put them to the sword;

²⁵ “If thou lend money to any of My people who are poor among thee, thou shalt not be to him as a usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury. — interest not to be taken on money lent to the poor; especially to fellow Israelites;

— on the other hand, the lending of money upon interest to foreigners was distinctly allowed (Deuteronomy 23:20), and no limit placed upon the amount of interest that might be taken.

²⁶ If thou at all take thy neighbor’s raiment in pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by the time the sun goeth down, — if he gave his upper garment as a pledge, he was to give it him back towards sunset, because it was his only covering; as the poorer classes use them as garment for warmth;

²⁷ for that is his only covering. It is his raiment for his skin. Wherein shall he sleep? And it shall come to pass, when he crieth unto Me, that I will hear, for I am gracious.

— for I am gracious; or equitable; and therefore everything cruel and uncompassionate is abominable to him, and he will take care in his providence that the injured person shall be redressed and the injurer punished.

²⁸ “Thou shalt not revile the judges, nor curse the ruler of thy people. — Thou shalt not revile, speak evil, show disrespect, to the judges and magistrates, for they are also acting as ‘ělôhı̂ym, or as gods;

²⁹ “Thou shalt not delay to offer the first of thy ripe fruits and of thy liquors. The firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto Me. — like the firstfruits of the soil, the firstborn of men and animals are also to be given to God; who spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for all of us as well.

³⁰ Likewise shalt thou do with thine oxen and with thy sheep: seven days it shall be with his dam; on the eighth day thou shalt give it to Me.

— the main object of forbidding sacrifice before the eighth day would appear to have being in regard for the health and comfort of the mother, which needed the relief obtained by suckling of its offspring;

³¹ “And ye shall be holy men unto Me; neither shall ye eat any flesh that is torn by beasts in the field: ye shall cast it to the dogs.

— neither shall ye eat any flesh that is torn of beasts; partly, because the blood was not taken out of it; partly, because the clean beast was ceremonially defiled by the touch of the unclean.

Posted in Books of Moses

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Exodus 19

¹ In the third month after the children of Israel had gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the Wilderness of Sinai. — the Targum of Jonathan says “In the third month of the Exodus of the sons of Israel from the land of Mizraim, on that day, the first of the month, came they to the desert;”

² For they had departed from Rephidim, and had come to the desert of Sinai and had pitched camp in the wilderness; and there Israel camped before the mount. — for they were departed from Rephidim; after they had fought with Amalek, and came to the western part of the mount to Horeb, where the rock was smitten for them; and they were come from that now, and encamped at Sinai;

³ And Moses went up unto God, and the Lord called unto him out of the mountain, saying, “Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: — and Moses went up unto God; who was in the pillar of cloud upon the top of the mount; this was on the second day, according to the Targum of Jonathan: “the Lord called unto him out of the mountain;”

⁴ ‘Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you unto Myself. — the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem paraphrase the words, “and I bore you on clouds, as on eagles’ wings;” which covered and protected and sustained them, as the eagles’ wings do its young;

⁵ Now therefore, if ye will obey My voice indeed and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.

— above all people: for all the earth is mine; while claiming a peculiar right in Israel, God does not mean to separate Himself from the other nations, to cease to care for them, or give them up to their own devices;

— He is always “the Most High over all the earth” (Psalm 83:18), “a light to lighten the Gentiles,” one who “judges the people righteously, and governs all the nations upon earth” (Psalm 67:4). Israel’s prerogative does not rob them of their birthright. He maybe the favoured son; but they, too, “are, all of them, children of the Most High” (Psalm 82:6).

⁶ And ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.” — “if ye will obey My voice indeed and keep My covenant” ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation;

— and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests; instead of being in a state of servitude and bondage, as they had been in Egypt; and an holy nation” being separated from all others, and devoted to the worship and service of the true God.

⁷ And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the Lord commanded him. — Moses called for the elders, they formed the usual channel of communication between Moses and the people, reporting his words to them, and theirs to him.

⁸ And all the people answered together and said, “All that the Lord hath spoken we will do.” And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord. — all that the Lord hath spoken we will do; obey his voice in all things he directs unto, or keep the covenant he should make with them, and observe whatever was required on their parts;

⁹ And the Lord said unto Moses, “Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee for ever.” And Moses told the words of the people unto the Lord. — and the Lord said unto Moses; and the Targum of Jonathan added, on the third day;

¹⁰ And the Lord said unto Moses, “Go unto the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes — and let them wash their clothes; which to be understood both of their garments and their bodies also; teaching them by these outward things the necessity of internal purity and holiness, to appear before God;

¹¹ and be ready against the third day; for the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai. — and be ready against the third day; not the third day of the month, but the third day from hence, this being the fourth, and the morrow the fifth, and the third day, the day following that, the sixth;

— for the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai; which must be understood, consistent with his omnipresence, and is only expressive of some visible display of his power, and of some sensible token of his presence to the people;

¹² And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, ‘Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount or touch the border of it. Whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death. — whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death; which severe law was made to deter them from any attempt to go up the mountain, since it was death even to touch it;

¹³ There shall not a hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned or shot through; whether it be beast or man, it shall not live.’ When the trumpet soundeth long, they shall come up to the mount.”

— the Targum of Jonathan seems to understand it, as if punishment would be immediately inflicted upon such a person, not by the hands of men, but by the hand of God; for it says, such an one shall be stoned with hailstones, and fiery darts shall be spread upon him; or, as the Jerusalem Targum, shall be shot at him.

¹⁴ And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people; and they washed their clothes. — and Moses went down from the mount unto the people; the same day that he went up, the fourth day of the month:

— touch it; rather “touch him,” the person who had touched the mount was not to be touched, since the contact would be pollution.

¹⁵ And he said unto the people, “Be ready against the third day. Come not at your wives.” — come not at your wives; it was the general sentiment of antiquity that a ceremonial uncleanness attached even to the chastest sexual connection.

¹⁶ And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled.

— there were thunders, and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled, at the sound of it being so loud and terrible, it pierced their ears and hearts;

¹⁷ And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the nether part of the mount. — out of the camp; an open space outside the camp before the mountain into which Moses led the representatives of the people, their officials so bringing them as near to God as was permitted.

¹⁸ And Mount Sinai was altogether in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly. — the whole mount quaked greatly, as in Psalm 68:8, “The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God: even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God.”

— because the Lord descended upon it in fire; in flaming fire, as the Targum says, which set the mountain on fire, and caused this prodigious smoke; for if he, who is a consuming fire, but toucheth the hills and mountains, they smoke, Psalm 104:32;

— the Targum:

And all the mount of Sinai was in flame; for the heavens had overspread it, and He was revealed over it in flaming fire, and the smoke went up as the smoke of a furnace, and all the mountain quaked greatly.

¹⁹ And when the voice of the trumpet sounded long and waxed louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by a voice.

— Moses spake; what he said is not here recorded; it is highly probable, as has been observed by some, that he uttered those words related of him in Hebrews 12:21 “I exceedingly fear and quake”: such an impression did this loud and strong voice of the trumpet make upon him:

— and God answered him by a voice; a still and gentle one, in order to encourage and comfort him; and so the Targum of Jonathan paraphrases it, “with a gracious and majestic voice, and pleasant and gracious words.”

²⁰ And the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mount; and the Lord called Moses up to the top of the mount, and Moses went up. — and the Lord called Moses up to the top of the mount; who either was at the bottom of it with the people, or in a higher ascent of it between God and them;

²¹ And the Lord said unto Moses, “Go down. Charge the people, lest they break through to gaze unto the Lord, and many of them perish. — charge the people, lest they break through unto the Lord to gaze; to see if they could observe any similitude or likeness of God,

— that they might make an image like unto it; to prevent which, the Lord, knowing the vanity and curiosity of their minds, ordered Moses to give them a strict charge not to transgress the bounds set them, or whatever was placed for bounds;

²² And let the priests also, who come near to the Lord, sanctify themselves, lest the Lord break forth upon them.” — and let the priests also, which come near unto the Lord; either the firstborn, as the Jews generally interpret it, or the sons of Aaron, who should be, and were potentially, though not official actually priests;

²³ And Moses said unto the Lord, “The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai; for Thou charged us, saying, ‘Set bounds about the mount and sanctify it.’” — for thou chargedst us, saying, set bounds about the mount, and sanctify it; and accordingly bounds have been set,

— that the people may not go up it, and the place has been declared sacred, that so none will presume to do it, according to the solemn charge that has been given;

²⁴ And the Lord said unto him, “Away! Get thee down, and thou shalt come up, thou and Aaron with thee; but let not the priests and the people break through to come up unto the Lord, lest He break forth upon them.”

— but let not the priests and the people break through to come up unto the Lord, lest he break forth upon them; it required the immediate presence of Moses below, and immediate care was to be taken by him;

— lest the priests and people, led by a vain curiosity, should attempt to ascend the mount, and come to where God was, to see if they could observe any likeness of him; which would so provoke him, that in just retaliation, as they had broke through the bounds set, he would break forth on them by inflicting sudden death upon them.

²⁵ So Moses went down unto the people and spoke unto them. — and spake unto them: charging them to keep their distance, and not presume to pass the line he had drawn, or the fence he had made.

Exodus 20

¹ And God spoke all these words, saying: — ‘I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt.’ God speaks to the nation as a whole, establishing a special relation between Himself and them, which is founded on His redeeming act, and is reciprocal, requiring that they should be His people, as He is their God;

² “I am the Lord thy God, who have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. — which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt: where they had been afflicted many years, and reduced to great distress, but were brought forth with an high hand;

— out of the house of bondage: where they had been servants and slaves, but now were made free, and were become a body politic, a kingdom of themselves, under their Lord, King, Lawgiver.

³ “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. — there shall not be to thee another god, or other gods, to wit, idols, which others have, esteem, and worship as gods;

⁴ “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. — anything that is in heaven; as of God, Deu 4:15 Isaiah 44:9,20, angels, sun, moon, or stars, which the heathens worshipped, Deu 4:19 17:3.

— or in the earth; as of men, and beasts; or in the water; as of fishes, such as Dagon was; or serpents, crocodiles, and such other Egyptian deities; although Moses only speaks of idols, there is no doubt that by implication he condemns all the forms of false worship, which men have invented for themselves.

⁵ Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them; for I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate Me, — unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; as all idolaters must be thought to do;

— “the third and fourth generation” of them that hate me, the term is a strong one, and denotes those who persistently and defiantly oppose themselves to God, because sometimes parents lived to see these, and so with their eyes beheld the punishment inflicted upon their posterity for their sins;

⁶ and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love Me and keep My commandments. — showing mercy unto thousands; rather, to the thousandth generation, as is distinctly expressed in Deuteronomy 7:9.

⁷ “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh His name in vain. — the Lord will not hold him guiltless; punishment will assuredly overtake the perjured man, if not in this life, then in another.

⁸ “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. — it is taken for granted, that the sabbath was instituted before. God’s blessing and sanctifying a seventh day is derivedn right from the beginning, (Genesis 2:3) so that this was not the enacting of a new law, but the reviving of an old law.

⁹ Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work; — that all should be done on the six days that could possibly be done, and nothing left to be done on the seventh;

¹⁰ but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates. — resting from every work is the basis of the observance of the Sabbath; it shall be a day of holy rest from things worldly, and of devotion to things heavenly;

¹¹ For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. — the Lord blessed the sabbath day, that is, made it a day of blessing; as of conferring his blessings and favours upon those that religiously observe it.

¹² “Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. — that thy days may be long, that their, that is, thy parents, may prolong thy days, or the days of thy parents’ life;

¹³ “Thou shalt not kill. — from the peculiar duties owed by children to their parents, the Divine legislator went on to lay down those general duties which men owe to their fellow-men.

¹⁴ “Thou shalt not commit adultery. — thou shalt not commit adultery; this commandment forbids all acts of uncleanness, with all those desires which produce those acts and war against all kinds of filthiness, as bestiality, sodomy, whoredom, fornication.

¹⁵ “Thou shalt not steal. — either by deceit or violence, or without his knowledge and consent, take away another man’s goods;

¹⁶ “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. — this forbids; speaking falsely in any matter, laying false charges, lying, equivocating, and any way devising and designing to deceive our neighbour.

¹⁷ “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s.” — thou shalt not covet; the foregoing commands implicitly forbid all desire of doing that which will be an injury to our neighbour;

¹⁸ And all the people saw the thunderings and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they removed and stood afar off. — and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off; their minds were not only terrified and distressed, and their bodies shook with fear;

— but they could not stand their ground, but were obliged to retreat, who but just before were curious to draw near, and gaze and see what they could; the Targum says, and the people stood twelve miles off;

¹⁹ And they said unto Moses, “Speak thou with us and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die.” — let not God speak with us, lest we die; the phenomena of thunder and lightning had been one of the plagues so fatal to Egypt, and as they heard God speaking to them now, they were apprehensive of instant death also.

²⁰ And Moses said unto the people, “Fear not; for God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.”

— fear not; that is, think not that this thunder and fire are designed to consume you; but that his dreadful manifestation of his majesty and justice, may be now and ever before your eyes, and in your memories, as an effectual preservative from straying away from him.

²¹ And the people stood afar off, and Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was. — the Targum says in verse 18 above, the distance was twelve miles off;

— and Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was; the thick cloud, and so Moses passed through the darkness, and the cloud, to the thick darkness where יְהוָה Yehovah was;

²² And the Lord said unto Moses, “Thus thou shalt say unto the children of Israel: ‘Ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven. — ye have seen that I have talked with you from heaven; descending on Mount Sinai in a cloud and fire, and talked with them out of the cloud and fire, and delivered to them with an audible voice the above ten commands;

²³ Ye shall not make with Me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold. — to make Gods of silver and gods of gold are specially forbidden, because it was idolatry of the same kind; the golden calf or any molten images is no isolated phenomenon;

— Jeroboam set up molten images at Dan and Bethel for the northern Ten Tribes but there were no uprising! “Dead fish goes with the flow!”

²⁴ An altar of earth thou shalt make unto Me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings and thy peace offerings, thy sheep and thine oxen. In all places where I record My name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee. — in all places where I record my name; or where my name is recorded; or, “cause it to be mentioned” that is, where I am worshipped in sincerity; I will come unto thee, and will bless thee;

Note the Five types of Offerings summarised in Leviticus:

Leviticus 1:2 “Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them: ‘If any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord

Leviticus 1:3 ‘If his offering be a burnt sacrifice
Leviticus 2:1 ‘And when any will offer a meat offering
Leviticus 3:1 ‘And if his oblation be a sacrifice of peace offering
Leviticus 4:3 ‘If the priest … a young bullock … for a sin offering
Leviticus 5:6 ‘And he shall bring his trespass offering

Compare to the Five types of Offerings during the Millennium in Ezekiel:

Ezekiel 46:12 ‘Now when the prince prepares a voluntary burnt offering, or peace offerings unto the Lord
Ezekiel 44:29 ‘They shall eat the meat offering and the sin offering and the trespass offering

²⁵ And if thou wilt make Me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone; for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it. — thou hast polluted it; and so made it unfit for use: how this should be done hereby is not easy to understand; no good reason seems easy to human understanding but probably the will and pleasure of God (Gill);

— the real object was that altars should not be elaborately carved with objects that might superinduce idolatry: Pulpit Commentary;

— the Targum of Jonathan

And you, the priests, who stand to minister before Me, shall not ascend to My altar by steps, but by (sloping) bridges; that thy shame may not be seen thereupon.

²⁶ Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto Mine altar, that thy nakedness be not uncovered thereon.’ — Neither shalt thou go up by steps unto mine altar; but afterward God appointed an altar ten cubits high. One can speculate they went not up to that by steps, but by a sloping ascent.

— MSG

God said to Moses, “Give this Message to the People of Israel: ‘You’ve experienced firsthand how I spoke with you from Heaven. Don’t make gods of silver and gods of gold and then set them alongside me. Make me an earthen Altar. Sacrifice your Whole-Burnt-Offerings, your Peace-Offerings, your sheep, and your cattle on it.

Every place where I cause my name to be honored in your worship, I’ll be there myself and bless you. If you use stones to make my Altar, don’t use dressed stones. If you use a chisel on the stones you’ll profane the Altar. Don’t use steps to climb to my Altar because that will expose your nakedness.’”

Posted in Books of Moses

Exodus 17

¹ And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the Wilderness of Sin after their journeys, according to the commandment of the Lord, and pitched camp in Rephidim; and there was no water for the people to drink. — being a sandy desert place there was no water for the people to drink.

² Therefore the people chided Moses and said, “Give us water that we may drink.” And Moses said unto them, “Why chide ye me? Why do ye tempt the Lord?” — and Moses said unto them, why chide ye with me? as if it was I that brought you hither,

— whereas it is the Lord that goes before you in the pillar of cloud and fire, and as if I kept water from you, or could give it you at pleasure; how unreasonable, as well as how ungenerous is it in you to chide with me on this account;

³ And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses and said, “Why is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?” — to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst: which is intolerable to any, and especially to children and cattle, which require frequent drinking;

⁴ And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, “What shall I do unto this people? They are almost ready to stone me!” — they be almost ready to stone me; this is the first which we hear of stoning as a punishment.

⁵ And the Lord said unto Moses, “Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod with which thou smotest the river, take in thine hand and go. — go on before the people, lead them on nearer to Mount Sinai or Horeb, within sight of which they now were; “and see if they will stone thee.”

⁶ Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink.” And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. — I will stand before thee there, in my cloudy pillar, which shall stand over that place.

⁷ And he called the name of the place Massah [that is, Temptation], and Meribah [that is, Chiding], because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

— Is the Lord among us or not? to protect and provide for us according to his word; will he be as good as his word, or will he not? Words which implied that to them it was very doubtful.

⁸ Then came Amalek and fought with Israel in Rephidim. — then came Amalek, a grandson of Esau; the Amalekites had not been previously (except in the anticipatory flashforwarding in Genesis 14:7) mentioned as a tribe or nation;

— their hatred could be the old grudge of the children of Esau returning against the children of Israel; because of the affair of the birthright and blessing which Jacob stole from Esau, who were now on their march for the land of Canaan, claiming their birthright land which came to children of Esau thereby;

⁹ And Moses said unto Joshua, “Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand.” — Joshua; he was a prince of the tribe of Ephraim; chosen as a leader to fight the Amalekites;

¹⁰ So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek; and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.

— Hur; according to Josephus (Ant. Jud., iii. 2, § 4) Hur was the husband of Miriam, and so the brother-in-law of Moses and Aaron. He was a descendant of Judah through Pharez and Hezron;

— to the top of the hill; to the top of Mount Sinai or Horeb, not so much to see the battle fought, as to be seen by Joshua and his warriors;

¹¹ And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed; and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. — Moses was getting old and was tired; his strongest arm will fail with being long held out; but it is God only whose hand is stretched out still;

¹² But Moses’ hands were heavy; and they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat thereon. And Aaron and Hur held up his hands, the one on the one side and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.

— both the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem paraphrase the words, “when Moses lift up his hands in prayer, the house of Israel prevailed, but when he restrained his hands from prayer, the house of Amalek prevailed.”

¹³ And Joshua discomfited Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. — Amalek being distinguished from “his people” has established a strong sense that Amalek was the title of their king, or chief of the army (hence Chief Amalek in Genesis 36:16), and that it became the title to the kings of that nation of the Amalekites, as Pharaoh was to the kings of Egypt, or Caesar to Rome;

— that’s a significant truth; a truth during Moses time during the Exodus; more probable, later, is that the name Agag had evolved into a title for their king in place of Amalek; as stated by Balaam, employed by the king of the Moabites, to pronounce a ‘curse:’ 

“He (the children of Israel) shall pour the water out of his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters; and his king shall be higher than Agag (hence, used in this way, it is more likely that Agag is the title of a king rather than the name of one king; and Agag was named as the king of the Amalekites in Samuel’s experience: 1 Samuel 15:8), and his kingdom (of Israel) shall be exalted” Numbers 24:7.

¹⁴ And the Lord said unto Moses, “Write this for a memorial in a book, and recount it in the ears of Joshua; for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.” — I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek; the extermination of Amalek, here prophesied, was partly accomplished in part by Saul (1 Samuel 15:8) and David (1 Samuel 30:17);

— Moses must write what had been done, what Amalek had done against Israel; write their bitter hatred; write their cruel attempts; let them never be forgotten, nor what God had done for Israel in saving them from Amalek.

¹⁵ And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovahnissi [that is, The Lord my banner]; — Moses built an altar; primarily, no doubt, to sacrifice thank-offerings upon it, as an acknowledgment of the Divine help in giving Israel the victory.

¹⁶ for he said, “Because the Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.” — the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation; until they are utterly destroyed; and so in fact he had, and thus it was;

— the Targum of Jonathan is, “he by his word will make war against those that are of the house of Amalek, and destroy them to three generations, from the generation of this world, from the generation of the Messiah, and from the generation of the world to come.”

Exodus 18

¹ When Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father-in-law, heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel His people, and that the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt,

— as both the Amalekites and Midianites were descended from Abraham, and stood in blood-relationship to Israel, the different attitudes which they assumed towards the Israelites foreshadowed and typified the twofold attitude which the heathen world would assume towards the kingdom of God.

² then Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after Moses had sent her back — after he had sent her back: upon his call and mission to Egypt, he took his wife and children with him; but upon an affair which occurred in the inn by the way, he sent them back again to his father-in-law, where they had remained ever since;

³ and her two sons (of whom the name of the one was Gershom [that is, A stranger there], for he said, “I have been an alien in a strange land”; — for he said, I have been an alien in a strange land; meaning, not the land of Egypt, where he was born, and had lived forty years; but in the land of Midian, where he was when this son of his was born;

⁴ and the name of the other was Eliezer [that is, My God is a help], “For the God of my father,” said he, “was my help and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh”);

⁵ and Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, came with his sons and his wife unto Moses into the wilderness, where he encamped at the mount of God. — is there a possibility that Caleb as a young man met an aging Moses “in the land of Midian?”

— Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite Numbers 32:12; these were chiefs of the sons of Esau: Eliphaz, Teman, Omar, Zepho, Kenaz; and could the Kenizzites be the sons of Kenaz? Genesis 36:15

⁶ And he said unto Moses, “I, thy father-in-law Jethro, have come unto thee and thy wife and her two sons with her.” — the Targum of Jonathan adds, “I, thy father-in-law Jethro, have come to thee to be a proselyte;”

⁷ And Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, and did obeisance and kissed him; and they asked each other of their welfare, and they came into the tent.

⁸ And Moses told his father-in-law all that the Lord had done unto Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, and all the travail that had come upon them by the way, and how the Lord delivered them. — and how the Lord delivered them; out of all this travail and trouble, and out of the hands of all their enemies, Egyptians and Amalekites.

⁹ And Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which the Lord had done to Israel, whom He had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians. — being a proselyte, Jethro, a Midianite, a descendant of Abraham by Keturah, rejoiced for all the goodness which the Lord had done to Israel;

¹⁰ And Jethro said, “Blessed be the Lord, who hath delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh, who hath delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians.

¹¹ Now I know that the Lord is greater than all gods; for in the thing wherein they dealt proudly, He was above them.”

¹² And Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God; and Aaron came, and all the elders of Israel, to eat bread with Moses’ father-in-law before God. — Jethro took a burnt offering and sacrifices for God; Jethro had brought sacrifices with him, and now offered them in token of his thankfulness for God’s mercies towards himself and towards his kinsman;

— Jethro was a priest in Midian, and a worshipper of the true God, and the priesthood was not yet settled to be Aaron and his sons in Israel; and they did eat bread before God, indicating such an offering and feast was accepted by God;

¹³ And it came to pass on the morrow that Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening (hā·‘ā·reḇ). — it may be probable that numerous cases of difficulty arose out of the division of the spoil of the Amalekites;

¹⁴ And when Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he did for the people, he said, “What is this thing that thou doest for the people? Why sittest thou thyself alone, and all the people stand by thee from morning unto evening?” — why sittest thou thyself alone? the emphatic word is “alone.” Why dost thou not, Jethro means, to palm out some of the duty upon others?

¹⁵ And Moses said unto his father-in-law, “Because the people come unto me to inquire of God. — because the people come unto me to inquire of God; in doubtful cases, what was his will, and to desire Moses to inform them; which in later times was done by the Sanhedrin and Urim and Thummim; hence giving birth and growth of the Oral Law.

¹⁶ When they have a matter, they come unto me, and I judge between one and another, and I make them know the statutes of God and His laws.” — if the laws and statutes of God had yet been given on Mount Sinai, the people would be ignorant of them, and so needed not such daily judgement and instruction from Moses.

¹⁷ And Moses’ father-in-law said unto him, “The thing that thou doest is not good. — Moses was occupied from morning till evening in judging the people; hence it was not good for his health;

¹⁸ Thou wilt surely wear away, both thou and this people who are with thee. For this thing is too heavy for thee. Thou art not able to perform it thyself alone. — for this thing is too heavy for thee: it was too great a burden upon his shoulders, what his strength was not equal to;

¹⁹ Hearken now unto my voice! I will give thee counsel, and God shall be with thee: Be thou for the people to Godward, that thou mayest bring the causes unto God. — may Go be with thee; may he give thee wisdom to direct the right course.

²⁰ And thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws, and shalt show them the way wherein they must walk and the work that they must do. — thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws; or “statutes and laws.”

²¹ Moreover thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God — men of truth, hating covetousness — and place such over them to be rulers of thousands and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties and rulers of tens. — the word “rulers” sometimes rendered “princes” is general, including all ranks of officials placed in command;

— men of truth; true men, sincere, upright, and faithful men, that love truth and hate lies and falsehood; hating covetousness; in themselves and others, filthy lucre, dishonest gain, mammon of unrighteousness, and so not to be bribed and corrupted, and execute wrong judgment for the sake of money.

²² And let them judge the people at all seasons; and it shall be that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge. So shall it be easier for thyself, and they shall bear the burden with thee.

— the people at all times; in their districts, whenever a matter of difference between man and man arises, and the case is brought before them, let them judge impartially between them, and determine what is right and wrong, and execute judgment and justice truly; which would take off a great deal of business from the hands of Moses;

— and it be that every great matter they shall bring to thee; any affair of great importance, and difficult of determination, and about which the judges may have some doubt in their minds, and they are not clear as to the decision of it; this, they the judges, not the people, were to bring to Moses.

²³ If thou shalt do this thing and God command thee so, then thou shalt be able to endure, and all this people shall also go to their place in peace.” — then thou shall be able to endure; to continue in his office and post, and hold on for decades to come, God granting him life and health; whereas otherwise, his time would be wasted in ruin;

²⁴ So Moses hearkened to the voice of his father-in-law, and did all that he had said. — so Moses hearkened to the voice of Jethro; considered what he said, weighed it well in his mind, and judged it good advice, and determined to put them into action;

²⁵ And Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people: rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. — and made them heads over the people; rulers, governors, judges, and officials;

— according to the Targum of Jonathan, the rabbans or rulers of thousands were six hundred, rulers of hundreds 6000, rulers of fifties 12,000, and the rulers of tens 60,000;

²⁶ And they judged the people at all seasons. The hard causes they brought unto Moses, but every small matter they judged themselves. — only those causes which seemed “hard” to the “rulers of thousands” were brought before Moses for decision.

²⁷ And Moses let his father-in-law depart, and he went his way into his own land. — and Moses went his way into his own land; the land of Midian: the Targum of Jonathan, “he went to proselyte all the children of his own country.”

Posted in Books of Moses

Exodus 15

¹ Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spoke, saying, “I will sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea.

— then sang Moses and the children of Israel; the scene of this thanksgiving song is supposed to have been at the landing place on the eastern shore of the Red Sea, at Ayoun Musa, “the fountains of Moses.”

² The Lord is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation; He is my God, and I will prepare Him a habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt Him.

³ The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is His name. — God’s name is the four-letter Hebrew word יהוה‎ YHVH Yehovah (not Yahweh, since it is only used among the Samaritan communities; and not Jehovah since the letter J wasn’t around but only after the sixteenth century; (more on this at the end);

⁴ Pharaoh’s chariots and his host hath He cast into the sea; his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea.

⁵ The depths have covered them; they sank into the bottom as a stone. — they sunk into the bottom as a stone; into the bottom of the sea, as a stone thrown into anybody of water sinks and rises not up again;

⁶ Thy right hand, O Lord, has become glorious in power; Thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy. — thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy; in a literal sense, Pharaoh and his host, the avowed enemies of Israel;

⁷ And in the greatness of Thine excellency Thou hast overthrown them that rose up against Thee; Thou sentest forth Thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble.

⁸ And with the blast of Thy nostrils the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as a heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea. — the blast of God’s nostrils corresponds to the east wind, which drove the waters back;

⁹ The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them. I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy them.’

¹⁰ Thou didst blow with Thy wind, the sea covered them; they sank as lead in the mighty waters. — they sunk as lead in the mighty waters; which is a very heavy metal, and, being cast into the water, sinks to the bottom at once, as did the Egyptians in the Red sea;

¹¹ “Who is like unto Thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like Thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?

¹² Thou stretchedst out Thy right hand; the earth swallowed them. — the earth swallowed them; the sea, which actually “swallowed them,” is a part of the earth.

¹³ Thou in Thy mercy hast led forth the people whom Thou hast redeemed; Thou hast guided them in Thy strength unto Thy holy habitation.

¹⁴ “The people shall hear and be afraid; sorrow shall take hold on the inhabitants of Palestina. — the peoples: all the various tribes of the desert of Palestine—the Amalekites, Edomites, Philistines, Moabites, Amorites—

¹⁵ Then the chiefs of Edom shall be amazed; the mighty men of Moab, trembling shall take hold upon them; all the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away.

— all the inhabitants of Canaan shall melt away; as their hearts did, through fear, when they heard what God did for Israel against the Egyptians and the Amorites, and understood that they were upon the march to their land to dispossess them;

— the Edomites of Mount Seir and the Moabites gave Israel a free passage through their borders (Deuteronomy 2:4-8, 18, 29), being afraid to oppose them

¹⁶ Fear and dread shall fall upon them. By the greatness of Thine arm they shall be as still as a stone, till Thy people pass over^{ya·‘ă·ḇōr5674}, O Lord, till the people pass over^{ya·‘ă·ḇōr5674}, whom Thou hast purchased. — till thy people pass over (ya·‘ă·ḇōr⁵⁶⁷⁴); that is, cross the frontier of the Canaanites, and enter their country.

¹⁷ Thou shalt bring them in and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, which Thou hast made for Thee to dwell in, in the sanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have established. —in the mountain of thine inheritance; some suppose Mount Moriah to be especially intended;

— but it is better to understand Canaan generally, which is a country consisting almost entirely of mountains, with only two plains of any extent—those of Sharon and Esdraelon.

¹⁸ The Lord shall reign for ever and ever.” — the Lord shall reign; this concludes the whole song, by which Moses not only expresses his own faith and that of the people in God’s everlasting kingdom;

¹⁹ For the horse of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and the Lord brought again the waters of the sea upon them; but the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea.

— but the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea; which was a very wonderful thing, and was a just and sufficient reason for singing the above song to the Lord;

²⁰ And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. — her name Miriam is the same as Mary; Miriam is called a prophetess, Numbers 12:2 because she and Aaron had evidently received divine communications.

²¹ And Miriam answered them: “Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea!”

²² So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the Wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. — and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water; which must be very distressing to such a vast number of people and cattle, in a hot, sandy, desert;

²³ And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah [that is, Bitterness].

²⁴ And the people murmured against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?”

²⁵ And he cried unto the Lord; and the Lord showed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There He made for them a statute and an ordinance, and there He put them to the proof,

— the waters were made sweet, not so much by any virtue in that tree, as by the power of God, who used this rather as a sign to the Israelites, than as an instrument to himself in this work.

²⁶ and said, “If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in His sight, and wilt give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee which I have brought upon the Egyptians; for I am the Lord that healeth thee.”

— for I am the Lord that healeth thee; both in body and soul; in body, by preserving from diseases, and by curing them when afflicted with them; and in soul, by pardoning their iniquities, which, in Scripture, is sometimes signified by healing.

²⁷ And they came to Elim, where were twelve wells of water and threescore and ten palm trees; and they encamped there by the waters.

— they came to Elim. Elim was undoubtedly some spot in the comparatively fertile tract which lies south of the “wilderness of Shur,” intervening between it and the “wilderness of Sin.”

Exodus 16

¹ And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the Wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt.

— they took their journey from Elim; the stay at Elim was probably for some days. “Sin” was reached on the fifteenth day of the second month, exactly one month after the departure from Egypt;

² And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.

— murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness; in the wilderness of Sin, where they were, and where no corn was to be had to make bread of; and their murmuring was not only against Moses, as before when they wanted water, but against Aaron also, who were jointly concerned in bringing them out of Egypt.

³ And the children of Israel said unto them, “Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and when we ate bread to the full! For ye have brought us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

— to kill this whole assembly with hunger; it is difficult to imagine that there could have been as yet any real danger of starvation. The sheep, the cattle, may have suffered in the passage through the wilderness of Shur, but the bulk of them would survive;

— would to God we had died; they so undervalue their deliverance, that they wish they had died in Egypt; nay, and died by the hand of the Lord too; that is, by some of the plagues which cut off the Egyptians;

⁴ Then said the Lord unto Moses, “Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a certain rate every day, that I may put them to the proof, whether they will walk in My law, or no.

— that I may prove them, whether they will walk in my law or no; by this single instance of their obedience to his will in going out every morning to gather their bread;

— that should be rained for them, he proposed to try and prove their obedience to his law in all other respects; what regard would be had to it when it should be given, and what might be expected from them, and likewise whether they would depend upon his providence in this case also.

⁵ And it shall come to pass that on the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily.” — on the sixth day; that is, the sixth day after the first giving of the manna;

— and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily: on that day should be rained double what fell on other days, and so twice as much should be gathered up; 

⁶ And Moses and Aaron said unto all the children of Israel, “At evening (ḇā·‘e·reḇ), then ye shall know that the Lord hath brought you out from the land of Egypt;

— at even (ḇā·‘e·reḇ), then ye shall know that the Lord hath brought you out from the land of Egypt: that they were brought out they knew, but they make this to be an act and deed of Moses and Aaron;

⁷ and in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the Lord, for He heareth your murmurings against the Lord. And what are we, that ye murmur against us?” — and in the morning, then ye shall see the glory of the Lord; as displayed by raining bread around their tents;

⁸ And Moses said, “This shall be when the Lord shall give you in the evening flesh to eat and in the morning bread to the full, for the Lord heareth your murmurings which ye murmur against Him. And what are we? Your murmurings are not against us, but against the Lord.”

— Moses said, “You will know this when the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening and bread in the morning to satisfy you;

⁹ And Moses spoke unto Aaron, “Say unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, ‘Come near before the Lord, for He hath heard your murmurings.’” — and Moses spake unto Aaron, who was his prophet and spokesman to the people: say unto all the congregation of the children of Israel;

¹⁰ And it came to pass, as Aaron spoke unto the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud.

— and, behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud; which went before them; there was a more than common brightness in it, an effulgence and beam of light and glory shining in it.

¹¹ And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, — and the Lord spake unto Moses, out of the bright and glorious cloud: saying;

¹² “I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel. Speak unto them, saying, ‘At evening ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God.’”

— at evening (bên hā·‘ar·bā·yim “between the two evenings,” which is from noon to sunset); ye shall know that I am the Lord your God;

— this gave proof of his power as the Lord, and his particular favour to them as their God; when God plagued the Egyptians, it was to make them know that he is the Lord; when he provided for the Israelites, it was to make them know that he was their God.

¹³ And it came to pass that at evening (ḇā·‘e·reḇ) the quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning the dew lay round about the host.

— there are other meanings or applications for ḇā·‘e·reḇ but only one is revelant here, and that is, from noon to sunset; it was the time frame, the same time as bên hā·‘ar·bā·yim in the previous verse; yes in this case they mean the same or having the same time overlap;

— some misguided would like to think that the Scriptures define what ḇā·‘e·reḇ and bên hā·‘ar·bā·yim are; but the Scripture is certainly not a dictionary; meanings of words could only be supplied by oral knowledge; for more, see the Oracles of God; which is further inferred here; but his misguided people reject these truths;

¹⁴ And when the dew that lay had gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoarfrost on the ground. — when the dew that lay was gone up; the moisture which lay upon the herbage soon evaporated, drawn up by the sun; and then the miracle revealed itself.

¹⁵ And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, “What is this?” For they knew not what it was. And Moses said unto them, “This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.

¹⁶ This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded: ‘Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man, according to the number of your persons. Take ye every man for those who are in his tents.’” — each man was to gather according to his immediate need and that of his family. No one was to seek to accumulate a store.

¹⁷ And the children of Israel did so and gathered, some more, some less. — every one was to gather according to the necessities of his family;

¹⁸ And when they measured it with an omer, he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating. — when they did mete it with an omer;

— on returning to their tents, with the manna which they had collected, the Israelites proceeded to measure it with their own, or a neighbour’s, omer measure, when the wonderful result appeared, that, whatever the quantity actually gathered by any one, the result of the measurement showed, exactly as many omers as there were persons in the family.

¹⁹ And Moses said, “Let no man leave any of it until the morning.” — had nothing over; whatever quantity each person had gathered, when he measured it in his tent, he found that he had just as many omers as he needed for the consumption of his family.

²⁰ Notwithstanding, they hearkened not unto Moses; but some of them left part of it until the morning, and it bred worms and stank. And Moses was wroth with them. — it bred worms; so that we must view the result spoken of as a punishment for disobedience;

²¹ And they gathered it every morning, every man according to his eating; and when the sun waxed hot, it melted. —it melted; this refers to the manna which was not gathered.

²² And it came to pass that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for one man; and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. — lying in a great quantity, they gathered as much as they could, or just two omers for one man;

²³ And he said unto them, “This is that which the Lord hath said: ‘Tomorrow is the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the Lord. Bake that which ye will bake today, and boil what ye will boil; and that which remaineth over lay up for yourselves to be kept until the morning.’”

— introducing an explanation of something unexpected, that is, the Sabbath; to inculcate the preparation and observance of the Sabbath.

²⁴ And they laid it up until the morning, as Moses bade; and it did not stink, neither was there any worm therein. — there was an interposition of divine Providence in the keeping of it to such a Day;

²⁵ And Moses said, “Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath unto the Lord. Today ye shall not find it in the field. — a Sabbath unto the Lord, to be wholly consecrated to his service, and therefore not to be employed in servile works.

²⁶ Six days ye shall gather it, but on the seventh day, which is the Sabbath, in it there shall be none.” — the practical observance of the Sabbath was formally instituted before the giving of other laws.

²⁷ And it came to pass that there went out some of the people on the seventh day to gather, and they found none. — went out some of the people; this was an act of willful disobedience.

²⁸ And the Lord said unto Moses, “How long refuse ye to keep My commandments and My laws? — how long refuse ye to keep my commandments? the people had already broken one of the positive precepts with respect to the manna (Exodus 16:20); now they broke another;

²⁹ See, for the Lord hath given you the Sabbath; therefore He giveth you on the sixth day the bread for two days. Abide ye every man in his place. Let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.”

³⁰ So the people rested on the seventh day.

³¹ And the house of Israel called the name thereof manna; and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.

³² And Moses said, “This is the thing which the Lord commandeth: ‘Fill an omer with it to be kept for your generations, that they may see the bread wherewith I have fed you in the wilderness when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt.’”

— fill an omer of manna to be kept for your generations; the mere fact of such a multitude being fed for forty years in the wilderness;

³³ And Moses said unto Aaron, “Take a pot, and put an omer full of manna therein, and lay it up before the Lord to be kept for your generations.” — in a place where the Lord would hereafter fix the symbol of his presence, the ark, cherubim and mercy seat;

— lay it up before the Lord; the “pot of manna” was laid up before the Lord with the “tables of the covenant,” and “Aaron’s rod that budded;” Hebrews 9:4;

³⁴ As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the testimony, to be kept. — before the testimony; the testimony is not the Ark of the Covenant, but the Covenant itself, or the two tables of stone engraved by the finger of God;

³⁵ And the children of Israel ate manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited. They ate manna until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan. — forty years; for thirty-nine years and nine months

— besides manna they had numerous flocks and herds, for milk, cheese and of course could be slaughtered for a constant supply of flesh.

³⁶ Now an omer is a tenth part of an ephah.

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More on God’s name, Yehovah.

God’s name is the four-letter Hebrew word יהוה‎ YHVH Yehovah, which are embedded in the Masoretic text over 6000 times, yet when translated into our English language most had been translated as Lord, or LORD, which are titles, but not his name. His name is יהוה‎ Yehovah, or YEHOVAH (but there are no capital letters in Hebrew).

It wasn’t until 1524 that Gian Giorgio Trissino, an Italian Renaissance grammarian, invented the letter J that this new letter started to take a hold in the writings of western Europe. Even in 1611 when the English Bible the King James has our subject of study by the prophet Jeremiah, he was known as Ieremiah. So Jehovah is a very late comer.

The following verses with the LORD erred in translation. His name Yehovah should be used:

I am the LORD; that is My name. And My glory will I not give to another, neither My praise to graven images. Isaiah 42:8

And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call. Joel 2:32

“I am sought of them that asked not for Me; I am found of them that sought Me not. I said, ‘Behold Me, behold Me,’ unto a nation that was not called by My name. Isaiah 65:1

When we call our God, the LORD, we err, because his name is not the LORD, which is a title. His name is YEHOVAH! May We all ask for his forgiveness, and may Our merciful God forgive us all.

Posted in Books of Moses

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A parallel Exodus would reoccur during the endtime, which would far exceed that of the original Exodus led by Moses.

Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods day and night, where I will not show you favor.’

“Therefore behold, the days come,” saith the Lord, “that it shall no more be said, ‘The Lord liveth who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’

but, ‘the Lord liveth who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither He had driven them.’ And I will bring them back into their land that I gave unto their fathers. Jeremiah 16:13-15.

So severe shall be their bondage that their deliverance from it shall be a far greater Deliverance than that out of Egypt where they spent 210 years in slavery under their Egyptian taskmasters!

For more see,

For more into another Captivity: see Ezekiel Timeline – 190/40 Years

For more about the South, a prophecy of Esau or Edom, see Obadiah

For more on the enemy from the South, see A Sword from the South!

Exodus 13

¹ And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, — God spoke to Moses on the day of the Exodus, at the first station, namely, Succoth;

² “Sanctify unto Me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast; it is Mine.” — sanctify unto me all the firstborn; that is, of males, as the Targum of Jonathan adds, for those, and not females, were desinated to be either sacrificed or redeemed;

³ And Moses said unto the people, “Remember this day in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out from this place. There shall no leavened bread be eaten. — Remember this day; the 15th of Abib in which ye came out of Egypt,

⁴ This day came ye out, in the month Abib. — this day came ye out of Egypt, on the fifteenth of Nisan, as the Targum of Jonathan says;

⁵ “And it shall be when the Lord shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, which He swore unto thy fathers to give thee, a land flowing with milk and honey, that thou shalt keep this service in this month.

— the full number of the Canaanitish nations was seven, five of which are enumerated here; the other two were the Perizzites and the Girgashites, which seem to have been the least important.

⁶ Seven days thou shalt eat unleavened bread, and in the seventh day shall be a feast to the Lord. — and in the seventh day shall be a feast to the Lord; an holy convocation, in which no work was to be done, except what was necessary for preparing food to eat, Exodus 12:16.

⁷ Unleavened bread shall be eaten seven days; and there shall no leavened bread be seen with thee, neither shall there be leaven seen with thee in all thy quarters.

— they begin before the passover, with all the diligence and care they can, to put away any leaven, or anything that hath had leaven in it, out of their houses; searching all their cupboards and bins.

⁸ And thou shalt show thy son in that day, saying, ‘This is done because of that which the Lord did unto me when I came forth out of Egypt.’

— thou shalt show thy son; when you shall be come into the land of Canaan, you shall instruct your children in the meaning of your killing the lamb, and abstaining from leaven, that so you and they may be excited to gratitude to God for his goodness.

⁹ And it shall be as a sign unto thee upon thine hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes, that the Lord’S law may be in thy mouth; for with a strong hand hath the Lord brought thee out of Egypt.

— the use of phylacteries among them, pieces of parchment inscribed with sentences of their law, which they bound upon their left hand, and placed upon their foreheads between their eyes.

¹⁰ Thou shalt therefore keep this ordinance in his season from year to year. — this ordinance the Israelites were to keep למועדהּ, “at its appointed time” (that is, from the 15th to the 21st Abib), – “from days to days,” in this season, spring, from year to year.

¹¹ “And it shall be when the Lord shall bring thee into the land of the Canaanites, as He swore unto thee and to thy fathers, and shall give it to thee, — the land of the Canaanites, under which general name all the other nations are contained, as being all the children of Canaan.

¹² that thou shalt set apart unto the Lord all that openeth the womb, and every firstling that cometh from a beast which thou hast; the males shall be the Lord’S.

— the males shall be the Lord’s; which explains what sort of firstborn of man and beast were to be set apart for his use, not females, though the first that opened the womb; but males.

¹³ And every firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a lamb; and if thou wilt not redeem it, then thou shalt break his neck; and all the firstborn of man among thy children shalt thou redeem. — break its neck; unless redeemed, it could not be retained for use by its owner;

— it was not to be killed by shedding of blood, because in old Israel ‘the slaughter of an animal in the ordinary way implied a sacrifice, which was impossible in the case of an ass;

¹⁴ And it shall be when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, ‘What is this?’ that thou shalt say unto him, ‘By strength of hand the Lord brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage.

— which is added to teach parents in all succeeding ages, that it is their duty to instruct their children in the word and works of God, and in the nature and reasons of every particular kind or part of God’s worship and service.

¹⁵ And it came to pass, when Pharaoh would hardly let us go, that the Lord slew all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast; therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all that openeth the womb, being males; but all the firstborn of my children I redeem.’

— firstborn of man; the price of redemption was fixed at five shekels of the sanctuary: Numbers 3:47;

¹⁶ And it shall be as a token upon thine hand, and as frontlets between thine eyes; for by strength of hand the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt.” — it shall be for a token upon thine head, and for frontlets between thine eyes;

— these laws setting apart the firstlings of their beasts, the redemption of the firstbon, will be as easily and as clearly discerned as anything upon a man’s forehead may be seen by another;

¹⁷ And it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, “Lest perhaps the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt.”

— when they see war; for the Philistines were viewed as one of the most warlike people of the time; while the Israelites after two centuries of slavery would have been an ill match for the Philistines;

¹⁸ But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea; and the children of Israel went up by five in a rank out of the land of Egypt.

— through the wilderness of the Red sea; perhaps indicative of the countries of Edom (“red”); including the gulf of Akaba;

¹⁹ And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him; for he had strictly sworn the children of Israel, saying, “God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones away hence with you.” — Moses took the bones of Joseph; Joseph’s body had been embalmed according to the Egyptian fashion;

— Rashi thinks that the bones of all the tribes, or of the sons of Jacob, were carried with them, but that does not appear from the text;

²⁰ And they took their journey from Succoth, and encamped in Etham on the edge of the wilderness. — they took their journey from Succoth, and encamped in Etham;

— the exact positions of both Succoth and Etham are uncertain, and can only be conjectured; but they probably lay to the southeast of Tanis, between that city and the Bitter Lakes.

²¹ And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud to lead them the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, to go by day and night. — by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; through the Red sea, and the wilderness, at the edge of which they now were, which was untrodden, and trackless;

— and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; whenever they travelled by night, and in those hot countries it maybe refleshing; and this pillar of fire gave them light when the moon wasn’t shining, and showing the direction they ought to go.

²² He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night from before the people. — the Lord went before them; by a visible token of His presence, the Shekinah, in a majestic cloud.

Exodus 14

¹ And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, — and the Lord spake unto Moses; perhaps out of the pillar of the cloud in which he went before them;

² “Speak unto the children of Israel, that they turn and encamp before Pihahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, opposite Baalzephon; before it shall ye encamp by the sea. — at Pi-hahiroth, Pharaoh and his servants repent for letting the people go; pursue and intend to overtake the Israelites;

³ For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, ‘They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in.’ — Pharaoh will say they are entangled; presuming that they are hemmed in between the rocks and the sea.

⁴ And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, that he shall follow after them; and I will be honored above Pharaoh, and above all his host, that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord.” And they did so.

— while Pharaoh gratified his malice and revenge, he furthered the bringing to pass God’s counsels concerning him. Though with the greatest reason he had let Israel go, yet now he was angry with himself for it.

⁵ And it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled; and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people, and they said, “Why have we done this, that we have let Israel go from serving us?”

— God makes the envy and rage of men against his people, thus “Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people” a torment to themselves.

⁶ And he made ready his chariot and took his people with him, — he made ready his chariot; his preparations for an immediate and hot pursuit are here described;

⁷ and he took six hundred chosen chariots and all the chariots of Egypt and captains over every one of them. — a difference is made between “the chosen chariots” and “the chariots of Egypt.”

— the first evidently composed the king’s guard, amounting to six hundred chariots, and they are called “chosen,” literally, “third men”; three men being allotted to each chariot, the charioteer and two warriors, hence totally 1800 personel;

— as to “the chariots of Egypt,” the common cars contained only two persons, one for driving and the other for fighting; sometimes only one person was in the chariot, the driver lashed the reins round his body and fought; and of course, foot soldiers;

⁸ And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued after the children of Israel; and the children of Israel went out with a high hand. — and the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt; as he said he would;

— with an high hand; confidently, boldly, perhaps somewhat proudly, as having brought the Egyptians to entreat them to take their departure.

⁹ But the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea beside Pihahiroth, before Baalzephon. — and overtook them encamping by the sea, beside Pihahiroth, before Baalzephon; where they had pitched their camp by divine appointment;

¹⁰ And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid; and the children of Israel cried out unto the Lord.

— and they were sore afraid; being an unarmed people, though numerous, and so unable to defend themselves against armed and disciplined troops;

¹¹ And they said unto Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt?

— because there were no graves in Egypt; spoken in bitter irony, doubtless, but scarcely with any conscious reference to Egypt as “a land of tombs.” They meant simply to say: “Might we not as well have died there as here?”

¹² Is not this the word that we told thee in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.”

— let us alone; this is a gross exaggeration, yet not without a semblance of truth: for although the Israelites welcomed the message of Moses at first, they gave way completely at the first serious trial.

¹³ And Moses said unto the people, “Fear ye not. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will show to you today; for the Egyptians whom ye have seen today, ye shall see them again no more for ever. — fear ye not, stand still; let not your hearts fail, or sink or stagger, through unbelief: but with quiet minds look up to God.

¹⁴ The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.” — and ye shall hold your peace; be still and quiet, and easy in your minds, and forbear saying or doing anything;

¹⁵ And the Lord said unto Moses, “Why criest thou unto Me? Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward. — speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward; a little further until they were come to the sea shore.

¹⁶ But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea and divide it; and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. — with his rod, he hearkened to it, and touched the water with it, and so it divided, as it is said it did;

¹⁷ And I, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall follow them; and I will get Myself honor above Pharaoh and above all his host, above his chariots and above his horsemen.

— and I will get me honour upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen: by the utter destruction of them, in just retaliation for the many innocent infants that had been drowned by them in the river Nile.

¹⁸ And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord when I have gotten Myself honor above Pharaoh, above his chariots, and above his horsemen.”

— when I have gotten me honour upon Pharaoh, upon his chariots, and upon his horsemen; by casting them into the sea, and drowning them there, thereby showing himself to be mightier than he.

¹⁹ And the angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face and stood behind them.

— and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them; the Targum adds, “because the Mizraee (Egyptians) threw darts and stones at the Israelites, but the Cloud intercepted them;” whereby the Israelites were protected from receiving any injury from them.

²⁰ And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these, so that the one came not near the other all the night.

— it was a cloud and darkness to the Egyptians, to whom it brought their former horrible darkness to mind, and did both exceedingly affright them, and altogether hinder them from motion or action, as that also did for three days; but it gave light by night to the Israelites, as the opposition showeth.

²¹ And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. — the waters were divided;

— the waters of the Bitter Lakes were for a time separated completely from those of the Red Sea. By gradual elevation and desiccation the channel over which the Israelites passed has probably now become dry land.

²² And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground, and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left. — some Jewish writers say that the tribe of Judah went in first, and then the other tribes followed;

²³ And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them to the midst of the sea, even all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen.

— the Egyptians went in after them into the midst of the sea; they thought, Why might they not venture where Israel did? They were more advantageously provided with chariots and horses, while the Israelites were on foot.

²⁴ And it came to pass that in the morning watch the Lord looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians. — the Lord looked through the cloud, and troubled them; with the most terrible and prodigious winds, and rains, and lightnings, and both claps and bolts of thunder;

²⁵ And He took off their chariot wheels, that they drove them heavily, so that the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from the face of Israel, for the Lord fighteth for them against the Egyptians.” — and the Lord took off their chariot wheels;

— Rashi renders it “And He removed the wheels of their chariots: With the fire the wheels were burned, and the chariots dragged, and those sitting in them were moved to and fro, and their limbs were wrenched apart.”

²⁶ And the Lord said unto Moses, “Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.”

— that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen; the waters which stood upright as a wall, on the right and left, might be no longer kept in such a position, but fall down upon the Egyptians, their chariots and horsemen.

²⁷ And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared. And the Egyptians fled against it, and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.

— and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea; or shook them “off” or “out” out of their chariots, blew them out with the wind;

²⁸ And the waters returned, and covered the chariots and the horsemen and all the host of Pharaoh that came into the sea after them. There remained not so much as one of them. — there remained not so much as one of them;

— wherefore it must be a falsehood which is related by some, that Pharaoh himself was preserved, and afterwards reigned in Nineveh, since not one was saved; they all perished;

²⁹ But the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea, and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand and on their left. — but the children of Israel walked upon dry land in the midst of the sea; the bottom of it becoming so through the strong east wind, which blew all night until they came to the opposite shore;

³⁰ Thus the Lord saved Israel that day out of the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the seashore. — saw their dead bodies floating upon the waters; it is likely, however, that the bodies of some were cast on shore, and became food to the beasts and birds of prey that frequent the wilderness;

³¹ And Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians; and the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord and His servant Moses.

— and the people feared the Lord; had an awe of his power and greatness upon their minds, and a sense of his goodness to them upon their hearts, which influenced their fear of him, and caused them to fear him with a filial and godly fear.

~~~~

A parallel Exodus would reoccur during the endtime, which would far exceed that of the original Exodus led by Moses.

Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods day and night, where I will not show you favor.’

“Therefore behold, the days come,” saith the Lord, “that it shall no more be said, ‘The Lord liveth who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ 

but, ‘the Lord liveth who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither He had driven them.’ And I will bring them back into their land that I gave unto their fathers. Jeremiah 16:13-15; so emphatic is such a scene that it is repeated in Jeremiah 23:6-8.

So severe shall be their bondage that their deliverance from it shall be a far greater Deliverance than that out of Egypt where they spent 210 years in slavery under their Egyptian taskmasters!

For more see,

For more into another Captivity: see Ezekiel Timeline – 190/40 Years

For more about the South, a prophecy of Esau or Edom, see Obadiah

For more on the enemy from the South, see A Sword from the South!

Posted in Books of Moses

A parallel Exodus would reoccur during the endtime, which would far exceed that of the original Exodus led by Moses.

Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods day and night, where I will not show you favor.’

“Therefore behold, the days come,” saith the Lord, “that it shall no more be said, ‘The Lord liveth who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’

but, ‘the Lord liveth who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither He had driven them.’ And I will bring them back into their land that I gave unto their fathers. Jeremiah 16:13-15.

So severe shall be their bondage that their deliverance from it shall be a far greater Deliverance than that out of Egypt where they spent 210 years in slavery under their Egyptian taskmasters!

For more see,

For more into another Captivity: see Ezekiel Timeline – 190/40 Years

For more about the South, a prophecy of Esau or Edom, see Obadiah

For more on the enemy from the South, see A Sword from the South!

Exodus 11

¹ And the Lord said unto Moses, “Yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterwards he will let you go hence. When he shall let you go, he shall surely thrust you out hence altogether.

— he shall surely thrust you out hence altogether; absolutely, entirely, without any exception or limitation, them, their wives, their children, their flocks and herds, without any restraint upon them and without any condition of return;

— or fixing any time for it, but the dismission should be general, unlimited, and unconditional; or “in thrusting he shall thrust you out,” with force and vehemence, with urgency and in great haste.

² Speak now in the ears of the people, and let every man borrow from his neighbor, and every woman from her neighbor, jewels of silver and jewels of gold.” — let every man ask; not borrow, of his neighbour;

— jewels of silver, jewels of gold; to ornament themselves with at the feast they were going to keep: the Samaritan and Septuagint versions add, and clothing or raiment, and such it is certain they did borrow.

³ And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people.

— therefore they complied with their request, not only out of love to the people, but out of fear to Moses, lest he should punish them severely in case of refusal.

⁴ And Moses said, “Thus saith the Lord: ‘About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt;

⁵ and all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sitteth upon his throne, even unto the firstborn of the maidservant who is behind the mill, and all the firstborn of beasts.

— and all the firstborn in the land of Eygpt shall die; by the destroying angel; however, it was sudden and immediate death, and which was universal, reaching to all the firstborn that were in the families of the Egyptians in all parts of the kingdom;

⁶ And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more.

— shall be a great cry throughout all the land; in the case of a death, people set up loud wailings, and imagination may conceive what “a great cry” would be raised when death would invade every family in the kingdom.

⁷ But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast, that ye may know how the Lord doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel.’ — shall not a dog move his tongue; a proverbial expression, importing all should be peace and quietness among the Israelites;

⁸ And all these thy servants shall come down unto me and bow down themselves unto me, saying, ‘Get thee out, and all the people who follow thee!’ And after that I will go out.” And he went out from Pharaoh in a great anger. — in a great anger; in heat of anger, burning with indignation.

⁹ And the Lord said unto Moses, “Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that My wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt.”

— that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt; of the smiting of the firstborn, dividing the waters of the Red sea, and the destruction of Pharaoh and his host in it; but since these words were said before any of the plagues, were inflicted, it may refer to them all.

¹⁰ And Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh; and the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go out of his land. — and the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart: one time after another, and yet more and more;

— so that he would not let the children of Israel go out of his land; until the last plague, the slaying of the firstborn, was brought upon him and his people, related in the following chapter.

Exodus 12

The Passover and Timeline of the Exodus

¹ And the Lord spoke unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, — the Lord spoke; according to these Scriptural record, neither Moses nor Aaron introduced any legislative power of their own, either at this time or later;

— the whole system, religious, political, and ecclesiastical, was received by Divine Revelation, commanded by God, hence the term the “law of Moses” is misleading, used by those misguided;

² “This month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. — again, the starting of a month or a year is by Divine Revelation; not for mere man to determine for themselves when the month or year to start;

³ Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth day of this month they shall take for themselves every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for a house. — a lamb; the word used (śeh) is a vague one, applied equally to sheep and goats, of any age and of either sex;

— in the tenth day of this month; it was necessary they should now begin to prepare the passover four days before, because otherwise it would have been difficult to get ready so many lambs in Egypt, especially as they were to depart in haste;

— but not necessarily for later generation, thus implied by the Targum Jonathan: but “not for (coming) generations.” Perhaps in later generations, the growth of population would make such a practice unmanagable to confine it in a single day;

— the passover in Egypt, they were commanded to sprinkling with a bunch of hyssop upon the lintel, and upon the two side posts, and was eaten with haste, but the passover in later ages were to be kept during all the seven days so that no leaven (of malice) should be found in their houses.

⁴ And if the household be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.

⁵ Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year; ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats. — more apecifics of the lamb or from the goats (śeh from verse 3 above) is revealed here: a male of the first year, and without blemish;

⁶ And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month, and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening. — evening (`ben ha arbayim); “between the [two] evenings;

— “between the evenings” – the first evening was to begin with the decline of the sun from the zenith, and the second begins with sunset.

— Evidence of progressive Revelation on how to keep the Passover:

1. The first Passover was slaughtered by the whole congregation of Israel, but later it was slaughtered by priests and Levites at the sanctuary and still later, only at the Temple.

2. Introduction of the second passover; Numbers 9:9 And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, ¹⁰ “Speak unto the children of Israel, saying: ‘If any man of you or your posterity shall be unclean by reason of a dead body, or be in a journey afar off, yet he shall keep the Passover unto the Lord.

¹¹ The fourteenth day of the second month at evening they shall keep it, and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. ¹² They shall leave none of it unto the morning, nor break any bones of it. According to all the ordinances of the Passover they shall keep it.

⁷ And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses wherein they shall eat it. —

— regarding keeping of the second Passover by King Hezekiah in II Chronicles 30:

¹⁵ Then they killed the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the second month; and the priests and the Levites were ashamed, and sanctified themselves and brought in the burnt offerings into the house of the Lord.

¹⁶And they stood in their place according to their order, according to the law of Moses the man of God. The priests sprinkled the blood which they received from the hand of the Levites. II Chronicles 30:15-16

— in later years, this killing of the Passover lamb could only be done near the Temple so as to sprinkle the blood of the Lamb at the base of the altar, Exodus 29:12, which was not in the original Exodus.

— again, with King Josiah, another good king, at the Temple, II Chronicles 35:

¹⁰ So the service was prepared, and the priests stood in their place and the Levites in their courses, according to the king’s commandment. ¹¹ And they killed the Passover lamb, and the priests sprinkled the blood from their hands, and the Levites flayed them.

¹² And they removed the burnt offerings, that they might give according to the divisions of the families of the people to offer unto the Lord, as it is written in the Book of Moses. And so did they with the oxen. ¹³ And they roasted the Passover lamb with fire according to the ordinance. II Chronicles 35:10-13

⁸ And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roasted with fire; and with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.

The Targum Jonathan translates and explains the eating of the Passover from the Hebrew in Exodus 12 into the vernacular, in a very simple language, and verse 8 is extremely clear: “And you shall eat the flesh on that night, the fifteenth of Nisan . . . without leaven,” Exodus 12

This eating of the Passover is during the night of the fifteenth. If this is the night of the fourteenth, there shouldn’t be any need to take unleavened bread; neither was any unleavened bread available.

⁹ Eat not of it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted with fire — his head with his legs and with the viscera thereof.

¹⁰ And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning (בֹּקֶר bôqer, H1242), and that which remaineth of it until the morning (בֹּקֶר bôqer, H1242) ye shall burn with fire.

Gen 1:5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning ^H1242 were the first day. Morning is thus a 12-hours period, starting at midnight. This means they were to burn any roasted remains before they left. And they left probably around 1-2 pm, burning any remains before they go.

Targum: Nor shall any be left of it till the morning; but what may remain of it in the morning you shall cover over, and in the daylight of the sixteenth day burn with fire; for you may not burn the residue of a holy oblation on the feast day.

Rashi: and whatever is left over of it until morning-: What is the meaning of “until morning” a second time? [This implies] adding one morning to another morning, for morning starts with sunrise, and this verse is here to make it [the prohibition] earlier, [i.e.,] that it is forbidden to eat it [the leftover flesh] from dawn. This is according to its apparent meaning.

Another midrashic interpretation is that this teaches that it may not be burnt on Yom Tov but on the next day, and this is how it is to be interpreted: and what is left over from it on the first morning you shall wait until the second morning and burn it. — [from Shab. 24b]

¹¹ And thus shall ye eat it: with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste; it is the Lord’S Passover ^H6453.

— “WHAT FOLLY!” some misguided would preach to convey this meaning: “And you shall eat it in trepidation” that is, with dread and apprehension but no readiness for fleeing; if so what would be the point, “with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste?”

¹² For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord.

Targum: ninety thousand myriads of destroying angels — a myriad is generally a unit of ten thousand; but usually this expression is taken to mean an innumerable number.

¹³ And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over ^H6452 you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you when I smite the land of Egypt.

— flashing forward, the blood of the Lamb of God, Christ, in around AD 31, were to save mankind from the penalty of death; when the Angel of Death came to smite the land of ‘Egypt.’

— the lamb was to be without blemish; the Lord Yeshua offered himself for humanity as the Lamb of God without spot. Not a bone of it must be broken. Despite they couldn’t find any fault with him, the chief priests went on to condemn Christ.

¹⁴ “‘And this day (this day is when the death plague occurred) shall be unto you for a memorial, and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever. — this day is still referring to the time the Death Angel passed over the houses, the subject in discussion;

— a memorial, it’s a feast and an ordinance – this should be the same night as the night to be much observed as stated in verse 42, not a separate night as most CoGs, who hail largely from their original home, Samaria, would thinks so! 

Rashi: and you shall celebrate it: The day that is a memorial for you-you shall celebrate it. But we have not yet heard which is the day of memorial. Therefore, Scripture states: “Remember this day, when you went out of Egypt” (Exod. 13: 3), we learn that the day of the Exodus is the day of memorial.

Now on what day did they go out [of Egypt]? Therefore, Scripture states: “On the day after the Passover, they went out” (Num. 33:3). I must therefore say that the fifteenth of Nissan is the day of the festival, because the night of the fifteenth they ate the Passover sacrifice, and in the morning they went out.

¹⁵ Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread. Even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses; for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.

Rashi: For seven days: Heb. שִׁבְעַתיָמִים, seteyne of days, i.e., a group of seven days. 

Rashi: For seven days you shall eat unleavened cakes-: But elsewhere it says: “For six days you shall eat unleavened cakes” (Deut. 16:8). This teaches [us] regarding the seventh day of Passover, that it is not obligatory to eat matzah, as long as one does not eat chametz. How do we know that [the first] six [days] are also optional [concerning eating matzah]?

This is a principle in [interpreting] the Torah: Anything that was included in a generalization [in the Torah] and was excluded from that generalization [in the Torah] to teach [something] it was not excluded to teach [only] about itself, but it was excluded to teach about the entire generalization.

[In this case it means that] just as [on] the seventh day [eating matzah] is optional, so is it optional in [the first] six [days]. I might think that [on] the first night it is also optional. Therefore, Scripture states: “in the evening, you shall eat unleavened cakes” (Exod. 12:18). The text established it as an obligation. — [from Mechilta]

¹⁶ And in the first day there shall be a holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be a holy convocation to you. No manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done by you.

¹⁷ And ye shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt. Therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever.

— the notion that the First Day as a holy day for an assembly during the Exodus were not practiced like practising Jews have today. Perhaps they assembled in haste to flee; more details were added later, like as the issue that there was no wave sheaf offering during the Exodus; that was also added later as in Leviticus 23; which is another evidence of progressive revealing of God’s laws through further revelation.

¹⁸ In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at evening (`ereb), ye shall eat unleavened bread until the one and twentieth day of the month at evening (`ereb).

Leviticus 23:5 In the fourteenth day of the first month at even (h6153`ben ha arbayim or between the evenings) is the LORD’S passover. (h6153 ben ha arbayim is also used in Ex 12:6; 16:12; 29:39,41; 30:8; Lev 23:5; Num 9:3,5,11; 28:4,8)

The composite Feast combining the Passover and the Days of Unleavened Bread is already evidenced above.

Genesis 1:5 And God called the light Day (h3117 יוֹם yowm), and the darkness he called Night (h3915 לַיִל layil). And the evening (h6153 עֶרֶב`ereb) and the morning (h1242 בֹּקֶר boqer) were the first day (h3117 יוֹם yowm). Evening and Morning are both a 12-hour period.

If we use even (‘ereḇ), as the beginning of a day for Atonement, in Leviticus 23:32, we must keep Atonement for two days on the 9th and 10th – contrary to the scriptures. Also, If we use even (‘ereḇ) as the beginning of the fourteenth for Unleavened Bread in Exodus 12:18, we must keep the Days of Unleavened Bread for 8 days – again, contrary to the scriptures.  

¹⁹ Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses; for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger or born in the land.

²⁰ Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread.’”

²¹ Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said unto them, “Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the Passover ^H6453. — and to kill the Passover; to eat the Passover; hence Passover is an event, not a day; you couldn’t kill a day, nor eat one;

— you kill the Passover at even (ben ha arbayim) on the fourteenth of Nisan (the time when Christ died); but you eat the Passover at night on the fifteenth;

²² And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the basin; and none of you shall go out from the door of his house until the morning.

During the first Passover, they were to stay in their houses, but later on they were not allowed to stay within their gates, which certainly include their houses. It says in Deuteronomy 16:5

“Thou mayest not sacrifice the Passover within any of thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” This is proof that God makes adjustments in later years to the observance of ordinances from the original instructions given in Egypt.

²³ For the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when He seeth the blood upon the lintel and on the two side posts, the Lord will pass over ^H6452 the door and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you.

²⁴ And ye shall observe this thing as an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever.

²⁵ And it shall come to pass, when ye come to the land which the Lord will give you, according as He hath promised, that ye shall keep this service.

²⁶ And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, ‘What mean ye by this service?’

²⁷ that ye shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Lord’S Passover ^H6453, who passed over ^H6452 the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians and delivered our houses.’” And the people bowed their heads and worshiped.

The LORD’s “Passover” vs the Death Angel “passed over” the house. Which is the real Passover? So both the fourteenth and fifteenth were to be memorialized for a remembrance for the Children.

²⁸ And the children of Israel went away, and did as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron; so did they.

²⁹ And it came to pass, that at midnight the Lord smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne, unto the firstborn of the captive who was in the dungeon, and all the firstborn of cattle.

³⁰ And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead.

³¹ And he called for Moses and Aaron by night and said, “Rise up, and get you forth from among my people, both ye and the children of Israel! And go, serve the Lord, as ye have said.

³² Also take your flocks and your herds, as ye have said; and be gone, and bless me also.”

³³ And the Egyptians were urgent upon the people, that they might send them out of the land in haste; for they said, “We are all dead men.”

Numbers 9:11 The fourteenth day of the second month at evening they shall keep it, and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

12 They shall leave none of it unto the morning (בֹּקֶר bôqer, H1242), nor break any bones. According to all the ordinances of the Passover they shall keep it.

The Israelites could have left around 1-2 am, which is early morning. It may even be slightly later at 2-3 am but it would still be in the morning, bôqer.

³⁴ And the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading troughs being bound up in their clothes upon their shoulders.

³⁵ And the children of Israel did according to the word of Moses [for they had already] borrowed from the Egyptians jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment.

Indications are that there are at least fourteen days between the ninth and tenth plagues, for the chapter starts with the beginning of the month, until Passover, the killing of the lamb;

in Chapter 11:2 “Speak now in the ears of the people, and let every man borrow from his neighbor, and every woman from her neighbor, jewels of silver and jewels of gold,”

ESV The people of Israel had also done as Moses told them, for they had asked the Egyptians for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing.

Actually the spoilings have occurred much earlier, throughout the ten plagues: Exodus 3:19 “And I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not by a mighty hand.”

And then more specifically in Exodus 3:22, “and every woman shall borrow of her neighbor and of her that sojourneth in her house jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment.”

Hence verses 35-36 is a flashback, for the spoiling had already began much earlier. 

³⁶ And the Lord gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them such things as they required. And they despoiled the Egyptians.

For they had already plundered the Egyptians. In the previous chapter,

Exodus 11:1 And the Lord said unto Moses, “Yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Afterwards he will let you go hence. When he shall let you go, he shall surely thrust you out hence altogether.

² Speak now in the ears of the people, and let every man borrow from his neighbor, and every woman from her neighbor, jewels of silver and jewels of gold.” So the plundering of the Egyptians had been happening for at least 13 days earlier!

³⁷ And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot who were men, besides children.

Targum says from Pilusin towards Succoth, a hundred and thirty thousand “sons,” — supposingly to total 600,000;

Rashi: from Rameses to Succoth: They were 120 “mil” [apart]. Yet they arrived there instantly, as it is said: “and I carried you on eagles’ wings.” – [from Mechilta]

Numbers 33:3 And they departed from Rameses in the first month, on the fifteenth day of the first month. On the morrow after the Passover the children of Israel went out with a high hand in the sight of all the Egyptians,

⁴ for the Egyptians buried all their firstborn, whom the Lord had smitten among them. Upon their gods also the Lord executed judgments. ⁵ And the children of Israel removed from Rameses and pitched camp in Succoth.

Since one lamb is for two or three families, some of the families could have earlier moved earlier from Goshen to Rameses in preparation for the signal to flee. Houses in Goshen could be quite empty.

³⁸ And a mixed multitude went up also with them, and flocks and herds, even very much cattle.

³⁹ And they baked unleavened cakes of the dough which they brought forth out of Egypt; for it was not leavened because they were thrust out of Egypt and could not tarry, neither had they prepared for themselves any victual.

The thrusting out of Egypt was carried out immediately after the killing of the firstborn, not the day after. Exodus 12:31-33, otherwise the urgency “with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste (verse 11)” made no sense.

Actually the Israelites were not thrusted out of Egypt until about a week later. Perhaps they could be better described “they began to be thrust out of Egypt.” And until they crossed the Red Sea they were really being thrusted out.

Also, the Israelites didn’t  tarry, so they didn’t wait for another 24 hours to start moving.

⁴⁰ Now the sojourning of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years. — Targum: “the days of the dwelling of the sons of Israel in Mizraim were thirty weeks of years, (thirty times seven years)” which is 210 years;

— Targum: “But the number of four hundred and thirty years (had passed away since) the Lord spake to Abraham.”

⁴¹ And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even on the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.

⁴² It is a night to be much observed unto the Lord for bringing them out from the land of Egypt. This is that night of the Lord to be observed by all the children of Israel in their generations.

— the night to be much observed is the night when they ate the Passover, when a few hours later, the Death Angel came and slaughtered the Egyptians, which made such a night memorable to be kept;

Deuteronomy 16:1 “Observe the month of Abib, and keep the Passover unto the Lord thy God; for in the month of Abib the Lord thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night. . .

⁴ And there shall be no leavened bread seen with thee in all thy borders seven days, neither shall there anything of the flesh, which thou sacrificed the first day at evening, remain all night until the morning.

Night (from 6 pm to 6 am) and morning (from midnight to 6 am) overlaps morning by 6 hours. So they left after midnight around 1-2 am which is night as well as in the morning.

⁴³ And the Lord said unto Moses and Aaron, “This is the ordinance of the Passover ^H6453. There shall no stranger eat thereof; — this is the ordinance of the passover; as before delivered, and these the laws and rules, according to which it is to be observed, as now related, both with respect to the lamb, and to the unleavened bread;

— and the following is an account of the persons that were to partake of it: there shall no stranger eat thereof, one uncircumcised that is of another country.

⁴⁴ but every man’s servant who is bought for money, when thou hast circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof. — if a stranger wished to join, he would need to accept circumcision for himself and the males of his family. —

⁴⁵ A foreigner and a hired servant shall not eat thereof. — similarily, if a foreigner, bought as a slave into an Israelitish family, may eat of it, if he is made a member of their community by circumcision.

⁴⁶ In one house shall it be eaten; thou shalt not carry forth any of the flesh abroad out of the house, neither shall ye break a bone thereof. — neither shall ye break a bone thereof; any of its tender bones to get out the marrow; and so the Targum of Jonathan adds, “that ye shall not eat that which is in the midst of it.”

⁴⁷ All the congregation of Israel shall keep it. — all Israelites are to keep the Passover;

⁴⁸ And when a stranger shall sojourn with thee and will keep the Passover ^H6453 to the Lord, let all his males be circumcised, and then let him come near and keep it; and he shall be as one that is born in the land, for no uncircumcised person shall eat thereof.

⁴⁹ One law shall be for him that is homeborn and for the stranger who sojourneth among you.” — one set of law shall be to him that is homeborn and would be the same unto the stranger;

⁵⁰ Thus did all the children of Israel; as the Lord commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they.

⁵¹ And it came to pass the selfsame day that the Lord brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies. — this is a reminder that the children fled out of Egypt on the fifteenth of Nisan, and as that night was such a spectacular event, it was to be a night to be much remembered in later generations.

~~~~

A parallel Exodus would reoccur during the endtime, which would far exceed that of the original Exodus led by Moses.

Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods day and night, where I will not show you favor.’

“Therefore behold, the days come,” saith the Lord, “that it shall no more be said, ‘The Lord liveth who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ 

but, ‘the Lord liveth who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither He had driven them.’ And I will bring them back into their land that I gave unto their fathers. Jeremiah 16:13-15; so emphatic is such a scene that it is repeated in Jeremiah 23:6-8.

So severe shall be their bondage that their deliverance from it shall be a far greater Deliverance than that out of Egypt where they spent 210 years in slavery under their Egyptian taskmasters!

For more see,

For more into another Captivity: see Ezekiel Timeline – 190/40 Years

For more about the South, a prophecy of Esau or Edom, see Obadiah

For more on the enemy from the South, see A Sword from the South!

Posted in Books of Moses

Exodus 9

¹ Then the Lord said unto Moses, “Go in unto Pharaoh and tell him, ‘Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews: Let My people go, that they may serve Me. — let my people go, that they may serve me; this demand had been made repeatedly; and, though reasonable, was refused.

² For if thou refuse to let them go and wilt hold them still,

³ behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thy cattle which are in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep. There shall be a very grievous pestilence.

— the hand of the Lord; immediately, without the stretching out of Aaron’s hand; is upon the cattle; many of which, some of all kinds, should die by a sort of pestilence; a disease would be sent among all the flocks and herds of the Egyptians;

— the Targum renders it a “death” as the Jews commonly call a pestilence, whether on man or beast, because it generally sweeps away large numbers.

⁴ And the Lord shall distinguish between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt; and there shall nothing die of all that belong to the children of Israel.’” — nothing shall die of the children’s of Israel; this was the greater miracle,

— because the Israelites and the Egyptians were mingled together in the land of Goshen; so that their cattle breathed the same air, and drank the same water. By which it appeared that this pestilence was not natural, but proceeded from the immediate hand of God.

⁵ And the Lord appointed a set time, saying, “Tomorrow the Lord shall do this thing in the land.” — saying, tomorrow the Lord shall do this thing in the land;

— thus giving him time and space to consider the matter well, repent of his obstinacy, and dismiss the people of Israel, and so prevent the plague coming upon the cattle, as threatened.

⁶ And the Lord did that thing on the morrow; and all the cattle of Egypt died, but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one. — but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one; at least of the murrain or a pestilential disease, or by the hand of God.

⁷ And Pharaoh sent, and behold, there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites dead. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.

— and the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go; though this plague was so heavy upon him and his people, and the loss they sustained so great:

— in the other plagues of the water, the frogs, lice, and flies, though very troublesome and terrible, yet the loss was not very great; but here much damage was done to their property, yet this did not make his heart relent, or cause him to yield to let Israel go.

⁸ And the Lord said unto Moses and unto Aaron, “Take to you handfuls of ashes from the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh. — and the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go, though this plague was so heavy upon him and his people, and the loss they sustained so great;

— in the other plagues of the water, the frogs, lice, and flies, though very troublesome and terrible, yet the loss was not very great; but here much damage was done to their property, yet this did not make his heart relent, or cause him to yield to let Israel go.

⁹ And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains, upon man and upon beast throughout all the land of Egypt.” — upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt;

— so that, as the last plague affected their property, substance, and riches, which in those times greatly lay in cattle, this, besides that, would affect their persons, and give them exceeding great pain, though it might not issue in death.

¹⁰ And they took ashes from the furnace and stood before Pharaoh, and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven; and it became boils breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast. — the sixth plague smote man and beast with;

— these failing down in the manner before described, on whomsoever they lighted, whether man or beast, produced sore boils and inflammations, and raised blisters and blotches;

¹¹ And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils, for the boils were upon the magicians and upon all the Egyptians. — the magicians; this time are not only not able to imitate the plague, but are themselves attacked by it;

— for the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians; but not upon Moses and Aaron, nor upon any of the Israelites;

¹² And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them, as the Lord had spoken unto Moses. — their priests and magicians were so far from being able to shelter the king from this plague by their secret arts, that they were attacked by them themselves,

— were unable to stand before Moses, and were obliged to give up all further resistance. But Pharaoh did not take this plague to heart, and was given up to more hardening of his heart.

¹³ And the Lord said unto Moses, “Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh and say unto him, ‘Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews: Let My people go, that they may serve Me.

¹⁴ For I will at this time send all My plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy servants and upon thy people, that thou mayest know that there is none like Me in all the earth. — for I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart; the plague of the hail, which next follows, so called, because it consisted of various things, as hail, rain, lightning and thunder;

¹⁵ For now I will stretch out My hand, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence, and thou shalt be cut off from the earth. — and thou shall be cut off from the earth; or “thou hadst been or wouldest have been cut off from the earth” must have perished out of it, and been no more in the land of the living.

¹⁶ And in very deed, for this cause have I raised thee up: to show in thee My power, and that My name may be declared throughout all the earth.

— and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth; as it has been more by that last action than by all the rest of the plagues; though, in all, his sovereignty, wisdom, power, patience, longsuffering and justice, are most visibly displayed and glorified.

¹⁷ As yet exaltest thou thyself against My people, that thou wilt not let them go? — as yet exaltest thou thyself against my people; and so against God himself, disobeying his commands, despising his messengers, and hardening his heart against him and refusing to let Israel go;

¹⁸ Behold, tomorrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now. — I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail; which should fall very thick, and the hailstones be very numerous and heavy, and the storm last long;

¹⁹ Send therefore now, and gather thy cattle and all that thou hast in the field, for upon every man and beast which shall be found in the field and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down upon them, and they shall die.’” — I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail; the seventh plague which Pharaoh’s hardened heart provoked was that of hail;

— a phenomenon which must have produced the greatest astonishment and consternation in Egypt as rain and hailstones, accompanied by thunder and lightning, to kill both men and beasts.

²⁰ He that feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses, — he that feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh; it is a new fact that any of the Egyptians had been brought to “fear the word of Yehovah.”

— probably, the effect of the plagues had been gradually to convince a considerable number, not so much that Yehovah was the one True God as that he was a great and powerful god, whose chastisements were to be feared.

²¹ and he that regarded not the word of the Lord left his servants and his cattle in the field. — left his servants and cattle in the field; let them remain there, and took no thought about them, and so took no methods to preserve them; to his own detriment and loss.

²² And the Lord said unto Moses, “Stretch forth thine hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man and upon beast and upon every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt.” — stretch forth thine hand toward heaven; the action was appropriate, as the plague was to come from the heaven.

²³ And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven; and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt. — the fire ran along upon the ground, devouring both herbs and cattle which were upon it; and came at the exact time he had foretold it should; all which were very extraordinary;

²⁴ So there was hail and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. — so there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail; which was a miracle within a miracle; and very wonderful indeed it was, that the hail did not quench the fire, nor the fire melt the hail;

²⁵ And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field and broke every tree of the field. — the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt; it is to the hail and not to the fire nor lightning that the great destruction of men and beasts is attributed;

— perhaps the fire and lightning are destined for the endtime? “Like fire that burns the forest and like a flame that sets the mountains on fire.” – Psalm 83:14

²⁶ Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail. — only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail;

— so that such Egyptians as might dwell among them, they, their servants, their cattle, and their fruits, escaped this plague; and oftentimes do wicked men fare the better for the people of God that are among them.

²⁷ And Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, “I have sinned this time. The Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. — the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked; which was well spoken, had it been serious and from his heart; for God is righteous in his nature, and in all his works;

— and in all those judgments he had inflicted upon him; and he and his people were wicked in using the Israelites in such a cruel manner, and in detaining them when it had been promised them again and again that they should have leave to go, and especially in rebelling against God, and disobeying his commands.

²⁸ Entreat the Lord (for it is enough), that there be no more mighty thunderings and hail; and I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer.” — mighty thunderings; literally, as in the margin, “voices of God.” Thunder was regarded by many nations of antiquity as the actual voice of a god.

²⁹ And Moses said unto him, “As soon as I have gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands unto the Lord; and the thunder shall cease, neither shall there be any more hail, that thou mayest know that the earth is the Lord’S.

— that thou mayest know how that the earth is the Lord’s; that the whole earth is his, and therefore he can do, and does in it whatever he pleases; as the heavens also are his, and therefore can cause thunder, lightning, hail, and rain, and stop them when he thinks fit;

³⁰ But as for thee and thy servants, I know that ye will not yet fear the Lord God.” — but as for thee, and thy servants, notwithstanding the confession of sin he had made, Moses know that they haven’t fear the Lord God yet;

³¹ And the flax and the barley were smitten; for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was in bolls. — and the flax and the barley was smitten; with the hail, thunder and lightning, and were beat down, bruised, broken, and blasted and destroyed;

³² But the wheat and the rye were not smitten, for they were not grown up. — they haven’t grown up yet; Heb, they were late or hidden. The ear was undeveloped, and lay hid in the low tufts that grew like grass.

³³ And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto the Lord; and the thunder and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth. — Moses went out of the city, that, being solitary, he might pour forth his heart in fervent prayers.

³⁴ And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had ceased, he sinned yet more and hardened his heart, he and his servants. — but even this plague did not lead Pharaoh to alter his mind; as soon as it had ceased on the intercession of Moses, he and his servants continued sinning and hardening their hearts.

³⁵ And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, neither would he let the children of Israel go, as the Lord had spoken by Moses. — hardened; fifferent words in the Hebrew. In Exodus 9:34 the word means “made heavy,”that is, obtuse, incapable of forming a right judgement; in Exodus 9:35 it is stronger, and implies a stubborn resolution.

Exodus 10

¹ And the Lord said unto Moses, “Go in unto Pharaoh; for I have hardened his heart and the heart of his servants, that I might show these My signs before him; — go in unto Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart; that I might shew these my signs before him; and others that were to be done;

² and that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son and of thy son’s son what things I have wrought in Egypt, and My signs which I have done among them, that ye may know that I am the Lord.” — and that thou mayest tell; of thy son, and of thy son’s son;

— there was a further and higher reason for the infliction of those awful judgements, namely, that the knowledge of them there, and the permanent record of them still, might furnish a salutary and impressive lesson to others down to the latest ages.

³ And Moses and Aaron came in unto Pharaoh and said unto him, “Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews: ‘How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before Me? Let My people go, that they may serve Me.

— how long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me? to acknowledge his offence, lie low before God, and be subject to his will; he had humbled himself for a moment;

— but then this did not continue what God expected of him, and complains of the want of, was such a continued humiliation before him, and such a subjection to him, as would issue in complying with what he had so often demanded of him;

⁴ Else, if thou refuse to let My people go, behold, tomorrow will I bring the locusts into thy border. — locusts, a well-known plague throughout the Middle-East and neighbouring countries;

⁵ And they shall cover the face of the earth, that one shall not be able to see the earth; and they shall eat the residue of that which has escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field.

— and shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field; such fruit trees as escaped the hail, and such boughs and branches of them which were not broken off by it;

— “When their swarms appear, everything green vanishes instantaneously from the fields, as if a curtain were rolled up; the trees and plants stand leafless, and nothing is seen but naked boughs and stalks.”

⁶ And they shall fill thy houses and the houses of all thy servants and the houses of all the Egyptians — which neither thy fathers nor thy fathers’ fathers have seen since the day that they were upon the earth unto this day.’” And he turned himself, and went out from Pharaoh.

— thy houses shall be filled; they entered the inmost recesses of the houses, were found in every corner, stuck to their clothes, and infested their food;

⁷ And Pharaoh’s servants said unto him, “How long shall this man be a snare unto us? Let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God. Knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed?” — knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed?

— as good as ruined, by the plagues and boils upon the cattle, which destroyed great quantities, and by the hail which had smitten their flax and their barley; or “must thou first know that Egypt is destroyed?” before thou wilt let the people go;

⁸ And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh; and he said unto them, “Go, serve the Lord your God. But who are they that shall go?” — but who are they that shall go? or, “who and who”? for Pharaoh was unwilling that they should all go, but would have some retained as pledges of their return;

⁹ And Moses said, “We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go, for we must hold a feast unto the Lord.”

— with our flocks and with our herds will we go; which were requisite for the sacrifices, not knowing which they were to sacrifice, and with which to serve God, till they came to the place where they were to sacrifice;

¹⁰ And he said unto them, “Let the Lord be so with you, as I will let you go, and your little ones. Look to it, for evil is before you.

— and the Pharaoh said unto Moses and Aaron, let the Lord be so with you, as I will let you go, and your little ones; either as mocking them, let the Lord you talk of be with you if he will, and let him deliver you if he can, as I shall let you go with your children, which I never will;

— look to it, for evil is before you; which is either a charge of an evil design upon them, and intended to raise a mutiny, make an insurrection, and form a rebellion against them.

¹¹ Not so! Go now ye that are men, and serve the Lord, for that ye did desire.” And they were driven out from Pharaoh’s presence. — not so; you shall not go with your children as you propose; —

¹² And the Lord said unto Moses, “Stretch out thine hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up upon the land of Egypt and eat every herb of the land, even all that the hail hath left.”

— and eat every herb of the land, even all that the hail hath left; the wheat and the rye, or rice, the grass, herbs, and plants, it had beat down, but not utterly destroyed, as well as some boughs and branches of trees which were left unbroken by it.

¹³ And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an east wind upon the land all that day and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts. — the Lord brought an east wind. Locusts generally come with a wind; and, indeed, cannot fly far without one;

— an east wind would in this case have brought them from northern Arabia, where they are often bred in large numbers;

¹⁴ And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the borders of Egypt. Very grievous were they; before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such. — and rested in all the coasts of Egypt; in every part of it where the Egyptians dwelt;

— and where there were meadows, pastures, fields, gardens, orchards; here they lighted and fed, excepting the land of Goshen, where Israel dwelt;

¹⁵ For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they ate every herb of the land and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left, and there remained not any green thing in the trees or in the herbs of the field through all the land of Egypt.

— the land was darkened; either by their flying in vast numbers, and so darkening the air, as they have ofttimes done; or by covering the green and lightsome herbs and productions of the earth with their dark and direful bodies.

¹⁶ Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in haste, and he said, “I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you. — I have sinned against the Lord your God; against the Lord by disobeying his command, in refusing to let Israel go, when he had so often required it of him; and against Moses and Aaron his ambassadors;

¹⁷ Now therefore forgive, I pray thee, my sin only this once, and entreat the Lord your God, that he may take away from me this death only.”

— Pharaoh desires their prayers that this death only might be taken away, not this sin: pretending that he would never offend any more, and if he did, he did not desire it should be forgiven him, but that due punishment should be inflicted on him.

¹⁸ And he went out from Pharaoh and entreated the Lord. — intreated the Lord; Moses complied, though Pharaoh had this time made no distinct promise of releasing the people.

¹⁹ And the Lord turned a mighty, strong west wind, which took away the locusts and cast them into the Red Sea. There remained not one locust in all the borders of Egypt. — there remained not one locust in all the coasts of Egypt; so that the removal of them was as great a miracle as the bringing them at first;

²⁰ But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go. — but the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart; for as yet he had not brought all his judgments on him he designed to bring;

²¹ And the Lord said unto Moses, “Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt.” — the plague of darkness brought upon Egypt was a dreadful plague;

²² And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven, and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. — it was darkness which might be felt, so thick were the fogs. It astonished and terrified. It continued three days; six nights in one;

²³ They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days; but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. — it was darkness which might be felt, so thick were the fogs; it continued three days; six nights in one; so long the most lightsome palaces were dungeons;

²⁴ And Pharaoh called unto Moses and said, “Go ye, serve the Lord; only let your flocks and your herds be stayed. Let your little ones also go with you.” — go ye, serve the Lord, only let your flocks and your herds be stayed; stopped or remained behind, as a pledge and security of their return;

²⁵ And Moses said, “Thou must give us also sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice unto the Lord our God. — but Moses said, thou must give us also sacrifices and burnt offerings: sheep, rams, and goats for sacrifices, and oxen for burnt offerings;

²⁶ Our cattle also shall go with us. There shall not a hoof be left behind; for thereof must we take to serve the Lord our God, and we know not with what we must serve the Lord until we come thither.” — the Israelites’ own cattle must go as well: because until they reach their destination they do not know how many sacrifices will be required.

²⁷ But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not let them go. — but the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart; yet more and more, and he would not let them go;

²⁸ And Pharaoh said unto him, “Get thee from me! Take heed to thyself! See my face no more, for in that day thou seest my face thou shalt die!” — see my face no more; neither here nor elsewhere: for in that day thou seest my face thou shalt die; this was a foolish as well as a wicked speech;

²⁹ And Moses said, “Thou hast spoken well. I will see thy face again no more.” — knowing by a spirit of prophecy that he should be no more sent unto him, and that Pharaoh should in a little time be drowned in the Red sea, when he would be seen no more by him nor any other; for as for what is said in the following chapter.

Posted in Books of Moses

Exodus 7

¹ And the Lord said unto Moses, “See, I have made thee a god (’ĕ·lō·hîm) to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet. — a god ’ĕ·lō·hîm to Pharaoh;

— “a god” that is, he was to act in this business as God’s representative, God’s envoy, to act and speak in His name and to perform things beyond the ordinary course of nature;

— any messenger (mal·’āḵ) is also an angel; and God gives authority for an messenger to carry God’s name, “for My name is in him;”

“Behold, I send a messenger (mal·’āḵ) before thee to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.

Have regard for him, and obey his voice. Provoke him not, for he will not pardon your transgressions, for My name is in him. Exodus 23:20-21

² Thou shalt speak all that I command thee; and Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh, that he send the children of Israel out of his land.

— that he send the children of Israel out of his land; this was the principal thing to be insisted upon; and all that was said or done to him was to bring about this end, the dismission of the children of Israel out of Egypt.

³ And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt. — 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;

— Pharaoh first hardening his own heart against God; leaving him to strong delusions, to believe the lying miracles of his magicians: this the Lord thought fit to acquaint Moses with, lest he should be discouraged by his refusal to dismiss Israel.

⁴ But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay My hand upon Egypt and bring forth Mine armies and My people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments. — that I may ;lay mine hand upon Egypt; the inhabitants of Egypt, smiting them with one plague after another;

— and particularly with the last, slaying their firstborn; every plague was a stroke of his hand, and an effect of his mighty power and vengeance, and more especially that;

⁵ And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I stretch forth Mine hand upon Egypt and bring out the children of Israel from among them.” — and the Egyptians shall know; these great judgement, and Israel’s triumphant exodus, will teach the Egyptians Yehovah’s might, and His superiority to their own gods.

⁶ And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord commanded them; so did they. — their reluctance and resistance from this time ceased.

⁷ And Moses was fourscore years old, and Aaron fourscore and three years old when they spoke unto Pharaoh. — and Moses was eighty years old; at this time, which is observed partly to show how long Israel had been afflicted in Egypt;

— for their great troubles and miseries began about the time of the birth of Moses, or a little before, as appears from the above history;

⁸ And the Lord spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying,

⁹ “When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying, ‘Show a miracle for yourselves,’ then thou shalt say unto Aaron, ‘Take thy rod and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent.’” — thy rod; this Moses ordinarily held in his hand, but the rod is now called Aaron’s, because Moses had entrusted him with it.

¹⁰ And Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the Lord had commanded; and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent.

— it became a serpent; or a “dragon” as the Septuagint says; not only to affect Pharaoh with wonder, but to strike a terror upon him, because it was also an Egyptian deity.

¹¹ Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers. Now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments. — the names of these magicians of Egypt, Janis and Jamberes, were already incorporated in the Targum, but picked up by Paul in II Timothy 3:8;

¹² For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents; but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods. — swallowed up their rods and so gave proof of Aaron’s superiority to the magicians; though this miracle made no impression upon Pharaoh.

¹³ And He hardened Pharaoh’s heart, that he hearkened not unto them, as the Lord had said. — he hardened Pharaoh’s heart; or, “notwithstanding the heart of Pharaoh was hardened” though he saw the rods of his magicians devoured by rod;

— or “therefore” his heart was hardened, because he saw that the rods of his magicians became serpents as well as Aaron’s; that he hearkened not unto them; to Moses and Aaron, and comply with their demand, to dismiss the people of Israel;

¹⁴ And the Lord said unto Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is hardened; he refuseth to let the people go. — Pharaoh’s heart is hardened; or “heavy,” dull and stupid, stiff and inflexible, cannot lift up his heart, or find in his heart to obey the will of God;

¹⁵ Get thee unto Pharaoh in the morning. Lo, he goeth out unto the water, and thou shalt stand by the river’s brink until he come; and the rod which was turned to a serpent shalt thou take in thine hand.

— and thou shall stand by against the brink of the river Nile, in order to meet him, seems rather to imply a daily custom of the Pharaoh; and the rod which was turned to a serpent shalt thou take in thine hand; as a terror to Pharaoh;

¹⁶ And thou shalt say unto him, ‘The Lord God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee, saying, “Let My people go, that they may serve Me in the wilderness”; and behold, hitherto thou wouldest not hear.

— saying, let my people go, that they may serve me in the wilderness; the demand is once more renewed, before any punishment is inflicted for refusal, that the patience and forbearance of God might be the more visible, and his judgments appear the more righteous when inflicted, as well as Pharaoh be left more inexcusable.

¹⁷ Thus saith the Lord: “In this thou shalt know that I am the Lord: Behold, I will smite with the rod that is in mine hand upon the waters which are in the river, and they shall be turned to blood.

— they shall be turned to blood, which was a very grievous plague to them; both because it was an eternal dishonour to their religion, and because from hence they had both their drink and their meat; and if this river was their god;

¹⁸ And the fish that are in the river shall die, and the river shall stink; and the Egyptians shall loathe to drink of the water of the river.”’” — the water of the Nile has always been regarded by the Egyptians as a blessing unique to their land; now with the water changed into blood and stink, this was a severe calamity.

¹⁹ And the Lord spoke unto Moses, “Say unto Aaron, ‘Take thy rod and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may become blood; and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and in vessels of stone.’”

— both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone; in which water were kept in private houses, fetched from the river for the use of families; all which were to be turned into blood everywhere, in all parts of the land, and in all places mentioned, immediately upon Aaron’s taking his rod, and smiting the waters with it in that part of the river that was before him.

²⁰ And Moses and Aaron did so, as the Lord commanded; and he lifted up the rod and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh and in the sight of his servants; and all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood.

— and all the waters that were in the river were turned into blood; not only the face of the waters looked like blood, but they were really turned into it; and not only the surface of the water, but all the water that was in the river, wherever it flowed, and as far as it flowed in the land of Egypt.

²¹ And the fish that were in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians could not drink of the water of the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. — the change in the water extended to “the streams,” or different arms of the Nile; or canals; “the ponds,” that is, every collection of water;

²² And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments; and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, neither did he hearken unto them, as the Lord had said. — the magicians could not act on this large scale; they could only operate, or seem to operate, on some small quantity of water;

²³ And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, neither did he set his heart to this also. — neither did he set his heart (that is, pay attention); Pharaoh did not lay even this to heart; he passed it over as a slight matter, unworthy of much thought, and “turned, and went into his house.

²⁴ And all the Egyptians dug round about the river for water to drink, for they could not drink of the water of the river. — for they could not drink of the waters of the river; it being turned into blood, and stunk so exceedingly;

— and though they might strain it, and make it in some measure, drinkable, and might make use of the juice of herbs, and other things, to extinguish their thirst, and the better sort might have a stock of wine, yet multitudes must be greatly distressed.

²⁵ And seven days were fulfilled after the Lord had smitten the river. — and seven days were fulfilled; these words seem to mark the duration of the first plague.

Exodus 8

¹ And the Lord spoke unto Moses, “Go unto Pharaoh and say unto him, ‘Thus saith the Lord: Let My people go, that they may serve Me.

— again, while the main purpose of the plague was to punish the nation by which Israel had been so long oppressed, the secondary object of throwing contempt upon their, religion was main-rained. Frogs were among the Egyptian sacred animals.

² And if thou refuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs. — I will smite all thy borders with frogs: fill the whole land of Egypt with them, to the utmost borders thereof on every side.

³ And the river shall bring forth frogs abundantly, which shall go up and come into thine house, and into thy bedchamber and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants and upon thy people, and into thine ovens and into thy kneading troughs.

— everywherea bundantly: which must be very offensive and troublesome to them, what with their ugly shape, croaking noise and filthy smell, and the disagreeable touch of them, leaping on them, and even upon their food, and all vessels used for the same, which must make it very nauseous and distasteful to them;

⁴ And the frogs shall come up both on thee and upon thy people and upon all thy servants.’” — even the king himself not excepted; his people, and servants, high and low, rich and poor, and upon the king’s ministers, courtiers, and nobles; but the children of Israel may be thought to be exempted from this plague;

⁵ And the Lord spoke unto Moses, “Say unto Aaron, ‘Stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over the streams, over the rivers and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt.’” — say unto Aaron, stretch forth thy hand with thy rod; for Aaron was to speak and to do whatever he ordered him from the Lord;

⁶ And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up and covered the land of Egypt. — and the frogs came and covered the land of Egypt: they came up at once, and in such multitudes everywhere, that the whole land was full of them;

⁷ And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt. — the magicians would seem foolishishly to have been able to increase the plague, but not to remove it;

⁸ Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said, “Entreat the Lord, that he may take away the frogs from me and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may do sacrifice unto the Lord.”

— Pharaoh said, entreat the Lord; this is the man, who, not long ago, proudly said, Who is the Lord? Who is Jehovah? He now begins to know something of Jehovah’s power and justice at least;

⁹ And Moses said unto Pharaoh, “Glory over me: When shall I entreat for thee and for thy servants and for thy people to destroy the frogs from thee and thy houses, that they may remain in the river only?” — when shall I entreat for thee, that they may remain in this river only?

¹⁰ And he said, “Tomorrow.” And Moses said, “Be it according to thy word, that thou mayest know that there is none like unto the Lord our God. — and he said, be it according to thy word, as if he had said, it shall be done as thou hast desired, and at the time fixed;

¹¹ And the frogs shall depart from thee, and from thy houses and from thy servants and from thy people. They shall remain in the river only.”

¹² And Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh; and Moses cried unto the Lord because of the frogs which He had brought against Pharaoh. — and Moses cried unto the Lord: prayed unto him with great fervency, and with a loud voice, most fervently entreating that the frogs might be removed on the morrow, as he had promised;

¹³ And the Lord did according to the word of Moses; and the frogs died out of the houses, out of the villages, and out of the fields. — so that the land stank with the odour of their putrefaction;

¹⁴ And they gathered them together upon heaps, and the land stank. — and the land stank; with the stench of the dead frogs, which was another proof and evidence of the reality of the miracle;

¹⁵ But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite, he hardened his heart and hearkened not unto them, as the Lord had said. — but when Pharaoh saw that there was respite; from his affliction, as the Targum of Jonathan adds; the plague was removed, and he found himself and his people at ease:

— or there was a “breathing” before he and his people were so oppressed, that they could scarce breathe, but now being delivered from the judgment on them with which they were straitened, were enlarged and at liberty, and in easy circumstances: he hardened his heart;

¹⁶ And the Lord said unto Moses, “Say unto Aaron, ‘Stretch out thy rod and smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt.’” — it is observed by Hebrew commentators that the nine plagues are divided into three groups:

— distinct warnings are given of the first two plagues in each group; the third in each is inflicted without any previous notice; namely, the third, lice, the sixth, boils, the ninth, darkness.

¹⁷ And they did so; for Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod and smote the dust of the earth, and it became lice on man and on beast. All the dust of the land became lice throughout all the land of Egypt. — that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt: not gnats, nor flies, but lice, though perhaps not of the common and ordinary sort, but new and extraordinary;

¹⁸ And the magicians so did with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not; so there were lice upon man and upon beast. — it was as easy for them to produce lice as frogs, but God forbid them, partly to confound them, and to show that what they did before was only by his consent, but to show them that even the dust of the earth obeys him.

¹⁹ Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” And Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them, as the Lord had said. — the finger of God; the magicians meant to say, “This is beyond the power of man: it is supernatural;

²⁰ And the Lord said unto Moses, “Rise up early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh. Lo, he cometh forth to the water, and say unto him, ‘Thus saith the Lord: Let My people go, that they may serve Me.

— cometh forth to the water; it is not improbable that on this occasion Pharaoh went to the Nile, and Moses was ordered to meet him while walking on the banks of the Nile and repeat his request for the liberation of Israel;

²¹ Else, if thou wilt not let My people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants and upon thy people and into thy houses; and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are.

— and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of the swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are; their number would be so very great.

²² And I will sever in that day the land of Goshen in which My people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there, to the end thou mayest know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth. — and I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell; distinguish it from other parts of the land of Egypt:

— but restricted to the place where Pharaoh lived, and to bound and limit such sort of creatures as flies, which move swiftly from place to place, and particularly to keep the land of Goshen clear of them;

²³ And I will put a division between My people and thy people. Tomorrow shall this sign be.’”

²⁴ And the Lord did so; and there came a grievous swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants’ houses and into all the land of Egypt. The land was corrupted by reason of the swarm of flies. — into the house of Pharaoh, and into the houses of his servants;

— and into all the land of Egypt: into the palace of Pharaoh, and of his nobles, ministers and courtiers, and into the dwelling places of all his subjects, throughout the whole land, excepting the land of Goshen;

²⁵ And Pharaoh called for Moses and for Aaron and said, “Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land.” — the Pharaoh gave way before this plague ended and without waiting for any remonstrance on the part of the magicians or others, he “called for Moses.”

— and said, go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land; that is, in the land of Goshen, in the place where they were; he was willing to allow them the liberty of sacrificing to their God, which it seems they had before; but then he would not consent they should go out of the land to do it.

²⁶ And Moses said, “It is not meet so to do; for we shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God. Lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us? — the abomination of the Egyptians; that which the Egyptians abhor to kill, or to see killed; because they worshipped them as gods, as is notoriously known.

²⁷ We will go three days’ journey into the wilderness and sacrifice to the Lord our God, as He shall command us.” — we will go three days’ journey into the wilderness; as was first insisted on, and from which demand they should not depart;

²⁸ And Pharaoh said, “I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness; only ye shall not go very far away. Entreat for me.” — for the first time Pharaoh shows his real objection to letting the Israelites go: he is afraid that they will escape him;

— so he suggests the compromise: entreat or petition for me; that they shall just enter the wilderness on his eastern border, remaining near the frontier, and therefore within his reach.

²⁹ And Moses said, “Behold, I go out from thee, and I will entreat the Lord that the swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants and from his people tomorrow; but let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully any more in not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.”

— let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully any more. God’s servants must rebuke even kings when they openly break any of their words; and told the Pharaoh not to deceive them again as he had done before;

³⁰ And Moses went out from Pharaoh and entreated the Lord. — entreat for me; the words seem to be spoken in haste, and with great eagerness and vehemence;

³¹ And the Lord did according to the word of Moses, and He removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people; there remained not one. — there remained not one; the meaning is not, not one swarm of flies, but not one fly, there was not one left;

³² And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also, neither would he let the people go. — again, it is after being impressed, and partially relenting, that Pharaoh hardens his own heart.

Posted in Books of Moses

Exodus 5

¹ And afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, “Thus saith the Lord God of Israel: ‘Let My people go, that they may hold a feast unto Me in the wilderness.’” — let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness of Sinai or Horeb there, where they might keep it more freely and safely, without being disturbed by outsiders;

² And Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.” — that I should obey his voice, to let Israel go? he knew of no superior monarch to him, whose orders he was obliged to obey in any respect, and particularly in this, the dismission of the people of Israel out of land;

³ And they said, “The God of the Hebrews hath met with us. Let us go, we pray thee, three days’ journey into the desert and sacrifice unto the Lord our God, lest He fall upon us with pestilence or with the sword.” — lest he fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword: this they urge as a reason to have their request granted, taken from the danger they should be exposed unto, should they not be allowed to go and offer sacrifice to God;

⁴ And the king of Egypt said unto them, “Why do ye, Moses and Aaron, delay the people from their work? Get you unto your burdens!” — wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works? The Pharaoh regards the pilgrimage as merely an excuse for a holiday;

— Get you to your burdens; these words were addressed to the Israelites, the elders of whom went with Moses, several others also probably following him, when he went in unto Pharaoh, impatient to see what the end would be.

⁵ And Pharaoh said, “Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest from their burdens!” — they are already sufficiently numerous; and putting a stop to their labours could unsettle them, and make them dangerous to their masters.

⁶ And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people and their officers, saying, — taskmasters and officers; taskmasters were Egyptians; “officers” (shoterim) supervisors or foremen, were undoubtedly Hebrews.

⁷ “Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore. Let them go and gather straw for themselves. — let them go and gather straw: a mixture of clay, mud and straw; it has been estimated that this requirement would “more than double” the people’s toils;

⁸ And the tally of bricks which they made heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish any thereof. For they are idle; therefore they cry, saying, ‘Let us go and sacrifice to our God.’ — therefore they cry, let us go and sacrifice to our God;

— suggesting, that this request and cry of theirs did not proceed from a religious principle, or the great veneration they had for their God, but from the sloth and idleness they were addicted to.

⁹ Let there more work be laid upon the men, that they may labor therein, and let them not regard vain words.” — vain words; those of Moses and Aaron, which he claimed were vain, or false; that is, that they falsely pretended that their God had commanded them to go and worship, when it was only a crafty design of their own to advance themselves by raising sedition.

¹⁰ And the taskmasters of the people went out, and their officers, and they spoke to the people, saying, “Thus saith Pharaoh: ‘I will not give you straw. — and the taskmasters of the people went out; from the presence of Pharaoh, out of his court, to the respective places where they were set to see that the Israelites did their work;

— and their officers; the officers of the Israelites, who were under the taskmasters, and answerable to them for the work of the people, and their tale of bricks.

¹¹ Go ye, get you straw where ye can find it; yet not any of your work shall be diminished.’” — “Let the work be heavy upon the people, and they shall stick to their work, and not look at lying words.”

¹² So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt to gather stubble instead of straw. — to gather stubble instead of straw; straw not being easy to come at, they were obliged to gather stubble that was left in the fields, after the corn was gathered in.

¹³ And the taskmasters hastened them, saying, “Fulfill your works, your daily tasks, as when there was straw.” — and the taskmasters hasted them; kept them tight and close to their work, and were urgent on them to make quick dispatch of it;

¹⁴ And the officers of the children of Israel, whom Pharaoh’s taskmasters had set over them, were beaten and were demanded, “Why have ye not fulfilled your task in making brick both yesterday and today, as heretofore?” — this makes it clear, not only that the taskmasters and officers were different persons, but that the one were Egyptians appointed by Pharaoh, and the other were Israelites;

— and were demanded, wherefore have ye not fulfilled your task in making brick, both yesterday and today, as before?

¹⁵ Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried unto Pharaoh, saying, “Why dealest thou thus with thy servants? — “Why do you treat your servants like this?”

¹⁶ There is no straw given unto thy servants, and they say to us, ‘Make brick!’ And behold, thy servants are beaten, but the fault is in thine own people.” — the Egyptian task-masters, who, by sending us abroad to gather straw, hinder us from doing the work which they require;

— and so they are both unjust and unreasonable. They charge the task-masters, not the king, either in civility and duty, casting his fault upon the instruments; or because they did not know, or at best not believe, that this was the king’s act.

¹⁷ But he said, “Ye are idle, ye are idle! Therefore ye say, ‘Let us go and do sacrifice to the Lord.’ — but he said, ye are idle, ye are idle; instead of expressing indignation at the taskmasters, and relieving the officers and the people, he insults them in a flouting sarcastic way, charging them with sloth and idleness;

— therefore ye say, let us go and do sacrifice to the Lord; suggesting that it was not so much the service and honour of God they regarded, as that they might have a leisure day from work and labour.

¹⁸ Go therefore now and work; for there shall no straw be given you, yet shall ye deliver the tally of bricks.”

¹⁹ And the officers of the children of Israel saw that they were in evil straits after it was said, “Ye shall not diminish any from your bricks of your daily task.” — after it was said, ye shall not minish ought from your bricks of your daily task; after this had been said and confirmed by Pharaoh, they had no hope of things being better with them, but looked upon their misfortune as irretrievable.

²⁰ And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the way as they came forth from Pharaoh. — when the Israelitish overlookers saw that they were in an evil condition, they came to meet Moses and Aaron, waiting for them as they came out from the king, and reproaching them with only making the circumstances of the people worse.

²¹ And they said unto them, “The Lord look upon you and judge, because ye have made our savor to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us.” — a sword . . . to slay us; this the officers may have feared that their inability to enforce the Pharaoh’s impracticable demands would ultimately lead to their execution.

²² And Moses returned unto the Lord and said, “Lord, why hast Thou so evilly treated this people? Why is it that Thou hast sent me? — Moses returned unto the Lord; he could find nothing to say to the officers;

— the course of events had as much disappointed him as it had them. All that he could do was to complain to God, “must I, who hoped to be a blessing, become a scourge to them?”

²³ For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in Thy name, he hath done evil to this people; neither hast Thou delivered Thy people at all.” — “For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, the Pharaoh has done evil to this people, and thou hast not delivered thy people at all.”

Exodus 6

¹ Then the Lord said unto Moses, “Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land.” — now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh: in inflicting punishments on him: for with a strong hand shall he let them go; being forced to it by the mighty hand of God upon him;

² And God spoke unto Moses and said unto him, “I am the Lord. — I am the Lord; that is, יהוה‎ YHVH Yehovah;

³ And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob by the name of God Almighty, but by My name Jehovah was I not known to them. — and I appeared unto Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, El-Shaddai;

— “but by my name Yehovah was I not known to them?” God’s name is the four-letter Hebrew word יהוה‎ YHVH Yehovah (not Yahweh, since it is only used among the Samaritan communities; and not Jehovah since the letter J wasn’t around but only after the sixteenth century; (more on this at the end)

⁴ And I have also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers. — the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers; not being in actual possession of any part of it, but lived as pilgrims and strangers in it, as their posterity now did in another land not theirs;

⁵ And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered My covenant. — that covenent was with Abraham, “Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt [river Nile] unto the great river, the River Euphrates,” Genesis 15:18.

⁶ Therefore say unto the children of Israel: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.

— and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm; with an arm stretched out from heaven to earth; by the exertion of his almighty power, openly and manifestly displayed in the lighting down of his arm upon the enemies of his people, and in delivering them out of their hands;

⁷ And I will take you to Me for a people, and I will be to you a God; and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, who bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. — and I will be to you a God, to be revered by you, and also to be your all-powerful leader, protector and benefactor.

⁸ And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning which I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it to you for a heritage: I am the Lord.’” — to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; where God has authority and power to dispose of lands and kingdoms as he please; and faithful to give them what he had promised.

⁹ And Moses spoke so unto the children of Israel, but they hearkened not unto Moses from anguish of spirit and from cruel bondage. — but they hearkened not unto Moses; being disappointed of deliverance by him, and their afflictions being increased, and lying heavy upon them, they were heartless and hopeless;

¹⁰ And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, — at another time, and renewed his orders to him to go again to Pharaoh, and require their dismission;

¹¹ “Go in, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, that he let the children of Israel go out of his land.” — the second message was an advance upon the first;

— the first asked only for permission to enter the wilderness, much of which was within the limits of Egypt; the second was a demand that the Israelites should be allowed “to go out of the land.”

¹² And Moses spoke before the Lord, saying, “Behold, the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me. How then shall Pharaoh hear me, who am of uncircumcised lips?” — “uncircumcised” is used, according to the Hebrew idiom, for any imperfection which interferes with efficiency: “slow of speech and of a slow tongue.”

¹³ And the Lord spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron, and gave them a charge unto the children of Israel and unto Pharaoh king of Egypt to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt. — this time, no notice is taken of the objection of Moses, having been sufficiently answered before, and Aaron is joined with him in the following charge;

¹⁴ These are the heads of their fathers’ houses. The sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel: Hanoch and Pallu, Hezron and Carmi; these are the families of Reuben. — this genealogy describes here, to show the lineage of Moses and Aaron, by. whom this great work was to be effected. Only he promiseth in brief the genealogy of his two elder brethren. Reuben and Simeon;

¹⁵ And the sons of Simeon: Jemuel and Jamin, and Ohad and Jachin and Zohar, and Shaul the son of a Canaanite woman; these are the families of Simeon.

¹⁶ And these are the names of the sons of Levi according to their generations: Gershon and Kohath and Merari; and the years of the life of Levi were a hundred thirty and seven years.

¹⁷ The sons of Gershon: Libni and Shimi, according to their families.

¹⁸ And the sons of Kohath: Amram and Izhar, and Hebron and Uzziel; and the years of the life of Kohath were a hundred thirty and three years.

¹⁹ And the sons of Merari: Mahali and Mushi; these are the families of Levi according to their generations.

²⁰ And Amram took Jochebed, his father’s sister, for a wife; and she bore him Aaron and Moses; and the years of the life of Amram were a hundred and thirty and seven years.

²¹ And the sons of Izhar: Korah and Nepheg and Zichri.

²² And the sons of Uzziel: Mishael and Elzaphan and Zithri.

²³ And Aaron took Elisheba, daughter of Amminadab, sister of Nahshon, for a wife; and she bore him Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.

²⁴ And the sons of Korah: Assir and Elkanah and Abiasaph; these are the families of the Korahites.

²⁵ And Eleazar, Aaron’s son, took one of the daughters of Putiel for a wife; and she bore him Phinehas; these are the heads of the fathers of the Levites according to their families.

²⁶ These are that Aaron and Moses to whom the Lord said, “Bring out the children of Israel from the land of Egypt according to their armies.” — their armies; this expression is here used of the Israelites for the first time. It seems to refer to that organisation, of a quasi-military character,

— which was given to the people by the order of Moses during the long struggle with Pharaoh, and which enabled them at last to quit Egypt, not a disorderly mob, but “harnessed,” or “in military array” (Exodus 13:18). The expression is repeated in Exodus 7:4; Exodus 12:17; Exodus 12:51.

²⁷ These are they who spoke to Pharaoh king of Egypt to bring out the children of Israel from Egypt. These are that Moses and Aaron. — this emphatic repetition shows the reason for inserting the genealogy;

— the names of Moses and Aaron are given twice and in a different order; used in Exodus 6:26 probably to mark Aaron as the older in the genealogy, and used in Exodus 6:27 to denote the leadership of Moses.

²⁸ And it came to pass on the day when the Lord spoke unto Moses in the land of Egypt, — and it came to pass indicates a time gap;

²⁹ that the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, “I am the Lord. Speak thou unto Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say unto thee.” — speak thou unto Pharaoh king of Egypt all that I say unto thee; that he let Israel go;

— and that in case of refusal, that he would punish him and his people with this and the other plague, one after another, and at last slay him and their firstborn.

³⁰ And Moses said before the Lord, “Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips, and how shall Pharaoh hearken unto me?” — of uncircumcised lips; as he had done, Exodus 6:13, and this is only a repetition of what is there said, in order to lead on to what is related in the following chapter.

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More on God’s name, Yehovah.

God’s name is the four-letter Hebrew word יהוה‎ YHVH Yehovah, which are embedded in the Masoretic text over 6000 times, yet when translated into our English language most had been translated as Lord, or LORD, which are titles, but not his name. His name is יהוה‎ Yehovah, or YEHOVAH (but there are no capital letters in Hebrew).

It wasn’t until 1524 that Gian Giorgio Trissino, an Italian Renaissance grammarian, invented the letter J that this new letter started to take a hold in the writings of western Europe. Even in 1611 when the English Bible the King James has our subject of study by the prophet Jeremiah, he was known as Ieremiah. So Jehovah is a very late comer.

The following verses with the LORD erred in translation. His name Yehovah should be used:

I am the LORD; that is My name. And My glory will I not give to another, neither My praise to graven images. Isaiah 42:8

And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call. Joel 2:32

“I am sought of them that asked not for Me; I am found of them that sought Me not. I said, ‘Behold Me, behold Me,’ unto a nation that was not called by My name. Isaiah 65:1

When we call our God, the LORD, we err, because his name is not the LORD, which is a title. His name is YEHOVAH! May We all ask for his forgiveness, and may Our merciful God forgive us all.

Posted in Books of Moses

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.

Posted in Books of Moses

The two hundred and ten years of Israel’s stay in Egypt were divided into two unequal periods, in the former and longer of which they were prosperous and favoured, while in the latter they were oppressed. Both periods had their uses and place in the shaping of the nation and its preparation for the Exodus.

Exodus 1

¹ Now these are the names of the children of Israel who came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob: — every man and his household came with Jacob; into Egypt, all excepting Joseph, and along with them their families, wives, children, and servants;

— though wives and servants are not reckoned into the number of the seventy, only such sons as came out of Jacob’s loins:

— the Targum of Jonathan is, “a man with the men of his house,” as if only male children were meant, the sons of Jacob and his grandsons;

² Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah, — Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah. The first sons of Jacob by Leah;

— the sons are arranged according to their mothers, as in Genesis 35:23-26, and the sons of the two maid-servants stand last. Leah has precedence over Rachel; Bilhah over Zilpah.

³ Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin, —and Benjamin; who, though youngest of all, is placed before Dan, Naphtali, Gad and Ashe; because they were the children of the maidens.

⁴ Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. — the children of each wife and concubine are given in order of seniority. The omission of Joseph from the list is explained in the last clause of Exodus 1:5.

⁵ And all the souls who came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls, for Joseph was already in Egypt. — on the number 70, in which Jacob is included; but not Joseph;

— seventy souls; Jacob himself, 1; his sons, 12; his daughter, Dinah, 1; his grandsons, 51; his grand-daughter Serah, 1; his great-grandsons, 4—Total, 70. His daughters, except Dinah, and his sons’ daughters, except Serah, spoken of in Genesis 46:7, are not included;

— if his female descendants were, at the time of his descent into Egypt, as numerous as the males, the entire number of those who “came out of his loins” must have been 132.

⁶ And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation. — Plant by plant the leaves drop, and the stem rots and its place is empty.

⁷ And the children of Israel were fruitful and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them. — Seed by seed the tender green spikelets pierce the mould, and the field waves luxuriant in the breeze and the sunshine. ‘The children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly.’

⁸ Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, who knew not Joseph. — “a new king” is a phrase not found elsewhere; perhaps to imply that he did not succeed his predecessor in the natural order of descent and inheritance;

— he “arose up over Egypt,” occupying the land, as if on different terms from the previous king whose place he took, either by usurpation or conquest.

⁹ And he said unto his people, “Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we. — “his people” no doubt they were his nobles, or, at any rate, his courtiers;

— ancient Egypt must have had a population of seven or eight millions, which would imply nearly two millions of adult males, whereas the adult male Israelites, near a century later, were no more than six hundred thousand (Exodus 12:37).

¹⁰ Come on, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply and it come to pass, when there befalleth any war, that they join also unto our enemies and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.” — let us deal wisely; instead of open force, the king proposes stratagem;

— he thinks that he has hit upon a wise scheme, a clever plan, by which the numbers of the Israelites will be kept down, and they will cease to be formidable. The nature of the plan appears in Exodus 1:11.

¹¹ Therefore they set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses. — Raamses is a place different from Ramesses, Genesis 47:11 and had its name from the then reigning Pharaoh, Ramesses Miamun;

— Raamses; Pi-Ramesu, the city of Rameses, was the ordinary seat of the Court during the earlier part of the nineteenth dynasty. It appears to have been a new name for Tanis, or for a suburb of Tanis, which overshadowed the old city;

¹² But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew; and they were grieved because of the children of Israel. — and they were grieved because of the children of Israel; because of their multiplication and increase, and because their schemes for lessening them did not succeed; they were as thorns in their eyes;

¹³ And the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigor. — with rigour; forced labour was of a very severe character; those condemned to it worked from morning to night under the rod of a task-master, which was freely applied to their legs or backs, if they rested their weary limbs for a moment.

¹⁴ And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in mortar and in brick and in all manner of service in the field; all their service wherein they made them serve was with rigor. — all their service wherein they made them serve was with rigour; they not only put them to hard work, but used them in a very churlish manner, abusing them with their tongues, and beating them with their hands;

¹⁵ And the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah. — Hebrew midwifes; or “midwives of the Hebrew women.”

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

— if it be a son, then ye shall kill him; opinions are divided, however, what was the method of destruction which the king did recommend; short-term thinking: for he feared not them, but the males only;

¹⁷ But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive. — but the midwives feared God; their faith inspired them with such courage as to risk their lives, by disobeying the mandate of a cruel tyrant;

¹⁸ And the king of Egypt called for the midwives and said unto them, “Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men children alive?”

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.”

— for they are lively; they are vigorous; a large proportion of the women deliver themselves; and the services of professional accoucheurs are very rarely called upon; or that they gave birth to their children before the midwives arrived.

²⁰ Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and waxed very mighty. — God dealt well with the midwives; this represents God as rewarding them for keeping their faith.

²¹ And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that He made them houses. — that he made them houses; making houses for them, being moved by the Lord, to preserve them from the insults of the Egyptians; others of Pharaoh building houses for them;

²² And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, “Every son who is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.” — every son that is born; the Targums and the Septuagint add “to the Hebrews,” but without any necessity, since the context shows that only Hebrew children are meant.

Exodus 2

¹ And there went a man of the house of Levi, and took for a wife a daughter of Levi.

² And the woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a goodly child, she hid him three months. — there went a man of the house of Levi; Amram the husband, the son of Kohath, and grandson of Levi, as appears from Exodus 6:18; and Jochebed his wife; and their two children, Miriam and Aaron;

— Miriam, a daughter, born probably soon after their marriage, and Aaron, a son, born some twelve years later. Soon after the issue of the edict, Jochebed gave birth to her third child, a son;

³ And when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the reeds by the river’s brink. — Moses, was born, as the Jews say, in the thirty seventh year after the death of Levi, AM 2368;

— the ark was made of the papyrus which was commonly used by the Egyptians for light and swift boats.

⁴ And his sister stood afar off to learn what would be done to him. — and his sister stood afar off; this was Miriam, as the Targum of Jonathan expresses it; who is supposed to be about ten or twelve years of age;

⁵ And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river, and her maidens walked along by the riverside; and when she saw the ark among the reeds, she sent her maid to fetch it. — the princess would, of course, seek a part of the river which was reserved for females; probably Jochebed know where she was accustomed to bathe.

⁶ 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.” — Jewish writers say, she knew it by its being circumcised, the Egyptians not yet using circumcision.

⁷ 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?” — the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee; for she perceived that she was desirous of having the child brought up as her own.

⁸ And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” And the maid went and called the child’s mother. — called the child’s mother; Jochebed must have been waiting near, eagerly expecting—perhaps, while concealed from sight, watching the result, and ready to appear the moment that she was summoned.

⁹ 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. — take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages; by which means she, who was unknown to the princes, had not only the nursing of her own child, but was paid for it;

¹⁰ And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses [that is, Drawn out], and she said, “Because I drew him out of the water.” — the child grew; in stature and in strength; Josephus regards these words as implying a growth that was strange and extraordinary (Ant. Jud. ii. 9, § 6);

¹¹ And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren and looked on their burdens; and he spied an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, one of his brethren. — he went out unto his brethren; it is probable that Pharaoh’s daughter had never concealed from Moses that he was not her own child, but one of the oppressed race.

¹² And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. — he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand; this act of Moses may seem and indeed by some has been condemned as rash and unjustifiable—in plain terms, a deed of assassination.

¹³ And when he went out the second day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together; and he said to him that did the wrong, “Why smitest thou thy fellow?” — the second day; that is, the next day;

— wherefore smitest thou thy fellow? Compare with Acts 7:26, where the words of Moses are reported somewhat differently, “Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another?”

¹⁴ And he said, “Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? Intendest thou to kill me as thou killed the Egyptian?” And Moses feared and said, “Surely this thing is known.” — and Moses feared; lest the thing should be discovered and be told to Pharaoh, and he should suffer for it: this fear that possessed Moses was before he fled from Egypt and went to Midian;

¹⁵ Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian; and he sat down by a well. — and dwelt in the land of Midian: a country so called from Midian, one of Abraham’s sons by Keturah, Genesis 25:2.

¹⁶ Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters; and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father’s flock. — the Priest of Midian; Reuel Exodus 2:18. His name, and the detailed notices in Exodus 18, prove that he was a priest s(ometimes used of a prince, ruler, and governor) of the one true God who was known to the patriarchs especially under the name El.

¹⁷ And the shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them, and watered their flock. — the shepherds came; those of the neighbourhood;

— the rule of the desert is that those who come to a well take their turns in the use of the water in the order of their arrival. But these rude shepherds declined to wait for their turn.

¹⁸ And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, “How is it that ye have come so soon today?” — strictly, and then he is the same who elsewhere is called Jethro, Exodus 3:1;

¹⁹ And they said, “An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water enough for us and watered the flock.” — an Egyptian; so they concluded from his dress and appearance, perhaps even from his speech.

²⁰ And he said unto his daughters, “And where is he? Why is it that ye have left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.” — that he may eat bread; Arabian hospitality was offended that the stranger had not been invited into the tent to partake of the evening meal. The feeling of the modern Bedouin would be the same.

²¹ And Moses was content to dwell with the man; and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter. — the Targum says it was at the end of ten years; and indeed forty years after this a son of his seems to have been young, having not till then been circumcised, Exodus 4:22.

²² And she bore him a son, and he called his name Gershom [that is, A stranger there]; for he said, “I have been a stranger in a strange land.” — Gershom; that is, a stranger there. Now this settlement of Moses in Midian was designed by Providence to shelter him for the present; God will find hiding-places for his people in the day of their distress.

²³ And it came to pass in process of time that the king of Egypt died. And the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried; and their cry came up unto God by reason of the bondage. — in those many days;

— as Moses was now eighty years old (Exodus 7:7), and only forty when he quitted Egypt, the Pharaoh from whom he fled must have reigned above forty years.

²⁴ And God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. — and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob; that he would bring their seed out of a land not theirs, in which they were strangers, and were afflicted, into the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession.

²⁵ And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God took heed of them. — and God looked upon the children of Israel; with an eye of pity and compassion, and saw all the hardships they laboured under, and all the injuries that were done unto them.

Posted in Books of Moses