EXODUS. THE SECOND BOOK OF MOSES. THE PROPHETICO-MESSIANIC THEOCRACY-OR THE GENESIS, REDEMPTION AND SANCTIFICATION OF THE COVENANT PEOPLE. FIRST DIVISION: MOSES AND PHARAOH. THE TYPICALLY SIGNIFICANT REDEMPTION OF ISRAEL, OUT OF HIS SERVITUDE IN EGYPT AS PRELIMINARY CONDITION OF AND PREPARATION FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE TYPICAL KINGDOM OF GOD (THE THEOCRACY) BY MEANS OF THE MOSAIC LEGISLATION-OR THE THEOCRATIC FOUNDATION FOR THE LEGISLATION OF ALL THE THREE BOOKS. CHAPTERS I.-XVIII. FIRST SECTION. The Genesis of the Covenant People of Israel, of their Servitude, and of the Foretokens of their Redemption as one people. An analogue of the Development of Mankind as a unit, of their Corruption and the Preparation for their Salvation. The calling of Moses and his twofold Mission to his people and to Pharaoh. 1 CHAPS. I.-VII. 7. A.-GROWTH AND SERVITUDE OF THE ISRAELITES IN EGYPT-AND CHAP. I. 1-22.* Now these are the names of the children of Israel which [who] came into 2 Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, 3, 4 and Judah; Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin; Dan, and Naphtali, Gad and 5 Asher. And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls; 6 for [and] Joseph was in Egypt already. And Joseph died, and all his brethren, 7 and all that generation. And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty, and the land was filled 8 with them. Now [And] there arose a new king over Egypt which [who] knew not 9 Joseph. And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel 10 are more and mightier than we. Come on [Come], let us deal wisely [prudently'] with them, lest they multiply, and it come to pass that, when there falleth TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. Ver. 10. . Lange, Gesenius, Arnheim, and Philippson, translate this überlisten, "outwit." But the Hithp. form occurs, besides here, only in Eccl. vii. 16, and there has the signification proper to the Hithpael, viz., to deem one's * [The Authorized Version is followed in the translation from the Hebrew, except that "Jehovah" is everywhere substituted for "the LORD." In other cases, where a change in the translation is thought to be desirable, the proposed emendation is inserted in brackets.-TR] out any war [when a war occurreth], they join also [they also join themselves] unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up [and go up] out of the 11 land. Therefore they did set [And they appointed] over them taskmasters, to afflict them with their burdens; and they built treasure-cities [store-cities] for Pha12 raoh, Pithom and Raemses. But the more [lit., And as] they afflicted them the more [lit., so] they multiplied and grew [spread]. And they were grieved because 13 of [horrified in view of] the children of Israel. And the Egyptians made the chil14 dren of Israel to serve with rigor. And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage [service] in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field; al' their service wherein they made them serve was [which they laid on them] 15 with rigor. And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives (of which [whom] the name of one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah), 16 And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to [When ye deliver] the Hebrew women, and see them [then look] upon the stools; if it be a son, then ye 17 shall kill him; but, if it be a daughter, then she shall live. But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded, but [and] saved the 18 men-children alive. And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto 19 them, Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men-children alive? And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyp tian, for they are lively [vigorous], and are delivered ere the midwives come in 20 unto them [before the midwife cometh in unto them, they are delivered]. Therefore [And] God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied, and waxed 21 [grew] very mighty. And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, that 22 he made them houses [households]. And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive. T self wise, to act the part of a wise man. Here, therefore, it is better to render it in nearly the same way.-, a plural verb with a singular subject. Knobel, following the Samaritan version (1), translates wird uns treffen, “shall befall us." But there is no need of this assumption of a corrupt text. See EWALD, Ausf. Gram., § 191 c.—TR.]. 2 [Ver. 14. Lange, with many others, takes here as a preposition, meaning "together with," "besides," and supplies "other" before "service." Grammatically this is perhaps easier than to take it (as we have done as the sign of the Acc. But it requires us to supply the word on which the whole force of the clause depends.-TR.]. 3 [Ver. 19. Lange translates, unaccountably, "Pharaoh's midwives."-T.]. EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. Vers. 1-7. Fulfillment of the promise, Gen. xlvi. 3. Also fulfillment of the prediction of suffering for the descendants of Abraham, Gen. XV. 13. Vers. 2-4. The names of the children are given according to the rank of the mothers. So Gen. xxxv. 23-26. Ver. 5. The small number of seventy souls (vid. Gen. xlvi. 27) who entered Egypt, illustrates the wonderful increase. At the exodus 600,000 men, besides children, etc. Vid. ch. xii. 37. On the terms denoting increase, 77 see Gen. i. 28; viii. 17. Ver. 8. A new king.-DP has a special significance. He rose up, as a man opposed to the previous policy. The LXX. translate by repoç. Josephus and others inferred the rise of a new dynasty.-Who knew not Joseph, i. e., cared nothing for his services and the results of them, the high regard in which his people had been held. as being equivalent to a genitive: die Hebammen des Pharaoh, more prudent (more cunning) than they," is the language of despotic craftiness and malice. Despotic policy adds, that in case of a war the people might join the enemy. A danger to the country might indeed grow out of the fact that the Israelites did not become Egyptianized. The power of Israelitish traditions is shown especially in the circumstance that even the descendants of Joseph, though they had an Egyptian mother, certainly became Jews. Perhaps it was dislike of Egyptian manners which led the sons of Ephraim early to migrate towards Palestine, 1 Chron. vii. 22. An honorable policy would, however, have provided means to help the Jews to secure a foreign dwelling-place. Ver. 11. Taskmasters.-The organs of oppression and enslavement. "That foreigners were employed in these labors, is illustrated by a sepulchral monument, discovered in the ruins of Thebes, and copied in the Egyptological works of Rosellini and Wilkinson, which represents laborers, who are not Egyptians, as employed in making brick, and by them two Egyptians with rods, as overseers; even though these laborers may not be designed to represent Israelites, as Vers. 9, 10. "They are greater and stronger their Jewish features would indicate" (Keil). than we," says despotic fear. "Come, let us be | See also Keil's reference to Aristotle and Livy, (p. 422)* on the despotic method of enfeebling a | world, of killing the males and forcing the wopeople physically and mentally by enforced labor. men and girls to accommodate themselves to the Store-cities. For the harvests. See Keil (p. mode of life of the murderers. 422) on Pithom (Gr. Пárovuos, Egypt. Thou, Thoum), situated on the canal which connects the Nile with the Arabian gulf. Raemses, the same as Heroopolis. Ver. 12. Horror is the appropriate designation of the feeling with which bad men see the opposite of their plans wonderfully brought about. Hengstenberg: Sie hatten Ekel vor ihnen. "They were disgusted at them." But this was the case before. On p see the lexicons. Vers. 13, 14. Aggravation of the servitude. Two principal forms of service. Brickmaking for other buildings, and field labor. The bricks were hardened in the hot Egyptian sun; the field labor consisted especially in the hard work of irrigating the soil. Ver. 19. "With this answer they could deceive the king, since the Arab women bear children with extraordinary ease and rapidity. See Burckhardt, Notes on the Bedouins and Wahabis, I., p. 96; Tischendorf, Reise I., p. 108," (Keil). Vers. 20, 21. God built them houses.-Ile blessed them with abundant prosperity. According to Keil, the expression is figurative: because they labored for the upbuilding of the families of Israel, their families also were built up by God. Their lie, which Augustine excuses on the ground that their fear of God outweighed the sinfulness of the falsehood, seems, like simi lar things in the life of Abraham, to be the wild and is here palliated by a real fact, the ease of utterance of a state of extreme moral exigency, parturition. Resort to bru Vers. 15-18. Second measure. tal violence, but still concealed under demoniacal artifice. Probably there was an organized order of midwives, and the two midwives mentioned were at their head.-He said unto them. And again: he said. He tried to persuade them, and at last the devilish command came out-probably secret instructions like those of Herod, to kill the children in Bethlehem.-Over the bathing-tub. [So Lange.-TR.]. Knobel and Keil assume a figurative designation of the vagina in the phrase D'17, referring to Jer. xviii. 3. Since the child is generally born head first, there is only a moment from the time when the sex can be recognized to the use of the bathing-tub. On the various interpretations, comp. the lexicons and the Studien und Kritiken, 1834, S. 81 ff., etc. A heathenish way, all over the *[Aristotle, Polit. v. 9; Livy, Hist. i, 56, 59. The references to Keil conform to the translation published by the Clarks, Edinburgh. But the translations, when given here, are made directly from the original, and from a later edition than that from which the Edinburgh translation was made.-TR.]. [An article by Prof. Rettig. There is, however, still another article on toe same subject in the same volume of this periodical, p. 641 sqq., by Redslob. The principal views on this vexed phrase are these: (1) That D', being the same word as is used (and elsewhere only used) in Jer. xviii. 3, of a potter's wheel, must denote the same thing; or, rather, the seat on which the potter sits, this being adapted to the uso : T failure of the scheme intervening between artiVer. 22. Now at last open brutality follows the fice and violence. On similar occurrences in profane history, see Keil. Probably also this Moses by the daughter of Pharaoh might well command was paralyzed, and the deliverance of have had the effect of nullifying the king's command; for even the worst of the heathen were often terrified by unexpected divine manifestations. of a parturient woman. (2) That it means bathing-tub, the אָבן in the [Probably a slip of the pen for Knobel. See his commentary on Exodus, p. 9, in the Kurzgefasstes exegetisches Handbuch zum alten Testament.-TR.]. B. THE BIRTH AND MIRACULOUS PRESERVATION OF MOSES. HIS ELEVATION AND FIDELITY TO THE ISRAELITES. HIS TYPICAL ACT OF DELIVERANCE AND APPARENTLY FINAL DISAPPEARANCE. GOD'S CONTINUED PURPOSE TO RELEASE ISRAEL. 1 CHAP. II. 1-25. AND there went a man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a [the] daughter of 2 Levi. And the woman conceived and bare a son; and when she [and she] saw him, that he was a goodly child [was goodly, and] she hid him three months. TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL. [Ver. 1., disregarded by the most of the commentators, is noticed by Glaire, who remarks that it " may imply that this daughter, named Jochebed (vi. 20) was the only one of the family of Levi still living, or the only one of that house who was then marriageable." According to vi. 20, and Num. xxvi. 59, Jochebed was Levi's own daughter; she may have been 3 And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime [bitumen] and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she 4 laid it in the flags [sedge] by the river's brink. And his sister stood afar off, to 5 wit [in order to learn] what would be done to him. And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself [bathe] at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river's side; and when she [and she] saw the ark among the flags [sedge, 6 and] she sent her maid to fetch it [maid, and she fetched it]. And when she had opened it she [And she opened it, and] saw the child, and behold, the babe [a boy] wept [weeping]. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the He7 brews' children. Then said his sister [And his sister said] to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the 8 child for thee? And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Go. And the maid went 9 and called the child's mother. 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 10 took the child and nursed it. And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses: and she 11 said, Because I drew him out of the water. And it came to pass in those days when Moses was grown [that Moses grew up], that [and] he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens; and he spied [saw] an Egyptian smiting an [a] He12 brew, one of his brethren. And he looked [turned] this way and that way, and when he [and he] saw that there was no man [man, and] he slew the Egyptian 13 and hid [buried] him in the sand. And when he [And he] went out the second day [day, and] behold, two men of the Hebrews [two Hebrew men] strove together [were quarreling]; and he said to him that did the wrong [to the guilty one], 14 Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow? And he said, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us? Intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? And 15 Moses feared, and said, Surely this [the] thing is known. Now when [And] Pharaoh heard this thing, [thing, and] he sought to slay Moses. But [And] Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian; and he sat down 16 [dwelt] by a [the] well. Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters; and they 17 came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flock. And the shepherds came and drove them away; but Moses stood up and helped them, and 18 watered their flock. And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, How is it 19 that ye are [Wherefore have ye] come so soon to-day? And they said, An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water enough 20 for [drew water for] us, and watered the flock. And he said unto his daughters, And where is he? why is it that ye have [why then have ye] left the man? call him, that 21 he may eat bread. And Moses was content [consented] to dwell with the man; an only daughter. Still it is possible that, though almost always used only before a definite object, is here used as in xxi. 28. "If an ox gore a man (NN) or a woman (N)." Comp. EWALD'S Kritische Grammatik, § 318, Notə (9).-TR.]. "T 2 [Ver. 15. Whether the second means "and he sat down," or "and he dwelt," is not easily determined. It seems unnatural that the word should have two meanings in the two consecutive sentences, although undoubtedly it is elsewhere freely used in both senses. If, moreover, the writer meant to say that Moses, while dwelling in Midian, once happened to be sitting by the well, and so became acquainted with Reuel's daughters, he would probably not have used the Future with the Vav consecutive, but rather the Perfect, or the Participle. Comp. Ewald, Ausführl. Gr., § 341 a.—TR.]. TT TT [Ver. 19.01). Lange translates: Auch hat er anhaltend geschüpft, “ Also he kept drawing," as if the InĹ Abs. followed, instead of preceding. There is no reason for assigning to the Inf. Abs. here any other than its common use, viz., to emphasize the meaning of the finite verb. Nor does the rendering of the A. V., "drew water enough," quite reproduce its force. The daughters of Renel evidently thought it would have been a remarkable occurrence if Moses had only defended them from the shepherds. But more than this: "he even drew for us."-TR.]. 4 [Ver. 20. 11. Kalisch renders, "Where then is he?" Correctly enough, so far as the sense is concerned; but unnecessarily deviating from the more literal rendering in the A. V., which exactly expresses the force of the original.—TR.]. [Ver. 21. Glaire insists that in all the passages where occurs, even where it has the meaning "to be foolish," the radical meaning is "to venture." Most lexicograhpers assume a separate root for the signification, which it has in Niph., "to be foolish." Meier (Wurzelwörterbuch), however, reduces all the significations to that of "opening" or "being open," from the root. But better, with Fürst, to assume two roots, and make the radical signification of this one to be “to resolve, determine." This covers all cases. e. g. Gen. xviii. 27, "I have resolved." i. e., undertaken. Judg. i. 27, “The Canaanites determined to dwell." In cases like the one before us, and 2 Kings v. 23; Judg. xix. 6, the resolution, being the result of persuasion, is a consent.—TB.]. - T 22 and he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter. And she bare him a [bare a] son, and he called his name Gershom, for he said, I have been a stranger [A sojourner have 23 I been] in a strange land. And it came to pass in process of time [lit. in those many days], that the king of Egypt died; and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage [service], and they cried; and their cry came up to God by rea24 son of the bondage [service]. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered 25 his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them [lit. knew them]. • Ver. 23. Dy TT: “cry for help "—a different root from that of the verb py-TR.]. 7 [Ver. 25. Lange translates: Und Gott sah an die Kinder Israels, und als der Gottheit war's ihm bewusst (er durchschaute sie und ihre Situation). "And God looked on the children of Israel, and it was known by Him as the Godhead (He saw through them and their situation)." This translation seems to be suggested by the emphatic repetition of D. But better to find the emphatic word in ") “ God knew (thom),” i. e., had a tender regard for them-a frequent use of y Comp. Ps. cxliv. 3. Or, simply, "God knew," leaving the object indefinite, as in the Hebrew.-TR.] EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL. Ver. 1. And there went.-, according to Keil, serves to give a pictorial description. Inasmuch as the woman had already borne Miriam and Aaron, it would mislead us to take the word in this sense. The expression properly means that he had gone; he had, in these dangerous times which, to be sure, at Aaron's birth had not yet reached the climax (he was three years older than Moses) taken the step of entering the married state. The descent of these parents from the tribe of Levi is remarked. Energetic boldness had distinguished it even in the ancestor (Gen. xlix. 5; Ex. xxxii. 26; Deut. Xxxiii. 8). Although originally not without fanaticism, this boldness yet indicated the qualities needed for the future priesthood. with the customs of ancient Egypt (comp. the copy of a bathing-scene of a noble Egyptian woman, with four female attendants, in Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians, Vol. III,, Plate 417), and besides is perhaps connected with the notion held by the ancient Egyptians concerning the sacredness of the Nile, to which even divine honors were paid (vid. HENGSTENBERG, Egypt and the Books of Moses, p. 113), and with the fructifying, life-preserving power of its waters." (Keil). Ver. 6. The compassion of Pharaoh's daughter towards the beautiful child led her to adopt him; and when she did so, making him, therefore, prospectively an Egyptian, she did not need, we may suppose, to educate him "behind the king's back" [as Keil thinks.-TR.]. We might rather assume that this event more or less neutralized the cruel edict of the king. Ver. 9. Nor is it to be assumed that the daughVer. 2. She recognized it as a good omen, that ter of Pharaoh had no suspicion of the Hebrew How often, in cases the child was so fair ( dorelos LXX.; vid., nationality of the mother. Heb. xi. 23), Josephus traces this intuition of of such national hostilities, the feelings of indifaith, which harmonized with the maternal feel-vidual women are those of general humanity in ing of complacency and desire to preserve his contradistinction to those of the great mass of life, to a special revelation. But this was here fanatical women. not needed. Ver. 3. The means of preservation chosen by the parents is especially attributed to the daughter of Levi. It is all the more daring, since in the use of it she had, or seemed to have, from the outset, the daughter of the child-murderer in mind. The phrase a designates the box as a miniature ark, a ship of deliverance. On the paper-reed, vid. WINER, Real-wörterbuch, II., p. 411. The box, cemented and made water-tight by means of asphalt and pitch, was made fast by the same reed out of which it had been constructed. This extraordinarily useful kind of reed seems by excessive use to have become extirpated. Ver. 4. And his sister.-Miriam (xv. 20). The sagacious child, certainly older than Aaron, early showed that she was qualified to become a prophetess (xv. 20) of such distinction that she could afterwards be puffed up by it. Ver. 5. "The daughter of Pharaoh is called Opuovis (Josephus et al.) or Meppic. ... The bathing of the king's daughter in the open stream is contrary indeed to the custom of the modern Mohammedan Orient, where this is done only by women of low rank in retired places (Lane, Manners and Customs, p. 336, 5th ed.), but accords Ver. 10. She brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter.-The boy in the meantime had drunk in not only his mother's milk, but also the Hebrew spirit, and had been intrusted with the secret of his descent and deliverance. Legally and formally he became her son, whilst he inwardly had become the son of another mother; and though she gave him the Egyptian name, "Mousheh," i. e., saved from the water (Josephus II., 9, 6), yet it was at once changed in the mind of Divine Providence into the name "Mosheh;" the one taken out became the one taking out. (Kurtz). For other explanations of the name, vid. Gesenius, Knobel, Keil. Thus the Egyptian princess herself had to bring up the deliverer and avenger of Israel, and, by instructing him in all the wisdom of Egypt, prepare him both negatively and positively for his Vocation. Ver. 11. When Moses was grown.-Had become a man. According to Acts vii. 23, and therefore according to Jewish tradition, he was then forty years old. He had remained true to his destination (Heb. xi. 24), but had also learned, like William of Orange, the Silent, to restrain himself, until finally a special occasion caused |