The Book of Exodus
THE SECOND BOOK OF MOSES,
CALLED
EXODUS
THE ARGUMENT
After the death of Joseph, who had sent for his father’s house into Egypt, the children of Israel exceedingly multiplied, notwithstanding Pharaoh’s cruel oppressing of them; from under which God, hearing their cry, brought them with a strong hand. Wherefore this book is called by the Greeks Exodus, i.e. a going forth; containing an historical account of passages for about one hundred and forty years; with the wonderful raising up of Moses, who, together with Aaron, were to be instruments of their deliverance; and accordingly, after the inflicting ten dreadful plagues upon Pharaoh, brought them into the wilderness through the Red Sea, wherein Pharaoh (his heart being hardened under all these plagues) and all his host pursuing of them were drowned; God having first instituted the passover, as an abiding sacrament to bring to their remembrance in after-times this great deliverance.
In their conduct through the wilderness, God gave them the signal mark of his presence in the pillar of a cloud, and the pillar of fire; who, notwithstanding their great and reiterated murmurings, gave them food, both bread and flesh from heaven, and drink out of the rock; and when they were come to Mount Sinai, he there gave them the moral law, beside other both politic and ecclesiastical ordinances. Afterwards, the breaking of the tables being occasioned by the idolatry of the golden calf, God graciously renewed his covenant with them. There being also a tabernacle, and ark, and other things to be made by God’s command, the bounty of the people, in order to the making and furnishing thereof, is here set down; which, being finished, the tabernacle is anointed, and filled with the glory of God.
EXODUS 1
Exod 1:1-5: The names and numbers of the children of Israel that came into Egypt.
Exod 1:6: Joseph, his brethren, and that generation die.
Exod 1:8: A new king, who knew not Joseph,
Exod 1:9-11: goeth about by affliction, etc. to suppress the Israelites.
Exod 1:12: They increase.
Exod 1:15-16: Pharaoh commands the midwives to kill the male children.
Exod 1:17: They fear God, and obey not the king.
Exod 1:20: For this God blesseth the midwives.
Exod 1:22: Pharaoh commands all the male children to be drowned.
Exod 1:1. This list is here repeated, that by comparing this small root with so vast a company of branches as grew upon it, we may see the wonderful providence of God in the fulfilling of his promises. And his household, his children and grandchildren, as the word house is taken Ruth 4:11; 2 Sam 7:11; 1 Kings 21:29.
Exod 1:2-3. Who, though the youngest of all, is placed before Dan, Naphtali, etc., because these were the sons of the handmaidens.
Exod 1:4-5. Seventy souls, including Jacob and Joseph, and his two sons. See Gen 46:26-27; Deut 10:22. Or if they were but sixty-nine, they are called seventy by a round number, of which we shall have many instances.
Exod 1:6. i.e. All that were of the same age with Joseph and his brethren.
Exod 1:7. Here are many words, and some very emphatical, to express their incredible multiplication. They waxed exceeding mighty; which may relate either to their numbers, which greatly added to their strength, or to their constitution, to note that their offspring was strong as well as numerous. Atheistical wits cavil at this story, and pretend it impossible that out of seventy persons should come above six hundred thousand men within two hundred and fifteen years; wherein they betray no less ignorance than impiety. For, to say nothing of the extraordinary fruitfulness of the women in Egypt who oft bring forth four or five children at one birth, as Aristotle notes, Hist. Animal. 7.4, nor of the long lives of the men of that age, nor of the plurality of wives then much in use, nor of the singular blessing of God upon the Hebrews in giving them conceptions and births without abortion, all which are but very reasonable suppositions, the probability of it may plainly appear thus: Suppose there were only two hundred years reckoned, and only fifty persons who did beget children, and these begin not to beget before they he twenty years old, and then each of them beget only three children. Divide this time now into ten times twenty years. In the first time, of 50 come 150. In the second, of 150 come 450. Of them in the third, come 1350. Of them in the fourth, 4050. Of these in the fifth, 12150. Of these in the sixth, 36450. Of them in the seventh, 109350. Of them in the eighth, 328050. Of these in the ninth, 984150. And of them in the tenth, 2952450. If it be objected, that we read nothing of their great multiplication till after Joseph’s death, which some say was not above fifty years before their going out of Egypt, it may be easily replied: 1. This is a great mistake, for there were above one hundred and forty, years between Joseph’s death and their going out of Egypt, as may appear thus: It is granted that the Israelites were in Egypt about two hundred and ten or two hundred and fifteen years in all. They came not thither till Joseph was near forty years old, as is evident by comparing Gen 41:46 with Gen 45:6. So there rests only seventy years of Joseph’s life, which are the first part of the time of Israel’s dwelling in Egypt, and there remain one hundred and forty-five years, being the other part of the two hundred and fifteen years. 2. That the Israelites did multiply much before Joseph’s death, though Scripture be silent in it, as it is of many other passages confessedly true, cannot be reasonably doubted. But if there was any defect in the numbers proposed in the first fifty-five years, it might be abundantly compensated in the one hundred and forty-five years succeeding. And so the computation remains good.
Exod 1:8. A new king, i.e. another king; one of another disposition, or interest, or family; for the kingdom of Egypt did oft pass from one family to another, as appears from the history of the Dynasties recorded in ancient writers. Which knew not Joseph, or, acknowledged not the vast obligations which Joseph had laid not only upon the kingdoms of Egypt, and the king under whom Joseph lived, but upon all his successors, in regard of those vast additions of wealth and power which he had made to that crown. This phrase notes his ungrateful disowning and ill requiting of Joseph’s favours. For words of knowledge in Scripture commonly include the affections and actions; as men are oft said not to know God, when they do not love nor serve him; and God is said not to know men, when he doth not love them.
Exod 1:9. This was not a true, but an invidious representation and aggravation of the matter, the better to justify the sororities which he designed.
Exod 1:10. War was not unusual in that country. So get them up out of the land, which they might easily learn from some of the Hebrews, that they were in due time to do. And they were very unwilling to pint with them, because of the tribute and service which they did receive and expect from them.
Exod 1:11. Taskmasters, Heb. masters of tribute, who were to exact from them the tribute required, which was both money and labour; that their purses might be exhausted by the one, their strength by the other, and their spirits by both. To afflict, or, oppress, or humble; to spend their strength by excessive labours, and so disenable them for the procreation of children. Treasure cities, where they laid the king’s money or corn, which is reckoned among treasures, 2 Chron 17:12; 2 Chron 32:27, and wherein a great part of the riches of Egypt consisted; for they had corn enough, not only for themselves, but to sell to other countries; so that Egypt was accounted the granary of the Roman empire. Or, defenced cities, in which garrisons were to be placed, which seems best to agree with the place and use of them. For they were in the borders of the land, and among the Israelites, which appears concerning the one from Gen 47:11, (where the land in which they were placed is called Rameses, which in Hebrew consists of the same letters with this Raamses, and seems to be so called then by anticipation from the city of that name now built in it,) and may be reasonably presumed concerning the other; and therefore it is most probable that they were built to keep the Israelites in subjection, and to hinder them from going out of the land.
Exod 1:12. They multiplied, through God’s overruling providence and singular blessing, which God gave them purposely to hasten first their sorer affliction, and next, and by that means, their glorious deliverance. They were grieved, through envy and fear.
Exod 1:13. Or, cruelty, or, tyranny; with hard words and cruel usage, without mercy or mitigation. This God permitted for wise and just reasons. 1. As a punishment of their idolatry, into which divers of them fell there. Josh 24:14; Ezek 20:5,7-8; Ezek 23:8. 2. To wean them from the land of Egypt, which otherwise was a plentiful and desirable land, and to quicken their desires after Canaan. 3. To prepare the way for God’s glorious works, and Israel’s deliverance.
Exod 1:14. Service in the field was the basest and most laborious of all their services.
Exod 1:15. The Hebrew midwives; such as not only were employed about the Hebrew women, but were Hebrews themselves, not Egyptians, as some suppose; as may appear, 1. Because they are expressly called, not the midwives of the Hebrews, but the Hebrew midwives. 2. The Egyptian midwives would not willingly employ their time and pains among the meanest and poorest of servants, as these were. And if they were sent in design by the king, he had lost his end, which was to cover his cruelty with cunning, and to persuade the people that their death was not from his intention, but from the chances and dangers of childbearing. 3. The Hebrew women, as they had doubtless midwives of their own, so they would never have admitted others. 4. They are said to fear God, Exod 2:17,21.
You are not to think that these were the only midwives to so many thousands of Hebrew women, but they were the most eminent among them; and it may be, for their excellency in that profession called to the service of some Egyptian ladies, and by them known to Pharaoh, who might therefore think by their own interest, and by the promise of great rewards, or by severe threatenings, to oblige them to comply with his desires; and if he met with the desired success by them, he meant to proceed further, and to engage the rest in like manner.
Exod 1:16. The stools; a seat used by women when ready to be delivered, conveniently framed for the midwife’s better discharge of her office. Ye shall kill him, which it was not difficult for them to do without much observation. If it be a daughter, then she shall live; either, 1. Because he feared not them, but the males only; and some add, that he was advised by one of their magicians, that a male child should be born of the Israelites, who should be a dreadful scourge to the Egyptians. Or, 2. They reserved them for their lust, or for service, or for the increase of their people, and the raising of a fairer breed by them.
Exod 1:17. They feared God more than the king, and therefore chose to obey God rather than the king, their commands being contrary each to other.
Exod 1:18-19. They are lively, or, vigorous and active in promoting the birth of their own children; or, like the beasts, which without any help of others bring forth their young. So the Hebrew word signifies; and so there is only a defect of the particle of similitude, which is frequent, as I have noted before.
This might be no lie, as many suppose, but a truth concerning many of them, and they do not affirm it to be so with all. And so it might be, either because their daily and excessive labours joined with the fears of the execution of the king’s command, whereof they seem to have gotten notice, did hasten their birth, as the same causes do commonly in other women; or because they, understanding their danger, would not send for the midwives, but committed themselves to God’s providence, and the care of some of their neighbours present with them. So here was nothing but truth, though they did not speak the whole truth, which they were not obliged to do.
Exod 1:20. Therefore, because they feared God, and spared the children, Exod 1:17, whereby they exposed themselves to the king’s displeasure; because they would not offend God by murdering the children, which they might have done many times secretly, and therefore it was only the fear of God which restrained them from it.
Exod 1:21. i.e. God greatly increased their families both in children and posterity, and in wealth, and other outward blessings. So this phrase is used Gen 30:30; Deut 25:9; 1 Sam 2:35; 1 Kings 2:24; 1 Kings 11:38; Ps 127:1. As houses are commonly put for families, so building is put for procreating of children, Gen 16:2; Gen 30:3.
EXODUS 2
Exod 2:1-2: Moses’s parentage and birth.
Exod 2:3: His mother makes an ark, puts him therein.
Exod 2:4-9: Pharaoh’s daughter going to wash herself, seeth him, takes him for her own child, and gives him to his mother to nurse.
Exod 2:11-12: Moses seeing an Israelite wronged by an Egyptian, kills him.
Exod 2:15: Pharaoh hearing this, seeks to slay Moses; he flees to Midian.
Exod 2:17: There he rescues Reuel’s daughters from the violence of the shepherds;
Exod 2:21: serves Reuel, and marries his daughter Zipporah.
Exod 2:22: She bears him a son, his name, and the reason of it.
Exod 2:23-25: God heareth the cry of the Israelites.
Exod 2:1. There went a man, viz. Amram, Exod 6:20; Num 26:58-59 from the place of his abode to another place for the following purpose. A daughter of Levi, namely Jochebed, Num 26:59, called a daughter, not strictly, but more largely, to wit, a grandchild, as the words father and son are oft used for a grandfather and a grandson, as hath been showed before: And so the word sister, Exod 6:20, is to be taken largely, as brother is oft used for a cousin. This seems more probable than that an Israelite should marry his own sister, which even heathens by the light of nature have condemned, especially now when he had such abundant choice elsewhere.
Exod 2:2-3. She could not longer hide him, with safety to herself, because they now grew more violent in executing that bloody decree, and the child growing up was more likely to be discovered, especially seeing the Egyptians dwelt among them, Exod 3:22. That boats were made of such materials as bulrushes in those parts, is evident from Isa 18:2, and from the testimonies of Herod, Pliny, and others. Slime and pitch; slime within, and pitch without. She hid it in the flags, which grew near the river’s side; partly that the vessel might not be carried away, and overturned by the violence of the winds and water, and partly that the child might be sooner discerned, and more easily taken out thence by any kind hand, which she hoped for.
Exod 2:4. His sister stood afar off, that she might not be thought to have laid the child there, or to be related to it.
Exod 2:5-6. This she might very probably guess, both from the circumstances in which she found him, and from the singular fairness and beauty of the child, far differing from the Egyptian hue; and she might certainly know it by its circumcision.
Exod 2:7-10. He became her son, by adoption, Heb 11:24. For, as Philo reports, she, though long married, had no child of her own; and therefore treated him as her own, and gave him royal education and instruction. See Acts 7:21.
Moses; it matters not whether this be an Egyptian name, or a Hebrew name answering to it in signification, seeing the meaning of it is here explained.
Exod 2:11. In those days, whilst Moses lived at court, and was owned as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, and, as some write, designed to succeed Pharaoh in the throne. Moses was grown to maturity, being forty years old, Acts 7:23. He went out unto his brethren; partly by natural affection and inclination, that he might learn the state of his brethren, and help them, as occasion should offer itself; and partly by Divine instigation, and in design that he might give some manifestation to them that he was raised and sent of God to deliver them; as may be gathered from Acts 7:25.
Exod 2:12. Looked this way and that way; not from conscience of guilt in what he intended, but from human and warrantable prudence.
This action of Moses was extraordinary, and is not to be justified by the common right of defending the oppressed, which belongs not to private persons, Rom 12:19; but only by his Divine and special vocation to be the ruler and deliverer of Israel. Which call of his, howsoever manifested, whether by his father, as Josephus saith, or immediately to himself, was evident to his own conscience, and he gave this as a signal to make it evident to the people.
Exod 2:13. The next day after that achievement, he returns to execute the office in which God had set him as a judge, whose work it is both to destroy enemies, and to reconcile brethren.
Exod 2:14. Moses feared, through the weakness of his faith, which afterwards growing stronger, he feared not that which now he did fear, the wrath of the king, Heb 11:27. Distinguish the times, and scriptures agree which seemed to clash together.
Exod 2:15. He sought to slay Moses; not out of zeal to punish a murderer, but to secure himself from so dangerous a person, probably supposing that this was the man foretold to be the scourge of Egypt, and the deliverer of Israel.
Exod 2:16. The Priest of Midian; not of idols, for then Moses would not have married into his family; but of the true God; for some such were in those ancient times here and there, as appears by Melchisedec, though his manner of worshipping God might be superstitious and corrupt: or the Hebrew cohen may here signify a prince, or a potentate, as Gen 41:45. Nor doth the employment of his daughters contradict that translation, both because principalities were then many of them very small and mean, and because this employment then was esteemed noble, and worthy of great men’s daughters, as appears from Gen 24:15; Gen 29:6, etc.
Exod 2:17. The shepherds drove them away, that they might enjoy the fruit of their labours, and make use of the water which they had drawn for their own cattle. Moses helped them; either by persuading them with fair words, or by force; for Moses was strong, and full of courage and resolution, wherewith the shepherds were easily daunted.
Exod 2:18. Their father; either, 1. Strictly, and then he is the same who elsewhere is called Jethro, Exod 3:1; Exod 18 ofttimes; and, as some think, Hobab, Judg 4:11. Or, 2. Largely, i.e. their grandfather, for such are oft called fathers, as Gen 31:43; 2 Kings 14:3; 2 Kings 16:2; 2 Kings 18:3; so he was the father of Jethro, or Hobab, Num 10:29.
Exod 2:19. They guessed him to be an Egyptian by his habit and speech, or he told them that he came from thence. Drew water; Heb. in drawing drew, which notes that he drew it very diligently and readily, which caused their quick return.
Exod 2:20. Heb. Have left the man thus, or now, at this time of the day, when it is so late, and he a stranger and traveller.
Exod 2:21. Moses was content; or, consented to this desire or offer. And so his present and temporary repose there is turned into a settled habitation. Moses married Zipporah not instantly, but after some years of acquaintance with the family, as may probably be gathered from the youngness and uncircumcisedness of one of his sons forty years after this, Exod 4:25. In which time, as Moses would not fail to instruct them in the knowledge of the true God, which he was able excellently to do, so it is likely he had succeeded therein in some measure, and therefore married Zipporah.
Exod 2:22-23. In process of time; Heb. in those many days, viz. in which he lived or abode there, i.e. after them. In is put for after here, as it is Num 28:26; Isa 20:1; Mark 13:24, compared with Matt 24:29; Luke 9:36. After forty years, as appears by comparing Exod 7:7, with Acts 7:30. The king of Egypt died; and after him one or two more of his sons or successors, and the rest who sought for Moses’s life, Exod 4:19. The children of Israel sighed, because though their great oppressor was dead, yet they found no relief, as they hoped to do.
Exod 2:24-25. Heb. Knew them, so as to pity and help them; as words of knowledge are oft used, as Ps 1:6; Ps 31:7. He who seemed to have rejected them, now owned them for his people, and came for their rescue.
EXODUS 3
Exod 3:1: Moses keeping Jethro’s flock, cometh to mount Horeb.
Exod 3:2: There God appears to him in a burning bush.
Exod 3:3: Moses beholds it.
Exod 3:4: God calls to him out of the burning bush;
Exod 3:5-6: cautions him what to do.
Exod 3:7: God seeth their afflictions;
Exod 3:8: promises them a happy deliverance;
Exod 3:10: sends Moses to Pharaoh.
Exod 3:11: He desires to be excused because unworthy.
Exod 3:12: God encourages him,
Exod 3:13-14: and directs him what to say to the children of Israel;
Exod 3:15: makes his name known to Moses;
Exod 3:16: commands him to gather the elders of Israel;
Exod 3:17: and what he was to say to them;
Exod 3:18: likewise to Pharaoh.
Exod 3:19: Pharaoh’s obstinacy.
Exod 3:20: God threatens the Egyptians;
Exod 3:21-22: and tells Moses with what plenty the Israelites should depart.
Exod 3:1. Jethro was either the same with Reuel, or his son, who, upon his father’s death, succeeded into his office. See
Exod 2:18. To the backside of the desert, to its innermost parts, which were behind Jethro’s habitation, and the former pastures, whither he went for fresh pastures. The mountain of God; so called, either as a high or eminent mountain; or from the vision of God here following; see Acts 7:30; or by anticipation, from God’s glorious appearance there, and giving the law from thence, Exod 18:5; Exod 19:3: see also 1 Kings 19:8. Horeb, called also Sinai, Exod 19:1; Acts 7:30. Or Horeb was the name of the whole tract or row of mountains, and Sinai the name of that particular mountain where this vision happened, and the law was delivered. Or Horeb and Sinai were two several tops of the same mountain.
Exod 3:2. The angel of the Lord; not a created angel, but the Angel of the covenant, Christ Jesus, who then and ever was God, and was to be man, and to be sent into the world in our flesh, as a messenger from God. And these temporary apparitions of his were presages or forerunners of his more solemn mission and coming, and therefore he is fitly called an Angel. That this Angel was no creature, plainly appears by the whole context, and specially by his saying, I am the Lord, etc. The angels never speak that language in Scripture, but, I am sent from God, and, I am thy fellow servant, etc. And it is a vain pretence to say that the angel, as God’s ambassador, speaks in God’s name and person; for what ambassador of any king in the world did ever speak thus, I am the king, etc.? Ministers are God’s ambassadors, but if any of them should say, I am the Lord, they would be guilty of blasphemy, and so would any created angel be too, for the same reason. By a flame of fire was fitly represented God’s majesty, and purity, and power. The bush was not consumed; which doubtless represented the condition of the church and people of Israel, who were now in the fire of affliction, yet so as that God was present with them, and that they should not be consumed in it, whereof this vision was a pledge.
Exod 3:3-4. He doubles the name, partly to show kindness and familiarity, and principally to make Moses more attentive to the business before him.
Exod 3:5. Draw not nigh hither; keep thy distance; whereby he checks his curiosity and forwardness, and works him to the greater reverence and humility. Compare Exod 19:12,21; Josh 5:15. Put off thy shoes: this he requires as an act and token, 1. Of his reverence to the Divine Majesty, then and there eminently present. 2. Of his humiliation for his sins, whereby he was unfit and unworthy to appear before God; for this was a posture of humiliation, 2 Sam 15:30; Isa 20:2,4; Ezek 24:17,23. 3. Of purification from the filth of his feet, or ways, or conversation, that he might be more fit to approach to God. See John 13:10; Heb 10:22. 4. Of this submission and readiness to obey God’s will, for which reason slaves used to be barefooted. Holy ground; with a relative holiness at this time, because of my special presence in it.
Exod 3:6. The God of thy fathers, engaged to them by covenant or promise, which I am now come to perform. He was afraid to look upon God, as other excellent servants of God have been, through the sense of their own meanness and sinfulness, and of God’s majesty and holiness. See Gen 16:13; Gen 17:3; 1 Kings 19:13; Isa 6:2,5, etc.
Exod 3:7. I have surely seen; Heb. In seeing, I have seen, i.e. I have seen and observed it diligently, accurately, and certainly; for so much the doubling of the verb signifies.
Exod 3:8. I am come down: this word notes God’s manifestation of himself and his favour, and giving help from heaven. See Gen 18:21.
It was a good land and a large, not only comparatively to Goshen, where they now dwelt, and to the number of the Israelites at that time; but absolutely, if you take the Land of Promise according to its true, and first, and ancient bounds of it, as you have them described, Gen 15:18; Deut 1:7; Deut 11:24, and not according to those narrow limits to which they were afterwards confined for their unbelief, sloth, cowardice, and impiety. Flowing with milk and honey, i.e. abounding with the choicest fruits, both for necessity and for delight. The excellency and singular fruitfulness of this land, howsoever denied or disputed by some ill-minded persons, is sufficiently evident, 1. From express testimony, not only of Moses, Deut 8:7-9, but also of the spies who were sent to view it, and, though prejudiced against it, yet acknowledged it, Num 13:27; and of the holy prophets that lived long in it, as David, Ps 106:24; Joel 2:3; and Ezekiel, who calls it the glory of all lands, Ezek 20:15. Which if it had not been true, it is ridiculous to think that they durst have said and writ so, when the people with whom they contested, and thousands of other persons there and then living, were able to confute them. After them Josephus, and St. Hierom, and others since, who lived long in that land, have highly commended it. And whereas Strabo speaks of the barrenness of the soil about Jerusalem, that is true, but by himself it is limited to the compass of sixty furlongs from Jerusalem. And if at this day the land be now grown barren in a great measure, it is not strange, considering both the great neglect and sloth of the people as to the improvement of it, and the great wickedness of its inhabitants, for which God hath threatened to turn a fruitful land into barrenness, Ps 107:34.
These people are diversely numbered, there are ten sorts reckoned, Gen 15:19-21, and seven, Deut 7:1, and here but six, because some of them were either destroyed or driven out of their land by others; or did by choice and design remove to some other place, as many in those times did, though it be not mentioned in Scripture; or by cohabitation and marriage with some of the other people, did make a coalition, and were incorporated with them, and so their name was swallowed up in the other; or because the names of some of these people, as particularly the Canaanites and the Amorites, were used sometimes more strictly, and sometimes more largely, so as to comprehend under them the other people, as the Girgashites, etc., whence it comes to pass that all the rest go under the names of the Canaanites, Gen 13:7, and of the Amorites in some places of Scripture, as hath been showed.
Exod 3:9. The cry of the children of Israel; either in prayer, or rather forced by their oppressions, as the next clause explains it.
Exod 3:10-11. What a mean, inconsiderable person am I! how unworthy and unfit for that employment! He was more forward in the work forty years ago, by reason of the fervours of his youth, his inexperience in affairs, the advantage of his power and interest in the court, by which he thought he could and should procure their deliverance; but now age had made him cool and considerate; the remembrance of his brethren’s rejection of him, when he was a great man at court, took away all probability of prevailing with them to follow him, much more of prevailing with Pharaoh to let them go. Thus Moses falls into that distemper to which most men are prone, of measuring God by himself, and by the probabilities or improbabilities of second causes.
Exod 3:12. This shall be a token unto thee; either, 1. This vision; or, 2. The fulfilling of this promise, that I will be with thee by signs and wonders, and a strong hand; or rather, 3. This which here follows, that he and Israel should serve God there. Signs indeed are commonly given from things past or present, but sometimes from things to come, as here, and 1 Sam 2:34; Isa 7:13-14; Isa 9:6, etc. Question. How could Moses be confirmed in his present calling and work by a thing yet to come? Answer. Such signs, if they were single, and the only evidences of a man’s calling, might leave some ground for suspicion; but when they are accompanied with other signs, as it is here and in the other places produced, they are of great use for the corroboration of a man’s faith. Moses was otherwise assured of the presence, and power, and faithfulness of that God who spake to him, and was to expect more assurances that God would be with him to help him in and carry him through his work. And as an evidence that this work of bringing Israel out of Egypt should be completed, he gives him a promise that he should serve God in that place; which promise coming from God, he knew to be as infallibly certain, as if it were already come to pass, and therefore this was an apt mean to strengthen his faith in his present undertaking.
Exod 3:13. Since I must go to them in thy name, and thou hast variety of names and glorious titles, and some of them are ascribed to idols, not only by the Egyptians, but by too many of thy own people; what name shall I use, whereby both thou mayest be distinguished from false gods, and thy people may be encouraged to expect deliverance from thee?
Exod 3:14. I am that I am; a most comprehensive and significant name, and most proper for the present occasion, It notes, 1. The reality of his being; whereas idols are nothings, 1 Cor 8:4, all their divinity is only in the fancies and opinions of men. 2. The necessariness, eternity, and unchangeableness of his being; whereas all other beings once were not, and, if he please, they shall be no more; and all their being was derived from him, and wholly depends upon him; and he only is by and from’ himself. 3. The constancy and certainty of his nature, and will, and word. The sense is, I am the same that ever I was; the same who made the promises to Abraham, etc., and am now come to perform them; who, as I can do what I please, so I will do what I have said. Heb. I shall be what I shall be. He useth the future tense; either, 1. Because that tense in the use of the Hebrew tongue comprehends all times, past, present, and to come, to signify that all times are alike to God, and all are present to him; and therefore what is here, I shall be, is rendered, I am, by Christ, John 8:58. See Ps 90:4; 2 Pet 3:8. Or, 2. To intimate, though darkly, according to that state and age of the church, the mystery of Christ’s incarnation. I shall be what I shall be, i.e. God-man; and I who now come in an invisible, though glorious, manner to deliver you from this temporal bondage, shall in due time come visibly, and by incarnation, to save you and all my people from a far worse slavery and misery, even from your sins, and from wrath to come. Of this name of God, see Rev 1:4,8; Rev 16:5.
Exod 3:15. The Lord, Heb. Jehovah; a word of the same root and signification with I am. See Exod 6:3. This he adds, because God was best known to the Israelites by that name; and to show, that though he had given himself a new name, yet he was the same God. This is my memorial, by which I will be remembered, owned, and served by my people, and distinguished from all others. See Ps 102:12; Ps 135:13.
Exod 3:16. 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, as heads of tribes and families, etc.
Exod 3:17-18. Hath met with us; hath appeared to us, expressing his displeasure for our neglect of him, and declaring his will that we should do what follows. Three days’ journey; to Sinai, which, going the nearest way, was no further from Egypt; for here God had declared he would be served, Exod 3:12. Question. Was not this deceitfully and unjustly spoken, when they intended to go quite away from him? Answer. No; for, 1. Pharaoh had no just right and title to them, to keep them in bondage, seeing they came thither only to sojourn for a time, and by Joseph had abundantly paid for their habitation there, and therefore, they might have demanded a total dismission. 2. Moses doth not say any thing which is false, but only conceals a part of the truth; and he was not obliged to discover the whole truth to so cruel a tyrant, and so implacable an enemy. 3. Moses cannot be blamed, both because he was none of Pharaoh’s subject, and because herein he follows the direction and command of his Master that sent him. And God surely was not obliged to acquaint Pharaoh with all his mind, but only so far as he pleased. And it pleased him for wise and just reasons to propose only this to Pharaoh, that his denial of so modest a request (which God foresaw) might make his tyranny more manifest, and God’s vengeance upon him more just and remarkable. Sacrifice to the Lord our God, which they could not do freely and safely in Egypt, Exod 8:26.
Exod 3:19. I am sure; I know it infallibly beforehand. No, not by a mighty hand; though he see and feel the miraculous and dreadful works of a strong, yea, almighty hand, yet he will not consent to your going; which the history makes good. Nor did he let them go till he could hold them no longer, till the fear of his own life, and the clamours of his people, forced him to give way to it. And yet after that he repents of his permission, and laboured to bring them back again. Others, but or except by a strong hand, i.e. except by my almighty power he be forced to it. Both translations come to the same sense.
Exod 3:20-21. I will give this people favour, so that they shall readily grant what the Israelites desire. See Exod 12:36.
Exod 3:22. Whether this was just or no, see on Exod 12:36.
EXODUS 4
Exod 4:1: Moses’s objection.
Exod 4:2: The answer.
Exod 4:3-5: God turns his rod into a serpent.
Exod 4:6-8: He adds another sign.
Exod 4:9: And lest they would not believe, water is turned into blood.
Exod 4:11: Moses’s objection, Exod 4:10. God argues with him.
Exod 4:13: God’s command and promise, Exod 4:12. Moses’s answer.
Exod 4:14: God is angry, and enjoins Aaron to the same employment;
Exod 4:15-17: tells what Aaron should be, and what Moses should do.
Exod 4:18: Moses returning to Jethro, craves leave to go to Egypt to see his brethren: Jethro’s grant.
Exod 4:20: Moses having taken the rod of God, departs with his wife and children into Egypt.
Exod 4:22-23: God tells him what he should say to Pharaoh.
Exod 4:24: God seeketh to kill Moses.
Exod 4:25-26: Zipporah with a sharp knife cuts off her son’s foreskin and what she said.
Exod 4:27: God commands Aaron to meet Moses.
Exod 4:28: Moses declares to Aaron both what he had heard and seen.
Exod 4:29: They gather together the elders of Israel;
Exod 4:30: and Aaron speaks all the words and does all the signs which God commanded.
Exod 4:31: The people believe.
Exod 4:1. They will not believe me; which he conjectured both from reason, because the greatness and strangeness of the deliverance made it seem incredible; and their minds were so oppressed with cares and labours, that it was not likely they could raise them up to any such expectation; and from the experience which he had of them forty years before, when their deliverance by his means and interest at court seemed much more credible than now it did.
Exod 4:2-3. It became a serpent, i.e. was really changed into a serpent; whereby it was intimated what and how pernicious his rod should be to the Egyptians.
Exod 4:4. The tail was the dangerous part; whereby God would try Moses’s faith, and prepare him for the approaching difficulties.
Exod 4:5. An imperfect sentence, to be thus completed, This thou shalt do before them, that they may believe. See the like in 2 Sam 5:8, compared with 1 Chron 11:6; and Mark 14:49, compared with Matt 26:56.
Exod 4:6. For whiteness. See Num 12:10. Hereby God would suggest to them how soon he could weaken and destroy the hard and strong hand by which the Egyptians tyrannised over them. It might also be done to keep Moses humble and depending upon God, and to teach him and Israel to ascribe all the future miracles not to the hand of Moses, which was weak and liable to many distempers, but wholly to the Divine power and goodness.
Exod 4:7-8. To the voice of the first sign; to the voice or word of God delivered and confirmed by the first sign. For Moses did not make dumb shows before them, but acquainted them with the mind of God therein. Or he saith the voice, to note that God’s works have a voice to speak to us, which we must diligently observe. See Mic 6:9.
Exod 4:9. The river Nile, well known to Moses, and called so by way of eminency, as Euphrates also is. Shall become, Heb. shall be, even shall be, i.e. it shall assuredly be so.
Exod 4:10. I am not eloquent; not able to deliver thy message acceptably and decently, either to Pharaoh or to the Israelites. Since thy appearance to me, thou hast made some change in my hand, but none in my tongue, but still I am, as I was, most unfit for so high an employment. But indeed he was therefore fit for it, as the unlearned apostles were for the preaching of the gospel, that the honour of their glorious works might be entirely given to God, and not to the instruments which he used.
Exod 4:11-12. 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. Compare Matt 10:19-20.
Exod 4:13. By one who is fitter for the work than I am. Heb. Send by the hand of him whom thou wilt send, i.e. should send; for the future tense oft signifies what one should do. See Gen 20:9; Gen 34:7; Mal 1:6; Mal 2:7. Thou usest according to thy wisdom to choose fit instruments, and to use none but whom thou dost either find or make fit for their employment, which I am not. Others, Send by the hand of Messias, whom thou wilt certainly send, and canst not send at a fitter time, nor for better work. Moses and the prophets knew that Christ would come, but the particular time of his coming was unknown to them. See 1 Pet 1:11.
Exod 4:14. 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.
Exod 4:15. Put words in his mouth, i.e. instruct him what to speak, and command him freely and faithfully to express it. See Isa 51:16; Isa 59:21.
Exod 4:16. To teach and command him. See Exod 7:1.
Exod 4:17. Both those which I have already made thee to do, and others as I shall direct and enable thee.
Exod 4:18. He pretends only a visit, and so indeed it was, and that no very long one neither: he knew that he should certainly return to this place, and there meet with his father-in-law. So that he did not deceive him, nor intended to do so though he thought fit to conceal from him the errand upon which God sent him, lest his father or wife should attempt to hinder or discourage him from so difficult and dangerous an enterprise. Moses shows here a rare example, as well of modesty and humility, that such glorious and familiar converse with God, and the high calling to which God had advanced him, did neither make him forget the civility and duty which he owed to his father, nor make him break forth into public and vainglorious boasting of such a privilege; as also of his piety and prudence, that he avoided all occasions and temptations to disobedience to God’s command.
Exod 4:19. This seems to have been a second vision, whereby God calls him forth to the present and speedy execution of that command which before was more generally delivered. Which sought thy life, to wit, to take it away. See the like expression, 1 Sam 22:23; 1 Kings 19:14; Matt 2:20. God knew very well that one great cause of Moses’s unwillingness to this undertaking was his carnal fear, though he was ashamed to profess it, and therefore gives him this cordial.
Exod 4:20. His sons, Gershom, Exod 2:22, and Eliezer, Exod 18:4, whom he intended to carry with him; but afterwards observing that they were like to be impediments to him in his great business, and being well assured that it would not be long ere he returned to them, he sent them back to Jethro, as may seem from Exod 18:5. Upon an ass: one ass might be sufficient for her and her two children, because one of them was but little, Exod 4:25. Or ass may be put for asses, which changes of the numbers is very frequent in Scripture. The rod of God; his shepherd’s rod so called, partly because it was appropriated to God’s special service, to be the instrument in all his glorious works; and partly to show that whatsoever was done by that rod, was not done by any virtue in the rod, or in Moses’s hand, but merely by the power of God, who was pleased for the greater confusion of his enemies to use so mean an instrument.
Exod 4:21. In thine hand, i.e. in thy power or commission, to be done by thy hand, and the rod in it. I will harden his heart, that he shall he unmerciful to all the groans and pressures of the Israelites, inexorable to the requests of Moses, unmovable and incorrigible by all my words and works. But God doth not properly and positively make men’s hearts hard, but only privatively, either by denying to them, or withdrawing from them, that grace which alone can make men soft, and flexible, and pliable to the Divine will; as the sun hardens the clay by drawing out of it that moisture which made it soft; or by exposing them to those temptations of the world or the devil, which, meeting with a corrupt heart, are apt to harden it.
Exod 4:22. By my choice and adoption. They are most dear to me, and reserved by me out of all nations to be my peculiar people; and therefore I will no longer suffer thee to invade my right, nor them to live in the neglect of my service.
Exod 4:23. I say unto thee; I command thee; for saying is put for commanding, Luke 4:3; Luke 9:54; and in 1 Chron 21:19, compared with 2 Sam 24:19. I will slay thy son; by which plague, coming after the rest, thou wilt be enforced to do what I advise thee now to do upon cheaper terms.
Exod 4:24. Met him, i.e. appeared to him in some visible shape, and sought to kill him. Whom? Moses, spoken of and to before. He offered and endeavoured to kill him, either by inflicting some sudden and dangerous disease or stroke upon him, or by showing himself in some threatening posture, possibly as the angel did to Balaam, and afterwards to David, with a drawn sword in his hand, ready to give him a deadly blow. The reason of this severity was not Moses’s distrust of God, or delay in his journey, nor the bringing of his wife and children along with him, (which it was convenient for him to carry with him, both that his father might not think he intended to desert them, and for the greater assurance and encouragement of the Israelites, when they saw that he exposed his dearest relations to the same hazards with them all,) but the neglect of circumcising his child, which also the Lord some way or other signified to Moses and Zipporah, as plainly appears, 1. From Zipporah’s following fact upon that occasion. 2. From the Lord’s dismission of Moses upon the circumcision of the child. 3. From the threatening of death, or cutting off, for this sin, Gen 17:14, which, because there was now no magistrate to do it, God himself offers to execute it, as he sometimes saith he would do that in case. And this was a greater Sin in Moses than in another man, and at this time than it had been before, because he understood the will and law of God about it better than any man, and God had lately minded him of that covenant of his with Abraham, etc., whereof circumcision was a seal; the blessings and benefits of which covenant Moses was now going to procure for himself and for his people, whilst he remained under the guilt of grossly neglecting the condition of it. Besides, what could be more absurd than that he should come to be a lawgiver, who lived in a manifest violation of God’s law? or that he should be the chief ruler and instructer of the Israelites, whose duty it was to acquaint them with their duty of circumcising their children, and, as far as he could, to punish the wilful neglect of it, and yet at the same time be guilty of the same sin? or that he should undertake to govern the church of God, that could not well rule his own house? 1 Tim 3:5. And this was not only a great sin in itself, but a great scandal to the Israelites, who might by this great example easily be led into the same miscarriage; and moreover might not without colour of probability suspect the call of such a person, and conclude that God would not honour that man who should continue in such a visible contempt of his law. And therefore it is no wonder that God was so angry at Moses for this sin. Question. How came Moses to neglect this evident duty? Answer. From Zipporah’s averseness to and dread of that painful and, as she thought, dangerous ordinance of God, which she herself evidently discovers in this place; and the rather because of the experience which she had of it in her eldest son. And as she seems to have been a woman of an eager and passionate temper, so Moses was eminently meek and pliable, and in this matter too indulgent to his wife, especially in her father’s house, and therefore he put it off till a more convenient season, when he might either persuade or overrule her therein; which was a great fault, for God had obliged all the children of Abraham not only to the thing, but to the time also, to do it upon the eighth day, which season Moses had grossly, and for some considerable time, slipped, and so had preferred the pleasing of his wife before his obedience to God.
Exod 4:25. Perceiving the danger of her husband, and the cause of it, and her husband being disenabled from performing that work, whether by some stroke or sickness, or by the terror of so dismal and unexpected an apparition to him, and delays being highly dangerous, she thought it better to do it herself as well as she could, rather than put it off a moment longer; whether because the administration of that sacrament was not confined to any kind or order of persons, or because, if it was so, she did not apprehend it to be so, or because she thought this was the least of two evils, and that it was safer to commit a circumstantial error, than to continue in a substantial fault. A sharp stone, which she took as next at hand in that stony country. Let none think this strange, for not only this work, but the cutting off of that part, which some used to do, was commonly performed with a flint, or a sharp stone, as is expressly affirmed by Herodotus, l. 2; Plin. 35. 12. See also Juvenal, Sat. 6, and Martial. Epigram. 3. 18. But the word may be rendered, a sharp knife. See Josh 5:2-3. Cast it at his feet: the words are very short, and therefore ambiguous, and may be rendered, either thus, she cast herself at his feet; either, 1. At the feet of the angel, as a supplicant for her husband’s life. But it is most probable that she directs this action and her following speech to the same person. Or, 2. The feet of her husband, to make request to him, that she and her Children might depart from him, and return to her father, which also he granted. But neither was she of so humble a temper, nor at this time in so mild a frame, as to put herself into such a lowly posture to her husband; nor was she likely to present her humble supplication to him, to whom at the same time she showed such scorn and indignation. Or rather thus, she cast it at his, i.e. her husband’s, feet: it, either the child; but that being tender, and now in great pain, she would not use it so roughly: or rather the foreskin cut off, or at least the blood which came from it; which she did in spite and anger against her husband, as the cause of so much pain to the child, and grief to herself. A bloody husband art thou to me: this 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, though they bring no competent proof for this usage; or her son, as the Hebrew word chathan signifies. But indeed that signifies only a son-in-law, as 1 Sam 18:18, which is not true nor proper here. Yet some make these to be the form or solemn words used in circumcision, Thou art a spouse, or a son of bloods, to me, i.e. made so to me by the blood of circumcision. But it doth not appear that this was the usual form. Nor was it likely that she, being a Midianitish, not a Hebrew woman, and doing this suddenly, and in a rage, should be so expert to know, and so punctual to use, the right form of words, when she did not use a fit and decent carriage in the action, as appears by her casting it at his feet. It is therefore more probable she spoke thus to her husband. And because she durst not accuse God, the author of this work, she falls foul upon her husband as the occasion of it, and as a costly and bloody husband to her, whose endangered life she was forced to redeem with blood, even the blood of her little child, by which as he received a new life after a sort, so she did anew, and the second time, espouse him; whence she calls him chathan, which properly signifies a spouse, not a husband.
Exod 4:26. So he let him go; or, he, i.e. God, or the destroying angel sent from God, departed from him, i.e. from Moses, and removed the tokens of God’s indignation, the sickness or stroke laid upon him.
Zipporah both repeats and amplifies her former censure, and reproacheth not only her husband, but also God’s ordinance; which perverse and obstinate spirit her husband observing in her, and wisely forecasting how much disturbance she might give him in his great and difficult work in Egypt, he thought fit to send her and her children back to her father, as appears from Exod 18:1-3. In the Hebrew it is, because of the circumcisions, to wit, of her two sons, who possibly were both circumcised at this time, though it be not so expressed; but one being mentioned for an example, we are left to suppose the like concerning the other; or the circumcision of this child brings the other to her remembrance, and so she upbraids him with both. Only this doth more provoke her than it seems the other did, because she was forced to do this speedily, and with her own hands, and that to a tender infant; whereas the elder peradventure was circumcised when he was more grown and strong, and able to bear the pain. Let none think it strange that Zipporah should quarrel so much at circumcision, because the Midianites were descended from Abraham, and therefore were circumcised. For if they were so, it was done when they were grown up, about the thirteenth year of their age, from the example of Ishmael, who was circumcised at that age. But indeed it is more likely that those people, being cast out of God’s covenant, as to the benefit of it, would, and did in a little time, throw off the sign of it, as having much more of pain and danger in it, than of use and privilege.
Exod 4:27-29. All of them whom they could easily and quickly bring together, or all that were in those parts. Of those elders, see Exod 3:16; Exod 24:1,9; Num 11:16.
Exod 4:30. Thus beginning to execute the office which God had put upon him, which was to be Moses’s mouth, or spokesman. i.e. Aaron did the signs as Moses’s minister, or by the command and direction of Moses.
Exod 4:31. Had visited, i.e. taken cognizance of their cause and condition, and resolved to deliver them, they bowed their heads and worshipped; acknowledging and adoring the kindness and faithfulness of God therein.
EXODUS 5
Exod 5:1: Moses and Aaron entreateth Pharaoh to let the people go.
Exod 5:2: Pharaoh’s blasphemous refusal.
Exod 5:4: Chides Moses and Aaron for their request.
Exod 5:5: Pharaoh, seeing the Israelites to be many,
Exod 5:6-9: commands the taskmasters and officers to increase their bondage.
Exod 5:10-11: The taskmasters go and do as Pharaoh commands.
Exod 5:12: The scattering of the people throughout Egypt.
Exod 5:14: The taskmasters’ cruelty to the officers of the Israelites.
Exod 5:15-16: The officers’ complaint to Pharaoh.
Exod 5:17: He upbraids them with idleness.
Exod 5:18: His harsh answer.
Exod 5:20-21: The officers of the children of Israel meet Moses and Aaron, and blame them.
Exod 5:22-23: Moses returns and complains to God.
Exod 5:1. Moses and Aaron went in, and with them some of the elders of Israel, as may seem from Exod 3:18, though here only the two chiefs be mentioned. Or, because Moses did not seem to be satisfied with the assistance of the elders before offered him, Exod 3:18, God was pleased to give him a more acceptable assistant in their stead, even Aaron his brother, Exod 4:14. Told Pharaoh: either both successively told him; or Aaron did it immediately, and with his tongue, Moses by his interpreter, and by his command. Or, offer a sacrifice, as they express it, Exod 5:3 and Exod 10:9. For both went together, and a good part of many sacrifices was spent in feasting before the Lord and unto the honour of the Lord. See Deut 12:6-7,11-12.
Exod 5:2. I am the sovereign lord of Egypt, and I own no superior here.
Exod 5:3. Hath met with us, i.e. hath appeared to us lately, and laid this command upon us. Others, is called upon us, i.e. his name is called upon us, or we are called by his name. But why should Moses so solemnly tell that to Pharaoh which all the people knew, to wit, that the Hebrews did worship the God of the Hebrews? And our translation is confirmed by comparing this with Exod 3:18, where this very message is prescribed. Lest he fall upon us; lest he punish, either us, if we disobey his command, or thee, if thou hinderest us from obeying it: but this latter they only imply, as being easily gathered from the former.
Exod 5:4. Either, 1. Ye, the elders of Israel, who are here come with Moses and Aaron: see Exod 5:1. Or, 2. Ye, Moses and Aaron. So far am I from granting the liberty which you desire for the people, that as a just punishment upon you for your seditious attempt, I command you also to go with the rest, and to take your share in their burdens, and to perform the task which shall be required of you. And that so cruel a tyrant did not proceed further against them, must be ascribed to the mighty power of God, who governs the spirits and restrains the hands of the greatest kings when he pleaseth.
Exod 5:5. The Israelites in this land are very numerous, and therefore it were a madness in me to permit them all to meet and go together as you desire, which may tend to the ruin of my whole kingdom, and probably it is designed by you to that purpose. Or, therefore your injury to me is the greater, in attempting to rob me of the benefit of their labours. This I prefer, because it suits best with the following words.
Exod 5:6. The taskmasters were Egyptians, and the officers were Israelites, under-officers to them, Exod 5:14-15,19.
Exod 5:7. The straw was used either to mingle with the clay, that it might not be too brittle; or to cover the clay when it was formed into bricks, that the heat of the sun might not dry them too much, which might easily be done in that hot country; or for fuel, either wholly or in part, to burn their bricks with, straw being abundant there, and much used for that purpose.
Exod 5:8-9. The words of Moses and Aaron, which are vain or false, i.e. which they falsely pretend to come from God, when it is only an ill design of their own to advance themselves by raising sedition.
Exod 5:10-12. All the land of Egypt, i.e. all that part of it; which is a very usual synecdoche.
Exod 5:13-16. i.e. The Egyptian taskmasters, 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 taskmasters, 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. Others, Thy people, i.e. the Egyptians, make themselves guilty, and will bring the vengeance of God upon them for their cruelty.
Exod 5:17-19. Did see that they were in evil case, or, looked upon them with sadness, or with an evil eye, i.e. with a sorrowful and angry countenance, as those that could obtain no relaxation for themselves or for their brethren.
Exod 5:20. They, i.e. the officers who went to pour out their complaints to Pharaoh, Exod 5:15
Exod 5:21. To give them what they have long sought and thirsted after, to wit, an occasion to destroy and root us out.
Exod 5:22. Moses returned unto the Lord, to expostulate with him, and pray to him. To the people he saith nothing, but meekly passeth by their severe censures, as forced from them by intolerable oppression; and because their minds being now imbittered and exasperated, they were incapable of admonition. Wherefore hast thou so evil entreated this people, by giving occasion to their greater bondage? He expostulates the matter with God, not from pride and arrogance, as one that would censure and condemn his actions, but from zeal for God’s glory, and his people’s happiness, as one that would prevail with God to relieve them; though it must be confessed that Moses exceeded his bounds, being transported with grief and passion, which the gracious God was pleased to pass by.
Exod 5:23. In thy name; not of my own head, but by thy command and commission. Neither hast thou delivered thy people, according to thy promise and mine, and thy people’s just expectation.
EXODUS 6
Exod 6:1: God encourageth Moses;
Exod 6:3-8: reneweth his covenant, confirms it by his name Jehovah.
Exod 6:9: Their unbelief.
Exod 6:10-13: God commands Moses to speak to Pharaoh to let Israel go.
Exod 6:15: The genealogy of Reuben, Exod 6:14; of Simeon;
Exod 6:16: of Levi;
Exod 6:23: of Aaron.
Exod 6:27: Moses and Aaron spake to Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go.
Exod 6:1. With a strong hand; being compelled to do so by my powerful and terrible works.
Exod 6:2-3. Question. How is this true, when God was known to them, and called by the name Jehovah? Gen 15:7; Gen 26:24, etc. Answer 1. He speaks not of the letters or syllables, but of the thing signified by that name. For that denotes all his perfections, and, amongst others, the eternity, constancy, and immutability of his nature and will, and the infallible certainty of his word and promises. And this, saith he, though it was believed by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, yet it was not experimentally known to them; for they only saw the promises afar off, Heb 11:13. Answer 2. This negative expression may be understood comparatively, as many others are, as Gen 32:29; Matt 9:13; 1 Cor 1:17: q.d. They knew this but darkly and imperfectly, which will now be made known more clearly and fully.
Exod 6:4-6. With a stretched-out arm, i.e. my almighty power. A metaphor from a man that stretcheth out his arm, and puts forth all his strength to give the greater blow. With great judgments, i.e. punishments justly inflicted upon them, as the word judging and judgments is oft used, as Gen 15:14; 2 Chron 20:12; Prov 19:29.
Exod 6:7. Will take you to me for a people, i.e. for my people; ye shall no longer be the people and slaves of the king of Egypt, but my people and servants, whom I will bless and preserve. And I will be to you a God, to judge and deliver you.
Exod 6:8. And therefore, have authority and power to dispose of lands and kingdoms as I please; and faithful to give you what I have promised.
Exod 6:9. Their minds were so oppressed with their present burdens and future expectations, that they could not believe nor hope for any deliverance, but deemed it impossible; and having been once deceived in their hopes, they now quite despaired, and thought their entertainment of new hopes, or use of further endeavours, would make their condition worse, as it had done.
Exod 6:10-12. i.e. Of polluted lips. Uncircumcision being a great defect and blemish, whereby men were rendered profane, contemptible, and unfit for many services and privileges, may note any defect, whether moral, and of the spirit, or natural, and of the body. So here it notes Moses’s inability to clothe God’s commands in such words as might prevail with Pharaoh. But this was a great weakness of faith, as if God could not effect his purpose, because the instrument was unfit.
Exod 6:13-14. This genealogy he 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, to make way for the third, which he intended more largely to insist upon. And he mentions them rather than any other, either to advanc the favour of God in preferring that tribe before the descendants of their elder brethren; or to show that, although the parents were sharply censured, and rather cursed than blessed by Jacob, Gen 49, yet their posterity was not rejected by God, but received to mercy, and admitted to the same privilege with their brethren.
Exod 6:15-16. From each of which proceeded a distinct generation or family called by their father’s name.
Exod 6:17-20. His father’s sister or rather, kinswoman, or cousin, or niece; for so this Hebrew word is sometimes used, as appears from Jer 32:8-9,12. Objection. She is called the daughter of Levi, Exod 2:1. Answer. Even nieces are oft called daughters, as we have showed. See Luke 1:5, and the notes on Exod 2:1.
Exod 6:23. Amminadab; a prince of the tribe of Judah, Num 1:7; Num 2:3. Marriages were not yet confined to their own tribes; and when they were, the Levites seem to have had this privilege, that they might marry a daughter of any other tribe, because indeed the reason of that law did not concern them, there being no danger of confusion or loss of inheritance on their part. And especially there were many marriages made between the tribes of Judah and Levi, to signify that both were united in Christ, who was to be both king and priest. It is observable, that Moses is here silent in his own progeny, but gives a particular account of his brother’s, not only from his great humility and modesty, which shines forth in many other passages, but because it was of more concernment; and the honour of priesthood given to Aaron was to be hereditary, and peculiar to his seed, and therefore it was necessary they should be exactly known; whereas Moses’s honour and government was only personal, and did not pass to his children.
Exod 6:24-26. i.e. According to their numerous families, which were equal to great armies, and which went out of Egypt like several armies in military order, and with great power. See Exod 12:41,51; Exod 13:18; Exod 14:8.
EXODUS 7
Exod 7:1: God encourages Moses to speak to Pharaoh.
Exod 7:3-4: God foretells the hardness of, Pharaoh’s heart, that he might multiply his wonders in Egypt,
Exod 7:5: to declare to the Egyptians that he only is the Lord.
Exod 7:6: Moses and Aaron obey God’s command.
Exod 7:7: Their age.
Exod 7:8-9: God commands them to show a miracle for the confirmation of their authority.
Exod 7:10: Their rod turned into a serpent.
Exod 7:11: The magicians do the same.
Exod 7:12: Aaron’s rod devoureth theirs.
Exod 7:13: Pharaoh is hardened, as the Lord had said;
Exod 7:14: and refuseth to let the people go.
Exod 7:17-18: God denounces judgments on the Egyptians.
Exod 7:19: Commands Moses and Aaron to stretch out their hands oven the waters.
Exod 7:21: The waters are turned into blood, Exod 7:20. The fish die, and the river stinks.
Exod 7:22: The magicians do the same, whereby Pharaoh’s heart is hardened.
Exod 7:24: The means they used against this plague.
Exod 7:25: The continuance of it.
Exod 7:1. To represent my person, to act like God, by requiring his obedience to thy commands, and by punishing his disobedience with such punishments as none but God can inflict, to which end thou shalt have my omnipotent assistance. i.e. Thy interpreter, or spokesman, as Exod 4:16, to deliver thy commands to Pharaoh.
Exod 7:2. Heb. And he will send or dismiss, to wit, at last, being forced to it. Success shall attend your endeavours.
Exod 7:3-6. An emphatical repetition, to show their courage in attempting to say and do such things to so great a monarch in his own dominions, and their fidelity in the execution of all God’s commands.
Exod 7:7. The ages of Moses and Aaron here, as of Levi and Kohath Exod 6:16,18, and before them of Jacob and Joseph, are so exactly set down, that thence we may, understand the accomplishment of God’s prediction, Gen 15:13, and the time of Israel’s being in Egypt.
Exod 7:8-9. Say unto Aaron, by whose hands this and other miracles were to be done, and not by Moses immediately; partly to take off the some suspicion that these miracles were wrought by magical artifice of Moses; and partly for the greater honour of Moses, that he might be what God had said, Exod 7:1, a god to Pharaoh, who not only could work wonders himself, but also give power to others to do so. Take thy rod: the same rod is called the rod of God, and of Moses, and of Aaron, here and Exod 7:12, because it was appointed, and as it were consecrated by God, and used both by Moses and Aaron in their great works. And this rod Moses ordinarily held in his hand, and delivered it to Aaron upon occasion for the execution of his commands. A serpent; Heb. a dragon, which is a great serpent. Others, a crocodile, to whose jaws he had exposed the Israelitish infants.
Exod 7:10-11. Under the general title of wise men he seems to comprehend all who were most eminent in any sort of wisdom, either natural, or civil, or divine, who were all called to give their opinion and advice in these matters. The magicians, the same now called sorcerers, who acted by the power of the devil, whom by certain rites and ceremonies they engaged to their assistance. Of these the two chief were Jannes and Jambres, 2 Tim 3:8. They also did in like manner, in show and appearance, which was not difficult for the devil to do, either by altering the air and the spectators’ sight, and by causing their rods both to look and move like serpents; or by a sudden and secret conveyance of real serpents thither, and removing the rods. Nor is it strange that God permitted those delusions, partly because it was a just punishment upon the Egyptians for their horrid and manifold idolatry, and barbarous cruelty towards the Israelites, and their other wickedness; and partly because there was a sufficient difference made between their impostures, and the real miracles wrought by Moses and Aaron, as appears from the next verse, and from Exod 8:18, and from other passages. And this is a great evidence of the truth of Scripture story, and that it was not written by fiction and design. For if Moses had written these books to deceive the world, and to advance his own reputation, (as some have impudently said,) it is ridiculous to think that he would have put in this, and many other passages, which might seem so much to eclipse his honour, and the glory of his works.
Exod 7:12. They became serpents; either, 1. In appearance. For the Scripture oft speaks of things otherwise than they are, because they seem to be so. And therefore as the devil appearing to Saul in the likeness of Samuel is called Samuel; so may these rods upon the same account be called serpents, because through diabolical illusion they seemed to be so. Or, 2. Really, in manner expressed, Exod 7:11. Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods; by which it was evident, either that Aaron’s rod was turned into a real serpent, because it had the real properties and effects of a serpent, viz. to devour; or, at least, that the God of Israel was infinitely more powerful than the Egyptian idols or devils.
Exod 7:13. He, the Lord, to whom this act of hardening is frequently ascribed both in this book and elsewhere.
Exod 7:14. He is obstinate, and resolved in his way, so as neither my word nor my works can make any impression upon him.
Exod 7:15. He goeth out unto the water, i.e. the Nile, whither he went at that time, either for his recreation, or to pay his morning worship to that river, which the Egyptians had in great veneration, as Plutarch testifies.
Exod 7:16-17. Because thou saidst, Who is the Lord? and, I know not the Lord, Exod 5:2, thou shalt know him experimentally, and to thy cost. Behold, I will smite, viz. by Aaron’s hand, who shall do it by my command and direction. Thus Pilate is said to give Christ’s body to Joseph, Mark 15:45, because he commanded it to be delivered by others to him. The same action is ascribed to the principal and instrumental cause. The river Nile, which was one of their principal gods; and therefore it was inexcusable in them, that they would not renounce those feeble gods, which were unable to help not only their worshippers, but even themselves, nor embrace the service and commands of that God whose almighty power they saw and felt. 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, Deut 11:10-11; Jer 2:18, and their meat, Num 11:5; for greater and lesser cattle they would not eat, Exod 8:26. And it was a very proper punishment for them, who had made that river an instrument for the execution of their bloody design against the Israelitish infants, Exod 1:22.
Exod 7:18. Therefore the Israelites were free from this plague, and those branches of Nilus which they used were uncorrupted, when all others were turned into blood. Shall lothe, or, shall weary themselves, in running hither and thither in hopes of finding water in some parts or branches of the river.
Exod 7:19. Not that he was to go to every pool to use this ceremony there, but he stretched his hand and rod over some of them in the name of all the rest, which he might signify either by his words, or by the various motions of his rod several ways.
Exod 7:20-22. It was not difficult for the devil to convey blood speedily and unperceivably, and that in a great quantity, which might suffice to infect with a bloody colour those small parcels of water which were left for them to show their art in. Question. Whence could they have water, when all their waters were turned into blood? Answer. It might be had, either, 1. By rain, which at that time God was pleased to send down either for this purpose, or to mitigate the extremity of the plague, or for other reasons known to him, though not to us. For that rain sometimes falls in Egypt, though not much nor often, is affirmed by ancient writers and late travellers. Or, 2. From Goshen, which was not far from the court, or from some houses of the Israelites, who dwelt amongst the Egyptians, as appears from many places of this history, and who were free from these plagues. See Exod 8:22; Exod 9:26; Exod 10:23; Exod 12:13 etc. Or, 3. From the pits which they digged, Exod 7:24. Or, 4. From some branch of Nilus, or some vessels in their houses, whose waters were not yet changed; for this change might be wrought not suddenly, (which is not affirmed in this relation,) but by degrees, which God might so order for this very end, that the magicians might have matter for the trial of their experiment.
Exod 7:23. He did not seriously consider it, nor the causes or cure of this plague, and was not much affected with it, because he saw this fact exceeded not the power of his magicians.
Exod 7:24. It is not much material to us, whether they lost their labour, and found only blood there, as Josephus affirms; or whether they succeeded and found water there, which seems more probable, because these come not within the compass of Moses’s commission, Exod 7:17,19-20, or whether they found the water something purified and less bloody, though mixed with blood. But it is observable, that though the devil could do something which might increase the plague, or imitate it, yet he could do nothing to remove it.
Exod 7:25. For seven days were fulfilled, ere all the waters of Egypt were perfectly free from this infection. Question. How could the Egyptians subsist so long without water? Answer 1. Philo tells us that many of them died of this plague. 2. As the plague might come on, so it might go off, by degrees; and so the water, though mixed with blood, might give them some relief. 3. The juices of herbs, and other liquors, which were untouched with this plague, might refresh them. 4. They might have some water, either from their pits, or by rain from heaven, as was said before; or from Goshen; for though it be said that the blood was in all their vessels, Exod 7:19, yet it is not said that all that should afterwards be put into them should be turned into blood.
EXODUS 8
Exod 8:1: God sends Moses to Pharaoh that he might let the people go.
Exod 8:2-4: He threatens his denial with a judgment of frogs.
Exod 8:6: Aaron stretching forth his rod, Egypt is covered with frogs.
Exod 8:7: The magicians do so.
Exod 8:8: Pharaoh calls Moses and Aaron to entreat the Lord to remove the frogs, and promises them to let them go.
Exod 8:12: Moses and Aaron cry to the Lord to take away the frogs;
Exod 8:13: which he did.
Exod 8:15: Pharaoh’s heart still hardened.
Exod 8:17: Aaron stretching forth his rod smites the dust, which becomes lice.
Exod 8:18: The magicians attempt the same, but could not;
Exod 8:19: which extorted a confession from them that this is the finger of God, yet Pharaoh is hardened.
Exod 8:20-23: Swarms of flies threatened.
Exod 8:24: God fulfills his word.
Exod 8:25: Pharaoh sends for Moses and Aaron, and permits a sacrifice in Egypt.
Exod 8:27: Moses would go three days into the wilderness.
Exod 8:28: Pharaoh permits that, but not far.
Exod 8:29-31: The flies are removed.
Exod 8:32: Pharaoh is hardened.
Exod 8:1-2. All thy land which is within thy borders; a synecdoche; so that word is used also Exod 10:4,19; 1 Kings 1:3; Ps 147:14; Jer 15:13. So the gate and the wall are put for the city to which they belong, Gen 22:17; Amos 1:7,10,14.
Exod 8:3. The river; under which are comprehended all other rivers, streams, and ponds, as appears from Exod 8:5. But the river Nilus is mentioned, because God would make that an instrument of their misery in which they most gloried, Ezek 29:3, and to which they gave divine honours, and which was the instrument of their cruelty against the Israelites, Exod 1:22. Into thy bedchamber; either because God made the doors and windows to fly open, which it is easy to believe concerning God, seeing that this hath been many times done by evil angels; or because whensoever men entered into any house, or any room of their house, which their occasions would oft force them to do, the frogs, being always at their heels in great numbers, would go in with them. This plague was worse than the former, because it was more constant and more general; for the former was only in the waters, and did only molest them when they went to drink or use the water; but this infected all liquors, and all places, and at all times, and annoyed all their senses with their filthy substance, and shape, and noise, and stink, and mingled themselves with their meats, and sauces, and drinks, and crawling into their beds made them restless. And many of them probably were of a more ugly shape and infectious nature than ordinary.
Exod 8:4. Not upon the Israelites, whom he hereby exempts from the number of Pharaoh’s people and subjects, and owns them for his peculiar people. The frogs did not only invade their houses, but assault their persons, which is not strange, considering that they were armed with a Divine commission and power.
Exod 8:5. The Lord spake unto Moses, by inward instinct or suggestion to his mind; for He was now in the king’s presence.
Exod 8:6-7. Nor was it hard for the devil to produce them out of their own spawn, and the slime of the river.
Exod 8:8-9. Glory over me: as I have gloried over thee in laying first my commands, and then my plagues upon thee, so now lay thy commands upon me for the time of my praying; and if I do not what thou requirest, I am content thou shouldst insult over me, punish me. Or, glory, or boast thyself of, or concerning me, as one that thy God’s power can do that for thee which all thy magicians cannot, of whom therefore thou now seest thou canst not glory nor boast, as thou hast hitherto done. When shall I entreat for thee? Appoint me what time thou pleasest. Hereby he knew that the hand and glory of God would be more conspicuous in it. And this was no presumption in Moses, because he had a large commission, Exod 7:1; and also had particular direction from God in all that he said or did in these matters.
Exod 8:10. Why not presently? Answer 1. Because he hoped ere that time they might be removed, either by natural causes or by chance, and so he should not need the favour of Moses or his God. 2. Because he thought it a hard and long work to remove so vast a number of frogs, and that Moses might use divers ceremonies, as the magicians did, in his addresses to God, which would require some considerable time.
Exod 8:11-12. Or, as the place is fitly rendered by others, because of the word, or matter of, or about the frogs which he had given or propounded to Pharaoh. Because he had given his word both for the thing and the time of it, he prayed more earnestly lest God should be dishonoured, and Pharaoh have occasion of triumph. The Hebrew verbs to put and to give are frequently exchanged, as appears by comparing 1 Kings 10:9, with 2 Chron 9:8; and Isa 42:1, with Matt 12:18. Moses cried unto the Lord: though he was assured that the frogs would depart at his word, yet he would use the means appointed by God for the accomplishment of it.
Exod 8:13. A short speech for they died and were removed out of, etc., as appears from the next verse; it being frequent in the Hebrew tongue under one verb expressed to understand another agreeable to it. See examples in the Hebrew, Gen 43:33-34; Exod 18:12; Exod 25:2; Prov 25:22.
Exod 8:14. Doubtless they cast them into their rivers, or pits, etc., though that be not here mentioned. God would not instantly and wholly take them away, both to convince them of the truth of the miracle, and to make them more sensible of this judgment, and more fearful of bringing another upon themselves.
Exod 8:15-16. God, it seems, gave him no warning, because he showed himself in the very last plague to be both perfidious and incorrigible. Others think he was forewarned, though that be not here expressed. Lice, so the Hebrew word is rendered by all the Jewish and most other interpreters. But it is probable that what is said of the locusts, Exod 10:14, was true of these, that they were much more loathsome and troublesome than ordinary.
Exod 8:17. The dust was not fit matter to produce lice, and therefore shows this work to be Divine and miraculous. All the dust of the land, i.e. a great part of it, the word all being commonly so understood in Scripture.
Exod 8:18. Did so, i.e. endeavoured to do so. Thus to enter, Matt 7:13, is put for striving to enter, Luke 13:24. Thus men are said to deliver, Gen 37:21; to fight, Josh 24:9; to return, Josh 10:15; when they only attempted or endeavoured to do so. And therefore when it is said in any of the plagues that the magicians did so, it is not to be understood that they really did the same thing, but that they endeavoured to do so, and that they did something which looked like it.
It was as easy for them to produce lice as frogs, but God hindered them, partly to confound them and their devilish arts, and to show that what they did before was only by his permission; and partly to convince Pharaoh and the Egyptians of their vanity in trusting to such impotent magicians, and in opposing that God who could control and confound them when he pleased.
Exod 8:19. The finger is put either synecdochically for the hand, as it is Exod 31:18; Ps 8:3; Ps 144:1; or metaphorically for the power or virtue, as Luke 11:20, compared with Matt 12:28. Of God; of that supreme God, whom both the Egyptians and other heathen idolaters acknowledged as superior to all men, and idols, and devils. This they said, lest they should be thought inferior to Moses and Aaron in magical art. But hereby they own the sovereign God to be on Israel’s side; and yet, like the devils, they proceed to fight against him. He hearkened not unto them; either to his magicians, of whom he last spake; or rather to Moses and Aaron, as the following words show. For relatives oft belong to the remoter antecedents, as Gen 9:13; 1 Sam 7:17; Mark 2:13.
Exod 8:20-21. Swarms of flies; Heb. a mixture of insects or flies, as appears from Ps 78:45, which were of various kinds, as bees, wasps, gnats, hornets, etc., infinite in their numbers, and doubtless larger and more venomous and pernicious than the common ones were.
Exod 8:22. Either, 1. Of the whole earth, and consequently of Egypt, that I am not only the Lord of Israel, but of thee and thy dominions too. God is here spoken of after the manner of earthly princes, who use to reside in the midst of their kingdoms, that they may more conveniently rule and influence them. Or rather, 2. Of Goshen; the words being properly thus rendered, that I the Lord am in the midst of that land, to wit, the land of Goshen now spoken of, to defend and preserve it. For God is said to be in the midst of them whom he protects, Deut 7:21; Deut 23:14; Josh 3:10; Ps 46:5; and not to be in the midst of others whom he forsakes, and designs or threatens to destroy, Num 14:42; Deut 1:42; Deut 31:17. Compare Exod 33:3, with Exod 34:9.
Exod 8:23. A division; Heb. a redemption or deliverance, i.e. a token or mean of deliverance, by a metonymy; a wall of partition, by which I will preserve the Israelites, whilst I destroy the Egyptians. Tomorrow shall this sign be. This he saith, partly to gain the more belief to himself in what he now did or should timber speak in God’s name to them; and partly to warn them of their danger, and make their disobedience more inexcusable.
Exod 8:24. The Lord did so, immediately by his own word, and not by Moses’s rod, lest the Egyptians should think it was a magician’s wand, and that all Moses’s works were done by the power of the devil. A grievous swarm of flies; Heb. a heavy mixture of flies. Heavy, i.e. either great, as this Hebrew word is used, Gen 41:31; Isa 32:2, or mischievous and troublesome; or rather, numerous, as it is taken, Gen 1:9; Num 11:14; 1 Kings 3:9, compared with 2 Chron 1:10. The land, i.e. either the fruits or products of the land; or rather, the inhabitants of the land, as the word land is taken, Gen 41:36; 1 Sam 27:9 many of the people were poisoned or stung to death by them, as appears from Ps 78:45. See also the Book of Wisdom 16:9.
Exod 8:25-26. It is not meet, Heb. not right, neither in God’s eyes, who hath appointed us the place as well as the thing; nor in the Egyptians’ eyes, as it follows. The abomination of the Egyptians; that which the Egyptians abhor to kill, or to see killed; as not only Scripture, but profane authors, as Diodorus, and Tully, and Juvenal, witness, because they worshipped them as gods, as is notoriously known. Their fear was just; for when once a Roman had but killed a cat, though imprudently, the people tumultuously met together, and beset his house, and killed him in spite of the king and his princes, who used their utmost power and diligence to prevent it.
Exod 8:27. For we know not what kind or number of sacrifices to offer to him till we come thither.
EXODUS 9
Exod 9:1-3: God threatens to smite his cattle with a pestilence;
Exod 9:4: but spares Israel’s.
Exod 9:5: Appoints a time for the execution hereof;
Exod 9:6: wherein the Egyptians’ cattle dies.
Exod 9:7: Pharaoh’s obstinacy.
Exod 9:10: God strikes all Egypt with boils, which is the sixth plague.
Exod 9:11: The magicians are not able to stand before Moses.
Exod 9:12: Pharaoh’s heart hardened according to the word of the Lord.
Exod 9:13: God commands Moses to repeat his message;
Exod 9:14: and threatens Pharaoh with more grievous plagues.
Exod 9:16: God’s end in raising up Pharaoh.
Exod 9:18: The seventh plague, viz. hail and rain.
Exod 9:19: God’s counsel for the securing of their cattle.
Exod 9:23: The execution of this plague.
Exod 9:25: The effects of it.
Exod 9:26: The land of Goshen is preserved.
Exod 9:27: Pharaoh’s confession.
Exod 9:29: Moses’ prayer for him.
Exod 9:30: He foretells Pharaoh’s obstinacy.
Exod 9:33: By Moses’s entreaty the plague is stayed.
Exod 9:34-35: Pharaoh’s heart remains hardened.
Exod 9:1-3. The hand of the Lord; in an immediate manner, not by my rod, that thou mayst know it is not I, but the Lord, which doth all these things to thee. Thy cattle which they kept for their wool or milk, or manifold uses and services, though not for food and sacrifice.
Exod 9:4-6. All the cattle; either of all sorts, or a very great number of them, as the word all is frequently used; or rather, all that were in the field, as it is expressly limited, Exod 9:3, but not all absolutely, as appears from Exod 9:9,19,25; Exod 14:23.
Exod 9:7-8. Take to you handfuls of ashes, to mind them of their cruel usage of the Israelites in their furnace, of which see Deut 4:20; Jer 11:4. Both were to take them up, but Moses only to sprinkle them, as at other times Aaron only did the work, to show that they were but instruments, which God could use as he pleased, and God was the principal author of it.
Exod 9:9. A burning scab, which quickly raised blains and blisters; whereby they were both vehemently inclined to scratch themselves, and yet utterly disenabled from it by its great soreness.
Exod 9:10. God multiplying that dust, and heating it, and then dispersing it over all the land, and causing it to fall and rest upon the bodies of the Egyptians.
Exod 9:11. Could not stand before Moses, as they hitherto had done, both as spies and as adversaries; for though their understandings were convinced of God’s hand and infinite power, yet their hearts were not changed; but for their worldly interest they persisted to rebel against their light, and therefore are justly plagued. It was no favour to Pharaoh that the plague was not upon him, but only a reservation to a greater mischief, as it follows.
Exod 9:12-14. Upon thine heart, or, into thy heart: thou hast hitherto not felt my plagues upon thy own person or thy body, but I shall shortly reach and wound it, and that not only in the skin, as the magicians and others are now smitten, but even to thy heart, such as shall make thy heart sick, Mic 6:13, such as shall give thee a mortal and irrecoverable wound. Some understand it of inward and spiritual judgments upon Pharaoh’s heart, such as hardness of heart; but that plague had been inflicted upon him, and is recorded before this time. And Pharaoh’s heart being here opposed to his servants and people, seems rather to denote his person, the heart or soul being often put synecdochically for the whole man.
Exod 9:15. Pestilence; not properly so called, but largely, as the word is used Hos 13:14, meaning with an utter and irrecoverable destruction. This relates partly to the killing of the firstborn, which plague did more immediately and nearly concern both him and his people, and principally to their destruction in the Red Sea.
Exod 9:16. Raised thee up; so the Hebrew word is translated, Rom 9:17. I have raised thee up out of thy first nothing, into thy being, and life, and kingdom; and upheld thy being and reign even in the midst of thy tyranny. Heb. I have made thee to stand, i.e. to remain alive and untouched, when thy magicians could not stand, Exod 9:11. I have preserved thee in life, not for want of power to destroy thee, as thou mayst fancy, nor for want of provocation from thee, but for my own glory. To show in thee my power, in those mighty works which have been occasioned by thy rebellion and obstinacy. My name; my being and providence, and my manifold perfections; my patience in bearing thee so long, my justice in punishing thee, my power in conquering thee, my wisdom in overruling thy pride, and tyranny, and cruelty, to thy own destruction, and the redemption of my oppressed people, and my faithfulness in making good my promises to them, and my threatenings to thee.
Exod 9:17. Against my people, i.e. against me acting for my people. The gracious God takes what is done to or against his people as done to or against himself. See Zech 2:8; Matt 25:40,45; Acts 9:4-5.
Exod 9:18. Since they were a kingdom or a nation.
Exod 9:19. This forewarning God gives, partly, to initiate the severity of the judgment; partly, that a considerable number of horses might be reserved for Pharaoh’s expedition, Exod 14; partly, to show the justice of God in punishing so wicked and obstinate people, as would take no warning neither from God’s words, nor from his former works; and partly, to make a difference between the penitent and the incorrigible Egyptians.
Exod 9:20-22. Upon man, i.e. upon those men that presumed to continue in the field after this admonition.
Exod 9:23. The fire ran along upon the ground, devouring both herbs and cattle which were upon it, Ps 78:47-48; Ps 105:32-33
Exod 9:24. Which strange mixture much increased the miracle. That hail and rain did sometimes, though but seldom, fall in Egypt, is attested by divers eyewitnesses.
Exod 9:25. i.e. Most of them; or herbs and trees of all sorts, as appears from Exod 10:12,15. See before, Exod 9:6.
Exod 9:26. It seems the Egyptians that dwelt there were spared for the sake of their neighbours the Israelites; which great obligation probably made them more willing to lend their jewels to them, Exod 12:35.
Exod 9:27. I now plainly see and freely acknowledge my sin in striving with God. He seems not to deny that he had sinned before, for even the light of nature would discover his sin, in breaking his faith, and the word of a King given to Moses for Israel’s dismission.
Exod 9:28. Or, and let it be enough, (let God content himself that he hath punished me so long, and that I have confessed my sin, and promised amendment,) that there may be hereafter no more.
Exod 9:29. Or, that this land is the Lord’s, even his whom thou deniedst to have any jurisdiction in it, or over thee, Exod 5:2. Or the earth is put for the world, the heaven and the earth: q.d. That thou mayst see that he can either cause the heavens to send forth such thunders and hails, or restrain them as he pleaseth.
Exod 9:30-31. The flax and the barley were not so necessary for human life as the wheat and rye. Thus God still sends smaller judgments to usher in the greater.
Exod 9:32. The Hebrew word may be rendered either dark or hid, to wit, under the ground, whereby it was secured from this stroke; or late, as divers of the Hebrews and other interpreters render it. This kind of corn coming later up, was now tender and hidden, either in the ground or in the herb; whereby it was in some measure secured both from the fire by its greenness and moisture, and from the hail by its pliableness and yielding to it, whereas the stalks of barley were more dry and stiff, and therefore more liable to the hail and fire.
Exod 9:33. Moses went out of the city, that, being solitary, he might pour forth his heart in fervent prayers.
EXODUS 10
Exod 10:1-2: The reason why God hardened Pharaoh’s heart.
Exod 10:4: Egypt threatened with locusts.
Exod 10:7: Pharaoh’s servants persuade him to let the Israelites go.
Exod 10:8: Pharaoh inquires of Moses who are they that shall go to serve the Lord.
Exod 10:9: Of Moses’s answer.
Exod 10:10-11: Pharaoh’s reply.
Exod 10:13-15: Locusts come over all Egypt.
Exod 10:16-17: Pharaoh sends for Moses, and confesseth his sin.
Exod 10:18: Moses prays to God.
Exod 10:19: The plague is stayed.
Exod 10:20: Pharaoh’s heart hardened.
Exod 10:22-23: The ninth plague, to wit, darkness over all Egypt.
Exod 10:24: Pharaoh would let Israel go, but without cattle.
Exod 10:25-26: Moses will not leave a hoof behind.
Exod 10:27: Pharaoh hardened;
Exod 10:28: and charges Moses, upon pain of death, never to appear in his sight any more;
Exod 10:29: which also came to pass.
Exod 10:1-5. The residue; the wheat and the rye, the staff of their lives. Every tree; the fruits and leaves of every tree.
Exod 10:6. Such for number, or shape, or mischievous effects, as were never seen before.
Exod 10:7. How long shall this man be a snare; an occasion of sin and destruction? See Exod 23:33; Josh 23:13.
Exod 10:8-9. A feast upon a sacrifice, wherein all are concerned, and therefore all must be present and ready to do what God requires us.
Exod 10:10. I wish God may be no more ready and willing to be with you, and to do you good, than I am willing to let you go. Evil is before you; either, 1. Evil of sin. You have some ill design against me, either to stir up sedition or war against me, or utterly to depart out of my kingdom. Or rather, 2. Evil of calamity or mischief. 1. Because it is here said to be before their faces, whereas evil designs are in men’s hearts, and the fair pretenses wherewith they cover them are said to be before their faces. 2. The word of caution he gives to them, look to it, or take heed, seems to simply that he speaks not of the evil they designed against Pharaoh, but of that which they would unavoidably bring upon themselves from so potent a king, by the refusal of such fair offers, and continuing in such insolent and unreasonable demands.
Exod 10:11. For that ye did desire; which was not true, but only was gathered by him out of their declared intention of going to sacrifice, wherein he thought the presence of the women and children wholly unnecessary.
Exod 10:12. This is no unusual plague in Africa and Arabia, where, when the harvest is ripe, they frequently come in vast numbers, and upon all their corn, and what they do not eat they infect with their touch, and the moisture coming from them, and afterwards dying in great numbers, they poison the air, and cause a pestilence. So that it is no wonder that Pharaoh and his servants were so concerned for this plague, so well known to them, especially considering that this was like to be far worse than all of the same kind which they had either seen or heard of.
Exod 10:13. Over the land; over divers parts of the land, shaking his rod towards the several quarters of it. An east wind in those parts is a most violent and pernicious wind, Exod 14:21; Num 11:31, and a dry wind, and therefore fit for the engendering of those creatures. This wind brought them from Arabia, where they are in great numbers, as we have seen, Exod 10:12, though God miraculously increased their numbers, and their power of doing mischief.
Exod 10:14. Question. How can this be true, when the same words are used of the locusts in Joel’s time? Answer. It might be true of both in divers respects; of these for number and quality, of them for long continuance, for they lasted three or four years, when these were but for a little time; of these for Egypt, of them for Judea, where they were fixed.
Exod 10:15. 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. They did eat every herb of the land. How could this be, when the hail had smitten every herb, and broken every tree? Exod 9:25. Answer 1. There seems to have been some distance of time between these two plagues, in which space new productions might be sprouting forth, both out of the ground, and from the trees. 2. The words all and every are commonly understood of the greatest part.
Exod 10:16. Pharaoh called for them, because this kind of plague in itself was most pernicious, whereby whole countries had been wasted, and grievous famines and pestilences caused, and was mightily aggravated by the vengeance of God, and by the peculiar quality of these locusts, which did not only fall upon their herbs and fruits, as they use to do, but invade their very houses, Exod 10:6, infect their meats, fill their beds, poison them with their stink and with their venomous bitings, whereby they killed many men, as it is written in Wisdom 16:19. Against you; by contempt of your great and terrible works, by breach of my promise made to you, and by my denial of your just desires and commands given to me in his name, whom I now find and feel to be the almighty and sovereign God.
Exod 10:17. I desire no further favour, I will no more offend nor need your pardon.
This death; this deadly plague, compare 2 Kings 4:40; 2 Cor 11:23. Besides it did destroy the life of herbs and trees, yea, of beasts and men, either directly, or at least by consequence, in depriving them of the necessary supports of life.
Exod 10:18-19. A mighty strong west wind; Heb. a wind of the sea, i.e. coming from the sea, called there the great sea, and the Mediterranean Sea, from whence came the northwest wind, which did blow the locusts directly into the Red Sea.
Cast them, as the Hebrew word signifies, with a great noise, and with great force, so as they should never rise again to molest them. The Red Sea; Heb. the sea of bulrushes, so called from the great number of bulrushes near its shore; or, the sea of bounds or limits, q.d. the narrow sea, whereas they could see no bounds nor shore beyond the Mediterranean Sea. It was called the Arabian Gulf, and by others the Red Sea, either from its red sand, or rather from Esau, called also Edom, which signifies red, Gen 25:30, from whom as the adjoining country was called Edom, or red, so this was called the Red Sea.
Exod 10:20-21. It is an hyperbolical expression, such being very frequent both in Scripture and in all authors. For darkness being only a privation, cannot be properly felt, yet it might be felt in its cause, to wit, those thick and gross vapours which filled and infected the air. But the place may be rendered thus, that there may be darkness after that (so the Hebrew vau is sometimes used, as Mic 7:13) the darkness (i.e. the darkness of the night, or the common and daily darkness) is departed or removed, and the time of the day come; for so the root from whence this word may be derived signifies, Exod 13:22. And to this purpose the words are rendered by the Chaldee and Syriac, and some others; and the sense is, that the darkness may continue in the daytime as well as in the night.
Exod 10:22-23. They saw not one another, because these gross and moist fogs and vapours did not only quite shut out the light of the heavenly bodies, but also put out their candles, or other artificial lights, or at least so darken them that men could have no benefit by them.
From his place. Place here may be taken, either, 1. More strictly and particularly; so the sense is, The horror of that darkness was so great that they durst not remove at all, but stood or sat where the darkness found them, like men astonished or affrighted, and therefore unmovable, having their minds disturbed, being terrified with their guilty consciences, which most affect men in the dark, and with the dreadful noises which they heard, Wisdom 17:5, and with the apparitions of evil angels, as may seem from Ps 78:49 where the plague of evil angels is put instead of this plague of darkness, which therefore is omitted in that place where all the rest are reckoned up. Or rather, 2. More largely, for their own houses or dwellings, for so the Hebrew word is certainly used, Exod 16:29. So the sense is, They did not stir abroad out of their houses upon their most necessary occasions. Objection. He saith not that they could not go, but that they could not rise from their place, which may seem to limit this expression to their particular places. Answer. The word to rise is commonly put for going about any business; and here it is a pregnant word, as they call it, and implies going in it, none arose, viz. to go or remove from his place. And rising cannot be properly taken here for that particular posture, unless we will suppose that this darkness found all men sitting, which is absurd to imagine.
The children of Israel had light in their dwellings, whereby they might have conveyed themselves, and families, and goods away, as afterwards they did in haste; but they waited for Moses’s orders, and he for God’s command; and God intended to bring them forth, not by stealth, but in a more honourable and public manner, in spite of all opposition.
Exod 10:24. And Pharaoh, or therefore, or then, to wit, after the darkness was either wholly or in part removed. Let your flocks and your herds be stayed, either as a pledge of your return after your sacrifice is ended, or as a recompence for the cattle which I have lost by your means. Let your little ones also go with you, and consequently the women, whose help and service was necessary for their little ones in divers regards.
Exod 10:25. Thou must give us, i.e. suffer us to take of our own stock
Exod 10:26. Which was not a pretence, but a real truth. For this being a solemn and extraordinary sacrifice by the express and particular appointment of God, they knew not either of what kinds, or in what number or manner their sacrifices must be offered. And for all these things they did not receive particular directions till they came to Mount Sinai.
Exod 10:27-29. Thou hast spoken well, Heb. right; not morally, for so it was very ill said; but logically, that which agrees, though not with thy duty, yet with the event and truth of the thing; for as thou hast warned me to see thee no more, so I in the name of God assure thee that thou shalt see me no more, to beg my prayers, or to be helped out of thy troubles by my means. And therefore that discourse of Moses to Pharaoh, which follows, Exod 11:4, etc., though it be put there out of its order and proper place, as many other passages are, yet was delivered at this time, and upon occasion of these words.
EXODUS 11
Exod 11:2: God commandeth the Israelites to borrow jewels of the Egyptians.
Exod 11:3: God giveth them favour among the Egyptians.
Exod 11:4-5: Moses denounceth the last plague.
Exod 11:6: A great cry.
Exod 11:7: The Israelites’ safety.
Exod 11:8: The Egyptians thrusting them out.
Exod 11:9: God foretells Pharaoh’s hardness.
Exod 11:1. The Lord said unto Moses; either, 1. Whilst Moses was not yet gone out of Pharaoh’s presence; so God might suggest this to his mind, as he did other things to Micaiah, when he was before Ahab and Jehoshaphat, 1 Kings 22. Or rather, 2. Before his last coming to Pharaoh; and the words may be rendered thus, Now the Lord had said unto Moses. And this is here added as the reason why Moses spake so boldly to Pharaoh, because God had assured him of a good issue. He shall surely thrust you out hence altogether; men, and women, and children, and cattle, and all that they had, which he would never do before.
Exod 11:2. The Israelites, who at first lived distinctly by when they themselves, were greatly multiplied, and Pharaoh began to cast a jealous eye upon them, and to take cruel counsels against them, were more mixed with the Egyptians, as appears from Exod 12:12-13, and many other places, either by their own choice, that they might receive protection and sustenance from them; or rather by Pharaoh’s design, who planted many of his own people among them to watch and chastise them, Exod 1:11; and, it may be, removed some of them from Goshen to the parts adjoining to it, which were inhabited by his people. Jewels, or vessels, as the Hebrew word properly signifies; for they might more plausibly ask, and the Egyptians would with less suspicion lend them vessels, which might be proper and useful, both for their sacrifices and feasts, than jewels, for which they had no present need or use.
Exod 11:3. 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.
Exod 11:4. Moses said this to Pharaoh before his departure, as appears by comparing Exod 11:8 with Exod 10:29. And therefore the three first verses of this chapter come in by way of parenthesis; and now he returns to the story, and sets down the last words which Moses spake to Pharaoh for a final parting:
God is said to go out, or go forth, or come down, etc., by way of condescension to the custom and capacity of men, when he doth any eminent act of power either in way of justice or mercy.
Exod 11:5. That sitteth upon his throne; either now actually ruling with his father, as Solomon did even whilst David lived, 1 Kings 1:34; or, more probably, he that is to sit, the present time for the future, he whose right this is by the custom of Egypt, and by the law of nations. The firstborn of the maidservant; the poor captive slave that was in the prison, as it is Exod 12:29, and there did grind at the mill. In those times and places they had divers mills, which were not turned about by wind or water, as ours are, but by the hands of their servants, who for that purpose stood behind the mill, and so with hard labour turned it about. See Judg 16:21; Isa 47:1-2; Lam 5:13.
Exod 11:6-7. Instead of those loud cries of the Egyptian families, there shall be so great a tranquillity among the Israelites, that even the dogs, which are sensible of, and awaked, and provoked by, the least noise, shall not be stirred up by them.
Exod 11:8. Thy courtiers and great officers, who now are so insolent and obstinate, shall come down unto me, both by their own inclination and necessity, and in thy name, and by thy command. That follow thee; that are under thy conduct and command; as this or the like expression is used Judg 4:10; 1 Kings 20:10; 2 Kings 3:9; Isa 41:2. In a great anger; not so much for the affront offered to himself, as for his incurable rebellion against God. Compare Mark 3:5.
EXODUS 12
Exod 12:1-2: The month wherein they went out of Egypt to be to them the first month of the year.
Exod 12:3: God enjoins them to choose a spotless lamb for the passover.
Exod 12:4: How they were to eat the same.
Exod 12:5: The description of the lamb;
Exod 12:6: the time of killing it;
Exod 12:7: the manner of sprinkling;
Exod 12:8-11: the time and method of eating it.
Exod 12:12: God’s purpose to smite the firstborn.
Exod 12:13: The use of the blood upon the doors.
Exod 12:15: Seven days of unleavened bread, and the manner of keeping it.
Exod 12:21-24: Moses directeth the elders, both for their present and future safety.
Exod 12:26-27: They instruct their children concerning it.
Exod 12:29: The firstborn of all Egypt slain.
Exod 12:30: A great cry.
Exod 12:31: Pharaoh giveth Israel leave to go.
Exod 12:33: The Egyptians thrust them out.
Exod 12:34: Their hasty departure.
Exod 12:35-36: They spoil the Egyptians.
Exod 12:37: Their number.
Exod 12:39: Their baking unleavened bread.
Exod 12:40: How long they dwelt in Egypt.
Exod 12:41: The time of their deliverance.
Exod 12:43-49: Who were to partake of the passover.
Exod 12:50: The children of Israel did as the Lord commanded.
Exod 12:1. The Lord spake; had spoken, before the three days’ darkness, as may appear by comparing Exod 12:3,6 of this chapter with Exod 11:4. And the mention of it was put off by him till this place, as well that he might not interrupt the history of all the plagues, as that he might give the whole institution of the passover together.
Exod 12:2. This month was the first month after the vernal equinox, called Abib, Exod 13:4; Exod 23:15; Deut 16:1, and Nissan, Neh 2:1; Esther 3:7; containing part of our March, and part of April. The beginning; Heb. the head; which, I conceive, notes not so much the order, which is more plainly mentioned in the following words, as the eminency of it, that it shall be accounted the chief and principal of all months; as the sabbath hath been called by some the queen of days. And justly must they prefer this month before the rest, whether they looked back to their prodigious deliverance from Egypt therein, or forward to their spiritual redemption by Christ, and to the acceptable year of the Lord, Luke 4:19; for in this very month our Lord Jesus suffered, John 18:28. It shall be the first month: heretofore your first month for all affairs hath been Tisri, which in part answers to our September, and is the first month after the autumnal equinox; and so it shall be to you still as to civil affairs, as it appears from Exod 23:16; Exod 34:22; Lev 25:8-10; but as to sacred and ecclesiastical matters, this shall henceforth be your first month.
Exod 12:3. In the tenth day; partly, that they might have the lamb ready for the sacrifice, and might not be distracted about procuring it when they should be going to use it; partly, that by the frequent contemplation of the lamb, as a sign appointed by God, they might have their faith strengthened as to their approaching deliverance, and afterwards might have their minds quickened to the more serious consideration of that great deliverance out of Egypt, and of that more glorious deliverance from hell by Christ the true Passover, which should be offered for them; partly, to teach the church in all ages how necessary a thing preparation is to the solemn duties and exercises of religion; and partly, to signify that Christ should be first set apart, and separated to the ministry, which was done three or four prophetical days, i.e. years, before his death, and afterwards offered: most of which reasons being perpetual, it may seem this usage was so too, and not for the first passover only. They shall take to them, into their houses, where the Jews tell us he was tied to the bedpost. A lamb, or kid, Exod 12:5, for the same word signifies both, though a lamb was commonly used, and a kid only in case of the want of a lamb; and the Chaldee and LXX. do almost constantly translate the Hebrew word lamb. And Christ is seldom or never typified by a kid, but generally by a lamb, as he is called John 1:29, partly for his innocency, meekness, patience, etc., but principally with respect to the paschal lamb, instead whereof he was in due time to be offered; whence he is called our Passover, 1 Cor 5:7.
A lamb was to be disposed of to every house or family, according to its quantity, or the number of persons in it, as the next verse explains it. The several families are called the houses of their fathers, because they consist of those persons which come from one father or grandfather. The people were divided into tribes, the tribes were subdivided into families, and the families again into houses, which were like sprigs taken from the greater branches, and planted apart, and each of these had their several fathers, from whom they were denominated, as here they are.
Exod 12:4. Too little for the lamb, i.e. for the eating of the whole lamb at one meal, according to the rule, Exod 12:8,10; if the persons be so few that they cannot eat it up without gluttony. Take it; or rather thus, word for word, And, or Then he (the master of that family) shall take also his neighbour next unto his house; he shall take him and his family into society with himself; they shall join together. To the number of the souls, or persons, i.e. as the two families shall consist of more or fewer persons. I suppose the meaning is, that if his next neighbour’s family were of itself sufficient for the eating of the whole lamb, that he should pass over that to the next small family, which being joined with his might make up a fit number, which, as the Hebrew doctors tell us, was ten, besides women and children. According to his eating, i.e. according to the proportion which he can or commonly doth eat. The meaning is this, The whole lamb being to be eaten at once, and a sufficient number being necessary to that end, and there being great variety in men’s stomachs and meals, they were to give allowance for that, and to take either more or fewer persons, as their stomachs were better or worse.
Exod 12:5. Without blemish; without any deformity or distemper of body. Heb. perfect. Of which see Lev 22:21, etc.; Deut 15:21; Deut 17:1. And this the very light of nature taught the heathens to observe in their sacrifices. This property was required both to typify Christ, a Lamb without spot or blemish, Heb 9:14; 1 Pet 1:19, and to instruct us that all our services to God must be as perfect as possibly may be. A male, partly because that was better and more perfect than the female, whence a male is opposed to a corrupt thing, Mal 1:14; and partly to typify the man Christ Jesus. Of the first year, i.e. a year old, when it is in its rigour and perfection, and the fittest type of Christ. Most explain it thus, That it was not to be more than a year old, but it might be much less, seeing it might be offered to God any time after it was eight days old, Exod 22:30; Lev 22:27. But though it was then fit to be offered to God, it was not very fit to be eaten by men. And the Hebrew phrase, the son of a year, seems to require a year’s age, as Saul is called the son of one year, 1 Sam 13:1, when he had reigned one whole year. And it is remarkable, that he doth not say the son of this or that year, which might agree to one brought forth that year, though it was much younger than a year, but the son of a year, without any restrictive article. Or from the goats; Heb. and from the goats: if you want a lamb, you shall take a kid of or from the goats. But the particle and is here well rendered or, as it is used Gen 13:8; Exod 21:17, compared with Matt 15:4; Ps 8:4, compared with Heb 2:6.
Exod 12:6. Ye shall keep it up; separate it from the rest of the flock, and keep it in a safe place; the reasons of which, Exod 12:3. The whole assembly; or rather, every assembly, to wit, every such society as meet together for eating of the lamb. And the assembly is said to kill it, because one person did it in their name, and by their appointment; in which manner, and upon which reason, the whole congregation is said to stone a man, Lev 24:14,16; Num 15:35; Deut 22:21. It is probable it was killed by the master of the family, who was a priest in his own family, etc. In the evening; Heb. between the evenings, or the two evenings, i.e. between the beginning and end of the evening. The evening is one third part of the day, and one of the appointed and usual times of devotion, as appears from Ps 55:17; Dan 6:10; and it begun at their ninth or our third hour, as may be gathered from Acts 3:1; for then the sun began more sensibly to decline, whence that time is fitly called by the Jews the first evening, and that was the time of the evening sacrifice; the second evening was when the sun was setting or set. Between these it was to be killed. This had a respect both to the time of the world’s age when Christ came, which was its evening, or declining time, or end, Heb 1:2; Heb 9:26; 1 Pet 1:20; and the time of the day in which Christ our Passover was killed, Matt 27:46-50; Mark 15:25,33-34.
Exod 12:7. This was afterwards restrained to the priests, but at this time it was allowed to the masters of families, as their present circumstances required. They shall strike it; with a bunch of hyssop, Exod 12:22, as a badge of distinction between their houses and the Egyptians; not to direct the destroying angel where they were, who could as well discern the houses as the blood in the night, but to direct their thoughts to Christ, whose blood was hereby evidently typified, by whose merits and mediation they obtained this preservation and deliverance from Egypt, as well as their great deliverance from hell.
Exod 12:8. In that night, i.e. the night following the fourteenth, and beginning the fifteenth day. The lamb was killed upon the fourteenth day, in the evening or close thereof, but it was eaten upon the fifteenth day, to wit, in the beginning of it; whence the passover is said to be offered sometimes upon the fourteenth, and sometimes upon the fifteenth day, which may serve for the reconciliation of some seemingly contrary scriptures. Roast with fire; partly for expedition, Exod 12:11; and principally to be a type of the Lamb of God, Christ, and of the sharp and dreadful pains which he suffered, not only from men, but from God too, and from the fire of his sore displeasure against sinners, whose place and person Christ sustained in his sufferings. Unleavened bread; partly, as a monument of their speedy departure out of Egypt, which gave them not time to leaven their bread, Exod 12:34, which is the reason alleged for it, Deut 16:3; partly, to teach us how men should be qualified that come to the sacrament, they should be purged from error, and pride, and malice, and hypocrisy, which are called and compared to leaven, Matt 16:6,11; Luke 12:1; 1 Cor 5:8; and partly, to signify the singular purity of Christ from all kind of spiritual leaven. And with bitter herbs; both to remind them of their hard service and bitter usage in Egypt, Exod 1:14, from which God delivered them, Deut 16:3; and to prefigure the further crosses and troubles which they were to expect between their going out of Egypt and coming to Canaan. Or, with bitternesses, i.e. with great bitterness, or with grief of heart, that together with faith in God and in Christ, and hope and joy for their approaching deliverance, they might exercise bitter and hearty repentance for their idolatries, and other sinful practices whereof they were guilty in Egypt. And this instructs us as well as them of the absolute necessity of true and bitter repentance in all those that would profitably feed upon Christ our Passover.
Exod 12:9. Eat not of it raw, i.e. not thoroughly roasted, for such we also say is raw and so the Hebrew word na is understood by the Jewish and other doctors. It signified that Christ should suffer, as well as save, to the uttermost, all that was done for our sins. The purtenance; Heb. the inwards, which were to be taken and washed, and then to be roasted together with the rest. So do here except the fat, and caul, and kidneys which were reserved by God for himself, 2 Chron 35:12,14. But that exception was not made till after this time, and it seems not certain that that exception extended to the paschal lamb. These and the heads and legs are here mentioned, not to exclude other parts, but because they are not commonly roasted; but God would have the whole lamb roasted and eaten, to signify that we must have either nothing of Christ, or the whole Christ, and all his benefits, his Spirit to sanctify and rule us, as well as his blood to save us.
Exod 12:10. That which either was not usually eaten, or was more than all of you could conveniently eat, ye shall burn with fire; to prevent either, 1. The superstitious use of the relics of that lamb by the Israelites, who thereby had received a greater benefit than they did afterwards by the brazen serpent, which upon that account they worshipped; or, 2. The profane abuse of that which had been consecrated to God’s service. Compare Exod 29:34.
Exod 12:11. Thus shall ye eat it, to wit, for this time, because their circumstances required it, that they being suddenly to take a great journey, might be in a traveler’s habit. But that these, and some other circumstances now enjoined and used, were only temporary, and not perpetual nor obligatory, sufficiently appears from the practice not only of the Jews in following ages, but also of Christ and of his apostles. And in like manner there are some institutions in the New Testament which did only oblige that age, and not all that follow them, as Acts 15:28-29. With your loins girded, like travellers and persons undertaking some difficult service; for such used to gird up their garments, which in those parts were long and troublesome. See 2 Kings 4:29; 2 Kings 9:1; Luke 12:35. Shoes on your feet; a badge, 1. Of their readiness for their journey, Isa 5:27; Acts 12:8. 2. Of their freedom; for slaves, such as the Israelites now were in Egypt, used to go barefooted. 3. Of joy, as on the contrary going barefoot was a badge of mourning, 2 Sam 15:30. Your staff in your hand, like persons upon the point of departing, which was a very comfortable circumstance. In haste; for so the word signifies, Deut 16:3; Isa 52:12. It is the Lord’s passover: this lamb, or your eating of it, is the Lord’s passover, i.e. it is a sign of God’s passing over you and your houses, when he comes to destroy the Egyptians on every side of you, Exod 12:13,23. It is a metonymy usual in sacramental speeches, as Gen 17:10; Matt 26:26-28.
Exod 12:12. I will execute judgment; either, 1. By exposing them to shame and contempt, as vain and impotent gods that could not save their worshippers. But that appeared before. Or, 2. By destroying those beasts which they worshipped; and it is not unlikely but those particular beasts, which were their chief idols, as Apis, Mnevis, etc., were firstborn, and therefore perished in this plague. Or, 3. By overthrowing their idols, as he afterwards did Dagon. And so some Hebrew writer tells us, that this very night all their idols were broken and thrown down. And there are some