Rephidim toward that part of the Mountain called Horeb upon their murmuring for want of Water XVII 5 6. But seem to have returned thither to fight with Amalek v. 8. And then they were led by God to this other side of the Mountain which is called the Wilderness of Sinai There Israel encamped before the Mount For the glorious Cloud having led them hither rested upon the Mount as appears from the words following Ver. 3. And Moses went up unto God Whose glorious Majesty appeared upon the Mount And the LORD called unto him out of the Mountain Or rather for the LORD called to him out of the Mountain where the Divine Glory rested unto which he would not have presumed to go if the LORD had not called to him to come up thither Which was upon the second day of the third Month. Thus shalt thou say to the House of Jacob and tell the Children of Israel There was some reason sure for calling them by these two names the House of Jacob and the Children of Israel which perhaps was to put them in mind that they who had lately been as low as Jacob when he went to Padan-Aram were now grown as great as God made him when he came from thence and was called Israel Ver. 4. You have seen There needs no proof for you your selves are witnesses What I did unto the Egyptians Smote them with divers sore Plagues and at last drowned them and their Chariots in the Red Sea And how I bare you on Eagles wings Kept you so safe and placed you so far out of the reach of your Enemies as if you had been borne up on high by an Eagle Which are observed to carry their young ones not in their feet as other Birds were wont to do but on their Wings and to soar so high and with so swift a motion that none can pursue them much less touch them Bochartus hath observed all the Properties ascribed to the Eagle with respect to which Interpreters have thought God's care of his People to be here compared with that Bird Hierozoic P. II. L. II. c. 5. But after all he judiciously concludes that Moses best explains his own meaning in his famous Song XXXII Deut. 11. where the Eagles fluttering about her Nest and making a noise to stir up her young ones to leave their dirty Nest and try their Wings represents the many means God had used to rouze up the drooping Spirits of the Israelites when they lay miserably oppressed under a cruel Servitude and incourage them to aspire after Liberty and to obey those whom he sent to deliver them And brought you unto my self And by that means brought you hither to live under my Government For this was the very Foundation of his peculiar Empire over them that he had ransom'd and redeemed them out of Slvery by a mighty Hand and stretched out Arm as he speaks XIII 3. IV Deut. 34. so as he had not delivered any other Nation and thereby by made them his own after an extraordinary manner peculiar to them alone This Joshua also recals to their mind when he was near his Death and renewed this Covenant of God with them XXIV 5 6 c. Ver. 5. Now therefore Having wonderfully delivered them and supported them in a miraculous manner by Bread from Heaven and Water out of a Rock he now proceeds to instruct them in their Duty as Greg. Nyssen observes L. de Vita Mosis p. 172. If you will obey my voice indeed c. If you will sincerely obey me as your King and Governour and keep the Covenant I intend to make with you then you shall be mine above all the People of the Earth whose LORD I am as well as yours but you shall be my peculiar Inheritance in which I will establish my Kingdom and Priesthood with such Laws as shall not only distinguish you from all other Nations but make you to excel them This is the sense of this verse and the following A peculiar treasure unto me i. e. Very dear to me and consequently I will take a singular care of you as Kings do of those things which they lay up in their Treasury So the Hebrew word Segullah signifies Which Origen proves they really were notwithstanding all the Calumnies of Celsus their Laws being so profitable and they being so early taught to know God to believe the Immortality of the Soul and the Rewards and Punishments in the Life to come and bred up to a contempt of Divination with which Mankind had been abused as proceeding rather from wicked Daemons than from any Excellent Nature and to seek for the knowledge of future things in Souls which by an extraordinary degree of Purity were rendred capable to receive the Spirit of God L. V. contra Celsum p. 260. And this the Author of Sepher Cosri happily expresses when he saith Our peculiar Blessings consist in the conjunction of Minds with God by Prophecy and that which is annexed to it that is as Muscatus explains it the Gift of the Spirit of God And therefore he doth not say in the Law if you will obey my voice I will bring you after Death into Gardens of Pleasure but ye shall be to me a People and I will be to you a God Pars I. Sect. 109. For all the Earth is mine Which made it the greater honour that he bare such a special love to them Ver. 6. And ye shall be unto me a Kingdom of Priests An honourable or a Divine Kingdom not like worldly Kingdoms which are defended by Arms but supported by Piety Or a Princely People that should rule over their Enemies For the same word signifies both Priests and Princes and in the first times of the World none was thought fit to be a Priest but he who was a King or the Chief of the Family as we see in Melchizedek and Jethro That God was peculiarly the King of this People I observed above III. 10. and here he expresly owns this peculiar Dominion over them by saying Ye shall be to me a Kingdom And one reason perhaps why he saith they shall be a Kingdom of Priests is because they were governed while they continued a Theocracy by the High Priest as the prime Minister under God who in all weighty Causes consulted God what was to be done and accordingly they ordered their Affairs XXVIII 30. XXVIII Numb 21. Which is the reason why God commands Moses to make such Garments for Aaron as should be for glory and beauty or for honour and glory as we read v. 2. of that Chapter i.e. to make him appear great like a Prince for they were really Royal Garments And for his Sons also he was to make Bonnets of the like kind for honour and glory v. 40. they being in the form of the Tiarae which Kings wore and are joyned in Scripture with Crowns XXIX Job 14. III Isa 23 c. Whence Philo says in his Book de Sacerd. Honoribus that the Law manifestly
thirty years old when he was born But it may as well be thought that she was born to Levi in his old Age by another Wife and so she was younger than her Nephew Amram and but his half Sister Which makes their Marriage no more strange than Abraham's Marriage with Sarah Besides it is not certain she was his Father's Sister in the strict sense of that word but might be only one of his Cosins who in Scripture are frequently called Sisters And then when it is said she was a Daughter of Levi the meaning must be his Grandaughter or the Child perhaps of one of his Grandaughters who in these Writings are commonly called Daughters And so all the Objections against this Marriage vanish and the first words of this Verse expound the last A Man of the House of Levi took to Wife a Daughter of Levi that is one of the same House or Family But see VI. 20. Verse 2. And the Woman conceived and bare a Son She had one before this viz. Aaron who it is probable was born before this Persecution began being three years elder than Moses VII 7. And when she saw him that he was a goodly Child His goodly Aspect which seems to have been an early indication of his future Greatness is taken notice of by Strangers particularly by Justin out of Trogus an ancient Heathen Historian L. XXXVI c. 2. where he saith That beside the Inheritance of his Father's knowledge whom he takes to have been Joseph etiam formae pulchritudo commendabat the gracefulness of his Person recommended him to others Insomuch that the whole Fable of Adonis among the Heathen was framed as Huetius conjectures out of this Story of Moses For Apollododorus relates L. III. how Venus admiring the great Beauty of the Infant took him away privily without the knowledge of the Gods and hiding him in an Ark delivered him to Proserpina c. See Demonstr Evang. Propos IV. Cap. III. n. 3. She hid him three Months R. Simeon in Pirke Elieser Cap. XLVIII saith she hid him in a Vault under ground But in Sota they say in the Gemara Cap. I. Sect. 38. he being hid in a secret inner Room of their House was in danger to be detected by his crying when some of the Egyptians came into the outer Room and brought a crying Child with them on purpose supposing the Israelites Infants would answer if any were in the House But there is no certainty of this Ver. 3. And when she could no longer hide him Some discovery being made of him by some means or other by their Neighbours or the search after new born Children being now more narrow and diligent she thought he could be no longer concealed and therefore resolved to expose him in the manner following She took for him an Ark of Bulrushes Or of Wicker for Kimchi observes the Hebrew word Gome signifies the lightest Wood. Patricides an Arabian Writer saith it was made of that which the Ancients call Papyrus and so the LXX and Josephus and Clemens Alexandrinus Strom. 1. p. 343. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which was a frutex that grew peculiarly upon the Banks of Nile as Salmasius shows in Solin p. 1002 c. And daubed it with Slime and with Pitch Of this word Slime see XI Gen. 3. It is not improbable that this was used within and Pitch without to keep the Water from coming into the Ark. And so I find in the Gemara of that Title in the Talmud called Sota Cap. I. Sect. 29. where this is said to have been an ancient Tradition Only they say as many of the Rabbins do that Chemar signifies Plaister not Bitumen because the bad smell of that they think would have been noisom to the Child R. Solomon's opinion is that it was pitcht both within and without and plaistred within over the Pitch And she laid it in the flaggs by the Rivers brink That it might not be carried away with the Stream but she might come in the Night and suckle it Some think that the Ark notwithstanding was made below in the form of a Boat that if it should chance to be carried from among the Flaggs upon the Shore it might swim in the River For it is certain the Egyptians made Ships of the forenamed reed as we find in Pliny and Solinus who both mention Papyraceae Naves and in Theophrastus who mentions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speaking of Papyrus as Salmasius observes in his Plin. Exercit. p. 1003 1115 1116. Herodotus also mentions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his Euterpe Cap. XCVI See XVIII Isa 2. Ver. 4. And his Sister stood afar off to wit what c. By her Mothers order no doubt that she might not seem to be set there on purpose to watch him We read of no other Sister he had but Miriam XXVI Numb 59. who therefore is thought to be the Person Ver. 5. And the Daughter of Pharaoh Called Thermutis by Josephus L. II. Antiq. c. 5. but by Artapanus in Eusebius his Praepar Evang. L. IX c. 27. called Meris or Merris Which is her name as Jacobus Capellus observes in the Fasti Siculi The same Artapanus there says she was married to Cenephres King of the Country above Memphis but had no Child by him Clemens Alexandrinus says the same that she was not only a married Woman but had been long married without being with Child 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but very desirous to have one L. I. Strom. p. 343. Came down to wash her self at the River Not for Pleasure but for Purification this being an ancient Rite of Religion in all Nations to cleanse themselves by washing their Bodies after any Defilement Thus Philo seems to understand it in his Book of the Life of Moses where speaking of this matter he uses the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is proper to Sacred Cleansing And it seems far more probable than that the scorching heat of the Weather caused by an extraordinary hand of God made her betake herself to the cool Streams for her Refreshment as the Tale is told in the Hebrew Book called The Life of Moses or that the desire of Children carried her hither the Waters of Nile being thought to make Women fruitful Clemens Alexandrinus seems to have put both these together Refreshment and Religion when he saith she came hither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L. I. Strom. p. 343. It is still a further fetch of Jonathan who would perswade us that at this time God had smote the Egyptians with a burning Ulcer which made their Flesh so hot that they could not endure it but run to the River to cool their Bodies And in Pirke Elieser Cap. XLVIII this Inflamation is said to have seized on Pharaoh's Daughter whom he calls Bathia Which is indeed the name of a Daughter of one Pharaoh 1 Chron. IV. 18. but to make her the Daughter of Pharaoh King of Egypt as G. Vorstius observes they do in Schemoth Rabba and Vaijra Rab. is altogether
Moses as they seem to me to be And said surely a bloody Husband art thou to me If the foregoing Interpretation be true these are not the words of an angry Woman but spoken with great affection signifying that she had espoused him again having saved his Life by the Blood of her Son Our famous Mr. Mede indeed Discourse XIV carries the Sense quite another way because an Husband he saith is never called Chatan after the Marriage Solemnity was over Which if it be true makes nothing against what I have said because she lookt upon her self as a second time espoused or married to him by this act which had restored him to her when his Life was in danger It must be granted that the word Chatan doth not signifie only a Spouse but sometime a Son in Law but why Zipporah should call her own Child by this Name I do not see Yet so Mr. Mede understands it and adds that the Rabbins tell us it was the custom of the Hebrew Women to call their Children when they were Circumcised by the Name of Chatan i. e. Spouse as if they were now espoused unto God And indeed Aben-Ezra saith so but I cannot find that this was an ancient Notion among them If it were his Interpretation might be the more easily embraced which is this That these were a solemn form of words used at Circumcision signifying as much as I pronounce thee to be a Member of the Church by Circumcision Thus Val. Schindler also expounds it in his Lexic Pentaglot p. 677. a Child was called Chatan upon the Day of his Circumcision because then he was first joyned to the People of God and as it were espoused unto God And he thinks the Targum countenances this Sense when it thus expounds these words by this Blood of Circumcision a Spouse is given to us Which may as well be understood of Moses being given to her as of the Child for he was as I said restored to her and to his Family upon the Circumcision of the Child So it follows in the next Verse They that have a mind to see the Sense of an eminent Writer of our Church concerning this Passage may consult Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity Book V. in the latter end of the LXII Section where he thus far agrees with me that these words were spoken out of the flowing of abundance of Commiseration and Love with her hands laid under his feet For so he thinks these words She cast it at his feet import Ver. 26. So he let him go i. e. The Angel no longer threatned Moses with death but his Wife to her great joy saw him restored to her in safety From which in after times sprang the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which were so famous among the Greeks and Egyptians in the Feasts of Bacchus and Osiris whose Stories Huetius hath lately shown were framed out of this of Moses From whence also as he probably conjectures they used Remedies for Diseases in forma fascini which they hung as Amulets about their Childrens Necks Demonstr Evang. Propos IV. Cap. IV. n. 3. Then she said or when she said a bloody Husband thou art c. i. e. As soon as Zipporah had Circumcised the Child and thrown the Foreskin at her Husband's feet and said these words Moses was delivered from his danger Or according to our Translation as soon as her Husband was safe she repeated the foregoing words saying I have redeemed thy life by circumcising thy Son They that make these words to have been spoken in a rage because she was forced to do what she did suppose her to have had little kindness for her Husband and as little regard to Circumcision I should rather Translate the words So she let him go i. e. let Moses go to Egypt and went back her self to her Father only repeating these words before she went Remember me how I have saved thy Life and made thee my Husband again when Death was at hand by the Blood of thy Son whom I have Circumcised There is only this Exception to it that the Hebrew word for let him go is of the Masculine Gender which is of no great weight because it is usual in this Language when they speak of Females as I observed on I. 21. and it is certain she returned to her Father but whether in this manner no Body can certainly determine For we are not told any where upon what occasion she went back to Jethro unless it be here insinuated as we find she did XVIII 2. together with her Children But it is very probable that she fearing some other danger into which she and her Children might fall by the way or in Egypt might desire Moses to send her home again till he had finished the work he went about unto which he consented Ver. 27. And the LORD said unto Aaron In Egypt I suppose he received this order from God but we do not know how whether by an Apparition of the Divine Majesty to him or in a Dream or otherways Go into the Wilderness to meet Moses The Wilderness was a wide place therefore he directed him no doubt into what part he should go And he went and met him in the Mount of God He went almost to Midian that he might have the more time to hear what Moses's Commission was before they came to Egypt Ver. 28. And Moses told Aaron all the words of the LORD c. Mentioned III. 6 7 8 c. and in this Chapter 14 15 16 c. And all the signs c. See v. 2 3 c. which he told him to confirm his belief that God had spoken those words to him Ver. 29. And Moses and Aaron went Came into Egypt And gathered together all the Elders of the Children of Israel The chief Persons in every Tribe who bore a great sway among them See III. 16. Ver. 30. And Aaron spake all the words which the LORD had spoken unto Moses According to what God had promised v. 15 16. And did the signs The Signs are done by Moses as the Words were spoken by Aaron v. 17. In the sight of all the People Who came along with the Elders Ver. 31. And the People believed All the rest of the People also to whom the Elders reported what they had heard and seen believed that God had sent Moses to be their Deliverer And when they heard that the LORD had visited c. See III. 7 16 17. Then they bowed their heads and worshipped Most humbly acknowledged the Goodness of God and his Faithfulness to his Word CHAP. V. Verse 1. AND afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh When they had convinced the Elders of Israel of their Commission they desired Audience of Pharaoh Which having obtained they went to Court taking some of the Elders along with them to attend them Which is not a meer Conjecture from the decency of the thing that they should go alone on such a Solemn Embassy but so they were commanded
Children of Israel and also unto Pharaoh So these words have respect to both parts of the foregoing Objection And gave them a Charge unto the Children of Israel He laid his Commands upon them strictly requiring them to obey him Which is an higher Expression than we meet withal before in the foregoing Injunctions either in v. 6. or 11. and makes me think this Verse is not a meer Recapitulation of what had been said as some take it but an Inforcement of what he had before commanded And unto Pharaoh King of Egypt to bring the Children of Israel out of the Land of Egypt I suppose he now gave them Authority to Threaten him if he did not obey Ver. 14. These are the Heads of their Fathers Houses The principal Persons of the several Families of Israel The Sons of Reuben the first-born c. See XLVI Gen. 9. where the Sons of Reuben are reckoned up in this very order in which they are here mentioned again to introduce the Genealogy of Moses and Aaron Who being chosen by God to be the Deliverers of his People it was sit to show that they were of the same Stock though not of the eldest Family of the Children of Israel To whom God promised when he went down into Egypt that he would surely bring him up again XLVI Gen. 4. that is in his Posterity which would not have been so manifestly the Work of God if they that were the Instruments of it had not been of his Posterity Ver. 15. The Sons of Simeon c. They are mentioned for the same reason and in the same order that they were in Genesis XLVI 10. Ver. 16. These are the Names of the Sons of Levi c. Having briefly set down the Heads of the two eldest Families of Israel he enlarges now upon the third from which he himself was descended Gershon Kohath and Merari These three are mentioned also in the XLVI Gen. 11. as coming with Jacob into Egypt And the years of the Life of Levi were an hundred thirty and seven years He is thought to have lived the longest of all the Sons of Jacob none of whose Ages are recorded in Scriptures but only his and Joseph's whom Levi survived Twenty seven years though he was much the elder Brother Kohath also the second Son of Levi attained near to the same Age with himself v. 18. And his Grandson Moses his Father lived just so long as Levi did v. 20. Next to Levi the longest Liver of all Jacob's Sons was Naphthali if we may believe the Tradition in R. Bechai who saith he lived to the Age of an Hundred thirty and three years which was the Age of Kohath Ver. 17. The Sons of Gershon Libni and Shimi c. These were born in Egypt from whom descended two Families mentioned afterwards III Num. 18 21. Ver. 18. The Sons of Kohath Amram c. He had the most numerous Off-spring of all Levi's Sons III Numb 28. from the eldest of which Moses came And the years of the life of Kohath were an hundred thirty and three years He sets down the Age of none but only of Levi his great Grandfather and Kohath his Grandfather and of Amram his Father And Primate Vsher makes account that Kohath was Thirty years old when Jacob came into Egypt and lived there an Hundred and three years and died Thirty two years before Moses was born See Chronolog Sacra Cap. XI Ver. 19. The Sons of Merari Mehali From this Mehali it is thought sprung the famous Singer Heman who composed the LXXXVIII Psalm 1 Chron. VI. 33. And Mushi From whom descended Ethan who composed the LXXXIX Psalm 1 Chron. VI. 44. Ver. 20. And Amram took him Jochabed his Father's Sister to Wife It must be acknowledged that the Hebrew word Dod signifies an Uncle and therefore some would have the word Dodah in this place to signifie only his Vncle's Daughter So the Vulgar and the LXX translate it But Moses tells us so expresly that she was born to Levi in Egypt XXVI Numb 59. that it unavoidably follows she was Sister to Amram's Father Which the forenamed great Primate maintains Cap. VIII of the same Book against Scaliger and Pererius who would have Jochabed called Levi his Daughter only as Ephraim and Manasseh are called Jacob's Sons Which would make a very easie Sense as I observed II. 1. if it would consist with those words in Numbers XXVI 59. whom her Mother for that must be understood bare to Levi which show she was his Daughter And thus R. Solomon understood it and so did Tostatus and Cajetan and divers others whom our Vsher there mentions And see our most Learned Selden L. V. de Jure N. G. Cap. IX p. 584. Which shows how sincere a Writer Moses was who doth not stick to relate what might be thought in after Ages when the Law against such Marriages was enctaed a blot to his Family And it is observable that he doth not say one Syllable in Commendation of his Parents though their Faith deserved the greatest Praise as the Apostle to the Hebrews shows XI 23. But Moses as Jac. Capellus truly observes did not write for his own Glory but for the Service of God and of his Church ad A. M. 2481. And she bare him Aaron and Moses This shows that God exactly fulfilled his Promise of Delivering the Israelites out of Servitude in the fourth Generation XV Gen. 16. i. e. the fourth from their Descent into Egypt for Moses was the fourth from Levi being his great Grandson And the years of the Life of Amram were an hundred and thirty and seven years The very same Age with his Grandfather Levi v. 16. Ver. 21. And the Sons of Izhar Korah c. He gives an account of his Uncle's Sons but saith not one word here of his own Who were not to succeed him in his Place and Dignity nor to be advanced to any other Office Such was his Humility and generous Love to his Country that he only sought the Good of that but Nothing for his own Family Ver. 22. And the Sons of Uzziel c. This was another of his Uncles whose Posterity he mentions that it might be seen how God blessed the Tribe of Levi notwithstanding the Sin he had committed at Schechem and the Punishment his Father denounced against him for it XLIX Gen. He saith nothing of Hebron another of his Father's Brothers because perhaps he died Childless or his Children had no Issue Ver. 23. And Aaron took him Elisheba Daughter of Aminadab Sister of Naashon to Wife Though he says nothing here of himself yet he relates particularly what concerned Aaron who he shows was matcht into an honourable Family with the Sister of a Prince of the Tribe of Judah chief Commander of their Host when they were come out of Egypt I Numb 7. II. 3. The knowledge of this he thought might breed in Posterity a greater Reverence to the Priesthood which was setled in the Family of Aaron And
that had been seen and they were a frequent Plague in those Countries either in bigness or in in number or in both That is all that had been seen in Egypt For in other Countries perhaps there might have been as large if Pliny may be believed that in India there had been some seen three foot long The Jews in the Book called The Life and Death of Moses fancy these to have been of such a vast Bulk that their Jaw-teeth were like those of Lions But it 's likely Moses speaks here only of their multitude For the Prophet Joel hath such an Expression when he speaks also of their being without number I Joel 6. Whose Teeth are the Teeth of a Lion i. e. they devoured all things greedily and speedily And he turned himself and went out from Pharaoh Either Moses did not stay for an Answer knowing he would give him none better than formerly or Pharaoh answered so churlishly that Moses hastily turned about as the words seem to import and went away in some indignation Ver. 7. And Pharaoh 's Servants said Some of his Counsellors or Courtiers who feared the word of the LORD IX 20. Or perhaps the whole Court began now to be sensible of their Danger How long shall this Man They seem to speak contemptibly of Moses to please Pharaoh who they were afraid would not like their Counsel unless they flattered him Be a Snare to us The LXX and the Vulgar translate it be a stumbling-block i. e. lay before us the Occasion of our falling into one Calamity after another Or involve and intangle us in so many Mischiefs Knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed Dost thou not consider that so many Plagues have ruined our Country Ver. 8. And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh c. Upon this Advice he commanded them to be called back again and consented to let them go with some Limitations to which Moses could not agree But who are they that shall go In the Hebrew the words are but who and who that is Name the particulars For his Covetousness would not suffer the whole Nation to go but he would keep some fast in his hands as a Pledge for the Return of the rest Ver. 9. And Moses said we will go with our young and our old c. with our Flocks and with our Herds c. The reason of this large Demand is given in the end of this Verse They did not know what and how often they must Sacrifice to the LORD and therefore it was necessary their Flocks and Herds should go with them And they being to hold a Feast unto the LORD none of them were to be absent from the Solemnity Hold a Feast unto the LORD It appears from V. 1 3. that it was to be a Feast upon a Sacrifice of which every one was to be a partaker Ver. 10. And he said unto them Let the LORD be so with you as I will let you go c. Most take this for a form of Imprecation as if he had said I wish you may prosper no better than I will accord to your desire But some look upon it as an Irrision or Jeer as if he had said you trust in the LORD let him do all he can to deliver you as I am resolved to keep you here This justifies the truth of their Observation who say that Pharaoh at the first behaved himself like a proud Phantastick Humorist who slighted all that Moses said or did but since the Plague of Murrain on the Cattle and Blains upon the Egyptians like a fantastick distracted Bedlam who raved as if his Brains had been blasted to use Dr. Jackson's Phrase with the Fumes of his seared Conscience Look you to it for evil is before you It is uncertain whether he meant evil that they designed against him or which he designed against them The former best agrees with what follows as if he had said you intend a Rebellion therefore I will let none but the Men go Or more plainly it is visible you design some evil i. e. you have conspired to be gone and make a Revolt Or it is plain and manifest by your very Countenances that you intend some evil If we take it the other way for evil which he threatned to them the meaning must be Mark what I say I will take a course with you unless you be content to go and Sacrifice upon my terms i. e. the Men only Ver. 11. Not so You shall not have your will Go now ye that are Men and serve the LORD for that you did desire So he Interprets their Demand V. 1. pretending that Women and Children needed not to attend upon Sacrifices And they were driven out from Pharaoh 's presence It is likely he said I have no more to say to you or you know my mind and therefore get you gone and then commanded his Officers to thrust them out of Doors which they did with some violence This shows he was in a fury which made him neither regard God nor Man but reject the good Counsel his own Servants had given him v. 7. as well as the Commands which Moses from God had delivered to him Ver. 12. And the LORD said unto Moses siretch out thine hand c. Upon this the Lord immediately ordered Moses to Execute the Judgment he had denounced Which as I said before was threatned about the seventh day and inflicted upon the next and removed on the ninth day of Abib Compare v. 4 13 19. Ver. 13. And Moses stretched forth his Rod over the Land of Egypt See VIII 6. And the LORD brought an East wind c. Though the Hebrew word kadim doth properly signifie the East yet it is sometimes used for the South as Boehart hath demonstrated P. II. Hieroz L. I. c. 15. and so the LXX here understood it For though in Arabia which lay East of Egypt there were great store of Locusts yet not such Numbers as were in Ethiopia which lay South of it and abounded with them more than any Country in the World Some People there lived upon nothing else but Locusts which were brought thither in the Spring about the Vernal Aequinox in vast quantities partly by the Western and partly by the Southern Winds as the same Bochart shows out of good Authors L. IV. c. 3. And now it was about that time of the year when by a Wind blowing from those parts they were brought into Egypt See LXXVIII Psal 26. Ver. 14. And the Locusts went up over all the Land of Egypt Being lifted up by the Wind as Pliny speaks they sly in the Air in a great Cloud which now it seems spread it self over all the Land of Egypt solicitè spectantibus populis c. as the same Author speaks People looking on them in great fear lest they fall down and cover their Country as the words following tell us they did here in Egypt And rested in all the Coasts of Egypt After they had hovered
Twenty to the eating of one Lamb. At which meal Men Women and Children Masters and Servants if Circumcised were entertained and every one did eat a piece at least as big as an Olive if we may believe the Hebrew Doctors Every Man according to his eating shall make your count for the Lamb. That is every Master of a House shall take such a number of Persons to him as will be sufficient for the eating of the Lamb. Ver. 5. The Lamb shall be without blemish In the Hebrew perfect or without defect There are ten Blemishes mentioned in XXII Levit. 22 23 24. which made a Sacrifice unfit for the Altar About which the Heathen themselves were very curious as I noted above out of Herodotus who relates how exact and scrupulous the Egyptian Priests were in their Scrutiny whether a Beast were fit to be offered See VIII 26. A Male Because the Male was counted more excellent than the Female I Malachi 14. and therefore all whole Burnt-offerings which were the most perfect sort of Sacrifices were to be Males only I Lev. 3 6. From hence this Custom as Bochart thinks was derived to the Egyptians who offered only Males as he proves out of Herodotus P. I. Hieroz L. III. c. 33 50. But whatsoever the Egyptians did the Romans did otherwise For Servius saith in VIII Aeneid In omnibus Sacris faeminini generis plus valent victimae that Sacrifices of the Female kind were of greatest value in all their Holy Offices Such different fancies there were in the World in after Ages but what Opinions they had in Moses his time none can certainly resolve Of the first year It doth not signifie that the Lamb was to be a year old for then it was uncapable to be offered but under a year old It was fit for Sacrifice at eight days old though not before XXII 30. XXII Lev. 27. which Laws Maimonides saith were observed in the Paschal Lamb as they were in the Daily Sacrifice XXIX Exod. 38. XXXVIII Numb 3. and in others XXIII Lev. 18 19. and so it continued sit from that time till it was a year old after which it was not accepted For which Bochart gives a very likely reason in the fore-named Book P. I. L. II. c. 50. p. 585. Ver. 6. And ye shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same Month. When it was to be offered to God by all the People as our Saviour was upon the very same day Which the Jews expected as appears by a memorable passage which Andr. Masius in V Josh 10. quotes out of that Tract in the Talmud called Rosch Hashanah where they say it was a famous and old opinion among the ancient Jews that the day of the New Year which was the beginning of the Israelites deliverance out of Egypt should in future time be the beginning of their Redemption by the Messiah Which was wonderfully fulfilled in our Lord and Saviour who keeping the Passover the day before the Rulers of the Jews observed it it fell out that he the true Lamb of God was offered on that very day which Moses here appointed for the Offering this Typical Sacrifice And the whole Assembly of the Congregation of Israel shall kill it God here grants a Liberty to any Man among the Israelites to kill the Passover Which act did not make him a Priest whose work it was to offer the Blood for in other Sacrifices any Man that brought them might do the same I Lev. 3 4 5. And this is given as a reason why the People did not kill the Passover in Hezekiah's time because they were unclean and therefore the Levites had the charge of it II Chron. XXX 17. But besides this Moses seems to mean that all the Company who were to eat were to be present at the Sacrifice By which means the whole Assembly of the Congregation of Israel were engaged in this Service And this was exactly also fulfilled in our Blessed Saviour whom the Apostle calls our Passover against whom the Priests and Scribes and Pharisees and all the People conspired to take away his Life In the Evening In the Hebrew the words are as is noted in the Margin of our Bibles between the two Evenings The first of which began when the Sun began to decline from its Noon-tide point and lasted till Sun set Then began the second Evening and lasted till Night Between these two Evenings about the middle of them was the Passover offered For after the offering of Incense they began on this day to kill the daily Evening Sacrifice between two and three in the Afternoon a little sooner than on other days and having sinished that and trimmed the Lamps as Maimonides in his Treatise on this Subject Cap. 1. Sect. 4. describes the order of it they went about the Paschal Sacrifice which continued till Sun-setting That is there were about two hours and an half for the dispatch of all the Lambs For the daily Evening Sacrifice and all belonging to it being over in an hours time by half an hour after three all the rest of the day till Sun-set which was two hours and an half at this time of the Year remained for the killing of the Paschal Lambs See Bochart Hieroz P. I. L. II. c. 50. p. 558. and our Learned Dr. Lightfoot in his Gleanings on Exodus Now our three a Clock in the Afternoon being the fame with the Jews ninth hour it is evident our blessed Saviour offered up himself to God for our Redemption about the same time that this Lamb was slain for their deliverance out of Egypt XV Mark 34 37. Ver. 7. And they shall take of the Blood Which was the Means that God now appointed for their Preservation And strike it By dipping a bunch of Hysop into it v. 22. On the two Side-posts Upon which Folding-doors moved For from thence Bochart thinks they had their Name in the Hebrew And on the upper Door-posts The Hebrew word Maskuph is no where to be found but in this Chapter and its carrying in it a signification of looking-through may induce us to think they had Lattices at the top of their Doors through which they could peep to see who knockt before they opened them Both these were sprinkled with the Blood but not the Threshold lest any Body should tread upon it which had been prophane this being an holy thing This striking or sprinkling of the Blood upon the Posts seems to have been peculiar to the first Passover at their going out of Egypt and not to have been used in after Times when there was not the same occasion for it viz. to distinguish their Houses from the Egyptians for their preservation from the destroying Angel In the Houses wherein they shall eat it In which the whole Nation was gathered together and so all delivered Ver. 8. And they shall eat the Flesh in that Night For it was not lawful to let any of it remain till the Morning v. 10. And the Hebrews say they
eat lest they should make the Beds dirty on which they lay leaning But Bochart hath demonstrated that this Custom was not so ancient but that in Moses his time and after they sat at their Tables as we do now of which there are many Instances in the Book of Genesis and elsewhere And therefore it is more likely the Jews were wont to go without Shoes when they were in Egypt for anciently Men did so and that being an hot Country there was no need of them And besides they were so oppressed that they may well be supposed to want many such Conveniencies of Life But now God commands them to put on Shoes being to travel a long Journey See his Hierozoicon P. I. L. 2. c. 50. p. 508. And your Staff in your hand Still the Posture of Travellers who never went without a Staff both to support them in slippery places and to defend them against Assaults XXXII Gen. 10. They seem now to have eaten the Lamb leaning on their Staves and therefore stood all the time as Men ready to depart But these were things peculiar only to that Pasover which they kept in Egypt afterwards they were not tied to them Ye shall eat it in haste As Men expecting every moment to begin their Journey This was the Foundation of many of the Laws about the Passover as Maimonides observes P. III. More Nev. c. 46. It is the LORD 's Passover To be kept in memory of his wonderful Mercy in sparing the Israelites when he destroyed the Egyptians and delivering them from their cruel Bondage Ver. 12. For I will pass through the Land of Egypt this Night See XI 4. And will smite all the First-born c. A most grievous Judgment all Children being very dear to their Parents especially their First-born and those more especially who are their only Children as it is likely they were to many in Egypt It was the forer Plague also because no Man's Children were spared that he might comfort his Neighbours but they were all at the same time bewailing their loss It is not certain by what sort of Death they were smitten but it was sudden and extinguisht them all in the same moment And against all the Gods of Egypt I will execute Judgment And so Moses tells us he did XXXIII Numb 4. From whence it appears that the Egyptians were Idolaters in Moses his days and the Jewish Doctors will have it that all their Idols were destroyed this Night So Jonathan in his Paraphrase Their molten Images were dissolved and melted down their Images of Stone were dasht in pieces their Images made of Earth were crumbled into bits and their Wooden ones reduced to Ashes Of the truth of which we cannot be assured though we meet with it not only in Pirke Elieser c. 48. but in the Author of Dibre hajamim c. or The Life and Death of Moses whose words are these All the First-born both of Man and Beast were smitten the Images also and Pictures destroyed whereupon the Jews borrowing Gold Silver and Garments of the Egyptians they went away laden with Riches according to what God said to Abraham XV Gen. 14. That Nation whom they shall serve will I judge and afterward shall they come out with great Substance This the Heathen seem to have understood for this Story reached them as if they had carried away the Gold and Silver and Garments of the Egyptian Idols For so Trogus reports it in Justin L. XXXVI c. 2. that when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt Sacra Aegyptiorum furto abstulit he stole away the Holy Things of the Egyptians which he makes the reason why Pharaoh pursued them Artapanus also in Eusebius saith that most of their Temples were overthrown by an Earthquake L. IX Praepar Evang. c. 27. There are those who by Elohim understand nothing but their Princes or Judges the great Men of the Kingdom upon whom the Judgment of God was now executed But another place in this Book XX. 23. plainly determines it to signifie Images I am the LORD There is no other God but me as he had said he would make both the Israelites and Pharaoh also to know X. 2. XI 7. Ver. 13. And the Blood shall be to you for a Token Or a Sign by which the Israelites were assured of Safety and Deliverance from the destroying Angel Of which Token if we may believe Epiphanius there was a Memorial preserved even among the Egyptians themselves though they were ignorant of the Original of their own Rites For at the Aequinox which was the time of the Passover they mark't their Cattle and their Trees and one another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with red Oker or some such thing which they fancied would be a Preservative to them And when I see the Blood Wheresoever my Angel finds this Blood upon the Door-posts I will pass over you c. Here is the reason of the Name of Pesach as the Hebrews call it or Pischa or Pascha as it is called by the Chaldees because God ordered his Angel to pass over or pass by the Children of Israel and not to smite any body in their Families when he smote every First-born of the Egyptians v. 23. Ver. 14. And this day shall be unto you for a memorial To preserve in mind God's wonderful Works which he made to be remembred CXI Psal 4. that is ordered and disposed things in such a manner that they should not be forgotten particularly by instituting a Festival Solemnity upon this day as it here follows And you shall keep it a Feast to the LORD c. Called the Feast of the Passover the Rites of which are all manifestly contrived to preserve a Memory of the Benefits they now received An Ordinance for ever To the end of that Oeconomy For it often signifies only a long Duration as XV Deut. 17. And here imports no more but that they should keep this Ordinance not only now but when they came into the Land of Canaan Ver. 15. Seven days shall ye eat unleavend Bread The seven days following the Feast of the Passover were observed as a distinct Festival and called The Feast of unleavened Bread v. 17. because no Bread that had any leaven in it might be eaten all that time Which the Jews expound thus Not that they were bound to eat unleavened Bread all those seven days which was necessary only on that Night when the Passover was killed but only not to eat leavened Bread That was utterly unlawful but they might eat Rice or parched Corn or any such thing See Petavius in Epiphan Haeres LXX N. XI At their march indeed out of Egypt they were forced to eat unleavened Bread having none else to eat not only for seven days but for a whole month that is from the fifteenth of the first Month to the fifteenth and sixteenth of the next when God gave them Manna and Quails XVI 1 12 13. But necessity as I said compelled them to this they having
the whole Channel as before When the Morning appeared When it was light And the Egyptians fled against it They were so frighted by the Light which shone in their Faces and by the Thunder and Hail c. that they turned back and like Men distracted run and met the Waters which came tumbling down upon them And the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the Sea The Hebrew word imports throwing down with violence and precipitation and may be translated threw them headlong Artapanus in Eusebius L. IX Praepar Evang. c. 27. tell this Story from the Heliopolitans after the same manner that Moses doth only he makes some of them to have been killed with Lightning and the rest drowned Ver. 28. And the Waters returned and covered the Chariots c. The Sea returned to its former depth so that they were swallowed up And all the Host of Pharaoh that came into the Sea after them Some have fancied that all the Host of Pharaoh did not perish but only so many of them as pursued the Israelites into the Sea which they fancy this place intimates some did not But the plain meaning is that they all came into the Sea after the Israelites and were all drowned in it It is a wilder fancy that Pharaoh alone was saved by the Angels Michael and Gabriel because he cried out as he had done heretofore IX 27. The LORD is righteous and I and my People are wicked Thus the Author of Dibre Hajamim or The Life and Death of Moses who says they transported him to Nineveh where he reigned as long as the Israelites wandred in the Wilderness The same is related by other such fabulous Writers who are soberly confuted by Aben Ezra from the following words There remained not so much as one of them and from XV. 4 19. where Moses in his Song plainly makes Pharaoh to have perished among the rest And with him an old Midrash saith that Jannes and Jambres were drown'd who had been the great Instruments of hardning Pharaoh's heart See our Learned J. Gregory Observ c. 15. Ver. 29. But the Children of Israel walked on dry Land c. Or Had walked for it seems to be a meer fancy that they were still in the Sea and had not passed quite through it when Pharaoh and his Host were drowned For which there is no ground but this word walked which may as well be translated in the time perfectly past as in the present And so I doubt not Moses meant that the Israelites were safe on Shore when the Sea returned upon the Egyptians And the Waters were a Wall unto them c. See v. 22. Ver. 30. Thus the LORD saved Israel As he had promised v. 13. That day Which was the XXI st of Nisan and the last day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread which by God's command was to be kept holy XII 16. And now there was a very great reason for it and for that triumphant Hymn which they sung upon this Solemnity Chap. XV. Mr. Mede will have this Day to have been that which they afterward kept for their Sabbath in memory of their Redemption out of the Land of Egypt and the House of Bondage This he gathers from the Repetition of the Decalogue in the Fifth of Deuteronomy where leaving out the reason for this Commandment from the Creation of the World Moses inserts this other of their Redemption out of Egypt as the ground of observing that Seventh day rather than any other v. 15. Therefore the LORD commanded thee to keep the Sabbath namely not for the quotum of one day in seven of that there was another reason from the Example of God in the Creation but for the designation of that day after the preceding six days rather than any other Discourse XV. p. 74. And Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the Sea-shore It may be interpreted that as they stood upon the Sea-shore they saw their dead Bodies floating upon the Waters But it is likely also that by the working of the Sea and by the Divine Providence many of their Bodies were cast on shore that the Israelites might have the benefit of the Spoil and especially of their Arms which they wanted and were now by this overthrow furnished withal This Shore was inhabited by the Icthyophagi among whom the memory of this Recess and Return of the Sea was preserved as I observed upon v. 21. and unto whom the dead Bodies were given for food as the Psalmist saith LXXIV 14. that is to the Beasts and Birds of Prey which peopled the neighbouring Wilderness This was done by the righteous Judgment of the LORD God of the Hebrews who made this proud Prince his States-men and Army a Prey not only to the Fishes and Sea-monsters but a visible booty as Dr. Jackson speaks to the promiscuous sorts of ravenous Creatures which inhabit the Deserts Ver. 31. And Israel saw that great work c. Of making a path for them to walk on dry Ground in the middle of the Sea and then drowning the Egyptians when they followed them in the same path And the People feared the LORD They beholding and considering the powerful hand of God which appeared in this great work it begat in them for the present high and awful Thoughts of him and devout Affections to him For the fear of the LORD includes all Religion Or if we take the word fear in a restrained sense for a dread of the Divine Majesty the meaning is they were sensible how dangerous as well as vain it is to oppose his Authority to set themselves against his Will or slight his Warnings as Pharaoh and the Egyptians did And believed the LORD and his Servant Moses Believed the Promises which God had made them by Moses of bringing them into the Land of Canaan III. 17. looking upon Moses as a Servant of his who faithfully declared the Mind and Will of God unto them CHAP. XV. Verse 1. THen sang Moses and the Children of Israel c. Upon the XXIth of Nisan as I said before which was the last day of Unleavened Bread when they came safe through the Sea and saw the Egyptians drown'd they sang this Song of Praise to God for their wonderful Deliverance So the constant Tradition of the Hebrews is and there is great ground for it This Song Called the Song of Moses the servant of the LORD XV Rev. 3. because he composed it by a Divine Inspiration to be sung by all the People And it is the most ancient Song of which there is any memory Vnto the LORD In praise of the Divine Power and Goodness which remarkably appeared in this Deliverance Josephus L. II. c. ult of his Antiquities saith that this Song is composed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Hexameter Verse which Eusebius represents as the Opinion of many others L. XI de Praepar Evang. c. 3. But I do not see how this can be made out nor what St. Hierom saith concerning such Songs in many
it to the Table A border of an hand-breadth round about Which came down below the Crown or Cornice as they now speak Though some think this Border was towards the bottom to joyn the feet more firmly together And thou shalt make a golden Crown to the border thereof round about Wheresoever this border was which I suppose was plated with Gold like the Table it had a Crown or a Cornice as an Ornament to it For this Crown was different from that mentioned in the foregoing Verse and was under the border as the other Crown was above it as Fortunatus Scacchus apprehends it Myrothec 2. c. 38. Ver. 26. And thou shalt make for it four rings of gold As there was for the Ark v. 12. only they were to be cast these to be made but how we are not told And put the rings in the four corners that are on the four feet thereof The Hebrew word here for Corners always hath that signification being quite different from that word which is used v. 12. when he speaks of the Ark. Which may well incline us to Josephus his opinion that these rings were not below as they were in the Ark but on the upper part of the Feet of the Table so that it was not carried up on high as the Ark was but hung down between the Priests on whose shoulders the staves rested Ver. 27. Over against the border shall the rings be c. Just below the Border and the Cornice before-mentioned v. 25. were these rings to be placed as the Border and its Cornice were placed below the upper Crown or Cornice which compassed the top of the Table v. 24. For places of the staves to bear the Table This expresses the use of the rings Ver. 28. And thou shalt make the staves of Shittim-wood and overlay them with gold Such as were made for the carriage of the Ark v. 13. That the Table may be born with them By the Priests upon their shoulders For the Tabernacle being a moveable House there was frequent occasions as they journeyed from one place to another to carry this Table along with them as they did all other things belonging to the House of God It is not ordered that the Staves should remain in the Rings as they did in those belonging in the Ark v. 15. because they might have been an hindrance to the Priests in their Ministration at this Table every day Therefore it is likely they were laid up in some place near it and put in when they travelled as they were ordered to be IV Numb 6. Ver. 29. And thou shalt make the dishes thereof It is not easie to give an account either of the form or of the use of these Keharoth which we translate Dishes i. e. Patins whereon to put the Bread which were XII Loaves XXIV Lev. 6. and the Frankincense which was to be set upon each row of Loaves v. 7. This is a plain sense if the Loaves stood upon Dishes and not immediately upon the Table as Fortunatus Scacchus thinks they did And therefore imagines they were full of fine flour of which the Bread was made or with Oyl which was to be mingled and used in their Sacrifices But this is more unlikely than the other the flour not being kept here in the holy place but in the outward Court And his reason for it is not solid which is That the Heads of their Tribes offered every one of them a silver Charger so we render the same word we here translate a Dish VII Numb full of fine flour mingled with Oyl But those were not for the use of this Table on which such large Dishes or Chargers could not stand there being no room for them Therefore at last he fancies them to have been Salt-cellars which were set upon the Table together with the Bread being used at all meals And Philo as he observes seems to be of this opinion who speaking of this Table in his Third Book of the Life of Moses saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon it were Loaves and Salts from whence he conjectures there were two Salt-dishes at least See his Myrothecium Sacror Elaeochrism c. 41. L. II. And spoons thereof If this be a true interpretation of the Hebrew word Cappoth their use was to put Incense into the Dishes and to take it out for that they contained incense is evident from VII Numb 14 20 26 c. Which makes the fore-named Author think this word should rather be rendred Vials which Pollux numbers among the Sacred Vessels and it is plain were used in offering Incense in the Temple for St. John saw the XXIV Elders having every one of them golden Vials full of Odours or Incense V Rev. 8. whence it is the LXX translate this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The form of which Fort. Scacchus in the place fore-mentioned hath adventured to describe And covers thereof Wherewith both the Loaves and the Incense were covered So it is commonly understood But Fortunatus Scacchus indeavours at large to prove that the Hebrew word kesoth is rightly translated by the LXX 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which were Vessels used in their Libamina when they poured Wine upon the Sacrifice or upon the Altar when they sacrificed For Authors do not agree when this was done some saying the Wine was poured out after the Sacrifice was slain and laid on the Altar others that it was most commonly done before The manner being first to throw Frankincense into the Fire on the Altar then to pour out the Wine and then the Sacrifice was slain In which order Homer and Ovid report it as Cuperus observes in his Apotheosis Homeri p. 71. However this be it is certain from Hesychius Pollux and Suidas that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signisies such a Vessel And Josephus saith that when Pompey went into the Holy Place he saw there such Vessels as these together with the Table and Candlestick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. L. I. de Bello Jud. c. 5. The only Objection against this is that there was no use for such Vessels in that place To which I think it may be truly answered that it was fit notwithstanding God's House should be furnished with all kinds of Utensils And bowls thereof So St. Hierom understands the Hebrew word menakioth which following the LXX he translates cyathos the form of which Fortunatus Scacchus in his fore-named Book cap. 44. hath indeavoured to make out and establish this as the certain meaning of the word But it is very hard to tell of what use they were here where no Drink was used and yet our Marginal Translation of the next word seems to favour it making these to pour out withal And indeed the Hebrew word signifies both to cover and to pour out But the former seems most proper here unless we take these to have been Bowls or such like Vessels set here meerly to signifie more compleatly that God kept House among them as we speak they being part