not require so much as others Ver. 18. And when they did mete it with an Omer When it was brought unto their Tents v. 16. then the Father of the Family or some of the Rulers of the Congregation v. 22. measured what they had gathered with an Omer and gave to every one his proportion according as God directed He that gathered much had nothing over Had no more than his Omer And he that gathered little had no lack He that had not gathered enough to make an Omer for every man had it made up to him out of other Mens gatherings who had more than enough Abarbinel will have it that they were so directed by a miraculous Providence as to gather just so much for their several Families that every Person 's share would come to an Omer and neither more nor less And so Greg. Nyssen calls this the Second Miracle which was in the Manna having observed one before v. 14. But others think that if any part of it remained after every one in the Family had an Omer it was Food for their Cattle which in the Wilderness wanted Grass sufficient for them And this seems the more probable because otherwise we must make a new Miracle that every Man Woman and Child should be able to eat an Omer which all grant was sufficient for the Sustenance of any Man whatsoever but was too much sure for a Child They gathered every Man according to his eating As they were directed v. 16. Ver. 19. And Moses said Let no Man leave of it till the morning It was therefore to be all spent one way or other the same day it fell Which was the Law of all the Holy Feasts particularly of the Passover XII 10. and of the Sacrifice of Peace-Offerings XXI Lev. 30. Besides God would have them depend upon his Providence and trust him for fresh Supplies every day as Aben-Ezra well notes And R. Levi ben Gersom He that kept it till the morning betrayed his want of Faith and feared God would send no more for if he believed to what purpose should he be at the pains to keep it Here was a new Wonder that as it fell every day for Forty years together both in Winter and in Summer and likewise fell in such quantity that every one had an Omer and none wanted this Measure so it would not keep till the next Morning which it might have done in its own Nature and did once in a Week and in the Ark was preserved to many Generations Ver. 20. Notwithstanding they hearkned not unto Moses but some of them left of it till the morning Either through unbelief or meer negligence or a wanton inclination to make an Experiment some among them disobeyed his Command And it bred Worms and stank This was a Wonder also that such an heavenly Food so pure and simple should not only breed Worms but also stink Which was a Punishment for their Disobedience though a merciful one in that God did not inflict it upon themselves but upon their Food The Jews commonly take these words to be transposed things being wont first to putrifie and then to breed Worms and in that order Moses relates this matter when it was laid up for the Sabbath v. 24. That it neither stank neither was any Worm therein But Abarbinel thinks that Moses here speaks of it according to the order wherein they found it which was that first Worms appeared in it to their Eyes and then they smelt the stink But in speaking of what fell out on the seventh day he follows the natural order and saith it did not stink neither was any Worm in it And Moses was wroth with them Chid them severely for their Disobedience to him who had bestowed such a singular benefit upon them Ver. 21. And they gathered it every morning every man according to his eating This is not needlesly repeated but a further Explication of their Care and Diligence to furnish themselves early in the Morning with as much as was necessary before the Sun grew hot and melted it or as some of the Jews add raised the Wind which blew dust upon it When the Sun waxed hot it melted That it might not be trod upon nor putrified Which seems to be spoken of that which remained in the open Field ungathered though Abarbinel will have it that what they had brought into their Tents melted also when the Sun grew hot which obliged them not only to gather it early but to bake and prepare it presently while it was yet hard and not dissolved But I see no ground for this nor is it likely that they were constrained to prepare it all together but might any time that day at Supper as well as Dinner order it according to their liking Others of the Jews fancy that being melted it made little Brooks and Rivolets in the Fields c. but the plain sence is that the Sun which melted it exhaled it also into the Air from whence it came and returned again the next Morning Ver. 22. On the sixth day they gathered twice as much Bread c. According to the Command of God v. 5. It appears by this place where it is called Bread as it is v. 4 12. that it was of a hard Substance when it fell though it dissolved by the heat of the Sun being like the Corn of which Bread is made And the Rulers of the Congregation came and told Moses He had bidden them gather a double quantity on the sixth day but had not told them the reason of it v. 5. and therefore they come now to enquire what they should do with it By this one would think they were the Rulers who saw a distribution made to every one in a just proportion or that they appointed Overseers to take care of it Ver. 23. And he said unto them this is that which the LORD hath said This is the Command which I have received from God about this matter To morrow is the rest Or shall be the rest Of the holy Sabbath unto the LORD To be kept holy so as to do no work therein And therefore you must not so much as go into the field to gather your Food which is the reason why you are ordered to make two days Provision in one The words in the Hebrew which we translate the rest of the holy Sabbath unto the LORD may be rendred as they lye in order the Sabbath the holy Sabbath unto the LORD Which Abarbinel explains as if the word Sabbath being repeated signified that it was to be a Cessation from all manner of Work because it was the Sabbath of the LORD himself wherein he ceased from his Works At this time and not before the rest of the seventh day seems to have been appointed They performed Religious Offices upon one day in seven but did not cease from all Labour until now These very words seem to show there had been some observation of a Sabbath heretofore and was not wholly a new
Synedris c. 6. The sense is this in short He that violates a Negative Precept as they call it either doth it secretly which is most frequent or openly which happens seldom unless a Man be one of those profligate Wretches whom we call Apostates Now him that secretly brake the Sabbath the Scripture threatens with cutting off viz. by the hand of God according to what is written here in this place In like manner incestuous and unlawful Conjunctions are threatned XVIII Lev. 29. because they were wont to be committed secretly But if any Man did any Work openly on the Sabbath so that there were Witnesses of it he was to be stoned according to what is said XV Numb 35. Though if he did it out of mistake either secretly or openly he was only to bring a Sacrifice for his Errour And if he offended against any of the Decrees of the Wise-men about the Sabbath he was to be beaten Or if there was no Court of Judgment in the place as now in their present Condition then all such Transgressors were left to God to punish them of whatsoever sort they were Ver. 15. Six days may work be done but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest holy to the LORD So it is called also XXXV 2. and XXIII Lev. 3. And so the Sabbath wherein the Land rested is likewise called XXV Lev. 4. But the Hebrew words Schabbat Schabbaton Sabbath of Rest properly signifies Sabbath above all Sabbaths i. e. the greatest Sabbath on which a rest was to be most punctually observed from all manner of Work which the Jews as de Dieu notes call the weighty Sabbath as if other days of rest were but light in comparison with this According to that saying of R. Josee Great is Circumcision because the weighty Sabbath gives place to it that is admits of this Work though the Rest on this Sabbath be so very great Shall surely be put to death As an Idolater who did not acknowledge the Creator of the World See before v. 14. Ver. 16. Wherefore the Children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath to observe the Sabbath throughout their Generation for a perpetual Covenant The most litteral Interpretation of this Verse seems to me to be that of Lud. de Dieu The Children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath by making the Sabbath a perpetual Covenant throughout their Generations That is by never suffering it to be interrupted they made it a perpetual Covenant between God and them throughout all Ages Ver. 17. It is a sign between me and the Children of Israel for ever A Badge and Livery that they were the Servants of the most High who made the Heavens and Earth A Mark of their being devoted to him and continuing in Covenant with him no less than Circumcision For in six days the LORD made Heaven and Earth In memory of which the Sabbath was first instituted to preserve perpetually and establish that most precious History and Doctrine of the Creation of the World as Maimonides speaks More Nevoch P. III. c. 43. And on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed Delighted in the Contemplation of all his Works which he saw were very good I Gen. 31. The same Maimonides observes that the word jinnaphash which we translate was refreshed comes from nephesh which among other things signifies the intention of the Mind and the Will and therefore the sense of this Phrase is All the Will of God was perfected and brought to a Conclusion his whole good Pleasure was absolutely finished on the seventh day More Nevoch P. I. c. 67. Ver. 18. And he gave unto Moses when he made an end of communing with him upon Mount Sinai When he dismissed him having said all that is before related during his forty days stay with him in the Mount he delivered unto him two Tables of Testimony to carry down with him to the People Two Tables of Testimony Wherein God testified to them his Mind and Will in the principal things which concerned their Duty See XVI 34. Tables of stone That what was written upon them might be more durable There is no ground to think that these Tables were made of some precious Stone as the Author of the Book Cosri and other Jews fancy for the word Eben in the Hebrew simply signifies any sort of Stone and is wont to have some other joyned to it when precious Stones are meant as in 2 Sam. XII 30. 1 Kings X. 2. 2 Chron. III. 6. Written with the finger of God i. e. By God himself Just as the Heavens saith Maimonides are said to be the work of his fingers VIII Psal 4. which he interprets in another place XXXIII 6. By the word of the LORD were the Heavens made Therefore written by the singer of God is as much saith he as by the word that is the Will and good Pleasure of God More Nevoch P. I. c. 66. In short this Phrase signifies that God employed neither Moses nor any other Instrument in this Writing but it was done by his own powerful Operation For all things that we do being wrought by our hands and our fingers these words are used to express God's power See XXXII 16. This was a thing so notorious in ancient times and so much believed by those who were not Jews that many other Nations pretended to the like Divine Writings that they might gain the greater Authority to their Laws Thus the Brachmans report in their Histories That the Book of their Law which they call Caster was delivered by God to Bremavius upon a Mount in a Cloud and that God gave also another Book of Laws to Brammon in the first Age of the World The Persians say the same of those of Zoroaster and the Getes of Xamolxis Nay the Brachmans have a Decalogue like this of Moses and accurate Interpretations of it in which they say there is this Prophecy That one day there shall be one Law alone throughout the World This evidently shows how well the World was anciently acquainted with these Books of Moses and what a high esteem they had of them See Huetius L. II. Alnetan Quaest c. 12. n. 19. CHAP. XXXII Verse 1. AND when the People Not the whole Body of the Congregation but so many of them that the rest durst not appear to oppose their desires Saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the Mount The Jews fancy that he stayed beyond the time that he had appointed for his return to them But that is not likely for he himself was not told how long God would detain him there See XXIV 14. The meaning therefore is that he stayed longer than they expected so that they did not know what to think of it And having as yet received no Directions about the Service of God for which they were called out of Egypt VII 16. and other places they thought it was time to desire Aaron to set about it in such a way as other People served their Gods The people gathered themselves
meaning is Thou shalt do thus before them if they doubt whether I have appeared to thee as he feared they would v. 1. to convince them of it Ver. 6. And the LORD said furthermore unto him Put now thy hand into thy bosom c. He did not ask for a new sign but the LORD was graciously pleased to grant him a further Confirmation of his Faith or rather of the Faith of the Israelites And he put his hand into his bosom and when he took it out behold it was leprous as Snow It was a wonderful thing that out of the same place should come both the Disease and the Cure as we read in the next Verse that by putting his hand into his bosom again it became sound and it was the greater wonder because the Leprosie was a Disease that was very hard to be cured R. Elieser in the place fore-named doth not give so good a reason for this sign as for the former though it is not a bad one For he making a Question Why God should give them a sign by an unclean thing and not by a clean makes this Answer to it Because as a Leper is unclean and makes others so in like manner Pharaoh and the impure Egyptians had defiled the Israelites but God showed by Moses's drawing his hand out of his bosom again pure and clean that he would deliver and purge the Israelites from the silthiness of the Egyptians I should think rather that the Leprosie represented God's smiting the Egytians with his Plagues and the Cure of it God's removal of those Plagues at Moses his Prayer But there is no end of such Conceits Therefore I shall ra-rather observe that God commanding him to work all these wonders before Pharaoh ver 21. it is very probable this gave occasion to the fabulous Story which was invented in future Ages that Moses was a Leper and the Israelites infected with that and other scabby Diseases For so Josephus tells us L. I. contra Apion the Tale was told in Manetho's History and thence descended unto others that Moses was driven out of the Country 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See Justin L. XXXV c. 2. Tacitus L. V. Histor c. 3. because he had the Leprosie Which as Manetho perhaps did not maliciously devise out of his own head so those Historians from whom he borrowed his Work might have but an imperfect Tradition of the Truth derived from this Passage of Moses appearing with a leprous Hand before Pharaoh which was presently noised about the Country without the other part of his being immediately cured And thus Helladius Besantinus an Egyptian Writer in his Chresto-Mathia mentions one who said Moses was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because his Body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was markt with white leprous spots And unto this lye he calls Philo to be a Witness The very same is affirm'd by Philemaeus Hephaestionis as J. Meursius observes in his Notes upon the fore-named Author Ver. 7. And he plucked it out of his bosom and behold it was turned again as his other flesh A manifest token as Con. Pellicanus rightly takes it that God could with as much ease restore his oppressed People to perfect liberty Ver. 8. And it shall come to pass if they will not believe thee nor hearken to the voice of the first sign Here he gives the reason why he was pleased to add another sign to the former that he might overcome the incredulity which he foresaw would be in many of them That they will believe the voice of the latter sign Yield their consent to that which is plainly taught them by both these signs viz. that God had appeared to him and ordered him to say what he did And he saith they would believe because it was rational to suppose they would though he likewise supposes in the next Verse some might still remain incredulous and therefore he adds another Ver. 9. Thou shalt take of the Water of the River and pour it upon the dry Land and the Water shall become Blood This sign was not wrought now when God talked with him as the two former were for he was in the Desert far from the River here spoken of and near no River at all Therefore in case the Israelites did not believe upon the sight of the two former signs this is ordered to be wrought when he came into Egypt for their Conviction by taking the Water of Nilus and turning it into Blood Which might be well looked upon as an Indication that God was able to spoil that Water which was the great Instrument of the fertility of that Country and make their Land barren And also put them in mind that the cry of the innocent Blood of their Infants which had been drown'd in that River was come up to God There was a necessity that Moses should be instructed with all these Powers because with an unusual Commission which would not have been credited if he had not brought such extraordinary proof of it All the Prophets after him did not work Miracles which were necessary only when some great Change was to be made in the World as there was now at their bringing out of Egypt After which they were to be put into a new form and order by a body of peculiar Laws both Civil and Religious which when they were notoriously violated God was pleased by such wonders as Moses wrought to turn their hearts back again as he did in the days of Elijah 1 Kings XVIII 37. Ver. 10. And Moses said unto the LORD O my Lord. This is a Form of Speech whereby he declines this great Imployment and desires to be excused The Reason of which follows I am not Eloquent In the Hebrew Am not a man of words i. e. not a good Speaker or not accustomed to make Speeches or as some take it a Man of few words and therefore unfit to be sent to the Israelites and much more to the King of Egypt to whom none but great Orators make Addresses Clemens in his Epistle to the Corinthians makes this an Argument of Moses his Humility and saith he added these words from I know not what Authour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am a reek from a Pot. Neither heretofore nor since thou hast spoken unto thy Servant This hath been always my Imperfection that I could not speak fluently nor do I find that I am altered since thou hast been pleased to appear to me and give me this Commission But I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue Cannot bring forth my words readily nor pronounce them well The Jews think he had some impediment in his Speech so that he could not pronounce some Letters or Words exactly at least not without such difficulty that it was long before he could bring them forth But the LXX understand these words slow of speech as if he had but a weak small or slender voice speaking voce gracili exili as it may be translated in Latin which
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
years And from his Families coming into Egypt till their departure was just as many more Which agrees perfectly with what the Apostle saith that the Promise made by God to Abraham and his Seed could not be made void by the Law which was four hundred and thirty years after III Galat. 16 17. How the first Promise made to Abraham was when God bad him go to Canaan XII Gen. 3. See XV Gen. 13. There are some indeed that reckon their stay in Egypt to have been only two hundred and ten years and then they took in the five years Abraham stay'd at Charran after he left Vr of the Chaldees to make up these four hundred and thirty years of which Opinion is Drusius in the place above mentioned But Josephus saith expresly that they departed out of Egypt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Two hundred and fifty years after Jacob came into it L. II. Antiq. c. 5. All the Difficulties that have been raised by Commentators in the Exposition of these words are avoided by this Interpretation If we admit that is only these two Synechdoche's the figure of part for the whole first that under the Name of the Children of Israel is comprehended Israel himself with his Father and Grandfather and secondly that their sojourning comprehends the whole time that this Nation dwelt in a Land that was not theirs half of which time at least was spent in Egypt See Guil. Vorstius in his Notes upon Tzemach David p. 200. 205. Ludov. Capellus Chron. Sacra p. 135. But especially our most Learned Primate Vsher Chron. Sacr. c. 8. where he largely confutes the contrary Opinion which if any one desire to see defended I know none that hath done it better than Gerhardus J. Vossius in his Isagogue Chronologica Dissert VII c. 1 c. where he fairly represents the Arguments on both sides but inclines himself to think the Children of Israel dwelt CCCCXXX years in Egypt and indeavours to answer those who assert that Interpretation which I have given Cap. 12. But acknowledges ingenuously Cap. 6. that it is the sense not only of the ancient Jews but of the ancient Christians such as Eusebius Epiphanius and St. Chrysostom among the Greeks and St. Hierom St. Austin c. among the Latines and of a vast number of later Writers Ver. 41. And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years These years says St. Hierom in III Galat. are to be computed ab eo tempore quo Deus ad Abrahamum locutus est c. from the time when God said to Abraham In thy Seed shall all Nations be blessed i. e. when he went first to Canaan Even the self same day it came to pass They all went out on one day or they went out that very day four hundred and thirty years after Abraham came to Canaan So faithful was God in his Promise to his faithful Servant That all the Hosts of the LORD c. So they are called for the LORD was become their King as I observed III. 10. and now led them forth as their Captain General And this word Hosts imports that they went out not confusedly but in good order See XIII 18. which is the more wonderful there being such a vast number of them v. 37 38. that one would think they could not so soon get together especially in any order But Josephus hath well resolved this That Moses having notice of God's Intentions some days before See v. 1. had disposed them for their Departure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and distributing them into several Companies had appointed them the place of general Rendevouz as we now speak or at least directed who should march first and what order they should observe that they might not hinder one another in their March Ver. 42. It is a Night to be much observed In the Hebrew as the Margin notes a Night of Observations That is a very remarkable Night or a Night in which there were many Precepts to be observed as some will have it Or as Conradus Pellicanus a Night in which the LORD after a special manner watched over the Children of Israel For which reason the Jews expect their Messiah to come in this Night foolishly imagining he will then find them all most ready to follow him to Jerusalem For they have now corrupted an ancient Tradition which I observed before v. 6. was remarkably fulfilled in our Saviour's suffering that very Evening when the Paschal Lamb was killed and the Children of Israel redeemed from the Egyptian Bondage Vnto the LORD In honour of him who had graciously begun to fulfil his Promise made to their Fore-fathers VI. 2 3 4. This is that Night of the LORD c. Which God hath commanded to be observed because they came out at that Season XVI Dent. 6. under his Conduct from the Egyptian Bondage Or it may be called that Night of the LORD because his Power and Mercy and Faithfulness to his Promises so signally appeared that Night Ver. 43. And the LORD said unto Moses and Aaron At the same time I suppose that he instituted the Passover v. 1. he added this Caution about it This is the Ordinance of the Passover A further Rule to be observed at this Feast There shall no Stranger eat thereof Several of the Jewish Doctors by the Son of a Stranger understand an Apostate from the Religion of Israel to strange Worship i. e. Idolatry as Mr. Selden observes L. I. de Synedr c. 12. p. 479. But it is not to be so restrained as appears from the next Verse which is a further Explication of this Wherein he ordains that no Man who did not embrace their Faith and Religion should eat of the Passover though he was a Proselyte so far as to be permitted to live among them For this being a Commemoration of the great Deliverance bestowed upon the Israelites none but they were to partake of it unless they would be Circumcised and thereby come into the Covenant made with Abraham Which gave them a title to all the Priviledges of his Children and obliged them as well as the Natural Israelites to give Publick Thanks for this Work of their Redemption from Egyptian Bondage to Worship and Serve their God according as he directed Ver. 44. And every Man-servant that is bought for money As many were in those Times and Countries who became their Masters proper Goods as much as their Cattle When thou hast Circumcised him then shall he eat thereof He was not to be Circumcised against his Will but if he refused after a years trial as Maimonides expounds it to receive Circumcision his Master was to sell him again For it is very unreasonable to think that he was to be compelled to be Circumcised as those Hebrew Doctors seem to understand it who say That both Master and Servant were forbid to eat of it till the Servant was Circumcised See Selden L. II. de Synedr c. 1. Where he shows at large
of Gold as Casaubon speaks in his Annotations on this place L. XVI p. 760 761. CHAP. XIII Verse 1. AND the LORD spake unto Moses saying After they came to Succoth where I suppose the SCHECHINAH appeared to him as it had done in Midian and in Egypt to direct him in his Conduct Ver. 2. Sanctifie unto me the First-born Separate or set apart from common uses for I appropriate them to my self as it follows in the end of the Verse This word Sanctifie as our Mr. Mede observes signifies differently in several Conjugations Sometimes it signifies to devote and consecrate to the Service of God and sometimes to use a thing as holy being already devoted to him And thus he reconciles this place where he bids him sanctifie all the First-born i. e. look upon them as things separated to his own use and therefore not to be used by them with another place XXVII Lev. 26. where he saith concerning the First-born No Man shall sanctifie it it is the LORD's i. e. the LORD hath already set it apart to himself and therefore no Man is to Consecrate that again which God hath already Consecrated that is taken for his own See L. II. de Sanctuario Dei p. 552. First-born There were two sorts of First-born Some who were the First-born of the Father called the beginning of his Strength XXI Deut. 17. The other the First-born of the Mother which are called here whatsoever openeth the Womb. The Hebrews make a great difference between these two and say That to the former sort belong the Prerogatives both of having the Inheritance of his Father and also the Priesthood but to the latter only belongs one of these Prerogatives viz. the Priesthood And they gather it from this very place Whatsoever openeth the Womb which is the First-born of the Mother is mine i. e. shall be employed in my Service But instead of these God took the Levites to attend upon him III Numb 12. After which the First-born were to be redeemed at a certain Rate which was part of the Priests maintenance XVIII Numb 15 16. See Selden de Successionibus ad Leg. Hebr. c. 7. Among the Children of Israel Whom this Precept concerned peculiarly but no other People Therefore the Jews say that if one of them and a Gentile had any Beast in Common between them the First-born was free as their Phrase is because it is here said among the Children of Israel not the Gentiles See Buxtorf Synag Jud. c. 38. Both of Man and Beast As is further directed and explained v. 12 13. It is mine And therefore was to be offered to God if it were a Male of any Beast only an Ass was to be redeemed XXXIV 19 20. God intended by this Law to teach them saith R. Levi Barzelonita that the whole World was his and that Men had nothing in it but by his gracious Grant who challenged the First-born of every thing to himself because all was his For the First-born Male was dearer to a Man saith he than the Apple of his Eye as no doubt he was yet he was bound to Consecrate him to God But the plainest reason of this Law was to put them in mind of God's miraculous Providence in sparing their First-born when those of the Egyptians were all killed To which the Jewish Doctors add a more ancient right God had to them being the Persons who Sacrificed to God before Priests were ordained by the Law of Moses So Onkelos takes the young men XXIV 5. to have been the First-born and the Priests mentioned XIX 22. Aben Ezra also upon XVI Numb 1. saith the same the truth of which I shall examine there Ver. 3. And Moses said unto the People God seems to have commanded Moses at the same time he gave this Precept to repeat here at Succoth what he had said to them in Egypt concerning the Observation of the Passover and of the Feast of Vnleavened Bread It being of great moment to have the Benefits hereby Commemorated in perpetual remembrance Remember this day c. Which was the first day of Unleavened Bread commanded to be kept holy XII 16. For by strength of hand the LORD brought you out That is by a miraculous Power which constrained Pharaoh to let you go much against his will So God promised at his first appearance to Moses III. 19. There shall no leavened Bread be eaten Unleavened Bread was to be eaten on the Passover Night and afterwards no leavened Bread See XII 15 c. where this is represented as the Sense of the Jews but the sixth and seventh Verse following seem to say otherwise Ver. 4. This day came ye out In the Morning of this Day they began their March In the Month of Abib This word Abib signifies an Ear of Corn for then Barley began to ear The Syriack word hababa hath something of its sound which signifies a flower and so they here translate it The Month of Flowers Whence Macarius saith God brought Israel out of Egypt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Month of Flowers when the pleasant Spring first appeared See XXIII 15. Ver. 5. And it shall be when the LORD shall bring thee into the Land c. From hence they conclude this Precept did not oblige them in the Wilderness but it was by a special Direction and Command that they observed it the year after this IX Numb 1 2 c. See XII 25 50. In confirmation of which the XII Deut. 1. is alledged where he begins to recapitulate all the Laws they were to observe in Canaan among which this is one XII 5 6. yet this alone would not have been sufficient to prove this for he might be thought now only to reinforce his Laws at their etrance into Canaan if he had not added v. 8. Ye shall not do after all the things you do here this day c. Which supposes that in the unsetled Condition wherein they were in the Wilderness they had not kept themselves to all those Rules which follow and had been formerly delivered Which he sware unto thy Fathers to give thee c. XV Gen. 18 19 c. Ye shall keep this Service in this Month. Both the Passover and Feast of Unleavened Bread XII 25. Ver. 6. Seven days shalt thou eat unleavened Bread This seems to confute what the Jews say that they were not bound to eat unleavened Bread but only when they ate the Passover See XII 15. And in the seventh day shall be a Feast unto the LORD As the first day was holy v. 3. so was the last XII 16. that they might not fail in their Gratitude for so great a Benefit as they now Commemorated Ver. 7. Vnleavened Bread shall be eaten seven days This seems still to make the Injunction plainer that for seven days together they should eat unleavened Bread Which is so often repeated because this made them sensible more than any thing else of the wonderful Hand of God in bringing them out of
Egypt which was so sudden and hasty that they had not time to bake the Dough they had prepared nor so much as put Leaven to it XII 39. There shall no leavened Bread be seen with thee From whence the Jews conclude That not only all such Bread is to be carefully sought for and thrown out of their Houses but all their Vessels that have been used the year before thoroughly scoured least any thing should remain in them that might give a tincture of acidity to the Bread that might be made in them In which work they spend some days before the Passover as Buxtorf observes in his Synag Jud. c. 17. Neither shall there be Leaven seen with thee c. For which Cause as he there observes they abstain all the time of this Feast from all such things as may possibly have some Leaven in them As from Honey and Sugar which are often adulterated with Flowre c. Ver. 8. And thou shalt shew thy Son in that day c. That is on the first day of Unleavened Bread it was to be a part of their Religion to instruct their Children in the meaning of their Killing the Lamb and their Abstinence from Leaven This the Jewish Doctors make one of the DCXIII Precepts that Parents should tell the whole Story of their going out of Egypt on the fifteenth day of Nisan when every one according to his Ability was bound in his own Language to bless and praise the Name of God for all his Miracles which he wrought for them They are the words of R. Levi of Barcelona Ver. 9. And it shall be for a Sign unto thee These seem to be still the words that the Parents were to say to their Children upon these Festivals whereby they taught them to look upon this Observation as a Token or Memorial of what God had done for their Forefathers when he brought them out of Egypt Vpon thy hand and for a memorial between thine eyes To make thee as sensible of God's Goodness as of that which thou hast in thy Hand or of a Thing that is continually before thine Eyes The Jewish Superstition about their Phylacteries took its rise from hence but without any good ground it being evident he speaks not of tying Parchments or any thing else about their Wrists c. but of teaching their Children the meaning of their Holy Rites And so some of themselves have expounded it particularly the forementioned R. Levi of Barcelona who gives this reason why such abundant care was taken to have these things remembred Because saith he this is the Foundation of our Law and of our Religion for which Cause in all our Blessings and Prayers we Commemorate our coming out of Egypt because it is a Sign to us and a perfect Demonstration of the Creation of the World and that our Lord God is the Author of all Creatures and doth what he pleases c. For who but he could change the Course of Nature and work such great and unheard of Signs as he did This is sufficient to confute those that deny the Creation of the World and to establish us in the belief of God most blessed and to perswade both that there is a Providence and that his Power extends to all things both in general and particular So he See v. 16. That the LORD's Law may be in thy mouth That their Children might be able to declare to their Posterity the Law of the LORD about these Matters For with a strong Hand hath the LORD brought thee out of Egypt By slaying all their First-born in one Night See III. 19. Ver. 10. Thou shalt therefore keep this Ordinance Of the Passover and of the Feast of Unleavened Bread In this season from year to year On the fourteenth and the seven following days of the first Month. Ver. 11. And it shall be when the LORD shall bring thee into the Land of the Canaanites c. Under the Name of Canaanites he comprehends all the rest of the seven Nations And these words seem to import that the Law of the First-born was not to take place till they came into the Promised Land Yet we find III Numb 12 13. that God demanded all the First-born of them though he took the Levites in their stead And both being numbred and there being Two hundred seventy three First-born Males more than there were Levites v. 41 42 43. he required them to be redeemed at five Shekels apiece and the Money to be given to the Priests v. 46 47 48. But perhaps after this the Law was not observed till they came to Canaan Which he sware unto thy Fathers c. See v. 5. Ver. 12. That thou shalt set apart unto the LORD all that openeth the Matrix Here he shows what he means by that Sanctification of the First-born which was mentioned v. 2. and for what end and reason this was ordained For that which is called Sanctifying there is here called setting apart or separating it from the rest of that kind of Creatures for another use viz. to be Sacrificed to the LORD For the word heevarta which we translate set apart is in the Hebrew make to pass over Which is explained XXII 30. Thou shalt give it unto me viz. to be offered at the Altar The Males The First-born are only mentioned v. 2. but here it is explained to signifie only the Males If a Female came first and afterward a Male that Male was not devoted unto God because it did not open the Womb a Female coming before it Shall be the LORD's And therefore set apart from common uses to be imployed in his Service That is every firstling Male of a Cow Sheep or Goat was to be offered in Sacrifice and the Blood being sprinkled on the Altar the Flesh of them was given to the Priests See XVIII Numb 17 18. where what is here briefly delivered is there more largely explained Ver. 8. And every firstling of an Ass There was the same reason for Horses and Camels but an Ass is only mentioned because abundance of Asses were bred in Judea where there were few Horses or Camels And therefore XVIII Numb 15. it is said in general The firstlings of unclean Beasts thou shalt redeem Thou shalt redeem with a Lamb. Which was to be Sacrificed to God If a Man had not a Lamb he was to give the price of one And because all Lambs were not of an equal price some being worth more than others the Rabbins say that a good eye i. e. a liberal Man gave a Shekel an evil eye half as much and a middle sort of Men gave three quarters It was to be redeemed also within thirty days If thou wilt not redeem it then thou shalt break or cut off its neck It was to die one way or other and not to be imployed in common use but thus to be disposed of if they would not give a Lamb or its value in exchange for it Which Men might sometimes be unwilling to
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
thing for if it had they could not have understood Moses nor known what he meant See what I have noted upon the Second of Genesis where I thought it reasonable to assert That God intended to preserve a Memory of the Creation in six days by appointing the seventh day to be kept holy And therefore the more pious any people were the greater respect they had to this day But when the World grew very wicked before the Flood as they little thought of God so it is likely they neglected all distinction between this day and others And the dispersion of People after the Flood very much blotted it out of their minds as it did many other good things But in the Family of Abraham we may well suppose it was continued though not with such strict abstinence from all Labour as for special reasons was afterward enjoyned Which is the cause why we read nothing of their resting in their Travels upon that day before their coming out of Egypt Where they were under such cruel Servitude that all observation of the seventh day it is likely was laid aside they being pressed day and night by their Task-masters to hard Labour without intermission And therefore when God brought them out of that Slavery he renewed his Command for the observation of the Sabbath with this addition in memory of their Deliverance from the Egyptian Bondage that they should rest from all manner of Labour upon that day Both these Reasons are given by Moses why God commanded it to be observed in memory of the Creation in six days XX Exod. 11. and in memory of their deliverance from the Egyptian Bondage V Deut. 15. Bake that which you will bake to day c. The words to day are not in the Hebrew but are necessary to make the sense plain because they were enjoyned on this day to prepare or make ready all things against the next v. 5. And that which remaineth over lay up for you to be kept till the morning From which words some have inferred that there was no prohibition of baking and seething on the Sabbath but the contrary rather is here supposed See Dr. Heylin in his History of the Sabbath Part. I. p. 100. But I do not see how this consists with the further explication of this matter in XXXV Exod. 3. where they are forbidden to kindle a Fire upon this day Unless any one will say that for the present they might do it but shortly after were prohibited which is not at all likely For the plain meaning is that if they would make any baked Meats or boiled with the Manna they must do it upon the sixth day though what they did not then bake nor boil they might safely keep till the next day and it should not breed Worms nor stink But what they so kept was to be eaten without baking or boiling as it well might being a food prepared in Heaven for their eating without any need of further Art And therefore called Bread even when they gathered it v. 22. Ver. 24. And they laid it up until the morning c. Without any Preparation of it by baking or boiling and it kept the whole seventh day without any putrefaction Ver. 25. And Moses said Eat that to day Simple as it is without baking or boiling For to day is a Sabbath unto the LORD The frequent repetition of this in this Chapter v. 23. and again v. 29 30. hath led the Jews into this mistake that the Sabbath was not ordained by God till they came out of Egypt directly contrary to what we read in the Second of Genesis that it was instituted from the beginning And therefore Moses here only gives an account why this Precept was renewed at their coming out of Egypt when there was a new Religious observation added to it which was not necessary before viz. resting wholly from all manner of work There is an excellent Discourse on this Subject in a late Learned Author J. Wagensiel in his Confutation of R. Lipman's Carmen Memoriale p. 559 c. who well observes that this Precept having a peculiar respect to the Jews we are not bound to observe the rest of the Sabbath with such strictness as they did but only as the Patriarchs did before the giving of the Law p. 564. As for the translation of the day from the seventh to the first day of the Week it is impossible for the Jews to prove that the day they observe is the seventh from the Creation And besides that the whole World cannot be tied to the circumstance of time precisely for in some parts of it the Sabbath will fall eighteen hours later than in Palestine as he evidently shows p. 572 c. To day you shall not find it in the field This Moses said to them as Abarbinel thinks in the Evening of the Sabbath which was in effect a Prohibition to them not to go out to gather it on that day Ver. 26. Six days ye shall gather it c. The same Author thinks this is repeated to signifie that as long as they continued in the Wilderness they should gather it six days in a Week as they did now but never find any on the seventh There shall be none As you rest saith he from doing any thing about the Manna so God will cease from sending it unto you Upon which he makes this pious reflection That in this World we must work for our Souls if we would be happy in the next World which is an intire Sabbath or Rest For he that labours in the Evening of the Sabbath shall eat on the Sabbath To the same purpose Origen long before him Hom. VII in Exod. Ver. 27. There went out some of the people on the seventh day to gather c. The same wicked disposition remained in them which made them on other days keep it till next Morning v. 19 20. Ver. 28. And the LORD said unto Moses how long refuse ye to keep my Commandments c. These chiding words are full of indignation and yet signifie the long-suffering Patience of God with an untoward Generation Abarbinel expounds this passage as if upon this occasion he upbraided them with all their other Transgressions saying You kickt against me at the Red Sea and believed not my words at Marah also you murmured and uttered very discontented words at Elim Nay after I had given you Manna you violated my Precept in reserving it till the next Morning And now you break my Sabbath what hope is there that you will observe any of my Laws Refuse to keep my Commandments and my Laws He speaks thus say some of the Jews because that in which they now offended is a thing upon which the whole Law all his Commandments depend So the same Abarbinel Because the Sabbath instructed them in the Creation of the World upon which all the Law depends therefore he saith My Commandments and my Laws Ver. 29. See Consider For that the LORD hath given you the
dressed up the High Priest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But the liberty and freedom also wherein they were instated I doubt not is signified by these words Kings and Priests as Onkelos translates them and as it is expressed in the New Testament I Revel 6. V. 10. and the Syriac also Kingdom and Priesthood for Kings and Priests were of all other Men freed from Oppression And thus I sind our Mr. Thorndike a most Learned man glosses upon thess words Review of the Rights of the Church p. 132. God calls them Kings because redeemed from the Servitude of Strangers to be a People Lords of themselves and Priests because redeemed to spend their time in Sacrificing and feasting upon their Sacrifices under which Figure he afterwards represents the happy estate of his Church LXI Isa 6. though they Sacrificed not in Person but by their Priests appointed in their stead by imposition of the Elders hands VIII Numb 10. An holy Nation A People separated to God from all other Nations and from their Idolatry to serve God in an acceptable manner These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the Children of Israel The sum of what he was to say to them comprehending both their Duty and their high Priviledge Ver. 7. And Moses came Down from the Mount where he had been with God v. 3. And called for the Elders of the People The principal Persons in the several Tribes See III. 16. which he seems to have done in the Evening of the second day of the Month. And laid before their faces all these words c. Plainly declared to them what God had given him in charge which they went and propounded to the People of the several Tribes whom they represented Ver. 8. And all the People answered together and said All with one consent declared as here follows All that the LORD hath spoken we will do They consented to have the LORD for their King and promised to be obedient to his Will And Moses returned the words of the People unto the LORD This seems to have been done the next day which was the third day of the third Month. Upon which Report made to God of the Peoples Consent he proceeds after a few days preparation to declare the Laws by which they should be governed Chap. XX XXI XXII XXIII and then in the XXIVth Chapter these Laws pass into a Covenant between God and them Here Moses plainly acted as a Mediator between God and the People Ver. 9. And the LORD said unto Moses lo I will come unto thee Appear upon the Mount In a thick Cloud In a darker Cloud than that which had hitherto gone before them to conduct them so that they should see nothing but Flashes of Lightning which came out of it in a very frightful manner v. 16 18. For that there was sire in it appears from IV Dent. 11. V. 22 23. though at first perhaps only a thick Cloud appeared as a token of his approach That the People may hear when I speak with thee Though they saw no Similitude yet they plainly heard a voice speaking unto Moses and declaring their Duty Maimonides indeed thinks that the words were directed only unto Moses and that the Israelites heard meerly the sound of the words but did not distinctly understand them More Nevoch P. II. c. 33. Which is directly against what Moses says IV Deut. 12. The LORD spake unto you out of the midst of the sire c. and V. 4 5. The LORD talked with you face to face in the Mount c. saying I am the LORD thy God c. which words are plainly directed to all the People And believe thee for ever They had been staggered in their Belief after they had professed it at the Red Sea XV. ult but after this it might be expected they would never question his Authority any more And Moses told the words of the People unto the LORD Or rather for Moses had told c. Upon which account God was pleased to make the foregoing Declaration Till they had owned him for the LORD their God i.e. their King and Governour he did not speak unto them at all but only unto Moses But now that they had consented to be his he resolves to speak audibly to them and henceforth to dwell among them and in order to it six his Tabernacle with them For which he gives order Chap. XXV c. immediately after they had entred into Covenant to do as they had promised Or these words which seem to be a needless repetition may relate to that which follows and be translated thus Moses having told the words of the People unto the LORD the LORD said unto Moses Go unto the People and sanctifie them c. Ver. 10. Go unto the People and sanctifie them to day and to morrow This shows that Moses was sent down early on the fourth day to prepare them for the Appearance of the Divine Majesty among them by sanctifying them that is separating them from all Uncleanness or rather from all common and ordinary Imployments that they might give themselves to Fasting and Prayer and Abstinence from otherwise lawful Pleasures For Pirke Elieser takes Abstinence from their Wives mentioned v. 15. as a part of this Sanctification cap. 41. And so doth Gregory Nyssen in his Book de Vita Mosis p. 178. And Maimonides observes that Separation from Wine and strong Drink is called Holiness in the Law of the Nazarites VI Numb 5. and therefore may be thought part of the Sanctification here required More Nevoch P. I. c. 33. And let them wash their Clothes The Hebrews understand it of washing their whole Bodies For thus Aaron and his Sons were to be consecrated to their Office XXIX 4. XL. 12. and therefore thus the People were now to be made a holy People unto the LORD and made sit for the Presence of the Divine Majesty Under whose Wings as they speak none were received in future times i.e. made Proselytes but by Baptism or washing of their whole Body which was taken from this pattern And accordingly where we read in the Law of particular Purifications by washing their Clothes in case of any Uncleanness as XI Lev. 25 28 40. XIV 8 47. where Moses speaks of cleansing a Leprous Person XXXI Numb 24. where he speaks of cleansing Soldiers and many other Cases they understand it in the very same manner In some cases indeed it is expresly prescribed XV Lev. 5 6 7. XVI 26 c. and they expound all other where Clothes only are mentioned by the same Rule as Mr. Selden shows I. I. de Synedr c. 3. where he observes that in the Pagan Language pure Garments signifie the washing of the whole Body See p. 29. Ver. 11. And be ready against the third day He doth not mean the third day of the Month but the third day after this command to Sanctifie themselves In which they were bound to spend two intire days and then the LORD promised to
come down in all their sight upon Mount Sinai That is when they were fit to receive him by their professing themselves an holy People of which that outward washing was a token For the third day the LORD will come down c. Not from the Mount but from Heaven upon Mount Sinai On which the SCHECHINAH descended in a Cloud which struck a great awe into them For it was darker than the Pillar of the Cloud by which they had been conducted hither thorough which some rays or glimpse of a glorious Majesty that was in it broke forth upon them Ver. 12. And thou shalt set bounds unto the People round about To keep them at a due distance out of a just reverence to the Divine Majesty Take heed unto your selves that ye go not up c. This Caution also was given them to work and preserve in their Minds a most profound Reverence of the Divine Majesty and to those Laws which were to be delivered from this Mount Ver. 13. There shall not an hand touch it but he shall surely be stoned or shot through Be stoned if he were near at hand or shot through with Darts or Arrows if at a distance So Aben-Ezra And so Jonathan likewise translates the latter Clause They shall throw Darts at him And so our old Translation Stricken through with Darts But the Talmudists and the greatest Lawyers among the Jews expound both these Clauses of stoning which was twofold as we read in the Misna Tit. Sanhedrin c. 6. either by throwing Stones at a Malefactor or throwing him down from an high place upon Stones And thus this last place imports in the Hebrew and may properly be translated projiciendo projicietur he shall be violently thrown down or thrown down headlong It is the very same word with that XV. 4. concerning the casting Pharaoh's Chariots into the Sea And this was a Punishment as Mr. Selden observes like that among the Romans from the Saxum Tarpeium which the Jews inflicted upon some captive Edomites 2 Chron. XXV 12. and Jehu inflicted upon Jezabel 2 Kings IX 32. On which story R. Leviben Gersom observes pertinently That as she caused Naboth to be stoned so she was punished her self in the same kind for stoning saith he was either by throwing Stones at Malefactors or throwing them down upon Stones To justifie which he alledges this place in Exodus And David Kimchi makes the same Observation See Mr. Selden L. I. de Synedr c. 5. p. 74 c. When the Trumpet soundeth long When the sound of it is protracted or drawn out and consequently was less terrible then while it was shorter and broken See v. 16. They shall come up to the Mount To the foot of it v. 17. that they might more plainly hear the voice of God Ver. 14. And Moses came down from the Mount to the People As he had been commanded v. 10. And sanctified the People Commanded them to Sanctisie themselves as the Author of Sepher Cosri explains it P. I. Sect. 87. both with Internal Sanctification and External among which the principal was Separation from the company of Women as it here follows v. 15. And they washed their Clothes See v. 10. Unto which add that it is no wonder they used this Purification before the giving of the Law which had been anciently in use among their Ancestors upon Solemn Occasions As appears by what I observed on XXXV Gen. 2. where Jacob before the building of an Altar to God in Bethel as he had vowed cleansed his Family after this manner For so Aben-Ezra truly expounds these words be clean wash your Bodies which was the old Rite of cleansing See there Ver. 15. And said unto the People be ready against the third day Prepared to hear the words of God Come not at your Wives For this time was set apart for Solemn Fasting and Prayer that they might be fit to converse with God by having their Minds abstracted from earthly things Ver. 16. And it came to pass on the third day See v. 11. There more Thunders and Lightnings Which broke out of the thick Cloud to awaken them to attend unto his Majesty who was approaching And a thick Cloud In which a flaming Fire presently appeared v. 18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that the Mountain could not be seen as Greg. Nyssen explains it de Vita Mosis p. 179. And the voice of the Trumpet The heavenly Ministers who were Attendants upon the Divine Majesty made a sound like that of a Trumpet to summon the People to come and appear before God and receive his Commands Exceeding loud Beyond what the blast of any Men could make for it made the whole Camp quake as the following words tell us Ver. 17. And Moses brought forth the People out of the Camp When their trembling was abated by the remission as we may suppose of the sound of the Trumpet To meet with God That they might be espoused to him And they stood at the nether part of the Mount Below at the foot of it not presuming to touch it which they were severely forbidden v. 11 12. See IV Deut. 11. Ver. 18. And Mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke Nothing could be seen but smoke mixed with a Flame Because the LORD descended on it in sire The SCHECHINAH came down into the thick Cloud v. 9 16. with a glittering company of Angels who appeared like flames of Fire unto which they are compared by the Psalmist CIV 4. Thus Moses himself seems to expound it XXXIII Deut. 2. He came with ten thousands or myriads of holy ones i. e. of Angels from his right hand went a fiery Law for them Which plainly relates to this appearance at Mount Sinai And the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace Mixt with Fire which went up even to the midst of Heaven as Moses explains it IV Deut. 11. And the whole Mount quaked greatly See LXVIII Psal 8. CIV 32. Ver. 19. And when the voice of the Trumpet sounded long It is a different word here in the Hebrew from that v. 13. which we translate sounded long signifying that it proceeded or went on either a long time or to a greater loudness And waxed louder and louder In the Hebrew the words are exceeding strong 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the Trumpet exceeded it self the succeeding Blasts transcending those that went before as Greg. Nyssen well interprets the whole Moses spake The People trembled before at the loud sound of the Trumpet v. 16. but now it grew so very terrible that Moses himself said as the Apostle expounds this passage XII Hebr. 21. I exceedingly fear and quake For hither I think Junius rightly applies those words And God answered him by a voice Bidding him not be afraid but come up unto him as it follows in the next Verse Greg. Nyssen thinks that the voice of the Trumpet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 became articulate with the Organs of Speech by the Divine Power Ver. 20.
19. who were then in attendance upon the Divine Majesty as his Retinue when he spake all these words that follow to the end of the seventeenth Verse which are called the Ten words or Commandments in XXXIV 28. And he spake them with so great a Voice V Deut. 22. that all the People who were very numerous plainly heard them which was very wonderful This was upon the sixth day of the third Month called Sivan See Selden L. III. de Jure N. G. c. 11. Ver. 2. I am the LORD thy God which have brought thee out of the Land of Egypt c. In this Preface to the Ten Commandments he asserts his Right to give them Laws not only in general as he is the LORD of all but by a peculiar Title he had to their Obedience whom he had taken to himself after a special manner to be his People by bringing them out of the Land of Egypt and the Servitude under which they groaned there This was a Benefit fresh in their Minds and most apt to affect their Hearts and therefore he doth not say as the Author of Sepher Cosri observes P. I. Sect. 27. I am the LORD of Heaven and Earth or I am thy Creator but I am the LORD thy God who have shown a particular favour and kindness to thee by bringing thee out of the Land of Egypt c. When he became their King by a special Title as I observed III. 10. and upon that account gave them these Laws whereby they were to be governed and gave them peculiarly to them as the fore-named Author notes who were tied to the Observance of them by virtue of their Deliverance out of Egypt and God's placing his Glory among them Whereas if they had been tied to them by virtue of their Creation they would have belonged to all Nations as much as unto them Thus He. Maimonides will have these words I am the LORD thy God to signifie the Existence of God and the next v. 3. his Vnity which two are the great Foundations of Religion More Nevoch P. II. c. 33. And indeed the word JEHOVAH or LORD is generally thought to signifie he who is of himself And the next word ELOHIM which is the most ancient Name of God in Scripture Learned men of late derive from the Arabick word Alaha there being no root in Hebrew remaining from whence it can so regularly come which signifies to worship serve and adore Hottinger hath taken a great deal of pains in his Hexaemeron and elsewhere to confirm this out of that and out of the Ethiopick Language also The Jews say indeed that Elohim is the name of Judgment as Jehovah is of Mercy but Abarbinel confutes this to establish a Notion of his own viz. the Omnipotent Cause of all things which others oppose as much as he doth the former And therefore most I think now rest in the fore-named Notion that it properly signifies him who only is to be religiously worshipped and adored as it follows in the next words Ver. 3. Thou shalt have no other Gods That is believe in one God or believe there is no other God but me as Nachman interprets it and consequently worship no other God This is the great Foundation as the Hebrews speak of the Law for whosoever confesses any other God he denies the whole Law And they truly observe also that this negative Precept includes the affirmative viz. a Command to worship Him the only God As when Naaman saith he would neither offer Burnt-offering nor Sacrifice to any other God but the LORD it is plain he meant that he would Sacrifice to him 1 Kings V. 17. See Selden L. III. de Jure N. G. c. 1. Before me As they were not to forsake Him and worship some other God so not to worship any other God together with Him as many did 2 Kings XVII 33. For in his Presence he could not indure any Competitor Ver. 4. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven Image c. The difference between Pesel which we translate graven Image and Temunah which we translate Likeness seems to be that the former was a protuberant Image or a Statue made of Wood Stone c. and the other only a Picture drawn in colours upon a Wall or Board c. Both which some have thought they were prohibited here so much as to make whether it were the Image or Picture of the Stars or Birds or Men or Beasts or Fishes for fear they should be drawn to worship them Thus it is certain Origen understood this Commandment when he said there was not permitted to be so much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. a Picture-drawer or a maker of Statues in their Commonwealth to take away all occasion of drawing Mens minds from the worship of God L. IV. contra Cels p. 181. Clemens Alexandrinus was of the same Opinion L. V. Stromat and Tertullian L. de Spectaculis c. 23. Which they derived in all probability from the Jews who from the time of the Maccabees to the Destruction of Jerusalem thought they were forbidden by this Law to make an Image or Figure of any Living Creature especially of a Man This Harmannus Conringius hath plainly demonstrated in his Paradoxa de Nummis Ebraeorum c. 5. out of many places in Philo and in Josephus The latter of which tells us L. XVIII Archaeolog c. 5. That all their Governours before Pilate were wont to use Ensigns in Jerusalem without the Image of Caesar in them because their Law forbad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the making of Images And when Vitellius was to lead the Roman Army through Judaea against the Arabians with Images in their Ensigns the People ran to meet him beseeching him to forbear it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for it was not consonant to the Laws of their Country to see Images brought into it But whether this was the ancient Exposition of the Law before those times may be doubted The Talmudists think it was unlawful to make any Figures of Celestial Bodies either prominent or plain though it were for Ornaments sake but as for Animals they might make prominent Statues of them except only of Men the Images of whom they might draw on a plain See Selden L. I. de Jure Nat. Gent. c. 6 7 8. Which distinctions most look upon as ungrounded and the common Opinion is That Moses did not forbid the very making of an Image but that they should not make them to set up in the place of Divine Worship Ver. 5. Thou shalt not bow down thy self to them nor serve them If they saw an Image as they must needs do in other Countries though we suppose they had none among themselves he requires them not to use any gesture or to do any thing that might signifie Reverence or Honour given to them Such were prostrating themselves before them bowing their bodies kissing their hands much less to offer Sacrifice or burn Incense c. to them Here seems
the Elders was in all likelyhood to convince them that he was among them and had spoken to them and sent them the Precepts before-mentioned by the hand of Moses Also they saw God and did eat and drink After they had seen God they were so far from receiving any harm that they feasted with him upon the Reliques of the Peace-offerings with great Joy and Gladness Or we may suppose that the Glory of the LORD shone upon them as they sat down to eat and drink in token of their full consent to the Covenant now made for so the custom was of making Covenants XXIV Gen. 30. XXXI 54. and that notwithstanding they continued to finish their Feast not being dispirited as good Men were sometimes afterwards with glorious Visions X Dan. 8 16 17. but rather strengthen'd and made more vigorous The word for saw in this Verse is different from that in the former importing I suppose that this Appearance of God to them lasted some time Ver. 12. And the LORD said unto Moses He called to him perhaps with an audible voice from the place where they saw his Glory that they might know how familiar he was with God and might more readily receive whatsoever Commands he brought from him Come up to me into the Mount To the top of the Mount where the Glory of the LORD was v. 17. For hitherto Moses had gone no further than the rest but was with them when they did eat and drink before the LORD And be there Stay with me there v. 18. And I will give thee Tables of stone Not only the Jews but Epiphanius also fancies these Tables were made of Saphire from what was said v. 10. But the words signifie plainly enough that they were of Stone And a Law and Commandments which I have written From this place the Jews endeavour to establish their unwritten or oral Law i. e. their Traditions which they say were now delivered together with the Tables of Stone So Maimonides in his Preface to Jad Chazeka All the Precepts which were given to Moses on Mount Sinai were given with their Explications according to what is said I will give the Tables of Stone and a Law and Commandments where by the Law is meant the written Law and the Commandments denote the Explication of it which we call the Oral Law Thus he and others of them directly against the Text it self which saith expresly both of the Law and the Commandments here mentioned that they were written See Selden L. II. de Synedr c. 16. Therefore by Law and Commandments we are to understand nothing else but the Law contained in the X. Commandments That thou mayest teach them Instruct the People to observe them as the most sacred of all other Precepts being written as well as spoken by God himself who taught Men by this Example how to preserve their Laws For Aristotle saith in his Problems that in old time Men being ignorant how to write 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were wont to sing their Laws that they might not be forgotten It being the invention of the Corybantes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Theopompus speaks to set up Pillars and ingrave their Laws upon them Which Solon at last wrote on wooden Tables called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which were laid up in the Temple of the Mother of the Gods v. Sam. Petitum Praefat. in Leg. Atticas Ver. 13 And Moses rose up From among the Elders with whom he was before And his Minister Joshua Who attended him further than the Elders but not into the place where he went For God intending him to be Moses his Successor seems to admit him unto a nearer Familiarity than any one else besides Moses And Moses went up into the Mount of God The place where the Divine Glory appeared But Joshua staid for him in some lower part of the Mountain expecting his return For he did not go up to the top of the Mount as appears from the XXXII Chapter where Moses his descent from thence being mentioned Joshua is not named till it be said that Moses was come down from the Mount v. 15 17. He went with him therefore till he entred into the Cloud and then he staid as it were at the door waiting for his return Ver. 14. And he said unto the Elders Before he left them he gave them this order Tarry ye here for us Not in the place where they had seen God and did eat and drink with him whether the People might not come but rather in the Camp or some place near it whether the People might upon occasion resort to them Unto which place Moses seems to have walkt with them from the Mount before he returned to go up into it or at least pointed them unto it with his singer that they might there wait for him Vntil we come again to you He could not tell how long God would detain him and therefore commands them to govern the People till his return to them And behold Aaron and Hur are with you Who seem to have been of greatest Authority next to himself and were with him in the Mount when the Israelites fought with Amalek Chap. XVII If any man have any matters to do let him come unto them In all Causes which were too hard for the Elders to determine he directs them to go to Aaron and Hur as they were wont to do to him By this it appears that these LXX Elders were some of the Judges appointed by the advice of Jethro XVIII 22. which he continued to follow and orders them to observe in his absence Ver. 15. And Moses went up into the Mount Having said this he and Joshua left them and he went into the higher part of the Mount And a Cloud covered the Mount That part of it where he was so that the People and Joshua also lost the sight of him Ver. 16. And the Glory of the LORD abode upon Mount Sinai That visible Majesty which shone in extraordinary splendour was setled for the present upon the top of this Mount And the Cloud covered it i. e. Covered the Glory of the LORD not the Mount as Aben Ezra observes For the Cloud was not the Glory of the LORD but incompassed and covered it so that for six days nothing but the Cloud appeared to the Israelites till on the seventh day the Cloud was rent as I take it or opened and the Glory of the LORD appeared like flaming fire Six days Thus long it was hidden in a Cloud so that Moses himself could not see it but remained wrapt up in darkness which might have astonished him if he had not been supported by the Divine Power and a comfortable sense of God who had often appeared to him and conversed familiarly with him And the seventh day he called unto Moses The second time for he had called to him before to come up to him v. 12. commanding him to approach into his glorious Presence Out of the midst of
17 25. and sometimes at the door of the Tabernacle XXXI Deut. 14 15. Because the Cloud abode thereon and the Glory of the LORD filled the House The Cloud and the Glory of the LORD were not two different things but one and the same as the Pillar of Cloud and of Fire were For outwardly it was a Cloud and inwardly a Fire and accordingly here the External part of it covered the Tabernacle without while the Internal part shone in full Glory within the House Thus it was upon Mount Sinai where Moses is said to draw near to the thick Darkness where God was XX. 21. That is the Glory of the LORD was in that thick Darkness And so we read before that the Glory of the LORD appeared in the Cloud XVI 10. And so those words are to be interpreted XXIV 16. The Glory of the LORD abode upon Mount Sinai and the Cloud covered it that is covered the Glory of the LORD not the Mount six days After which on the seventh day the Glory of the LORD broke through it and appeared like devouring fire in the sight of all the People v. 17. Ver. 36. And when the Cloud was taken up from over the Tabernacle the Children of Israel went onward in their journeys That is the LORD whose glorious Presence was in this Cloud led and conducted them in all their Removals And therefore they are said to have journeyed at the commandment of the LORD because when the Cloud wherein the LORD was was taken up then they journeyed IX Numb 17 18 20 23. Ver. 37. But if the Cloud were not taken up then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up They were wholly governed by its motions and followed its directions Ver. 38. For the Cloud of the LORD So it is called also in X Numb 34. because the Glory of the LORD was in it Was upon the Tabernacle by day And so it was by Night but then had another appearance as it here follows And fire was on it by night The Fire and the Cloud as I said v. 35. were not different things but the same Pillar which was dark by day when there was no need of light shone like fire by night when the dark part of it could not be seen to lead and conduct them It appeared therefore like a Cloud by day and turned the light side to them which was bright as fire by night that they might march if there were occasion by its direction both day and night And thus it is described XIII 21 22. IX Numb 15 16 c. And so this Verse may be translated The Cloud of the LORD was upon the Tabernacle by day and the Fire was bo in it i.e. in the Cloud by night For so they are elsewhere described as one within the other V Deut. 22. The LORD spake unto all your Assembly out of the midst of the fire of the Cloud and of the thick Darkness In the sight of all the Children of Israel throughout all their journeys The whole Congregation had constantly this comfortable Token of God's Presence among them by the Cloud in the day time and Fire in the night which never left them all the time they were in the Wilderness but brought them to Canaan The End of the Book of EXODUS ERRATA PAge 3. line 1. read See Gen. L. 26. l. 27. dele now before more p. 5. l. 24. r. Aben-Ezra p. 12. l. 6. r. the Hebrews p. 27. l. 12. r. Schalschalah p. 31. l. 5. r. he called his Son p. 41. l. 31. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 51. ult r. his words p. 56. l. 1. for exciting r. exerting p. 62. l. 19. r. because he came with an unusual p. 68. l. 20. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 70. l. 10. r. all this converse l. 19. r. Temara p. 71. l. 9. r. though not very far p. 73. l. 11. r. kashah p. 75. l. 17. r. such knives p. 80. l. 22. r. should not go alone p. 81. l. 13. r. Schalshalah Hakkabalah p. 86. l. 17. r. Taskmasters p. 114. l. 14. r. Gaulmyn p. 136. l. 12. r. Quastiones Alnetanae p. 138. l. 23. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 139. l. 4. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 141. l. 23. for Aretius r. Huetius l. 25. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 143. l. 17. r. as the Jews did long p. 153. l. 20 31. r. Schechin p. 163. l. 22. r. as the Wheat and the Rye 23. r. Trees were not broken p. 193. l. 1. r. expresly p. 197. l. 4. r. Elaeochrisin p. 220. l. 22. r. without the profession p. 242. l. 14. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 249. l. penult r. so long p. 250. l. 28. r. the next verse p. 251. l. 12. r. to protect them p. 256. l. 29. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 262. l. 4. r. tells this story p. 268. l. 13. r. compact p. 278. l. 25. r. distress p. 285. l. 12. r. when we sat p. 294. l. 10. r. who therefore tells them p. 309. l. 24. r. some other Stations p. 324. l. 17. r. German Jews p. 345. l. 6. r. of our minds p. 351 l. 21. r. phrase imports p. 366. l. ult r. and not in any p. 370. l. 18. r. they are the words p. 376. l. 16. r. backward p. 377. l. antepenult r. Gem. Bab. p. 380. l. 25. r. therefore ought not p. 427. l. 15. r. opprobrious p. 443. l. 31. r. where he pleases p. 449. l. 14. r. eat and drink p. 460. l. 3. r. to be true p. 462. l. 9. r. here p. 464. l. 26. r. having owned him p. 466. l. 31. r. he speaks p. 487. l. 3. r. when they were p. 488. l. 13. r. the ten words p. 501. l. 24. r. so in the six p. 511. l. 15. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 513. l. 33. r. set it up p. 520 l. 19. r. make for it p. 545. l. 31. r. Jaspis p. 559. l. 2. r. letters deep p. 567. l. 1. r. and his sons his sons garments p. 572. l. 24. r. which went round p. 573. l. ult r. the Jews say p. 580. l. 18. r. in the first p. 585. l. 30. r. that he might p. 586. l. 11. r. at his entrance p. 608. l. 19. r. Periegetes p. 609. l. 15. r. unto thee p. 614. l. 9. r. take to the Rosamim l. 11. r. take to thee p. 617. l. 6. r. contented themselves p. 623. l. 13. r. were ordered p. 631. l. 8. r. rebuking them p. 640. l. 11. r. the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 642. l. 30. r. make thee Prince p. 666. l. 18. r. v. 20. p. 674. l. 25. r. till men p. 677. l. 16. r. thine inheritance p. 679. l. 17. r. ad praelium ferunt p. 683. l. 20. r. fear oct of their p. 714. l. 9. r. Author of Sepher l. 26. r. in the latter end it is probable p. 721. l. 7. r. as the Priess Books Written by SYMON PATRICK D. D. now Lord Bishop of ELY and Printed for Richard Chiswell THE Parable of the Pilgrim written to a Friend The 6 Edition 4to 1681. Mensa Mystica Or a Discourse concerning the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper In which the Ends of its Institution are so manifested our Addresses to it so directed our Behaviour there and afterward so composed that we may not lose the Profits which are to be received by it With Prayers and Thanksgivings inserted To which is annexed Aqua Genitalis A Discourse concerning Baptism In which is inserted a Discourse to persuade to a confirmation of the Baptismal Vow 8vo Jewish Hypocrisie A Caveat to the present Generation Wherein is shewn both the false and the true way to a Nations or Persons compleat Happiness from the sickness and recovery of the Jewish State To which is added a discourse upon Micah 6. 8. belonging to the same matter 8vo Divine Arithmatick A Sermon at the Funeral of Mr. Samuel Jacomb Minister of St. Mary-Woolnoth-Church in Lombard-street London With an Account of his Life 8vo A Sermon preached at the Funeral of Mr. Tho. Grigg Rector of St. Andrew-Vndershaft London 4to An Exposition of the Ten Commandments 8vo Heart's Ease Or a Remedy against all Troubles With a Consolatory Discourse particularly directed to those who have lost their Friends and Rekitions To which is added Two Papers printed in the time of the late Plague The sixth Edition corrected 12mo 1695. The Pillar and Ground of Truth A Treatise shewing that the Roman Church falsly claims to be That Church and the Pillar of That Truth mentioned by St. Paul in 1 Tim. 3. 15. 4to An Examination of Bellarmin's Second Note of the Church viz. A NTIQVITY 4to An Examination of the Texts which Papists cite out of the Bible to prove the Supremacy of St. Peter and of the Pope over the whole Church In Two Parts 4to A private Prayer to be used in difficult times A Thanksgiving for our late wonderful Deliverance A Prayer for Charity Peace and Unity chiefly to be used in Lent A Sermon preached upon St. Peter's Day printed with Enlargements 4to A Sermon preached in St. James's Chappel before the Prince of Orange Jan. 20. 1688. on Isaiah 11. 6. A Second Part of the Sermon before the Prince of Orange on the same Text. Preached in Covent-Garden A Sermon preached before the Queen in March 1688 9. on Colos 3. 15. A Sermon against Murmuring preached at Covent-Garden in Lent 1688 9. on 1 Cor. 10. 10. A Sermon against Censuring preached at Covent-Garden in Advent 1688. on 1 Cor. 4. 10. Fast-Sermon before the King and Queen Apr. 16. 1690. on Prov. 14. 34. A Thanksgiving-Sermon before the Lords Nov. 26. 1691. for reducing of Ireland and the King 's safe Return On Deut. 4. 9. A Fast-Sermon before the Queen Apr. 8. 1692. On Numb 10. 9. Sermon before the Lord Mayor at St. Brides Church on Easter-Munday 1696 on 2 Tim. 2. 8. A Commentary on the First Book of Moses called Geneses 4to 1695. A Commentary on the Second Book of Moses called Exodus 4to 1697. A Sermon before the Lords Nov. 5. 1696. on Dan. 4. 35.
over Egypt Some by a New King understand a King of another Family or Race as Josephus interprets it nay a Stranger of another Nation just as New Gods are strange Gods in Scripture Language Thus Sir John Marsham and then it is no wonder that he knew not Joseph as it here follows But this is not certain and the Conceit whereby Eben Ezra justifies it which is that the word rose up implies as much is justly censured by Abarbinel as frivolous it being the common word which is used every where when a new King succeeds his Predecessor It is most likely therefore that Moses means no more but that the King in whose time Joseph died being dead likewise whom many take to have been Mephramuthosis and another after him whom they call Thutmosis the next Successor in the Throne Amenophis either had heard nothing of Joseph or did not mind what was said of him Our great Primate of Ireland gives a different account of the Succession of the Egyptian Kings and takes this King to have been Ramasses Miamum but still supposes him to have been of the old Line and not a Stranger Who knew not Joseph There is no doubt that Joseph died as he lived in high Esteem and great Reputation in that Country and that his Memory continued precious as long as any of that Generation lasted For Diodorus Siculus saith L. I. that the Egyptians above all other People 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were disposed to be grateful to all those who had any way merited of them looking upon the requital of the kindness of Benefactors to be one of the greatest Supports of Humane Life And something to the same purpose is noted by Clemens Alexandrinus L. 1. Strom. p. 303. where having said that Barbarous Nations highly honoured 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Lawgivers and Instructers whom they called Gods he presently adds that the Egyptians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were very careful to Deifie such Persons But if this was their inclination in times so ancient as these of Moses we must not think them all to have been so disposed or that Time did not obliterate the Memory of Benefits For this Prince whom Artapanus in Eusebius L. IX Praep. Evang. c. 27. calls Palamanothes so uncertain is his Name not having seen Joseph himself nor having any knowledge perhaps of the Benefits his Country had received by his means did not treat his Kindred so kindly as they had been used in former times But this Phrase he knew not is commonly interpreted he regarded not the Services which Joseph had done of which he is supposed not to have been ignorant For words of Knowledge in Scripture include the Affections also As God is said to know those whom he loves and not to know those whom he doth not love I Psal 6. VII Matth. 23. Whence the Jews have raised this Observation That he who forgets the Benefits he hath received from other Men at last forgets those he hath received from God For he of whom it is said here That he knew not Joseph said not long after I know not the Lord Ver. 2. But this is grounded upon a mistake for it was another Pharaoh long after this King who spake those words Ver. 9. And he said unto his People He called a Council of the great Men of the Nation to whom he represented how necessary it was to lessen the Number and weaken the Power of the Israelites Behold the People of the Children of Israel are mo and mightier than we This was not true unless he meant that no part of Egypt of that bigness had so many People and so strong as the Israelites in Goshen but he said it to awaken his People to consider how to Suppress them And perhaps he was afraid of their Power or out of Popularity would in the beginning of his Reign give a proof of his Care of his People by Suppressing Forreigners Ver. 10. Come on The Hebrew word habah is sometime used in Petitions LX Psal ult but most commonly in Exhortations when Men excite and stir up one another not to be slack in any business See XI Gen. 3. Let us deal wisely with them He would not go about to destroy them by Force being loth to lose so many Subjects but was desirous to diminish them by subtil Devices Lest they multiply Grow still more numerous and mighty Lest when there falls out any War With the Arabians Ethiopians or other neighbouring Nations For I see no reason to believe that he means the ancient Egyptians with whom the Israelites had lived in great Friendship but now were expell'd by the Shepherd Kings and the People of Thebais who at length made War with those Kings who reigned in the lower Egypt This is Sir J. Marsham's Conjecture in his Canon Chron. Sec. VIII which I thought good to mention though I do not follow it They joyn also to our Enemies and sight against us As it was natural for Men to do who were under grievous Oppressions and hoped thereby for Relief And so get them out of the Land They had heard the Israelites discourse it is likely that they never meant always to stay there their Fathers coming only to Sojourn in Egypt and the nearer the time approached when God promised to bring them from thence the more we may well think they spake of it Which raised this Jealousie that in case of any War they would joyn with their Enemies that by their Assistance they might be delivered Ver. 11. Therefore they did set over them Taskmasters c. This was the Result of the Council that they should be brought low by laying heavy Taxes upon them to squeeze them of their Money and by making them labour very hard whereby they thought to weaken their Bodies For the Hebrew word Missim coming from Mas which signifies Tribute it may be reasonably thought that these Taskmasters as we call them exacted great Sums of Money of them as well as afflicted them with their burdens i. e. hard Labours of all sorts as the Eastern Writers expound it And they built for Pharaoh They did not labour for themselves but for the King who it is likely gave them no Wages but used them as meer Slaves Treasure Cities Fortified Cities wherein he had his Magazeens as we now speak of all sort of Ammunition and Stores of Corn and publick Provisions as well as Treasures of Money For so we translate this word Miskenoth 2 Chron. 16.4 XVII 12. Storehouses and XXXVI 28. Storehouses for Corn and Wine and Oyl There was great Labour no doubt imployed in building such Cities surrounded with Walls and Towers and deep Ditches c. Pithom This is thought by Bochart to be the City which Herodotus calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L. 2. c. 158. but Herodotus there saith it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a City of Arabia And therefore Sir J. Marsham's Conjecture seems more reasonable who takes it for Pelusium which was the most ancient fortified
Jethro had two Names Nay they fancy he had three being called Hobab they think IV Judg. 11. where Hobab is said to be the Father in Law of Moses But the word Son is there to be supplied which in other places is sometime to be understood he seeming to be Jethro's Son Brother to Zipporah And accordingly is said X Numb 29. to be Son of Raguel the Midianite i. e. of Jethro as many understand it See there And he led the Flock to the backside of the Desert Or as St. Hierom understands it ad interiora deserti to the inner parts of the Desert where there was better Pasture than in the place where he was before to which he was conducted by the Providence of God who intended here to reveal himself more fully to him And came to the Mountain of God even to Horeb. Sheep delight to feed on Mountains as Bochart observes out of Theocritus and Virgil. Whence such mountainous Places are often called in Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sheep-walks they being wont to feed there as Eustathius and Hesychius interpret it See Hierozoic p. 1. L. II. c. 46. And this is called the Mountain of God because when Moses wrote this Book there had been a Divine appearance upon Horeb which St. Stephen calls Sinai VII Acts 30. For Horeb and Sinai seem to have been two tops of one and the same Mountain which it is plain by this was not far from the Country of Midian We understand also by St. Stephen's words when this fell out viz. after he had dwelt Forty years in Midian for so long it is certain he continued there VII Exod 7. But how he imployed all that time we are not told No doubt in something else than meer feeding Sheep For being learned in all the Egyptian Wisdom we may well think he both taught others and made also great improvements himself in studying the Records of that and all other Neighbouring Countries and besides received it is likely Divine Revelations There are those likewise who think he now wrote the Book of Job to comfort the Israelites by the example of his admirable Patience under their heavy Oppressions in Egypt and the Book of Genesis also that they might the better understand what Promises had been made to their Noble Ancestors Abraham Isaac and Jacob and that the Time drew near when they would be fulfilled It is noted by Ludovicus Capellus in his Chronolog Sacra that the Number Forty was much observed in the Administrations of Divine Providence Moses being XL years old when he fled into Midian and staying there another XL years and then leaving the World in the end of the next XL years of his Age. It was so many years before the Israelites got to Canaan after they were delivered out of Egypt Forty days Moses continued with God in the Mount both the first and second time of his going up thither So many days the Spyes were in searching out the Land and the Israelites had just so many Mansions in the Wilderness Their first Judge governed just XL. years and the next twice as many Deborah Barak Gideon Eli all judged XL years and so long David reigned Ver. 2. And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him So St. Stephen also VII Acts 30. By which some understand the Eternal WORD the Second Person in the Blessed Trinity But I think he is not called simply an Angel any where but with some addition as the Angel of the Covenant for it would be a dangerous insinuation that he was but a meer Creature Yet I believe he is not here to be excluded for I take this to have been the Appearance of the SCHECHINAH which comprehended both the LORD himself and the Angels that attended him as his Ministers One of which now appeared so gloriously that he showed God to be present and accordingly we find in the following words that he himself spake to Moses And thus the LORD is said to have sent his Angel when they cried to him and brought them out of Egypt XX Numb 16. Which Angel is called Michael by Menachem and the same which they also call Goel who redeemed Jacob from all evil XLVIII Gen. 16. In a flame of sire The Glory of the LORD as the SCHECHINAH is frequently called appeared in a flaming manner like fire exceeding bright and with an amazed splendor So it appeared though not so bright when the first Promise was made of their Deliverance XV Gen. 17 18. Out of the midst of a Bush To show say the Jews in Pirke Eliezer Cap. XL. that God was present with them in their great Affliction and Tribulation which was represented by this Bush of Thorns or Briers for so the Hebrew word signifies such a Bush as pricks those that touch it or as the Prophet Isaiah speaks LXIII 9. in all their affliction he was afflicted And by his Providence ordered things so that their Affliction did not consume them but rather multiplied and increased them for as it there follows the Angel of his presence saved them And thus Eusebius tells us in the latter end of L. V. Demonstr Evang. c. 13. some Christians understood it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. This Fire also in the Bush might be intended to show that God would there meet with the Israelites and give them his Law in Fire and Lightning and yet not consume them For this is the place where God after they came out of Egypt delivered the Law to them which thence was called Sinai saith the fore-named Author in Pirke Elieser from this Bush which in Hebrew is Sene and signifies in Arabick a Thorn-bush whereas before this it was called Horeb from its driness and barrenness as that word imports And behold the Bush burnt with sire and the Bush was not consumed The Heathens had either read or heard of this wonder as appears by Artapanus who mentions it in Eusebius L. IX Praepar Evang. c. 27. but he disguises it and misreports it saying it was a Fire which suddenly broke forth out of the Earth and flamed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when there was no Matter nor any kind of Wood in the place to feed it But in the next Chapter but one an ancient Tragaedian reports it exactly saying just as Moses doth here That the Bush burnt in a great fire and yet remained intire and green in the slame which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the greatest Miracle The meaning of which I have already explained in the foregoing Observation There is a Story something like this in Dion Prusaeus Orat. XXXVI where he saith the Persians relate concerning Zoroaster that the Love of Wisdom and Vertue leading him to a Solitary Life separate from Company upon a Mountain he found it one day all in a flame shining with Celestial Fire out of the midst of which he came without any harm and instituted certain Sacrifices to God who then he made account appeared to him Which Joh. Henricus Vrsinus a
interprets it the Eternal that never dies who am faithful to my Promises and will be to you what I told your Fathers I would be Whatsoever I said in the days of Abraham concerning the giving the Land of Canaan I will certainly perform for I change not Thus shalt thou say to the Children of Israel I AM hath sent me unto you The former words were a Declaration of God's Nature to Moses and in these he bids him in brief only say to the Israelites that he was sent by him Who is That is as was said before necessarily Exists always was and ever will be Who alters not but by whatsoever Name he makes himself known is still the very same God Which was a Name not unknown to the Gentiles as one would think by the word EI which was inscribed in the front of the Delphick Temple as Plutarch tells us and was nothing else but the contraction of EIMI which signifies I AM. Or if we take EI to be an intire word as it is commonly thought signifying thou art Ammonius rightly understood it to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Plutarch reports his word in a Treatise on this Subject the most absolutely perfect Name and Compellation of God For God saith he in the other Inscription on the Temple speaks to us who approach him saying to every one KNOW THY SELF and we are taught to answer to him again in the words of this Inscription THOV ART ascribing to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that true undoubted and only Appellation which belongs to him alone For he only is we are not c. Thus he declares this word to express most perfectly the Divine Essence which is distinguished hereby from all false Gods See Eusebius L. XI Praep. Evang. c. 11. and in the two foregoing Chapters where he takes a deal of pains to show that Plato borrowed this Notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Being that is always but had no beginning from these words of Moses And Numenius a Pythagoraean speaks it more plainly when he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that which is is eternal and stedfast always the very same without variation And no wonder these Men if they met with this Passage in Moses were highly pleased with it for St. Hilary himself tells us that he lighting upon these words as he was musing about God and Religion before he was a Christian was struck with admiration there being Nothing so proper to God as to be And therefore he thought it worthy of God to say of himself I AM THAT I AM and HE THAT IS so he translates the last words hath sent me unto you L. I. de Trinitate Ver. 15. And said moreover unto Moses Thus shall thou say c. For a further Explication of what he had now said and a further Satisfaction of their Minds The LORD God of your Fathers the God of Abraham c. The Name JEHOVAH as we pronounce it seems to be in sense the same with Ehjeh before mentioned Which as it declares his Nature so the word God added to it expresses his Favour Care and Providence And consequently he bids Moses tell the Children of Israel that He who is the Eternal was the God of their Fathers of Abraham Isaac and Jacob To whom he had made many Promises that he would be gracious to their Posterity This was sufficient for them to know of him This is my Name for ever and this is my Memorial c. Some refer the first words this is my Name unto the foregoing Verse I AM and the next this is my Memorial to those which immediately preceed the LORD God of your Fathers which in truth include the whole Jehovah being the same with I am And the meaning is I will be for ever remembred celebrated praised and invoked by the Name of the LORD God of your Fathers c. Ver. 16. Go and gather the Elders of Israel together The word Elders in these Books sometime signifie the Men of the great Sanhedrin as they spake in after times or the Judges in the Highest Court XXI Deut. 2 c. Sometimes the Judges in the Lower Courts XIX Deut. 12. XXII 15. Sometimes it only signifies the Heads of the Tribes as here in this place For now there were no such Courts of Judicature constituted See Selden Vxor Hebr. L. I. Cap. XV. Some indeed particularly Corn. Bertram think it reasonable to suppose that the Israelites had Judges among them all the time they dwelt in Egypt though not mentioned in Scripture as they had no doubt a Form of Religion though we read nothing of it And Moses he thinks is here ordered to send for these who were their Rulers and administred Publick Affairs among them But there is this Argument against it that after this time when Moses had brought them out of Egypt there were no such Judges among them but Moses as we find XVIII Exod. judged all himself to his exceeding great trouble And therefore by Elders we are here to understand only the Wisest and gravest Men of the Nation who were in greatest esteem among them as Mr. Selden afterwards speaks L. I. de Synedr Cap. XV. p. 523 c. or as was said before the Heads of their Tribes The famous H. Grotius confirms this by a nice Observation that both here and Ver. 18. they are barely called Zikne not Hazikne because there was not as yet certum Collegium sed sola qualitas denotatur as he speaks L. de Imp. Sum. Potest circa Sacra Cap. XI n. 15. a certain Colledge or Society of them but their quality only is denoted And no doubt the word always signified Men of Dignity or chief Rank among others both among the Israelites and among the Egyptians as I have observed on XXIV Gen. 2. L. 6. And say unto them The Lord God of your Fathers c. See this explained Ver. 6. Hath appeared unto me Ver. 2 4. Saying surely I have visited you So Joseph when he died assured them God would do L Gen. 24. where I observed to visit them was to bring them out of Egypt And so it signifies here as is evident from what God said to Moses when he appeared to him v. 8. I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians Which was not yet actually done but so absolutely decreed in the Mind of God that he might say he had already done it Or the word Pakad may be translated here as it is elsewhere I have remembred you 1 Sam. XV. 2. that is so as to resolve to deliver them And then the next words may depend on this And that which is done to you in Egypt For the word Seen is not in the Original But either way it relates to what God saith to Moses Ver. 7 9. Ver. 17. And I have said Determined or resolved I will bring you out of the affliction of Egypt into the Land of the Canaanites c. See v. 9. Ver. 18 And
made him very unfit he thought to be an Ambassadour And this doth not disagree with what St. Stephen saith that he was mighty in Words as well as Deeds VII Acts 22. for the sense of what he spake was great and weighty though his pronunciation was not answerable to it Nor did his ill or weak pronunciation nor his slowness in bringing forth his words hinder him from being an excellent Judge and deciding Causes from Morning to Night as we read XVIII Exod. In the determination of which there was no need of Oratory but of a quick Apprehension exact Judgment and proper Language which he never wanted One would think also that by Use and Exercise he grew prompt in the delivery of his Mind for he made several very long Speeches to the People and especially an incomparable Discourse before his departure out of the World in the beginning of the Book of Deuteronomy In the latter end of which his Song shows that he wanted no eloquent words when he pleased to use them Ver. 11. And the LORD said unto him who hath made mans mouth c. Cannot I who formed all the Organs of Speech and made the rest of mens Senses and when I please deprive them of their use take away this Impediment of which thou complainest and make thee to speak as roundly and gracefully as any Man living The Authour of the Life of Moses who makes Pharaoh to have condemned Moses for killing the Egyptian c. See II. 15. fancies that God puts him in mind of his Deliverance at that time As if he had said Who taught thee to make thy Defence when thou wast Arraigned before Pharaoh Who made the King dumb that he could not urge and press thy Execution Who made the Executioner deaf that he could not hear the Sentence when pronounced And who made them all blind that they could not see when thou madest thy escape which is very ingeniously invented but we have no assurance of the truth of this Explication Ver. 12. Now therefore go and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say Excuse thy self no longer but obey the Commission I have given thee and I will both help thy Speech and suggest to thy Mind what thou shalt deliver This doth not signifie as I take it that if he had without further disputing gone about his Business God would have given him a better Elocution but that he would have made his words as powerful as if they had been pronounced with the greatest advantage Or the meaning may be that he should never want either words or thoughts to instruct his Brother Aaron whom God always intended to send along with him Ver. 13. And he said O my Lord. The same form of Speech with that v. 10. Send I pray thee by the hand of him whom thou wilt send The Vulgar Latin having translated the word SCHILO XLIX Gen. 10. qui mittendus est him that is to be sent it hath inclined several great Men to think that Moses here desires God to send the MESSIAH And several of the ancient Fathers Just Mart. Tertull. and S. Cyprian c. were of this mind as many later Interpreters both of the Roman and of the Reformed Church have been Particularly Flacius Illyricus in his Clavis upon the word MITTO thus explains this Passage Manda id functionis c. commit this Office to the true Messiah or blessed Seed whom thou hast resolved to send who will discharge this Trust far better than I can do c. But there have been and are other very considerable Persons who think Moses means no more than this Send a more proper Person one sitter for this Imployment than I am And the truth is such Speeches as these in Scripture do not denote any certain Person or Thing but signifie something indesinite and in general Examples of which we have in 1 Sam. XXIII 13. 2 Sam. XV. 20. upon which Phrase Vado quo vado I go whither I may the same Flacius observes that it denotes an uncertain motion In like manner Moses here determines his desire to no particular Person but only wishes God would send any Body rather than himself And that he did not think of the Messiah there is this Argument that he had no reason to believe he was now born and yet God's Promise was to send one immediately to relieve the Israelites Upon which Errand also if he had prayed God to send him it would argue Moses to have been in the same Errour with the present Jews that the Messiah was to be a Temporal Deliverer Ver. 14. And the Anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses These words seem to import that God was highly displeased with him and consequently that he had very much offended him Yet some of the Fathers particularly St. Hierom and St. Basil impute his backwardness to serve in this Imployment unto his great Modesty Humility and a deep Sense of his own Infirmities of which the wisest and best Men are far more sensible than other Persons And then this Anger amounts to no more than such a Displeasure as a Father hath at his Child when he is too dissident notwithstanding all that he hath said and done to breed in him a just confidence And therefore no Punishment followed this Anger unless we think as R. Solomon doth that because of this backwardness God preferred Aaron's Family above his or that this was the Cause he would not Cure his Imperfection of Speech but only a Chiding which we may suppose went before the following Question Is not Aaron the Levite thy Brother which carries something of sharpness in it And indeed this may be said in Moses his Excuse That the most Excellent Persons are the least forward to embrace the Offers of great Advancement According to the observation of Plato L. I. de Republ which I find Eusebius also hath noted out of him L. XII Praep. Evang. c. 9. that no Magistracy being designed for the Profit of him that Governs but of those that are Governed I must needs conclude saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that no Man who is considerate he means will voluntarily take upon him the Government of a People but he must be hired to it or he must be punished if he will not undertake it For he that will use his Power well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 never doth that which is best for himself but for those whom he governs Such an one was Moses who sought not his own Profit or Glory as those that now seek for great Places by which they design a Benefit to themselves and not to their Neighbours and therefore was not easily perswaded to accept of the high Authority which was offered to him Is not Aaron the Levite thy Brother One would think by this that Aaron was now a principal Person and of most eminent Quality in the Tribe of Levi as may be concluded also from his Marriage with the Sister of the
not so in those Countries for the noblest Persons anciently rode on them as appears by a great many places of Holy Scripture XXII Gen. 1. XXII Numb 21. 2 Sam. XIX 6. and several others which are reckoned up by Bochart P. I. L. II. Cap. XIII Hierozoic And he returned to the Land of Egypt Set out and began his Journey to that Country And Moses took the Rod of God So called because God ordered him to carry it with him v. 17. and had appointed it to be the Instrument wherewith he should work wonders In his hand As a sign of his Authority So Conr. Pellicanus hath not unfitly explained it he returned with the Rod of God signo Apostolatus ducatus a sign or token of his Embassy and Government Ver. 21. And the LORD said unto Moses when thou goest to return into Egypt When thou art come thither See that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh The Signs mentioned in the beginning of this Chapter with which he was to begin Which I have put in thy hand Given thee power to do But I will harden his heart c. The meaning is not that God would harden his heart at the first as soon as Moses began to work his Signs no more than that he would at the first slay his First-born as he threatens v. 23. But as at last he intended to slay his First-born if he would not be humbled by other Plagues so in conclusion he resolved to harden his heart after Pharaoh had often hardened it himself There are three distinct words used in this Story about this matter The first is Chazak the next is Rashah and the third is Cavad Which seem to signifie a gradual increase of his Obstinacy till at last it grew very grievous For the last word Cavad intends and increases the Sense whether it be in good or evil qualities Ver. 22. And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh In this God begins to fulfil his Promise to Moses that he would teach him what he should say v. 12. and 15 16. Thus saith the LORD This shows he came to Pharaoh in the Name and by the Authority of God Israel is my Son even my First-born Most dear to me and beloved above all People as the First-born Son commonly is above the rest of the Children God having chosen and adopted them to be his peculiar People on whom he bestowed singular Priviledges and Blessings Thus God speaks of David LXXXIX Psal 28. And Eben-Ezra's interpretation of this Phrase is not improper That Their Ancestors from the beginning had been Worshippers of him the true God Ver. 23. And I say unto thee I command and require thee so the word say here signifies Let my Son go that he may serve me Not to keep my People in thy Servitude any longer but to dismiss them that they may worship me as my Servants ought to do And if thou refuse to let him go behold I will slay thy Son even thy First-born Not upon his first refusal See v. 21. but after a long course of other Judgments which would end if he were not reformed by them in this at last With which he therefore terrifies him that he might prevent it Ver. 24. And it came to pass by the way To Egypt in the Inn where they took up their Lodging at Night That the LORD met him The SCHECHINAH I suppose appeared to him from whence an Angel was dispatched to do as follows And so both the LXX and the Chaldee interpret it The Angel of the LORD because the LORD sent an Angel to Execute what is here related And sought to kill him Appeared in such a manner as if he intended to fall upon him with a drawn Sword perhaps as he did to Balaam and David which threatning Posture could not but very much affright him and put him into disorder Others imagine he inflicted a sudden Disease upon him or made as if he would strangle him They that interpret this of killing his Child as many do See Mr. Selden L. I. de Synedr Cap. VI. p. 88. seem to me to have no reason on their side there being no mention of a Child in the foregoing Story but only of his Sons Therefore Chaskuni hath rightly observed that this Verse is connected with the last words of the 20th the three following coming by a Parenthesis and can refer to none but Moses All the difficulty is to find why the Angel of the Lord should put him in fear of present death when he was going upon God's Message The Resolution of which seems to be contained in the following words Ver. 25. Then Zipporah His Wife presently apprehended what was the Cause of Moses his danger viz. because her Child of which she is supposed to have been not long ago delivered was not Circumcised And therefore she immediately dispatcht that work her Husband being in such a Consternation that he could not do it himself but as Kimchi will have it called to her to do it or she of her self went about it having been the Cause that it was not done before Took a sharp Stone Or a sharp Knife made of a Flint for such they used which Justin Martyr in his Dialogue with Trypho calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And so the LXX and the Jews say that Knives were commonly used in this work And cut the foreskin of her Son But how come Moses to neglect this Duty Most say his Wife was unwilling to it not because she abhorred this Rite as cruel and unnatural for she was of a Race which came from Abraham who first received this Command of Circumcising all his Children and she understood it appears how to do it readily without indangering the Child which had scarce been possible if she had been a Stranger to it but because the Midianites perhaps did not Circumcise so soon as the Israelites but imitated their Neighbours the Ishmaelites who deferred it till their Children were Thirteen years old at which Age Ishmael was Circumcised XVII Gen. 25. or rather because they were about to take a Journey when she thought it might be omitted till they came to be setled among the Israelites And truly this seems to have been a good reason to defer Circumcision beyond the Eighth day motion being dangerous when the Child was sore But such a Man as Moses should have trusted God to take care of his Child and not have been afraid of the Consequence if he had performed his Duty And because he followed the tender Inclination of his Wife rather than a plain Precept XVII Gen. 12 13 c. he fell into this great danger Many other accounts are given of this for the truth is the whole matter is very obscure but I see none more probable than what I have mentioned And cast it at his feet It is uncertain at whose seet she cast it whether at he Husband 's or the Child's or the Angel's The first seems most probable if the next words be spoken to
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
to do III Exod 18. and it will appear from v. 3. of this Chapter that so they did I have observed before III. 10. that this Pharaoh is commonly thought to be him called Cenchres Thus saith the LORD God of Israel Let my People go c. These words contain only the Substance of what they said which was delivered we may well suppose in a longer Oration Wherein they declar'd they had received a Commission from their God the LORD of Heaven and Earth to make this Address to him In all Nations there were some Persons who pretending to greater Familiarity with their Gods than other Men were highly reverenced both by their own Country-men and by Strangers And therefore it is no wonder Pharaoh offer'd no Violence to them when they came to make this Demand because their Persons were held Sacred as those of Ambassadours now are who come from one Prince to another This is a better account than that which some of the Jews in Schalsch-Hakkabah give of it who say that when they came into Pharaoh's Presence they appeared in such Majesty as daunted him being like the Angels of the Ministry and raised to a taller Stature than they had before and having a splendour in their Countenances like that of the Sun c. In which they seem to imitate the Story of St. Stephen whose Face shined like that of an Angel when he appeared before their Council That they may hold a Feast unto me in the Wilderness In order to which it was necessary they should offer Sacrifice v. 3. which they could not do in Egypt and therefore desired to go into the Wilderness where they might use their own Rites and Ceremonies of Religion without offence to the Egyptians Every word hath its weight in it For a Feast denotes an extraordinary Service and to me signifies such peculiar Rites of Worship as should be prescribed and instituted by the LORD in whose Name they spake For which the Wilderness was most proper because there was no Concourse of People likely to be in that place to disturb them in their Solemnity Ver. 2. And Pharaoh said Who is the LORD c. These are not Atheistical words for he owned such Gods as the Egyptians worshipped but slighted that God whom Moses called JEHOVAH to whom he saith he owed no Obedience because he did not know who they meant by him He speaks also with too much Scorn his Pride and Passion not suffering him to ask seriously who Jehovah was I know not the LORD c. Nor did he desire to know being so transported with Anger that he would not Examine their Commission but only resolved he would not obey it Ver. 3. And they said the God of the Hebrews They give him no other account since he was so haughty and huffing but that they came in the Name of him whom they and their Ancestors had for many Generations worshipped Whom they had at first called v. 1. the LORD God of Israel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Artapanus in Eusebius expounds it the Lord and Governour of the Vniverse Hath met with us Appeared to us and given us this Commission when we thought of no such thing For they would not have him think that they sought this Embassy but were put upon it by the Divine Authority which they durst not disobey Let us go we pray thee three days Journey into the Desert These are the very words in which God commanded Moses to deliver his Message III. 18. And as their Desire was moderate to go but three days Journey so it was very modestly delivered by humble intreaty and with such a Reason as they thought might move him to grant their Request And Sacrifice unto the LORD our God That he may be propitious to us Lest he fall upon us with the Pestilence or with the Sword Send a Plague among us for our neglect of him or some Foreign Enemy to infest us and cut us off Whereby Pharaoh they secretly suggest would lose the benesit of their Labours more than by their going for a little time into the Wilderness See VIII 27. It is observable that they neither wrought any Miracle nor threatned any Punishment to Pharaoh at their first Application to him but only told him the danger they themselves were in if they did not obey their God Which was a very submissive way of treating with him Artapanus indeed in Euseb Praep. Evang. L. IX c. 27. and in Clem. Alex. L. I. Strom. tells us of several Miraculous things which Moses did at this Audience whereby Pharaoh and his Servants were astonished and frighted from doing them any hurt nay he askt Moses the Name of his God which he whispered in Pharaoh's ear But he had all this out of some such fabulous Authour as him I mentioned above v. 1. and I mention him only to show that the Heathen had the knowledge of this History and report it as a Truth though with some mixture of Humane Invention Ver. 4. Wherefore do ye Moses and Aaron let the People from their works Instead of answering their Reasons he tells them That he lookt upon them two as Disturbers of the Peace of the Kingdom and Hinderers of his Business Get you unto your Burdens This seems to be spoken unto the Elders which they had brought along with them Ver. 5. Behold the People of the Land now are many They are very numerous notwithstanding all their Labours to what will they grow if they have nothing to do Or as some expound it they will think of nothing but Sedition now they are so numerous if they be suffered to cease from their Burdens Cajetan hence gathers that the Law for throwing their Infants into the River was abolisht as infamous or he could not get it put in Execution And you make them rest from their Burdens Which was the Course he took to make them less numerous Perhaps this was the Sabbath-day on which they had been wont to rest when they had their Liberty Ver. 6. And Pharaoh commanded the same day the Task-masters of the People and their Officers The Task-masters were the chief Exactors of their Labours being Egyptians who had Officers under them to execute their Orders and to give an account how they were obeyed And it appears from v. 14 15 c. that they were Israelites Ver. 7. Ye shall no more give the People straw to make brick as heretofore c. Instead of easing them he increased their Burdens and made them intolerable What the use of Straw was in making Bricks is variously conjectured Some think it was mixed with the Clay to make the Bricks more solid Others that they only heated their Kilns with it to burn the Bricks Others who think they were not baked in a Kiln imagine it served only to cover them that they might not be crackt by the violent heat of the Sun wherein they were baked For so Vitruvius tells us that the best Bricks were made in the Spring and
delivered thy People at all He might have remembred that God told him more than once that Pharaoh would not obey him at the first III. 19. IV. 21. But the bitter Reflections which the Officers of the Children of Israel made upon his Conduct had so disturbed his Mind that he forgot himself so far as to ask the undecent Questions mentioned in the foregoing Verse and complains here that God had done Nothing to fulfil his Promise of Deliverance to his People CHAP. VI. Verse 1. AND the LORD said unto Moses The SCHECHINAH I suppose appeared to him See v. 12. as it had done often before since he was first sent upon this Business IV. 22. and graciously condescended to satisfie his two Complaints in the latter end of the foregoing Chapter Where he complains first of all that he had sent him about a fruitless Message for secondly he had not at all delivered his People To the last of these he Answers in the first place here in this Verse where he tells him Now thou shalt see what I will do to Pharaoh That is be patient and wait a while and thou shalt see Pharaoh compelled to dismiss my People For with a strong hand shall he let them go c. I will so terribly scourge him that he shall not only let them go but thrust them out of Egypt and be glad to be rid of them Ver. 2. And God spake unto Moses and said unto him I am the LORD He also answers here to his first Question Why hast thou sent me by telling him I am JEHOVAH and have sent thee to make known this great Name that is my self who am constant to my word and will faithfully perform all my Promises Ver. 3. And I appeared unto Abraham unto Isaac and unto Jacob by the Name of God Almighty Or God All-sufficient as the word El-shaddai may be interpreted See XVII Gen. 1. God infinite in Power and Goodness of which he gave their Fathers abundant proofs by delivering them in many and great Straits But by my Name JEHOVAH was I not known to them This Name of four Letters as the Jews speak is by the Ancients called the ineffable Name For they would never pronounce it Not because they could not as Drusius well observes L. I. Observat Cap. I. Sed quod religione 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quadam ab eo efferendo abstinerent but because out of a Religious Reverence they abstained from it And this respect to it all the ancient Interpreters observe even St. Hierom himself though in several of the ancient Fathers as Irenaeus Clem Alexandrinus Epiphanius and Theodoret and in some of the ancient Heathens as Macrobius and Diodorus Siculus it is expressed by Jaho and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek write it Which Name however it be pronounced some of the Jews imagine was concealed till Moses his time who was the first to whom it was revealed But this is evidently false as appears from the whole Book of Genesis and particularly from XV. 7. where before he calls himself El-shaddai he saith to Abraham I am Jehovah which brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees In short the Opinion of Reuchlinus in his Verb. Mirisicum is far more justifiable which is that it was revealed to our first Parents at the same time that God breathed into them the breath of Life For as soon as Eve brought forth her First-born she saith I have got a Man from the LORD IV Gen. 1. which Name descended in a perpetual Succession from Seth to Abraham who when he went by God's Direction out of his own Country into Canaan the LORD appeared to him there and there he built an Altar to the LORD XII Gen. 7 8. And it is to be noted that he doth not say to Moses in this place My Name Jehovah was not known to them but I was not known to them by this Name That is by that which it imports viz. the giving being as we may say to his Promises by the actual performance of them i. e. by bringing them into the Land of Canaan and in order to it delivering them out of Egypt Both which he had promised in the fore-named Chapter XV Gen. 14 18. and now intended to make good And thus R. Solomon interprets this place as P. Fagius notes I have promised but have not yet performed The like Expression we find in the Prophet Isaiah as Theodorick Hackspan hath observed Disput de Nominibus Divinis N. 15. LII Isa 5 6. where the Lord saith My Name is blasphemed every day continually therefore my People shall know my Name therefore they shall know in that day that I am he that doth speak behold it is I. Which cannot signifie that the Jews did not then know that this was one of the Names of God but that all who blasphem'd him should be confuted by sensible Proofs which he would give of his own unchangeable Resolution to fulfil his Promises in bringing them out of Babylon which fully demonstrated that he was JEHOVAH Which word some think includes in it not only his Eternal Existence and Immutable Truth but his Omnipotent Power which gave being to all things The last of which was now made known so as it had never been to Abraham Isaac and Jacob for Moses was the first that wrought Miracles and Prodigies God was known to the Fathers by Visions and Dreams but not by Signes and Wonders Moses made him known by these unto the World And therefore upon the whole Maimonides well concludes from this place that the Prophetical Spirit on Moses was more excellent than that which had been upon any before him More Nevoch P. II. c. 35. Ver. 4. And I also c. The Hebrew word vegam may be better translated although Which makes a clear connexion of this Verse with the former and explains the meaning of the Name Jehovah By which he was not known in former times although he had made a Covenant with Abraham Isaac and Jacob to give them the Land of Canaan and often ratified confirmed and establisht as he here speaks this Covenant XVII Gen. 7 8. XXVI 3 4 c. But now he not only declares himself mindful of that Covenant v. 5. but because he was the LORD v. 6. would deliver them from the Egyptian Bondage and that with a miraculous Power Which should make them know more of him than their Fathers did v. 7. both by his Delivering them out of Egypt and by bringing them into the Land which he swore he would give to their Fathers v. 8. This is the Sense of these five Verses The Land of their Pilgrimage c. So it is often called when he speaks to Abraham XVII Gen. 8. and so Isaac calls it XXVIII 4. and Jacob also XXXVII 1. And so it might be called not only with respect to Abraham Isaac and Jacob but also to their Posterity because of the near Union that is between Fathers and Children Thus God is said
she bore him Nadab and Abihu These two perished in the very first Sacrifice which their Father offered because they did not take Fire from the Altar but offered with strange Fire X Lev. 1 2. Eleazar Who succeeded his Father in the Priesthood Numb XX. 25 c. and assisted Joshua in the Division of the Land of Canaan XIV Josh 1. XIX 51. XXI 1. From him sprung Zadok and the following High-Priests till the Destruction of Jerusalem 1 Chron. VI. 4 c. And Ithamar From whom came Eli and Ahimelech and Abiathar in the time of David in whom this Family was Extinct Ver. 24. And the Sons of Korah c. Though he himself perished in his Rebellion against Moses who was his Cosin-German yet his Family remained XXVI Numb 58. and were famous in the days of David being often mentioned in the Book of Psalms Ver. 25. And Eleazar took one of the Daughters of Putiel to Wife Who this Putiel was is not certain Dr. Lightfoot thinks he was an Egyptian Convert whose Daughter Eleazar married But I see no good ground for this Opinion but rather think it more likely Eleazar would marry one of the race of Abraham being Son to the High-Priest He was married indeed before his Father was promoted to that Dignity yet Aaron was so great a Man in his own Tribe See IV. 14. and married into so honourable a Family in Israel v. 23. that it is not probable he would suffer his Son to match with an Egyptian Proselyte These are the Heads of the Fathers of the Levites c. The great Persons from whom sprung the principal Families among the Levites He saith nothing of the other Tribes because his intention was only to derive his own Pedigree and his Brother Aaron's from Israel Ver. 26. These are that Moses and Aaron to whom the Lord said bring out the Children of Israel c. These are the two Persons to whom God gave Commission to be the Deliverers of their Nation out of the Egyptian Bondage He had mentioned just before their Genealogy the Charge God gave them both to the Children of Israel and unto Pharaoh v. 13. And now he goes on to show that they were the Men who were peculiarly chosen by God to discharge that Office first by going to the Children of Israel which he mentions here and then to Pharaoh which he mentions in the next Verse Bring out the Children of Israel from the Land of Egypt Assure them of their Deliverance notwithstanding the Pressures under which they groan According to their Armies Not by a disorderly Flight but every Family in such good order as an Army keeps XII Exod. 41 51. XIII 18. Ver. 27. These are they that spake to Pharaoh c. Who carried the Message from God to Pharaoh requiring him to let Israel go out of Egypt V. 1 2 c. VI. 13. These are that Moses and Aaron He repeats it again that all Generations might mark who were the Men that God imployed in this great and hazardous Work of Demanding the Liberty of the Children of Israel from Pharaoh's Servitude and effecting it in such manner as is afterward related in this Book There have been Critical Wits who made this an Argument that Moses was not the Author of these Books because it is not likely they imagine he would write thus of himself But no Body but these Criticks can see any Absurdity in it that he and his Brother being the Instruments in Gods hand of effecting such wonderful things should not let Posterity be ignorant of it but take care not only to Record it but to set a special Note upon it that none might rob them of the Honour God bestowed on them and He by whose direction this was written might have the glory of working such mighty things by such inept Instruments as Moses often acknowledges himself to have been Nor is this more than Ezra Nehemiah and Daniel say concerning themselves and St. John may as well be denied to be the Authour of the Gospel which bears his Name because he saith This is the Disciple that testifieth these things c. XXI 24. And besides this the History of succeeding Ages show us the necessity of this which Moses hath said of himself For if he had not told us what his Progeny was we see by what we read in Justin and Corn. Tacitus and such like Authours what false Accounts we should have of him for Justin from Trogus Pompeius makes him as I observed before the Son of Joseph Nay the Jewish Writers have been so fabulous that we should have learnt as little Truth from them if Moses had not told it us himself Ver. 28. And it came to pass on the day when the Lord spake unto Moses c. Having finished the Account he thought fit to give of himself and of his Brother whom God was pleased to imploy in this great Embassy he resumes the Relation of it which he broke off at the end of v. 13. Ver. 29. That the LORD spake unto Moses saying I am the LORD c. This and the next Verse seem to be a Recapitulation of what God said in his last Appearances to him v. 2 10 c. and of his desire to be excused from the Employment on which he was sent urged by two Arguments v. 12 13. where they are related something more largely than they are here in the last Verse of this Chapter In which he mentions them again that there might be a clearer connexion with what God further added for his Encouragement when he gave him the forenamed Charge v. 13. to deliver a new Message unto Pharaoh Ver. 30. And Moses said before the LORD We read the very same v. 12. which makes me think this is not a new Objection but meerly a Recital of what he had objected there See what I have said on the foregoing Verse Behold I am of uncircumcised Lips c. See v. 12. CHAP. VII Verse 1. AND the LORD said unto Moses He received new Orders from the SCHECHINAH or Divine Majesty before whom he stood VI. 12 30. See Mark what I say in answer to all thy Objections I have made thee a God to Pharaoh Therefore why shouldest thou fear to appear before him who is but a Man Moses is not called absolutely a God but only a God unto Pharaoh Which denotes that he had only the Authority and Power of God over him or rather he was God's Ambassadour to speak to him in his Name with a Power ready to Execute all that he desired for the Humbling of Pharaoh and Punishing his Disobedience to his Message And Aaron thy Brother shall be thy Prophet Let therefore the Vncircumcision of thy Lips be no longer an Objection for he shall interpret thy Mind as Prophets declare the Mind of God Some slight Wits have from this place also drawn an Argument that this Book was not written by Moses but by some other Authour long after his time Because the word
Divinations upon the Water as a Magician Hierozoic P. 2. L. IV. Cap. XV. And thou shalt stand by the Rivers brink against he come Perhaps Pharaoh as the same Bochart observes had forbid him to come any more to the Court and so God directs him to take this occasion to meet with him And the Rod which was turned into a Serpent shalt thou take in thine hand To give him the greater Authority and to put Pharaoh in fear at the sight of that Rod which had lately swallowed up all the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Greg. Nyssen calls them Magical Staves which encountred him Ver. 16. And thou shalt say the LORD God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee saying See V. 3. To which add that it is plain by this whole Story that all the Messages delivered by Moses and all the Answers which Pharaoh returned were true and formal Treaties of a Solemn Embassage as Dr. Jackson speaks upon which Moses was sent to the King of Egypt from the LORD God of the Hebrews that is their King as he was become in a peculiar manner under whom Moses acted as his Deputy or Viceroy Let my People go that they may serve me c. The merciful kindness of God to an hardned Sinner is here very remarkable in renewing his Message and giving him Warning of what would come upon him if he did not yield Whereas he might in Justice have inflicted it without any Notice of his Intentions He sets before him also his Sin and his Danger in being hitherto Disobedient and behold hitherto thou wouldst not hear i. e. thou hast provoked the Divine Majesty by disregarding several Messages I have brought to thee from him Ver. 17. Thus saith the LORD Attend to this new Message I bring to thee in his Name In this thou shalt know that I am the LORD He had askt in a contemptuous way Who is the LORD and said after a supercilious manner I know him not v. 2. nor indeed cared to know him but slighted him and his Messengers as the word know not sometime signifies being as much as not to regard Therefore now he bids Moses tell him He would make him know that he was the Omnipotent LORD of the World by the change of the Waters of the River which Pharaoh perhaps adored into Blood Behold I will smite with the Rod that is in mine hand God and Moses are represented in this History as one Person according to what he had said v. 1. of this Chapter and therefore it was the same thing to say the LORD whose words Moses had begun to recite will smite or to say I will smite See v. 16. It is to be observed also that Aaron smote the River v. 19. but it being by Moses his Direction and Order it was counted his Act so that he might say I will smite c. The Waters of the River and they shall be turned into Blood This Plague was the more remarkable because as Theodoret here observes they having drowned the Hebrew Children in this River God now punishes them for it by giving them bloody Water to drink XII Wisd 7 8. And if they had the same Notions then that the Egyptians had in future times the Plague was the more terrible because it fell on that which they thought had some Divinity in it and as the same Theodoret observes was honoured as a God because it made Plenty when it overflow'd its Banks The Hebrew Doctors add another reason for this Punishment because the Egyptians had hindred them from their wonted Baptisms as the Authour of The Life and Death of Moses speaks that is saith Gaulmyn from Purifying themselves in the River by Bathing after they had lain in of their Children which in the scarcity of Water in that Country could no where be done but in the River Ver. 18. And the Fish that is in the River shall die c. Here are three grievous Effects of this Plague It deprived them of their most delicious Food for so their Fish were XI Numb 5. And took away the Pleasure they had of washing by the Rivers side because it stank both by the death of the Fish and the corruption of the Blood through the heat of the Sun by which means the Water was made unfit for their Drink Ver. 19. And the LORD spake unto Moses After he had been with Pharaoh and delivered this Message to him Say unto Aaron take thy Rod and stretch out thy hand This Warning being despised by Pharaoh who would not relent God requires them actually to do as he had threatned And now Moses had delivered his Rod to Aaron that he might by his Authority execute this Judgment Vpon the Waters of Egypt These are general words comprehending all the particulurs following Vpon their Streams There were seven Branches into which the River Nile was divided before it fell into the Sea which seem to be here understood being called IX Isa 15. the seven Streams or Rivers of Egypt Vpon their Rivers There were several Cuts made by Art out of every Stream to draw the Water into their Grounds which seem to be here meant by Rivers And upon their Ponds These were digged to hold rain water when it fell as it did sometimes and near the River also they digged Wells it is likely which may be here intended And upon all Pools of Water There were here and there other Collections of Water particularly in their Gardens derived by Pipes from the River into Cisterns In Vessels of Wood or of Stone Wherein Water was kept in private Houses for their present use Ver. 20. And Moses and Aaron did so as the LORD commanded c. This first Plague our Primate Vsher makes account was inflicted about the XVIIIth day of the Sixth Month which in the next year and ever after became the Twelfth Month. Artapanus tells this Story otherwise but it is evident he had heard of it among the Gentiles and Ezekiel the Tragaedian relates it all right together with the following Miracle See Euseb Praepar Evang. L. IX Cap. XXIX p. 442. Nor is there any thing more frequent in the Roman Story as Huetius observes L. II. Alnet Quaestion Cap. XII n. 12. than Relations of Rivers of Blood flowing out of the Earth Pits full of Blood showres of Blood and Waters of Rivers changed into Blood c. And he lift up the Rod and smote the Waters that were in the River c. Here is mention only of Smiting the Water in the River And it is likely that only the Waters of the River were turned into Blood as it here follows at the first lifting up of his Rod and then all the rest of the Waters mentioned in the precedent Verse Ver. 21. And the Fish that was in the River died c. All the effects of this Plague which were threatned v. 18. See there immediately following The first of which was the death of the Fish which perished in such great numbers that
the River stank c. And there was Blood throughout all the Land of Egypt The Waters were in all places turned into Blood except perhaps the Land of Goshen which is not comprehended under the Land of Egypt Ver. 22. And the Magicians of Egypt did so with their Inchantments See v. 11. In some of the Pools or Lakes of Water they made an appearance of the like Change which made Pharaoh think his God was as powerful as the God of the Hebrews The Land of Goshen as I said might possibly be free from this Plague as it was certainly from several of the rest VIII 23. IX 4 c. and some fancy the Magicians had Water from thence to show their power upon But I cannot think it probable that they made Pharaoh stay so long and one may as well say they had it out of the Sea or out of the Pits that the People digged v. 24. as Aben Ezra conjectures and Justin Martyr Quaest. Resp XXVI ad Orthodox But there is no need of any of these Conjectures if it be granted as the History leads us to conclude that Moses did not in a moment change all the Waters of the Country but only those of the River as I said on v. 20. and afterwards by degrees all the rest when the Magicians had tried their Art upon some of them Which Moses also turned into real Blood so that neither they nor any body else was able to drink of them And Pharaoh 's heart was hardned The very same words in the Hebrew which we had before v. 13. where they should have been translated I there observed as they are here and also in VIII 19. Neither did he hearken unto them as the LORD had said III. 19. This was more apt to move his heart than the former Miracle because it continued longer v. 25. and the Magicians could not by all their Spells or Skill in Sorcery remove this Plague in all that time See next Verse Ver. 23. And Pharaoh turned and went unto his House It seems that upon his refusal to hearken unto Moses his Monition v. 15 16 c. God sent this Plague that very Morning before he got home to Dinner So that there was not time to fetch Water from distant places but the Magicians exercised their Inchantments upon some Ponds which were not as yet turned by Moses into Blood Neither set he his heart to this also Here is the reason why his heart was not moved by this Miracle He did not seriously consider what Moses had done and examine the Difference between the Effect of his Power and that of the Magicians Which was the cause that his heart was hardned as we read before as all Mens are who will think of nothing but only to have their own Humour satissied Ver. 24. And all the Egyptians digged round about the River for Water to drink c. The whole Country was forced to try to get Water to quench their thirst by this great labour How it succeeded we are not told but it is likely they found clear Water by percolation through the Earth For Moses smote only the Pits that were then in being when Aaron stretcht out his Rod which had no effect upon those which were digged afterwards Why they did not setch it from Goshen if there was any clear Water there as we cannot but think there was for the use of the Israelites is not easie to determine Their Pride perhaps would not suffer them till they had tried other ways to supply their wants Ver. 25. And seven days were fulfilled after that the LORD had smitten the River The Rod of Moses could effect nothing without the LORD by whose Power this Change was made in the Waters Which lasted seven days before this Plague was removed By which means they were convinced that all the Waters were really corrupted and they felt the heavy Effects of it in a grievous stench and perpetual Labour in digging Pits all about the River Whether Pharaoh at last begged to have this Plague removed or no we are not told It is likely he was so obstinate that he would not stoop to ask this favour of them which might be the reason it lasted so long to see whether he would be moved to humble himself so far To which when he would not yield God took it away to make room for another stroke or as some think it continued together with the Plague of Frogs and were both removed upon his Petition It is a weak Conjecture of the Hebrew Doctors from these Words that all the Ten Plagues lasted seven days apiece which is plainly contrary to the Story CHAP. VIII Verse 1. AND the LORD spake unto Moses Who attended upon the Divine Majesty we may reasonably suppose every day to know his Pleasure And after the seven days mentioned v. last of the foregoing Chapter were fulfilled the LORD commanded him to Address himself again to Pharaoh and to threaten him with a new Punishment which was inflicted upon the XXVth day of the sixth Month and taken away the day after v. 10. Go unto Pharaoh and say unto him Thus saith the LORD c. The very same Message in effect which he had delivered to him before V.I. VII 16 17. Ver. 2. And if thou refuse to let them go behold c. He again threatens the Plague before he inflicts it both that Pharaoh might know it came not by chance but by the determinate Counsel of God and that he might prevent it by Repentance and Submission to God's Command I will smite This word commonly signifies in the Scripture Language to kill but here only to afflect grievously See LXXVIII Psalm 45. where to destroy them signifies to annoy them All thy Borders Every part of his Country to the utmost extent of it i.e. in all places where the Egyptians dwelt For it is not likely the Israelites were infested with them See v. 4. With Frogs The Hebrew word Tsaphadéa signifies as Eben Ezra thinks an Egyptian Fish which some will have to be a Crocodile As Gaulmyn observes in his Annnotations on the Life and Death of Moses p. 256. But this is undoubtedly false for they could not infest them in that manner as is described in the next Verse Ver. 3. And the River shall bring forth Under the Name of the River is comprehended all the Streams Ponds Lakes and other Waters in Egypt as appears from v. 5. For most of them came one way or other out of the River they having little Rain in Egypt Frogs abundantly The Nile naturally produced Frogs but such great abundance of them as silled the Country was miraculous especially being produced on a sudden and their going out of the River and Fields into the Cities and Houses c. was still more miraculous Which shall go up Out of the River which lay lower than the Land And come into thine House c. This explains what he meant by smiting in the foregoing Verse viz. inflicting a
heal Ver. 11. And the Frogs shall depart from thee c. This demonstrated the power of Moses with God that he could as certainly foretel the removal of the Frogs as he had done the bringing them upon the Land Ver. 12. And Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh To the place it is likely where Moses was wont to attend upon the Divine Majesty And Moses cried unto the LORD because of the Frogs In the Hebrew the words are Cried to him about the business or the matter of the Frogs which God had sent upon Pharaoh Or as Aben Ezra understands it concerning the Frogs which he had promised Pharaoh should be removed as if the words should be translated thus He cried unto the LORD concerning what he said about the Frogs and appointed unto Pharaoh For so the word Sham in XV. 25. signifies to appoint or propose and so the LXX here translate the words which we render had brought against Pharaoh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he had appointed to Pharaoh Ver. 13. And the LORD did according to the word of Moses So powerful was he with God in Prayer as the Heathens themselves observed from this Story See what I observed out of Numenius VII 12. And the Frogs died c. The Egyptians could not kill them but God took away their breath yet not removing them from the places where they were but leaving them dead there As appears by what follows Ver. 14. And they gathered them together on heaps That they might carry them it is likely into the River and so they might go down into the Sea God could have dissolved them into Dust if he had pleased or swept them into the River from whence they came or made them quite vanish in an instant But he would have them lye dead before their eyes as a Token they were real Frogs and no Illusion of their sight And the Land stank This was a further sensible Evidence that they were real Frogs Ver. 15. But when Pharaoh saw that there was respite That he was freed from the great strait in which he was For the Hebrew word for respite signifies breathing or inlargement and makes the sense to be this that when the burden that pressed him was taken off so that he could take his breath he was of another mind c. He hardned his heart and hearkned not unto them c. Was not so good as his word v. 8. but returned to his former Resolution not to let Israel go Which Resolution grew so much more stubborn and obstinate than it had been before by how much the Plague of the Frogs had softned his heart and inclined it to yield to God more than the two former Miracles had done Ver. 16. And the LORD said unto Moses say unto Aaron The LORD seems to have given Pharaoh no warning of this Plague but to have inflicted it immediately upon the removal of the Frogs viz. on the Twenty seventh day of the sixth Month. For his breach of Faith was such an high Provocation that he deserved no other Treatment but a more notable Judgment Smite the Dust of the Land that it may become Lice Some would have the Hebrew word Cinnim to signifie Gnats or some such kind of Creature Thus many of the Ancients understand it and Artapanus calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a flying sort of living Creature which made such Ulcers by its biting as no Medicine could cure See Eusebius L. IX Praepar Evang. p. 425. But Bochartus hath sufficiently proved that our Translation is right and that out of the very Text. For Gnats and such like Insects are bred in Fenny places but these were brought out of the Dust of the Earth Ver. 17. Aaron stretched out his hand with his Rod. He still is the Instrument to execute all the Judgments which Moses denounced as he was his Mouth to deliver all the Messages he carried to Pharaoh And smote the Dust of the Earth and it became Lice This showed the Lice were not a Natural Production for they come out of the sweat and filth of Mens Bodies and of other Living Creatures In Man and Beast This proves they were Lice which stick fast both to Men and Beasts Whereas Gnats though they sting sorely cannot be said to be in Man and Beast for they are a most restless Creature continually buzzing about and never setling constantly in one place And there were various sorts of these Lice for Beasts do not breed the same that Men do nor have all Beasts alike but some are peculiar to Horses others to Oxen others to Sheep and others to Swine and Dogs All the Dust of the Land became Lice That is Nothing could be seen but Lice where Dust was before Or Lice were mingled every where with the Dust Throughout all the Land of Egypt Not of Goshen it is very probable which was inhabited mostly by Israelites Ver. 18. And the Magicians did so c. Attempted and endeavoured to do so by using their wonted Invocations and Rites of Incantation For the common saying among the Jews is very frivolous That Daemons have no power over Creatures so small as Lice The meaning of which Gaulmyn thinks they themselves did not understand which according to the Principles of the ancient Magick was this That all Animals had a particular Genius presiding over them by whose Assistance their Worshippers could do any thing among that sort of Creatures But this is meant only of perfect Animals not of Insects among whom they reckon'd Lice which had no such heavenly Power waiting on them But if there had been any such Notions then these Magicians sure would have understood it and not fruitlesly have attempted that which they had no hope to produce But they could not Though they had counterfeited the former Wonders yet here a stop is put to their Power so that they themselves confess their weakness So there were Lice upon Man and upon Beast This seems to suggest that since they could not produce any new Lice they attempted to remove those which Moses had brought upon the Country But they failed in that also for notwithstanding all that they could do both Men and Beasts were pestered with Lice The Hebrews say in The Life and Death of Moses that this Plague was inflicted upon the Egyptians for another piece of Oppression which they exercised on the Israelites to whom they said Go sweep our Houses and sweep our Streets c. therefore God made Lice to cover the Earth a Cubit deep But this favours too much of their fabulous invention It is more pertinent to observe that though we read of particular Persons who for great Crimes were punished with the Plague of Lice See Huctius L. II. Quaest Cap. XII n. 12. yet we do not find in any Story a whole Nation infested with them and that both Men and Beasts without Exception the Magicians themselves in all likelyhood being sorely asslicted with them which made them cry out as
apud illos quae nobis incesta Ver. 28. And Pharaoh said I will let you go that you may Sacrifice to the LORD your God in the Wilderness He doth not say expresly they should go three days Journey as was demanded which hath made some think this was but a niggardly Concession of Pharaoh's who intended to deceive them with general words But Moses understood it otherwise as appears by his acceptance of the Grant Only you shall not go very far away No further than three days Journey Intreat for me This indeed is added so quickly and as it were with the same breath that he granted their three days Journey that it may make one think it was the least part of his intention to permit that but only to get rid of this Plague Which if it had continued long the Egyptians must have left their Country to preserve themselves Several People having been forced by Flies to quit their Habitations as many ancient Authours inform us mentioned by Bonfrerius and Bochartus Ver. 29. And Moses said Behold I go out from thee and I will intreat the LORD that the swarm of Flies may depart c. He was not more ready to desire than the LORD and his Servant Moses were to grant the total removal of this Plague which was sent for his Reformation not his Destruction if he would have duly considered it To morrow Yet he would not pray that he might be released from it presently but let him lye a while under the smart of this Rod that he might be truly humbled and deal no more deceitfully with him as he feared he would But let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully any more c. He had promised fair before v. 8. but broken his word which made this solemn Caution the more necessary lest he should be guilty of such false dealing again Ver. 30. And Moses went out from Pharaoh and intreated the LORD He gave Pharaoh a good Example of Stedfastness by making good his Promise immediately which he gave him in the beginning of the foregoing Verse Ver. 31. And the LORD did according to the word of Moses Here was punctual performance on God's part of what was agreed between him and Pharaoh in the foregoing Treaty There remained not one This was a greater Miracle than that of removing the Frogs for they remained in heaps and stank v. 14. But these were all swept away by a mighty wind perhaps either into the Sea or into the Deserts of Libya Ver. 32. And Pharaoh hardned his heart at this time also c. This is here made an act of his own as it was no doubt in all the former Refusals to let them go v. 15 19. And he hardned his heart by not hearkning or not regarding what they had done as the word is used and translated IX 21. That which made him not to hearken or regard was his excessive Pride and Covetousness for he thought it a dishonour to submit to Moses and he was very loth to lose the Service of so many Slaves which was really more worth to him than all the Land they possessed in Egypt CHAP. IX Verse 1. Then the LORD said unto Moses See VII 1. Go in unto Pharaoh It seems now he went to the Palace And say unto him Thus saith the LORD c. He sends the same Message to him he ordered at the first v. 13. and had continued ever since VII 16 c. Ver. 2. For if thou refuse to let them go and wilt hold them still If thy covetous griping Humour make thee still resolve to detain them in their Slavery Ver. 3. Behold This word as in most other places as Dr. Jackson notes is here a special Character of the speedy Execution of the Plague threatned and of the remarkable manner of its Execution The hand of the LORD is upon thy Cattle c. That is he will smite them which is done by the hand and is just ready to do the Execution Here is no mention of Aaron's Rod no more than in the foregoing Plague and for the same reason See VIII 21. A very grievous Murrain That is a great Plague or Pestilence as we call it in Mankind of which abundance of Cattle shall die For so the word Caved which we translate grievous is used for numerous See VIII 24. But the greater the Number was that died the more grievous no doubt was the Calamity God intending to deal more severely than formerly with him because he had been guilty of a fraudulent Contempt of his former solemn Monition VIII 29. Ver. 4. And the LORD shall sever between the Cattle of Israel and the Cattle of Egypt c. See VIII 22. This was the greater wonder as the word imports because the Israelites and Egyptians were mingled together in the Land of Goshen and their Cattle breathed in the same Air and drank of the same Water c. By which it appeared this Pestilence was not natural but proceeded as was said before from the hand of God Ver. 5. And the LORD appointed a set time That they might know this stroke came from him Saying to morrow the LORD shall do this thing in the Land This Plague was threatned upon the first day of the VIIth Month which afterwards was changed into the first Month of the Year and inflicted on the second Day Ver. 6. And all the Cattle of Egypt died Some survived it is plain from v. 19. Therefore the meaning is either all that were in the Field v. 3. not those in the Cities or Houses or rather a great many of all sorts of Cattle as Drusius expounds it Omne genus all kinds as the word all must be expounded v. 26. Vide L. 2. Animadvers Cap. XVIII But of the Cattle of the Children of Israel died not one Of any sort whatsoever Ver. 7. And Pharaoh sent and behold there was not one of the Cattle of the Israelites dead We do not find that he sent to make any such Enquiry in the former Plagues It is likely he slighted what they said and would not do them the Honour to seem to believe them Moses also had said nothing of this difference God would make between the Israelites and them till the last Plague when the Flies were so busie and vexatious that it made Travel uneasie as it was likewise in the two other before that when they could tread upon nothing but Frogs or Lice And the heart of Pharaoh was hardned One would rather have expected to hear that it relented because he took the pains to satisfie himself that e-every thing foretold by Moses was come to pass which looks as if he meant upon the Truth of that Information to alter his Course This Plague likewise was much heavier than all or most of the preceding which were rather more noisom and terrible as Dr. Jackson speaks than detrimental to Pharaoh and his People For we do not read before this time of the death of any useful Creatures except Fishes when
Warning of their Danger that they might avoid it Ver. 20. He that feared the Word of the LORD among the Servants of Pharaoh c. That which is opposed to this in the next Verse is He that set not his heart unto the Word of the LORD or as we translate it regarded it not i. e. did not attend to what was said and done by Moses and seriously consider it Unto which the fear of God moves all those who are possessed with it and serious consideration will not fail to work in Men the fear of God and of his Judgments Ver. 21. And he that regarded not the word of the LORD c. This was the Cause of the Ruin of all that perished they did not set themselves to consider the irresistible Power of him who inflicted such terrible Judgments upon them as Moses threatned For at last they grew so stupid that they could not consider but were perfectly infatuated Ver. 22. And the LORD said unto Moses stretch forth thy hand With his Rod in it as it is explained in the next Verse and as he had directed on other occasions VIII 16 17. where it is said Aaron stretched out his and with his Rod. Towards Heaven To show the Plague was sent from God That there may be Hail on all the Land of Egypt c. Here he more fully expresses the Damage it would do both to Men and Beasts and to the Herb of the Field which comprehends all the Trees v. 25. Ver. 23. And Moses stretched forth his Rod. Sometimes Aaron did it but it was at the Command of Moses and as his Minister who sometimes did it himself and was Commanded by God so to do v. 22. He gave warning of this Plague about the fourth Day of the VIIth Month and inflicted it upon the fifth and removed it the sixth The Author of The Life and Death of Moses fancies that God sent this Plague to punish the Egyptians for the drudgery they imposed upon the Israelites in making them till their Fields for them And the LORD sent Thunder and Hail c. It was no wonder there should be Thunder but the Claps of this were far more terrible than any that had been heard before in that Country As the Hall also was more ponderous and came down with a greater force and was mixed with Fire Which the Author of the Book of Wisdom observes Chap. XVI as a thing unusual And herein consisted the miraculousness of this Plague That whereas other Storms of Hail generally reach but a little way sometimes not a Mile this spread it self over the whole Country v. 25. And Flashes of Lightning were not only mingled with it but Fire ran upon the Ground and killed their Cattle LXXVIII Psal 48. when at the same time all the Land of Goshen though a part of that Country felt nothing of this Storm v. 26. And the LORD rained Hail upon the Land of Egypt This is repeated to show that it fell as thick as Rain and was not a meer showr but a continual Hail and that this was the principal part of this Plague being alone mentioned v. 22. and 26. where nothing is said of Thunder or Fire and put in the first place by the Psalmist both in LXXVIII 48. and CV 32. Ver. 25. And the Hail smote c. That is killed every Man and Beast that was in the Field v. 19. And smote every Herb and broke every Tree of the Field Especially their Vines and Figtrees as the Psalmist tells us LXXVIII 47. CV 33. Very great Hailstones have fall'n in several Countries some of a prodigious bigness as credible Historians relate whereby some living Creatures have here and there been killed but none ever made such a general destruction as this Storm did Yet we are not to understand it as if no green thing escaped nor a Bough of any Tree was left but the meaning is that a great many of every kind were destroyed though some as appears by the following Chapter still remained Ver. 26. Only in the Land of Goshen c. So that the Egyptians that lived among them fared the better it is thought at this time for their sake Ver. 27. And Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron This is no more than he had done several times before VIII 8 25. but it may seem strange he should do it now after the LORD had hardned his heart The clearest account of it is that he acted now as a Man distracted and frighted out of his Wits which made him rave and cry out for help in very passionate words without any serious meaning I have sinned this time c. The meaning is not that he had not sinned before but I now acknowledge my Offence and the Justice of God in punishing the wickedness of me and of my People Which Confession doth not argue any tenderness of heart but was extorted by the horrible Fright he was in of being undone if he did not make some Submission Ver. 27. Intreat the LORD for it is enough Or beseech him that what I have already suffered may suffice That there be no more mighty Thundrings and Hail The words import frightful Claps of Thunder which sounded as if God was angry with them especially since the Hail fell like Thunder-bolts upon their Heads and struck those down that walkt abroad This was the reason that he begg'd their Prayers For he and his Servants could not always continue within Doors and while the Hail lasted there was no Safety abroad And I will let you go Not quite away but three days Journey into the Wilderness as they desired And ye shall stay no longer He promises to dismiss them immediately Ver. 29. And Moses said unto him as soon as I am gone out of the City By this he demonstrated the great Power of God who he knew would protect him from receiving any harm by the Thunder Lightning and Hail which killed all others that went abroad into the Fields I will spread forth my hands unto the LORD This was an ancient Posture of Supplication in all Nations as many Learned Men have shown whereby Men declared that God is the Giver of all good things and that they hoped to receive Help from him For our Hands are the Instruments whereby we receive any Gift that is bestowed upon us That thou mayest know how that the Earth is the LORD's Have a demonstration which was sufficient to make him know that the LORD governs all things as appeared by the ceasing of this dreadful storm upon Moses his Prayers to God as well as by the powring of it in such violence upon them Ver. 30. But as for thee and thy Servants I know that ye will not yet fear the LORD God The generality of the Court he knew would continue as obstinate as their Prince though some of them had some sense of God and of his Judgments as we read v. 20. Ver. 31. And the Flax and the Barley were smitten
was ordered upon the tenth of the Month Abib On which day they begun to prepare for the Passover by taking up the Lamb which was to be then slain four days after And God appointed this to be the first Month of the Year which hitherto had been the seventh XII 2 3 4. Ver. 23. They saw not one another We may well look upon this as an Emblem of the Blindness of their Minds which was so great that they had not the least discerning of their approaching Destruction Some of the Romans mention such Darkness for a short time as was counted prodigious by Livy and Julius Obsequens Particularly at the Death of the Emperour Carus there was such a Mist that one man could not know another See more Examples in Huetius L. II. Alnet Quaest c. 12. p. 203 c. But of such a Darkness as this which continued to obscure all things three days together there is no Record but in this Sacred Story Which no Man hath the least reason to disbelieve it being as easie for God to continue it for three days as for one hour there being also a very great reason for it both to punish the Egyptians and relieve the Israelites Neither rose any from his place None stir'd out of their Houses for they could not see one another within Doors no not by the help of a Candle or a Fire as the Author of the Book of Wisdom understood it XVII 5. where he also supposes that they were affrighted with Apparitions and their own evil Consciences were also a great Terrour to them while they remained Prisoners so long in dismal Darkness And the Psalmist justifies him in part when instead of mentioning this Plague of Darkness as he doth the rest which were inflicted on the Egyptians he saith God sent evil Angels among them LXXVIII Psal 49. But all the Children of Israel had light in their dwellings Whereby they were inabled to go about their business and get all things ready for their departure without any notice of the Egyptians much less any hindrance from them who were in a Mist and could not see what they were a doing Ver. 24. And Pharaoh called unto Moses He was so terrified by the horrible Apparitions he had seen that at the end of the three days of Darkness he sent a Messenger to call Moses for before that time none could find their way to him Or perhaps the meaning may be that in his ravening sit he called for Moses as if he had been near him And said When Moses came he made his former Confession a little larger but had not the heart to comply intirely Go ye serve the LORD only let the Flocks and the Herds be stayed c. It was a perfect infatuation to higgle as we speak with Moses and still drive his Bargain as low as he could when he was reduced to such Distress that he was upon the brink of Destruction But this was the effect of his Covetousness which was incurable and would not suffer him to part with them but still to keep a Pawn for their Return to his Servitude Let your little ones go with you His Blindness made him think this a great Condescention because he had denied it before v. 10. Ver. 25. And Moses said Thou must give us also Sacrifices and Burnt-offerings that me may Sacrifice c. The difference between Sacrifices and Burnt-offerings See XVIII 12. As they were to Sacrifice to the LORD their God which was the Service he required so they were to hold a Feast unto him at which both Sacrifices and Burnt-offerings were necessary Ver. 26. Our Cattle also shall go with us i. e. Therefore we cannot leave our Cattle here because we must use them in Sacrifices c. There shall not an Hoof he left behind i. e. The smallest thing For this was a Proverbial Speech in the Eastern Countries as appears by the like saying among the Arabians which was first used about Horses and afterwards translated to other things Present Money even to an Hoof That is they would not part with an Horse or any other Commodity till the Buyer had laid down the price of it to a Farthing as we now speak Or according to the present German Language the Hoof may be put for the whole Beast and the meaning be we will not leave so much as one behind us So Conr. Pellicanus For thereof must we take to serve the LORD our God To offer Sacrifice to him And we know not with what we must serve the LORD c. Who was to appoint his own Sacrifices as he afterwards did when they came into the Wilderness Ver. 27. But the LORD hardned Pharaoh's heart c. He did not incline Pharaoh to comply with this motion but suffered him to persist in his Obstinate Resolution not quite to part with them See v. 20. Ver. 28. And Pharaoh said unto him Get thee from me This sounds as if he intended again to have him driven from his Presence as v. 11. so soon did he forget his own humble Confessions and Supplications to him v. 16 17. and returned to his frantick Rage and Fury against him Take heed to thy self see my face no more for in that day thou seest my face thou shalt die A Speech more foolish than proud as Dr. Jackson observes to come from a Man whom the LORD had so much impoverished and so often humbled and given sufficient Proofs of his Power not only to bring greater Plagues immediately upon him but to cut him off Ver. 29. And Moses said Thou hast spoken well I will see thy face again no more That is unless I be called for as one would think he was because Moses did deliver one Message more to him XI 4 8. Though we may suppose he delivered it now or that he did not deliver it himself but by some other Person But that doth not agree with the last words of v. 8. of the next Chapter And we read also XII 31. that Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron by night who perhaps did not go but only receive his Message CHAP. XI Verse 1. AND the LORD said unto Moses It is uncertain when the LORD spake this I suppose it was as soon as he came out from Pharaoh at the end of the three days Darkness which continued the eleventh twelfth and thirteenth of the Month Abib and on the fourteenth in the Morning Moses received this new Revelation Yet I will bring one Plague more upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt The killing of their First-born which was the last Plague inflicted on them in Egypt Afterwards he will let you go hence c. Not only consent to dismiss you intirely but be earnest with you and urge you to depart So we find it came to pass XII 31 33. Thrust you out altogether Perfectly and compleatly with some kind of compulsion Ver. 2. Speak now in the ears of the Children of Israel Give order therefore to the Israelites as I
formerly promised to direct III. 21 22. And let every Man borrow of his Neighbour c. See III. 21 22. Unto which this may be added that some of the ancient Fathers lookt upon this as a piece of Justice that they should be paid their Wages for the Labour they had undergone in the Service of the Egyptians which God orders in this manner So Epiphanius in his Ancoratus Num. CXII CXIII where he gives this account of the Israelites spoiling the Egyptians that they had served them a long time for Nothing he makes account CCXV years and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. was it not just both before God and Man that their Wages should be paid them before they left the Country See Petavius on that place And Haeres LXVI LXXI LXXXIII and Irinaeus L. IV. c. 49. Tertull. adv Marcion L. II. c. 20. And so the Author of the Book of Wisdom took it X. 17. where he saith the Lord gave the Israelites the Goods of the Egyptians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Reward of their Labours See more XII 35. Ver. 3. And the LORD gave the People favour in the sight of the Egyptians According to his Promise III. 21. Moreover the man Moses was very great c. This seems to be given as a reason both why the Court durst not meddle with Moses though he had brought so many Plagues upon them and why the People were forward to grant the Israelites what they desired because they all highly esteemed him and had him in great reverence as a Person that had extraordinary power with God From whence some think it credible that their Posterity might give him Divine Honours as is reported by some ancient Writers Ver. 4. And Moses said Thus saith the LORD It is manifest from v. 8. that these words were spoken from the LORD to Pharaoh but it is a great question when they were spoken It is commonly thought that Moses said this when he last parted with Pharaoh and told him he would see his face no more X. 29. And then the first words of this Chapter must be translated in the time past the LORD had said unto Moses that he would bring one Plague more upon the Egyptians which he now denounced to Pharaoh because he said he should not have the liberty of being admitted to him again Or else Pharaoh contrary to his peremptory Resolution sent once more to speak with Moses as it is plain he did after the First-born were slain XII 31. About midnight About the midst of the following Night For they having kept the Passover in the Evening of this fourteenth day of Abib the First-born were slain in the middle of that Night Not precisely the Hebrew indicates but it might be a little before or after Midnight See Theodorick Haespan of such kind of Speeches Disput de locut Sacris N. IV. Will I go out By an Angel who was sent from the SCHECHINAH which resided in some part of the Land of Goshen and ordered to go and do this Execution Into the midst of Egypt Perhaps he means the Royal City where he began this Execution and then smote the whole Country round about Ver. 5. And all the First-born in the Land of Egypt shall die This was the sorest Plague that had been hitherto inflicted Nothing being so dear to Parents as their Children especially their First-born From the First-born of Pharaoh c. i. e. From the highest to the meanest Person in the Kingdom That sitteth upon his Throne It is uncertain whether this relate to Pharaoh or to his First-born The LXX seem to incline to the former having left out the Pronoun his and simply translated it that sitteth upon the Throne But the Chaldee determines it to the latter by translating it who is to sit upon the Throne of his Kingdom i. e. to be Pharaoh's Successor the Heir of the Kingdom of Egypt The Maid-servant that is behind the Mill. None were more miserable than those Slaves whose Work it was to turn a Mill with their Hands and grind Corn perpetually especially when they were condemned to this in a Prison nay in a Dungeon that so we are to understand this appears from XII 29. The ancient Comaedians often mention this and we find an instance of such Drudgery in the Story of Sampson XVI Judg. 21. Ver. 6. And there shall be a great Cry throughout the Land of Egypt c. The Calamity being general in every House it made a general and very loud Lamentation Men Women Children and Servants bewailing the loss of the prime Person in the Family Ver. 7. But against any of the Children of Israel shall not a Dog move his tongue c. A great wonder that when so many Thousand People were upon their March with abundance of Cattle c. not a Dog should stir who though never so gentle yet commonly Bark when they hear the least noise especially in the Night All Travellers know this That ye may know how that the LORD doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel This was indeed a plain Testimony of God's special Care and Providence over the Israelites that when there was such a great Cry throughout all the Land of Egypt v. 6. all was quiet still and silent among them Ver. 8. And all these thy Servants shall come down to me c. You that now forbid me to come to you for Pharaoh himself is included it appears from XII 31 c. shall be forced to come to me and submissively intreat nay press me to be gone c. Come down It was a descent from that part of Egypt where the Court was unto Goshen though it may simply signifie come to me Get thee out and all the People that follow thee In the Hebrew the words are that is at thy feet that is to the very last man For they that bring up the Rear as we speak or march last after their Commander are said in Scripture to be at their feet As Wagenseil hath observed in his Confutation of R. Lipman's Carmen Memoriale See XLIX Gen. 10. And after that I will go out When you shall think I oblige you to leave your Country And he went out from Pharaoh in a great anger It moved the meekest Man on Earth to a just Indignation which it 's likely he expressed in his Countenance and Behaviour to see Pharaoh remain so stupidly insensible as not to regard this Threatning which he might well think would be as certainly Executed as all the rest had been Ver. 9. And the LORD said unto Moses Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you That is I told thee at the first how it would be and the reason of it III. 19 20. Of which it was very proper to put Moses in mind at this time when he was going to fulfil the last part of those words after that after this last Plague he will let you go That my Wonders may be multiplied in the Land of Egypt That
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
I. Stromat p. 345. D. But no body I think hath expressed this in better words and more full of sense than our famous Dr. Jackson Book X. upon the Creed Chap. 40. where considering God as become the King of this People in a proper and peculiar manner and considering also what unsufferable wrongs the King and People of Egypt had done unto this People of God who were now become his peculiar Subjects or Proprietary Leiges he concludes that this Fact even by the Course of Human Law or Law of Nations was more justifiable than Royal Grants of Letters of Mart or other like Remedies are against such other Nations as have wrong'd their Subjects or suffered them to be wrong'd by any under their Command without Restitution when they solemnly or by way of Embassy demanded it In short whatsoever the Hebrew Women took from the Egyptians they took and possessed by the Law of Reprisal that is by virtue of a Special Warrant granted by the LORD himself as he was now become in Special not only the God of his People but their King Ver. 36. And the Children of Israel journeyed from Rameses Whether this were a City or a Country the Israelites seem in this place to have made a general Rendevouz as we now speak it being well known to them for they were thereabout first planted XLVII Gen. 11. Vnto Succoth This day being the fifteenth of Nisan they began to keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread at this place called Succoth from the Booths or Tents which were here first erected no Houses being there wherein they continued while they lived in the Wilderness and many preferred them before Houses when they came to Canaan Whence we read so often such Expressions as these To thy Tents O Israel or They went every Man to his Tent. It is an idle fancy of R. Solomon upon this place that they travelled this day an CXX miles and that in an hour because it is said XIX 4. that God carried them on Eagles wings Some will have this place called Succoth because the Cloud of Glory began here first to overspread them About six hundred thousand on foot that were Men. i. e. Were Twenty years old and upward all fit for War Besides Children If we reckon all under Twenty years of Age with all the Women and old Men there could not be less than fifteen hundred thousand persons A vast increase in the space of a little more than two hundred years from LXX Persons that went down into Egypt Ver. 38. And a mixed multitude went up also with them Some think these were only a Rabble that marcht along with them imagining they would return at three days end Which when they saw they did not they began to mutiny and quarrelled with Moses c. as the Author of Dibre Hajamim tells the Story Others think that many Israelites had made Marriages with the Egyptians as some it is plain did XXIV Lev. 10. who now accompanied them at their Departure being loth to leave their Relations But it is most probable they were Proselytes of the Gate as the Jews call them who had renounced Idolatry but were not entred into the Covenant by being Circumcised See Selden L. I. de Synedriis c. 3. It is uncertain what number there was of these but it appears they were a multitude And Flocks and Herds and very much Cattle Some of which perhaps belonged to the mixed Multitude for they among the Egyptians that feared the LORD's word preserved their Cattle from the stroke of the Hail which destroyed all that was in the Field IX 20. Ver. 39. And they baked When they came to Succoth Vnleavened Cakes c. The Scripture often mentions such Bread XVIII Gen. 6. XI Numb 8. 1 Kings XVII 12. for it was not leavened They could not stay till it was leavened being thrust out in haste as they were preparing it v. 33. which doth not signifie that they put Leaven to it when they came to Succoth as Grotius understands it for that was inconsistent with the Feast of Vnleavened Bread which they were commanded to keep v. 15. and which it is reasonable to suppose they now observed as well as killed and eat the Paschal Lamb v. 6 28. Neither had they prepared themselves any victuals This justifies what I observed upon v. 15. that they lived a whole Month upon unleavened Bread till God sent them Manna to eat Ver. 40. Now the sojourning So the Hebrew word Moshab most certainly signifies not meerly dwelling as the Vulgar Latine renders it but dwelling like Strangers who are not in their own Country Thus Abraham is said to sojourn XX Gen. 1. and Isaac and Jacob XXVIII 4. And therefore whereas the Roman Copy of the LXX reads here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the habitation the Alezandrian Copy hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the perigrination or sojourning as we well translate it Of the Children of Israel These words comprehend their Fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob as is evident from hence that otherwise Israel himself should not be included in this sojourning who was the Person that brought them into Egypt and lived there with his Family seventeen years Nor is any thing more ordinary in Scripture than under the Name of the Father to comprehend all his Posterity and likewise when the Posterity is only mentioned to intend also their Fathers there being such a near Union between Parents and Children that they are considered as one Person XXVI Deut. 5 9. X Judg. 11 12. XII Hosea 4. and many other places And therefore the Samaritan Copy here rightly reads The Habitation of the Children of Israel and of their Fathers c. Which is not to be taken for a Translation of these words but an Interpretation And so some Copies of the LXX had it as St. Austin observes anciently and Drusius lately mentions an Edition wherein it was thus paraphrased 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they and their Fathers Who dwelt in Egypt Here also the Samaritan Copy hath it as an Explication no doubt not a literal Translation who dwelt in the Land of Canaan and in Egypt And so the Vatican Edition of the LXX The Habitation of the Children of Israel which dwelt in the Land of Egypt and in Canaan Which is no late Addition but was in ancient Copies for Aben Ezra testifies in his Commentary on this place that they thus explained it Which dwelt in Egypt and in other Countries as Drusius observes in his Quaesita per Epistolam 51. Was four hundred years That is from the time of Abraham's coming from Charran into the Land of Canaan when this sojourning began till their going out of Egypt was just four hundred and thirty years For from Abraham's coming to sojourn in Canaan to the birth of Isaac was twenty five years and Isaac was sixty years old when he begat Jacob who was an hundred and thirty years old when he went down into Egypt which Numbers put together make two hundred and fifteen
Here he gives the reason for this Order that Pharaoh might be enticed to pursue them imagining they were in such Difficulties that they could not avoid falling into his hands They are entangled in the Land Perplexed or dubious not knowing which way to go The Wilderness hath shut them in They were cooped up he thought by the Sea and by craggy Mountains which it was impossible for them to pass especially being incumbred with a multitude of Women Children and Cattle Ver. 4. And I will harden Pharaoh 's heart He had hardned it before IX 12. X. 1. But now ordered things so that he was more sensless than ever he had been For having lately felt such an heavy stroke upon all the First-born as mollified his heart for the present and moved him to let Israel go it was the highest degree of Infatuation not to fear as formerly they had done XII 33. that the next blow if he pursued them would be at himself and his followers And I will be honoured upon Pharaoh and upon all his Host. Show my Power and Justice in their Destruction Which would not have been so visible had they died of the Pestilence when the Cattle died of the Murrain and Pharaoh's heart was first hardned as it was by hardning him so far as to follow the Israelites into the Red-sea where he and his whole Host was overthrown which made the terrour of the LORD's Wrath manifest to all the World That the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD Have the greatest demonstration of my irresistible Power VII 5. For the more strange the Infatuation was which led Pharaoh and his Host to such an ignominious Death the more apt the hearts of the People that remain'd would be to acknowledge the Hand of God therein And they did so They marched to this place on the XVIIth day of Nisan which was their third days Journey Jacobus Capellus thinks they rested this day being the Sabbath and came not hither till the XVIIIth Ver. 5. And it was told the King of Egypt that the People fled Some of the mixt Multitude that went along with them XII 38. seeing this strange turn it is likely forsook the Israelites and returned to Pharaoh to inform him that they had lost their way and were shifting for themselves by slight into dangerous places Or as it is commonly interpreted some Spies which Pharaoh had upon them seeing them leave the way to Horeb whither they desired to go three days Journey to offer Sacrifice concluded they never intended to return to Egypt but would run quite away from them This news we may suppose was brought to Pharaoh on the XVIIIth day And the heart of Pharaoh and of his Servants was turned against the People They had quite forgot their late Fears XII 33. which made such a change in them they would not suffer the Israelites to stay any longer in their Country but those Fears being vanished their Minds altered again and they repented they had dismissed them And said what have we done that we have let Israel go from serving us What a gross Errour have we committed in losing the Labour of so many Slaves Covetousness as I have observed often had a principal hand in hardning Pharaoh's heart Ver. 6. And he made ready his Chariot Caused it immediately to be made ready which we may suppose was done on the XIXth day when he began to pursue them And took his People with him All that were wont to attend him on such accasions 7. And he took six hundred chosen Chariots The best Chariots in Egypt which were always ready prepared for such Expeditions And all the Chariots of Egypt That could be got ready on a sudden for he had not time to muster all his force but made all the haste possible lest the Israelites should get out of the straits wherein they were and go so far away that he could not overtake them For which reason he pursued them with Chariots and Horsmen who could make larger marches than the Israelites on foot The strength also of this Kingdom consisted in Chariots which carried Men in them who sought out of them And every one knows that Egypt abounded with Horses as well as Chariots and that they were accounted very strong in these XXXI Isa 1. yet Bochartus thinks all besides the six hundred Chariots Royal were only Carriages for their Baggage Hierozoic P. I. L. II. c. 9. And Captains over every one of them This shows there were Men in them and that to every Chariot there Belonged a Troop of Horsmen we know not of what number who were commanded by a Captain The Hebrews say there were Fifty thousand Horsmen the Arabians make them as many more Ver. 8. And the LORD hardned the heart of Pharaoh King of Egypt As he said he would v. 4. And he pursued after the Children of Israel Of all the infatuated Resolutions to use the words of a famous Divine of our own Dr. Jackson Book X. chap. 11. that either King or People adventured on the pursuing of the Israelites with such a mighty Army after they had most earnestly intreated and urged them to leave their Country may well seem to every indifferent Reader the most stupid And so the Author of the Book of Wisdom justly censures it XIX 3. For whilst they were yet mourning and making Lamentations at the Graves of the Dead they added another foolish device and pursued them as Fugitives whom they had intreated to be gone Yet Josephus gives good hints that even this effect of Divine Infatuation was but such as hath seized upon worldly wise Princes and States-men in former Ages and may hereafter be inflicted upon more And the Children of Israel went out with an high hand Boldly and with assured confidence not sneakingly like Slaves or Fugitives So Onkelos understood it when he translated it bare-headed i. e. confidently fearing nothing having been delivered and conducted by the powerful hand of God as it is often repeated XIII 9 14 16. unto which some refer this Phrase and not to the Israelites See Drusius L. XVI Observat c. 2. Ver. 9. But the Egyptians pursued after them This did not discourage Pharaoh and his Servants who perhaps were of the same mind with the Syrians who fancied the God of Israel might not be alike powerful in all places but though he was stronger than their Gods in the Hills yet they might be too hard for him in the Plain 1 Kings XX. 23. So the Egyptians who had seen how much superiour Moses was to their Magicians might possibly thus reason with themselves as the same Learned Dr. expresses it Who knows whether all this Power was given unto Moses to be exercised only within the Meridian or Climes of Egypt or whether his Commission extend over Palestine and Midian They presumed at least that the LORD God of the Hebrews had not granted Moses such a Command over the Armies or Host of Men though he had done Wonders among
where because God is said to have divided the Red-sea into parts they sancy there were twelve Divisions every one defended with a Wall of Water But there is no foundation for this in these words nor in LXXVII Psal 19. where paths being in the Plural Number they thence also deduce the same Conceit of a several path to every Tribe See Simeon de Muis on that place Ver. 22. And the Israelites went in to the midst of the Sea About the second Watch of the Night which was at Midnight and about break of Day they were got quite through Vpon the dry ground This was not lookt upon by the ancient Heathen as incredible For Homer makes Neptune driving his Chariot upon the Waves and the Sea withdrawing its Waters And the Waters of Scamander being swell'd to destroy Achilles he makes to be dried up by Vulcan As Nonnus also makes Bacchus drying up Hydaspes and smiting Orontes with his Thyrsus to have gone over it See the Learned Huetius in his Quaestiones Alnetanae p. 206 c. And the Waters were a Wall unto them on the right hand and on the left The strong East-wind contributed no doubt to the cutting of the Waters in two though not without the help of Angelical Powers But I do not see how it could do any thing to the compacting of the Waters to such a degree that they were no longer fluid but firm as a Wall or Bank on each side of them See XV. 8. which was effected wholly by the Angelical Ministry who upheld the Waters in that solid posture till the Israelites were got quite out of the Sea It hath been an old Question Whether they went quite cross the Red-sea or only fetcht a compass and came out upon the same Shore from which they went in The Hebrew Doctors are of opinion that they did not go over to the opposite Shore but making a kind of Semi-circle found themselves when they came out in the same Country where they were before Their reasons are because they could not in so small a time have marcht so far for in the narrowest place that Gulf is XII or XV. German Miles over so that they could not all have passed through in less than three or four days as David Chytraeus makes the computation But especially because Moses expresly makes their next Station to be in the Wilderness of Etham XXXIII Numb 8. in which place they were the day before they came to the Sea XIII Exod. 20. Therefore they were still in the same Wilderness Ver. 23. And the Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the Sea c. Imagining perhaps they were still upon the Land or on the Shore where the Sea was retired the darkness of the Night not suffering them to see the Mountains of Water on each side or rather their Minds being so intent to overtake the Israelites that they regarded nothing else For when Men are ingaged in a fierce chase of any thing with eager desires and confident hopes of it it takes up all their thoughts and makes them overlook what lies before their eyes Thus by their own violent Passions and proud Imaginations God blinded their Minds and hardned their hearts as he said he would v. 17. to rush into their own destruction Ver. 24. And it came to pass that in the morning watch The Romans and the Hebrews also divided the Night into four parts containing three hours apiece At the beginning of which the Guard of Soldiers who kept watch by Night was changed and thence they were called Watches Two of them we find mentioned by St. Luke XII 38. and St. Mark mentions them all XIII 35. and particularly the fourth Watch VI Mark 48. called here the Morning Watch which was the last of them between Day-break and the Morning The LORD looked unto the Host of the Egyptians He frowned upon them as we speak now in our Language For in Scripture God is said sometimes to look upon those whom he is about to punish CIV Psalm 32. IX Amos 4. III Habakkuk 6. Through the pillar of fire and the Cloud By this it is manifest there was but one Pillar which had different Appearances and that the SCHECHINAH or Divine Majesty was in it It seems to me also very probable that whereas the cloudy part of the Pillar had been towards the Egyptians hitherto now it turned the other side toward them and the siery part appearing let them see the danger wherein they were and by its amazing brightness perfectly confounded them So Philo seems to have understood it when he saith L. III. de Vita Mosis that from the Cloud that was in the Rear of the Israelites there shone a fiery Appearance of the Deity Which may well be the meaning of the LORD 's looking through the Pillar of Fire And troubled the Host of the Egyptians This glorious Light I suppose flashing in their Faces put them into a Consternation But Josephus adds in the conclusion of his Second Book of Antiquities that there was a dreadful Storm or Tempest with Thunder Lightning and Hailstones from the Cloud which put them into the greatest disorder as it follows in the next Verse Hither Dr. Hammond refers those words of the Psalmist LXXVII 17 18. The Clouds poured out Water the Skies sent out a sound thine Arrows also went abroad The Voice of thy Thunder was in the Heaven the Lightnings lightned the World the Earth trembled and shook c. Ver. 25. And took off their Chariot wheels Some of their Wheels were broken by the Hail-stones or burnt with Lightning with which its likely their Horses were so affrighted that they fell into disorder and one Chariot running against another some of their Wheels were taken off That they drave heavily They could scarce move or but very slowly when their Wheels were broken or taken off And those Wheels that remained sunk deep into the Sand when the Waters returned upon it So that the Egyptians said c. They cried one to another Let us give over the pursuit For the LORD fighteth for them c. Now Moses his words were made good v. 14. and the Egyptians themselves acknowledged it v. 18. Ver. 26. And the LORD said unto Moses He spake to him out of the Cloud where the SCHECHINAH was as I have often said Stretch out thy hand over the Sea that the Waters may return again upon the Egyptians c. God was pleased to use the Ministry of Moses in the drowning of the Egyptians as he had done in the Preservation of the Israelites in the Sea v. 16 21. that all the People might honour and reverence him and be obedient to his direction Ver. 27. And the Sea returned to its strength The sense is truly expressed by the Vulgar the Sea returned to its former place The great Walls or heaps of Water which were on either side of them falling down and rushing upon them with a mighty force overwhelmed them and filled
But all this is a meer fancy to excuse his Foresathers who should rather have prayed to God than murmured against Moses For we read expresly God did not take away the Pillar of the Cloud by day and the Pillar of Fire by night from before the People XIII 22. That is it constantly guided them in the way wherein they should go whether they travelled by day or by night And in that very place which he builds his Opinion upon where it is said they journied according to the commandment of the LORD it is also expresly recorded that there was no water for the People to drink XVII 1. Ver. 25. And he cried unto the LORD He did what they should have done made his earnest Prayer to God to relieve them in this distress which he instantly vouchsafed to do And the LORD showed him a Tree We are not told what Tree this was whose Wood being thrown into the Waters took off their bitterness but to increase the Miracle the Jews will have this to have been a Tree of bitter taste which Jonathan calls Ardophne which naturally would have made the Waters bitter if they had been sweet Demetrius mentions this wonderful cure of the Waters in Eusebius his Praepar Evang. L. IX c. 29. Which when he had cast into the water By the order of the LORD who showed him the Tree For the Wonder did not consist as Huetius thinks in his Quaestiones Alnetanae in curing the Water by throwing the Wood into it for that may be done naturally as Pliny shows but that he found this Wood in the Wilderness by the direction of God As Elisha found by the same Divine direction that the throwing in of Meal would make Water sweet which the same Pliny saith is a natural Remedy There he made for them Propounded to them or appointed them A Statute and an Ordinance This seems to signisie that for their better Government God now gave them a few Rules to be observed for the present till he should more fully declare his Will to them from Mount Sinai And it is a most ancient constant Tradition of the Jews That now he commanded them to observe the Sabbath which they understand by Statute and to do Justice particularly honour their Parents which they understand by Ordinance or Judgment as the Hebrew word imports And they instance especially in keeping the Sabbath and honouring of Parents because those two Commandments are pressed upon them in Deuteronomy with this particular inforcement As the LORD commanded thee V Deut. 12 16. which they will have to relate unto this command at Marah See Mr. Selden L. III. de Jure Nat. Gent. c. 9. p. 314 333 c. And perhaps these two might be in the number but it is probable there were more Commands besides these which were now given them as the following Verse seems to intimate And there he proved them He began there to make a trial of their Obedience Whether they would observe these Laws or no. Ver. 26. And said if thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God c. This was the main thing he required of them as Jeremiah observes VII 22 23. Where he saith God spake nothing to them in the day when he brought them out of Egypt i. e. at this time concerning Burnt-Offerings and Sacrifices but only commanded them saying Obey my voice And this Maimonides himself confesses in his More Nevoch P. III. c. 32. It appears from the Scripture and the Cabala also that the first Precept which God gave us after we came out of Egypt was not concerning Burnt-Offerings and Sacrifices but it was that given us at Marah If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God where he gave us a Statute and a Judgment And it is a certain Tradition that the Statute was the Sabbath and the Judgment was the taking away all iniquity i. e. doing Justice I will put none of those Diseases upon thee which I have brought upon the Egyptians He incourages their Obedience by a gracious Promise to preserve them from those terrible Plagues which he inflicted upon the Egyptians for their Disobedience Which is an Indication withal that if the Israelites proved like them they should be punished in the same manner as he threatens afterwards XXVIII Deut. 59 c. I am the LORD that healeth thee There are two parts of a Physicians Office to cure Men when they are sick and to preserve them in health when they are well The latter is here chiefly intended which the Psalmist takes notice of when he saith CV 37. There was not one feeble Person among their Tribes Ver. 27. And they came to Elim They seem to have stayed but a day at Marah and on the XXVth of Nisan to have come to this place called Elim which signifies Rams from the good Pasture which was here for the feeding Sheep as Jacobus Capellus will have it But Bochartus thinks that El signifies in general a Field as El-Paran XIV Gen. 6. he interprets the Field or Plain of Paran and consequently Elim signifies a part of the Wilderness where there were large and spacious Plains Thus I find Ezekiel the Tragaedian mentioned by Eusebius understood it in his Exagoge where he brings in one talking with Moses and pointing him to this place where a great Light shone on a sudden as a Pillar of Fire to show it to them Which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a shady Meadow and saith it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an exceeding fertil Ground L. IX Praepar Evang c. 29. Where were twelve Wells of Water and threescore and ten Palm-trees Twelve Wells of Water according to the number of the XII Tribes and LXX Palm Trees according to the number of the Elders of Israel says the Hiorusalem Targum and Jonathan's Paraphrase Which Nachmanides so much believed that he saith each Tribe pitched their Tents about one of these Fountains and the LXX Elders sat down under the shadow of the Palm Trees giving thanks to God for the Benefits they now received upon dry Land as lately they had done in the Sea But there is no reason to think that the high Court consisting of so many Elders was now constituted as I have observed before of which see Mr. Selden L. I. de Synedr c. 15. p. 626 c. There is nothing in the Story neither to warrant what Ezekiel says in the place before-named that these Twelve Springs all gushed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of one Rock which was in this beautiful Plain No more than there is for what follows in him concerning a marvellous strange Bird such as no Man ever saw before as big again as an Eagle of various Colours and a most sweet Voice which appeared to them upon this occasion Which he seems to have had out of some Talmudical Fable Palm-Trees This Tree delights in watery Places and therefore no wonder so many were planted here by these Fountains
For it is noted by Pliny that gaudet riguis toto anno bibere amat the Palm-Tree delights in places well watered and loves to drink all the year There were two sorts of these Trees the common and that which was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it bare Dates as Salmasius hath observed in his Plinianae exercit p. 472. 1326. If these were of the latter sort they gave them the better entertainment And they encamped there by the water To refresh themselves and their Flocks in this delightful place CHAP. XVI Verse 1. AND they took their journey from Elim After they had rested a good while there as appears by the end of the Verse And all the Congregation came unto the Wilderness of Sin Not directly but first they went back towards the Red-sea which was their next Station after they left Elim as Moses tells us XXXIII Numb 10. where he gives an exact account of all their Stations one of which is here omitted because nothing remarkable I suppose fell out there and they did not stay long in it This Sin is different from that where Miriam died XX Nunth 1. and written with different Letters Which is betweem Elim and Sinai So the direct way to Sinai had been into this Wilderness of Sin but for some reason which we know not they first return'd to some part of that Sea where they had been before On the fifteenth day of the second Month c. Just a Month after they came out of Egypt And therefore it seems they stayed a good while at Elim where there was plenty of Water and some shade which was now very comfortable this second Month which they call Ijar answering to part of our April and May. Or otherwise we must suppose they spent some time at the Red-sea whether God conducted them perhaps to put them in mind of his late great Mercy to them there which might incline them to be more obedient to his Commands mentioned XV. 25 26. Ver. 2. And the whole Congregation of the Children of Israel Their Elders and all are included in these words they being the same with those v. 1. which certainly comprehend all that came out of Egypt Though its likely there were some more pious among them who were not guilty of what follows when the generality were so mutinous that they who were better disposed could scarce be discerned Murmured against Moses and Aaron This seems to be an higher discontent than the former XV. 24. because the whole Congregation were ingaged in it whereas there it is only said the People were concerned in it And there they quarrelled only with Moses but here with both their Leaders And as that was for want of Water so this for want of Bread all their Dough which they brought out of Egypt being now spent So Josephus and R. Bechai which latter saith the Dough they brought out of Egypt sufficed for a whole Month from the XVth of Nisan to the XVth of Ijar and the Night of the XVIth they still are of it And then on the XVIth he thinks the Manna descended which fell on the first day of the Week as he argues from those words v. 5. when on the sixth day they are commanded to gather twice as much as on other days Which was says he both the sixth day of the Week and of the descent of the Manna Ver. 3. Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD c. As some of the Egyptians did A strange wish proceeding from great ingratitude to God and forgetfulness of his Benefits When he sat That was the ancient posture of eating before this time XXXVII 25. XLIII 33. and afterward XXXII Exod. 6. XIX Judg. 6. By the Flesh-pots and did eat Bread to the full This is not likely when they were not only meer Slaves but under cruel Hardships But they untruly magnisie their former Condition that they may represent their present to be more miserable than really it was For ye have brought us forth into this Wilderness They were glad to be brought out of Egypt but their Discontent arose from their being brought into a Wilderness where they wanted all Provisions but what they brought along with them To kill this whole Congregation with hunger There was no danger of their perishing presently they having so many Flocks to feed them But without Bread this would not satisfie them and they were loth it is likely to lose any of their Stock which they hoped rather to increase than to diminish Or else they longed for Dainties as they did afterwards which moved God to send them great store of Fowl as we understand v. 12. Ver. 4. Then said the LORD Dunto Moses He spake to him out of the Cloud of Glory where the SCHECHINAH was as I observed above I will rain Bread Send you down that which shall supply the place of Bread in a very plentiful manner like drops of Rain from Heaven from above out of the Clouds Which was as Greg. Nyssen speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the most incredible of all Wonders that Bread should be given them not as usually out of the Earth but out of the Air where no Seed is ever sown L. de Vita Mosis p. 177. Every day It came down in daily showres as much only as would suffice for one day that they might be kept in a perpetual thankful dependence upon God's Providence and that this might more evidently appear to be a miraculous Work of his who made it fall at all times of the year alike The Heathen themselves preserved some Memory of this in that Fable of Pan whom Huetius shows to be Moses finding out Ceres when she had been long wanting to give Men bread when they were ready to starve with hunger That I may prove them Some think this relates to what goes before concerning his sending them Bread every day which was so ordered that he might prove whether they would murmur because they had not enough at once for a whole year or humbly hope in his Mercy for a constant supply But the following words whether they will walk in my law or no direct us to a larger sense which is that he tried whether they would be obedient to all his Commands when he let them want nothing to support and incourage them in his Service Prove them Not as if he was ignorant but that it might plainly appear to others and to themselves what they were Or as Maimonides interprets it that it might openly appear to the World that God sustains him who follows his Worship and Service by means that he did not think of So he expounds this very place More Novoch P. III. c. 24. That every one may see and know whether it be beneficial to give ones self to the Service of God or not Ver. 5. On the sixth day they shall prepare that which they bring in When they had gathered it and brought it into their Tents they were
to grind and bake it c. v. 23. and make ready all things that were necessary against the next day which was to be a Festival viz. the Sabbath on which they were to do nothing For the Sabbath was not to be disturbed with such kind of Work but though on other Festivals they might prepare their Meat and only abstain from labour yet on this they might not so much as dress their Meat but it was to de done the Evening before on which they were to prepare every thing for the next day From which preparation this day was called the Parascue XXIII Luke 54. the preparation for the Sabbath And it shall be twice as much as they gather daily Enough that is for two days viz. that sixth day and the next which was to be the Sabbath v. 23. Where what is here briefly said in general is more particularly and largely explained The Talmudists are generally of an opinion that the XVth day of the second Month when they came hither v. 1. was the seventh day of the week See Mr. Selden L. III. de Jure N. G. c. 11. Which if it be true they knew nothing of the rest of the Sabbath for they travelled upon this day But Mr. Mede hath observed that it is altogether uncertain whether or no it was the seventh day from the Creation It might possibly fall out so by the Providence of God that the seventh day designed by him for their Sabbath might be both the seventh in order from the Creation and also from the day of their deliverance out of Egypt But that which now determined this seventh day after six days labour to be their rest was their Redemption out of Egypt and the Overwhelming of Pharaoh and his Host in the Red Sea which was upon this very day The Example of the Creation was a reason for sanctifying one day in seven but the designation of this seventh day was as I said from their wonderful deliverance See Discourse XV. Book 1. Ver. 6. And Moses and Aaron said unto all the Children of Israel What God spake to Moses alone v. 4. is delivered to the People by Aaron also who was assistant to his Brother in the Government of them At Even On the Evening of this fifteenth day God sent them Quails as we translate v. 13. Then ye shall know that the LORD hath brought you out from the Land of Egypt Be convinced that it was by the LORD's Direction and Command that you were brought out of Egypt into this place And therefore you have no reason to quarrel with us who did nothing of our selves without his order but rather to trust in him who can make as good provision for you here in the Wilderness as ever you saw in Egypt Ver. 7. And in the Morning When the Manna fell down v. 13. Then ye shall see the Glory of the LORD His great power some interpret it in sending them Bread from Heaven and Flesh also with it But I take it rather to refer unto the visible appearance of the Divine Majesty which they saw presently after this v. 10. and were convinced of his real Presence in that Cloud by the descent of the Manna from thence next Morning which no Power but the Divine could produce And so I find Abarbinel himself interprets it Their seeing the Glory of the LORD is not to be understood of the Bread or the Flesh he sent them but of the Fire which appeared to all the People to reprove them for their Murmurings For that he heareth your Murmurings against the LORD He is present among you and takes notice of your ungrateful behaviour towards him For what are we that ye murmur against us Alas we are but poor Instruments of his who hath done all the Wonders you have seen and by that means brought you hither And therefore why do you complain of us as if we acted any thing by our own Authority Ver. 8. And Moses said this shall be when the LORD shall give you c. I say again therefore mark it when the LORD shall give you Flesh to eat in the Evening and in the Morning Bread to the full then you shall be convinced that he hath taken notice of your Murmurings which are really against him who imploys us only as his Ministers and will be so gracious as not to punish your Discontents but provide for your Necessities Ver. 9. And Moses spake unto Aaron Who was his Minister as Moses was more immediately God's Speak unto the whole Congregation of the Children of Israel Who were all ingaged in this undutiful Murmuring v. 2. Come near before the LORD Before the SCHECHINAH or Divine Majesty which was in the Cloud as I observed XIII 21. and now was about to break forth upon them in a glorious manner But because of their Murmurings the Cloud was removed it is probable to a greater distance from them than it used to be Bonfrerius will have it that they were to come near to the Tabernacle of Moses where the Glory of the LORD appeared XXXIII 7 9. But there is no proof that it was wont to be there till that occasion See upon that place For he hath heard your murmurings He will show that he is among you and observes how ungratefully you requite him It is not unlikely that Moses bad Aaron go and speak to the People because he himself retired to speak to God That is to pray for them and to acknowledge his great Goodness in passing by their Murmurings Ver. 10. And it came to pass as Aaron spake unto the whole Congregation of the Children of Israel According to the Command of Moses v. 9. That they looked They were suddenly surprised I conceive with an unwonted brightness which made them look about to see whence it came Or Aaron perhaps bad them look that way Towards the Wilderness Whether the Cloud had conducted them and stood at some distance from them And behold the Glory of the LORD appeared in the Cloud The Divine Majesty appeared in flaming Light such as they had never seen before See XIII 21. Thus N. Lyra truly expounds Fulgor quidam insolitus c. an unusual Splendor representing the Divine Power to reprove the Murmurings of the People Ver. 11. And the LORD spake unto Moses Who was gone as I said to pray unto God whilst Aaron was speaking unto the People Ver. 12. I have heard the murmurings of the Children of Israel c. He repeats to Moses what he had bidden him tell them v. 4 5 6. and perhaps spake it from the Cloud of Glory in the Audience of all the People In the Evening ye shall eat Flesh v. 8. And in the Morning ye shall be silled with Bread v. 4. And ye shall know that I am the LORD your God Who brought you out of Egypt and will provide for you here in the Wilderness Ver. 13. And it came to pass that at Even According to God's Promise v. 6 8. The Quails
Sabbath therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days You have no reason to seek it on the Sabbath being provided before-hand with as much as is sufficient for that day Let no man go out of his place The Jews say that a Man went out of his place if he went above Two thousand paces from his dwelling That is if he went beyond the Suburbs of his City XXXV Numb 5. Ver. 30. So the people rested on the seventh day The Reprehension which God gave them by Moses v. 28. and the solemn renewal of the Precept v. 29. wrought so much upon them that for the present they rested upon this day And they not having been used to this rest God did not immediately punish their Disobedience in going abroad to gather Manna though afterward he ordered a Man to be stoned for gathering Sticks on this day for he had often repeated this Law to them before that time Ver. 31. And the House of Israel called the name thereof Manna This is repeated again to show that the name which they gave it at first v. 15. continued to it afterward being so apt and proper to signifie God's Providence over them that they could find no better And it was like Coriander Seed Of a round sigure like that Seed v. 14. White Being like Bedolach as Moses saith XI Numb 7. which signifies Pearl as Bochartus shows in his Hierozoic P. II. p. 678. where he observes the Talmudick Doctors in the Title Joma expresly say it was like Margalith or Margarith i.e. Pearl The taste of it was like Wafers made with honey All things of a pleasant relish are compared in Scripture to Honey Whence those words of David XIX Psalm 11. CXIX 103. Onkelos saith Manna tasted like Escaritae which was a delicious Food at Rhodes as Bochart observes out of Julius Pollux between Bread and Cake like our Bisket I suppose which was so grateful that they who did eat it were never satiated but still desired more In the XI Numb 7 8. Manna is said to taste like fresh Oyl Which doth not contradict this for as Abarbinel and others observe the meaning is that when it first fell before it was prepared it tasted like Honey-wafers but when it was baked then it tasted like fresh Oyl And so the words XI Numb 8. plainly import they took it and beat it in a Mortar and baked it c. and the taste of it i. e. thus prepared was like the taste of fresh Oyl Nay the Jewish Doctors commonly say it had all manner of pleasant savours according to Mens different Palates and thence they fancy it is called v. 29. the Bread Mischne which we translate of two days because it was changed according to the diversity of those that did eat it Children young men and old Which conceit the Author of the Book of Wisdom follows XVI 20 21. Ver. 32. And Moses said This is the thing which the LORD commandeth I have this further Command to deliver from God concerning the Manna Take an Omer of it Just so much as was assigned to every one for his daily Bread v. 16. To be kept for your Generations For your Posterity in future Ages That they may see the Bread wherewith I have fed you c. For seeing with ones eyes saith Isaac Aramah mightily confirms a thing and leaves one in no doubt of it And he took care they should see both the Manna it self and the measure which he bountifully allowed to every one of them Ver. 33. And Moses said unto Aaron What God commanded Moses he now commands Aaron to do Take a Pot. He saith nothing of the matter of this Pot or Vrn which some say was an Earthen Pot others say of Lead Brass or Iron and Abarbinel thinks it was of Glass that one might see what was within But the Apostle hath setled this Controversie by calling it a Golden Pot IX Hebr. 4. and so do the LXX in this place And indeed all the Vessels of the Sanctuary being of Gold it was but reason that this which contained such a precious Monument of God's Mercy should be of the same Metal Lay it up before the LORD i.e. Before the Ark of the Testimony as it is explained in the next Verse Which shows that this Command was given after the building of the Tabernacle and is here mentioned because it belongs to the same matter which Moses relates in this Chapter Others suppose it was spoken by way of Prolepsis which seems not to me so probable Ver. 34. So Aaron laid it up When the Tabernacle was built Before the Testimony This is the same with before the LORD in the foregoing Verse For the Divine Glory dwelt between the Cherubims which were over the Ark which is commonly called the Ark of the Testimony XXX 6. XL. 3 5. But here and XXV 36. is simply called the Testimony by an Ellipsis or leaving out the first word which is very usual in other Instances For thus it is called the Ark of God's strength 2 Chron. VI. 41. but elsewhere the first word being omitted it is called only his strength LXXVIII Psalm 61. CV 4. And therefore the Ark is called the Testimony partly because there God gave them a special Token of his Dwelling among them and partly because the two Tables of Stone were in the Ark which are called the Testimony XL. 20. Where it is said Moses put the Testimony into the Ark and then immediately v. 21. he calls it the Ark of the Testimony Ver. 35. And the Children of Israel did eat Manna forty years Within a Month which wanted to make compleat forty years For it begun to fall just XXX days after they came out of Egypt on the XVth of April and ceased to fall on the XVth or XVIth of March the day after the Passover which they kept in the Fortieth year V Josh 11 12. Now in all Writers some days under or over are not wont to be considered when there is a round Number But there are those who fancy these words were put into this Book after Moses his death for which I can see no ground For it is certain he lived the greatest part of the Fortieth year after they came out of Egypt and brought them to the Borders of Canaan within sight of it I Dent. 3. XXXIV 1 2 c. And therefore may well be supposed to have added these words himself to this History as he did the foregoing v. 32. that all belonging to this matter might be put together in one place Vntil they came to a Land inhabited i. e. To Canaan or the Borders of it as it here follows For these words saith Aben-Ezra have respect to the Wilderness in which they now were which was not inhabited Vntil they came unto the Borders of the Land of Canaan That is saith he to Gilgal which was the Borders when they had passed over Jordan when they did eat of the Corn of the Land and had no
mention them Ver. 4. And Moses cried unto the LORD Which he did not upon their first complaint v. 2. because their necessity was not so urgent but now seeing their Distress and the heigth of their Discontent he prays God to take care of them hoping he would supply them with drink as lately he had done with Bread What shall I do unto this People He said enough no doubt to quiet them by remembring them what God had already done for them and what reason they had still to trust in his good Providence But this would not satisfie them unless their thirst was presently quenched which he could not do for them and therefore knew not how to appease them They be almost ready to stone me He represents to God not only their importunity but his own great danger For having promised to bring them to Canaan he was afraid as Abarbinel fancies that if they continued to think they should die with thirst they would take him for a false Prophet who had deceived them with Lies and consequently inflict the Punishment upon him which the Law enacts against a false Prophet which was stoning But the Law being not yet given this could not be in their thoughts Ver. 5. And the LORD said unto Moses Go on before the People Be not afraid of their stoning saith the same Aharbinel but though they murmur and are in a great passion and impatient go on before them confidently through the midst of their Camps and thou shalt see they shall not touch the hem of thy Garment And take with thee of the Elders of Israel Not valiant young Men to thy Life-guard but grave Persons to be Witnesses that thou dost really bring Water out of a Rock and the People may not say there was a Spring there before Concerning the Elders of Israel See III. 16. And thy Rod wherewith thou smotest the River take in thy hand Not a Sword or a Lance saith the same Writer but that Wand wherewith thou smotest the River of Egypt and turnedst it into Blood or didst divide the Red Sea as some understand it an Arm of the Sea being by good Authors called a River And go As I bid thee When he is commanded to march before the People it is supposed they were to follow but they could not all move so soon as he and the Elders who went before to the very place Which the whole Body of the People could not do the passage to the Rock it is likely being narrow so that they could not all see him smite the Rock and behold the Water gush out but expected till it flowed from thence unto their Camp Ver. 6. Behold I will stand before thee there upon the Rock That is the Glory of the LORD which in the Cloud appeared in this place as Abarbinel truly expounds it to strengthen his Faith and to perswade the Elders that this Water was Divinely given them even as the Manna was For before that fell from above the Glory of the LORD appeared XVI 10. as it did now before this Water flowed to them from the Rock So that they were fed continually by the Divine Providence from whence they received both their Meat and their Drink There is an Emphatical He as they call it before the word for Rock and therefore it should be translated upon that Rock Where Abarbinel fancies the LORD was wont to appear to Moses but this being a rocky place it may only denote that particular part of the Rock to which God directed him to go and was the same that Author probably thinks with that mentioned XXXIII 22. In Horeb. This was not a distinct Mountain from Sinai but only a different part of the same Mountain which was long and had many risings of which this was one And thou shalt smite the Rock With the Rod wherewith he smote the River VII 17 20. And there shall come water out of it that the People may drink According to their Petition v. 2. And Moses did so i. e. Smote the Rock and brought Water out of it in such plenty that the Psalmist saith it ran down like Rivers LXXVIII 15 16. to supply the want of the whole Camp unto which it flowed as far as Rephidim so that they needed not to go to Horeb for it Which is the difference as Abarbinel thinks between this Miracle and that mentioned XX Numb where the Waters were but like a Well to which they must go and did not come to them much less follow them in their Journeys as this did For this was a continued Fountain of Water which flowed out of the Rock CXIV Psal 8. and made this part of Arabia habitable in future Ages which no Man dwelt in before Moses doth not add and the People drank and their Cattle because as Aben-Ezra observes he studied brevity and this was easily understood In the sight of the Elders of Israel That they might be able to testifie to the People the truth of this Miracle whereby they were relieved in their Distress and preserved in their Travels through the Wilderness The fame of which no doubt reached other Nations the memory of it being remaining in several of their Fables For there is a manifest allusion to it in Euripides his Bacchae v. 703. where he makes one of them smiting the Rock at Cithaeron and Waters gushing out of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This I find observed by Bochartus in his Canaan L. I. c. 16. and Huetius hath observed many more such Instances out of Nonnus Pausanias and divers other Authors in his Alnetanae Quaestiones L. II. c. 12. n. 18. And he thinks it very probable that the Fable of Janus was forged from hence for which he alledges many Arguments in his Demonstratio Evang. and this among the rest that Albricus describes his Image holding a Rod in his left hand with which he smites a Stone and out of it Water flows Ver. 7. And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah c. That place which before was called Rephidim was after this called Massah and Meribah with respect to their chiding there with Moses which is the import of Meribah and their tempting God which is the signification of Massah Some think this one place was not called by two Names but that upon the second striking of the Rock almost forty years after this it was called Meribah and till then only Massah But in that Story it is not said the place was called Meribah but the water XX Numb 13. Is the LORD among us or not Doth he take care of us or not regard what becomes of us For God is said to be among or as the Phrase in the Hebrew in the midst of those whom he protects and provides for by a special Providence as we find VII Deut. 21. XXIII 14. III Josh 20. and many other places Ver. 8. Then came Amalek and fought c. The ground of their Enmity is commonly thought to
Example to others so are Families and Nations And Amalek being the very first that drew a Sword against Israel unprovoked God passed this heavy Doom upon them whereas Ammon and Moab saith he who out of meer Covetousness committed what they did against Israel and wrought Mischief to them by Craft and Subtilty had only this Punishment inflicted upon them that Israel should not contract Affinity with them c. XXIII Deut. 3 4. XXV ult More Nevochim P. III. c. 41. Ver. 15. And Moses built an Altar Commonly Altars were built for Sacrifice which Moses perhaps here offered in thankfulness to God for his Benefits particulary this great Victory But they were also built sometimes only as Memorials XXII Josh 26 27. as this perhaps was He thinking it sit to preserve the memory of this Victory not only by writing but by this Monument also and the Inscription he lest upon it And he called the Name of it JEHOVAH-Nissi Or The LORD my Banner i. e. By him we overcame them Some will have it translated not he called it but he called him i. e. the LORD by the Name of the LORD who lifted up a Banner i. e. fought for them LX Psal 6. From which Inscription Bochartus thinks came the Name of Dionysus among the Greeks who from this word Nissi call'd him Nissaeus or Nysaeus and adding the Name of their own Jupiter to it called him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 L. I. Canaan c. 18. For Bacchus is said to have been a great Warrior and to have made mighty Conquests And as Huetius observes is called Arsaphes which is the very Name given to Moses by the Egyptians who called him Osarsiph Nay in Orpheus his Hymns Bacchus is called Mises which seems to be the same with Moses Out of whose Story all that the Greeks and others say of Bacchus seems to have been framed as he shows with great probability Demonstr Evang. Propos IV. c. 4. n. 3. Ver. 16. For he said Because the LORD hath sworn c. In the Hebrew the words are The hand upon the Throne of the LORD Which is commonly interpreted The LORD hath sworn by his Throne So R. Solomon and Aben-Ezra and the Chaldee whose Paraphrase is This is spoken with an Oath from the face of the terrible One whose Majesty is upon the Throne of Glory that the LORD will have War with Amalek c. That is saith Maimonides he hath sworn by himself More Nevoch P. I. c. 9. for in this and all other places the word Kisse i.e. Throne signifies his Magnificence and Power which is not any thing without his Essence but is himself But here being no mention of lifting up the hand which is the Phrase for Swearing VI Exod. 8. XXXII Deut. 40. it may more simply be expounded because the hand of the LORD sitting upon the Throne of his Majesty is stretched out and holds up his Banner to fight with Amalek throughout all Generations For Moses seems to allude in this Phrase to what he had said v. 11 12. When Moses lifted up his hand then Israel prevailed c. and bids them take notice it was his hand i. e. the Omnipotent Power of God which gave them this Victory and would perpetually prosecute Amalek till they were destroyed Joseph Scaliger would have Kes-jah to be but one word and to signifie the same with Kese which according to him is the last day of the Month on which this Battle was fought And so this to be a part of the Inscription upon the Altar as if he had said This Pillar was set up on the last day of the second Month to declare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 irreconcileable War with Amalek for ever L. III. de Emend Temp. p. 223. But this is too bold a conceit and is confuted by Hacspan and Glassius There is a more ingenious conjecture which I have some where met with if there were any thing in Scripture to warrant it that laying the hand on the Throne was a form of Swearing as touching the Altar was among some Nations which was as much as our laying the hand on the Bible a principal External Character of a Solemn Oath Whence Juvenal saith Atheists do intrepidos altaria tangere touch the Altars boldly without trembling i. e. make no Conscience of an Oath But the Marginal Translation after all is very literal and makes the sense exceeding plain and clear Because the hand of Amalek is against the Throne of the LORD i. e. against God himself therefore the LORD will have War with Amalek from Generation to Generation This is easie and natural and agrees with the whole History that because they came out and opposed the Design of God who in a visible and most glorious manner conducted the Israelites to the Land he had promised to give them he would never be reconciled to them For it was an high Affront to his Majesty who had lately done such astonishing Wonders as were famed no doubt in all the Neighbouring Nations XV. 14 15. CHAP. XVIII Verse 1. NOW Jethro the Priest of Midian c. Many ancient and later Versions have it Prince of Midian See Chap. II. v. 16. Heard of all that God had done for Moses and for Israel c. The Fame of which went into all the Countries thereabout XV. 14 c. Ver. 2. Took Zipporah Moses wise after he had sent her back It is uncertain when Moses sent her back to her Father but it is likely it was done at her own desire when she saw how difficult his Work was likely to prove in Egypt See IV. 26. The Hebrew word seems to some to intimate a Divorce as the Mauritanian Jews take it But all Christian Versions and that of the Jerman Jews and the Persian understand it as we do See Selden de Vxor Hebr. p. 629. Ver. 3. And her two Sons c. Whose Names carry in them a thankful Remembrance of God's great Mercy to him Gershom See II. 22. Ver. 4. Eliezer Who is thought to have been born a little before he left Midian and went out of Midian into Egypt by God's special derection See IV. 25. Ver. 5. And Jethro c. came unto Moses Took a Journey out of Midian to give him a visit Into the Wilderness Into the same Wilderness where Moses and the Israelites now were Where he incamped at the Mount of God viz. At Horeb which was not far from Midian it appears from III. 11. where we read that when Moses fed Jethro's Flock he led them hither to this Mount Which is called God's Mount because there he appeared sirst to Moses III. 2 c. and had lately appeared there again upon the Rock XVII 6. unto which place he bid Moses lead the Congregration XVII 5. who were now I suppose incamped thereabout after the sight with Amalek in Rephidim which was not far from it Ver. 6. And he said unto Moses By a Letter which he sent him from the place where he was incamped of which
these were the Contents to give him notice of his coming Which was but necessary that he might without any impediment pass the Guards which we may well think Moses had set very carefully after the Fight with Amalek who had suddenly surprized the hindmost of the People XXV Deut. 18. I thy Father-in-law Jethro am come unto thee c. Am upon the way and come near to thee Here it may be sit to take notice that there is a great dispute among Interpreters about the time when Jethro came from Midian with Moses his Wife and Children whether immediately after the Fight with Amalek as it is here set down or some time after when the Israelites were better settled One would think that he could not but take the first opportunity to visit Moses and to bring him and his nearest Relations together after he heard the News of their coming out of Egypt and their passing the Red Sea c. The news of which could not but reach him who was a Borderer upon this Wilderness Yet the Hebrews are generally of an opinion that this fell out after the giving of the Law at Mount Sinai and many Christians have been of the same mind particularly such great Men as our most Learned Primate Vsher ad A. M. 2514. and Mr. Selden L. II. de Synedris c. 2. where he saith no other account of it is to be received nec aliam sanè sententiam omninò amplexandam sentio but they are not agreed in what year he came Some say it was in this first year after their coming out of Egypt And the Hebrews have an opinion that it was in the Month of Tisri and on the eleventh day of that Month when Jethro gave the following Counsel to Moses v. 19 c. i. e. above three Months after God gave the Law from Mount Sinai or after Moses received the second Tables But others are as consident that it was in the second year and place this Story according to order of time after X Numb 28. or as Dr. Lightfoot thinks it should come in between the 10th and 11th Verses of that Tenth of Numbers And Primate Vsher in like manner judges his coming to have been about that time But though all this be uncertain yet Mr. Selden thinks he hath a strong ground to affirm it was after the giving of the Law from what we read I Deut. 6 9 10 11 c. And I confess it seems plain from thence that the Regulation which Moses made by the advice of Jethro was after God spake to them in Horeb which is the same with Mount Sinai For though he did appear at Horeb before this as I observed XVII 6. yet he said nothing then of that which Moses mentions I Deut. which was after the giving of the Law At which time he saith there v. 9. it was that he told them he was not able to bear them himself alone c. But notwithstanding this I cannot think that the coming of Jethro to Moses was deferred so long for no reason can be given why Moses here places the Story of it if it did not follow their Fight with Amalek though he did not give him the advice for the better Administration of Justice till after God had delivered the Law from Mount Sinai as I shall observe in its proper place Ver. 7. And Moses went out to meet his Father-in-law Before he came into the Camp or at least before he came to his Tent that he might show the great respect he bare to him and his joy to see him And did obeysance and kissed him Welcomed him according to the Custom of those Countries And they asked each other of their welfare Had such discourse together as Friends commonly have at their meeting till they came into the Tent. And they came into the Tent. Into the Tent of Moses or rather the Tent prepared to entertain Jethro But the Talmudists are so possessed with the opinion that this hapned some Months if not a whole Year after the Law was given that they take this Tent to have been Beth-midrash the House of Exposition or the School where Moses made the People understand the Law For so Jonathan in his Paraphrase upon this and the foregoing Verse I thy Father-in-law am come unto thee that I may be made a Proselyte And if thou wilt not receive me for my own sake yet admit me for the sake of thy Wife and Children which I bring with me And Moses went out from under the Cloud of Glory to meet him c. and when they had mutually saluted they came into the Tabernacle of the House of Learning But nothing can be more absurd than this fancy that he carried him immediately to hear a Lecture upon the Law Ver. 8. And Moses told his Father-in-law all that the LORD had done to Pharaoh c. It seems to me from these words and those that follow that all we read hitherto about this matter fell out in order of time as it is here set down For if it had hapned after the giving of the Law it is most probable he would have said something of the most remarkable passage of all other Gods glorious appearance to them on Mount Sinai and the Law he had delivered to them c. Whereas at this meeting he only relates what God had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians and how the LORD delivered them and all the Travel that came upon them by the way which comprehends their passing through the Red Sea and their want of Water and Bread and their Fight with Amalek That is all that we read in the foregoing Chapters And accordingly Jethro rejoyced for their deliverance from the Egyptians v. 9. and gives thanks to God for it v. 10. taking notice of nothing else Ver. 9. And Jethro rejoyced for all the goodness which the LORD had done to Israel c. The Gentiles as Conradus Pellicanus here observes more devoutly acknowledged God's Mercies when they understood them than the Jews themselves did With which our Saviour when he came upbraids that People sinding such Faith among the Gentiles as he could not meet withal in Israel Ver. 10. Blessed be the LORD who hath delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians c. This may relate to the Preservation of Moses and Aaron who had brought the sorest Plagues upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians and yet God suffered them not to hurt them Who hath delivered the People from under the hand of the Egyptians And then this relates to the Deliverance of the whole Body of the People from the Egyptian Bondage and to the overthrow of Pharaoh and his Host in the Red Sea whereby the Israelites were sinally delivered from under the hand i. e. the tyranny and oppression of the Egyptians Ver. 11. Now I know that the LORD He knew the true God before but was now fully convinced that he alone was the most High Is greater then all Gods Than all that the
to be a plain gradation in this Commandment three things being here forbidden if we take the first part of it to signifie that they might not so much as make a graven Image or any likeness of any thing for fear they should be tempted to Idolatry But though this may be supposed to have been a sin yet not so great as the next to bow down to them which was a degree of Honour too high to be paid unto any Image But was not the highest of all which was to serve them by offering Sacrifice burning Incense making Vows to them or swearing by them or consecrating Temples to them or lighting Candles before them For I the LORD thy God am a jealous God This reason shows that this Commandment is different from the first and not a part of it For worshipping of Images is forbidden not meerly because he was their God and there is but one God but because He is a jealous God who could not endure any Corrival or Consort in that which was proper to himself And so the ancient Jews and Christians also before St. Austin took this for the second Commandment The Arabian Christians in later times particularly Elmacinus distinctly name the Ten Commandments in that order which we now do as Hottinger observes in his Smegma Orientale p. 436. Visiting i.e. Punishing with heavy Judgments XXVI Lev. 39. The iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children This was threatned to terrifie them from this sin which would ruin their Families being a kind of High Treason against the LORD of Heaven and Earth Yet Aben-Ezra understands it only of such Children as trod in the steps of their Forefathers for if they repented the Punishment was mitigated XXVI Lev. 40 c. Vnto the third and fourth Generation That is as long as they could be supposed to live which might be to see the third and perhaps the fourth Generation he threatens to pursue them with his Vengeance in their Posterity whose Punishment they themselves should behold to their great grief So great was his hatred to this Sin and so odious were such People to him Thus Maimonides expounds it in his More Nevoch P. I. c. 54. Visiting the iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children is threatned only against the Sin of Idolatry as appears from what follows that such Sinners are called haters of him And he mentions only to the fourth Generation because the most a Man can live to see of his Seed is the fourth Generation Accordingly God orders saith he that if any City prove Idolaters the Inhabitants should be destroyed utterly and all that was therein XIII Deut. 13 14 15. Fathers Children Grand-children Great-grand-children and the new-born Children were all killed for the Sin of their Parents Hence he saith VII Deut. 10. he repayeth them that hate him to their face which is there twice mentioned Of them that hate me For he looked on them not only as Enemies but as haters of him It is an Observation of the same Maimonides that in the whole Law of Moses and in the Books of the Prophets we shall never find these words Fury Anger Indignation Jealousie attributed to God but when they speak of Idolatry nor any Man called an Enemy to God an Adversary an Hater of him but only Idolaters VI Deut. 14 15. XI 16 17. XXXI 29 c. I Nehem. 2. VII Deut. 10. XXXII Numb 21. XII Deut. 31. XVI 22. See More Nevoch P. 1. c. 36. which he repeats c. 54. No man is called an hater of God but an Idolater according to that XII Deut. 31. every abomination to the LORD which he hateth By which it appears that they counted the Worshippers of Images Idolaters though they did not think these Images to be Gods for no Man in the World ever thought an Image made of Wood and Stone Silver or Gold to be the Creator of Heaven and Earth or the Governour of the World but took them only for things intermediate between God and them as he there speaks This was a Law so well known to the ancient Heathens that the best Menamong them would suffer no Images to be set up in their Temples In particular Numa forbad this to the Romans which he learnt as Clemens Alexandrinus thinks from Moses Insomuch that for the space of an Hundred and seventy years though they built Temples yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they made no Image neither Statue nor so much as a Picture L. I. Stromat p. 304. Plutarch relates the same in the Life of Numa Pompilius and adds this reason that he thought it a great Crime to represent the most excellent Being by such mean things and that God was to be apprehended only by the Mind The ancient Persians pretend to have received the same Law from their Zoroaster who in a number of things is so like to Moses that Huetius thinks not without reason his story was framed out of these Books Ver. 6. And showing mercy unto thousands To invite their Obedience he promises to be kind unto them and their Posterity for many Generations so thousands signifies who were loyal and faithful to him Such is the infinite goodness of God that he delights in showing Mercy more than in Acts of Severity there being such a disproportion between the one and the other as there is between three or four and a thousand Which made the heavy Punishment of Idolaters the more reasonable because they might have enjoyed such great and long continued Blessings if they would have kept close to their Religion Of them that love me Adhered to him alone as the only Object of Worship and Adoration with such an Affection as a chaste Wife bears to her Husband For God now espoused this Nation to himfelf as the Prophets taught them to understand it and therefore all the Idolatry which is forbidden in these Commandments is called going a whoring from him And keep my Commandments Not only professed to be his intirely but proved it by observing his Precepts Which keeping or observing of his Commandments is mentioned here perhaps and not any of the following Commandments because this and the first were the principal upon which the rest depended There being no reason to mind what he said if they acknowledged any other God but him Ver. 7. Thou shalt not take the Nante of the LORD thy God in vain By the Name of the LORD in Scripture is meant the LORD himself and to take or lift up his Name is to Swear by him So this word Nasa sometimes signifies without the addition of God's Name III Isa 7. Jissa he shall lift up in that day which we truly render in that day he shall swear which they did then with the Hand lifted up to Heaven And to take his Name or swear in vain is to swear falsly That 's the principal meaning undoubtedly that they should not call God to witness unto a Lie promising in his Name that which they meant not to perform or affirming or denying
days the Lord made Heaven and Earth There were two reasons for the Sanctification of this day One was because God rested from his Work of Creation on the Seventh day which is mentioned here the other was because he had given them rest from their Labours in Egypt which he mentions in the Vth of Deuteronomy There is no body hath explained both these better than Maimonides More Nevoch P. II. c. 31. There are two different Causes saith he for this Precept from two different Effects For when Moses first explained to us the cause of this Celebration in the Promulgation of the X. Commandments he saith it was because in six days the LORD made Heaven and Earth But in the repetition of them he saith Remember that thou was a servant in Egypt c. therefore the LORD thy God commanded thee to keep the Sabbath day V Deut. 15. The first Cause is the Glory and Magnificence of this day as it is said Therefore the LORD blessed the seventh day and sancified it II Gen. 3. This was the effect of that Cause for in six days he made Heaven and Earth this was the reason he means of the first Institution of the Sabbath but that he gave this Precept of the Sabbath unto us i.e. the Israelites and commanded us to observe it was from the other Cause which followed the first Cause because we were Servants in Egypt All which time we could not serve according to our own Will and Pleasure nor had any Rest or observed a Sabbath And therefore God gave us this special Precept of Resting and Cessation from Labours to joyn together these two Reasons viz. the belief of the beginning of the World which presently suggests to us the Being of God and then the memory of Gods Benefits unto us in giving us Rest from our intolerable Burdens in Egypt Wherefore he blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it In the beginning of the World he blessed the Seventh day II Gen. 3. and now particularly chose this Seventh day for a Sabbath which he ordered them to observe in memory of their coming out of Egypt on that day as I observed XVI 5 23. By which he preserved in their minds that singular Benefit which he had bestowed upon them and most manifestly saith Maimonides in another place P. III. c. 43. procured great ease to all sorts of Men by freeing a seventh part of their Lives from wearisom Labour Which hath another Blessing in conjunction with it that it perpetually preserved and confirmed that most precious History and Doctrine concerning the Creation of the World Ver. 12. Honour thy Father and thy Mother In another place they are commanded to fear them XIX Lev. 3. and as here the Father is put before the Mother so there the Mother is put before the Father to show as Maimonides takes it in his Treatise called Memarim c. 6. that we ought not to make any difference between them but they are both equally to be honoured and reverenced Which is a Duty of such great concernment that we are taught by the placing of this Commandment immediately after those which peculiarly relate to God's Worship that next to his Majesty our Parents are to be honoured with that reverence love obedience and maintenance which is due to them And therefore notorious disobedience to them is threatned with death as well as Apostacy from God Wherein this honour or fear doth consist is taught in all Books of Religion and Mr. Selden hath named a great many things wherein the Jews place it as the Learned Reader may see L. II. de Synedr c. 13. p. 558 c. I shall only add that this was a Law among the Heathens mentioned by Saleucus Charondas and others in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let Children honour their Parents And thus Vlpian expresses it Filio semper honesta sancta persona Patris videri debet And afterward Filium Patrem Matrem venerari oportet With much more that Hen. Stephanus hath collected in his Fontes Rivi Juris Civilis That thy days may be long in the Land c. As disobedience to Parents is by the Law of Moses threatned to be punished with death so on the contrary long Life which is the greatest worldly Blessing is promised to the Obedient and that in their own Country which God had peculiarly inriched with abundance of his Blessings Heathens also gave the very same incouragement saying that such Children should be dear to the Gods both living and dead So Euripides 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this famous Senarius mention'd by the fame Henr. Stephanus with many other notable Passages 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thou shalt live long or as long as thou canst desire if thou nourish thy ancient Parents Whence children are called by Xenophon and others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ver. 13. Thou shalt not kill After the Command about the respect due to Parents naturally follows the regard we ought to have to all other Men who spring from them And the greatest injury we can do another is to take away his Life whereby he is deprived of all the Enjoyments of this World and Humane Society it self is also wounded which cannot subsist if its innocent Members cannot be safe Innocent I say for this Commandment doth not hinder Men from defending themselves from violence XXII 2. nor forbids Magistrates to punish those with death who commit Crimes worthy of it for this is to preserve the Lives of other Men XXII 18 19 20. Ver. 14. Thou shalt not commit Adultery Next to a Man's self his Wife is nearer to him than any other Person they two being one flesh Which makes the injury done to him in her Person a breach of Humane Society next to Murder Nay the LXX place this Commandment before the other Thou shalt not kill Vertuous Woman valuing their Chastity more than their Lives and the Crimes to which meer Pleasure tempts Men being more grievous in the opinion of the great Philosopher than those to which they are stimulated by anger Whoredom is also forbidden in the Law of Moses and Incest as Wounding any Man is as well as Murder but in these X. Words which are a short Abridgment of their Duty it was sufficient only to mention the principal things of every kind which were hateful to God and injurious to Men. Ver. 15. Thou shalt not steal This was to injure Men in their Goods and Possessions either by open Rapine or by Craft and Cheating against which God intended to secure them by this Precept Several sorts of this Sin are afterwards mentioned in particular Laws Ver. 16. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy Neighbour As our Neighbour is not to be injured by us in Deeds so not in Words by giving a false Testimony against him before a Judge which is the chief Sin of this kind This is both an injury to our Neighbour and an affront to God in whose place
the Judge is whom we go about to deceive Large Commentaries on these Commandments are not to be expected which may be found in many Authors commonly known Ver. 17. Thou shalt not covet thy Neighbours house c. Here is forbidden so much as the designing any Mischief to others in any of the things forementioned For as all Injuries in word or deed are prohibited in the IV. preceding Commandments So in this he prohibits those which are only in the heart or counsels of Men but never come to light And in the enumeration of the things they were not to covet he begins first with that which was last mentioned and so backard to the other For he saith Thou shalt not covet thy Neighbours House by designing to bear false witness or to commit theft And then follows thou shalt not covet thy Neighbours Wife by intending to abuse her if opportunity served nor his Man-servant nor his Maid-servant c. which are his principal Goods He saith nothing of thirsting after his Life which is supposed to be unlawful because less than that is forbidden Menander hath something like this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Do not so much as covet the thred of a Needle for God sees thee being intimately present with thee See more in Grotius his Prolegomena in Excerpta ex Stobaeo Ver. 18. And all the People saw the Thundrings c. Seing being the principal Sense it is frequently put for the rest and this passage may be translated they sensibly perceived c. See XLII Gen. 1. and Drusius's Quaestiones Hebr. L. I. c. 10. The Thundrings and the Lightnings XIX 16. And the noise of the Trumpet Which ceased while God spake the X. Words to them but now began again together with Thunders and Lightnings when they were ended For as they were introduced in a most Majestick manner to raise their attention and strike an awe into them so they were closed that they might be the more sensible of the dreadfulness of that Majesty who spake to them and that they might have a greater reverence to his Law They removed and stood afar off They were at the bottom of the Mount while God spake to them but now started back for fear those Flames they saw upon the Mountain V Deut. 25. and perhaps flashed from thence in a terrible manner should devour them How far they removed we know not some think to the place where they were incamped before this glorious Appearance out of which Moses brought them to meet with God XIX 2 17. Ver. 19. And they said unto Moses By the Heads of their Tribes and their Elders V Deut. 23. who came from the People to Moses while he remained still in his place For he saith there they came near unto him when they spake these words which signifies they were at some distance before Speak thou with us and we will hear c. They desire that what God had farther to command them He would be pleased to acquaint Moses with it and they would receive it as his own words but should die with fear if they heard him speak any more with his own Voice This is more largely related V Deut. 24 25 c. and accordingly God afterward communicated to Moses alone the rest of his Laws both concerning Religion and Civil Government Ver. 20. And Moses said unto the People He bad the Elders return this Answer to the People that sent them Fear not Be not afraid of your lives No hurt shall come to you For God is come to prove you God intends by this dreadful Appearance to discover unto your selves and others whether you will be such as you pretend XIX 8. And that his fear may be before your face And that you may have an awful sense of him in your Mind by having before your eyes continually the Glory of his Majesty of which you were lately sensible v. 18. That you sin not Let this be your only fear not to offend God by disobeying his Commands Ver. 21. And the People stood afar off In their Tents within their Camp For God commanded him to bid the Elders after this Discourse to go to their Tents from whence they came where I suppose the rest of the People were V Deut. 30. But he bad Moses stay with him and he would as they desired tell him all the rest of the things which he intended to enjoyn them v. 31. And Moses drew near unto the thick darkness where God was Who called him to him again as he had done before XIX 20. There is a curious Observation in Pirke Elieser that the Hebrew word here is not Nogesh he approached or drew near as we trunslate it but Niggesh he was drawn near The Angel Gabriel or Michael as he fancies coming and taking him by the hand and leading him up to God cap. 41. But this signifies rather that he did not go up of his own accord but was called by God to draw near to his Divine Majesty Which he did the next day upon the seventh day of Sivan and received LVII Laws besides the X. which God himself delivered partly Civil and partly Religious which were Explications of the Decalogue Ver. 22. And the LORD said unto Moses When they were together in the thick Cloud before mentioned Thus thou shalt say unto the Children of Israel When thou goest down again to them Ye have seen that I have talked with you from Heaven The apprehension of one sense as Maimonides phrases it More Nevoch P. I. c. 46. is usually in Scripture put for the apprehension of another As See the word of the LORD II Jer. 31. that is hear it or mark it diligently Or the meaning here may be You saw i. e. perceived by the Thundrings and Lightnings and all the rest of the Tokens of a Majestatick Presence that it was I who spake from above Ver. 23. Ye shall not make with me The Hebrew Writers here make a pause or full stop as if it were a compleat Sentence And the meaning is explained in the Talmud to be Ye shall not make the Similitude of the Ministers that minister before me above as the Sun the Moon the Stars or the Angels Ger. Bab. upon Avoda Zura And so Maimonides upon the same Subject It is unlawful to form the Images of the Sun the Moon the Stars the Celestial Signs or Angels according to that which is written Ye shall not make with me i. e. nothing like the Ministers that minister to me above See Selden L. II. de Jure N. G. c. 6. p. 198. But if we joyn these with the following words the sense is the same that as they acknowledged no other Gods but him so they should not make any Image to represent him To inforce which the word make is repeated in the end of the Verse whereby greater efficacy is added to the Command Gods of silver or gods of gold shall ye not make unto you He gives this
Caution lest by the splendour of these Metals they should be tempted being prone to Superstition and Idolatry to make such kind of Representations For by Gods are meant Images to represent him which at the first were made very glittering like the heavenly Bodies but afterward they proceed to worship Images of meer Wood or Stone The coherence of this with the foregoing Verses is something obscure unless we observe how this is reported in the Book of Deuteronomy where Moses puts them in mind that they saw no Similitude on the day that God spake with them in Horeb IV. 15. and therefore not to make them a graven Image the similitude of any Figure c. v. 16 17 18 19. Accordingly the meaning is here ye have seen that I talked with you from Heaven i. e. you heard only a Voice but saw no Similitude of Man or any other Creature therefore ye shall not represent me by any Image though never so rich and glorious And thus Greg. Nyssen seems to have understood it de Vita Mosis p. 180. God gave Moses many Divine Commandments the chief of which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Piety towards God and to have becoming Notions and Conceptions of the Divine Nature as transcending all visible things nay all our thoughts and like to nothing that we know And therefore he bids them in their conceptions of him not to look at any thing they saw nor liken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Nature which transcends the whole Vniverse to any thing that they were acquainted withal There was the greater need of this Precept if the Egyptian Worship in these days was the same with that in other times when Osiris was adored in the form of a golden Ox or an Ox of Wood all gilded over as Plutarch calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ver. 24. An Altar of Earth shalt thou make unto me For the better observation of the foregoing Commandment he orders that his Altars should be made as plain and simple as might be Either of Sods and Turfs of Earth which were easily prepared in most places whilst they staid in the Wilderness or of rough and unpolished Stone if they came into rocky places where no Sods were to be got that so there might be no occasion to grave any Image upon them Such Altars Tertullian observes were among the ancient Romans in the days of Numa when as they had no sumptuous Temples nor Images so they had only temeraria de cespite altaria Altars hastily huddled up of Earth without any Art Apolog. cap. 25. which Jamblicus calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ex tempore Altars as we would now speak thrown up on a sudden And so Scioppius pretends he found some MS. have it in that place of Tertullian not temeraria but temporaria Altars made only for a present use not to remain after the Sacrifice was done Nay Fortunatus Scacchus will have it that Moses here commands them to make the Earth their Altar as the words may be translated out of the Hebrew which he thus interprets Thou shalt mark out a place upon the bare Ground and there offer Sacrifice Myrothec II. Sacr. Elaeochrys c. 56. And shalt Sacrifice thereon thy Burnt-offerings c. This Form of Worship as Maimonides himself acknowledges was appointed by God because it was used in all the World Which moved him not to abolish it but to translate it from created and imaginary Beings to his own most Adorable Name Therefore he commanded us saith he to make him a Sanctuary XXV 8. and consecrate an Altar to his Name and offer him Sacrifices for which he alledges this very Text and on the contrary prohibits us to do such things to any other Being XXII 20. XXXIV 13 14. More Nevoch P. III. c. 32. In all places This shows that the foregoing Commandment hath a peculiar respect to the time they were in the Wilderness especially till the Tabernacle was erected when they were in their Travels removing from place to place and not fixed in any Then these Altars were very proper which might be prepared on a sudden and as suddenly thrown down again Where I record my Name Or cause it to be remembred and acknowledged by some Token or Symbol that is whereby he signified that he would be worshipped there Which sense the Chaldee seems to me to have expressed most exactly In every place where I shall make my Glory i. e. the SCHECHINAH to dwell from whence I will bless thee i. e. hear their Prayers This must be the meaning here because the Ark which was the Memorial of God's Presence with them was not yet made Or else he means the Sacrifices and Altars before mentioned which Mr. Mede thinks may be here pointed at because these were Rites of Remembrance whereby the Name of God was commemorated or recorded and his Covenant with Men testified and renewed See Book II. pag. 453 c. And indeed the word Zacar doth most certainly signifie not only to remember or record but to worship and to perform Sacred Offices so the meaning may be in every place where I exhibit my self to be worshipped and honoured I will come unto thee or meet with thee Upon which account the Tabernacle of the LORD was called Ohel Moed the Tabernacle of Meeting Not because of the Peoples meeting there to Worship as is commonly supposed when we translate those words the Tabernacle of the Congregation but of God's meeting there with his People as Mr. Mede observes p. 436. from many plain places of Scripture XXIX Exod 42. XXX 36. XVII Numb 4. And I will bless thee Give thee testimonies of my gracious Presence and Acceptance The Gentiles believed their Gods were present where their Images were worshipped But he promises to be present in all places whatsoever where he would have his Name celebrated i. e. where he would be worshipped though their Sacrifices were offered upon the most mean and simple Altar Ver. 25. If thou wilt make me an Altar of stone c. If it cannot be made without Stones saith Maimonides P. III. More Nevoch c. 45. take care that the Stones remain in their own natural form and that they be not polished c. This was to avoid Idolatry for fear they should make any figure with the Tools they imployed in shaping and fashioning the Stones after an artificial manner or should reserve the pieces of Stone that were paired off for Superstitious or Magical uses Just saith Maimonides as he forbids planting a Grove near his Altar for that was to imitate Idolaters XVI Deut. 22. See IV Deut. 15 16. which plainly shows this was the reason of this Command In short these Altars were built like those of Turf on a sudden without any Art only by piling Stones one upon another Such an Altar David built upon a special occasion 2 Sam. XXIV 25. and after him Elijah 1 Kings XVIII 31 32. and Fortunatus Scacchus makes it probable that it was such an one which Ezra
but gathered into their Barns Which was the foundation of the great rejoying we read of at this time because God now gave them some rest and respiration as Maimonides speaks from their Imployments More Nevoch P. III. c. 43. where he observes that Aristotle himself in his VIIIth Book of Ethicks mentions such a Feast among the Gentiles and upon the same ground in these words as he recites them Anciently Sacrifices and publick Assemblies for the sake of Sacrifices were in the gathering of the Fruits and Products of the Earth as if the Sacrifices were offered for their respiration The Israelites dwelt in Booths at this Feast for another reason and their dwelling in Booths was now most tollerable as the same Maimonides there notes because the Weather was moderate at that time when they were not wont to be troubled either with heat or with rain Ver. 17. Three times in the year all thy males shall appear before the LORD God This Verse more fully explains what was said v. 14. by showing where they should keep these Feasts viz. before the LORD i. e. in the place where his most glorious Majesty should settle which was first in the Tabernacle and afterward in the Temple And then who should appear before him there viz. all the Males Others were not bound to it though some Religious People carried their whole Families with them as appears by Elkanah 1 Sam. 1. This Command is repeated XXXIV 23. and the true reason of it seems to have been this That while they dwelt in the Wilderness they are no Meat at all at their private Tables but what had been first offered up to God at the Tabernacle XVII Lev. 4 5. Which Precept was dispensed withal when they came into the Land of Canaan and dwelt many of them so remote from the Tabernacle that they could not come up every day to Sacrifice XII Deut. 21. Instead of which therefore there were these three constant and set times appointed in the year in which every Male was bound to come up and see God at his Tabernacle and there ate and drink before him Whence the Sacrifice which was then offered was wont to be called a Sacrifice of Seeing as Dr. Cudworth hath observed in his little Treatise of the Right Notion of the Lord's Supper But as the Doctors interpret it they were not bound to bring their Males to appear before the LORD till they were able to walk in their Father's hand up from Jerusalem to the Temple Ver. 18. Thou shalt not offer the blood of my Sacrifice That is the Paschal Lamb as Jonathan in express words interprets and it appears from XXXIV 25. That the Passover was a Sacrifice I observed before XII 27. With leavened bread c. There being three great Solemn Feasts appointed in the foregoing Verses v. 14 17. in this and the following he prescribes some Rules how they were to be observed And here in this Verse ordains two things relating to the Passover that it should not be eaten with leavened bread nor any of the Fat of it remain until the morning Both which were ordained before XII 10 14 15. in its first Institution and here repeated upon its being mention'd again with the other Feasts It may be sit for me here to observe that to move the Israelites to keep this Passover with the greater care God calls it both here and in XXXIV 25. after a peculiar manner my sacrifice and my Feast as the latter part of this Verse may be translated being a Feast of a most Solemn Nature and a Sacrifice then offered of singular use For which reason he requires them as not to offer it with Leaven which was at that time forbidden for special reasons so not to reserve the Fat of the Offering till the next day For that was not for the honour of the Sacrifice Flesh being apt quickly to corrupt in those hot Countries and to offend the Palate or the Nose which had been against the dignity of the Sacrifice Which is the reason the Jews give why the Flesh of the Peace offerings was not to be kept till the third day XIX Lev. 6. It was to preserve the magnificence of the Sacrifice things kept so long being apt to stink Whence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yesterdays meats in Hippocrates is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 corrupt and Galen expounds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to tend to corruption as Pet. Castellanus observes L. I. de Esu Carnium c. 5. p. 42. Ver. 19. The first of the first-fruits of thy land thou shalt bring unto the house of the LORD thy God This Precept hath a respect to the next Feast that of Pentecost And therefore though there were several First-fruits which were all to be offered in their time which were of seven things Barley Wheat Figs Pomegranates Olives Dates and Grapes yet here are meant only the two Loaves or Cakes made of their new Wheat which were to be offered at this Feast XXIII Lev. 17. For till this was done they might not make use of their Corn. See more concerning this matter on XXIII Lev. 10. R. Levi of Barcelona and others rightly observe that this was brought as an Acknowledgment unto God That he was the Giver of all good things Thou shalt not seethe a Kid in its mothers milk This Precept hath a particular respect to the third Feast that of the in-gathering of the Fruits of the Earth in the end of the Year mentioned v. 16. And the Jews commonly take it to be a Prohibition against eating a Kid so boil'd or tasting of the Milk taking it to be a Precept against Cruelty But here is not a word about eating either of the Kid or the Milk but only about boiling The famous Bochartus mentions three other Interpretations but confutes them all and taking the words simply as we translate them supposes there was some such Custom as this among the Gentiles which Moses would not have them imitate And so doth Maimonides in his More Nevoch P. III. c. 48. where he takes this indeed for a Command not to eat Flesh with such Milk but saith that besides it was very gross Nourishment c. it seems to him it was prohibited because it smelt of Idolatry the Gentiles doing so in their Worship upon some of their Feasts He could not find indeed as he confesses any such Rite in the Books of the Zabii but yet he was confirm'd in this Opinion by the Law constantly mentioning this only when it speaks of their Feasts for there are other places where we meet with it XXXIV 26. XVI Deut. 21. in both which he speaks as he doth here of their three great Feasts At the last of which Abarbinel expresly affirms the ancient Idolaters were wont when they gathered the Fruits of the Earth to seeth a Kid in its Mothers Milk that their Gods might be the more propitious to them But as he names no Author for
it appears by the Book of Joshua and those that follow that many of the old Inhabitaints remained long after his death From the Red-sea to the sea of the Philistines These were the Bounds from East to West For though the Red-sea was towards the South yet the farthermost part of it lay East And the Sea of the Philistines is that now called the Mediterranean which was full West And from the Desert Of Arabia called Shur XV. 22. Vnto the River i. e. To Euphrates Which made the Southern and Northern Bounds of the Country God promised to them For I will deliver the inhabitants of the Land into thy hand This seems to relate to that Land which the VII Nations inhabited for as far as Euphrates they never drove out all the Inhabitants but only made them Tributaries And thou shalt drive them out before thee In such manner as is mentioned in the foregoing Verses Ver. 32. Thou shalt make no covenant with them i. e. With the People of the VII Nations But with other Gentiles they might make Covenants only not suffer them to live in their Land unless they renounced all Idolatry Nay Maimonides is of opinion that such of the VII Nations as renounced Idolatry were to be received into their Friendship For that Law in the XX Deut. which requires them to send a Summons to every City before they besieged it with an offer of Peace he extends even unto them and grounds his opinion upon XI Josh 19 20. As for that Objection which seems to lye against this about the Gibeonites who needed not by craft to have obtained a League with the Israelites if this were true Doctrine His Answer is That Joshua had sent a Summons with offers of Peace to them and all the rest which they rejected but would afterward have gladly accepted and then it was not to be admitted and therefore they contrived that cunning way to be received into Friendship with the Israelites See P. Cunaeus L. II. de Republ. Hebr. c. 20. And Selden L. VI. de Jure N. G. c. 13. where he quotes a Passage out of the Hierusalem Gemara which says That Joshua sent three Letters to the Gibeonites But he shows withal that other Jews contradict this and expresly declare the VII Nations were not to be invited to peace What the terms were on which others were invited See there cap. 14. All this considered I am inclined to think Maimonides his opinion too true which that place in Joshua very much favours and so doth the story of Rahab and the practice of Solomon who only put the Remainders of these Nations under Tribute 1 Kings IX 20 21. Nor with their gods This prohibits them to suffer any of the VII Nations to Exercise Idolatry among them as R. Levi of Barcelona interprets it Or rather he forbids them to make any Vows to their Gods or oblige themselves to perform any Act of Worship to them Ver. 32. They shall not dwell in thy land If a Gentile did renounce his Idolatry he might dwell among them and was called a Stranger Toshab dwelling or inhabiting But if he did not forsake it they might not sell him a Foot of Land nor let him Hire a House among them only he might come and sell Commodities to them as the same R. Levi expounds it But Maimonides says they might not so much as suffer them to pass through their Country when they had power to hinder it which others think too rigid an Opinion as Mr. Selden shows L. II. de Jure N. G. c. 3. p. 155 c. Lest they make thee sin against me All Society with Idolaters was forbidden lest they should infect the Israelites with their Infidelity as the same R. Levi speaks of which there was the greater danger because they were too prone to follow the Gentile Customs For if thou serve their gods This Caution being repeated three times in this Chapter ought to have been the more diligently observed by the Jews and made them more fearful of entring into Familiarity with Idolaters Who were of various sorts for not only every Nation had its proper and peculiar Gods but every City Town House n ay every Man made themselves Gods according to their fancy It will surely be a snare unto thee Bring great Calamities upon thee and at last be thy ruin as it is explained XXIII Josh 13. II Judg. 3. For instead of driving out the VII Nations they brought Israel under their yoke and grievously oppressed them as we read in the Story of the Judges particularly in the IVth Chapter CHAP. XXIV Verse 1. AND he said unto Moses When God had delivered the fore-going Laws unto Moses in the Mount where he was with him XX. 21. after he had spoken the X. Commandments he bad him go down as we read hear he did v. 3. and set them before the People XXI 1. And when he had engaged them in a Covenant to observe these Laws v. 7. of this Chapter then to come up to him again and bring Aaron and the rest that are here mentioned with him Come up To receive further Orders from the Divine Majesty together with the two Tables of Stone Vnto the LORD To the Mount where the Glory of the LORD appeared and from whence he had spoken the Ten words Thou and Aaron Nadab and Abihu c. But not all to the same nearness unto the Divine Majesty as appears by the following Verse And seventy of the Elders of Israel This seems to intimate that there were more than LXX called Elders But these were the Chief being perhaps the Heads of those Families which came into Egypt which were just Seventy See XVIII 12. For he doth not direct Moses how to chuse them as Corn. Bertram observes L. de Repub. Jud. c. 5. but speaks as if they were well known and distinguished from other Persons by the rank they held among them And therefore called v. 11. the Nobles or as the Latines speak Magnates seu Optimates the great Men of the best quality in Israel The reason of their being thus called up to God was to be Witnesses of Moses's ascending up to the place where the Divine Majesty appeared and that they also might have some sight of it v. 10. And worship ye afar off All of them before they came to the Mount were at a good distance from it to fall down prostrate before God that they might be possessed with such an holy Reverence to him as not to presume to approach nearer than they were ordered Ver. 2. And Moses alone shall come near the LORD Unto the very top of the Mount where the Glory of the LORD abode v. 16 17 18. unto which none was admitted but himself Who now came nearer than he had done before XX. 21. for he went into the midst of the Cloud v. 18. But they shall not come nigh Unto that part of the Mount whether he went but keep in a lower station Neither shall the
people go up with him But stay at the bottom of the Mount as they did before the giving the X. Commandments XIX 17. below the place where the Elders were So I think Maimonides rightly understands this place in his More Nevoch P. II. c. 32. where speaking of the several degrees of Prophecy or Familiarity with God he observes that Moses was here placed in the Supreme degree he alone being allowed to come near the LORD below him was Aaron placed and below him Nadab and Abihu and below them the LXX Elders and beneath them the rest of the People Which is the meaning of that saying of their Wise men Moses is a wall by himself and Aaron a wall by himself that is they were in separate Apartments at this glorious Appearance of God Ver. 3. And Moses came From the Mount where he had received the Precepts mentioned in the three foregoing Chapters And told the People all the words of the LORD and all the Judgments Some understand here by the words of the LORD the Ten Commandments called the Ten Words XXXVIII 18. But these words the People heard spoken by God himself and not by the report of Moses Therefore I take these words to signisie rather what he had spoken in the latter part of the foregoing Chapter from the 20th Verse to the end And then by all the Judgments he means those Laws which he had received for their good Government in the XXI XXII Chapters and the former part of the XXIII And all the people answered with one voice and said In all likelyhood Moses had told the Elders what God had said to him and they went and told it to the People who gave the following Answer to them For thus it was before XIX 6 7. All the words that the LORD hath said will we do They had consented before in general to do whatsoever God required of them having him for their King and Governour XIX 6 7 8. but now they consent in particular after God had declared what he would have them do in the XX Chapter and Moses had also reported the rest of the Judgments delivered in the XXI XXII XXIII Chapters Ver. 4. And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD Both the Ten Commandments and all the rest of the Judgments delivered in the foregoing Chapters God indeed wrote the Ten Commandments himself but for the present Moses made a Record of them that the People might not only hear but read what they had to do And rose up early in the morning The next morning it is likely after he had received those Judgments and delivered them to the People and wrote them in a Book which was upon the seventh day of Sivan as I observed XX. 21. That is on the sixth of our June as Jac. Capellus reckons Therefore on the eighth of Sivan he built the Altar c. as it here follows And builded an Altar under the hill At the foot of the Hill where the People were allowed to stand This Altar was to represent God to whom Sacrifices were offered upon it And twelve Pillars according to the twelve Tribes of Israel This was to represent all the People The Gentiles abusing such Pillars to Idolatrous uses the erecting of them is afterward forbidden in the Law But before the building of the Tabernacle Moses here erects them as Jacob had piously done in former times XXXV Gen. 14. See Selden L. II. de Jure N. G. c. 6. p. 185. Ver. 5. And he sent young men of the Children of Israel These are said by the Hebrews to be the First-born as Onkelos here expresly translates it He sent the First-born and the Paraphrase ascribed to Vzielides follows him adding this reason Because the Aaronical Priests were not yet consecrated The Arabick and Persian Versions say the same as Mr. Selden hath observed L. I. de Succession ad Pontif. c. 1. and most Interpreters have been of the same mind But I have often observed before particularly XIX 22. that I can see no proof of this that they only officiated as Priests every Man anciently in his own Family having a right to offer Sacrifice till the Law of Moses restrained it to the Family of Aaron Therefore I take these young men to have been the choicest Persons among them whether First-born or others who had been appointed to Minister unto God For Joshua who is called here v. 13. Moses his Minister is in XI Numb 28. called his young man Such were fittest for all Service especially for that of Sacrificing to God For which they anciently chose the strongest and properest Persons as we see in the Greek story of Jason which our Learned Dr. Spencer observes p. 140. whose Sacrifices were led to the Altar by the young men of his Company i. e. Men of greatest strength and beauty L. I. Argonaut And this so far remained after the Priesthood was consined to the Family of Aaron that no Man was permitted to officiate at the Altar after he was Fifty years of Age that is when he was past his best as we speak the flower and strength of his Age VIII Numb 25. Fortunatus Scacchus conjectures that there were XII of these young Men one of each Tribe who offered in the Name of their Brethren Myrothec Sacr. Elaeochrism p. 2. c. 59. Which offered Burnt-offerings and sacrificed Peace-offerings of Oxen unto the LORD Though Oxen are only mentioned yet there were other Creatures Sacrificed as appears from IX Hebr. 19 20. And in following times Peace-offerings might be either of Calves or Lambs or Goats as we sind in III Lev. and so might Burnt-offerings also see I Lev. 2 10. Our Learned Primate Vsher thinks also there were Expiatory Sacrifices offered together with these Burnt-offerings and Peace-offerings and that in the first place ad A. M. 2513. mens 3. Ver. 6. And Moses took half the blood and put it in basons It may be a question whether he spake of the Blood of all the Sacrifices or only of the Expiatory if there were any or of the Burnt-offerings or Peace-offerings But which way soever that be determined this half of the Blood it is certain was reserved to be sprinkled on the People v. 8. Concerning the word Agganot which we translate Basons the Learned Reader may consult Bochartus in his Hierozoic P. I. p. 549. And half of the Blood he sprinkled on the Altar The Altar representing God as was said before v. 4. this Blood sprinkled upon it signified that he for his part engaged to be faithful in the Covenant he now made with them and they with him by performing all the Promises he had newly made them by Moses in the latter end of the foregoing Chapter especially those four great Promises of Plenty Health numerous Off-spring and Long-life v. 25 26. together with the driving out the People of Canaan from before them v. 27 c. Ver. 7. And he took the Book Some have made it a difficulty to find what Book
this was and have been pleased to fancy that some Book which Moses wrote is lost When this plainly refers to what is said v. 4. where we read that Moses wrote all the words of the LORD that is the Commandments and Judgments mentioned in the four foregoing Chapters Which though they made no great Volume yet might be called a Book in their Language for even the Bill of Divorcement which they gave their Wives and was very short is called by this Name of Sepher a Book XXIV Deut. 1. Of the Covenant That they might remember upon what terms he would bestow upon them the fore-named Blessings he engages them in a Solemn Covenant to observe the Commandments and Judgments contained in this Book Ver. 8. And Moses took the blood That half of it which was in the Basons v. 6. And sprinkled it on the people As he had sprinkled one half on the Altar in token God was a Party in the Covenant so he sprinkled the other half on the XII Pillars which represented the Children of Israel in token that they were the other Party engaged in the same Covenant Thus our fore-named Primate and several others understand it and it carries some show of probability in it Yet I cannot think it unlikely that it was sprinkled upon the LXX Elders by whom the People consented if not upon all the People who stood next to the Altar and are here expresly mentioned The Apostle to the Hebrews IX 19. saith he sprinkled the Book as well as the People which is not here mentioned but supposed For when he went to sprinkle the Blood we must conceive he laid down the Book that he might be at more liberty for this other action And perhaps he laid it on one of the Pillars where it was sprinkled as they were together with the People whom they represented And said Behold the Blood of the Covenant which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words Look upon your selves as obliged by this Blood to observe all the Commands which I have delivered to you in the words you have heard For there were two ways of making Covenants anciently both which were here used The first was after a Sacrifice had been offered to sprinkle the Blood of it upon both Parties who were to be Confederates which was done here v. 6 8. And secondly the Confederates thereupon proceeded to eat together some part of the Sacrifice which follows v. 11. where we find the Elders of Israel who represented the People did eat and drink in the Presence of God Ver. 9. Then went up Moses and Aaron Nadab and Abihu and LXX of the Elders of Israel These things being done they went up into the Mount as they were ordered v. 1. i. e. they went up to that part of the Mount where Aaron and his Sons and the Elders were appointed to come but no further Ver. 10. And they saw the God of Israel When Moses is commanded to come near unto the LORD v. 2. Maimonides acknowledges it may be understood of his local approach to the place where the Light or Glory of God then appeared More Nevoch P. I. c. 18. And therefore it is something strange that he expounds the Elders seeing God of their apprehension of him by their Understanding and not rather of their beholding some glimpse of that visible Majesty which was on the Top of the Mount For that I doubt not is the meaning as appears by what follows And so the Chaldee expounds it They saw the Glory of the God of Israel surrounded we may well suppose with an heavenly Host of Angels attending upon the SCHECHINAH or Divine Majesty as it was also called And there was under his feet This hath made some conceive that this visible Glory appeared in the form of a Man with his Back towards them standing upon a shining Pavement But this is contrary to IV Deut. 15. For though that be spoken of another time and place viz. the Giving of the Law which all the People heard but saw no Similitude yet if the Elders had afterward seen a Similitude it would have spoiled Moses his Argument they being the Representatives of the People This glorious Light therefore far surpassing all other had no form nor could be described by any Art and consequently by its feet is meant only the lower part of it which rested as it were upon a most glorious Pavement And thus the Divine Majesty is said to have had a Foot-stool which was the cover of the Ark though it had no Human shape As it were a paved work of Saphire stone The glorious Majesty of God was represented as having under it a Pavement sutable to it self very bright and shineing For there is a sort of Saphire called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spotted with little points or pricks of Gold which shine like Stars interspersed in the Body of it See Salmasius in Solinum p. 131 203. Such was this Pavement as we may gather from the following words And as it were the body of Heaven in its clearness As clear as the purest and serenest Sky when it is all spangled with Stars All which signifies as I take it that the Glory of the LORD appeared far above the Glory of the Sun in its greatest brightness upon a Pavement sparkling like the Stars in the Heaven when it is most clear The LXX instead of the words saw the God of Israel have saw 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the place of the God of Israel As if they saw a Throne upon which there was a visible Majesty beyond all description And if this be admitted then this Throne may well be said to have feet standing upon such a glorious Pavement And so they translate it in the next Verse where this is repeated Ver. 11. And upon the Nobles of the Children of Israel i. e. The Elders before-mentioned v. 1 9. called here Atzilim to signifie that they were the prime and choicest Persons among the Israelites For Atzal signisies to separate and consequently atzilim imports Men distinguished from others either by their Birth Office or some excellent qualities He laid not his hand Did not hurt them Whereas it was the common Opinion That they who saw God though it was by one of his Angels should presently die The splendour of that glorious Light was so dazling that it was a singular favour it did not put out their Eyes as the Light wherein St. Paul saw our Saviour did his We are told v. 17. The sight of the Glory of the LORD was like devouring fire Which might put them in fear perhaps they had been scorched by it when it flasht out upon them but they found not the least hurt by it Thus Jonathan saith in his Paraphrase upon the XXXII Chapter that when Moses delayed to come down from the Mount the People fancied him to be burnt up by the fire which shone from the Presence of God which there appeared This sight of God which he vouchsafed to
the Cloud Where the Divine Glory was and now broke out and appeared I suppose unto Moses Some think the seventh day might be the Sabbath upon which God chose to appear to him Ver. 17. And the sight of the Glory of the LORD was like devouring fire on the top of the Mount in the Eyes of the Children of Israel It broke out of the Cloud after six days so that the People saw it like flaming fire To which the Psalmist seems to allude XCVII Psal 2 3. Clouds and darkness are round about him and fire goeth before him c. Thus the Glory of the LORD is described in other places as within a Cloud and sometimes breaking out of it XL Exod. 35. where the Cloud is said to be upon the Tabernacle and the Glory of the LORD to fill it within which v. 38. is described like fire See also XVI Numb 42. And thus at its first appearing there was a Pillar of a Cloud and of Fire led them XIII 21. And it sometimes appearing in an amazing brightness beyond that of the Sun and sometimes being wrapt up in as thick a Cloud God is likewise said both to dwell in Light and in thick Darkness 1 Kings VIII 12. Ver. 18. And Moses went into the midst of the Cloud From whence the LORD had called to him v. 16. Therefore he broke through the thick Cloud into the very Prefence of God which was in a secret part of the Cloud called the midst of it And gat him up into the Mount To the top of it where the Glory of the LORD appeared to him in the midst of the Cloud the External Parts of which and the Fire only being seen by the People And Moses was in the Mount forty days and forty nights That he might receive the two Tables of Stone and the Gift of Prophecy as Elmacinus an Arabian Christian adds with Directions for the making the Tabernacle and all things belonging to it and the Service to be performed there by the Priest apparelled according to Divine Prescription c. which follow in the ensuing Chapters where Moses relates what orders God gave him about every thing relating to his Divine Service And it need not seem strange as Clemens Alexandrinus excellently speaks L. I. Stromat p. 351. that Moses received his Laws from God when the Greeks pretend the same of their Minos only they say he went into Jupiter's Cave and was nine years there in learning the Laws which he gave him when Moses was but XL. days in the Mount where God visibly appeared They believed also that Lycurgus received his Laws from Apollo and Zaleucus as Plato Aristotle and divers others whom he mentions say received his from Minerva All this was firmly believed among them who in not acknowledging the Divinity of Moses his Ministration were very ingrateful for his was the Archetype as he speaks or Pattern of what was pretended in their Stories Forty days and forty nights It may be a question whether the six days that he remained in the Cloud before the LORD called him higher be included in these XL. days or were only preparatory to his nearer access to God They may well be both for it is not said he was in the midst of the Cloud forty days and forty nights but that he was so long in the Mount Part of which time was spent in the dark Cloud and the rest in the bright Presence of God in the midst of the Cloud And in all that space he did neither eat nor drink XXXIV 28. IX Deut. 9. God could if he had pleased have revealed to him all his Mind in a less time But the method of the Divine Wisdom is to do all things gradually For instance the Substance of a Child in the Womb saith the Author of Schalsch Hakkabalah is not perfected in less time than XL. Weeks in all which time it receives no Meat nor Drink at the Mouth we must understand him and so many days did the Divine Power work in Moses to form him into a new Essence as his words are and give him a full Comprehension of all that God communicated to him And all this time he neither did eat nor drink for these actions say that Jew prejudice the Understanding which God intended to exalt by depressing the Bodily Faculties and Powers Which for want of Meat and Drink were brought down very low that the Understanding might be raised and lifted up And thus we find in after times that Daniel chastened his Body for three whole Weeks together the better to dispose him for heavenly Vision X. 2 3 12. This ascent of Moses from the Cloudy part of the Mount to the fiery top of it was upon the XIVth of Sivan and we may suppose as Jacobus Capellus doth that the Cloud accompanied him as he went up to defend him from the circumambient flame CHAP. XXV Verse 1. AND the LORD spake unto Moses Out of that glorious and flaming Light wherein he appeared to him Ver. 2. Speak unto the Children of Israel When he went down from the Mount That they bring me In the Hebrew take for me out of their Goods An Offering The Hebrew word Terumah or as some pronounce it Trumah is commonly translated an Heave-offering or Offering lifted up Which the Chaldee translates that which is separated from common use and in the separation perhaps was lifted up towards Heaven in token that they desired God to accept it Of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my Offering They were only to be moved to it but not importuned much less told what quantity they should give but every Man was left to his own good Inclinations And accordingly Moses delivered the Mind of God unto them when he came down from the Mount and they made a free Oblation XXXV 5 21 29. Besides which there was also a Tribute laid upon them for the ransom of their Souls XXX 12 13 14. which amounted to a great Sum of Money as we find in the XXXVIII 24 c. Ver. 3. And this is the offering which ye shall take of them The things which ye shall accept as an Offering to me Gold and silver and brass Unto what uses these were to be imployed we are told afterwards Ver. 4. And blue and purple and scarlet Wool or Yarn or Stuff or as Abarbinel will have it Silk of these Colours About which there is much dispute but no Translation hath better described them than our English For Thecelet which we translate blue and Abarbinel will have to be a Sea-green is certainly a Sky-colour So Maimonides expresses it the Colour of the Firmament and Kimchi calls it ultramarine This hath been demonstrated by Braunius who shows how it was died L. I. de Vest Sacr. Hebr. L. I. c. 13. Argaman also he hath demonstrated c. 14. signifies purple as we translate it For both Josephus and Philo say so and he brings many proofs that they say true And there being
Therefore Nachmanides more reasonably conceives that these Rings were indeed in the corners of the Ark but not in the higher as R. Solomon would have them but in the lower and therefore said here to be in the feet For the Scripture calling the top of every thing the head of it the bottom is commonly there called the feet And so the Ark by placing the Rings and Staves in the bottom was carried on high upon the Priests shoulders representing God who is highly exalted And two rings shall be on the one side of it and two rings on the other side of it That is in the length of it as Josephus expresly testifies and not in the breadth Ver. 13. And thou shalt make staves of Shittim-wood Of such a length that the Ark might be at a decent distance from those that carried it And overlay them with Gold With Plates of Gold as the Ark it self was v. 14. Ver. 14. And thou shalt put the staves into the rings by the sides of the Ark. The Hebrews say these staves were ten Cubits long That the Ark may be born with them Upon the shoulders of the Levites particularly the Sons of Korah See Numb IV. 4 5 6 c. VII 9. For it was a Crime to carry it any other way either in their Hands or drawn in a Cart. Compare 1 Chron. XIII 7. with XV. 15. Ver. 15. And the staves shall be in the rings of the Ark. Continue and remain in the Rings whence they were once put therein They shall not be taken from it When they set down the Ark they were not to take out the staves and put them in again when it was to be carried but let them as was said continue in the rings that there might be no danger of letting them fall which had been a great irreverence and because they would be best preserved and take less harm there than any where else and if they had occasion to remove the Ark suddenly all would be ready and the Levites were hereby kept from touching the Ark or coming nearer to it than the ends of the staves Ver. 16. And thou shalt put into the Ark the testimony which I will give thee The two Tables of Stone containing the Ten Commandments which are called the Testimony and the Two Tables of Testimony XXXI 18. because they testified what the Will of God was which they had consented to observe and were therefore publick authentick Instruments attesting the Covenant between God and them Whence the Ark which contained these is called the Ark of the Testimony as I observed above v. 10. v. 22. and in a great many other places of the XL Chapter And in one place it is called the Testimony XXX 36. and the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD X Deut. 8. because then Ten words were the principal part of the Covenant to which they stood obliged And perhaps the Book of the Covenant which Moses made with them XXIV 7. is comprehended under the name of the Testimony For though we read in 1 Kings VIII 9. there was nothing in the Ark save the two Tables of Stone c. yet the Apostle mentions some other things that were not in yet by or before the Ark IX Hebr. 4. But I assert nothing in this matter And shall only further observe that this direction for putting the Testimony or Tables of Stone into the Ark is given before any order is taken for making a Covering to it which follows after And therefore he was to put in the Law before the Cover was set on For though v. 21. this be mentioned again and put after the Cover is named yet the meaning is that he should set on the Cover having put in the Law And it is repeated that he should be very careful of this because the Cherubims were to protect and defend it Ver. 17. And thou shalt make a Mercy-seat The Hebrew word Capporet litterally signifies a Covering of any thing And that is the proper signification of this Mercy-seat as we translate it which was the Covering of the Ark. For it had no Door but was open at the top so that they might put the Tables of the Covenant into it and then it was to be fastned above by this Cover which any one may discern by its dimensions was exactly fit for it Others will have it called Capporet not from Capar to cover but from Cipper to expiate and render propitious And so indeed the Apostle calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the propitiatory because God here showed himself to be propitious and appeased by the Blood of the Sacrifices which was sprinkled before this place But the reason of this Translation may be because when Sins are pardoned they are said in Scripture to be covered The LXX put both these together in their Translation which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of pure Gold Not of Wood crusted over with Gold but all as Abarbinel speaks of solid Gold because it was the Cover of the Ark in which were the Tables of the Covenant written with God's Finger than which nothing was more precious Two cubits and an half shall be the length thereof c. Which was the length of the Ark v. 10. as the breadth was a Cubit and a half both of that and this Which shows this was the Cover of the Ark being most exactly adapted to it Ver. 18. And thou shalt make two Cherubims of gold We read of Cherubims in the beginning of the World and have good reason to believe thereby is meant Angels See III Gen. 24. But in what shape they appeared we are not told nor is there the least signification of it here in this place but what we can gather from v. 20. So that I can only say this they were of such a shape as the Angelical Ministers appeared in which attended upon the Divine Majesty in the Mount or rather such as god showed Moses a pattern of whereby to represent these heavenly Ministers For both the Ark and all belonging to it were made according to the model God gave him not from any Egyptian pattern as some imagine Bochart seems to me to speak judiciously when he saith they were not Figures of Angels but rather Emblems whereby the Angelical Nature was in some sort expressed Hierozoic P. I. L. 2. c. 25. And were therefore ordered to be made as Maimonides conjectures that the Jews might be confirmed in the belief of the Existence of Angels which is the second Article of their Faith next to the belief of God And he commanded two to be made because if there had been but one it might have led them into a dangerous Errour that this was the Figure of God whereby they might have been inclined to worship it But there being two of them ordered with this Declaration the LORD our God is one God it led them into right thoughts that God had many of these Angelical Ministers Thus he More Nevoch P. III. c. 45. Of beaten
Cubits which was the breadth of this East-end of the Court as well as of the West v. 12 13. Of blue and purple and scarlet c. Concerning all this see XXV 5. and here only observe that the Hangings of the Gate were far richer than of the rest of the Court which were meerly of fine twined Linen v. 9. but these of several other beautiful Colours and adorned with that work which they called Rokem which we translate Needle-work What that was see XXXVIII 39. And their pillars shall be four and their sockets four Proportionable to those on each side of the Gate which were three for Hangings of fifteen Cubits v. 14 15. as these were four for Hangings of twenty Ver. 17. All the Pillars round about the Court shall be filletted with silver Those at the East and West-end as well as those on the South and North-sides Their hooks shall be of silver and their sockets of brass As was before directed v. 10 11. Ver. 18. The length of the Court c. Here all the Dimensions of the Court are put together the length and breadth of which might be inferred from the Hangings v. 9 12 c. but here are expresly determined together with the height which was not at all intimated before and now appointed to be five Cubits l. e. two yards and an half of larger measure than ours So that the Tabernacle might be plainly seen by the People for it was as high again as the Walls if I may so call them that incompassed it Of twined Linen and their sockets of brass This seems to be a brief repetition of what was said before concerning the Hangings and the Pillars which stood on Bases of Brass Ver. 19. All the Vessels of the Tabernacle in all the service thereof This is also a repetition in general of what was said before particularly v. 3. for all the Vessels belonging to the Tabernacle it self were of Gold as we read in the XXVth Chapter And all the pins thereof The Tabernacle had nothing of Brass in the Fabrick of it but the Bases of the Pillars at the Entrance XXVI 37. and therefore these Pins I suppose belong to them whereby the Pillars were fastned in their Sockets And all the pins of the Court shall be of brass These brazen Pins were struck into the ground as Dr. Lightfoot understands it that the Hangings which were tied to them by Cords might be kept from flying up at the bottom Ver. 20. And thou shalt command the Children of Israel that they bring thee pure Oyl-olive beaten Not squeezed out by a Press or by a Mill for such was full of Sediment and Dregs but which run freely from the Olives being bruised with a Pestel For the light In the golden Candlestick XXV 37. To cause the Lamp to burn always Sufficient to keep the Lamp always burning Some imagine that it did not burn day and night but being lighted every Evening went out in the Morning And there are some places which seem to favour this Opinion particularly 1 Sam. III. 3. where mention is made of the Lamp going out viz. in the Morning See also 2 Chron. XIII 11. where we read of setting the Lamps to burn every Evening which seems to signisie that they did not burn in the Day But Josephus who was a Priest and could not but know and had no reason to tell a lie saith they burnt Day and Night And indeed it was but necessary for otherwise the Priests must have ministred in the dark at the Altar of Incense before the Divine Majesty Who kept a Table in the Sanctuary which required light for no Body feasts in darkness And therefore R. Levi of Barcelona Praecept XCVIII saith God commanded a Lamp should always burn in the Sanctuary for the Honour and Majesty of it there being no Light conveyed to it otherways But it is highly probable there were not so many of the Lamps burning in the Day as in the Night when all the seven Lamps were lighted some of which were put out in the Morning and lighted again in the Evening So Josephus saith expresly L. III. Antiq. c. 9. Three burnt all Day before the LORD and the rest were lighted in the Evening Ver. 21. In the Tabernacle of the Congregation without the Vail That is the second Vail which was before the most Holy Place Which is before the Testimony That is the Ark of the Testimony See XXV 21 22. Aaron and his sons shall order it from evening to morning before the LORD As direction is more fully given XXX 7 8. It shall be a Statute for over c. See XXXVIII 43. CHAP. XXVIII Verse 1. AND take thou Aaron thy brother and his sons with him from among the Children of Israel Here Aaron and his Sons are designed to the Priests Office and afterward XXXII 19. the whole Tribe of Levi were Consecrated to the LORD by a noble Act of Zeal which they performed And at last I Numb 51. and many other places it was made Capital for any one else to officiate at the Tabernacle but they only That he may minister unto me Attend on me as my Servant in my Court. For Cohen signifies one that serves in ministerio honorabili in an honourable Office as appears from XII Job 19. Therefore David's Sons are called by this Name 2 Sam. VIII 18. and it was given to the Priests quatenus fuerunt primarij Dei Ministri as they were the principal Ministers of God as Junius observes upon XLI Gen. 45. In the Priests Office Wheresoever there hath been any Religion there have been Priests whose Office it peculiarly was to Minister unto God in the Service belonging to him But this is the first time we read of any Constituted in Israel by a Divine appointment at least the Priesthood was not confined to the particular Family of Aaron who was made High Priest and his Sons Priests of a lower Order Some Heathens imitated this by continuing the Priesthood in a certain Family For Plato says there were in some places 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both of Men and Women which in the founding of a City he would not have a Law-giver alter but where there was no such Constitution he would have annual Priests and none but grave Men of 60 years of Age put into the Office L. VI. de Leg. p. 759. Even Aaron Nadab and Abihu Eleazar and Ithamar Aarons sons These were all the Males in this Family at present whose Descendants in future Ages were all Priests Ver. 2. And thou shalt make holy Garments for Aarou thy brother If very good Authors did not affirm it we should scarce think it credible that the Priests among some of the ancient Heathens offered Sacrifices to their Gods naked Particularly the old Arabians as Hottinger observes in his Histor. Orientalis L. I. c. 7. But such filthiness was abhorred by most People whose Priests were not only Clothed but performed their Service at the Altar in a peculiar Habit.
a Surplice and from the Tunick or Coat the hole of which at the top was round whereas this was oblong as they speak It shall have a binding This was both for handsomness and for strength that it might not be further slit Josephus mentions the former as a reason for this binding or border that there might appear no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his word is no deformity about the Priest and the Text it self in the end of the Verse mentions the latter that it be not rent This binding Abarbinel thinks on the former account was on the inside for decorum sake that nothing might be seen but the Robe Of woven work It was not to be sewed to it but woven with it of one entire piece which could not be done without a great deal of Art So Abarbinel the opening or hole was not to be cut with Scissars and then sewed with a Needle but it was woven with the very Garment As it were the hole of an Habergeon The ancient Habergions or Corslets being made of Leather and Linen needed a Limbus about the Neck to keep the parts firm and tight But whether the binding had hooks and eyes as we call them like those which are in Corslets to fasten the parts together is uncertain Abarbinel affirms it but without any Authority That it be not rent That is the Robe be not rent in putting it on or by the Ephod and Breast-plate that were upon it for that had rendred it contemptible a Rent among us saith R. Levi Barzelonita being dishonourable Praecept CIII Ver. 33. And beneath upon the hem of it Or upon its skirts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Josephus towards the bottom where it touched the feet Thou shalt make Pomegranates So the Hebrew word Rimmonim undoubtedly signifies as Maimonides and other learned Jews affirm Jarchi saith they were to be of the bigness of an Hens egg Of blue and of purple and of scarlet round about the hem thereof Though the Robe it self was of one simple colour yet the skirts of it were very much adorned by variety of Colours in the Pomegranates which were made of Yarn dyed blue purple and scarlet of these see XXV 4. and the LXX add of sine Linen For so we read they were made XXXIX 24. And bells of gold between them round about The Targum upon VI Esth 10. makes the Kings of Persia to have worn such kind of Garments For he represents Ahasuerus as saying to Haman Go to my Wardrobe and take one of my best purple Cloaks and of the best silk Vests with Gems at the four corners of it and golden Bells and Pomegranates hanging round about And no doubt they were intended partly as an Ornament to the High Priest their Matter being of Gold but what their Form was we are not told There were round Bells in use amongst them like those which we commonly see upon the Collars of our Horses Necks but Maimonides saith these were of a Pyramidal Figure open at the bottom with Clappers in them like our little hand Bells Ver. 34. A golden bell and a pomegranate a golden bell and a pomegranate upon the bottom c. So there was a Bell as the Jews explain it between every two Pomegranates and a Pomegranate between every two Bells But how many of each there was is uncertain though the Jews commonly say there were LXXII Which if it was true and the Pomegranates were of such a bigness as was said before this Robe would have been so wide at the bottom as to have been cumbersom especially with so many Pomegranates and Bells hanging upon it Ver. 35. And it shall be unto Aaron to minister He was never to appear before God without this Garment nor to wear it but when he Ministred The same is said of all the Priestly Garments both of his and of his Sons v. 3 4. And his sound shall be heard when he goeth in unto the holy place before the LORD That the People upon this notice might fall to their Prayers while he was offering Incense which represented their going up to Heaven And when he cometh out That they might then dispose themselves to be dismissed with his Blessing That he die not For neglecting to appear before God in this solemn manner as he required For it is the common Maxim among the Jews That when the Priests were clothed with their Garments they were held to be Priests when they were not so clothed they were not Priests That is if they presumed to minister without this Attire it was an illegal act and unacceptable to God See v. ult Ver. 36. And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold The Hebrew word Zitz is translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the LXX which signifies a leaf expanded And such was this Plate as we render it a thin piece of Gold two fingers broad as Jarchi tells us and so long as to reach from one Ear to the other being bound to the forehead with a string which was tied behind the head and thence is called a Crown XXXIX 30. as all things are which compass the forehead And Crowns being anciently made of Flowers or Leaves which we call Garlands Josephus saith this Crown was adorned with the Figures of that Flower which the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which there were three rows L. III. Antiq. c. 8. And indeed the Hebrew word Zitz signifies a a Flower which hath made some think this Plate had its Name from the Flowers which were wrought in it to make it look more beautiful See XXIX 6. And grave upon it like the engravings of a signet Not by cutting the Letter deep in the Plate but by making them protuberant like those which are made by a Seal upon Wax See v. 22. HOLINESS TO THE LORD The ancient Crowns perhaps had some image or other in them for in later times Domitian had a golden Crown with the Effigies of Jupiter and Minerva as Suetonius tells us instead of which God commands his own great Name to be engraven on Aaron's Crown in these words which signifie that he was Separated to the Service of the most High It is but a frivolous question which the Jews make Whether these words were engraven in one Line or in two one above another For there is no reason to make us think they were not in one Line as they are here written Ver. 37. And thou shalt put it on a blue Lace It hung on a Riband of blue by which it was fastned upon the Mitre as it follows in the next words The Talmudists fancy there were three Ribands one at each ear and one in the middle which is this here mentioned But this one was sufficient for the purpose as will appear when the next words are rightly understood That it may be upon the Mitre There was an order before for making a Mitre among other Vestments but we have not been told hitherto of what it was made which is mentioned
Ib. c. 69. Make an atonement for the Altar By the Blood of the Bullock And sanctifie it By anointing it with the holy Oyl And it shall be an Altar most holy The reason why it is so called is given in the following words because it was not only thus separated to an holy use but made those things to be holy which were offered upon it Which they could not be till it was thus expiated and sanctified Therefore Fort. Scacchus expounds these words an Altar most holy it shall be fully and compleatly consecrated by observing all the Rites which are here prescribed for seven days together Till the end of which no Sacrifice whatsoever was offered on this Altar because it was not cleansed and sanctified to make them holy and acceptable but on the eighth day when all was performed that was required on the preceding seven days fire came down from Heaven and consumed the Burnt-offering VIII Lev. 1 24. Whatsoever toucheth the Altar shall be holy Nothing was acceptable unto God unless it was offered upon this Altar which sanctified every thing that was laid upon it according to God's direction Thus our Saviour seems to explain these words XXIII Matth. 19. The Altar sanctifieth the Gift That was the name for all things presented unto God which were called Korban being destined to be offered at his Altar Ver. 38. Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the Altar The principal use of the Altar was That there might be a constant Sacrifice offered upon it in acknowledgment of God's Sovereign Dominion over them Which could not be done till it was expiated and consecrated but that being finished Moses directs here what should be the first Sacrifice offered upon it Two Lambs These were to be a Burnt-offering which was the most ancient of all other Sacrifices being the same that Abel offered Of the first year See XII 5. Day by day continually There were other occasional Sacrifices of various sorts but these were stated and so constant that they were never intermitted No not upon Festivals when other Sacrifices were added as upon the Sabbath this Sacrifice was doubled XXVIII Numb 9 10. and upon New-moons and other Feasts several other Sacrifices were appointed as may be seen there v. 11. and in the rest of that Chapter It appears by IX Lev. 17. that this daily Sacrifice was offered at least for some time in the Wilderness but after they began to wander to and fro for Eight and thirty years some think it was omitted Which was the reason that God renewed this Charge in XXVIII Numb 3 4. See Junius and Menochius on that place Ver. 39. The one Lamb thou shalt offer in the morning and the other thou shalt offer at even At what time in the Morning and Even is not here plainly prescribed But the word in the Hebrew for the latter-being between the Evenings which was about three a Clock in the Afternoon the Morning Sacrifice also was offered between the Rising of the Sun and Noon viz. at nine a Clock in the Forenoon Ver. 40. And with one Lamb a tenth deal of flour Most understand the tenth part of an Ephah which was an Omer concerning which see XVI 36. And so Moses afterward expresly orders by God's command XXVIII Numb 5. Mingled with the fourth part of an hin of Oyl c. An Hin was the sixth part of an Ephah containing one Wine Gallon two Pints and fifteen Inches as Bishop Cumberland computes it in his Learned Treatise of Scripture Measures So that the fourth part of it was a Quart and something more than a quarter of a Pint. The principal thing here to be observed is That this was ordained as I noted upon the XXVth Chapter to represent God's dwelling among them in the Sanctuary where this daily Sacrifice was the constant Provision made for his Table as the Altar is called and Bread and wine a necessary attendant as they are at all Tables upon the Meat that was set before him Ver. 41. And the other Lamb thou shalt offer at even and shalt do thereunto according to the Meat-offering in the Morning and according to the Drink-offering thereof The same Rites were to be observed in this that were in the Morning Sacrifice without any difference For as Abarbinel observes in his Preface to the Book of Leviticus the true Reason of these two Sacrifices was That all Men who live well having two Meals a day so many Sacrifices which were his Meat were therefore appointed for the Divine Majesty For a sweet savour See I Lev. 9. An offering made by fire unto the LORD i. e. A Burnt-offering as the next Verse explains it Ver. 42. This shall be a continual Burnt-offering throughout their Generations at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation For there the Altar of Burnt-offerings stood as we read XL. 6 29. XVII Lev. 6 c. Before the LORD Who dwelt in the most Holy Place in the upper end of the Tabernacle Where I will meet you Their coming to Worship in that place is called drawing nigh to God accordingly he promises to vouchsafe his gracious Presence with them See XXV 22. To speak with thee More especially he promises to meet Moses there upon occasion and to declare his Mind and Will to him in such Cases wherein he should consult him Ver. 43. And there I will meet with the Children of Israel That they might not think his meeting with them before-mentioned was only by revealing his Mind to Moses and so to them as the last words of the fore-going Verse might seem to intimate he explains his meaning to be that there he would grant Tokens of his special Love and Favour to them all when they approached unto him And the Tabernacle shall be sanctified with my glory The glorious Presence of God which filled this House XL. 35. was that which sanctified it or made it an Holy Place But some refer this not to the Tabernacle but to Israel which is just before mentioned and the word Tabernacle not in the Text and the truth is they were made an holy People also by this glorious Presence of God among them in the Tabernacle Ver. 44. And I will sanctifie c. That is manifest them to be sanctified or still more compleatly sanctifie them by the appearance of the Divine Glory in the Tabernacle IX Lev. 24. The Tabernacle of the Congregation In the Hebrew the name is Ohel moed which signifies exactly the Tabernacle of Meeting So called not from the Peoples meeting there as we seem to take it when we translate it Tabernacle of the Congregation but from God's meeting there with them which is mentioned just before and in the next Chapter XXX 36. is expresly called the Tabernacle of Meeting as I think it should be translated where I will meet with thee Which shows that this was the reason of its name See also XVII Numb 4. and Mr. Mede Book II. p. 436. Now all the People could
they were concerned for more than washing their hands from whence came the Proverb of doing things illotis manibus See Erasmus in his Adages there being no mention of washing their Feet Which was an Extraordinary degree of Purity which God required in his Priests who ministred in his House barefoot And so they did among the Gentiles also as appears by that saying of Pythagorus mentioned by Jamblichus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sacrifice and worship without shoes which St. Ambrose thinks was borrowed from Moses L. I. Epist VI. See Cuperus in his Apotheosis Homeri p. 185. Ver. 20. When they go into the Tabernacle of the Congregation they shall wash with water This washing was not to be repeated before every Act of their Ministration but it sufficed for all the Service of that day if they washed once at their entrance upon it Only on the great Day of Expiation before five of the various Duties then to be performed the washing was to be renewed That they die not By the Hand of Heaven as the Jews speak that is of God who punished such prophanation as ministring to him in their uncleanness with death And the Service performed by such a Person was all without effect whether he were the High Priest or a common one as R. Levi of Barcelona saith Praecept CVI. Or when they come near to the Altar to minister to burn offering made by fire unto the LORD Whether they were to go in to Minister at the Altar of Incense in the Tabernacle of which he speaks in the first words of this Verse or to offer Sacrifices at the Brazen Altar in the outward Court they were to wash before they entred upon their Service Ver. 22. So they shall wash their hands and their feet that they die not There was no need of doing more being washed once all over before they were consecrated XXIX 4. but their Hands and Feet were to be washed upon pain of death every day before they ministred And it shall be a statute for ever to them As long as the Tabernacle or Temple stood Ver. 23. Take thou also unto thee principal spices So we rightly translate the Hebrew word Roschim which litterally signifies heads but thence the chief of any kind of thing the Head being the principal or chief Member of the Body As for the word Besamin which we translate Spices it seems to be a general Name for all the following Species which are comprehended under it See v. 34. Of pure Myrrhe The Hebrew word Mor according to Maimonides signifies Musk and David Kimchi commends their Exposition who take it for a kind of Frankincense but the general Opinion of the Hebrews as well as of later Writers is that it signifies Myrrhe which seems to be derived from the ancient word Mor. And that being the best which flows from the Shrub of it self Moses is required to make use of such Myrrhe For the word Deror which we translate pure or not adulterated properly signifies freely flowing or dropping Myrrhe which was far better than that which came out from the Tree by Incision The fragrancy of this is taken notice of by a great number of Authors who also mention it as having a principal part in the composition of the most costly Ointments as Fort. Scacchus observes L. I. Myroth Sacr. Elaeochrism c. 51 52. L. II. c. 8. Five hundred shekels That is in weight which was two hundred and fifty Ounces a Shekel being as much as half an Ounce of our weight Of sweet Cinamon half so much There were two sorts of Cinamon one that doth not smell very much another which was very Aromatick and rarely to be found Galen saith in his time but in the Closet of Kings And therefore God commands Moses here to take not meer Cinamon but with the addition of Bosem which signifies sweet-scented Salmasius in his Plin. Exerc. treats of both these Spices And of sweet Calamus two hundred and fifty shekels This Spice hath also the same addition of Bosem to it because there was a Calamus that was not sweet-scented and that which was they held very precious being not of the growth of Judea but coming from distant places So we read VI Jer. 20. Of sweet Cane from a far Country and Isaiah intimates in XLIII 24. that it was a Foreign Commodity of great value and Salmasius is positive that there was no Aromatick Calamus grew out of India Plin. Exercit. p. 1052. But Bochartus very well observes that there was no Traffick in all likelyhood with India in the days of Moses and therefore they had it then from Arabia where Dionysius Periergetes together with Frankincense and Myrrhe mentions in one and the same Verse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sweet smelling Calamus See Hierozoic P. II. L. V. c. 6. Ver. 24. And of Cassia five hundred shekels There is no mention of this Spice which the Hebrews call Kidhah but here and in XXVII Ezek. 19. where it is joyned with Calamus and reckoned among the precious things which were brought to the Marts of Tyre Therefore it doth not signifie that Cassia which is now used among purging Medicines but another mentioned by Pliny together with Cinamon L. XII c. 19. There being one sort of it called Isocinamomum because it was equal to Cinamon in vertue and in value See Salmasius in his Plinianae Exercit. in Solin p. 1302. But this sort of Cassia differing but little from Cinamon Fort. Scacchus thinks for that very reason we are here to understand by Kidhah that Aromatick Plant which the Ancients call Costus the best of which was brought out of Arabia and was of a white colour as he proves out of Avicenna Dioscorides and Pliny And it appears by Propertjus it was used by the Ancients to be burnt on their Altars as well as Frankincense Costum molle date blandi mihi thuris honores Myrothec Elaeochrism P. II. c. 11 12. After the shekel of the Sanctuary See v. 13. And of Oyl-olive Which was clear and free from all Dregs See XXIX 40. An hin I observed there that it contained a Wine-gallon and two Pints and something more Ver. 25. And thou shalt make it From hence and from those words v. 23. Take thou unto the sweet Spices c. the Hebrew Doctors conclude that Moses made this holy Oyl with his own hands Of which there is no certainty much less that none ever adventured to make it after him nay it is evident that Bezaleel made it as well as all other things before-mentioned XXXVII 29. An Oyl of holy Ointment To anoint with it all the things mentioned in the next Verse whereby they were sanctified that is set apart for the Service of God It was not thick like those Compositions which we now call Ointments but thin as Oyl is being nothing but Oyl with an infusion of these strong Spices which made it have a comfortable scent For it is observed by Dioscorides that Oyl was very proper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Solomon was 1 Kings I. 39. though we may doubt of David when he was anointed King of Judah 2 Sam. II. 4. which was I suppose by a special direction of the Prophets that the People might look upon them as sacred Persons and special Ministers of God for their good The Jews also will have it that he whom they call the anointed of War that is say the Jews the Priest mentioned XX Deut. 2. but I should rather think the General who commanded their Forces in any sudden danger was anointed also with this Oyl that he might be inspired with Courage when he fought as a sacred Person So that they interpret the first words of the foreging Verse upon mans flesh shall it not be poured in this sense None shall be anointed with it but the High Priest the anointed of War and the Kings of the House of David For the Kings of Israel were not anointed with it but with simple Balsom as they also tell us Ver. 34. And the LORD said unto Moses take unto thee sweet Spices There are the same words here in the Hebrew that we had before v. 23. save only that there he saith Take to the Besammim with the addition of Rosch principal or most excellent and here take to the Samim which we translate sweet Spices How these two differ Interpreters of all sorts extreamly vary But they both seem to be general words which contain the following Species under them and Samim to signifie Spices of less value than Besamim The latter of which denotes such Spices as were either liquid or most proper to mix with Oyl and other liquid things to give them a fragrancy as Fort. Scacchus thinks who hath discussed these two words with great diligence in his Elaeochrism Myroth P. II. c. 7. Stacte The Hebrew word signifies something that drops which some have taken for Balsom but the LXX translate it as we do and Salmasius hath shown that it is the liquid part of Myrrhe not which slows of it self which drops from it when it is pressed out by Art See Plin. Exercit. p. 520. The same Fort. Scacchus c. 8. observes out of Dioscorides who calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the most unctuous part of fresh Myrrhe pressed out with a little Water c. 74. This was used in their Perfumes which the Heathen burnt upon their Altars as appears by that of Euripides in Troad where he mentions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Onycha The Hebrew word Secheleth is translated by Jonathan Ceseth which the famous Bochartus proves by many Arguments to be ladanum which was one of the principal Aromaticks among the Arabians The Stream of Interpreters indeed carry it for Onycha but are not agreed what that is For some take it for the Hoof or Claw of an Animal as Maimonides others as Jarchi for the Root of a Plant which is smooth and transparent as the Nail of a Man's Hand which the Greeks call Onyx But there are others and more numerous who take it for the shell of a Fish in the Fens of India that are full of Spikenard upon which this Fish feeding it makes the very Shell odoriferous See Hierozoic P. II. Lib. V. cap. ult He observes also P. I. L. III. c. 1. that there was such a Shell-fish in Babylonia which was nearer to the Jews than the Indian The Greeks called it Onyx from the form of it and the Hebrews Secheleth from its colour which was black And Galbanum That which is sold in our Shops is of an offensive smell but there was another in Syria in the Mount Amanus which had an excellent Scent And therefore to distinguish it from ordinary Galbanum there is a word added to it as the Vulgar Latin takes it in which it is called Galbanum boni odoris For that Translation joyns the next word which we translate sweet Spices unto Galbanum as if he had said Aromatick Galbanum With pure Frankincense It was gathered twice in the year in the Spring and in the Autumn and Pliny tells us that gathered in the Autumn was the purest and whitest with which the other that was reddish was not to be compared L. XII c. 14. Every one knows that this was very much used by the Gentiles upon their Altars Of each shall there be a like weight This is the common Interpretation of the Hebrew words and I will not trouble the Reader with any other But we have no certain knowledge what weight this was for I see no Authority for what the Hebrew Doctors say that there was LXX pound of each of these four Spices And they add which makes all they say of this matter questionable that there were also several pounds of Cinamon and Cassia and Crocus in short of XIII several Spices which Josephus L. VI. Haloseos c. 6. assirms were in this Composition Of which Moses they say made in the whole CCCLXVIII pound that is one pound for every day in the year and three for the day of Expiation And accordingly R. Levi Barzelonita saith the Priests made every year as much as would suffice for every day of it and that the ordinary Priests might make it as well as the High Priest Praecept CI. Ver. 35. And thou shalt make it a perfume Some think the last words of the foregoing Verse signifie that each sort of Spices was to be pounded one by one and then they are all ordered here to be put together A Confection after the art of the Apothecary Made with great care and according to this Divine Prescription Thus Plutarch speaking of the Aromatick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the Egyptians which was burnt Morning and Evening on their Altars saith it was not put together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on any fashion or as it hapned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. but the Sacred Books were read to those who compounded it when it was mixed L. de Isid Osiride Tempered together Both the Chaldee and the LXX render this mingled just as Salt is with any thing upon which it is sprinkled Pure Without any other mixture And holy To be used only in the Divine Service For this was one of the most ancient ways of worshipping God the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Sacrifice as Porphyry saith L. II. being derived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first Men making a Fume by burning parts of Trees and Shrubs and Seeds and Fruits And the sweeter their scent was the more grateful they fancied the Fume was unto their Gods So that though at first they contented themselves with simple Herbs and Plants and Moses here prescribes only some few Spices fetcht from Foreign Countries yet in after-times they increased them to a greater number for that Aromatick Mixture I mentioned before among the Egyptians called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was a Composition of sixteen things which Plutarch reckons up in the forenamed Book And Sophocles brings in Clytemnestra in his Electr. v. 637. calling for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
presently when I have noted that this Translation fashioned it with a graving Tool is not so agreeable to what here follows as another which the Hebrew words will as well bear After he had made it a molten Calf The words in the Hebrew are and he made it c. we translate them after c. to make this agree with what goes before according to our Translation he fashioned it with a graving Tool which may as litterally be translated he bound them up in a bag For we find the word jatzar which we here translate fashioned to have the signification also of binding or tying up and cheret in the Plural Number to signifie a bag 2 Kings V. 23. And thus the Prophet Isaiah as Bochart observes describes the making of Images XLVI 6. they lavish Gold out of the Bag and they make it a God Which agrees with what is here said of Aaron He received the Ear-rings and put them in a Bag and then having made a Mold cast them into it and made a golden Calf See v. 24. A molten Calf So he calls it because it was no bigger than a Calf though the Head was like an Ox and therefore as I observed before so called by the Psalmist What moved Aaron to represent God in this sigure is hard to resolve Most think he imitated the Egyptians among whom he had long lived which seems not to me at all likely since he had seen the Judgment that God executed against all their Gods XII 12. yet so great a Man as J. Gerh. Vossius hath taken a great deal of pains to prove that Joseph was adored by them under the Name of Apis and Serapis and that his Symbol was an Ox. This he hath laboured to support by many ingenious Conjectures But it is not likely if he were thus publickly honoured as a God that a King should arise who knew not Joseph i. e. had no regard to him I Exod. 8. and another succeed him who endeavoured to ruin all his Kindred The Worship of Serapis also was not so ancient for Herodotus saith not a word of it nor any Body else till the time of Alexander the Great and many Authors say it was brought into Egypt out of Pontus by Ptolomy See Bochartus in his Hierozoic P. I. p. 338. And though Apis was more ancient yet not of such antiquity as Moses as a very learned Person of our own Dr. Tenison now Archbishop of Canterbury hath shown in his Book of Idolatry Chap. VI. Part 4 5 c. And as for Osiris both Plutarch and Strabo say he was the same with Apis which was not then known as I have said in Egypt no more than Typhus or Typhon whom Philo thinks to be here intended but was certainly a later Invention and as Bochartus imagines represented Moses himself though very much disguised Cuperus indeed hath made it probable in his Harpocrates p. 83 c. that there was a Serapis worshipped in Egypt before that brought out of Pontus But whether it be so or no I do not take it to be at all material because it is not likely that Aaron would make such a Representation of the Divinity as was in use among them from whose Slavery God had lately deliver'd them For how could he think the LORD to whom he proclaimed a Feast would be pleased to be represented by any of those Idols on whom as I said before he had executed Judgment at their departure out of Egypt Or what reason is there to think the Israelites themselves could be inclined to think their God to be like any thing which that People worshipped who abhorred the Sacrifices which the God of Israel required Their Conjecture seems to me far more likely who think that Aaron in making this Calf took his pattern from some part of the SCHECHINAH which appeared to him and the Elders of Israel when they eat before God XXIV 10. attended with the Angels Some of which called Cherubim they think appeared with the faces of Oxen. But as there is no mention in that place of Cherubims nor of the Angels appearing in any shape whatsoever and Moses expresly saith the Israelites saw no manner of Similitude on the day when the LORD spake to them in Horeb IV Deut. 15. and therefore Aaron and the Elders in all probability saw none afterward so I think there is no evidence that the heavenly Ministers at any time appeared in this shape till the SCHECHINAH departed from the Temple in the days of Ezekiel See XXV 18 20. After all this considered Aaron seems to me to have chosen an Ox to be the Symbol of the Divine Presence in hope the People would never be so sottish as to worship it but only be put in mind by it of the Divine Power which was hereby represented For an Oxes head was anciently an Emblem of Strength and Horns a common sign of Kingly Power So they were among the Phoenicians as Pignorius observes in his Mensa Isiaca p. 15. out of Eusebius his Praepar Evang. L. I. cap. ult and among the Egyptians as Diodorus Siculus relates L. I. and among the Romans as appears by that famous story of Genucius Cipus in Val. Maximus L. V. c. 6. who when he was Praetor had Horns come out of his Head on a sudden as he was going out of the City to the Wars whereupon he was told Regem eum fore si in Vrbem revertisset That he should be a King if he returned into the City And something like it is related by Julius Capitolinus concerning Clodius Albinus at whose Birth a Cow brought forth a Calf with purple Horns which they lookt upon as signum Imperij a Token of Empire Which made the ancient Fathers perhaps when they spake of this Calf or Ox of Aarons mention only its Head For so doth Tertullian L. ad versus Judaeos c. 1. cum processisset eis bubulum caput and St. Cyprian Lactantius St. Hierom St. Ambrose and others Not because they thought Aaron made only the Head but because this was the principal part whereby God was represented And they said The People cried out aloud These be thy Gods O Israel Or as Nehemiah expresses it IX 18. This is thy God c. the Image or Symbol of the Divine Majesty or as Abulensis interprets it His Divine Vertue resideth in this golden Body The Plural Number is commonly used for the Singular especially when God is spoken of as I observed before XX Gen. 13. XXXV 7. 2 Sam. VII 23. Which brought thee up out of the Land of Egypt This shows they lookt upon this Ox only as a Representation of the Almighty LORD their God for it being but newly made they could not imagine they were brought by it from the Egyptian Slavery but by his Power which perhaps they fancied now resided in it Ver. 5. And when Aaron saw it he built an Altar before it As at the Peoples request he made it so he seeing them receive it with
fell into such foul practices which were not at first committed among the Heathen Nor is there any signification of it in this story but only of their singing and dancing v. 18 19. accompanied it is likely with Musick which Philo indeed calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unseemly Dances but that was only I suppose because they were in honour of a Calf Nor did the Gentiles themselves as I said run at first into such excess of Riot as Athenaeus observes L. VIII Deipnosoph where in the Conclusion of it he describes all the City full of the noise of Pipes and Cymbals and Drums and the voice of those that sung in a great Festival and thence takes occasion to remember that the Ancients observing what a great inclination People had to Pleasure took care they might enjoy it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 orderly and decently by setting apart certain Times to entertain them with it When in the first place they Sacrificed to their Gods and then were left to take their Ease that every one believing the Gods came to their Sacrifices 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 might behave themselves at such Meetings with Modesty and Reverence For we are ashamed saith he to speak or do any thing unseemly before a grave Person and therefore supposing the Gods to be nigh them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they passed their Festival days in ancient times decently and soberly And so he proceeds to show how much the World was altered in his time when nothing but mad revelling was to be seen on such occasions He observes it also as a sign of the ancient modesty at these Feasts that they did not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lye along 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but they sat down to eat and drink as the Israelites here did Ver. 7. And the LORD said unto Moses go get thee down He had dismissed him before having done communing with him XXXI 18. and now sends him away from the Mount in some haste at the end of the XL days mentioned XXIV ult For thy People which thou broughtest out of Egypt These words are generally lookt upon as God's abandoning the Israelites and disowning them to be his People But then they would not have been Moses his People neither but utterly destroyed v. 10. Therefore the true meaning is explained by St. Stephen who calls Moses their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Deliverer VII Acts 35. because by his hand God redeemed them and in that regard they became his People Have corrupted themselves He doth not mention Aaron though he was very angry with him also IX Deut. 20. because the People were the beginners of the Revolt and he complyed with them out of fear Ver. 8. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them It was not much above six Weeks since they heard God charge them in a terrible manner not to worship any Image XX. 4. and they solemnly promised to do whatsoever Moses commanded them from God v. 19. immediately after which this Command is in a peculiar manner repeated v. 23. Ye shall not make with me Gods of Silver neither shall ye make unto you Gods of Gold Which with all the rest of his Judgments they covenanted also to observe XXIV 3 8. And therefore such a speedy Revolt from such Obligations made their Crime exceeding heinous They have made them a golden Calf For what Aaron did was at their instigation And have worshipped it By kissing it saith R. Elieser in his Pirke cap. 45. and bowing down to it and then offering Sacrifice to it as it here follows and acknowledging it to be their Conductor out of the Land of Egypt Ver. 9. And the LORD said unto Moses He added this further before he went down from the Mount I have seen this People Long observed their disposition And behold it is a stiff-necked People This Character of them is repeated XXXIII 3 5. XXXIV 9. being a Metaphor from untamed Heifers who draw their Necks and Shoulders back when they are put under the Yoke The Prophet Isaiah alludes to this when he saith of this People XLVIII 4. Thy Neck is an iron sinew which would not bend And Jeremiah V. 5. where he saith the great Men had broken the Yoke and burst the Bonds Ver. 10. Now therefore let me alone Do not interpose in their behalf with thy Prayers and Deprecations for them That my wrath may wax hot against them and that I may consume them That the just indignation I have conceived against them may proceed to punish them with utter destruction And I will make of thee a great Nation Or I will set thee over a great Nation make the Prince of a mightier Nation than they as the words are XIV Numb 12. for so the word Asah to make signifies 1 Sam. XII 6. where we translate it advanced Moses and Aaron Which seems to be the meaning here because Moses urges v. 13. the Promise made to Abraham Isaac and Jacob as if that would not be made good if the People were all destroyed Whereas there would have been no danger of that if God had made a great Nation to spring from Moses who was of their Seed Ver. 11. And Moses besought the LORD The Hebrew word Challah from whence comes Vaichall which we translate besought importing something of Sickness and Infirmity denotes that Moses besought the LORD with much earnestness and great agony of Mind His God He hoped he had not lost his Interest in God which the People had justly forfeited And said why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people There was great reason for this high displeasure against them which God threatned v. 10. and Moses himself was not only angry but his Anger waxed hot v. 19. yet he hoped other Reasons would move the Divine Mercy to moderate his Anger that is not to punish them so severely as they deserved Which thou hast brought out of the Land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand This is one ground of hope That God would not on a sudden destroy what he had employed so much Power to preserve Ver. 12. Wherefore should the Egyptians say for mischief did he bring them out This is another reason that the Egyptians might not be led into a misbelief or confirmed in their infidelity To slay them in the Mountains There were many Mountains besides Sinai where they now were in that Desert into which God led them and they were the most dangerous part of it Turn from thy fierce wrath c. Let these Considerations prevail for a Pardon Ver. 13. Remember Abraham Isaac and Israel to whom thou swarest by thine own self c. This is the great Argument of all the Promise made to their Forefathers fathers who were his faithful Servants and this Promise confirmed by an Oath often repeated which he hoped God would faithfully fulfil I will multiply your seed as the Stars of Heaven XV Gen. 5. XXII 17. This part of the Promise he
gate throughout the Camp They were not to go into their Tents where they who were sensible of God's Displeasure it may be presumed were bemoaning their sin but to kill every one they met in the Street And slay every man his Brother and every man his Companion c. All the Israelites were Brethren and they are commanded to spare none they met withal because they were near Relations or Friends or next Neighbours Some may imagine this too hazerdous an Undertaking the Levites being but a very small number in comparison with the People of Israel But having God's warrant they were consident none would have the Courage to oppose them for Guilt makes Men timorous and the Levites also found them as Men used to be at the conclusion of a Festival weary with their Dancing and Sports Besides there are those who by their being naked v. 25. understand they were unarmed for Aaron had disarmed them to their shame by setting up the Calf for them to dance about which made them lay aside all thoughts of their Arms and so were more easily slain by the Levites Ver. 28. And the Children of Levi did according to the word of Moses Who being under God their chief Ruler passed this extraordinary Sentence upon the Offenders without the common Process in Courts of Judgment as Mr. Selden observes L. II. de Jure N. G. c. 2. in the end of it And there fell of the people that day about three thousand men The Vulgar hath twenty three thousand contrary to the LXX as well as the Hebrew Text and all the Eastern Versions except the Arabick printed at Rome in this Age and manifestly out of the Vulgar Latin as Mr. Selden hath observed in the same place and Bochart shows largely to be against all the ancient Translations and Writers Hieroz P. I. L. II. c. 34. p. 353. Where he notes also out of Philo these three thousand to have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the principal Ring-leaders of this Impiety In memory of these Disasters the Breaking of the Tables and this Slaughter the Jews keep a Fast every year on the XVIIth of Tamuz which by Jac. Capellus computation answers to the XVIth of our July Ver. 29. For Moses had said consecrate your selves to day to the LORD Or Moses said ye have consecrated your selves c. Which way soever we take it either as spoken before the Execution to encourage them to it or afterward to commend them for it the meaning is That this Act was as acceptable to God as a Sacrifice and had procured them the honour to wait upon him as his Ministers Every man upon his Son and upon his Brother This seems to signifie that some of the Tribe of Levi had also prevaricated to whom these pious Levites had no regard but killed them indifferently with the rest though they met with one of their own Children For which they are highly commended by Moses in his Blessing XXXIII Deut. 9. But it may signifie no more but that they went out with this sincere Resolution to spare none though never so dear to them That he may bestow upon you a blessing this day This Blessing was the Preferment of the Tribe of Levi to be God's Ministers in his House and to enjoy all the Tenth of the Land for an Inheritance XVIII Numb 21 24. Ver. 30. And it came to pass on the morrow Which was the XVIIIth day of Tamuz or our XVIIth of July That Moses said unto the people Whom he assembled together that he might make them sensible of their sin Ye have sinned a great sin He set their sin before them it is likely in all its aggravating Circumstances And now I will go up unto the LORD But he would not have them despair of recovering God's Favour though he could not absolutely assure them of it Peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin That God might not inflict any further Punishment upon them Ver. 31. And Moses returned unto the LORD Not as yet to the place where he was before with the LORD for forty days but to some part of the Mount where he might put up his most fervent Prayers to God by which his Anger was turned away as well as by Sacrifices And said O this people have sinned a great sin He begins his Prayers with a Confession of their Guilt in a most pathetical manner And have made them gods of gold Contrary to the express repeated Command of God XX. 4 23. Ver. 32. Yet now Here follows his earnest and most affectionate Deprecation for them If thou wilt forgive their sin Be thou pleased or O that thou wouldest forgive them See Dr. Hammond upon XCV Psal not 6. Or if not blot me I pray thee out of thy Book which thou hast written Let me die rather than live to see the Evils that are coming on them if thou punish them as they deserve God hath no need of a Book wherein to Register and Record any of his purposes but the Scripture uses the Language of Men as the Jews speak who to this day retain this form of Speech in their Prayer wherewith they begin the New-year O our Father and our King write us in the Book of the best Life in the Book of Righteousness in the Book of Redemption They desire that is to be preserved that year in a happy condition free from sin from want and from danger See Theodorick Hackspan in his Annotations on this place Ver. 33. And the LORD said unto Moses Whosoever hath sinned against me him will I blot out of my Book This was all the Answer Moses could obtain That they only should perish who had offended the Divine Majesty Which doth not deny them a Pardon if they ceased to offend him Ver. 34. Therefore now go Speak no more of this matter but return to the Camp Lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee Take the Conduct of the People upon thee to the Land which I promised to bestow on them This supposes God would not punish them as they deserved though by the words following it appears he abated something of his wonted kindness to them Behold mine Angel shall go before thee Not the Angel spoken of XXIII 20. but some lesser Minister in the Heavenly Court as appears from the next Chapter v. 2. where he saith only I will send an Angel before thee viz. in the Pillar of Cloud and Fire XIII 22. Nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them Upon the next occasion to punish other Offences I will further punish this Whence the saying of R. Isaac in the Gemara Sanhedrim c. 11. There hath no vengeance come upon the world in which there hath not been half an ounce of the first Calf To which R. Vschajah there hath respect in these words Till the days of Jeroboam the Israelites suckt but of one Calf but afterward of three That is their Punishment was
this Cloud stood just as it did here at the Door of it XII Numb 5. And stood at the door of the Tabernacle Openly to assert the Authority of Moses with whom God showed himself present though he had forsaken them And the LORD talked with Moses Which shows the Divine Glory was within the Tabernacle where Moses now was and so the People understood it as appears by the next Verse Ver. 10. And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the Tabernacle door Which they knew was an evident Token that God was there And all the people rose up and worshipped every man in his Tent door Bowed themselves unto the Divine Majesty and humbly deprecated his Displeasure acknowledging we may reasonably think his great Goodness in condescending to appear again to them though at a distance from them Ver. 11. And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face In a familiar manner which did not affright or astonish him by a dreadful appearance of his Majesty which in the sight of the Children of Israel lookt like devouring fire XXIV 17. but appeared to Moses in a milder and more chearful brightness The like expression in XII Numb 8. seems to relate only to the Discourse he had with Moses which was clear and plain and by a Voice not in Visions and Dreams and obscure Resemblances and so it may be understood here as Maimonides takes it More Nevoch P. III. c. 45. But Abarbinel thinks that these Expressions signifie God treated with Moses in his own Person not by an Ambassadour just as one Friend converses with another And this is a common Notion among the Jews that God did not speak to Moses by an Angel but by himself which they take to be the meaning of this Phrase face to face Which seem to me rather to import the clearness and evidence of that Divine Light wherein God revealed himself to Moses whether it was by himself or an Angel it matters not Yet the New Testament determines this question when it tells us The Law it self was given by Angels in the hand of a Mediator And accordingly the old Tradition was That Moses saw things in a clear and bright Glass but the rest of the Prophets in a Glass that was dim and cloudy As a man speaks to his friend This is added to show how differently God treated Moses from all other Men. For he is said to have talked face to face with all the Israelites V. Deut. 4. but it was out of the midst of fire which struck a terrour into them whereas he spake to Moses out of the midst of a glorious but comfortable Light which gave him high satisfaction And he turned again into the Camp After some time spent in Conversation with the Divine Majesty he went to comfort the People it is likely with hopes of recovering his Favour of which they might have quite despaired if he had staid long from them But his servant Joshua a young man departed not out of the Tabernacle It is hard to tell for what end Joshua should stay behind his Master and it seems not decent that Moses should return alone without his Servant to attend him They that say he stayed to guard the Tabernacle have no foundation for it and they have not much who say he stayed to give Judgment in small Causes which needed not Moses his Resolution according to XVIII 26. For we never read that Joshua was a Judge but a constant Attendant upon Moses his Person And therefore the words may better be translated as they plainly run in the Hebrew He turned again to the Camp and his servant Joshua the son of Nun a young man At which there is a stop in the Hebrew over the word Naar young Man to distinguish these from the following words which are Departed not out of the Tabernacle That is the LORD departed not from thence but his Presence remained there and would not come into the Camp as Moses did And this Interpretation is the more likely because the last words in the Hebrew are out of the midst of the Tabernacle which cannot refer to Joshua because he did not go thither but only Moses who conversed alone with the Divine Majesty Why Joshua is called a young Man when he was near sixty years old is not easie to resolve Perhaps it signifies a valiant Man for so he was or he had waited on Moses from his youth or as Maimonides this is the Phrase of the Hebrew Nation who call all Men young till they begin to decay as Joseph is called when he was Thirty years old XLII Gen. 2. More Nevoch P. II. c. 32. Ver. 12. And Moses said unto the LORD When or where Moses spake what follows we are not here informed It is likely that after he was satisfied the People were very penitent he returned to the Tabernacle and there made this Address unto the Divine Majesty for a perfect Reconciliation with his People See A word imploring attention and regard to his Petition Thou sayest unto me Bring up this people Lead them to the Land of Promise XXXII 34. XXXIII 1. And thou hast not let me know whom thou wilt send with me Thou hast only said thou wilt send an Angel before me but I hope to obtain greater favour from thee which thou hast not yet declared to me And I have no heart to proceed if thou thy self wilt not guide us in the Pillar of Cloud as thou hast done hitherto and dwell among us as thou hast promised in thy Sanctuary This seems to be the sense if this Verse be compared with the 15th and not barely that he did not know what Angel he would send with him Yet thou hast said I know thee by name The Chaldee takes it to be the same with what is said of Bezaleel whom God called by name XXXI 2. that is particularly designed to make the Tabernacle and all belonging to it But to know is more than to call signifying God's special Love and Kindness to Moses above all Men as the LXX interpret it And thou hast also found grace in my sight God had often heard his Prayers for this People as he hoped he would do now For that was the effect of his being an acceptable person unto him which is the proper signification of this Phrase Ver. 13. Now therefore I pray thee if I have found grace in thy sight If I still continue in thy favour Shew me now thy way The Interpretation of Maimonides More Nevoch P. I. c. 54. is too much strained who thinks he here desires the knowledge of God's Attributes as v. 18. he desires the sight of his Essence The plain meaning of this Prayer is That God himself would conduct him and show him the way wherein he should lead his People unto their rest in the Land of Canaan XXXII 34. That I may know thee that I may find grace in thy sight That I may be fully assured of thy gracious acceptance of me And
to thee and telling thee That now the LORD is presenting himself to thee And so we find he did XXXIV 6. And will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy This is the Substance of the words which he tells him he would proclaim after notice given of him of his coming to pass by him And their meaning is that he would dispense his Favours according to his own good pleasure as he did now to Moses unto whom he vouchsafed such a Revelation of himself as he did not make to others For thus he explains it XXXIV 6 7. where he tells him He would be very gracious patient and long-suffering unto some but punish severely the Iniquity of others Ver. 20. And he said Thou canst not see my face But as for thy request that I would make thee see my Glory in its full Splendor thou art not capable of it I know none that hath explained this whole matter better than R. Jehudah in Sepher Cosri P. IV. Sect. 3. For the Glory mentioned in Scripture there is one of such a nature that the Eyes of the Prophets could sustain it another all the Israelites saw as the Cloud and the consuming Fire but another so pure and bright to such an high degree that no Prophet is able to apprehend it but if he venture to look upon it his Composition is dissolved i. e. he dies Such was the Glory here spoken of a Splendor so great and piercing that none could behold it For there shall no man see me and live Accordingly we find when the SCHECHINAH or Divine Glory filled the Tabernacle Moses was not able to enter into it XL. 35. that is he could not with safety to his life look upon it And so it was after the Temple of Soloman was built and consecrated by Solemn Prayer to God The Glory of the LORD filled the House and the Priests could not enter into the House because the Glory of the LORD had filled the LORD's House 2 Chron. VII 1 2. From this Speech to Moses it is likely that Men in future times imagined they should die immediately when they saw only an Angel appear in such a high glittering manner that it amazed them Ver. 21. And the LORD said Behold there is a place by me It doth not plainly appear by the story from whence God now spake to Moses It is most likely from the Mount where he had long conversed with him Or if it was from the Tabernacle where his Glory appeared v. 9. and continued v. 11. that was not far from the Mount where he tells him he would make his Glory pass before him And thou shalt stand upon a Rock It is probable This was the Rock in Horeb where the LORD had formerly appeared to Moses XVII 6. Ver. 22. And it shall come to pass that while my Glory passeth by that I will put thee in a clift of the Rock Perhaps it was in one of the Clefts which was made in the Rock when God brought Water out of it LXXVIII Psal 15. into which he directed Moses For that is meant by putting him in the cleft showing him the place where he should be while the Divine Majesty passed by And I will cover thee with my hand c. That he might not be hurt by the splendour of that Glory as it passed by the Cleft This doth not certainly signifie that the Glory of the LORD appeared in an Human shape for Hands are ascribed to God in accommodation to us when nothing is meant but this invisible Power which now perhaps cast a Cloud about him that he might not be struck dead by the inconceivable brightness and force of those Rays which came from the Face of the Divine Majesty Ver. 23. And I will take away mine hand As soon as the Face as it is called v. 20. of the Divine Majesty was gone by him which it was impossible for him to behold and live he promises to remove that Cloud which covered him so that he should look upon the hinder Parts of his Glory though not upon the Face And thou shalt see my back parts In which the Glory of the Divine Majesty shone in a lower degree of Light which was not so piercing as to put out the Eyes and take away the Life of the Beholders And yet there was such a resplendent Brightness in it that Moses's Face shone when he came down from the sight of it XXXIV 29. For that lustre in his Countenance is to be ascribed in all probability to that sight which he had of the Divine Majesty at that time Some little Particles of Light remaining upon his Face and sticking to it if I may so speak from that exceeding great Splendour which shone upon him and passed before him as he lay in the hollow place of the Rock But my face shall not be seen My Glory in its full Lustre without any Vail before it cannot be seen See v. 20. There are many other Interpretations of this Verse as well as of the 18th and 19th Maimonides in his Book de Fundam Legis c. 1. n. 11. takes it thus God revealed that to Moses which no Man either before or after him ever knew he making him to apprehend something of his very Essence whereby God was separated in his Mind from all other Beings as a Man discerns another Man when he sees his back parts and by his Mind discerns his Proportions distinct from all other Men. But in his More Nevoch P. I. c. 21. he takes this Discovery to Moses to be the Knowledge God gave him of his Works and Attributes viz. those mentioned XXXIV 6. And thus Gregor Nazianzen Orat. XXXIV p. 559. expounds it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Those things are the back Parts of God which are after him whereby he is known as the Sun is by its Image in the Water c. Upon which Elias Cretensis hath this ingenious gloss That the Face of God signifies his Essence before the beginning of the World and his hinder Parts his Creation and Providence in the Government of the World But Maimonides in the same place now mentioned acknowledges also that this may be interpreted according to the Targum That God made his Majesty that is an exceeding bright Representation of himself though not in its full Glory to pass before him Which Onkelos sometimes calls Jekara Glory sometimes Memra the Word and sometimes SCHECHINAH the Majesty Which seems to be the most litteral meaning that God himself particularly the Eternal WORD in a visible Glory or Majesty appeared unto him in so much Splendour as Human Nature was able to bear but not in his unvailed Brightness which is as the Apostle speaks inaccessible CHAP. XXXIV Verse 1. AND the LORD said unto Moses Having obtained a Promise of a Pardon for the People and of greater Favour to himself than had been hitherto shown him God directs him here to dispose things for
the performance of both How thee two Tables of stone like unto the first and I will write upon these Tables the words that were in the first Tables which thou brakest Every attentive Reader must needs observe the difference between the first Tables which Moses brake and those which he is now ordered to prepare For God did not only write his Laws with his own finger upon the first Tables but the Tables themselves also were the work of God XXXII 16. Whereas in these as Greg. Nyssen well expresses it de Vita Mosis p. 183. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The writing indeed was by the Divine Power but the matter of them framed by the hand of Moses So that at the same time God shewed he was reconciled he put them in mind that he had been offended and restored them to his favour with some abatement Ver. 2. And be ready in the morning On the XVIII day of July See XXXII 30. And come up in the morning unto Mount Sinai From whence God spake to the Israelites V Deut. 4 c. those very words which he intended to write upon the Tables He orders him to come up in the morning that all the People might see him ascend and carry the Tables with him And present thy self there to me in the top of the Mount Where the Divine Majesty appeared before in its Glory and where Moses stayed with him forty days and forty nights XIX 26. XXIV 17 18. Ver. 3. And no man shall come up with thee The same Precept is renewed which was given at his first ascent XXIV 1 2. Neither let any man be seen throughout the Mount XIX 12 21 c. Neither let the Flocks nor Herds feed before the Mount He seems to require their removal to such a distance that they should not be within view of the Divine Majesty By which means the People were naturally led to stand in greater awe of God and there was the less danger of any Beasts touching the Mount XIX 13. Ver. 4. And Moses hewed two Tables of stone c. These and the following words only declare that he did as God bad him v. 1 2. And took in his hand the two Tables of stone These he carried with him but the first Tables were given him when he came there XXIV 12. They seem to have been thin being no heavier than that he could carry them in one hand Ver. 5. And the LORD The SCHECHINAH or Divine Majesty called also the Glory of the LORD Descended in the Cloud Wherein it had been wont to appear from the beginning of their deliverance out of Egypt and had lately appeared to Moses in the Tabernacle XXXIII 9. when the Cloudy Pillar descended and stood at the door of it while the LORD talked with Moses there And it seems when that was done the Glory of the LORD in the Cloud went up again towards Heaven and now came down upon this occasion And stood with him there The Cloudy Pillar wherein the Glory of the LORD was rested upon the top of the Mount where Moses now was v. 2. And proclaimed the Name of the LORD Gave him notice of his Presence as he had promised XXXIII 19. and is more fully expressed in the next Verse Ver. 6. And the LORD passed by before him Which Onkelos translates the LORD made his Majesty to pass before him Which Exposition Maimonides acknowledges to be right and confirmed by the Scripture it self when it saith XXXIII 22. While my Glory passeth by c. which he confesses signifies not the Divine Essence it self but some created Splendour which no Eye was able to behold More Nevoch P. I. c. 21. And proclaimed As the Glory of the LORD passed by he heard a Voice proclaiming this Description of the Divine Nature The LORD Some joyn the next word to this as if the Voice said the LORD the LORD the more to awaken his Attention to mind what he heard See XXXIII 19. And this Name of his signifies his Self-Existence and his absolute Dominion over all Creatures which received their being from him See VI. 3. God The Hebrew word El signifies Strong and Mighty in one word his Irresistible Power Job IX 4. Merciful The word Rachum signifies that which we call tender Mercies such as Parents have to their Children when their Bowels yern towards them And gracious We call that Chaninah Grace or Favour saith Maimonides which we bestow upon any Man to whom we owe nothing XXXIII Gen. 5 11. And therefore God is here called Chanum Gracious with respect to those whom he created preserves and governs but is not obliged by any right to these things as his words are More Nevoch P. I. cap. 54. Long-suffering So slow to Anger that he doth not presently punish those that offend him but bears long with them Abundant in goodness The Hebrew word Chesed which we translate Goodness signifies as Maimonides saith More Nevoch P. III. cap. the excess and highest degree of any thing whatsoever it be but especially the greatest Benignity And therefore with the addition of rabh abundant denotes long continued Kindness as is more fully declared in the next Verse And truth Most faithful and constant to his Promises which he stedfastly keeps throughout all Generations The word abundant refers both to this and to his Benignity CXLVI Psal 6. Ver. 7. Keeping mercy for thousands The same word Chesed which before we translated Goodness we here translate Mercy and the Hebrews observing the â—etter Nun to be greater in the word Notzer keeping than is usual fancy that it denotes the immense Treasures of the Divine Bounty But the word thousands fully explains how abundant his Mercy is Forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin Here are three words to signifie all sorts of Offences which he passes by tell Men grow intollerably wicked But some distinguish them by making Iniquity signifie Offences against Men and Transgressions Offences against God himself and Sin all the Errours Childishnesses and Follies which Men are guilty of in the Conduct of themselves But they may as well signifie the Offences which were committed against the Moral Ceremonial and Political Laws And that will by no means clear the guilty These words according to Maimonides belong still to the loving kindness of God as all the foregoing do signifying that when he doth punish he will not utterly destroy and make desolate For so the Hebrew words Nakkeh lo Jenakkeh he thinks are to be litterally rendered in extirpating he will not extirpate as the word Nakah he observes is used III Isaiah 26. She shall sit desolate on the Earth And to the same sense these words are expounded by many Modern Interpreters particularly Lud. de Dieu When he empties he will not empty or make quite desolate For the Maxim of the Hebrew is as Maimonides there observes More Nevoch P. I. c. 54. that the property of Goodness far excels that of Severity For here being thirteen Properties of God mentioned I can
find but ten besides the Name of LORD there is but one of them that belongs to the latter viz. that which follows all the rest belong to the former And indeed we find that Moses urges these very words among other why God should not destroy the Israelites as one Man XIV Numb 18. which had been very improper if God would by no means clear the guilty Visiting the iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children This is meant saith the same Maimonides only of the Sin of Idolatry unto which God threatens in the second Commandment this Punishment to the third and fourth Generation upon those that hate him For no Man is called a hater of God but only an Idolater according to what we read XII Deut. 31. Every abomination which the LORD hateth c. Vnto the third and fourth Generation He mentions saith the same Author none Beyond these because the utmost that any Man can live to see of his Seed is the fourth Generation And therefore when an Idolatrous City was destroyed the old Idolater with Children Grand-children and Great-grand-children were all cut off according to the Precept XIII Deut. 15. Destroy it utterly and all that is therein The sense of the whole seems to be That this is the Glory of the Divine Majesty that he hath a Soveraign Dominion over all because he is the Fountain of Being the Original of all things most powerful to do what he pleases and so merciful that he delights to bestow his Benefits unasked and so gracious as to continue them to the unthankful bearing long with them when they provoke him multiplying Favours on those who have no Deserts and faithfully performing his Promises though never so great doing good unto a thousand Generations of those who adhere faithfully to him and do not apostatize from him for he pardons innumerable Offences of all sorts that are committed against his Laws and when the Provocations are so great that they are fit to be punished he proceeds not to the utmost Extremity till there be no Remedy then he punishes Idolaters terribly to the third and fourth Generation Ver. 8. And Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the Earth and worshipped Being transported with Joy at so glorious a sight and such gracious words he immediately worshipped God with the humblest Reverence acknowledging his great Condescention to him Ver. 9. And he said Which encouraged him to renew his Request to God If now I have found grace in thy sight O Lord. He doth not doubt of it but the meaning rather is Since I have found grace c. as appears from what he granted him XXXIII 17 18 c. Let my Lord I pray thee go among us Upon the mention of the last Property of the Divine Majesty visiting the iniquity of the Fathers upon the Children c. Moses seems to have been afraid he might be provoked to proceed to such Severity with the Israelites who had lately apostatized from him And again beseeches him he would be so gracious though they should again offend him as to continue his Presence among them which he had threatned to withdraw XXXIII 3. For it is a stiff-necked people If we adhere to this Translation the meaning is they needed such a Governour by whose Authority and Presence they might be kept in awe and cured of their perversness But the Particle ki which we here translate for often signifies though and may be very fitly so rendred here and then the meaning is Though they be very Refractory XXXII 9. yet do not forsake them and leave them to themselves but still conduct them as thou hast done And pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us for their inheritance Since thou art so ready to forgive v. 7. do not cut us off for our late Offences but still continue to own us for thy peculiar People This Moses had begg'd of God before and obtained a Promise of it XXXIII 16 17. and see XIX 5. and now he beseeches him out of his Goodness which he had proclaimed to confirm that Promise and not to revoke it upon every new Provocation Ver. 10. And he said behold I make a Covenant Herein God verified the truth of what he had proclaimed being so merciful and gracious as not only to confirm his Promise but to turn it into a Covenant like that at the giving of his Laws from Mount Sinai XXIV 3 7 c. which he renews with them in the next Verse Where he engages to drive out the Inhabitants of Canaan before them and then requires them to take care not to imitate their Idolatry Before all thy people will I do marvels such as have not been done in all the Earth c. This seems to relate to all the wonderful Works he intended to do in their Introduction into the Land of Canaan by making the Waters of Jordan retire and the Walls of Jericho fall down with the rest that followed till they got possession of their Inheritance For it is a terrible thing that I will do with thee Such as shall declare the Almighty Power of the Divine Majesty and strike a Terrour into all those that oppose him but demonstrate in an astonishing manner his Fidelity to his People For all this is said to confirm their belief of the Covenant he said he would make with them in the beginning of the Verse Ver. 11. Observe thou that which I command thee this day Doubt not of what I say but only mark and take care to do all that I now enjoyn thee Behold I drive out before thee the Amorite and the Canaanite c. To encourage them so to do he premises what he intended to do for them which he put at the Conclusion of his Covenant when he first declared it XXIII 23 28. but here puts it in the front of it that they might be the more sensible of the reasonableness of those Commands to which he expected Obedience Ver. 12. Take heed to thy self He now renewing that Covenant with them which they had broken by the worshipping the golden Calf repeats the principal Precepts which concerned his Worship and Service which had been delivered to them before and excites them to the observance of them by the addition of a very gracious Promise v. 24. Lest thou make a Covenant with the Inhabitants of the Land whether thou goest Nothing could be more reasonable than this that they should not enter into Friendship with those Nations whom he commanded them to expel for their abominable Wickedness unless they would renounce their Idolatry and come under their Government See XXIII 32. and Mr. Selden L. VI. de Jure N. G. in the latter end of the 13th Chapter and beginning of the next Lest it be for a snare in the midst of thee Lest they inveigle thee to imitate their manners Ver. 13. But ye shall destroy their Altars break their Images and cut down their Groves This more largely explains what was briefly and
at the Passover when they offered the first-fruits of barley harvest XVI Deut. 9. Ver. 23. Three times in the year shall all your Males appear before the LORD the God of Israel This likewise was explained XXIII 14 17. And nothing need be added but that these peculiar Laws are here repeated together with those that follow v. 25 26. upon this occasion because they were ordained to preserve the People in the Worship and Service of the true God from whom they had lately departed Who therefore puts them in mind in the last words of this Verse which was not said before that he was the God of Israel to whom they were devoted by especial Obligations Ver. 24. For I will cast out the Nations before thee Till this was done they were not bound to observe the Precept of appearing three times in the year before the LORD And will enlarge thy borders Beyond the Land of Canaan as he had promised before XXIII 31. Neither shall any man desire thy Land when thou shalt go up to appear before the LORD c. To remove all fear of their Mind that their Neighbours might Invade them when all the Men were gone and none but Women and Children and Old men left at home he adds this Promise to all he had made before or rather makes it a part of his Covenant which he now renews that he would lay such Restraints upon their Enemies that they should not so much as think of Invading them at those three Feasts much less make any actual Incursions into their Country Ver. 25. Thou shalt not offer the blood of my Sacrifice c. At the Passover See this fully explained XXIII 18. Ver. 26. The first of the first-fruits of thy Land thou shalt bring unto the House of the LORD thy God At Pentecost which was the Feast of First-fruits See XXIII 19. Thou shalt not seethe a Kid in its mothers milk This concerns the other great Feast that of Tabernacles See in the same place Ver. 27. And the LORD said unto Moses Having recited the principal part of his Covenant mentioned v. 10. he gives the following order Write thou these words From v. 11. to this place just as he did those words contained in the XXI XXII XXIII Chapters of this Book See XXIV 4. out of which these words are extracted as the chief things respecting the Worship of God which he requires him to write in a Book by it self For after the tenor of these words have I made a Covenant with thee and with Israel See XXIV 7. Where the Covenant containing these words and many other was Sealed with the Blood of a Sacrifice The Jews are so blind as to found their Oral Tradition upon this place and upon one small word Pi which signifies indeed mouth but withal is an expletive Particle denoting the manner and value of any thing as appears from XLIII Gen. 7. XXVII Lev. 18. and therefore here rightly translated the tenor of these words Yet R. Johannes in the very beginning of Halicoth Olam gathers from hence That God made a Covenant now with their Fathers concerning all the unwritten Laws delivered by word of Mouth Unto which which while they adhere they can never understand their Divine Writings For what can be more plain that the Covenant here mentioned was ordered to be written Ver. 28. And he was there with the LORD This saith Maimonides was the highest degree of Prophecy which none attained but Moses whose Thoughts were wholly taken off from all other things and fixed upon God while he was with him in the holy Mount that is asked and received Answers from the LORD More Nevochim P. III. c. 51. Forty days and forty nights As he had been at the first XXIV 18. Which was partly to make a new trial how they would behave themselves in his Absence and partly to give the greater Authority to the Laws he brought them from God which he renewed as we read in the end of this Verse And did neither eat bread nor drink water But was supported by Influences from the Almighty who kept up his Spirits in their just height without the common Recruits of Meat and Drink Which when they give us Refreshment likewise make us drowsie See XXIV 18. To which add what Maimonides saith in the place now named That the Joy wherewith he was transported made him not think of eating and drinking for his intellectual Faculties were so strong that all Corporal Desires ceased It seems to me very probable That during this time he saw again the Model of the Tabernacle and all its Furniture with every thing else he was ordered to make when he went first into the Mount from the beginning of the XXVth to the end of the XXXth Chapter which are briefly summed up XXXI 7 8 9 10 11. He seems also to have spent much of this time in Prayer to God for the People That he would restore them intirely to his Favour and bring them to their Inheritance IX Deut. 18 19 25 26. X. 10. And he wrote upon the Tables the words of the Covenant c. That is the LORD wrote as he said he would v. 1. not Moses who wrote the foregoing words in a Book but not these which were written by the Finger of God in the Tables of Stone So Moses tells us expresly X Deut. 4. Jacobus Capellus and others following the Hebrew Doctors imagine that Moses was three times with God in the Mount for the space of XL. days and that this was the last time Between which and the first they place another which they fancy is mentioned XXXII 30 31. compared with IX Deut. 18 c. But I see no solid ground for this for God called him up into the Mount but twice and he durst not have adventured to go so near him as he was both these times without his invitation Ver. 29. And it came to pass when Moses came down from Mount Sinai Which was upon the XXV of our August according to the former Computation v. 2. With the two Tables of Testimony in Moses hand when he came down from the Mount So he came down at the first XXXII 15. That Moses wist not that the skin of his face shone There was a radient Splendour in his Countenance which is the import of the Hebrew Karan which the Vulgar translates horned Not imagining that Moses had Horns but Rays of Light which imitated Horns And therefore the Hebrew word Karnaim signifies both and R. Solomon Jarchi upon this place calls these Rays on Moses's Face Horns of Magnificence as Mr. Selden observes L. II. de Jure N. G. c. 6. p. 292. It is not improbable that the Hair of his Head was inter-spersed with Light as well as that Rays came from his Face which perstringed the Eyes of Beholders And Painters had done more reasonably if instead of Horns upon Moses his Forehead they had represented him with a Glory crowning his Head as the Saints are usually
the People and sometimes the whole Body of the People as Corn. Bon. Bertram observes de Repub. Jud. cap. 6. It seems here to be used in the first Sense for he could not speak these words to the whole Body of the People but to the principal Persons of the several Tribes by whom what he said was communicated to all Israel These are the words which the LORD hath commanded â—hat ye should do them Before they entred upon the work he admonishes them that none of it must be done upon the Sabbath Ver. 2. Six days shall work be done but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy Sabbath c. This Commandment was particularly repeated to Moses at the end of all the directions about the building of the Tabernacle See XXXI 13 14 15. and now repeated to them as it was at his late renewing his Covenant with them XXXIV 21. that they might not imagine any of the work here commanded to be done about the Tabernacle c. would licence them to break the Sabbath The observation of which being the great Preservative of Religion that 's the reason it is so often enjoyned and particular care taken to secure it And it is not to be omitted that to show of what great concern it is he calls it here as he did XXXI 15. where the end and use of it is set down the Sabbath of Sabbaths that is the great Sabbath or Rest Ver. 3. Ye shall kindle no fire in your Habitations upon the Sabbath-day To dress their Meat or for any other work otherwise they might kindle a Fire to warm themselves in cold Weather This is sufficiently comprehended under the general Command Thou shalt not do any work XX. 10. Therefore the meaning is Thou shalt not so much as kindle a fire for any such purpose For that 's the Rule they give in Halicoth Olam cap. 2. that such particular Prohibitions forbid the whole kind i. e. all manner of work whatsoever which is here mentioned to show they might not kindle a fire for this work of the Tabernacle Ver. 4. And spake unto all the Congregation c. See v. 1. This is the Thing which the LORD commanded Having secured the observation of the Sabbath according to the Direction given just before he came down from the Mount the first time XXXI 13 14 15. he now relates to them what Commands he received from God concerning all that follows Ver. 5. Take ye from amongst you an offering unto the LORD And first he makes a motion to them from the LORD that they would make a free Oblation of Materials for the Building of the Tabernacle and all other things which the LORD commanded to be made v. 10 c. Take ye is as much as bring ye and so we translate it XXV 2. See there Where it appears that this was the very first thing God said to him concerning a voluntary Offering which was the Foundation of all the rest and therefore is first propounded to the People by him Whosoever is of a willing heart c. See there XXV 2. Ver. 6 7 8 9. All these have been explained in the XXV Chapter v. 3 4 5 c. Ver. 10. Every wise-hearted among you shall come and make all that the LORD hath commanded Every skilful Person in the Art of making the things following The same is said of the Women v. 25. The Hebrew word Cochmah which we translate Wisdom is used variously as Maimonides observes sometimes for the understanding of Divine things sometimes for Moral Vertue and sometimes for skill in aâ—â— Art of which he alledges this place as an instance and sometimes for Craft and Subtilty See More Nevochim P. III. c. 54. The word leb or heart is used here according to the Vulgar opinion of those days that the Heart is the Seat of the Understanding And thus I observed before upon Chap. XXV that excellent Artists are by the Heathen called Wise-men Since which I have observed that this is the Language of Homer himself whose Verses concerning Margites are quoted by Aristotle in more places than one L. VI. Moral ad Nicomach c. 7. L. V. Moral ad Endemum c. 7. where he saith he was so foolish that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Gods neither made him a Ditcher nor a Plough-man nor any other sort of Wise-man Upon which Aristotle notes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We ascribe Wisdom in Arts to those who excel in them and then he instances in Phidias a Stone-Cutter and Pobycletus a Statuary Ver. 11. The Tabernacle This signifies sometimes the whole Structure of the House of God but here only the fine inward Curtains mentioned XXVI 1 2 c. His Tent. This signifies the Curtains of Goats-hair which were laid over the other XXVI 7 c. His Covering Of Rams-skins and Badger-skins which were thrown over the other two XXVI 14. His Taches and his Boards his Bars his Pillars and his Sockets All these are explained in that Chapter Ver. 12. The Ark and his Staves with the Mercy-seat See XXV 10 13 17. And the Vail of the Covering Whereby the Holy was separated from the most Holy Place Which is here fitly mentioned between the Mercy-seat which was within and the Table c. which were without this Vail Ver. 13. The Table and his Staves and all his Vessels See all these explained XXV 23 24 c. And the Shew-bread This is a short Expression one word as is usual being cut off viz. the Dishes in which the Shew-bread was set For Moses had not order to make the Bread it self but the Dishes as I said on which the Loaves were laid XXV 29. Ver. 14. The Candlestick also for the light and his Furniture and his Lamps See XXVI 31 32 c. With the Oyl for the Light See XXVII 20 21. Ver. 15. And the Incense Altar and the Staves See XXXI 1 2 c. And the anointing Oyl XXXI 23 24 c. And the sweet Incense XXXI 34 c. He mentioned before the Materials for them v. 8. and now the things themselves And the hanging for the door at the entring in of the Tabernacle Of this see XXVI 36. Ver. 16. And the Altar of Burnt-offering with his brazen Grate his Staves These are explained XXVII 1 2 4 5 6 7. And all his Vessels See there v. 3. The Laver and his foot See XXIX 17 18. Ver. 17. The hangings of the Court his Pillars and their Sockets See XXVII 9 10 c. And the hangings for the door of the Court See there v. 16. Ver. 18. The Pins of the Tabernacle c. XXVII 19. Ver. 19. The Clothes of the Service to do Service in the holy place the holy Garments for Aaron the Priest and his Sons c. Of which there is an account in the whole XXVIIIth Chapter And Moses here makes this large enumeration of all the things which God had commanded v. 10. that they might be
stirred up to be the more liberal in their Offering when they saw how many things were to be done Ver. 20. And all the Congregation of the Children of Israel Whom he had summoned to meet together v. 1. Departed from the presence of Moses When he had reported to them what Orders he had received from the Divine Majesty in the Mount v. 4 5 c. Ver. 21. And they came Being dismissed to their own Tents they went thither only to fetch an Offering to the LORD which they came and brought immediately Every one whose heart stirred him up Whose Mind was raised to a free and cheerful readiness The Hebrew words are lifted him up that is had animum excelsum a noble Mind or was of a generous Spirit as the following words import Every one whom his Spirit made willing And they brought the LORDS Offering An Offering to the LORD as Moses exhorted v. 5. To the work of the Tabernacle For the building a Sanctuary wherein God might dwell among them XXV 8. And for all his Service For all that belonged to the Furniture of it both within and without which are mentioned in the Verses before-going And for the holy Garments That the Priests might Minister there in their Office v. 19. Ver. 22. And they came both Men and Women as many as were willing-hearted Who seem to have been the greatest part of the Congregation And brought Bracelets and Ear-rings and Rings They were no less forward to offer to the Service of God than they had been to the making the Golden Calf XXXII 2 3. for which offence they now make some sort of Satisfaction being more liberal in contributing to this Work than they were to that For we read there only of their Ear-rings which they break off from their Ears and brought to Aaron but here of their Bracelets also and Rings with other things For though they may be supposed to have parted with a great deal on that wicked account it did not make those who were touched with what Moses said less willing to give a fresh to an holy use Tablets The Hebrew word Comaz or Camaz is of very uncertain signification for some make it an Ornament of the Arms and others of some other part But the Chaldee takes it for something about the Breast a Fascia saith Elias wherewith Women tied up and compressed their Breasts to make them appear more beautiful by being round This Bochartus approves in his Canaan L. II. c. 5. All Jewels of Gold All the four forenamed sort of Ornaments were of Gold And every Man that offered offered an Offering of Gold unto the LORD The first Oblations that were brought either by the Women or the Men were all of Gold and then followed meaner things which the People of lower Condition brought to the LORD Ver. 23. And every Man with whom was found blue and purple and scarlet and sine linen c. The common sort of People also offered such as they had Yarn and sine Linen Goats-hair and Skins See XXV 4 5. Ver. 24. Every one that did offer an Offering of Silver and Brass c. Those of a middle Condition offered Silver and Brass and Shittim-wood All which were necessary for several uses For the Ark and the Table were to be overlaid with Gold of which the Candlesticks and several other things were to be made See Chap. XXV The inward Curtains were to be made of the Yarn and the outward of Goats-hair and the Covering of both of Skins The Foundations of the Tabernacle were of Silver and the Taches of the Curtains and Altar of Burnt-offering of Brass and Shittim-wood was used about the Boards of the Tabernacle the Ark Table c. See Chap. XXV XXVI XXVII Ver. 25. And all the Women that were wise-hearted did spin with their hands and brought that which they had spun c. Not only the Men but the Women also brought Materials for the House and more then that such as were skilful among them spun both Yarn and Thred which was the proper work of Women not of Men. Unto which work alone they were bound to apply themselves if by the custom of the place no other work such as knitting and sewing with their Needle c. was usually performed by them as Mr. Selden observes L. III. de Vxor Hebr. c. 10. where he treats of all the Imployments of their Women Ver. 26. And all the Women whose heart stirred them up Whose Minds were elevated to excellent Contrivances In Wisdom spun Goats-hair With great Art spun Goats-hair which was not so easie as to spin Wool and Flax. For though their Goats were shorn in those Countries as Sheep are here their Hair being longer than ours yet there was a great deal of Skill required to work it into a Thred and to make Stuff of it See Bochart Hierozoic P. I. L. II. c. 51. In old time also Women were wont to weave as well as spin as appears not only out of the Sacred Books but out of Homer Plato Cicero and many other Authors mentioned by Braunius in his Book de Vestitu Sacerd. Hebr. L. I. c. 17. where he observes N. 33. out of Herodotus that he showing the Egyptian Customs to be different in many things from those of other Nations mentions this among the rest that their Men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sat at home and weaved while their Women went abroad and bought and sold L. II. c. 35. Ver. 27. And the Rulers brought Onyx-stones and Stones to be set for the Ephod and for the Breast-plate The great Men also offered sutable to their quality such things as the People could not furnish viz. precious Stones for uses mentioned XXV 7. XXVIII 9 17 18 c. Ver. 28. And Spice and Oyl for the light and for the anointing Oyl c. Such principal Spices as we translate it mentioned XXX 23 34. together with Oyl for the Light XXVII 20. which was so pure that ordinary Persons had it not For there were several sorts of Olives as Fort. Scacchus shows Myrothec Sacr. Elaeochrism P. I. c. 4 5. some of which were not so common as the other and therefore of greater value Ver. 29. The Children of Israel brought a willing Offering c. To sum up all in a few words they brought whatsoever was necessary for all manner of work which the LORD had commanded to be made By the hand of Moses Whom he imployed to deliver these Commands to his People Ver. 30. And Moses said See the LORD hath called by name c. Hath principally made choice of Bezaleel to undertake and perform this work This he said that they might not be solicitous about Artists to make all that was propounded for they knew that there were none among them bred to such Employments Moses therefore informs them in the first place that God had provided himself of a Master-Workman as he told him XXXI 1 2 c. Ver. 31. And he hath filled him with the
to Israel under the figure of a most loving Husband who denies his Wife nothing though never so costly saith he shod her with Thacas which I since sind translated by an Anonymous Authour with purple shoes CHAP. XXXVII IN this Chapter Moses gives an Account of the making of all the Furniture of the Tabernacle with such exactness as he describes the making of the Tabernacle it self in the foregoing Chapter To show that God's directions about the making every thing was punctually observed nothing being omitted or added but all made according to the Pattern in the Mount XXV 9 40. In which Chapter most of the things here mentioned are explained and there needs little to be added here Ver. 1. And Bezaleel made the Ark of Shittim-wood c. Abarbinel fancies that though other things were made by inferiour Artificers whom Bezaleel directed yet the Ark because of its dignity and preheminence above all other things was made by him without the help of any other And so Rambam also from whence the Jews commonly called it as Buxtorf observes the Ark of Bezaleel But this hath no good foundation for he is said to have made also every thing else in the Tabernacle the Table and all its Vessels in short every thing mentioned in this Chapter and in the next also and in the foregoing v. 10 11 c. He therefore is said to have made the Ark c. because he gave directions to the under Workmen and saw them make it Ver. 10. And he made the Table of Shittim-wood c. Next to the Ark the Mercy-seat and the Cherubims which belong to it the Table and the Vessels appertaining to it were the principal things within the Tabernacle See XXV 23 c. where all the things mentioned between this Verse and the Seventeenth are explained Ver. 17. And he made the Candlestick c. The orders which Moses received for the making this the Branches and the Lamps thereof and every thing appertaining to it are set down XXV 31 32 c. which Bezaleel exactly followed Ver. 25. He made the Incense Altar c. This and all that follows in the three next Verses see explained XXX 1 c. Ver. 29. And he made the holy anointing Oyl c. See XXX 31 c. And the pure Incense c. XXX 34 c. CHAP. XXXVIII Verse 1. AND he made the Altar of Burnt-offering c. Having given an Account of the making of all the Furniture of the House he proceeds to show how all things were made without doors with the same exactness according to the Divine Prescriptions All which Bezaleel could not make with his own hands but he was chief Director in these things as well as the rest of the Work Five Cubits was the length thereof c. See XXVII 1 2 c. where this and the six following Verses are explained Ver. 8. And he made the Laver of brass c. See XXX 18. where order is given for the making of this Laver and its situation directed but neither there nor here are we told the figure or dimensions of it but have a particular remark in this place concerning the Materials out of which it was made in the following words Of the Looking glasses So we interpret the Hebrew word Maroth because now such things are commonly made of Glass but anciently of polished Brass which they lookt upon as far better than Silver for that made a weaker reflection as Vitruvius informs us L. VII c. 3. And the best of these Specula were among the ancient Romans made at Brundusium of Brass and Tin mixed together as Pliny tells us L. XXXIII 9. XXXIV 17. This shows the Laver was made of the finest and most pure Brass Of the Women assembling which assembled at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation The Hebrew word Hattzobeoth signifies that they came by Troops to make this Present to the LORD And the LXX and Chaldee understanding it of such Women as came together to serve God by Fasting and Prayer for there is the same word used in 1 Sam. II. 22. most Interpreters think they that made this Oblation were very devout Women who were wont to spend much time at the Tabernacle where the Presence of God was For Moses his Tent served instead of the Tabernacle of the Congregation and was so called till this Tabernacle was built XXXIII 7 c. Thus Aben-Ezra also observes upon these words That these Women making a Free-will Offering of the Looking-glasses wherein they were wont to behold the Beauty of their Faces and to dress and adorn their Heads it seems to argue their very Religious Mind despising the Vanity of the World and delighting far more in the Service of God Ver. 9. And he made the Court c. All that follows from this place to v. 21. is explained in the XXVII Chapter from v. 9. to v. 20. except two or three words which I shall here take notice of Ver. 17. The Chapiters of Silver There is no mention of Rashim Chapiters in the XXVII Chapter but only of Vauim or hooks which were of Silver v. 10. 17. But this Verse shows that those hooks were in the Chapiters or Heads of the Pillars out of which those arose as an Ornament to them Ver. 18. And the heighth in the breadth c. This is an Hebrew Phrase signifying the height of the Hanging it self whose breadth when it lay along was called its height when it was hung up And that was five Cubits proportionable to the Hangings of the Court which was five Cubits high XXVII 18. Ver. 21. This is the sum of the Tabernacle even of the Tabernacle of the Testimony c. Some will have this relate to the fore-named things mentioned in this and in the fore-going Chapters But I take it rather to be a Preface to the Account which Moses ordered to be taken of all the Gold Silver and Brass that was employed in building of the Tabernacle Which being summed up amounted to so many Talents as are mentioned v. 24 c. For the Service of the Levites Rather By the Ministry of the Levites whom Moses appointed to take the Account of all the Expences By the hand of Ithamar Son to Aaron the Priest Under the Conduct of Ithamar the youngest Son of Aaron whom he appointed to preside over the Levites in taking this account Ver. 22. And Bezaleel the Son of Uri made all that the LORD commanded Moses Which Gold Silver and Brass was committed into the hands of Bezaleel though in the Presence of all the rest of the Workmen XXXVI 2 3. as the principal Person who was to see it employed in making every thing which the LORD commanded Moses Ver. 23. And with him was Aholiab c. Unto whom God joyned Aholiab as his Associate in so great an Undertaking who made use of several others whom they taught in those Arts which God by an extraordinary Inspiration had made them to understand XXXV
holy And therefore the seven days appointed for that purpose were ended before the Consecration of the Priests began which continued seven days more and then the next day was the Feast of unleavened Bread Which was famous on a double account first because it was the first day of unleavened Bread and then it was the Octaves of the Consecration And this appears more plainly from I Lev. 1. where we find the following Commands were given to Moses out of the Tabernacle by the Divine Majesty who therefore dwelt there when he commanded the Priests to be consecrated which he did not till the Tabernacle was solemnly consecrated to be his Habitation There the Priests also are commanded to abide during the seven days of their Consecration VIII Lev. 33. which shows that all things belonging to its Sanctification were finished before their Consecration began As to that which is alledged from VIII Lev. 10 11 c. I shall consider it there Ver. 19. And he spread abroad the Tent over the Tabernacle The Ohel which we translate Tent sometimes signifies the whole House of God See v. 19. but here only the external part of it which covered that which was properly called Mischchan the Tabernacle Which Moses having erected with all its Sockets Boards Bars and Pillars v. 18. and hung it we must suppose with the inward Hangings which were the richest he spread abroad over them the Curtains of Goats-hair called the Tent XXVI 11. to be a covering over the Tabernacle XXVI 7. XXXVI 14 19. So the Tabernacle was an House within an House inclosed with strong Walls as we call them to secure it from the injury of the Weather And put the covering of the Tent upon it Mentioned in XXVI 14. Ver. 20. And he took and put the Testimony into the Ark. The two Tables of Stone as he had been commanded XXV 16. which he mentions again in the repetition of the Law X Deut. 5. Hence the Ark is called the Ark of the Covenant or Testimony in the next Verse and v. 3. of this Chapter Ver. 21. And he brought the Ark into the Tabernacle It is probable that he had placed the Ark after it was made in his own Tent which for the present was called the Tabernacle of the Congregation and had the Glory of the LORD in it XXXIII 7 9. but now he brought it into this Tabernacle which by God's order was prepared for it And set up the Vail of the Covering c. See v. 3. Ver. 22. And he put the Table in the Tent of the Congregation Here the whole House is called the Ohel or Tent as I observed upon Verse 19. But immediately the word Mischchan which we translate Tabernacle is used as the most proper expression for the inside of the House as the other most properly denotes the outside of it All is made more clear in the 34th Verse where we read that the Cloud covered the Tent of the Congregation that is the outside of the House and the Glory of the LORD filled the Tabernacle within Though afterward v. 38. the Cloud is said to be upon the Tabernacle as v. 36. it is said to be over the Tabernacle because it was over the Tent which covered it Ver. 25. And he lighted the Lamps before the LORD c. In this and all that follows of burning sweet Incense v. 27. offering the Burnt-offering and Meat-offering v. 29. Moses acted as a Priest appointed by an extraordinary Commission from God only for this time that he might Consecrate the House of God and the Priests that were to minister therein which being done his Priesthood ceased And he did all that is mentioned in these Verses when the Tabernacle was Consecrated and the Glory of the LORD had filled it testifying the Divine Presence to be there Ver. 31. And Moses and Aaron and his Sons washed their hands c. This shows that Moses acted now as a Priest and therefore washed himself before he went to Sacrifice at the Altar as the Priest afterwards were always bound to do XXX 19 20 21. But it must be understood that neither this washing here spoken of nor his offering Sacrifice mentioned v. 29. was till some days after this See v. 17. Ver. 33. So Moses finished the work And then anointed the Tabernacle and all contained in it according to God's order v. 9 10 11. the execution of which though now not here mentioned in so many words is expresly said to be on the same day that he had compleatly set up the Tabernacle VII Numb 1. Ver. 34. Then a Cloud or then the Cloud covered the Tent of the Congregation After it was anointed and sanctified for the Divine Residence and the Princes perhaps had also finished that large Offering which we read VII Numb was made on this day God was pleased to fill this place with his glorious Presence For the cloudy Pillar which descended upon Moses his Tent and stood there before the door of it XXXIII 9. removed now from thence and came hither not standing at the door of it in the form of a Pillar but spreading it self all over the outside of the Tabernacle so that it was covered with it as we read also IX Numb 15. And the Glory of the LORD filled the Tabernacle See v. 22. What God promised XXV 8 22. he now performed notwithstanding their Revolt from him by worshipping the Golden Calf Which made him withdraw himself from them XXXIII 7 c. till upon Moses's earnest Intercession for them and their Repentance he graciously consented to return to them and abide among them v. 14 15 c. As now he did by setling his glorious Presence in this Tabernacle which was set up in the midst of them For whereas the other Tabernacle of Moses was removed a Mile or two from their Camp XXXIII 7. this Tabernacle was pitched a month after this I Numb 1. in the midst of their Camps as we read II Numb 2 17. Ver. 35. And Moses was not able to enter into the Tent of the Congregation For the Glory of the LORD shone so bright and so strong beyond all that it had ever done that no Eye could look upon it And it filled not only the most holy Place but the whole Body of the Tabernacle so that he durst not adventure to come within it tell he was called I Lev. 1. After which time he seems to have had liberty to go in unto God when he pleased VII Numb 89. IX 8 9. For after this great day the Glory of the LORD retired into the most holy Place within the Vail and resided constantly there over the Ark of the Testimony from whence he spake to Moses when he came to consult him in the holy Place See the fore-mentioned VII Numb 89. Whence he is said to dwell between the Cherubims though on some occasion this Glory appeared without upon the Tabernacle but over the Ark it is likely XVI Numb 42. And so perhaps it did XI
to have given to these three Patriarchs as the famous Primate Vsher observes the Land of Canaan for an Inheritance CV Psal 11. which was not fulfilled to them but to their Posterity And as the Possession of Posterity is attributed to the Fathers so upon the same ground he thinks the Peregrination of the Fathers is attributed here to the Children Chronol Sacra Cap. VIII Ver. 5. And I have also c. This Verse also begins with the same Particle vegam and must be translated although if the former Interpretation be right Or else those words by my Name Jehovah was I not known to them must come in by a Parenthesis and both these Verses be connected with what goes before appeared unto Abraham Isaac and Jacob by the Name of God Almighty to whom he so appeared as to make a Covenant with them which he perfectly remembred and having taken notice to what condition they were reduced was now come to deliver them Ver. 6. Say unto the Children of Israel I am the LORD Tell them I will now show that I am what this Name imports v. 2. And I will bring them from under the burdens of the Egyptians The heavy Oppressions under which you groan v. 5. And I will rid you of their bondage They were meer Slaves and lay also under such insupportable Loads as made it impossible for them to deliver themselves but it was to be the sole work of God And I will redeem you with a stretched out Arm. This word redeem implies their Servitude from which he rescued them by a Power superiour to Pharaoh's or any Power on Earth as appears by the following Story And with great Judgments When God first promised this Deliverance which Moses was about to effect he told Abraham I will judge that Nation which oppressed them XV Gen. 14. That is punish them which is one Office of a Judge according to their Deservings This now he intended to perform and thereby show himself to be Jehovah and that in a most terrible manner by inflicting not only very grievous but many Plagues upon them For Greg. Nyssen observes that all the Elements the Earth the Water the Fire and the Air were all moved against the Egyptians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as an Obedient Army L. de Vita Mosis p. 173. Thus Judgments and to Judge are used in many places for Punishing IX Psal 17. XIX Prov. 29. 2 Chron. XX. 12. Ver. 7. And I will take you to me for a People By the right of Redemption before mentioned And I will be to you a God He was so before but now after a peculiar manner And ye shall know that I am the LORD your God c. By seeing my Promises to Abraham Isaac and Jacob fulfilled Ver. 8. And I will bring you unto the Land concerning which I did swear to give it c. Two things were promised to Abraham in that Vision mentioned XV Gen. First That he would deliver his Seed from this Nation which oppressed them v. 14. And secondly That he would bring them into the Land of Canaan v. 16. Both these he now declares should be fulfilled the former in the foregoing Verse and the latter in this and thereby they should be convinced that he was indeed Jehovah true and constant to his word I am the LORD He concludes as he began having said this twice before v. 2 6. Ver. 9. And Moses spake so unto the Children of Israel He delivered this Message as he was commanded which one would have expected should have raised their drooping Spirits But quite contrary They hearkened not unto Moses They did not believe or receive what he said So Maimon More Nev. P. I. cap. 45. or it made no Impression upon them The Reason follows For anguish of Spirit In the Hebrew because of shortness of Breath They were so extreamly oppressed that they could scarce fetch their Breath as we speak Or had no heart so much as to think of Deliverance much less hope for it but sunk under their burdens And for cruel Bondage Common Slaves though they cannot deliver themselves rejoyce to hear the good News that they are likely to be delivered by those who have power and will to do it But in this Slavery they were used so cruelly that they were quite dejected and uncapable of any Comfort So the LXX translate the foregoing words for anguish of Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out of faint-heartedness they being quite dispirited Ver. 10. And the LORD spake unto Moses saying It is likely that Moses finding the Israelites so regardless of what he said went to the usual place where he was wont to have recourse to the Divine Majesty See v. 22. to receive new Directions what to do Ver. 11. Go in speak unto Pharaoh King of Egypt c. The LORD bids him go again to Pharaoh and renew the Demand he made before v. 1. Ver. 12. And Moses spake before the LORD This Phrase liphne Jehovah before the LORD plainly denotes that God appeared unto him in a visible Majesty as I observed above v. 1. and See XI 4. Behold the Children of Israel have not hearkened to me how then shall Pharaoh hear me Their faint-heartedness disheartened Moses also and made him unwilling to renew his Address unto Pharaoh And there seems to be good reason in what he says if the Children of Israel whose interest it was to give ear to him did not believe him what hope was there that Pharaoh should comply against his interest Who am of uncircumcised Lips This Reason he had alledged before and was fully answered IV. 10 11 c. and therefore ought not to have been repeated now For his being of uncircumcised Lips signifies no more than that he was an ill Speaker and wanted Eloquence It being the manner of the Hebrews to call those parts Vncircumcised which are inept to the use for which they were designed and cannot do their Office Thus Jeremy saith of the Jews that their ear was uncircumcised and adds the Explication they cannot hearken VI Jer. 10. In like manner uncircumcised Lips are Lips that cannot utter words as uncircumcised in heart IX Jer. 26. are such as cannot understand St. Stephen puts both together uncircumcised in heart and ears VII Acts 51. Perhaps Moses thought it some disparagement to him that he was not able himself to deliver his Mind in an handsome manner unto Pharaoh and therefore mentions this again to move the Divine Majesty to circumcise his Lips as they speak that is remove this impediment Ver. 13. And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron Here is no express Answer made to his Objection but it seems to be included in God's speaking unto Moses and unto Aaron whereas before he had spoken only to Moses v. 1 10. And it is likely Moses was admonished that the LORD having given him Aaron to supply his defect he ought to be satisfied therewith and go with him and renew his Address both to the
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
with an Oath that which they knew not to be true For so the word Schave frequently signifies in Scripture a Lie This relates not to their giving a Testimony before a Judge upon Oath of which he speaks afterward in a distinct Commandment but to their Intercourse and Commerce one with another For an Oath saith R. Levi of Barcelona ought to establish every thing and thereby we declare our selves to be as much resolved concerning that which we swear as we are concerning the Being of God Heathens themselves accounted an Oath so sacred a thing that it was capital for a Man to forswear himself as Hen. Stephanus in his Fontes Juris Civilis p. 7. observes out of Diodorus Siculus L. I. and the reason he gives of it is this that such a Man committed two heinous Crimes by violating his Piety to God and his Faith to Men in the highest degree But besides this both Jews and Christians always understood swearing lightly upon frivolous occasions or without any necessity to be here forbidden R. Levi before-mentioned saith this Precept may be violated four several ways besides swearing that which we mean not to perform And Salvian aplies this to the trivial naming of God and our Saviour upon all occasions and sometimes upon bad occasions Nihil jam penè vanius quam Christi nomen esse videatur c. Every body then swearing by Christ he would do this or that though of no consequence whether he did it or no or perhaps a thing which ought not to be done L. IV. de Gubern Dei p. 88. edit Baluz They that understand this of Swearing by false Gods which are called vain things in Scripture do but trifle that is condemned in the foregoing Commandment it being a piece of Worship to swear by them For the LORD will not hold him guiltless c. If Men did not punish the false Swearer the LORD threatens that he will And so Mankind always thought as appears by the Law of the XII Tables mentioned by Hen. Stephanus in the Book quoted above Perjurij poena divina exitium humana dedecus The Divine Punishment of Perjury is utter Destruction the Humane Punishment is Disgrace or Infamy And Alexander Severus was so sensible of this that he thought Juris jurandi contempta Religio satis Deum ultorem habet The contempt of the Religion of an Oath hath God for a sufficient Avenger For an Oath is the strongest Bond that is among Men to bind them to Truth and Fidelity as Cicero speaks L. III. de Ossic c. 31. Witness saith he the XII Tables witness our Sacred Forms in taking an Oath witness our Covenants and Leagues wherein we plight our Faith to Enemies witness the Animadversions of our Censors qui nulla de re diligentius quam de jurejurando judicabant who judged of nothing more diligently than of an Oath Nor was the other sort of vain that is light and idle Swearing without any just occasion suffered to go unpunished for Mr. Selden observes out of Maimonides L. II. de Synedr c. 11. p. 497. that if any Man was guilty of it he that heard him Swear was bound to Excommunicate him what that was he shows in the first Book and if he did not he was to be Excommunicated himself And there is great reason for these Civil Laws which have provided a Punishment for this Crime not only because it is a great disrespect to God to use his Name so lightly on every trivial occasion but because such contempt of the Divine Majesty makes Men fall into the fearful Sin of Perjury Ver. 8. Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy Be mindful of the day called the Sabbath to make a difference between it and all other days so that it be not employed as they are Ver. 9. Six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work This is not a Precept requiring Labour but a Permission to employ six days in a Week about such worldly Business as they had to do Which Permission also God himself abridged by appointing some other Festival days as all Governours may do upon some special occasions But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God Appointed by his Authority to be a day of Rest from your Labours In it thou shalt not do any work Herein the peculiar respect to the Seventh day consisted on all other days they might work but on this they were to cease from all manner of work In which very thing was the sanctifying of this day it being hereby separated and distinguished from all other days in a very remarkable manner But then it naturally followed that having no other work to do they should call to mind the reason why it was thus fanctified or set apart from other days And the reason say the Jews themselves was That having no other business they might fasten in their minds the belief that the World had a beginning which is a thred that draws after it all the foundations of the Law or the Principles of Religion They are words of R. Levi of Barcelona Besides which there was another reason which I shall mention presently But by this it appears that the Observation of this day was a Sign or a Badge to whom they belonged A profession that they were all the Servants of Him who created the Heaven and the Earth as God himself teaches them to ununderstand it XXXI 13 17. And that their Minds might be possessed with this sense he ordered this Solemn Commemoration of the Creation of the World to be made once in Seven days For as if there had been quicker returns of it their Secular Business might have been too much hindred so if it had been delayed longer this sense might have worn too much out of their minds Thou nor thy Son nor thy Daughter c. They might no more employ others in their worldly Business on this day than do it themselves But their Children though they understood not the reason were to rest that in time they might learn this great Truth that all things were made by God Nor thy Cattle Their Oxen and Asses and all other Creatures wont to be employed in their Labours were to enjoy the benefit of this Rest as well as themselves V Deut. 14. Which was absolutely necessary it being impossible for their Servants to rest as is here also required if they were to set their Cattle on work Nor thy stranger that is within thy gates No stranger who by being Circumcised had embraced the Jewish Religion But other strangers might work who only dwelt among them having renounced Idolatry but not taken upon them the Obligation to observe their whole Law Yet if any such Person was a Servant to a Jew his Master might not imploy him on the Sabbath day in any work of his but the Man might work for himself if he pleased being not bound to this Law See Selden L. III. de Jure N. G. c. 12. Ver. 11. For in six
work shalt thou make them The Hebrew word Miksheh which we translate beaten work signifies that both of them should be made out of the same piece of Gold that made the Cover of the Ark so as to be one continued work with that not separate from it This appears to be true from the next Verse Min hacapporet out of the Mercy-seat shall ye make the Cherubims c. or from the Mercy-seat shall they proceed on the two ends of it Ver. 19. And make one Cherub on the one end and the other Cherub on the other end This looks like a Tautology saith Abarbinel it being said in the foregoing words in the two ends of the Mercy-seat but it is far from it being a Declaration as he takes it that the Cherubims should not be placed both on one side of the Ark nor so as not to be opposite one to the other but one on one side and the other on the other side Even of the Mercy-seat shall ye make the Cherubims on the two ends thereof They were not to be made separate from the Mercy-seat and afterwards joyned to it but to be made out of it so as to be one piece with it as was said v. 18. Which in the execution of this Command appears very plainly XXXVII 8. Ver. 20. And the Cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high This shows they were made like flying Creatures but had not the Resemblance of any Fowl that we know So Josephus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. flying Animals like to none of those which are seen by Men but such as Moses saw figured in the Throne of God when he beheld he means his Majesty in the Mount attended by the heavenly Host L. III. Antiq. c. 8. and again L. VIII c. 2. As for the Cherubims no body can tell or conceive what they were like 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some indeed think that we may understand from what Ezekiel saith of them their true Figure and that they had the face of Oxen. For that face which in I Ezek. 10. is called the face of an Ox is afterward called X. 14. the face of a Cherub But it is to be consider'd that there is no proof the Cherubims here spoken of by Moses had the same face with those mention'd by Ezekiel but were rather a quite different representation For here God was represented as dwelling nay sitting and abiding among the Israelites but there as removing and departing quite away from his dwelling place and consequently I conceive his Ministers and Attendants appeared then in quite different shapes from what they had now Stretch forth their wings on high As being upon the wing to use our Language that is ready to fly whether they were ordered by the Divine Majesty Covering the Mercy-seat with their wings Their Wings were not to lye close to their Bodies but to be raised up as was said before and spread so that meeting together they made as it were a Seat over the Ark called the Throne of God Their faces shall look one to another To signifie saith Abarbinel their mutual consent and concord Towards the Mercy-seat shall the faces of the Cherubims be They were so contrived that they looked downward when they looked one to the other to show saith he that they were Keepers of the Law which was under the Mercy-seat Ver. 21. And thou shalt put the Mercy-seat above upon the Ark. Having first put in the Testimony which he gave him as it here follows then he was to set the Mercy-seat upon the Ark within the Crown which incompassed it as a Cover to it See v. 16. Ver. 22. And there will I meet with thee When thou hast occasion to consult me I will there be present to communicate my mind to thee So Abarbinel After the Ark is made and the Law put into it and the Cover laid upon it I will speak with thee from the midst of the Mercy-seat between the Cherubims So that thou shalt not need to come up hither any more into the Mount to fetch down Prophecy as his phrase is but I will give it thee from thence and tell thee all that is to be taught Israel See XXX 6. And I will commune with thee from above the Mercy-seat from between the two Cherubims c. Here the Glory of the LORD resided between the Cherubims whose Wings were the Seat of the Divine Majesty as the Cover of the Ark before-mentioned was his Foot-stool For he is said to sit between the Cherubims LXXX Psal 2. and the Ark is called his Foot-stool XCIX Psal 8. CXXXII 7. This therefore being that part of the Sanctuary which was the place of his peculiar abode where he is said to dwell 1 Sam. IV. 4. See de Dieu there when Moses had any occasion to consult him he was to resort hither where God promises to meet him and confer with him from hence as we read he did VII Numb 89. Of all things which I will give thee in Commandment unto the Children of Israel This shows that he resided here as their Lord and Governour the Wings of the Cherubims composing his Throne whereon he sat as their King to give orders for their Government which more Imperatorio de Tribunali loquebatur he delivered from this Supreme Tribunal after the manner of Emperours as Fortunatus Scacchus expresses it or great Princes who were wont in all Countries to have such magnificent Thrones erected from whence to speak to their Subjects Myrothec Sacrorum Elaeochrism 2. c. 36. Thus far he hath named only the Furniture of the inward House or Cabinet of the Divine Majesty called the Holy of Holies Now follows the principal Furniture of the outward House called the Holy Place Ver. 23. Thou shalt also make a Table Which is a necessary part of the Furniture of an House and therefore here ordered to be made in token of God's dwelling among them v. 8. Of Shittim-wood Of the same Materials with the Ark v. 10. Two Cubits shall be the length thereof c. It was neither so long nor so broad as the Ark but of the very same height v. 10. Josephus to make the Greeks apprehend its fashion saith it was like the famous Table at Delphi L. III. Antiq. c. 9. Which if it be true was made it seems in imitation of the Table of Moses Ver. 24. And thou shalt overlay it with pure gold Just as the Ark was See v. 10. and therefore it is probable that the lower parts of it as well as the upper and the feet also were plated with Gold so that it might be called a golden Table And make thereto a Crown of Gold round about See v. 10. Where the same is directed for the Ark and this had the same use to keep what was set upon the Table from slipping off and falling on the ground Ver. 25. And thou shalt make unto it That is to the Crown of Gold as Fortunatus Scacchus understands it though others refer
twice as great for they made two Calves though they had seen the terrible Punishment which came upon their Forefathers from making one Ver. 35. And the LORD plagued the people With the Pestilence as some imagine though it be not mentioned in Scripture Or he means all the Evils that afterward consumed them in the Wilderness But there are those who understand this of the slaughter made by the Levites which he briefly repeats as the manner sometimes is in these Writings as a Conclusion to this History of the Golden Calf Because they made the Calf which Aaron made Provoked him to make CHAP. XXXIII Verse 1. AND the LORD said unto Moses depart and go up hence thou and thy people c. This is a renewal of the Order he had already given XXXII 34. which he further explains by expresly assuring him he would make good his Promise to their Fore-fathers of which Moses had remembred him XXXII 13. But they were not by this ordered presently to remove till Moses had been again in the Mount and the Tabernacle was set up and all the Service of it prescribed And I will send an Angel before thee and I will drive out the Canaanite the Amorite c. I will not wholly withdraw my Protection from you as he had for the present XXXII 25. but send one of my Ministers to discomsit your Enemies till you get possession of their Land Ver. 3. For I will not go up in the midst of thee For though I intended to have dwelt among you my self by my special Presence which was in the SCHECHINAH XXV 8. XXIX 43 45 46. you have justly forfeited that favour The Chaldee gives the true sense of this Speech I will not make my Majesty so the SCHECHINAH or Divine Glory was called to go up in the midst of thee And accordingly it follows v. 7 8 9. that he did remove to a distance from them Concerning that Phrase in the midst of thee See XVII 7. For thou art a stiff-necked people See XXXII 9. Lest I consume thee in the way It is not fit for me to see my self affronted to my face by stiff-necked Offenders and not punish them with utter destruction This is an Argument that the Angel he saith he would send before them was not God himself as the Eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is for then he would have had the same reason to consume them for their Disobedience Ver. 4. And when the people heard these evil tidings This threatning of such a grievous Punishment They mourned Fasted perhaps and wept and hung down their Heads with shame and sorrow And no man did put on him his ornaments But every one laid aside his usual Attire and appeared in the Habit of Penitents which in after times was Sackcloth Ver. 5. For the LORD had said unto Moses say unto the Children of Israel ye are a stiff-necked people I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment and consume thee This Verse gives a reason of their Mourning because Moses had by God's order said to them what God said to him That they were such a perverse People it was not safe for them that he should stay among them and be provoked by their Transgressions suddenly to destroy them Therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee These words show that he had not peremptorily resolved to forsake them as he threatned v. 3. but might be moved by their Repentance to continue with them And therefore he orders them to put themselves in a mourning Habit in token of their hearty sorrow for their sin That I may know what to do unto thee Deal with you according as I find you disposed See XXII Gen. 12. Ver. 6. And the Children of Israel stript themselves of their ornaments Not only of those wherewith they had decked themselves at their late Festival but of all other that they ordinarily wore which they who were not dressed forbore to put on v. 4. By the Mount Horeb. Or rather as the Hebrew word mehar imports from the Mount that is a great way off from the place where God appeared as unworthy to come into his Presence Ver. 7. And Moses took the Tabernacle His own Tent as the LXX interpret it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meaning I suppose not his own private Tent where he and his Family lived but a publick Tent where he gave Audience and heard Causes and enquired of God which Bonaventura C. Bertramus calls Castrorum Praetorium in his Book de Repub. Jud. c. 4. For such a place we cannot but think there was before that Tabernacle was erected whose pattern he saw in the Mount where all great Affairs were transacted and where Religious Offices in all probability were performed And pitched it without the Camp afar off from the Camp At the distance of Two thousand Cubits as R. Solomon interprets it Which was done to humble them when they saw the Displeasure of God and of his Servant against them declared by this Departure far from them For they might justly fear he would remove quite out of their sight And called it the Tabernacle of the Congregation Gave it the same name which was afterward appropriated to the Tabernacle built for Divine Service alone Because here God met with Moses and communicated his Mind to him and hither they were all to resort who had any business with Moses or would receive an Answer to their Enquiries from God And it came to pass that every one which sought the LORD went out unto the Tabernacle of the Congregation which was without the Camp This is commonly understood of those who came to desire Resolution in any Case of Dissiculty which they could not have as formerly within the Camp but were forced to go and seek it without Which as it showed God's Displeasure so withal gave them some hope of Mercy because it plainly appeared God was not quite alienated and estranged from them Ver. 8. When Moses went into the Tabernacle all the people rose up and stood every man at his Tent door In reverence to him as their Leader whom they had lately despised Or it may be thought also a posture wherein they implored his Intercession for them that God would be pleased graciously to return to them Which is expressed by what follows And looked after Moses Expecting what would be the end of this Business both God and his Minister being removed from them Vntil he was gone into the Tabernacle As long as they could see him Ver. 9. And it came to pass as Moses went into the Tabernacle the cloudy pillar descended In which the SCHECHINAH or Divine Majesty was XL. 35. which was gone up before because of their Idolatry whereby the Camp was become unclean but now came down again upon the removal of the Tabernacle Where it is very probable it used to be setled as the Token of the Divine Presence among them and afterward was translated to the Tabernacle made after God's appointment where