Bible Commentary (1871–1879 Edition) (continued)
Genealogy of Moses. EXODUS VII. His Second Tnterview with Pharaoh.
existent God who lives to accomplish it. Rest assured, therefore, that I shall bring it to pass. This passage has occasioned much discussion ; and it has been thought by many to intimate that as the name Jehovah was not known to the patriarchs, at least in the full bearing or practical experience of it, the honour of the disclosure was reserved to Moses, who was the first sent with a message in the name of Jehovah, and enabled to attest of God, and the other must be considered the speaker throughout all the ensuing scenes, even though his name is not expressly mentioned. 3. I will harden Pliaraoh's heart—This would be the result. But the Divine message would be the occasion, not the cau.?e of the king's impenitent obduracy. 4, 5. I may lay mine hand upon Egypt, &c. —The succession of terrible judgments with which the country was about to be scourged would fully demonstrate the supremacy of Israel's God. 7. Moses was fonrscore years—This advanced age was a pledge that they had not been readily betrayed into a rash or hazardous enterprise, and that under its attendant infirmities they could not have carried through the work on which they were entering had they not been supported by a Divine hand. 8. When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, &c.— The king would naturally demand some evidence of their having been sent from God; and as he would expect the ministers of his own gods to do the same works, the contest, in the nature of the case, would be one of miracles. Notice has already been taken of the rod of Moses (ch. 4.
it by a series of public miracles. 9-11. Moses spake so luito the chllciren of Israel—The increased severities inflicted on the Israelites seem to have so entirely crushed their spirits, as well as irritated them, that they refused to listen to any more communications (ch. H. 12). Even the faith of Moses himself was faltering; and he would have abandoned the entefprise in despair had he not received a positive command from God to revisit the people without delay, and at the same time renew their demand on the king in a more decisive and peremptory tone. 13. how tlien shall . . . who am of unclrciimclsed lilisl—A metaphorical expression among the Hebrews, who, taught to look on the circumcision of any part as denoting perfection, signified its deficiency or unsuitableness by uncircumcision. The words here express how painfully Moses felt his want of utterance or persuasive oratory. He seems to have fallen into the same deep despondency as his brethren, and to be shrinking with nervous timidity from a difficult, if not desperate cause.
2), but rc Kls were carried also by all nobles and official persons in the court of Pharaoh. It was an Egyptian custom, and the rods were symbols of authority or rank. Hence God commanded his servants to use a rod. 10. Aaron cast slo'wn his rod before Pharaoh, &c.—It Is to be presumed that Pharaoh had demanded a proof of their Divine mission. 11. then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers, <Sc.—His object in calling them was to ascertain whether this doing of Aaron's was really a work of Divine power or merely a feat of magical art. The magicians of Egypt In modern times have been long celebrated adepts in charming serpents, and particularly by pressing the nape of the neck, they throw them into a kind of catalepsy, which renders them stiff and Immov* able—thus seeming to change them Into a rod. They conceal the serpent about their persons, and by acts of legerdemain produce it from their drs, stiff and straight as a rod. Just the same trick was played off by their ancient predecessors, the most renowned of whom, Jannes and Jambxes (2 Timothy 3. 8), were called in on this occasion. They had time after the summons to make suitable preparations—and so It appears they succeeded by their "enchantments" in practising an illusion on the senses, la, but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods, &c.—Tills was what they could not be prepared for, and the discomfiture appeared in the loss of their rods, which were probably real serpents. 14. Pharaoh's heart is hardened —Whatever might have been his first Impressions, they were soon dispelled; and when he found his magicians making similar attempts, he concluded that Aaron's
If he had succeeded so ill with the people, whose dearest interests were all involved, what better hope could he entertain of his making more impression on the heart of a king elated with pride and strong in the possession of absolute power? How strikingly was the indulgent forbearance of God displayed towards his people amid all their backwardness to hail his announcement of approaching deliverance ! No perverse complaints or careless indifference on their part retarded the development of His gracious purposes. On the contrary, here, as generally, the course of his providence is slow in the
Infliction of judgments, while it moves more quickly, as it were, wlien misery is to be relieved or benefits conferred.
14-30. The Genealogy of Moses. 1*. These be the heads of their fathers' houses—chiefs or governors of their houses. The insertion of this genealogical table in this part of the narrative was Intended to authenticate the descent of Moses and Aaron. Both of them were commissioned to act so Important a part in the events transacted in the court of Egypt, and afterwards elevated to so high offices in tlie government and Churcli of God, that it was of the utmost importance tliat their lineage should be accurately traced. Reuben and Simeon being the eldest of Jacob's sons, a passing notice is taken of them, and then the historian advances to the enumeration of tlie principal persons in the house of Levi. ao. Amram took him .Tochebefl his father's sister to wife —The Septuagint and Syriac versions render It his cousin. 23. Kllsheba i.e., Elizabethan. These minute particuafi'air was a magical deception, the secret of which was not known to his wise men. 13. Get thee unto Pharaoh —Now therefore began those appalling miracles of Judgment by which the God of Israel, through his ambassadors, proved his sole and unchallengeable supremacy over all the gods of Egypt, and which were the natural phenomena of Egypt, at an unusual season, and In a miraculous degree of Intensity. The court of Egypt, whether held at Rameses, or Memphis, or Tanis In the field of Zoan (Psalm lars recorded of the family of Aaron, while lie lias passed over his own, indicate the real modesty of Moses. An ambitious man or an Impostor would have acted In a different manner.
78. 12), was the scene of those extraordinary transactions, and Moses must have resided during that terrible period In the immediate neighbourhood. In the mornings lo, lie goeth out unto the water, &c.—for the purpose of ablutions or devotions perhaps; for the Nile was an object of superstitious reverence, the patron deity of the country.
CHAPTER VII.
Ver. 1-25. Second Interview with PnAiiAOir. 1. the Ijord stiUl itnto Itloses—He Is here eiieoiiraged to
It might be that Moses had been denied admission Into the palace; hut be that as It may, the river was to be the subject of the first plague, and therefore he was ordered to repair to Its banks with the miracle-working rod, now to be raised, not In demonstration, but In Judgment, If the refractory spirit of the king should still refuse consent to v\'ait annin on tlic Ifliig—not, however, as fonneriy, in the attitude of a luuiil)le suppliant, but now armed with cvedentlals as God's ambassador, and to make Ills demand In a tone and manner which no eartlily monarch or court over witnessed. I have ma<Ic thee a Gotl—made,
Israel's departure foV their sacred rites. 17-91. Aaron lifted up the rod and smote the waters, &c.—Whether the water was changed Inf o real blood, or only the appearance of It (and Omnipotence could effect the one as easily as the other), this was a severe calamity. How great must have been the disappointment and disgust throughout the land when the river became of a blood-red colour, of which i.e., set, appointed; "a god," t. e., lie was to act in tills business iis (iod's n-picsentatlve, to act and speak In bis name, an<l to perform things lieyoiid tlic ordinary course of nature. Tlie Orientals familiarly say of a man wiio is eminently tivf.xt or wise "he is a god" among men. Anroii thy brother Mhnll be thy prophet i. c, Interpretei or Hpokesniiiii. Tlie one was to bo the vicegerent 52