Commentary on the Holy Bible

The fifth, the grievous murrain, on the 2d day of the seventh month; chap. ix. 3.

The sixth, the plague of boils and blains, on the 3d day of the seventh month; chap. ix. 10.

The seventh, the grievous hail, on the 5th day of the seventh month; chap. ix. 18.

The eighth, the plague of locusts, on the 8th day of the seventh month; chap. x. 12.

The ninth, the thick darkness, on the 10th day of Abib, (April 30,) now become the first month of the Jewish year; chap. x. 22. But see the note on chap. xii. 2.

The tenth, the slaying the first-born, on the 15th of Abib; chap. xii. 29. But most of these dates ar« destitute of proof.

19 And the Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and ^ stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their « pools of water, that they may become blood; and that there may be blood throughout all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone,

20 And Moses and Aaron did so, as the Lord commanded; and he ^ lifted up the rod, and smote the waters that tvere in the river, in the

Verse 18. The Egyptians shall loathe to drink of the loater] The force of this expression cannot be well felt without taking into consideration the peculiar pleasantness and great salubrity of the waters of the Nile. " The water of Egypt," says the Abbe Mascrier, " is so delicious, that one would not wish the heat to be less, or to be delivered from the sensation of thirst. The Turks find it so exquisite that they excite themselves to drink of it by eating salt. It is a common saying among them, that if Mohammed had drank of it he would have besought God that he might never die, in order to have had this continual gratification. When the Egyptians undertake the pilgrimage of Mecca, or go out of their country on any other account, they speak of nothing but the pleasure they shall have at their return in drinking of the waters of the Nile. There is no gratification to be compared to this; it surpasses, in their esteem, that of seeing their relations and families. All those who have tasted of this water allow that they never met with the like in any other place. When a person drinks of it for the first time he can scarcely be persuaded that it is not a water prepared by art; for it has something in it inexpressibly agreeable and pleasing to the taste; and it should have the same rank among tvaicrs that champaign has among luines. But its most valuable quality is, that it is exceedingly salutary. It never incommodes, let it be drank in what quantity it may: this is so true that it is no uncommon thing to see some persons drink three buckets of it in a day without the least inconvenience! When I pass such encomiums on the water of Egypt it is right to observe that I speak only of that of the Nile, which indeed is the only water drinkable, for their ivell ivater is detestable and unwholesome. Fountains are so rare that they are a kind of prodigy in that country; and as to rain water, that is out of the question, as scarcely any falls in Egypt."

" A person," says Mr. Harmer, " who never before heard of the deliciousness of the Nile water, and of the large quantities which on that account are drank of it, will, I am sure, find an energy in those words of Moses to Pharaoh, The Egyptians shall loathe to drink of the ivaler of the river, which he never observed before. They will loathe to drink of that water which they used to prefer to all the waters of the unia

that were in the river were turned to blood.

2 1 And the fish that was in the river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians ^ could not drink of the water of the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of

22 ' And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments: and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, neither did he hearken unto them; ^ as the Lord had said.

verse; loathe to drink of that for which they had been accustomed to long, and will rather choose to drink of well water, which in their country is detestable!" — Observations, vol. iii., p. 564.

Verse 19. That there may be blood — both in vessels of ivood, and in vessels of stone.] Not only the Nile itself was to be thus changed into blood in all its branches, and the canals issuing from it, but all the water of lakes, ponds, and reservoirs, was to undergo a similar change. And this was to extend even to the water already brought into their houses for culinary and other domestic purposes. As the water of the Nile is known to be very thick and muddy, and the Egyptians are obliged to filter it through pots of a kind of white earth, and sometimes through a paste made of almonds, Mr. Harmer supposes that the vessels of ivood and stone mentioned above may refer to the process of filtration, which no doubt has been practised among them from the remotest period. The meaning given above I think to be more natural.

Verse 20. All the waters — were turned to blood.] Not merely in appearance, but in reality; for these changed waters became corrupt and insalubrious, so that even the fish that were in the river died; and the smell became highly offensive, so that the waters could not be drank; ver. 2 1.

Verse 22. And the magicians — did so] But if all the water in Egypt was turned into blood by Moses, where did the magicians get the water which they changed into blood 1 This question is answered in verse 24. The Egyptians digged round about the river for water to drink, and it seems that the water obtained by this means was not bloody like that in the river: on this water therefore the magicians might operate. Again, though a general commission was given to Moses, not only to turn the waters of the river (Nile) into blood, but also those of their streams, rivers, ponds, and pools; yet it seems pretty clear from verse 20 that he did not proceed thus far, at least in the first instance; for it is there stated that only the waters of the river were turned into blood. Afterwards the plague doubtless became general. At the commencement therefore of this plague, the magicians might obtain other water to. imitate the miracle; and it would not

33 And Pharaoh turned and went into his house, ' neither did he set his heart to this also. 24 And all the Eg3'-ptians digged round about

be difficult for them, by juggling tricks or the assistance of a familiar spirit, (for we must not abandon the possibility of this use,) to give it a bloody appearance, a fetid smell, and a bad taste. On either of these grounds there is no contradiction in the Mosaic account, though some have been very studious to find one.

The plague of the bloody waters may be considered as a display of retributive justice against the Egyptians, for the murderous decree which enacted that all the male children of the Israelites should be drowned in that river, the waters of which, so necessary to their support and life, were now rendered not only insalubrious but deadlij, by being turned into blood. As it is well known that the Nile was a chief object of Egyptian idolatry, (see on ver. 15,) and that annually they sacrificed a girl, or as others say, both a boy and a girl, to this river, in gratitude for the benefits received from it, {Universal Hist., vol. i., p. 178, foi. fldit.,) (36(A-JJiight have designed this plague as a punishment for such cruelty: and the contempt poured upon this object of their adoration, by turning its waters into blood, and rendering them fetid and corrupt, must have had a direct tendency to correct their idolatrous notions, and lead them to acknowledge the power and authority of the true God.

Verse 25. And seven days were fulfilled] So we learn that this plague continued at least a whole week.

The contention between Moses and Aaron and the magicians of Egypt has become famous throughout the world. Tradition in various countries has preserved, not only the account, but also the names of the chief persons concerned in the opposition made by the Egyptians to these messengers of God. Though their names are not mentioned in the sacred text, yet tradition had preserved them in the Jewish records, from which St. Paul undoubtedly quotes 2 Tim. iii. 8, where, speaking of the enemies of the Gospel, he compares them to Jannes and Jambres, loho withstood Moses. That these names existed in the ancient Jewish records, their own writings show. In the Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel on this place they are called on^O^I D'y Janis and Jambris; and in the Babylonian Talmud they are named Joanne and Mambre, and are represented as chiefs of the sorcerers of Egypt, and as having ridiculed Moses and Aaron for pretending to equal them in magical arts. And Rab. Tanchum, in his Commentary, names them Jonos and Jombrus. If we allow the readings of the ancient editions of Pliny to be correct, he refers, in Hist. Nat., 1. XXX., c. 2, to the same persons, the names being a little changed: Est et alia magiccs faclio, a Mose et Jamne et Jotape Judceis pendens, sed midtis millibus annorum post Zoroastrem; " There is also another faction of magicians which took its origin from the Jews, Moses, Jamnes, and Jotapes, many thousands of years after Zoroaster;" where he confounds Moses

the river for water to drink; ^ for they A. M. 2513. could not drink of the water of the river. ^' ^' ^'^^^' 25 And "^ seven days were fulfilled, after that the Lord had smitten the river.

with the Egyptian magicians; for the heathens, having no just notion of the power of God, attributed all miracles to the influence of magic. Pliny also calls the Egyptian magicians Jews; but this is not the only mistake in his history; and as he adds, sed multis millibus annorum post Zoroastrem, he is supposed by some to refer to the Christians, and particularly the apostles who \\Tought many miracles, and whom he considers to be a magical sect derived from Moses and the Jews, because they were Jews by nation, and quoted Moses and the prophets in proof of the truth of the doctrines of Christianity, and of the Divine mission of Christ

Numenius, a Pythagorean philosopher, mentioned by Eusebius, names these magicians, Jamnes and Jambres, and mentions their opposition to Moses; and we have already seen that there was a tradition among the Asiatics that Pharaoh's daughter had Moses instructed by the wise men Jannes and Jambres; see Abid Faraje, edit. Pococ, p. 26. Here then is a very remarkable fact, the principal circumstances of which, and the chief actors in them, have been preserved by a sort of universal tradition. See Ainsworth.

When all the circumstances of the preceding case are considered, it seems strange that God should enter into any contest with such persons as the Egyptian magicians; but a little reflection will show the absolute necessity of this. Mr. Psalmanazar, who wrote the Account of the Jews in the first volume of the Universal History, gives the following judicious rea. sons for this: " If it be asked," says he, " why God did suffer the Egyptian magicians to borrow power from the devil to invalidate, if possible, those miracles which his servant wrought by his Divine power, the following reasons may be given for it: 1. It was necessary that these magicians should be suffered to exert the utmost of their power against Moses, in order to clear him from the imputation of 7nagic or sorcery; for as the notion of such an extraordinary art was very rife, not only among the Egyptians, but all other nations, if they had not entered into this strenuous competition with him, and been at length overcome by him, both the Hebrews and the Egyptians would have been \ apter to have attributed all his miracles to his skill in magic, than to the Divine power.

"2. It was necessary, in order to confirm the faith of the wavering and desponding Israelites, by making them see the difference between Moses acting by the power of God, and the sorcerers by that of Satan.

"3. It was necessary, in order to preserve them afterwards from being seduced by any false miracles from the true worship of God."

To these a fourth reason may be added: God per» mitted this in mercy to the Egj'ptians, that they might see that the gods in whom they trusted were utterly incapable of saving them; that they could not undo or counteract one of the plagues sent on them by the power of Jehovah; the whole of their influence ex-

Moses is again sent to Pharaoh. CHAP. VIII. Frogs, the second plague, threatened.

tending only to some superficial imitations of the genuine miracles wrought by Moses in the name of the true God, By these means it is natural to conclude that many of the Egyptians, and perhaps several of the servants of Pharaoh, were cured of their idolatry; though the king himself hardened his heart against the evidences which God brought before his eyes. Thus

God is known by his judgments: for in every operation of his hand his design is to enlighten the minds of men, to bring them from false dependences to trust in himself alone; that, being saved from error and sin, they may become wise, holy, and happy. When his judgments are abroad in the earth, the inhabitants learn righteousness. See the note on chap. iv. 31.

The plague of frogs threatened, 1, 2. The extent of this plague, 3, 4. Aaron commanded to stretch on* his hand, with the rod, over the river and ivaters of Egypt, in consequence of which the frogs.came, 5, 6. The magicians imitate this miracle, 7. Pharaoh entreats Moses to remove the frogs, and promises to let the people go, 8. Moses promises that they shall he removed from every part of Egypt, the river excepted, 9-11. Moses prays to God, and the frogs die throughout the land of Egypt, 12-14. Pharaoh, finding himself respited, hardens his heart, 15. The plague o/lice on man and beast, 16, 17. The magicians attempt to imitate this miracle, but in vain, 18. They confess it to be the finger of God, and yet Pharaoh continues obstinate, 19. Moses is sent again to him to command him to let the people go, and in case of disobedience he is threatened with swarms of flies, 20, 21. A promise made that the land of Goshen, where the Israelites dwelt, should be exempted from this plague, 22, 23. The flies are sent, 24. Pha raoh sends for Moses and Aaron, and offers to permit them to sacrifice in the land, 25. They refuse, and desire to go three day s^ journey into the ivilderness, 26, 27. Pharaoh consents to let them go a little way, provided they icould entreat the Lord to remove the flies, 28. Moses consents, prays to God, and the flies are removed, 29—31. After which Pharaoh yet hardened his heart, and refused to let the people go, 32.

2 And if thou ^ refuse to let them A. M. 25X3.

3 And the river shall bring forth frogs

ho unto rharaoh, and say unto

him, Thus saith the Lord, Let my people go, " that they may serve me

NOTES ON CHAP. VIII. The SECOND plague — frogs.

Verse 1. Let my people go] God, in great mercy to Pharaoh and the Egyptians, gives them notice of the evils he intended to bring upon them if they continued in their obstinacy. Having had therefore such warning, the evil might have been prevented by a timely humiliation and return to God.

Verse 2. If thou refuse] Nothing can be plainer than that Pharaoh had it still in his power to have dismissed the people, and that his refusal was the mere effect of his own wilful obstinacy.

With frogs] D'^mflX tsepardeim. This word is of doubtful etymology: almost all interpreters, both ancient and modern, agree to render it as we do, though some mentioned by Aben Ezra think the crocodile is meant; but these can never weigh against the conjoint testimony of the ancient versions. Parkhurst derives the word from "I3i' tsaphar, denoting the brisk action, or motion of the light, and J^T yada, to feel, as they seem to feel or rejoice in the light, croaking all the summer months, yet hiding themselves in the winter. The Arabic name for this animal is very nearly the same with the Hebrew Cj^M zafda, where the letters are the same, the "l resch being omitted. It is used as a quadriliteral root in the Arabic language, to signify froggy, or containing frogs: see

Golius. But the true etymology seems to be given I to punish a sinner or a sinful nation a 325

2ULc zifa, a bank, and C/-^ rada, mud, because. the frog delights in muddy or marshy places; and that from these two words the noun %.^sja zafda is formed, the ^ re being dropped. In the Batrochomyomachia of Homer, the frog has many of its epithets from this very circumstance. Hence Ai/ivoxapic, delighting in the lake; Bopj3opoKoiT7}c, lying or engende7-ing in the mud; Ilr/Aevf and TlrjXoliarrj^, belonging to the mudy walking in the mud, djC, 6fc.

A frog is in itself a very harmless animal; but to most people who use it not as an article of food, exceedingly loathsome. God, with equal ease, could have brought crocodiles, bears, lions, or tigers to have punished these people and their impious king, instead of frogs, lice, flies, <^c. But had he used any of those formidable animals, the effect would have appeared so commensurate to the cause, that the hand of God might have been forgotten in the punishment; and the people would have been exasperated Vvithout being humbled. In the present instance he shows the greatness of his power by making an animal, devoid of every evil quality, the means of a terrible affliction to his enemies. How easy is it, both to the justice and mercy of God, to destroy or save by means of the most despicable and insignificant of instruments! Though he is the Lord of hosts he has no need of powerful armies, the ministry of angels, or the thunderbolts of justice,

^ thy bed-chamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy * kneading-troughs:

4 And the frogs shall come up both on thee, and upon thy people, and upon all thy servants.

5 And the Lord spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, *" Stretch forth thine hand with thy rod over the streams, over the rivers, and over the ponds, and cause frogs to come up upon the land of Egypt.

6 And Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters of Egypt; and s the frogs came

Verse 3. The river shall bring forth frogs ahundanthj] The river Nile, which was an object of their adoration, was here one of the instruments of their punishment. The expression, bring forth abundantly, not only shows the vast numbers of those animals, ■which should now infest the land, but it seems also to imply that all the spawn or ova of those animals which were already in the river and marshes, should be brought miraculously to a state of perfection. We may suppose that the animals were already in an embryo existence, but multitudes of them would not have come to a state of perfection had it not been for this miraculous interference. This supposition will appear the more natural when it is considered that the Nile was remarkable for breeding frogs, and such other animals as are principally engendered in such marshy places as must be left in the vicinity of the Nile after its annual inundations.

Into thine ovens^ In various parts of the east, instead of what we call ovens they dig a hole in the ground, in which they insert a kind of earthen pot, which having sufficiently heated, they stick their cakes to the inside, and when baked remove them and supply their places with others, and so on. To find such places full of frogs when they came to heat them, in order to make their bread, must be both disgusting and distressijig in the extreme.

Verse 5. Stretch forth thine hand — over the streams, over the rivers'] The streams and rivers here may refer to the grand divisions of the Nile in the Lower Egypt, which were at least seven, and to the canals by which these were connected; as there were no other streams, &c., but what proceeded from this great river.

Verse 6. The frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt.] In some ancient writers we have examples of a similar plague. The Abderites, according to Orosius, and the inhabitants of Paeonia and Dardania, according to AthencRus, were obliged to abandon their country on account of the great numbers of frogs by which their land was infested.

7 '^And the magicians did so with their enchantments, and brought up frogs upon the land of Egy^pt.

8 Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, ' Entreat the Lord that he may take away the frogs from me, and from my people; and I will let the people go, that they may do sacrifice unto the Lord.

9 And Moses said unto Pharaoh, ^ Glory over me: ^ when shall I entreat for thee, and for thy servants, and for thy people, ™ to destroy the frogs from thee and thy houses, that they may remain in the river only?

Verse 7. The magicians did so] A little juggling or dexterity of hand might have been quite sufficient for the imitation of this miracle, because frogs in abundance had already been produced; and some of these kept in readiness might have been brought forward by the magicians, as proofs of their pretended power and equality in influence to Moses and Aaron.

Verse 9. Glory over me] "''?;; "\X3nn hithpaer alai. These words have greatly puzzled commentators in general; and it is not easy to assign their true meaning. The Septuagint render the words thus: Tafat Trpof fiE nore, &c.. Appoint unto me when I shall pray, (5fc. The constitue mihi quando of the Vulgate is exactly the same; and in this sense almost all the versions understood this place. This countenances the conjectural emendation of Le Clerc, who, by the change of a single letter, reading "^XDnn hithbaer for "lXDr\n hithpaer, gives the same sense as that in the ancient versions. Houbigant, supposing a corruption in the original, amends the reading thus: "hj! 1X3 nns attah baar alai — Die mihi quo tempore, ^-c, " Tell me when thou wishest me to pray for thee," &c., which amounts to the same in sense with that proposed by Le Clerc. Several of our English versions preserve the same meaning; so in the Saxon Heptateuch, Irerecce me anne an bagan; SO in Becke's Bible, 1549, " And Moses sayed unto Pharaoh, Appoint thou the time unto me." This appears to be the genuine import of the words, and the sense taken in this way is strong and good. We may conceive Moses addressing Pharaoh in this way: " That thou maycst be persuaded that Jehovah alone is the inflicter of these plagues, appoint the time when thou wouldst have the present calamity removed, and I will pray unto God, and thou shalt plainly see from his answer that this is no casual affliction, and that in continuing to harden thy heart and resist thou art sinning against God." Nothing could be a fuller proof that this plague was supernatural than the circumstance of Pharaoh's being permitted to assign himself the time of its being removed, and its removal at the intercession of Moses j according to that appoh.trnent. And this is the very

A.M. 2513. 10 And he said, "To-morrow. ^ ^- ^^^^' And he said, Be it according to thy word: that thou mayest know that " there is none like unto the Lord our God.

1 1 And the frogs shall depart from thee, and from thy houses, and from thy servants, and from thy people; they shall remain in the river only.

12 And Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses p cried unto the Lord, because of the frogs which he had brought against Pharaoh.

13 And the Lord did according to the word of Moses; and the frogs died out of the houses, out of the villages, and out of the fields.

14 And they gathered them a.m. 2513.

use made of it by Moses himself, ver. 10, when he says. Be it according to thy word: that thou mayest know that there is none like unto the Lord our God; and that, consequently, he might no longer trust in his magicians, or in his false gods.

Verse 14. They gathered them together upon heaps] The killing of the frogs was a mitigation of the punishment; but the leaving them to rot in the land was a continual proof that such a plague had taken place, and that the displeasure of the Lord still continued.

The conjecture of Calmet is at least rational: he supposes that the plague oi flies originated from the plague oi frogs; that the former deposited their ova in the putrid masses, and that from these the innumerable swarms afterwards mentioned were hatched. In vindication of this supposition it may be observed, that God never works a miracle when the end can be accomplished by merely natural means; and in the operations of Divine providence we always find that the greatest number of effects possible are accomplished by the fewest causes. As therefore the natural means for this fourth plague had been miraculously provided by the second, the Divine Being had a right to use the instruments which he had already prepared.

Verse 16. Smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice] If the vermin commonly designed by this name be intended, it must have been a very dreadful and afflicting plague to the Egyptians, and especially to their priests, who were obliged to shave the hair off every part of their bodies, and to wear a single tunic, that no vermin of this kind might be permitted to harbour about them. See Herod, in Euterp., c. xxxvii., p. 101, edit. Gale. Of the nature of these insects it is not necessary to say much. The common louse is very prolific. In the space of twelve days a full-grown female lays one hundred eggs, from which, in the space of six days, about fifty males and as many females are produced. In eighteen days these young females are at their full growth, each of which may lay one hundred eggs, which will be all hatched in six

15 But when Pharaoh saw that there was 1 respite, "" he hardened his heart, and hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had said.

16 And the Lord said unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt.

17 And they did so; for Aaron stretched out his hand with his rod, and smote' the dust of the earth, and ^ it became Hce in man, and in beast; all the dust of the land became lice, throughout all the land of Egypt.

days more. Thus, in the course of six weeks, the parent female may see 5,000 of its own descendants! So mightily does this scourge of indolence and filthiness increase!

But learned men are not agreed on the signification of the original word D"" JI3 kinnim, which different copies of the Septuagint render gkvi(I)ec, aKvnreg, and aKVTjirec, gnats; and the Vulgate renders sciniphes, which signifies the same.

Mr. Harmer supposes he has found out the true meaning in the word tarrentes, mentioned by Vinisauf, one of our ancient English writers; who, speaking of the expedition of King Richard I. to the Holy Land, says, that " while the army were marching from Cayphas to Caesarea, they were greatly distressed every night by certain worms called tarrentes, which crept on the ground, and occasioned a very burning heat by most painful punctures; for, being armed with stings, they conveyed a poison w-hich quickly occasioned those who were wounded by them to swell, and was attended with the most acute pain." All this is far fetched. Bochart has endeavoured to prove that the CJO kinnim of the text may mean lice in the common acceptation of the term, and not gnats. 1. Because those in question sprang from the dust of the earth, and not from the icaters. 2. Because they were both on men and cattle, which cannot be spoken o( gnats. 3. Because their name comes from the radix jO kun, which signifies to make firm, fix, establish, w^hich can never agree to gnats, flies, &c., which are ever changing their place, and are almost constantly on the iving. 4. Because T\22 kiiinah is the term by which the Talmudists express the louse, &c. See his Hierozoicon, vol. ii., c. xviii., col. 571. The circumstance of their being in man and in beast agrees so well with the nature of the acarus sanguisugus, commonly called the tick, belonging to the seventh order of insects called APTERA, that I am ready to conclude this is the insect meant. This animal buries both its sucker and head equally in man or beast; and can with very great difficulty be extracted before it is grown to its proper size, and filled vaih the blood and juices of the animal on which

A. M. 2513. 1 8 And * the magicians did so ' with their enchantments, to bring

forth hce, but they " could not: so there were lice upon man and upon beast.

19 Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is ^ the finger of God: and Pharaoh's ■^ heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had said.

20 And the Lorb said unto Moses, ^ Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh; (lo, he cometh forth to the water;) and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord, y Let

it preys. When fully grown, it has a glossy black oval body: not only horses, cows, and sheep, are infested •with it in certain countries, but even the common people, especially those who labour in the field, in woods, &c. I know no insect to which the Hebrew term so properly applies. This is the fixed, established insect, which will permit itself to be pulled in pieces rather than let go its hold; and this is literally 71071331 DTX3 baadam ulabhehemah, in man and in beast, burying its trunk and head in the flesh of both. In woodland countries I have seen many persons as well as cattle grievously infested with these insects.

Verse 18. The magicians did 5o] That is, They tried the utmost of their skill, either to produce these insects or to remove this plague; but therj could not, no juggling could avail here, because insects must be produced which would stick to and infix themselves in man and beast, which no kind of trick could possibly imitate; and to remove them, as some would translate the passage, was to their power equally impossible. If the magicians even acted by spiritual agents, we find from this case that these agents had assigned limits, beyond which they could not go; for every agent in the universe is acting under the direction or control of the Almighty.

Verse 19. This is the finger of God'] That is. The power and skill of God are here evident. Probably before this the magicians supposed Moses and Aaron to be conjurers, like themselves; but now they are convinced that no man could do these miracles which these holy men did, unless God were with him. God permits evil spirits to manifest themselves in a certain way, that men may see that there is a spiritual world, and be on their guard against seduction. He at the same time shows that all these agents are under his control, that men may have confidence in his goodness and power.

Verse 21. Siuarms of flies ^ipon thee] It is not easy to ascertain the precise meaning of the original word ^'^}^T\ hearob; as the word comes from 3~»J,' arab, he mingled, it may be supposed to express a multitude of various sorts of insects. And if the conjecture be admitted that the putrid frogs became the occasion of

2 1 Else, if thou wilt not let my people go, behold, I will send ^ swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thy houses: and the houses of the Egyptians shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are.

22 And ^ I will sever in that day the land of Goshen, in which my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there; to the end thou may est know that I am

this plague, (different insects laying their eggs in the bodies of those dead animals, which would soon be hatched, see on verse 14,) then the supposition that a multitude of different kinds of insects is meant, will seem the more probable. Though the plague of the locusts was miraculous, yet God both brought it and removed it by natural means; see chap. x. 13—19.

Bochart, who has treated this subject with his usual learning and ability, follows the Septuagint, explaining the original by awofivia, the dog-fly; which must be particularly hateful to the Egyptians, because they held dogs in the highest veneration, and worshipped Anubis under the form of a dog. In a case of this kind the authority of the Septuagint is very high, as they translated the Pentateuch in the very place where these plagues happened. But as the Egyptians are well known to have paid religious veneration to all kinds of animals and monsters, whence the poet: —

Omnigenumque deum monslra, et latrator Anubis, I am inclined to favour the literal construction of the word: for as '2'yj ereb, chap. xii. 38, expresses that mixed multitude of different kinds of people who accompanied the Israelites in their departure from Egypt; so here the same term being used, it may have been designed to express a multitude of different kinds of insects, such as flies, loasps, hornets, &c., &c. The ancient Jewish interpreters suppose that all kinds of beasts and reptiles are intended, such as tvolves, lions, bears, serpents, &c. Mr. Bate thinks the raven is meant, because the original is so understood in other places; and thus he translates it in his literal version of the Pentateuch; but the meaning already given is the most likely. As to the objection against this opinion drawn from ver. 31, there remained Jiot one, it can have very little weight, when it is considered that this may as well be spoken of one of any of the different kinds, as of an individual of one species.

Verse 22. / ivill sever in that day] 'n'S£)71 hiphleythi, has been translated by some good critics, / will miraculously separate; so the Vulgate: Faciam mirabilem, " I will do a marvellous thing." And the Septuagint, '!rapa6o?a(Tu, I will render illustrious the land of Goshen in that day; and this he did, by exempting that land, and its inhabitants the Israelites, from the plagues by which he afflicted the land of Egypt

23 And I will put ^ a division between my people and thy people: " to-morrow shall this sign be.

■ 24 And the Lord did so: and •^ there came a grievous swarm of flies into the house of Pharaoh, and into his servants' houses, and into all the land of Egypt: the land was ^ cenrrupted by reason of the swarm of flies. 25 And Pharaoh called for Moses and for

Verse 23. And I will put a division] ms peduth, a redemption, between my people and thy people; God hereby showing that he had redeemed them from those plagues to which he had abandoned the others.

Verse 24. The land was corrupted] Every thing was spoiled, and many of the inhabitants destroyed, being probably stung to death by these venomous insects. This seems to be intimated by the psalmist, " He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them," Psa. Ixxviii. 45.

In ancient times, when political, domestic, and personal cleanliness was but little attended to, and offal of different kinds permitted to corrupt in the streets and breed vermin, flies multiplied exceedingly, so that we read in ancient authors of whole districts being laid waste by them; hence different people had deities, whose office it was to defend them against flies. Among these we may reckon Baalzebiib, the fly-god of Ekron; Hercules, muscarum abactor, Hercules, the expeller of flies, of the Romans; the Muagrus of the Eleans, whom they invoked against pestilential swarms of flies; and hence Jupiter, the supreme god of the heathens, had the epithets of knotiviog and MvwcJ?;^, because he was supposed to expel flies, and defend his worshippers against them. See Dodd,

Ye shall not leave Egypt, but I shall cause your 'hip to be tolerated here.

\ rse 26. We shall sacrifice the abomination of the Egyi-iians] That is, The animals which they hold sacred, and will not permit to be slain, are those which our customs require us to sacrifice to our God; and should we do this in Egypt the people would rise in a mass, and stone us to death. Perhaps few people were more superstitious than the Egj-ptians. Almost every production of nature was an object of their religious worship: the sun, moon, planets, stars, the river Nile, animals of all sorts, from the human being to the monkey, dog, cat, and ibis, and even the onions and leeks which grew in their gardens. Jupiter -was adored by them under the form of a ram, Apollo under the form of a crow, Bacchus under that of a goat, and Juno under that of a heifer. The reason why the Egyptians worshipped those animals is given by Eusebius, viz., that when the giants made war on the gods, they were obliged to take refuge in Egypt, and assume the shapes or disguise themselves under dif-

26 And Moses said, It is not meet so to do, for we shall sacrifice ^ the abomination of the Egyptians to the Lord our God: lo, shall we sacrifice' the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us?

27 We will go ^ three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the Lord our God, as ^ he shall command us.

28 And Pharaoh said, I will let you go,

ferent kinds of animals in order to escape. Jupiter hid himself in the body of a ram, Apollo in that of a crow, Bacchus in a goat, Diana in a cat, Juno in a white heifer, Venus in a fish, and Mercury in the bird ibis; all which are summed up by Ovid in the following lines: —

Duxque gregis fit Jupiter

Delius in corvo, proles Semele'ia capro, Fele soror Phoebi, nivea Saturnia vacca, Pisce Venus latuit, Cyllenius ibidis alls.

How the gods fled to Egypt's slimy soil.

And hid their heads beneath the banks of Nile;

How Typhon from the conquer'd skies pursued

Their routed godheads to the seven-mouth'd flood;

Forced every god, his fury to escape.

Some beastly form to take, or earthly shape.

Jove, so she sung, was changed into a ram.

From whence the horns of Libyan Amman came;

Phoebe a cat, the wife of Jove a coiv.

Whose hue was whiter than the falling snow;

Mercury, to a nasty ibis turn'd,

The change obscene, afraid of Typhon moum'd

While Venus from a fish protection craves.

And once more plunges in her native waves

Maynwaring. These animals therefore became sacred to them on account of the deities, who, as the fable reports, had taken refuge in them. Others suppose that the reason why the Egyptians would not sacrifice or kill those creatures was their belief in the doctrine of the metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls; for they feared lest in killing an animal they should kill a relative or a friend. This doctrine is still held by the Hindoos.

Verse 27. And sacrifice to the Lord — as he shall command us.'\ It is very likely that neither Moses nor Aaron knew as yet in what manner God would be worshipped; and they expected to receive a direct revelation from him relative to this subject, when they should come into the wilderness.

very far aivay] Pharaoh relented because the hand of God was heavy upon him; but he was not willing to give up his gain. The Israelites were very profit-

Thejlies are removed, and t*hara6h hardens his neart.

A. M. 2513. that ye may sacrifice to the Lord

— — '■.' your God in the wilderness; only

ye shall not go very far away: » entreat for me 29 And Moses said, Behold, I go out from thee, and I will entreat the Lord that the swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people, tomorrow: but let not Pharaoh ^ deal deceitfully any more in not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.

able to him; they were slaves of the state, and their hard labour was very productive: hence he professed a willingness, first to tolerate their religion in the land, (ver. 25;) or to permit them to go into the wilderness, so that they went not far away, and would soon return. How ready is foolish man, when the hand of God presses him sore, to compound with his Maker! He will consent to give up some sins, provided God will permit him to keep others.

Entreat for me.] Exactly similar to the case of Simon Magus, who, like Pharaoh, fearing the Divine judgments, begged an interest in the prayers of Peter, Acts viii. 24.

Verse 31. The Lord did according to the word of Moses] How powerful is prayer! God permits his servant to prescribe even the manner and time in which he shall work.

He removed the swarms] Probably by means of a strong wind, which swept them into the sea.

Verse 32. Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also] See ver. 15. This hardening was the mere effect of his self-determining obstinacy. He preferred his gain to the will and command of Jehovah, and God made his obstinacy the means of showing forth his own power and providence in a supereminent degree.

1. As every false religion proves there is a true one, as a copy, however marred or imperfect, shows there was an original from which it was taken, so false miracles prove that there were genuine miracles, and that God chooses at particular times, for the most important purposes, to invert the established order of nature, and thus prove his omnipotence and universal agency. That the miracles wrought at this time were real we have the fullest proof. The waters, for instance, were not turned into blood in appearance merely, but were really thus changed. Hence the people could not drink of them; and as blood in a very short time, when exposed to the air, becomes putrid, so did the bloody waters; therefore all the fish that were in the river died.

2. No human power or ingenuity could produce such frogs as annoyed the land of Egypt. This also was a real, not an imaginary, plague. Innumerable multitudes of these animals were produced for the purpose; and the heaps of their dead carcasses, which putrefied and infected the land, at once demon-straled the reality of the miracle.

3 1 And the Lord did according to the word of Moses; and he removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people; there remained not one.

32 And Pharaoh "> hardened his heart at this time also, neither would he let the people go.

3. The lice both on man and beast through the whole land, and the innumerable swarms of flies, gave such proofs of their reality as to put the truth of these miracles out of question for ever. It was necessary that this point should be fully proved, that both the Egyptians and Israelites might see the finger of God in these awful works.

4. To superficial observers only do "Moses and the magicians appear to be nearly matched." The power of God was shown in producing and removing the plagues. In certain cases the magicians imitated the production of a plague, but they had no power to remove any. They could not seem to remove the bloody colour, nor the putrescency from the waters through which the fish were destroyed, though they could imitate the colour itself; they could not remove the frogs, the lice, or swarms of flies, though they could imitate the former and latter; they could by dexterity of hand or diabolic influence produce serpents, but they could not bring one forward that could swallow up the rod of Aaron. In every respect they fall infinitely short of the power and wonderful energy evidenced in the miracles of Moses and Aaron. The opposition therefore of those men sers-ed only as a foil to set off the excellence of that power by which these messengers of God acted.

5. The courage, constancy, and faith of Moses, are worthy of the most serious consideration. Had he not been fully satisfied of the truth and certainty of his Divine mission, he could not have encountered such, a host of difiiculties; had he not been certain of thft issue, he could not have persevered amidst so many discouraging circumstances; and had he not had a deep acquaintance with God, his faith in every trial must have necessarily failed. So strong was this grace in him that he could even pledge his Maker to the performance of works concerning which he had not as yet consulted him! He therefore let Pharaoh fix the very time on which he would wish to have the plague removed; and when this was done, he went to God by faith and prayer to obtain this new miracle; and God in the most exact and circumstantial manner fulfilled the word of his servant.

6. From all this let us learn that there is a God who worketh in the earth; that universal nature is under his control; that he can alter, suspend, counteract, or invert its general laws whensoever he pleases; and that he can save or destroy by tlie most feeble and most contemptible instruments. We should therefore deeply reverence his eternal power and Godhead, and look with respect on every creature he has made, as the meanest of them may, in his hand, become the instrument of our salvation or our ruin.

7. Let us not imagine that God has so bound himself to work by general laws, that those destructions cannot take place which designate a particular providence. Pharaoh and the Egyptians are confounded, afflicted, routed, and ruined, while the land of Goshen and the Israelites are free from every plague! No blood appears in their streams; no frogs, lice, nor flies, in all their borders! They trusted in the true God, and could not be confounded. Reader, how secure mayest thou rest if thou hast this God for thy friend! He was the Protector and Friend of the Israelites through the blood of that covenant which is the very charter of thy salvation: trust in and pray to him as Moses did, and then Satan and his angels shall be bruised under thy feet, and thou shalt not only be preserved from every plague, but be crowned with his loving kindness and tender mercy. He is the same to-day that he was yesterday, and shall continue the same for ever. Hallelujah, the Lord God omnipotent reigneth!

The Lord sends Moses to Pharaoh to inform him that, if he did not let the Israelites depart, a destructive pestilence should be sent among his cattle, 1-3; while the cattle of the Israelites should lie preserved, 4. The next day this pestilence, which was the fifth plague, is sent, and all the cattle of the Egyptians die, 5, 6. Though Pharaoh finds that not one of the cattle of the Israelites had died, yet, through hardness of heart, he refuses to let the people go, 7. Moses and Aaron are commanded to sprinkle handfuls of ashes from the furnace, chat the sixth plague, that o/ boils and blains, might come on man and beast, 8, 9; which having done, the plague takes place, 10. The magicians cannot stand before this plague, which they can neither imitate nor remove, 11. Pharaoh's heart is again hardened, 12. God's awful message to Pharaoh, with the threat of more severe plagues than before, 13-17. The seventh plague of rain, hail, and fire threatened, 18. The Egyptians commanded to house their cattle that they might not be destroyed, 19. Those tvho feared the word of the Lord brought home their servants and cattle, and those who did not regard that word left their cattle and servants in the fields, 20, 21. The storm of hail, thunder, and lightning takes place, 22-24. It nearly desolates the whole land of Egypt, 25, lohile the land of Goshen escapes, 26. Pharaoh confesses his sin, and begs an interest in the prayers of Moses and Aaron, 27, 28. Moses promises to intercede for hitn, and while he promises that the storm shall cease, he foretells the con tinning obstinacy of both himself and his servants, 29, 30. The flax and barley, being in a state of matu rity, are destroyed by the tempest, 31; ivhile the wheat and the rye, not being gi-oion up, are preserved, 32. Moses obtains a cessation of the storm, 33. Pharaoh and his servants, seeing this, harden their hearts, and refuse to let the people ^o, 34, 35.

and tell him. Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me.

Verse 1. The Lord God of the Hebrews] It is very likely that the term Lord, T\y7V Yehovah, is used here to point out particularly his eternal power and Godhead; and that the term God, "n^>< Elohey, is intended to be understood in the sense of Supporter, Defender, Protector, &c. Thus saith the self-existent, omnipotent, and eternal Being, the Supporter and Defender of the Hebrews, " Let my people go, that they may worship me."

Upon the horses] D'DID susim. This is the first place the horse is mentioned; a creature for which Egypt and Arabia were always famous. DD sus is supposed to have the same meaning with iy'»y sas, which

2 For if thou ^ refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still,

3 Behold, the ° hand of the Lord is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon

signifies to be active, brisk, or lively, all which are proper appellatives of the horse, especially in Arabia and Egypt. Because of their activity and swiftness they were sacrificed and dedicated to the sun, and perhaps it was principally on this account that God prohibited the use of them among the Israelites.

A very grievous murrain.] The murrain is a very contagious disease among cattle, the symptoms of which are a hanging down and swelling of the head, abundance of gum in the eyes, rattling in the throat, difliculty of breathing, palpitation of the heart, staggering, a hot breath, and a shining tongue; which symptoms prove that a general inflammation has taken place. The original word -I3T deber is variously translated. The Septuagint have davaroc, death; the Vulgate has pestis, a plague or pestilence; the old Saxon version, cpealme, from cpealan, to die, any fatal disease. Our English word murrain comes either from the French

4 And ^ the Lord shall sever betvi^een the cattle of Israel, and the cattle of Egypt: and there shall nothing die of all that is the children's of Israel.

5 And the Lord appointed a set time, saying, To-morrow the Lord shall do this thing in the land.

6 And the Lord did that thing on the morrow, and « all the cattle of Egypt died: but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not one.

7 And Pharaoh sent, and, behold, there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites dead. And f the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.

mourir, to die, or from the Greek fiapaivu maraino, to groio lean, ivasie away. The term mortality would be the nearest in sense to the original, as no particular disorder is specified by the Hebrew word. ^Verse 4. The Lord shall sever] See on chap. viii. 22.

^rse 5. To-morrow the Lord shall do this] By thus foretell^"? the evil, he showed his prescience and power; and fvom this both the Egyptians and Hebrews must see thkt the mortality that ensued was no casualty, but the effect of ^ predetermined purpose in the Divine justice. \

Verse 6. All tht^cattle of Egypt died] That is. All the cattle that did dig belonged to the Egyptians, but not one died that belonged to the Israelites, ver. 4 and 6. That the whole stoc^f cattle belonging to the Egyptians did not die we hH;^e the fullest proof, because there were cattle both J Ije killed and saved alive in the ensuing plague, ver. 19-25. By this judgment the Egyptians must see the vanity of the whcJ.^ of their national worship, when they found the aniu^ils which they not only held sacred but Reified, slain without distinction among the common herd^ by a pestilence sent from the hand of Jehovah. One tfig^t naturally suppose that after this the animal worship >o^ "-"^ Egyptians could never iii<j»^„ip_s wrought at tnis

Verse 7. And Pharaoh sent; ^jry^ v.iding so many of his own cattle and those of his subjects slain, he sent to see whether the mortality had reached to the cattle of the Israelites, that he might know whether this were a judgment inflicted by their God, and probably designing to replace the lost cattle of the Egyptians with those of the Israelites.

Verse 8. Handfuls of ashes of the furnace"] As one part of the oppression of the Israelites consisted in their labour in the brick-kilns, some have observed a congruity between the crime and the punishment. The furnnnns, in the labour of which tliey oppressed

8 And the Lord said unto Moses A. M. 25131 and unto Aaron, Take, to you hand- ^' ^' ^^^^' fuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh.

9 And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be & a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt.

10 And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven; and it became ^ a boil breaking forth with blains upon man and upon beast.

1 1 And the ■ magicians could not stand before Moses, because of the boils; for the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians.

the Hebrews, now yielded the instruments of their punishment; for every particle of those ashes, formed by unjust and oppressive labour, seemed to be a boil or a blain on the tyrannic king and his cruel and hardhearted people.

Verse 9. Shall he a loil] rnt^ shechin. This word is generally expounded, an inflammatory swelling, a burning boil; one of the most poignant afflictions, not immediately mortal, that can well affect the surface of the human body. If a single boil on any part of the body throws the whole system into a fever, what anguish must a multitude of them on the body at the same time occasion!

Breaking forth \vi\h. blains] n>^3;?DX ababuoih, supposed to come from n>0 baah, to sivell, bulge out; an^ inflammatory swelling, node, or pustule, in any part of the body, but more especially in the more glandular parts, the neck, arm-pits, groin, &c. The Septuagint translate it thus: Kai earai iXKT} ^?.VKTi6ec ava^eovaar And it shall be an ulcer with burning pustules. It seems to have been a disorder of an uncommon kind, and.ience it is called by way of distinction, the botch of. gypt, Deut. x-xviii. 27, perhaps never known liefore in that or any other country. Orosius says that in the sixth plague "all the people were blistered, that the blisters burst with tormenting pain, and that worms issued out of them." Dset eall pole pser on bl8B^rlan, -y 8a paepon ppiSe hjieoplice beprCenbe, anb Ca pojimp ucponbe.— Alfred's Oros., lib. i., c. vii.

Verse 1 1. The boil was upon the magicians] They could not produce a similar malady by throwing ashea in the air; and they could neither remove the plague from the people, nor from their own tormented flesh. Whether they perished in this plague we know not but they are no more mentioned. If they were not destroyed by this awful judgment, they at least left the field, and no longer contended with these messengers of God. The triumph of God's power was now complete, and both the Hebrews and Egyptians must see a

not unto them; ^ as the Lord had spoken unto Moses.

13 And the Lord said unto Moses, ^Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me.

14 For I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people; ^ that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all

that there was neither might, nor wisdom, nor counsel against the Lord; and that, as universal nature acknowledged his power, devils and men must fail before him.

Verse 15. For now I will stretch out my h.and\ In the Hebrew the verbs are in the fast tense, and not in the future, as our translation improperly expresses them, by which means a contradiction appears in the text; for neither Pharaoh nor his people were smitten by a pestilence, nor was he by any kind of mortality cut off from the earth. It is true the first-born were slain by a destroying angel, and Pharaoh himself was drowned in the Red Sea; but these judgments do not appear to be referred to in this place. If the words be translated, as they ought, in the subjunctive mood, or in the past instead of the future, this seeming contradiction to facts, as well as all ambiguity, will be avoided: For if noio I had stretched out {Twhvf shalachti, had set forth) my hand, and had smitten thee ("iniN "^Xl vaach otheca) and thy people tvith the pestilence, thou shouldst have been cut off (IDDH ticcached) from the earth. 16. But truly, on this very account, have I caused thee to subsist, (ymoj.TI heemadticha,) that I might cause thee to see my power, {'r\D HX "^nN'in harotheca eth cochi,) and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth, (or, I'lXn 7^3 becol haarets, in all this land.) See Ainsworth and Houhigant.

Thus God gave this impious king to know that it was in consequence of his especial providence that both he and his people had not been already destroyed by means of the past plagues; but God had preserved him for this very purpose, that he might have a farther opportunity of manifesting that he, Jehovah, was the only true God, for the full conviction both of the Hebrews and Egyptians, that the former might follow and the latter fear before him. Judicious critics of almost all creeds have agreed to translate the origij nal as above, a translation which it not only can bear but requires, and which is in strict conformity to both the Septuagint and Targum. Neither the Hebrew ymnj'n heemadticha, I have caused thee to stand; nor the apostle's translation of it, Rom. ix. 17, e^rjy^ipa ie, / have raised thee; nor that of the Septuagint, j

1 5 For now I will ^ stretch out a. m. 2513. my hand, that I may smite thee

and thy people with pestilence: and thou shalt be cut off from the earth.

1 6 And in very deed for ° this cause have I p raised thee up, for to show in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.

17 As yet exaltest thou thyself against my people, that thou wilt not let them go?

18 Behold, to-morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now.

ivEKEv TovTov SieTTjpTjdTj^, On this account art thou preserved, viz., in the past plagues; can countenance that most exceptionable meaning put on the words by certain commentators, viz., " That God ordained or appointed Pharaoh from all eternity, by certain means, to this end; that he made him to exist in time; that he raised him to the throne; promoted him to that high honour and dignity; that he preserved him, and did not cut him off as yet; that he strengthened and hardened his heart; irritated, provoked, and stirred him up against his people Israel, and suffered him to go all the lengths he did go in his obstinacy and rebellion; all which was done to show in him his power in destroying him in the Red Sea. The sum of which is, that this man was raised up by God in every sense for God to show his power in his destruction." So man speaks; thus God hath not spoken. See Henry on the place.

Verse 17. As yet exaltest thou thyself against my people] So it appears that at this time he might have submitted, and thus prevented his own destruction.

Verse 18. To-morrow about this time] The time of this plague is marked thus circumstantially to show Pharaoh that Jehovah was Lord of heaven and earth, and that the ivater, the fire, the earth, and the air, which were all objects of Egyptian idolatry, were the creatures of his power; and subservient to his will; and that, far from being able to help them, they were now, in the hands of God, instruments of their destruction.

To rain a very grievous hail] To rain hail may appear to some superficial observers as an unphilosophical mode of expression, but nothing can be more correct. " Drops of rain falling through a cold region of the atmosphere are frozen and converted into hail;" and thus the hail is produced by rain. When it begins to fall it is rain; when it is falling it is converted into hail; thus it is literally true that it rains hail. The farther a hail-stone falls the larger it generally is, because in its descent it meets with innumerable particles of water, which, becoming attached to it, are

hast in the field; for upon every man and beast which shall be found in the field, and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down upon them, and they shall die.

20 He that feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses:

21 And he that i regarded not the word of the Lord left his servants and his cattle in the field.

22 And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch forth thine hand toward heaven, that there may be "^ hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man, and upon beast, and upon every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt.

23 And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and * the Lord sent thunder and hail.

also frozen, and thus its bulk is continually increasing till it reaches the earth. In the case in question, if natural means were at all used, we may suppose a highly electrified state of an atmosphere loaded with vapours, which, becoming condensed and frozen, and having a considerable space to fall through, were of an unusually large size. Though this was a supernatural storm, there have been many of a natural kind, that have been exceedingly dreadful. A storm of hail fell near Liverpool, in Lancashire, in the year 1795, which greatly damaged the vegetation, broke windows, &c., &c. Many of the stones measured five inches in circumference. Dr. Halley mentions a similar storm of hail in Lancashire, Cheshire, &c., in 1697, A-pnl 29, that for sixti/ miles in length and two miles ill breadth did immense damage, by splitting trees, killing fowls and all small animals, knocking down men and horses, &c., &c. Mezeray, in his History of France, says "that in Italy, in 1510, there was for some time a horrible darkness, thicker than that of night, after which the clouds broke into thunder and lightning, and there fell a shower of hail-stones which destroyed all the beasts, birds, and even fish of the country. It was attended with a strong smell of sulphur, and the stones were of a bluish colour, some of them weighing one hundred pounds' weight." The Almighty says to Job: " Hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war 1" Job, chap, xxxviii. 22, 23. While God has such artillery at his command, how soon may he desolate a country or a world! See the account of a remarkable hailstorm in Josh. X. 11.

Verse 19. Send — now, and gather thy cattle'] So in the midst of judgment, God remembered mercy. The miracle should be wrought that they might know 3.14

24 So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.

25 And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail * smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field.

26 " Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail.

27 And Pharaoh sent and called for Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, " I have sinned this time: ^ the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.

28 ^ Entreat the Lord (for it is enough) that there be no more y mighty thunderings

he was the Lord; but all the lives both of men and beasts might have been saved, had Pharaoh and his servants taken the warning so mercifully given them. While some regarded not the word of the Lord, others feared it, and their cattle and their servants were saved. See ver. 20, 21.

Verse 23. The Lord sent thunder] nSp koloth, voices; but loud, repeated peals of thunder are meant.

And the fire ran along upon the ground] U'N "jSnri n]/lX vattihalac esh aretsah, and the fire xoalked upon the earth. It was not a sudden flash of lightning, but a devouring fire, walking through every part, destroying both animals and vegetables; and its progress was irresistible.

Verse 24. Hail, and fire mingled tvith the hail] It is generally allowed that the electric fluid is essential to the formation of hail. On this occasion it was supplied ' in a supernatural abundance; for streams of fire seem to have accompanied the descending hail, so that herbs and trees, beasts and men, were all destroyed by them.

Verse 26. Only in the land of Goshen — teas there no hail.] What a signal proof of a most particular providence! Surely both the Hebrews and Egyptians profited by this display of the goodness and severity of

Verse 27. The Lord is righteous, and I and my people are ivicked.] The original is very emphatic: The Lord is the righteous one, (p'nvn hatstsaddik,) and I and my people are the sinners, {uy^'^xy hare-' shaim;) i. e.. He is alone righteous, and we alone are transgressors. Wlio could have imagined that after such an acknowledgment and confession, Pharaoh should have again hardened his heart?

Verse 28. It is enough] There is no need of any farther plague; I submit to the authority of Jehovah, and will rebel no more.

Moses promises to entreat CHAP. IX.

and hail; and I will let you go,

and ye shall stay no longer.

29 And Moses said unto him, As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will ^ spread abroad

Mighty thunderings] DTlSx php koloth Elohim, voices of God; — that is, superlatively loud thunder. So mountains of God (Psa. xxxvi. 6) means exceeding high mountains. So a prince of God (Gen. xxiii. 6) means a mighty prince. See a description of thunder, Psa. xxix. 3-8: " The voice of the Lord is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth; the Lord is upon many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The voice of the Lord breakeththe cedars. The voice of the Lord divideth the flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shaketh the wilderness," &c. The production of rain by the electric spark is alluded to in a very beautiful manner, Jer. x. 13: When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens. See the note on Gen. vii. 11, and viii. 1.

Verse 29. I will spread abroad my hands] That is, I will make supplication to God that he may remove this plague. This may not be an improper place to make some obsen'ations on the ancient manner of approaching the Divine Being in prayer. Kneeling down, stretching out of the hands, and lifting them up to heaven, were in frequent use among the Hebrews in their religious worship. Solomon kneeled down on his knees, and spread forth his hands to heaven; 2 Chron. vi. 13. So David, Psa. cxliii. 6: I stretch forth my hands unto thee. So Ezra: I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the Lord my God; chap. ix. 5. See also Job xi. 13: If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thy hands towards him. Most nations who pretended to any kind of worship made use of the same means in approaching the objects of their adoration, viz., kneeling down and stretching out their hands; which custom it is very likely they borrowed from the people of God. Kneeling was ever considered to be the proper posture of supplication, as it expresses humility, contrition, and subjection. If the person to whom the supplication was addressed was within reach, the supplicant caught him by the knees; for as among the ancients the forehead was consecrated to genius, the ear to memory, and the right hand to faith, so the knees were consecrated to mercy. Hence those who entreated favour fell at and caught hold of the knees of the person whose kindness they supplicated. This mode of supplication is particularly referred to in the following passages in Homer: —

Now therefore, of these things reminding Jove, Embrace his knees. Cowper.

To which the following answer is made:^

Kai tot' ETzeiTa tol eiui Aiog nori;j;aAK0/3arcf 6u, Kflu [iiv yovvaaofiai, Kac fiiv TreicjEcr&aL oiu.

my hands unto the Lord; and the thunder shall cease, neither shall there be any more hail; that thou mayest know how that the * earth is the Lord's.

Then will I to Jove's brazen-floor'd abode, That I may clasp his knees; and much misdeem Of my endeavour, or my prayer shall speed. Id.

In the same manner we find our Lord accosted, Matt. xvii. 14: There came to him a certain man, kneeling doivn to him, yownsTuv avTov, falling down at his knees.

As to the lifting up or stretching out of the handsy (often joined to kneeling,) of which we have seen already several instances, and of which we have a very remarkable one in this book, chap. xvii. 11, where the lifting up or stretching out of the hands of Moses was the means of Israel's prevailing over Amalek; we find many examples of both in ancient authors Thus Homer: —

For right it is to spread abroad the hand.' To Jove for mercy.

Corripio e stratis corpus, tendoque supinas Ad c(elcm cum voce manus, et munera libo.

I started from my bed, and raised on high My hands and voice in rapture to the sky; And pour libations. Pitt.

Then kneeVd the wretch, and suppliant clung around My kneesw'iih tears, and grovell'd on the ground. Id.

Malta Jovem manibus supplex orasse scpinis. Ibid, iv., ver. 204.

Amidst the statues of the gods he stands.

And spreading forth to Jove his lifted hands. Id.

Et duplices cum voce manus ad sidera tendit.

And lifted both his hands and voice to heaven. In some cases the person petitioning came forward, and either sat in the dust or kneeled on the ground, placing his left hand on the knee of him from whom he expected the favour, while he touched the person's chin with his right. We have an instance of this also in Homer: —

Suppliant the goddess stood: one hand she placed Beneath his chin, and one his knee embraced. Pope.

30 But as for thee and thy servants, ^ I know that ye will not yet fear the Lord God. 3 1 And the flax and the barley was snaitten:

When the supplicant could not approach the person to whom he prayed, as where a deity was the object of the prayer, he washed his hands, made an offering, and kneeling down, either stretched out both his hands to heaven, or laid them upon the offering or sacrifice, or upon the altar. Thus Homer represents the priest of Apollo praying: —

Iliad i., ver.

With water purify their hands, and take The sacred offering of the salted cake, While thus, with arms devoutly raised in air. And solemn voice, the priest directs his prayer.

How necessary ablutions of the whole body, and of the hands particularly, accompanied with offerings and ■"SSGlifices \yere, under the law, every reader of the Bible knows: see especially chap. xxix. 1—4, where Aaron and his sons were commanded to be washed, previously to their performing the priest's office; and chap. XXX. 19—21, where it is said: " Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands — that they die not." See also Lev. xvii. 15. When the high priest among the Jews blessed the people, he lifted up his hands, Lev. ix. 22. And the Israelites, when they presented a sacrifice to GoA, lifted up their hands and placed them on the head of the victim: " If any man of you bring an offering unto the Lord — of the cattle of the herd, and of the flock — he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt -offering, and it shall be accepted for him, to make atonement for him;" Lev. i. 2—4. To these circumstances the apostle alludes, 1 Tim. ii. 8: " I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting." In the apostle's word e^aipovrac, lifting up, there is a manifest reference to stretching out the hands to place them either on the altar or on the head of the victim. Four things were signified by this lifting up of the hands. 1. It was the posture of supplication, and expressed a strong invitation — Come to my help; 2. It expressed the earnest desire of the person to lay hold on the help he required, by bringing him who was the object of his prayer to his assistance; 3. It showed the ardour of the person to receive the blessings he expected; and 4. By this act he designated and consecrated his offering or sacrifice to his God.

From a great number of evidences and coincidences it is not unreasonable to conclude that the heathens borrowed all that was pure and rational, even in their mode of ivorship, from the ancient people of God; and that the preceding quotations are proofs of this.

is derived from the root D'JD pashat, to strip, because

Ihe substance which we term flax is properly the bark

*= for the barley was in the ear, and A. M. 2513

32 But the wheat and the rye were not smitten: for they were ^ not grown up.

or rind of the vegetable, pilled or stripped off the stalks. From time immemorial Egypt was celebrated for the production and manufacture of flax: hence the linen and fine linen of Egypt, so often spoken of in ancient authors.

Barley] mj-'iy seorah, from l^^ii/ saar, to stand on end, to be rough, bristly, &c.; hence '\y^ sear, the hair of the head, and I'^'ty sair, a he-goat, because of its shaggy hair; and hence also barley, because of the rough and prickly beard with which the ears are covered and defended.

Dr. Pocock has observed that there is a double seedtime and harvest in Egypt: Rice, India ivheat, and a grain called the corn of Damascus, and in Italian surgo rosso, are sown and reaped at a very different time from wheat, barley and flax. The first are sown in March, before the overflowing of the Nile, and reaped about October; whereas the ivheat and barley are sown in November and December, as soon as the Nile is gone off, and are reaped before May.

Pliny observes, Hist. Nat., lib. xviii., cap. 10, that in Egypt the barley is ready for reaping in six months after it is sown, and ivheat in seven. In JEgypto HORDEUM sexto a satu mense, frumenta septimo, metuntur.

The flax was boiled.] Meaning, I suppose, was grown up into a stalk: the original is i^'21 gibol, podded or was in the pod. The word well expresses that globous pod on the top of the stalk of flax which succeeds the flower and contains the seed, very properly expressed by the Septuagint, to 6e Xivov anepfiari^ov, but the flax was in seed or was seeding.

Verse 32. Btit the wheat and the rye were not smitten] Wheat, nOH chittah, which Mr. Parkhurst thinks should be derived from the Chaldee and Samaritan ■'tan chati, which signifies tender, delicious, delicate, because of the superiority of its flavour, &c., to every other kind of grain. But this term in Scripi ture appears to mean any kind of bread-corn. Rye, n*DDD cussemeth, from DDD casam, to have long hair and hence, though the particular species is not known, the word must mean some bearded grain. The Septuagint call it o?.vpa, the Vulgate for, and Aquila fea, which signify the grain called spelt; and some suppose that rice is meant.

Mr. Harmer, referring to the double harvest in Egypt mentioned by Dr. Pocock, says that the circumstance of the wheat and the rye being n7*3K aphiloth, dark or hidden, as the margin renders it, (i. e., they were sown, but not grown up,) shows that it was the Indian wheat or surgo rosso mentioned ver. 31, which, with the rye, escaped, wlule the barley and flax were smitten because they were at or nearly at a state of maturity. See Harmer's Obs vol. iv., p. 11, edit. 1808. But what is intended by the words in the Hebrew text we cannot positively say, as there is a great variety of opinions on thia a

The seventh plague is removed.

Pharaoh again hardens his heart

33 And Moses went out of the

city from Pharaoh, and ® spread

abroad his hands unto the Lord: and the

thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was

not poured upon the earth.

34 And when Pharaoh saw that the rain

subject, both among the versions and the commentators. The Anglo-Saxon translator, probably from not knowing the meaning of the words, omits the whole verse.

Verse 33. Spread abroad his hands] Probably with the rod of God in them. See what has been said on the spreading out of the hands in prayer, ver. 29.

Verse 34. He sinned yet more, and hardened his heart] These were merely acts of his own; " for who can deny," says Mr. Psalmanazar, " that what God did on Pharaoh was much more proper to soften than to harden his heart; especially when it is observable that it was not till after seeing each miracle, and after the ceasing of each plague, that his heart is said to have been hardened? The verbs here used are in the conjugations pihel and hiphil, and often signify a bare permission, from which it is plain that the words should have been read, God suffered the heart of Pharaoh to be hardened.'''' — Universal Hist., vol. i., p. 494. Note D.

Verse 35. And the heart of Pharaoh ivas hardened^ In consequence of his sinning yet more, and hardening his own heart against both the judgments and mercies of God, we need not be surprised that, after God had given him the means of softening and repentance, and he had in every instance resisted and abused them, he should at last have been left to the hardness and darkness of his own obstinate heart, so as to fill up the measure of his iniquity, and rush headlong to his own destruction.

In i\yQ fifth, sixth, and seventh plagues described in this chapter, we have additional proofs of the justice and mercy of God, as well as of the stupidity, rebellion, and loickedness of Pharaoh and his courtiers. As these continued to contradict and resist, it was just that God should continue to inflict those punishments which their iniquities deserved. Yet in the midst of judgment he remembers mercy; and therefore Moses and Aaron are sent to inform the Egyptians that such plagues would come if they continued obstinate. Here is mercy; the cattle only are destroyed, and the people saved! Is it not evident from all these messages, and the repeated expostulations of Moses and Aaron in the name and on the authority of God, thaf Pharaoh was bound by no fatal necessity to continue his obstinacy; that he might have humbled himself before God, and thus prevented the disasters that fell on the land, and saved himself and his people from destruction T But he toould sin, and therefore he must be punished.

In the sixth plague Pharaoh had advantages which he had not before. The magicians, by their successful imitations of the miracles wrought by Moses, made Vol, I. r 23)

and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants.

3 5 And *■ the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, neither would he let the children of Israel go; as the Lord had spoken ^by Moses.

it doubtful to the Egyptians whether Moses himself was not a magician acting without any Divine authority; but the plague of the boils, which they could not imitate, by which they were themselves afflicted, and which they confessed to be the finger of God, decided the business. Pharaoh had no longer any excuse, and must know that he had now to contend, not with Moses and Aaron, mortals like himself, but with the living God. How strange, then, that he should continue to resist! Many affect to be astonished at this, and think it must be attributed only to a sovereign controlling influence of God, which rendered it impossible for him to repent or take warning. But the whole conduct of God shows the improbability of this opinion: and is not the conduct of Pharaoh and his courtiers copied and reacted by thousands who are never suspected to be under any such necessitating decree? Every sinner under heaven, who has the Bible in his hand, is acting the same part. God says to the swearer and the profane. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; and yet common swearing and profaneness are most scandalously common among multitudes who bear the Christian name, and who presume on the mercy of God to get at last to the Jcingdom of heaven! He says also, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy; thou shalt 7iot kill; thou shalt not commit adultery; thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not bear false ivitness; thou shalt not covet; and sanctions all these commandments with the most awful penalties: and yet, with all these things before them, and the professed belief that they came from God, Sabbath-breakers, men-slayers, adulterers, fornicators, thieves, dishonest men, false witnesses, liars, slanderers, backbiters, covetous men, lovers of the world more than lovers of God, are found by hundreds and thousands! What were the crimes of the poor half-blind Egyptian king when compared with these! He sinned against a comparatively unknown God; these sin against the God of their fathers — against the God and Father of Him whom they call their Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ! They sin with the Bible in their hand, and a conviction of its Divine authority in their hearts. They sin against light and knowledge; against the checks of their consciences, the reproofs of their friends, the admonitions of the messengers of God; against Moses and Aaron in the law; against the testimony of all the prophets; against the evangelists, the apostles, the Maker of heaven and earth, the Judge of all men, and the Saviour of the world! What were Pharaoh's crimes to the crimes of these? On comparison, his atom of moral turpitude is lost in their world of iniquity. A.nd yet who supposes these to be under any necessitating decree to sin on, and go to perdition ^ Nor are they to expostulate with Pharaoh.

nor was Pharaoh. In all things God has proved both his justice and mercy to be clear in this point. Pharaoh, through a principle of covetousness, refused to dismiss the Israelites, whose services he found profitable to the state: these are absorbed in the love of the world, the love of pleasure, and the love of gain; nor will they let one lust go, even in the presence of the thunders of Sinai, or in sight of the agony, bloody sweat, crucifixion, and death of Jesus Christ! Alas! how many are in the habit of considering Pharaoh the worst of human beings, inevitably cut off from the possibility of being saved because of his iniquities, who outdo him so far in the viciousness of their lives, that Pharaoh, hardening his heart against ten plagues, appears a saint when compared with those who are hardening their hearts against ten millions of mercies. Reader, art i^ow of this number? Proceed no farther! God's judgments linger not. Desperate as thy state is, thou mayest return; and thou, even thou, find mercy through the blood of the Lamb.

See the observations at the conclusion of the next chapter.

Moses IS again sent to Pharaoh, and expostulates loith him on his refusal to let the Hebrews go, 1—3. The eighih. plague, viz., o/" locusts, is threatened, 4. The extent and oppressive nature of this plague, 5, 6. Pharaoh's servants counsel him to dismiss the Hehreivs, 7. He calls for Moses and Aaron, and inquires who they are of the Hebrews ivho ivish to go, 8. Moses having answered that the whole people, with their flocks and herds must go and hold a feast to the Lord, 9, Pharaoh is enraged, and having granted permission only to the men, drives Moses and Aaron from his presence, 10, 11. Moses is commanded to stretch out his hand and bring the locusts, 12. He does so, and an east ivind is sent, which, blowing all that day and night, brings the locusts the next morning, 13. The devastation occasioned by these insects, 14, 15. Pharaoh is humbled, acknowledges his sin, and begs Moses to intercede ivith Jehovah for him, 16, 17. Moses does so, and at his request a strong ivest ivind is sent, lohich carries all the locusts to the Red Sea, 18, 19. Pharaohs heart is again hardened, 20. Moses is commanded to bring the ninth plague — an extraordinary darkness over all the land of Egypt, 2 1. The nature, duration, and effects of this, 22, 23. Pharaoh, again humbled, consents to let the people go, provided they leave their cattle behind, 24. Moses insists on having all their cattle, because of the sacrifices which they must make to the Lord, 25, 26. Pharaoh, again hardened, refuses, 27. Orders Moses from his presence, and threatens him with death should he ever return, 28. Moses departs tvith the promise of returning no more, 29.

A ND the Lord said unto Moses,

Go in unto Pharaoh: ^ for I

have hardened his heart, and the heart of his

servants, ^ that I might show these my signs

2 And that " thou mayest tell in the ears of

Verse 1. Hardened his heart] God suffered his natural obstinacy to prevail, that he might have farther opportunities of showing forth his eternal power and Godhead.

Verse 2. That thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son] That the miracles wrought at this time might be a record for the instruction of the latest posterity, that Jehovah alone, the God of the Hebrews, was the sole Maker, Governor, and Supporter of the heavens and the earth. Thus we find God so did his marvellous ivorks, that they might be had in everlasting remembrance. It was not to crush the poor worm, Pharaoh, that he wrought such mighty wonders, but to convince his enemies, to the end of the world, that no cunning or power can prevail against him; and to show his followers that whosoever trusted in him should never be confounded.

Verse 3. How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself] Had it been impossible for Pharaoh, in all the preceding plagues, to have humbled himself and re-

Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them; that ye may know how that I am

3 And Moses and Aaron came in unto Pha-

pented, can we suppose that God could have addressed' him in such language as the preceding] We may rest assured that there was always a time in which he might have relented, and that it was because he hardened his heart at such times that God is said to harden him, i. e., to give him up to his own stubborn and obstinate heart; in consequence of which he refused to let the people go, so that God had a fresh opportunity to work another miracle, for the very gracious purposes mentioned in ver. 2. Had Pharaoh relented before, the same gracious ends would have been accomplished by other means.

The EIGHTH plague — the locusts. Verse 4. To-morrow will I bring the locusts] The word nn'^N arbeh, a locust, is probably from the root n3"1 rabah, he multiplied, became great,?nighly, &c., because of the immense swarms of these animals by which different countries, especially the east, are infested. The locust, in entomology, belongs to a genus of insects known among naturalists by the term grvlli; ( 23»)

How long wilt thou refuse to ^ humble thyself before me? let my people go, that they may serve me;

4 Else, if thou refuse to let my people go,, behold, to-morrow will I bring the « locusts

5 And they shall cover the ^face of the earth, that one cannot be able to see the earth: and s ihey shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you

and includes three species, crickets, grasshoppers, and those commonly called locusts; and as they multiply faster than any other animal in creation, they are properly entitled to the name HDIN arbeh, which might be translated the numerous or multiplied insect. See this circumstance referred to, Judg. vi. 5; vii. 12- Psa cv. 34; Jer. xlvi. 23; li. 14; Joel i.'c; Nahum iii.' 15; Judith a. 19, 20; where the most numerous armies are compared to the arbch or locust. The locust has a large open mouth; and in its two jaws it has four mcisive teeth, which traverse each other like scissors, bemg calculated, from their mechanism, to <rripe or cut. Mr. Volney, in his Travels in Syria, gives a striking account of this most a\vful scourge of God:

" Syria partakes together with Egypt and Persia, and almost all the whole middle part of Asia, in that terrible scourge, I mean those clouds of locusts of which travellers have spoken; the quantity of which is incredible to any person who has not himself seen them, the earth being covered by them for several leagues round The noise they make in browsing the plants and trees may be heard at a distance, like an army plundering in secret. Fire seems to follow their tracks. Wherever their legions march the verdure disappears from the country, like a curtain drawn aside; the trees and plants, despoiled of their leaves, make the hideous appearance of winter instantly succeed to the bric-ht scenes of spring. When these clouds of locusts t°ake their flight, in order to surmount some obstacle, or the more rapidly to cross some desert, one may literally say that the sun is darkened by them:'

Baron de Tott gives a similar account: " Clouds of locusts frequently alight on the plains of the Noguais, (the lartars,) and giving preference to their fields of mil et, ravage them in an instant. Their approach darkens the horizon, and so enormous is their multitude. It hides the light of the sun. They alight on the fields and there form a bed of si:r or seven inches thick. lo the noise of their flight succeeds that of their devouring actively, which resembles the rattling of hailstones; but its consequences are infinitely more destructive. Fire itself eats not so fast; nor is there any appearance of vegetation to be found when they again take their flight, and go elsewhere to produce new disasters." ^

6 And they ^ shall fill thy houses, and the houses of all thy servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians; which neither thy fathers, nor thy fathers' fathers have seen, since the day that they were upon the earth unto this day. And he turned himself, and went out from Pharaoh.

7 And Pharaoh's servants said unto him, How long shall this man be ' a snare unto us?

Dr. Shaw, who witnessed most formidable swarms of these in Barbary in the years 1724 and 1725, gives the following account of them: " They were much larger than our grasshoppers, and had brown-spotted wings, with legs and bodies of a bright yellow. Their first appearance was towards the latter end of March. In the middle of April their numerous swarms, like a succession of clouds, darkened the sun. In the month of May they retired to the adjacent plains to deposit their eggs: these were no sooner hatched in June than the young brood first produced, while in their caterpillar or worm-like state, formed themselves into a compact body of more than a furlong square, and, marching directly forward, climbed over trees, walls, and houses, devouring every plant in their way. Within a day or two another brood was hatched, and advancing in the same manner, gnawed off the young branches and bark of the trees left by the former, making a complete desolation. The inhabitants, to stop their progress, made a variety of pits and trenches all over their fields and gardens, which they filled with water, or else heaped up therein heath, stubble, &c., which they set on fire; but to no purpose: for the trenches were quickly filled up and the fires extinguished, by infinite swarms succeeding one another; while the front seemed regardless of danger, and the rear pressed on so close that a retreat was altogether impossible. In a month's time they threw oflf their worm-like state; and in a new form, with wings and legs, and additional

powers, returned to their former voracity." Shaw's

The descriptions given by these travellers show that God's army, described by the Prophet Joel, chap, ii., was innumerable swarms of locusts, to which the accounts given by Dr. Shaw and others exactly agree.

Verse 5. They shall cover the face of the earth] They sometimes cover the whole ground to the depth of SIX or eight inches. See the preceding accounts.

Verse 6. They shall fill thy houses] Dr. Shaw mentions this circumstance; " they entered," says he, " into our very houses and bed-chambers, like so many thieves." — Ibid. p. 187.

Verse 7. How long shall this man he a snare unto us.?] As there is no noun in the text, the pronoun riT zeh may either refer to the Israelites, to the plague by

A. M. 25ia let the men go, that they may serve — — '• 1 the Lord their God: knowest thou

8 And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh; and he said unto them, Go, serve the Lord your God: hut ^ who are they that shall go?

9 And Moses said, We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for ^ we must hold a feast unto the Lord.

10 And he said unto them. Let the Lord

which they were then afflicted, or to Moses and Aaron, the instruments used by the Most High in their chastisement. The Vulgate translates, Usquequo patietnur hoc scandalum? " How long shall we suffer this scandal or reproach ]"

Let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God\ Much of the energy of several passages is lost in translating niiT' Yehovah by the term Lord. The Egyptians had their gods, and they supposed that the Hebrews had a god like unto their own; that this Jehovah required their services, and would continue to afflict Egypt till his people were permitted to worship him in his own way.

Verse 8. Who are they that shall go.?] Though the Egyptians, about fourscore years before, wished to destroy the Hebrews, yet they found them now so profitable to the state that they were unwilling to part with

Verse 9. We will go with our young and ivith our old, c^c] As a feast was to be celebrated to the honour of Jehovah, all who were partakers of his bounty and providential kindness must go and perform their l>art in the solemnity. The men and the women must make the feast, the children must witness it, and \\\e cattle must be taken along with them to furnish the sacrifices necessary on this occasion. This must have appeared reasonable to the Egyptians, because it was their own custom in their religious assemblies. Men, women, and children attended them, often to the amount of several hundred thousand. Herodotus informs us, in speaking of the six annual feasts celebrated by the Egyptians in honour of their deities, that they hold their chief one at the city of Buhastis in honour of Neith or Diana; that they go thither by water in boats —men, women, and children; that during their voyage some of the women play on castanets, and some of the men upon flutes, while the rest are emjjloyed in singing and clapping their hands; and that, when they arrive at Bubastis, they sacrifice a vast number of victims, and drink much wine; and that at one such festival, the inhabitants assured him, that there were not assembled fewer than 700,000 men and women, without reckoning the children. — Euterpe, chap, lix., Ix.

be so with you, as I will let vou A. M. 2513.

1 1 Not so: go now ye that are men, and serve the Lord; for that ye did desire. And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence.

1 2 And the Lord said unto Moses, " Stretch out thine hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up upon the land of Egypt, and ° eat every herb of the land, even all that the hail hath left.

13 And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the Lord brought an

I find that the ancient Egyptians called Diana Neith; this comes as near as possible to the Gaile of the Isle of Man. The moon is called yn tieith or neath; and also ke-sollus, from ke, smooth or even, and sollus, light, the SMOOTH LIGHT; perhaps to distinguish her from the sun, grian, from gri-tien or cri-tien, i. e., trembling FIRE; yn neith — easga, as Macpherson has it, signifies loan complexion. I should rather incline to think it may come from aise. The Celtic nations thought that the heavenly luminaries were the residences of spirits which they distinguished by the name of aise, thus grian-ais signifies the spirit of the sun.

Moses and Aaron, requesting liberty for the Hebrews to go three days' journey into the wilderness, and with them all their wives, little ones, and cattle, in order to hold a feast unto Jehovah their God, must have at least appeared as reasonable to the Egyptians as iheir going to the city of Bubastis with their wives, little ones, and cattle, to hold a feast to Neith or Diana, who was there worshipped. The parallel in these two cases is too striking to pass unnoticed.

Verse 10. Let the Lord he so luith you^ This is an obscure sentence. Some suppose that Pharaoh meant it as a curse, as if he had said, " May your God be as surely with you, as I shall let you go!" For as he\ purposed not to permit them to go, so he wished them as much of the Divine help as they should have of his permission.

Look — -for evil is before you-l DD'JO TJ J n^n O 1X"i reu ki raah neged peneychem, See ye that evil is before your faces — if you attempt to go, ye shall meet with the punishment ye deserve. Probably Pharaoh intended to insinuate that they had some sinister designs, and that they wished to go in a body that they might the better accomplish their purpose; but if they had no such designs they would be contented for the males to go, and leave their wives and children behind: for he well knew if the men went and left their families they would infallibly return, but that if he permitted them to take their families with them, they would undoubtedly make their escape; therefore he says, ver. 11, Go now ye that are men, and serve the Lord.

Verse 13. The Lord brought an east wind] As locusts abounded in those countries, and particularly in.Ethiopia, and more especially at this time of the year,

A. M. 2513. east wind upon the land all that day,

_ —: '- and all that night; and when it was

14 And ° the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the coasts of Egypt: very grievous we7'e they; p before

. them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such.

1 5 For they i covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they 'did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any green thing in the trees,, or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt.

1 6 Then Pharaoh ^ called for Moses and Aaron in haste: and he said, * I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you.

17 Now therefore forgive, I pray thee, my

God had no need to create new swarms for this purpose; all that was requisite was to cause such a wind to blow as would bring those which already existed over the land of Egypt. The miracle in this business was the bringing the locusts at the appointed time, and causing the proper wind to blow for that purpose; and then taking them away after a similar manner.

Verse 14. Before them there tvere no such locusts, 4'C.] They exceeded all that went before, or were since, in number, and in the devastations they produced. Probably both these things are intended in the passage. See ver. 15.

Verse 17. Forgive, I pray thee, mxj sin only this once] What a strange case! And what a series of softening and hardening, of sinning and repenting! Had he not now another opportunity of returning to God 1 But the love of gain, and the gratification of his own self-will and obstinacy, finally prevailed.

Verse 19. A mighty strong luesiioind] D' nil rwacA yam, literally the ivind of the sea; the wind that blew from the Mediterranean Sea, which lay north-west of Egypt, which had the Red Sea on the east. Here again God works by natural means; he brought the locusts by the east wind, and took them away By the west or north-ivest wind, which carried them to the Red Sea where they were drowned.

The Red Sea] ^'\Z> D' yam suph, the weedy sea; so called, as some suppose, from the great quantity of alga or sea- weed which grows in it and about its shores. But Mr. Bruce, who has sailed the whole extent of it, declares that he never saw in it a weed of any kind; and supposes it has its name suph from the vast quantity of coral which grows in it, as trees and plants do on land. " One of these," he observes, " from a root

18 And he "'went out from Pharaoh, and entreated the Lord.

19 And the Lord turned a mighty strong west wind, which took away the locusts, and "^ cast them '^ into the Red Sea; there remained not one locust in all the coasts of Egypt.

20 But the Lord ^ hardened Pharaoh's heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go,

2 1 And the Lord said unto Moses, ^ Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, * even darkness which may be felt.

22 And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a ^ thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days:

nearly central, threw out ramifications in a nearly circular form measuring tiventy-six feet diameter every way." — Travels, vol. ii., p. 138. In the Septuagint it is called dalaaaa epvdpa, the Red Sea, from which version we have borrowed the name; and Mr. Bruce supposes that it had this name from Edom or Esau, whose territories extended to its coasts; for it is well known that the word mx Edom in Hebrew signifies red or ruddy. The Red Sea, called also the Arabic Gulf, separates Arabia from Upper Ethiopia and part of Egypt. It is computed to be three hundred and fifty leagues in length from Suez to the Straits of Babelmandel, and is about forty leagues in breadth. It is not very tempestuous, and the winds usually blow from north to south, and from south to north, six months in the year; and, like the monsoons of India, invariably determine the seasons of sailing into or out of this sea. It is divided into two gulfs: that to the east called the Elanitic Gulf, from the city of Elana to the north end of it; and that to the west called the Heroopolitan Gulf, from the city of Heroopolis; the former of which belongs to Arabia, the latter to Egypt. The Heroopolitan Gulf is called by the Arabians Bahr el Kolzum, the sea of destruction, or of Clysmce, an ancient town in that quarter; and the Elanitic Gulf.BaAr el Akaba, the sea of Akaba, a town situated on its most inland point.