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21 And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, s that he made them houses.

$ See 1 Sam. 2. 35. 2 Sam. 7. 11, 13, 27, 29. 1 Kings 2. 24. & 11. 38. Ps. 127. 1.

the effects of their deportment, be silently working out the welfare of the state to which they belong.

21. And it came to pass, because, &c. The original will easily admit a slight variation in the rendering of this paragraph, which, if we mistake not, will throw light upon the whole context; 'And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, and (because) he made them houses (i. e. increased the progeny of the children of Israel), that Pharaoh charged all his people saying,' &c. It is important for the English reader to be informed that the original for them' is in the masculine and not in the feminine gender; so that, without a violent grammatical anomaly, it cannot so properly or primarily be referred to the midwives, as to the families of Israel at large. If the expression, more over, refers strictly to the midwives, it would have been more natural to insert it in the preceding verse, as explanatory of the manner in which God' dealt well' with them; 'Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and made them houses.' But this is not the construction. There is nothing to illustrate his 'dealing well' with them but his multiplying the nation, and as this is the undoubted import of the phrase 'made them houses,' we cannot but consider the two clauses as essentially synonimous. At the same time, there is perhaps no good reason to doubt that the houses or families of the midwives were intended to be especially, but not exclusively, referred to. Their houses shared in a signal manner in the general prosperity. We may now, having endeavored to fix the connexion of the context, consider with more precision the import of the phrase 'made them houses.' We

22 And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, tEvery son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.

t Acts 7. 19.

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have in the Note on Gen. 16. 2, detailed at length the ideal connexion between building and the begetting of children. In the scriptural idiom a house is a family, as the 'house of Judah,' 'the house of Benjamin,' the house of David,' &c., and to build or make one a house is to confer upon him a numerous pos terity. To the examples there adduced, the following may be added, 2 Sam. 7. 11, 'The Lord telleth thee that he will make thee an house i. e. will give thee a long line of descendants. 1 Kings, 2. 24, 'Now, therefore, as the Lord liveth, which hath established me, and set me on the throne of David my father, and who has made me an house (3), as he promised, &c.,' i. e. given me a prosperous family. The phraseology might be still farther confirmed, but the above will be sufficient to show that the 'blessing' intended was that of a numerous increase, and not of a material habitation, or any thing of that nature, as some have supposed.

22. Charged all his people, saying, &c., leaving it no more to the care of the midwives alone. Frustrated in his former device, the king is now urged on to a higher pitch of enormity, and discarding all secret stratagems for effecting his object, commands all his people indiscriminately to destroy the Hebrew male children wherever they should find them. The execution of this bloody command would no doubt lead to scenes of barbarity and cruelty at which every tender feeling of our nature revolts with an inward shudder. Helpless babes would be mercilessly torn from their mothers' arms, and if they did not follow their dear offspring, as they were ruthlessly thrown into the Nile, it was

ing deeds of blood!

only because their religious sentiments | susceptible nature of woman in executwere stronger than their maternal instincts. But we read, in a subsequent part of the history, a fearful requital of this sanguinary transaction, when Pharaoh and his Egyptian host were overwhelmed in the waters of the Red Sea. 'Righteous art thou, O Lord, because thou hast judged thus.'

REMARKS.-(1,2.) In the history of the church, it is the special aim of the Spirit to present its humble beginnings in strong contrast with the abundant increase and ample prosperity of its more advanced periods.

(7.) The land of enemies, and the scene of the most grinding oppression, is easily rendered in the providence of God a nursery for the increase of his church.

(8.) Peculiar blessings from God, and fierce opposition from worldly powers, are not unfrequently connected in the lot of the church on earth.

(17.) The true fear of God will deter the weakest creatures who are capable of cherishing it, from the commission of sin, and when the command of man is put in competition with the command of God, they will boldly say with the intrepid disciples, Acts, 4. 19, 'Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye.'

(20.) Even in this world a supreme regard to the will of God seldom goes unrewarded. This reward is sometimes entailed as a precious legacy to generations yet unborn.

(22.) Relentless persecutors proceed from secret subtilty to open cruelty, and downright murder is the resource when other stratagems have failed of effecting their object.

CHAPTER II.

To what extent the murderous edict (8.) The people of God would have mentioned at the close of the foregoing experienced less ill treatment at the chapter was carried, or how long it conhands of civil governments, were the tinued in force, we are not informed. national benefits which they are instru- But when we consider that the love of mental in procuring better appreciated offspring was an absorbing passion with and remembered. the Israelites, inasmuch as all their (8, 9.) The prosperity of the right-future hopes depended upon and were eous is doubtless an eye-sore to evilminded oppressors; but those who task their invention to devise methods of affliction are dealing wisely to compass heir own destruction. Eccl. 7. 16, Make not thyself over wise: why shouldest thou destroy thyself?'

(10.) Much of the real suffering of the saints in all ages has been inflicted on the ground of hypothetical offences. 'Lest when there falleth out,' &c.

(11.) Counsels of wickedness ripen rapidly into acts and practices of cruelty, (13, 14.) The favor of God toward his children in affliction, is often the signal for their oppressors to load them with new burdens of anguish.

(15.) How fiendish is the policy which would employ the tender and

connected with the possession of a numerous issue, we can easily conceive the horror that must have hung over that ill-fated people so long as the bloody statute remained unrepealed. Yet now, at this very time, when men in their weak counsels proposed utterly to root up the vine of Israel, which had already spread its branches so widely and borne such abundant fruit, it pleased God to call into existence the future Deliverer, and to make the very evils to which his infancy was exposed, the means of his preparation for that high office, which was, in a distant day, to devolve upon him. This remarkable event in the history of oppressed Israei it is the object of the present chapter to relate.

CHAPTER II.

AND there went aa man of the house of Levi, and took to wife a daughter of Levi.

a ch. 6. 20, Numb. 26 59. 1 Chron. 23. 14.

2 And the woman conceived and

bare a son: and when she saw him that he was a goodly child she hid him three months.

b Acts 7. 20. Hebr. 11. 23.

19. Marriage connexions between kindred thus nearly related was afterwards forbidden under the law, Lev. 18. 12, but more indulgence was granted in this and other respects in the early and unsettled state of the commonwealth.

1. And there went a man, &c., Heb. va-yelek. According to Calvin, there had gone; implying that the marriage had taken place some time previous to the royal order for the drowning of the male-children. Certain it is that Aaron was three years old at the birth 2. And the woman conceived. The of Moses, and we have no intimation anxiety and apprehension naturally inthat his infancy was in any way ex- cident to the delicate situation in which posed to peril. As such an order would Jochebed found herself, must have been naturally be executed with most severity aggravated by terrors more dreadful than immediately upon its being issued, and the prospective pangs of child-birth, or as Aaron's infancy was unmolested, it the loss of life itself. As a wife and a seems a fair presumption that the edict mother in Israel, she was looking and came forth not far from the birth-time longing for the birth of another manof Moses; so that the pluperfect rend- child; but that fond expectation was as ering of the verb may perhaps be con- often dashed by the bitter reflection, sidered the most correct. The verb that an order had gone forth which 'to go,' by a peculiarity of idiom in the would in all probability consign her original, is frequently employed in a son, if she should bear one, to the jaws sense including not the idea of locomo- of the devouring crocodile of the Nile. tion, but simply that of commencing, or Yet it would seem not improbable from entering upon, an action or enterprise; the apostle's words, Heb. 11. 23, that thus, Gen. 35. 22, ' And it came to pass, some extraordinary presentiments in when Israel dwelt in that land, that the minds of his parents accompanied Reuben went and lay with Bilhah his the birth of this illustrious child, and father's concubine.' Deut. 31. 1, And strengthened the faith under which he Moses went and spake these words unto was hidden for three months from the all Israel.' Hos. 3. 1, Then said the rage of the Egyptian dragon, which Lord unto me, Go, yet love a woman stood eager for his prey as soon as it beloved of her friend.' The word in should see the light, Rev. 12. 4.such connexions may not improperly be T When she saw him, that he was a considered as an expletive. Something goodly child. Heb. tob, good. The similar occurs in the New Testament, original term, as remarked on Gen. 39. Eph. 2. 17, And came and preached | 6, is used to denote bodily endowments, peace to you.' So also 1 Pet 3. 19, as well as the qualities of the heart, " By which also he went and preached and its import may be learned from the unto the spirits in prison.'-The name of corresponding Gr. phrase employed by the man here mentioned was Amram, the Stephen, Acts, 7. 20, AσTELS TWO, son of Kohath, the son of Levi, Ex. 6. fair to God, i. e. divinely or exceedingly 16-20, and the name of the woman fair. In Heb. 11. 23, the epithet is the whom he took to wife was Jochebed, same (arrator) but rendered 'proper.' the sister of Kohath, and consequently The implication obviously is, that an he aunt of Amram, Ex. 6. 20. Num. 26. extraordinary beauty distinguished the

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3 And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark

of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the

The original term is derived from a verb signifying to swallow, to sup up; to drink, and is so named from its re.

smiling babe that now reposed in his mother's arms. To the fond eye of maternal affection every child is lovely, and we can only account for the strong lan-markably absorbing the water where it guage used here and elsewhere in regard to Moses, by supposing that his infant features possessed a grace and comeliness that were perhaps without a parallel. We must recognize in this a special providence, for there is no doubt that the uncommon beauty of the child was a strong motive with the parents for so anxiously aiming to secure it from harm. This is clearly intimated in the words of the apostle, Heb. 11. 23, 'By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw that he was a proper child,' &c. It may be supposed moreover that this circumstance was ordered by providence in order to afford to Pharoah's daughter a stronger motive for preserving the child. But the dearer the comfort the greater the care, and under their present circumstances we can easily imagine that every lovely linea ment in the countenance of her child would weave a new fold of anguished anxiety in her own face as she gazed upon it, and thought of the jeopardy to which he was exposed. For the space of three months she was permitted, through her precautions, from day to day to fondle and nourish the helpless babe, though her heart trembled at the sound of every tread while so employed, just as the miser dreads the noise of approaching footsteps while surveying and counting over his hoarded wealth. But at the end of that period, the rigor of the search on the part of her enemies convinced her that farther concealment would be impracticable, and that she must part with her treasure.

3. She took for him an ark of bulrushes, &c. Heb. tabath gomë, ark of bulrush. The Egyp'an papyrus.

grows, as appears from Job. 8. 11, 'Can the rush ( gomë) grow up without mire?' It is a plant growing on the banks of the Nile, and in marshy grounds. The stalk is of a vivid green, of a triangular form, and tapering towards the top. At present it is rarely found more than ten feet long, about two feet or little more of the lower part of the stalk being covered with hollow sharp-pointed leaves which overlap each other like scales, and fortify the most exposed part of the stem. It terminates in a tuft or crown of small grassy fila. ments, each about a foot long. Near the middle each of these filaments parts into four, and in the point of partition are four branches of flowers, the termination of which is not unlike an ear of wheat in form, but is in fact a soft silky husk. This singular vegetable was used for a variety of purposes, the principa of which was the structure of boats and the manufacture of paper. In regard to the first, we are told by Pliny that a piece of the acacia-tree was put in the bottom to serve as a keel, to which the plants were joined lengthwise, being first sewed together, then gathered up at stem and stern, and made fast by means of a ligature. These vessels are still to be seen on the engraven stones and other monuments of Egyptian antiquity. According to Dr. Shaw, the vessels of bulrushes or papyrus mentioned in sacred and profane history were no other than large fabrics of the same kind with that of Moses, which from the introduction of plank and stronger materials, are now laid aside The prophet's words, Is. 18. 2, 'That sendeth ambassadors by the sea, even in vessels of bulrushes upon the waters,

child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink.

6

are supposed to allude to the same kind of sailing craft. Pliny takes notice of the 'naves papyraceas armentaque Nili;' ships made of the papyrus, and the equipments of the Nile; and Lucan, the poet has,Conseritur bibula Memphitis cymba papyro,' the Memphian (or Egyptian) boat is made of the thirsty papyrus, where the epithet bibula,' drinking, soaking, thirsty is particularly remarkable, as corresponding with great exactness to the nature of the plant, and to its Hebrew name. The Egyptian bulrush or papyrus required much water for its growth; when there fore the river on whose banks it grew was reduced, it perished sooner than other plants. This explains Job, 8. 11, where the circumstance is referred to as an image of transient prosperity.

¶ Daubed it with slime and with pitch. Heb. ba-hemor, with bitumen, or mineral pitch. See Note on Gen. 11. 3. The 'bitumen' cemented the rushes or reeds together, the pitch served to keep out the water. There seems to be considerable analogy between the ark or boat in which Moses was deposited, and the curious vessels which are at the present day employed in crossing the Tigris. They are perfectly circular in shape, and are made with the leaves of the date-palm, forming a kind of basket-work, which is rendered impervious to the water by being thickly coated with bitumen.' Pict. Bib. -T Laid it in the flags. Heb. 0 bassuph, in the sea-weed, or sedge. The suph was probably a general term for sea or riverweed. The Red Sea is always called, in the Scriptures yam suph, or the weedy-sea, as some suppose, from the great variety of marine vegetables which grow in it, and which at low water are left in great quantities upon the shores. But see Note on Ex. 13. 18. VOL. I 3

4 c And his sister stood afar off, to wit what would be done to him.

c ch. 15. 20. Numb. 26. 59.

4. And his sister stood afar off, &c. His sister Miriam undoubtedly, as we have no account of his having any other. She was unquestionably older than Aaron, or she would have been unfit for such an office on this occasion. The incident makes it plain that the little ark, though made water-tight, was not deposited on the bosom of the river, where it would be borne away by the current, but on the margin of the stream, where perhaps the finder would infer that it had lodged, after having floated down from above. Throughout the whole of this transaction, which was no doubt supernaturally suggested, no mention is made of the father. That every thing was done with his privity and consent we cannot doubt, for the apostle couples both the parents in his encomium on their faith; but the case was probably one in which the faith of the mother was more decided and active than that of the father, and has therefore more prominence given it in the sacred narrative. The proceeding detailed is a beautiful illustration of the connexion which should always exist between the diligent use of means and a pious trust in Providence. Instead of sitting down in sullen despair, or passive reliance on divine interposition, every thing is done which can be done by human agency to secure the wishedfor result. The careful mother pitches every seam and chink of the frail vehicle as anxiously as if its precious deposit were to owe its preservation solely to her care and diligence. Nor even yet does she think she has done enough. Miriam her daughter must go, and at a distance watch the event, and strange would it be if she did not herself in the mean time take a station where she could watch the watcher. And here we behold all the parties standing precisely

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