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5¶ And the daughter of Pharaoh | flags, she sent her maid to fetch it. came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river's side and when she saw the ark among the

d Acts 7. 21.

upon the line where the province of huinan sagacity, foresight, and industry ends, and providential succor begins. The mother has done her part. The rushes, the slime, and the pitch were her prudent and necessary preparations; and the great God has been at the same time preparing his materials, and arranging his instruments. He causes every thing to concur, not by miraculous influence, but by the simple and natural operation of second causes, to bring about the issue designed in his counsels from everlasting. The state of the weather, the flux of the current, the promenade of Pharaoh's daughter, the state of her feelings, the steps of her attendants, are all so overruled at that particular juncture, as to lead to the discovery, the rescue, and the disposal of the child! But let us not anticipate the thread of the story.

5. The daughter of Pharoah came down to wash herself at the river. Heb.

al ha-yeor, at or by the river. Gг. εTI TOV TOTаμov, to be translated in the same manner, implying that the washing, which was probably a religious ablution, and not a proper bathing, was performed just at the river's brink. The washing of Naaman the Syrian, on the other hand, is said to have been in the Jordan (1 ba-yarden) and not at it, because he entered further into the stream. We advert to the phraseology here principally for the purpose of showing the relation of the Gr. rendering to a parallel passage in Rev. 9. 14, 'Loose the four angels which are bound at (em at, not in) the great river Euphrates;' i. e. the four angels which Dad hitherto been providentially retrained or confined in the vicinity of

6 And when she had opened it. she saw the child: and behold, the babe wept. And she had compassion on him, and said, This is one of the Hebrew's children.

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the great river Euphrates. Angels' here is a symbolical term for the na tions or people over which they are re presented in prophecy as presiding. See Dan. 10. 3. The import of the command is, that those obstructions which had hitherto opposed the issuing forth and the desolating spread of four great political powers in the region bordering upon the Euphrates, should now he removed and free scope given them. These powers were the origin of the Ottoman empire, which, as it was announced by the sixth trumpet, was to be destroyed by the sixth vial. Rev. 16. 12.-¶ She sent her maid to take it. Heb. vattikkaheha, and took

it; i. e. she took it by the hand of her maid; by which term is meant the maid who more immediately waited upon her, as the word (s) is different from that (1) translated 'maidens.'

6. She saw the child: and behold, the babe wept. Rather according to the Heb. And she saw him, the child; and behold a male-infant weeping! The Eng. word 'babe,' as it does not discriminate the sex, is not an exact or adequate rendering of the original naar, which strictly denotes a male child, and is here used expressly for that purpose.- T She had compassion on him. Or, Heb. nn tahmol, mercifully spared him. If there be an object in nature more calculated than any other to interest and affect the susceptible heart of woman, it was that which now presented itself to the eye of this Egyptian princess-a beautiful infant, deserted by its parents, exposed to the most imminent peril, and expressing by the moving testimony of tears its sense

7 Then said his sister to Pharaoh's daughter, Shall I go, and call to thee a nurse of the Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee?

8 And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child's mother.

9 And Pharaoh's daughter said unto her, Take this child away and

of that misery of which it had not yet acquired the consciousness. The story told itself. The situation in which the child was found explained the cruel occasion. The covenant-sign which he carried engraven on his flesh, declared to whom he belonged, and notwithstanding the scruples which must have arisen from his parentage, his outcast condition made an irresistible appeal to the bosom of Pharaoh's daughter.

7. Then said his sister, &c. Who no doubt came up and joined the train, as if by accident. If she had not been previously instructed by her mother what to say on the contingency of such an occurrence as now actually took place, we cannot but refer this suggestion on the part of a little girl to an immediate inward prompting from above. How else should it have entered her thoughts to propose making the mother of the exposed infant its nurse? Can we fail to acknowledge the secret hand of the Lord of hosts, who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working?"

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9. Take this child away and nurse it for me, &c. No mere human writer could here have well forborne to dilate in glowing terms on the transports of the happy mother as she again clasped her beloved babe to her bosom, free from the fear of having him again torn from her, What a joyful change! The fond mother permitted to do that for princely hire and under royal protection which she would have given her life for the privilege of doing for nothing, could she have done it with safety to her

nurse it for me and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child and nursed it.

10 And the child grew, and she brought him unto Pharaoh's daughter, and he became e her son. And she called his name Moses: and she said, Because I drew him out of the water.

e Acts 7. 21.

child! I will give thee thy wages.' Wages, indeed! What' wages' would not she have given for the extacy she now enjoyed in the prospect of acting the mother to the son of her womb! What sentiments of adoring wonder and grateful praise must have thrilled her heart in view of the overwhelming goodness so kindly and unexpectedly vouch safed to her from the God of all comfort!

10. She brought him, &c. At what age the future deliverer of Israel was transferred from the care of his mother to the palace and the court of Egypt, we are not informed. It would seem from the history that he was old enough to have learnt the principles of his ancestral religion, in which his mother would not fail to instruct him; and though it was somewhat of a renewed trial to her to part with her son, under the apprehension that the influence of a heathen and hostile court might alienate his tender mind from the love of God and his people, yet she would doubtless infer from the past incidents of his life that something great was in store for him, and that the same tutelary provi dence which had watched over his infancy, would make his childhood and youth and mature age its special care. He came accordingly into the relation of an adopted son to Pharaoh's daughter, and was by her, for an end of which she little dreamed, 'trained up in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.' As the book of Revelation is constructed with a continual or running reference to the events of the Old Testament history;

11 ¶ And it came to pass in those days, fwhen Moses was grown, that he went out unto his bre.hren,

f Acts 7. 23, 24. Hebr. 11. 24, 25, 26.

and looked on their g burdens: and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren.

g ch. 1. 11.

11. When Moses was grown. Heb. 3 yigdal, had become great, not in stature only, but in repute, influence, and consideration at court. This is in several unequivocal instances the force of the original, and it is said of him by Stephen that he was mighty both in word and deed,' as well as that he had attained the full age of forty years. Went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens. Heb. 777

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we cannot doubt that there is a real though covert allusion to the history of Moses in the vision, Ch.,12, of the dragon, the sun-clad woman, and the child to which she gave birth. The dragon's standing before the woman ready to devour her child as soon as it should be born, is strikingly in analogy with the bloody edict of Pharaoh, whom the prophets denominate the Egyptian dragon, Ezek. 29. 3, while the child's being caught up to God and his throne, va-yar besiblotham. Gr. karahas an equally distinct reference to the | νοητάς τον πόνον αυτών, considered their wonderful preservation and elevation labor. Chal. Saw their servitude.' of Moses as here described.- - She Verbs of the senses often imply in the called his name Moses. Heb. Scripture idiom a connected working of Moshch, from the verb mashah, the emotions or affections of the heart. to draw out, a term occurring Ps. 18. 16, Here looking upon' is viewing with 'He sent from above, he took me; he sympathy and compassion, having his drew me ( yamsheni) out of heart touched with the spectacle. Gen. many waters;' where the Psalmist 29. 32, And Leah conceived and bare a seems to liken his preservation to that son, and she called his name Reuben: of Moses, unless indeed, which we for she said, surely the Lord hath lookrather incline to believe, he is giving ed upon my afflictions ;' i. e. hath meran allegorical history of the church cifully regarded. Eccl. 1. 16, ' My heart from its earlier periods, and has here a had great experience of wisdom and designed but mystic allusion to the very knowledge;' Heb. 'My heart saw wisperson and deliverance of Moses, in dom and knowledge.' Eccl. 2. 1, ' I said whose preservation that of Israel was in my heart, go to now, I will prove concentrated. It has indeed been a mat- thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleater of dispute among critics whether the sure; Heb. 'see pleasure.' Ps. 118. 7. name were truly of Hebrew or Egyptian origin. Yet the former is most probable, as a Hebrew etymology seems to be designedly given it by the sacred writer. Although the Egyptians did not speak the Hebrew language, yet as it appears from Ex. 11. 2, that the two people lived in a great measure intermingled together, the language of each might have been to a considerable extent understood by the other; and in the present case it would not be unnatural that a Hebrew child should have bestowed upon it a Hebrew name.

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Therefore shall I see (my desire) upon them that hate me.' We must regard this as the incipient working of that noble spirit which finally prompted Moses to forego the honors of the court of Egypt, and cast in his lot with the despised people of Israel. Ease and affluence generally tend to deaden the sensibilities of the heart to the wants and woes of others. But Moses seems never to have forgotten his extraction, nor to have lost his sympathies with the chosen race. He remembered that the oppressed and suffering Israelites

him, it might have been regarded as the effect of a rash excitement, as a sudden sally of the buoyant temperament of his age, and one which he would afterwards have regretted or condemned. Had it occurred later in life, when the powers and energies of his mind were on the wane, when the pursuits of ambition and the prospects of pleasure had vanished, it might have been stigmatized as the act of an old worn-out courtier, whose disgusted satiety of this world's good had driven him to the sorry refuge of seeking something better in another. It might easily have been characterised as the mean compromise of a man in his dotage with an uneasy conscience, for having squandered his youthful prime and his manly meridian in the service of the world to the neg lect of his Maker. But every such in

were his nearest and dearest relations, and though now ignorant perhaps of the part which he was destined to act in their deliverance, he was unable to relish a solitary selfish joy, while they were eating the bread and drinking the water of affliction. He therefore goes out to look upon their misery, or as Stephen says, Acts, 7. 23,' It came into his heart to visit his brethren,' and though for the present he can neither remove nor alleviate it, yet he is determined to evince his willingness to be a partaker in it. But the most fitting Commentary upon this passage is found in the words of the apostle, Heb. 11. 23-26,By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; esteeming the re-putation is cut off by the facts of the proach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.' By his 'refusing to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,' we are not probably to understand that he rejected the nominal appellation, but according to the true force of the orignal, which has reference rather to the reality of things than to their denomination, he refused to be treated as her son, he positively declined all the honor and aggrandizement which was implied in that relation. This was his deliberate choice, and perhaps no man was ever called to make a choice under circumstances more trying, or made one which redounded more to his credit and glory than this of Moses. It is to be remembered that he was at this time of mature age,' full forty years old,' says Stephen. He had reached the grand climacteric of life, a his faculties perfectly ripened, and is judgment calm, unclouded, and dispassionate. Were not this the case, had he been now just emerging from youth, with all the sanguine and enthusiastic ardor of dawning manhood upon

case. It was not a step prompted by the precipitate ardor of youth, nor one dictated y the timid or sordid policy of age. It was a decision formed under circumstances in which deep principle, and not a passionate impulse, anust have been the ruling motive; for while in a worldly sense he had nothing to hope from a transfer of himself, he had, on the other hand, every thing to lose. We have only to appeal to our knowledge of human nature to learn the dif ficulty, and consequently the virtue, of such a sacrifice as Moses now made. When we compare the respective states of the Egyptian and the Israelitish people, it would seem to human view that the lot of the meanest Egyptian was preferable to that of the highest Israelite. Yet Moses voluntarily gave up the one for the other; 'the honors of the palare for the ignominy of the brick-yard.' Though he was the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter, and, for aught that ap pears to the contrary, was the presump. tive heir to the crown, yet he refused not to come down from this preeminent distinction, and to cast in his lot with

the despised and embondaged seed of Jacob. History affords us some few instances where kings have laid aside their purple and abdicated their thrones. But in all such cases they have descended to a rank in private life which was surrounded by ease, affluence, and continued respectability; so that their sacrifices were relieved by many countervailing considerations. But Moses descended from the dignity of a court to the degradation of a slave. What was there in the vaunted condescension of Dioclesian or Charles the Vth. to be compared with this? And where, in all the annals of time, shall we find such a surrender made from such motives?

Spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew. Probably one of the task-masters. As the original word for smiting (2 makkeh) is the same with that rendered slew (yak) in the next verse, it is to be presumed that the Egyptian was actually attempting to kill the Hebrew, and that had it not been for the intervention of Moses, he would have effected his purpose. Thus Ps. 136. 17, 'To him which smote (makkeh) great kings;' i. e. that slew. It is important to view this incident in connexion with what Stephen says of it, Acts, 7.23--25, And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian: for he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not.' It is undoubtedly to be supposed that Moses was now acting under a divine commission, and that an immediate impulse from the Spirit of God prompted him to the deed here recorded. This is to be inferred from the words of Stephen, for he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver hem; implying that Moses himself

understood this to be the fact. It is
however worthy of note that Diodorus
Siculus informs us that a law existed in
Egypt, which might have been at this
"That whoever saw his
time in force.
fellow-creature either killed by another,
or violently assaulted, and did not either
apprehend the murderer, or rescue the
oppressed if he could; or if he could
not, made not an information thereof to
the magistrate, himself should be put to
death.' For aught that can be affirmed
to the contrary, Moses might have been
warranted on this ground alone in pro-
ceeding to the extremity he did. The
act however cannot be pleaded as a pre-
cedent on occasions that are not similar.
It bore a striking resemblance to the
conduct of Phineas on another occasion,
Num. 25. 7, 13, a conduct which was
certainly approved of God. If it be ob-
jected that the secrecy observed by Mo-
ses both in performing the act and in
disposing of the body, is scarcely con-
sistent with the idea of his being em-
powered by the call and authority of
God to execute his pleasure on this oc-
casion, it may be observed, that as his
calling, though clear to himself, had
not yet been publicly manifested or ac-
credited, it was fitting that a temporary
concealment should be drawn over the
present occurrence. Thus Ehud, Judg
3. 21, though moved by an influence
from above, slew Eglon king of Moab
in a private chamber ; and Gideon,
Judg. 6. 27, before his office of deliverer
was publicly known, demolished the
altar of Baal by night. Again, if it be
asked what reason Moses had to sup-
pose that his brethren would have un-
derstood that he was acting by a divine
commission, it may be answered, *hat
the marvellous circumstances of his
birth and preservation, and subsequent
training in the court of Pharaoh, were
doubtless matters well known and much
talked of among the nation of Israel
from which they might reasonably infer
that he was raised up for some extraordi

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