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of his children took place, we have no means of ascertaining. From the incident mentioned, Ex. 4. 24, 25, it has generally been supposed that the children were then young, as one of them was circumcised on that occasion by his mother. But it strikes us as extremely improbable that Moses should have deferred his marriage for near forty years after entering Midian, or that heing married shortly after that time, so long an interval should have elapsed before he became a father. It is to be remembered that he was at the time mentioned, ch. 4. 24, 25, on the way. to Egypt, and is it conceivable that he was then the father of two small children? True indeed it is said, Ex. 4. 20, that he took his wife and his sons and set them upon an ass, and returned to Egypt,' from which it is argued that the sons must have been mere children, or they could not have been carried, with their mother, on a single ass. But this objection will be obviated in our note on that passage, and as the advanced age of the eldest son at this time is an important item in our interpretation of the context in question, we are forced for the present to lay great stress on the intrinsic probability that Moses was both married and begat one at least of his two sons very early during his residence in Midian.

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23. It came to pass in process of time. Heb. ba-yamim harabbim huhem, in those many days. Gr. μετα δε τας ημέρας τας πολλας εκείνας, after those many days. On this phraseology Ainsworth remarks that the Heb.

in is here rightly translated by the

cry came up unto God, by reason of the bondage.

24 And God a heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

a ch. 6. 5. bch. 6. 5. Ps. 105. 8, 42. & 106 45. c Gen. 15. 14. & 46, 4.

Gr.

26,

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μera, after, as is clear from Num. 28. After your weeks (w in your weeks),' and elsewhere. So in the New Testament, Mark, 13. 24, ' In those days' is parallelled by Mat. 24. 29, Af. ter the tribulation of those days.' But it is perhaps sufficient to understand by the phrase simply that in the course and towards the latter part of the forty years of Moses' sojourn in Midian the king of Egypt died. As to the precise date of the event, it was not important that we should be informed of it.T Sighed by reason of the bondage. The time was now fast approaching in which the Most High had proposed to visit and redeem his people, and still no symptoms of favor as yet are perceived. On the contrary, though Egypt had changed its sovereign in the mean time, yet the seed of Jacob experienced no mitigation of their distress. Every change which they had undergone was rather a change from evil to worse, till at length their calamities are repre sented, like the blood of murdered Abel as having a voice and crying to heaven for vengeance.

24. God remembered his covenant, &c There is a pitch of oppression which will not fail to awaken the wrath of heaven. The groans and tears extorted by violent wrong, especially if they come from humbled and peritent learts, will pierce the ear of God, and prove a presage of deliverance. 'Cum latera duplicantur Moses adest,' when the bricks are doubled, Moses is at hand Yet it seems that in the present case it was not solely from a regard to their miseries that God det rn ined to inter

25 And God looked upon the children of istael, and God e had respect unto them.

dch. 4. 31. 1 Sam. 1. 11. 2 Sam. 16. 12. Luke 1. 25.

e ch. 3. 7.

gratitude. Yet it should not be for
gotten that whatever care
we may
exercise for our little ones, or what-
ever guardianship we may afford them,
they as really require the preserving
mercy of heaven when reposing in their
cradles or sporting in our parlors, as did
Moses when enclosed in his ark of bul-
rushes and exposed to the waves or
the ravenous tenants of the Nile.

fere. His own faithfulness was at stake. He remembered his covenant, and his covenant is his engagement. To the three patriarchs here mentioned he had solemnly bound himself to enlarge, to prosper, and to bless their seed, and after the lapse of a certain period to bring them out of bondage and plant them in the land of promise. As this period had now nearly expired, and the enemies of Israel by making (2.) It is doing no violence to the their condition to the utmost degree in- spirit of the sacred text to conceive of tolerable were doing what in them lay our heavenly Father as saying to the be to crush and exterminate the race, and liever when presenting his infant-offthus counteract the fulfilment of the spring in baptism, 'Take this child divine promises, the God of Abraham, away and nurse it for me, and I will of Isaac, and of Jacob saw that it was give thee thy wages.' Take him out time to awake, and make bare his arm, of the pollution that is in the world lest his word should fail for evermore. through sin, and bring him up in the nurWhat is meant by God's 'remember- ture and admonition of the Lord. Take ing' his covenant we have explained in him from the many perils which beset the Note on Gen. 8. 1. It is an effective him by the lusts of the flesh, the pride of remembrance evinced by the perform-life, and the malice of Satan, and estab ance of some special act of his care.lish him in faith, hope, and love, as a We may understand it the better by conceiving of its opposite. God is said to forget or not to remember, when he fails to assist or deliver. And in like manner his looking upon a people is the opposite of turning his back upon them, and the term for one of the most fearful forms of the divine judgments.

25. God had respect unto them. Heb.

yeda, knew them. That is, compassionately regarded them, tenderly cared for them. On the peculiar import of the word 'know,' see Note on Ex. 1. 8. REMARKS. (1.) The doctrine of a special overruling providence is no where more impressively taught than in the early history of Moses; and in contrasting the perils which surrounded his infancy with the security and comfort with which we can rear our own offspring, we have abundant grounds of

devoted servant of the Savior, and verily thou shalt by no means lose thy reward.

(3.) What a powerful principle is true faith! And how illustrious the exhibition of it in the choice of Moses! We know how hardly men are persuaded to resign a little wealth, to forego a little honor, to resign the faintest prospect of rank and power. Yet Moses freely gave up all that was tempting in this respect, as a noble sacrifice of sense to faith! Several of the circumstances which rendered this sacrifice so remarkable have been already considered. Consider in addition, that there were other than selfish objections to be overcome. Pharaoh's daughter had strong claims on the gratitude of Moses. He was a poor foundling, rescued from the peril of a watery grave, by the kindness of his benefactor; and no one acquainted

with the sympathy and tenderness of woman's heart needs to be told, how strong is the attachment formed for a helpless infant thus strangely and unexpectedly thrown upon her hands. A deep and affectionate interest would inevitably spring up in her bosom towards her orphan charge, an interest all the deeper and stronger from having no children of her own. Now can we suppose that Moses when he had attained to years of reflection and was made acquainted with the events of his history, could have been insensible to what he owed to his preserver? Would it not be a mighty struggle to tear himself away from one who had been a mother to him from his infancy; who had watched with kind solicitude over his advances from childhood to youth, and from youth to manhood; whose heart had exulted to note his expanding intellect as he grew learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and to see him entitling himself by his intrinsic merit to the station to which he had been fortuitously raised? Shall he then sumnon up an iron resolve, sunder the ties that bound him to his earliest benefactor, and bid her adieu for ever? Shall he do this when in doing it he would seem to be resigning the only hope of aiding and of finally emancipating his brethren? For if he would consent to be called the son of his patroness, retaining his place in the court, and watching the events of providence, some opportunity might at length occur for effecting an object so near his heart. But we see the conviction of present duty outweighing every other consideration, and triumphing over the promptings of affection and the dictates of worldly policy. So complete is the dominion of Faith over his whole soul that he resolves to take the momentous step, though assured that he should thereby plunge into affliction and ncur reproach. But the afflictions anticipated

were the afflictions of the people of God,' and the reproach incurred the reproach of Christ,' and these he well knew would be sanctified to any one who should encounter them for conscience sake.

CHAPTER III.

Of the events which marked the history of Moses during the forty years of his residence in the land of Midian, the Scriptures have furnished us with no detailed account. As Moses is himself the historian of his own life, it is reasonable to infer from his silence that the period was not distinguished by any occurrences sufficiently important in his view to deserve a record. His days probably passed quietly away in the wonted discharge of his duties as a shepherd, and the shepherd too of another man's flock. His situation was no doubt favorable to contemplation and commu. nion with God. He could scarcely fail to make progress in that divine knowledge which would do more to qualify him for his future mission than all the learning he had acquired in Egypt. The life too which he led was happily adapted to work within him that hardihood of constitution and character, of which he would afterwards stand so much in need, and of which the sequel of his story affords us so many striking instances. Still, it could not but be a severe trial of his faith to find year after year elapsing, and the prime and vigor of his age apparently wearing away, while no tokens from above indicated that the great work of his vocation was any nearer at hand. Yet he seems meek. ly to have endured as seeing Him who is invisible, and to have evinced that true wisdom which consists in waiting for and following the call of heaven, instead of running before it. It was evidently no part of his design to hold up for admiration his own example of sub. missive patience, yet the Holy Spirit is

CHAPTER III.

NOW
OW Moses kept the flock of
Jethro his father-in-law, a the
priest of Midian: and he led the

a ch. 2. 16.

not restrained from presenting his conduct in such a light as will suggest the most useful lessons to all succeeding ages.

flock to the back side of the desert, and came to b the mountain of God even to Horeb.

b ch. 18, 5. 1 Kings 19. 8.

-T He led the

and lonely places have often been those
which God has selected for the most
signal displays of himself to his serv.
ants; nor is it superfluous to remark,
that such manifestations are usually
made, as here, not to the idle or sloth-
ful, but to those who are busied in the
duties of their calling.-
flock to the back side of the desert, &c
Gr. vo Tov εonμov, under the wilderness.
Vulg. Ad interiora deserti,' to the inte
rior parts of the desert. Chal. To the
place of fair pasturage in the desert.'
The expression is probably equivalent
to a great way into the desert.-

Came to the mountain of God, so called, not so much from its great height, as tall cedars are called cedars of God, &c. (see Note on Gen. 23. 6), as by an

1. Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro. Heb. hayah roeh eth tzon, was feeding the flock, or acting the shepherd towards. See Note on Gen. 37. 2. He who is before, Ex. 2. 18, called Reuel, is here denominated Jethro. Our reasons for thinking them the same person have already been given. In Num. 10. 29, he is called Raguel, and is expressly said to have been the father of Hobab.-There is no doubt a very marked contrast between Moses in the court of Egypt, making his abode in a palace, and surrounded with all the splendors of royalty, and Moses a humble hireling shepherd, lead-ticipation, from several very remarking his flocks over the rough places of able events having afterward occurred the desert, sleeping often in the open confer upon it a sacred character. It upon this memorable mount tending to air, exposed to heat and to cold, to weariness and watchings, and living Moses in the bush; (2.) that he maniwas here (1.) that God appeared to upon the coarsest fare. But as we know fested his glory at the delivery of the that he had voluntarily and deliberately law; (3.) that Moses with his rod made the exchange of one condition for brought water out of the rock ; (4.) that the other, and as we know too the motives by which he had been governed in to prevail against Amelek; (5.) that by lifting up his hands he made Joshua doing it, it would be no matter of sur- he fasted twice forty days and forty prise could we be assured, as was doubt-nights; (6.) that from hence he brought less the fact, that he was as truly happy the two tables of the law; and (7.) that while thus traversing the rocky region Elijah was vouchsafed a glorious vision. of Midian, his tent his only shelter, as The Chal. renders it,' the mount where when treading the marble pavements of the Glory of the Lord was revealed.' Egyptian halls, or reposing on couches -T Even to Horeb. Heb. horeb, of state, with a crowd of menials prompt i. e. dryness, from the character of the to do his pleasure. As it was from,a su- soil; it being a dry, sterile, bleak, rocky preme regard to the glory of God that he region. The names 'Horeb' and 'Sinai' had entered this humble sphere, so God are interchanged in the Scriptures; and was not unmindful of the sacrifices he modern travellers give such varied achad made, nor did he leave him without counts of them, that we are left in great witness of his special favor. Desert uncertainty with regard to their original

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2 And the Angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush;

and he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.

The

four score and five thousand.'
effect here described is very generally
conceded to have been produced by a
pestilential wind of the desert, which
is personified, and termed an angel. So
the pestilence which occurred in conse-
quence of David's numbering the people,
2 Sam. 24. 15, 16, in like manner repre-
sented as the work of an angel. The

Deut. 33. 16. Isai 63. 9. Acts 7. 30. position. They may be considered as parts of one vast eminence in the midst of the surrounding desert, the upper region of which forms an irregular circle of thirty or forty miles in diameter. This region contains the highest mountains of the peninsula, whose shagged and pointed peaks, and steep and shattered sides, render it clearly distinguishable from all the rest of the coun-destruction of the first-born in Egypt, try in view. Abrupt cliffs of granite, from six to eight hundred feet in height, whose surface is blackened by the sun, surround the avenues leading to the elevated region, to which the name of Sinai, at the present day, is specifically applied. The cliffs enclose the nountain on three sides, leaving the east and north-east sides only, towards the gulf of Akaba, more open to the view. Further information respecting this remarkable mountainous tract will be given in tracing the course of the children of Israel in their march from Egypt to

Canaan.

2. The angel of the Lord appeared unto him, &c. Of the scriptural import of the word 'angel' we have given a somewhat extended view in the Note on Gen. 16. 7, with which compare Note on Gen. 24. 7. It is properly a term of office, and not of nature, and is used to denote not only human and spiritual messengers, but also any of the impersonal agents, such as winds, fires, pestilences, remarkable dispensations, &c., which serve as a medium to make known the divine will, or to illustrate the divine operation in nature or providence. In fact, one of the most frequent uses of the term is as a personification of divine judgments. Thus 2 Kings, 19. 35, And it came to pass that the Angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred

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·

Ex. 12. 23, 29, is doubtless to be viewed in the same light. Though cut off by the direct supernatural judgment of the Most High, yet the agency is personified and represented as a destroying angel. The language of the Psalmist Ps. 78. 49, undoubtedly requires the same construction; He cast upon ther the fierceness of his anger, wrath and indignation and trouble by sending evil angels among them;' i. e. the judgments of the plagues. In the New Testament the same mode of speech occurs, Acts, 12. 23,' And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory, and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.' Here the judgment itself, the fatal disease with which Herod died, was the angel intend ed in the text. But if such language was used in reference to vindictive judgments extraordinarily inflicted, there is no reason to doubt that merciful visita tions, or in fact any kind of rare, uonderful, and astounding occurrences that happen somewhat out of the ordinary course of providence, should be set forth in a similar figurative or symbolical diction. Thus when it is said, Dan. 6. 22, that God had sent his Angel and shut the lions' mouths, that they should not hurt Daniel,' it is not necessary to understand the literal presence of an angel, or spiritual being, but simply, that by the special interposition or influence of

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