8 and the tale of the bricks which | Let us go and sacrifice to our God. they did make heretofore, ye shall 9 Let there more work be laid lay upon them; ye shall not di- upon the men, that they may labour minish aught thereof; for they be therein: and let them not regard idle; therefore they cry, saying, vain words. most of the eastern countries wood is so extremely scarce, that various species of dried vegetables, grass, straw, flowers, and furze, constitute their principal articles of fuel. But that straw, on the other hand, was used in the composition of brick in Egypt, is evident from the reports of modern travellers. Thus Dr. Shaw, speaking of the bricks found in one of the Egyptian pyramids, says, 'The composition is only a mixture of clay, mud; and straw, slightly blended and kneaded together.' Baumgarten, another traveller, speaking of Cairo in Egypt, says, 'The houses for the most part are of brick mixt with straw to make them firm. Sir John Chardin tells us, 'That eastern bricks are made of clay, well moistened with water, and mixed with straw, which, according to their way of getting the grain out of the ear, is cut into small pieces by a machine which they make use of instead of a flail for thrashing.'| ¶ As heretofore. Literally, 'As yesterday and the third day.' See Note on Gen. 31 2. Hitherto those who labored in the brick-fields had been furnished all the materials for their work, not only the clay of which the bricks were made, but the straw with which they were compacted. But the present order was a great grievance, as much of the time which should have been employed in making the bricks was now consumed in seeking for straw. And this burden must have become more heavy every day, in proportion as the straw thus hunt d up became scarce in the neighborhod of the brick-fields. But in all this he lot of the Israelites seems intended to illustrate a frequent law of providence, viz., that the burden of affliction presses the heavier, the nearer the approach of deliverance. His people are not prepared for the destined relief till their cup of woe is full, and all help is entirely despaired of except from heaven. tikba תכבד העבדה .Heb 8. The tale of the bricks, &c. That is, the number, the amount of the bricks. This was the very refinement of cruelty to require the end and yet deny the means. For they be idle. A charge than which nothing could be more unreasonable or untrue. The cities they built for Pharaoh, and the other fruits of their labors, were witnesses for them that they were not idle, though it is not unlikely that many of these public works were so intrinsically useless, like the pyramids, that it was little better than idleness to be employed about them; yet diligently employed they certainly were, and he thus basely misrepresents them, that he might have a pretence for increasing their burdens. 9. Let there more work be laid upon the men. ha-abodah, let the work be heavy upon the men; which if they performed they would be broken down by it, while if they failed to perform it, they would be punished. So fearful is the alternative which iron-hearted oppression leaves to its poor victims!¶ Let them not regard vain words. Heb. 1737 dibrë shaker, words of lying. Vanity and falsehood, according to the Hebrew idiom, are often used interchangeably for each other. See Note on Ex. 20. 7 If the phrase is to be understood in the sense given it by our translation, it is a directly impious and slanderous imputation upon the words of God, as vain, empty, and delusive. But as the original for 'words,' is often equivalent to 'things,' (See Note on Gen. 15 1.), 10 And the taskmasters of the people went out, and their officers, and they spake to the people, saying, Thus saith Pharaoh, I will not give you straw. 11 Go ye, get you straw where ye can find it: yet not aught of your work shall be diminished. the import may be that they were not to indulge themselves in vain hopes, dreams, and aspirations. The Heb. term for regard ( shaah) when used in the sense of having respect to a person or thing is usually followed by 3 el, al, or signifying to, as Gen. 4. 4, And God had respect unto Abel (3 va-yisha el Hebel) and to his offering.' But when constructed with the preposition b, in, as here, it signifies rather to meditate or to ponder orally upon any thing, as Ps. 119. 117, 7 x7 veesha behukkeka tamid, and I will meditate in thy statutes continually. Accordingly the Gr. renders the present passage, 'Let them care for these words, and let them not care for vain words.' Chal. 'Let them be occupied in it (the work), and let them not be occupied in idle words.' Syr. Let them think upon it (the work), and not think upon vain words.' Arab. Let them be occupied in it, and not occupy themselves in vain things.' The sense undoubtedly is, that they were to give themselves unremittingly to their work, and not to cherish any vain, wild, illusory hopes, whether the product of their own minds, or suggested to them by others. 10. I will not give you straw. I will not allow it to be given. The task masters were probably Egyptians, while the officers were native Israelites. The message would be as grievous to the one as it probably was acceptable to the other. 12. So the people were scattered abroad. This dispersion, however, would at least 12 So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the land of Egypt, to gather stubble instead of straw. 13 And the taskmasters hasted them, saying, Fulfil your works, your daily tasks, as when there was straw. have the effect to make Pharaoh's barbarous usage of his bondmen exten sively known, and perhaps to cause them to be pitied and somewhat aided by their compassionate neighbors. ¶ To gather stubble instead of straw 'We are so much in the habit of associating the making of bricks with burn ing, that the common reader fails to discover that the straw could be for any other use than to burn the bricks. With out disputing that the Egyptians did sometimes burn their bricks, the evidence of ancient remains in their coun try and the existing customs of the East leave little room to doubt that the use of the straw was to mix with and compact the mass of clay used in making sun-dried bricks, such as we have noticed in the notes on Babylon and on the pyramids. Bricks of this sort are still commonly made in Egypt; and their ancient use in the same country is evinced by the brick pyramids at Dashoor and Faioum. That they were never in the fire is shown by the fact that the straw which enters into their composition has sustained no injury or discoloration. Such bricks are very dura. ble in dry climates like Egypt, but would soon be ruined if exposed to much rain. Herodotus observed it as one of the customs in which the Egyptians were un like other nations, that they kneaded their clay with their hands, and their dough with their feet.'-Pict. Bib. 13. The task-masters hasted thera. Heb. atzim (were) urgent, pressing. Chal. Drove them.' As the task. masters exercised a more especial superintendance over the 'officers,' it is pro 14 And the officers of the children of Israel, which Pharaoh's taskmasters had set over them, were beaten, and demanded, Wherefore have ye not fulfilled your task in making brick, both yesterday and to-day, as heretofore? bable that the latter are to be understood by the expletive 'them' in this connexion. This appears still more obvious in comparing the next verse. -¶ Fulfil your works, your daily tasks. Heb. 7 debar yom beyomo, the matter of a day in his day. Gr. Tа KaðŋkoνTα ka' nuɛpov, the things appropriate to every day. 15 T Then the officers of the children of Israel came and cried unto Pharaoh, saying, Wherefore dealest thou thus with thy servants? 16 There is no straw given unto thy servants, and they say to us, dent. Instances are mentioned of per- 14. The officers of the children of Israel. That is, not so much the officers that were over the children of Israel, but the officers that were by birth of the children of Israel. Accordingly the Gr. has, 'The scribes of the lineage of the sons of Israel.'¶ Were beaten, and demanded. Heb. 7 yukku limor, were beaten, saying. This is quite oriental. We need only allude to China, which has aptly been said to be governed by the stick. In Persia also the stick is in continual action. Men of all ranks and ages are continually liable to be beaten. It is by no means a rare occurrence for the highest and most trusted persons in the state, in a moment of displeasure or caprice in their royal master, to be handed over to the beaters of carpets, who thrash them with their sticks as if they were logs. The same practice descends through all ranks; and it has often made the writer's heart ache to see respectable, and even venerable whitebearded men chastised by the menials and messengers of great persons, on their own account, with a brutality which would in this country subject a non to judicial punishment if exercised upon his ass or horse. Thus, beating comes to be regarded by all as among the common evils to which life is inci- | Heb. 7 15. Then the officers came and cried unto Pharaoh, &c. Supposing perhaps that this rigor had been imposed upon them by the task-masters, without Pha raoh's order, and therefore having hope of obtaining redress. But, alas! theirs was a case of which it might well be said in the language of the preacher, Ecc. 1. 1, 'I returned and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun; and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their op pressors there was power; but they nad no comforter.' 16. The fault is in thine own people hattath ammeka, thy Make brick and behold, thy ser- | there shall no straw be given you, vants are beaten; but the fault is in thine own people. 17 But he said, Ye are idle, ye are idle: therefore ye say, Let us go, and do sacrifice to the LORD. 18 Go therefore now, and work: for yet shall ye deliver the tale of bricks. 19 And the officers of the children of Israel did see that they were in evil case, after it was said, Ye shall not minish aught from your bricks of your daily task. ous in the present case, may yet teach us the useful lesson, that increased diligence in our daily work is one of the best remedies for a roving imagination and ungovernable thoughts. Let those that suffer from such temptations set them. selves diligently to work at some em people has sinned, or done wrong; or certain extent indeed there was ground considering a noun, this is the for Pharaoh's words; that is to say, sin of thy people. The true meaning they recognize the fact, that being idle of the clause is not easily determined, is oftentimes the occasion of indulging as it is by no means obvious whether vain and evil thoughts, and cherishing the phrase 'thy people' is to be referred visionary projects. Had it been true, to the Israelites or to the Egyptians. as he professed to think, that the Is. Those who adopt the former construc-raelites had not work enough to do, tion suppose the Israelites are called nothing would have been more likely Pharaoh's people in order to work upon than that they should have devised his compassion. But even in this case some such excursion as he here charges there is some discrepancy of interpre- upon them, under the plea of religious tation. The words may be understood service. Thus the worldly wisdom as a complaint of the officers that they and base insinuations of the king of were beaten, though the people (the Is-Egypt, though grossly false and injuri raelites) were the offenders, if any. On another, and on the whole a better construction, the sense will be; Behold thy servants are beaten, and yet the fault really lies at the door of thine own people (the Egyptians), who refuse to furnish them straw.' According to this the Chal. has, 'Thy people sin-ployment useful to man and honorable neth against them.' Leclerc, however, intimates that the phrase, the fault is in thine own people,' is equivalent to saying the fault is charged, imputed, to thine own people (the Israelites), and 19. The officers-did see that they punishment inflicted upon them accord- were in evil case. Heb. in evil. ingly, though with vast injustice. This Moses and Aaron are here made to exis somewhat countenanced by the Gr. perience the lot that sometimes befalls Syr. and Vulg. which all render substan- good men in the best of causes. Their tially, 'Thou injurest thy people,' i. e. well-meant efforts but increase the hardthe Israelites. We are still left in some ships they were intended to remedy. degree of suspense as to the true import. The mission which had not long before 17, 18. But he said, Ye are idle, ye so exhilarated the minds of the people are idle, &c. Thus affording a sample and filled them with eager anticipations of the grossest tyranny, which gener- of deliverance, now proves the occasion ally thinks it sufficient to answer rea- of new miseries and persecutions. Bad sonable complaints by redoubled abuse as their condition had been before the and crimination, and by increasing the two brothers came among them with burdens which call them forth. To a their promises and their wonderful to God. The less time they allow their hands to be idle, the less will be the risk of their thoughts leading them astray. 20 And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the way, as they caine forth from Pharaoh : 21h And they said unto them, The LORD look upon you, and judge; because ye have made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to h ch. 6. 9. put a sword in their hand to slay us. 22 And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil-entreated this people? why is it that thou hast sent me ? 23 For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people: neither hast thou delivered thy people at all. hope for better things.- T Put a sword in their hands to slay us. That is, give them a plausible pretext for de 22. And Moses returned, &c. Or signs, it was not to be compared to the intolerable hardships which the vindictive despot, in consequence of this mission, laid upon them. For the fan-stroying us. A proverbial expression. cied invasion of his royal prerogative and the would given to his pride, he rather perhaps 'turned unto the Lord,' avenges himself upon the bleeding i. e. mentally, for we can conceive of shoulders of the poor vassals who could no local return expressed by the term. not redress themselves and who durst He was evidently unprepared for this not complain. issue of the transaction, though he had been assured by God himself, that Pharaoh would not, till driven to the utmost extremity, consent to the depart 20. And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the way, as they came forth from Pharaoh. They doubtless having stationed themselves at some conveni-ure of the Israelites. While he could not ent stand on the way-side, where they could speedily learn the result of the interview. 21. The Lord look upon you, &c. The crimination of Moses and Aaron on this occasion was clearly as unjust and unreasonable as that of Pharaoh had been well deserved. They had given the best evidence of their devotedness to the interests of their countrymen, and of their zeal for their | emancipation, and yet, from the accidental issues of their enterprise, they are reproached as accessaries to their slavery. But some allowance is to be made for their rashness on the principle mentioned by the Preacher, that 'oppression will drive a wise man mad,' so that he shall speak unadvisedly with his lips, and sometimes mistake a true friend for a bitter enemy. But let public benefactors learn from this, that they n.ust expect to be tried, not only by the malice of declared opponents, but also by the unjust and unkind reflections of those from whom they had a right to but be grieved to the heart to perceive that his efforts to serve his brethren had only contributed to plunge them deeper in distress, yet he was doubtless strongly sensible of the wrong that was done to him by their keen reproaches. But instead of retorting upon them in terms of equal harshness, he has immediate recourse to God and to him he pours out his complaint in a pathetic expostu lation. Wherefore hast thou so evil entreated this people? That is, why hast thou suffered them to be so evilly treated, as is evident from the tenor of the next verse. But as we have seen before, this is entirely according to prevailing usage in the Scripture to re. present God as doing that which he sovereignly permits to be done. Thus the petition in the Lord's Prayer, 'Lead us not into temptation,' is to be understood, not of any supposable direct and positive act on the part of God, but simply of sufferance and permission: 'Do not suffer us to be led into temptation.' Moses was evidently at a loss how to |