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

z ch. 3. 18. a ch. 3. 12.

28 And Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the LORD your God in the wilderness: only ye shall not go very far away: b entreat for me.

b ver. 8. ch. 9. 28. 1 Kings 13. 6. over condescends to state the reason ed a week's holiday, to go and hold why it is impossible to listen to such a their feast in the desert, but whether he proposal. He in effect presents his ob- was henceforth to lose entirely so conjections in the form of a dilemma: If siderable and so useful a part of the we sacrifice here, we must do it either population of the kingdom. This was after the manner of the Egyptians, or the Egyptian view of the question; to of the Israelites. If after their manner, which is to be added the apprehension that would be an abomination to the that becoming thus independent of their Lord our God; if after our own man- control, they might one day resolve ner, that would be an abomination to themselves into a very dangerous hosthem, and they will stone us; for they tile power on the frontiers, whether in will not endure to see us slay those ani- the desert as pastoral nomades, or as a mals for sacrifice, which they adore as settled people in Palestine. Viewing deities. Chal. 'For the beasts which the the matter thus, as the Egyptian king Egyptians worship, shall we offer for sa- unquestionably did, his conduct, though crifice; lo, shall we offer for sacrifice the no more excusable, is somewhat less beasts which the Egyptians worship?" surprising. It goes to illustrate his po27. As he shall command us. The Is-sition to bear in mind, that he could say raelites knew not, therefore, precisely he had not brought them into bondage. in what manner they should serve the They had labored for a century in the Lord, till they came to the place ap- public service; whence the king, or few pointed. So Moses says, ch. 10. 26, Egyptians then living, had ever known 'We know not with what we must serve them otherwise than as bondsmen, and the Lord until we come thither.' few, if any Hebrews then living, could remember when they were free. In these circumstances it may justly be doubted whether there is now any state having bondsmen, however acquired, which would consent to part with them on much easier terms than the urgent compulsion to which God had recourse with Pharaoh. Corrupt human nature has ever shown an inveterate pertinacity in holding on to a usurped dominion over a nation or community of slaves. No matter how clear their right to be free, or how great the injustice or oppression of detaining them in bondage, yet for the most part men will 'harden their hearts,' just as did Pharaoh, in re sisting the claims of justice, and will resign their asserted possessions only with their lives.

28. Only ye shall not go very far away. The haughty monarch still shrinks from an unconditional submission to the mandate of heaven. He will yield the former point, and allow them to go out of Egypt, but then they must agree not to go very far away,-a stipulation of which the object evidently was to keep them still within his reach. In this, and still more clearly in the subsequent incidents, the king betrays his suspicion that under the plea of going into the wilderness to worship their God, the real intention of the Hebrews was to make their escape from his power altogether. Indeed it must be admitted that the real question before Pharaoh was not merely the ostensible matter, whether the Hebrews were to be allow.

4 And d the LORD shall sever between 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

d ch. 8. 22.

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.

e Ps. 78. 50.

forcibly with the displeasure of God against them, the Israelites, whom they so much despised and oppressed, were entirely exempt from this calamity.

5. To-morrow the Lord shall do this thing in the land. The fixing of the time in this manner would make the judgment when it came the more remarkable. 'We know not what any day will bring forth, and therefore cannot say what we will do to-morrow, but God can.' Henry.

6. All the cattle of Egypt died. That is, some of all sorts; not absolutely each and every one; for we find, v. 19, 25, some remaining which were smitten by a subsequent plague. This peculiar usage of the word 'all,' as denoting some of all kinds, instead of the abso

appears from v. 6. The original word for 'murrain,' when applied to men, is translated 'pestilence,' and is rendered in the Gr. both here and elsewhere, by Bavaros, death. See Note on Ex. 5. 3. Our English word 'murrain' comes either from the French mourir, to die, or from the Greek μαραίνω, to grow lean, to waste away. It is with us applied to a a particular 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, difficulty of breathing, palpitation of the heart, staggering, a hot breath, and a shining tongue; all which symptoms prove that a general inflammation has taken place. But as no particular disorder is here specified, mortality would have been a better rend-lute totality of the number spoken of, ering. There was a peculiar affliction in the judgment of the murrain, not only from the Egyptians being dependent on their animals in various ways for their sustenance and comfort, but also from their being compelled to witness their excruciating sufferings without the power of affording relief. The poor beasts themselves were guiltless of wrong, yet having their being under a constitution in which they are a sort of appendage to man, they are made subject to suffering by reason of his sin, or as Jeremiah expresses it, ch. 12. 4, 'For the wickedness of the land, the beasts are consumed.' This infliction therefore was a trial to Pharaoh and the Egyptians whether they would be at all wrought upon by a view of the effects of their sin as evinced in the sufferings of the unoffending brute creation. At the same time, in order to impress them still more

is of great importance to a right understanding of the sacred Scriptures throughout. Thus, 1 Tim. 2. 4, 'Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto a knowledge of the truth;' i. e. all classes and ranks of men; for he had just before exhorted that prayers should be made for 'kings and for all that are in authority;' implying, that as no order of men are placed without the pale of salvation, so none should be left out of the supplications of the saints. In like manner it is to be observed, that while in v.. 25, of this chapter it is said that 'the hail smote every herb of the field,' in ch. 10. 15, we are told that the locusts ate 'every herb of the land which the hail had left.' For a full and interesting illustration of this phraseology, see J. P. Smith's Geology and Scripture Compared, p. 247, in respect to the universality of the deluge.

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.

8¶ And the LORD said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls 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 f ch. 7. 14. & 8. 32.

in all the land of Egypt, and shall beg 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 ha boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast.

g Rev. 16. 2. h Deut. 28. 27.

real particles which are carried off in the dense clouds of smoke arising from a furnace. The original for 'furnace' signifies also a 'lime-kiln or brick-kiln;' and as these were among the instruments of oppression to the Israelites, it was fitting that they should be converted to a means of chastisement to the Egyptians, for God oftentimes makes men to recognize their sin in their punishment.

7. And Pharaoh sent, &c. This shows it comes from a root signifying 'to that he was at least somewhat impress-blow,' properly denotes the fine cineed by the plague as a calamity of very marvellous operation. His sending to ascertain the fact of the Israelites' exemption indicates that he was not satisfied with reports to that effect. But whether the result of the mission convinced him that the hand of God was in the affliction or not, it is clear that no permanent good impression was made upon him. His heart remained still unsoftened, and he refused to let Israel go. 8. Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, &c. Something similar to this is still to be recognized in the maledictory usages of the East. 'When the magicians pronounce an imprecation on an individual, a village, or a country, they take ashes of cow's dung (or from a common fire,) and throw them in the air, saying to the objects of their displeasure, such a sickness, or such a curse, shall surely come upon you.' Roberts. The obstinacy of Pharaoh under such an accumulation of calls, warnings, and judgments was becoming continually a sin of a more and more aggravated character, and it was therefore fitting that the punishments it incurred should also be of a growing intensity. As the ravages of the pestilence that had wasted their flocks and herds had proved unavailing, a plague was now to be sent that should seize their bodies and touch them to the quick. The Heb. term for 'ashes,' as

9. It shall become dust, &c.; i. e. it shall by a miraculous diffusion become a fine cinder-like sleet floating in the atmosphere above the surface of the earth like a cloud of dust which does not subside, and wherever it lights upon the persons of men causing a 'boil breaking forth with blains.' Heb. 'boil budding, germinating, or efflorescing with pustules or blisters.' The original term for 'boil,' shehin, denotes an inflammation, which gives us the true sense of the obsolete word 'blains,' accompanied with a sense of tormenting heat, which first produces a morbid tumor, and then a malignant ulcer. In Job, 2. 7, 8, the word occurs in the sense of a burning itch or an inflamed scab, which Job could not remove with his nails, and was therefore obliged to make use of a potsherd, or fragment of a broken earthen vessel, for the purpose. In the case of the Egyptians, the 'Shehin' was of a still more virulent nature,

11 And the imagicians could not | ses, Rise up early in the morning, stand before Moses, because of the and stand before Pharaoh, and say boil for the boil was upon the unto him, Thus saith the LORD magicians, and upon all the Egyp- God of the Hebrews, Let my peotians. ple go, that they may serve me.

12 And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them; kas the LORD had spoken unto Moses.

13 ¶ And the LORD said unto Mo

1 ch. 8. 18, 19. 2 Tim. 3. 9. k ch. 4. 21. so that they were in fact visited with a treble punishment at once, viz. aching boils, nauseous ulcers, and burning itch. To this severe plague the threatening of Moses, Deut. 28. 27, obviously has reference; 'The Lord will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch whereof thou canst not be healed.' The Gr. renders it by eλko, ulcer, which occurs, Rev. 16. 2, which in our version is translated 'noisome and griev. ous sore. The judgment of the first vial, therefore, considered in the letter, was similar to that of the sixth plague of Egypt.

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

1 ch. 8. 20. m ch. 8. 10.

did harden it. Here, it is true, the effect is ascribed to the divine agency, but after what we have remarked at so much length on this subject in that place, the reader will scarcely be in danger of putting a wrong construction on the words. It is not to be understood that God, by a positive act, created any hardness of heart in Pharaoh, or that he immediately put forth any influence to render him callous and incapable of right feeling. He had before hardened his own heart by resisting both the grace and the wrath of heaven, and nothing more is meant by the expression before us, than that God was pleased to leave him under the control of his own strong delusions, and so to order the events of his providence as to make him more and more obstinate. In no other sense did God harden his heart, than by permitting him to rush forward in precisely such a course of rebellion as would issue in his hardening his own heart. But even this was a fearful judg

11. The magicians could not stand before Moses. They had probably hitherto continued to linger about the person of Pharaoh, confirming him in his ob stinate refusal to let the people go, and pretending that though Moses had thus far performed works beyond their skill, yet they should doubtless be too hard for him at last; but now, being seized with these loathsome and painful ul-ment, and one that speaks awfully to cers, they were utterly confounded, and quitting the court in disgrace, were henceforth no more heard of. See an allusion to this part of the sacred his tory, 2 Tim. 3. 8, 9.

12. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh. Heb. yehazzek. On the import of the term, see Note on Ex. 4. 21. God had there threatened that he would harden Pharaoh's heart, but we do not, until we come to the present passage, find it expressly said that he

those who do violence to their own consciences and sin with a high hand.

14. I will send all my plagues upon thine heart. In again repeating his demand for his people's deliverance, and his threatenings against Pharaoh's disobedience, the Most High makes a startling and terrible declaration. If lesser judgments do not do their work, God will send greater. Moses is charged to tell Pharaoh that, in the plagues that remained to be inflicted there would be