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17 But the midwives o feared God, and did not pas the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men-children alive.

18 And the king of Egypt called for the midwives, and said unto them, Why have ye done this thing, and have saved the men-children alive?

o Prov. 16. 6. p Dan. 3. 16, 18. & 6. 13. Acts 5. 29.

supposed to place the children on the 'stools,' but to examine them after they are placed there by others. It is evident that if they actually assisted at the birth, the sex of the infant would be known without the necessity of inspecting its person during its ablutions at the trough. 1. If it be a son, &c. The reason of the order is obvious; the state had nothing to apprehend on the score of insurrection from the weaker sex, and as they were fairer than the daugh ters of Egypt, they would naturally be preserved, with a view to their finally becoming inmates of the harems of their lords.

17. The midwives feared God, &c. Their faith shines conspicuous in this, for they must have been aware that it was dangerous to incur the king's wrath by disobeying his orders. Tyrants are not wont to suffer their decrees to be disregarded with impunity, and it was no doubt at the peril of their lives that they gave way to the dictates of piety towards God rather than comply with the injunction of the king.

19. Because the Hebrew women are lively, &c. Heb. 7 ha-yoth; i. e. quick and strong in bearing; being possessed of greater natural vigor and robustness of constitution. It is well known that women inured to hard labor have but little pain in child-bearing, compared with those who are accustomed to an easier mode of life. It is worthy of note also that the original here is the term usually applied to wild beasts (see Note on Gen. 1. 24),

19 And 4 the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them.

20 r Therefore God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied, and waxed very mighty.

4 See Josh. 2. 4, &c. 2Sam. 17. 19, 20. r Prov. 11. 18. Eccles. 8. 12. Isai. 3. 10. Hebr. 6. 10.

and the latent implication may be, that they brought forth somewhat after the manner of the beasts of the forest, without requiring any obstetrical aid. This assertion of the midwives was doubtless true in itself, although not the whole truth; but the withholding a part of the truth from those who would take advantage of the whole to injure or destroy the innocent, is not only law. ful but laudable.

20. God dealt well with the midwives. We may doubtless fairly infer from this that, in some way not expressly recorded, they were favored with special tokens of the divine approbation for the conduct they had evinced. At the same time, the fact of granting to the Israelites such a continued extraordinary multiplication was in itself a 'dealing well' with the midwives. They were no doubt many of them mothers themselves, and they could not but rejoice in the preservation and the increase of their families, nor could the general favor thus bestowed upon the nation fail to redound to them. Indeed, we are strongly inclined to consider the final clause of this verse as perfectly synonimous with the expression' made them houses,' in the next. The connexion between the two will be obvious from the remarks that immediately follow. In the mean time let us not fail to observe, that an upright and exemplary conduct, by whomsoever displayed, may be of the most eminent service to a whole community. Even a few feeble but right-minded women may, without their dreaming of

21 And it came to pass, because the midwives feared God, 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. Í.

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, moreover, 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

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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.

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 posterity. 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 (7) ;' 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

only because their religious sentiments | susceptible nature of woman in executwere stronger than their maternal in- ing deeds of blood! stincts. 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.

(8.) The people of God would have experienced less ill treatment at the hands of civil governments, were the national benefits which they are instrumental in procuring better appreciated and remembered.

(8, 9.) The prosperity of the righteous is doubtless an eye-sore to evilminded oppressors; but those who task their invention to devise methods of affliction are dealing wisely to compass their 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

(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 mentioned at the close of the foregoing chapter was carried, or how long it continued in force, we are not informed. But when we consider that the love of offspring was an absorbing passion with the Israelites, inasmuch as all their future hopes depended upon and were 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 Israel it is the object of the present chapter to relate.

CHAPTER II.

ND there went aa man of the AN 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 bwhen 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 wise 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 ¶ 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, 'By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison.'-The name of the man here mentioned was Amram, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, Ex. 6. 16-20, and the name of the woman whom he took to wife was Jochebed, the sister of Kohath, and consequently the aunt of Amram, Ex. 6. 20. Num. 26.

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as well as the qualities of the heart, and its import may be learned from the corresponding Gr. phrase employed by Stephen, Acts, 7. 20, AσTELUS TW L, fair to God, i. e. divinely or exceedingly fair. In Heb. 11. 23, the epithet is the same (aσTELOV) but rendered ' proper.' The implication obviously is, that an extraordinary beauty distinguished the

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

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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

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 filaments, each about a foot long. Near the middle each of these filaments parts into four, and in the point of partition

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 preservare four branches of flowers, the termining 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. an tabath gomë, ark of bulrush. The Egyptian papyrus.

ation 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 principal 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,'

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