12 For they cast down every man | his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods. 13 And he hardened Pharaoh's heart that he hearkened not unto them; uas the LORD had said. 14 ¶ And the LORD said unto Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened, he refuseth to let the people go. 15 Get thee unto Pharaoh in the u ch. 4. 21. ver. 4. x ch. 8. 15. & 10. 1, 20, 27. 13. And he hardened Pharaoh's heart. Heb. va-yehezak leb 14. Is hardened. Heb. 7 kabēd, is heavy; an instance of the unhappy usage by which our translators have uniformly employed the word 'harden' to represent several different words in the original. See Note on Ex. 4. 21. morning; lo, he goeth out unto the water, and thou shalt stand by the river's brink against he come: and y the rod which was turned to a serpent shalt thou take in thine hand. 16 And thou shalt say unto him, z The LORD God of the Hebrews hath sent me unto thee, saying, Let my people go, a that they may serve me in the wilderness: and behold, hitherto thou wouldest not hear. y ch. 4. 2, 3. & ver. 10. z ch. 3. 18. a ch. 3 12. 18. & 5. 1, 3. ence-chamber, or room of state, where audience was usually given to embasPharoh, and the heart of Pharaoh wax-sadors, he is directed to meet him by ed strong, or hardened itself. The ex- the river's brink, whither he was in the pression in the original is precisely the habit of resorting in the morning, either same with that which occurs v. 22, of to perform his ablutions or his devothis chapter, and is there rendered, tions, or both; as there is clear evi'And Pharaoh's heart was hardened.' dence that the Nile was anciently deiWhy it is translated differently here, it fied as the source of the fertility of the is not easy to say. soil of Egypt, and that it had its appointed priests, festivals, and sacrifices. Indeed at the present day, under the sterner system of the Moslem religion, the reverence entertained for the Nile exhibits a tendency towards the same superstitious regard, as it is called 'the Most Holy River,' and its benefits are still celebrated by a variety of religious rites. As this river was to be the subject of the first plague, Moses was ordered to meet Pharaoh on its banks and there, with the intimidating rod in his hand which had so recently triumphed over the rods of the magicians, to give him a new summons to surrender, and in case of a refusal to announce the coming judgment. He would thus have no possible pretence for ascribing the effect, when it came, to any other than the true cause. It was affording him, moreover, another fair opportunity to forego his obstinacy and comply with the divine mandate, for God is longsuffering, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to the knowledge of the truth. 15. Get thee unto Pharaoh, &c. We here enter upon the account of the ten successive plagues, to which the Most High had recourse in order to humble and break the refractory spirit of Pharaoh. Hitherto a miracle had been wrought, but no judgment inflicted. The conversion of the rod into a serpent had given proof of the tremendous power with which God's messengers were armed, but no injury having ensued, no conviction or relenting had been produced. Another step was therefore now to be taken in the progress of the divine visitations. The rod was now to begin its chastising work, and though remaining unchanged to become a rod of scorpions to the whole nation. As if there were a probability that he would not be admitted into the pres 17 Thus saith the LORD, in this bthou shalt know that I am the Lord: behold, I will smite with the b ch. 5. 2. ver. 5. the rod that is in my hand upon waters which are in the river, and c they shall be turned d to blood. c ch. 4. 9. d Rev. 16. 4, 6. nipotence.¶ They shall be turned 17. In this shalt thou know, &c. Heb. bezoth, in or by this ; i. e. this miracle about to be wrought. Pharaoh had before, ch. 5. 2, contemptuously asked, 'Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.' He was now to be instructed to his cost on this head.- -¶ I will smite with the rod that is in mine hand. As these are probably to be considered the words of Jehovah himself they present a striking example of the phraseology by which an agent is said to do that which he commands or procures to be done. The smiting rod was said to be in God's hand, because it was in the hand of Moses who was acting by his orders and in his name. Thus, Hos. 8. 12, 'I have written to him the great things of my law; i. e. have ordered or procured them to be written. Yet it is proper to observe that the Jewish and many Christian commentators consider these as more truly the words of Moses speak-cribed; but in the case of the river, if ing in the name of God, whose representative he was expressly declared to be to Pharaoh, v. 1. The rod was literally in the hand of Aaron, but Moses, they contend, might properly say it was in his hand because he was principal in the affair and merely used the ministry of Aaron in performing the miraculous works. Compare Mark, 15. 45, 'And when he (Pilate) knew it of the centurion, he gave the body to Joseph;' with Mat. 27. 58, Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered.' As the sense is plain, it is not very material to whom the words are most immediately referred. Throughout the transaction God, Moses, and Aaron acted in such entire concert that they are considered as one, though all the efficiency exerted is of course to be referred exclusively to Om the text declares it, no good reason can be assigned why the mass of waters should not be converted to real blood as well as to any other fluid substance, since it is an operation equally easy to Omnipotence, and since we can much more readily conceive of a river of blood becoming putrescent than of common water, which had merely undergone discoloration. We are constrained therefore to take the words in their literal sense as announcing that Pharaoh and his people should behold their delicious and venerated river become a vast rolling stream of blood, pure blood, no doubt florid and high-colored, exhibiting a spectacle which they could not contemplate, nor we conceive, without emotions of horror. But of the actual miracle the sequel informs us more particularly. 18 And the fish that is in the river | come blood: and that there may be shall die, and the river shall stink: blood throughout all the land of and the Egyptians shall e loathe to Egypt, both in vessels of wood, and drink of the water of the river. in vessels of stone. 19 And the LORD spake unto Moses, Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egpyt, upon their streams, upon their rivers, and upon their ponds, and upon all their pools of water, that they may be e ver. 24. f ch. 8. 5, 6, 16. & 9. 22. & 10. 12, 21. & 14. 21, 26. 18. The fish that is in the river shall die. 'We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely,' said the murmuring Israelites in the wilderness, Num. 11. 5; from which it is obvious that fish constituted no small part of the food of the country. But the changing of the waters was to be the death of the fish, so that the means of satisfying hunger as well as of quenching thirst would be abridged to them.- - Shall loathe to drink of the water. Heb. nilu lishtoth, shall be wearied to drink ; i. e. wearied by digging round about the river for water. The original comprehensively expresses both the distasteful loathesomeness of the bloody water and the trouble and pains to which they were subjected in obtaining that which was pure. Gr. 'They shall not be able to drink the water of the river.' 19. Stretch out thine hand, &c. The fearful plague was not to be confined to the river. By stretching out his arm, and waving his rod in different directions over the land, the judgment was to become, as it were, universal. The various branches of the Nile, the canals derived from it, the ponds and reservoirs, all were to exhibit the spectacle of the same hideous and nauseous transformation ! ¶ In vessels of wood and in vessels of stone. Heb. 'In woods and in stones;' by which is probably meant not so much the vessels in domestic use, as the cisterns, tanks, and VOL. I 9 20 And Moses and Aaron did so, as the LORD commanded; and he glifted up the rod and smote the waters that were in the river, in the sight of Pharaoh, and in the sight of his servants; and all the h waters that were in the river were turned into blood. g ch. 17. 5. h Ps. 78. 44. & 105. 29, other larger receptacles constructed of wood or stone for the purpose of containing the water which run into them on the overflowing of the Nile. As they have no rain in Egypt, and the water of their wells is very bad, the river was their great dependence for water. 20. And Moses and Aaron did so, &c. The event answered to the prediction and the performance of Moses and Aaron. That noble river, the pride and ornament of their country, which alone gave fertility to its soil and beauty to its scenery, now no longer pours its native refreshing stream along its banks, but flows in thickened blood, casting up its perished inhabitants, and tainting the air with its noisome stench! In order to appreciate more justly the appalling nature of this judgment, we must bear in mind, not only the fertilizing properties of the Nile, but the deliciousness of its waters as a beverage. By the universal consent of all who have drank of this river, it is unrivalled in this respect by any waters in the world which are not medicinal. Such is its character now, and such doubtless it was then. How terrible the privation for a whole people to be thus deprived at once of the blessing and the luxury of such a river! But the event teaches us how easily an avenging God can not only cut off our most necessary supplies, but also convert our choicest comforts to our greatest 21 And the fish that was in the | river died; and the river stank, and the Egyptians i could not drink of the water of the river; and there was blood throughout all the land of Egypt. 22 And the magicians of Egypt I did so with their enchantments: and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, neither did he hearken unto them; las the LORD had said. 23 And Pharaoh turned and went i ver. 18. k ver. 11. plagues. And not only so. We see in this judgment the marks of a twofold retribution; first, for idolatry, and secondly, for cruelty. The river of Egypt was the idol of Egypt. They vainly boasted that by reason of their river they were independent of the rains of heaven. They paid to that cherished stream the homage which was due to its Creator. They ascribed to it the blessings which they owed to him. It was fitting therefore that he should 'smite it in the seven streams thereof;' that he should make that a loathing, a scourge, and a curse, which they had made an idol. Men are sure to be punished most and soonest in that which they make a corrival with God.' Bp. Hall. But this was not all. It was a significant as well as a righteous plague. They had stained the waters of that river with the blood of the Hebrew innocents, and now he gave them blood to drink, for they were worthy, Rev. 16. 6. Its cruel lord is now punished by seeing its channel filled, from shore to shore, with one crimson tide! So signally are the instruments of sin often made the instruments of punishment! 22. The magicians did so with their enchantments. That is, as before, attempted to do so. It will be observed that nothing is said of the effect of the magicians' attempt to imitate this miracle. Whether they succeeded in multiplying the bloody fluid is not affirmed, though even if they did, it was evidently on so small a scale, as not to afford any plausible pretext for disparaging the unspeakably greater miracle of Moses. As Moses had already turned the running and standing waters of Egypt into blood, they could only procure small quantities by digging below the surface. But what was this compared with the immensity of the work wrought by Moses? Indeed the shallowness of their pretences was palpable in their proposing to show their skill by increasing an evil which was already intolerable. If they had had any confidence in their own art they would rather have attempted to turn the blood into water than the reverse. But they chose to ape the miracle of Moses, and though there is no evidence of their succeeding even in this, yet the result went to harden still farther the obdurate heart of Pharaoh. 24. The Egyptians digged round about, &c. Probably they found so much as barely sufficed for the wants of existence, though at the expense of great labor and fatigue. The fact affords an affecting proof, how in the midst of wrath God remembers mercy. The people must indeed suffer for the perverseness of their rulers, but the righteous judge tempers the strokes which yet he does not spare. CHAPTER VIII. From the last verse of the previous me. unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Let | frogs abundantly, which shall go up my people go a that they may serve and come into thine house, and into d thy bed-chamber, and upon thy bed, and into the house of thy servants, and upon thy people, and into thine ovens, and into thy kneading troughs: 2 And if thou brefuse to let them go, behold, I will smite all thy borders with frogs: C 3 And the river shall bring forth ach. 3. 12, 18. b ch. 7. 14. & 9. 2. c Rev. 16. 13. d Ps. 105. 30. most innumerable in the original Scriptures. chapter it appears that the first plague was of a week's continuance. So long a time was probably necessary to give 2. Behold, I will smite all thy borders. the judgment its full effect. Had it last- Heb. hinnëh anoki noed but a day or two, it might have been geph, behold I smiting; i. e. just about referred to some casualty which did not to smite, as Gen. 6. 13, 'Behold, I will require the admission of a supernatural destroy.' Heb. 'Behold I destroying ; agency. But when they perceived the according to a very frequent import river rolling its bloody tide day after of the present participle. The term day, and the nauseous pestilential va-borders' in scriptural usage does not pors still increasing upon them and merely denote the limits, coasts, or poisoning the air which they breathed, boundaries of a country, but in a larger and all in accordance with what Moses sense its regions, districts, or provinces had announced, they would be rendered in general. doubly inexcusable if they refused to acknowledge the working of Omnipotence. Whatever may have been its influence upon the nation at large, it seems to have produced no salutary effect upon Pharaoh or his court; yet at the end of that time God was pleased to remove the calamity, and grant a short respite to king and people, that they might reflect upon the awful phenomenon, and peradventure be led to humble themselves before him. Yet the narrative informs us that the deliverance from the curse, like the curse itself, the forbearance, as well as the judgments, of the Almighty-only served to prolong and aggravate their wickedness. A second plague is therefore now to be denounced. 3. The river shall bring forth frogs abundantly. Heb. x 7 sharatz tzephardeïm, shall swarm or crawl (with) frogs. On the force of the original term, see Note on Gen. 1. 20. The emphatic phraseology of the text shows that nothing would be able to de bar the access of these loathsome intruders into every nook and corner of the habitations of men. No doors, locks, or bolts; no walls, gates, or fences, should preclude their entrance. The circumstance of their coming up into the 'bed-chambers,' and into the 'ovens,' and 'kneading-troughs,' needs explanation to those whose domestic economy is so different from that of the ancient nations. Their lodgings were not in upper stories, but recesses on the ground 1. Let my people go that they may floor; and their ovens were not like ours Heb. va-yaabdeni, built on the side of a chimney, and adand they shall serve me. But the rend-jacent to a fire-place, where the glowering of the particle ve by 'that' is ing heat would fright away the frogs; undoubtedly correct, and goes to con- but they dug a hole in the ground, in firm our interpretation of Ex. 7. 11, 12, which they placed an earthen pot, which where the same form of expression oc- having sufficiently heated they put their curs. Examples of similar usage are al- cakes upon the inside to be baked. To serve me. |