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and asked him in opprobrious terms---Wo made thee a prince and a judge over us? intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? Exodus, ch. ii. ver. 14. Thus the secret was out, and reached the ears of the king; who resolved to have Moses put to death. There was nothing left but to flee away: and Moses accordingly fled from the face of Pharaoh : he left the land of Egypt; and having passed the great desert, with which the country was bounded, betook himself to the land of Midian. This region lay upon the farther side of the two inlets of the Red-sea, to the east of the wilderness of Sin and Etham; about eight days journey from Egypt. The whole route was through a desert.

Of Moses in Midian.

He was now far separated from the place of his nativity, and the house of his fathers.

'The voluntary killing a person was, according to the laws of Egypt, certain death to the aggressor▬▬▬▬▬E de ris ἱκεσίως αποκτείναι τον ελευθερον, η τον δελον, αποθνήσκειν αυτον οι νόμοι GOOSTαTTOY.-Diod. 1. 1. p. 70. s. Of what antiquity this law may have been is uncertain. We know so much, that all the laws of Egypt are said to have been very ancient.

And he was still more estranged from them, by becoming incorporated with a tribe of people with which the Hebrews had not the least connection. They appear to have been of the Cuthite race; but respectable and moral: and their ruler was named Jethro: and he is stiled the priest of Midian. Moses seems here to have given up all his former views. The zeal which he had shewn for the deliverance of his people subsided; and all his hopes were extinct. Year after year passed on, and he does not appear to have had any intelligence about his brethren in Egypt. Indeed it was not easy to be obtained; for in those early times there was but little intercourse between nation and nation; and the only correspondence kept up, seems to have been by caravans and merchants. But the Midianites, to whom he joined himself, lay rather out of the way for any communication. He probably imagined, that God had given up his purpose of freeing the Israelites; at least of using him for an agent. He, in consequence of it, married a wife of the Cuthite race; one of the

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' Exod. ch. ii. ver. 21. -And Miriam and Aaron spakę against Moses, because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman. Numbers xii. 1. The word in the original is Cushan, or Cuthite.

daughters of the priest of Midian. This was contrary to the usage of his forefathers, and of the Hebrews in general; and seems to intimate, that he thought himself quite alienated We see him now, We see him now, from the rank

from them. of a prince brought down almost to the state of an hireling; and feeding sheep in the wild near Horeb, instead of leading the armies of Israel. This would not have been his lot, if he had set out originally upon worldly principles, and followed the dictates of human sagacity. He would then never have foregone the advantages of adoption, which would have procured him respect and power. Had he remained in Egypt, his residence among the Israelites might have afforded him the means of planning many things in their favour; and his authority among his brethren might have induced them to comply with his schemes. But the wisdom of man is foolishness with God; and this great work of deliverance was not to be effected by human means. He is said to have been forty years old when hẹ

1 In the original it is intimated that he took his flight from, Egypt, when he was full grown; or as the Seventy express it

μενος γενομένος. In the Acts of the Apostles it is said to have happened, when he was forty years old. ch. vii. ver. 21.

first came into this country, and now forty years more were lapsed; and the Israelites still in bondage, without the least prospect of redemption. In respect to Moses, had he the will, yet in what possible manner could he exert himself? If he fled away at first without hopes, what new expectations could be produced after a lapse of forty years? In this long interval, what little influence remained at his departure must have been utterly extinct. The elders of the people, in whom he confided, were probably dead; and all memory of him was in great measure effaced. If it were possible for him to make himself known to the prince of the country, the recollection would probably be fatal to him. And, if he applied to his own people, what reason was there for their accepting of him for their judge and leader now; whom they had rejected forty years before? Yet the children of Israel were delivered; and Moses was destined to bring about that deliverance.

If we were to suppose him at this time to have been younger, the interval will be in consequence of it longer; and the difficulties proportionably greater.

Of his being appointed by God to free his People.

Moses was now eighty years old; and, in an humble and recluse state, took care of the sheep of his father-in-law, the priest of Midian.--Exodus, ch. iii. ver. 1. And he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.

V. 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.

V. 3. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.

V. 4. And when the Lord saw that he turn-ed aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.

Upon this it pleased God to assure him, that he had not forgot his people; that he had been witness to their affliction; and their cry was come up before him. He would therefore put an end to their servitude; and they should be brought out of Egypt and be placed in the land of Canaan, in the country of the Hittites, Perizzites, Amorites, and other nations.

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