2 And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine A.C. 1491. hand? And he said, A rod.

3 And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it.

4 And the LORD said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand:

5 That they may believe that the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee.

6¶And the LORD said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow.

7 And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his bosom, and, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh..

8 And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign.

9 And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the dry land: and the water which thou takest out of the river *shall become blood upon the dry land.

10 ¶ And Moses said unto the LORD, O my Lord, I am not † eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of slow tongue.

a

*Heb. shall be and shall

be.

+ Heb. a man

of words.
+ Heb. since
yesterday, nor
since the third

11 And the LORD said unto him, Who hath made man's day. mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD?

e

12 Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, e Matt. x. 19. and teach thee what thou shalt say.

13 And he said, O my Lord, send, I pray thee, by the hand of him whom thou wilt send.

Mark xiii. 11.
Luke xii. 11.

14 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against est. Moses, and he said, Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee: and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart.

15 And thou shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth and I will be with thy mouth, and with his mouth, and will teach you what ye shall do.

16 And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and

Or, should

A.C. 1491. he shall be, even he shall be to thee instead of a mouth, and f thou shalt be to him instead of God.

f Ch. vii. 1.

* Or, knife.

17 And thou shalt take this rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs 3.

18¶ And Moses went and returned to Jethro his father in law, and said unto him, Let me go, I pray thee, and return unto my brethren which are in Egypt, and see whether they be yet alive. And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace.

19 And the LORD said unto Moses in Midian, Go, return into Egypt: for all the men are dead which sought thy life.

20 And Moses took his wife and his sons, and set thein upon an ass, and he returned to the land of Egypt: and Moses took the rod of God in his hand.

21 And the LORD said unto Moses, When thou goest to return into Egypt, see that thou do all those wonders before Pharaoh, which I have put in thine hand: but I will harden his heart, that he shall not let the people go.

22 And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn:

23 And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn.

24 And it came to pass by the way in the inn, that the LORD met him, and sought to kill him.

25 Then Zipporah took a sharp stone, and cut off the + Heb. made foreskin of her son, and † cast it at his feet, and said, Surely a bloody husband art thou to me.

it touch.

26 So he let him go: then she said, A bloody husband thou art, because of the circumcision.

27

And the LORD said to Aaron, Go into the wilder

3 Moses was the first teacher of religion to whom the power of working miracles appears to have been granted. The patriarchal dispensation was of divine appointment; but Moses was now chosen to abrogate that mode of instructing mankind, and to institute another in its place. Miracles were not necessary to Adam, or to Noah, as they each possessed sufficient evidence of the truths they taught they were not necessary to Abraham, as he was the reformer only of the religion of Noah: but when a legislator ventured to assert that a law, which was originally divinely appointed, was now about to be annulled, it was absolutely essential that he should be able to produce the most incontrovertible evidence in support of his authority. Moses therefore was empowered to work miracles, for the purpose of establishing a new dispensation. In the same manner, Christ, the prophet "like unto Moses," wrought his wonderful miracles, to convince the world of the dissolution of the Levitical dispensation, in favour of the Christian covenant.-Hora Mosaicæ, vol. ii. p. 222, &c.

ness to meet Moses. And he went, and met him in the A.C. 1491. mount of God, and kissed him.

28 And Moses told Aaron all the words of the LORD who had sent him, and all the signs which he had commanded him.

CHAPTER III.

From the Mission of Moses to the Infliction of the Plagues

of Egypt.

EXODUS IV. VER. 29, TO THE END.

29 ¶ AND Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel:

30 And Aaron spake all the words which the LORD had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people.

• Moses was either a true prophet, an enthusiast, a dupe, or an impostor. That he was not an enthusiast, may be argued from his learning; he was versed in all the learning of Egypt-from his education among the courtiers of Pharaol -from the diffidence with which he received the first annunciation of his mission-from the admirable suitableness of his law to the accomplishment of the object proposed—the knowledge therein displayed of human nature—the connection of laws politically necessary with religion, &c. &c. He could not have been a dupe: for if the appearance in the burning bush had not been real—if he had been deceived in the evidences of his mission-if the miracles wrought to convince him, that he was the chosen prophet of God, had been only natural phenomena, he could not have inferred from them, that he was to be the legislator and deliverer of the Jews. Neither was he an impostor. An impostor would not have chosen to suffer affliction with a degraded race, rather than to indulge in the gaieties and fascinations of a court-an impostor would not have exposed himself to the danger of death, by vindicating the cause of the oppressed-he would not, if banished to a desert, be contented with his lot-forget his schemes of ambition, intermarry among the natives of an obscure province, and calmly sink into the condition of a shepherd. Even if he were at length to rouse from this strange lethargy, and resolve to deliver his countrymen, or perish in the attempt, an impostor would have proceeded with some address, and policy he would not enter abruptly into the presence of an absolute sovereign, and peremptorily insist on the liberation of a race of "useful slaves:" neither would an impostor commit himself, by predicting a series of miraculous judgments, if these slaves were not permitted to emigrate. If Moses too, had been either of these, he could not have conquered armies without fighting, or impressed a whole nation with imaginary terrors-or guided or fed a whole nation for forty years, in the wilderness ;-he could not have compelled, and he could not have persuaded the Egyptians and their king to resign their dominion over the Israelites, unless he had been possessed of powers more than human. That is, he was a true prophet-he wrought miracles-he was the character he professed to be. The

A.C. 1491.

31 And the people believed: and when they heard that the LORD had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.

a Chap. iii, 18.

Heb. let the work be heavy

EXODUS V.

1 Pharaoh chideth Moses and Aaron for their message.
5 He increaseth the Is-
raelites' task. 15 He checketh their complaints. 19 They cry out upon Moses
and Aaron. 22 Moses complaineth to God.

1 And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilder

ness.

2 And Pharaoh said, 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.

3 And they said, The God of the Hebrews hath met with us: let us go, we pray thee, three days' journey into the desert, and sacrifice unto the LORD our God; lest he fall upon us with pestilence, or with the sword.

4 And the king of Egypt said unto them, Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let the people from their works? get you unto your burdens.

5 And Pharaoh said, Behold, the people of the land now are many, and ye make them rest from their burdens.

6 And Pharaoh commanded the same day the taskmasters of the people, and their officers, saying,

7 Ye shall no more give the people straw to make brick, as heretofore: let them go and gather straw for themselves. 8 And the tale of the bricks, which they did make heretofore, ye shall lay upon them; ye shall not diminish ought thereof: for they be idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God.

9* Let there more work be laid the upon men, that they upon the men. may labour therein; and let them not regard vain words. 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 ought of your work shall be diminished.

mere fact, that Moses was not a true prophet, and yet delivered the Israelites, would be a much greater miracle than any he is related to have performed.— Hora Mosaicæ (from which the above note is chiefly abridged), vol. i. p. 209— 301; Dean Graves on the Pentateuch; Bryant's Plagues, p. 344; Michaelis' Commentary on the Law of Moses, vol. i. p. 42, &c.

12 So the people were scattered abroad throughout all the A.C. 1491. 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.

*

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?

15 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, Make brick: and, behold, thy servants 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 there shall no straw be given you, 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 ought from your bricks of your daily task.

20 And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood in the way, as they came forth from Pharaoh :

*Heb. a matter of a day in

his day.

stink.

21 And they said unto them, The LORD look upon you, and judge; because ye have made our savour to be ab- + Heb. to horred in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of his servants, to put a sword in their hand to slay us.

22 And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Lord, wherefore hast thou so evil intreated 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 deli- Heb. delivered thy people at all.

vering thou hast not delivered.

EXODUS VI.

1 God reneweth his promise by his name JEHOVAH. 14 The genealogy of Reuben, 15 of Simeon, 16 of Levi, of whom came Moses and Aaron.

1 Then the LORD said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh : for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land.

2 And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the LORD:

3 And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto