1._Then the Lord said unto Moses. _Moses was indeed unworthy of receiving so kind and gentle a reply from God; but the Father of all goodness of His infinite mercy pardoned both the sins of Moses and of the people, that He might effect the deliverance which he had determined. Yet He adduces nothing... [ Continue Reading ]
2._And God spake. _God pursues His address, that Moses may again uplift the fainting courage of the people. Moreover, He rebukes their distrust, by recalling the memory of His covenant; for if this had been duly impressed upon their minds, they would have been much more firm in their expectation of... [ Continue Reading ]
4._And I have also established my covenant. _The hope of the deliverance which He had formerly promised, and which the Patriarchs had expected, He confirms by alluding to the covenant, as I have just above said; and the particle גם, _gam_, which is twice repeated, is, in the first case, _causal_, in... [ Continue Reading ]
5._And I have also heard the groaning. _He assigns the reason why He so long had delayed to fulfill His promise, viz., because He would have His people sorely troubled, that He might more openly succor them in their affliction; besides, He chose that they should be unjustly oppressed by the Egyptian... [ Continue Reading ]
7._And I will take you to me. _The end of their liberation is here described in the continued tenor of His grace. For it would have been little that the people should once be redeemed from Egypt, unless, when redeemed, they had lived under the defense and guardianship of God. As, therefore, He had l... [ Continue Reading ]
9._And Moses spake so. _From this verse it appears that Moses is referring to the second message which he was commanded to bear. For they had before heard with great joy and approbation, and had expressed their thankfulness to God, that the time of their deliverance was come. Now Moses relates that... [ Continue Reading ]
10._And the Lord spake unto Moses. _Moses more clearly sets forth how indulgently God bore with the malevolent repulse of the people; the just reward of which would have been, that He should have suffered them to rot a hundred times over in their miseries, when they so obstinately rushed to their ow... [ Continue Reading ]
13._And the Lord spake unto Moses. _I translate it, “the Lord had spoken unto Moses;” because reference is here made to the commencement of his calling, and, therefore, the sense will be more accurately rendered by the _perfect past _tense; for he repeats, what he had already said, that he and Aaron... [ Continue Reading ]
14._These be the heads. _The object of Moses here is to testify to all ages the origin of his race, that none may doubt that, in the free departure of the people, the promise given to Abraham was completed. For if the Israelites had gone forth under any other leader, there might have been some quest... [ Continue Reading ]
16._And these are the names of the sons of Levi. _Because it was especially desirable to know the origin of Moses and Aaron, he refers to it at greater length, and more distinctly enmnerates the families which descended from the patriarch Levi; not to attribute any peculiar dignity to his own race,... [ Continue Reading ]
26._These are that Aaron and Moses. _It is not without a cause that Moses so often reasserts that their office was assigned to himself and his brother by the command of God, both that the Israelites may perceive that they were rescued from their deep abyss by divine grace, and that their minds may b... [ Continue Reading ]