Exodus 2:1
A MAN ... A DAUGHTER OF LEVI - Amram and Jochebed. See Exodus 6:20.... [ Continue Reading ]
A MAN ... A DAUGHTER OF LEVI - Amram and Jochebed. See Exodus 6:20.... [ Continue Reading ]
BARE A SON - Not her firstborn; Aaron and Miriam were older than Moses. The object of the writer is simply to narrate the events which led to the Exodus, and he mentions nothing that had no direct bearing upon his purpose. A GOODLY CHILD - See the marginal references. Probably Jochebed did not call... [ Continue Reading ]
The ark was made of the papyrus which was commonly used by the Egyptians for light and swift boats. The species is no longer found in the Nile below Nubia. It is a strong rush, like the bamboo, about the thickness of a finger, three cornered, and attains the height of 10 to 15 feet. It is represente... [ Continue Reading ]
The traditions which give a name to the daughter of Pharaoh are merely conjectural. Egyptian princesses held a very high and almost independent position under the ancient and middle empire, with a separate household and numerous officials. This was especially the case with the daughters of the first... [ Continue Reading ]
SHE HAD COMPASSION ON HIM - The Egyptians regarded such tenderness as a condition of acceptance on the day of reckoning. In the presence of the Lord of truth each spirit had to answer, “I have not afflicted any man, I have not made any man weep, I have not withheld milk from the mouths of sucklings”... [ Continue Reading ]
HE BECAME HER SON - See the margin reference. His training and education was, humanly speaking, all but indispensable to the efficient accomplishment of his work as the predestined leader and instructor of his countrymen. Moses probably passed the early years of his life in Lower Egypt, where the pr... [ Continue Reading ]
WENT OUT UNTO HIS BRETHREN - At the end of 40 years. The Egyptian princess had not concealed from him the fact of his belonging to the oppressed race, nor is it likely that she had debarred him from contact with his foster-mother and her family, whether or not she became aware of the true relationsh... [ Continue Reading ]
The slaying of the Egyptian is not to be justified, or attributed to a divine inspiration, but it is to be judged with reference to the provocation, the impetuosity of Moses’ natural character, perhaps also to the habits developed by his training at the court of Pharaoh. The act involved a complete... [ Continue Reading ]
THY FELLOW - “Thy neighbor.” the reproof was that of a legislator who established moral obligations on a recognized principle. Hence, in the following verse, the offender is represented as feeling that the position claimed by Moses was that of a Judge. The act could only have been made known by the... [ Continue Reading ]
No Egyptian king would have left; such an offence unpunished. But the position of Moses, as an adopted son of a princess, made it necessary even for a despotic sovereign to take unusual precautions. THE LAND OF MIDIAN - The Midianites occupied an extensive district from the eastern coast of the Red... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PRIEST OF MIDIAN - Reuel Exodus 2:18. His name, and the detailed notices in Exodus 18, prove that he was a priest of the one true God who was known to the patriarchs especially under the name El. The great bulk of his tribe, certainly those who lived farther north and more closely in contact wit... [ Continue Reading ]
REUEL - Or, as in Numbers 10:29, “Raguel.” The name means “friend of God.” It appears to have been not uncommon among Hebrews and Edomites; e. g. Genesis 36:4, Genesis 36:10. If Reuel be identified with Jethro, a point open to grave objection (see Exodus 3:1), then Reuel was his proper name, and Jet... [ Continue Reading ]
AN EGYPTIAN - They judged from his costume, or language.... [ Continue Reading ]
Moses tells us nothing of what he may have learned from his father-in-law, but he must have found in him a man conversant with the traditions of the family of Abraham; nor is there any improbability in the supposition that, as hereditary priest, Reuel may have possessed written documents concerning... [ Continue Reading ]
GERSHOM - The first syllable “Ger” is common to Hebrew and Egyptian, and means “sojourner.” The second syllable “Shom” answers exactly to the Coptic “Shemmo,” which means “a foreign or strange land.”... [ Continue Reading ]
IN PROCESS OF TIME - Nearly forty years Acts 7:30. This verse marks the beginning of another section. We now enter at once upon the history of the Exodus. THEIR CRY CAME UP UNTO GOD - This statement, taken in connection with the two following verses, proves that the Israelites retained their faith... [ Continue Reading ]
REMEMBERED - This means that God was moved by their prayers to give effect to the covenant, of which an essential condition was the faith and contrition involved in the act of supplication. The whole history of Israel is foreshadowed in these words: God heard, remembered, looked upon, and knew them.... [ Continue Reading ]