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- Amram and Jochebed marry, 1.
- Moses is born,
and is hidden by his mother three months, 2.
- Is
exposed in an ark of bulrushes on the riser Nile, and
watched by his sister, 3,4.
- He is found by
the daughter of Pharaoh, who commits him to the
care of his own mother, and has him educated as her
own son, 5-9.
- When grown up, he is brought to
Pharaoh's daughter, who receives him as her own
child, and calls him Moses, 10.
- Finding an
Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, he kills the Egyptian,
and hides him in the sand, 11,12.
- Reproves
two Hebrews that were contending together, one of
whom charges him with killing the Egyptian,
13,14.
- Pharaoh, hearing of the death of the Egyptian,
sought to slay Moses, who, being alarmed, escapes
to the land of Midian, 15.
- Meets with the seven
daughters of Reuel, priest or prince of Midian,
who came to water their flocks, and assists them,
16,17.
- On their return they inform their father
Reuel, who invites Moses to his house,
18-20.
- Moses dwells with him, and receives Zipporah
his daughter to wife, 21.
- She bears him a son
whom he calls Gershom, 22.
- The children of
Israel, grievously oppressed in Egypt, cry for
deliverance, 23.
- God remembers his covenant
with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and hears their
prayer, 24,25.
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Verse 1 . There went a
man
Amram, son of Kohath, son
of Levi, Exodus
6:16-20. A daughter of Levi, Jochebed, sister
to Kohath, and consequently both the wife and aunt of
her husband Amram, Exodus
6:20;; Numbers
26:59. Such marriages were at this time lawful,
though they were afterwards forbidden, Leviticus
18:12. But it is possible that daughter of
Levi means no more than a descendant of that family,
and that probably Amram and Jochebed were only cousin
germans. As a new law was to be given and a
new priesthood formed, God chose a religious
family out of which the lawgiver and the
high priest were both to spring.
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Verse 2 . Bare a
son
This certainly was not her first
child, for Aaron was fourscore and three years
old when Moses was but fourscore, see Exodus
7:7: and there was a sister, probably Miriam, who
was older than either; see below, Exodus
2:4, and see ; Numbers
26:59. Miriam and Aaron had no doubt been both born
before the decree was passed for the destruction of the
Hebrew male children, mentioned in the preceding
chapter.
Goodly child
The text simply says ki tob hu, that he
was good, which signifies that he was not only a
perfect, well-formed child, but that he was very
beautiful; hence the Septuagint translate the
place, (οις ),
Seeing him to be
beautiful, which St. Stephen interprets, ηναστειοςτω
θεω, He was comely to God, or divinely
beautiful. This very circumstance was wisely
ordained by the kind providence of God to be one means
of his preservation. Scarcely any thing interests the
heart more than the sight of a lovely babe in distress.
His beauty would induce even his parents to double their
exertions to save him, and was probably the sole motive
which led the Egyptian princess to take such particular
care of him, and to educate him as her own, which in all
likelihood she would not have done had he been only an
ordinary child.
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Verse 3 . An ark of
bulrushes
tebath gome, a small
boat or basket made of the Egyptian reed called
papyrus, so famous in all antiquity. This plant
grows on the banks of the Nile, and in marshy grounds;
the stalk rises to the height of six or seven
cubits above the water, is triangular, and
terminates in a crown of small filaments resembling
hair, which the ancients used to compare to a thyrsus.
This reed was of the greatest use to the inhabitants of
Egypt, the pith contained in the stalk serving them for
food, and the woody part to build vessels with; which
vessels frequently appear on engraved stones and other
monuments of Egyptian antiquity. For this purpose they
made it up like rushes into bundles, and by tying them
together gave their vessels the necessary figure and
solidity. "The vessels of bulrushes or papyrus," says
Dr. Shaw, "were no other than large fabrics of the same
kind with that of Moses, Exodus
2:3, which from the late introduction of planks and
stronger materials are now laid aside." Thus
Pliny, lib. vi., cap. 16, takes notice of the
naves papyraceas armamentaque Nili, "ships made
of papyrus and the equipments of the Nile:" and lib.
xiii., cap. 11, he observes, Ex ipsa quidem papyro
navigia texunt: "Of the papyrus itself they
construct sailing vessels." Herodotus and
Diodorus have recorded the same fact; and among
the poets, Lucan, lib. iv., ver. 136:
Conseritur bibula Memphitis cymba papyro, "The
Memphian or Egyptian boat is constructed from the
soaking papyrus." The epithet bibula is
particularly remarkable, as corresponding with great
exactness to the nature of the plant, and to its Hebrew
name gome, which signifies to soak, to
drink up. See Parkhurst sub voce.
She laid it in the
flags
Not willing to trust it in the
stream for fear of a disaster; and probably
choosing the place to which the Egyptian princess was
accustomed to come for the purpose specified in the note
on the following verse.
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Verse 5 . And the daughter of
Pharaoh
Josephus calls her
Thermuthis, and says that "the ark was borne
along by the current, and that she sent one that could
swim after it; that she was struck with the figure and
uncommon beauty of the child; that she inquired for a
nurse, but he having refused the breasts of several, and
his sister proposing to bring a Hebrew nurse, his own
mother was procured." But all this is in Josephus's
manner, as well as the long circumstantial
dream that he gives to Amram concerning the
future greatness of Moses, which cannot be considered in
any other light than that of a fable, and not
even a cunningly devised one.
To wash herself at
the river
Whether the daughter of
Pharaoh went to bathe in the river through motives of
pleasure, health, or religion, or whether she bathed at
all, the text does not specify. It is merely stated by
the sacred writer that she went down to the
river to WASH; for the word herself is not in
the original. Mr. Harmer, Observat., vol. iii., p. 529,
is of opinion that the time referred to above was that
in which the Nile begins to rise; and as the
dancing girls in Egypt are accustomed now to plunge
themselves into the river at its rising, by which act
they testify their gratitude for the inestimable
blessing of its inundations, so it might have been
formerly; and that Pharaoh's daughter was now coming
down to the river on a similar account. I see no
likelihood in all this. If she washed herself at all, it
might have been a religious ablution, and yet
extended no farther than to the hands and
face; for the word rachats, to
wash, is repeatedly used in the Pentateuch to
signify religious ablutions of different
kinds. Jonathan in his Targum says that God had smitten
all Egypt with ulcers, and that the daughter of
Pharaoh came to wash in the river in order to find
relief; and that as soon as she touched the ark where
Moses was, her ulcers were healed. This is all fable. I
believe there was no bathing in the case, but
simply what the text states, washing, not of her
person, but of her clothes, which was an
employment that even kings' daughters did not think
beneath them in those primitive times. Homer, Odyss.
vi., represents Nausicaa, daughter of
Alcinous, king of the Phaeacians, in company with
her maidens, employed at the seaside in washing her own
clothes and those of her five brothers! While
thus employed they find Ulysses just driven ashore after
having been shipwrecked, utterly helpless, naked, and
destitute of every necessary of life. The whole scene is
so perfectly like that before us that they appear to me
to be almost parallels. I shall subjoin a few lines. The
princess, having piled her clothes on a carriage drawn
by several mules, and driven to the place of washing,
commences her work, which the poet describes thus:-
(οις),
ODYSS., lib. vi.,
ver. 90.
"Light'ning the carriage, next they bore in hand The
garments down to the unsullied wave, And
thrust them heap'd into the pools; their task
Despatching brisk, and with an emulous haste. When
all were purified, and neither spot Could
be perceived or blemish more, they spread
The raiment orderly along the beach, Where
dashing tides had cleansed the pebbles most." COWPER.
When this task was finished we find the Phaeacian
princess and her ladies ((οις),
)
employed in amusing themselves upon the beach,
till the garments they had washed should be dry
and fit to be folded up, that they might reload their
carriage and return.
In the text of Moses the Egyptian princess,
accompanied by her maids,
naarotheyha, comes down to the river, not to
bathe herself, for this is not intimated, but
merely to wash, lirchots; at the time in
which the ark is perceived we may suppose that she and
her companions had finished their task, and, like the
daughter of Alcinous and her maidens, were amusing
themselves walking along by the river's side, as
the others did by tossing a ball,
(οις),
, when they as suddenly and as
unexpectedly discovered Moses adrift on the
flood, as Nausicaa and her companions discovered
Ulysses just escaped naked from shipwreck. In both the
histories, that of the poet and this of the
prophet, both the strangers, the shipwrecked
Greek and the almost drowned Hebrew, were rescued by the
princesses, nourished and preserved alive! Were it
lawful to suppose that Homer had ever seen the Hebrew
story, it would be reasonable to conclude that he had
made it the basis of the 6th book of the Odyssey.
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Verse 6 . She had compassion on
him
The sight of a beautiful babe in
distress could not fail to make the impression here
mentioned; See Clarke on Exodus
2:2. It has already been conjectured that the cruel
edict of the Egyptian king did not continue long in
force; see Exodus
1:22. And it will not appear unreasonable to suppose
that the circumstance related here might have brought
about its abolition. The daughter of Pharaoh, struck
with the distressed state of the Hebrew children from
what she had seen in the case of Moses, would probably
implore her father to abolish this sanguinary edict.
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Verse 7 . Shall I go and call a
nurse
Had not the different
circumstances marked here been placed under the
superintendence of an especial providence, there is no
human probability that they could have had such a happy
issue. The parents had done every thing to save their
child that piety, affection, and prudence could dictate,
and having done so, they left the event to God.
By faith, says the apostle, Hebrews
11:23, Moses, when he was born, was hid three
months of his parents, because they saw he was a
proper child; and they were not afraid of the
king's commandment. Because of the king's
commandment they were obliged to make use of the most
prudent caution to save the child's life; and their
faith in God enabled them to risk their own
safety, for they were not afraid of the
king's commandment- they feared God, and they had no
other fear.
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Verse 10 . And he became her
son.
From this time of his being
brought home by his nurse his education commenced, and
he was learned in all the wisdom of the
Egyptians, Acts
7:22, who in the knowledge of nature probably
exceeded all the nations then on the face of the earth.
And she called his
name
mosheh, because
min hammayim, out of the waters
meshithihu, have I drawn him. mashah
signifies to draw out; and mosheh is the
person drawn out; the word is used in the same
sense Psalms
18:16, and 2 Samuel
22:17. What name he had from his parents we know
not; but whatever it might be it was ever after lost in
the name given to him by the princess of Egypt. Abul
Farajius says that Thermuthis delivered him to the wise
men Janees and Jimbrees to be instructed
in wisdom.
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Verse 11 . When Moses was
grown
Being full forty years
of age, as St. Stephen says, Acts
7:23, it came into his heart to visit his
brethren, i.e., he was excited to it by a Divine
inspiration; and seeing one of them suffer
wrong, by an Egyptian smiting him, probably one of
the task-masters, he avenged him and smote-slew,
the Egyptian, supposing that God who had
given him commission, had given also his brethren
to understand that they were to be delivered by
his hand; see Acts
7:23-25. Probably the Egyptian killed the
Hebrew, and therefore on the Noahic precept Moses
was justified in killing him; and he was authorized so
to do by the commission which he had received from God,
as all succeeding events amply prove. Previously to the
mission of Moses to deliver the Israelites, Josephus
says, "The AEthiopians having made an irruption into
Egypt, and subdued a great part of it, a Divine oracle
advised them to employ Moses the Hebrew. On this the
king of Egypt made him general of the Egyptian forces;
with these he attacked the AEthiopians, defeated and
drove them back into their own land, and forced them to
take refuge in the city of Saba, where he
besieged them. Tharbis, daughter of the AEthiopian king,
seeing him, fell desperately in love with him, and
promised to give up the city to him on condition that he
would take her to wife, to which Moses agreed, and the
city was put into the hands of the Egyptians."-Jos. Ant.
lib. ii., chap. 9. St. Stephen probably alluded to
something of this kind when he said Moses was mighty
in deeds as well as words.
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Verse 13 . Two men of the
Hebrews strove together
How strange
that in the very place where they were suffering a heavy
persecution because they were Hebrews, the very
persons themselves who suffered it should be found
persecuting each other! It has been often seen that in
those times in which the ungodly oppressed the Church of
Christ, its own members have been separated from each
other by disputes concerning comparatively unessential
points of doctrine and discipline, in consequence of
which both they and the truth have become an easy prey
to those whose desire was to waste the heritage of the
Lord. The Targum of Jonathan says that the two persons
who strove were Dathan and Abiram.
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Verse 14 . And Moses
feared
He saw that the Israelites
were not as yet prepared to leave their bondage; and
that though God had called him to be their leader, yet
his providence had not yet sufficiently opened the way;
and had he stayed in Egypt he must have endangered his
life. Prudence therefore dictated an escape for the
present to the land of Midian.
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Verse 15 . Pharaoh-sought to
slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of
Pharaoh
How can this be reconciled
with Hebrews
11:27: By faith he (Moses) forsook Egypt,
not fearing the wrath of the king? Very
easily. The apostle speaks not of this forsaking of
Egypt, but of his and the Israelites' final departure
from it, and of the bold and courageous manner in which
Moses treated Pharaoh and the Egyptians, disregarding
his threatenings and the multitudes of them that pursued
after the people whom, in the name and strength of God,
he led in the face of their enemies out of Egypt.
Dwelt in the land of
Midian
A country generally supposed
to have been in Arabia Petraea, on the eastern coast of
the Red Sea, not far from Mount Sinai. This place is
still called by the Arabs the land of Midian or
the land of Jethro. Abul Farajius calls it
the land of the Arabs. It is supposed that the
Midianites derived their origin from Midian, the fourth
son of Abraham by Keturah, thus:-Abraham, Zimran,
Jokshan, Medan and Midian, Raguel, Jethro; see Genesis
25:1. But Calmet contends that if Jethro had been of
the family of Abraham, either by Jokshan, or
Midian, Aaron and Miriam could not have
reproached Moses with marrying a Cushite,
Zipporah, the daughter of Reuel. He thinks therefore
that the Midianites were of the progeny of Cush,
the son of Ham; see Genesis
10:6.
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Verse 16 . The priest of
Midian
Or prince, or both; for
the original cohen has both meanings. See it
explained at large, See Clarke on Genesis
15:18. The transaction here very nearly resembles
that mentioned Gen. xxix. concerning Jacob and Rachel;
see the notes there.
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Verse 17 . The shepherds-drove
them
The verb yegareshum,
being in the masculine gender, seems to imply
that the shepherds drove away the flocks of
Reuel's daughters, and not the daughters
themselves. The fact seems to be, that, as the daughters
of Reuel filled the troughs and brought their flocks to
drink, the shepherds drove those away, and, profiting by
the young women's labour, watered their own cattle.
Moses resisted this insolence, and assisted them to
water their flocks, in consequence of which they were
enabled to return much sooner than they were wont to do,
Exodus
2:18.
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Verse 18 . Reuel, their
father
In Numbers
10:29this person is called Raguel, but the
Hebrew is the same in both places. The reason of this
difference is that the ain in is sometimes used
merely as vowel, sometimes as g, ng, and
gn, and this is occasioned by the difficulty of
the sound, which scarcely any European organs can
enunciate. As pronounced by the Arabs it strongly
resembles the first effort made by the throat in
gargling, or as Meninski says, Est vox vituli
matrem vocantis, "It is like the sound made by a
calf in seeking its dam." Raguel is the worst
method of pronouncing it; Re-u-el, the first syllable
strongly accented, is nearer to the true sound. A proper
uniformity in pronouncing the same word wherever it may
occur, either in the Old or New Testament, is greatly to
be desired. The person in question appears to have
several names. Here he is called Reuel; in Numbers
10:29, Raguel; in Exodus
3:1, Jethor; in Judges
4:11, Hobab; and in Judges
1:16he is called Keyni, which in Judges
4:11. we translate Kenite. Some suppose that
Re-u-el was father to Hobab, who was also
called Jethro. This is the most likely; See
Clarke on Exodus
3:1.
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Verse 20 . That he may eat
bread.
That he may be entertained,
and receive refreshment to proceed on his journey.
Bread, among the Hebrews, was used to signify
all kinds of food commonly used for the support
of man's life.
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Verse 21 . Zipporah his
daughter.
Abul Farajius calls her
"Saphura the black, daughter of Rewel the
Midianite, the son of Dedan, the son of Abraham by his
wife Keturah." The Targum calls her the
granddaughter of Reuel. It appears that Moses
obtained Zipporah something in the same way that Jacob
obtained Rachel; namely, for the performance of certain
services, probably keeping of sheep: see Exodus
3:1.
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Verse 22 . Called his name
Gershom
Literally, a stranger;
the reason of which Moses immediately adds, for I
have been an ALIEN in a strange land.
The Vulgate, the Septuagint, as it
stands in the Complutensian Polyglot, and
in several MSS., the Syriac, the Coptic,
and the Arabic, add the following words to this
verse: And the name of the second he called
Eliezer, for the God of my father has been my
help, and delivered me from the hand of Pharaoh.
These words are found in Exodus
18:4, but they are certainly necessary here, for it
is very likely that these two sons were born within a
short space of each other; for in Exodus
4:20, it is said, Moses took his wife and his SONS,
by which it is plain that he had both Gershom and
Eliezer at that time. Houbigant introduces
this addition in his Latin version, and contends that
this is its most proper place. Notwithstanding the
authority of the above versions, the clause is found in
no copy, printed or MS., of the Hebrew text.
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Verse 23 . In process of
time-the king of Egypt died
According
to St. Stephen, 7:30,
compared with ; Exodus
7:7,) the death of the Egyptian king happened about
forty years after the escape of Moses to Midian.
The words vayehi baiyamim harabbim hahem,
which we translate And it came to pass in process
of time, signify, And it was in many days from
these that the king, supposes this king to have been
Ramesses Miamun, who was succeeded by his son
Amenophis, who was drowned in the Red Sea when pursuing
the Israelites, but Abul Farajius says it was
Amunfathis, (Amenophis,) he who made the cruel
edict against the Hebrew children.
Some suppose that Moses wrote the book of Job during
the time he sojourned in Midian, and also the book of
Genesis. See the preface to the book of Job, where this
subject is considered.
Sighed by reason of the
bondage
For the nature of their
bondage, See Clarke on Exodus
1:14.
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Verse 24 . God remembered his
covenant
God's covenant is God's
engagement; he had promised to Abraham, to Isaac, and to
Jacob, to give their posterity a land flowing with milk
and honey, are now under the most oppressive bondage,
and this was the most proper time for God to show them
his mercy and power in fulfilling his promise. This is
all that is meant by God's remembering his
covenant, for it was now that he began to give it
its effect.
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Verse 25 . And God had respect
unto them.
vaiyeda
Elohim, God knew them, i.e., he
approved of them, and therefore it is said that
their cry came up before God, and he heard their
groaning. The word yada, to know, in the
Hebrew Bible, as well as (οις),
in the Greek Testament,
is frequently used in the sense of approving; and
because God knew-had respect for and
approved of, them, therefore he was determined to
deliver them. For Elohim, GOD, in the last clause
of this verse, Houbigant reads aleyhem, UPON
THEM, which is countenanced by the Vulgate,
Septuagint, Chaldee, Coptic, and Arabic, and
appears to have been the original reading. The
difference in the original consists in the interchange
of two letters, the yod and he. Our
translators insert unto them, in order to make up
that sense which this various reading gives without
trouble.
THE farther we proceed in the sacred writings, the
more the history both of the grace and
providence of God opens to our view. He ever
cares for his creatures, and is mindful of his promise.
The very means made use of to destroy his work are, in
his hands, the instruments of its accomplishment.
Pharaoh orders the male children of the Hebrews to be
thrown into the river; Moses, who was thus exposed, is
found by his own daughter, brought up as her own son,
and from his Egyptian education becomes much better
qualified for the great work to which God had called
him; and his being obliged to leave Egypt was
undoubtedly a powerful means to wean his heart from a
land in which he had at his command all the advantages
and luxuries of life. His sojourning also in a strange
land, where he was obliged to earn his bread by a very
painful employment, fitted him for the perilous journey
he was obliged to take in the wilderness, and enabled
him to bear the better the privations to which he was in
consequence exposed.
The bondage of the Israelites was also wisely
permitted, that they might with less reluctance leave a
country where they had suffered the greatest oppression
and indignities. Had they not suffered severely
previously to their departure, there is much reason to
believe that no inducements could have been sufficient
to have prevailed on them to leave it. And yet their
leaving it was of infinite consequence, in the order
both of grace and providence, as it was indispensably
necessary that they should be a people separated from
all the rest of the world, that they might see the
promises of God fulfilled under their own eyes, and thus
have the fullest persuasion that their law was Divine,
their prophets inspired by the Most High, and that the
Messiah came according to the prophecies before
delivered concerning him.
From the example of Pharaoh's daughter, (See Clarke
on Exodus
2:5.) and the seven daughters of Jethro, 2:16,)
we learn that in the days of primitive simplicity, and
in this respect the best days, the children,
particularly the daughters of persons in the highest
ranks in life, were employed in the most laborious
offices. Kings' daughters performed the office of the
laundress to their own families; and the
daughters of princes tended and watered the flocks. We
have seen similar instances in the case of
Rebekah and Rachel; and we cannot be too
pointed in calling the attention of modern delicate
females, who are not only above serving their own
parents and family, but even their own selves: the
consequence of which is, they have neither vigour nor
health; their growth, for want of healthy exercise, is
generally cramped; their natural powers are prematurely
developed, and their whole course is rather an apology
for living, than a state of effective life. Many of
these live not out half their days, and their offspring,
when they have any, is more feeble than themselves; so
that the race of man where such preposterous conduct is
followed (and where is it not followed?) is in a state
of gradual deterioration. Parents who wish to fulfil the
intention of God and nature, will doubtless see it their
duty to bring up their children on a different plan. A
worse than the present can scarcely be found out.
Afflictions, under the direction of God's
providence and the influence of his grace, are often the
means of leading men to pray to and acknowledge God, who
in the time of their prosperity hardened their necks
from his fear. When the Israelites were sorely
oppressed, they began to pray. If the cry of oppression
had not been among them, probably the cry for mercy had
not been heard. Though afflictions, considered in
themselves, can neither atone for sin nor improve the
moral state of the soul, yet God often uses them as
means to bring sinners to himself, and to quicken those
who, having already escaped the pollutions of the world,
were falling again under the influence of an earthly
mind. Of many millions besides David it may truly be
said, Before they were afflicted they went astray.
• Key
Copyright Statement
The Adam Clarke Commentary is a derivative
of an electronic edition pExpaExd by GodRules.net.
Bibliography
Information
Clarke, Adam.
"Commentary on Exodus 2". "The Adam Clarke
Commentary".
<http://www.studylight.org/com/acc/view.cgi?book=ex&chapter=002>.
1832.
|
