Matthew Poole and continuators on Exodus 4

1 AND Moses answered and said, But behold, they will not believe me , nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, the LORD hath not appeared unto thee.

Which he conjectured both from reason, because the greatness and strangeness of the deliverance made it seem incredible, and their minds were so oppressed with cares and labours, that it was not likely they could raise them up to any such expectation; and from the experience which he had of them forty years before, when their deliverance by his means and interest at Court seemed much more credible, then now it did.

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.

(i. e.) Was really changed into a Serpent: whereby it was intimated what and how pernicious his Rod should be to the Egyptians.

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:

The dangerous part: whereby God would try Moses his Faith, and prepare him for the approaching difficulties.

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

An imperfect sentence, to be thus compleated, This thou shalt do before them that they may believe. See the like in 2 Sam. 5. 8. compared with 1 Chron. 11. 6. and Mark 14. 49. compared with Matth. 26. 56.

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 .

For whiteness. See Numb. 12. 10. Hereby God would suggest to them, how soon he could weaken and destroy the hard and strong hand by which the Egyptians Tyrannized over them. It might also be done to keep Moses humble and depending upon God, and to teach him and Israel to ascribe all the future Miracles not to the hand of Moses, which was weak and liable to many distempers, but wholly to the divine power and goodness.

Marginal references: 2 King. 5. 27.

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.

To the voice or word of God delivered and confirmed by the first sign. For Moses did not make dumb shews before them, but acquainted them with the mind of God therein. Or he saith the voice, to note that Gods works have a voice to speak to us which we must diligently observe. See Mic. 6. 9.

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.

Nilus, well known to Moses and called so by way of eminency, as Euphrates also is.

Heb. shall be, even shall be, i. e. it shall assuredly be so.

Marginal references: Heb. shall [illegible: 1 word] and shall [illegible: 1 word].

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 a slow tongue.

Not able to deliver thy message acceptably and decently either to Pharaoh or to the Israelites.

Since thy appearance to me thou hast made some change in my hand, but none in my tongue, but still I am, as I was, most unfit for so high an employment. But indeed he was therefore fit for it, as the unlearned Apostles, were for the Preaching of the Gospel, that the honour of their glorious works might be entirely given to God, and not to the instruments which he used.

Marginal references: Heb. a man of words.; Heb. since yesterday, nor since the third day.; chap. 6. 12.

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

By my spirit to direct and assist thee what and how to speak. Whence Moses though he still seems to have remained slow in speech, yet was in truth mighty in words as well as deeds, Acts 7. 22. Compare Matth. 10. 19, 20.

Marginal references: Mar. 13. 11. Luk. 12. 11.

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

By one who is fitter for the work than I am. Heb. send by the hand of him whom thou wilst send, i. e. shouldest send. For the future tense oft signifies what one should do. See Gen. 20. 9. and 34. 7. Mal. 1. 6. and 2. 7. Thou usest according to thy wisdom to chuse fit instruments, and to use none but whom thou dost either find or make fit for their employment, which I am not. Others, Send by the hand of Messias, whom thou wilst certainly send, and canst not send at a fitter time nor for better work. Moses and the Prophets knew that Christ would come, but the particular time of his coming was unknown to them. See 1 Pet. 1. 11.

Marginal references: Or, should[illegible: 1+ letters].

14 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against 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.

By my instigation and direction: which, because I see thou art still diffident, I give thee for a new sign to strengthen thy belief that I will carry thee through this hard work.

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 I will teach you what ye shall do.

(i. e.) Instruct him what to speak, and command him freely and faithfully to express it. See Isa. 51. 16. and 59. 21.

16 And he shall be thy spokesman unto the people: and he shall be, even he shall be to thee in stead of a mouth, and thou shalt be to him in stead of God .

To teach and to command him. See Exod. 7. 1.

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

Both those which I have already made thee to do, and others as I shall direct and enable thee.

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.

He pretends only a visit, and so indeed it was, and that no very long one neither: He knew that he should certainly return to this place, and there meet with his Father-in-law. So that he did not deceive him nor intended to do so, though he thought fit to conceal from him the errand, upon which God sent him, lest his Father or Wife should attempt to hinder or discourage him from so difficult and dangerous an enterprize. Moses shews here a rare example as well of modesty and humility, that such glorious and familiar converse with God and the high calling to which God had advanced him did neither make him forget the civility and duty which he owed to his Father, nor make him break forth into publick and vainglorious boasting of such a priviledge; as also of his piety and prudence, that he avoided all occasions and temptations to disobedience to Gods command.

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

This seems to have been a second vision, whereby God calls him forth to the present and speedy execution of that command which before was more generally delivered.

To wit, to take it away. See the like expression, 1 Sam. 22. 23. 1 King. 19. 14. Matth. 2. 20. God knew very well that one great cause of Moses his unwillingness to this undertaking was his carnal fear, though he was ashamed to profess it, and therefore gives him this cordial.

Marginal references: chap. 2. 15, 23.

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

Gershom, Exod. 2. 22. and Eliezer, Exod. 18. 4. Whom he intended to carry with him, but afterwards observing that they were like to be impediments to him in his great business, and being well assured that it would not be long ere he returned to them, he sent them back to Iethro, as may seem from Exod. 18. 5.

One Asse might be sufficient for her and her two Children, because one of them was but little, ver. 25. Or, Asse may be put for Asses, which changes of the numbers is very frequent in Scripture.

His Shepherds rod so called, partly because it was appropriated to Gods special service, to be the instrument in all his glorious works; and partly to shew that whatsoever was done by that rod was not done by any vertue in the rod or in Moses his hand, but meerly by the power of God, who was pleased for the greater confusion of his Enemies to use so mean an instrument.

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.

(i. e.) In thy power of commission, to be done by thy hand and the rod in it.

That he shall be unmerciful to all the groans and pressures of the Israelites, inexorable to the requests of Moses unmoveable and incorrigible by all my words and works. But God doth not properly and positively make mens hearts hard, but onely privatively, either by denying to them or withdrawing from them that grace, which alone, can make men soft and flexible and pliable to the Divine will, as the Sun hardens the Clay by drawing out of it that moisture which made it soft; or by exposing them to those Temptations of the World or the Devil which meeting with a corrupt heart are apt to harden it.

Marginal references: chap. [illegible: 1+ letters]. 3. and 9. 12. and 10. 1. and 14. 8. Deut. 2. 30. Isa. 63. 17. John 12. 40. Rom. 9. 17.

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

By my choice and adoption. They are most dear to me and reserved by me out of all Nations to be my peculiar people; and therefore I will no longer suffer thee to invade my right, nor them to live in the neglect of my service.

Marginal references: Jer. 31. 9. Jam. 1. 18.

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 .

I command thee: For saying is put for commanding, Lu[illegible: 1+ letters]. 4. 3. and 9. 54. and in 1 Chron. 21. 19. compared with 2 Sam. 24. 19.

By which Plague coming after the rest thou wilt be enforced to do what I advise thee now to do upon cheaper terms.

Marginal references: chap. 11. 5. and 12. 29.

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

(i. e.) Appeared to him in some visible shape.

Whom? Moses, spoken of and to before. He offered and endeavoured to kill him, either by inflicting some sudden and dangerous disease or stroke upon him, or by shewing himself in some threatning posture, possibly as the Angel did to Balaam and afterwards to David with a drawn Sword in his hand, ready to give him a deadly blow. The reason of this severity was not Moses his distrust of God, nor delay in his journey, nor the bringing of his Wife and Children along with him, (which it was convenient for him to carry with him, both that his father might not think he intended to desert them, and for the greater assurance and encouragement of the Israelites, when they saw that he exposed his dearest relations to the same hazards with them all) but the neglect of circumcising his Child, which also the Lord some way or other signified to Moses and Zipporah, as plainly appears, 1. From Zipporahs following fact upon that occasion. 2. From the Lords dismission of Moses upon the circumcision of the Child. 3. From the threatning of Death or cutting of for this sin, Gen. 17. 14. which, because there was now no Magistrate to do it, God himself offers to execute it, as he sometimes saith he would do in that case. And this was a greater sin in Moses than in another man, and at this time then it had been before, because he understood the Will and Law of God about it better then any man, and God had lately minded him of that Covenant of his with Abraham, &c. whereof circumcision was a seal; the blessings and benefits of which Covenant Moses was now going to procure for himself and for his people, whilest he remained under the guilt of gro[illegible: 1+ letters]ly neglecting the condition of it. Besides, what could be more absurd than that he should come to be a Lawgiver who lived in a manifest violation of Gods Law, or that he should be the chief Ruler and Instructer of the Israelites, whose duty it was to acquaint them with their duty of circumcising their Children, and, as far as he could, to punish the wilfull neglect of it, and yet at the same time be guilty of the same sin; or that he should undertake to govern the Church of God that could not well rule his own house, 1 Tim. 3. 5? And this was not onely a great sin in it self, but a great scandal to the Israelites, who might by this great example easily be led into the same miscarriage; and moreover might not without colour of probability suspect the call of such a person, and conclude that God would not honour that man who should continue in such a visible contempt of his Law. And therefore it is no wonder that God was so angry at Moses for this sin. Quest. How came Moses to neglect this evident duty? Answ. From Zipporahs averseness to and dread of that painful, and, as she thought, dangerous Ordinance of God, which she her self evidently discovers in this place; and the rather because of the experience which she had of it in her eldest Son. And as she seems to have been a Woman of an eager and passionate temper, so Moses was eminently meek and pliable and in this matter too indulgent to his Wife, especially in her Fathers house, and therefore he put it off till a more convenient season, when he might either perswade or over-rule her therein. Which was a great fault, for God had obliged all the Children of Abraham not onely to the thing, but to the time also, to do it upon the eighth day, which season Moses had grosly and for some considerable time slipped, and so had preferred the pleasing of his Wife before his Obedience to God.

Marginal references: Num. 22. 22.

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

Perceiving the danger of her Husband, and the cause of it, and her Husband being disenabled from performing that work, whether by some stroke or sickness, or by the terrour of so dismal and unexpected an apparition to him, and delays being highly dangerous, she thought it better to do it her self as well as she could, rather than put it off a moment longer; whether because the administration of that Sacrament was not confined to any kind or order of persons, or because, if it was so, she did not apprehend it to be so, or because she thought this was the least of two evils, and that it was safer to commit a circumstantial errour, then to continue in a substantial fault.

Which she took as next at hand in that stony Country, let none think this strange, for not onely this work, but the cutting off of that part, which some used to do [illegible: 1 word] commonly performed with a flint or a sharp stone, as is expresly affirmed by Hrodotus l. 2. Plin. 35. 12. See also Iuvenal Satyr. 6. and M[illegible: 1+ letters] tial. Epigram. 3. 18. But the word may be rendred. a sh[illegible: 1+ letters]p knife. See Ios. 5. 2, 3.

The words are very short and therefore ambiguous, and may be rendred, either thus, she cast her self at his feet, either 1. At the f[illegible: 1+ letters]et of the Angel, as a suppliant for her Husbands Life. But it is most probable that she directs this action and her following speech to the same person. Or 2. The feet of her husband, to make request to him that she and her children might depart from him and return to her Father, which also he granted. But neither was she of so humble a temper, nor at this time in so mild a frame, as to put her self into such a lowly posture to her Husband, nor was she likely to present her humble supplication to him to whom at the same time she shewed such scorn and indignation. Or rather thus she cast it at his, i. e. her Husbands feet: it, either the Child. But that being tender and now in great pain, she would not use it so roughly: Or rather the foreskin cut off, or at least the blood which came from it: Which she did in spight and anger against her Husband, as the cause of so much pain to the child and grief to her self.

This some think she spake to the Child, whom she calls her Spouse, as some late Rabbins affirm the Infant used to be called, when it was circumcised; though they bring no competent proof for this usage; or her Son, as the Hebrew word chathan signifies. But indeed that signifies onely a Son-in-law, as 1 Sam. 18. 18. which is not true nor proper here. Yet some make these to be the form or solemn words used in circumcision, thou art a spouse or a Son of bloods to me, i. e. made so to me by the blood of Circumcision. But it doth not appear that this was the usual form. Nor was it likely that she being a Midianitish, not an Hebrew Woman, and doing this suddenly and in a rage, should be so expert to know and so punctual to use the right form of words, when she did not use a fit and decent carriage in the action, as appears by her casting it at his feet. It is therefore more probable she spoke thus to her Husband. And because she durst not accuse God, the author of this work, she falls foul upon her Husband as the occasion of it, and as a costly and bloody Husband to her, whose endangered Life she was forced to redeem with blood, even the blood of her little Child, by which as he received a new Life after a sort, so she did anew and the second time espouse him; whence she calls him chatban which properly signifies a spouse, not an husband.

Marginal references: Or, knife.; Heb. made it touch.

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

Or. He, i. e. God or the destroying Angel sent from God, departed from him, i. e. from Moses, and removed the tokens of Gods indignation, the sickness or stroke laid upon him.

She both repeats and amplifies her former censure, and reproacheth not onely her Husband but also Gods Ordinance. Which perverse and obstinate spirit her Husband observing in her, and wisely forecasting how much disturbance she might give him in his great and difficult work in Egypt, he thought fit to send her and her Children back to her Father, as appears from Exodus 18. 1, 2, 3. In the Hebrew it is because of the circumcisions, to wit, of her two Sons, who possibly were both circumcised at this time, though it be not so expressed, but one being mentioned for an example, we are left to suppose the like concerning the other: Or, the circumcision of this Child brings the other to her remembrance, and so she upbraids him with both. Onely this doth more provoke her then it seems the other did, because she was forced to do this speedily, and with her own hands, and that to a tender Infant, whereas the elder peradventure was circumcised when he was more grown and strong and able to bear the pain. Let none think it strange that Zipporah should quarrel so much at circumcision, because the Midianites were descended from Abraham, and therefore were circumcised. For if they were so, it was done when they were grown up, about the 13th. year of their age, from the example of Ihmael, who was circumcised at that age. But indeed it is more likely that those people, being cast out of Gods Covenant as to the benefit of it, would and did in a little time throw off the sign of it, as having much more of pain and danger in it then of use and priviledge.

29 And Moses and Aaron went, and gathered together all the Elders of the Children of Israel .

All of them whom they could easily and quickly bring together: Or all that were in those parts. Of those Elders, see Exod. 3. 16. and 24. 1, 9. and Numb. 11. 16.

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

Thus beginning to execute the Office which God had put upon him, which was to be Moses his mouth or spokesman.

(i. e.) Aaron did them, as Moses his Minister, or by the command and direction of Moses.

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 .

(i. e.) Taken cognizance of their cause and condition and resolved to deliver them.

Acknowledging and adoring the kindness and faithfulness of God therein.

Marginal references: chap. 12. 27.