24

not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings.

And Pharaoh called unto Moses, and said, Go ye, serve the Lord; only let your flocks and your herds be stayed: let 25 your little ones also go with you. And Moses said, Thou

must give us also sacrifices and burnt-offerings, that we may 26 sacrifice unto the Lord our God. Our cattle also shall go with us; there shall not an hoof be left behind; for thereof must we take to serve the Lord our God; and we know not with what we must serve the Lord, until we come thither. 27 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not 28 let them go. And Pharaoh said unto him, Get thee from

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added word for deep darkness is distinctive of a dread rayless blackness of obscurity. In intensity it must have been immeasurably more terrific as darkness than the ordinary samoom; though its duration, three days, extended to the longest duration of the chamsin (which is not so terrific as the samoom while it lasts). 23. His place: the Heb. here corresponds in form to the French idiom, chez soi. It is not necessary to think of every Egyptian as remaining fixed absolutely stock-still, as if literally frozen with horror. They may have blindly groped about their houses, though not daring to leave the anchorage of touching things familiar to them. (In deep snow, men may thus have to keep in touch with their house of refuge.) Dwellings: here abodes, though the word may mean districts. Was there light in Israel's land of Goshen? or only in their homes, with pitch darkness enveloping the land? In either case, the "wonder" was a wonder of wonders. 24. Called: by a messenger sent through that blackness. The little ones here of course means families (in this case, denominatio fit, not a majori but a minori). All Israel now had leave to go (cp. ix. 10, 11). Still, the flocks and herds are to remain. So that after all, Pharaoh would have hold upon Israel's chain; without flocks and herds, this people could not long remain away from Egypt. 25, 26. Thou must give: the thou here is emphatic. Not only Pharaoh must submit really though inwardly. There has to be a visible humiliation of his stubborn pride (cp. ix. 3). And there is a reason for this in the nature of the case. Not only Israel have to offer sacrifices to Jehovah. They do not as yet know how many or what these may have to be. And they must be amply provided, so as to be ready furnished with whatever offerings may be called for. The sacrifice here spoken of is-olah- —an altar-sacrifice; of a burnt-offering, consumed by flame so as to ascend (into heaven) (see on the altar, under xxviii. 1-8). The word for offering it, here employed, is only a general expression, “to make," "to do" (cp. "make worship,' ," "do duty"-as minister of religion). We know-thither. It does not appear that Israel, or Moses, really knew more of the divine purpose than was requisite for their part in carrying it out (De. xxix. 29-"duty clear, destiny dark"). Pharaoh had, as a creature, no right to look for more. 27. Hardened here again the stronger word (chasaq, see under vers. 1, 20). 28, 29. The scabbard thrown away. The tyrant's rage was now outrageous. The calm acceptance of his challenge by

me, take heed to thyself, see my face no more: for in that 29 day thou seest my face thou shalt die. And Moses said, Thou hast spoken well, I will see thy face again no more. Moses did not close this interview. From xi. 4-10 it appears that Moses, while duly resenting the outrage, did not discontinue his merciful warnings. But effectively God took Pharaoh at his word: the book was closed; there now remained only the reckoning and the judgment.

Exercise 24.

1. Why should darkness be terrific to a man? And why should it not? 2. (1) What is light? (2) Why is God said to be Light? (3) Who is the Sun of Righteousness, and how does that appear?

3. Give a case in the gospel history where men, with light around them, are dark within; and one in Paul's ministry where men, with darkness round them, are light within.

The

NOTE on the Goshen "light shining in a dark place." It is probably better not to give way to the natural tendency to "spiritualize" the miracles. For that may result in allegorizing ourselves out of the feeling of their historical reality. And (2 Pe. i. 16-18) it is their historical reality, in rigorously prosaic fact, that makes them to be the fulcrum of a faith ascending into heaven. Perhaps would be a safer and more profitable exercise to sce in the supernatural facts what remains with us always in the homely familiarities of nature. Goshen light, for instance, whether of all Goshen luminous in a pitch-dark Egypt, or of every Israelitish dwelling luminous in a pitch-dark land of Goshen, is naturally suggestive of Christendom in an ungodly world, of Christian homes in a worldly society, or of a believing individual in a family of infidels (2 Co. iv. 4-6). But the intellectual interest of such comparisons, and the great spiritual fact which is the warranting basis of them, may occasion our failing to contemplate steadily, as a reality of history, the inexpressibly amazing physical fact that in Goshen there was light with pitch darkness around it, as the sea is round a divingbell where a living man breathes freely. And that extraordinary fact, again, may help us toward beginning to perceive how vast a thing is the ordinary light of day in the world, with the correlative gift of sight in man. It is not only that in simply being able to see, the poorest man has a treasure worth more than the wealth of empires. It is when we try to think what is the nature of the thing called light, which no man has ever seen, that we feel as if brought into a Presence, of which that wonder in the darkness of ancient Egypt was only a dim passing hint from the Eternal. That "handling" in the dark homes may remind us of a "handling" that is spoken of four times in the New Testament. It is always the soul feeling after God (nλagów). I. The nations (Act. xvii. 27), like the Egyptians, blindly "groping" for Him in creation. 2. The Israelites (He. xii. 20) knowing that they are near to Him, but not daring to "touch" the mountain of His presence. 3 and 4. Most wonderful (Lu. xxiv. 39; 1 Jn. i. 1), men "handling the person who is God manifested in the flesh. He, we learn, is "the light of the world" (Jn. viii. 12). And when we approach the matter on its natural side, and endeavour to think steadily what, in reality, is light, we are near the question, Who is Light?

CLOSE OF THE CAMPAIGN, Chaps. xi.-xiv.-In our "conspectus of contents we have represented the close as a military triumph; and in the Introduction the last plague is represented as itself summing up and completing the war in one great decisive Battle of the Exodus. In reality the effect of it was decisive and definitive as Lord Napier's veni, vidi, vici at Magdala, when poor Theodore's "empire" was ex

CHAP. XI. 1. And the Lord said unto Moses, Yet will I bring one plague more upon Pharaoh, and upon Egypt; afterwards he will let you go hence: when he shall let you go, he shall 2 surely thrust you out hence altogether. Speak now in the ears of the people, and let every man borrow of his neighbour, and every woman of her neighbour, jewels of silver, and jewels 3 of gold. And the Lord gave the people favour in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great tinguished along with his own life, as if by the mere will of the engineer commander. The effortless might of the Omnipotent is seen in this, that, with all the vast movement among Israelites and Egyptians, the real work of the deliverance came, like the kingdom of God in individuals, "without observation." I. No one saw the arm that struck the Egyptian first-born; nothing was operative in that most awful death but the mere will of the Lord of life. 2. The far greater deliverance, represented by the Passover, did not even make the sign" which the departing life had made, leaving evidence of the departure in the tenantless clay tabernacle. There was no such immediate visible result of that great act of sovereign grace, which purged the conscience of His people from dead works, to serve the living God. They were free; but their liberation was an action in the mind of God; and the fruit of it, in the service of a redemption life, was now, in the first Passover observance, only beginning to begin.

The last Plague-battle of the exodus (xi.). The disaster of the Red Sea is for Egypt simply a judgment in execution. The history of this tenth plague is given in the form of a prediction in the present chapter: the account of the fulfilment in chap. xii. being consequently brief and vague. Looking forward to the close of the action which we begin with this announcement, we perceive that the history of the whole movement extends over a few days, including, as it does, preparation of the Passover, as well as the mustering toward Succoth, and the movement which came to a termination on the safe side of the Red Sea. And we make the following note for guidance through what may be made a labyrinth of details.

NOTE on the external movement of the departure. Regarding the "objective point," the place of the Red Sea passage, there is a separate note in the Introduction; and also a statement regarding the change of direction, from the way which led toward the Philistine country, along the Isthmus of Suez, to the south and east, so as to place the Red Sea between Israel and Sinai. On Etham, "the border of the wilderness," nothing can be said beyond what is folded in that description, as explained in the Commentary. But as to Succoth, a point of great interest now is made by the identification of it with Pithom, of which Succoth was the secular name, Pithom itself being the priestly name.

1-3. Said: had said-in Heb. the same form of verb has the pluperfect and the perfect meaning. When-altogether: or, "when he shall let you go out hence altogether, he shall surely thrust you out." Borrow: see under iii. 22. Gave-favour: as promised, iii. 21. The men are to be borrowers : on the monuments the male Egyptians appear to be almost as much ornamented in their dress as the females. Moses-very great (see Introd. p. 55,

M

in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and 4 in the sight of the people. And Moses said, Thus saith the Lord, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt: 5 and all the first-born in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the first-born of the maid-servant that is behind the mill; and 6 all the first-born of beasts. And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none 7 like it, nor shall be like it any more. But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast; that ye may know how that the Lord doth 8 put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. And all these thy servants shall come down unto me, and bow down themselves unto me, saying, Get thee out, and all the people that follow thee: and after that I will go out. And he went 9 out from Pharaoh in a great anger. And the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you; that my wonders

on the Mosaic modesty). This, so far from showing that Moses was not the
writer of Exodus, rather goes to show that he was. He is not exalting him-
self, but explaining the state of things-how it came about that the Israelites
had such influence with the Egyptians. Perhaps no other Israelite would
have spoken of "the man Moses" with such a curious coldness or dryness.
Moses said (1-8): that is (close of ver. 8) to Pharaoh. This brings us back
to the point of ix. 29. Midnight: what midnight? Apparently some
days after this present interview. For between that and this there is the
preparation for the Passover. First-born (iv. 22, 23). Egypt had doomed
all the male infants of Israel to perish. Jehovah's doom of Egypt reached
only to the first-born (xii. 12). That was Egypt by representation: there-
fore the doom had to reach every class, even slaves and beasts. Maid-
servant-mill. The hand-mill had two horizontal wheels: one (the lower)
fixed, the other turned round by a handle, which might be managed by one
person using his two hands, or by two working together :-a slave toiling at
the quern (cp. Mat. xxiv. 41). In Ex. xii. 29, the sample of lowest con-
dition is the captive in the dungeon; the purpose of the samples is, to show
that no class was exempt. The great cry echoes ii. 23, which God heard
(iii. 7). Loud lamentation is characteristic of Oriental mourning for death.
Monumental Egyptians are singularly given to brooding upon the unseen
world. But the great cry did not come from such day-dreaming, but from
the most terrific real grief that ever pierced the heart of a whole people.
Move his tongue: or, point, as if in insolence of sharp-directed yelping: the
impudent mongrel pariah dog was for once to be respectful. That ye may-
Israel. There was a difference of Pharaoh's making: now there is one of
Jehovah's making, -the last first, and the first last. And all these go out.
Pharaoh's grandees shall come begging,
66 cap in hand." Come down: from
the royal court to the slave's hovel. In a great anger: in heat of wrath.
It is possible to "be angry and sin not.' In Moses we see a righteous
resentment of wrong-which happens to be, wrong against his own person

1

10 may be multiplied in the land of Egypt. And Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh: and the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go out of his land.

and office. There was the same resentment in the burning bush (Cp. iii. 3); for God is there. What now flashes out from Moses has (9, 10) been in him all along. 9, 10. The Lord said: Jehovah had said (cp. ver. 1). That my wonders: in order that my portents. Pharaoh's obstinacy was the occasion of their being multiplied.

Exercise 25.

1. Who wrote, "Let not the sun go down upon your wrath"? What bedfellow are they in danger of having who break that rule (see its context)? What other hero of his tribe had spoken to the same effect on a day of battle?

2. That the principle of indignation is God-like (Plato): show that it is so(1) from the word of God, (2) from the eyes of Christ.

3. What about "a Syrian ready to perish is thy father"?

NOTE on the midnight cry of Egypt.-See note on "extirpation," under xxiii. 33. Compare it with the cry, which from Egypt sounded so strangely to Europe, one night about the time of the birth of Christ,-" Great Pan is dead;" that is to say, the universe has not a living God to be its heart and soul. I. The grief and terror of the exodus for Egypt were the occasion of redemption for mankind, through the knowledge of that Living God who is despaired of by "the wisdom of the Egyptians." 2. The grief and terror helped toward Egypt's own deliverance from the mummy condition of dehumanizing separation of class from class, by means of a powerful common experience of a central fundamental human feeling, one touch of nature" which makes the whole world kin." 3. The grief and terror, the penal effect of a great act of justice, striking into the heart of heathenism where it was strongest, were fitted to prepare mankind for a new departure, toward the long forsaken Living God, into "a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness." The pain that was suffered at the time, and the abrupt termination of so many lives, are only a small part of what -to the same effect-is continually taking place in the actual history of mankind. The speciality on that occasion was, the supernatural introduction into human history of a new element, in such tragedy, of hope for mankind; through the operation of which, if "weeping endure for a night," yet "joy cometh in the morning"-of an eternal cloudless day. The blackness of darkness upon the career of Pharaoh, and those of whom he is the type, is brought vividly to view in the light of redemption. But it is not caused by the redemption; the redemption only brings it into view, and it brings that into view only because it is itself "a joyful light."

The Passover instituted (xii. 1-20). Of this institution a view is given in the Introduction, superseding the necessity of comprehensive exposition at the present stage. What now falls to be done is, to consider the historical origination of the institution in the light of the original historical surroundings.

The section 14-20 bears internal evidence of having been written or revised after Israel reached Sinai. But the whole record bears witness (ver. 1) that the Passover was instituted in Egypt, and that (cp. 1 Co. xi. 23) the terms of the institution were then and there delivered by Moses as from the Lord. The record also gives an account of the first observance of the feast in Egypt; which account is verified by details (e.g. ver. 11), in the manner of the observance that could have place only in Egypt on that one occasion. Chronologically