Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

A.C. 1491. for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants, that I might shew these my signs before him:

r Ch. iv. 21.

2 And that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son's son, what things I have wrought in Egypt, and my signs which I have done among them; that ye may know how that I am the Lord.

3 And Moses and Aaron came in unto Pharaoh, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself before me? let my people go, that they may serve me.

4 Else, if thou refuse to let my people go, behold, to mor

s Wisd. xvi. 9. row will I bring the locusts into thy coast:

*Heb. eye.

5 And they shall cover the face of the earth, that one cannot be able to see the earth: and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which groweth for out of the field:

you

6 And they shall fill thy houses, and the houses of all thy servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians; which neither thy fathers, nor thy fathers' fathers have seen, since the day that they were upon the earth unto this day. And he turned himself, and went out from Pharaoh.

7 And Pharaoh's servants said unto him, How long shall this man be a snare unto us? let the men go, that they may serve the LORD their God: knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed?

8 And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh and he said unto them, Go, serve the LORD your God: +Heb. who, but who are they that shall go?

and who, &c.

9 And Moses said, We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for we must hold a feast unto the LORD.

10 And he said unto them, Let the LORD be so with you, as I will let you go, and your little ones: look to it; for evil is before you.

11 Not so: go now ye that are men, and serve the LORD; for that ye did desire. And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence.

likewise naturally invoke those deities, who were supposed to have power over these destructive creatures. But their very deities could not stand before Moses. The winds they venerated were made the instruments of their destruction; and the sea, which they regarded as their defence against the locusts, could not protect them. An east wind (ver. 13) prevailed all that day, and all that night; this wind must have brought the locusts from Arabia, and borne them, contrary to their nature, over the Red Sea; which proved no barrier to their progress.

12 ¶ And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine A.C. 1491. hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts, that they may come up upon the land of Egypt, and eat every herb of the land, even all that the hail hath left.

13 And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind upon the laud all that day, and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts.

14 And the locusts went up over all the land of Egypt, and rested in all the coasts of Egypt: very grievous were they; before them there were no such locusts as they, neither after them shall be such.

15 For they covered the face of the whole earth, so that the land was darkened; and they did eat every herb of the land, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail had left: and there remained not any green thing in the trees, or in the herbs of the field, through all the land of Egypt.

ened to call.

16 Then Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron in Heb. hasthaste; and he said, I have sinned against the LORD your God, and against you.

17 Now therefore forgive, I pray thee, my sin only this once, and intreat the LORD your God, that he may take away from me this death only.

18 And he went out from Pharaoh, and intreated the LORD.

ed.

19 And the LORD turned a mighty strong west wind, which took away the locusts, and † cast them into the Red + Heb.fastensea; there remained not one locust in all the coasts of Egypt.

20 But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel

go.

CHAPTER V.

Institution of the Passover 1.

EXODUS XII. VER. 1-21.

1 The beginning of the year is changed. 3 The passover is instituted. 11 The

[blocks in formation]

1 AND the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying,

14 The account of the passover is put together (in Exod. chap. xii.) to connect the history of its institution with that of its observance. It is however evident from Exod. xii. 3, that the command for its observance was given on the tenth day of the month Nisan; and, in commemoration of this fact, the Jews were accustomed to select their victim for sacrifice four days before it was slain. By

A.C. 1491.

2 This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.

3¶ Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every

observing the arrangement of the events related in this fifth chapter, we shall more clearly discern the very wonderful manner in which the wisdom of Providence impressed the Israelites with a contempt and hatred of idolatry, and directed their attention, at the same time, to their future Messiah.

The eight plagues, which had now been inflicted upon the Egyptians must have convinced the Israelites of the vanity and folly of the Egyptian idolatry, and the certainty that their God was the only true God. While the effect of these eight judgments was still powerful, the people were ordered to prepare the passover. On the very day in which the command was issued, the plague of darkness began; while the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. Amid the silence, and the terror, of this fearful pause, they selected their victim, and made ready their passover. Time was afforded them for reflection on the meaning of those ceremonies with which their victim was to be offered. The lamb was a propitiatory sacrifice; and its blood was to be sprinkled upon the door, that the sword of the avenging angel might be turned aside from their families. Upon this sacrifice too they feasted; and the lamb was so to be slain, and so to be eaten, that they must have been conscious that their legislator was either acting from an arbitrary and useless caprice, or that each piacular rite and ceremony must have been ordained with some specific object. They could not have suspected their great prophet, at this terrible moment, of acting with caprice; neither is it probable that they would have enquired in vain concerning the object of each ceremony. They must then have seen, through the clouds and shadows of the typical institutions, the brightness of that truth, "Christ our passover is (to be) slain for us, therefore let us keep the feast." They must have known, that, by partaking of this feast, they entered into covenant with God, and that the sacrifice itself was exclusively mystical, referring to the future great sacrifice, the more perfect atonement, by means of faith in which they were to be delivered from a worse bondage than even this of Egypt. Such, (and many more of the same nature) were the reflections of the Israelites during the continuance of the plague of darkness. On the morning of the fourteenth, they prepare their victim for the knife: between the two evenings, that is, between the ninth and eleventh hours of the day, the very hour on which Christ died, the sacrifice is slain-the blood is sprinkled on the door post-the passover is eaten, and the Israelites, with their doins girded, their shoes on their feet, and their staff in their hand, ready for their journey, only await the signal to leave the land of Egypt. That signal is given : at midnight the firstborn are slain; and, amidst the universal distress, and agony of the Egyptians, the promise to the Patriarchs is accomplished, and the Israelites leave the land of bondage, with all the calmness and solemnity of a religious procession.-Vide Cudworth's True Notion of the Lord's Supper; Abp. Magee on the Atonement, vol. i. p. 309, &c.; Witsius Econ. fed. lib. 4. c. 9. s. 35, 58; Hales' Anal. vol. ii. p. 198; Lightfoot in loc. and vol. i. p. 707; on the two Evenings, vide (Pfeiffer Diffic. loc. SS. Cent. Prim. p. 225); for the last sentence of the note, vide Horsley's Bib. Crit. vol. i. p. 92; and Pfeiffer in loc. Cent. Prim. p. 229.

man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb A.C. 1491. for an house :

4 And if the houshold be too little for the lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb.

5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: 6 And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.

7 And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.

8 And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.

9 Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof.

10 And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire.

11 ¶ And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the LORD's passover.

12 For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will * Or, princes. execute judgment: I am the LORD.

*

13 And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass

destruction.

over you, and the plague shall not be upon you † to destroy + Heb for a you, when I smite the land of Egypt.

14 And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.

15 Seven days shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses: for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel.

16 And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done ‡ Heb. soul. of you.

17 And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread ;

A. C. 1491. for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever.

s Lev. xxiii. 5. Num. xxviii.

16.

[ocr errors]

18 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even.

19 Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land.

20 Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread.

CHAPTER VI.

Conclusion of the ten Plagues.

THE NINTH PLAGUE-THREE DAYS' DARKNESS 15.

EXODUS X. VER. 21-28.

21 ¶ AND the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the *Heb. that land of Egypt, * even darkness which may be felt.

one may feel darkness.

22 And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days:

a

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

1.

* Heb. into our hands.

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

25 And Moses said, Thou must give us *also sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice unto the LORD our God.

26 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 let them go.

15 The ninth plague asserted the same truths. The heavenly host were the favourite objects of adoration with the Egyptians. Yet neither sun, nor moon, nor stars, could preserve them from this supernatural darkness.

« PredošláPokračovať »