Verse 20
His father's sister - דדתו dodatho. The true meaning of this word is uncertain. Parkhurst observes that דוד dod signifies an uncle in [1Sam 10:14]; [Lev 10:4], and frequently elsewhere. It signifies also an uncle's son, a cousin-german: compare [Jer 32:8] with [Exo 6:12], where the Vulgate renders דדי dodi by patruelis mei, my paternal cousin; and in [Amo 6:10], for דודו dodo, the Targum has קריביה karibiah, his near relation. So the Vulgate, propinquus ejus, his relative, and the Septuagint, οἱ οικειοι αυτων, those of their household. The best critics suppose that Jochebed was the cousin-german of Amram, and not his aunt. See Clarke's note on [Exo 2:1].
Bare him Aaron and Moses - The Samaritan, Septuagint, Syriac, and one Hebrew MS. add, And Miriam their sister. Some of the best critics suppose these words to have been originally in the Hebrew text.
Verse 21
Korah - Though he became a rebel against God and Moses, (see [Num 16:1], etc)., yet Moses, in his great impartiality, inserts his name among those of his other progenitors.
Verse 22
Uzziel - He is called Aaron's uncle, [Lev 10:4].
Verse 23
Elisheba - The oath of the Lord. It is the same name as Elizabeth, so very common among Christians. She was of the royal tribe of Judah, and was sister to Nahshon, one of the princes; see [Num 2:3].
Eleazar - He succeeded to the high priesthood on the death of his father Aaron, [Num 20:25], etc.
Verse 25
Phinehas - Of the celebrated act of this person, and the most honorable grant made to him and his posterity, see [Num 25:7-13].
Verse 26
According to their armies - צבאתם tsibotham, their battalions - regularly arranged troops. As God had these particularly under his care and direction, he had the name of יהוה צבאות Yehovah tsebaoth, Lord of hosts or armies. "The plain and disinterested manner," says Dr. Dodd, "in which Moses speaks here of his relations, and the impartiality wherewith he inserts in the list of them such as were afterwards severely punished by the Lord, are striking proofs of his modesty and sincerity. He inserts the genealogy of Reuben and Simeon, because they were of the same mother with Levi; and though he says nothing of himself, yet he relates particularly what concerns Aaron, [Exo 6:23], who married into an honorable family, the sister of a prince of the tribe of Judah."
Verse 28
And it came to pass - Here the seventh chapter should commence, as there is a complete ending of the sixth with [Exo 6:27], and the [Exo 6:30] of this chapter is intimately connected with the 1st verse of the succeeding.
The principal subjects in this chapter have been so amply considered in the notes, that little of importance remains to be done. On the nature of a covenant (See Clarke's note on [Exo 6:4]). ample information may be obtained by referring to [Gen 6:18], and [Gen 15:9-18], which places the reader will do well to consult.
Supposing Moses to have really labored under some defect in speech, we may consider it as wisely designed to be a sort of counterbalance to his other excellences: at least this is an ordinary procedure of Divine Providence; personal accomplishments are counterbalanced by mental defects, and mental imperfections often by personal accomplishments. Thus the head cannot say to the foot, I have no need of thee. And God does all this in great wisdom, to hide pride from man, and that no flesh may glory in his presence. To be contented with our formation, endowments, and external circumstances, requires not only much submission to the providence of God, but also much of the mind of Christ. On the other hand, should we feel vanity because of some personal or mental accomplishment, we have only to take a view of our whole to find sufficient cause of humiliation; and after all, the meek and gentle spirit only is, in the sight of God, of great price.
Introduction
The dignified mission of Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh - the one to be as God, the other as a prophet of the Most High, [Exo 7:1], [Exo 7:2]. The prediction that Pharaoh's heart should be hardened, that God might multiply his signs and wonders in Egypt, that the inhabitants might know he alone was the true God, [Exo 7:3-4]. The age of Moses and Aaron, [Exo 7:7]. God gives them directions how they should act before Pharaoh, [Exo 7:5], [Exo 7:9]. Moses turns his rod into a serpent, [Exo 7:10]. The magicians imitate this miracle, and Pharaoh's heart is hardened, [Exo 7:11-13]. Moses is commanded to wait upon Pharaoh next morning when he should come to the river, and threaten to turn the waters into blood if he did not let the people go, [Exo 7:14-18]. The waters in all the land of Egypt are turned into blood, [Exo 7:19], [Exo 7:20]. The fish die, [Exo 7:21]. The magicians imitate this, and Pharaoh's heart is again hardened, [Exo 7:22], [Exo 7:23]. The Egyptians sorely distressed because of the bloody waters, [Exo 7:24]. This plague endures seven days, [Exo 7:25].
Verse 1
I have made thee a god - At thy word every plague shall come, and at thy command each shall be removed. Thus Moses must have appeared as a god to Pharaoh.
Shall be thy prophet - Shall receive the word from thy mouth, and communicate it to the Egyptian king, [Exo 7:2].
Verse 3
I will harden Pharaoh's heart - I will permit his stubbornness and obstinacy still to remain, that I may have the greater opportunity to multiply my wonders in the land, that the Egyptians may know that I only am Jehovah, the self-existent God. See Clarke's note on [Exo 4:21].
Verse 5
And bring out the children of Israel - Pharaoh's obstinacy was either caused or permitted in mercy to the Egyptians, that he and his magicians being suffered to oppose Moses and Aaron to the uttermost of their power, the Israelites might be brought out of Egypt in so signal a manner, in spite of all the opposition of the Egyptians, their king, and their gods, that Jehovah might appear to be All-mighty and All-sufficient.
Verse 7
Moses was fourscore years old - He was forty years old when he went to Midian, and he had tarried forty years in Midian; (see [Exo 2:11], and [Act 7:30]); and from this verse it appears that Aaron was three years older than Moses. We have already seen that Miriam their sister was older than either, [Exo 2:4].
Verse 9
Show a miracle for you - A miracle, מופת mopheth, signifies an effect produced in nature which is opposed to its laws, or such as its powers are inadequate to produce. As Moses and Aaron professed to have a Divine mission, and to come to Pharaoh on the most extraordinary occasion, making a most singular and unprecedented demand, it was natural to suppose, if Pharaoh should even give them an audience, that he would require them to give him some proof by an extraordinary sign that their pretensions to such a Divine mission were well founded and incontestable. For it appears to have ever been the sense of mankind, that he who has a Divine mission to effect some extraordinary purpose can give a supernatural proof that he has got this extraordinary commission.
Take thy rod - This rod, whether a common staff, an ensign of office, or a shepherd's crook, was now consecrated for the purpose of working miracles; and is indifferently called the rod of God, the rod of Moses, and the rod of Aaron. God gave it the miraculous power, and Moses and Aaron used it indifferently.
Verse 10
It became a serpent - תנין tannin. What kind of a serpent is here intended, learned men are not agreed. From the manner in which the original word is used in [Psa 74:13]; [Isa 27:1]; [Isa 51:9]; [Job 7:12]; some very large creature, either aquatic or amphibious, is probably meant; some have thought that the crocodile, a well-known Egyptian animal, is here intended. In [Exo 4:3] it is said that this rod was changed into a serpent, but the original word there is נחש nachash, and here תנין tannin, the same word which we translate whale, [Gen 1:21].
As נחש nachash seems to be a term restricted to no one particular meaning, as has already been shown on Genesis 3; See Clarke's note on [Gen 3:1]. So the words תנין tannin, תנינים tanninim, תנים tannim, and תנות tannoth, are used to signify different kinds of animals in the Scriptures. The word is supposed to signify the jackal in [Job 30:29]; [Psa 44:19]; [Isa 13:22]; [Isa 34:13]; [Isa 35:7]; [Isa 43:20]; [Jer 9:11], etc., etc.; and also a dragon, serpent, or whale, [Job 7:12]; [Psa 91:13]; [Isa 27:1]; [Isa 51:9]; [Jer 51:34]; [Eze 29:3]; [Eze 32:2]; and is termed, in our translation, a sea-monster, [Lam 4:3]. As it was a rod or staff that was changed into the tannim in the cases mentioned here, it has been supposed that an ordinary serpent is what is intended by the word, because the size of both might be then pretty nearly equal: but as a miracle was wrought on the occasion, this circumstance is of no weight; it was as easy for God to change the rod into a crocodile, or any other creature, as to change it into an adder or common snake.
Verse 11
Pharaoh - called the wise men - חכמים chacamim, the men of learning. Sorcerers, כשפים cashshephim, those who reveal hidden things; probably from the Arabic root kashafa, to reveal, uncover, etc., signifying diviners, or those who pretended to reveal what was in futurity, to discover things lost, to find hidden treasures, etc. Magicians, חרטמי chartummey, decipherers of abstruse writings. See Clarke's note on [Gen 41:8].
They also did in like manner with their enchantments - The word להתים lahatim, comes from להט mor lahat, to burn, to set on fire; and probably signifies such incantations as required lustral fires, sacrifices, fumigations, burning of incense, aromatic and odoriferous drugs, etc., as the means of evoking departed spirits or assistant demons, by whose ministry, it is probable, the magicians in question wrought some of their deceptive miracles: for as the term miracle signifies properly something which exceeds the powers of nature or art to produce, (see [Exo 7:9]), hence there could be no miracle in this case but those wrought, through the power of God, by the ministry of Moses and Aaron. There can be no doubt that real serpents were produced by the magicians. On this subject there are two opinions:
1. That the serpents were such as they, either by juggling or sleight of hand, had brought to the place, and had secreted till the time of exhibition, as our common conjurers do in the public fairs, etc.
2. That the serpents were brought by the ministry of a familiar spirit, which, by the magic flames already referred to, they had evoked for the purpose.
Both these opinions admit the serpents to be real, and no illusion of the sight, as some have supposed. The first opinion appears to me insufficient to account for the phenomena of the case referred to. If the magicians threw down their rods, and they became serpents after they were thrown down, as the text expressly says, [Exo 7:12], juggling or sleight of hand had nothing farther to do in the business, as the rods were then out of their hands. If Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods, their sleight of hand was no longer concerned. A man, by dexterity of hand, may so far impose on his spectators as to appear to eat a rod; but for rods lying on the ground to become serpents, and one of these to devour all the rest so that it alone remained, required something more than juggling. How much more rational at once to allow that these magicians had familiar spirits who could assume all shapes, change the appearances of the subjects on which they operated, or suddenly convey one thing away and substitute another in its place! Nature has no such power, and art no such influence as to produce the effects attributed here and in the succeeding chapters to the Egyptian magicians.
Verse 12
Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods - As Egypt was remarkably addicted to magic, sorcery, etc., it was necessary that God should permit Pharaoh's wise men to act to the utmost of their skill in order to imitate the work of God, that his superiority might be clearly seen, and his powerful working incontestably ascertained; and this was fully done when Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods. We have already seen that the names of two of the chief of these magicians were Jannes and Jambres; see Clarke on [Exo 2:10] (note), and [2Tim 3:8] (note). Many traditions and fables concerning these may be seen in the eastern writers.
Verse 13
And he hardened Pharaoh's heart - ויחזק לב פרעה vaiyechezak leb Paroh, "And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened," the identical words which in [Exo 7:22] are thus translated, and which should have been rendered in the same way here, lest the hardening, which was evidently the effect of his own obstinate shutting of his eyes against the truth, should be attributed to God. See Clarke's note on [Exo 4:21].