249. The coincident exposure of Moses on the banks of the Nile, and the rising of the river, makes it evident that the mother expected the rising water to float away the child. If we suppose her to have had the superstitious reverence, common among the Egyptians, for the Nile, we may conclude that she felt it safer to trust her child to the river god, than to give it over to the king's agents for destruction. It has been suggested that the capital of Egypt may have been located near the river, and it would be expected that the king would have some arrangement for bathing in the river, so as to avoid unreasonable exposure. That conjecture is a very natural one; but there is another that is very suitable to be placed beside it, viz: that what we might now regard as an unreasonable exposure, might not have been so viewed in the days of Moses. Another suggestion may not be out of place. Would the mother be likely to take her child, and expose him on the bank of the river, in the immediate vicinity of the palace, and where he could be distinctly seen from the bathing-house of the king?

250. What are called bulrushes are not to be understood of anything that bears that name among us. There is a reference here to the papyrus that has been so noted among that people. It was a shrub of great value. They used some portion of it for food. They wrought it into a thousand useful forms, not the least important of which was the construction of light boats, and of paper for writing purposes.

251. The daughter of Pharaoh had compassion on the child. Pharaoh himself might have had, if he dared. But he was the king of a great country, and was carrying out a measure that he thought was necessary to insure the safety and prosperity of his kingdom. We must not refer all the acts of oppression and cruelty, which we see under such circumstances, to a natural love of what is barbarous and inhuman. They are generally prompted by other considerations.

It may be presumed, however, that Pharaoh would not have indulged any, but his daughter, in the manner here indicated.

252. The suggestion to go for a Hebrew nurse, was a very natural one -not that a Hebrew child could not be nursed by an Egyptian mother-but the sister herself, being a Hebrew, (for she was known to be a Hebrew, but was not known as the sister of the child,) she would be more likely to obtain one from among her acquaintances.

At a later day, we learn that Moses had a sister, Miriam; and she may have been the one here alluded to, in which case we will have to regard her as being considerably older than Moses. Moses took his name from the circumstance of his being saved from the water. And the term is equally suitable, whether we derive it from the Hebrew or the Egyptian language.

SECTION IV.-SYMPATHY OF MOSES WITH HIS OWN PEOPLE. HE FLEES TO MIDIAN.

EXODUS II.

11. And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out unto his brethren, and looked on their burdens. and he spied an Egyptian smiting an Hebrew, one of his brethren.

12. And he looked this way and that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian, and hid him in the sand. 13. And when he went out the second day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together: and he said to him that did the wrong, Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow? 14. And he said, Who made thee a prince, and a judge over us? Intendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian? And Moses feared, and said, Surely this thing is known.

15. Now when Pharaoh heard

ses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian: and he sat down by a well.

16. Now the priest of Midian had seven daughters: and they came and drew water, and filled the troughs to water their father's flock.

17. And the shepherds came and drove them away: but Moses stood up and helped them and watered their flock.

18. And when they came to Reuel their father, he said, How is it that ye are come so soon to-day?

19. And they said, An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds, and also drew water enough for us, and watered the flock.

20. And he said unto his daughthis thing, he sought to slay Mo-ters, And where is he? Why is it

that ye have left the man? Call him, that he may eat bread.

21. And Moses was content to dwell with the man; And he gave Moses Zipporah his daughter.

22. And she bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom; for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.

253. Though Moses was educated as the son of Pharaoh's daughter, it is plain that he knew himself to be a Hebrew, and felt a sympathy for his own people. That an Egyptian should smite a Hebrew, was what would be expected under the circumstances then existing. It was doubtless a habitual thing. The strange thing, connected with this affair, was, that one brought up at the court, should be displeased with such treatment toward the bondmen of the country.

254. Moses may be regarded as guilty of murder; but there are reasons for a different opinion. The ancient Egyptians had a law like this :

"He who should see a man killed, or violently assaulted, on the highway, and did not endeavor to rescue him, if he could, was to be punished with death.”* The case before us may not be exactly of the character here intended, but it is substantially of that kind; and had the victim been a Hebrew, and not an Egyptian, no notice would probably have been taken of it. The law, in that case, would have been a sufficient defence. But now the king seeks his life; and Moses is compelled to flee from the country.

255. Moses sat down by a well. That was the most suitable place to sit down, in that country. Water was exceedingly scarce and valuable. The wells were far separated; and when a traveller, in his journey, reached one, he was generally in a condition to rest and to enjoy the refreshing beverage. It will be observed here, that the same custom prevailed in Midian, that we found existing in Canaan, in the days of the patriarchs. The girls attended the flocks and watered them. At least, this was not unusual. Men also had charge of the flocks, as this passage shows. The strife

*Burder, Vol. III. p. 107.

between them and the daughters of Reuel, arose from the scarcity of water.

We may conclude that it was not simply out of regard to favors received, that Reuel had Moses sent for to enjoy his hospitality. It was a characteristic of that country. Moses called his son Gershom, for a reason given in the text. Most Hebrew children were

named from some striking circumstance connected with their birth.

SECTION V.-MOSES IS COMMISSIONED TO GO TO EGYPT AND DELIVER HIS PEOPLE FROM BONDAGE.

EXODUS II.

23. And it came to pass in process of time that the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried; and their cry came up unto God, by reason of the bondage.

24. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

25. And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto them.

EXODUS III.

1. Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the back-side of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.

2. And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.

3. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.

4. And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.

5. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet; for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.

6. Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.

256. The king of Egypt died. And yet soon after, he seems to be living; and Moses is sent to him, to demand the release of his people from servitude. It is an easy matter to make out a contradiction here. The Bible has very many contradictions precisely like this. In truth there is no contradiction at all. Though one king died, another took his place. And the one here referred to, seems to have carried out the same policy

as his predecessor. It will be remembered that it was now about forty years since Moses fled to Midian. It was eighty, since he was exposed on the banks of the Nile. It is, therefore, quite probable, that the king under whose reign he was exposed, and under whose reign also he fled to Midian, had been dead for some years. It is an interesting fact that one of the kings of Egypt, who reigned about the time of Moses, and who is thought by some to have been the one here alluded to, had a very long reign of nearly sixty years. 257. The people cried unto the Lord, and he heard Such language is quite common in the Scriptures. It is sometimes used because such were really the low conceptions of the people concerning God. It is sometimes used by those who themselves had no such views of God, but who thought best to accommodate their mode of expression to the common weakness of the people. It is also used as a mere figure of rhetoric. And finally it is sometimes employed as a literal expression of what appeared to be in dreams and visions.

their cry.

258. Moses kept the flocks of Jethro his father-inlaw. Then the daughters of Jethro did not always do this business. It was sometimes done by the men, as we had occasion to notice before. But why call the father-in-law of Moses by the name of Jethro, since he was called, a little farther back, by the name of Reuel? In another place he is called Raguel. These circumstances have occasioned some embarrassment to interpreters. One thing we may set down as certain. It is this:-No imposter, writing a book which he wished to palm upon the world as true, would have left a circumstance of this kind unexplained. But we can easily see how a man, writing the truth, and not looking for any discrepancies, or presuming that others will look for any, should pass over a thing of this kind, without explanation. It may be remarked of the two names, Reuel and Raguel, that the difference arises al