Observations on the EXODUS. preceding chapter. 5. That wherever it is first propagated, it must be done by craft and fraud. 6. That when intrusted to many persons, it cannot be long concealed. them in the desert. But Jethro chose rather to return | contain some palpable falsities, which will discover the to his own country, where probably his family were so falsity of all the rest. settled and circumstanced that they could not be conveniently removed, and it was more his duty to stay with them, to assist them with his counsel and advice, than to travel with the Israelites. Many others might be found that could be eyes to the Hebrews in the desert, but no man could be found capable of being a father to his family, but himself. It is well to labour for the public good, but our own families are the first claimants on our care, attention, and time. He who neglects his own household on pretence of labouring even for the good of the public, has surely denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel. Ir is strange that after this we hear no more of Zipporah! Why is she forgotten? Merely because she was the wife of Moses; for he chose to conduct himself so that to the remotest ages there should be the utmost proofs of his disinterestedness. While multitudes of the families of Israel are celebrated and dignified, his own he writes in the dust. He had no interest but that of God and his people; to promote this, he employed his whole time and his uncommon talents. His body, his soul, his whole life, were a continual offering to God. They were always on the Divine altar; and God had from his creature all the praise, glory, and honour that a creature could possibly give. Like his great antitype, he went about doing good; and God was with him. The zeal of God's house consumed him, for in that house, in all its concerns, we have the testimony of God himself that he was faithful, Heb. iii. 2; and a higher character was never given, nor can be given of any governor, sacred or civil. He made no provision even for his own sons, Gershom and Eliezer; they and their families were incorporated with the Levites, 1 Chron. xxiii. 14, and had no higher employment than that of taking care of the tabernacle and the tent, Num. iii. 21-26, and merely to serve at the tabernacle and to carry burdens, Num. iv. 24-28. No history, sacred or profane, has been able to produce a complete parallel to the disinterestedness of Moses. This one consideration is sufficient to refute every charge of imposture brought against him and his laws. There never was an imposture in the world (says Dr. PRIDEAUX, Letter to the Deists) that had not the following characters: 1. It must always have for its end some carnal interest. 2. It can have none but wicked men for its authors. 3. Both of these must necessarily appear in the very contexture of the imposture itself. 1. The keenest-eyed adversary of Moses has never been able to fix on him any carnal interest. No gratification of sensual passions, no accumulation of wealth, no aggrandizement of his family or relatives, no pursuit of worldly honour, has ever been laid to his charge. 2. His life was unspotted, and all his actions the offspring of the purest benevolence. 3. As his own hands were pure, so were the hands of those whom he associated with himself in the work. 4. No palpable falsity has ever been detected in his writings, though they have for their subject the most complicate, abstruse, and difficult topics that ever came under the pen of man. 5. No craft, no fraud, not even what one of his own countrymen thought he might lawfully use, innocent guile, because he had to do with a people greatly degraded and grossly stupid, can be laid to his charge. His conduct was as open as the day; and though continually watched by a people who were ever ready to murmur and rebel, and industrious to find an excuse for their repeated seditious conduct, yet none could be found either in his spirit, private life, or public conduct. 6. None ever came after to say, “We have joined with Moses in a plot, we have feigned a Divine authority and mission, we have succeeded in our innocent imposture, and now the mask may be laid aside." The whole work proved itself so fully to be of God, that even the person who might wish to discredit Moses and his mission, could find no ground of this kind to stand on. The ten plagues of Egypt, the passage of the Red Sea, the destruction of the king of Egypt and his immense host, the quails, the rock of Horeb, the supernatural supply by the forty years' manna, the continual miracle of the Sabbath, on which the preceding day's manna kept good, though, if thus kept, it became putrid on any other day, together with the constantly attending supernatural cloud, in its threefold office of a guide by day, a light by night, and a covering from the ardours of the sun, all, all invincibly proclaim that God brought out this people from Egypt; that Moses was the man of God, chosen by him, and fully accredited in his mission; and that the laws and statutes which he gave were the offspring of the wisdom and goodness of Him who is the Father of Lights, the fountain of truth and justice, and the continual and unbounded benefactor of the human 4. That it can never be so framed, that it will not race. CHAPTER XIX. The children of Israel, having departed from Rephidim, come to the wilderness of Sinai in the third month, 1, 2. Moses goes up into the mount to God, and receives a message which he is to deliver to the people, 3-6. He returns and delivers it to the people before the elders, 7. The people promise obedience, 8. The Lord proposes to meet Moses in the cloud, 9. He commands him to sanctify the people, and promises to come down visibly on Mount Sinai on the third day, 10, 11. He commands him also to set bounds, to prevent the people or any of the cattle from touching the mount, on pain of being stoned or shot through The people come to Sinai. CHAP. XIX. Moses goes up into the moun with a dart, 12, 13. Moses goes down and delivers this message, 14, 15. The third day is ushered in with the appearance of the thick cloud upon the mount, and with thunders, lightning, and the sound of a trumpet; at which the people are greatly terrified, 16. Moses brings forth the people out of the camp to meet with God, 17. Mount Sinai is enveloped with smoke and fire, 18. After the trumpet had sounded long and loud, Moses spoke, and God answered him by a voice, 19. God calls Moses up to the mount, 20, and gives him a charge to the people and to the priests, that they do not attempt to come near to the mount, 21, 22. Moses, alleging that it was impossible for them to touch it because of the bounds, 23, is sent down to bring up Aaron, and to warn the people again not to break through the bounds, 24. down and delivers this message, 25; after which we may suppose that he and Aaron went up in the mount. b Moses goes to meet God 2 For they were departed from Rephidim, 4 Ye have seen what I did unto the Egypand were come to the desert of Sinai, and tians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, had pitched in the wilderness; and there and brought you unto myself. Israel encamped before the mount. 5 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice Chapter iii. 1, 12. Deut. xxix. 2,- — Deut. xxxii. 11; Isa. lxiii. 9;. Rev. xii. 14. Chap. iii. 4. h Deut. v. 2. NOTES ON CHAP. XIX. stance it might have received the name of Sinai or of bushes; for it is possible that it was not in a single bush, but in a thicket of bushes, that the Angel of God made his appearance. The word bush is often used for woods or forests. Verse 3. Moses went up unto God] It is likely that the cloud which had conducted the Israelitish camp had now removed to the top of Sinai; and as this was the symbol of the Divine presence, Moses went up to the place, there to meet the Lord. Verse 1. In the third month] This was called Si-Dhar Sinai, the mount of the bush or the mount van, and answers to our May. For the Jewish months, years, &c., see the tables at the end of Deuteronomy. The same day] There are three opinions concerning the meaning of this place, which are supported by respectable arguments. 1. The same day means the same day of the third month with that, viz., the 15th, on which the Israelites had left Egypt. 2. The same day signifies here a day of the same number with the month to which it is applied, viz., the third day of the third month. 3. By the same day, the first day of the month is intended. The Jews celebrate the feast of pentecost fifty days after the passover: from the departure out of Egypt to the coming to Sinai were forty-five days; for they came out the fifteenth day of the first month, from which day to the first of the third month forty-five days are numbered. On the 2d day of this third month Moses went up into the mountain, when three days were given to the people to purify themselves; this gives the fourth day of the third month, or the forty-ninth from the departure out of Egypt. On the next day, which was the fiftieth from the celebration of the passover, the glory of God appeared on the mount; in commemoration of which the Jews celebrate the feast of pentecost. This is the opinion of St. Augustine and of several moderns, and is defended at large by Houbigant. As the word chodesh, month, is put for new moon, which is with the Jews the first day of the month, this may be considered an additional confirmation of the above opinion. The wilderness of Sinai.] Mount Sinai is called by the Arabs Jibel Mousa or the Mount of Moses, or, by way of eminence, El Tor, THE Mount. It is one hill, with two peaks or summits; one is called Horeb, the other Sinai. Horeb was probably its most ancient name, and might designate the whole mountain; but as the Lord had appeared to Moses on this mountain in a bush, seneh, chap. iii. 2, from this circum The Lord called unto him] This, according to St. Stephen, was the Angel of the Lord, Acts vii. 38. And from several scriptures we have seen that the Lord Jesus was the person intended; see the notes on Gen. xvi. 7; xviii. 13;. Exod. iii. 2. Verse 4. How I bare you on eagles' wings] Mr. Bruce contends that the word w】 nësher does not mean the bird we term eagle; but a bird which the Arabs, from its kind and merciful. disposition, call rachama, which is noted for its care of its young, and its carrying them upon its back. See his Travels, vol. vii., pl. 33. It is not unlikely that from this part of the sacred history the heathens borrowed their fable of the eagle being a bird sacred to Jupiter, and which was employed to carry the souls of departed heroes, kings, &c., into the celestial regions. The Romans have struck several medals with this device, which may be seen in different cabinets, among which are the following one of Faustina, daughter of Antoninus Pius, on the reverse of which she is represented ascending to heaven on the back of an eagle; and another of Salonia, daughter of the Emperor Galienus, on the reverse of which she is represented on the back of an eagle, with a sceptre in her hand, ascending to heaven. Jupiter himself is sometimes represented on the back of an eagle also, with his thunder in his hand, as on a medal of Licinus. This brings us nearer to the letter of the text, where it appears that the heathens con Moses receives God's message, A. M. 2513. Sivan. A. M. 2513. indeed, and keep my covenant, 8 And all the people answerAn. Exod. Isr. 1. then ye shall be a peculiar trea-ed together, and said, All that An. Exod. Isr. 1 Sivan. sure unto me above all people: the LORD hath spoken we will for all the earth is mine: do. And Moses returned the words of the people unto the LORD. m 1 6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. 7 And Moses came and called for the elders of the people, and laid before their faces all these words which the LORD commanded him. i Deut. iv. 20; vii. 6; xiv. 2, 21; xxvi. 18; xxxii. 8, 9; 1 Kings viii. 53; Psa. cxxxv. 4; Cant. viii. 12; Isa. xli. 8; xliii. 1; Jer. x. 16; Mal. iii. 17; Tit. ii: 14.- k Chap. ix. 29; Deut. x. 14; Job xli. 11; Psa. xxiv. 1; 1. 12; 1 Cor. x. 26, 28. 1 Deut. xxxiii. 2, 3, 4; 1 Pet. ii. 5, 9; Rev. i. 6; v. 10; xx. 6. founded the figure made use of by the sacred penman, I bare you on eagles' wings, with the manifestation of God in thunder and lightning on Mount Sinai. And it might be in reference to all this that the Romans took the eagle for their ensign. See Scheuchzer, Musellius, &c. 9 And the LORD said unto Moses, Lo, I come unto thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and a believe thee for ever. And Moses told the words of the people unto the LORD. Lev. xx. 24, 26; Deut. vii. 6; xxvi. 19; xxviii. 9; Isaiah lxii. 12; 1 Cor. iii. 17; 1 Thess. v. 27.—n n Chap. xxiv. 3,7; Deut. v. 27; xxvi. 17.- - Ver. 16; chap. xx. 21; xxiv. 15, 16; Deut iv. 11'; Psa. xviii. 11, 12; xcvii. 2; Matt. xvii. 5.- -> Deut. ir 12, 36; John xii. 29, 30.- -9 Chap. xiv. 31. used it. Thus they should be both a kingdom, having God for their governor; and a nation, a multitude of peoples connected together; not a scattered, disordered, and disorganized people, but a royal nation, using their own rites, living under their own laws, subject in religious matters only to God, and in things civil, to every ordinance of man for God's sake. This was the spirit and design of this wonderful institution, which could not receive its perfection but under the Gospel, and has its full accomplishment in every member of the mystical body of Christ. Verse 7. The elders of the people] The head of each tribe, and the chief of each family, by whose ministry this gracious purpose of God was speedily communicated to the whole camp. nation, one people; firmly united among themselves, living under their own laws; and powerful, because united, and acting under the direction and blessing of God. They should be a holy nation, saved from their sins, righteous in their conduct, holy in their hearts; every external rite being not only a significant cereBrought you unto myself.] In this and the two mony, but also a means of conveying light and life, following verses, we see the design of God in select-grace and peace, to every person who conscientiously ing a people for himself. 1. They were to obey his voice, ver. 5, to receive a revelation from him, and to act according to that revelation, and not according to their reason or fancy, in opposition to his declarations. 2. They were to obcy his voice indeed, woon y shamoa tishmeu, in hearing they should hear; they should consult his testimonies, hear them whenever read or proclaimed, and obey them as soon as heard, affectionately and steadily. 3. They must keep his covenant-not only copy in their lives the ten commandments, but they must receive and preserve the grand agreement made between God and man by sacrifice, in reference to the incarnation and death of Christ; for from the foundation of the world the covenant of God ratified by sacrifices referred to this, and now the sacrificial system was to be more fully opened by the giving of the law. 4. They should then be God's peculiar treasure, ha segullah, his own patrimony, a people in whom he should have all right, and over whom he should have exclusive authority above all the people of the earth; for though all the inhabitants of the world were his by his right of creation and providence, yet these should be peculiarly his, as receiving his revelation and entering into his covenant. 5. They should be a kingdom of priests, ver. 6. Their state should be a theocracy; and as. God should be the sole governor, being king in Jeshurun, so all bis subjects Verse 9. A thick cloud] This is interpreted by should be priests, all worshippers, all sacrificers, every ver. 18: And Mount Sinai was altogether on a SMOKE individual offering up the victim for himself. A beau--and the SMOKE thereof ascended as the SMOKE of a tiful representation of the Gospel dispensation, to which furnace; his usual appearance was in the cloudy the Apostles Peter and John apply it, 1 Pet. ii. 5, 9; pillar, which we may suppose was generally clear and Rev. i. 6; v. 10, and xx. 6; under which dispensation | luminous. every believing soul offers up for himself that Lamb of God which was slain for and which takes away the sin of the world, and through which alone a man can have access to God. Verse 8. And all the people answered, &c.] The people, having such gracious advantages laid before them, most cheerfully consented to take God for their portion; as he had graciously promised to take them for his people. Thus a covenant was made, the parties being mutually bound to each other. Moses returned the words] When the people had on their part consented to the covenant, Moses appears to have gone immediately up to the mountain and related to God the success of his mission; for he was now on the mount, as appears from ver. 14. That the people may hear] See the note on chap. xv. 9. The Jews consider this as the fullest evidence their fathers had of the Divine mission of Moses; themselves were permitted to see this awfully glorious sight, Verse 6. And a holy nation.] They should be a and to hear God himself speak out of the thick dark The people are sanctified, and A. M. 2513. Sivan. S CHAP. XIX. the Lord appears on the mount. trumpetsoundeth A. M. 2513. long, they shall come up to the An. Exod. Isr. 1. Sivan. 14 And Moses went down from the mount 10 And the LORD said unto when the An. Exod. Isr. 1. Moses, Go unto the people, and 'sanctify them to-day and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes, 11 And be ready against the third day for the third day the LORD will come down in the sight of all the people, upon Mount Sinai. 12 And thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about, saying, Take heed to yourselves, that ye go not up into the mount, 16 And it came to pass on the third day in or touch the border of it: "whosoever the morning, that there were a thunders and toucheth the mount shall be surely put to lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, death; and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; 13 There shall not a hand touch it, but he so that all the people that was in the camp shall surely be stoned, or shot through; whe-d trembled. ther it be beast or man, it shall not live: ness for before this, as Rabbi Maymon remarks, they might have thought that Moses wrought his miracles by sorcery or enchantment; but now, hearing the voice of God himself, they could no longer disbelieve nor even doubt. Verse 10. Sanctify them] See the meaning of this term, chap. xiii. 2. Let them wash their clothes] And consequently bathe their bodies; for, according to the testimony of the Jews, these always went together. It was necessary that, as they were about to appear in the presence of God, every thing should be clean and pure about them; that they might be admonished by this of the necessity of inward purity, of which the outward washing was the emblem. From these institutions the heathens appear to have borrowed their precepts relative to washings and purifications previously to their offering sacrifice to their gods, examples of which abound in the Greek and Latin writers. They washed their hands and clothes, and bathed their bodies in pure water, before they performed any act of religious worship; and in a variety of cases, abstinence from all matrimonial connections was positively required, before a person was permitted to perform any religious rite, or assist at the performance. Verse 12. Thou shall set bounds] Whether this was a line marked out on the ground, beyond which they were not to go, or whether a fence was actually made to keep them off, we cannot tell; or whether this fence was made all round the mountain, or only at that part to which one wing of the camp extended, is not evident. wives. e b 17 And Moses brought forth the people 21 Sam. xxi. 4, 5; Zech. vii. 3; 1 Cor. vii. 5.- Psa. lxxvii. led to consider ishshah here as wha-esh trans- ; light אורה and אור ; a wing אברה and אבר we have .a speech אמרה and אמר strength ; and אמצה and אמץ -Buxt. See KENNICOTT's Remarks. Whosoever toucheth the mount shall be surely put to death] The place was awfully sacred, because the dreadful majesty of God was displayed on it. And this taught them that God is a consuming fire, and that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Verse 13. There shall not a hand touch it] bo, HIM, not the mountain, but the man who had presumed to touch the mountain. He should be considered altogether as an unclean and accursed thing, not to be touched for fear of conveying defilement; but should be immediately stoned or pierced through with a dart, Heb. xii. 20. Verse 16. Thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud—and the voice of the trumpet] The thunders, lightnings, &c., announced the coming, as they proclaimed the majesty, of God. Of the thunders and lightnings, and the deep, dark, dismal, electric cloud, from which the thunders and lightnings proceeded, we can form a tolerable apprehension; but of the loud, long-sounding trumpet, we can scarcely form a conjecture. Such were the appearances and the noise that all the people in the camp trembled, and Moses himself was constrained to say, "I exceedingly fear and quake," Heb. xii. 21. Probably the sound of the trumpet was something similar to that which shall be blown by the angel when he sweareth, by Him that liveth for ever, There shall be time no longer! This verse strictly forbids the people from coming near and touching Mount Sinai, which was burning with FIRE. The words therefore in ver. 15, wan Verse 17. And Moses brought forth the people-to nos ʼn al tiggeshu el ishshah, come not at your wives, meet with God] For though they might not touch the seem rather to mean, come not near unto the FIRE; mount till they had permission, yet when the trumpet especially as the other phrase is not at all probable sounded long, it appears they might come up to the but the fire is, on this occasion, spoken of so emphati-nether part of the mount, (see ver. 13, and Deut. iv. cally (see Deut. v. 4, 5, 22-25) that we are naturally 11;) and when the trumpet had ceased to sound, they 1 calls Moses to the top of Sinai. A. M. 2513. Sivan. 20 And the LORD came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of An. Exod. Isr. 1. the mount and the LORD called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up. n 21 And the LORD said unto Moses, Go down, a charge the people, lest they break through unto the LORD to gaze, and many of them perish. 22 And let the priests also, which come near to the LORD, P sanctify themselves, lest the LORD break forth upon them. 18; cxiv. 7; Jer. iv. 24; Heb. xii. 26.- k Ver. 13. Heb. xii. 21.- m Neh. ix. 13; Psa. lxxxi. 7. Heb. contest. See chap. iii. 5; 1 Sam. vi. 19. Lev. x. 3.-4 2 Sam. vi. 7, 8. might then go up unto the mountain, as to any other The directions given from ver. 10 to 15 inclusive place. show, not only the holiness of God, but the purity he requires in his worshippers. It was absolutely necessary that God should give the people at large some particular evidence of his being and power, that they might be saved from idolatry, to which they were most deplorably prone; and that they might the more readily credit Moses, who was to be the constant mediator between God and them. God, therefore, in his indescribable majesty, descended on the mount; and, by the thick dark cloud, the violent thunders, the vivid lightnings, the long and loud blasts of the trumpet, the smoke encompassing the whole mountain, and the excessive earthquake, proclaimed his power, his glory, and his holiness; so that the people, however unfaithful and disobedient afterwards, never once doubted the Divine interference, or suspected Moses of any cheat or imposture. Indeed, so absolute and unequivocal were the proofs of supernatural agency, that it was impossible these appearances could be attributed to any cause but the unlimited power of the author of Nature. It is worthy of remark that the people were informed three days before, ver. 9-11, that such an appearance was to take place; and this answered two excellent purposes: I. They had time to sanctify and prepare themselves for this solemn transaction; and, 2. Those who might be skeptical had sufficient opportunity to make use of every precaution to prevent and detect an imposture; so this previous warning strongly serves the cause of Divine revelation. Besides, the whole scope and design of the chapter prove that no soul can possibly approach this holy and terrible Being but through a mediator; and this is the use made of this whole transaction by the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, chap. xii. 18-24. Verse 20. The Lord came down] This was undoubtedly done in a visible manner, that the people might witness the awful appearance. We may suppose that every thing was arranged thus: the glory of the Lord occupied the top of the mountain, and near to this Moses was permitted to approach. Aaron and the seventy elders were permitted to advance some way up the mountain, while the people were only permitted to come up to its base. Moses, as the lawgiver, was to receive the statutes and judgments from God's mouth; Aaron and the elders were to receive them from Moses, and deliver them to the people; and the people were to act according to the direction received. Nothing can be imagined more glorious, terrible, majestic, and impressive, than the whole of this transac tion; but it was chiefly calculated to impress deep reverence, religious fear, and sacred awe; and he who attempts to worship God uninfluenced by these, has neither a proper sense of the Divine majesty, nor of the sinfulness of sin. It seems in reference to this that the apostle says, Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with REVERENCE and GODLY FEAR: for our God is a CONSUMING FIRE; Heb. xii. 28, 29. Who then shall dare to approach him in his own name, and without a mediator? Their being at first prohibited from touching the mount on the most awful penaltics, and secondly, being permitted to see manifestations of the Divine majesty, and hear the words of God, subserved the same great Verse 22. Let the priests also-sanctify themselves] purposes. Their being prohibited in the first instance That there were priests among the Hebrews before would naturally whet their curiosity, make them cau- the consecration of Aaron and his sons, cannot be tious of being deceived, and ultimately impress them doubted; though their functions might be in a conwith a due sense of God's justice and their own sin- siderable measure suspended while under persecution fulness; and their being permitted afterwards to go in Egypt, yet the persons existed whose right and up to the mount, must have deepened the conviction duty it was to offer sacrifices to God. that all was fair and real, that there could be no im-quested liberty from Pharaoh to go into the wilderness posture in the case, and that though the justice and to sacrifice; and had there not been among the peopurity of God forbade them to draw nigh for a time, ple both sacrifices and priests, the request itself must yet his mercy, which had prescribed the means of have appeared nugatory and absurd. Sacrifices from purification, had permitted an access to his presence. the beginning had constituted an essential part of the 398 Moses re |