13. 'EytpSsic, rising) i.e. immediately. — TO vra/Siov, the child) Greater regard is paid to Him than to His mother.1 — tug civ, x.r.X., until, etc.) Thus the faith of Joseph was exercised ; all things were not revealed to him at once ; he was to await the time of returning [till it should please God to direct him to do so] : nor did the angel speak to him in the meanwhile. — 'Hpufys, Herod) of whom Joseph appears to have hoped well from the discourse of the Magi.
14. NvxTbg, by night) The benefit of night is great in times of persecution.
15. Ai'/ovTog, saying) This must be construed with rov vpopqrov, the prophet, and so also in ver. 17. — If A/yucrrou sKciXssa rbv viov Mov, out of Egypt have I called my Son) Thus Hosea xi. 1, in the original Hebrew, though the LXX. render it, !£ A/yinrrou [Mrsxd- Xg<ra ra r'sxva avrov, owtof Egypt have I called for (summoned) his children. Aquila,2 however, renders it a<?rb Aiyvvrov ixdXtca, rbv vibv Mou, From Egypt have I called [him] My son. The meaning of the passage in Hosea is, " Then when Israel was a child, I loved him : and from the time that he was in Egypt, I called him my son." This is evident from the parallelism of either clause. And the expression, "from the land of Egypt" occurs in the same sense in Hosea xii. 9, and xiii. 4 ; and from the Egyptian era, Israel began to be called the son of God ; see Exod. iv. 22, etc. And God is always said to have led forth, never to have called, His people out of Egypt. In like manner, St Matthew also, when interpreting the passage of the Messiah, and that, too, of Him when a child, connects the quotation with His sojourn in, rather than His return from, Egypt. — Cf. Isa. xix. 19. Jesus, from His birth, was the Son of God; and im mediately after His nativity, He dwelt in Egypt. It behoved, however, that the Messiah, as well as the people, should return from Egypt into the land of promise, for the same reason, viz., because God loved each of them, and called him His Son. The
1 And it is rather towards the name and kingdom of Christ, than towards any power external to Christ, that the world bears a grudge. — Vers. Germ.
2 A native of Sinope, in Pontus, of Jewish descent, who flourished in the second century of the Christian sera. Having renounced Christianity, he undertook to execute a new translation of the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek. -(I. B.)