Ilebrow mole child of whose birth ho bas cog- He made them hoUBeB, He blessed them by nisance. The object is o national one-to giving them children of their own, who grew secure the public eo.fety (see ver. 10): the up, o.nd gave them the comfort, support, and happiness which children were intender! to whole nation mo.y well be called upon to a.id give. There wae a manifest fitness in reward- in carrying it out. ing those who had refused to bring misery Ver. 15.-The Hebrew midwives. It ie o.nd desolation into families by grant.ing them questioned whether the midwives were really domestic happiness themselves. Hebrew women, and not rather Egyptian Ver. 22.-Every son that is born. The women, whose special business it was to attend words are universal, and might seem to apply the Hebrew women in their lo.hours. Kalisch to the Egyptian, no less than the Hebrew, translates, "the women who eerved as mid- male children. But they are really limited wives to the Hebrews," and assnmes tho.t they by the context, which shows that there had were Egyptians. (So also Co.non Cook.) But never been any question as to taking the life the names are apparently Semitic, Shiphrah of any Egyptian. With respect to the ob- being " elegant, beautiful," and Puah, "one jection sometimes raised, that no Egyptian who cries out." And the most natural render- monarch would possibly have commanded such ing of the Hebrew text is that of A. V. wholesale cold-blooded destruction of poor inno- Ver. 16.-The stools. The explanation fur- cent harmless children, it is to be observed, first, nished by a remexk of Mr. Lane (' Modern that Egyptian monarchs had very little regard Egyptians,' vol. iii. p. 142) is more satisfactory indeed for the lives of any pen;ons who were than any other. In modem Egypt, he says, not of their own nation. They constantly "two or three days before the expected time lllBSSacred prisoners taken in war-they put to of delivery, the midwife conveys to the house death or enslaved persons cast npon their the kursee elwi1adeh, a chair of a peculiar coasts (Diod. Sic. i. 67)-they cemented with form, upon which the patient is to be seated the blood of their captives, as Lenormo.nt says during the birth." A chair of the form intended (' Manuel d'Hist. Anc.,' vol. i. p. 423), each is represented on the Egyptian monnments. stone of their edifices. The sacredness of hnman Ver. 17.-The midwives feared God. The life was not a principle with them. Secondly, midwives had a sense of religion, feared God that tender and compassionate regard for euffi.cieutly to decline imbruing their hands in children which seems to us Englishmen of the the innocent blood of a nnmber of defencelese present day a universal instinct is in truth the infant.s, and, rather than do so wicked IL thing, fruit of Christianity, and was almost unknown risked being punished by the monarch. They in the ancient world. Children who were were not, as appeBIB by ver. 19, highly reli- "not wanted" were constantly exposed to be gious-not of the stuff whereof mextyrs are devoured by wild beasts, or otherwise made made ; they did not scruple at a falsehood, away with (Dollinger, 'Jew and Gentile,' vol. believing it necessary to save their lives; and ii. p. 246) ; and such exposition was defended it would seem that they succeeded in deceiving by philosophers (Plat. 'Rep.' v. p. 460 c). the king. In Syria 11:nd Carthage they were constantly Ver. 19.-They are vigorous. Literally, offered to idols. At Rome, unless the father "they are lively." In the East at the present interposed to eave it, every child was killed day a large proportion of the women deliver It would probably not have cost an Egyptian themselves ; and the services of professional Pharaoh e. single pang to condemn to death a accoucheurs are very rarely called in. The nnmber of children, any more than a nnmber excuse of the midwives had thus a basis of of puppies. And the rule " Salus publice. fact to rest upon, and was only untrue because suprelIIB lex," which, if not formulated, still it was not the whole truth. practically prevailed, would have been held to Vers. 20, 21.-Therefore God did well to justify anything. The river. Though, in the the midwives. Literally, ".And God did Delta, where the scene is laid throughout the well," etc. (see ver. 21 ). Because they feared early part of Exodus, there were many branches him sufficiently to disobey the king, and take of the Nile, yet we hear constnntly of " Iha their chance of a punishment, which might river" (eh. ii. 3, 5; vii. 20, 21; viii. 3, etc.), have been very severe-even perhaps death- because one branch only, the Tanitic, was Got\ overlooked their weak and unfaithful di- readily accessible. Tanis (Zoe.n) was situated vergence from truth, and gave them a reward. on it.
HOMILETICS. Vere. 15-22.-Steps in sin. Bad men, when their designs are frustrated., and things fall out otherwise than as they wish, are far from suspecting that it is God who opposes them and brings their counsels to nought. 'l'hey find fault with themselves or their advisers, and suppose that, if their end is not to be compassed in one way, it may be EXODU~ 0 18 THE DOOR OF EXODUS. [cu. 1, lG-22.