The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 1 — Section 55

their treatment was, o.nd do his best to alle- a tough pliant wood imported from Syria" viate it. Ho bad as yet no Divine mission, (Che.bas,' Voyage d'un Egyptien,' p. 119). It no commo.nd from God to act as he did, but was their right to employ their rods on the hacks of the idle, e. right which was S11re to only a natural sympathy with his people, and degenerate in me.ny cases into tyranno1JJ1 e.nd a feeling perhaps that in bis position be was cruel oppression. We may assume that it was bound, more the.n o.ny one else, to me.ke some e.n instance of such e.buse of power that ex- efforts to ameliorate whe.t must he.ve been cited the anger of Moses ; " seeing one of them genere.lly known to be a hard lot. It is suffer 'ID1'<Yn<J, he defended him, and avenged him the.t was O'JYP"e•sed" (Acts vii. 21). For scarcely likely that be had formed any defi- e. light fault, or no fault at e.ll, e. heavy chas- nite plans. How he should act would depend tisement was being inflicted. on what he should see. Thus far, his con- Ver. 12.-He looked this way and that duct deserves nothing but praise. It ouly we.y. Passion did not so move him as to make perhaps a little surprises ns (if St. Stephen's him reckless. He looked round to see that he we.s not observed, and then, when he e.e.w tradition accords with fact) that he did not there we.a no man, slew the Egyptian. A earlier in his life te.ke some steps in the direc- wrongful act, the outcome of a.n ardent but tion here indicated. We are bound to recol- undisciplined spirit ; not to be placed among lect, however, that we know very little of the the deeds "which history records as noble a.nd restraints under which he would have been me.gna.nimous " (Kalisch), but among those laid-whether a severe le.w of etiquette, or which a.re hasty and regrettable. A warm sympathetic nature, an indignant hatred of the commands of his benefactress, me.y not wrong-doing, me.y have lain at the root of the he.ve hampered him, and caused the long delay crime, but do not justify it, though they may which strikes us as strange. Living with the qna.lify our condemnation of it. (See the re- court-in Tanis probably-he would have been marks of St. Augustine quoted by Keil and required to make a strong effort-to bree.k Delituch, 'Commentary on the Penta.tench,' vol. i. p. 451 : " I affirm that the me.n, though through e.n established routine, and strike out criminal and ree.lly the offender, ought not to for himself e. new e.nd unheard-of course, if have been put to death by one who had no he quitted the princess's household to make a legal authority to do so. But minds that aro tour of illspection among the enslaved He- capable of virtue often produce vices also, a.nd brews. The author of the Epistle to the show thereby for what virtue they would he.ve been best adapted, if they had but been pro- Hebrews seems to consider that his act in perly trained," etc.) And hid him in the sand. " going out" to " look upon the burdens" of There is abundant " sa.nd" in the " field of his people involved a renunciation of his court Zoan," e.nd in ell the more eastern portion of life-a refusal to be celled any more the son the land of Goshen. (See the ' Quarterly State- of Phare.oh's daughter (Heb. xi. 24) ; a cast- ment of the Palestine· Exploration Fnnd ' fot July, 1880, p. 140.) ing-in of his lot with his brethren, so as Ver. 13.-The seoond day. Le. "the fol- thenceforth to be e. sharer in their afflictions lowing day." See Acts vii. 26. Him that (ib. ver. 24). If this were so, we ce.n well did the wrong. Literally," the wicked one." nnderste.nd a long period of hesitation before Wherefore smitest thou thy fellowJ Lite- the resolve was me.de to. te.ke the course from rally "thy neighbour." In interposing here which there was no retreating. Moses certe.inly did nothing but whe.t was right. The strife was one in which blows Ver. 11.-When Moses we.a grown. "When were being exchanged, and it is the duty of he had become e. me.n of vigour e.nd intelli- everyone in such e. case, by persuasion e.t any gence" (Kalisch). He went out. The ex- rate. to seek to stop the combat. pression is emphatic, e.nd accords with the Ver. 14.-Who made thee a prince and a view above exhibited-that,. complete change judge over us t It was not his interferenco in the life of Moses was now effected, that the now, but bis wrongful act of the day before, court was quitted, with its e.ttraetions e.nd its that exposed Moses to this rebuke. There was temptations, its riches and its pleasures ; and no assumption of lordship o:c of judicial autho- the position of adopted child of a princess for- rity in the bare inquiry, "Why smitest thou feited. He spied an Egyptian smiting a thy neighbour 7 " nor in the fuller phrase re- Hebrew. It is not certain that this was one pgrted, by St. Stephen, " Sirs, ye are brethren. of the " taskmasters " ( eh. i. 11) ; but most Why tlo ye wrong one to another?" (Acts probably be was either e. taskmaster, or one of vii. 26), unless as coupled with the deed. ot the oliicers employed by them. Such persons the preceding day. Thus the violence of to- are on the Egyptian monument.s represented day renders of no ave.il the loving persuasion as armed with long rods, said to be " me.de of of to-morrow; the influence for good which D Z  THE BOOK OF EXODU& [en. n. 11-15.