the education e.nd position of Mo~es might Egypti1tn ? " Moses fled, knowing wlmt ho ha,·e enabled him to exercise upon his nation had to expect, quitted Egypt, went to Midian ; was lost by the nry act to which he had been and the Egyptian monarch "sought to slay urged by his sympathy with them ; it "'88 him " too late. The land of Midian is a, some- 11.n ect. which could be thrown in his teeth, an what vague expression, for the Midio.nitcs were act which he could not justify, which he trem- nomad~, and at different times or,enpied dis- bled to find was known. The retort of the tinct and even remote loca.J.itios. Their prin- aggressor stopped his mouth at once, and made cipal settlements appear to have been on tho his interposition Yaluol=. ea.stem side of the Elanitic Gulf (Gulf of Ver. 15.-Phe.raoh heard. If we he.ve been Akabah); but at times they extended north- right in supposing the Phare.oh of the original wards to the confines of Moab (Gen. xxxvi. oppression to have been Seti I., the present 35; Num. xxii. 4, 7, etc.), and westward into Pharaoh. from whom Moses flies when he is the Sinaitic peninsula, wl1ich appears to have " full forty years old" ( Acts vii. 23), and who been "tho land of Midian" whereto Moses does not die t.ill Moses is nea.r eighty, must be fled ( see below, eh. iii. 1). The Midianites his son, the Great Rameses, Rameses II. This are not expr=ly mentioned in the Egyptian prince was associated by his father at the age inscriptions. They were probably included of ten or twelve (Brngsch, ' History of Egypt,' among the Mentu, with whom the Egyptians ,·ol. ii. pp. 24---5), and reigned sixty-seven contended in the Sinaitic region, and from years, as appears from his monuments. He is whom they took the copper district north-west the only king of the New Empire whose real of Sinai. And he sat down by a well. Rather reign exceeded forty years, and thus the only "and he dwelt by the well." He took up his monarch who fulfils the conditions required by abode in the neighbourhood of the principal the narrative of Exodus snpplemented by St. well belonging to the tract here called Midian, Stephen's speech in the Acts. He sought to The tract was probably one of no great size, slay lloses. We need not understand from an offshoot of the greater Midian on the other this expression that the Pharaoh's will was side of the gulf. We cannot identify the thwarted or opposed by anything but the snd- well ; bnt it was certainly not that near the den disappearance of Moses. .As St. Stephen town of Modiana, spoken of by Edrisi and sayi; (Acts vii. 29), "Then fled Moses at this Abnlfeda, which was in Arabia. Proper, on the Mying," i.e. at the mere words of the aggres- east of the gulf sor, "Wilt thon slay me as thou didst the
HOMILETICS. Vers. 11, 12.--§ L Moses a.s a. would-be deliverer. Moses, as a would-be deliverer, shows us how zea.l may outrun discretion. .Actuated by deep love for his brethren, he had quitted the court, resigned his high prospects, thrown in his lot with his nation, and "gone out" to see with his own eyes their condition. No doubt he came upon many sights which vexed and angered him, but was able to restrain himself. .At last, however, he became witness of a grievo~n extrem&--ease of oppression. Some Hebrew, we may suppose, weaker than the generality, delicate in constitution or suffering from illness, rested awhile from his weary labour under the scorching sun, and gave himself a few moments of delightful, because rare, repose. But the eye of the taskmaster was on him. Suddenly his rest was interrupted by a shower of severe blows, which were rained pitilessly upon his almost naked frame, raising great wheals, from which the blood streamed down in frequent heavy drops. Moses could no longer contain himself. Pity for the vi.cti.m and hatred of the oppressor surged up in his heart. "Many a time and oft" had he wished to be a deliverer of his brethren, to revenge their wrongs, to save them from their sufferings. Here was an opportunity to make a beginning. He would save at any rate this one victim, he would punish this one wrongdoer. There was no danger, for no one was looking (ver. 12), and surely the man whom he saved would not betray him. So, having a weapon in his belt, or finding one ready to his hand-a. stone, it may be, or a working man's implementr- he raised it, and strikini a swift strong blow, slew the Egyptian. In thus acting he was doubly wrong. He acted as an avenger, when he had no authority from God or man to be one; and. had he had authority, still he would have inflicted a. punillhment disproportionate to the offence. Such a beating as he had himself a.dwinistered the taskmaster may have deserved. but not to be cut off in his sins; Bot to be eent to his last account without warning, without time even for a repentant Cl!. Ii(, 11-16.] THE BOOK OF EXODUS. 37