band of God Wll.9 first lo.id upon the cattle, or 421.) The BBS wo.s employed in great numbers rather upon the domesticated anima.Is in at all times in Egypt. Women and children genera.I (ver. 3). These were me.de to suffer rode on them, men sometimes in a aort of litter from o. 11 murrain" or epidemic pestilence, between two of them. They were chiefly used for carrying burthens, which were some- which carried off vast numbers. Such visita- times of enormous aize (Lepsius, Denkmiiler, tions a.re not uncommon in Egypt, and gener- Part ii. pls. 42 a, 47, 56, 80 c, etc.). The ally fall with especial force on the Delta, ca.mels. Camels are not represented on any whoro the existing Pharaoh and the Hebrew Egyptian monument; but they are occasion- people resided. The miraculous character of elly mentioned in the inscriptions (Chahaq, i:tivles, pp. 400-13). They are called kauri the visitation at this time was indicated, I. By or kamaru. There is no doubt of their em- its announcement, and appearance on the day ployment by the Egyptians as beasts of appointed (vers. 3-6); 2. By its severity (ver. burthen in the traffic with Syria and with the 6) ; and 3. By its attacking the Egyptian Sinaitic peninsula. cattle only (ver. 7). Pharaoh seems, however, Ver. 4.-The Lord shall sever. Compare eh. viii. 22. There shall nothing die, etc to have been almost less moved by this plague The original is more emphatic, and might be than by any other. rendered litera.lly-" There· shall not die of a.JI Ver. !.-Excepting in the designation of that is the children's of Israel a thing." Jehovah as" the Lord God of the Hebrews," Ver. 5.-To-morrow. God may have inter- this verse is an almost exact repetition of posed the interval in order that such as be- the first verse of eh. viii. Such repetitions lieved the announcement might save their a.re very characteristic of the most ancient animals by bringing them in out of the fields. writings. All the cattle died-i.e. all that were " in tho Ver. 3.-Thy oa.ttle whioh is in the :fleld. field" (ver. 3). The word II cattle" here is to be taken gener- Yer. 7.-And Pharaoh sent. This time the ally, as including under it the various kinds king had the curiosity to send out and see particularised. The cattle are mentioned as whether the Israelites had been spared. being at this time II in the field," because Though he found the fact correspond to the during the inundation all of them were announcement, he was not seriously impressed. brought in and housed, while, after the waters Perhaps he thought the Israelites took better had retired, and the land had dried, most of care of their cattle and were better cattle them were turned out to graze. This is always doctors than hls own people. (The doctoring the time at which epidemics break out. The of cattle is represented on the monuments. horses, the asses, etc. Horses, which had Rosellini, Mon. Ci'IJ. pl. 31.) Or he may have been unknown prior to the Hyksos invasion, attributed the escape of their animals to and which consequently do not appear in the the more healthy air of Goshen. Pharaoh's list of animals presented to Abraham (Gen. hea.rt was hardened. The plague a.ffected him xii. 16), first became common under the less than others had done, rather than more. eighteenth dynasty, when they seem to have He was so rich that an affliction which touched been employed exclusively in war. Their use nothing but property seemed a trivial matter for agricultural purposes, which is perhaps What cared he for the sufferings of the poor here indicated, was not till later. (See beasts, or the ruin of those who depended Chabas, Etudea Ill.IT l' .A.ntiquitd' Historique, p. upon the breeding and feeding of cattle ?
HOMILETICS. Vers. 1-7.-The burthen of man's sin presses on the brutecreation,as well as on man liimself. " 'l'he whole creation groa.neth a.nd tra.vaileth in pain together until now'· (Rom. viii. 22). Brutes a.re to a large extent co-partners with ma.n in his sorrows and his wretchedness. But brute suffering is the product of man's sin. Mostly it is directly caused by man. Man not only kills animals for his food, but he chases them for his diversion, mutilates them for his convenience, vivisects them for his supposed benefit. In chasing them, he wounds more tha.n he kills; in mutilating them, he often removes parts necessary for their comfort; in vivisecting them, he knowingly makes them suffer excruciating pain. His use of them as beasts of draught and burden is a lighter form of evil than any of these; but in the aggregate it cause~, porha.ps, as much suffering. Again, ma.n makes the horse his companion in war, and exposes him to the most hideous wounds, the most horrid deaths. Nor does the list of his misdoings as respects the animal world end here. 'l'o children the wanton torture of insects seems to bo a chief delight. For the production of certain 200 THE BOOK OF EXODUS. [en. IX, 1--8.