EXPOSITION. Vers. 27-35.-Tho plague of ho.ii impressed country with the other Israelites. When it the Pho.ro.oh more than o.ny previous one. It was necessary for them to have an interview w1111 the first which had inflicted death on men. with the king, they sought the city: when their interview was over they quitted it. To It w1111 a most striking and terrible me.nifes- obtain for Phare.oh a speedy e.ccomplishment tntion. It was quite unlike o.nything which the of bis wish, Moses undertakes to pray for Egyptians he.d ever experienced before ( vers. the remove.I of the plague as soon as he is 18, 24). It w1111, by manifest miracle, me.de out.Bide the city walls. That thou mayest to fall on the Egyptians only (ver. 26). know that the earth is the Lord's. The phrase used is ambiguous. It may meau !'he.re.oh w1111 therefore more humbled than either "that the earth is J ehovah's," or " that ever previonsly. He acknowledged that he the land (of Egypt) is his." On the whole, "had sinned 11 (ver. 27) ; he added e. confession perhAps the former rendering is the best. that " Jehovah [a.lone] was righteons, he and The other plagues sufficiently showed th11.t his people wicked 11 (ibid.). And, 1111 twice Egypt was Jehovah's; this, which came from the open heaven that surrounds and embraces before, he expressed his willingness to let the the whole world, indicated that the entire Israelites take their depo.rture if the plague eo.rth was bis. (Comp. Ps. xxiv. I : "The were removed (ver. 28). The ultimate results, earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof : the however, were not e.ny better than before. world, and they that dwell therein.") No sooner had Moses prayed to God, and pro- Ver. 30.-I know that ye will not yet fear cured the cessation of the plague, than the the Lord. True fear of God i8 shown by obedience to his commands. Pharaoh and his king repented of his repentance, " hardened servants bad the sort of fear which deYils his heart ; 11 and, once more casting his promise have-" they believed and trembled." But to the winds, refused to permit the Israelites they ho.d not yet that real reverential fear to depo.rt (vers. 33---35). His people joined which is joined with love, and has, as its him in this net of obduracy (ver. 34), perhaps fro.it, obedience. So the event showed. (See verses 34, 35.) thinking that they had now suffered the worst Vers. 31, 82.-Tbese verses seem out of that could befall them place, containing, as they do, an e.ccount of the damage done by the hail, and being thns Ver. 27.-And Pharaoh sent. Comps.re exegetical of verse 25. They o.re 11. sort of eh. viii. 8, and 25-28. Pho.re.oh ho.d been afterthought, inserted parenthetically, and pre- driven to entreat only twice before. I have ps.re the way for the understo.nding of the sinned this time. The meaning is, " I ac- next plague ; since, if the damage done by the knowledge this time that I have si1111ed " he.ii had extended to all the crops, there would (Ka.lisch, Cook). "I do not any longer main- have been nothing left for the locusts to tain that my conduct has been right." The devour. confession is made for the first time, and seems Ver. 31.-The 11.ax and the barley was to have been extorted by the terrible nature smitten. Flax was le.rgely cultivated by the of the plague, which, instead of passing off, Egyptians, who preferred linen garments to like most storms, continued. The Lord is o.ny other (Herod. ii. 37), and allowed the righteo11B, etc. Literally, "Jehovah is the priests to weo.r nothing but linen. Several Just One ; and I and my people a.re the kinds of flax o.re mentioned as grown in sinners." The confession seems, at first sight, Egypt (Plin. H. N. :xix. 1); and the neigh- ample and satisfactory; but there is perhaps bourhood of Tanis is expressly said to have some shifting of sin, that was all his own, been one of the ple.ces where the fie...-,: wn.'! upon the Egyptio.n "people," which indicates produced. The flax is boiled, i.e. blossoms disinge11nousness towards the end of J o.nuo.ry or beginning of Ver. 28.-Mighty thundering&. Literally, February, and the barley comes into ell.I' about as in the margin, "voices of God." Thunder the same time, being commonly cut in March. was regarded by many nations of antiquity Barley was employed largely as the food of es the actual voice of a god. In the Vedic horses, o.nd wo.s used also for the mo.nufocture theology, Indra spoke in thunder. The Egyp- of beer, which was a. co=on Egyptian tio.n view 011 the subject has not been ascer- beverage. A certain quantity wus m.o.do by tained. the poorer classes into bread. Ver. 29.-As soon as I am gone out of the Ver. 32.-The wheat and the rie wer~ city. "The city" is probably Tanis (Zoo.n). not smitten, for they were not growu up. We mny gather from the expression of this In Egypt the wheat harvest is at least 11, verse, and age.in of verse 83, that Moses and month later tho.n the barley harvest, coming <\aron did not live in the city, but in the in April, whereas the bo.rley harvest is finisbeJ THE BOOK OF EXODUS. [cu. 1x. 2i--30.
by tbe end of M11rch. Rye we.,; not grown 1n k®ad, ql!-8hah, an~ 'k!iaza.q. Tho fi.l'!lt of Egypt ; e.nd it is genera.Uy e.greed that the these, which occurs ID eh. vii. 14; viii. 15, 82; Hebrew word here tr1tru<le.ted " rie " mee.ns the ix. 7 e.nd 34, is the weakest of the three, and Hol.cus 1iorghum, or doora, which is the onlv mee.ns to be "dull" or "heavy," rather than gl"llin besides "-heat e.nd be.rley represented "to be he.rd." The second, which appears in on the Egypt.i11n monuments. The doora is eh. vii. 3, and xiii. 15, is e. stronger term and now raised commonly e.s s.n a.ft.er-crop; but, if me!IDS "to be hard," or, in the Hiphil; "to ~own late in the ttut.mnn, it would ripen a.bout make hard." But the third bes the most in- the ~s.me time as the wheat. tensive sense, implying fixed e.nd stubborn Ver. 83.-The rain was not poured upon resolution. It occurs in eh. iv. 21 ; vii. 22; the earth. Re.in he.d not been previously viii. 19; ix. 35; and elsewhere. Re and his mentioned, e.s it we.s no pa.rt of the pla.gne, servants. Phe.raoh's " servants," i.e. the that is, it ea.used no ds.me.ge. But Moses, officers of his court, still, it would seem, recording the cessation as e.n eye-witness, upheld the king in his impious and mad recollects that rain was mingled with the hail, course, either out of complaisance, or because and that, at bis prayer, the thunder, the hail, they were ree.lly not yet convinced o( the and the rain all ceased. The tonch is one resist!~ might of Jehovah. After the eighth which no Je.terwriter would have introduced. pla.gne, we she.11 find their tone change Ver. 34.-Re Binned yet more, and har- (eh. x. 7). dened his heart. Altogether there e.re three Ver 35.-A.s the Lord had epoken by different Hebrew verbs, which our translators M:oees. Compe.re eh. iii. 19; iv. 21; and vii have rendered by" harden," or" he.rdened "- 8,4