DC!SS." The hyperbole is no doubt extreme; suggerled compromise. He h11d e.lrcady do- hut the !?"enerel sentiment of mankind he.s clared on a former occasion, " With our young apprm·ed the phrase. which exactly el..l'rcsses and ";th our old we will go; with our sons what m~n feel in absolut~ and complete dark- and with our daughters, with our floclcs and ness. Kalisch renders, " a darkness in which tcith our herda we ";n go" (ver. 9). He is men grope." But the gre.mmatical constrnc- not inchned to retract now, after two addi- t.ion does not allow of this. tional plagues, what ho had demanded beforo Vec 22. -A thiok darkness.- Literally, them. He does not refuse, however, to set " An ohiscurity of darkness." The phrase is forth his reasons. The cattle mWlt go because intensitive. the feast which they BI"e about to koep requires v . .r. 23.-They ae.w not one another. Or, sacrifices - they must aU go, because the "Man did not see his brother." The descrip- Israelites do not as yet know what animals, or tive phrases previously used are poetic, a.nd how many of each, will be required of them. might imply many different degrees of ob- The feo.st was a new thing, without precedent; scurity. This seems distinctly to shew that its ritual was not yet la.id down. No exact pitch dBI"kness is meant. Such absolute directions were to be expected, until the place obscurity is fa.r beyond anything which the was reached where God intended that it khe.msin produces, even when it ie most should be celebrated. severe, and indicates the minwulous cha.meter Ver. 27.-Xardened. -Ago.in the strong of the visit.ation. Neither rose any from his expression, yekl,azak, is used, as in ver. 20. place for three days. It is not meant that no Ver. 28.-A.nd :Pharaoh said, etc. The one moved about his house, but that no one reply of Pharaoh indicates violent enger. No quitted it. (Compare eh. :xvi. 29, where the doubt he thought that now the intention of phrase used is similar.} No one went out Moses to deprive him altogether of the ser- mto the unno.tural darkne-;s out of doors, which vices of so many hundred thousand slaves was he dreaded. All stayed at home, and did palpable, and scarcely concealed. Greatly what they had to do by the e.rti:ficial light of enraglld, he gives vent to his rage, with the lamps or torches. All the children of Israel went of self-control common among Oriental had light in their dwellings. It is not ex- monarchs-rudely bids Moses be gone (Get plained bow this wss effected. Some suppose thee from me), threatens him (tall.e heed to that the sand-storm did not extend to the thyself), and bids hims never more seek his land of Goshen. But in that csse, such presence, under the penalty of instant death, Egyptians as lived among the Israelites-their if he makes his appeo.rance. CoDllidering the neighboun; ( eh. xi. 2)-would have shared the degree of civilization, refinement, and polite- benefit, which seems not to have been the ness to which the Egyptians had attained case. I should rather suppose that the storm under the eighteenth and nineteenth dyno.s- was general, end that the Israelites were sup- ties, such an outbreak must be regarded as plied with a light, not that of the sun, by abnormal, and as implying violent excitement. miracle. Ver. 20.-A.nd Moses said, etc. The reply Ver. 24.~y let your :11.ocb and your of Moses, so fBI", is simple and dignified. Thou herds be st.ayed. The pitch darkness is more hast apoken well, he says-" thou hast made than Pharaoh can bear. On the third day of a right decision-further interviews between its duration probably, he sends a messenger me and thee are useless, can lead to no result, who succeeds in :finding Moses, end conducting only waste time. This shall be our last inter- him to the monarch's presence. He has made view-I will see thy face no more." It is up bis mind to yield another point-that on generally agreed however that Moses did not which he insisted so strongly at the last inter- quit the presence with these words; but con- view (vers. 10, 11)-he will let the Israelites tinued to address Pho.re.oh for some little time, go unth tJteir families-only, their flocks and making his·parting speech in the terms which herds must remain behind. This will be, he are recorded in vers. 4-8 of the next chapter. considers, a sufficient security for their return ; Having announced the Tenth Plague, the since without cattle they would be unable to coming destruction of the first-born, he turned support life for many dsys in the wilderness. and " went out from Pharaoh in a great Your little ones. Bather, "your families." anger " ( eh. xi. 8) Ver. 25, 26.-Moses absolutely refuses the
HOMILETICS. Vers. 21-23.-The children of darkness have darkness, and the children of light have light as their porli<>n. From the beginning of the creation God " divided the light fron• the darkness" (Gen. i. 4); and ever since the two have been antagonistic the one to thl other. .Angels as well·as men are divided into two classes-bright and glorious spirits, that dwelJ in the light of God's presence, and are called" angels of light" (2 Cor. xi. 14), OD, X, 21-29.] THE IlOOK OF EXODUS. 239