EXPOSITION. Vere. 29, 80.-Tnm TENTH PLAGUE. At last was held by Ammonmes, a lL~urper. The the timo had como for the dealing of the final first-born of the captive who was in the dun- blow. Nine plagnes had been sent, nine in- geon. This phrase takes the place of another expression, viz "the first-born of the flictions endured, and no serions effect hnd maid-servant that is behind the mill " ( eh. xi been produced. Once or twice Pharaoh he.d 5). In both cases, the general meaning is, W!ivercd, had made profession of submitting "e.Il, from the highest to the lowest." This himself, had even acknowledged his sin, But is perhaps the whole that is in the writer's ee.ch time he had relapsed into obstine.cy. thought ; but it is also true that captives in dungeons were in some cases employed in Now at length the fiat he.d gone forth for that turning hand-mills (Judg. xvi. 21). And all le.st plague which had been announced the the first-born of cattle. Rather, "of beasts." first ( eh. iv. 23). Phe.raoh's own son, his There is no limitation of the plague fa firstborn, the heir to his throne, was smitten domesticated aninw.ls. with death, in common with ell the other Ver 30.-And Pharaoh rose up in the night, and e.ll his servants. This general me.le Egyptie.ns who he.d "opened the womb." disturbance differentiates the present visita- What the effect on the king would have been, tions from that which came upon the host of he.d he e.lone suffered, we ce.nnot certainly say. Sennacherib (2 Kings xix. 35). Then, the As it was, the vrhole population of the country, calamity came with such silence and secrecy, nobles, tradesmen, peasants, suffered with that the deaths were not suspected until men rose to go about their various tasks in the him ; and the feeling aroused was so intense morning Now, every household seems to that the popular movement left him no have been aroused from its sleep in the night. choice. The Egyptians everywhere " rose up We must suppose sharp and painful illness, in the night" (ver. 30), and raised "a great terminating after a few hours in death. The cry," and insisted that the Israelites should disaster itself may have been one from which Egypt often suffers in the spring of the year depart at once ( ver. 33). Each man fee.red (Kalisch) : but its attacking all the fustborn for himself, e.nd felt his life insecure, so long and no others, e.nd no Israelites, as well as ita e.s e. single Isre.elite remained in the le.nd. e.nnouncement, pie.inly showed it to be miracu- lo1LS. There was a great cry. See the com- Ver. 29.-At midnight, As prophesied by ment on eh. xi. 6. For there was not a house Moses (eh. xi. 4). The de.y he.d not been where there was not one dead.. This is per- fixed, e.nd this uncertainty must he.ve e.dded haps a slight hyperbole. There would be to the horror of the situe.tion. The first-born me.ny families in which there was no son : of Phe.raoh, We have no proof the.t the e.nd some ho1LSes might contain no me.le who eldest son of Menephthe.h died before his had opened the womb. It is e.lways to be fe.ther, llilless we take this pe.ssage e.s proving borne in mind, that the Io.ngunge of Scripture it. He left a son, ce.lled Seti-Menephthe.h, or --especie.lly where exciting e.nd tragice.l events Seti II., who either succeeded him, or reigned are narrated-is poetice.I, or at the least highly e.fter a short interval, during which the throne rhetorice.l.
HOMILETICS. Vers. 29, 30.-The death of the first-born. From the death of the first-born we may learn:,- I. THE SEVERITY OF GoD's LONG DEFERRED JUDGMENTS. That punishment will over- take the wicked sooner or later was the conviction of heathendom no less than of the Jewish and Christian worlds. Horace says-" Judgment may halt, but yet it rarely fails to overtake the guilty one at last." Tibullus-" Wretch, though at first thy sin no judgment meet, vengeance will come at length with silent feet." But the greater heaviness of the punishment that is long deferred does not appear to have attractell their notice. Yet experience might have taught it them. Who has not seen the long triumphant career of a thoroughly bad man, crowned with success for years, seeming to turn all he touched to gold, "flourishing," as the Psalmist has it, "like a green bay tree," yet ending in calamities and misfortunes so striking, and so heaped one upo!l another, as to draw general attention? It is invidious, perhaps, to note instances; bu, the present generation has seen at least one example among the crowne<l. heads a 282 THE BOOK OF EXODUS. [err. xn. 29, 30.