The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 2 — Section 129

nwi.qse.ry, see M11tt. xii. 5. 11. Still in many with them (eh. _xii. :-18), 11nd 11.w,mpani•<l. respecl.q, a superetitious Rdherence to the pre- them 111 their wilderness wanderings. The cept was me.int11ined by religious J ewe, who command that these too should rest, was ut would not even defend themselves on the once a restriction upon their liberty, reriuiring sCLbbath, if e.tte.cked by an enemy (l Mac. ii. them to conform to the habits of those among 32-38; 2 Mac. v. 25, 26; vi. 11; xv. 1). whom they dwelt, and an admission of th-,,u Experience, however, te.ught them the.t the into participation in some portion of the privi- law he.d not been intended to extend so far, and leges of Israel. The sacred rest of the se.bbath after e. time they determined, not to seek prefigured the final peace and happiness of battle, but to e.ccept it, e.nd do their best, on the blest in heaven; and they who were the sabbath day (1 Mac. ii. 41 ). Thou, nor oommanded to share in the first, were encour- th)' son, nor th)' de.ughter. The rest is to aged to hope that they might also pe.rticipe.te extend to the whole family. Work is not to in the second. be merely devolved by the parents upon the Ver. 11.-J'or in m days the Lord made children. Th)' me.naervant, nor thy maid- heaven a.nd earth. Two reasons are assigned servant. It is to extend beyond the family for the sanctification of the seventh day in the proper, to the domestics of the household, who P-entatench :-1. The fact that the work of are to enjoy the respite from toil and to have creation took six days, 11.nd that on the seventh the advantage of the religious refreshment, God rested; and 2. The further fact, that God no less than their masters. Nor thy cattle. brought the Israelites out of Egypt, and gave God's care for cattle is a remarkable feature them a time of rest a.fter a time of labour and of the Old Testament dispensation. God, at toil (Dent. v. 15). It is not expressly said the time of the ftood, "remembered Noah and that the deliverance took place on the Se.bbe.th, the caUle which wue with him in tli6 ark '' but snch is the Jewish tradition on the snbj ect (Gen. viii. 1). Soon after, his covenant, not The reason here assigned must be regarded a.; to drown the earth any more, was established the main reason, man's rest being purpose! y "with the fowl, and with the cattle, and with assimilated to God's rest, in order to show the every bea.st of th·e earth," no less than with resemblance between man's nature and God's man (ib. ix. 9-11). In the Psalms he de- (Gen. i. 21), and ta point towards that eternal clares that "the cattle upon a thousand hills " rest .wherein man, united with God, will find are his (Ps. I. 10). In Jonah, we find that his highest bliss and the true end of his being. Nineveh was spared, in part because there was " There remaineth a rest for the people of in it" much cattle" (Jon. iv. 11). The pre- God.'' cept, "Thou sha.lt not muzzle the ox when he Ver. 12.-Honour thy father and thy treadeth out the corn " is characteristic of mother. The obligation of filial respect, love, the Mosaic dispensation, and had no par- and reverence is so instinctively felt by all, allel in the written oodes or in the aotue.l that the duty has naturally found a place in customs of other a.noient na.tions. Anima.l every morel code. In the maxims of Ptah- suffering was generally regarded a.s of smell hotep, an Egyptian author who lived probably acconnt in the ancient world; and the idea of before Abraham, " the duty of filial piety is protecting animals from ill usage was wholly strictly inculcated" (Birch, Egypt from the unknown. On the contrary, a.s Dr. Dollinger Ei,rliest Times, p. -19,). Confucius, in China., well observes (JMII and Geatil.e, vol. ii. pp. based his morel system wholly npon the prin- 346-7): "The la.w wa.s specie.lly careful ciple of pa.rental authority ; o.nd in Rome it about the welfare of animals ; they were to be may be regarded a.s the main foundation of treated with compassion and kindness. Do- the political edifice. In the Decalogue, the mestic animals were to be well fed, and to pooition of thls duty, at the bead of our duties enjoy the rest of the sabbath. The Israelites towards our neighbour, ma.rks its importance ; were to help to lift up the ass which had fe.llen which is funher shown by this being " the beneath its ~urden, and to bring back the first commandment with promise• (Eph. vi. 2). beast that had gone astray (Ex. xxiii. 5, 12; Ii is curious that the long life here specie.lly Deut. xxv. 4) .... The young was not to be attached to the observance of this obligation, tu.ken from its mother before the seventh day was also believed to accoinpany it by the .... From these and similar ordinances-such, EgyptiaDS. "The son," says Ptah-hotep, for instanc~, as a.bout the least painful method " who accepts the words of his father, will of killing animals-it is plain that the la.w grow old in consequence of so doing ; " and tried to subdue that coe.rse turn of mind a.nd again-" The obedient son will be happy by unfeeling cruelty, which a.re engendered by reason of his obedience ; he will grow old ; the maltreatment of animals." Nor the stran- he will come to favour." Modem commen- ger tha.t ia within thy go.tea. The " strangers tators genere.lly assume that the promise was within the gates" of Israel are those foreigners not personal, but national-the n11tion's days who voluntarily sojourned with them in their were to be "long upon the laud," if the camps or ( a.fterwurds) in their towns. A citizens generully were obedient children mixed multitude" h1Ld gone up out of Egypt But this explanation c,urnot apply to Eph. 'ri  114 THE l3OOK OF EXODUS. [en xx. 13-lG.