EXODUS

THIS second Book of the Pentateuch, called by its Greek name of EEOAO2, "the going out," has, as its name indicates, for its principal subject the going out from Egypt of the children of Israel under the guidance of Moses to take possession of the land of Canaan, promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It contains also some preliminary legislation, including the ten commandments, and an elaborate account of the fashion and execution of the Tabernacle and all the instruments connected with it.

The subject-matter of the book may perhaps conveniently be divided into seven sections. Chaps. i.-iv. contain the history of the oppression. Chaps. v.-xii. 30 is the history of the struggle with Pharaoh, between Moses' return from Midian and the actual Exodus. Chaps. xii. 31-xviii. is the history of the Exodus to the arrival of the Israelites in the wilderness of Sinai. Chaps. xix.-xxiii. is the giving of the law from Mount Sinai. Chaps. xxiv.-xxxi. contain the instructions given to Moses in the mount during forty days. Chaps. xxxii.-xxxiv. is the account of the idolatry of Aaron and the people during Moses' absence in the mount, and its immediate consequences. Chaps. xxxv.-xl. describe the making and rearing of the Tabernacle, and the accompanying furniture.

CHAPS. I.-IV.-THE HISTORY OF THE OPPRESSION.

The opening verses of the first chapter sum up in brief what had been before given in detail (Gen. xlvi. 8-27), the exact number of the sons of Israel, who came into Egypt,

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viz., 70 souls including Israel himself, and his daughter Dinah, and Joseph and his two sons born in Egypt. The narrative goes on to record the rapid increase of the children of Israel, which it does in most emphatic terms (ver. 7). "They were fruitful and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty, and the land was filled with them." And the statement is repeated in equally strong terms in vers. 12 and 20. It was important to dwell upon this, both to show God's providential care of His people in every stage of their history, and to indicate the cause of the oppression, viz., the fears of the Egyptians on account of their growing power, and also to account for the extraordinary numbers of the people at the Exodus.

There is no exact note of time to show when the oppression began. Chap. i. 6. seems, however, to imply a time of not less than thirty years after Joseph's death, and the abundant increase spoken of in ver. 7 could hardly have taken place in less than a hundred or a hundred and twenty years (80 years of Joseph's lifetime + 30 or 40 years). Supposing the numbers to have doubled every fifteen years, the 2 × 70 = 140 so as to include the wives, would have become 35,840 in 125 years, or a fighting force of 8 or 9000 men. In ver. 8, the expression, "a new king," has been thought to indicate a new dynasty, and so to favour the idea that "the new king" was Aahmes or Amosis I., the first king of the 18th dynasty, who ejected the shepherd kings. But there is nothing in the phrase, "a new king," to indicate anything more than a king who had lately succeeded to the throne. The adjective "new" is applied in Hebrew to a new threshing machine, a new cart, a new skin bottle, a new garment, a new wife, &c. The phrase too, "which knew not Joseph," merely means that the king who succeeded to the throne at this time, probably 70 or 80 years after Joseph's administration of the affairs of Egypt, had forgotten all about Joseph, and the gratitude due to him for the great benefits conferred upon the country by him. The pressing danger of a war with the powerful Hittites, and other confederate races, who lay not far from the land of Goshen, would naturally have much

more weight with him than the memory of great services rendered three-quarters of a century before.

That this danger existed in an acute form in the reign of Seti I. and his successor, Rameses II., is an historical fact. There are full accounts in Egyptian inscriptions of the wars of Seti I. and his successor, the great Rameses, with the Kheta or Hittites. In the fifth year of the reign of Rameses a war broke out between Egypt and the Hittites, which culminated in the great battle of Kadesh, on the Orontes, after which Pharaoh's doubtful victory was followed by a treaty of peace between Rameses and the King of the Hittites. This battle is most vividly represented in a painting on the walls of the Temple at Karnak, in which the Canaanites are conspicuous, and is the subject of a great epic poem which has been preserved entire. In the treaty of peace the King of the Hittites promises, among other things, for himself and his successors never to invade the land of Egypt" (Brugsch, chap. xi.).

In the previous war of Seti, it is also especially to be remarked how great the danger to Egypt was, should the Israelites inhabiting the land of Goshen join the invaders from the north-east. "There were constant advances of the neighbouring peoples upon the Delta." They took "the bold resolve to press forward over the eastern frontier, to find, as it was expressed later, sustenance for their cattle on the possessions of Pharaoh." The Shasu, a wandering tribe, whose chief territory lay in the land of Edom, especially laid claim to those pastures as having belonged to the Hyksos (Brugsch, p. 243). And that the Hittites were a party to this invasion of Egyptian territory seems clear from Seti's following up his success against the Shasu, by advancing northward as far as Kadesh, and there obtaining an important victory over the army of the Kheta.

Here then we have abundant explanation of the Egyptian policy in oppressing the Israelites and endeavouring to break down their power, and we are led to the conclusion that the oppression began under Seti I., the father of

Rameses II., and was continued through the long reign of the son.

With regard to the particular form of oppression adopted by the Egyptians, the merciless exaction of excessive labour, enforced by the stick of the task-masters, which is so feelingly spoken of, again and again, in the early chapters of Exodus (i. 11, 14; ii. 11, 12, 23, 24; iii. 7, 16; v. 7, 8, 9; vi. 9), and the labour of the Israelites in making bricks, Sir Gardner Wilkinson (vol. ii. ch. v.) tells us that brick-making was a monopoly of the Egyptian Government; that in addition to native Egyptians, they employed numerous foreign captives, who worked as slaves, in all parts of Egypt; and that almost all the buildings in Egypt, except the larger temples, were built of crude bricks, baked in the sun. He states also that it was customary for task-masters to stimulate the workers with the stick. A woodcut at vol. ii. p. 99 confirms these statements. Foreign captives are making bricks in all their different stages, digging, mixing, making with a wooden mould, and carrying on their shoulders. Task-masters with their sticks are watching and urging them. The scene is at Thebes in Upper Egypt.

Another remarkable confirmation of the Scripture narrative has arisen from the recent excavations at Tel-el-Mashkûta, or Succoth. From inscriptions found on the spot it appears that these are the ruins of the treasure-city of Pithom (Exod. i. 11), and that the city was built by Rameses II., "setting to rest finally the question as to the date of the Exodus, and the Pharaoh of the oppression" ("Fresh Light from Ancient Monuments," Prof. Sayce, pp. 60, 61). It is also curious that in the walls, eight to ten feet thick, of the treasure chambers thus laid bare, some of the bricks are made without straw (Exod. v. 16–19).

There is no direct clue as to the time that elapsed between the commencement of the oppression and the birth of Moses. But considering the works executed in building the treasure-cities, the repeated stages mentioned of the increased vigour of their service (i. 11-14, 15, 22), and the repeated mention of the increase of the people (i. 12, 20), it

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can hardly have been less than thirty years. probably born in the reign of Seti I., and fled to Midian in about the 27th year of Rameses II., being then forty years old (Act vii. 23), and remained there forty years, till the death of Rameses (Act vii. 30).

The beautiful story of Moses' exposure among the flags by the river's brink, of his finding by the Egyptian princess, of his being nursed by his own mother, of his adoption by Pharaoh's daughter, and consequent training in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, to become mighty in word and deeds (Acts vii. 22), needs no comment. Its beauty speaks for itself, and the Providential Hand of God is conspicuous at every turn.

In the subsequent incident of his slaying the Egyptian (Exod. ii. 11, 12), who was smiting an Hebrew, "one of his brethren," the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews teaches us to see what we might have overlooked without his comment, Moses' deliberate choice of "the reproach of Christ" rather than "the treasures of Egypt ;" and his noble resolve to cast his lot with the afflicted "people of God," rather than "enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." This example cannot be too carefully weighed (Heb. xi. 24-26). And in the rejection of Moses as their deliverer, by the Hebrew who was doing his neighbour wrong, St. Stephen teaches us to see a type of the rejection of Christ by a stiff-necked people (Acts vii. 23-29), always ready to resist the Holy Ghost. The flight of Moses from Egypt (ii. 15), and his sojourn in Midian, present one or two circumstances worthy of con. sideration.

I. It is pleasant to see another indication that the knowledge of the true and living God had not yet wholly given way to idolatry, in the existence in Midian of a priest-cohen, which is the same title as was borne by Melchizedek (Gen. xiv. 18), and afterwards by Aaron and his successors, though not exclusively. It is possible that Moses was led to choose Midian as the place of his retreat, by the knowledge that God was still more or less perfectly worshipped there. (Comp. Exod. xviii. 10-12.) Hence also his marriage with Reuel's