Varro reports (lib. ii. de R. R., cap. 10),
that the women of Illyricum, when they
found their pangs coming, were wont to go
a little aside from the work they were about,
and presently were delivered of a child,
quem non peperisse, sed invenisse putes;
" which one would think they had found,
not brought forth out of their womb."
Which place our Gataker mentioning in his
Cinnus (p. 213), saith it is credibly reported,
by those who had lived there a great while,
that the Irish women sometimes rise from
table, and are delivered, and return to the

niban

eimav de ai paîai Tô Þapa. Ovx γυναῖκες Αἰγύπτου αἱ Ἑβραῖαι. τίκτουσι γὰρ πρὶν ἢ εἰσελθεῖν πρὸς αὐτὰς τὰς μαίας. καὶ

ἔτικτον.

, Dagesch abjecto compensato per voscalem longam sub, ut vs. 16, T. Aliis vero est regulariter a m, uti a me et m sunt mia et miry. At veteres magno consensu, obstetrices interpretantur. Sane Chaldæis et Syris, nec non Samaritanis est obstetrix, a quod vivum partum procurat. esset: Hebr. mulieres ipsæ habent scientiam, adeo ut nec obstetrice iis Ged., Booth.—They are more vigorous, opus sit. Sed quum in tota hac narratione and are delivered ere, &c.

Au. Ver.-19 And the midwives said unto Pharaoh, Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them.

vivificavit, Sensus igitur obstetricandi

obstetrices constanter i appellentur, nec
appareat, cur de eadem re duabus diversis
vocabulis usus sit scriptor, i præstat cum
Aben-Esra vegetas, robustas interpretari.
Jarchi tradit, veteres doctores in expli-
casse: similes sunt bestiis agri, s. feris, quæ

Bp. Patrick. For they are lively, and are delivered ere the midwives come in unto them.] The Hebrew word chajoth signifies three things: either vivaces, i.e., lively, or obstetrices, midwives (as Kimchi tells us), or animantia, living creatures. The LXX. nullis egent obstetricibus, omisso similifollow the first notion, and so do we, which tudinis, quod et aliis locis, quibus homines is very proper. Aquila follows the second, cum feris animantibus comparantur, omitti who translates this passage thus, Maîai yáp solet (Gen. xlix. 9, 77 x 10, catulus εἰσι, καὶ πρὶν ἐλθεῖν τὰς Μαίας τίκτουσιν; leonis Juda ; vid. ibid. vs. 21, 29). 2 'they can do the office of midwives them- Antequam ad eas venerit obstetrix, jam selves, and are brought to bed before we can pepererunt. Voluerunt autem obstetrices get to them." Thus the Vulgar also take sibi hoc, vivos in lucem editos pueros non it, "they have skill in midwifery." And licuisse ipsis necare, quum id vellet rex clam the author of the life of Moses (as several fieri ipso in partu. Cf. ad vs. 18. other Jews do) takes it in the third sense, expounding it thus; "they are like other

66

Ver. 20.

וַיִּיטֶב אֱלֹהִים לַמְיַקְדֶת וַיִּרֶב הָעָם -living creatures, who do not need any mid

JT T

wives to help their young ones into the
world." And so Rasi also, and Theodotion,
who thus translates it, ξωογονοῦσιν αὐταὶ, εὖ δὲ ἐποίει ὁ θεὸς ταῖς μαίαις. καὶ ἐπλή-
which doth not signify (as Gualmyn ob-θυνεν ὁ λαὸς, καὶ ἴσχυε σφόδρα.
serves), "they bring forth living children," Au. Ver.-20 Therefore God dealt well
but ad instar animantium pariunt, "they with the midwives and the people mul-
bring forth like animals." Such lively tiplied, and waxed very mighty.
women undoubtedly there have been, and Ged. Thus, God favouring the midwives,
are still in some parts of the world. For the people multiplied, &c.

:

Them, i.e., for the Israelites, as the mas-bulrushes; and daubed it with slime and culine affix shows.-Ken., Bp. Kidder.

with pitch, and put the child therein; and
she laid it in the flags by the river's brink.
Bulrushes.

Ged., Booth., Rosen., Gesen.-Papyrus.
Nim. The Egyptian Papyrus. (Root

Slime.

Ged., Booth. And because the midwives feared God, he prospered their own families. So Bp. Patrick and Rosen., who refer to the midwives. Et factum est, quia timuerunt obstetrices to sip up, to imbibe, to soak up water, comp. Deum fecit iis domus. ' domus et ædi-bibula papyrus, Lucan iv. 136,) Job viii. 11. ficia, et familias, quæ in iis habitant, sig- From the bast or integument of the plant, nificat. Verum quum 2 Sam. vii. 11, ubi the ancients plaited mattrasses, ropes, and pollicetur deus, se Davidi domum facturum, canoes. (Plin. xiii. 21, 26.) Hence Exod. ea phrasis manifeste significet, eum sobole ii. 3: pi nan, little canoes of papyrus, Isa. aucturum, et familiam stabiliturum, id quod xviii. 2: -Gesen. David ipse vs. 27, ædificare domum vocat, et Ruth iv. 11. Lea et Rachela dicuntur ædificasse domum Israelis, i.e., plures ei peperisse liberos, phrasis illa nec h. 1. aliter capienda est. Pronom. ad obstetrices est referendum. Haud rara est ea enallage, qua pronomina mascc. ad subjecta femm. referuntur; vid. ii. 17; Ruth. i. 8, 9, 11, 22; Ezek. xviii. 20. Cf. Gesenii Lehrgeb., p. 731. Recte igitur Onkelos et fecit, exstruxit illis (feminin.) domos, familias, vertit. Dicitur itaque, ut obstetricum opera servatæ erant Israelitarum familiæ, sic ipsas numerosam sobolem, divino numine favente, pro mercede esse consequutus.-Rosen.

Ver. 22.

Ged., Booth., Rosen., Gesen.-Bitumen. Bp. Patrick. She took for him an ark of bulrushes.] Or of wicker: for Kimchi observes the Hebrew word gome signifies the lightest wood. Patricides, an Arabian writer, saith it was made of that which the ancients call papyrus: and so the LXX., and Josephus, and Clemens Alexandrinus (Strom. i. p. 343, èk Bißλov tŷs ¿yxwpiov okeûós ti toinσáμevo), which was a frutex that grew particularly upon the banks of Nile, as Salmasius shows in Solin, p. 1002, &c.

Daubed it with slime and with pitch.] Of this word slime, see Gen. xi. 3. It is most probable that this was used within, and pitch

without, to keep the water from coming into כָּל־הַבֶּן הַיְלוֹד הַיְאֹרָה תַּשְׁלִיכָהוּ וגו'

the ark. And so I find in the Gemara of that title, in the Talmud called Sota (cap. i. sect. 29), where this is said to have been an ancient tradition. Only they say, as many of the rabbins do, that chemar signifies plaster, not bitumen: because the bad smell of that, they think, would have been noisome to the child. R. Solomon's opinion is, that it was pitched both within and without; and plastered within over the pitch.

Ver. 6.

Au. Ver.-And she [so the Heb.] had

stranger here]: for he said, I have been a καὶ Μωυσῆς ἦν ποιμαίνων τὰ πρόβατα Ιοθόρ stranger in a strange land. τοῦ γαμβροῦ αὐτοῦ τοῦ ἱερέως Μαδιάμ. καὶ To this verse, Houbigant, Kennicott, ἤγαγε τὰ πρόβατα ὑπὸ τὴν ἔρημον. καὶ ἦλθεν Ged., and Booth. add from the Syr., Arab., eis rò opos Xwpηß. Vulg., and many copies of the LXX., "And she bare to him another son, whose name he called Eliezer [God my help]; because, said he, the God of my father hath helped me, and delivered me from the sword of Pharaoh."

Au. Ver.-Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.

Ged., Booth. And he led the flock to the extremity of the wilderness, and came to the great mountain of Horeb. So Rosen.

It is not probable that this second chapter should originally mention the birth of one son only; when we read in iv. 20, "And Bp. Patrick. His father-in-law.] This Moses took his wife, and his sons, and re- shows that the seven daughters spoken of, turned into Egypt." This second son is ii. 16, were the children of Jethro, and mentioned in xviii. 4; but even there he is Reuel their grandfather: unless we will say, again preceded by the mention of Gershom, as a great many do, that Jethro had two and also with the reason of that name.- names. Nay, they fancy he had three, beKennicott.

καὶ ἐπεῖδεν ὁ θεὸς τοὺς υἱοὺς Ἰσραὴλ, καὶ ἐγνώσθη αὐτοῖς.

Au. Ver.-25 And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God had respect unto [Heb., knew] them.

ing called Hobab they think, Judg. iv. 11, where Hobab is said to be "the father-inlaw of Moses." But the word son is there to be supplied (which in other places is sometimes to be understood), he seeming to be Jethro's son, brother to Zipporah: and accordingly is said (Numb. x. 29) "to be the son of Raguel the Midianite," i. e. of Jethro, as many understand it. See there.

Backside of the desert.] Or, as St. Jerome understands it, ad interiora deserti, " to the inner parts of the desert" (where there was better pasture than in the place where he was before), to which he was conducted by the providence of God, who intended here to reveal himself more fully to him.

This is called the mountain of God, because, when Moses wrote this book, there had been a Divine appearance upon Horeb, which St. Stephen calls Sinai (Acts vii. 30). Ken. And God had respect unto. Our For Horeb and Sinai seem to have been two version adds them; but if this were the tops of one and the same mountain: which true reading, a pronoun, so necessary here, it is plain by this was not far from the could not have been omitted. The trans-country of Midian.

,makes a regular sense וידע

position of one letter removes the difficulty; Pool. To the backside of the desert, to its and the word (instead of D) after innermost parts, which were behind Jethro's "And God habitation, and the former pastures, whither looked upon the children of Israel; and he he went for fresh pastures. The mountain of was made known unto them. So the Greek. God; so called, either as a high or eminent Ged. And God had regard to the chil-mountain; or from the vision of God here dren of Israel, and manifested himself [so following; see Acts vii. 30; or by anticipaLXX., Vulg., Arab.] to them.

CHAP. III. 1.

tion, from God's glorious appearance there, and giving the law from thence, Exod. xviii. 5; xix. 3; see also 1 Kings xix. 8.

Rosen. Et quum duxisset gregem in pos

teriorem, remotiorem, interiorem deserti כֹּהֵן מִדְיָן וַיִּנְהַג אֶת־הַצאן אַחַר הַמִּדְבָּר

esse non tam mare מִדְבָּר in desertum. Sane וַיָּבֹא אֶל־הַר הָאֱלֹהִים חֹרֵבָה : :

partem. Onkelos: in locum pulchri pascui

arenosum, quam tractum, in quem pecudes finde montem dictum 3 rad. mobili pastum aguntur, patet vel et locis Ps. lxv. facta), vel quod istiusmodi rubi istic prope 13; Jer. ix. 9; xxiii. 10. Ceterum remotis-montem copiose nascebantur, vel propter simi deserti solitudo visioni, quæ protinus rubum illum, in quo nuncius divinus apnarratur, apprime conveniebat. Desertum paruit.

) est paragogicum et locale. Chorebus et Sinai sunt duo juga unius ejusdemque montis quorum jugorum quod Sinai dicitur

Ver. 4.

Au. Ver. The Lord.
Heb., Booth.-Jehovah,

Ver. 6.

וַיֹּאמֶר אָנֹכִי אֱלֹהֵי אָבִיךָ אֱלֹהֵי .est ad occidentem, Chorebus ad orientem

Hieronymo duplici nomine idem mons, nunc Sina nunc Choreb interdum vocari videtur. Cf. xix. 20, cum xxxiii. 6. Idem statuere videtur Joseph. Antiqq. ii. 12, 1: Postea pascens ad Sinæum montem agit pecudes. Hic est altissimus montium, qui illic sunt, et ad pascua optimus, bona nascente herba, et propter opinionem, quam habebant accola, Deum illic degere, prius non depasta, pastoribus non audentibus illum adire. Plura de hoc monte vid. in d. Handb. d. Bibl. Alterthumskunde, vol. iii. p. 114. Vocatur autem

καὶ εἶπεν. ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ θεὸς τοῦ πατρός σου, θεὸς ̔Αβραὰμ, καὶ θεὸς Ισαάκ, καὶ θεὸς Ἰακώβ, κ. τ. λ.

Au. Ver.-6 Moreover he said, I am the
God of
thy father, the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, &c.
I am the God of thy father.

Ken., Ged., Booth., Clarke.-I am the
God of thy fathers [so Sam., Copt.].
Rosen., Ego sum Deus

אֱלֹהֵי כָל־אָב,vel אֱלֹהֵי אֲבוֹתֶיךָ Dei mos vel ob altitudinem, pro | patris tui, pro הַר הָאֱלֹהִים

VIT

more Hebræorum, quo omnia in suo genere T, Deus uniuscujusque patrum tuorum. magna et præclara divina appellant (cf. ad Quomodo sing. et collective usurpatur Gen. xxx. 8); vel, uti alii volunt, Karà XV. 2. Conf. 2 Reg. xx. 5; Jes. xxxviii. 5; Tрón, quia Deus in illo daturus erat 2 Chr. xxi. 12, ubi David pater legem. tuus, pro David et reliqui tui patres dicitur. Recte Stephanus Act. vii. 32. 'Eyo ó còs τῶν πατέρων σου.

Ver. 2.

8

ὤφθη δὲ αὐτῷ ἄγγελος κυρίου ἐν πυρὶ ΘΕΣΕΩΝ φλογὸς ἐκ τοῦ βάτου. καὶ ὁρᾷ ὅτι ὁ βάτος της η καίεται πυρὶ, ὁ δὲ βάτος οὐ κατεκαίετο.

Au. Ver.-2 And the angel of the LORD

מַכְאֹבָיו : וּלְהַעֲלֹתוֹ מִן־הָאָרֶץ הַהִוא אֶל־ appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of מִצְרַיִם אֶרֶץ טוֹבָה וּרְחָבָה אֶל־אֶרֶץ זָבַת חָלָב,the midst of a bush: and he looked, and אֶל־מְקוֹם הַכְּנַעֲנִי וְהַחִתִּי behold, the bush burned with fire, and the וּדְבָשׁ

bush was not consumed.

The angel of the Lord.

Booth. The angel Jehovah.

Au. Ver.-A bush.

Booth.-A bush of thorns.

Ged.-Briers.

7 εἶπε δὲ κύριος πρὸς Μωυσῆν. ἰδὼν εἶδον τὴν κάκωσιν τοῦ λαοῦ μου τοῦ ἐν Αἰγύπτῳ, καὶ τῆς κραυγῆς αὐτῶν ἀκήκοα ἀπὸ τῶν ἐργοδιωκτῶν. οἶδα γὰρ τὴν ὀδύνην αὐτῶν, 8 καὶ Gesen.- m. a shrub, thorn-bush. κατέβην ἐξελέσθαι αὐτοὺς ἐκ χειρὸς τῶν ΑἰExod. iii. 2, &c.; Deut. xxxiii. 16. LXX., γυπτίων, καὶ ἐξαγαγεῖν αὐτοὺς ἐκ τῆς γῆς Báros. (Syr. a, idem.) Arab. L, ékeivηs, kai eiσayayev avтoùs eis yn dyabhy especially, the senna shrub, cassia senna. καὶ πολλὴν, εἰς γῆν ῥέουσαν γάλα καὶ μέλι, εἰς See Celsii Hierob., ii. τὸν τόπον τῶν Χαναναίων, καὶ Χετταίων, καὶ p. 58-62. Aben Esra Αμοῤῥαίων, καὶ Φερεζαίων, καὶ Γεργεσαίων, dicit esse speciem spina arida, eodemque καὶ Εὐαίων, καὶ Ιεβουσαίων. nomine in lingua Arabica appellari, quia et

Rosen. E medio rubi.

Au. Ver.-7 And the LORD said, I have