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27,299 commentary entries
The Pulpit Commentary
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 1:15-22
A king's edicts. I. THE COMMAND TO THE MIDWIVES TO DESTROY THE MALES (Exodus 1:16). This was a further stage in the persecution of the Hebrews. Happily the command was not obeyed. There is a limit even to the power of k…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 1:16
The stools. The explanation furnished by a remark of Mr. Lane is more satisfactory than any other. In modern Egypt, he says, "two or three days before the expected time of delivery, the midwife conveys to the house the…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 1:17
The midwives feared God. The midwives had a sense of religion, feared God sufficiently to decline imbruing their hands in the innocent blood of a number of defenceless infants, and, rather than do so wicked a thing, ris…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 1:17
Duty of opposing authority when its commands are against God's Law. Few lessons are taught in Holy Scripture more plainly than this, that the wrongful commands of legitimate authority are to be disobeyed. "Saul spake to…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 1:18-21
God's acceptance of an imperfect obedience. The midwives had not the courage of their convictions. They did not speak out boldly,, like Daniel, and the "Three Children," and the Apostles. They did not say, "Be it known…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 1:19
They are vigorous. Literally, "they are lively." In the East at the present day a large proportion of the women deliver themselves; and the services of professional accoucheurs are very rarely called in. The excuse of t…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 1:22
Every son that is born. The words are universal, and might seem to apply to the Egyptian, no less than the Hebrew, male children. But they are really limited by the context, which shows that there had never been any que…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 2:1-10
By works was faith made perfect. Bad times; harsh decrees against the Israelites; doubts and misgivings which must have occurred to one in Amram's position; a hard experience and a dark prospect. Still the man believed…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 2:1-10
EXPOSITION. Exodus 2:1-10. THE BIRTH, ESCAPE, AND EDUCATION OF MOSES. Some years before the Pharaoh issued his edict for the general destruction of the Hebrew male children, Amram of the tribe of Levi, had married Joche…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 2:1
There went a man. The Hebrew language is deficient in tenses, and cannot mark pluperfect time. The meaning is, that "a man of the house of Levi had gone, some time before, and taken to wife a daughter of Levi." Miriam m…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 2:1-2
§ 1. The birth of Moses. In the providence of God, great men are raised up from time to time, for the express object of working out his purposes. A great task is before them, but there is often nothing peculiar, nothing…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 2:1-10
A picture of true faith. I. WHAT TRUE FAITH IS. 1. There was obedience to a Divine impulse: her heart was appealed to, she saw he was a goodly child, and she hid him three months. She read in the child's appearance an i…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 2:1-11
A child of providence. This section recounts the birth, deliverance, and upbringing at the court of Pharaoh, of the future Deliverer of Israel. In which we have to notice — I. AN ACT OF FAITH ON THE PART OF MOSES' PAREN…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 2:1-9
The infancy of Moses. I. WE HAVE, IN THIS EXPERIENCE OF THE INFANT AND HIS MOTHER, A MOST AFFECTING ILLUSTRATION OF THE MISERABLE STATE TO WHICH ISRAEL HAD BEEN REDUCED. We come down from the general statement of the fi…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 2:1-10
The child of the water. "And she called his name Moses... water." — Exodus 2:10. Save Jesus, Moses is the greatest name in history. Compare with it Mahomet, or even that of Paul. As the founder of the Jewish religion —…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 2:2
And the woman conceived. Not for the first time, as appears from Exodus 2:4, nor even for the second, as we learn from Exodus 7:7; but for the third. Aaron was three years old when Moses was born. As no difficulty has o…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 2:3
She took for him an ark of bulrushes. The words translated "ark" and "bulrushes" are both of Egyptian origin, the former corresponding to the ordinary word for "chest," which is feb, teba, or tebat, and the latter corre…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 2:3-9
§ 3. The escape of Moses. The escape of Moses teaches three things especially — 1. God's over-ruling providence, and his power to make wicked men work out his will; 2. The blessing that rests upon a mother's faithful lo…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 2:4
His sister. There can be no reasonable doubt that this is the "Miriam" of the later narrative (Exodus 15:20-21; Numbers 20:1), who seems to have been Moses' only sister (Numbers 26:59). She was probably set to watch by…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 2:5
The daughter of Pharaoh. Probably a daughter of Seti I. and a sister of Rameses the Great. Josephus calls her Thermuthis; Syncellus, Pharia; Artapanus, Merrhis, and some of the Jewish commentators, Bithia — the diversit…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 2:6
The princess herself opened the "ark," which was a sort of covered basket. Perhaps she suspected what she would find inside; but would it be a living or a dead child? This she could not know. She opened, and looked. It…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 2:10
§ 4. The education of Moses. Education is to fit us for the battle of life. The first and most important point is that a child be "virtuously brought up to lead a godly life" In Egypt morality was highly regarded; and s…
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 2:11-15
EXPOSITION.
The Pulpit Commentary on Exodus 2:11-15
FIRST ATTEMPT OF MOSES TO DELIVER HIS NATION, AND ITS FAILURE. After Moses was grown up — according to the tradition accepted by St. Stephen (Acts 7:23), when he was "full forty years old" — having become by some means…