the self-existent Jehovah or eternal Being, the God of his fathers-by the twofold miracle of turning his rod into a serpent, and then restoring it to its former shape, and of making his hand leprous, and afterwards healing it-by assigning to him his brother Aaron as a spokesman-and by conferring upon him the power of working miracles, in confirmation of his mission, by the agency of that very rod which had already been so miraculously changed; a rod which may now perhaps be regarded as the token or instrument of his investiture with office. At the same time Moses was forewarned of the difficulties which he would encounter, arising from the obstinacy of Pharaoh. In obedience to the Divine command, Moses took leave of Jethro, and returned to the land of Goshen, being met on his way, near Horeb, by Aaron. On the arrival of the brothers among the Israelites, the commission given to Moses was publicly declared by Aaron; and when the appointed signs had been wrought in the sight of the people, Moses was acknowledged as their Deliverer, sent and accredited by God. Moses and Aaron now went to Pharaoh, and demanded, upon the warrant of Divine authority, permission for the people to go three days' journey into the desert, in order to celebrate a sacrifice to the Lord. By this message, God was pleased to make a revelation of His will to Pharaoh; while the very moderation of the request was adapted to make a refusal the more harsh and impious. The king, however, treated the message with contempt; his tyrannical disposition, instead of being subdued, was aroused into more active and obstinate energy; and, having charged the leaders of the Israelites with a conspiracy against the state by an attempt to defraud it of a portion of labour, he commanded that the burdens of the Hebrews should be increased, requiring that they should deliver the same tale of bricks as heretofore, without receiving the necessary supply of that straw, which, chopped into small pieces, was used in the manufacture of bricks, for the purpose of compacting the clay. Being now left to gather straw, or stubble, for themselves, while their overseers (Shoterim) were smarting under the rods of the Egyptian taskmasters,† the Israelites * Tale, i.e. number to be told or counted. And every shepherd tells his tale (i. e. counts the number of his sheep) Under the hawthorn in the dale.'-MILTON, L'Allegro. + The Egyptian practice of urging forward work by beating the labourers, is amply exhibited on the monuments of ancient Egypt:-Even at present the Blows are the rule of the stick is generally prevalent in many parts of the East. ordinary means of punishment; they are scarcely considered a degradation; they belong to the natural prerogatives of the superior; and are the most obvious yielded to a spirit of discontent against Moses and Aaron. This was a great trial of the faith of Moses, who, in deep affliction, repaired to God by prayer; in answer to which he received from the Most High a renewal of His late promise, by His great. name Jehovah, together with a solemn repetition of the original covenant promise concerning the possession of Canaan. Still, however, the people were indisposed to listen to the encouraging assurances of Moses, a circumstance which led him, when required by the Lord to repeat His message to Pharaoh, to meet that command with an expression of hesitation, arising from a fear of failure. Encouraged, however, by an express command, attended with a promise, Moses and Aaron again appeared before the king,* and began that series of operations which involved a public conflict between the true God and the idols of Egypt. On this occasion Aaron's rod was miraculously turned into a serpent; but the Egyptian magicians having simulated this miracle by some feat of legerdemain, or having been supernaturally enabled to perform an act substantially the same, Pharaoh resisted the evidence of Divine authority which had thus been given to him; and, although Aaron's rod swallowed up those of the magicians, the king hardened his heart, and would not let Israel go. Hereupon, Moses was commissioned to work that series of miracles which are commonly called the Plagues of Egypt;-plagues which extended to the whole nation, as a punishment of the national sin of holding the Israelites in a state of unjust and oppressive bondage. One of these plagues was made to follow each successive refusal on the part of Pharaoh, accompanied, as it sometimes was, by the breach of a promise which had been extorted from him in the hour of distress. In accordance with Divine warnings, the waters of the Nile were changed into blood, and all the fish destroyed;-the land was filled with frogs;-the dust of the earth was turned into lice, or (rather) gnats, upon the appearance of which the Egyptian magicians ceased the imitations which they had begun to practise ;-the land and houses of the Egyptians were filled with flies, or (rather) beetles ;-all kinds of cattle were visited with a grievous murrain ;-the Egyptians, including the magicians, were covered with boils, emblem of his mastership. Neither rank, nor learning, nor old age, can protect against the ruthless tyranny of the stick; and not unfrequently are European travellers shocked by scenes of revolting barbarism committed publicly against venerable individuals for the slightest offences, after the despotic humour of Oriental masters.'-KALISCH on Exod. v. 14. *The residence of the kings of Lower Egypt at this time, is usually supposed to have been at Memphis. But some suppose that it was at Zoan [see Psalm 1xxviii, 12, 43] or Tanis near one of the eastern mouths of the Nile, in the Delta. or ulcerous swellings; -the land of Egypt was visited with a tremendous storm of hail, attended with thunder and lightning of unparalleled severity;-the face of the earth was covered with a consuming swarm of locusts;-it was afterwards visited with a thick darkness of three days' duration;-and, at length, God smote all the first-born of the Egyptians with death. By the force of this last visitation, and after several insincere compliances with the demands of Moses and Aaron, Pharaoh and the Egyptians were constrained to let the people go. The miraculous character of these plagues of Egypt has been described by a modern writer, as 'unmistakably observable in the following points: 1. They take place at a time contrary to their usual occurrence; 2. They happen within a space of a few months in rapid succession, whilst at least some of them are of very rare occurrence; 3. Their injurious character is infinitely aggravated—as, for instance, by the first plague not only the water of the Nile was converted into blood, but also all its numerous fishes die; 4. They occur at the time predicted by Moses, and at his command; 5. They generally cease at his prayer; and, 6. The Egyptians only are afflicted by them, whilst the Israelites are exempted from their calamitous effects. 'That God inflicted ten successive plagues to break the king's contumacy, whilst He might have annihilated him with one mighty stroke, shows that God mercifully tried to convince and move the tyrant by less dangerous visitations, calculated merely to impress him with some idea of the unlimited means at His command; and only when Pharaoh's obstinacy grew more and more inveterate, the number and formidable character of the plagues were increased. And, as in the hand of Providence, every event becomes a means to a higher aim, the miseries which befel Pharaoh, in consequence of his own obduracy, were at the same time intended by God to manifest to all the nations of the earth His supreme power, and to induce them to abandon their idolatrous worship, and to acknowledge His exclusive sovereignty.'' In recording those events of sacred history which occurred between the Deluge and the Exodus, we have already taken some notice of the early Babylonian Empire (p. 16), and of the kingdom of Egypt (pp. 23, 50). Concerning all other ancient history during this period, the notices which have come down to us are scanty and uncertain. This was, in fact, but the very dawn of the mythic or fabulous era of Greece and Italy. Greece Kalisch on Exodus vii, 13. was probably inhabited by the Pelasgi and Hellenes, who came perhaps from Asia. Italy, having been at first inhabited by aboriginal tribes from some unknown period after the dispersion of mankind, is said to have received its first colonists under Enotrus and Peucetius (Arcadians), according to some, about the year B. C. 1680, i. e. about the time of the death of Jacobbut, according to others, not until a century or two later. ELEMENTARY AND GENERAL QUESTIONS. 168. What led to the oppression of the Israelites in Egypt? 169. How were the Israelites employed during their period of slavery? 170. By what means did Pharaoh attempt to stop the increase of the Hebrew population? 171. Who were the father and mother-the brother and sister-of Moses? 172. Relate the circumstances of his infancy and education. 173. What was the occasion of the flight of Moses to Midian, and what was the result of his visit to that country? 174. Relate the circumstances of the call and mission of Moses. 175. Where did Aaron meet Moses on his return to Goshen ? 176. What demands did Moses and Aaron make in favour of the Israelites, and how did Pharaoh receive them? 177. Describe the increasing labour which Pharaoh afterwards imposed on the Israelites. 178. Under these circumstances, how did the Israelites treat Moses and Aaron, and what course did Moses pursue in consequence of that treatment? 179. Relate the further interview of Moses and Aaron with Pharaoh. 180. Describe the ten Plagues, and their circumstances. 181. What was the result of this contest ? ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS. 182. Who were (probably) the Hyksos, or Shepherd Kings; and what was their date ? 183. What were the store cities, which the Israelites built for Pharaoh, and what their probable sites? 184. What were (precisely) the materials of the vessel in which Moses was preserved, and the weeds among which it was laid? 185. Who were the Midianites, and what region did they occupy? 186. What was, generally speaking, the great design of God with reference to the Israelites ? 187. Describe the nature of the office and mission of Moses; and point out the great link between the Patriarchal and Mosaic dispensations. 188. Explain the miraculous character of the Plagues of Egypt. 189. How was God now dealing with the king and people of Egypt morally? 190. What do we know of common history during this period? 191. Give the meanings of-Jochebed-Amram-Miriam-Moses-Gershom Eliezer. 192. Give the dates of-the birth of Moses-his flight to Midian-his mission to Pharaoh. CHAPTER XII. THE IS INSTITUTION OF THE PASSOVER.-DEPARTURE OF (Exodus xii. 1.—xv. 21.) SOME time before the departure of the Israelites from Egypt (B. C. 1491)*-perhaps in the interval between the ninth and tenth plagues, or during the three days' darkness which constituted the ninth, while it was light in the land of Goshen God prescribed to His people a solemn institution, to be observed for the first time in Egypt, and afterwards (in commemoration of their deliverance) every year. The Israelites, through Moses, were commanded to take a lamb or kid † for every household, and to separate it from the rest of the flock, on the tenth day of the month Abib, afterwards (i.e. in the later period of Jewish history) called Nisan (viz. MarchApril), which month was now fixed as the first of the sacred or ecclesiastical year. The lamb or kid was to be a male, without blemish, not more than one year old. On the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening (literally, between the two evenings; i. e. according to the traditional interpretation, between the first evening, which began at the ninth hour, about three o'clock, and the second, which began at the eleventh hour, or five o'clock), the animal was to be killed, in such a manner as that none of its bones should be broken. Some of its blood was to be put in a basin, and to be sprinkled, with a bunch of hyssop, on the two side-posts and the upper door-post (or lintel) of the house in which the family was assembled. The flesh * We find mention of the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, but with several distortions and misrepresentations of the facts of the case, in Lysimachus (ap. Joseph. cont. Apion. i. 34); Manetho (ap. Joseph. cont. Apion. i. 14-16, 26-31); Chæremon of Alexandria (ap. Joseph. cont. Apion. i. 32); Diodor. Sic. Hist. i. 28; ib. Eclog. xxxiv. 1; ib. xl. 1; where he speaks of the Israelites as having been dismissed, with others, because they would not worship the gods of Egypt; and mentions-but with some confusion of facts-their division into twelve tribes-the leadership of Moses, and the fact that he received a Divine revelation-the monotheism of the Jews, and their abhorrence of image-worshipthe appointment of priests and sacrifices-the conquest and partition of Canaanand the laws against the alienation of landed property. See also Tacitus, Hist. v. 2, 3; Justin, xxxvi. 2. Strabo (xvi. 2) relates a confused rumour in his day to the effect that the ancestors of the Jews were Egyptians; and says that the people with Moses quitted Egypt on account of their abhorrence of the prevalent idolatry. Diogenes Laertius, in his Lives of the Philosophers, proœm. vi., says, 'Some report that the Jews were descended from the Egyptians.' † Jewish tradition afterwards fixed upon a lamb [almost] exclusively. Afterwards the animal was slain before the altar of burnt-offering, and the blood was poured out by the priest at the foot of the altar; Deut. xvi. 2, 5,.6. According to the terms of the institution, every Israelite was entitled to kill the |