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Chapters: 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10 · 11 · 12 · 13 · 14 · 15 · 16 · 17 · 18 · 19 · 20 · 21 · 22 · 23 · 24 · 25 · 26 · 27 · 28 · 29 · 30 · 31 · 32 · 33 · 34 · 35 · 36 · 37 · 38 · 39 · 40
Chapter 1
The Israelites are multiplied in Egypt. They are oppressed by a new king, who commandeth all their male children to be killed.
1:1 These are the names of the children of Israel, that went into Egypt with Jacob: they went in every man with his household:
1:2 Ruben, Simeon, Levi, Juda,
1:3 Issachar, Zabulon, and Benjamin,
And Benjamin. He is mentioned here, because he was the son of Rachel, as the preceding were the children of Lia. The offspring of the handmaids follow. (Haydock)
1:4 Dan, and Nephthali, Gad and Aser.
1:5 And all the souls that came out of Jacob's thigh, were seventy: but Joseph was in Egypt.
Seventy: Septuagint, "75," including the offspring of Joseph. See Genesis xlvi. 26.
1:6 After he was dead, and all his brethren, and all that generation,
Generation, or race of mortals who had seen his wonderful works. The tyrant, who knew not Joseph, began his reign about 58 years after that patriarch's death. (Calmet) --- His name was Pharao Amenophis, (Pererius) or Ramesses Miamum. (Usher)
1:7 The children of Israel increased, and sprung up into multitudes, and growing exceedingly strong they filled the land.
1:8 In the mean time there arose a new king over Egypt, that knew not Joseph:
1:9 And he said to his people: Behold the people of the children of Israel are numerous and stronger than we.
Numerous. Calvisius observes, that from Ephraim alone might have sprung 4,112,323,729 people. See St. Augustine, q. 43, &c. (Haydock) --- In the space of 215 years, 70 people may produce an immense multitude, as Bonfrere shews by an accurate calculation. God also was pleased to bless the Hebrews with fecundity, so that they sprung up ( ebullierunt ) like frogs or fishes, ver. 7. In Egypt, the women had sometimes seven at a birth (Pliny, Natural History vii. 3,) and Aristotle (Anim. vii. 4,) mentions one woman who had 20 children at four births. (Tirinus) --- Stronger. This might easily be true, if this king had only Thebais under his command. But if he was king of all Egypt, it seems an exaggeration. (Calmet) --- Indeed, human policy often gives birth to all kinds of wickedness. The king justifies his cruelty on this pretext of self-defence. He wishes to keep the Hebrews under; yet he is not willing to let them depart, as he knew they intended, according to Joseph's prediction. (Haydock) --- God permitted this disposition, in order to punish his people for their idolatry, (Ezechiel xxiii. 8,) to admonish them not to fix their abode in Egypt, and to manifest his power and glory in the destruction of the impious. (Menochius)
1:10 Come let us wisely oppress them, lest they multiply: and if any war shall rise against us, join with our enemies, and having overcome us, depart out of the land.
1:11 Therefore he set over them masters of the works, to afflict them with burdens: and they built for Pharao cities of tabernacles, Phithom, and Ramesses.
Masters. Cruel like himself, who not only made them build without proper materials, (ver. 14, and chap. v. 10, Haydock,) but oppressed them with heavy burdens of brick and tile. Hence Aristophanes calls the Hebrews in derision Plinthophoroi. This servitude is styled the iron furnace of Egypt, Deuteronomy iv. 20; Jeremias xi. 4. --- Of tabernacles, or of storehouses. (Challoner) --- To keep his treasures, Chaldean, or "fortresses," Septuagint. It may also be the name of a city, Miscenoth, chap. xii. 37. Phithom, perhaps the same as the town of Heroum, where the Septuagint say Joseph first met his father, Genesis xlvi. 28. Ramesses was the capital, and situate in the Arabic nome. (Calmet)
1:12 But the more they oppressed them, the more they were multiplied and increased.
1:13 And the Egyptians hated the children of Israel, and afflicted them and mocked them:
1:14 And they made their life bitter with hard works in clay and brick, and with all manner of service, wherewith they were overcharged in the works of the earth.
Service. They were forced to till the land, reap, &c. (Menochius)
1:15 And the king of Egypt spoke to the midwives of the Hebrews: of whom one was called Sephora, the other Phua,
Midwives. Egyptian women, who assisted all of that district. (Josephus, [Antiquities] xi. 5.) There were others under them. Some think all these midwives were of Hebrew extraction, as their names are Hebrew, &c. (Calmet)
1:16 Commanding them: When you shall do the office of midwives to the Hebrew women, and the time of delivery is come: if it be a man child, kill it: if a woman, keep it alive.
The time, &c. Hebrew, "and you shall see them upon the two stones." Abenaim. Jeremias (xviii. 3,) uses the same expression, speaking of a potter hard at work. (Calmet) --- A woman, from whom nothing could be feared, to be reserved for service and for pleasure. (Menochius) --- We must not obey princes in their unjust commands. (Acts iv, and Matthew x. 28.) (Worthington)
1:17 But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded, but saved the men children.
1:18 And the king called for them and said: What is that you meant to do, that you would save the men children?
1:19 They answered: The Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women: for they themselves are skilful in the office of a midwife; and they are delivered before we come to them.
Skilful, &c. Hebrew Caioth means midwives: or they are full of vigour, or bring forth alive, like brutes. By this allusion they not only excuse themselves, but seem also to enter into the king's sentiments of hatred and scorn for the Hebrews. (Menochius) --- Women in Egypt, and in the eastern regions, are easily delivered, and hardly stand in need of any assistance. (Ludolf) (1 Kings iv. 19.) Perhaps, therefore, the midwives spoke truth, with regard to the generality of the Hebrew women. But they gave way to a lie of excuse, with regard to some, (ver. 17,) which St. Augustine would not allow, even to save all the Hebrew children. (contra Mend. 15.) It was not so easy to discover this delusion, as women in that country seldom appear in public; and hence Jochabed was enabled to hide Moses so long. (Calmet)
1:20 Therefore God dealt well with the midwives: and the people multiplied and grew exceedingly strong.
1:21 And because the midwives feared God, he built them houses.
Because the midwives feared God, &c. The midwives were rewarded, not for their lie, which was a venial sin; but for their fear of God, and their humanity; but this reward was only temporal, in building them houses, that is, in establishing and enriching their families. (Challoner) --- This alone the Scripture specifies, though they might also be filled with heavenly graces. (Worthington) --- Some conclude from this verse, that the midwives embraced the true religion. The Hebrew refers built them to the Hebrews, as if they multiplied in consequence of the humanity of these women; (Calmet) and the Vulgate may be explained in the same sense. (Haydock) De Muis supposes, that Pharao ordered houses to be built for the midwives, where the Hebrew women were forced to appear when they were to be delivered, in the presence of commissaries.
1:22 Pharao therefore charged all his people, saying: Whatsoever shall be born of the male sex, ye shall cast into the river: whatsoever of the female, ye shall save alive.
The river Nile, where the persecuting successor of this king found his end. (Haydock) --- It seems this inhuman decree was not published till after Aaron was born, and it was probably revoked soon after the birth of Moses; for if it had been rigorously put in execution, there would have been nothing but old men 80 years after, when Moses led the people out of Egypt. (Calmet) --- But perhaps even the Egyptians abhorred and refused to execute this edict. (Menochius)
Cross-references: 1: Genesis xlvi. 8. 5: Genesis xlvi. 27. 7: Acts vii. 17.
Chapter 2
Moses is born, and exposed on the bank of the river; where he is taken up by the daughter of Pharao, and adopted for her son. He killeth an Egyptian, and fleeth into Madian; where he marrieth a wife.
2:1 After this there went a man of the house of Levi; and took a wife of his own kindred.
After this. In process of time, without reference to what immediately precedes. The Hebrew and Septuagint omit these words. (Haydock) --- The marriage of Amram, grandson of Levi, with his aunt or cousin, had taken place before the persecution. Tostat and others suppose, that people were not then forbidden to marry their aunts. But it is probable Jochabed was only the grand-daughter of Levi, and the daughter of one of Amram's brothers, as the Septuagint insinuate. Otherwise their ages would have been very disproportionate. See chap. vi. 20. (Calmet)
2:2 And she conceived, and bore a son: and seeing him a goodly child, hid him three months.
Goodly. Handsome, elegant, Hebrews xi. 23; agreeable to God, Acts vii. 20. Josephus says, Amram had been assured by God that the child should be the deliverer of his people. Yet he neglects not to use every prudent precaution. (Worthington) --- Months. Hebrew moons; whence some erroneously infer, that the Hebrew year was not solar. (Calmet)
2:3 And when she could hide him no longer, she took a basket made of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and pitch: and put the little babe therein, and laid him in the sedges by the river's brink,
Bulrushes, or paper plant, growing on the banks of the Nile. Such little vessels were used in Egypt in Lucan's time. Conseritur bibula Memphitis cymba papyro. (Menochius) --- Sedges, to prevent it from being carried away by the stream. Cajetan thinks the Hebrews did not drown their children; but by thus exposing them, abandoned them to the king's use, Acts vii. 19.
2:4 His sister standing afar off, and taking notice what would be done.
His sister, Mary, who was born at the beginning of this persecution, and was therefore called bitterness. (Haydock) --- She was about 12 years old. (Menochius)
2:5 And behold the daughter of Pharao came down to wash herself in the river: and her maids walked by the river's brink. And when she saw the basket in the sedges, she sent one of her maids for it: and when it was brought,
Daughter, and sole heiress. She is called Thermut by Josephus, and Meris by Artapanus. She was going to bathe, or to purify herself, according to the custom of the country; or perhaps she was going to wash linen, as Nausicrae, the daughter of Alcinous, was doing, when she met Ulysses. (Calmet)
2:6 She opened it, and seeing within it an infant crying, having compassion on it, she said: This is one of the babes of the Hebrews.
Hebrews, against whom the persecution raged. She saw it had received circumcision. (Theodoret, q. in Ex.)
2:7 And the child's sister said to her: Shall I go, and call to thee a Hebrew woman, to nurse the babe?
2:8 She answered: Go. The maid went and called her mother.
2:9 And Pharao's daughter said to her. Take this child and nurse him for me: I will give thee thy wages. The woman took and nursed the child: and when he was grown up, she delivered him to Pharao's daughter.
2:10 And she adopted him for a son, and called him Moses, saying: Because I took him out of the water.
Moses, or Moyses, in the Egyptian tongue, signifies one taken or saved out of the water. (Challoner) --- Mo, signifies water in the Egyptian tongue; Mosse, "he drew out," in Hebrew. Philo believes that the princess feigned him to be her own child. Moses denied that he was, and would not take advantage of this adoption, Hebrews xi. 24. He was grown up, and had been well instructed by his parents, ver. 9. He afterwards became well versed in all the sciences, (Acts vii. 22,) rejecting what was idle and superstitious. Josephus assures us he became a great conqueror. (Calmet)
2:11 In those days, after Moses was grown up, he went out to his brethren: and saw their affliction, and an Egyptian striking one of the Hebrews, his brethren.
2:12 And when he had looked about this way and that way, and saw no one there, he slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
He slew the Egyptian. This he did by a particular inspiration of God; as a prelude to his delivering the people from their oppression and bondage. He thought, says St. Stephen, (Acts vii. 25,) that his brethren understood that God by his hand would save them. But such particular and extraordinary examples are not to be imitated. (Challoner) --- He was inspired, on this occasion, to stand up in defence of the innocent. (Menochius) (St. Thomas Aquinas, ii. 2, q. 60.) --- The laws of Egypt required every person to protect the oppressed; or, if unable to do it, he was to call in the aid of the magistrate. (Diodorus i.) (Calmet) --- Moses looked round to see if there was any help near. He was 40 years old when he was forced to flee.
2:13 And going out the next day, he saw two Hebrews quarrelling: and he said to him that did the wrong: Why strikest thou thy neighbour?
2:14 But he answered: Who hath appointed thee prince and judge over us? wilt thou kill me, as thou didst yesterday kill the Egyptian? Moses feared, and said: How is this come to be known?
Feared. St. Paul, (Hebrews xi. 27,) is speaking of his leaving Egypt, at the head of the people, when he says, not fearing the fierceness of the king. Without being dismayed on this occasion, by the unexpected discovery of what he had done, (which was perhaps undesignedly made public by the Hebrew whom he had rescued) he resolves not to tempt God. (Haydock)
2:15 And Pharao heard of this word, and sought to kill Moses: but he fled from his sight, and abode in the land of Madian, and he sat down by a well.
Madian. A city and country of Arabia, which took its name from Madian the son of Abraham, by Cetura, and was peopled by his posterity. (Challoner) --- There were, perhaps, some of the descendants of Cham, by his son Chus, intermixed with them; (Haydock) and hence Aaron reproaches the wife of Moses for being a Chusite, Numbers xii. 1. Jethro was a Cinean, descended from the same stock.
2:16 And the priest of Madian had seven daughters, who came to draw water: and when the troughs were filled, desired to water their father's flocks.
Priest. Hebrew cohen, (or cen, ) means also a prince, as the Chaldean has it. When put in this manner, with the name of a place, it is generally taken in this sense. But formerly kings were also priests. Jethro served the true God, like Job, in the midst of a perverse generation, and offered sacrifice to him, when he joined the camp of the Israelites, Exodus xviii. 11. (Calmet)
2:17 And the shepherds came and drove them away: and Moses arose, and defending the maids, watered their sheep.
2:18 And when they returned to Raguel their father, he said to them: Why are ye come sooner than usual?
Raguel. He had two names, being also called Jethro, as appears from the first verse of the following chapter. (Challoner) --- He is also called Hobab and Ceni. (Numbers x. 2; Judges i. 16.) Perhaps Raguel was father of Jethro. (Drusius)
2:19 They answered: A man of Egypt delivered us from the hands of the shepherds: and he drew water also with us, and gave the sheep to drink.
2:20 But he said: Where is he? why have you let the man go? call him that he may eat bread.
2:21 And Moses swore that he would dwell with him. And he took Sephora his daughter to wife:
Swore. Hebrew Goel is rendered "was willing." --- Sym.[Symmachus?] has, "He conjured Moses;" and Theo., "Moses began to dwell." The Septuagint neglect the word entirely, "But Moses took up his abode."
2:22 And she bore him a son, whom he called Gersam, saying: I have been a stranger in a foreign country. And she bore another, whom he called Eliezer, saying: For the God of my father, my helper, hath delivered me out of the hand of Pharao.
Gersam, or Gershom. This name signifies, a stranger there: as Eliezer signifies the help of God. (Challoner) --- And she, &c., is wanting both in Hebrew and Chaldean, but found in the Complut. edit. of the Septuagint. It occurs (chap. xviii. 4,) and we might naturally expect to find it in this place. (Calmet)
2:23 Now after a long time the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel groaning, cried out because of the works: and their cry went up unto God from the works.
Died in the year of the world 2494. His successor, Amenophis, treading in his footsteps, was drowned 19 years afterwards. (Usher)
2:24 And he heard their groaning, and remembered the covenant which he made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
2:25 And the Lord looked upon the children of Israel, and he knew them.
Knew them; that is, he had respect to them, he cast a merciful eye upon them. (Challoner) --- Hebrew, "he had regard for them; " and, as some Latin copies read, delivered them. (Calmet)
Cross-references: 1: Exodus vi. 20. 2: Hebrews xi. 23. ** Year of the World 2433, Year before Christ 1571. 11: Year of the World 2473, Year before Christ 1531. ** Hebrews xi. 24. 21: Exodus xviii. 2. and 3.; 1 Paralipomenon xxiii. 15.
Chapter 3
God appeareth to Moses in a bush, and sendeth him to deliver Israel.
3:1 Now Moses fed the sheep of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Madian: and he drove the flock to the inner parts of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, Horeb.
Fed for the space of forty years. During which time, he composed the books of Genesis and Job, for the consolation of his countrymen; (Menochius) though others believe he wrote all the Pentateuch in the desert. (Theodoret; &c.) --- Of God, on account of its height; or on account of God's appearing to Moses. --- Horeb is so close to Mount Sinai, that the shadow of the latter reaches it when the sun rises. It is watered with three fine springs; and the summit is adorned with fruit trees. (Calmet)
3:2 And the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he saw that the bush was on fire, and was not burnt.
The Lord appeared. That is, and angel representing God, and speaking in his name. (Challoner) (Acts vii. 30; Galatians iii. 19.) --- The apparitions of God to the patriarchs are generally understood in this sense. (St. Augustine, de Trin. iii. 11.) (Worthington) --- Yet many of the Fathers suppose, that this angel was no other than the Son of God, the angel of the great council, (Malachias iii. 1,) and St. Augustine (q. 2, in Ex.) does not disapprove of this opinion. (Calmet) --- Not burnt. Thus the Hebrews were afflicted, but not destroyed. (Menochius) --- God is styled a consuming fire, Deuteronomy iv. 24. He appeared in fire again, chap. xxiv. 17. (Calmet)
3:3 And Moses said: I will go, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.
3:4 And when the Lord saw that he went forward to see, he called to him out of the midst of the bush, and said: Moses, Moses. And he answered: Here I am.
3:5 And he said: Come not nigh hither, put off the shoes from thy feet; for the place, whereon thou standest, is holy ground.
Shoes. Juvenal, sat. 6, takes notice of this custom. Observant ubi festa mero pede sabbata reges. (Du Hamel) --- The Ethiopian Christians and the Turks never enter their churches, or mosques, without putting off their shoes. The priests did the like when they entered the temple of Jerusalem, and God ordered them moreover to wash their feet and hands, Exodus xxx. 19. (Calmet) --- We observe the same ceremony, out of respect for Jesus Christ, when we go to kiss the cross. Pythagoras said, "Offer sacrifice and adoration barefoot." (Jamblic. 24.) On such occasions, we ought to have our hearts disengaged from the world. (Haydock) See Leviticus ii. 25.
3:6 And he said: I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Moses hid his face: for he durst not look at God.
Hid, out of respect, and perhaps fearing lest he should die, Genesis xvi. 13. (Calmet) --- God takes the title of these three patriarchs, because he had promised Chanaan to each of them, and because they were eminent for virtue. God is repeated thrice, to insinuate the mystery of the blessed Trinity, and to shew that the Lord watches over each individual, as if that one alone existed. (Menochius)
3:7 And the Lord said to him: I have seen the affliction of my people in Egypt, and I have heard their cry because of the rigour of them that are over the works;
3:8 And knowing their sorrow, I am come down to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians, and to bring them out of that land into a good and spacious land, into a land that floweth with milk and honey, to the places of the Chanaanite, and Hethite, and Amorrhite, and Pherezite, and Hevite, and Jebusite.
Spacious, compared with that of Gessen. Chanaan was not above 210 miles long, and 70 broad. (Brocard.) St. Jerome does not allow so much. Hecateus says the Jews had three million acres of excellent land. --- Milk and honey are still very plentiful in Palestine, (Calmet) though the country has lost much of its ancient beauty and luxuriance, for want of cultivation. The Samaritan and Septuagint number the Gergesites among the rest of the Chanaanites.
3:9 For the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have seen their affliction, wherewith they are oppressed by the Egyptians.
3:10 But come, and I will send thee to Pharao, that thou mayst bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.
3:11 And Moses said to God: Who am I that I should go to Pharao, and should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?
3:12 And he said to him: I will be with thee: and this thou shalt have for a sign that I have sent thee: When thou shalt have brought my people out of Egypt, thou shalt offer sacrifice to God upon this mountain.
A sign. Moses had modestly represented his own inability to perform so great a work, and such God generally selects. He encourages them therefore with a sign; to the splendour of which he was then a witness; and with another, which should appear in future, to convince him and all the world, that the undertaking was from God, when they should see him offering sacrifice in that place, out of the reach of Pharao, chap. xxiv. 3. Thus a future event is assigned to Achaz and Ezechias, as a sign of something that was to happen first. (Isaias vii; 4 Kings xix. 29.) Perhaps the sign here appointed is the presence of God enabling Moses to work miracles. (Menochius)
3:13 Moses said to God: Lo I shall go to the children of Israel, and say to them: The God of your fathers hath sent me to you. If they should say to me: What is his name? What shall I say to them?
His name. Many of them had embraced idolatry, and had forgotten God. Moses very properly begs to have his extraordinary mission sanctioned by miracles, without which he might well have been rejected, as heretics are. (Haydock)
3:14 God said to Moses: I am who am. He said: Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: He who is, hath sent me to you.
I am who am. That is, I am being itself, eternal, self-existent, independent, infinite; without beginning, end, or change; and the source of all other beings. (Challoner) --- Hebrew agrees with the Vulgate, though it seems to read aeje, "I shall be," &c. (Cornelius a Lapide; &c.) --- No name can fully explain the divine perfections. As God is alone, he stands in need of no distinctive appellation, as Lactantius, and even the pagans have confessed. (Origen, contra Cels. vi.) (Calmet) --- All other beings are just nothing, compared with God. He alone is self-existent and infinitely perfect. (Worthington)
3:15 And God said again to Moses: Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob hath sent me to you; this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.
Memorial. By this title he is still known among Christians. (Menochius) --- Hitherto God had generally been called Elohim. But now he assumes the incommunicable name (Tirinus) consisting of four vowels, Jod, He, Vau, He, Jehovah, the essence, or ωον,, a word which the Greek Scriptures leave undeclined, to denote the unchangeable nature of the Deity. The word has been pronounced Jehovah by the moderns, and by the ancients Jevo, Jao, Jave, &c. (Haydock)
3:16 Go gather together the ancients of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared to me, saying: Visiting I have visited you; and I have seen all that hath befallen you in Egypt.
Ancients. Perhaps there might be 72 magistrates already among the Hebrews, as there were afterwards in the desert (Grotius); or more probably they were only the chiefs of families, and leading men among their brethren, though without any public authority derived from the king of Egypt. --- Visiting. So Joseph had foretold, Genesis l. 23. God examines before he punishes, Genesis xviii. 21. (Calmet)
3:17 And I have said the word to bring you forth out of the affliction of Egypt, into the land of the Chanaanite, and Hethite, and Amorrhite, and Pherezite, and Hevite, and Jebusite, to a land that floweth with milk and honey.
3:18 And they shall hear thy voice; and thou shalt go in, thou and the ancients of Israel, to the king of Egypt, and thou shalt say to him: The Lord God of the Hebrews hath called us; we will go three days' journey into the wilderness, to sacrifice unto the Lord our God.
Called. Samaritan and Septuagint, "hath been invoked upon us." Hebrew, "hath occurred or appeared to us." (Haydock) --- Journey, to Sinai, which was about this distance, to go straight. But the Israelites spent 48 days in arriving at it by a circuitous road. (Calmet) --- In Hebrew they ask, "Let us go, we beseech thee." They do not tell a lie, but withhold the truth. (Menochius)
3:19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go, but by a mighty hand.
3:20 For I will stretch forth my hand, and will strike Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst of them: after these he will let you go.
3:21 And I will give favour to this people, in the sight of the Egyptians: and when you go forth, you shall not depart empty:
Egyptians, among whom the Hebrews were forced to live, not being now allowed to enjoy the fertile country of Gessen alone, according to Joseph's disposition. The subsequent kings altered that wise regulation. (Haydock)
3:22 But every woman shall ask of her neighbour, and of her that is in her house, vessels of silver and of gold, and raiment: and you shall put them on your sons and daughters, and shall spoil Egypt.
Shall spoil, &c. That is, you shall strip, and take away the goods of the Egyptians. This was not authorizing theft or injustice: but was a just disposal made by him, who is the great Lord and master of all things; in order to pay the children of Israel some part of what was due to them from the Egyptians for their labours. (Challoner) --- Wisdom (x. 17) rendered to the just the wages of their labours; and (ver. 19,) the just took the spoils of the wicked, in a just war. It is an ancient tradition of the Jews, that the Egyptians appealed to Alexander the Great for the recovery of these spoils; but when the Jews demanded their wages, they were willing to desist from their claims. (Selden, de Ture vii. 8; Tertullian, contra Marcion ii. 20.) (Calmet) --- God had a mind to punish the extravagance of the Egyptians, while he enabled his people to appear with suitable presents before him. It was on this last plea that the Hebrews borrowed precious garments, gold, &c. (Haydock) See St. Clement of Alexandria, strom. 1; St. Augustine, q. 23.
Cross-references: 1: Year of the World 2513, Year before Christ 1491. 2: Acts vii. 30. 6: Matthew xxii. 32.; Mark xii. 26.; Luke xx. 37. 21: Exodus xi. 2. and xii. 35.
Chapter 4
Moses is empowered to confirm his mission with miracles: his brother Aaron is appointed to assist him.
4:1 Moses answered, and said: They will not believe me, nor hear my voice, but they will say: The Lord hath not appeared to thee.
They, &c. Many of the common people, not of the ancients, chap. iii. 18. (Menochius) --- He knew that all ought to bring credentials from God, when they come in his name to institute a new order of things. This Moses, Jesus Christ, and the apostles did. Nothing less than a miracle can suffice to guard against imposters, who will never be able to stand this test throughout, in such a manner, but that God will evidently confound their delusive signs, if they should even attempt to work miracles. (Haydock) --- Believe the works. (St. John, x. 15; Mark xvi.) (Worthington)
4:2 Then he said to him: What is that thou holdest in thy hand? He answered: A rod.
4:3 And the Lord said: Cast it down upon the ground. He cast it down, and it was turned into a serpent, so that Moses fled from it.
4:4 And the Lord said: Put out thy hand, and take it by the tail. He put forth his hand, and took hold of it, and it was turned into a rod.
A rod. This alluded to the three states in which the Hebrews had lived in Egypt: 1. As holding the sceptre; 2. as persecuted in a crafty and cruel manner; and 3. as liberated by Moses. (Menochius) --- The dragon[serpent] was so terrible as to make even Moses flee. (Philo)
4:5 That they may believe, saith he, that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared to thee.
4:6 And the Lord said again: Put thy hand into thy bosom. And when he had put it into his bosom, he brought it forth leprous as snow.
4:7 And he said: Put back thy hand into thy bosom. He put it back, and brought it out again, and it was like the other flesh.
Again. When Moses first appeared in defence of his brethren, Pharao afflicted them more grievously; but at last he was forced to let them go. (Menochius)
4:8 If they will not believe thee, saith he, nor hear the voice of the former sign, they will believe the word of the latter sign.
4:9 But if they will not even believe these two signs, nor hear thy voice: take of the river water, and pour it out upon the dry land, and whatsoever thou drawest out of the river, shall be turned into blood.
Blood. This third sign had the same tendency as the former. It shewed the cruel persecution inflicted upon the Hebrews, particularly in drowning their male infants; a cruelty which God would shortly revenge, by turning the waters of Egypt into blood, and by slaying the first-born and the army of the Egyptians. (Tirinus)
4:10 Moses said: I beseech thee, Lord, I am not eloquent from yesterday and the day before; and since thou hast spoken to thy servant, I have more impediment and slowness of tongue.
Of tongue, being impressed with awe, at the divine presence. He feared, therefore, that he should not be able to deliver himself intelligibly at the court of Pharao, and might rather excite the disgust of that haughty tyrant. (Haydock) --- He had been 40 years absent in the land of Madian, and might have forgotten both the Egyptian and Hebrew languages in some degree; in which sense slowness or heaviness of tongue is taken, (Ezechiel iii. 5.) to express an unknown language. (Calmet) --- God was thus pleased to shew, that all the glory arising from this enterprize belonged to himself; and he thus also gave occasion to Moses to humble himself, while he wrought miracles. (Menochius)
4:11 The Lord said to him: Who made man's mouth? or who made the dumb and the deaf, the seeing and the blind? did not I?
4:12 Go therefore, and I will be in thy mouth; and I will teach thee what thou shalt speak.
4:13 But he said: I beseech thee, Lord, send whom thou wilt send.
Send. Many of the fathers think Moses here prays for the coming of the Messias, who was to be the deliverer of his people; (St. Justin, &c.) or he begs at least that one more proper than himself may be selected; in which some discover marks of pusillanimity, others of great and laudable modesty; so that the anger of God here only means an earnest expression of his will, that Moses should make no farther demur. Lyran supposes that Aaron was the person pointed at by Moses; and God grants his request. (Calmet)
4:14 The Lord being angry at Moses, said: Aaron the Levite is thy brother, I know that he is eloquent: behold he cometh forth to meet thee, and seeing thee, shall be glad at heart.
4:15 Speak to him, and put my words in his mouth: and I will be in thy mouth, and in his mouth, and will shew you what you must do.
4:16 He shall speak in thy stead to the people, and shall be thy mouth: but thou shalt be to him in those things that pertain to God.
To God. Hebrew, "thou shalt be to him in the place of God." He shall hear and obey thee, explaining to the people the instructions thou shalt give him. I have established thee the god of Pharao, and Aaron shall be thy prophet, chap. vii. 1. (Calmet) --- I will address myself immediately to thee. (Tirinus)
4:17 And take this rod in thy hand, wherewith thou shalt do the signs.
Rod. So the devil taught Mercury and Bacchus to mimic Moses, and to carry a wand. Tum virgam capit, h a c animas ille evocat orco. (Virgil, iv.) (Calmet)
4:18 Moses went his way, and returned to Jethro his father-in-law, and said to him; I will go and return to my brethren into Egypt, that I may see if they be yet alive. And Jethro said to him: Go in peace.
4:19 And the Lord said to Moses, in Madian: Go, and return into Egypt; for they are all dead that sought thy life.
Life. "After those many days were elapsed, the king of Egypt died," who had obliged Moses to flee, as the Septuagint, Josephus, and Philo add at the end of ver. 18. Upon which God, who had already commissioned him to go, and saw him willing, gives him this farther assurance that he has nothing to fear for his own person. (Haydock)
4:20 Moses therefore took his wife, and his sons, and set them upon an ass; and returned into Egypt, carrying the rod of God in his hand.
4:21 And the Lord said to him as he was returning into Egypt: See that thou do all the wonders before Pharao, which I have put in thy hand: I shall harden his heart, and he will not let the people go.
I shall harden, &c. Not by being the efficient cause of his sin; but by withdrawing from him, for his just punishment, the dew of grace, that might have softened his heart; and so suffering him to grow harder and harder. (Challoner) --- Non impertiendo misericordiam. (St. Augustine, ep. 194, ad Sixt.) Thus God permitted the false miracles of the magicians, and did not suffer the scourges to continue long, so that the tyrant soon relapsed and forgot his promises. (Origen, Philos. xx; Theodoret in Rom. ix. 17.) (Calmet)
4:22 And thou shalt say to him: Thus saith the Lord: Israel is my son, my first-born.
First-born, heir to my promises, and the object of my complacency.
4:23 I have said to thee: Let my son go, that he may serve me, and thou wouldst not let him go: behold I will kill thy son, thy first-born.
Thy son. This was the tenth and last scourge, which forced the king to relent. (Menochius)
4:24 And when he was in his journey, in the inn, the Lord met him, and would have killed him.
The Lord met him, and would have killed him. This was an angel representing the Lord, who treated Moses in this manner, for having neglected the circumcision of his younger son: which his wife understanding, circumcised her child upon the spot, upon which the angel let Moses go. (Challoner) --- Both his children were born about this time. But Eliezer, the younger, had not been circumcised; and therefore remained under the power of the destroying angel. (Origen, contra Cels. v.) Others think the angel was going to kill Moses. (Calmet)
4:25 Immediately Sephora took a very sharp stone, and circumcised the foreskin of her son, and touched his feet, and said: A bloody spouse art thou to me.
Stone, like a flint. Such stones are very common in Egypt, and are used by the embalmers to open the side of the deceased. The Galli priests make themselves eunuchs without danger, by means of sharp stones. (Pliny, Natural History xxxv. 12.) Josue circumcises with the like, Josue v. But any instrument will suffice. (Calmet) --- Sephora seized the first thing that came in her way, to save the life of her husband, with whom God was displeased for this neglect of complying with the law, whatever might be his pretext. It was not fit that he should be a legislator, who was not a pattern of obedience. (Tirinus) --- Spouse. I have redeemed thee from destruction, by shedding the blood of my son; therefore, I will deem this a ratification of our marriage. Never forget our union, which costs me so much, and which has placed you in such imminent danger. The Hebrew mothers style their newly circumcised infants bloody spouses, in imitation of Sephora, who on this occasion perhaps addresses the words to Eliezer. The Septuagint read, "Sephora...fell at his feet, and said, the blood of my son's circumcision has ceased to flow," &c., which is not very easy to understand.
4:26 And he let him go after she had said: A bloody spouse art thou to me, because of the circumcision.
4:27 And the Lord said to Aaron: Go into the desert to meet Moses. And he went forth to meet him in the mountain of God, and kissed him.
Of God. Horeb, where both brothers met, after Sephora was returned to her father.
4:28 And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord, by which he had sent him, and the signs that he had commanded.
4:29 And they came together, and they assembled all the ancients of the children of Israel.
4:30 And Aaron spoke all the words which the Lord had said to Moses: and he wrought the signs before the people.
The three signs, prescribed above, in proof of their mission. (Calmet)
4:31 And the people believed. And they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction: and falling down they adored.
Cross-references: 12: Matthew x. 20. 15: Exodus vii. 2.
Chapter 5
Pharao refuseth to let the people go. They are more oppressed.
5:1 After these things, Moses and Aaron went in, and said to Pharao: Thus saith the Lord God of Israel: Let my people go, that they may sacrifice to me in the desert.
Went in alone. Aaron was substituted instead of the ancients, chap. iii. 16. --- Pharao Amasis, Cenchres, or Amenophis. (Usher.) --- Sacrifice, which is the principal part of a religious festival. (Menochius)
5:2 But he answered: Who is the Lord, that I should hear his voice, and let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.
The Lord. Is there any one above me?
5:3 And they said: The God of the Hebrews hath called us, to go three days' journey into the wilderness, and to sacrifice to the Lord our God; lest a pestilence or the sword fall upon us.
Upon us. They include themselves in the common danger, in case of disobedience; and they admonish the king respectfully, that there is no resisting the God of the Hebrews with impunity.
5:4 The king of Egypt said to them: Why do you Moses and Aaron draw off the people from their works? Get you gone to your burdens.
Get you. He knew not that Moses had been so long absent; and if he had known, he would not probably have treated him more mildly. (Haydock)
5:5 And Pharao said: The people of the land are numerous; you see that the multitude is increased; how much more if you give them rest from their works?
Increased, the edict against children being abrogated. (Menochius) --- He insists upon their labour being so intense and toilsome, as to thin their ranks.
5:6 Therefore he commanded the same day the overseers of the works, and the task-masters of the people, saying:
Overseers, natives of Egypt, who had under them some Hebrews for task-masters, as the people were more willing to obey them, ver. 14.
5:7 You shall give straw no more to the people to make brick, as before; but let them go and gather straw.
Straw, beaten small and mixed with clay, to make brick and mortar. See Ezechiel xiii. 11, 15; Chardin, Perse ii. p. 76.
5:8 And you shall lay upon them the task of bricks, which they did before; neither shall you diminish any thing thereof, for they are idle, and therefore they cry, saying: Let us go and sacrifice to our God.
Idle. Thus the impious speak of those who consecrate any part of their time to the service of God: and thus Protestants often condemn the holy-days prescribed by the Catholic Church!
5:9 Let them be oppressed with works, and let them fulfil them; that they may not regard lying words.
Lying words, alluding to the proposals of Moses. (Haydock) -- Let them not spend their time in idle conversation. (Calmet)
5:10 And the overseers of the works, and the task-masters, went out and said to the people: Thus saith Pharao: I allow you no straw;
5:11 Go, and gather it where you can find it; neither shall any thing of your work be diminished.
5:12 And the people was scattered through all the land of Egypt to gather straw.
Straw. While some continued at the works, (Menochius) others went about the fields to gather up every grain of chaff and piece of straw which they could find.
5:13 And the overseers of the works pressed them, saying: Fulfil your work every day, as before ye were wont to do, when straw was given you.
5:14 And they that were over the works of the children of Israel, were scourged by Pharao's task-masters, saying: Why have you not made up the task of bricks, both yesterday and to-day, as before?
And they, the officers of the children of Israel, established over their brethren, as the Hebrew more clearly insinuates, were scourged, or bastinadoed on the soles of the feet, as smaller faults are commonly punished in the East; (Calmet) or they were beaten also with rods, ver. 16. (Haydock)
5:15 And the officers of the children of Israel came, and cried out to Pharao, saying: Why dealest thou so with thy servants?
5:16 Straw is not given us, and bricks are required of us as before; behold we, thy servants, are beaten with whips, and thy people is unjustly dealt withal.
Withal. Hebrew, "the fault is in thy own people," who require impossibilities. (Calmet) --- They throw the blame upon the king's officers, (Menochius) though it was his own. (Haydock)
5:17 And he said: You are idle, and therefore you say: Let us go and sacrifice to the Lord.
5:18 Go therefore and work: straw shall not be given you, and you shall deliver the accustomed number of bricks.
5:19 And the officers of the children of Israel saw that they were in evil case, because it was said to them: There shall not a whit be diminished of the bricks for every day.
5:20 And they met Moses and Aaron, who stood over-against them as they came out from Pharao:
5:21 And they said to them: The Lord see and judge, because you have made our savour to stink before Pharao and his servants, and you have given him a sword, to kill us.
Kill us. You are the occasion of our more cruel treatment. You have made the king have a bad opinion of us. Hebrew, "you have made our savour to be abhorred in the eyes of Pharao." So Jacob said, (Genesis xxxiv. 30,) you have made me stink or become odious. Those who attempt to do a kindness, unsuccessfully, often experience a similar ingratitude, chap. xiv. 11. (Menochius) --- It does not appear from the original, whether the officers or Moses was coming from the king's presence. They met in some appointed place. (Calmet)
5:22 And Moses returned to the Lord, and said: Lord, why hast thou afflicted this people? wherefore hast thou sent me?
Wherefore. These are not words of anger, but of earnest prayer. (St. Augustine, q. 14.) Moses does not attempt to satisfy the exasperated officers, but commits the whole to God. (Menochius) --- In great undertakings, there are commonly many difficulties; which ought not to discourage us. (Tirinus)
5:23 For since the time that I went in to Pharao to speak in thy name, he hath afflicted thy people: and thou hast not delivered them.
Cross-references: 1: Year of the World 2513, Year before Christ 1491.
Chapter 6
God reneweth his promise. The genealogies of Ruben, Simeon and Levi, down to Moses and Aaron.
6:1 And the Lord said to Moses: Now thou shalt see what I will do to Pharao: for by a mighty hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he cast them out of his land.
Said, in answer to his prayer. --- Cast out, so eager he will be to have you dismissed, after he has repeatedly felt my hand, chap. iii. 19. (Haydock)
6:2 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: I am the Lord
6:3 That appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, by the name of God Almighty: and my name Adonai I did not shew them.
My name Adonai. The name which is in the Hebrew text, is that most proper name of God, which signifieth his eternal self-existing being, (Exodus iii. 14,) which the Jews, out of reverence, never pronounce; but instead of it, whenever it occurs in the Bible, they read Adonai, which signifies the Lord; and therefore they put the points or vowels, which belong to the name Adonai, to the four letters of that other ineffable name, Jod, He, Vau, He. Hence some moderns have framed the name Jehovah: unknown to all the ancients, whether Jews or Christians: for the true pronunciation of the name, which is in the Hebrew texts, by long disuse, is now quite lost. (Challoner) --- This name was first clearly revealed to Moses, that he might have confidence in his special protection and love. (Menochius) --- To know one by his name is to treat him with familiarity and distinction, Exodus xxxiii. 17. The pronunciation of the name of God might be known to Abraham, &c., but it was not so fully explained, nor the power and excellence of it declared in such a stupendous manner, as it was to Moses. (Du Hamel) --- Or perhaps Moses made use of this name in the history of the patriarchs, because he wrote his account of them after this revelation. (Calmet) --- The Septuagint always put Kurios, "the Lord," instead of the ineffable name; and our Saviour and his apostles, citing text where it occurs, follow their example. (Matthew iv. 7, 10; Romans xv. 11.) (Worthington) --- Philo informs us, that it was death to pronounce it out of the temple; and since that was destroyed, it has never been heard. (Calmet) --- Galatinus, who wrote in 1518, is supposed to have invented the word Jehovah, (see Amama Antib. p. 319,) the year after the pretended reformation began. (Haydock) --- St. Jerome (ep. 136 ad Marc.) explains the ten names of God, but never reads Jehovah. (Tirinus)
6:4 And I made a covenant with them, to give them the land of Chanaan, the land of their pilgrimage wherein they were strangers.
6:5 I have heard the groaning of the children of Israel, wherewith the Egyptians have oppressed them: and I have remembered my covenant.
6:6 Therefore say to the children of Israel: I am the Lord who will bring you out from the work-prison of the Egyptians, and will deliver you from bondage: and redeem you with a high arm, and great judgments.
6:7 And I will take you to myself for my people, I will be your God: and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from the work-prison of the Egyptians:
God, Elohim, who will pass sentence in your favour, as a just judge. (Menochius)
6:8 And brought you into the land, concerning which I lifted up my hand to give it to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: and I will give it you to possess, I am the Lord.
Hand; swearing. (Chap. xiv. 22; 2 Esdras. ix. 15.)
6:9 And Moses told all this to the children of Israel: but they did not hearken to him, for anguish of spirit, and most painful work.
Anguish: Septuagint, "pusillanimity." They would not even hope for a change. (Menochius) --- The Samaritan copy records the speech which they made to Moses. (Kennicott, p. 313.)
6:10 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
6:11 Go in, and speak to Pharao king of Egypt, that he let the children of Israel go out of his land.
6:12 Moses answered before the Lord: Behold the children of Israel do not hearken to me: and how will Pharao hear me, especially as I am of uncircumcised lips?
Uncircumcised lips. So he calls the defect he had in his words, or utterance. (Challoner) --- The Hebrews call the heart, &c., uncircumcised, when it has any natural or moral defect, Acts vii. 15. (Tirinus) --- "I do not speak the language in its purity." Sym.[Symmachus?], "I express my sentiments with difficulty," chap. iv. 10. (Onkelos.)
6:13 And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, and he gave them a charge unto the children of Israel, and unto Pharao the king of Egypt, that they should bring forth the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt.
6:14 These are the heads of their houses by their families. The sons of Ruben the first-born of Israel: Henoch and Phallu, Hesron and Charmi.
These. From this place to ver. 26, is written in a kind of parenthesis: the remainder of the chapter is a recapitulation of what had been said. (Calmet) --- Moses intends to give his own genealogy, and the state of affairs when he began to afflict Egypt. (Haydock) --- He mentions three tribes, which Jacob had rebuked, lest any one might think they had forfeited their title to some distinctive tribes. (Menochius)
6:15 These are the kindreds of Ruben. The sons of Simeon, Jamuel and Jamin, and Ahod, and Jachin, and Soar, and Saul the son of a Chanaanitess: these are the families of Simeon.
6:16 And these are the names of the sons of Levi by their kindreds: Gerson, and Caath, and Merari. And the years of the life of Levi were a hundred and thirty-seven.
Levi died the last of his brethren, and Joseph the first. (Worthington)
6:17 The sons of Gerson: Lobni and Semei, by their kindreds.
6:18 The sons of Caath: Amram, and Isaar, and Hebron and Oziel. And the years of Caath's life, were a hundred and thirty-three.
6:19 The sons of Merari: Moholi and Musi. These are the kindreds of Levi by their families.
6:20 And Amram took to wife Jochabed his aunt by the father's side: and she bore him Aaron and Moses. And the years of Amram's life, were a hundred and thirty-seven.
Aunt: Hebrew Doda is applied to various degrees of kindred. The Chaldee says, Jochabed was daughter of Amram's sister, the Septuagint assert of his brother, and consequently his own cousin. But she might be his aunt, chap. ii. 1. (Calmet)
6:21 The sons also of Isaar: Core, and Nepheg, and Zechri.
6:22 The sons also of Oziel: Mizael, and Elizaphan, and Sethri.
6:23 And Aaron took to wife Elizabeth the daughter of Aminadab, sister of Nahason, who bore him Nadab, and Abiu, and Eleazar, and Ithamar.
Nahason, prince of the tribe of Juda, Numbers i. 7. Observe the modesty of Moses, who passes over his own family almost in silence. (Menochius)
6:24 The sons also of Core: Aser, and Elcana, and Abiasaph. These are the kindreds of the Corites.
6:25 But Eleazar the son of Aaron took a wife of the daughters of Phutiel: and she bore him Phinees. These are the heads of the Levitical families by their kindreds.
6:26 These are Aaron and Moses, whom the Lord commanded to bring forth the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their companies.
Aaron is sometimes placed first, as the elder; sometimes last, as inferior in dignity, ver. 27. --- Companies, or bands, in order of battle, chap. xiii. 18. (Calmet)
6:27 These are they that speak to Pharao, king of Egypt, in order to bring out the children of Israel from Egypt: these are that Moses and Aaron,
6:28 In the day when the Lord spoke to Moses in the land of Egypt.
6:29 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: I am the Lord; speak thou to Pharao, king of Egypt, all that I say to thee.
6:30 And Moses said before the Lord: Lo I am of uncircumcised lips, how will Pharao hear me?
Cross-references: 1: Year of the World 2513. 14: Genesis xlvi. 9.; Numbers xxvi. 5.; 1 Paralipomenon v. 1. 15: 1 Paralipomenon iv. 24. 17: 1 Paralipomenon vi. 1. and xxiii. 6. 18: Numbers iii. 19. and xxvi. 57. 58.; 1 Paralipomenon vi. 2. and xxiii. 12.
Chapter 7
Moses and Aaron go in to Pharao: they turn the rod into a serpent; and the waters of Egypt into blood, which was the first plague. The magicians do the like, and Pharao's heart is hardened.
7:1 And the Lord said to Moses: Behold, I have appointed thee the god of Pharao; and Aaron, thy brother, shall be thy prophet.
The God of Pharao, viz., to be his Judge; and to exercise a divine power, as God's instrument, over him and people. (Challoner) --- Artapanus says, Moses was afterwards adored by the Egyptians. --- Prophet, or interpreter. Thou shalt reveal my orders to him. (Calmet) --- Moses participated in the divine nature, as judge, priest, prophet, &c. (Worthington)
7:2 Thou shalt speak to him all that I command thee; and he shall speak to Pharao, that he let the children of Israel go out of his land.
7:3 But I shall harden his heart, and shall multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt.
I shall harden, &c.; not by being the efficient cause of his hardness of heart, but by permitting it; and by withdrawing grace from him, in punishment of his malice; which alone was the proper cause of his being hardened. (Challoner) --- He took occasion even from the miracles to become more obdurate. (Haydock) --- Yet Pharao was less impious than Calvin, for he takes the sin to himself, chap. ix. 27. (Tirinus)
7:4 And he will not hear you: and I will lay my hand upon Egypt, and will bring forth my army and my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt, by very great judgments.
7:5 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, who have stretched forth my hand upon Egypt, and have brought forth the children of Israel out of the midst of them.
7:6 And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord had commanded; so did they.
7:7 And Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three, when they spoke to Pharao.
7:8 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron:
7:9 When Pharao shall say to you, Shew signs; thou shalt say to Aaron: Take thy rod, and cast it down before Pharao, and it shall be turned into a serpent.
7:10 So Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharao, and did as the Lord had commanded. And Aaron took the rod before Pharao and his servants, and it was turned into a serpent.
Took, or "threw down," as the Hebrew and Septuagint read.
7:11 And Pharao called the wise men and the magicians; and they also by Egyptian enchantments and certain secrets, did in like manner.
Magicians. Jannes and Mambres, or Jambres, 2 Timothy iii. 8. (Challoner) --- The pagans represented Moses as the greatest of magicians. (Pliny, Natural History xxx. 1; Justin xxxvi.) --- They also, &c. Hebrew has three terms: "wise men, diviners, and magicians;" but the two last seem to be of the same import. "The enchanters did the like by their secret practices," either by words or by actions. Some say these operations were real; others affirm they were only apparent, and mere delusions. (Calmet) --- "Whoever believes that any thing can be made, or any creature changed or transmuted into another species or appearance, except by the Creator himself, is undoubtedly an infidel, and worse than a pagan." (Council of Orange.) See St. Augustine, q. 21, de Trin. iii. 7; St. Thomas Aquinas, 2, 2, 9, 17, a 2. --- The devil deceived the senses of the beholders; or brought real serpents, &c., thither. (Menochius)
7:12 And they every one cast down their rods, and they were turned into serpents: but Aaron's rod devoured their rods.
Devoured. Thus the superiority remained with Aaron. The rod was then restored to its pristine form, ver. 15. (Haydock)
7:13 And Pharao's heart was hardened, and he did not hearken to them, as the Lord had commanded.
7:14 And the Lord said to Moses: Pharao's heart is hardened, he will not let the people go.
7:15 Go to him in the morning, behold he will go out to the waters: and thou shalt stand to meet him on the bank of the river: and thou shalt take in thy hand the rod that was turned into a serpent.
7:16 And thou shalt say to him: The Lord God of the Hebrews sent me to thee, saying: Let my people go to sacrifice to me in the desert: and hitherto thou wouldst not hear.
7:17 Thus therefore saith the Lord: In this thou shalt know that I am the Lord: behold I will strike with the rod, that is in my hand, the water of the river, and it shall be turned into blood.
My hand. The rod was in the hand of Moses, but he was God's agent. (Menochius)
7:18 And the fishes that are in the river, shall die, and the waters shall be corrupted, and the Egyptians shall be afflicted when they drink the water of the river.
River. The Samaritan copy repeats here the very words of God to Pharao, as the other speeches are also twice put at length. "Moses and Aaron went to meet Pharao, and said to him, 'The Lord,'" &c., as ver. 16, 18. See chap. xi. 7. (Calmet) --- This is very agreeable to the style of Homer; and Kennicott believes that the repetitions have been omitted in the Hebrew for brevity's sake, (Diss. 1 Chron. p. 383,) and that before the Greek version had been made. (Haydock)
7:19 The Lord also said to Moses: Say to Aaron, Take thy rod; and stretch forth thy hand upon the waters of Egypt, and upon their rivers, and streams and pools, and all the ponds of waters, that they may be turned into blood: and let blood be in all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and of stone.
7:20 And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord had commanded: and lifting up the rod, he struck the water of the river before Pharao and his servants: and it was turned into blood.
7:21 And the fishes that were in the river died; and the river corrupted, and the Egyptians could not drink the water of the river, and there was blood in all the land of Egypt.
All the land, even in that of Gessen, which belonged to the Egyptians; while the Hebrews had good water. (Menochius)
7:22 And the magicians of the Egyptians with their enchantments did in like manner; and Pharao's heart was hardened, neither did he hear them, as the Lord had commanded.
Like. They got a small quantity of water, either from the sea, from Gessen, (Wisdom xi. 5,) or by digging wells, ver. 24. (Calmet) --- This plague lasted a full week, ver. 25. The water which they found in the mean time in the wells was mixed with blood. (Philo; St. Augustine, in Psalm lxxvii.) Wisdom xi. 7, thou gavest human blood to the unjust.
7:23 And he turned himself away, and went into his house, neither did he set his heart to it this time also.
7:24 And all the Egyptians dug round about the river for water to drink; for they could not drink of the water of the river.
7:25 And seven days were fully ended, after that the Lord struck the river.
Cross-references: 1: Year of the World 2513. 2: Exodus iv. 15. 11: 2 Timothy iii. 8. 20: Exodus xvii. 5.; Psalm lxxvii. 41. 22: Wisdom xvii. 7.
Chapter 8
The second plague is of frogs. Pharao promiseth to let the Israelites go, but breaks his promise. The third plague is of sciniphs. The fourth is of flies. Pharao again promiseth to dismiss the people, but doth it not.
8:1 And the Lord said to Moses: Go in to Pharao, and thou shalt say to him: Thus saith the Lord: Let my people go to sacrifice to me.
8:2 But if thou wilt not let them go, behold I will strike all thy coasts with frogs.
8:3 And the river shall bring forth an abundance of frogs; which shall come up and enter into thy house, and thy bed-chamber, and upon thy bed, and into the houses of thy servants, and to thy people, and into thy ovens, and into the remains of thy meats:
Frogs, not by a new creation; but the spawn was miraculously brought to maturity. (Calmet) --- Angels, or a divine instinct, brought them to infest all places; and thus they became a more grievous plague than that of blood. (Menochius)
8:4 And the frogs shall come in to thee, and to thy people, and to all thy servants.
Servants. The Abderites and Dardanians were formerly obliged to abandon their country by such a plague. (Orosius iii. 23; Pliny, Natural History viii. 29.) (Calmet) --- Here the Samaritan copy adds, that Moses delivered this message to Pharao. (Haydock)
8:5 And the Lord said to Moses: Say to Aaron: Stretch forth thy hand upon the streams, and upon the rivers and the pools, and bring forth frogs upon the land of Egypt.
8:6 And Aaron stretched forth his hand upon the waters of Egypt, and the frogs came up, and covered the land of Egypt.
8:7 And the magicians also, by their enchantments, did in like manner, and they brought forth frogs upon all the land of Egypt.
Frogs, few in number, and brought by the ministry of devils. (Menochius)
8:8 But Pharao called Moses and Aaron, and said to them: Pray ye to the Lord to take away the frogs from me and from my people; and I will let the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.
Pray ye to the Lord, &c. By this it appears, that though the magicians, by the help of the devil, could bring frogs, yet they could not take these away: God being pleased to abridge in this the power of Satan. So we see they could not afterwards produce the lesser insects; and in this restraint of the power of the devil, were forced to acknowledge the finger of God.
8:9 And Moses said to Pharao: Set me a time when I shall pray for thee, and for thy servants, and for thy people, that the frogs may be driven away from thee and from thy house, and from thy servants, and from thy people; and may remain only in the river.
A time. Moses thus prevents the king from attributing their departure to natural causes. Pharao was perhaps inclined to suspect this would be the case, and therefore had a mind to wait till the morrow. (Menochius)
8:10 And he answered: To-morrow. But he said: I will do according to thy word; that thou mayest know that there is none like to the Lord our God.
8:11 And the frogs shall depart from thee, and from thy house, and from thy servants, and from thy people; and shall remain only in the river.
8:12 And Moses and Aaron went forth from Pharao: and Moses cried to the Lord for the promise, which he had made to Pharao concerning the frogs.
8:13 And the Lord did according to the word of Moses: and the frogs died out of the houses, and out of the villages, and out of the fields:
8:14 And they gathered them together into immense heaps, and the land was corrupted.
Corrupted. This helped to produce the ensuing plague of flies, &c. (Calmet) --- The Egyptians might then recollect the putrid carcasses of the children, whom they had drowned. (Haydock)
8:15 And Pharao seeing that rest was given, hardened his own heart, and did not hear them, as the Lord had commanded.
Pharao hardened his own heart. By this we see that Pharao was himself the efficient cause of his heart being hardened, and not God. See the same repeated in ver. 32, Pharao hardened his heart at this time also; likewise chap. ix. 7, 35, and chap. xiii. 15. (Challoner) --- This is the constant doctrine of the holy fathers, St. Augustine, ser. 88, de Temp. q. 18, 28, 36; St. Basil, orat., "that God is not the author of evil;" St. Chrysostom, hom. 67, in Jo.; &c. Hence Origen, periar. 3, says, "The Scripture sheweth manifestly that Pharao was hardened by his own will; for God said to him, thou wouldst not: if thou wilt not dismiss Israel." Even the priests of the Philistines were so well convinced of this, that they said, (1 Kings vi. 6,) Why do you harden your hearts? God therefore hardened them only by not absolutely hindering their wickedness, and by punishing them with less severity, as they did not deserve to be corrected like dear children, Hebrews xii. --- Perdition is from thyself, Osee xiii. 9. As cold naturally congeals water, so we of ourselves run to evil. Thus God cast Pharao into the sea, by permitting, not by forcing, him to enter, Exodus xv. 4. How shocking must then the blasphemous doctrine of Zuinglius, (ser. de provid. 5,) Calvin, (Instit. 8, 17,) &c., appear, who attribute every wicked deed to God, though they pretend at the same time that he is not unjust, even when he commands and impels a man to commit murder or adultery. Idem facinus puta adulterium...quantum Dei est auctoris, motoris, impulsoris opus est, crimen non est; quantum hominis est, crimen ac scelus est. (Zuinglius, sup.) The light of reason may suffice to confute such absurdity. (Worthington)
8:16 And the Lord said to Moses: Say to Aaron: Stretch forth thy rod, and strike the dust of the earth; and may there be sciniphs in all the land of Egypt.
Sciniphs, or Cinifs, Hebrew Cinnim, small flying insects, very troublesome both to men and beasts. (Challoner) --- Like midges. (Origen, hom. 4.) Others think they were lice. (Bochart) Pharao is not forewarned of this plague.
8:17 And they did so. And Aaron stretched forth his hand, holding the rod; and he struck the dust of the earth, and there came sciniphs on men and on beasts: all the dust of the earth was turned into sciniphs through all the land of Egypt.
8:18 And the magicians with their enchantments practised in like manner, to bring forth sciniphs, and they could not: and there were sciniphs as well on men as on beasts.
Practiced, fecerunt; the same expression as ver. 7: whence some argue, that the former were delusions, not real changes. (Haydock) --- God was pleased to shew here the vanity of their attempts, and the imbecility of the devil, who could not even bring a single animalcule or insect, though he had before appeared to work great wonders. (Tirinus)
8:19 And the magicians said to Pharao: This is the finger of God. And Pharao's heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them, as the Lord had commanded.
Finger, the spirit, (Luke xi. 20; compare Matthew xii. 28,) or power of God, Isaias xl. 12. The magicians here confess, that Moses is something more than themselves. (Calmet) --- Thus God interferes, whenever a contest of miracles, real or apparent, might lead any sincere seeker astray. He caused the priests of Baal to be confounded; (3 Kings xix,) and Simon Magus, flying in the air, was hurled down at the prayer of St. Peter. (Hegesip.) Cyrola, the Arian patriarch, attempting to deceive the people, by giving sight to a man whom he bribed to feign himself blind; and Calvin, who wished to have the honour of raising a man to life, at Geneva, by the like imposition, were both deservedly covered with confusion; while, of those unhappy men who joined in the collusion, one lost his sight, and the other his life. (Gregory of Tours, ii. Hist. 3; Bolsec.) On such occasions, we are admonished to be on our guard, and to adhere to the old religion. (Deuteronomy xiii.; Matthew xxiv.) (Worthington) --- The magicians, though fully convinced, were not still converted.
8:20 The Lord also said to Moses: Arise early, and stand before Pharao; for he will go forth to the waters: and thou shalt say to him: Thus saith the Lord: Let my people go to sacrifice to me.
8:21 But if thou wilt not let them go, behold I will send in upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy houses, all kind of flies: and the houses of the Egyptians shall be filled with flies of divers kinds, and the whole land wherein they shall be.
Flies. Hebrew heharob. Septuagint, "dog-flies." Some include under this plague all sorts of wild beasts. (Josephus, [Antiquities?] ii. 13; Wisdom xi. 9, 16, 18.) Insects are very troublesome, and the pagans honoured Jupiter with the title of Apomuios, because he delivered them from flies. Beelzebub, "the god-fly," got his name for the same reason, 4 Kings i. 1. (Calmet)
8:22 And I will make the land of Gessen wonderful in that day, so that flies shall not be there: and thou shalt know that I am the Lord in the midst of the earth.
Gessen, where the Hebrews dwelt. The Egyptians who lived among them would not, however, escape this plague.
8:23 And I will put a division between my people and thy people: to-morrow shall this sign be.
Be. Here again the Samaritan copy observes, that Moses told this to Pharao. (Haydock)
8:24 And the Lord did so. And there came a very grievous swarm of flies into the houses of Pharao and of his servants, and into all the land of Egypt: and the land was corrupted by this kind of flies.
The Lord, without the intervention of the rod, lest any inherent power might be supposed to rest in it. (Menochius) --- Corrupted, ravaged; men and beasts being destroyed by their bite or sting. (Psalm lxxvii. 45; Wisdom xvi. 9.)
8:25 And Pharao called Moses and Aaron, and said to them: Go and sacrifice to your God in this land.
8:26 And Moses said: It cannot be so: for we shall sacrifice the abominations of the Egyptians to the Lord our God: now if we kill those things which the Egyptians worship, in their presence, they will stone us.
The abominations, &c. That is, the things they worship for gods: oxen, rams, &c. It is the usual style of the Scriptures to call all idols and false gods, abominations; to signify how much the people of God ought to detest and abhor them. (Challoner) --- The Egyptians adored the stars, and even the vilest creatures, on account of some advantage which they derived from them. (Cicero, N. Deor. i.) They sometimes sacrificed animals; though, at first, "they offered only prayer and incense." (Macrobius, Satur. i. 7; Genesis xliii. 16.) Their belief in the transmigration of souls, perhaps, induced them to abstain from the immolation of beasts. (Calmet)
8:27 We will go three days' journey into the wilderness; and we will sacrifice to the Lord our God, as he hath commanded us.
8:28 And Pharao said: I will let you go to sacrifice to the Lord your God in the wilderness, but go no farther: pray for me.
8:29 And Moses said: I will go out from thee, and will pray to the Lord: and the flies shall depart from Pharao, and from his servants, and from his people to-morrow: but do not deceive any more, in not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.
8:30 So Moses went out from Pharao, and prayed to the Lord.
8:31 And he did according to his word: and he took away the flies from Pharao, and from his servants, and from his people: there was not left so much as one.
8:32 And Pharao's heart was hardened, so that neither this time would he let the people go.
Hardened. Hebrew and Septuagint, "Pharao hardened his heart this time also." (Menochius)
Cross-references: 24: Wisdom xvi. 9. 27: Exodus iii. 18.
Chapter 9
The fifth plague is a murrain among the cattle. The sixth, of boils in men and beasts. The seventh, of hail. Pharao promiseth again to let the people go, and breaketh his word.
9:1 And the Lord said to Moses: Go in to Pharao, and speak to him: Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews: Let my people go to sacrifice to me.
9:2 But if thou refuse, and withhold them still:
9:3 Behold my hand shall be upon thy fields; and a very grievous murrain upon thy horses, and asses, and camels, and oxen, and sheep.
My hand. God inflicts the fourth, fifth, and tenth plagues without Moses.
9:4 And the Lord will make a wonderful difference between the possessions of Israel and the possessions of the Egyptians, that nothing at all shall die of those things that belong to the children of Israel.
9:5 And the Lord appointed a time, saying: To-morrow will the Lord do this thing in the land.
Land. Moses related all this to the king, according to the Samaritan copy.
9:6 The Lord therefore did this thing the next day: and all the beasts of the Egyptians died, but of the beasts of the children of Israel there died not one.
All the beasts. That is, many of all kinds. (Challoner) --- So it is said, (Jeremias ix. 26,) all the nations are uncircumcised, though some few observed the rite of circumcision with the Jews. (Haydock)
9:7 And Pharao sent to see; and there was not any thing dead of that which Israel possessed. And Pharao's heart was hardened, and he did not let the people go.
Hardened. He did not beg for a deliverance, as the beasts were dead. (Menochius)
9:8 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron: Take to you handfuls of ashes out of the chimney, and let Moses sprinkle it in the air in the presence of Pharao.
9:9 And be there dust upon all the land of Egypt: for there shall be boils and swelling blains both in men and beasts, in the whole land of Egypt.
Blains. Pestiferous buboes or burning swellings. (Calmet) --- Thus were the pride and luxury of the Egyptians punished by Moses; and they who had kept the Hebrews in an iron furnace, were themselves scorched with fiery ashes and ulcers. (Menochius)
9:10 And they took ashes out of the chimney, and stood before Pharao, and Moses sprinkled it in the air; and there came boils with swelling blains in men and beasts.
9:11 Neither could the magicians stand before Moses, for the boils that were upon them, and in all the land of Egypt.
Stand before to oppose Moses. They could not screen themselves. (Haydock)
9:12 And the Lord hardened Pharao's heart, and he hearkened not unto them, as the Lord had spoken to Moses.
Hardened, &c. See the annotations above, chap. v. 21, chap. vii. 3, and chap. viii. 15. (Challoner) --- The wicked man, when he is come into the depth of sins, condemneth: but ignominy and reproach follow him, Proverbs xviii. 3.
9:13 And the Lord said to Moses: Arise in the morning, and stand before Pharao, and thou shalt say to him: Thus saith the Lord, the God of the Hebrews: Let my people go to sacrifice to me.
9:14 For I will at this time send all my plagues upon thy heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people; that thou mayst know there is none like me in all the earth.
Plagues of fire and hail, that thy heart may relent. But as all my chastisements will not produce this effect, I will be glorified in thy fall. (Haydock) --- I could now strike thee dead; (ver. 15,) but I reserve thee for a more dreadful punishment, (ver. 17,) in the waters of the Red Sea. (Calmet)
9:15 For now I will stretch out my hand to strike thee, and thy people, with pestilence, and thou shalt perish from the earth.
Pestilence, or various evils which now came fast upon Pharao. (Menochius)
9:16 And therefore have I raised thee, that I may shew my power in thee, and my name may be spoken of throughout all the earth.
Raised thee to the throne, or preserved thee hitherto from the former plagues. God disposes of things in such a manner, as to draw good out of the evil designs of men. (St. Augustine, City of God xi. 17; Romans ix. 17.) (Calmet)
9:17 Dost thou yet hold back my people; and wilt thou not let them go?
9:18 Behold I will cause it to rain to-morrow at this same hour, an exceeding great hail; such as hath not been in Egypt from the day that it was founded, until this present time.
9:19 Send therefore now presently, and gather together thy cattle, and all that thou hast in the field; for men and beasts, and all things that shall be found abroad, and not gathered together out of the fields which the hail shall fall upon, shall die.
Cattle. Some had escaped the former plague, or the Egyptians had purchased more from their neighbours, and in the land of Gessen. (Haydock) --- God tempers justice with mercy. (St. Augustine, q. 33.) --- Die. This message was accordingly delivered to Pharao. (Samaritan copy) (Haydock)
9:20 He that feared the word of the Lord among Pharao's servants, made his servants and his cattle flee into houses:
9:21 But he that regarded not the word of the Lord, left his servants, and his cattle in the fields.
9:22 And the Lord said to Moses: Stretch forth thy hand towards heaven, that there may be hail in the whole land of Egypt, upon men, and upon beasts, and upon every herb of the field in the land of Egypt.
9:23 And Moses stretched forth his rod towards heaven, and the Lord sent thunder and hail, and lightnings running along the ground: and the Lord rained hail upon the land of Egypt.
9:24 And the hail and fire mixt with it drove on together: and it was of so great bigness, as never before was seen in the whole land of Egypt since that nation was founded.
In all the land of. So the Hebrew: but the Samaritan and some Hebrew manuscripts have simply in Egypt. (Kennicott) --- Founded, about 627 years before. Hence it appears, that the rain falls in some parts of Egypt, (Menochius) particularly about Tanis, ver. 18, 34. (Calmet) (Wisdom xvi. 17.)
9:25 And the hail destroyed through all the land of Egypt all things that were in the fields, both man and beast: and the hail smote every herb of the field, and it broke every tree of the country.
9:26 Only in the land of Gessen, where the children of Israel were, the hail fell not.
9:27 And Pharao sent and called Moses and Aaron, saying to them: I have sinned this time also, the Lord is just: I and my people, are wicked.
9:28 Pray ye to the Lord that the thunderings of God and the hail may cease: that I may let you go, and that ye may stay here no longer.
9:29 Moses said: As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will stretch forth my hands to the Lord, and the thunders shall cease, and the hail shall be no more: that thou mayst know that the earth is the Lord's:
9:30 But I know that neither thou, nor thy servants do yet fear the Lord God.
9:31 The flax therefore, and the barley were hurt, because the barley was green, and the flax was now bolled:
9:32 But the wheat, and other winter corn were not hurt, because they were lateward.
Lateward. The hail fell in February. (Bonfrere) Aristophanes (in Avibus) says, the Egyptians and Phenicians have their harvest when the cuckoo begins to sing. The month Nisan, which answers to part of March and April, was honoured with the first fruits, chap. xiii. 4. (Menochius)
9:33 And when Moses was gone from Pharao out of the city, he stretched forth his hands to the Lord: and the thunders and the hail ceased, neither did there drop any more rain upon the earth.
9:34 And Pharao seeing that the rain, and the hail, and the thunders were ceased, increased his sin:
9:35 And his heart was hardened, and the heart of his servants, and it was made exceeding hard: neither did he let the children of Israel go, as the Lord had commanded by the hand of Moses.
Hard. Hebrew, "and he hardened his heart." (Worthington)
Cross-references: 16: Romans ix. 17. 23: Wisdom xvi. 16. and xix. 19.
Chapter 10
The eighth plague of the locusts. The ninth, of darkness: Pharao is still hardened.
10:1 And the Lord said to Moses: Go in to Pharao; for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants: that I may work these my signs in him,
Servants. They took occasion, from God's withdrawing his chastisements, to become more obdurate. (St. Augustine, q. 30, and 36.)
10:2 And thou mayst tell in the ears of thy sons, and of thy grandsons, how often I have plagued the Egyptians, and wrought my signs amongst them: and you may know that I am the Lord.
10:3 Therefore Moses and Aaron went in to Pharao, and said to him: Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews: How long refusest thou to submit to me? let my people go, to sacrifice to me.
10:4 But if thou resist, and wilt not let them go, behold I will bring in to-morrow the locust into thy coasts;
10:5 To cover the face of the earth, that nothing thereof may appear, but that which the hail hath left may be eaten: for they shall feed upon all the trees that spring in the fields.
10:6 And they shall fill thy houses, and the houses of thy servants, and of all the Egyptians: such a number as thy fathers have not seen, nor thy grandfathers, from the time they were first upon the earth, until this present day. And he turned himself away, and went forth from Pharao.
10:7 And Pharao's servants said to him: How long shall we endure this scandal? let the men go to sacrifice to the Lord their God. Dost thou not see that Egypt is undone?
Scandal, or source of repeated misery; whether they meant their own resistance to God's orders, or Moses, with the Hebrew nation. (Calmet)
10:8 And they called back Moses, and Aaron, to Pharao; and he said to them: Go, sacrifice to the Lord your God: who are they that shall go?
10:9 Moses said: We will go with our young and old, with our sons and daughters, with our sheep and herds: for it is the solemnity of the Lord our God.
Herds. Out of which the Lord may choose what victims he requires. (Menochius) --- The people of Egypt kept solemnities of this description. (Herodotus ii. 58, 59.)
10:10 And Pharao answered: So be the Lord with you, as I shall let you and your children go: who can doubt but that you intend some great evil?
So be. A form of imprecation mixed with scorn: as, I shall not let you go, so may God abandon you. (Calmet)
10:11 It shall not be so: but go ye men only, and sacrifice to the Lord: for this yourselves also desired. And immediately they were cast out from Pharao's presence.
Desired. Moses had requested that all might go. He had not specified the men only, as the king boldly asserts. (Menochius) --- A partial obedience will not rescue him from the threatened plague. (Haydock)
10:12 And the Lord said to Moses: Stretch forth thy hand upon the land of Egypt unto the locust, that it may come upon it, and devour every herb that is left after the hail.
10:13 And Moses stretched forth his rod upon the land of Egypt: and the Lord brought a burning wind all that day, and night; and when it was morning, the burning wind raised the locusts.
Wind from "the south," (Septuagint) or "east," ( Kadim ) or perhaps blowing from the south-east. (Bonfrere) The locusts would come from Ethiopia, or from Arabia, in both which countries they abound. (Ludolf, &c.) They lay their eggs in autumn, and hatch in spring. Frequently they devastate one country after another. They are very large in the East, and sometimes will fasten upon the heads of serpents, and destroy them, as they did on this occasion the Egyptians, Wisdom xvi. 9. --- In Cyrene, bordering upon Egypt, it is requisite to encounter these creatures thrice in the year. (Calmet) (See Leviticus xi. 22.)
10:14 And they came up over the whole land of Egypt; and rested in all the coasts of the Egyptians innumerable, the like as had not been before that time, nor shall be hereafter.
Hereafter. Joel i. 2, speaking of locusts which infested Judea, uses the same expressions to denote a very heavy judgment. Two events never perfectly agree. (Calmet)
10:15 And they covered the whole face of the earth, wasting all things. And the grass of the earth was devoured, and what fruits soever were on the trees, which the hail had left; and there remained not any thing that was green on the trees, or in the herbs of the earth, in all Egypt.
10:16 Wherefore Pharao in haste called Moses and Aaron, and said to them: I have sinned against the Lord your God, and against you.
10:17 But now forgive me my sin this time also, and pray to the Lord your God, that he take away from me this death.
Also. Hebrew, "only," and I will amend. --- Death, or plague. (Menochius)
10:18 And Moses going forth from the presence of Pharao, prayed to the Lord:
Moses. The printed Hebrew and Chaldean do not read his name; but some manuscripts have it agreeably to the Septuagint and Syriac versions. (Kennicott)
10:19 And he made a very strong wind to blow from the west, and it took the locusts and cast them into the Red Sea: there remained not so much as one in all the coasts of Egypt.
West. Hebrew sea, (Mediterranean) to the north and west of Egypt. --- Red sea. Hebrew, "of suph," or green herbs, which abound there. It has also a reddish appearance in some places, from the coral branches of a saffron colour. It probably was called red from Edom, or Erythros, the son of Isaac. (Calmet) --- God drowned the locusts in this sea, by means of the wind, which often proves the destruction of those animals. (Pliny, Natural History xi. 29.)
10:20 And the Lord hardened Pharao's heart, neither did he let the children of Israel go.
10:21 And the Lord said to Moses: Stretch out thy hand towards heaven: and may there be darkness upon the land of Egypt so thick that it may be felt.
Darkness upon the land of Egypt so thick that it may be felt. By means of the gross exhalations, which were to cause and accompany the darkness. (Challoner) --- Thus were the Egyptians punished for keeping the Hebrews in dark prisons. (Menochius) --- Philo says, even a lighted lamp or fire was extinguished. The Egyptians were affrighted with hideous spectres and evil angels. (Psalm lxxvii. 49; Wisdom xvii. 4.)
10:22 And Moses stretch forth his hand towards heaven: and there came horrible darkness in all the land of Egypt for three days.
10:23 No man saw his brother, nor moved himself out of the place where he was: but wheresoever the children of Israel dwelt, there was light.
10:24 And Pharao called Moses and Aaron, and said to them: Go, sacrifice to the Lord: let your sheep only, and herds remain, let your children go with you.
10:25 Moses said: Thou shalt give us also sacrifices and burnt-offerings, to the Lord our God.
10:26 All the flocks shall go with us: there shall not a hoof remain of them: for they are necessary for the service of the Lord our God: especially as we know not what must be offered, till we come to the very place.
10:27 And the Lord hardened Pharao's heart, and he would not let them go.
10:28 And Pharao said to Moses: Get thee from me, and beware thou see not my face any more: in what day soever thou shalt come in my sight, thou shalt die.
10:29 Moses answered: So shall it be as thou hast spoken, I will not see thy face any more.
More. Of my own accord. (Menochius) --- Thou wilt send for me. (Calmet)
Cross-references: 4: Wisdom xvi. 9. 23: Wisdom xvii. 2. ** Wisdom xviii. 1.
Chapter 11
Pharao and his people are threatened with the death of their first-born.
11:1 And the Lord said to Moses: Yet one plague more will I bring upon Pharao and Egypt, and after that he shall let you go, and thrust you out.
To Moses, before he was gone out from Pharao. (Menochius) --- This revelation had been made at Mount Horeb. Calmet places the three first verses within a parenthesis; and the fourth, &c., he supposes that Moses addressed to the king at the last interview, chap. x. 29. Kennicott maintains, that the Samaritan copy preserves the unity of this awful transaction almost in its original perfection, by preserving the speech of God to Moses, part of which the Hebrew seems to address to Pharao.
11:2 Therefore thou shalt tell all the people, that every man ask of his friend, and every woman of her neighbour, vessels of silver, and of gold.
Ask; "not borrow," as the Protestants translate; nor "jewels of silver," but vessels, such as the princes offered at the dedication of the tabernacle, Numbers vii. The Samaritan and Septuagint add "and raiment," which they also asked for, (chap. xii. 35,) according to God's command, chap. iii. 22. (Kennicott, 1. Dis. p. 391.)
11:3 And the Lord will give favour to his people in the sight of the Egyptians. And Moses was a very great man in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharao's servants, and of all the people.
The Lord. The Samaritan makes this a continuation of God's speech, "and I will give this people favour in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they shall give them what they ask. --- ver. 4. For, about midnight, I will go forth into the midst of the land of Egypt. --- ver. 5. And every first-born in the land of Egypt shall die, &c. (as in our fifth verse). --- ver. 6. And there, &c. --- ver. 7. But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue against man, nor even against beast, that thou mayest know that Jehovah doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. --- ver. 8. And thou also shalt be greatly honoured in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharao's servants, and in the sight of the people. --- ver. 9. Then said Moses unto Pharao, Thus sayeth Jehovah: Israel is my son, my first-born; and I said unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me. --- ver. 10. But thou hast refused to let him go; behold! therefore Jehovah slayeth thy son, thy first-born." --- ver. 11. And Moses said, (as above, ver. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.) The Jews have retained the parts of the 3rd and 8th verses, which were honourable to their nation, but they have given them as an historical narration. The 9th and 10th verses in the Samaritan copy, record what God had before commanded Moses to declare, chap. iv. 22, 33. As, therefore, all had been once written in the Hebrew text, the transcribers might probably think themselves dispensed from repeating the same things; and thus they might change some passages, and still repel the accusation of any wilful corruption, which seems to be the meaning of Ben Chaim's preface to Bomberg's Hebrew Bible; where he acknowledges 13 such alterations made in the copies which were presented to King Ptolemy, and translated by the Septuagint. (Kennicott, Dis. 2 p. 310.) --- Moses. This exaltation of Moses and the people, took place only after the slaughter of the first-born, chap. xii. 36. Hence the Septuagint observes here, the Egyptians gave or lent them (echresan) all. (Haydock) --- The greatness and dignity of Moses, impressed the king with awe, and made the people more willing to assist the Hebrews. (Menochius)
11:4 And he said: Thus saith the Lord: At midnight I will enter into Egypt:
I will enter, by means of a good angel, (Wisdom xviii. 14; St. Chrysostom) or by evil angels. (Psalm lxxvii. 49; St. Augustine, ibid.) (Calmet) --- Moses spoke this on the morning of the 14th Nisan; and that same night, after the paschal lamb had been eaten, the dreadful carnage commenced. (Menochius)
11:5 And every first-born in the land of the Egyptians shall die, from the first-born of Pharao who sitteth on his throne, even to the first-born of the handmaid that is at the mill, and all the first-born of beasts.
Mill. The vilest slaves were thus employed in a sort of prison, chap. xii. 21. God makes no distinction between the king and the beggar. Death levels all.
11:6 And there shall be a great cry in all the land of Egypt, such as neither hath been before, nor shall be hereafter.
11:7 But with all the children of Israel there shall not a dog make the least noise, from man even to beast; that you may know how wonderful a difference the Lord maketh between the Egyptians and Israel.
Dog. They shall enjoy a profound peace, (Judith xi. 5,) while Egypt is in tears. Calmet here inserts the speech from the Samaritan copy, "And the man Moses;" &c. (ver. 3, and seq.[following]) deeming it essential to the context, and very agreeable to the spirit of Moses, who has many repetitions. (Haydock)
11:8 And all these thy servants shall come down to me, and shall worship me, saying: Go forth thou, and all the people that is under thee: after that we will go out.
11:9 And he went out from Pharao exceeding angry. But the Lord said to Moses: Pharao will not hear you, that many signs may be done in the land of Egypt.
Angry, at such obstinacy. (Menochius)
11:10 And Moses and Aaron did all the wonders that are written, before Pharao. And the Lord hardened Pharao's heart, neither did he let the children of Israel go out of his land.
The Lord hardened, &c. See the annotations above, chap. iv. 21, and chap. vii. 3.
Cross-references: 2: Exodus iii. 22.; Exodus xii. 35. 3: Ecclesiasticus xlv. 1.
Chapter 12
The manner of preparing and eating the paschal lamb: the first-born of Egypt are all slain: the Israelites depart.
12:1 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt:
Said, some time before. Moses mentions all the plagues together. (Menochius)
12:2 This month shall be to you the beginning of months; it shall be the first in the months of the year.
Year, sacred or ecclesiastical, which is most commonly used in Scripture. The civil year commenced with Tisri, in September, and regulated the jubilee, contracts, &c. (Cornelius a Lapide) --- January was the first month to determine the age of trees, and August to decide when cattle became liable to be tithed. (Chap. xxii. 29; Leviticus xix. 23.) (Calmet) --- Before the captivity, the months were not styled Nisan, &c., but abib, (chap xiii. 5,) the first... Bul the 11th, (1 Kings vi.), &c. Sa.
12:3 Speak ye to the whole assembly of the children of Israel, and say to them: On the tenth day of this month let every man take a lamb by their families and houses.
Children; a word which has been dropped in the printed Hebrew and in the Chaldee, which has been assimilated to it, though found still in some manuscripts and in the Samaritan, Septuagint, Syriac and Arabic versions. (Kennicott) --- Day. This regarded only the present occasion. (Jonathan) --- The Jews no longer eat the paschal lamb, as they are banished from Chanaan. (Calmet) --- Man, who has a family sufficient to eat a lamb; Hebrew se, which means also a kid, (as either was lawful, ver. 13,) and perhaps also a calf, Deuteronomy xvi. 2.
12:4 But if the number be less than may suffice to eat the lamb, he shall take unto him his neighbour that joineth to his house, according to the number of souls which may be enough to eat the lamb.
Less. Moses does not specify the number. But in never comprised fewer than ten, nor more than twenty, in which number Menoch does not think women or children are comprised. The Jews satisfied the inquiry of Cestius, concerning the multitude which might be assembled at the paschal solemnity, by allowing ten for every victim; and finding that 250,600 victims had been sacrificed in the space of two hours, they concluded 2,700,000 people were collected at Jerusalem. (Josephus, Jewish Wars vii. 16.)
12:5 And it shall be a lamb without blemish, a male, of one year; according to which rite also you shall take a kid.
Lamb. Hebrew se, which denotes the young of either sheep or goats. (Kimchi) He who had not a lamb, was to sacrifice a kid. (Theodoret) --- A kid. The Phase might be performed, either with a lamb or with a kid; and all the same rites and ceremonies were to be used with the one as with the other. (Challoner) --- Many have asserted, that both were to be sacrificed. But custom decides against them. All was to be perfect, Momim, as even the pagans required; (Grotius) and God (Leviticus xxii. 22,) orders the victims in general must have no fault. The Egyptians rejected them, if they were even spotted, or twins. --- A male, as all holocausts were to be. Pagans gave the preference to females. (Calmet) --- One year, not older, though it would do if above eight days old. (Menochius) --- The paschal lamb prefigured Jesus Christ, who has redeemed us by his death, being holy, set apart, and condescending to feed us with his sacred person, in the blessed Eucharist. Here we eat the lamb without breaking a bone, though we take the whole victim. (John xix. 36; 1 Corinthians v. 7.) (Calmet) --- To fulfil this figure, Christ substituted his own body, and, making his apostles priests, ordered them to continue this sacrifice for ever. He came to Jerusalem on the 10th day of Nisan, on Sunday. He gave himself to his disciples on the evening of the 14th, and died at noon on the 15th. The unleavened bread, and the cup, (Luke xxii. 17,) clearly denoted the blessed Sacrament, which was ordered to be eaten in the house or church of God. (St. Cyprian, Unit.) See St. Gregory, hom. 22, in Evang.; Tertullian, contra Marc. iv, "The bread he made his own body." If, therefore, the truth must surpass the figure, surely the blessed Sacrament must be more than bread and wine; otherwise it would yield in excellence and signification to the paschal lamb. (Worthington)
12:6 And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; and the whole multitude of the children of Israel shall sacrifice it in the evening.
Sacrifice, not simply kill, as the Protestants would have it. (Worthington) --- Evening. Hebrew, "between the two evenings," or "suns," according to the Chaldee, alluding to the sun when it declines and when it sets, including about the space of two hours. This time belonged to the evening of the 14th [of Nisan], at which time the lamb was to be sacrificed, though it was to be eaten in the night, which pertained to the 15th. (Menochius) --- The Jews began the day at sun-set, and some began the first evening soon after mid-day. (Matthew xiv. 15, and seq.[following]) (Calmet)
12:7 And they shall take of the blood thereof, and put it upon both the side-posts, and on the upper door-posts of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.
Houses. Those who joined their neighbours to eat the paschal lamb, were therefore to continue with them that night, if they would escape destruction, ver. 23. (Menochius)
12:8 And they shall eat the flesh that night roasted at the fire, and unleavened bread with wild lettuce.
Unleavened, in testimony of innocence, 1 Corinthians v. 7. The priests of Jupiter did the like. (Servius) --- Lettuce, or some "bitter herbs," Hebrew and Septuagint. The Jews allow of five sorts.
12:9 You shall not eat thereof any thing raw, nor boiled in water, but only roasted at the fire; you shall eat the head with the feet and entrails thereof.
Raw. Some nations delighted in raw flesh, in the feasts of Bacchus, who hence received the title of Omadios. (Porphyr. de Abstin. 3.) The Hebrew term na, occurs nowhere else, and may perhaps signify half-roasted or boiled, semicoctum. It cannot be inferred from this prohibition, that the Hebrews commonly lived on such food. --- In water, as the other victims usually were. (1 Kings ii. 13; 2 Paralipomenon xxxv. 13.) --- You shall eat, is not in the original, nor in the Septuagint. We may supply it, however, or "you shall roast all, head," &c., but in eating, you shall avoid breaking any bone, as the Septuagint and Syriac express it, (ver. 10,) and as we read, ver. 46, and Numbers ix. 12. These were to be burnt, that they might not be profaned. (Calmet)
12:10 Neither shall there remain any thing of it until morning. If there be any thing left, you shall burn it with fire.
12:11 And thus you shall eat it: you shall gird your reins, and you shall have shoes on your feet, holding staves in your hands, and you shall eat in haste; for it is the Phase (that is the Passage) of the Lord.
Haste, as all the aforesaid prescriptions intimate. (Menochius) --- Many of them regarded only this occasion, and were not required afterwards. --- Phase, which the Chaldee writes Pascha, signifies the passing over (Calmet) of the destroying angel, when he spared those houses only which were marked with blood, to insinuate the necessity of faith in Christ's death. Some have derived the word from the Greek Pascho, "to suffer," on account of the similarity of sound. (Haydock)
12:12 And I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and will kill every first-born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast: and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments; I am the Lord.
First-born, often denotes the most beloved; or, when spoken of those under oppression, the most miserable. (Isaias xiv. 30; Psalm lxxxvii. 27.) Moses observes, (ver. 30,) that every house had one dead, which would not probably be true of the first-born, taken in a literal sense; but where there was no child, there the most dear and honourable person was cut off, Habacuc iii. 13, 14. --- Gods, idols, whose statues some assert were overthrown (St. Jerome, ep. ad Fabiol.; Eusebius, praep. ix. ult.[last]); or sacred animals, which were adored by the Egyptians; (Origen) or the word may imply that the princes and judges of the land would be mostly destroyed. (Calmet) --- Forbes observes, that by the destruction of the first-born, all the proper sacrifices, and priests of Egypt, were destroyed.
12:13 And the blood shall be unto you for a sign in the houses where you shall be; and I shall see the blood, and shall pass over you; and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I shall strike the land of Egypt.
12:14 And this day shall be for a memorial to you; and you shall keep it a feast to the Lord in your generations, with an everlasting observance.
This day. The Jews assert, that as their fathers were delivered out of Egypt on the 15th of Nisan, so Israel will be redeemed on that day by the Messias; which has been literally verified in Jesus Christ. --- Everlasting. This is what will be done with respect to our Christian passover, (Calmet) of which the Jewish was a figure, designed to subsist as long as their republic. (Menochius)
12:15 Seven days shall you eat unleavened bread: in the first day there shall be no leaven in your houses; whosoever shall eat any thing leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall perish out of Israel.
Perish, either by sudden death, or by forfeiting all the prerogatives of God's people; (ver. 19) or his offense shall be deemed mortal. See Genesis xvii. 14. The punishment of Kerith, separation, among the Jews, bore some resemblance to our excommunication. These menaces presuppose, that the law is possible, and that the land of Chanaan be in the possession of the Jews. Thus, the people who were not circumcised during the 40 years' sojournment in the desert, were not liable to this punishment of separation, as they knew not when the cloud would move, and they would have to march.
12:16 The first day shall be holy and solemn, and the seventh day shall be kept with the like solemnity: you shall do no work in them, except those things that belong to eating.
Eating. On the sabbath, meat was not even to be prepared, chap. xvi. 23. During the five intermediate days, any work might be done.
12:17 And you shall observe the feast of the unleavened bread: for in this same day I will bring forth your army out of the land of Egypt, and you shall keep this day in your generations by a perpetual observance.
Bread. Hebrew matsoth. But the Samaritan and Septuagint read Motsue, precept, or ordinance. (Calmet)
12:18 The first month, the fourteenth day of the month, in the evening, you shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the same month, in the evening.
Unleavened bread. By this it appears, that our Saviour made use of unleavened bread, in the institution of the blessed Sacrament, which was on the evening of the paschal solemnity, at which time there was no unleavened bread to be found in Israel.
12:19 Seven days there shall not be found any leaven in your houses: he that shall eat leavened bread, his soul shall perish out of the assembly of Israel, whether he be a stranger or born in the land.
Stranger. Hebrew ger, signifies also a proselyte. (Menochius) See ver. 43. --- Only those men who had been circumcised, were allowed to eat the Phase. Women, belonging to the Hebrews, might partake of it. The unclean were excluded. (Calmet)
12:20 You shall not eat any thing leavened: in all your habitations you shall eat unleavened bread.
12:21 And Moses called all the ancients of the children of Israel, and said to them: Go take a lamb by your families, and sacrifice the Phase.
12:22 And dip a bunch of hyssop in the blood that is at the door, and sprinkle the transom of the door therewith, and both the door-cheeks: let none of you go out of the door of his house till morning.
Hyssop; Hebrew ezob: which some translate rosemary. (Menochius) --- Sprinkle, &c. This sprinkling the doors of the Israelites with the blood of the paschal lamb, in order to their being delivered from the sword of the destroying angel, was a lively figure of our redemption by the blood of Christ. (Challoner) --- St. Jerome, in Isaias lxvi, says the doors were to be sprinkled in the form of a cross.
12:23 For the Lord will pass through striking the Egyptians: and when he shall see the blood on the transom, and on both the posts, he will pass over the door of the house, and not suffer the destroyer to come into your houses and to hurt you.
12:24 Thou shalt keep this thing as a law for thee and thy children for ever.
Children; twelve years old, Luke ii. 42. (Menochius) --- Ever. Samaritan adds, "in this month."
12:25 And when you have entered into the land which the Lord will give you, as he hath promised, you shall observe these ceremonies.
12:26 And when your children shall say to you: What is the meaning of this service?
12:27 You shall say to them: It is the victim of the passage of the Lord, when he passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, striking the Egyptians, and saving our houses. And the people bowing themselves, adored.
Victim, sacrificed upon the altar, in honour of the passage, &c. It was a true "sacrifice of propitiation," as the Arabic translates, and of thanksgiving. (Calmet)
12:28 And the children of Israel going forth, did as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.
12:29 And it came to pass at midnight, the Lord slew every first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of Pharao, who sat on his throne, unto the first-born of the captive woman that was in the prison, and all the first-born of cattle.
12:30 And Pharao arose in the night, and all his servants, and all Egypt: for there arose a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house wherein there lay not one dead.
Pharao, who it seems was not the eldest son. Where the first-born of a family had a son, both were consigned to destruction. (Menochius)
12:31 And Pharao calling Moses and Aaron, in the night, said: Arise and go forth from among my people, you and the children of Israel: go, sacrifice to the Lord as you say.
12:32 Your sheep and herds take along with you, as you demanded, and departing bless me.
Bless me, by exposing me to no farther danger by your stay.
12:33 And the Egyptians pressed the people to go forth out of the land speedily, saying: We shall all die.
12:34 The people therefore took dough before it was leavened; and tying it in their cloaks, put it on their shoulders.
Leavened; which dough afterwards made unleavened ember-cakes. Hebrew, "and misharoth (a word which the Vulgate does not translate) provisions" of flour, &c., ver. 39. (Josephus, [Antiquities?] ii. 6.) This flour might be tied up in their cloaks, as they were only square pieces of cloth, Ruth iii. 15. (Calmet)
12:35 And the children of Israel did as Moses had commanded: and they asked of the Egyptians vessels of silver and gold, and very much raiment.
12:36 And the Lord gave favour to the people in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they lent unto them: and they stripped the Egyptians.
The Egyptians, who afterwards, pursuing them unjustly, put it out of their power to restore, if they had not been otherwise dispensed with by God. (Haydock)
12:37 And the children of Israel set forward from Ramesse to Socoth, being about six hundred thousand men on foot, beside children.
Ramesse. The first of the 42 stations or encampments of the Hebrews. (Menochius) --- Socoth, or tents, perhaps the Scenae of Antoninus, or the Mischenot, mentioned chap i. 11. --- About. Moses does not speak with such precision, as after the people had been numbered, and were found, 13 months after, to be 603,550 men, without the Levites, or those under 20 years. (Calmet) --- Women and old men, and Egyptians, who joined their company, might make them amount to three millions. (Menochius)
12:38 And a mixed multitude, without number, went up also with them, sheep and herds, and beasts of divers kinds, exceeding many.
12:39 And they baked the meal, which a little before they had brought out of Egypt in dough: and they made hearth-cakes unleavened: for it could not be leavened, the Egyptians pressing them to depart, and not suffering them to make any stay; neither did they think of preparing any meat.
12:40 And the abode of the children of Israel that they made in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.
Egypt. Samaritan and Septuagint add, "and in the land of Chanaan, they and their fathers," dating from the departure of Abraham from Haran in his 75th year; from which period, till Jacob's going into Egypt, 215 years elapsed. Kennicott produces this instance, as a proof that the Hebrew text is defective: Dis. 1. p. 399. Josephus, [Antiquities?] ii. 15; St. Augustine, q. 47. and others, admit this addition as genuine; which, however we have observed on Genesis, is rejected by Ayrolus, Tournemine, &c. (Haydock)
12:41 Which being expired, the same day all the army of the Lord went forth out of the land of Egypt.
12:42 This is the observable night of the Lord, when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt: this night all the children of Israel must observe in their generations.
Observable, in which the Lord has been our sentinel and preserver. (Vatable)
12:43 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron: This is the service of the Phase; no foreigner shall eat of it.
12:44 But every bought servant shall be circumcised, and so shall eat.
12:45 The stranger and the hireling shall not eat thereof.
12:46 In one house shall it be eaten, neither shall you carry forth of the flesh thereof out of the house, neither shall you break a bone thereof.
12:47 All the assembly of the children of Israel shall keep it.
12:48 And if any stranger be willing to dwell among you, and to keep the Phase of the Lord, all his males shall first be circumcised, and then shall he celebrate it according to the manner: and he shall be as he that is born in the land: but if any man be uncircumcised, he shall not eat thereof.
Dwell, or become a proselyte, by circumcision, if a male; or by baptism, if a female; receiving a sort of new-birth, John iii. 10. The Jews would not suffer any to dwell among them, who would not observe the seven precepts given to Noe, Genesis ix. But the proselytes of justice embraced the Jewish religion. (Calmet)
12:49 The same law shall be to him that is born in the land, and to the proselyte that sojourneth with you.
12:50 And all the children of Israel did as the Lord had commanded Moses and Aaron.
12:51 And the same day the Lord brought forth the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their companies.
Cross-references: 10: Leviticus vii. 15. 18: Leviticus xxiii. 5.; Numbers xxviii. 16. 22: Hebrews xi. 28. 29: Exodus xi. 5. ** Wisdom xviii. 5. 35: Exodus iii. 22. and xi. 2. 37: Year of the World 2513, Year before Christ 1491. 46: Numbers ix. 12.; John xix. 36.
Chapter 13
The paschal solemnity is to be observed; and the first-born are to be consecrated to God. The people are conducted through the desert by a pillar of fire in the night, and a cloud in the day.
13:1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
13:2 Sanctify unto me every first-born that openeth the womb among the children of Israel, as well of men as of beasts: for they are all mine.
Sanctify unto me every first-born. Sanctification in this place means, that the first-born males of the Hebrews should be deputed to the ministry in the divine worship: and the first-born of beasts to be given for a sacrifice. (Challoner) --- Sanctify, set apart. (Menochius) --- Openeth, the first male fruit of the womb. If a female was born the first, none of the children were to be redeemed. (Luke ii. 23.) Jesus Christ submitted to this law; though many of the fathers have asserted that, on account of his miraculous conception and birth, he was not subjected to it; while others maintain the contrary. (Calmet)
13:3 And Moses said to the people: Remember this day in which you came forth out of Egypt, and out of the house of bondage, for with a strong hand hath the Lord brought you forth out of this place: that you eat no leavened bread.
13:4 This day you go forth in the month of new corn.
Corn. Hebrew Abib; which was styled Nisan after the Babylonian captivity. At this time, peculiar names were not yet given to the months, by the Hebrews or Egyptians. (Calmet) --- They were distinguished by their respective order, productions, or appearances. (Haydock)
13:5 And when the Lord shall have brought thee into the land of the Chanaanite, and the Hethite, and the Amorrhite, and the Hevite, and the Jebusite, which he swore to thy fathers that he would give thee, a land that floweth with milk and honey, thou shalt celebrate this manner of sacred rites in this month.
When. These regulations did not therefore take place in the desert. (Menochius)
13:6 Seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread: and on the seventh day shall be the solemnity of the Lord.
13:7 Unleavened bread shall you eat seven days: there shall not be seen any thing leavened with thee, nor in all thy coasts.
13:8 And thou shalt tell thy son in that day, saying: This is what the Lord did to me when I came forth out of Egypt.
13:9 And it shall be as a sign in thy hand, and as a memorial before thy eyes; and that the law of the Lord be always in thy mouth, for with a strong hand the Lord hath brought thee out of the land of Egypt.
And it, &c. The festivals appointed by God and his Church, naturally remind us of the favours which we have received, and help us to meditate on the law. (Haydock) --- The Jews, understanding the precept literally, write verses taken from this chapter, and Deuteronomy vi. and xi., upon parchment, and bind these tephilins, or phylacteries, on their forehead. But if these scrolls were requisite, why do they not also put them in their mouth and in their heart? Jesus Christ condemns the vanity of the Pharisees, who wore these bandages extremely large, Matthew xxiii. 5. The Mahometans teach their scholars, by writing the Coran upon a tablet, and exposing it to their view: (Calmet) a plan lately introduced in England with great success by Mr. Lancaster.
13:10 Thou shalt keep this observance at the set time from days to days.
13:11 And when the Lord shall have brought thee into the land of the Chanaanite, as he swore to thee and thy fathers, and shall give it thee:
13:12 Thou shalt set apart all that openeth the womb for the Lord, and all that is first brought forth of thy cattle: whatsoever thou shalt have of the male sex, thou shalt consecrate to the Lord.
13:13 The first-born of an ass thou shalt change for a sheep: and if thou do not redeem it, thou shalt kill it. And every first-born of men thou shalt redeem with a price.
Price. No other option is given, as the Levites were selected for the ministry. (Haydock) --- The first offspring of impure animals, were to be redeemed or killed; those of the pure were to be offered in sacrifice, Numbers xviii. 15. (Philo.) Dogs, cats, poultry, &c. were to be slain, Deuteronomy xxiii. 18. (Calmet)
13:14 And when thy son shall ask thee to-morrow, saying: What is this? thou shalt answer him: With a strong hand did the Lord bring us forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
To-morrow. At any future period, Matthew vi. 2. (Menochius)
13:15 For when Pharao was hardened, and would not let us go, the Lord slew every first-born in the land of Egypt, from the first-born of man to the first-born of beasts: therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all that openeth the womb of the male sex, and all the first-born of my sons I redeem.
Hardened. Hebrew, "by himself," or by his own malice. (Worthington)
13:16 And it shall be as a sign in thy hand, and as a thing hung between thy eyes, for a remembrance: because the Lord hath brought us forth out of Egypt by a strong hand.
It. This ordinance shall cause thee never to forget the goodness of God. (Haydock)
13:17 And when Pharao had sent out the people, the Lord led them not by the way of the land of the Philistines which is near; thinking lest perhaps they would repent, if they should see wars arise against them, and would return into Egypt.
Lest. God maketh use of precautions, to shew the free-will of man. (Worthington) --- The Philistines had before made a great slaughter of the Ephraimites, 1 Paralipomenon vii. 21. The Chanaanites would also be ready to oppose the Hebrews, if they had attempted to enter by the road of Pelusium, and perhaps the Idumeans and Amalecites also would have met them in front, while the Egyptians attacked their rear. (Calmet) --- This journey, Philo says, would not have taken up above three days. The battle with Amalec took place only 40 days afterwards, and God protected his people. (Menochius)
13:18 But he led them about by the way of the desert, which is by the Red Sea: and the children of Israel went up armed out of the land of Egypt.
Armed, in order of battle. Hebrew chamushim, "by fives," or in five battalions. (Josue i. 14; Judges viii. 11.) (Calmet) --- Calvin asks where the Hebrews could procure arms, as if to cavil with this translation. But surely they might get them in the same manner as the vessels of gold; and they undoubtedly were not destitute of arms when they encountered the Amalecites, ver. 17. (Haydock)
13:19 And Moses took Joseph's bones with him: because he had adjured the children of Israel, saying: God shall visit you, carry out my bones from hence with you.
Joseph's. This attention to the dead is commended, Hebrews xi. (Worthington) --- St. Stephen assures us, that the bones of the other patriarchs were deposited at Sichen; and we may conclude, that they were transported on this occasion by their respective families, Acts vii. 16.
13:20 And marching from Socoth, they encamped in Etham, in the utmost coasts of the wilderness.
Etham. A city on the banks of the Red Sea, giving its name to one of the gulphs, which the Greeks called after the city of Heropolis. (Pliny, Natural History vi. 29.) The Septuagint translate, "They encamped at Othon, which is near the desert;" and (Numbers xxxii. 6,) the Hebrews marched three days in the desert of Buthan, before they arrived at Mara.
13:21 And the Lord went before them to shew the way, by day in a pillar of a cloud, and by night in a pillar of fire; that he might be the guide of their journey at both times.
13:22 There never failed the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, before the people.
Never. From the station of Etham; or, if we follow St. Jerome, from that of Socoth, or even from Ramesses, according to Bonfrere, till the passage of the Jordan, when the ark supplied its want, Josue iii. 11. This cloud assumed different appearances, as the exigencies of the Hebrews required. It was a figure of baptism; (1 Corinthians x. 1) the fire designated Jesus Christ, and the cloud the Holy Ghost. (St. Ambrose, de Sac. 6.) (Calmet)
Cross-references: 2: Exodus xxxiv. 19.; Leviticus xxvii. 26.; Numbers viii. 16.; Luke ii. 23. 12: Exodus xxii. 29. and xxxiv. 19.; Ezechiel xliv. 30. 16: Deuteronomy vi. 8. 19: Genesis l. 24. 21: Numbers xiv. 14.; 2 Esdras ix. 12. and xix.; 1 Corinthians x. 1.
Chapter 14
Pharao pursueth the children of Israel. They murmur against Moses, but are encouraged by him, and pass through the Red Sea. Pharao and his army following them, are drowned.
14:1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
Beelsephon, means "the lord of the watch-tower." Some think an idol was thus denominated, whose office it was to prevent people from quitting the country. How vain were his efforts against God's people!
14:2 Speak to the children of Israel: Let them turn and encamp over-against Phihahiroth, which is between Magdal and the sea over- against Beelsephon: you shall encamp before it upon the sea.
14:3 And Pharao will say of the children of Israel: They are straitened in the land, the desert hath shut them in.
In. Between craggy mountains and the Red Sea. (Haydock)
14:4 And I shall harden his heart, and he will pursue you: and I shall be glorified in Pharao, and in all his army: and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord. And they did so.
And he will. Protestants falsely translate, "that he may," &c., contrary to the Hebrew and other versions. (Worthington)
14:5 And it was told the king of the Egyptians that the people was fled: and the heart of Pharao and of his servants was changed with regard to the people, and they said: What meant we to do, that we let Israel go from serving us?
14:6 So he made ready his chariot, and took all his people with him.
People, fit for war, who could be got ready on such short warning. Ezechiel (apud[in the writings of] Eusebius) makes the number amount to a million.
14:7 And he took six hundred chosen chariots, and all the chariots that were in Egypt: and the captains of the whole army.
Captains. Septuagint, "Tristatas." Three men rode on every chariot; which was armed with scythes, to cut down all that came within contact, the chief warrior, with his armour-bearer and charioteer. (St. Gregory of Nyssa) (Haydock) --- Or these three captains may very probably be the three chief officers of state, (Calmet) or the generals of cavalry, and of infantry, and the chief treasurer, or receiver of taxes, principes equitum peditumque erant, & tributorum. (St. Jerome)
14:8 And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharao, king of Egypt, and he pursued the children of Israel; but they were gone forth in a mighty hand.
Hand. Without any dread, Numbers xv. 30. (Calmet) --- All the army of Egypt could do nothing against them. Yet presently, at their approach, the Hebrews were suffered to fall into dismay, that they might learn not to confide in their multitudes, and might pray with greater earnestness for protection, ver. 10.
14:9 And when the Egyptians followed the steps of them who were gone before, they found them encamped at the sea side: all Pharao's horse and chariots, and the whole army were in Phihahiroth, before Beelsephon.
14:10 And when Pharao drew near, the children of Israel lifting up their eyes, saw the Egyptians behind them: and they feared exceedingly, and cried to the Lord.
14:11 And they said to Moses: Perhaps there were no graves in Egypt, therefore thou hast brought us to die in the wilderness: why wouldst thou do this, to lead us out of Egypt?
14:12 Is not this the word that we spoke to thee in Egypt, saying: Depart from us, that we may serve the Egyptians? for it was much better to serve them, than to die in the wilderness.
Wilderness. This is the language of dastardly souls. They had begun to be almost in love with their chains. Every difficulty gives them occasion to repine at the gracious purposes of God, and the exertions of his servant Moses. But God bears patiently with the defects of a carnal and long oppressed nation, ver. 13. (Haydock)--- The wiser sort pray to God, while others thus upbraid Moses.
14:13 And Moses said to the people: Fear not: stand, and see the great wonders of the Lord, which he will do this day; for the Egyptians, whom you see now, you shall see no more for ever.
Ever. They saw their floating carcasses the following morning. Hebrew, "you shall not see the Egyptians any more as you see them at present." They were not in the same condition.
14:14 The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.
Peace. You will not have to draw a sword. The Syriac subjoins, "Therefore Moses cried unto the Lord," which connects this with the following verse. (Calmet)
14:15 And the Lord said to Moses: Why criest thou to me? Speak to the children of Israel to go forward.
Criest. --- "A vehement desire is a cry, which reaches the ears of the Lord." (St. Bernard)
14:16 But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch forth thy hand over the sea, and divide it: that the children of Israel may go through the midst of the sea on dry ground.
14:17 And I will harden the heart of the Egyptians to pursue you: and I will be glorified in Pharao, and in all his host, and in his chariots and in his horsemen.
To pursue. God did not restrain the perverse will of the Egyptians; but suffered them to be guided by their blind passions, and to rush presumptuously into the bed of the sea. If the retiring of its waters had been owing to any natural cause, this wise nation could not be ignorant but that, at the stated time, the ebbing would cease, and consequently that they would be overtaken by the waters. But the waters stood up like walls on both sides, and they were so infatuated as to suppose that the miracle would be continued for their protection. (Haydock)
14:18 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall be glorified in Pharao, and in his chariots, and in his horsemen.
14:19 And the angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, removing, went behind them: and together with him the pillar of the cloud, leaving the fore-part,
14:20 Stood behind, between the Egyptians' camp and the camp of Israel: and it was a dark cloud, and enlightening the night, so that they could not come at one another all the night.
A dark cloud, and enlightening the night. It was a dark cloud to the Egyptians; but enlightened the night to the Israelites, by giving them a great light.
14:21 And when Moses had stretched forth his hand over the sea, the Lord took it away by a strong and burning wind blowing all the night, and turned it into dry ground: and the water was divided.
Wind. This served to dry up the sandy channel of the Red Sea, which was mixed with mud and weeds. It blew from the east, Kodim, or from Arabia. --- Divided, some say into 12 parts or divisions, Psalm cxxxv. 13. But the words of the psalmist may be verified by the sea opening a spacious passage, such as was requisite for so many millions to travel through, (Haydock) e.g. a distance of perhaps 18 miles, in so short a space of time. Silara Adrichomius thinks the breadth of the division would not be less than nine miles.
14:22 And the children of Israel went in through the midst of the sea dried up; for the water was as a wall on their right-hand and on their left.
14:23 And the Egyptians pursuing went in after them, and all Pharao's horses, his chariots and horsemen, through the midst of the sea.
14:24 And now the morning watch was come, and behold the Lord looking upon the Egyptian army through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, slew their host.
Watch. About four o'clock. The Hebrews divided the night into three equal parts, (Calmet) or four, consisting each of three hours, (Menochius) which varied in length as the night was longer. (Haydock) --- Slew many by his thunderbolts, as Artapanus relates, and the Scripture elsewhere insinuates. (Chap. xv. 6, 12; Psalm lxxvi. 16, 18; Josephus, [Antiquities?] ii. 7.
14:25 And overthrew the wheels of the chariots, and they were carried into the deep. And the Egyptians said: Let us flee from Israel; for the Lord fighteth for them against us.
Lord. thus they reluctantly confess his might, and are forced to glory Him in their destruction. Their change is only the effect of fear and temporal danger, ver. 18. (Haydock)
14:26 And the Lord said to Moses: Stretch forth thy hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and horsemen.
14:27 And when Moses had stretched forth his hand towards the sea, it returned at the first break of day to the former place: and as the Egyptians were fleeing away, the waters came upon them, and the Lord shut them up in the middle of the waves.
14:28 And the waters returned, and covered the chariots and the horsemen of all the army of Pharao, who had come into the sea after them, neither did there so much as one of them remain.
14:29 But the children of Israel marched through the midst of the sea upon dry land, and the waters were to them as a wall on the right-hand and on the left:
14:30 And the Lord delivered Israel in that day out of the hands of the Egyptians.
14:31 And they saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea shore, and the mighty hand that the Lord had used against them: and the people feared the Lord, and they believed the Lord, and Moses his servant.
Sea-shore. The Hebrews would thus again be enriched by their spoils. (Calmet) --- Servant. Those who believe God, submit to the directions of his ambassadors. (St. Jerome in Philemon 5.) In this merited catastrophe of the Egyptians, which fixed the last seal to the mission of Moses, the fathers contemplate how God's servants are rescued by baptism, and by the merits of Jesus Christ, from Satan and from all sin. (1 Corinthians x. 1, 4; Origen, hom. 5.) (Haydock)
Cross-references: 9: Josue xxiv. 6.; 1 Machabees iv. 9. 21: Psalm lxxvii. 13. and civ. 37. and cxiii. 3.; Hebrews xi. 29. 24: Wisdom xviii. 15.
Chapter 15
The canticle of Moses. The bitter waters of Mara are made sweet.
15:1 Then Moses and the children of Israel sung this canticle to the Lord, and said: Let us sing to the Lord: for he is gloriously magnified, the horse and the rider he hath thrown into the sea.
Canticle. Origen reckons this to be the most ancient piece of poetry. It is truly sublime, and calculated to fill the souls of those, who saw their late cruel masters, now prostrate at their feet in death, with sentiments of the greatest gratitude and piety towards their almighty benefactor. (Haydock) --- God miraculously gave utterance to the dumb on this occasion, (Widsom x. 21.) and taught the whole congregation of Israel to join in harmonious concert. (De Mirab. S. S. inter. op. St. Augustine) This mode of perpetuating the memory of past benefits by canticles, is very common in Scripture. (Calmet) --- Let us sing. So the Septuagint The Hebrew has "I will sing...for he hath triumphed gloriously." This canticle was composed by Moses, about 1491 years before Christ. (Haydock)
15:2 The Lord is my strength and my praise, and he is become salvation to me: he is my God, and I will glorify him: the God of my father, and I will exalt him.
Praise. The printed Hebrew is here irregular, but some manuscripts agree with the Vulgate, Chaldean, and Arabic. (Kennicott, i. p. 400.) --- To him my praise is due on all titles. (Haydock) --- God. Hebrew el, "the strong one." (Menochius)
15:3 The Lord is as a man of war, Almighty is his name.
The Lord. Septuagint, "breaking wars in pieces," a man of war, a conqueror. (Calmet) --- Almighty. Jehova, I am. This is the most awful and incommunicable name. (Haydock)
15:4 Pharao's chariots and his army he hath cast into the sea: his chosen captains are drowned in the Red Sea.
Captains. Literally, Princes. Hebrew shalishim, chiefs. The three great officers, chap. xiv. 7. We find three were entrusted with the highest power in the empire of Chaldea, (Ezechiel xxiii. 15; Daniel v. 7.) as well as at the court of David. (2 Kings xxiii. 8; 1 Paralipomenon xi. 10.) Hadino, Eleazar, and Semma, had various other princes under them. (Calmet)
15:5 The depths have covered them, they are sunk to the bottom like a stone.
15:6 Thy right-hand, O Lord, is magnified in strength: thy right-hand, O Lord, hath slain the enemy.
15:7 And in the multitude of thy glory thou hast put down thy adversaries: thou hast sent thy wrath, which hath devoured them like stubble.
Wrath. A tempest of lightning. See Isaias lxiii. 11; Habacuc iii. 15.
15:8 And with the blast of thy anger the waters were gathered together: the flowing water stood, the depths were gathered together in the midst of the sea.
Together. "Congealed on either side," as the Chaldean and Septuagint express it. (Calmet)
15:9 The enemy said: I will pursue and overtake, I will divide the spoils, my soul shall have its fill: I will draw my sword, my hand shall slay them.
Enemy. Miracles make but small impression upon the wicked. They pursue their schemes of destruction, which end in their own ruin! --- Slay. Hebrew, "despoil." Septuagint, "bring them into subjection." (Haydock)
15:10 Thy wind blew and the sea covered them: they sunk as lead in the mighty waters.
Wind. Septuagint, "spirit," which St. Ambrose and St. Augustine understand as the Holy Ghost. (Calmet)
15:11 Who is like to thee, among the strong, O Lord? who is like to thee, glorious in holiness, terrible and praise-worthy, doing wonders?
Who...Lord. The initials of these four Hebrew letters, which the Maccabees placed on their banners, (m c b i) probably gave that title, to those stout heroes, who rose up in defence of their religion. (Haydock) --- Strong, may be applied either to men, or to the pretended gods of the Gentiles, which seems to agree best with the sequel. Septuagint, "among the gods...wonderful in praises." --- Terrible and. Hebrew, "terrible to praise," requiring that we should perform that duty with awe. (Calmet)
15:12 Thou stretchedst forth thy hand, and the earth swallowed them.
Earth. When their carcasses were corrupted, such as were not eaten by fishes, mixed with the earth at the bottom, or on the shore of the sea.
15:13 In thy mercy thou hast been a leader to the people which thou hast redeemed: and in thy strength thou hast carried them to thy holy habitation.
Hast been. This is a prophecy of what should happen to the Hebrews till they should be put in quiet possession of Chanaan, (Calmet) of which they had an earnest, in the protection which they had already experienced. (Haydock) --- Holy, on account of the temple, and of the patriarchs, and Jesus Christ, who dwelt there. (Menochius)
15:14 Nations rose up, and were angry: sorrows took hold on the inhabitants of Philisthiim.
15:15 Then were the princes of Edom troubled, trembling seized on the stout men of Moab: all the inhabitants of Chanaan became stiff.
Stiff, with consternation. See Josue ix. 9. The nations of Chanaan found auxiliaries even among the near relations of the Hebrews, the children of Esau, (who were not governed by princes, Alphim, as in Genesis xxxvi.) and of Lot. We easily forget our relations, when our interest is at stake! Hebrew, instead of being stiff, says, they "melted away." Both words insinuate, that their heart was under such a violent struggle, that they could perform no duty.
15:16 Let fear and dread fall upon them, in the greatness of thy arm: let them become immoveable as a stone, until thy people, O Lord, pass by: until this thy people pass by, which thou hast possessed.
In the, &c. When they shall behold thy wonders, wrought in our defence. --- Let them cease to make opposition. Hebrew, "let them be silent as a stone." (Haydock)
15:17 Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thy inheritance, in thy most firm habitation, which thou hast made, O Lord; thy sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established.
Mountain. Chanaan was very mountainous, and different from Egypt. (Calmet) --- Sion was the peculiar mountain of God, consecrated to his worship. (Menochius)
15:18 The Lord shall reign for ever and ever.
And ever. Literally, et ultra, "and beyond;" holam, which denotes a long duration, is often used to mean a time that will have an end. To add the greater emphasis to it, the latter term is sometimes used when eternity is meant. The Septuagint, " The Lord shall reign over this generation, or age of the Mosaic law, and over an age lasting from Christ to the end, and still." His kingdom shall extend over all eternity. (Calmet)
15:19 For Pharao went in on horseback with his chariots and horsemen into the sea: and the Lord brought back upon them the waters of the sea: but the children of Israel walked on dry ground in the midst thereof.
For, &c. He is not tired with repeating this wonderful judgment, which gave him reason to hope that God would complete his work; and at the same time, give a sanction to his mission. If the most potent of the monarchs of the earth could so little withstand his power, what had he to fear from a few jarring clans of barbarians and shepherds? (Haydock)
15:20 So Mary the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand: and all the women went forth after her with timbrels and with dances.
Mary, or Mariam, as it was formerly pronounced, though the Masorets now read Miriam: may signify one "exalted, lady, star, bitterness of the sea." --- Prophetess; having revelations from God, (Numbers xii. 1,) and singing his praises. --- Of Aaron. Moses passes over himself out of modesty. She is known by this title, whence it is supposed she never married. (St. Ambrose) (Calmet) --- Timbrels, which were already used in solemn worship. --- And dances. Choris may mean companies of women, singing and dancing in honour of God. The men repeated what Moses had entoned, and the women did the same after Mary; unless, perhaps, the multitude of both sexes, respectively, repeated only the first verse by way of chorus; or Mary and her band took up each verse "in answer" to the men, as the Hebrew insinuates. This divine canticle will afford joy even to the elect, Apocalypse xv. 3.
15:21 And she began the song to them, saying: Let us sing to the Lord, for he is gloriously magnified, the horse and his rider he hath thrown into the sea.
15:22 And Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went forth into the wilderness of Sur: and they marched three days through the wilderness, and found no water.
Sur, which is called Etham, " Pough, " (Numbers xxxiii. 7,) on which account both sides of the Red Sea are described by the same name; hence some have groundlessly asserted, that the Hebrews came out of the Red Sea by the same way they entered it. (Haydock)
15:23 And they came into Mara, and they could not drink the waters of Mara, because they were bitter: whereupon he gave a name also agreeable to the place, calling it Mara, that is, bitterness.
Mara, about half-way between Suez and Mount Sinai. The waters are said to be still potable, though of a disagreeable nitrous taste. (Calmet)
15:24 And the people murmured against Moses, saying: What shall we drink?
15:25 But he cried to the Lord, and he shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, they were turned into sweetness. There he appointed him ordinances, and judgments, and there he proved him,
A tree, (lignum,) or piece of wood, which had the natural property here ascribed to it, Ecclesiasticus xxxviii. 4. (Calmet) --- Though we can hardly suppose, that all that collection of waters would be thus rendered sweet, unless God had given it a miraculous efficacy. (Haydock) --- It foreshewed the virtue of the cross. (Theodoret, ix. 26.) --- Him, Moses, and the people of Israel, of which he was now the sole head or king. (Haydock) --- God proved on this occasion the disposition of the Hebrews to enter into the alliance, of which he proposes to them the heads, ver. seq.[following: ver. 26.?] Josue xxiv. 25, makes use of nearly the same words. God begins to take upon himself the administration of the republic, appointing the forms of judicature, Jeremias vii. 22. What regarded sacrifices, was given upon occasion of their idolatry. (Du Hamel)
15:26 Saying: If thou wilt hear the voice of the Lord thy God, and do what is right before him, and obey his commandments, and keep all his precepts, none of the evils that I laid upon Egypt, will I bring upon thee: for I am the Lord thy healer.
Healer. God delivered his people from every infirmity, which might prevent any one from joining the rest of their tribes on the night of the exit, Psalm civ. 37.
15:27 And the children of Israel came into Elim, where there were twelve fountains of water, and seventy palm trees: and they encamped by the waters.
Elim, to the north-west of Sinai. Shaw says there are now only nine fountains. (Haydock) --- Strabo mentions a place of this description, five days' journey from Jericho, which was consecrated to the gods. (B. xvi. p. 511.) (Calmet) --- We might here, (at the conclusion of the third age, according to those who call the deluge the first, and Abraham's call, the second,) pause, with Dr. Worthington, to take a view of the progress of the Church, and of the true doctrine, which has at all times been believed. But the attentive reader of the sacred text, and of these notes, will find this done to his hand almost in every page. Meditate upon these things...Take heed to thyself and to doctrine, be earnest in them, 1 Timothy iv. 15. The holy Job probably lived about this time, so that his book may serve to corroborate those truths, which were the objects of faith to some good men living among the Gentiles, as well as to the more favoured nation of the Jews. (Haydock)
Cross-references: 1: Wisdom x. 20. 2: Psalm cxvii. 14.; Isaias xii. 2. 25: Judith v. 15.; Ecclesiasticus xxxviii. 5. 27: Numbers xxxiii. 9.
Chapter 16
The people murmur for want of meat: God giveth them quails and manna.
16:1 And they set forward from Elim, and all the multitude of the children of Israel came into the desert of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai: the fifteenth day of the second month, after they came out of the land of Egypt.
Sin, after they had encamped on the Red Sea, Numbers xxxiii. 10. The 33d station was also in the desert of Sin, or Cades. But that is far remote from this desert, Numbers xx. 1. (Calmet) --- Month of May, Jiar. Their provisions lasted a whole month. On their failure, they presently have recourse to murmurs.
16:2 And all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.
16:3 And the children of Israel said to them: Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat over the fleshpots, and ate bread to the full: Why have you brought us into this desert, that you might destroy all the multitude with famine?
Over, greedily feasting on the most nutritive meats. (Haydock)
16:4 And the Lord said to Moses: Behold I will rain bread from heaven for you; let the people go forth, and gather what is sufficient for every day: that I may prove them whether they will walk in my law, or not.
Prove. Show by experience. Therefore he orders the Hebrews to gather manna only for one day, except on Friday. Many suppose that this bread of angels began to fall on Sunday, (ver. 22; Origen, hom. 7.) or on Friday. (Calmet)
16:5 But the sixth day let them provide for to bring in: and let it be double to that they were wont to gather every day.
Provide. Hence, this day was called Parasceve, or the day of preparation.
16:6 And Moses and Aaron said to the children of Israel: In the evening you shall know that the Lord hath brought you forth out of the land of Egypt:
16:7 And in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord: for he hath heard your murmuring against the Lord: but as for us, what are we, that you mutter against us?
Morning, when manna fell, as quails were brought the former evening, ver. 12 and 13. These fresh instances of protection, might convince them that they had not been imposed upon by Moses in leaving Egypt. (Menochius)
16:8 And Moses said: In the evening the Lord will give you flesh to eat, and in the morning bread to the full: for he hath heard your murmurings, with which you have murmured against him, for what are we? your murmuring is not against us, but against the Lord.
Lord. All rebellion against lawful authority is resented by God. (Du Hamel)
16:9 Moses also said to Aaron: Say to the whole congregation of the children of Israel: Come before the Lord; for he hath heard your murmuring.
Before, to the place appointed for public worship, chap. xxxiii. 7. (Calmet)
16:10 And when Aaron spoke to all the assembly of the children of Israel, they looked towards the wilderness; and behold the glory of the Lord appeared in a cloud.
16:11 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
16:12 I have heard the murmuring of the children of Israel, say to them: In the evening you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread; and you shall know that I am the Lord your God.
Say. Similar promises are often repeated, to appease the seditious mob. (Haydock)
16:13 So it came to pass in the evening, that quails coming up, covered the camp: and in the morning a dew lay round about the camp.
Quails. All the Oriental languages express these birds by solaem, though some have asserted, that pheasants or locusts are here meant. Josephus (Antiquities iii. 1) informs us, that great flocks of quails are found about the gulph of Arabia. They return to Europe from the warmer regions, about the beginning of May, at which time God directed the course of vast multitudes to the camp of Israel. Hesychius says, the chennion, a smaller species of quails, was salted and dried, as the Hebrews did theirs, Numbers xi. 32. See Psalm lxxvii. 26. (Calmet) --- Dew, upon which lay the miraculous bread, around the camp. None fell within, as the place was not sufficiently clean. (Menochius)
16:14 And when it had covered the face of the earth, it appeared in the wilderness small, and as it were beaten with a pestle, like unto the hoar-frost on the ground.
16:15 And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another: Manhu! which signifieth: What is this! for they knew not what it was. And Moses said to them: This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.
Manhu. St. Jerome adds the explanation, (Du Hamel) which is almost universally adopted, though some pretend that man, even in Chaldean, means who, and not what? Calmet refers them to Psalm lx. 7, for a proof of the contrary. Manna is found in various parts of the world, the best in Arabia. But this was of a different nature, and wholly miraculous, falling every day, except Saturday, throughout the 40 years that the Hebrews dwelt in the desert. It melted with the heat of the sun, (ver. 21,) though it would bear the fire, and might be made into cakes, which cannot be done with the Arabian manna. It filled the mouth of God's servants with the most delightful tastes, (Wisdom xvi. 20,) while the wicked were disgusted with it, Numbers xi. 6. --- Our soul is dry, &c. It is called the bread of angels, being made or brought by their ministry, and of such a quality, that they would desire nothing better, if they stood in need of food. (Calmet) --- Whatever a man gathered, he had only a gomor full, and this sufficed for young and old, sick and healthy; if any was kept over the night it became corrupt, except that which was reserved for Saturday, and that which was preserved in the ark for a memorial for several hundred years. (Worthington) --- Yet this wonderful bread was only a figure of that which Jesus Christ promised to give, (St. John vi.) and as the figure must come beneath the reality, (Colossians. ii.) what we receive in the blessed Eucharist, must undoubtedly be something better than manna. Would Zuinglius and Calvin attempt then to persuade us, that Christ appointed their mere sacramental bread, to supersede and excel the favour of manna granted to the fathers, who are dead? Mere bread cannot stand in competition with this miraculous food. But the truth which it foreshewed, according to all the doctors of the Church, I mean the body and blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ, in the blessed sacrament, under the appearances of bread and wine, are surely more excellent than manna itself. It is miraculously brought upon our altars by the words of Jesus Christ, spoken by his priests at Mass, and dispensed to infinite multitudes, in the most distant places from each other, and even in the smallest particle. (Haydock) --- It giveth grace in this life, and glory in the next, and this in proportion to each one's disposition. To the wicked it may appear contemptible, but to the servants of God it is the most delightful and supersubstantial. (Worthington) --- Button allows that the Protestant version of this verse "seems to make Moses guilty of a contradiction. It is manna, for they wist not what it was. But the Septuagint (he might add the Vulgate also) translate it according to the original." (Haydock)
16:16 This is the word that the Lord hath commanded: Let every one gather of it as much as is enough to eat; a gomor for every man, according to the number of your souls that dwell in a tent, so shall you take of it.
16:17 And the children of Israel did so: and they gathered, one more, another less.
16:18 And they measured by the measure of a gomor; neither had he more that had gathered more: nor did he find less that had provided less: but every one had gathered, according to what they were able to eat.
Eat. Each one's provision was just enough to fill a gomor; (Menochius) or those who had collected more, gave to those who wanted, 2 Corinthians viii. 15. Any one might take less. (Calmet)
16:19 And Moses said to them: Let no man leave thereof till the morning.
16:20 And they hearkened not to him, but some of them left until the morning, and it began to be full of worms, and it putrified, and Moses was angry with them.
Putrified. So God was pleased to punish their diffidence in Providence. (Haydock)
16:21 Now every one of them gathered in the morning, as much as might suffice to eat: and after the sun grew hot, it melted.
Morning. Wisdom xvi. 28, we find the reason of this ordinance, which enforces diligence, and was a constant admonition to bless God without delay. (Haydock) --- It melted, that it might not be trodden under foot by the profane. (Menochius)
16:22 But on the sixth day they gathered twice as much, that is, two gomors every man: and all the rulers of the multitude came, and told Moses.
Told Moses, wishing to know why God had given this injunction.
16:23 And he said to them: This is what the Lord hath spoken: To-morrow is the rest of the sabbath sanctified to the Lord. Whatsoever work is to be done, do it; and the meats that are to be dressed, dress them; and whatsoever shall remain, lay it up until the morning.
16:24 And they did so as Moses had commanded, and it did not putrify, neither was there worm found in it.
16:25 And Moses said: Eat it to-day, because it is the sabbath of the Lord: to-day it shall not be found in the field.
16:26 Gather it six days; but on the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord, therefore it shall not be found.
16:27 And the seventh day came; and some of the people going forth to gather, found none.
16:28 And the Lord said to Moses: How long will you refuse to keep my commandments, and my law?
16:29 See that the Lord hath given you the sabbath, and for this reason on the sixth day he giveth you a double provision: let each man stay at home, and let none go forth out of his place the seventh day.
Place. Onkelos allows a person to travel 2000 cubits on the sabbath. Some heretics understood this literally, and would not alter the posture in which they were found by the festival. (Origen, Philos. 1.)
16:30 And the people kept the sabbath on the seventh day.
16:31 And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white, and the taste thereof like to flour with honey.
Manna. This miraculous food, with which the children of Israel were nourished and supported during their sojourning in the wilderness, was a figure of the bread of life, which we receive in the blessed sacrament, for the food and nourishment of our souls, during the time of our mortal pilgrimage, till we come to our eternal home, the true land of promise: where we shall keep an everlasting sabbath: and have no further need of sacraments. (Challoner) --- Seed in size, but white; whereas the seed of coriander is black. (Menochius) --- Samaritan, "like a grain of rice." --- Honey, or oil, Numbers xi. 8. (Calmet) --- This was the usual taste. But if any one liked another better, the manna assumed it, Wisdom xvi. 20. (Menochius)
16:32 And Moses said: This is the word which the Lord hath commanded: Fill a gomor of it, and let it be kept unto generations to come hereafter; that they may know the bread, wherewith I fed you in the wilderness, when you were brought forth out of the land of Egypt.
16:33 And Moses said to Aaron: Take a vessel, and put manna into it, as much as a gomor can hold; and lay it up before the Lord, to keep unto your generations,
A vessel, "a golden urn," as the Septuagint and St. Paul (Hebrews ix. 4,) express it. This was placed in the tabernacle, where the Hebrews met to pray, till the ark was made. (Calmet)
16:34 As the Lord commanded Moses. And Aaron put it in the tabernacle to be kept.
16:35 And the children of Israel ate manna forty years, till they came to a habitable land: with this meat were they fed, until they reached the borders of the land of Chanaan.
Land. Manna was withdrawn as soon as usual food could be easily procured. (Haydock) --- In this desert of the world, we are supported by the sacraments. As manna fell in the night, so the mysteries of faith are concealed from the curious researches of men. It melted with the sun beams; so mysteries confound the idle attempts of those who would fathom their impenetrable depth. Those who ate manna died, but the worthy receiver of the blessed sacrament will live for ever. (Calmet)
16:36 Now a gomor is the tenth part of an ephi.
Cross-references: 1: Wisdom xi. 2. ** Year of the World 2513. 10: Ecclesiasticus xlv. 3. 13: Numbers xi. 31. 14: Exodus xvi. 20.; Numbers xi. 7.; Psalm lxxvii. 24.; John vi. 31. 15: 1 Corinthians x. 3. 18: 2 Corinthians viii. 15. 35: 2 Esdras ix. 21.; Judith v. 15.
Chapter 17
The people murmur again for want of drink: the Lord giveth them water out of a rock. Moses lifting up his hand in prayer, Amalec is overcome.
17:1 Then all the multitude of the children of Israel setting forward from the desert of Sin, by their mansions, according to the word of the Lord, encamped in Raphidim, where there was no water for the people to drink.
Mansions, at Daphca, (Numbers xxxiii. 12,) and perhaps at Aluz. (Calmet) --- Raphidim, the 11th station mentioned by Moses, which was afterwards called Massa, "temptation," because the people murmured in this place. (Menochius)
17:2 And they chode with Moses, and said: Give us water, that we may drink. And Moses answered them: Why chide you with me? Wherefore do you tempt the Lord?
Chode, quarrelled and murmured. (Haydock) --- Tempt, requiring a miracle, ver. 7.
17:3 So the people were thirsty there for want of water, and murmured against Moses, saying: Why didst thou make us go forth out of Egypt, to kill us and our children, and our beasts with thirst?
17:4 And Moses cried to the Lord, saying: What shall I do to this people? Yet a little more and they will stone me.
17:5 And the Lord said to Moses: Go before the people, and take with thee of the ancients of Israel: and take in thy hand the rod wherewith thou didst strike the river, and go.
17:6 Behold I will stand there before thee, upon the rock Horeb: and thou shalt strike the rock, and water shall come out of it that the people may drink. Moses did so before the ancients of Israel:
Before thee, ready to grant thy request at Horeb, a rock to the west of Sinai, and a figure of Jesus Christ, according to St. Paul; who says, (1 Corinthians x. 4,) that the spiritual rock followed the Hebrews. Some say a part of the real rock was carried in a chariot. (St. Chrysostom) Others, that the rivulet of waters accompanied them till it fell into the sea near Asiengaber. (Usher.) --- The Rabbins say, that these waters never failed the Israelites till the death of Mary, for whose sake they were given, and that the bright cloud disappeared with Aaron, and manna at the decease of Moses.
17:7 And he called the name of that place Temptation, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and for that they tempted the Lord, saying: Is the Lord amongst us or not?
Temptation. Massa and Meriba "quarrel," as the Hebrew reads.
17:8 And Amalec came, and fought against Israel in Raphidim.
Amalec. The descendants of Esau by his grandson, living about the Red Sea.
17:9 And Moses said to Josue: Choose out men; and go out and fight against Amalec: to-morrow I will stand on the top of the hill, having the rod of God in my hand.
Josue, who was before called Osee, or Ausem, was the son of Nun. From the victory obtained over the Amalecites, he was ever after called Josue, Jehosuah, or Jesus, "Saviour." He attached himself to Moses, and is styled his servant, as Patroclus and Merione are called servants of Achilles and of Idomen, by Homer; though they were men of high birth. --- Hand, to defend the cause of the Hebrews by a miracle, if it be requisite.
17:10 Josue did as Moses had spoken, and he fought against Amalec; but Moses, and Aaron, and Hur, went up upon the top of the hill.
Hur, grandfather of Beseleel, (1 Paralipomenon ii. 19,) grandson of Esron by Caleb.
17:11 And when Moses lifted up his hands, Israel overcame: but if he let them down a little, Amalec overcame.
And when Moses lifted up his hands. Here Moses was a figure of Christ on the cross, by whose power and mediation we overcome our spiritual enemies. (Challoner) --- Hands, forming the sign of the cross, as the fathers observe, in the posture of a suppliant. St. Jerome says, the people fasted also till the evening. (contra Jos. ii.) (Calmet) --- If heretics deride the priests of God, standing with their hands extended at the altar, let them reflect on Moses, and on Jesus Christ, who, lifting up his hands, blessed his disciples; and hence learn, that such ceremonies are not vain. (Worthington)
17:12 And Moses' hands were heavy: so they took a stone, and put under him, and he sat on it: and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands on both sides. And it came to pass, that his hands were not weary until sunset.
17:13 And Josue put Amalec and his people to flight, by the edge of the sword.
17:14 And the Lord said to Moses: Write this for a memorial in a book, and deliver it to the ears of Josue; for I will destroy the memory of Amalec from under heaven.
Of Josue, and of all who shall govern after him, that they may remember to execute my decree of extermination, against these cruel Amalecites, who have first dared to oppose the progress of my dejected people. (Haydock) --- Moses mentions, that they particularly attacked the feeble and stragglers, (Deuteronomy xxv. 18,) though their army was very formidable, Judith iv. 13. Saul received an express order to destroy this nation; and he made such havoc among them, that they never rose again to any importance, and were confounded with the Idumeans, 1 Kings xv. 3. (Calmet)
17:15 And Moses built an altar; and called the name thereof, The Lord, my exaltation, saying:
Exaltation. He has given me the victory. He has supported my hands on high, holding the rod as a standard. (Haydock)
17:16 Because the hand of the throne of the Lord, and the war of the Lord shall be against Amalec, from generation to generation.
Hand of the throne. The Lord hath lifted up his hand, and sworn on his throne, that war, &c., (Chaldean) or the hand of Amalec hath attacked the throne (Israel, the inheritance) of the Lord; therefore shall he pursue them for ever. The Septuagint have followed a different reading, "because with a secret hand the Lord will fight; and some suggest, that instead of ces, throne, we should read nos, signal, or standard. " Since the hand has attacked the standard of the Lord, the war of the Lord is against Amalec. (Le Clerc.) --- Or "the Lord has taken his standard into his hand to destroy the Amalecites for ever." (Chateillon.) (Calmet)
Cross-references: 1: Year of the World 2513. 2: Numbers xx. 41. 5: Exodus xiv. 21.; Psalm lxxvii. 15.; 1 Corinthians x. 4. 8: Deuteronomy xxv. 17.; Judith iv. 13.; Wisdom xi. 3.
Chapter 18
Jethro bringeth to Moses his wife and children. His counsel.
18:1 And when Jethro the priest of Madian, the kinsman of Moses, had heard all the things that God had done to Moses, and to Israel his people, and that the Lord had brought forth Israel out of Egypt:
Jethro. See chap. ii. 18. --- Priest. Hebrew Cohen means also a prince. Both offices were performed by the heads of families, in the law of nature. (Worthington) --- It is supposed that this interview took place later, and should be placed [after] Numbers x. 10. (Calmet)
18:2 He took Sephora, the wife of Moses, whom he had sent back:
Back, with her consent, when he was going to the court of Pharao. (Menochius) --- Since he had the vision of God, St. Epiphanius says, he lived in continence with her. (Hoer. 78.)
18:3 And her two sons, of whom one was called Gersam: his father saying, I have been a stranger in a foreign country.
18:4 And the other Eliezer: For the God of my father, said he, is my helper, and hath delivered me from the sword of Pharao.
18:5 And Jethro, the kinsman of Moses, came with his sons, and his wife to Moses into the desert, where he was camped by the mountain of God.
Mountain. Horeb, (chap. iii. 1,) or Sinai. (Menochius)
18:6 And he sent word to Moses, saying: I Jethro, thy kinsman, come to thee, and thy wife, and thy two sons with her.
Word. Hebrew, "And he said unto Moses, I, &c. (7) And Moses went out to meet," &c., which seems very strange, after he had been just talking with him. The authors of the Septuagint and Syriac read behold, instead of I. "It was told Moses. Behold thy," &c. Kennicott observes, that five Samaritan copies retain ene, "behold," instead of ani, "I," and thus obviate the nonsense which disturbs the reader of the present Hebrew.
18:7 And he went out to meet his kinsman, and worshipped and kissed him: and they saluted one another with words of peace. And when he was come into the tent,
Worshipped, bending to the ground, according to the custom of the country. (Haydock) --- Tent of the Lord, if it were then erected, and afterwards into that of Moses. (Calmet)
18:8 Moses told his kinsman all that the Lord had done to Pharao, and the Egyptians in favour of Israel: and all the labour which had befallen them in the journey, and that the Lord had delivered them.
18:9 And Jethro rejoiced for all the good things that the Lord had done to Israel, because he had delivered them out of the hands of the Egyptians.
Rejoiced. Septuagint, "was in an ecstacy," of admiration, mixed with joy. (Menochius)
18:10 And he said: Blessed is the Lord, who hath delivered his people out of the hand of Egypt.
18:11 Now I know, that the Lord is great above all gods; because they dealt proudly against them.
I know. I am now more convinced of this truth. Jethro instructed his family in these principles. The Rechabites were his descendants. (1 Paralipomenon ii. 55; Jeremias xxxv.) (Menochius) --- Proudly. Hebrew, "because in the thing in which they did proudly, he was against, or above them." Something must be supplied. God turned the wisdom and arms of the Egyptians to their own confusion. (Calmet)
18:12 So Jethro, the kinsman of Moses, offered holocausts and sacrifices to God: and Aaron and all the ancients of Israel came, to eat bread with him before God.
Sacrifices. Peace-offerings, of which he might partake with the ancients. (Haydock) --- Jethro being a stranger, and a servant of the true God, might perform this duty in person, even though we allow that the priesthood was restrained to the family of Aaron before this time with regard to the Hebrews. (Calmet) --- Before God. St. Augustine, who supposes that the tabernacle was not yet erected, explains this in honour of God: but others, who believe this happened at the close of the year, say that the feast was made before the tabernacle, the house of God. (Menochius)
18:13 And the next day Moses sat to judge the people, who stood by Moses from morning until night.
18:14 And when his kinsman had seen all things that he did among the people, he said: What is it that thou dost among the people? Why sittest thou alone, and all the people wait from morning till night?
18:15 And Moses answered him: The people come to me to seek the judgment of God.
18:16 And when any controversy falleth out among them, they come to me to judge between them, and to shew the precepts of God, and his laws.
18:17 But he said: The thing thou dost is not good.
Good, or convenient, either for yourself, or for the people. (Haydock)
18:18 Thou art spent with foolish labour, both thou, and this people that is with thee; the business is above thy strength, thou alone canst not bear it.
Foolish. Septuagint, "intolerable." --- Labour. Hebrew, "thou wilt surely sink, or be wasted away."
18:19 But hear my words and counsels, and God shall be with thee. Be thou to the people in those things that pertain to God, to bring their words to him:
18:20 And to shew the people the ceremonies, and the manner of worshipping, and the way wherein they ought to walk, and the work that they ought to do.
To do. Be a mediator between God and the people: explain their wants, and bring back his decision: but let inferior officers see them executed. (Haydock)
18:21 And provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, in whom there is truth, and that hate avarice, and appoint of them rulers of thousands, and of hundreds, and of fifties, and of tens,
Avarice. That they may not be bribed against their better knowledge. The wise, rich, and disinterested, must be appointed magistrates; such as may not be under any undue influence. Aristotle blames the Lacedemonians for entrusting such offices to people who had nothing. See Isaias iii. 7.
18:22 Who may judge the people at all times: and when any great matter soever shall fall out, let them refer it to thee, and let them judge the lesser matters only: that so it may be lighter for thee, the burden being shared out unto others.
18:23 If thou dost this, thou shalt fulfil the commandment of God, and shalt be able to bear his precepts: and all this people shall return to their places with peace.
Thou shalt. Hebrew, "and God shall order thee." Jethro does not wish his advice should be followed, till God had been consulted. (Calmet) --- By his plan, he thought Moses would have time to confer more with God, and promote his own welfare, and the convenient dispatch of business. (Menochius)
18:24 And when Moses heard this, he did all things that he had suggested unto him.
18:25 And choosing able men out of all Israel, he appointed them rulers of the people, rulers over thousands, and over hundreds, and over fifties, and over tens.
Tens. The Samaritan copy here inserts, from Deuteronomy i. 9 to 19, where this is related at greater length. The Septuagint also add to the other officers, the Grammatoeisagogeis, or Shoterim, mentioned in the same place, as lectors or scribes, whose business it perhaps was to present written requests.
18:26 And they judged the people at all times: and whatsoever was of greater difficulty they referred to him, and they judged the easier cases only.
To him. Whether they regarded religious or civil matters. No appeal was made from an inferior or any other tribunal, but that of the supreme magistrate. (Calmet)
18:27 And he let his kinsman depart: and he returned and went into his own country.
Depart, upon his consenting to leave his son Hobab, for a guide, (Bonfrere on Numbers x. 29,) or perhaps he departed for a time, and returned again. (Calmet) --- Moses shews by his example, that superiors ought not to disdain receiving prudent admonitions from any one. (St. Chrysostom) (Worthington)
Cross-references: 1: Year of the World 2514, Year before Christ 1490. 3: Exodus ii. 22. 11: Exodus i. 14. and v. 7. and x. 10. and xiv. 8. 18: Deuteronomy i. 12. 27: Numbers xx. 29.
Chapter 19
They come to Sinai: the people are commanded to be sanctified. The Lord coming in thunder and lightning, speaketh with Moses.
19:1 In the third month of the departure of Israel out of the land of Egypt, on this day they came into the wilderness of Sinai:
This day. The same on which they departed from the Raphidim, or on the third day of the third month; though St. Augustine understands the first of the month; (Calmet) on which last supposition, allowing 16 days of the month Nisan, 30 of Jiar, and 4 of Sivan, the law was given 50 days after the liberation of the Jews, as the new law was promulgated on Whit-Sunday, on the day of Pentecost. (St. Augustine, ep. 119. 16.) (Worthington)
19:2 For departing out of Raphidim, and coming to the desert of Sinai, they camped in the same place, and there Israel pitched their tents over-against the mountain.
19:3 And Moses went up to God; and the Lord called unto him from the mountain, and said: Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel:
And Moses went up to God. Moses went up to Mount Sinai, where God spoke to him.
19:4 You have seen what I have done to the Egyptians, how I have carried you upon the wings of eagles, and have taken you to myself.
Eagles. Out of the reach of danger. As eagles carry their young upon their wings, so I have protected you from all your enemies, Deuternomy xxxii. 11. (Calmet)
19:5 If therefore you will hear my voice, and keep my covenant, you shall be my peculiar possession above all people: for all the earth is mine.
Possession, ( peculium ). Hebrew segula, "a chosen portion or treasure." (Menochius) --- Mine. I could have made choice of others. We cannot but admire the goodness of God, who asks for the free consent of the people. Hence they can have no pretence for breaking this solemn covenant. (Calmet) (Theodoret 9. 35.)
19:6 And you shall be to me a priestly kingdom, and a holy nation. These are the words thou shalt speak to the children of Israel.
Priestly kingdom. "Priests and kings," Chaldean. You shall rule over the Chanaanites, &c., and you shall offer sacrifice to me, at least, by slaying the paschal lamb. This kingdom shall not be merely of a civil nature; it shall be also sacred. The whole nation shall be holy, separated from the pagans, and consecrated to me. (Menochius)
19:7 Moses came; and calling together the elders of the people, he declared all the words which the Lord had commanded.
19:8 And all the people answered together: All that the Lord hath spoken, we will do. And when Moses had related the people's words to the Lord,
Related, as a mediator acting between two parties, (Haydock) though God knew all before. Thus his servants cease not to lay before him their own and our wants. (Worthington)
19:9 The Lord said to him: Lo now will I come to thee in the darkness of a cloud, that the people may hear me speaking to thee, and may believe thee for ever. And Moses told the words of the people to the Lord.
Cloud, to veil his majesty, while he spoke to Moses in the hearing of all. (Haydock) --- Then they began to place an entire confidence in their leader. (Maimonides)
19:10 And he said to him: Go to the people, and sanctify them to-day, and to-morrow, and let them wash their garments.
Garments, with their bodies, as the Jews understand by this expression. They were also to abstain from their wives, &c. By which exterior practices, they were admonished of the interior purity which God required. All nations seem to have adopted similar observances of continence, washing themselves, and putting on their best attire, when they appeared before God. See Herodotus, &c. (Calmet)
19:11 And let them be ready against the third day; for on the third day the Lord will come down in the sight of all the people, upon Mount Sinai.
19:12 And thou shalt appoint certain limits to the people round about, and thou shalt say to them: Take heed ye go not up into the mount, and that ye touch not the borders thereof: every one that toucheth the mount, dying he shall die.
19:13 No hands shall touch him, but he shall be stoned to death, or he shall be shot through with arrows: whether it be beast, or man, he shall not live. When the trumpet shall begin to sound, then let them go up into the mount.
Him. In detestation of his impiety, which has made him unclean. (Haydock) --- Go up into the precincts of the mountain, to which Moses conducted them; (ver. 17. 21,) or they might ascend after the trumpet ceased, and the law was given. For some understand shall begin, in a contrary sense with the Roman Septuagint, "when the voices of thunder, and the trumpets, and the cloud shall be no more;" ( apelthe ) so also the Chaldean, Syriac. (Vatable) The sound which was heard, resembled that of a horn. (Jobel.) See Leviticus xxv. 10. (Calmet)
19:14 And Moses came down from the mount to the people, and sanctified them. And when they had washed their garments,
19:15 He said to them: Be ready against the third day, and come not near your wives.
Wives. St. Paul recommends continence when people have to pray, 1 Corinthians vii. On the pagan temple of Epidaurus, this inscription was placed, "Let those be chaste who enter here." (St. Clement of Alexandria, strom. 5.)
19:16 And now the third day was come, and the morning appeared: and behold thunders began to be heard, and lightning to flash, and a very thick cloud to cover the mount, and the noise of the trumpet sounded exceeding loud; and the people that was in the camp, feared.
19:17 And when Moses had brought them forth to meet God, from the place of the camp, they stood at the bottom of the mount.
19:18 And all Mount Sinai was on a smoke; because the Lord was come down upon it in fire, and the smoke arose from it as out of a furnace: and all the mount was terrible.
Terrible, by the display of so many instruments of God's power; lightning, fire, a thick cloud, and various peals of thunder, and the sound of a trumpet; besides rain, and the company of millions of angels, Psalm lxvii. 9, 18. How different was the appearance of Sion, when Jesus proclaimed his gospel! (Hebrews xii. 18.)
19:19 And the sound of the trumpet grew by degrees louder and louder, and was drawn out to a greater length: Moses spoke, and God answered him.
Answered him, "in a speech," articulated and heard by all the people, as the Hebrew, Septuagint, Syriac, &c., intimate. Many legislators have pretended that their laws came from heaven. But they had no witnesses. Moses does all openly. His laws are preceded, accompanied, and followed by prodigies.
19:20 And the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, in the very top of the mount, and he called Moses unto the top thereof. And when he was gone up thither,
19:21 He said unto him: Go down, and charge the people; lest they should have a mind to pass the limits to see the Lord, and a very great multitude of them should perish.
19:22 The priests also that come to the Lord, let them be sanctified, lest he strike them.
Sanctified, in an extraordinary manner, above the rest. These priests, according to St. Augustine, are the children of Aaron, and the whole race of Levi, who would shortly be selected by God. But others think, they are those who, by the law of nature, were accustomed to officiate. Or, as God had declared that they were all a priestly kingdom, some of the most comely and irreproachable youths of each family, had been chosen to present victims, when the covenant with God was to be ratified, chap. xxiv. 15. (Calmet)
19:23 And Moses said to the Lord: The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai: for thou didst charge, and command, saying: Set limits about the mount, and sanctify it.
The people. Glassius understands this with an interrogation, "Can no one?" God exempts Aaron from the common law, ver. 24. (Haydock)
19:24 And the Lord said to him: Go, get thee down; and thou shalt come up, thou and Aaron with thee: but let not the priests and the people pass the limits, nor come up to the Lord, lest he kill them.
Pass. Septuagint, "contend violently to pass." The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, Matthew xi. 12. (Menochius) --- Moses was the mediator of this covenant, and Aaron his interpreter, to explain to the people the orders of Moses. (Calmet) --- Thus we have seen the dreadful apparatus of the law of fear, with the preface to it, and the approbation of the people.
19:25 And Moses went down to the people and told them all.
Cross-references: 1: Numbers xxxiii. 13. 3: Acts vii. 38. 4: Deuteronomy xxix. 2. 5: Psalm xxiii. 1. 6: 1 Peter ii. 9. 12: Hebrews xii. 18. 18: Deuteronomy iv. 11.
Chapter 20
The ten commandments.
20:1 And the Lord spoke all these words:
The Lord now, by his angel, delivers in an intelligible manner, the ten words, or commandments, which contain the sum of all the natural law, and may be reduced to the two precepts of charity, Matthew xxii. 40; Mark xii. 31. How these commandments are to be divided into ten, the ancients are not perfectly agreed. We follow the authority of St. Augustine, (9. 71,) St. Clement of Alexandria, (strom. 6,) and others, in referring three of the precepts to God, and seven to our neighbour. Protestants adopt the Jewish method, of making four commandments of the first table, and six of the second; as they divide our first into two, and unite the 9th and 10th; though it surely must appear rational to admit a distinct precept, for an internal as well as for an external object; and the desires of committing adultery or theft, require a distinct prohibition no less than the external actions. Whereas the forbidding to have strange gods, or to worship images, or creatures of any description, is exactly of the same tendency. For no one can worship an idol, without admitting a strange god. The latter part, therefore, of the first commandment, or the second of Protestants, is only a farther explanation of what had gone before, as Moses himself clearly insinuates, ver. 23, You shall not make gods of silver, &c.
20:2 I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Thy God. By this endearing title, we are all required to consecrate our whole hearts and souls to our only Maker and Redeemer; and therefore we must love God sincerely, and comply with all his commandments. This preface to the Decalogue, enforces the acts of faith, hope, charity, religion, &c. (Haydock)
20:3 Thou shalt not have strange gods before me.
Before me, or in my presence. I shall not be content to be adored with idols. (Calmet)
20:4 Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor of those things that are in the waters under the earth.
A graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing, &c. All such images or likenesses, are forbidden by this commandment, as are made to be adored and served; according to that which immediately follows, thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them. That is, all such as are designed for idols or image gods, or are worshipped with divine honour. But otherwise images, pictures, or representations, even in the house of God, and in the very sanctuary, so far from being forbidden are expressly authorized by the word of God. See Exodus xxv. 15, &c.; chap. xxxviii. 7; Numbers xxi. 8, 9; 1 Chronicles xxviii. 18, 19; 2 Chronicles iii. 10. (Challoner) --- Protestants insidiously translate "any graven image," though pesel, eidolon, glupton, and sculptile, in the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, denote a graven thing or idol. They will, however, hardly condemn his majesty for having his representation stamped upon the coin of the nation, nor so many of our wealthy noblemen, who adorn their rooms with the choicest efforts of painting and of sculpture. They know that the object of prohibition is the making and adoring of idols. But they probably wish to keep the ignorant under the stupid delusion of supposing, that Catholics are idolaters, because they have images, and that they themselves are not, though they have them likewise at home; and even in their churches admit the absurd figures of the lion and the unicorn, stretching their paws over the tables of the law, instead of the pious representations of Jesus expiring on the cross, &c., which were set up by their Catholic ancestors. Let them read, and adopt herein just weights and measures, proposed to them by Thorndike, one of their most discerning and moderate teachers. In the mean time, we will assure them, that we abhor all idols; both those made with hands, and those which are formed by the head of heretics, who set up their own fancies and delusions, to be adored instead of the true God. Our general councils of Nice and of Trent define what we ought to believe on this head; and the matter is so fully explained in our catechisms and books of instruction, as well as from our pulpits, that no person can well remain in ignorance. If we perform various actions of respect before pictures, which are also done in honour of God, can any man of sense infer, that we look upon both with equal respect? Do we not read of the people falling down to shew respect to the king, and supreme worship to God, by the same act of the body? (Haydock) --- Altars and sacrifice we reserve solely for God, as St. Augustine (contra Faust. xx. 21,) well observes. Other indifferent practices must be determined by the intention. --- Latria, or supreme worship, can be given to none but the Deity. But we shew our respect and veneration for his servants in glory, by an inferior service called Dulia, giving honour to whom honour is due. How profane and impious must the words of the first reformers appear, who, after saying most falsely, that "papists make the Virgin Mary a god, (Luther. postil.) and worship images in heathenish manner," (Melanct. Loc. com.) attribute various fictitious crimes to the blessed Virgin and other saints! (Centuriators of Magdeburg; Calvin, &c.) They knew that all the saints abhorred their impiety; and therefore, in revenge, they vilify the saints, and condemn all the doctors and fathers of the Church, since the death of the apostles, as guilty of superstition and idolatry. (Haydock) --- "By this occasion, dead creatures, and bloodless half worm-eaten bones, began to be honoured, invocated, and worshipped with divine honour. All which the doctors of the Church not only winked at, but also set forward." (Centuriators of Magdeburg, C. vi.) What is then become of the promises of God, to teach all the truth by the mouths of his pastors? (Matthew xxviii, &c.) Let others judge, whether we ought to pay greater deference to Saints Jerome, Augustine, Gregory, &c., or to Luther, Calvin, and the Centuriators of Magdeburg. But some will even admit that images were commanded by God, chap. xxv. 18, &c. Hence they lay great stress upon the words to thyself; as if all images were forbidden that man should make, without the express sanction of God. So Parkhurst Lexic. But those who are conversant in Hebrew, know that these words have no such import; and if things were inseparable from idolatry, they could not be sanctioned by God. (Haydock) --- No creature must be represented as a deity. But sovereign worship, both internal and external, must be given to the great Author of all good, while we abstain from every superstitious act, and from all dealings with the devil and false religions. (Calmet) --- Protestants, therefore, who only forbid images, diminish God's law. Were not the idols of Chanaan, Chamos, &c., which represented nothing in nature, also condemned?
20:5 Thou shalt not adore them, nor serve them: I am the Lord thy God, mighty, jealous, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me:
Adore. Protestants translate again, with the same view, as in the preceding verse, "thou shalt not bow down thyself to them," in condemnation of Catholics, who kneel before the cross. But do not they kneel, when they receive their sacramental bread, or when they ask for their parents' blessing? Did not St. John, and other saints, bow down out of respect to angels? And were these all idolaters! We are forbidden, therefore, to shew any respect to strange gods. But we must honour the true God in his saints, referring all the glory to him. (Haydock) --- Hate me. Those who do not imitate their wicked ancestors, need not fear being involved in their punishment. (Menochius) (St. Augustine, q. 42; St. Gregory, mor. 15. 22; St. Jerome in Ezechiel xviii.) --- Sometimes, indeed, God takes away the lives of children and of subjects, to punish the sins of parents and of kings; but this may be no real detriment to the deceased. (Haydock) --- Grotius thinks, that this menace is directed against idolaters. Others believe, it may be placed at the conclusion of each of the commandments. (Calmet)
20:6 And shewing mercy unto thousands to them that love me, and keep my commandments.
20:7 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that shall take the name of the Lord his God in vain.
In vain. On trifling occasions, rashly, or falsely. "Those who swear often, diminish their credit among the wise." (Philo)
20:8 Remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day.
Sabbath day, on which rest from servile work is prescribed, that we may worship God with greater fervour. Saturday was kept holy by the Jews, in honour of God's resting. The apostles have authorized us to keep Sunday instead, to commemorate the mysteries of Christ's resurrection, &c.
20:9 Six days shalt thou labour, and shalt do all thy works.
Six, &c. This must be understood if no festival of obligation occurred. For many were in force in the old law; such as the Passover, Encenia, Purim, &c., as there are still in the Church. (Haydock)
20:10 But on the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: thou shalt do no work on it, thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy man-servant, nor thy maid-servant, nor thy beast, nor the stranger that is within thy gates.
Stranger. Of some other nation. Good policy required, that all should conform to this regulation, whatever their religion might be. (Grotius) --- Maimonides says, without any probablility, that "a Gentile observing the law, was guilty of death. (Calmet)
20:11 For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and the sea, and all things that are in them, and rested on the seventh day: therefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it.
20:12 Honour thy father and thy mother, that thou mayst be long-lived upon the land which the Lord thy God will give thee.
Honour. Love, respect, feed, if requisite; support the infirmities of parents. See Numbers xxiv. 1; 1 Timothy v. 3, 17. They are ministers of God, in the production of children; and those who offer an affront to his minister, irritate God. (Philo) --- Land of Chanaan. The promises are of a temporal nature; but they should bring to our reflection the eternal rewards which attend the virtuous. The duties of parents are not specified, as nature would shew their extent, and as the obligations of parents and children are reciprocal. (Calmet)
20:13 Thou shalt not kill.
Kill. These precepts are to be taken in their full extent, as prohibiting not only the ultimate act, but every thing which leads to it. Magistrates are authorized to inflict capital punishments. We are allowed also to defend ourselves against an unjust aggressor. But we must never intend to kill him. (Calmet) --- The laws will not condemn us, perhaps, if we do; but God sees the heart, and judges. A night thief may be slain, because we know not how far our own lives may be endangered, chap. xxii. 2. (Haydock)
20:14 Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Adultery. This precept is placed before the former one, in the Septuagint; St. Mark x. 19; and St. Luke xviii. 20. Adultery was punished with death, Leviticus xx. 10. All civilized nations have held it in abhorrence, as destructive of all peace, Job xxxi. 11. All other impure actions are forbidden, under different penalties.
20:15 Thou shalt not steal.
Steal; by which name fraud of every description is condemned. Some have erroneously restrained this prohibition to the stealing of men for slaves, chap. xxi. 16. (Calmet)
20:16 Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
False. Calumniators were subjected to the law of retaliation, and were forced, by the Egyptians and others, to undergo the same punishment, which they would have inflicted upon others. This law is the guardian of good faith and honesty in all our dealings. It is explained more in detail [in] chap. xxiii. 1, and Leviticus xix. 11.
20:17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house; neither shalt thou desire his wife, nor his servant, nor his hand-maid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is his.
House. Septuagint places wife first, as all do, Deuteronomy v. 21. The express prohibition of lustful and unjust desires, might suffice to have obviated the mistake of Josephus, and of the Jews, in our Saviour's time, who looked upon them as indifferent, provided they were not carried into effect. They render us guilty in the sight of God, (Matthew v. 28,) whenever we give consent to them, as even Ovid and the pagan philosophers acknowledged. (Grotius) --- At the conclusion of this 10th commandment, we find five verses in the Samaritan copy and version, as well as in the Arabic, and a sufficient vacant space is left in an ancient Syriac manuscript translated from the Hebrew, which induce Kennicott (Dis. 2. p. 97,) to conclude that they are genuine; particularly as they explain what law was to be engraven on the two stones set up by Josue, which the Hebrew leaves ambiguous. They are as follows, repeated, for the most part, Deuteronomy xxvii. 2. "And it shall come to pass, when the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the land of the Chanaanites, whither thou goest to possess it, then thou shalt set thee up great stones; and thou shalt plaster them with plaster, and shalt write upon the stones all the words of this law. --- And it shall come to pass, when ye are passed over the Jordan, ye shall put these stones, which I command you this day, upon Mount Gerizim. --- And thou shalt build there an altar to the Lord thy God, an altar of stones; thou shalt not lift up any iron tool upon them. --- Thou shalt build the altar of the Lord thy God of whole stones, and shalt offer thereon burnt-offerings to the Lord thy God, and shalt sacrifice peace-offerings; and thou shalt eat there, and rejoice before the Lord thy God. --- That mountain is on the other side Jordan, by the way where the sun goeth down, in the land of the Chanaanites, which dwell in the flat country over-against Gilgal, beside the plain of Moreh, near Sichem." This particular designation of Gerizim, makes Calmet suspect, that it is an interpolation of the Samaritans. But Kennicott hesitates not to lay the blame of omission upon the Jews; as he endeavours to shew, that they have corrupted Deuteronomy xxvii. 4, substituting Hebal, instead of Gerizim. "Certainly the Jews might omit, as easily as the Samaritans might insert. " (p. 100.) (Haydock)
20:18 And all the people saw the voices and the flames, and the sound of the trumpet, and the mount smoking; and being terrified and struck with fear, they stood afar off,
Saw. The Hebrews often substitute one organ of sense for another. (St. Augustine 9. 72; Jeremias ii. 30.) --- The Samaritan reads, "the people heard the thunders and the sound of the trumpet, and beheld the lightning." Henceforward till chap. xxiv., Moses and Aaron alone heard the voice of God; and the laws delivered, chap. xxv. to xxxi., were revealed to Moses only.
20:19 Saying to Moses: Speak thou to us, and we will hear: let not the Lord speak to us, lest we die.
Die. The Samaritan copy inserts here what we read [in] Deuteronomy v. 24, 25, 26, 27.
20:20 And Moses said to the people: Fear not; for God is come to prove you, and that the dread of him might be in you, and you should not sin.
20:21 And the people stood afar off. But Moses went to the dark cloud wherein God was.
20:22 And the Lord said to Moses: Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: You have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven.
Seen: no visible form; (Calmet) but I have spoken from the top of Sinai. (Haydock)
20:23 You shall not make gods of silver, nor shall you make to yourselves gods of gold.
Make. Hebrew adds, "with me," ver. 3. This people was prone to idolatry, and stood in need of having the first commandment often inculcated. (Menochius)
20:24 You shall make an altar of earth unto me, and you shall offer upon it your holocausts and peace-offerings, your sheep and oxen, in every place where the memory of my name shall be: I will come to thee, and will bless thee.
Earth, which may be destroyed with ease, to prevent any profanation. --- Place. Where the tabernacle shall be fixed, you shall offer sacrifice, and I will hear you. The ark was afterwards deposited in the temple, where alone the Jews were, consequently, allowed to sacrifice. (Haydock) --- Samuel offered victims at Mespha and Ramatha, by the dispensation of God, 1 Kings vii. 9, 17. (Menochius)
20:25 And if thou make an altar of stone unto me, thou shalt not build it of hewn stones; for if thou lift up a tool upon it, it shall be defiled.
Defiled; because done in opposition to God's order, who required, on this occasion, the utmost simplicity, to prevent any undue veneration. Iron was not used about the tabernacle or temple, as brass was more common. Altars raised in haste, like that, Deuteronomy xxvii. and Josue viii. 30, and that which was designed for the ratification of the covenant, (chap. xxiv. 4,) were required to be of this construction, unpolished and simple, as was the altar erected, 1 Machabees iv. 47. But other altars were not built after this model. (Calmet)
20:26 Thou shalt not go up by steps unto my altar, lest thy nakedness be discovered.
Steps. These were afterwards allowed in the temple, Ezechiel xliii. 17. The Egyptians made use of their pyramids for altars; and some suppose, that the high places of Juda were of a similar nature, and exposed the priests, who wore long robes without breeches, to the danger of being seen, chap. xxviii. 42. The steps allowed by God were therefore very low, and enclosed with boards, after the Greek fashion. Such were used by the priest and priestess of Jupiter. (Servius in Aeneid iv. 646.) Linen breeches, or girdles, were afterwards required, Leviticus xxxix. 27. and Exodus xxviii. 42. (Calmet)
Cross-references: 1: Year of the World 2513. 2: Deuteronomy v. 6.; Psalm lxxx. 11. 4: Leviticus xxvi. 1.; Deuteronomy iv. 15.; Josue xxiv. 14.; Psalm xcvi. 7. 7: Leviticus xix. 12.; Deuteronomy v. 11.; Matthew v. 33. 8: Exodus xxxi. 13.; Deuteronomy v. 14.; Ezechiel xx. 12. 11: Genesis ii. 2. 12: Deuteronomy v. 16.; Matthew xv. 4.; Ephesians vi. 2. 13: Matthew v. 21. 17: Romans vii. 7. and xiii. 9. 21: Deuteronomy xviii. 16.; Hebrews xii. 18. 24: Exodus xxvii. 8. and xxxviii. 7. 25: Deuteronomy xxvii. 5.; Josue viii. 31.
Chapter 21
Laws relating to justice.
21:1 These are the judgments which thou shalt set before them.
Judgments, or laws directing the civil conduct of the Israelites. (Menochius)
21:2 If thou buy a Hebrew servant, six years shall he serve thee; in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing.
Servant, or slave. A man might sell himself and his children. But if they were females, under age, God prescribes how they are to be treated, ver. 7. --- Six years: in case he were bought immediately after the expiration of the Sabbatic law: none could be detained for a longer period. If a person lost his liberty in the fourth year after the general release, he would recover it in the space of two or three years at latest. (Haydock) (Bonfrere)
21:3 With what raiment he came in, with the like let him go out: if having a wife, his wife also shall go out with him.
Raiment. Hebrew Gaph may signify also the body. "If he come (with his body) alone, let him so depart," Septuagint. (Calmet)
21:4 But if his master gave him a wife, and she hath borne sons and daughters; the woman and her children shall be her master's: but he himself shall go out with his raiment.
21:5 And if the servant shall say: I love my master and my wife and children, I will not go out free:
21:6 His master shall bring him to the gods, and he shall be set to the door and the posts, and he shall bore his ear through with an awl: and he shall be his servant for ever.
To the gods: Elohim. That is, to the judges, or magistrates, authorized by God. (Challoner) --- In a matter of such consequence, great deliberation was requisite. --- Posts, of his own house. This ceremony tended to punish the slave for neglecting his liberty, and shewed, that he should not pass the threshold any more without his master's leave. --- For ever; till the year of Jubilee, when all the Hebrews were to be set free, Leviticus xxv. 40. (Menochius)
21:7 If any man sell his daughter to be a servant, she shall not go out as bond-women are wont to go out.
Go out, to work in the fields, according to Grotius; or rather, to enjoy her liberty. A father who sold his daughter, always expected that she should be the wife of the purchaser, or of his son. If this did not take place, she was free after six years, or before, if her master died. Constantine sanctioned the power of the Romans to sell their children. The Phrygians and Thebans had the like custom. (Calmet)
21:8 If she displease the eyes of her master to whom she was delivered, he shall let her go: but he shall have no power to sell her to a foreign nation, if he despise her.
21:9 But if he have betrothed her to his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters.
Daughters. When she is old enough to be married, he shall give her a dowry like his own daughter, or like a free woman. (Haydock)
21:10 And if he take another wife for him, he shall provide her a marriage, and raiment, neither shall he refuse the price of her chastity.
Marriage. This seems to insinuate that she was divorced: but the best commentators suppose, that the introduction of the second wife was not to infringe the rights of the first. Hebrew, "he shall not diminish her food, raiment, and dwelling," but treat her as his wife. The Athenians required husbands to visit their wives thrice a month. --- Price, &c. A sufficient dowry, or the rights of marriage; "her company," (omilian.) Septuagint.
21:11 If he do not these three things, she shall go out free without money.
21:12 He that striketh a man with a will to kill him, shall be put to death.
With a will. The Hebrew and Septuagint do not express this, but the context shews it to be necessary. --- Death, by the sword, as people soliciting idolatry to others were also. Eighteen crimes were punished with lapidation, ten with fire, or melting lead poured down their throats, and six with strangling. The royal tribunals always commanded the criminal's head to be struck off. (Calmet) --- When the punishment is not defined, stoning must be understood; (Rabbins and Selden, Syned ii. 13.) at least when it is said, his blood be upon him. But when it is only determined that he shall die, Grotius understands he must be strangled, with towels put round the malefactor's neck, while he stands up to the knees in a dunghill; (Drusius) as he does also when he is to be killed with melted lead. Murder was punished by the ancient Greeks with exile. (Plato, &c.) "At that time it was deemed unlawful to inflict a capital punishment upon any, who, however criminal, were still men." (Lartant 2.) But as these crimes became more frequent, God enacts this law of retaliation, blood for blood, Genesis ix. 6. Ten paces from the place of execution, the criminal Hebrew had to confess his sin. (Maimonides) (Calmet)
21:13 But he that did not lie in wait for him, but God delivered him into his hands: I will appoint thee a place to which he must flee.
God. When a person was slain undesignedly, the Providence of God was to be adored in silence, as nothing happens without his permission. (Haydock) See Numbers xxv. 6.
21:14 If a man kill his neighbour on set purpose, and by lying in wait for him: thou shalt take him away from my altar that he may die.
Altar, if he should flee thither for safety. No asylum was allowed to such murderers. Thus Joab was slain by Solomon, 3 Kings ii. 31. (Menochius)
21:15 He that striketh his father or mother, shall be put to death.
Striketh, even though death should not ensue. But some require a grevious wound, and that the son should be twice admonished, Deuteronomy xxi. 18. Parricide seemed a crime so shocking and unnatural, that neither Moses nor Solon made any express law against it.
21:16 He that shall steal a man, and sell him, being convicted of the guilt, shall be put to death.
21:17 He that curseth his father or mother, shall die the death.
Curseth, or speaking injuriously. The Athenians put such in prison.
21:18 If men quarrel, and the one strike his neighbour with a stone, or with his fist, and he die not, but keepeth his bed:
21:19 If he rise again and walk abroad upon his staff, he that struck him shall be quit, yet so that he make restitution for his work, and for his expenses upon the physicians.
Staff, as people in health do, or even as a convalescent. In the mean time the other person was confined, and subjected to the law of retaliation, if the sick man lost either limb or life, ver. 24. (Calmet)
21:20 He that striketh his bond-man or bond-woman, with a rod, and they die under his hands, shall be guilty of the crime.
21:21 But if the party remain alive a day or two, he shall not be subject to the punishment, because it is his money.
Money, which purchased the slave. Hence, as he will be punished in some degree, and it is not absolutely certain that the slave died of his wounds, his master shall not be put to death. "They are slaves, (says Seneca, ep. 47,) but they are our fellow-slaves. " We have one common origin, and one master over us all, Job xxxi. 13. (Haydock) --- Many nations tolerated the murder of slaves by their masters. But this was contrary to reason and humanity, (Calmet) and condemned by many of the Roman laws. (Christen.)
21:22 If men quarrel, and one strike a woman with child, and she miscarry indeed, but live herself: he shall be answerable for so much damage as the woman's husband shall require, and as arbiters shall award.
But live herself. So Josephus also reads, Antiquities iv. 8. But Philo and the Septuagint have, "of a child unformed;" and ver. 23, "But if the child be formed, ( exeikonismenon, animated and organized) he shall give soul for soul;" as if all were referred to the child, which the Vulgate explains of the mother. To destroy the life of either was punished with death. "She who first taught the art of expelling the tender foetus, deserved to perish by her own malice." (Ovid) (Calmet) --- The precise time when the soul begins to animate the body is so very uncertain, that, after conception, the person who should cause a miscarriage wilfully, would expose himself to incur the guilt of murder. Josephus, contra Apion ii., shews how the Jews abhorred such wickedness. The Romans punished it with death. (Haydock) --- Homicidii festinatio est prohibere nasci. (Tertullian, apol.) Onkelos says, that "if the mother should not die of the stroke, the offender was to satisfy the husband by paying a fine, to be awarded by the husband, or by the judges: but in case the mother died, he should render life for life:" (Calmet) in which decision he agrees with the Vulgate. (Haydock) --- The Hebrew is ambiguous, "If death ensue not." (Calmet)
21:23 But if her death ensue thereupon, he shall render life for life,
21:24 Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
Eye. "This law tended to restrain, not to encourage, fury and revenge." (St. Augustine, contra Faust. xix. 25.) Some explain it, as if a sum of money could only be required, equivalent to the ransom of an eye, in case a person should be under a necessity of losing or of redeeming it. (Muis; Jonathan) --- Retaliation was not left to the injured party's discretion. The judge was to decide. Christ enjoins what is more perfect, ordering us to turn the left cheek, when we have received a blow on the right. The canon law inflicts the punishment of retaliation upon the calumniator. (Calmet)
21:25 Burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
21:26 If any man strike the eye of his man-servant or maid-servant, and leave them but one eye, he shall let them go free for the eye which he put out.
21:27 Also if he strike out a tooth of his man-servant or maid-servant, he shall in like manner make them free.
21:28 If an ox gore a man or a woman, and they die, he shall be stoned: and his flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox shall be quit.
Stoned, that he may do no more harm, and that the owner may be punished at least by this loss. (Haydock) --- Sentence was passed by the 23 judges. By the Roman law, the animal which struck a man was forfeited to him (Calmet); and its master had to make good all damages. ( Justinian iv. 9.)
21:29 But if the ox was wont to push with his horn yesterday, and the day before, and they warned his master, and he did not shut him up, and he shall kill a man or a woman: then the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death.
21:30 And if they set a price upon him, he shall give for his life whatsoever is laid upon him.
21:31 If he have gored a son, or a daughter, he shall fall under the like sentence.
21:32 If he assault a bond-man or a bond-woman, he shall give thirty sicles of silver to their master, and the ox shall be stoned.
Bond-man, &c., of any of those uncircumcised nations, (Jonathan) whom it was lawful to put to death; and hence their life was esteemed of less value. (Haydock) --- Sicles. Septuagint, "didrachmas." This was the price of a slave, for which our Saviour was sold: that of a free-man was double. (Calmet)
21:33 If a man open a pit, and dig one, and cover it not, and an ox or an ass fall into it,
21:34 The owner of the pit shall pay the price of the beasts: and that which is dead shall be his own.
21:35 If one man's ox gore another man's ox, and he die: they shall sell the live ox, and shall divide the price, and the carcass of that which died they shall part between them:
21:36 But if he knew that his ox was wont to push yesterday, and the day before, and his master did not keep him in; he shall pay ox for ox, and shall take the whole carcass.
Cross-references: 2: Deuteronomy xv. 12.; Jeremias xxxiv. 14. 12: Leviticus xxiv. 17. 13: Deuteronomy xix. 2. 17: Leviticus xx. 9.; Proverbs xx. 20.; Matthew xv. 4.; Mark vii. 10. 24: Leviticus. xxiv. 20.; Deuteronomy xix. 21.; Matthew v. 38.
Chapter 22
The punishment of theft and other trespasses. The law of lending without usury, of taking pledges, of reverence to superiors, and of paying tithes.
22:1 If any man steal an ox or a sheep, and kill or sell it: he shall restore five oxen for one ox, and four sheep for one sheep.
Five oxen; because they are of greater value than sheep. (Theodoret) --- As these things may easily be stolen, a heavier fine is imposed than on those who steal money. The Scythians punish theft with the utmost severity. (Grotius) --- All these punishments, till the 25th chapter, were inflicted by the judge. (Tirinus)
22:2 If a thief be found breaking open a house or undermining it, and be wounded so as to die: he that slew him shall not be guilty of blood.
Blood. The reason is, because it could not easily be known whether the thief had not a design upon the life of the people in the house; and therefore, the law gave them authority to defend themselves. But they were not authorized to kill the thief designedly. The laws of Athens and of Rome, permitted nocturnal robbers to be slain, at least when they came armed. (Plato, de leg. ix. &c.) To defend our goods or honour, by killing the aggressor, is contrary to justice and reason. (Calmet)
22:3 But if he did this when the sun is risen, he hath committed murder, and he shall die. If he have not wherewith to make restitution for the theft, he shall be sold.
22:4 If that which he stole be found with him, alive, either ox, or ass, or sheep: he shall restore double.
Double. This is an exception from the general law, ver. 1, (Calmet) because he can more easily make restitution, as he has not sold or destroyed the thing. (Du Hamel)
22:5 If any man hurt a field or a vineyard, and put in his beast to feed upon that which is other men's: he shall restore the best of whatsoever he hath in his own field, or in his vineyard, according to the estimation of the damage.
22:6 If a fire breaking out light upon thorns, and catch stacks of corn, or corn standing in the fields, he that kindled the fire shall make good the loss.
22:7 If a man deliver money, or any vessel unto his friend to keep, and they be stolen away from him that received them: if the thief be found he shall restore double:
22:8 If the thief be not known, the master of the house shall be brought to the gods, and shall swear that he did not lay his hand upon his neighbour's goods,
Gods. "In the presence of the Lord," Septuagint.
22:9 To do any fraud, either in ox, or in ass, or sheep, or raiment, or any thing that may bring damage: the cause of both parties shall come to the gods: and if they give judgment, he shall restore double to his neighbour.
Damage. Hebrew, "thing lost, which another challengeth.…and whom the judges condemn, he," &c. If the person who had deposited a thing, pretended that the one produced was not the same, or not equally good, and failed in proving the charge, he was liable to pay double its value. (Calmet)
22:10 If a man deliver ass, ox, sheep, or any beast, to his neighbour's custody, and it die, or be hurt, or be taken by enemies, and no man saw it:
22:11 There shall be an oath between them, that he did not put forth his hand to his neighbour's goods: and the owner shall accept of the oath, and he shall not be compelled to make restitution.
22:12 But if it were taken away by stealth, he shall make the loss good to the owner.
Stealth, of the person to whom it was entrusted, or by his connivance, as the Hebrew mamu, ( de cum eo ) "from with him," intimates. (Menochius)
22:13 If it were eaten by a beast, let him bring to him that which was slain, and he shall not make restitution.
Slain. Or any part of its mangled remains, in proof of his assertion. (Syriac)
22:14 If a man borrow of his neighbour any of these things, and it be hurt or die, the owner not being present, he shall be obliged to make restitution.
Restitution. It is to be presumed he was guilty of some negligence. (Calmet)
22:15 But if the owner be present, he shall not make restitution, especially if it were hired, and came for the hire of his work.
Especially, &c. This is a third case, in which the person who lends, suffers all the loss, in consideration of the money which he had received. Others explain, "If he be a hired servant, he shall pay out of his wages," Syriac. (Grotius)
22:16 If a man seduce a virgin not yet espoused, and lie with her: he shall endow her, and have her to wife.
22:17 If the maid's father will not give her to him, he shall give money according to the dowry, which virgins are wont to receive.
Money. Fifty sicles, as it is expressed, Deuteronomy xxii. 29. If the maid were of high birth, the magistrates might inflict other punishments on the seducer.
22:18 Wizards thou shalt not suffer to live.
Wizards. Hebrew, "a witch." Women are more given to such delusions, which imply an apostacy from God to serve the devil, and disturb the republic.
22:19 Whosoever copulateth with a beast, shall be put to death.
22:20 He that sacrificeth to gods, shall be put to death, save only to the Lord.
Death. Hebrew, "shall be anathema," ( érom ) which denotes utter destruction both of the person and of his goods. (Jonathan) (1 Kings xv. 3.)
22:21 Thou shalt not molest a stranger, nor afflict him: for yourselves also were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Were strangers. The Celtes punished with death the murderer of a stranger, while they only banished him who had murdered a citizen. (Calmet)
22:22 You shall not hurt a widow or an orphan.
22:23 If you hurt them, they will cry out to me, and I will hear their cry:
22:24 And my rage shall be enkindled, and I will strike you with the sword, and your wives shall be widows, and your children fatherless.
Fatherless. Thus God will retaliate upon the oppressors of the poor. (Haydock)
22:25 If thou lend money to any of my people that is poor, that dwelleth with thee, thou shalt not be hard upon them as an extortioner, nor oppress them with usuries.
Poor. Such are often most in want. Usury is not lawful, even with respect to the rich. The Hebrew terms it a bite. (Menochius) --- "What is usury, said Cato, but to kill a man." The Romans required thieves to restore double, but usurers were to render four times as much as they had taken. (Varro, Rustic. i.) --- Restitution is prescribed, 2 Esdras v. 11. Some Calvinists have stood up in its defence, in opposition to the Scriptures, fathers, and Councils of the Catholic Church. Lend, hoping to gain nothing by it, Luke vi. 35. "Let him who loves money,.…lend (in the persons of the poor) to Him who says, Give, and it shall be given to you. " (St. Leo, ser.) The Jews themselves have reprobated usury in any use. (Calmet)
22:26 If thou take of thy neighbour a garment in pledge, thou shalt give it him again before sun-set.
22:27 For that same is the only thing, wherewith he is covered, the clothing of his body, neither hath he any other to sleep in: if he cry to me, I will hear him, because I am compassionate.
22:28 Thou shalt not speak ill of the gods, and the prince of thy people thou shalt not curse.
Gods. Judges, priests, &c. Josephus and Philo say, we must not speak ill of strange gods, lest the Gentiles should take occasion to blaspheme the true God, and that we may be farther removed from the danger of taking the name of God in vain, and losing that respect which we owe to it.
22:29 Thou shalt not delay to pay thy tithes and thy first-fruits: thou shalt give the first-born of thy sons to me.
Tithes. Hebrew, "thy plentitude, (first-fruits and tithes) and thy tears;" (or liquors distilled form odoriferous trees) in a word, all that is most excellent. Censorinus (de die nat.) says, excellently well: "They who acknowledged that they had received food, a country, light, and even their very persons, from the bounty of the gods, failed not to consecrate a part of all to the gods,...to the temples and chapels, where they worshipped them." (Calmet)
22:30 Thou shalt do the same with the first-born of thy oxen also and sheep: seven days let it be with its dam: the eighth day thou shalt give it to me.
22:31 You shall be holy men to me: the flesh that beasts have tasted of before, you shall not eat, but shall cast it to the dogs.
Beasts. "Wild beasts," Septuagint. --- This was to encourage humanity. (Theodoret)
Cross-references: 1: 2 Kings xii. 6. 12: Genesis xxxi. 39. 16: Deuteronomy xxii. 28. 20: Leviticus xix. 4. 22: Zacharias vii. 10. 26: Deuteronomy xxiv. 13. 28: Acts xxiii. 5. 29: Exodus xiii. 2. and 12. and xxxiv. 19.; Ezechiel xliv. 30. 31: Leviticus xxii. 3.
Chapter 23
Laws for judges: the rest of the seventh year, and day: three principal feasts to be solemnized every year: the promise of an angel, to conduct and protect them: idols are to be destroyed.
23:1 Thou shalt not receive the voice of a lie: neither shalt thou join thy hand to bear false witness for a wicked person.
Lie, by countenancing calumny. Judges must never do any thing which they know to be unjust, whatever the witnesses may assert. (Haydock)
23:2 Thou shalt not follow the multitude to do evil: neither shalt thou yield in judgment, to the opinion of the most part, to stray from the truth.
23:3 Neither shalt thou favour a poor man in judgment.
Favour. Mercy would then be contrary to justice. (Psalm lxxi. 2; St. Augustine q. 88.)
23:4 If thou meet thy enemy's ox or ass going astray, bring it back to him.
23:5 If thou see the ass of him that hateth thee lie underneath his burden, thou shalt not pass by, but shalt lift him up with him.
23:6 Thou shalt not go aside in the poor man's judgment.
23:7 Thou shalt fly lying. The innocent and just person thou shalt not put to death: because I abhor the wicked.
23:8 Neither shalt thou take bribes, which even blind the wise, and pervert the words of the just.
Bribes, which naturally induce the receiver to shew favour, and therefore cannot be too carefully avoided. The Athenians put to death those who bribed the judges, and required the latter to restore ten-fold. (Calmet)
23:9 Thou shalt not molest a stranger, for you know the hearts of strangers: for you also were strangers in the land of Egypt.
The hearts. You have experienced what sorrow and misery they feel. (Menochius)
23:10 Six years thou shalt sow thy ground, and shalt gather the corn thereof.
23:11 But the seventh year thou shalt let it alone, and suffer it to rest, that the poor of thy people may eat, and whatsoever shall be left, let the beasts of the field eat it: so shalt thou do with thy vineyard and thy oliveyard.
Year. Thus God was pleased to teach them to place entire confidence in him, and to compassionate the distress of the poor. Most people suppose, that the sabbatic year commenced in autumn; as otherwise the land would have remained without any harvest two years. This law began to be observed the 7th year after Josue crossed the Jordan. Jerusalem was thrice besieged during the sabbatic years. (Jeremias xxxiv. 8; 1 Machabees vi. 51.) See Josephus, Antiquities xii. 14. and xiv. 28. God blessed the 6th year, so that it produced as much as three, Leviticus xxv. 21. (Calmet) --- On the feast of tabernacles, (in September) at the beginning of the 7th year, Deuteronomy was to be read aloud to all the people, the Hebrew slaves might obtain their liberty, and if a person could not restore what he had borrowed, it was to be remitted for ever, Deuteronomy xv. and xxxi. 10. (Tirinus)
23:12 Six days thou shalt work: the seventh day thou shalt cease, that thy ox and thy ass may rest: and the son of thy hand-maid and the stranger may be refreshed.
23:13 Keep all things that I have said to you. And by the name of strange gods you shall not swear, neither shall it be heard out of your mouth.
Name. Hence it is supposed, the Jews have given abusive titles to the idols; as they call Beelzebub the god-fly, &c. No respect was to be shewn to them. (Calmet)
23:14 Three times every year you shall celebrate feasts to me.
Three. Women are not here mentioned; but they are, Deuteronomy xxxi. 12. Children under 13, were exempted from the obligation, according to the Caraites. Men from 20 to 60, not lawfully hindered, were bound to appear, Leviticus xxvii. 3.
23:15 Thou shalt keep the feast of unleavened bread. Seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee, in the time of the month of new corn, when thou didst come forth out of Egypt: thou shalt not appear empty before me.
Empty. But shalt offer something in sacrifice, and for the support of the Levites, freely, Deuteronomy xvi. 10. At the Passover, the first-fruits of barley were to be offered, as those of wheat would be ready at Pentecost. The third feast, was that of tabernacles, at the conclusion of the civil year. Presents were to be made to God, in testimony of their submission to him; as they were to the kings of the east, by their subjects. (Tavernier, Perse. iv. 16.) See 1 Kings x. 27. and 1 Paralipomenon xviii. 2. --- A sixtieth part of the fruits, at least, was carried to the temple. They consisted of wheat, barley, grapes, figs, apricots, olives, and dates. The king himself carried his basket, and when the solemn procession arrived at the temple, the Levites began to sing the Psalm xxix., I will extol thee, O Lord, &c. After which, the people repeated the words of Deuteronomy xxvi. 3; and having given their baskets to the priests, (ver. 4,) recited parts of the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th verses. (Calmet) --- God. Here the Septuagint add, "For when I shall have cast the Gentiles from before thy face, and extended thy limits."
23:16 And the feast of the harvest of the first-fruits of thy work, whatsoever thou hast sown in the field. The feast also in the end of the year, when thou hast gathered in all thy corn out of the field.
23:17 Thrice a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God.
23:18 Thou shalt not sacrifice the blood of my victim upon leaven, neither shall the fat of my solemnity remain until the morning.
Thou, &c. This has a reference to the feast of the Passover, ver. 15, (Onkelos) as well as the following verse. (Calmet)
23:19 Thou shalt carry the first-fruits of the corn of thy ground to the house of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not boil a kid in the milk of his dam.
Dam. The paschal victim must not be so young as to be still suckled. The Samaritan subjoins, "Because that would be like immolating an animal found dead, and the God of Jacob hates it." (Calmet) --- Some imagine that this law alludes to a superstitious custom of the pagans, (Spencer, Rit. ii. 8,) or it forbids eating animals while they are, as it were, all milk, not eight days old. (Rivet)
23:20 Behold I will send my angel, who shall go before thee, and keep thee in thy journey, and bring thee into the place that I have prepared.
Angel; my only son. (Philo) --- St. Paul says, they tempted Jesus Christ, (1 Corinthians x. 9,) who is styled, the angel of the covenant, Malachias iii. 1. Some apply this to Josue, others to St. Michael, who, from the cloud, conducted the army of Israel. (Calmet)
23:21 Take notice of him, and hear his voice, and do not think him one to be contemned: for he will not forgive when thou hast sinned, and my name is in him.
Forgive. Dimittet, as well as the Hebrew and Septuagint, may signify, "he will not abandon." (Haydock) --- My name. Moses, Josue, and still more our Saviour, acted in the name and by the authority of God the Father.
23:22 But if thou wilt hear his voice, and do all that I speak, I will be an enemy to thy enemies, and will afflict them that afflict thee.
23:23 And my angel shall go before thee, and shall bring thee in unto the Amorrhite, and the Hethite, and the Pherezite, and the Chanaanite, and the Hevite, and the Jebuzite[Jebusite?], whom I will destroy.
23:24 Thou shalt not adore their gods, nor serve them. Thou shalt not do their works, but shalt destroy them, and break their statues.
23:25 And you shall serve the Lord your God, that I may bless your bread and your waters, and may take away sickness from the midst of thee.
Waters, or all things necessary for your sustenance.
23:26 There shall not be one fruitless nor barren in thy land: I will fill the number of thy days.
Fruitless. Hebrew may also be, "miscarrying." --- Days. An untimely death was a judgment of God on the wicked, though sometimes he chooses to draw his elect quickly out of this dangerous world, Wisdom iv. 11.
23:27 I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come: and will turn the backs of all thy enemies before thee:
Destroy. Hebrew, "fill with consternation."
23:28 Sending out hornets before, that shall drive away the Hevite, and the Chanaanite, and the Hethite, before thou come in.
Hornets, or wasps, Wisdom xii. 8. Josue (xxiv. 12) assures us this was verified. Thus scorpions forced the Ethiopians to abandon their country; and flies and wasps drove away the Mysians and Phaselides. See Bochart, iv. 13. The latter people were of Phoenician extraction, and probably fled before Josue. Most of the Chanaanites withdrew into Africa; some perhaps into America. (Calmet)
23:29 I will not cast them out from thy face in one year; lest the land be brought into a wilderness, and the beasts multiply against thee.
Beasts. Herod the great killed many in hunting. (Josephus, Jewish Wars i. 16.) Two bears rushed upon the children, 4 Kings ii. 24. How much would they have increased in all the countries from the Euphrates to the Nile, had they been destitute of any other inhabitants but the Hebrews, (Calmet) many of whom perished in the desert!
23:30 By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, till thou be increased, and dost possess the land.
23:31 And I will set thy bounds from the Red Sea to the sea of the Palestines, and from the desert to the river: I will deliver the inhabitants of the land into your hands, and will drive them out from before you.
23:32 Thou shalt not enter into league with them, nor with their gods.
23:33 Let them not dwell in thy land, lest perhaps they make thee sin against me, if thou serve their gods; which, undoubtedly, will be a scandal to thee.
Scandal. If you have any society with these nations, it will turn to your ruin, which was but too literally manifested afterwards.
Cross-references: 4: Deuteronomy xxii. 1. 7: Daniel xiii. 53. 8: Deuteronomy xvi. 19.; Ecclesiasticus xx. 31. 9: Genesis xlvi. 6. 11: Leviticus xxv. 4. 15: Exodus xiii. 3. and 4. and xxxiv. 22. ** Deuteronomy xvi. 16.; Ecclesiasticus xxxv. 6. 17: Exodus xxxiv. 23.; Deuteronomy xvi. 16. 19: Exodus xxxiv. 26. ** Deuteronomy xiv. 21. 22: Deuteronomy vii. 11. 23: Exodus xxxiii. 2.; Josue xxiv. 11.; Deuteronomy vii. 22. 28: Deuteronomy vii. 20. 32: Exodus xxxiv. 15.; Deuteronomy vii. 2.
Chapter 24
Moses writeth his law; and after offering sacrifices, sprinkleth the blood of the testament upon the people: then goeth up the mountain, which God covereth with a fiery cloud.
24:1 And he said to Moses: Come up to the Lord, thou, and Aaron, Nadab and Abiu, and seventy of the ancients of Israel, and you shall adore afar off.
You, Aaron, &c. The people had heard the voice of the Lord, as it were the sound of thunder, giving the foregoing commands; which Moses explains to them distinctly (ver. 3,) by the mouth of Aaron; and afterwards draws up a memorial of their solemn ratification. (Haydock)
24:2 And Moses alone shall come up to the Lord, but they shall not come nigh; neither shall the people come up with him.
24:3 So Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice: We will do all the words of the Lord, which he hath spoken.
24:4 And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord: and rising in the morning, he built an altar at the foot of the mount, and twelve titles according to the twelve tribes of Israel.
Titles. That is, pillars; (Challoner) or altars, round that made of turf; (chap. xx. 24,) which represented God. Part of the blood was poured upon this altar, and the rest upon the Hebrews, to remind them, that if they proved rebellious, their blood should be spilt. (Calmet)
24:5 And he sent young men of the children of Israel, and they offered holocausts, and sacrificed pacific victims of calves to the Lord.
Holocausts: whole burnt-offerings: in which the whole sacrifice was consumed with fire, upon the altar. (Challoner) --- It is not said that these young men were to officiate as priests. Moses acted alone in this capacity, pouring the blood. --- Calves, and he-goats also, Hebrews ix. 19. The book was also sprinkled with the blood (Calmet) mixed with water; for which purpose scarlet wool and hyssop were employed, as St. Paul learnt from tradition, or by inspiration. (Haydock)
24:6 Then Moses took half of the blood, and put it into bowls; and the rest he poured upon the altar.
24:7 And taking the book of the covenant, he read it in the hearing of the people: and they said: All things that the Lord hath spoken, we will do, we will be obedient.
24:8 And he took the blood and sprinkled it upon the people, and he said: This is the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words.
Covenant. Thus Christ confirmed the new covenant, by the effusion of his blood. (Tirinus) --- This is daily renewed upon our altars for ever. (Calmet) --- Our Saviour alludes to this transaction in the consecration of the chalice. (Du Hamel) --- If wine alone had been substituted instead of blood, the figure would have surpassed the reality. (Isichius.) (Worthington)
24:9 Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abiu, and seventy of the ancients of Israel went up:
24:10 And they saw the God of Israel: and under his feet as it were a work of sapphire stone, and as the heaven, when clear.
24:11 Neither did he lay his hand upon those of the children of Israel, that retired afar off, and they saw God, and they did eat and drink.
Saw God, under the appearance of a burning fire, ver. 17. They beheld some rays of his glory, but no distinct similitude, (Deuteronomy iv. 15,) though Cajetan thinks that God appeared in a human form. (Calmet) --- Drink. They made a feast of thanksgiving for so great a favour, and for the preservation of their lives, after beholding such a glorious apparation. (Vatable)
24:12 And the Lord said to Moses: Come up to me into the mount, and be there; and I will give thee tables of stone, and the law, and the commandments which I have written; that thou mayest teach them.
24:13 Moses rose up, and his minister Josue: and Moses going up into the mount of God,
24:14 Said to the ancients: Wait ye here till we return to you. You have Aaron and Hur with you: if any question shall arise, you shall refer it to them.
Wait ye. They returned soon to the camp; and the people not perceiving Moses with them, and supposing he was dead, made the golden calf.
24:15 And when Moses was gone up, a cloud covered the mount.
24:16 And the glory of the Lord dwelt upon Sinai, covering it with a cloud six days: and the seventh day he called him out of the midst of the cloud.
Called him, to come up still higher, while Josue remained there.
24:17 And the sight of the glory of the Lord, was like a burning fire upon the top of the mount, in the eyes of the children of Israel.
24:18 And Moses entering into the midst of the cloud, went up into the mountain: And he was there forty days and forty nights.
Forty, including the six mentioned before, ver. 16. The Rabbins pretend that Moses received the written law during the days, and their traditions during the nights. (R. Bechai ap. Buxtorf, syn. 1.) (Calmet)
Cross-references: 8: Hebrews ix. 20. 18: Deuteronomy ix. 9.
Chapter 25
Offerings prescribed for making the tabernacle, the ark, the candlestick, &c.
25:1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
25:2 Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring first-fruits to me: of every man that offereth of his own accord, you shall take them.
First-fruits: offerings, of some of the best and choicest of their goods. (Challoner) --- This was the first time such a voluntary offering was made by the Hebrews. (Menochius) --- It is a lesson for Christians to be liberal for God's service. (Worthington)
25:3 And these are the things you must take: Gold, and silver, and brass,
25:4 Violet and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, and fine linen, and goats' hair,
Scarlet twice dyed. Aquila and Symmachus have transparent. This colour is often confounded with purple, as our Saviour's robe is styled scarlet by St. Matthew xxvii. 28, and purple by St. John xix. 2. It was dyed with a worm called shani in Hebrew. (St. Jerome, ep. ad Fabiol.) --- Fine linen, byssus. Hebrew shesh, "of six folds," or it may mean cotton, which was highly esteemed by the ancients; (Arabic version; Herodotus) and it is not probable that Moses would have passed over it unnoticed. (Calmet)
25:5 And rams' skins dyed red, and violet skins, and setim-wood:
Setim-wood. The wood of a tree that grows in the wilderness, which is said to be incorruptible, (Challoner) as the Septuagint intimate. It is perhaps the Acacia, which is very black and hard. St. Jerome in Joel iii. 18, says it resembles our white thorn.
25:6 Oil to make lights: spices for ointment, and for sweet-smelling incense:
25:7 Onyx stones, and precious stones to adorn the ephod, and the rational.
Onyx, emeralds. (Calmet) --- The ephod and the rational. The ephod was the high priests upper vestment; and the rational his breast-plate, in which were twelve gems, &c. (Challoner) --- Ephod means a kind of girdle or stole, peculiar to priests, or used by others only of the highest distinction, (Calmet) and in religious solemnities. (St. Jerome, ad Marcel.) Josephus (Antiquities ii. 8,) describes it as different from what it was in the days of Moses. Many other alterations had then taken place; the Urim and Thummim were disused, &c. The Pallium is in imitation of the high priest's ephod. The rational is so called, because by it the high priest was enabled to give his oracles, chap. xxviii. 15. (Calmet) --- The precise import of the Hebrew cheshen, which Protestants render breast plate, is not known. It was certainly fastened on the ephod over the breast, and consisted of 12 stones, on which the names of the 12 patriarchs were engraven. (Haydock)
25:8 And they shall make me a sanctuary, and I will dwell in the midst of them:
Sanctuary, or tabernacle, to serve as a portable temple. Such alone were probably used at that time. The high priest entered into this holy place once a year. (Calmet)
25:9 According to all the likeness of the tabernacle which I will shew thee, and of all the vessels for the service thereof: and thus you shall make it:
25:10 Frame an ark of setim-wood, the length whereof shall be of two cubits and a half; the breadth, a cubit and a half; the height, likewise, a cubit and a half.
Ark, to contain the tables of the law, as a constant memorial of the alliance made between God and his people, ver. 16. In, or on the side of it, were also placed the rod of Aaron, (Numbers xvii. 10.) and the golden urn, containing manna, Hebrews ix. 3. Hence the pagans perhaps took occasion to keep their secret mysteries in an ark, cista secretorum. (Apuleius, Met. 2.) (Calmet) --- The ark was three feet nine inches long, two feet three inches high, and as much in breadth. (Haydock)
25:11 And thou shalt overlay it with the purest gold, within and without; and over it thou shalt make a golden crown round about:
Gold (deaurabis). Our method of gilding was not yet discovered. --- Crown, or border, resembling "waves," (kumatia) Septuagint.
25:12 And four golden rings, which thou shall put at the four corners of the ark: let two rings be on the one side, and two on the other.
25:13 Thou shalt make bars also of setim-wood, and shalt overlay them with gold.
25:14 And thou shalt put them in through the rings that are in the sides of the ark, that it may be carried on them:
Carried on them, when exposed in solemn processions. These were covered along with the ark: and other bars were used to remove the ark during the journeys in the desert, Numbers iv. 6. (Calmet)
25:15 And they shall be always in the rings, neither shall they at any time be drawn out of them.
25:16 And thou shalt put in the ark the testimony which I will give thee.
Testimony, the law which testifies the will of God to us. (Menochius) --- An authentic record. Jeremias (xxxii. 11,) uses praeceptum in the same sense. (Calmet)
25:17 Thou shalt make also a propitiatory of the purest gold: the length thereof shall be two cubits and a half, and the breadth a cubit and a half.
A propitiatory: a covering for the ark; called a propitiatory, or mercy-seat, because the Lord, who was supposed to sit there upon the wings of the cherubims, with the ark for his footstool, from thence shewed mercy. It is also called the oracle, ver. 18 and 20, because, from thence, God gave his orders and his answers. (Challoner) --- It was the lid or covering of the ark, from kapha, "to cover, efface," &c. (Calmet) --- Here the hanan, or cloud representing God, rested, (Leviticus xvi. 2.) and the divine oracles were audibly given: for which reason, God is said to sit upon the cherubims, the mercy-seat being his footstool, Psalm lxxix. 2.
25:18 Thou shalt make also two cherubims of beaten gold, on the two sides of the oracle.
Cherubims, symbolic figures, which Moses does not perfectly describe, and therefore we cannot pretend to know their exact form. Some represent them as young men, with their wings joined over the propitiatory, in a contrary direction to those of birds, in order to form a throne for God, and bending towards Him, with profound respect. Others only admit their heads, with six wings: while many suppose, that they resembled those compounded figures mentioned, Ezechiel i. 5. and x. 20. They denote some extraordinary figure not found in nature, 3 Kings vii. 29. An order of angels is known by this name. Yet the four animals, or cherubims, represent the saints, Apocalypse v. 8, 10. The different forms under which they appear, set before us their various perfections. Their wings denote agility, &c. The Egyptians adored Anubis, under the form of a man, with a dog's head. Isis had the head of a cow, Apis that of a bull. They placed a sphinx at the entrance of their temples, to shew that their theology was enigmatical. God condescended perhaps to satisfy the inclinations of his people, by representing the mysteries of religion under similar forms, Wisdom xviii. 24. (Calmet) --- Would he have allowed such things, if they were so dangerous, as to be inseparable from idolatry! (Haydock)
25:19 Let one cherub be on the one side, and the other on the other.
25:20 Let them cover both sides of the propitiatory, spreading their wings, and covering the oracle, and let them look one towards the other, their faces being turned towards the propitiatory wherewith the ark is to be covered.
25:21 In which thou shalt put the testimony that I will give thee.
25:22 Thence will I give orders, and will speak to thee over the propitiatory, and from the midst of the two cherubims, which shall be upon the ark of the testimony, all things which I will command the children of Israel by thee.
25:23 Thou shalt make a table also of setim-wood, of two cubits in length, and a cubit in breadth, and a cubit and half in height.
A table: on which were to be placed the twelve loaves of proposition; or, as they are called in the Hebrew, the face bread; because they were always to stand before the face of the Lord in his temple: as a figure of the eucharistic sacrifice and sacrament, in the church of Christ; (Challoner) which shews that Christ must be present in the eucharist. (Worthington) --- By this bread, renewed at the public expense every sabbath-day, the Israelites made profession that they were indebted for their food to God's providence; and in gratitude, offered him this sacrifice, with incense and wine, ver. 29. The priests alone were to eat these loaves (1 Kings xxi.) at the expiration of the week. (Tirinus)
25:24 And thou shalt overlay it with the purest gold: and thou shalt make to it a golden ledge round about.
25:25 And to the ledge itself a polished crown, four inches high; and over the same another little golden crown.
Polished, ( interrasilem, sculptured and plain, at equal distances). Hebrew, "Thou shalt make all round at the top, a ledge (border) of a hand's breadth," &c. The tabernacle was the tent of God, the king of Israel: and food and lights were on that account placed before him, (Calmet) though he stood not in need of them. The idolatrous priests set all sorts of meats before Bel, Daniel xiv. (Haydock)
25:26 Thou shalt prepare also four golden rings, and shalt put them in the four corners of the same table, over each foot.
25:27 Under the crown shall the golden rings be, that the bars may be put through them, and the table may be carried.
25:28 The bars also themselves thou shalt make of setim-wood, and shalt overlay them with gold, to bear up the table.
25:29 Thou shalt prepare also dishes, and bowls, censers, and cups, wherein the libations are to be offered, of the purest gold.
Dishes. ( acetabulum. ) Properly a vessel to hold vinegar, but used for various purposes. --- Bowls, or vials full of wine. (Tostat) --- Censers, to contain incense, &c., chap. xxxvii. 16. The first term, karuth, might also mean vessels to contain the flour and oil of which these loaves were made, Numbers vii. 13. The Levites made the bread themselves, (1 Paralipomenon xxii. 29,) and even sowed the corn, and did every thing about it. (St. Jerome in Malachias i. 7.) The second term, coputh, may denote vessels to keep incense; the third, monkiuth, instruments to clean either the floor or the table, &c. All these vessels seem mended to accompany the table of shew-bread. --- Cups, used for libations (chap. xxxvii. 16; Numbers iv. 7) of wine, on the sabbath. Kossuth signifies a porringer or dish, like the ancient patera. Whether wine was placed on this table, we cannot determine. But we read of salt, (Calmet) which was to accompany all God's sacrifices, Leviticus ii. 13.
25:30 And thou shalt set upon the table loaves of proposition in my sight always.
Loaves. There were 12, containing each six pints of flour, made up in a square form, without leaven. They were placed in two rows, one above the other, and were kept separate by plates of gold. (Calmet) See Leviticus xxiv. 5.
25:31 Thou shalt make also a candlestick of beaten work, of the finest gold, the shaft thereof, and the branches, the cups, and the bowls, and the lilies going forth from it.
A candlestick. This candlestick, with its seven lamps, which was always to give light in the house of God, was a figure of the light of the Holy Ghost, and his seven-fold grace, in the sanctuary of the church of Christ. (Challoner) --- It contained a talent of gold, or above 113 lb.; worth £5475 sterling, including the snuffers, &c., (ver. 39,) and had seven branches, adorned alternately with cups, bowls, or knobs, and lilies; (Haydock) or with cups, pomegranates, and lilies. The shaft was adorned with 15, the branches with only 12 of these ornaments. All was of massive gold, moksse. --- Bowls, sphaerulas, globes, apples, &c. (Calmet) --- Thou shalt make. The Hebrew thiasse, has evidently the letter i redundant, and rejected by the best manuscripts. (Kennicott, Dis. i.) (Houbigant)
25:32 Six branches shall come out of the sides, three out of one side, and three out of the other.
25:33 Three cups as it were nuts to every branch, and a bowl withal, and a lily: and three cups likewise of the fashion of nuts in the other branch, and a bowl withal, and a lily. Such shall be the work of the six branches, that are to come out from the shaft:
Cups. Hebrew, "cups which produce almonds or nuts;" that is three buds of flowers, out of which comes the stalk, as fruit does from the flower. The Hebrew, Greek, and Latin languages use the word chalice, or cup, for a flower full-blown. The height of this candlestick is undetermined; but it would not exceed five feet.
25:34 And in the candlestick itself shall be four cups in the manner of a nut, and at every one bowls and lilies.
25:35 Bowls under two branches in three places, which together make six, coming forth out of one shaft.
25:36 And both the bowls and the branches shall be of the same beaten work of the purest gold.
25:37 Thou shalt make also seven lamps, and shalt set them upon the candlestick, to give light over against.
Against. The table of proposition on the north, and that of perfumes in the middle, before the veil. (Tirinus) --- The lamps might be detached from the rest, (Calmet) and were trimmed every evening to burn all night; but, in the day, four were extinguished. (Bonfrere)
25:38 The snuffers also, and where the snuffings shall be put out, shall be made of the purest gold.
Put out, with the oil, &c. Nothing was to be treated with disrespect that had been dedicated to God's service. (Haydock) --- Alexander adorned the temple of Apollo with a grand candlestick, resembling a tree laden with fruit; (Pliny, [Natural History?] xxxiv. 3,) and Dionysius the younger made a present of one to the prytaneum of Athens, which had 365 lamps upon it. They stood on the ground, and burnt oil, being the more necessary, as the ancient temples had generally no windows. The Egyptians, according to St. Clement of Alexandria (strom. 1,) were the first who introduced them into their temples. (Calmet) --- Solomon set up ten candlesticks, five on the north, and five on the south of the holy place, 3 Kings vii. 49.
25:39 The whole weight of the candlestick, with all the furniture thereof, shall be a talent of the purest gold.
25:40 Look, and make it according to the pattern that was shewn thee in the mount.
Cross-references: 2: Exodus xxxv. 5. 9: Hebrews ix. 2. 40: Hebrews viii. 5.; Acts vii. 44.
Chapter 26
The form of the tabernacle, with its appurtenances.
26:1 And thou shalt make the tabernacle in this manner: Thou shalt make ten curtains of fine twisted linen, and violet and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, diversified with embroidery.
Twisted, for greater strength, with double threads. (Du Hamel) --- Diversified, &c. Hebrew, "cherubim wrought by a skilful workman." A cherubic work is one extremely diversified, and wonderful; representing birds, flowers, monsters; either in gold, wood, painting, or tapestry. When it is done with a needle, it is styled rokom, "feathers," ( plumarium opus. ) But when the variety of colours is done with the loom, being more ingenious, the Hebrew call it éssob, "of an inventor." Such were these curtains.
26:2 The length of one curtain shall be twenty-eight cubits; the breadth shall be four cubits. All the curtains shall be of one measure.
26:3 Five curtains shall be joined one to another, and the other five shall be coupled together in like manner.
Five curtains, which would cover half the tabernacle, or 20 cubits. (Calmet) --- Being joined together, they remind us of fraternal charity and union; which ought to adorn the members of the church. (Worthington)
26:4 Thou shalt make loops of violet in the sides and tops of the curtains, that they may be joined one to another.
26:5 Every curtain shall have fifty loops on both sides, so set on, that one loop may be against another loop, and one may be fitted to the other.
26:6 Thou shalt make also fifty rings of gold, wherewith the veils of the curtains are to be joined, that it may be made one tabernacle.
Rings. Hooks or taches, ver. 11.
26:7 Thou shalt make also eleven curtains of goats' hair, to cover the top of the tabernacle.
26:8 The length of one hair-curtain shall be thirty cubits; and the breadth, four: the measure of all the curtains shall be equal.
26:9 Five of which thou shalt couple by themselves, and the six others thou shalt couple one to another, so as to double the sixth curtain in the front of the roof.
26:10 Thou shalt make also fifty loops in the edge of one curtain, that it may be joined with the other: and fifty loops in the edge of the other curtain, that it may be coupled with its fellow.
26:11 Thou shalt make also fifty buckles of brass, wherewith the loops may be joined, that of all there may be made one covering.
26:12 And that which shall remain of the curtains, that are prepared for the roof, to wit, one curtain that is over and above, with the half thereof thou shalt cover the back parts of the tabernacle.
26:13 And there shall hang down a cubit on the one side, and another on the other side, which is over and above in the length of the curtains, fencing both sides of the tabernacle.
A cubit. As these curtains were two cubits longer, and four broader, than those more precious ones below, they hung down to the ground. Josephus, [Antiquities?] iii. 5.
26:14 Thou shalt make also another cover to the roof, of rams' skins dyed red: and over that again another cover of violet-coloured skins.
Skins. These two were probably as large as the last, to keep out rain; (Menochius) though the text only specifies the roof.
26:15 Thou shalt make also the boards of the tabernacle standing upright of setim-wood.
26:16 Let every one of them be ten cubits in length, and in breadth one cubit and a half.
26:17 In the sides of the boards shall be made two mortises, whereby one board may be joined to another board: and after this manner shall all the boards be prepared.
Mortises, (incastraturae). Hebrew, "tenons," which corresponded with the former. (Calmet)
26:18 Of which twenty shall be in the south side southward.
26:19 For which thou shalt cast forty sockets of silver, that under every board may be put two sockets at the two corners.
Corners. Hebrew tenons, literally, "hands," which has the same meaning as the Vulgate. Some think, the sockets or bases rested on the ground, and had a point which entered into the boards, to keep them in their places. (Lyranus) --- The ornaments on the north and south were the same. (Calmet)
26:20 In the second side also of the tabernacle that looketh to the north, there shall be twenty boards,
26:21 Having forty sockets of silver, two sockets shall be put under each board.
26:22 But on the west side of the tabernacle thou shalt make six boards.
Six, at the western end, with two other strong boards, or pillars, to connect the whole, as they were placed at the two corners, and were half a cubit each. (Menochius)
26:23 And again other two which shall be erected in the corners at the back of the tabernacle.
26:24 And they shall be joined together from beneath unto the top, and one joint shall hold them all. The like joining shall be observed for the two boards also that are to be put in the corners.
26:25 And they shall be in all eight boards, and their silver sockets sixteen, reckoning two sockets for each board.
26:26 Thou shalt make also five bars of setim-wood, to hold together the boards on one side of the tabernacle.
Bars, 30 cubits long, on two sides, and ten on the western end, to fasten the boards.
26:27 And five others on the other side, and as many at the west side:
26:28 And they shall be put along by the midst of the boards, from one end to the other.
26:29 The boards also themselves thou shalt overlay with gold, and shalt cast rings of gold to be set upon them, for places for the bars to hold together the board-work: which bars thou shalt cover with plates of gold.
26:30 And thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according to the pattern that was shewn thee in the mount.
26:31 Thou shalt make also a veil of violet, and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, and fine twisted linen, wrought with embroidered work and goodly variety:
A veil, to hang before the entrance of the tabernacle, at the east side, which had no boards. Within was the ark, ver. 33. (Haydock)
26:32 And thou shalt hang it up before four pillars of setim-wood, which themselves also shall be overlaid with gold, and shall have heads of gold, but sockets of silver.
Heads. Chaptrels of setim-wood, overlaid with gold, --- ( Vovim ), not little hooks for curtains. (Calmet)
26:33 And the veil shall be hanged on with rings, and within it thou shalt put the ark of the testimony, and the sanctuary and the holy of the holies shall be divided with it.
The sanctuary, &c. That part of the tabernacle, which was without the veil, into which the priests daily entered, is here called the sanctuary, or holy place; that part which was within the veil, into which no one but the high priest ever went in, and he but once a year, is called the holy of holies, (literally, the sanctuaries of the sanctuary ) as being the most holy of all holy places. (Challoner) --- It occupied only one-third of the tabernacle. (Menochius)
26:34 And thou shalt set the propitiatory upon the ark of the testimony, in the holy of holies.
26:35 And the table without the veil, and over-against the table the candlestick in the south side of the tabernacle: for the table shall stand in the north side.
26:36 Thou shalt make also a hanging in the entrance of the tabernacle of violet, and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, and fine twisted linen with embroidered work.
Hanging, or veil, suspended on five pillars, before the sanctuary. (Haydock) --- It was the other veil, which was rent at the death of Christ. Baronius observes, that Christian temples were formerly built in imitation of the Jewish tabernacle. It was a figure of the Catholic church, 1 Timothy iii. 15.
26:37 And thou shalt overlay with gold five pillars of setim-wood, before which the hanging shall be drawn: their heads shall be of gold, and the sockets of brass.
Cross-references: 30: Exodus xxv. 40.
Chapter 27
The altar: and the court of the tabernacle, with its hangings and pillars. Provision of oil for lamps.
27:1 Thou shalt make also an altar of setim-wood, which shall be five cubits long, and as many broad, that is four square, and three cubits high.
Altar, of holocausts, in the open air, before the tabernacle. (Tirinus) --- Four square, or five cubits in length and breadth, and three in height, which the Rabbins measure from the grate, (ver. 5,) or middle of the altar's height. So high the altar was sunk in the earth, (Calmet) or was built of unhewn stone, on which the wood of the altar rested, being secured by plates of brass above, from the heat of the fire. It was hollow within, and had neither top nor bottom fixed to it. (Menochius)
27:2 And there shall be horns at the four corners of the same: and thou shalt cover it with brass.
It. The altar, wood. The horns were for ornament, and were made of brass. Upon them also they might hang the grate, and instruments for sacrifice. (Calmet) --- Some of the pagan altars consisted of the horns of animals, (Ovid) and were designed to shew what a number of victims had been offered in their temples. Their gods had frequently horns on their heads. (Spencer, Rit. iii. 4.)
27:3 And thou shalt make for the uses thereof pans to receive the ashes, and tongs and flesh-hooks, and fire-pans: all its vessels thou shalt make of brass.
Pans, &c. The Septuagint have, "a crown or border, for the altar, and its covering, and its cups, and flesh-hooks, and fire-place, or pan." Hebrew also has five terms; which Calmet renders: 1. a small kettle to receive the ashes under the grate; 2. fire-shovels; 3. bowls to receive blood ( mozrokoth, which term the Vulgate does not perhaps notice); 4. flesh-hooks; 5. chafing-dishes. The Protestant version has also the basins or broad cups, phialas, of the Septuagint (Haydock)
27:4 And a grate of brass in manner of a net; at the four corners of which, shall be four rings of brass,
27:5 Which thou shalt put under the hearth of the altar: and the grate shall be even to the midst of the altar.
Midst. Hanging down half way. On this, the wood designed to consume the victim, was placed. The Septuagint and Vulgate refer which to the rings, and the present Hebrew refers to the grate, or net. But it seems to be inaccurate. The rings were fixed about the middle of the altar's height, to the same holes, through which the bars intended for its removal were put. The altar stood upon feet, which took up half the height, and let in air below the grate, to fan the fire, and to prevent the brass from melting. All the altars described in the table of Isis, are of this nature. (Calmet) --- The Septuagint do not distinguish the grate from the hearth, or little altar, ( arula ) as they use the word hearth, escharaboth, (ver. 4. and 5,) and place it about the middle of the altar, or where the feet supported the box or frame of the altar, which was almost a yard high. The hearth may therefore denote the bottom of the frame, where the grate was suspended by four rings.
27:6 Thou shalt make also two bars for the altar, of setim-wood, which thou shalt cover with plates of brass:
27:7 And thou shalt draw them through rings, and they shall be on both sides of the altar to carry it.
27:8 Thou shalt not make it solid, but empty and hollow in the inside, as it was shewn thee in the mount.
27:9 Thou shalt make also the court of the tabernacle, in the south side whereof southward there shall be hangings of fine twisted linen of a hundred cubits long for one side.
Court. This inclosed the tabernacle, and the altar of holocausts, being 50 yards long and 25 broad. At the bottom or western end, there were ten pillars, and on the north and south 20, ornamented in the same manner, and supporting curtains of cotton. But on the eastern side, 10 yards were left, with four pillars in the middle, for an entrance, supporting a richer veil, and on either side three pillars of brass, adorned with circles of silver, as all the rest were. (Haydock)
27:10 And twenty pillars with as many sockets of brass, the heads of which, with their engraving, shall be of silver.
Engraving. Hebrew and Chaldean, "circles," adorning the chaptrels, (Menochius; ver. 17,) or rather the body of the pillars. The chaptrels were covered with plates of silver.
27:11 In like manner also on the north side there shall be hangings of a hundred cubits long, twenty pillars, and as many sockets of brass, and their heads with their engraving of silver.
27:12 But in the breadth of the court, that looketh to the west, there shall be hangings of fifty cubits, and ten pillars, and as many sockets.
27:13 In that breadth also of the court, which looketh to the east, there shall be fifty cubits.
27:14 In which there shall be for one side, hangings of fifteen cubits, and three pillars and as many sockets.
27:15 And in the other side, there shall be hangings of fifteen cubits, with three pillars and as many sockets.
27:16 And in the entrance of the court there shall be made a hanging of twenty cubits of violet and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, and fine twisted linen, with embroidered work: it shall have four pillars, with as many sockets.
27:17 All the pillars of the court round about shall be garnished with plates of silver, silver heads, and sockets of brass.
27:18 In length the court shall take up a hundred cubits, in breadth fifty, the height shall be of five cubits, and it shall be made of fine twisted linen, and shall have sockets of brass.
27:19 All the vessels of the tabernacle for all uses and ceremonies, and the pins both of it and of the court, thou shalt make of brass.
Tabernacle, with respect to this court; for surely the utensils prescribed in the former chapter, were to be of gold. The Septuagint do not mention the tabernacle. (Calmet)
27:20 Command the children of Israel that they bring thee the purest oil of the olives, and beaten with a pestle: that a lamp may burn always,
Pestle. That it may be as free from dregs as possible; quasi luxurians defluxerit. (Colum. xii. 50.) The Hebrew and Septuagint are silent about the pestle. The olives must, however, be a little bruised, before they will yield their oil. (Haydock) --- Always: four of the seven lamps were extinguished every morning. ( Josephus, [Antiquities?] iii. 9; 1 Kings iii. 3.) Hecateus (ap. Eusebuis, praep. ix. 4) assures us, that a light was kept always burning in the tabernacle. The temple of Hercules, at the Straits, its priests and ceremonies, bore some resemblance with the tabernacle and usages prescribed by Moses. It was probably erected by the Phenicians. (Calmet) --- "The wood seemed to be incorruptible. Women and swine are kept at a distance. White linen covers the priests at the altar; that which adorns their head is most beautiful, and brought from Pelusium. Et Pelusiaco praefulget stamine vertex. They offer incense in long ungirded robes, but the vestment in which they sacrifice, is distinguished with a Latus clavus, or with broad studs of purple, (like the Roman senators.) They go barefoot, their hair is shaved, and they observe continency, castumque cubile. They keep a perpetual fire burning on the altars. But no images or statues of the gods have filled the place with majesty and sacred fear." Sed nulla effigies, simulacraque nota Deorum, Majestate locum & sacro implevere timore. (Sil. Italic. iii.)
27:21 In the tabernacle of the testimony, without the veil that hangs before the testimony. And Aaron and his sons shall order it, that it may give light before the Lord until the morning. It shall be a perpetual observance throughout their successions among the children of Israel.
Aaron. Here God declares that the sons of Aaron are chosen by him to perform this office. They were not anointed priests till chap. xxix. (Haydock) --- Light. Thus God admonishes us to let our good works always shine before men. (Ven. Bede, Taber. iii. 1.)
Cross-references: 1: Exodus xxxviii. 6. 8: Exodus xx. 24.
Chapter 28
The holy vestments for Aaron and his sons.
28:1 Take unto thee also Aaron thy brother with his sons, from among the children of Israel, that they may minister to me in the priest's office: Aaron, Nadab, and Abiu, Eleazar, and Ithamar.
Take, &c. Priests must be called by God, as Aaron was, Hebrews v. (Worthington)
28:2 And thou shalt make a holy vesture for Aaron, thy brother, for glory and for beauty.
And beauty, that all may be filled with awe, and adore the majesty of God. (Calmet) --- Our priestly vestments, which are objects of derision to the ignorant, are made so rich and beautiful for the same purpose. They have the sanction of God, by a parity of reason; and the authority of his church. (Haydock)
28:3 And thou shalt speak to all the wise of heart, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron's vestments, in which he being consecrated, may minister to me.
Heart. The Hebrews generally attributed to the heart, what we give to the head. --- Wisdom. All good, both in the order of grace and of nature, proceeds from God. --- Consecrated, as if they imparted a sort of virtue. (Calmet)
28:4 And these shall be the vestments that they shall make: A rational and an ephod, a tunic and a strait linen garment, a mitre and a girdle. They shall make the holy vestments for thy brother Aaron and his sons, that they may do the office of priesthood unto me.
Rational and ephod. See chap. xxv. 7. --- Tunic, long robe or cloak of blue wool. --- Garment, next the body, and woven very close and thick. --- Mitre, like a tiara or turban of linen, or rather of byssus, or fine cotton. This was never laid aside in the temple; as, to appear uncovered was then esteemed a mark of insolence. Eneas introduced the Phrygian custom into Italy, of sacrificing with a cap on the head. --- Girdle, for his under-garment, besides that which formed a part of the ephod. (Calmet) --- By these vestments, we are admonished to exercise the virtues of discretion, &c. (St. Jerome, ep. ad Fab.)
28:5 And they shall take gold, and violet, and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, and fine linen.
28:6 And they shall make the ephod of gold, and violet, and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, and fine twisted linen, embroidered with divers colours.
Ephod, ( superhumerale. ) That of the other priests was made of linen; and such were worn by Samuel, and by David, when he danced before the ark. (Menochius)
28:7 It shall have the two edges joined in the top on both sides, that they may be closed together.
Together, by the hooks, under the two precious stones. (Josephus, [Antiquities?] iii. 8.)
28:8 The very workmanship also, and all the variety of the work, shall be of gold, and violet, and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, and fine twisted linen.
Work. Hebrew, "all the work, and the girdle, shall be of the same" materials, and not sewed on afterwards. (Calmet)
28:9 And thou shalt take two onyx stones, and shalt grave on them the names of the children of Israel:
Onyx. Septuagint, emeralds. (Calmet) --- Hebrew shoham, which the Protestants render onyx-stone. (Haydock)
28:10 Six names on one stone, and the other six on the other, according to the order of their birth.
Birth. On the right shoulder were engraven Ruben, Simeon, Juda, Dan, Nephtali, and Gad. On the left, Aser, Issachar, Zabulon, Ephraim, Manasses, and Benjamin. The high priest himself represented the tribe of Levi. (Menochius)
28:11 With the work of an engraver, and the graving of a jeweller, thou shalt engrave them with the names of the children of Israel, set in gold and compassed about:
28:12 And thou shalt put them in both sides of the ephod, a memorial for the children of Israel. And Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord upon both shoulders, for a remembrance.
Remembrance, for both, ver. 29. The sins or burdens of the people, were thus to be borne by the high priest, and he was to make intercession for them. (Tirinus)
28:13 Thou shalt make also hooks of gold.
Hooks. Septuagint aspidiscas, "imitating the form or biting of an asp." (Calmet) --- Gold, on the ephod, by which the rational was suspended from the shoulders. (Haydock)
28:14 And two little chains of the purest gold, linked one to another, which thou shalt put into the hooks.
Linked, &c. The present Hebrew has "at the ends," migbaloth. But the Vulgate seems to have read more properly k instead of g, as in chap. xxvi. 4. (Calmet)
28:15 And thou shalt make the rational of judgment with embroidered work of divers colours, according to the workmanship of the ephod, of gold, violet, and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, and fine twisted linen.
The rational of judgment. This part of the high priest's attire, which he wore at his breast, was called the rational of judgment; partly because it admonished both priest and people of their duty to God; by carrying the names of all their tribes in his presence; and by the Urim and Thummim, that is, doctrine and truth, which were written upon it: and partly because it gave divine answers and oracles, as if it were rational and endowed with judgment.
28:16 It shall be four square and doubled: it shall be the measure of a span both in length and in breadth.
Span, or half a cubit, (Ezechiel xliii. 13, 17,) formed like a purse, in which the Rabbins say the Urim and Thummim were placed. (Calmet)
28:17 And thou shalt set in it four rows of stones: In the first row shall be a sardius stone, and a topaz, and an emerald:
Stones. It is difficult to ascertain the true names of these stones, interpreters are so much at variance; as they are also respecting the names of the 12 patriarchs, which were engraven upon each. They probably stood according to the order of their birth, ver. 10, 21. Thus Ruben, Simeon, and Levi, would occupy the first places, upon the sardius, topaz, and emerald. See on these stones Pliny, Natural History xxvii. 5; xxxviii. 8.
28:18 In the second a carbuncle, a sapphire, and a jasper:
The carbuncle, (ruby) sapphire, and jasper, (or diamond) had on them Juda, Dan, and Nephtali.
28:19 In the third a ligurius, an agate, and an amethyst:
Ligurius, agate, and amethyst, (or eumeces; Pliny, Natural History xxxvii. 7.) had Gad, Aser, and Issachar.
28:20 In the fourth a chrysolite, an onyx, and a beryl. They shall be set in gold by their rows.
Chrysolite, (beryl or opale,) onyx, (Septuagint, beryl; Chaldean, or emerald; Calmet) beryl, (Hebrew, jasper; Septuagint &c., onyx) were inscribed with the names of Zabulon, Joseph, and Benjamin. In Ezechiel xxviii. 13, the jasper stone comes in the sixth place, as it does in the Vulgate here. (Calmet) --- The mystical interpretation of these stones, may be seen in Cornelius A Lapide. St. Epiphanius has written a learned work on the 12 precious stones. (Haydock)
28:21 And they shall have the names of the children of Israel: with twelve names shall they be engraved, each stone with the name of one according to the twelve tribes.
28:22 And thou shalt make on the rational chains, linked one to another, of the purest gold:
28:23 And two rings of gold, which thou shalt put in the two ends at the top of the rational.
28:24 And the golden chains thou shalt join to the rings, that are in the ends thereof.
28:25 And the ends of the chains themselves, thou shalt join together with two hooks, on both sides of the ephod, which is towards the rational.
28:26 Thou shalt make also two rings of gold, which thou shalt put in the top parts of the rational, in the borders that are over-against the ephod, and look towards the back parts thereof.
28:27 Moreover also other two rings of gold, which are to be set on each side of the ephod beneath, that looketh towards the nether joining, that the rational may be fitted with the ephod,
28:28 And may be fastened by the rings thereof unto the rings of the ephod with a violet fillet, that the joining artificially wrought may continue, and the rational and the ephod may not be loosed one from the other.
Another. Hence the ephod, rational, urim, &c., are used to denote the same thing. See 1 Kings xxx. 7. (Calmet)
28:29 And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the rational of judgement upon his breast, when he shall enter into the sanctuary, a memorial before the Lord for ever.
28:30 And thou shalt put in the rational of judgment, Doctrine and Truth, which shall be on Aaron's breast, when he shall go in before the Lord: and he shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel on his breast, in the sight of the Lord always.
Doctrine and truth. Hebrew Urim and Thummim: illuminations and perfections. These words, written on the rational, seem to signify the light of doctrine, and the integrity of life, with which the priests of God ought to approach to him. (Challoner) --- Aurim means things brilliant, "declarations," Septuagint, and thomim, "perfections," or "truths." Some imagine, that God required the stones of the rational to be of the utmost brilliancy and perfection; Oleaster and Josephus (Antiquities iii. 8,) say, it was by the appearance of those stones that the high priest was enlightened, when he consulted God. If God approved of what was in agitation, they assumed a surprising brightness, as well as those on the high priest's shoulders. But this had not happened for 200 years before he began his history. The Urim and Thummim were not in the second temple, 1 Esdras ii. 63. Some think these words were engraven on stones in the rational. Whether God explained his will by articulate sounds, as (Matthew iii. 17,) this is my beloved son, or internally instructed the high priest, when he was consulted, cannot be determined. (Calmet) --- St. Chrysostom is of the former opinion. "If any thing was to be known, a voice came from between the cherubim, from the propitiatory, to declare what would happen." As the Jews lost the propitiatory, when they were led captives to Babylon, it seems they never afterwards obtained this privilege of having an oracle. God sometimes instructed them by his prophets. But, for a long time, none had appeared; that all might attend more earnestly to the voice of the Messias. (Tirinus) --- Judgment. He shall be the supreme judge in religious matters, and must strive to pass sentence according to the dictates of my law, with truth. (Haydock) --- The chief judge in Egypt wore a golden chain, hanging from the neck on the breast, to which was attached the image of Truth, on a sapphire stone. Olian (Var. Hist. xxxiv. 14,) also observes, that this office was always held by a venerable and honest priest.
28:31 And thou shalt make the tunic of the ephod all of violet,
28:32 In the midst whereof above shall be a hole for the head, and a border round about it woven, as is wont to be made in the outmost parts of garments, that it may not easily be broken.
28:33 And beneath at the feet of the same tunic, round about, thou shalt make as it were pomegranates, of violet, and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, with little bells set between:
Bells, to denote the harmony of the universe, (Philo) and that all the actions of a priest ought to give edification. (St. Jerome)
28:34 So that there shall be a golden bell and a pomegranate, and again another golden bell and a pomegranate.
28:35 And Aaron shall be vested with it in the office of his ministry, that the sound may be heard, when he goeth in and cometh out of the sanctuary, in the sight of the Lord, and that he may not die.
Die, for coming in disrespectfully, without giving notice. See Judith xiv. 8.
28:36 Thou shalt make also a plate of the purest gold: wherein thou shalt grave with engraver's work, Holy to the Lord.
Plate; reaching from ear to ear, two fingers' breadth, tied behind like a diadem, Wisdom xviii. 24. --- Holy, or "sanctity, belongeth to the Lord," and all who approach to Him, ought to be holy. (Calmet) --- Josephus represents the ornaments of the high priest's head, like the triple crown of the pope. (Antiquities iii. 8.)
28:37 And thou shalt tie it with a violet fillet, and it shall be upon the mitre,
28:38 Hanging over the forehead of the high priest. And Aaron shall bear the iniquities of those things, which the children of Israel have offered and sanctified, in all their gifts and offerings. And the plate shall be always on his forehead, that the Lord may be well pleased with them.
Iniquities. This means, perhaps, that he shall wear these grand vestments and crown only on the solemn day of expiation, when he makes atonement for all the sins of the people, as a figure of Jesus Christ. Josephus tells us, that on other occasions, he wore a less costly attire. (Jewish Wars v. 6. or 15.) (Calmet) --- By bearing on his forehead kodesh la Yehovah, "Holiness to the Lord," he confessed that all mankind were sinners, and stood in need of pardon. (Haydock)
28:39 And thou shalt gird the tunic with fine linen, and thou shalt make a fine linen mitre, and a girdle of embroidered work.
28:40 Moreover, for the sons of Aaron thou shalt prepare linen tunics, and girdles and mitres for glory and beauty:
Linen. In Ezechiel (xliv. 17,) woollen garments are forbidden to be worn by priests. Many of the pagans required their priests to be clothed in white linen. All these prescriptions of God, which seem to us so minute, had a more sublime and mysterious meaning. For in the priestly robe....was the whole world, by the colours denoting the air, light, earth, and water: the two stones on his shoulders, signified the sun and moon, as the 12 did the signs of the zodiac, or the glory of the fathers; and thy majesty was written upon the diadem of his head, Wisdom xviii. 24. Thus the priest was a mediator between God and his people, and was to be solicitous for the welfare of all. (St. Thomas Aquinas, 1, 2, q. 102, a. 5; St. Augustine; St. Jerome; &c.)
28:41 And with all these things thou shalt vest Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him. And thou shalt consecrate the hands of them all, and shalt sanctify them, that they may do the office of priesthood unto me.
Consecrate. Hebrew and Septuagint, "thou shalt anoint and fill their hands" with oil, and the instruments of their office.
28:42 Thou shalt make also linen breeches, to cover the flesh of their nakedness, from the reins to the thighs:
Linen breeches, descending as far as the knees. (St. Jerome) In chap. xxxix. 29, they seem to have been made of byssus, or cotton. But as linen is prescribed in all other places, perhaps a word has crept in there, by mistake of the transcribers. They were intended to remind the priests of superior modesty, as they were not commonly worn. Homer never mentions them. Virgil only specifies the cloak and tunic of Evander. Augustus wore breeches and stockings in winter. (Suetonius) --- But the ancient breeches were not like ours, but resembled rather an apron or girdle, enveloping both thighs, and hanging from the waist. (Calmet)
28:43 And Aaron and his sons shall use them when they shall go into the tabernacle of the testimony, or when they approach the altar to minister in the sanctuary, lest being guilty of iniquity they die. It shall be a law for ever to Aaron, and to his seed after him.
Cross-references: 35: Ecclesiasticus xlv. 11.
Chapter 29
The manner of consecrating Aaron and other priests: the institution of the daily sacrifice of two lambs, one in the morning, the other at evening.
29:1 And thou shalt also do this, that they may be consecrated to me in priesthood. Take a calf from the herd, and two rams without blemish,
29:2 And unleavened bread, and a cake without leaven, tempered with oil, wafers also unleavened, anointed with oil: thou shalt make them all of wheaten flour.
Wafers, ( lagana. ). They knead them with water, and afterwards fry or bake them with oil. (St. Isidore) Such wafers are very common in Italy. (Calmet)
29:3 And thou shalt put them in a basket and offer them: and the calf and the two rams.
29:4 And thou shalt bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the tabernacle of the testimony. And when thou hast washed the father and his sons with water,
Washed. The pagans never approached their mysteries, without divers purifications and washing. (St. Clement of Alexandria, strom. 5.) Exterior cleanliness was designed to signify the purity of the heart, with which we must appear before God. (Calmet) --- It is for this reason we take holy-water, when we go into our chapels, and we wash our fingers before and during Mass. (Haydock)
29:5 Thou shalt clothe Aaron with his vestments, that is, with the linen garment and the tunic, and the ephod and the rational, which thou shalt gird with the girdle.
Vestments. No mention is made of breeches, because they had them on, while they were washing. (Ven. Bede) --- Belt. Septuagint have read esson, instead of chesheb. "Thou shalt tie the rational to the ephod." (Calmet)
29:6 And thou shalt put the mitre upon his head, and the holy plate upon the mitre,
29:7 And thou shalt pour the oil of unction upon his head: and by this rite shall he be consecrated.
Pour, in the form of a cross or T, according to many of the Rabbin, &c. The inferior priests were anointed only on the hands. The Levites were sprinkled with oil, mixed with the blood of the victims. The custom of anointing prophets, priests, and kings, was peculiar to the Jews; as if to foreshow Christ, the great anointed of the Lord. (St. Augustine; Psalm xliv.; Daniel ix. 24.)
29:8 Thou shalt bring his sons also, and shalt put on them the linen tunics, and gird them with a girdle:
29:9 To wit, Aaron and his children, and thou shalt put mitres upon them; and they shall be priests to me by a perpetual ordinance. After thou shalt have consecrated their hands,
29:10 Thou shalt present also the calf before the tabernacle of the testimony. And Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands upon his head,
Head. Confessing that they are sinners, and deserve to die. Thus they shall substitute the victim instead of themselves, and obtain pardon. In the holocaust, (ver. 15,) and the peace-offering, (ver. 19,) they impose their hands, having first washed them) and pronounce some prayer. (Calmet)
29:11 And thou shalt kill him in the sight of the Lord, beside the door of the tabernacle of the testimony.
Beside. Al, is now wanting in the printed Hebrew and Samaritan, though expressed by the Protestant translators, (who often help their text) and by all the ancient versions. Kennicott mentions one manuscript, which retains it very properly. (Haydock) --- The victim was offered on the altar of holocausts, before the tabernacle, the seat of God's majesty. (Calmet) --- Moses was the priest on this occasion. (Menochius) (Psalm xcviii. 6.)
29:12 And taking some of the blood of the calf, thou shalt put it upon the horns of the altar with thy finger, and the rest of the blood thou shalt pour at the bottom thereof.
Horns. This was done in all the sacrifices of expiation. After Aaron was ordained, he carried the blood into the sanctuary, for the sins of all. (Calmet)
29:13 Thou shalt take also all the fat that covereth the entrails, and the caul of the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, and shalt offer a burnt-offering upon the altar:
Burnt-offering, ( incensum. ) To evaporate like incense. (Menochius) --- God requires what is most fat and delicious. (Calmet) --- The Persians never reserved any of the victims for their idols, except the caul. (Strabo xv.)
29:14 But the flesh of the calf and the hide and the dung, thou shalt burn abroad, without the camp, because it is for sin.
Sin of the high priest and people. In the other sin-offerings, this was not done. (Menochius)
29:15 Thou shalt take also one ram, upon the head whereof Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands.
29:16 And when thou hast killed him, thou shalt take of the blood thereof, and pour round about the altar.
About, upon the altar, and at the foot of it. So the pagans did. (Eusebius, praep. iv. 9.)
29:17 And thou shalt cut the ram in pieces, and having washed his entrails and feet, thou shalt put them upon the flesh that is cut in pieces, and upon his head.
29:18 And thou shalt offer the whole ram for a burnt-offering upon the altar: it is an oblation to the Lord, a most sweet savour of the victim of the Lord.
Victim. Hebrew ishe, means a whole burnt-offering.
29:19 Thou shalt take also the other ram, upon whose head Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands.
29:20 And when thou hast sacrificed him, thou shalt take of his blood, and put upon the tip of the right ear of Aaron and of his sons, and upon the thumbs and great toes of their right-hand and foot, and thou shalt pour the blood upon the altar round about.
Tip, or "softer part," Septuagint. This ceremony insinuated, that the priests ought to be all attentive, and perform their office with diligence. (Philo, Vit. Mos. 3)
29:21 And when thou hast taken of the blood, that is upon the altar, and of the oil of unction, thou shalt sprinkle Aaron and his vesture, his sons and their vestments. And after they and their vestments are consecrated,
29:22 Thou shalt take the fat of the ram, and the rump, and the fat that covereth the lungs, and the caul of the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, and the right shoulder, because it is the ram of consecration:
Rump, or tail, for which the sheep of Arabia were famed; some having tails three yards long, others a yard thick. (Herodotus, iii. 113.) They weighed from 12 to 30 pounds, and were almost all fat. (Calmet)
29:23 And one roll of bread, a cake tempered with oil, a wafer out of the basket of unleavened bread, which is set in the sight of the Lord.
Roll. ( torta ) Hebrew kikkar, "a loaf." Septuagint, "a loaf or cake of oil." (Haydock)
29:24 And thou shalt put all upon the hands of Aaron and of his sons, and shalt sanctify them elevating before the Lord.
Elevating, and then letting them descend towards the earth. After which, Moses lifted the victims towards the east and west, and from north to south, to shew that God is the Sovereign of the world. (R. Solomon) --- Cato (Rustic. 34,) mentions a similar custom, of agitating or waving bread, in honour of Janus and of Jupiter. (Calmet)
29:25 And thou shalt take all from their hands; and shalt burn them upon the altar for a holocaust, a most sweet savour in the sight of the Lord, because it is his oblation.
29:26 Thou shalt take also the breast of the ram, wherewith Aaron was consecrated, and elevating it thou shalt sanctify it before the Lord, and it shall fall to thy share.
29:27 And thou shalt sanctify both the consecrated breast, and the shoulder that thou didst separate of the ram,
29:28 Wherewith Aaron was consecrated and his sons, and they shall fall to Aaron's share and his sons', by a perpetual right from the children of Israel: because they are the choicest and the beginnings of their peace-victims which they offer to the Lord.
Israel. As these parts have been offered by Aaron to the Lord, so the Israelites shall present them to him and his sons, when they offer sacrifice. (Menochius) --- All the different kinds of victims were immolated on this occasion, because the priests were consecrated to offer them all. (Du Hamel)
29:29 And the holy vesture, which Aaron shall use, his sons shall have after him, that they may be anointed, and their hands consecrated to it.
Vesture. A new one was not made for every high priest. (Calmet) --- One of the other priests had to perform the ceremony of consecration. (Menochius)
29:30 He of his sons that shall be appointed high priest in his stead, and that shall enter into the tabernacle of the testimony to minister in the sanctuary, shall wear it seven days.
Days. During which he could not leave the sanctuary, Leviticus viii. 33. On each day, the aforesaid ceremonies were to be repeated, ver. 35.
29:31 And thou shalt take the ram of the consecration, and shalt boil the flesh thereof in the holy place:
Holy place. The court of the tabernacle, where a constant fire was kept, to prepare the food of the priests, and sometimes of others, who wished to eat their share of the victims in the presence of the Lord.
29:32 And Aaron and his sons shall eat it. The loaves also, that are in the basket, they shall eat in the entry of the tabernacle of the testimony,
29:33 That it may be an atoning sacrifice, and the hands of the offerers may be sanctified. A stranger shall not eat of them, because they are holy.
Stranger. The Levites themselves could not partake of these things.
29:34 And if there remain of the consecrated flesh, or of the bread, till the morning, thou shalt burn the remainder with fire: they shall not be eaten, because they are sanctified.
29:35 All that I have commanded thee, thou shalt do unto Aaron and his sons. Seven days shalt thou consecrate their hands:
29:36 And thou shalt offer a calf for sin every day for expiation. And thou shalt cleanse the altar when thou hast offered the victim of expiation, and shalt anoint it to sanctify it.
29:37 Seven days shalt thou expiate the altar and sanctify it, and it shall be most holy. Every one, that shall touch it, shall be holy.
Seven. This number is frequently prescribed in Scripture. Balaam required seven altars, (Numbers xxiii.) and the Egyptians never spent less than seven days in their expiations. (Porphyrius, Abstin. 4.) (Calmet) --- Shall be holy, consecrated according to this rite, (Menochius) or defiled; for sacred things purify those who approach in a proper manner, while they defile, or increase the guilt of the unworthy. (Calmet) --- By the unleavened bread, (ver. 23,) we are reminded of the blessed eucharist; and by oil, of the grace of the spirit. (Du Hamel)
29:38 This is what thou shalt sacrifice upon the altar: Two lambs of a year old every day continually,
29:39 One lamb in the morning, and another in the evening.
Morning. About sun-rise. --- Evening, or between the two vespers, Exodus xii. 6. The lambs were provided by the people; flour, wine, and oil, by the priests. (Philo) --- The wine was poured at the foot of the altar, the flour and oil were burnt upon it, and not placed on the head of the victim, as was customary among the pagans, frontique invergit vina sacerdos. (Virgil, vi.; Maimonides) By these sacrifices, God was to be adored as the author both of day and night; (Menochius) and we are admonished of our duty of praying to him, particularly at those times. (Haydock) --- All the sacrifices prefigured that of Christ, (St. Augustine, contra advers. i. 18,) but none more than these of lambs. (Origen in Jo.) (Worthington)
29:40 With one lamb a tenth part of flour tempered with beaten oil, of the fourth part of a hin, and wine for libation of the same measure.
Part of an epha, half of which was used in each sacrifice.
29:41 And the other lamb thou shalt offer in the evening, according to the rite of the morning oblation, and according to what we have said, for a savour of sweetness:
29:42 It is a sacrifice to the Lord, by perpetual oblation unto your generations, at the door of the tabernacle of the testimony before the Lord, where I will appoint to speak unto thee.
29:43 And there will I command the children of Israel, and the altar shall be sanctified by my glory.
Glory, or presence, or by the flame which shall come down from heaven to consume the victim, Leviticus ix. 24. (Calmet)
29:44 I will sanctify also the tabernacle of the testimony with the altar, and Aaron with his sons, to do the office of priesthood unto me.
29:45 And I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel, and will be their God:
29:46 And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who have brought them out of the land of Egypt, that I might abide among them, I the Lord their God.
Cross-references: 1: Lev. ix. 2. 10: Lev. i. 3. 13: Lev. iii. 3. 32: Lev. viii. 31. and xxiv. 9.; Matt. xii. 4.
Chapter 30
The altar of incense: money to be gathered for the use of the tabernacle: the brazen laver: the holy oil of unction, and the composition of the perfume.
30:1 Thou shalt make also an altar to burn incense, of setim-wood.
An altar to burn incense. This burning of incense was an emblem of prayer, ascending to God from an inflamed heart. See Psalm cxl. 2; Apocalypse v. 8, and viii. 4. (Challoner) --- Nothing but incense was daily offered by the high priest upon this altar. On the day of expiation he touched the four corners with blood. It stood over-against the bread of proposition.
30:2 It shall be a cubit in length, and another in breadth, that is, four square, and two in height. Horns shall go out of the same.
Height. Ezechiel (xli. 22,) describes his altar of incense, a cubit higher.
30:3 And thou shalt overlay it with the purest gold, as well as the grate thereof, as the walls round about, and the horns. And thou shalt make to it a crown of gold round about,
Grate, or covering. Some think the fire and incense were placed on this grate, and the ashes fell under the altar. But fire was taken hence, and put in the thuribles; (Numbers xvi. 17; Calmet) or a brazen thurible was placed on the fire, Leviticus x. 1. (Menochius) --- Walls, or sides, of setim-wood. --- Crown, cornice or moulding. See chap. xxv. 25.
30:4 And two golden rings under the crown on either side, that the bars may be put into them, and the altar be carried.
30:5 And thou shalt make the bars also of setim-wood, and shalt overlay them with gold.
30:6 And thou shalt set the altar over-against the veil, that hangeth before the ark of the testimony before the propitiatory wherewith the testimony is covered, where I will speak to thee.
Where, &c. Hence some infer, that its situation was in the most holy place. But God spoke also to Moses at the door of the sanctuary (chap. xxix. 42.; Haydock); and most people suppose, that it was placed out of the holy of holies, beside the veil. The golden censer, which St. Paul (Hebrews ix. 4,) tells us was within, might be that of Aaron, which was placed there after the sedition of Core, (Numbers xvi.) or one that might be left smoking before the ark, on the day of expiation. (Calmet) --- St. Augustine, &c., believe, however, that it was in the holy of holies. (q. 133.; Origen, hom. 19.; St. Gregory; 1 Kings xiv.; &c.)
30:7 And Aaron shall burn sweet smelling incense upon it in the morning. When he shall dress the lamps, he shall burn it:
Aaron, or some other priest. They did it by turns, and were bound to observe continence during the time of their ministry. (Leviticus xv. 16; Luke i. 9.) (Calmet)
30:8 And when he shall place them in the evening, he shall burn an everlasting incense before the Lord throughout your generations.
30:9 You shall not offer upon it incense of another composition, nor oblation, and victim, neither shall you offer libations.
Composition, than what is prescribed, ver. 34. (Menochius)
30:10 And Aaron shall pray upon the horns thereof once a year, with the blood of that which was offered for sin; and shall make atonement upon it in your generations. It shall be most holy to the Lord.
It. This altar, or this rite; all deserve a singular respect.
30:11 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
30:12 When thou shalt take the sum of the children of Israel, according to their number, every one of them shall give a price for their souls to the Lord, and there shall be no scourge among them, when they shall be reckoned.
Sum. David perhaps neglected this injunction. (2 Kings xxiv; Josephus, Antiquities vii. 10.) Yet we do not read that Moses took the half sicle when he numbered the people, Numbers i. Whence others gather, that this sum was to be paid every year, as it was done in our Saviour's time, for the support of the temple, Matthew xvii. 23. Vespasian ordered the Jews to pay the same money for the capitol. (Josephus, Jewish Wars vii. 13.) After the captivity, the third part of a sicle was demanded, 2 Esdras x. 32. (Calmet)
30:13 And this shall every one give that passeth at the naming, half a sicle according to the standard of the temple. A sicle hath twenty obols. Half a sicle shall be offered to the Lord.
Half a sicle. A sicle or shekel of silver, (which was also called a stater ) according to the standard or weight of the sanctuary, which was the most just and exact, was half an ounce of silver; that is, about half a crown of English money. The obol, or gerah, was about three halfpence. (Challoner) --- A priest kept the weights and measures, 1 Paralipomenon xxiii. 29. The Egyptians and Romans took the like precaution to prevent any fraud; and Justinian required that such things should be kept in churches. Some have supposed, that the royal or common sicle was less than that of the sanctuary. But Moses admits of no distinction. (Leviticus xxvii. 25.; Ezechiel xlv. 12.) Perhaps the weights of the Egyptians, &c., might differ from this, which Moses therefore particularizes so well. (Calmet) --- Arbuthnot makes the weight of the sicle equal to 9 dwt. 2,57 gr. English Troy weight; and he values that of silver at 2s. 3,375d. sterling. (Haydock)
30:14 He that is counted in the number from twenty years and upwards, shall give the price.
30:15 The rich man shall not add to half a sicle, and the poor man shall diminish nothing.
Rich. The life of every man is equal in the sight of God, and He will not give the rich occasion to despise his poor neighbour. Thus also the number of the people would be ascertained. (Menochius)
30:16 And the money received, which was contributed by the children of Israel, thou shalt deliver unto the uses of the tabernacle of the testimony, that it may be a memorial of them before the Lord, and he may be merciful to their souls.
30:17 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
30:18 Thou shalt make also a brazen laver with its foot, to wash in: and thou shalt set it between the tabernacle of the testimony and the altar. And water being put into it:
Its foot also of brass, made of mirrors which the women gave, chap. xxxviii. 8. It was double; one vessel being shallower, to wash the feet &c., and the other containing a quantity of water, which was let out by pipes. The pagans had lavers also; and our holy-water vessels should remind us of that purity and holiness which became the house of God. (Haydock)
30:19 Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and feet in it:
Feet. The priests went barefoot in the tabernacle. In the Misna we find the same law binds laymen. None were allowed to enter the temple of Diana, in Crete, with shoes on; and the Roman ladies followed the same custom, when they came down to the temple of Vesta. Huc pede matronam nudo descendere vidi. (Ovid, Fast. 6.) (Calmet) --- The priest is ordered to put off his shoes on Good Friday, out of respect for Jesus Christ, who suffered on the cross. (Haydock)
30:20 When they are going into the tabernacle of the testimony, and when they are to come to the altar, to offer on it incense to the Lord,
30:21 Lest perhaps they die. It shall be an everlasting law to him, and to his seed by successions.
30:22 And the Lord spoke to Moses,
30:23 Saying: Take spices, of principal and chosen myrrh five hundred sicles, and of cinnamon half so much; that is, two hundred and fifty sicles, of calamus in like manner two hundred and fifty,
Spices. Perfumes were probably first invented in Arabia and Egypt. Ovid makes Bacchus the author of bloody sacrifices, and of incense offered to Jupiter. (Fast. 3.) --- Myrrh. Hebrew, "the head of the myrrh of liberty," or such as flowed freely and was most excellent, free from any mixture. Sudant sponte....stacten dictam. (Pliny, [Natural History?] xii. 15.) (Calmet) --- Stacte takes its name from distilling. (Menochius) --- Sicles; this is not expressed in the Hebrew, as this measure is commonly meant. --- Cinnamon, a plant extremely rare. Matthcole assures us, that it is not now to be found in Arabia, no more than balm in Judea. --- Calamus. Hebrew adds the epithet sweet-smelling both to cinnamon and calamus, or cane, the latter of which grows in the Indies. (Dioscor. i. 17.) That which druggists sell, under this name, is not a proper ingredient for ointments.
30:24 And of cassia five hundred sicles by the weight of the sanctuary, of oil of olives the measure hin:
Cassia, not the common sort, which would spoil the perfumes, but the essence of iris, (Hebrew, kode) mentioned in the Septuagint; Ezechiel xxvii. 19; Josephus; &c. (Calmet)
30:25 And thou shalt make the holy oil of unction, an ointment compounded after the art of the perfumer,
30:26 And therewith thou shalt anoint the tabernacle of the testimony, and the ark of the testament,
30:27 And the table with the vessels thereof, the candlestick and furniture thereof, the altars of incense,
30:28 And of holocaust, and all the furniture that belongeth to the service of them.
30:29 And thou shalt sanctify all, and they shall be most holy: he that shall touch them shall be sanctified.
Sanctified. But if he ought not to touch it, he shall be defiled the more: (Deuteronomy xxii. 9) a double effect, which we perceive in the Christian sacraments. (Calmet)
30:30 Thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons, and shalt sanctify them, that they may do the office of priesthood unto me.
30:31 And thou shalt say to the children of Israel: This oil of unction shall be holy unto me throughout your generations.
Holy unto me, or set apart for the persons and things employed in my service. (Haydock)
30:32 The flesh of man shall not be anointed therewith, and you shall make none other of the same composition, because it is sanctified, and shall be holy unto you.
Of man. Some except the kings of Juda, till the reign of Josias. (Rabbins) --- But they were anointed with common oil. (Menochius)
30:33 What man soever shall compound such, and shall give thereof to a stranger, he shall be cut off from his people.
Cut off. Excommunicated, and deprived of all the privileges of the Israelites; (Calmet) or even put to death for his presumption. (Menochius)
30:34 And the Lord said to Moses: Take unto thee spices, stacte, and onycha, galbanum of sweet savour, and the clearest frankincense, all shall be of equal weight.
Onycha. An aromatic root, shining like "the nail," or perhaps the bdellium of Arabia, which is clearer than that of the Indies. (Dioscor.; Galen Medic.) It distills from a tree. Others affirm, that it is the shell of a fish which feeds on spikenard (spica nardi) in the watery places of India. --- Galbanum, an unctuous gum, of a strong but not very agreeable smell when alone. --- Frankincense, is a juice proceeding by incision from the trees of Saba. --- Weight. The Rabbins say 70 or 74 pounds of each.
30:35 And thou shalt make incense compounded by the work of the perfumer, well tempered together, and pure, and most worthy of sanctification.
Together. Hebrew literally, "salted," (Chaldean) as salt was to accompany all the sacrifices, Leviticus ii. 13. But it was not, perhaps, to be mixed with this perfume, no more than with the wine of libations. The word may signify "a thing used in embalming, pure and holy."
30:36 And when thou has beaten all into very small powder, thou shalt set of it before the tabernacle of the testimony, in the place where I will appear to thee. Most holy shall this incense be unto you.
Place. On the table of perfumes, to be burnt morning and evening. (Calmet)
30:37 You shall not make such a composition for your own uses, because it is holy to the Lord.
30:38 What man soever shall make the like, to enjoy the smell thereof, he shall perish out of his people.
Cross-references: 12: Numbers i. 3. 13: Leviticus xxvii. 25.; Numbers iii. 47.; Ezechiel xlv. 12.
Chapter 31
Beseleel and Ooliab are appointed by the Lord to make the tabernacle, and the things belonging thereto. The observation of the sabbath day is again commanded. And the Lord delivereth to Moses two tables written with the finger of God.
31:1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
31:2 Behold, I have called by name Beseleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Juda,
By name. I have fixed upon and taken into my service, as Isaias xliii. 1.
31:3 And I have filled him with the spirit of God, with wisdom and understanding, and knowledge in all manner of work,
Spirit. "God, our master, causeth our genius to shew itself." (Seneca, Ben. iv. 4.)
31:4 To devise whatsoever may be artificially made of gold, and silver, and brass,
Brass. Septuagint add, "and violet, and purple, and scarlet spun, and byssus twisted."
31:5 Of marble, and precious stones, and variety of wood.
Marble and (or) precious stones. Marble was not used in the tabernacle. (Calmet)
31:6 And I have given him for his companion Ooliab, the son of Achisamech, of the tribe of Dan. And I have put wisdom in the heart of every skilful man, that they may make all things which I have commanded thee,
Wisdom. Good artists deserve this title, provided they make things of real use. (Origen, hom. 22. Num.)
31:7 The tabernacle of the covenant, and the ark of the testimony, and the propitiatory that is over it, and all the vessels of the tabernacle,
Vessels. Tables, curtains, &c. (Calmet)
31:8 And the table and the vessels thereof, the most pure candlestick with the vessels thereof, and the altars of incense,
Table and (all) the. The Samaritan copy retains the word col, "all," as well as the Samaritan, Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, and one Hebrew manuscript, though the printed editions have rejected it. In a Chaldaic manuscript it is also found. The omission, probably was occasioned by the custom of the Jews, who always fill up their line with the initial letters of the next line; and as coliu followed, the transcriber supposed that col was in that predicament. (Kennicott, dis. 2.) --- Most pure gold, always giving light, or kept clean, chap. xxxix. 37.
31:9 And of holocaust, and all their vessels, the laver with its foot,
31:10 The holy vestments in the ministry for Aaron the priest, and for his sons, that they may execute their office, about the sacred things:
31:11 The oil of unction, and the incense of spices in the sanctuary, all things which I have commanded thee, shall they make.
31:12 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
31:13 Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: See that you keep my sabbath; because it is a sign between me and you in your generations: that you may know that I am the Lord, who sanctify you.
Sabbath. Let not the workmen do any thing for the tabernacle on that day. (Menochius) --- God reiterates and insists particularly on this commandment, which begins with the word remember; because men are so apt to forget, or to transgress a precept, which seems to interfere with those worldly concerns and profits, which they love more than God and their own souls. (Haydock)
31:14 Keep you my sabbath: for it is holy unto you: he that shall profane it, shall be put to death: he that shall do any work in it, his soul shall perish out of the midst of his people.
31:15 Six days shall you do work: in the seventh day is the sabbath, the rest holy to the Lord. Every one that shall do any work on this day, shall die.
31:16 Let the children of Israel keep the sabbath, and celebrate it in their generations. It is an everlasting covenant
31:17 Between me and the children of Israel, and a perpetual sign. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and in the seventh he ceased from work.
31:18 And the Lord, when he had ended these words in Mount Sinai, gave to Moses two stone tables of testimony, written with the finger of God.
Testimony, to inform men of their duty. --- Written, not by Moses, or by any man, but by God himself, or by an angel. (Chap. xxxiv. 1.; Galatians iii. 19.) (Calmet)
Cross-references: 13: Exodus xx. 8.; Ezechiel xx. 12. 17: Genesis i. 31. and ii. 2. 18: Deuteronomy ix. 10.
Chapter 32
The people fall into idolatry. Moses prayeth for them. He breaketh the tables: destroyeth the idol: blameth Aaron, and causeth many of the idolaters to be slain.
32:1 And the people seeing that Moses delayed to come down from the mount, gathering together against Aaron, said: Arise, make us gods, that may go before us: For as to this Moses, the man that brought us out of the land of Egypt, we know not what has befallen him.
Delayed. They waited perhaps about a month, with some patience; and then, becoming seditious, assembled against Aaron, and extorted from him a compliance with their impious request. He was thus guilty of a grievous crime, though the violence might extenuate it in some degree. (Salien) --- He was not yet ordained high priest, chap. xl. 12. (Haydock) --- Gods. Aaron gratified their request by the golden calf. They had the pillar to conduct them, but they wanted something new. They speak with contempt of Moses. (Menochius)
32:2 And Aaron said to them: Take the golden ear-rings from the ears of your wives, and your sons and daughters, and bring them to me.
And your sons. The Septuagint omit this. But in the East, it was fashionable for men also to wear ear-rings. (Pliny, [Natural History?] xi. 37; Judges viii. 24; Ezechiel vii. 20.) Aaron hoped the people would relent at this proposal. (St. Augustine, q. 141.)
32:3 And the people did what he had commanded, bringing the ear-rings to Aaron.
32:4 And when he had received them, he fashioned them by founders' work, and made of them a molten calf. And they said: These are thy gods, O Israel, that have brought thee out of the land of Egypt.
Received them, "in a purse, (as Gideon did afterwards, Judges viii. 25,) he made a molten calf." (Jonathan) --- Perhaps he engraved on it the peculiar marks of the Egyptian idol, Apis; a square white spot on the forehead, and a crescent upon the side. For it is generally believed, that this calf was designed to imitate that object of worship, to which the Hebrews had been too much accustomed. (Acts vii. 39, 41.; St. Jerome in Osee iv.) The Egyptians adored not only the living ox, but also its image, which they kept in their temple. (Porphyrius, Abst. ii. Mela. i. 8.) Some of the fathers think, that the head of a calf only appeared. (St. Ambrose; Lactantius, &c.) The rest of the figure was perhaps human, as Osiris was represented with the head of an ox, as well as Astarte and Serapis. Monceau pretends that Aaron represented the true God, under the form of a cherub, in which he falsely asserts he had appeared on Mount Sinai, and that his fault consisted only in giving occasion of superstition to the people. But his opinion (though adopted by many Protestants, who excuse all from the guilt of idolatry, but papists; Haydock) has been condemned at Rome, and refuted by Visorius, &c. --- Thy gods, &c. Thus spoke the infatuated ringleaders. (Calmet) --- And they changed their glory, the true God, into the likeness of a calf that eateth grass, Psalm cv. 19. --- They forgot God, who saved them, (Psalm cv. 21,) and forsook Him, (Deuteronomy xxxii. 18,) to adore the calf. (Worthington)
32:5 And when Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it, and made proclamation by a crier's voice, saying: To-morrow is the solemnity of the Lord.
The Lord. The most sacred name of God is prostituted, (Judges xvii. and xviii.; Wisdom xiv. 21,) and an altar is erected to this idol; though some pretend, that Aaron meant God to be adored under this similitude. His weakness was unaccountable, and God would have slain him, had not Moses interceded, Deuteronomy ix. 20. Those who undertake to justify him, enter not into the sentiments of God; and the offender himself pleads no excuse, but the violence of the people, ver. 23. (Salien) --- To-morrow, when the 40 days expired, and Moses returned arrayed in terrors. (Haydock)
32:6 And rising in the morning, they offered holocausts, and peace-victims, and the people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play.
They offered, by the hands of Aaron, to whom the Septuagint refer all this. "He offered," &c., appearing at the head of the idolaters. Cornelius A Lapide insinuates, that he wished to supplant his brother in the supreme command; and after a faint resistance, became the promoter of idolatry, to ingratiate himself with the people. The Scripture lays not this, however, to his charge. (Calmet) --- To eat of the victims. --- To play, dancing and singing in honour of their idol, probably with many indecent gestures, as was customary on such occasions among the nations of Chanaan. (Haydock) --- Tertullian (de jejunio) understands impure play. The word means also to dance, and to play on instruments of music. Ludere quae vellem calamo permisit agresti. (Virgil, Ec. i) (Calmet) --- Sulpitius says, the people abandoned themselves to drunkenness and gluttony, or debauchery, vinoque se & ventri dedisset. (Haydock) --- They might get wine from Madian. (Salien) --- Foolish mirth is the daughter of gluttony, and the mother of idolatry. (St. Gregory, Mor. xxxi. 31.) (Worthington)
32:7 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Go, get thee down: thy people, which thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt, hath sinned.
Thy people. They are not worthy to be styled my people; and thou didst ratify the covenant with me, in their name, and as their interpreter. They have sinned, giving way to idolatry in thought, word, and deed.
32:8 They have quickly strayed from the way which thou didst shew them: and they have made to themselves a molten calf, and have adored it, and sacrificing victims to it, have said: These are thy gods, O Israel, that have brought thee out of the land of Egypt.
32:9 And again the Lord said to Moses: I see that this people is stiff-necked:
And again. The Septuagint omit this verse. Moses, at the first intimation of the people's sin, fell prostrate before the Lord, to sue for pardon, and pleaded the natural weakness of an ungovernable multitude, in order to extenuate their fault. This God admits. --- I see, &c. But while he seems bent on punishing them, to try his servant, he encourages him inwardly to pray with fervour. (Salien.)
32:10 Let me alone, that my wrath may be kindled against them, and that I may destroy them, and I will make of thee a great nation.
Alone. One fully determined on revenge will bear with no expostulation; whence St. Gregory (Mor. ix. 11,) and Theodoret (q. 67,) look upon this as an incitement to pray more earnestly, seeing God's servants have such influence over Him. The mercy of God struggled with his justice, and stopped its effects. --- Nation, as I promised to Abraham; or I will make thee ruler over a nation greater than this, as Moses explains it, (Deuteronomy ix. 14,) and as the like offer is made, Numbers xiv. 12. The Samaritan subjoins here, "And God was likewise much irritated against Aaron, and would have destroyed him; but Moses prayed for him:" which we are assured was the case, Deuteronomy ix. 20. (Calmet)
32:11 But Moses besought the Lord his God, saying: Why, O Lord, is thy indignation enkindled against thy people, whom thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt, with great power, and with a mighty hand?
Why, &c. Calvin here accuses Moses of arrogance, in prescribing laws to God's justice. But St. Jerome (ep. ad Gaud.) commends his charity and "prayer, which hindered God's power." (Worthington)
32:12 Let not the Egyptians say, I beseech thee: He craftily brought them out, that he might kill them in the mountains, and destroy them from the earth: let thy anger cease, and be appeased upon the wickedness of thy people.
Craftily. Hebrew, "with a malicious design." Moses insinuates, that the glory of God is interested not to punish the Hebrews, lest the Gentiles should blaspheme, particularly as the land of Chanaan seemed to be promised unconditionally to the posterity of Abraham, who were now, all but one, to be exterminated. (Haydock)
32:13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou sworest by thy own self, saying: I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven: and this whole land that I have spoken of, I will give to your seed, and you shall possess it for ever.
Thy servants. Thus God honours his friends, and rewards their merits, which are the effects of his grace. (Worthington)
32:14 And the Lord was appeased from doing the evil which he had spoken against his people.
Appeased. Yet of this Moses was not fully assured, and in effect only those who had been less guilty, were reprieved to be punished afterwards, ver. 30, 35. (Haydock)
32:15 And Moses returned from the mount, carrying the two tables of the testimony in his hand, written on both sides,
Both sides. The ten commandments were written twice over, or on both sides, that all who stood round Moses, might be able to read them. (Menochius) --- On one side, appeared the laws regarding God; on the other, those which relate to man. (Haydock) --- They were like two originals. The common way of writing was only on one side. (Calmet)
32:16 And made by the work of God; the writing also of God was graven in the tables.
32:17 And Josue hearing the noise of the people shouting, said to Moses: The noise of battle is heard in the camp.
Josue, who was waiting for Moses lower down on the mountain, chap. xxiv. 13.
32:18 But he answered: It is not the cry of men encouraging to fight, nor the shout of men compelling to flee: but I hear the voice of singers.
Cry, &c. Hebrew, "the cry answering strength....or....weakness," which the Vulgate elucidates. --- Singers. Septuagint, "I hear the cry of those who contend for pre-eminence in wine," or over their cups. (Haydock)
32:19 And when he came nigh to the camp, he saw the calf, and the dances: and being very angry, he threw the tables out of his hand, and broke them at the foot of the mount:
Mount. "Finding the people abandoned to luxury and sacrilege, he broke the tables, deeming it a nation unworthy to be entrusted with the law of God." (Sulpitius i. 33.) By this action, Moses foreshewed the dissolution of the covenant with the Jews, that the new covenant might take place. (St. Augustine, q. 144.) The Jews kept the 17th of the fourth month as a fast, in memory of this event. (St. Jerome in Zac. viii.)
32:20 And laying hold of the calf which they had made, he burnt it, and beat it to powder, which he strewed into water, and gave thereof to the children of Israel to drink.
Calf. Having manifested his disapprobation of the people's conduct, in the most signal manner, by breaking the two tables; Moses proceeds to convince them of their stupidity, in adoring what he, in a few minutes, reduces to powder. (Haydock) --- He breaks the calf in pieces, after burning it, and then grinds it to dust in a mill, with files; as the Hebrew, Chaldean, and Septuagint intimate. He throws it, with contempt, into the torrent, which supplied the camp with water, and thus caused the idolaters to swallow their gods. (Tirinus) -- Sa assures us, that he saw an alchymist pulverize gold, which Abenezra says is done by means of some herbs, which turn the gold quite black, when it is melted. (Calmet) --- Some use aquafortis for this purpose. (Tirinus) --- But from the account of Moses, (Deuteronomy ix. 21,) it seems fire, and the mill, or file, reduced the gold into the smallest particles, so as to be even potable. Josephus ([Antiquities?] viii. 2,) mentions the gold dust used by the courtiers of Solomon. (Calmet)
32:21 And he said to Aaron: What has this people done to thee, that thou shouldst bring upon them a most heinous sin?
32:22 And he answered him: Let not my lord be offended; for thou knowest this people, that they are prone to evil.
Evil. Aaron answers his younger brother with humility, being now touched with repentance; on which account, God still grants him the high priesthood. (Haydock)
32:23 They said to me: Make us gods, that may go before us; for as to this Moses, who brought us forth out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is befallen him.
32:24 And I said to them: Which of you hath any gold? and they took and brought it to me; and I cast it into the fire, and this calf came out.
Came out. The Rabbins pretend alive, and able to walk. Hence they say Aaron was filled with astonishment, and induced to erect the altar in its honour. (R. Salomo and Burgens.) But these are Jewish fables, injurious to God, and invented to hide, in some degree, the shame of their ancestors. For the same reason, Josephus passes over the whole in silence, and Philo throws the blame on a few Egyptian converts. They might very probably be the ringleaders, as Numbers xi. 4. But the Hebrews in general readily gave in to the delusion, 1 Corinthians x. 7. (Haydock)
32:25 And when Moses saw that the people were naked, (for Aaron had stripped them by occasion of the shame of the filth, and had set them naked among their enemies)
Naked. Having lost not only their gold, and their honour, but what was worst of all, being stripped also of the grace of God, and having lost him. --- The shame of the filth. That is, of the idol, which they had taken for their god. It is the usual phrase of the Scripture to call idols filth, and abominations. (Challoner) --- Of the filth, is not in Hebrew. But it serves to explain how the Hebrews came to be so unprotected and disconcerted. See 2 Paralipomenon xxviii. 19.
32:26 Then standing in the gate of the camp, he said: If any man be on the Lord's side, let him join with me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him:
All the sons; that is, the great majority of them; for some were probably slain, ver. 29.
32:27 And he said to them: Thus saith the Lord God of Israel: Put every man his sword upon his thigh: go, and return from gate to gate through the midst of the camp, and let every man kill his brother, and friend, and neighbour.
32:28 And the sons of Levi did according to the words of Moses, and there were slain that day about three and twenty thousand men.
About, &c. The Hebrew letter c means about, and stands also for twenty. All the versions, and some copies of the Vulgate, retain the first signification; but our edition gives also the second. Sixtus V. and the Louvain Bible have about 33,000. (Haydock) --- St. Paul (1 Corinthians x. 7, 8,) mentions, that three and twenty thousand perished, in punishment of their fornication (with the Moabites), which some explain of the adoration of the calf, and say that Moses only specifies those slain by the Levites; while St. Paul gives the number of all those who perished by the hand of God on this occasion, ver. 35. (Calmet) --- St. Cyril, Alex. glap. 2, Sulpitius, and many other fathers, agree with the Vulgate. The fornication with the Moabites, was followed by the death of 24,000, Numbers xxv. 9. So that St. Paul cannot refer to it, unless he only mention those who perished in one day; and Moses expresses the total amount of the slain during the whole affair. (Haydock)
32:29 And Moses said: You have consecrated your hands this day to the Lord, every man in his son and in his brother, that a blessing may be given to you.
To you. Thus they merited the priesthood, and a blessing; (Deuteronomy xxxiii. 9.; Menochius) having been the ministers of God's just indignation, without sparing any of the most guilty. With these they could not be unacquainted. No external signs on their bodies were requisite to make the delinquents known. They had appeared too publicly. (Haydock) --- The Levites acted with due authority and order, which their father, Levi, had neglected, Genesis xxxiv. (Worthington)
32:30 And when the next day was come, Moses spoke to the people: You have sinned a very great sin: I will go up to the Lord, if by any means I may be able to entreat him for your crime.
You. Many who had not been slain, had followed the bad example, and Aaron, in particular, had brought upon them a most heinous sin, ver. 21. Yet on account of their repentance, they were not subjected to immediate punishment; but they were visited afterwards, ver. 34. Though God was appeased, (ver. 14,) so as not to destroy the whole multitude, Moses thought it a very arduous task to obtain a full reconciliation, notwithstanding the exemplary vengeance he had taken of the ringleaders. Hence he addresses himself to God with the greatest humility, and with such earnestness as scarcely seems justifiable, if we understand that he put his own eternal salvation at stake. But he makes an impossible supposition, or proposal, which he knew God would not admit, to extort as it were the requested favour. As he is willing to die for his people, God pardons them for his sake. (St. Augustine, q. 147, &c.) (Haydock)
32:31 And returning to the Lord, he said: I beseech thee: this people hath sinned a heinous sin, and they have made to themselves gods of gold: either forgive them this trespass,
32:32 Or if thou do not, strike me out of the book that thou hast written.
The book of predestinate. St. Paul uses a similar expression, Romans ix. 3. Neither could he really desire or consent to be accursed, even for a time. Hence their words can be understood only as an hyperbole, to denote the excess of their love for their brethren, as if a child should say to his father, pardon my brother, or kill me. (Tirinus) --- Some explain this book, of the law or covenant, by which Moses was appointed the prince of the Hebrews, which title he is willing to forego, with pleasure, to obtain their pardon. (Calmet) --- Others understand the book, or register of the living. He is willing to die for his people. See Numbers xi. 15; St. Gregory, Mor. x. 7; St. Jerome, ad Algas. --- This sense is very good, and sufficiently expresses the fervour of Moses. Greater love than this no man hath, John xv. 13.
32:33 And the Lord answered him: He that hath sinned against me, him will I strike out of my book:
Book: him will I slay; and, if he die impenitent, I will punish him for ever. (Haydock)
32:34 But go thou, and lead this people whither I have told thee: my angel shall go before thee. And I in the day of revenge will visit this sin also of theirs.
32:35 The Lord therefore struck the people for the guilt, on occasion of the calf which Aaron had made.
Struck, with some judgment not specified; (Lyranus) or perhaps, the various punishments which were inflicted on the Hebrews in the wilderness, were all partly designed to chastise this first act of idolatry. Calmet explains this of the devastation caused by the Levites, as he supposes the narration of Moses does not observe the order of time. He thinks Moses expostulated with the people, and was then sent by God to punish them; and while they were unarmed, (chap. xxxiii. 5,) the Levites fell upon them. Then Moses removed the tabernacle out of the camp, and obtained of God that he would go before them, and not an angel only, ver. 34. and chap. xxxiii. 17. Moses continued full forty days, standing or lying prostrate on the mount, before the Lord, to obtain the pardon of his people, Deuteronomy ix. 25. and x. 10. At the expiration of which term he returned, with an order to prepare two other tables of stone, on which, after a supplication of the same length of time, he obtained the law to be again engraven, chap. xxxiv. 28. The favour cost him therefore 120 days' earnest prayer; and yet how little are we touched with God's mercy, in giving us his law! (Haydock)
Cross-references: 1: Year of the World 2513. ** Acts vii. 40. 4: Psalm cv. 19. 6: 1 Corinthians x. 7. 7: Deuteronomy ix. 12. 8: 3 Kings xii. 28. 9: Exodus xxxiii. 3.; Deuteronomy ix. 13. 11: Numbers xiv. 13.; Psalm cv. 23. 13: Genesis xii. 7. and xv. 7. and xlviii. 16. 20: Deuteronomy ix. 21. 22: 1 John v. 19. 27: Deuteronomy xxxiii. 9.
Chapter 33
The people mourn for their sin. Moses pitcheth the tabernacle without the camp. He converseth familiarly with God. Desireth to see his glory.
33:1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: God, get thee up from this place, thou and thy people which thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt, into the land concerning which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying: To thy seed I will give it:
This place. Mount Sinai, (Menochius) or the tabernacle, ver. 7. (Calmet)
33:2 And I will send an angel before thee, that I may cast out the Chanaanite, and the Amorrhite, and the Hethite, and the Pherezite, and the Hevite, and the Jebusite,
33:3 That thou mayst enter into the land that floweth with milk and honey. For I will not go up with thee, because thou art a stiff-necked people; lest I destroy thee in the way.
I will not go: "in majesty" (Chaldean) and "brightness," Arabic. The angel shall go in his own name, and shall not perform such great miracles. My tabernacle shall be removed to a respectful distance, lest, not being able to endure the barefaced impiety of the people, I slay you in my fury. God addresses Moses, as the representative of the nation, (Menochius) and adopts the language of men, appearing as a king, who cannot bear to be insulted to his face. (Haydock)
33:4 And the people hearing these very bad tidings, mourned: and no man put on his ornaments according to custom.
Ornaments. Chaldean and Syriac, "arms." They had brought jewels, &c., out of Egypt. (Menochius)
33:5 And the Lord said to Moses: Say to the children of Israel: Thou are a stiff-necked people, once I shall come up in the midst of thee, and shall destroy thee. Now presently lay aside thy ornaments, that I may know what to do to thee.
Once, &c. "In a moment." (Pagnin.) --- Shall destroy, if you prove rebellious any more, as I foresee you will. --- Lay aside, as you have done. --- To thee, according to the measure of your repentance or negligence. (Menochius)
33:6 So the children of Israel laid aside their ornaments by Mount Horeb.
By Horeb, or at the foot of the mount. Some think they put them on no more in the wilderness; (Calmet) or at least till they had obtained the tables of the law again, in testimony of God's reconciliation with them. (Salien.)
33:7 Moses also taking the tabernacle, pitched it without the camp afar off, and called the name thereof, The tabernacle of the covenant. And all the people, that had any question, went forth to the tabernacle of the covenant, without the camp.
Tabernacle: not that which God had described, which was set up later, (chap. xl.) but one destined for public and private prayer. (Menochius) --- Afar, a thousand yards. (Thalmud and Villet.) --- Covenant; or alliance, which God had entered into with the people. (Tirinus) --- The Hebrew may signify, "of the assembly or congregation," because there the people met to hear the divine doctrine explained, and to offer up their prayers. --- Camp. Thus were the people reminded of their excommunication, or separation, from the God whom they had so wantonly abandoned, and whose protection and presence were their only support and comfort. (Haydock) --- The record of the covenant was also probably torn, as Moses was ordered to write it again, chap. xxxiv. 27. (Tirinus)
33:8 And when Moses went forth to the tabernacle, all the people rose up, and every one stood in the door of his pavilion, and they beheld the back of Moses, till he went into the tabernacle.
Rose up, out of respect to their prince, who was not their mediator also. (Haydock)
33:9 And when he was gone into the tabernacle of the covenant, the pillar of the cloud came down, and stood at the door, and he spoke with Moses.
He spoke. The angel, conducting the pillar, spoke in God's name. (Menochius)
33:10 And all saw that the pillar of the cloud stood at the door of the tabernacle. And they stood and worshipped at the doors of their tents.
And worshipped. This the Samaritan copy omits. The people bowed towards Moses and the angel. (Calmet)
33:11 And the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man is wont to speak to his friend. And when he returned into the camp, his servant Josue, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not from the tabernacle.
Face to face. That is, in a most familiar manner. Though, as we learn from this very chapter, Moses could not see the face of the Lord. (Challoner) --- The angel assumed a human form, (Menochius) which Moses knew could not fully display the majesty of God; and hence he begs to see his face, or his glory, (ver. 13, 18,) which God declares is impossible for any mortal to do, ver. 20. (Haydock) --- He addresses him, however, with unusual condescension, and speaks to him without any ambiguity, "without any medium," as the Arabic expresses it. Other prophets were instructed by visions, and were filled with terror, Daniel x. 8. --- Young man, though 50 years old, and the general who defeated the Amalecites, chap. xvii. 13. Puer means a servant also, in which capacity Josue waited on Moses, and was alone allowed to be present with him in the tabernacle. He did not sleep there, (Calmet) but guarded it from all profanation. Some say he was still called young, because he was unmarried; in which sense the Chaldean styles him hullema, which corresponds with the Hebrew halma, a virgin. (Serarius) (Tirinus)
33:12 And Moses said to the Lord: Thou commandest me to lead forth this people; and thou dost not let me know whom thou wilt send with me, especially whereas thou hast said: I know thee by name, and thou hast found favour in my sight.
To the Lord. This conversation probably took place on Mount Horeb, (ver. 22,) after God had threatened that he would not go up with the people, chap. xxxii. 34. And here (ver. 3,) Moses, considering that God would thus withdraw his special providence from his people, begins to expostulate with him; and first, having mentioned with gratitude, the repeated kindnesses of God towards himself, he begs to be informed what angel shall accompany him, and then proceeds to beg that God would still shew his wonted favour to the penitent Hebrews, and conduct them himself, as he had done before the transgression. We do not read before, that God said to Moses, I know thee by name; (St. Augustine, q. 193,) but he had used that expression in some conversation with him, as he did afterwards, ver. 17. (Haydock)
33:13 If therefore I have found favour in thy sight, shew me thy face, that I may know thee, and may find grace before thy eyes: look upon thy people this nation.
Face. Hebrew, "way." Be thou our guide. --- Thy people. Acknowledge them again. Moses begs not for any special favour for himself, but only for the Hebrews. (Salien.)
33:14 And the Lord said: My face shall go before thee, and I will give thee rest.
Face. Arabic, "light." Syriac, "walk in my presence," and fear not. The Messias is called the angel of his face, Isaias lxiii. 9. --- Rest. I will grant thy request. (Calmet)
33:15 And Moses said: If thou thyself dost not go before, bring us not out of this place.
Thyself. Moses desires a farther explanation, or a positive assurance that God would conduct them. --- By all, ab omnibus, distinguished in glory from all others. (Chaldean)
33:16 For how shall we be able to know, I and thy people, that we have found grace in thy sight, unless thou walk with us, that we may be glorified by all people that dwell upon the earth?
33:17 And the Lord said to Moses: This word also, which thou hast spoken, will I do; for thou hast found grace before me, and thee I have known by name.
33:18 And he said: Shew me thy glory.
Glory, or face, ver. 13, 20. The angel was robed in darkness, which Moses begs may be removed. Tertullian supposes, he wished to behold the Messias. Many think he desired to contemplate the divine essence. (St. Augustine, q. 161.; Philo; &c.) But, could he be ignorant that such a request could not be granted? (Calmet) --- God promised to shew him all good, or the beatific vision after death. (Haydock)
33:19 He answered: I will shew thee all good, and I will proclaim in the name of the Lord before thee: and I will have mercy on whom I will, and I will be merciful to whom it shall please me.
All good, that could reasonably be desired. "I will pass before thee in all my glory," (Septuagint) and principally in my beneficence, chap. xxxiv. 6, 7. (Calmet) --- I will shew thee what great favours I have in reserve for Israel. Divines dispute whether Moses saw the divine essence. (St. Thomas Aquinas, 1. p, q. 12, a. 11.) (Menochius) --- If he requested to do so now, it seems to be denied, ver. 20. and John i. 17. (Tirinus) --- Proclaim, &c. When I pass, I will repeat some of my glorious titles, and particularly that I am merciful. (Menochius) --- Yet I will shew mercy with discretion, and will punish some of you. (Calmet)
33:20 And again he said: Thou canst not see my face: for man shall not see me, and live.
My face, even in my assumed form. (Menochius) --- The effulgence would cause death, as was commonly believed, Genesis xiii. 16. To behold the divine essence, we must be divested of our mortal body, 1 Corinthians ii. 9. (St. Gregory of Nazianzus, or. 49.) (Haydock) --- Moses, therefore, did not see it on earth, though he had greater favours shewn to him than the other prophets, Numbers xii. 6. (Theodoret, q. 68; St. Chrysostom; &c.) (Worthington)
33:21 And again he said: Behold there is a place with me, and thou shalt stand upon the rock.
33:22 And when my glory shall pass, I will set thee in a hole of the rock, and protect thee with my right-hand till I pass:
33:23 And I will take away my hand, and thou shalt see my back parts: but my face thou canst not see.
See my back parts. The Lord, by his angel, usually spoke to Moses in the pillar of the cloud, so that he could not see the glory of Him that spoke familiarly with him. In the vision here mentioned, he was allowed to see something of Him, in an assumed corporeal form: not in the face, the rays of which were too bright for mortal eye to bear, but to view Him as it were behind, when his face was turned from him. (Challoner) --- Thus our curiosity is repressed. (Du Hamel) --- Servius observes, on Virgil, that the "gods mostly declare themselves by suddenly disappearing. They will not shew their faces." (Iliad. N. Grotius) --- The rock was Christ, (Du Hamel) in whose sacred humanity we discern, at a distance, the majesty of God. (St. Augustine, q. 154.) Moses saw the hinder parts of God, or what should happen to Jesus Christ in the latter days of the synagogue. (Origen, hom. 12.) By this wonderful vision, God was pleased to declare that he was appeased. (Haydock)
Cross-references: 1: Genesis xii. 7. 2: Exodus xxxii. 34. ** Deuteronomy vii. 22.; Josue xxiv. 11. 3: Exodus xxxii. 9.; Deuteronomy ix. 13 19: Romans ix. 15.
Chapter 34
The tables are renewed: all society with the Chanaanites is forbid: some precepts concerning the first-born, the sabbath, and other feasts. After forty days fast, Moses returneth to the people with the commandments, and his face appearing horned with rays of light, he covereth it, whensoever he speaketh to the people.
34:1 And after this he said: Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the former, and I will write upon them the words, which were in the tables, which thou brokest.
Former. Deuteronomy x. 1, adds, and come up to me into the mount, and I, &c. Here.
34:2 Be ready in the morning, that thou mayst forthwith go up into Mount Sinai, and thou shalt stand with me upon the top of the mount.
Go up. From these expressions we might infer, that God gave the order first on Mount Sinai, and repeated it to Moses in the tabernacle, the night before he commenced his third fast and supplication of 40 days. (Haydock) --- After the first tables were broken, others were given; so after baptism we may obtain remission of sin by penance. (St. Jerome, ad Dem.) (Worthington)
34:3 Let no man go up with thee, and let not any man be seen throughout all the mount; neither let the oxen nor the sheep feed over-against it.
Let no, &c. This was to impress all with sentiments of reverence.
34:4 Then he cut out two tables of stone, such as had been before; and rising very early he went up into the Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, carrying with him the tables.
34:5 And when the Lord was come down in a cloud, Moses stood with him, calling upon the name of the Lord.
34:6 And when he passed before him, he said: O the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, patient and of much compassion, and true,
He said. Some refer this to Moses; others, more probably, to God, who had promised, by this signal of the name of the Lord, to testify his presence. (Calmet) --- The angel addresses God in this manner, while Moses lies concealed in the rock, covered with the hand or cloud of God's representative. (Haydock) --- Of the eleven attributes here claimed by God, three regard his essence, six his mercy, and the last two his justice. (Calmet)
34:7 Who keepest mercy unto thousands: who takest away iniquity, and wickedness, and sin, and no man of himself is innocent before thee. Who renderest the iniquity of the fathers to the children, and to the grandchildren, unto the third and fourth generation.
Keepest. So the Targum of Jerusalem reads. Hebrew and Septuagint have, "keepeth." --- No man, &c. All have sinned, Romans iii. 23. Hebrew, "who will not clear the guilty," which is followed by the Chaldean and Septuagint. God is a just judge, who will assuredly punish the impenitent. Yet even in justice, he will remember mercy, and will stop at the third and fourth generation, (Calmet) when the influence of the progenitors' example can have but small influence upon their descendants. If, however, they prove guilty, they must expect chastisement, Exodus xx. 5.
34:8 And Moses making haste, bowed down prostrate unto the earth, and adoring,
34:9 Said: If I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, I beseech thee that thou wilt go with us, (for it is a stiff-necked people) and take away our iniquities and sin, and possess us.
( For it, &c.) If thou do not support me, I shall not be able to govern. (Haydock) --- Possess us. Take us for thy peculiar inheritance. (Menochius)
34:10 The Lord answered: I will make a covenant in the sight of all, I will do signs such as were never seen upon the earth, nor in any nations; that this people, in the midst of whom thou art, may see the terrible work of the Lord which I will do.
Covenant. The first had been made void by idolatry. (Calmet) --- Notwithstanding the former threats, (chap. xxxiii. 3,) God here promises new benefits. (Worthington)
34:11 Observe all things which this day I command thee: I myself will drive out before thy face the Amorrhite, and the Chanaanite, and the Hethite, and the Pherezite, and the Hevite, and the Jebusite.
Observe, O my people, (Menochius) you who shall serve under Josue, when these promises shall be fulfilled. (Haydock) --- The Septuagint add the Gergesite to the list of people who should be expelled. But Lyran. thinks they are omitted in Hebrew, because they had already retired before the approach of the Hebrews. (Calmet)
34:12 Beware thou never join in friendship with the inhabitants of that land, which may be thy ruin:
34:13 But destroy their altars, break their statues, and cut down their groves:
Statues. Septuagint have, "pillars," and subjoin after groves, (unless it be another translation, as Grabe insinuates) "you shall burn with fire the graven things of their gods."
34:14 Adore not any strange god. The Lord his name is Jealous, he is a jealous God.
Jealous. Like a husband, He will watch all your motions.
34:15 Make no covenant with the men of those countries; lest, when they have committed fornication with their gods, and have adored their idols, some one call thee to eat of the things sacrificed.
Covenant. The same word occurs here, as (ver. 12,) in Hebrew and Septuagint. (Haydock) --- It relates chiefly to contracts of marriage, which God forbids the faithful to enter into with the Chanaanites, and with other idolatrous nations, lest they should follow their example. Solomon is reprehended for transgressing this law, (3 Kings xi. 1,) and such marriages are called abominations. (1 Esdras ix. 1.; x. 2, 10.; Josephus) --- But if any of those people became converts, the reason of the prohibition ceased. Hence a captive woman might be married, (Deuteronomy xxi. 11,) and Salmon took Rahab to wife. If Samson and Esther married with heathens, it might be done by God's dispensation, for weighty reasons. (Tirinus) --- Fornication. On account of the dissolute behaviour of those idolaters, their worship is often condemned under this name, Jeremias ii. and iii.; Ezechiel xvi. (Calmet) --- Sacrificed, and thus thou be drawn into a participation in his guilt. The other laws are here repeated from chap. xxiii. (Menochius)
34:16 Neither shalt thou take of their daughters a wife for thy son, lest after they themselves have committed fornication, they make thy sons also to commit fornication with their gods.
Son. The Chaldean and Septuagint add, "nor give any of thy daughters to their sons;" or, joining this verse with the 15th, the Septuagint say, "make no covenant....lest they commit fornication after their gods....and call thee and thou eat....and thou take of thier daughters wives for thy sons, and thou wilt give some of thy daughters to their sons, and thy daughters shall go fornicating after their gods." The most imminent dangers attend those women, who have infidel husbands. (Haydock) --- The intention of Moses, and the custom of the Hebrews, justly reprobated such marriages. (Calmet)
34:17 Thou shalt not make to thyself any molten gods.
34:18 Thou shalt keep the feast of the unleavened bread. Seven days shalt thou eat unleavened bread, as I commanded thee in the time of the month of the new corn: for in the month of the spring time thou camest out from Egypt.
New corn. Hebrew, Abib; the name of the month Nisan, which corresponds with our March and April.
34:19 All of the male kind that openeth the womb, shall be mine. Of all beasts, both of oxen and of sheep, it shall be mine.
34:20 The firstling of an ass thou shalt redeem with a sheep: but if thou wilt not give a price for it, it shall be slain. The first-born of thy sons thou shalt redeem: neither shalt thou appear before me empty.
34:21 Six days shalt thou work, the seventh day thou shalt cease to plough and to reap.
Reap; when the most urgent necessity might seem to authorize labour. (Haydock)
34:22 Thou shalt keep the feast of weeks with the first-fruits of the corn of thy wheat harvest, and the feast when the time of the year returneth that all things are laid in.
Harvest. Pentecost. --- Laid in, at the feast of tabernacles, in September. (Menochius) --- The Septuagint have, "the feast of gathering, in the middle of the (sacred) year." The greatest solemnity of the Passover is mentioned, ver. 18. (Haydock)
34:23 Three times in the year all thy males shall appear in the sight of the almighty Lord the God of Israel.
34:24 For when I shall have taken away the nations from thy face, and shall have enlarged thy borders, no man shall lie in wait against thy land when thou shalt go up, and appear in the sight of the Lord thy God thrice in a year.
In wait. Hebrew and Septuagint, "shall desire." (Calmet) --- God engages to protect their land. (Menochius)
34:25 Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice upon leaven; neither shall there remain in the morning any thing of the victim of the solemnity of the Phase.
Sacrifice of the paschal lamb, to which the Chaldean properly restrains this verse. (Calmet)
34:26 The first of the fruits of thy ground thou shalt offer in the house of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt not boil a kid in the milk of his dam.
Dam. Chaldean, "thou shalt not eat flesh with milk." See chap. xxiii. 19.
34:27 And the Lord said to Moses: Write thee these words, by which I have made a covenant both with thee and with Israel.
34:28 And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights: he neither ate bread nor drank water, and he wrote upon the tables the ten words of the covenant.
Wrote. God wrote on the tables, as he had promised, ver. 1. (Calmet) --- Moses recorded all in this book, as he was ordered, ver. 27. St. Cyprian (de Sp. S.) and St. Augustine (q. 186,) infer, however, from this text, that the second tables had not the same honour as the first. The contrary appears from Deuteronomy x. 4, He (God) wrote....as before. Estius, Calmet, and Menochius think the forty days here mentioned, were those which Moses spent with God to obtain the people's pardon, and the law, at the same time. See chap. xxxii. 35. He continued all that time without meat or sleep, by the power of God, who supports Enoch and Elias in the vigour of health without corporal sustenance. Salien., year of the world 2544, in which year of the world he fixes the death of Job, the great prophet of the Gentiles.
34:29 And when Moses came down from the Mount Sinai, he held the two tables of the testimony, and he knew not that his face was horned from the conversation of the Lord.
Horned. That is, shining, and sending forth rays of light like horns. (Challoner) --- Septuagint, "encircled with glory." St. Paul (2 Corinthians iii. 7,) says, the Hebrews could not look steadfastly at the face of Moses, on account of the glory of his countenance. Hence, he was forced to have a veil, which the apostle observes, was not taken off from the old law till Christ appeared. The Jews and heretics still read the law and the gospel with a veil over their eyes and heart, without understanding them, as they are hidden to those who perish, 2 Corinthians iv. 3. The Jews are much enraged at some Christians, who have represented Moses with horns, as if, they say, he were a devil, or his wife an adulteress. (Stacchus and Drusius.) --- Hebrew, "his skin was radiant" all over his face. These rays commanded respect and awe from the people, who had before said contemptuously, Moses---the man, (chap. xxxii. 1,) as they shewed that God was with him. They had not appeared before, though he had often conversed with the Lord: but now, having seen the glorious vision, they adhered to him during the remainder of his life, particularly when he enforced the obligations of the law to the people. (Haydock) --- The Arabs make their hair stand up like little horns, when they are about 40 years old. (Patric. ii. 4. Navig.) Homer mentions the like custom, and Diomed laughs at Paris calling him the pretty-horned. (Iliad xi.) Many of the ancient heroes and gods are represented with horns, particularly Bacchus, whose history reminds us of many particulars, which belong to Moses. He was born or educated in the confines of Egypt, was exposed on the waters, in a box; had two mothers, and very beautiful. While his army enjoyed the light, the Indians were in darkness. He was preceded by a pillar, had women in his train, dried up rivers with his thyrsus or wand, which had crawled, like a serpent, &c. (Huet. &c.) St. Epiphanius (her. 55,) says the Idumeans adored Moses. Their idol is called Choze by Josephus, (Antiquities xviii. 11,) which may be derived from Chus, the ancestor of Sephora, as Bacchus and Iacchus may denote "the son Bar, or the god Chus," Jah-Chus, who was adored in Arabia; so that Moses, Choze, and Bacchus, probably mean the same person. Chus peopled that part of Arabia where the Hebrews sojourned, Numbers xii. 1. (Calmet)
34:30 And Aaron and the children of Israel seeing the face of Moses horned, were afraid to come near.
34:31 And being called by him, they returned, both Aaron and the rulers of the congregation. And after that he spoke to them,
34:32 And all the children of Israel came to him: and he gave them in commandment all that he had heard of the Lord on Mount Sinai.
34:33 And having done speaking, he put a veil upon his face.
And having, &c. At first, he spoke uncovered. (Menochius) --- The Protestants insert the word till in Italics, to insinuate that Moses spoke with a veil on, as St. Paul mentions; (Haydock) and Calmet would translate, "for Moses had ceased to address the people, and had put a veil upon his face," as soon as he perceived that they could not bear the blaze of his countenance. This he did out of modesty, that they might not be afraid of coming to speak freely to him, (Jansenius) though it was also mysterious, as St. Paul remarks. For even until this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart, (2 Corinthians iii. 15,) as it is upon that of heretics, who cannot see the church. (St. Augustine in Psalm xxx.) (Worthington)
34:34 But when he went in to the Lord, and spoke with him, he took it away until he came forth, and then he spoke to the children of Israel all things that had been commanded him.
34:35 And they saw that the face of Moses when he came out was horned, but he covered his face again, if at any time he spoke to them.
Cross-references: 1: Deuteronomy x. 1. 7: Deuteronomy v. 10.; Jeremias xxxii. 18. ** Psalm cxlii. 2. *** Deuteronomy v. 9.; Jeremias xxxii. 18. 10: Deuteronomy v. 2.; Jeremias xxxii. 40. 15: Exodus xxiii. 32.; Deuteronomy vii. 2. 16: 3 Kings xi. 2.; Deuteronomy vii. 3. 19: Exodus xiii. 2. and 12. and xxii. 29. 22: Exodus xxiii. 15. 23: Exodus xxiii. 17.; Deuteronomy xvi. 16. 25: Exodus xxiii. 18. and 19. 26: Exodus xxiii. 19.; Deuteronomy xiv. 21. 28: Exodus xxiv. 18.; Deuteronomy ix. 9. and 18. ** Deuteronomy iv. 23. 33: 2 Corinthians iii. 13.
Chapter 35
The sabbath. Offerings for making the tabernacle. Beseleel and Ooliab are called to the work.
35:1 And all the multitude of the children of Israel being gathered together, he said to them: These are the things which the Lord hath commanded to be done:
35:2 Six days you shall do work; the seventh day shall be holy unto you, the sabbath and the rest of the Lord: he that shall do any work on it, shall be put to death.
Sabbath. The frequent repetition of this precept, cannot escape the notice of the attentive reader. The sabbath was a distinctive mark of the Jews, and was generally observed by them with the utmost care, and even with scrupulosity. (Haydock) --- They were not allowed to do on it any thing that had the appearance of servility, if it could be avoided without serious inconveniences. But in any urgent necessity of the sick, &c., they might provide meat, and do other work, that could not be done before. They might also repel an enemy, water cattle, &c. Though a mere rest be positively ordered, the design of it shewed that the day was to be spent in religious duties, reading the Bible, &c. Josephus assures us, many were so diligent herein, as to know almost the whole law by heart. (Tirinus)
35:3 You shall kindle no fire in any of your habitations on the sabbath day.
No fire, to dress meat. The Rabbins say it is lawful to light a fire, to warm oneself, or for light. But they generally employ some other to do it for them. The Samaritans and Caraites look upon this as an evasion. (Calmet) --- It was customary to light candles and dress meat before sun-set on Friday. On other festivals, even the greatest, this was not required, as they were not instituted chiefly in memory of God's rest, as the sabbath was, chap. xii. 16. (Haydock)
35:4 And Moses said to all the assembly of the children of Israel: This is the word the Lord hath commanded, saying:
35:5 Set aside with you first-fruits to the Lord. Let every one that is willing and hath a ready heart, offer them to the Lord: gold, and silver, and brass,
35:6 Violet and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, and fine linen, goats' hair,
35:7 And rams' skins dyed red, and violet-coloured skins, setim-wood,
35:8 And oil to maintain lights, and to make ointment, and most sweet incense,
35:9 Onyx stones, and precious stones, for the adorning of the ephod and the rational.
35:10 Whosoever of you is wise, let him come, and make that which the Lord hath commanded:
35:11 To wit, the tabernacle and the roof thereof, and the cover, the rings, and the board-work with the bars, the pillars and the sockets:
35:12 The ark and the staves, the propitiatory, and the veil that is drawn before it:
35:13 The table with the bars and the vessels, and the loaves of proposition:
35:14 The candlestick to bear up the lights, the vessels thereof and the lamps, and the oil for the nourishing of fires:
35:15 The altar of incense, and the bars, and the oil of unction, and the incense of spices: the hanging at the door of the tabernacle:
35:16 The altar of holocaust, and its grate of brass, with the bars and vessels thereof: the laver and its foot:
35:17 The curtains of the court, with the pillars and the sockets, the hanging in the doors of the entry.
35:18 The pins of the tabernacle, and of the court, with their little cords:
35:19 The vestments that are to be used in the ministry of the sanctuary, the vesture of Aaron the high priest, and of his sons, to do the office of priesthood to me.
Vestments, in which the vessels of the tabernacle were folded up. (Vatable)
35:20 And all the multitude of the children of Israel going out from the presence of Moses,
35:21 Offered first-fruits to the Lord with a most ready and devout mind, to make the work of the tabernacle of the testimony. Whatsoever was necessary to the service and to the holy vestments,
35:22 Both men and women gave bracelets and ear-rings, rings and tablets: every vessel of gold was set aside to be offered to the Lord.
And women, by the hands of their husbands, as the Hebrew and Septuagint intimate. --- Tablets, ( dextralia ) ornaments worn on the right hand or arm.
35:23 If any man had violet, and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, fine linen and goats' hair, ramskins dyed red, and violet-coloured skins,
35:24 Metal of silver and brass, they offered it to the Lord, and setim-wood for divers uses.
35:25 The skilful women also gave such things as they had spun, violet, purple, and scarlet, and fine linen,
Spun. The wool, it seems, was dyed first, unless it were naturally of these colours. See Exodus xxv. 5. (Calmet)
35:26 And goats' hair, giving all of their own accord.
35:27 But the princes offered onyx stones, and precious stones, for the ephod and the rational,
35:28 And spices and oil for the lights, and for the preparing of ointment, and to make the incense of most sweet savour.
35:29 All, both men and women, with devout mind offered gifts, that the works might be done which the Lord had commanded by the hand of Moses. All the children of Israel dedicated voluntary offerings to the Lord.
35:30 And Moses said to the children of Israel: Behold, the Lord hath called by name Beseleel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Juda,
35:31 And hath filled him with the spirit of God, with wisdom and understanding, and knowledge and all learning,
35:32 To devise and to work in gold and silver and brass,
35:33 And in engraving stones, and in carpenters' work. Whatsoever can be devised artificially,
35:34 He hath given in his heart: Ooliab also, the son of Achisamech, of the tribe of Dan:
35:35 Both of them hath he instructed with wisdom, to do carpenters' work, and tapestry, and embroidery in blue and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, and fine linen, and to weave all things, and to invent all new things.
Cross-references: 1: Year of the World 2513. 5: Exodus xxv. 2. 30: Exodus xxxi. 2.
Chapter 36
The offerings are delivered to the workmen: the curtains, coverings, boards, bars, veil, pillars, and hanging are made.
36:1 Beseleel therefore, and Ooliab, and every wise man, to whom the Lord gave wisdom and understanding, to know how to work artificially, made the things that are necessary for the uses of the sanctuary, and which the Lord commanded.
36:2 And when Moses had called them, and every skilful man, to whom the Lord had given wisdom, and such as of their own accord had offered themselves to the making of the work,
36:3 He delivered all the offerings of the children of Israel unto them. And while they were earnest about the work, the people daily in the morning offered their vows.
Vows, or voluntary oblations to Moses, according to the Hebrew. (Calmet) --- These donations are called first-fruits, because they were the best of all things, and the first offerings that were made by the people, in the desert. (Tirinus) --- They shew great alacrity in performing this action, as it was to make some atonement for their liberality in honour of the golden calf. (Haydock) --- But as matter alone will not suffice, unless it be properly managed, so neither will the letter of the Scripture instruct us, unless God teach us, by his pastors, Ephesians iv. 11. (Worthington) --- From this place to the end, the Roman edition of the Septuagint is very confused. That of Alcala agrees better with the Vulgate than the Alexandrian or Aldine. See Grabe. Almost all the three following chapters might be comprised in these words. The workmen did all according to God's prescription. Moses perhaps gave them plans of what each was to execute; and hence Calmet accounts for these repetitions. (Haydock)
36:4 Whereupon the workmen being constrained to come,
36:5 Said to Moses: The people offereth more than is necessary.
36:6 Moses therefore commanded proclamation to be made by the crier's voice: Let neither man nor woman offer any more for the work of the sanctuary. And so they ceased from offering gifts,
36:7 Because the things that were offered did suffice, and were too much.
36:8 And all the men that were wise of heart, to accomplish the work of the tabernacle, made ten curtains of twisted fine linen, and violet, and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, with varied work, and the art of embroidering:
36:9 The length of one curtain was twenty-eight cubits, and the breadth four: all the curtains were of the same size.
36:10 And he joined five curtains, one to another, and the other five he coupled one to another.
36:11 He made also loops of violet in the edge of one curtain on both sides, and in the edge of the other curtain in like manner,
36:12 That the loops might meet one against another, and might be joined each with the other.
36:13 Whereupon also he cast fifty rings of gold, that might catch the loops of the curtains, and they might be made one tabernacle.
36:14 He made also eleven curtains of goats' hair, to cover the roof of the tabernacle:
36:15 One curtain was thirty cubits long and four cubits broad: all the curtains were of one measure.
36:16 Five of which he joined apart, and the other six apart.
36:17 And he made fifty loops in the edge of one curtain, and fifty in the edge of another curtain, that they might be joined one to another.
36:18 And fifty buckles of brass wherewith the roof might be knit together, that of all the curtains there might be made one covering.
36:19 He made also a cover for the tabernacle of rams' skins dyed red; and another cover over that of violet skins.
36:20 He made also the boards of the tabernacle of setim-wood standing.
36:21 The length of one board was ten cubits; and the breadth was one cubit and a half.
36:22 There were two mortises throughout every board, that one might be joined to the other. And in this manner he made for all the boards of the tabernacle.
36:23 Of which twenty were at the south side southward,
36:24 With forty sockets of silver, two sockets were put under one board on the two sides of the corners, where the mortises of the sides end in the corners.
36:25 At that side also of the tabernacle, that looketh towards the north, he made twenty boards,
36:26 With forty sockets of silver, two sockets for every board.
36:27 But against the west, to wit, at that side of the tabernacle, which looketh to the sea, he made six boards,
36:28 And two others at each corner of the tabernacle behind:
36:29 Which were also joined from beneath unto the top, and went together into one joint. Thus he did on both sides at the corners:
36:30 So there were in all eight boards, and they had sixteen sockets of silver, to wit, two sockets under every board.
36:31 He made also bars of setim-wood, five to hold together the boards of one side of the tabernacle,
36:32 And five others to join together the boards of the other side; and besides these, five other bars at the west side of the tabernacle towards the sea.
36:33 He made also another bar, that might come by the midst of the boards from corner to corner.
Bar, not mentioned, (chap. xxvi. 28,) but specified by Josephus ([Antiquities?] iii. 5,) at the west end of the tabernacle, going across the breadth of the planks. (Tostat)
36:34 And the boards themselves he overlaid with gold, casting for them sockets of silver. And their rings he made of gold, through which the bars might be drawn: and he covered the bars themselves with plates of gold.
36:35 He made also a veil of violet, and purple, scarlet, and fine twisted linen, varied and distinguished with embroidery:
36:36 And four pillars of setim-wood, which with their heads he overlaid with gold, casting for them sockets of silver.
36:37 He made also a hanging in the entry of the tabernacle of violet, purple, scarlet, and fine twisted linen, with the work of an embroiderer.
36:38 And five pillars with their heads, which he covered with gold, and their sockets he cast of brass.
Which heads, according to the Hebrew and Septuagint. On some parts of the pillars the wood appeared.
Cross-references: 1: Exodus xxvi. 1. ** Year of the World 2514. 2: 1 Paralipomenon xxi. 29.
Chapter 37
Beseleel maketh the ark: the propitiatory, and cherubims, the table, the candlestick, the lamps, and the altar of incense, and compoundeth the incense.
37:1 And Beseleel made also, the ark of setim-wood: it was two cubits and a half in length, and a cubit and a half in breadth, and the height was of one cubit and a half: and he overlaid it with the purest gold within and without.
Half, duos semis cubitos, ver. 6, and chap. xxv. 10. (Tirinus)
37:2 And he made to it a crown of gold round about,
37:3 Casting four rings of gold at the four corners thereof: two rings in one side, and two in the other.
37:4 And he made bars of setim-wood, which he overlaid with gold,
37:5 And he put them into the rings that were at the sides of the ark to carry it.
37:6 He made also the propitiatory, that is, the oracle, of the purest gold, two cubits and a half in length, and a cubit and a half in breadth.
37:7 Two cherubims also of beaten gold, which he set on the two sides of the propitiatory:
37:8 One cherub in the top of one side, and the other cherub in the top of the other side: two cherubims at the two ends of the propitiatory,
37:9 Spreading their wings, and covering the propitiatory, and looking one towards the other, and towards it.
Covering... This indicated that the Scriptures were to be studied with diligence, as they have a literal and a mystical sense. (St. Gregory of Nyssa)
37:10 He made also the table of setim-wood, in length two cubits, and in breadth one cubit, and in height it was a cubit and a half.
37:11 And he overlaid it with the finest gold, and he made to it a golden ledge round about,
37:12 And to the ledge itself he made a polished crown of gold, of four fingers breadth, and upon the same another golden crown.
37:13 And he cast four rings of gold, which he put in the four corners at each foot of the table,
37:14 Over-against the crown: and he put the bars into them, that the table might be carried.
Over-against, or under, chap. xxv. 27. (Tirinus)
37:15 And the bars also themselves he made of setim-wood, and overlaid them with gold.
37:16 And the vessels for the divers uses of the table, dishes, bowls, and cups, and censers of pure gold, wherein the libations are to be offered.
Censers. Hebrew Kapoth, means broad deep dishes or bowls. (Calmet) --- Wherein, meaning the golden vessels aforesaid. (Haydock)
37:17 He made also the candlestick of beaten work of the finest gold. From the shaft whereof its branches, its cups, and bowls, and lilies came out:
37:18 Six on the two sides: three branches on one side, and three on the other.
37:19 Three cups in manner of a nut on each branch, and bowls withal and lilies: and three cups of the fashion of a nut in another branch, and bowls withal and lilies. The work of the six branches, that went out from the shaft of the candlestick was equal.
37:20 And in the shaft itself were four cups after the manner of a nut, and bowls withal at every one, and lilies:
37:21 And bowls under two branches in three places, which together made six branches going out from one shaft.
37:22 So both the bowls, and the branches were of the same, all beaten work of the purest gold.
37:23 He made also the seven lamps with their snuffers, and the vessels where the snuffings were to be put out, of the purest gold.
37:24 The candlestick with all the vessels thereof weighed a talent of gold.
37:25 He made also the altar of incense of setim-wood, being a cubit on every side four-square, and in height two cubits: from the corners of which went out horns.
37:26 And he overlaid it with the purest gold, with its grate, and the sides, and the horns.
37:27 And he made to it a crown of gold round about, and two golden rings under the crown at each side, that the bars might be put into them, and the altar be carried.
37:28 And the bars themselves he made also of setim-wood, and overlaid them with plates of gold.
37:29 He compounded also the oil for the ointment of sanctification, and incense of the purest spices, according to the work of a perfumer.
Cross-references: 1: Year of the World 2514, Year before Christ 1490.
Chapter 38
He maketh the altar of holocaust. The brazen laver. The court with its pillars and hangings. The sum of what the people offered.
38:1 He made also the altar of holocaust of setim-wood, five cubits square, and three in height:
38:2 The horns whereof went out from the corners, and he overlaid it with plates of brass.
38:3 And for the uses thereof, he prepared divers vessels of brass, cauldrons, tongs, flesh-hooks, pot-hooks, and fire-pans.
38:4 And he made the grate thereof of brass, in manner of a net, and under it in the midst of the altar a hearth,
38:5 Casting four rings at the four ends of the net at the top, to put in bars to carry it:
38:6 And he made the bars of setim-wood, and overlaid them with plates of brass:
38:7 And he drew them through the rings that stood out in the sides of the altar. And the altar itself was not solid, but hollow, of boards, and empty within.
38:8 He made also the laver of brass, with the foot thereof, of the mirrors of the women that watched at the door of the tabernacle.
Mirrors. Formerly all sorts of metal, silver, copper, tin, &c., were used for mirrors, till the Europeans began to make them of glass. The best were made of a mixture of copper and tin. (Pliny, [Natural History?] xxxiii. 9.) --- Watched. Hebrew, served like soldiers: fasting and praying, according to the Septuagint and Chaldean. These devout women came thither with great alacrity, to shew their affection towards God, and to consecrate to his service what had hitherto served to nourish vanity. Such were the virgins, mentioned [in] 2 Machabees iii. 19, and those who were abused by the sons of Heli, 1 Kings ii. 22. Ann, the prophetess, and our blessed Lady[Virgin Mary], were thus also employed in the temple, Luke ii. 37. Women kept watch, singing and dancing before the palace of the Persian kings. (Calmet) --- When the tabernacle was fixed at Silo, small apartments were probably built for the convenience of these pious women. (Tirinus)
38:9 He made also the court, in the south side whereof were hangings of fine twisted linen of a hundred cubits.
38:10 Twenty pillars of brass with their sockets, the heads of the pillars, and the whole graving of the work, of silver.
Brass. The Hebrew does not say the pillars were of brass, but only the bases. The body was of wood, encircled with silver, ver. 12. See chap. xxvii. 10. (Calmet)
38:11 In like manner at the north side the hangings, the pillars, and the sockets and heads of the pillars were of the same measure, and work and metal.
38:12 But on that side that looketh to the west, there were hangings of fifty cubits, ten pillars of brass with their sockets, and the heads of the pillars, and all the graving of the work, of silver.
38:13 Moreover, towards the east he prepared hangings of fifty cubits:
38:14 Fifteen cubits of which, were on one side with three pillars, and their sockets:
38:15 And on the other side (for between the two he made the entry of the tabernacle) there were hangings equally of fifteen cubits, and three pillars, and as many sockets.
38:16 All the hangings of the court were woven with twisted linen.
38:17 The sockets of the pillars were of brass, and their heads with all their gravings of silver: and he overlaid the pillars of the court also with silver.
The, &c. Some render the Hebrew, "The bases of the pillars were of brass, the hooks of the pillars and circles were of silver, their chaptrels were covered with silver." Bonfrere supposes that the pillars were of the Ionic order, and that the chaptrels here designate the summit or abacus; while the hooks (vuim) mean the voluta, (Menochius) or bolster, representing the head-dress of virgins in their long hair. (Vitruvius) (Haydock)
38:18 And he made in the entry thereof an embroidered hanging of violet, purple, scarlet, and fine twisted linen, that was twenty cubits long, and five cubits high, according to the measure of all the hangings of the court.
38:19 And the pillars in the entry were four, with sockets of brass, and their heads and gravings of silver.
38:20 The pins also of the tabernacle and of the court round about he made of brass.
38:21 These are the instruments of the tabernacle of the testimony, which were counted according to the commandment of Moses, in the ceremonies of the Levites, by the hand of Ithamar, son of Aaron the priest:
Ithamar, some time after this, (Numbers i. 50,) was appointed to deliver the necessary vessels to the Levites; part of whose duty it was to take down the tabernacle and set it up again, and to keep an account of all things. (Menochius)
38:22 Which Beseleel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Juda, had made, as the Lord commanded by Moses.
38:23 Having for his companion Ooliab, the son of Achisamech, of the tribe of Dan: who also was an excellent artificer in wood, and worker in tapestry and embroidery in violet, purple, scarlet, and fine linen.
38:24 All the gold that was spent in the work of the sanctuary, and that was offered in gifts, was nine and twenty talents, and seven hundred and thirty sicles according to the standard of the sanctuary.
Gifts, voluntarily. The following verse mentions what arose from the tax of half a sicle per head, chap xxx. 13.
38:25 And it was offered by them that went to be numbered, from twenty years old and upwards, of six hundred and three thousand five hundred and fifty men able to bear arms.
And it, &c. Hebrew is rather more express, "And the silver given by those who were numbered, was a hundred talents, 1775 sicles of the weight of the sanctuary, ver. 26. They gave each half a sicle, paid by all those who were 20 years old and upwards, amounting to 603,550 men." Hence the talent would weigh exactly 3000 sicles, (Calmet) or 12,000 drachmas. Some say that the common talent weighed 100 pounds, and that of the sanctuary 120, each pound containing 25 sicles. (Du Hamel)
38:26 There were moreover a hundred talents of silver, whereof were cast the sockets of the sanctuary, and of the entry where the veil hangeth.
38:27 A hundred sockets were made of a hundred talents, one talent being reckoned for every socket.
38:28 And of the thousand seven hundred and seventy-five he made the heads of the pillars, which also he overlaid with silver.
38:29 And there were offered of brass also seventy-two thousand talents, and four hundred sicles besides,
Seventy. Hebrew confines the number of talents to 70, and allows "two thousand and four hundred sicles." The Greek interpreters vary.
38:30 Of which were cast the sockets in the entry of the tabernacle of the testimony, and the altar of brass with the grate thereof, and all the vessels that belong to the use thereof.
38:31 And the sockets of the court as well round about as in the entry thereof, and the pins of the tabernacle, and of the court round about.
Cross-references: 1: Year of the World 2514. ** 2 Paralipomenon i. 5. 7: Exodus xxvii. 8.
Chapter 39
All the ornaments of Aaron and his sons are made. And the whole work of the tabernacle is finished.
39:1 And he made, of violet and purple, scarlet and fine linen, the vestments for Aaron to wear when he ministered in the holy places, as the Lord commanded Moses.
Vestments. Hebrew distinguishes, "the clothes of service" destined to fold up the tabernacle and vessels, from "the holy garments of Aaron."
39:2 So he made an ephod of gold, violet, and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, and fine twisted linen,
39:3 With embroidered work, and he cut thin plates of gold, and drew them small into threads, that they might be twisted with the woof of the aforesaid colours,
Threads. Hebrew, "wires to work it in the blue....with cunning work." The ancients had the art of beating gold into thin plates, with which they adorned the horns of their victims, &c. (Virgil, Aeneid iv.) See Numbers xvi. 58. (Calmet)
39:4 And two borders coupled one to the other in the top on either side,
39:5 And a girdle of the same colours, as the Lord had commanded Moses.
39:6 He prepared also two onyx stones, fast set and closed in gold, and graven, by the art of a lapidary, with the names of the children of Israel:
39:7 And he set them in the sides of the ephod, for a memorial of the children of Israel, as the Lord had commanded Moses.
39:8 He made also a rational with embroidered work, according to the work of the ephod, of gold, violet, purple, and scarlet twice dyed, and fine twisted linen:
39:9 Four-square, double, of the measure of a span.
39:10 And he set four rows of precious stones in it. In the first row was a sardius, a topaz, an emerald.
39:11 In the second, a carbuncle, a sapphire, and a jasper.
39:12 In the third, a ligurius, an agate, and an amethyst.
39:13 In the fourth, a chrysolite, an onyx, and a beryl, set and enclosed in gold by their rows.
39:14 And the twelve stones, were engraved with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, each one with its several name.
39:15 They made also in the rational little chains, linked one to another, of the purest gold,
39:16 And two hooks, and as many rings of gold. And they set the rings on either side of the rational,
39:17 On which rings the two golden chains should hang, which they put into the hooks that stood out in the corners of the ephod.
39:18 These both before and behind so answered one another, that the ephod and the rational were bound together,
39:19 Being fastened to the girdle, and strongly coupled with rings, which a violet fillet joined, lest they should flag loose, and be moved one from the other, as the Lord commanded Moses.
Fastened to the girdle. This is not specified in the Hebrew. The Vulgate has abridged some verses, in these chapters, to avoid repetitions.
39:20 They made also the tunic of the ephod all of violet,
39:21 And a hole for the head in the upper part at the middle, and a woven border round about the hole:
39:22 And beneath at the feet pomegranates of violet, purple, scarlet, and fine twisted linen:
39:23 And little bells of the purest gold, which they put between the pomegranates at the bottom of the tunic round about:
39:24 To wit, a bell of gold, and a pomegranate, wherewith the high priest went adorned, when he discharged his ministry, as the Lord had commanded Moses.
Pomegranate, alternately, chap. xxviii. Clement of Alexandria observes, that the 366 bells denote the leap year, in which Christ began to preach. (Tirinus)
39:25 They made also fine linen tunics with woven work for Aaron and his sons:
39:26 And mitres with their little crowns of fine linen:
39:27 And linen breeches of fine linen:
Of fine linen, or cotton, and of common linen, as Pollux describes it. The Samaritan copy adds, "Breeches of linen, of byssus, of violet, of scarlet, of purple, of embroidery work, according to the command of the Lord."
39:28 And a girdle of fine twisted linen, violet, purple, and scarlet twice dyed, of embroidery work, as the Lord had commanded Moses.
39:29 They made also the plate of sacred veneration of the purest gold, and they wrote on it with the engraving of a lapidary: The Holy of the Lord:
Veneration, of which it was deserving. Hebrew, "the crown of holiness." It reminded the high priest of his consecration to the Lord, and of the sanctity with which he ought to appear before him.
39:30 And they fastened it to the mitre with a violet fillet, as the Lord had commanded Moses.
39:31 So all the work of the tabernacle and of the roof of the testimony was finished: and the children of Israel did all things which the Lord had commanded Moses.
39:32 And they offered the tabernacle, and the roof, and the whole furniture, the rings, the boards, the bars, the pillars and their sockets,
39:33 The cover of rams' skins dyed red, and the other cover of violet skins,
39:34 The veil, the ark, the bars, the propitiatory,
39:35 The table, with the vessels thereof, and the loaves of proposition:
39:36 The candlestick, the lamps, and the furniture of them, with the oil:
39:37 The altar of gold, and the ointment, and the incense of spices:
39:38 And the hanging in the entry of the tabernacle:
39:39 The altar of brass, the grate, the bars, and all the vessels thereof: the laver, with the foot thereof: the hangings of the court, and the pillars, with their sockets:
39:40 The hanging in the entry of the court, and the little cords, and the pins thereof. Nothing was wanting of the vessels, that were commanded to be made for the ministry of the tabernacle, and for the roof of the covenant.
39:41 The vestments also, which the priests, to wit, Aaron and his sons, use in the sanctuary,
39:42 The children of Israel offered, as the Lord had commanded.
39:43 And when Moses saw all things finished, he blessed them.
Finished, exactly according to God's prescriptions. --- Blessed them, the people, who had contributed so liberally; and the workmen, who had performed their task so much to his satisfaction. (Calmet) --- He also blessed the sacred vessels, as they were destined for the worship of God. (Haydock)
Cross-references: 1: Year of the World 2514. ** Exodus xxviii. 6.
Chapter 40
The tabernacle is commanded to be set up and anointed. God filleth it with his majesty.
40:1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:
40:2 The first month, the first day of the month, thou shalt set up the tabernacle of the testimony,
Month of the second year, ver. 15. The first day of every month was kept with some degree of solemnity, though it was not a day of rest. (Numbers xxxiii. 11.; 1 Kings xx. 5.; &c.) (Calmet)
40:3 And shalt put the ark in it, and shalt let down the veil before it:
40:4 And thou shalt bring in the table, and set upon it the things that are commanded according to the rite. The candlestick shall stand with its lamps,
40:5 And the altar of gold, whereon the incense is burnt before the ark of the testimony. Thou shalt put the hanging in the entry of the tabernacle,
40:6 And before it the altar of holocaust.
40:7 The laver between the altar and the tabernacle, and thou shalt fill it with water.
40:8 And thou shalt encompass the court with hangings, and the entry thereof.
40:9 And thou shalt take the oil of unction and anoint the tabernacle with its vessels, that they may be sanctified:
40:10 The altar of holocaust and all its vessels:
40:11 The laver with its foot: thou shalt consecrate all with the oil of unction, that they may be most holy.
40:12 And thou shalt bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the tabernacle of the testimony, and having washed them with water,
40:13 Thou shalt put on them the holy vestments, that they may minister to me, and that the unction of them may prosper to an everlasting priesthood.
Priesthood. Hebrew, "And thou shalt put upon Aaron the holy garments, and anoint him, and sanctify him, that he may serve me in the priest's office: (14) and thou shalt bring his sons, and put on them their tunics; (15) and thou shalt anoint them, as thou didst anoint their father, that they may perform the office of priests to me for ever, in their generations." As the priesthood was hereditary in Aaron's family, this first unction might suffice for all. Yet, the new high priests were always anointed till the days of our Saviour, chap xxix. 7.
40:14 And Moses did all that the Lord had commanded.
40:15 So in the first month of the second year, the first day of the month, the tabernacle was set up.
40:16 And Moses reared it up, and placed the boards and the sockets and the bars, and set up the pillars,
40:17 And spread the roof over the tabernacle, putting over it a cover, as the Lord had commanded.
Cover of purple, goat skins, &c.
40:18 And he put the testimony in the ark, thrusting bars underneath, and the oracle above.
Testimony, or tables of the law. The pagans enclosed various symbolical figures, cakes, &c., in their mystic arks. (St. Clement of Alexandria) But how different were they from the sacred records of religion! (Calmet)
40:19 And when he had brought the ark into the tabernacle, he drew the veil before it to fulfil the commandment of the Lord.
40:20 And he set the table in the tabernacle of the testimony, at the north side, without the veil,
40:21 Setting there in order the loaves of proposition, as the Lord had commanded Moses.
40:22 He set the candlestick also in the tabernacle of the testimony, over-against the table on the south side,
40:23 Placing the lamps in order, according to the precept of the Lord.
40:24 He set also the altar of gold under the roof of the testimony, over-against the veil,
Roof, covering both the holy of holies and the sanctuary. (Menochius)
40:25 And burnt upon it the incense of spices, as the Lord had commanded Moses.
40:26 And he put also the hanging in the entry of the tabernacle of the testimony,
40:27 And the altar of holocaust in the entry of the testimony, offering the holocaust, and the sacrifices upon it, as the Lord had commanded.
40:28 And he set the laver between the tabernacle of the testimony and the altar, filling it with water.
Laver. This is a repetition of ver. 7, (Calmet) shewing that the command was fulfilled. (Haydock)
40:29 And Moses and Aaron, and his sons, washed their hands and feet,
40:30 When they went into the tabernacle of the covenant, and went to the altar, as the Lord had commanded Moses.
40:31 He set up also the court round about the tabernacle and the altar, drawing the hanging in the entry thereof. After all things were perfected,
40:32 The cloud covered the tabernacle of the testimony, and the glory of the Lord filled it.
Glory. The cloud which had rested over the tent, appointed for prayer, came now to the grand tabernacle, in the midst of the camp. (Calmet) --- By its superior lustre, it signified that the glory of God was there. (St. Augustine, q. 173.)
40:33 Neither could Moses go into the tabernacle of the covenant, the cloud covering all things, and the majesty of the Lord shining, for the cloud had covered all.
Moses, out of respect, abstained from entering that day. (Calmet) --- The cloud of legal observances, though designed to prefigure Christ and the gospel, seems however to hinder the Jews from recognizing them. (St. Augustine) (Tirinus)
40:34 If at any time the cloud removed from the tabernacle, the children of Israel went forward by their troops:
40:35 If it hung over, they remained in the same place.
40:36 For the cloud of the Lord hung over the tabernacle by day, and a fire by night, in the sight of all the children of Israel throughout all their mansions.
A fire. The same cloud overshadowed the camp by day, and enlightened it by night. (Chaldean; Chap. xiii. 22.)
Cross-references: 13: Exodus xxv. 35.; Leviticus viii. 2. 15: Year of the World 2514. 16: Numbers vii. 1. 32: Numbers ix. 15.; 3 Kings viii. 10.
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