Exodus · Chapter 7

V. 1. I have made thee a god to Pharaoh-That is, my representative in this affair, as magistrates are called gods, because they are God’s vicegerents. He was authorized to speak and act in God’s name, and endued with a divine power, to do that which is above the ordinary course of nature. And Aaron shall be thy prophet-That is, he shall speak from thee to Pharaoh, as prophets do from God to the children of men. Thou shalt as a god inflict and remove the plagues, and Aaron as a prophet shall denounce them.

Verse 1. I have made thee a god] At thy word every plague shall come, and at thy command each shall be removed. Thus Moses must have appeared as a god to Pharaoh.

Shall be thy prophet.] Shall receive the word from thy mouth, and communicate it to the Egyptian king, Exodus 7:2.

Verse 1. A god to Pharaoh — That is, my representative in this affair, as magistrates are called gods, because they are God’s vicegerents. He was authorized to speak and act in God’s name, and endued with a divine power, to do that which is above the ordinary course of nature. And Aaron shall be thy prophet — That is, he shall speak from thee to Pharaoh, as prophets do from God to the children of men. Thou shalt as a god inflict and remove the plagues, and Aaron as a prophet shall denounce them.

Verse 1. I have made thee a god. µyhla Elohim. The Chaldaic renders it brl hyl yjt Thou shalt be to him for a prince. The divine sense of the word is, I have invested thee with Godlike powers to save and to destroy; yea, in the ten plagues about to follow, to move nature at thy command. The title of Elohim is in several places given to supreme magistrates; and Moses on this occasion was God’s vicegerent.

1. I have made thee a god to Pharaoh — No more was he to come to Pharaoh as a suppliant, but now he was invested with divine authority. To Aaron, Moses was a revealer of God’s will, (Exodus 4:16,) but to Pharaoh he was now to appear clothed with God’s power. Hitherto he had been an advocate, a mediator, and in that position had painfully felt the embarrassment of his slowness of speech; but now his deeds were to speak, and, armed with Jehovah’s thunders, he was to smite down the gods of Egypt. Thus, then, the Lord replies to Moses’s despairing plea — “See, I have made thee a god!” Pharaoh had refused to glorify God by obedience to Moses as a messenger of his mercy; now shall he glorify him by submitting to Moses as a messenger of his wrath. The results of these threatened judgments are now predicted.

2. Aaron thy brother shall speak unto Pharaoh (the words of authority which I have commanded) that he send the children of Israel out of his land — Rather, and he will send; prediction of the final result.

Verse 3. I will harden Pharaoh’s heart] I will permit his stubbornness and obstinacy still to remain, that I may have the greater opportunity to multiply my wonders in the land, that the Egyptians may know that I only am Jehovah, the self-existent God. See Clarke note on “Exodus 4:21”.

Ver. 3. I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, or allow him to remain in full revolt, that the nation may know my name in all the chastenings of my rod.—We have had painful disputes about the doctrines of grace. Tirinus, the jesuit, has a rough note here. “Not harden his heart by willing, intending, or acting, much less by impelling or compelling, as Calvin impiously blasphemes, and other heretics of our own age; but only indirectly causing, and not hindering him. Here Pharaoh was less wicked than Calvin, who ascribes the evils, not to God, but to himself, saying to Moses and Aaron, I have sinned against the Lord, and against you.” Exodus 10:16. Such was the harsh language of divines in those uncouth and darker times. Vide Calv. in Exodus 4:21.

3. And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart — At this stage of history Pharaoh had so far resisted the truth that God’s judgments but increased his obstinacy, and made him plunge into deeper and deeper rebellion. This result is foreseen and predicted, that Moses may be prepared for it. Pharaoh’s sin and its judicial consequences were to be the means of setting forth the attributes of Jehovah before the heathen. See on Exodus 4:21.

4. But Pharaoh shall not hearken — There is nothing imperative or determinative in the use of the verb here; it is a simple future, and the verbs following are to be translated as futures, thus: But Pharaoh will not hearken… and I will lay my hand upon Egypt, and will bring forth mine armies… and the Egyptians will know.

Verse 5. And bring out the children of Israel] Pharaoh’s obstinacy was either caused or permitted in mercy to the Egyptians, that he and his magicians being suffered to oppose Moses and Aaron to the uttermost of their power, the Israelites might be brought out of Egypt in so signal a manner, in spite of all the opposition of the Egyptians, their king, and their gods, that Jehovah might appear to be All-mighty and All-sufficient.

V. 7. Moses was fourscore years old-Joseph, who was to be only a servant to Pharaoh, was preferred at thirty years old; but Moses, who was to be a god to Pharaoh, was not so dignified till he was eighty years old. It is fit he should long wait for such an honour, and be long in preparing for such a service.

Verse 7. Moses was fourscore years old] He was forty years old when he went to Midian, and he had tarried forty years in Midian; (see Exodus 2:11, and Acts 7:30;) and from this verse it appears that Aaron was three years older than Moses. We have already seen that Miriam their sister was older than either, Exodus 2:4.

Verse 7. Moses was fourscore years old — Joseph, who was to be only a servant to Pharaoh, was preferred at thirty years old; but Moses, who was to be a god to Pharaoh, was not so dignified till he was eighty years old. It was fit he should long wait for such an honour, and be long in preparing for such a service.

7. Moses was fourscore years old — Here, at the close of the recapitulation, we have the ages of the great actors in this drama set before us. Aaron, it seems, was three years older than Moses; and as we hear nothing of any special apprehensions of danger at the time of his birth, it is possible, though not certain, that the cruel edict which endangered the life of Moses had not then been promulgated. Miriam is not here mentioned, but she is generally supposed to be the sister, older than Moses and Aaron, mentioned in the second chapter. Moses entered on his great mission at fourscore, but as his ancestors Amram, Levi, and Jacob lived beyond the third of their second century, and he himself reached the one hundred and twentieth year, we may regard him as now having the vigour of a man of forty-five. There are nearly contemporary Egyptian records which show similar instances of Egyptian longevity. Stuart Poole gives (in Smith’s Dict.) a translation of a hieratic papyrus containing a discourse of a king’s son of the fifteenth dynasty of Shepherd Kings at Memphis, wherein the author speaks of himself as one hundred and ten years of age, and of his father as still reigning, who must then have been older than Moses, and probably as old as Levi. Yet these must be regarded as exceptional instances, for the ninetieth Psalm, entitled “A prayer of Moses, the man of God,” speaks of seventy or eighty years as the usual length of human life. And in harmony with this, Caleb, the contemporary of Moses, says of himself at eighty-five, “Behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, even since the Lord spake this word unto Moses, while Israel wandered in the wilderness: and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old. As yet I am strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me.” Joshua 14:10, 11. Caleb evidently regards himself as vigorous at eighty-five by God’s special blessing. THE TEN PLAGUES, Exodus 7:8-12:30.

Moses and Aaron now stand before Pharaoh as ministers of judgment, and the conflict opens between Jehovah and the gods of Egypt. The first contest between the messengers of Jehovah and the magicians, or enchanters, who are regarded as the servants of the false gods, given in verses 8-13, is properly the opening scene of the struggle, and is therefore here included in the section with it. Several general observations on the whole subject are most conveniently introduced here for future reference.

(1.) The great and worthy object of these “signs and wonders” is throughout to be carefully held before the mind. There were several secondary purposes met, but the chief aim was, not to inflict retribution upon Egypt, although they did this as judgments, nor to give Israel independence, though they effected this by crushing the oppressor, but to teach the world the nature of God. It was a series of most solemn lessons in the fundamental truths of religion — in God’s attributes and government. With perfect distinctness and reiterated emphasis is this declared from the very beginning: “I am JEHOVAH… Ye shall know… the Egyptians shall know that I am JEHOVAH.” Events were to burn into the national consciousness of Israel, and into the memory of the world, the great truths revealed in the Memorial Name; and the faith of Israel, the sin of Pharaoh, and the might and splendour of Egyptian heathenism, were the divinely chosen instruments to accomplish this work. The rich Nile-land teemed with gods, and was the mother country of the idolatries that, centuries afterward, covered the Mediterranean islands and peninsulas, and filled the classic literature with such manifold forms of beauty. The gods of Greece were born in Egypt, and the Sibyls of Delphos and Cumaea descended from the sorcerers who contended with Moses. In no other land has idolatry ever reared such grand and massive structures as in Egypt. The immense ram-headed Ammun and hawk-headed Ra, the placid monumental Osiris, the colossal Rameses, sitting in granite “with his vast hands resting upon his elephantine knees,” these, and their brother gods of the age of the Pharaohs, have looked down upon the rising and falling Nile through all the centuries of European civilization. In no other land were the manifold forms and productions of nature so deified. In their pantheistic idolatry they offered worship not only to the sun, and moon, and earth, but to bulls, crocodiles, cats, hawks, asps, scorpions, and beetles. They seem to have made to themselves likenesses of almost every thing in “heaven above, in earth beneath, and in the waters under the earth.” The Apis and Mnevis bulls were stalled in magnificent palaces at Memphis and Heliopolis, and were embalmed in massive marble and granite sarcophagi, grander than enclosed the Theban kings. The sepulchres of Egyptian bulls have outlasted the sepulchres of Roman emperors. Nowhere else were kings so deified as here. Pharaoh incarnated in himself the national idolatry, and to crush the king was to crush the gods. The king made his palace a temple, and enthroned himself among the Egyptian deities. He sculptured himself colossal — so vast that the Arabs to-day quarry millstones from his cheeks — sitting hand in hand and arm in arm with his gods. To-day Rameses sits in the temple of Ipsambul between Ra and Ammun, his tall crown rising between the hawk head of the one and the tiara of the other, looking out from his rock-hewn shrine upon the desert, as he has sat since the Pharaohs. From Cambyses to Napoleon invasion after invasion has swept the Nile valley — wave on wave — yet here have sat these massive forms, the Nile coming to bathe their feet year by year, as if brothers to the mountains. They mark the graves of Egypt’s vanished gods, while the name of Him who smote these gods to death with Moses’s rod liveth forever.

(2.) But Egypt was the mother-land of philosophies as well as idolatries. Long ages after Moses, Herodotus, Pythagoras, and Plato followed the Hebrew lawgiver to the oldest university in the world. The Egyptian philosophy was inextricably entangled with its religion, and deciphered papyri show that magic and sorcery were esteemed as highly at the court of Pharaoh, as, long after, in the time of Daniel, at the court of Nebuchadnezzar. The dreamy mysticism of Plato and of Philo reveals how hopelessly most precious truths were entangled in priestly juggleries, and how deeply this black art, or illusion, or demonism, left its mark on the ancient world. The heathen idolatry had no more potent allies in the old civilizations than the soothsayers, sorcerers, and magicians, and it was needful that they too should be signally vanquished by the prophet of the true God. Hence Moses in Egypt — as, a thousand years later, Daniel in Babylon, and a half thousand years later still, Paul at Salamis and Philippi — discomfited the false prophets who aped God’s mighty works with their lying wonders. The sooth-saying and necromancy found in Christian lands to-day belong to the same kingdom of darkness, and can be exorcised only in that “Name which is above every name.” Moses, then, smites for mankind; Israel brings the Sacred Name through the wilderness for the world.

(3.) The weapons and tactics of this warfare were not such as to inflame the pride of the people of Israel, or to awaken in after generations a thirst for military glory, but such as to turn the tides of their faith and hope wholly away from themselves to their God. Hence the Hebrew national anthems glory in Jehovah rather than in Israel. Not the baptism of a war of national independence, but that of the Red Sea redemption, was their great national remembrance. Enthusiasm for Jehovah thus became the national passion. How appropriate was this in the training of a nation which was to teach the world true religion!

The real character of these plagues, or judgment strokes, will, as a general thing, appear from an attentive study of the Egyptian geography and natural history. They arise, as can usually be seen on the face of the narrative, from natural causes supernaturally intensified and directed. In the first and ninth plagues the natural causation is less distinct. They cannot, however, be explained away as natural events; for, if the record is to be believed at all, they were supernatural — (1) in their definiteness, the time of their occurrence and discontinuance being distinctly predicted; (2) in their succession; and (3) in their intensity. They were, in their power and direction, threefold: (1) against the Egyptian faith in the diviners, enchanters, and sorcerers, the prophets of a false religion. (2) Against their faith in their deities, their gods of earth, and water, and air — powers of nature; and beasts, and birds, and creeping things. Thus Jehovah’s supremacy over idolatry appeared. But (3) they were also punishments for disobedience to God. There is from the beginning a gradually increasing intensity in these supernatural manifestations till the magicians are utterly discomfited, all the gods of Egypt put to shame, and Pharaoh compelled to yield reluctant obedience. At first the magicians seem to display the same power as Moses, (Exodus 7:11, 22,) then come signs beyond their power. (Exodus 8:18;) soon the prophet of Jehovah so smites them that they cannot appear at all, (Exodus 9:11;) and then they vanish altogether. So the weight of the judgments increases as with increasing light the crime of disobedience rises in magnitude — beginning with simple though sore annoyances, as blood, frogs, and flies; then advancing to the destruction of food and cattle — smiting first their dwelling-place and surroundings, and then themselves; till the locusts swept the earth and the darkness filled the heaven, and only the death stroke was left to fall. Thus we are taught how the consequence of sin is sin, and judgments unheeded inevitably lead on to sorer judgments, till destruction comes.

(4.) Some commentators have found a special application in each plague to some particular idolatry or idolatrous rite, but this we do not find warranted by facts. Some, following Philo, the learned and devout but fanciful Alexandrian Jew, separate the plagues into two groups of nine and one, and then the nine into three groups of three, between which groups they trace what they deem instructive contrasts and correspondences. Origen, Augustine, and others, have traced parallels between these ten judgments and the ten commandments, the succession of the judgments and of the creative days, etc. Most of these interpretations — not to dwell on the extravagant conceits of the Rabbies — are amusing rather than instructive, and would be appropriate rather to a sacred romance or drama than to a sober history like this. The wild fables of the Talmud, the monstrosities of the Koran, and the often romantically embellished history of Josephus, present here an instructive contrast to the sacred narrative.

(5.) Thus far the Egyptian monuments give us no distinct mention of the plagues and of the exodus. We have, however, Egyptian records of the sojourn and exodus of Israel, although confused and fragmentary, and written more than a thousand years after the events. Chief and most valuable among these is the narrative of the priest Manetho, who wrote his Egyptian history during the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, B.C. 283-247, of which a few fragments remain. Josephus has preserved all that we have of this narrative in his work against Apion. It is, as might be expected, a very different history, being the relation of an Egyptian priest many centuries after the events; yet the points of agreement are very striking. The Israelites appear in Manetho’s story as a nation of lepers, headed by Osarsiph, a priest of Osiris, who had been educated at Heliopolis, but abandoned his order and the Egyptian religion to take the lead of this people. He taught them to abjure idolatry, gave them laws, a constitution and ceremonial, and when he united his fortunes with theirs he changed his name to Moses. The war is described as a religious war, in which, for the time, the Egyptians were discomfited, and obliged, in compliance with prophetic warnings, to abandon the country for thirteen years, and to flee, with their king Amenophis, into Ethiopia, taking with them the bull Apis and other sacred animals, while this leprous nation, reinforced by shepherds from Jerusalem, fortified themselves in Avaris, (Zoan,) a city of Goshen, robbed the temples, insulted the gods, roasted and ate the sacred animals, and cast contempt in every way upon the Egyptian worship. Amenophis afterwards returned with a great army and chased the shepherds and lepers out of his dominions through a dry desert to Palestine. (From Ewald’s trans., Hist. of Israel, 2:79.) Here, as Ewald shows, the great outlines of the story of the exodus are to be clearly seen; the Mosaic leadership, the war of religions, the uprising of the hostile religion in Egypt itself, the leprous affliction of the revolting people, so pointedly mentioned in the Pentateuch, the secret superstitious dread inspired by Moses, which seems to have shaken the foundations of the Egyptian religion, the confession of defeat in the struggle, and the transformation of the exodus into an expulsion from Egypt — these are unmistakable traces of the same history coming down through Egyptian channels. The later Egyptian writers, Chaeremon and Lysimachus, echo the story of Manetho, mingling with it Hebrew traditions. (Josephus Against Apion, bks. i, 2.)

(6.) The exotic of Israel from Egypt is a fact now universally admitted, whatever differences may exist in its explanation. Bunsen says, in his Egypt, that “History herself was born on that night when Moses led forth his countrymen from the land of Goshen.” That this event resulted from some heavy calamities which at that time befel the Egyptians, or, in other words, that the narrative of the plagues has a solid historical foundation, is also now maintained with unbroken unanimity by Hebrew and Egyptian scholars, even by those who decline to see in these events anything supernatural. Thus Ewald says, that this history, “on the whole, exhibits the essence of the event as it actually happened.” And Knobel says, that “in the time of Moses circumstances had transpired which made it possible for the Hebrews to go forth of themselves, and impossible for the Egyptians to hinder their undertaking or to force them to return.” In other words, they who refuse to recognise here miraculous influence do recognise miraculous coincidence. Without any war, which, had it happened, must, as Knobel says, have left some trace in the history — without any invasion from abroad or insurrection from within to weaken the Egyptian power — a nation, unified and vitalized by faith in the one Jehovah, went forth unhindered from the bosom of a strong and prosperous empire. This is the event to be explained. The Mosaic record alone gives an adequate cause.

V. 9. Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod-This Moses ordinarily held in his hand, and delivered it to Aaron upon occasion, for the execution of his commands.

Verse 9. Show a miracle for you] A miracle, tpwm mopheth, signifies an effect produced in nature which is opposed to its laws, or such as its powers are inadequate to produce. As Moses and Aaron professed to have a Divine mission, and to come to Pharaoh on the most extraordinary occasion, making a most singular and unprecedented demand, it was natural to suppose, if Pharaoh should even give them an audience, that he would require them to give him some proof by an extraordinary sign that their pretensions to such a Divine mission were well founded and incontestable. For it appears to have ever been the sense of mankind, that he who has a Divine mission to effect some extraordinary purpose can give a supernatural proof that he has got this extraordinary commission. Take thy rod] This rod, whether a common staff, an ensign of office, or a shepherd’s crook, was now consecrated for the purpose of working miracles; and is indifferently called the rod of God, the rod of Moses, and the rod of Aaron. God gave it the miraculous power, and Moses and Aaron used it indifferently.

Verse 9. Say unto Aaron, Take thy rod — This Moses ordinarily held in his hand, and delivered to Aaron, upon occasion, for the execution of his commands. For this and some other miracles were to be done, not by Moses immediately, but by Aaron, partly, perhaps, to preclude or take off the suspicion that these miracles were wrought by some magic arts of Moses, and partly for the greater honour of Moses, that he might be what God had said, (verse 1,) a god to Pharaoh, who not only could work miracles himself, but also give power to others to do so. Perhaps the conjecture of Grotius upon this place may be worth mentioning here, which is, that the custom of ambassadors bearing a caduceus, or rod, in their hands, had its origin in this event, being taken up first by the neighbouring nations, and from them communicated to the Greeks and Romans. And it is remarkable that the caduceus of Mercury, the messenger of the gods of Greece and Rome, was formed of two serpents twisted round a rod.

V. 10. And Aaron cast his rod down, and it became a serpent-This was proper not only to affect Pharaoh with wonder, but to strike a terror upon him. This first miracle, though it was not a plague, yet amounted to the threatening of a plague; if it made not Pharaoh feel, it made him fear; this is God’s method of dealing with sinners he comes upon them gradually.

Verse 10. It became a serpent.] תנין tannin. What kind of a serpent is here intended, learned men are not agreed. From the manner in which the original word is used in Psalm 74:13; Isaiah 27:1; 51:9; Job 7:12; some very large creature, either aquatic or amphibious, is probably meant; some have thought that the crocodile, a well-known Egyptian animal, is here intended. In Exodus 4:3 it is said that this rod was changed into a serpent, but the original word there is vjn nachash, and here תנין tannin, the same word which we translate whale, Genesis 1:21.

As vjn nachash seems to be a term restricted to no one particular meaning, as has already been shown on Gen. iii.; See Clarke note on “Genesis 3:1”. So the words תנין tannin, תנינים tanninim, תנים tannim, and twnt tannoth, are used to signify different kinds of animals in the Scriptures. The word is supposed to signify the jackal in Job 30:29; Psalm 44:19; Isaiah 13:22; Isaiah 34:13; 35:7; Isaiah 43:20; Jeremiah 9:11, &c., &c.; and also a dragon, serpent, or whale, Job 7:12; Psalm 91:13; Isaiah 27:1; 51:9; Jeremiah 51:34; Ezekiel 29:3; 32:2; and is termed, in our translation, a sea-monster, Lamentations 4:3. As it was a rod or staff that was changed into the tannim in the cases mentioned here, it has been supposed that an ordinary serpent is what is intended by the word, because the size of both might be then pretty nearly equal: but as a miracle was wrought on the occasion, this circumstance is of no weight; it was as easy for God to change the rod into a crocodile, or any other creature, as to change it into an adder or common snake.

Verse 10. It became a serpent — This was proper, not only to affect Pharaoh with wonder, but to strike a terror upon him. This first miracle, though it was not a plague, yet amounted to the threatening of a plague; if it made not Pharaoh feel, it made him fear; and this is God’s method of dealing with sinners; he comes upon them gradually.

OPENING CONTEST WITH THE MAGICIANS, 10-13.

10. And Aaron cast down his rod… and it became a serpent — ˆynt, a dragon or crocodile, not the serpent (vjn) into which the rod was changed when Moses came before the elders of Israel. Exodus 4:3. The shepherd’s staff is changed into the monster of the Nile. Pharaoh is thus warned, by a symbol clear to the Egyptian mind, that the shepherd race of Israel is to be miraculously transformed into a formidable nation, comparable in might with Egypt. The crocodile’s tail is the hieroglyphic symbol of Egypt.

V. 11. Moses had been originally instructed in the learning of the Egyptians, and was suspected to have improved in magical arts in his long retirement. The magicians are therefore sent for to vie with him. The two chief of them were Jannes and Jambres. Their rods became serpents; probably by the power of evil angels artfully substituting serpents in the room of the rods, God permitting the delusion to be wrought for wise and holy ends. But the serpent which Aaron’s rod was turned into, swallowed up the others, which was sufficient to have convinced Pharaoh on which side the right lay.

Verse 11. Pharaoh-called the wise men] חכמים chacamim, the men of learning. Sorcerers, כשפים cashshephim, those who reveal hidden things; probably from the Arabic root [Arabic] kashafa, to reveal, uncover, &c., signifying diviners, or those who pretended to reveal what was in futurity, to discover things lost, to find hidden treasures, &c. Magicians, ymcrj chartummey, decypherers of abstruse writings. See Clarke note on “Genesis 41:8”.

They also did in like manner with their enchantments.] The word להתים lahatim, comes from chl lahat, to burn, to set on fire; and probably signifies such incantations as required lustral fires, sacrifices, fumigations, burning of incense, aromatic and odoriferous drugs, &c., as the means of evoking departed spirits or assistant demons, by whose ministry, it is probable, the magicians in question wrought some of their deceptive miracles: for as the term miracle signifies properly something which exceeds the powers of nature or art to produce, (see Exodus 7:9,) hence there could be no miracle in this case but those wrought, through the power of God, by the ministry of Moses and Aaron. There can be no doubt that real serpents were produced by the magicians. On this subject there are two opinions: 1st, That the serpents were such as they, either by juggling or sleight of hand, had brought to the place, and had secreted till the time of exhibition, as our common conjurers do in the public fairs, &c. 2dly, That the serpents were brought by the ministry of a familiar spirit, which, by the magic flames already referred to, they had evoked for the purpose. Both these opinions admit the serpents to be real, and no illusion of the sight, as some have supposed. The first opinion appears to me insufficient to account for the phenomena of the case referred to. If the magicians threw down their rods, and they became serpents after they were thrown down, as the text expressly says, Exodus 7:12, juggling or sleight of hand had nothing farther to do in the business, as the rods were then out of their hands. If Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods, their sleight of hand was no longer concerned. A man, by dexterity of hand, may so far impose on his spectators as to appear to eat a rod; but for rods lying on the ground to become serpents, and one of these to devour all the rest so that it alone remained, required something more than juggling. How much more rational at once to allow that these magicians had familiar spirits who could assume all shapes, change the appearances of the subjects on which they operated, or suddenly convey one thing away and substitute another in its place! Nature has no such power, and art no such influence as to produce the effects attributed here and in the succeeding chapters to the Egyptian magicians.

Verse 11. Moses had been originally instructed in the learning of the Egyptians, and was suspected to have improved in magical arts in his long retirement. The magicians are therefore sent for to vie with him. The two chief of them were Jannes and Jambres. Their rods became serpents, probably by the power of evil angels, artfully substituting serpents in the room of the rods, God permitting the delusion to be wrought for wise and holy ends. But the serpent which Aaron’s rod was turned into, swallowed up the others: which was sufficient to have convinced Pharaoh on which side the right lay.

11. Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers — Literally, mutterers, (of magic formulas.) Now the magicians — Priestly scribes who were skilled in the hieroglyphic wisdom. They also did in like manner with their enchantments — Their secret arts, the black or hidden arts or tricks which constitute magic or sorcery. The Apostle Paul, doubtless following the Jewish traditions, names these magicians Jannes and Jambres, (2 Timothy 3:8,) and this tradition is found in the Targums and the Talmud.

Verse 12. Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.] As Egypt was remarkably addicted to magic, sorcery, &c., it was necessary that God should permit Pharaoh’s wise men to act to the utmost of their skill in order to imitate the work of God, that his superiority might be clearly seen, and his powerful working incontestably ascertained; and this was fully done when Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods. We have already seen that the names of two of the chief of these magicians were Jannes and Jambres; see Clarke on “Exodus 2:10”, and 2 Timothy 3:8. Many traditions and fables concerning these may be seen in the eastern writers.

Verse 12. They became serpents — The authors of the Universal History cast considerable light on this subject: “If it be asked,” say they, “why God suffered the magicians to act thus, by a power borrowed from the devil, in order to invalidate, if possible, those miracles which his servant wrought by his divine power, the following reasons may be given for it: First, It was necessary that those magicians should be suffered to exert the utmost of their power against Moses, in order to clear him from the imputation of magic or sorcery; for as the notion of such an extraordinary art was very rife, not only among the Egyptians, but all other nations, if they had not entered into this strenuous competition with him, and been at length overcome by him, both the Hebrews and Egyptians would have been more apt to attribute all his miracles to his skill in magic, than to the divine power. Secondly, It was necessary in order to confirm the faith of the wavering and desponding Israelites, by making them see the difference between Moses’s acting by the power of God, and the sorcerers by that of Satan. And, lastly, In order to preserve them afterward from being seduced by any false miracles, from the true worship of God.”

Ver. 12. And they became serpents. Josephus says, that they had but the appearance of serpents. Among those magicians who withstood Moses, it would seem, were Jannes and Jambres, 2 Timothy 3:8. They were prompted by the worst of motives to mimic the miracles of Moses.

12. They cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents — Crocodiles, as above. Moses wrought a miracle which they could easily imitate, for all the apparent transformations with which our modern jugglers have made us familiar, and even more wonderful ones than these, have been practised in Egypt and the East from an unknown antiquity. The author describes the transaction just as it appeared to those who saw it, as we would describe similar apparent transformations wrought by a juggler today, but his language cannot fairly be pressed to prove that these magicians possessed any supernatural power. The most famous magicians have always professed to deceive, and declared that their most striking exploits were mere illusions; and how much more than deception there is in magic and sorcery, and whether all their wonders are literally “lying wonders,” must be held as still open questions; but it is certain that Satan has ever used such dark arts and powers to resist the truth. See the Introduction to the History of the Plagues, 2. But Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods — This was prophetic of the religion that was soon to swallow up all the boasted wisdom of Egypt, and the true miracle was thus also distinguished from the “lying wonder.”

V. 13. And he harden’d Pharaoh’s heart-That is, permitted it to be hardened.

Verse 13. And he hardened Pharaoh’s heart] פרעה bl qzjyw

vaiyechezah leb Paroh, “And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened,” the identical words which in Exodus 7:22 are thus translated, and which should have been rendered in the same way here, lest the hardening, which was evidently the effect of his own obstinate shutting of his eyes against the truth, should be attributed to God. See Clarke note on “Exodus 4:21”.

Verse 13. And he hardened Pharaoh’s heart — That is, permitted it to be hardened: or, as the very same Hebrew word is rendered in verse 22, Pharaoh’s heart was hardened.

Ver. 13. He hardened Pharaoh’s heart. At the twenty second verse of this chapter the same words are translated, And Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, or stout.

13. And he hardened Pharaoh’s heart — Rather, And hard was the heart of Pharaoh. (Samuel, Septuagint, Vulg., Onk., Syr.) The presence of superhuman power, and the solemn symbolic lessons, though they may have created in Pharaoh a momentary awe, yet failed to arouse his torpid conscience. Here, in this “sign,” was no infliction of punishment, but a simple manifestation of power in attestation of the mission of Moses and Aaron, as well as a symbolic prediction hereafter to be more fully understood.

FIRST PLAGUE — BLOOD, 14-25.

Verse 14. Pharaoh’s heart is hardened] dbk cabed, is become heavy or stupid; he receives no conviction, notwithstanding the clearness of the light which shines upon him. We well know the power of prejudice: where persons are determined to think and act after a predetermined plan, arguments, demonstrations, and even miracles themselves, are lost on them, as in the case of Pharaoh here, and that of the obstinate Jews in the days of our Lord and his apostles.

Verse 14. Pharaoh’s heart is hardened — bl dbk, is made heavy. Neither my word nor works make any impression upon him. He is obdurate and obstinate, and what was designed for his conviction and humiliation only aggravates his guilt, and prepares him for a more signal destruction.

Verse 15. Lo, he goeth out unto the water] Probably for the purpose of bathing, or of performing some religious ablution. Some suppose he went out to pay adoration to the river Nile, which was an object of religious worship among the ancient Egyptians. “For,” says Plutarch, Deuteronomy Iside., ouden outw timh aiguptioiv wv o neilov\ “nothing is in greater honour among the Egyptians than the river Nile.” Some of the ancient Jews supposed that Pharaoh himself was a magician, and that he walked by the river early each morning for the purpose of preparing magical rites, &c.

Verse 15. Lo, he goeth out unto the water — Of the river Nile: whither he went at that time, either for his recreation, or to pay his morning worship to that river, which, as Plutarch testifies, the Egyptians had in great veneration.

15. Lo, he goeth out unto the water; and thou shalt stand by the river’s brink — Some think that this was the time of the commencement of the annual rise of the river, because that the Nile then assumes a reddish hue produced by the mud of the upper country; but this annual redness of the river is an indication of palatability and wholesomeness. Yet, as all these plagues are found, as far as we understand them, to correspond remarkably with peculiarities of the country, being, as Hengstenberg has shown, specially fitted to the Egyptian geography, climate, soil, vegetable and animal life, it is possible that the very peculiarity of the miracle lay in the fact that the reddish hue, which is usually a sign of wholesomeness in the Nile, then deepened to a bloody tinge, which was the token of loathsomeness and death. The water which is usually drank with such avidity became nauseous and poisonous. If this be so, then the time of the infliction is fixed at about the middle of June. Yet this must be taken as supposition only, the first sure note of time occurring in the account of the hail, (Exodus 9:31, 32,) which destroyed the barley in the ear and the flax in blossom, which in Egypt must have been in February. The tenth plague occurred about the middle of April. Now the Nile begins to regularly rise in Lower Egypt, which is the scene of this history, about the summer solstice, or toward the end of June; about the end of August it begins to pour through the canals and fall over the valley in sheets of water, and the inundation then properly commences; toward the end of September it reaches its height, and then sinks to its lowest point at about the Vernal Equinox, or the last of March. If now the first of the plagues took place in the middle of June, it will be seen that the ten ran through the whole Nile period, thus cursing every several part of the Egyptian year. This is the view of Hengstenberg in his Egypt and the Books of Moses. Probably Pharaoh went forth in the morning to worship, since the Nile was regarded as the embodiment of the god Osiris, of whom the bull Apis was considered the living emblem. On the monuments we find it called the “god Nile,” the “Father of the gods,” the “life-giving Father of all things.” At Nilopolis (Nile-city) there was a temple and an order of priests for the worship of the river. Thus was Pharaoh’s god smitten to death before his eyes as he offered him his morning prayer.

Verse 17. Behold, I will smite] Here commences the account of the TEN plagues which were inflicted on the Egyptians by Moses and Aaron, by the command and through the power of God. According to Archbishop Usher these ten plagues took place in the course of one month, and in the following order:—

The first, the WATERS turned into BLOOD, took place, he supposes, the 18th day of the sixth month; Exodus 7:20.

The second, the plague of FROGS, on the 25th day of the sixth month; Exodus 8:2.

The third, the plague of LICE, on the 27th day of the sixth month; Exodus 8:16.

The fourth, grievous SWARMS of FLIES, on the 29th day of the sixth month; Exodus 8:24.

The fifth, the grievous MURRAIN, on the 2d day of the seventh month; Exodus 9:3.

The sixth, the plague of BOILS and BLAINS, on the 3d day of the seventh month; Exodus 9:10.

The seventh, the grievous HAIL, on the 5th day of the seventh month; Exodus 9:18.

The eighth, the plague of LOCUSTS, on the 8th day of the seventh month; Exodus 10:12.

The ninth, the THICK DARKNESS, on the 10th day of Abib, (April 30,) now become the first month of the Jewish year; Exodus 10:22. See Clarke note on “Exodus 12:2”.

The tenth, the SLAYING the FIRST-BORN, on the 15th of Abib; Exodus 12:29. But most of these dates are destitute of proof.

Ver. 17. Thou shalt know that I am the Lord. Pharaoh had stained the waters with the blood of infants, now they are changed into blood for his punishment. He had proudly said, Who is the Lord that I should obey him? Now the Lord acquaints him with his name by his judgments.

Verse 18. The Egyptians shall loathe to drink of the water] The force of this expression cannot be well felt without taking into consideration the peculiar pleasantness and great salubrity of the waters of the Nile. “The water of Egypt,” says the Abbe Mascrier, “is so delicious, that one would not wish the heat to be less, or to be delivered from the sensation of thirst. The Turks find it so exquisite that they excite themselves to drink of it by eating salt. It is a common saying among them, that if Mohammed had drank of it he would have besought God that he might never die, in order to have had this continual gratification. When the Egyptians undertake the pilgrimage of Mecca, or go out of their country on any other account, they speak of nothing but the pleasure they shall have at their return in drinking of the waters of the Nile. There is no gratification to be compared to this; it surpasses, in their esteem, that of seeing their relations and families. All those who have tasted of this water allow that they never met with the like in any other place. When a person drinks of it for the first time he can scarcely be persuaded that it is not a water prepared by art; for it has something in it inexpressibly agreeable and pleasing to the taste; and it should have the same rank among waters that champaign has among wines. But its most valuable quality is, that it is exceedingly salutary. It never incommodes, let it be drank in what quantity it may: this is so true that it is no uncommon thing to see some persons drink three buckets of it in a day without the least inconvenience! When I pass such encomiums on the water of Egypt it is right to observe that I speak only of that of the Nile, which indeed is the only water drinkable, for their well water is detestable and unwholesome. Fountains are so rare that they are a kind of prodigy in that country; and as to rain water, that is out of the question, as scarcely any falls in Egypt.”

“A person,” says Mr. Harmer, “who never before heard of the deliciousness of the Nile water, and of the large quantities which on that account are drank of it, will, I am sure, find an energy in those words of Moses to Pharaoh, The Egyptians shall loathe to drink of the water of the river, which he never observed before. They will loathe to drink of that water which they used to prefer to all the waters of the universe; loathe to drink of that for which they had been accustomed to long, and will rather choose to drink of well water, which in their country is detestable!” -Observations, vol. iii., p. 564.

Verse 18. The Egyptians shall loathe to drink of the water — “There are a few wells,” says Harmer, “in Egypt, but their waters are not drunk, being unpleasant and unwholesome. The water of the Nile is what they universally make use of in this country, which is looked upon to be extraordinarily wholesome, and at the same time extremely delicious.” And he refers to Maillett and another author, as affirming that the Egyptians have been wont to excite thirst artificially, that they might drink the more of it. He then quotes, the Abbot Mascrier (let. 1, pp. 15, 16) in the following words: “The water of Egypt is so delicious that one would not wish the heat should be less, nor to be delivered from the sensation of thirst. The Turks find it so exquisitely charming that they excite themselves to drink of it by eating salt. It is a common saying among them, that if Mohammed had drunk of it he would have begged of God not to have died, that he might always have done it.” On these facts Harmer remarks as follows: “A person that never before heard of this delicacy of the water of the Nile, and of the large quantities which on that account are drunk of it, will, I am sure, find an energy in those words of Moses to Pharaoh, which he never observed before, The Egyptians shall loathe to drink of the river. They shall loathe to drink of that water which they used to prefer to all the waters in the universe — that which they had been wont eagerly to long for; and will rather drink of well-water, which in their country is detestable.” — Harmer, vol. 2. p. 295.

Verse 19. That there may be blood-both in vessels of wood, and in vessels of stone.] Not only the Nile itself was to be thus changed into blood in all its branches, and the canals issuing from it, but all the water of lakes, ponds, and reservoirs, was to undergo a similar change. And this was to extend even to the water already brought into their houses for culinary and other domestic purposes. As the water of the Nile is known to be very thick and muddy, and the Egyptians are obliged to filter it through pots of a kind of white earth, and sometimes through a paste made of almonds, Mr. Harmer supposes that the vessels of wood and stone mentioned above may refer to the process of filtration, which no doubt has been practised among them from the remotest period. The meaning given above I think to be more natural.

The FIRST plague. The WATERS turned into BLOOD

Verse 19. Upon their streams, &c., — both in vessels of wood and vessels of stone — “To what purpose this minuteness?” says the last-mentioned author. “May not the meaning be that the water of the Nile should not only look red and nauseous, like blood, in the river, but in their vessels too, and that no method of purifying it should take place, but, whether drunk out of vessels of wood or out of vessels of stone, by means of which they were wont to purge the Nile water, it should be the same, and should appear like blood.” — Harmer, vol. 2. p. 292.

Ver. 19. Stretch out thy hand upon the waters—that they may become blood. In those waters they drowned the male children of the Hebrews, and now they must drink of the bloody streams and pools!

19. Stretch out thine hand upon the waters of Egypt — The language of this verse shows a minute acquaintance with the extensive and complicated water system which was peculiar to Egypt. The streams are the arms which branch out from the Nile, just north of modern Cairo, through the great plain of the delta, carrying the waters down to the Mediterranean. There are two principal and five or more lesser streams. The rivers are the canals running each side of the Nile, and receiving their waters through sluices at the time of the inundation. As the land sloped northward, the water was conveyed through main canals running along the southern or higher side of each field, and thence it spread through branches, straight or curved, down northward over the land. The ponds were the large standing lakes left by the inundation; and the pools — literally, every collection of their waters — were the smaller ponds and reservoirs which they used who lived at a distance from the river. Wood… stone — This is also a peculiarly Egyptian touch, for the Nile water was kept in large stone tanks for public use, and was also filtered and purified for domestic use in smaller vessels.

V. 20. The waters that were in the river were turned into blood-This was a plague justly inflicted upon the Egyptians; for Nilus the river of Egypt was their idol; they and their land had so much benefit by that creature, that they served and worshipped it more than the creator. Also they had stained the river with the blood of the Hebrew children, and now God made that river all bloody; thus he gave them blood to drink, for they were worthy, Revelation 16:6. See the power of God. Every creature is that to us which he makes it to be, water or blood. See the mutability of all things under the sun, and what changes we may meet with in them. That which is water to day may be blood to morrow; what is always vain may soon become vexatious. And see what mischievous work sin makes! It is sin that turns our waters into blood.

Verse 20. All the waters-were turned to blood.] Not merely in appearance, but in reality; for these changed waters became corrupt and insalubrious, so that even the fish that were in the river died; and the smell became highly offensive, so that the waters could not be drank; Exodus 7:21.

Verse 20. The waters in the river were turned into blood — This was a plague justly inflicted on the Egyptians; for the river of Egypt was their idol; they and their land had so much benefit by that creature, that they served and worshipped it more than their Creator. In ancient times they annually even sacrificed a girl to it, at the opening of the canals, Univ. Hist., vol. 1. p. 413. Also they had stained the river with the blood of the Hebrew children, and now God made that river all bloody; thus he gave them blood to drink, for they were worthy, Revelation 16:6. See the power of God! Every creature is that to us which he makes it to be, water or blood. See the mutability of all things under the sun, and what changes we may meet with in them. That which is water to-day may be blood to-morrow; what is always vain may soon become vexatious. And see what mischievous work sin makes! It is sin that turns our waters into blood. All the waters — It seems the word all here, and in the foregoing verse, is either to be understood in a limited sense, as it frequently is in Scripture, meaning not all in the strictest sense, but only a very great part; or else that although Moses’s commission extended to all the waters in Egypt, yet it was only executed upon the river Nile: because we read that the magicians did the same thing; but if Moses had turned all the waters into blood, as some scoffers have, with great raillery and triumph, observed, how could the magicians do the same, there being, on this supposition, no water for them upon which to make the trial.

20, 21. And all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood — Also, by implication, (verse 19,) all the waters that had been drawn from the river into the ponds, tanks, etc., underwent the change. The sweet, beneficent Nile water became red and putrid like stagnant blood, so that it poisoned the fishes and became unfit for use. The red moon of the eclipse is said to be turned into blood, Joel 2:3. Only the Nile water was smitten, for water could yet be obtained from the wells and by digging, as we see from verse 24.

20, 21. And all the waters that were in the river were turned to blood — Also, by implication, (verse 19,) all the waters that had been drawn from the river into the ponds, tanks, etc., underwent the change. The sweet, beneficent Nile water became red and putrid like stagnant blood, so that it poisoned the fishes and became unfit for use. The red moon of the eclipse is said to be turned into blood, Joel 2:3. Only the Nile water was smitten, for water could yet be obtained from the wells and by digging, as we see from verse 24.

V. 22. And the magicians did so-By God’s permission with their enchantments; and this served Pharaoh for an excuse not to set his heart to this also, (Exodus 7:23,) and a poor excuse it was. Could they have turned the river of blood into water again, it had been something; then they had proved their power, and Pharaoh had been obliged to them as his benefactors.

Verse 22. And the magicians-did so] But if all the water in Egypt was turned into blood by Moses, where did the magicians get the water which they changed into blood? This question is answered in Exodus 7:24. The Egyptians digged round about the river for water to drink, and it seems that the water obtained by this means was not bloody like that in the river: on this water therefore the magicians might operate. Again, though a general commission was given to Moses, not only to turn the waters of the river (Nile) into blood, but also those of their streams, rivers, ponds, and pools; yet it seems pretty clear from Exodus 7:20 that he did not proceed thus far, at least in the first instance; for it is there stated that only the waters of the river were turned into blood. Afterwards the plague doubtless became general. At the commencement therefore of this plague, the magicians might obtain other water to imitate the miracle; and it would not be difficult for them, by juggling tricks or the assistance of a familiar spirit, (for we must not abandon the possibility of this use,) to give it a bloody appearance, a fetid smell, and a bad taste. On either of these grounds there is no contradiction in the Mosaic account, though some have been very studious to find one.

The plague of the bloody waters may be considered as a display of retributive justice against the Egyptians, for the murderous decree which enacted that all the male children of the Israelites should be drowned in that river, the waters of which, so necessary to their support and life, were now rendered not only insalubrious but deadly, by being turned into blood. As it is well known that the Nile was a chief object of Egyptian idolatry, (See Clarke note on “Exodus 7:15”,) and that annually they sacrificed a girl, or as others say, both a boy and a girl, to this river, in gratitude for the benefits received from it, (Universal Hist., vol. i., p. 178, fol. edit.,) God might have designed this plague as a punishment for such cruelty: and the contempt poured upon this object of their adoration, by turning its waters into blood, and rendering them fetid and corrupt, must have had a direct tendency to correct their idolatrous notions, and lead them to acknowledge the power and authority of the true God.

Verse 22. The magicians did so — By God’s permission; with their enchantments — It seems they performed real miracles, for the text says expressly they did the same as Moses, and probably to their own surprise, as well as that of others, not knowing that any such effect would follow upon their using enchantments. Certainly they were ignorant of the extent of their own power, or rather, what Satan would or could do by them, and by what means these things came to pass, otherwise they would not have disgraced themselves, by making an attempt to bring forth lice, which they could not perform. What they did do served Pharaoh for an excuse not to set his heart to this also. And a poor excuse it was. Could they have turned the river of blood into water again, and by a word have purified those waters which the almighty power of God had rendered corrupt, they would have proved their power and done Pharaoh a signal favour. But the superiority of the miracles of Moses, even in these instances in which they vied with him, was incontestible: and they were compelled to acknowledge that what he did was by the finger of God. “God, by permitting them to succeed thus far in their opposition, rendered their folly more conspicuous: for by suffering them to change the waters into blood, and putting it out of their power to restore them to their former purity; and by permitting them to produce frogs, which they were not able to remove, he only put it in their power to increase those plagues upon themselves and their countrymen at the same time that they demonstrated their own inability.” — Bishop Kidder.

Ver. 22. The Magicians of Egypt did so. They sunk wells for water, as in verse 24, and by some trick changed the colour of the water. But the Lord’s miracle continued seven days, till it destroyed the fish and became offensive, giving admonition to the people and time for sober inquiry.

22. And the magicians of Egypt did so with their enchantments: and Pharaoh’s heart was hardened — The two things are connected as cause and effect. He tried to believe that their pretended miracle was as real as Jehovah’s judgment “sign.” They could as easily obtain water for their trick as could the Egyptians for drinking. If they had the power to which they pretended, their part, of course, was to turn back the water as it was before, and so relieve the distress of the Egyptians.

Verse 24. The Egyptians digged round about the river for water — Josephus says, they lost their labour, and found only blood there: but if they found water, or water less bloody, it is not material to us, as it does not lessen Moses’s miracle, it not being within the compass of his commission to prevent their getting water by digging.

V. 25. Seven days were fulfilled-Before this plague was removed.

Verse 25. And seven days were fulfilled] So we learn that this plague continued at least a whole week.

THE contention between Moses and Aaron and the magicians of Egypt has become famous throughout the world. Tradition in various countries has preserved not only the account, but also the names of the chief persons concerned in the opposition made by the Egyptians to these messengers of God. Though their names are not mentioned in the sacred text, yet tradition had preserved them in the Jewish records, from which St. Paul undoubtedly quotes 2Ti 3:8, where, speaking of the enemies of the Gospel, he compares them to Jannes and Jambres, who withstood Moses. That these names existed in the ancient Jewish records, their own writings show. In the Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel on this place they are called syrbmyw syny Janis and Jambris; and in the Babylonian Talmud they are named Joanne and Mambre, and are represented as chiefs of the sorcerers of Egypt, and as having ridiculed Moses and Aaron for pretending to equal them in magical arts. And Rab. Tanchum, in his Commentary, names them Jonos and Jombrus. If we allow the readings of the ancient editions of Pliny to be correct, he refers, in Hist. Nat., l. xxx., c. 2, to the same persons, the names being a little changed: Est et alia magices factio, a Mose et Jamne et Jotape Judæis pendens, sed multis millibus annorum post Zoroastrem; “There is also another faction of magicians which took its origin from the Jews, Moses, Jamnes, and Jotapes, many thousands of years after Zoroaster;” where he confounds Moses with the Egyptian magicians; for the heathens, having no just notion of the power of God, attributed all miracles to the influence of magic. Pliny also calls the Egyptian magicians Jews; but this is not the only mistake in his history; and as he adds, sed multis millibus annorum post Zoroastrem, he is supposed by some to refer to the Christians, and particularly the apostles, who wrought many miracles, and whom he considers to be a magical sect derived from Moses and the Jews, because they were Jews by nation, and quoted Moses and the prophets in proof of the truth of the doctrines of Christianity, and of the Divine mission of Christ.

Numenius, a Pythagorean philosopher, mentioned by Eusebius, names these magicians, Jamnes and Jambres, and mentions their opposition to Moses; and we have already seen that there was a tradition among the Asiatics that Pharaoh’s daughter had Moses instructed by the wise men Jannes and Jambres; see Abul Faraje, edit. Pococ., p. 26. Here then is a very remarkable fact, the principal circumstances of which, and the chief actors in them, have been preserved by a sort of universal tradition. See Ainsworth.

When all the circumstances of the preceding case are considered, it seems strange that God should enter into any contest with such persons as the Egyptian magicians; but a little reflection will show the absolute necessity of this. Mr. Psalmanazar, who wrote the Account of the Jews in the first volume of the Universal History, gives the following judicious reasons for this: “If it be asked,” says he, “why God did suffer the Egyptian magicians to borrow power from the devil to invalidate, if possible, those miracles which his servant wrought by his Divine power, the following reasons may be given for it: 1. It was necessary that these magicians should be suffered to exert the utmost of their power against Moses, in order to clear him from the imputation of magic or sorcery; for as the notion of such an extraordinary art was very rife, not only among the Egyptians, but all other nations, if they had not entered into this strenuous competition with him, and been at length overcome by him, both the Hebrews and the Egyptians would have been apter to have attributed all his miracles to his skill in magic, than to the Divine power.

“2. It was necessary, in order to confirm the faith of the wavering and desponding Israelites, by making them see the difference between Moses acting by the power of God, and the sorcerers by that of Satan. “3. It was necessary, in order to preserve them afterwards from being seduced by any false miracles from the true worship of God.” To these a fourth reason may be added: God permitted this in mercy to the Egyptians, that they might see that the gods in whom they trusted were utterly incapable of saving them; that they could not undo or counteract one of the plagues sent on them by the power of Jehovah; the whole of their influence extending only to some superficial imitations of the genuine miracles wrought by Moses in the name of the true God. By these means it is natural to conclude that many of the Egyptians, and perhaps several of the servants of Pharaoh, were cured of their idolatry; though the king himself hardened his heart against the evidences which God brought before his eyes. Thus God is known by his judgments: for in every operation of his hand his design is to enlighten the minds of men, to bring them from false dependences to trust in himself alone; that, being saved from error and sin, they may become wise, holy, and happy. When his judgments are abroad in the earth, the inhabitants learn righteousness. (See Clarke note on “Exodus 4:21”)

EXODUS

Verse 25. Seven days were fulfilled — Before the plague was removed.

25. Seven days — A week passed while the Nile rolled blood through Egypt, but Pharaoh obstinately shut himself in his house and made no sign of submission.