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Hebrew women, that she may nurse the child for thee? 8. And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Go. And the maid went and called the child's mother. 9. And Pharaoh's daughter said to her, Take this child away, and nurse it for me, and I will give thee thy wages. And the woman took the child and nursed it. 10. And the child grew, and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became her son. And she called his name Moses, and

wisdom of the Egyptians," (éπaideú0ŋ πάση σοφίᾳ Αἰγυπτίων), have continually led many critics to deduce almost the whole system of the Mosaic legislation from Egyptian sources, to consider it merely as a local adaptation of Egyptian statutes, in which Moses, by his admission into the caste of priests, and his initiation in their mysteries, was deeply versed, and thus to deprive Mosaism of every originality in many of its most essential points (see even Heeren, Ideas, ii. p. 647). It is obvious, that such insinuations, if true, wonld strike a fatal blow against the value and the origin of the whole religious code of the Pentateuch. It is, therefore, of the highest importance to examine whether, and how far, the legislation of Moses is based on, or derived from, Egyptian institutions aud notions. The reader will find our remarks on this point in a supplementary note at the end of this chapter.

And she called his name Moses (MWD), and she said, Because I drew him out (D) of the water. The etymology and meaning of the name Moses (who is called by the Septuagint and Josephus Mwvons, the Vulgate, Moyses, the Arabians, Musa), is naturally much disputed; for the explanation given in the text "because I drew him out of the water" would require, not the active form Mosheh, but the passive participle Mashui. The former would rather imply the notion of a general leading the people of Israel from Egypt, an archageta (see Jad Joseph fol. 69, a; Hüllmann, p. 68; Bohlen, Genes. Introd. p. lxxxii). Besides, it is questionable that the Egyptian princess should have given to her adopted

son a Hebrew name, whilst Joseph received from Pharaoh the undoubtedly Egyptian appellation, Zophnath paneah (revealer of mysteries) Gen. xli, 45. Antiquarians and historians have, therefore, justly endeavoured to trace the name of Moses to an Egyptian origin; and Josephus already observes (Antiq. II. ix, 6): "He received his name from the particular circumstances of his infancy, when he had been exposed in the Nile; for the Egyptians call the water mo, and one who is rescued from the waves, uses" (τὸ γὰρ ὕδωρ μῶ οἱ Αἰγύπτιοι καλοῦσιν, ἐσῆς δὲ τοὺς ἐξ ὕδατος σωθέντας). The Septuagint, which renders Moüoñs, has, therefore, accurately preserved the etymology. Now this name, originally Egyptian, has, then, been adapted to the genius of the Hebrew idiom, and referred to the Hebrew root mashah to draw (Rashi, Rashbam), with which it has the greatest resemblance in sound, although it is of rare use (occurring only thrice in the Old Test.), although the form is grammatically not correct, and the principal and essential notion (water) is not expressed in the word. Although Gesenius approves of this explanation, he proposes (Thesaurus, p. 823) another conjecture, in our opinion of a much more artificial and complicated nature, namely, that according to the analogy of most of the Egyptian proper nouns, which are compounded with names of their deities, Moses has a similar meaning as Amenmôs, the son of Ammon; or Harmôs, the son of Hor, or Rhamôs, the son of the sun (môs signifying son), but that the first part of the name was omitted in the language of daily intercourse. Other

she said, Because I drew him out of the water. 11. And it came to pass in those days, when Moses was grown, that he went out to his brethren, and looked on their

writers, also desirous to secure for the lawgiver an original Egyptian name, assert, that he was called Mosheh (D) by the Hebrews only, but that the Egyptians knew him under the name of Osarsiph ('Ooapoip), the priest of Osiris; or Tisithen (Τισιθέν), or Hermes (Ερμῆς), or Menes (Ebn Ezra), against which opinion Abarbanel strongly objects, admitting, however, that Menes, or a similar Egyptian epithet signifying the wise or great, might have been given to Moses as an appellative surname after the great miracles which he performed before Pharaoh, and his wise measures had become generally known in Egypt. Such a wide field of conjecture was opened concerning the real Hebrew name of the lawgiver, that the Talmud (Sotah 12, Meg. 3) enumerates no less than nine different names (Heber, Jekuthiel, Jered, Sanoah, Abigdor, Abisocho, Shemajah, Tobiah, Nathaniel), believed to have been given to him by the different members of his family, and the people of Israel. He received, no doubt, a Hebrew name at his circumcision, or certainly during the three months of his concealment in the house of his parents (see Jad Joseph, 69; Paxton, Illustr. i. p. 470). Abarbanel thus understands our words: "the mother Jochebed, when bringing her child to the daughter of Pharaoh, called his name Moses, for, said she, you have drawn him out of the water." Although this interpretation is grammatically not inadmissible, the change of the subject in the same sentence, although not without parallels, would here be singularly forced; and it would, further, be surprising, if Jochebed, who was not known to the princess as the mother of the child, but only as his paid nurse, had given the name instead of the princess herself, to whom that privilege belonged according to the ancient customs of adoption.

11. And it came to pass in those days. In which year of Moses' life the conse

quential facts related in the following verses happened, is left indefinite in the context. A considerable number of years must have elapsed (wherefore the Septuagint renders "It was after many days"; so also Clericus and Rosenmüller); but to decide the precise period in the life of Moses must remain mere conjecture. An old tradition asserts that every forty years there was an important crisis in the fates of Moses; he led the Israelites from Egypt in his 80th year; he died in his 120th year; therefore, it is added, he was probably forty years old when his flight to Midian took place. The same number of years is mentioned in Acts vii. 23 (see Wettstein on our passage; and Eichhorn, Introduction to the Old Testament, p. 186 note). Josephus, in accordance with the uncritical taste of his time, fills up this long interval till the flight of Moses with various events and deeds, to which we find no allusion in our text, but which are partly misrepresentations of Egyptian or Greek sources, and partly inventions of a fertile imagination. He relates, in his Antiquities (II. x), "The Ethiopians had invaded and devastated the territory of the Egyptians. The latter marched with a numerous army against them, but were completely defeated. They consulted the oracle, which advised them to confide the leadership of the war to Moses, the Hebrew. After deliberate and extensive preparations, he entered upon the expedition; his march led him through the vast desert, which was infested with all kinds of serpents and vermin; he purified it by storks and ibises which he had taken with him for that purpose. On his arrival in the hostile dominions, he took, after a persevering and skilful siege, the town Saba, later called Meroe; and the royal princess, Tharbis, was so captivated by his talent and manly energy, that she offered him spontaneously her hand; he accepted it, and led her in triumph back to Egypt as

burdens, and he 'saw an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, one of his brethren. 12. And he turned this way and

1 Engl. Vers.-Spied.

his legitimate wife." That this narrative bears the character of legendary invention, and that it cannot claim historical authenticity, needs scarcely to be remarked. The military skill which Moses had, at a later period, as the leader of the Hebrews, occasion to exhibit, seemed to presuppose some previous experience and practice in the operations of war, whereas the genius of Moses, inspired by the dictates of his great mission, did not necessarily require such preparatory exercise; and the statement that he married the Ethiopian princess Tharbis, has, no doubt, its source in the statement contained in Numbers xii. 1. that Moses took an Ethiopian wife; but he did this evidently during the journeys through the Arabian desert, and not before the Exodus from Egypt; for Cushites lived in Arabia also (see Forster, in Epist. ad J. D. Michaelis, pp. 5 and 19, et seq., who vainly endeavours to vindicate the historical character of the Ethiopian expedition of Moses, and offers the hazardous supposition that the latter was a contemporary of Sesostris, whom he accompanied on all his distant expeditions, and that he became thus acquainted with the locality of Paradise). The "Book of the Chronicles of Moses" differs from the relation of Josephus in some particulars, the most remarkable of which is, that Moses was proclaimed king of the Ethiopians in his thirtieth year, which dignity he maintained during forty years; and after this period he fled to Midian, where he was imprisoned seven years by Jethro, and then united in marriage with his daughter Zipporah. Abarbanel observes, that all these allegations might be facts, but that they have been omitted in the text, because they have no connection with the sacred mission of Moses, which forms the exclusive contents of the four latter books of the Pentateuch (see Introduction, § 2. ii). However, for the estimation of these and similar accounts, we

2 Looked.

submit to our readers the following unequivocal and determined remark of Ebn Ezra (on ver, 22): "And I declare to you, as a rule, all books which are not written by prophets, or according to authentic tradition, deserve no credit whatever, yea, they contain even sentiments militating against reason and common sense; and such works are the Book of Zerubbabel, and the Book of Eldad, the Danite, and the Book of Chronicles of Moses, and similar writings."

When Moses was grown, that is, when he had become a man full of vigour and intelligence; the similar phrase, in the preceding verse, signifies only his growing to the usual age of weaning the child. He went out to his brethren; for the mystery of his birth had, perhaps by his parents, been disclosed to him, and, although educated in all the luxuries of an Eastern court, he had preserved a feeling heart for the sufferings of his brethren; he went from the palace to enquire into their condition, and he sympathised with their afflictions with all the ardour and energy of a noble and generous mind.—And looked on their burdens. He gave his attention, applied his mind to their oppressive labours, which grieved his heart (Rashi).—And he saw an Egyptian smiting a Hebrew, one of his brethren, Royal taskmasters were appointed to control and urge on the Hebrew labourers, as the delegated officers of a superior despotic power. They appear to have often abused their authority, and treated the Hebrews with degrading and revolting cruelty (see our notes to v. 6, 10, 14, 15). The Egyptian smote the Hebrew, but did not kill him, as the surviving Israelite alone could have divulged the resolute action of Moses, related in the following verse.

12. The impetuous anger, and the summary revenge practised by Moses, in which some writers have seen the violent action of a true descendant of his pas

that way, and when he saw that there was no man, he slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. 13. And when he went out the second day, behold, two Hebrews contended together, and he said to him that did wrong, Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow-man? 14. And he

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sionate ancestor Levi (Gen. xlix. 5—7), will not surprise those who consider that the position of the Egyptians to the Hebrews, was that of violence, not of right; justice was not to be expected against the arbitrariness of the Egyptian officers, whose rigour was countenanced and even sanctioned and enjoined by their superiors. In such a state of public affairs stratagem is to be met with stratagem, and force with force, according to the right of the stronger; and the deed of Moses-who, in a generous impulse of the moment, risked his high station, and even his existence, for the cause of justice and innocence-belongs to those which history records as noble and magnanimous. Despair and vengeance are the dreadful resources of the oppressed; and few men, suffering under a common yoke of slavery, would hesitate to punish on a tyrant a wrong done to their fellow, even as if it were done to themselves " (Wilson). And although there were certain kinds of Hebrew magistrates in Egypt, as the elders (iii. 16, and our note on the passage) and the Shoterim, the general registrars (see our note on v. 16), they had not sufficient authority to enforce their decrees; the weaker part had no hope to obtain justice by legal means; and all facts agree to justify the opinion that the Israelites were in a lawless position. And according to Diod. Sic. (i. § 17) there was an Egyptian law, enforcing that he who saw a man killed, or violently assaulted on the highway, and did not endeavour to rescue him if he could, was punished with death (see a more figurative explanation of our verse in Abarbanel's note on this passage). And hid him in the sand. In Egypt and Arabia, men not unfrequently find their death in the sand driven and accumulated by the wind (Lengerke). If the

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corpse of the Egyptian had been found in the field, his avengers of blood, or relations, would have searched after the murderer, and delivered him up into the hands of justice (Abarbanel). The Koran, which, in almost all particulars, follows Jewish traditions, although often freely and inaccurately, adds, after the relation of this deed of Moses: "But soon repenting of it, he exclaimed, 'This is a work of Satan, who is an open seducer and fiend,' and he prayed, 'O my Lord, I have sinned; pardon me, I beseech Thee.' And God forgave him, for he is compassionate and all-merciful." From all this we must reject the remark of Cahen, "This deed, although dictated by a legitimate indignation, shows that Moses was still in the effervescence of youth, and under the influence of an African climate;" we find, in the conduct of Moses, rather a corroboration of the opinion of Göthe," a strong sense of justice and injustice is the principal feature in the character of Moses." should, further, the whole transaction not justify us in supposing that an unformed idea of rescuing his brethren from the Egyptian yoke filled and occupied, even then, the mind of Moses?

And

13. The second, the following, day (Acts vii. 26, τῇ τε ἐπιούσῃ ἡμέρᾳ).—Two men, according to a tradition, Dathan and Abiram; against which assumption, however, Abarbanel objects, that we find, later, God commanding Moses to return from Midian to Egypt, "because all, who sought his life, were dead" (iv. 19), whereas Dathan and Abiram outlived that period considerably. "The first action of Moses was to punish the oppression of his brethren (ver. 12), the second is to restore harmony among them (ver. 13)" (Cahen).

15. Moses was compelled to flee; for manslaughter was, in Egypt, inexorably

said, Who made thee a superior and judge over us? Dost thou intend to kill me as thou hast killed the Egyptian? And Moses feared and said, Surely the thing is known. 15. Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian: and he sat down by the well.

punished with death (Diod. Sic. i. 6), And although the avenging of blood might have been lawful in Egypt, Moses could not class his action under that category; because the Egyptian had only beaten, not killed, the Israelite (see ver. 11); and if even the latter had been the case, Moses would have been exposed to the same danger, because he had exercised that right in favour of the detested Hebrew race, whose extermination was the cherished aim of the Egyptian despot, in whatever way it might be attained.And he dwelt in the land of Midian: and he sat down by a well. "The text relates, first, the general event of his sojourning in Midian, and proceeds then to describe the details of that event" (Mendelssohn). Abarbanel explains less appropriately: "And when he had dwelt in the land of Midian many years, he happened once to sit by a well." The land of Midian, so called from one of the sons of Abraham and Keturah (Gen. xxv. 2, 4), extended to the south and east of Canaan; from the eastern coast of the Elanitic gulf of the Red Sea to the territory of the Moabites in the north, and the region of Mount Sinai in the south. A town, Madianu, or Modiana, is mentioned on the coast of the Elanitic gulf, which was already destroyed in the time of Edrisi and Abulfeda, who, nevertheless, notice the very well where the daughter of Schoaib, as the Moslems call Jethro, went to water the flocks, and saw, for the first time, her future husband. Josephus, who continues systematically his fanciful narration, names a city, Madiene (Madiŋvý), on the Red Sea, as the locality of the following events. It is, however, questionable, whether the Midianites of our text really lived in these regions; the more so, as later we find

Midianites mentioned between Edom and Paran (1 Kings xi. 18). It is, perhaps, more probable, to suppose with Rosenmüller (Antiq. iii. 95), besides those Midianites who formed the principal stock of that tribe, and who were engaged in commercial pursuits (see Gen. xxxvii. 25-28), another more nomadic and pastoral ramification of the same people in the Arabic desert between mount Sinai, Edom and Canaan. For it is not unusual with originally nomadic tribes, that some portions separate themselves from the chief stock of the nation, and settle in different districts. This supposition is more in harmony with several passages of the Pentateuch (as Exod. iii. 1, iv. 27, xviii. 1, etc.).-Wells are of such vital importance for the nomadic tribes of the East, in the arid tracts which they inhabit, that they are not seldom the cause of serious contention and even warfare (Gen. xxvi. 15, 20; Paxton, Illustr. i. pp. 41-50); and in the Bible they are frequently the scene of the narrative. The water was fetched at fixed times of the day (see Odyssey vii. 20; Rosenmüller, Orient. i. p. 102), and Niebuhr found in those regions still the same obliging politeness (Travels, ii. p. 410). Wells and fountains were places of amusement and of social meetings, and frequently engagements were here concluded; thus the matrimonial alliances of Isaac, Jacob and Moses, were formed at wells (Gen. xxiv. xxix).-And he sat down by the well. The definite article, which appears strange, is accounted for by Ewald (Gram. § 496), "because there is, in the neighbourhood of each town, one well only for watering the cattle." 'Perhaps that well bore the name of the well of Midian' (Glaire).

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