ginally, and especially where the primitive notions are faithfully preserved, the Deity itself descends to its favourites in a mortal shape; but gradually the emanations of its power in nature are regarded as the heralds and instruments of its decrees (Ps. civ. 4; 2 Sam. xxiv. 16), and are personified according to the manner of the Orient, as is even the case with the spirit." "Wherever God appears in the symbol of any natural phenomenon, this is His angel, or His visible agent, or, in the beautiful language of Moses: 'The name of God is in him'" (Herder, Geist der Hebr. Poes. ii. p. 48).-Moses, Moses. The repetition of the name is intended to rouse the attention of Moses with greater force. Comp. Genes. xxii. 11. Here am I; an expression of willingness and ready obedience, as Gen. xxii. 11; xxxi. 11; Isa. vi. 8. Comp. Emunah Ramah, ii. 6.

5. The shoes of the Orientals (as those of the Greeks and Romans) were, and are still, mere soles of leather or wood, which were fastened under the feet, and tied above them with a thong or latchet (Gen. xix. 23). Jonathan translates therefore here, thy sandals. The Egyptians were, however, famous for the sumptuousness of their sandals, which form still one of the greatest ornaments of their attire, being elaborately embroidered with flowers and other figures wrought in silk, silver and gold (Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt. iii. 364). Shoes are, in the East, seldom worn in the apartments in paying visits; they are usually put off in the ante-chambers

(comp. Plato, Sympos. p. 213). To enter a place of worship with covered feet is considered as an act of the greatest irreverence. Jamieson, (in Paxton's IIlustrations, i. p. 298, note), observes: "The lobby of their mosques is filled with shoes, just as the lobby of a house, or recess in a church, is filled with hats amongst us." Pythagoras also, most probably following an Egyptian custom, enjoins on his disciples to sacrifice and to enter the temple unshod. Even in the remotest antiquity it was a general custom to approach barefoot those sacred spots, where the Deity was believed to be present; thus, in our passage, and perfectly so in Josh. v, 15, where, on a similar occasion, the same command is, almost in the identical words of our verse, addressed to Joshua ; and the Hebrew priests probably performed their sacred duties in the temple unshod (as is even now done by the whole people on the holiest day in the year, the day of atonement; see also 2 Sam. xv. 30, and Berach. lxii. 2). Many find in this practice a similar mark of respect and reverence as in our custom of uncovering the head; others see therein an act of cleanliness which, as the ritual emblem of internal purity, is one of the greatest virtues among the Orientals; still, others consider it as a kind of pious self-castigation, just as the Roman matrons went once in procession unshod to the temple of Vesta (Ovid, Fast. vi. 397). The first reason is the most plausible. Holy ground. The grandeur of the scenery around the three majestic peaks

of Horeb impressed from the earliest times the wandering tribes of the Arabs with awe and veneration; and the region was commonly considered as a sacred locality (see ver. 1).

6. I am the God of thy fathers. The Hebrew word father is here used collectively, like xv. 2, "the God of my fathers." To understand it of Abraham only, because he was the first worshipper of God among the ancestors of Moses, would be inappropriate, on account of the following words: the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which are an explanatory apposition to "God of thy fathers." Ebn Ezra remarks, that the Lord revealed Himself to Moses as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and not as the God of Levi, Kohath, and Amram, who were his nearest relatives, because the former were prophets, and the ancestors of all Israel.—And Moses hid his face. Sept. ȧπéσтρεε, averted his face. For he was afraid to look upon God. Moses feared to look upon the divine apparition, which according to a very general notion nobody can behold without either losing his sight or his life (see Gen. xvi. 13; Deut. xviii. 16. Comp. Homer, Odys. xvi. 161). Albo, (Ikkarim ii. 29), assigns the reason that Moses covered his eyes, in order not to be dazzled by the splendour of the fire, and not to be diverted from the divine ideas communicated to him; for if the external senses are occupied, the reflective powers lose their energy.

7. Indeed, I know their sorrows. The usual rendering: "for I know their sorrows," is illogical; we have therefore

preferred to take here as a particle of protestation: indeed (like ver. 12), in unison with the emphatical and forcible character of the whole verse (see note to i. 19).

8. And I came down to deliver them. Targum Onkelos renders: "And I revealed myself."- A brief description of the climate, extent, and fertility of Palestine will be given on Gen. xii. 7. Into the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites, etc. Although "Canaanites" is the general name for all the nations which inhabited the land of Canaan, they are not seldom enumerated as one particular tribe, or rather as a certain kind of tribes, namely probably — according to the original signification of the word Canaan-the inhabitants of the lower regions, i. e., those tribes which lived near the coast of the Mediterranean and in the plains of the Jordan (see Gen. xiii. 7; Num. xiii. 29). Of the ten nations, the subjugation of which God promised to Abraham (Gen. xv. 19-21), six only are mentioned here, as these constituted the more important part of the population of Canaan.

These

9. Now, therefore, behold, etc. words refer, on the one hand, back to ver. 7, which contains a similar sentence; and point, on the other hand, forward to the following verse, with which it stands in a causal connection: 66 Because, then, I have heard the cry of the children of Israel, go to Pharaoh and lead them out of Egypt"

10. And bring thou forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt. It

has often been asked by Biblical students, why it was necessary to lead the Israelites from Egypt, where they all had been born and brought up, and which, by their long sojourn through so many generations, they must have begun to consider as their own country; especially as their exit from Egypt exposed them to so many dangers and difficulties necessarily attendant on the march through the desert, and the military operations against warlike tribes; whilst God, if he wished to relieve them, might have inclined the heart of Pharaoh in their favour, instead of hardening it against them, and might thus have converted their abodes in Egypt into homes of happiness and comfort. The obvious answer to this question is, that the Israelites would not have been able to worship the God of their fathers, and to receive the Law, in Egypt, a country replete with idolatrous abominations; and in ver. 12 the whole aim and end of the Exodus appear to be hinted at in the words: "And this shall be a sign unto thee, that I have sent thee: when thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God upon this mountain."

11. The best commentary on this verse is given by Josephus (Antiq. II. xii. 2), who introduces Moses uttering the following words: "I am at a loss to comprehend, how I, a man of no rank or influence, should be able to persuade my countrymen to leave a land already so long inhabited by them, and to follow me into the country to which I might lead them; or, if I even succeed to induce the Israelites to listen to my words, how can I force Pharaoh to allow them to depart, by whose services and industry his national prosperity is so

materially enhanced." The diffidence of Moses, which was the result of modesty (Num. xii. 3), not of disobedience, contrasted his humble pastoral condition with the exalted position of the mighty king of Egypt and his proud courtiers, to whom, he thought, it would be im possible even to obtain access; he doubted further his capabilities, which he believed were insufficient for the difficult task, to lead a great nation through a trackless desert into a distant country. The answer of Moses accurately corresponds with the exhortation of God in the

preceding verse; and the following verse removes in the same order the objections of Moses. The hesitation of the lawgiver, in accepting a great and dangerous mission has several analogics in the most pious servants of God: Samuel fears the revenge of Saul, when God commands him to go into the house of Jesse to anoint David (1 Sam. xvi. 2). Jonah attempts to evade his charge to the Ninevites; and Jeremiah, when chosen by God as prophet, exclaims in an objection similar to that of Moses: "O Lord God, behold, I cannot speak, for I am but a youth" (Jerem. i. 6). However, it deserves to be remarked, that among the many doubts and objections, which Moses raised against his mission, fear for his life-the most obvious of all-is not mentioned, a sufficient proof, that not timidity to undergo danger, but want of confidence in himself, made the modest messenger doubt so despondingly and hesitatingly. And Calvin already observes, that Moses, after having slain the Egyptian, preferred a voluntary exile to a reconciliation with the tyrannical king. He left Egypt in faith (Hebr. xi. 27). The diffidence of Moses to appear before

Pharaoh, not because he was banished as a murderer, but because he was but a mean shepherd, would be strange indeed, considering that he was educated at the royal court, were it not sufficiently accounted for by the circumstances, that the king, whose daughter had adopted him, lived no more (iii. 23), and that in the period of about forty years, which had elapsed since his flight, he must have become a perfect stranger to the whole royal household; so that Winer's remark with reference to our verse (Bibl. Dict. ii. p. 110): "Well might fable have been busy in adorning the history of the infancy and youth of the great legislator," is devoid of every solid basis.

12. And this shall be a sign to thee, that I have sent thee: when thou hast brought forth, etc.-Ebn Ezra, Rashi, and Mendelssohn, suppose the sign to be the burning bush, which was miraculously preserved; just so would Moses be rescued from all the snares and persecutions of Pharaoh; so that the words: "when thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt" begin a new sentence; for the whole end of the deliverance of the Israelites was the law to be promulgated on Mount Horeb, and the covenant to be concluded between God and His people.-But this interpretation, forced in itself, would at least require the conjunction and before when thou hast brought forth; without it the sentence is extremely abrupt. Abarbanel explains: "I will be with thee; and the wonders which thou, a weak octogenarian, wilt perform, strengthened by my assistance, will be the sign that I have sent thee." But the ellipsis is too bold; besides, the following part of the verse would be liable to the same objection as the interpretation of Mendelssohn.-We have,

therefore, with the authorised version, translated so, that the sign, or rather proof, is, that the Israelites will sacrifice before the Mount Sinai. Even Rashi adduces this interpretation as admissible. The phrase you shall serve God is here also the symbolical, but hidden expression for the intended revelation. It might appear surprising, that God gave Moses, in this case, a sign, which was fulfilled only several months after the Exodus, and which could not encourage and strengthen him for the great difficulties he had to encounter before its realization. But similar signs to be verified by future events were not unusual (see Isa. xxxvii. 30; 1 Sam. ii. 34); and one promise was corroborated by another assurance. Besides, by far the greatest hardships and tribulations, the severest trials and dangers, awaited Moses and the Israelites only after the legislation on Mount Sinai, during their forty years' wanderings in the solitary and dreary wilderness, in their warfare against inimical tribes, and in their multifarious troubles and privations.

13. Behold when I come, etc. Moses asked God, under what name he was to announce Him to the Israelites, or, according to Maimonides (More Nebuch. i. 63), under which attribute he should say, He had appeared to him. The name of the Deity is no matter of indifference, as it conveys in the precisest possible form His power, His nature, and His relation to His worshippers. But the Egyptians, who, according to Herodotus (ii. 4, 50), were the most ancient nation which introduced names for their deities, advanced in this respect soon to an extreme, bestowing upon the same god a multiplicity of names, as if incapable of adequately expressing his holiness, his grandeur, and

his remaining attributes, by one or a few appellations: and thus Isis was "called by an infinite number of names," whereas the prophet Zachariah (xiv. 10), describes it as a symptom of the full and universal knowledge and the pure adoration of God: "that He will be one and His name one." If, therefore, the Israelites were to listen to the exhortation of Moses, he must necessarily address them in the service of a God, whose very name inspired confidence and awe. He must bear a name which unmistakably describes His existence and ruling Providence; for in the protracted period of their servitude and oppression, they had almost forgotten the holy name of God, under which He was known to their ancestors, and they had relapsed into the idolatries of the heathens, into Sabeanism and other superstitions; except perhaps the tribe of Levi, which is said to have invariably and faithfully preserved the true knowledge of God, which was hence designed to receive the crown of priesthood. Moses therefore asked God, which name, implying eternity and omnipotence, would be most calculated to arouse the Israelites at once from their lethargic indifference, and to fill the degraded people with courage and confidence. Maimonides in the preface to his Commentary on the Mishna, observes: "Whenever a man came forth in Israel professing to be gifted with prophecy, the people asked first, who it was that had inspired and sent him; and if he answered, that he had his prophecy as an emanation from a star or any deity except God, they stoned him without further investigation. Therefore Moses was quite justified in asking who that Being was, who spoke to him, and in whose name he was to console, exhort, and deliver the Israelites." In the Bible, indeed, the "name of God" appears in many passages to be used synonymously with God himself, and His internal essence (Deut. xxviii. 58. Lev. xix. 12; xxiv. 11. Isa. xxx. 27

Micah v. 3. Ps. vii. 18; xx. 2; xci. 15, etc.); and impressed with this great importance of the divine appellation, the author of the book Cusari, devotes an elaborate treatise (iv.1. et seq.) to this subject.

14. I am he who is.. "I am" has sent me to you. This is the name with which God orders Moses to announce Him to the Israelites, and with which the tetragrammaton (Jehovah) in the following verse is identical. If we compare herewith the third verse of the sixth chapter: "And I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but under my name Jehovah I was not known to them," we have a safe guide for the historical and etymological origin of the holy divine name. We shall first review the results of the modern researches on this important point, and then proceed to introduce the different interpretations, to which the obscure phrase of our text has given rise:

I. The name Jehovah is of genuine Hebrew derivation.

1. It is not of Egyptian origin, as has so often, even in our time, been advanced. This supposition, based on a wrong conception of Eusebius, has been successfully and ably refuted by Didymus Taurinensis. The inscription, which Plutarch (on Isis, § 9) mentions to have existed in the temple of Isis in Sais: "I am all that has been, that is, and that will be, and my veil has by no mortal yet been lifted," has no internal resemblance with the expression of our text: "I am he who is." Isis is only the personification of nature, whose secret workings no mortal can explore; she is the parent of all existence, and to her everything that is must a conception common to all nations of antiquity, and not implying any pure monotheistic idea. Besides, the authenticity of that inscription has justly been questioned. On the other hand, such passages as Exod. v. 2, where Pharaoh exclaims, "who is Jehovah, that I should listen to his voice, to let the children of Israel

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