Moses is born and exposed on the bank of the river; where he is taken up by the daughter of Pharao, and adopted for her son. He killeth an Egyptian, and fleeth into Madian; where he marrieth a wife.
A child of the Hebrewes, and Tribe of Leui, being exposed to the water, 5. is taken from thence by Pharaos daughter, 8. who committeth him to be nursed, vnwitting to his owne mother, adopteth him and calleth him Moyses, II. He afterwardes visiting his brethren, killeth an Aegyptian; 15. flieth into Madian; 21. marrieth a wise, and hath two sonnes.
1After this there went a man of the house of Levi; and took a wife of his own kindred.Dopo queste cose un uomo della famiglia di Levi andò: e prese per moglie una donna del suo lignaggio:AFTER th•se thinges there came forth a man of the house of Leui: and he tooke a wife of his owne stocke.Egressus est post hæc vir de domo Levi: et accepit uxorem stirpis suæ. 2And she conceived, and bore a son: and seeing him a goodly child, hid him three months.La quale concepì, e partorì un figliuolo: e veggendo com'egli era bello, lo nascose per tre mesi.Who conceaued, and •are a sonne: and seing him a goodlie one, hid him three monethes.Quæ concepit, et peperit filium: et videns eum elegantem, abscondit tribus mensibus. 3And when she could hide him no longer, she took a basket made of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and pitch: and put the little babe therein, and laid him in the sedges by the river’s brink,E non potendo più celarlo, prese un canestro fatto di giunchi, e lo inverniciò con pece e bitume: e vi pose dentro il piccol bambino, e lo espose in mezzo ai giunchi presso alla riva del fiume,And when now she could not conceale him, she tooke a basket made of b•••ishes, and dawbed it with bitume and pitch: and put with in it the litle infant, and laid him in a sedgie place by the riuers brinke,Cumque jam celare non posset, sumpsit fiscellam scirpeam, et linivit eam bitumine ac pice: posuitque intus infantulum, et exposuit eum in carecto ripæ fluminis, 4His sister standing afar off, and taking notice what would be done.Stando in lontananza la sorella di lui ad osservare quello che ne avvenisse.his sister standing a farre of, and considering the euent of the thing.stante procul sorore ejus, et considerante eventum rei. 5And behold the daughter of Pharao came down to wash herself in the river: and her maids walked by the river’s brink. And when she saw the basket in the sedges she sent one of her maids for it: and when it was brought,Quand'ecco la figliuola di Faraone che veniva a lavarsi nel fiume: e le sue cameriere camminavano lungo il canale. Ed ella avendo veduto il canestro tra i giunchi, mandò una delle sue cameriere a prenderlo:And behold the daughter of Pharao came downe to she was 〈◊〉 in the riuer and her maides walked by the riuers brinke. Who when she saw the basket in the sedges•, she sent one of her handmaides: and when it was broughtEcce autem descendebat filia Pharaonis ut lavaretur in flumine: et puellæ ejus gradiebantur per crepidinem alvei. Quæ cum vidisset fiscellam in papyrione, misit unam e famulabus suis: et allatam 6She opened it, and seeing within it an infant crying, having compassion on it, she said: This is one of the babes of the Hebrews.E scopertolo, e veduto in essa il fanciullo, che vagiva, n'ebbe compassione, e disse: Questo è un bambino degli Ebrei.opening it, and seeing within it an infant crying, hauing pitty on it, said: This is one of the infantes of the Hebrewes.aperiens, cernensque in ea parvulum vagientem, miserta ejus, ait: De infantibus Hebræorum est hic.
7And the child’s sister said to her: Shall I go, and call to thee a Hebrew woman, to nurse the babe?E la sorella del bambino le disse: Vuoi tu ch'io vada a chiamarti una donna Ebrea, che allevi il bambino?To whom the childes sister said: Wilt thou that I goe, & ca••ro thee an Hebrew woman, that may nurse the litle infant?Cui soror pueri: Vis, inquit, ut vadam, et vocem tibi mulierem hebræam, quæ nutrire posset infantulum ? 8She answered: Go. The maid went and called her mother.Rispose quella: Va'. Andò la fanciulla, e chiamò sua madre.She answered: Goe. The maid went and called her mother.Respondit: Vade. Perrexit puella et vocavit matrem suam. 9And Pharao’s daughter said to her: Take this child, and nurse him for me: I will give thee thy wages. The woman took and nursed the child: and when he was grown up, she delivered him to Pharao’s daughter.E a lei la figlia di Faraone: Prendi, disse, questo bambino, e allevamelo; e io ti darò il tuo baliatico. Lo prese la donna, e allattò il bambino: e quando fu grande, lo diede alla figlia di Faraone.To whom Pharaos daughter speaking Take, quoth 〈◊〉, this child, and nurse him for me: I wil geue thee thy hyre. The woman tooke, and nursed the child: and when he was growen, deliuered him to Pharaos daughter.Ad quam locuta filia Pharaonis: Accipe, ait, puerum istum, et nutri mihi: ego dabo tibi mercedem tuam. Suscepit mulier, et nutrivit puerum: adultumque tradidit filiæ Pharaonis. 10And she adopted him for a son, and called him Moses, saying: Because I took him out of the water.Ed ella lo adottò in figliuolo, e gli pose nome Mosè, dicendo: Io lo trassi dall'acqua.Whom she adopted into the place of a sonne, and called him Moyses, saying: Because from the water I did take him.Quem illa adoptavit in locum filii, vocavitque nomen ejus Moyses, dicens: Quia de aqua tuli eum. 11In those days, after Moses was grown up, he went out to his brethren: and saw their affliction, and an Egyptian striking one of the Hebrews, his brethren.In tempo che Mosè era già diventato grande, andò a trovare i suoi fratelli: e vide la loro afflizione, e un uomo Egiziano, che maltrattava uno degli Ebrei suoi fratelli.In those dayes after that Moyses was growen, he went forth to his brethren: and he saw their affliction, and a man that was an Aegyptian striking one of the Hebrewes his brethren.In diebus illis postquam creverat Moyses, egressus est ad fratres suos: viditque afflictionem eorum, et virum ægyptium percutientem quemdam de Hebræis fratribus suis. 12And when he had looked about this way and that way, and saw no one there, he slew the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.E avendo girati gli occhi di qua e di là, e veduto, che nissuno era presente, ucciso l'Egiziano, lo seppellì nella sabbia.And when he had looked about hither & thither, and saw no man present, he stroke the Aegyptian, and hid him in the sand.Cumque circumspexisset huc atque illuc, et nullum adesse vidisset, percussum Ægyptium abscondit sabulo.
13And going out the next day, he saw two Hebrews quarrelling: and he said to him that did the wrong: Why strikest thou thy neighbour?E andatovi il dì seguente, vide due Ebrei, che erano in rissa: e disse a quello che faceva ingiuria: Per qual motivo maltratti il tuo prossimo?And going forth an other day, he saw two Hebrewes brawling: and he said to him that did the wrong: Why strikest thou thy neighbour?Et egressus die altero conspexit duos Hebræos rixantes: dixitque ei qui faciebat injuriam: Quare percutis proximum tuum ? 14But he answered: Who hath appointed thee prince and judge over us? wilt thou kill me, as thou didst yesterday kill the Egyptian? Moses feared, and said: How is this come to be known?Quegli rispose: Chi ti ha costituito principe, e giudice sopra di noi? vuoi tu forse uccidermi, come ieri ammazzasti l'Egiziano? Temé Mosè, e disse: Come mai è venuta a scoprirsi tal cosa?Who answered: Who hath appointed thee prince & iudge ouer vs? Wilt thou kil me, as yesterday thou didest the Aegyptian? Moyses feared, and said: How is this thing come abroad?Qui respondit: Quis te constituit principem et judicem super nos ? num occidere me tu vis, sicut heri occidisti Ægyptium ? Timuit Moyses, et ait: Quomodo palam factum est verbum istud ? 15And Pharao heard of this word, and sought to kill Moses: but he fled from his sight, and abode in the land of Madian, and he sat down by a well.E fu informato Faraone del fatto, e cercava di uccider Mosè: il quale fuggendo dal cospetto di lui andò a stare nella terra di Madian, e si pose a sedere vicino a un pozzo.And Pharao heard of this talke, and sought to kil Moyses: who fleeing from his sight, abode in the Land of Madian, and sate beside a wel.Audivitque Pharao sermonem hunc, et quærebat occidere Moysen: qui fugiens de conspectu ejus, moratus est in terra Madian, et sedit juxta puteum. 16And the priest of Madian had seven daughters, who came to draw water: and when the troughs were filled, desired to water their father’s flocks.Or un sacerdote di Madian avea sette figlie, le quali vennero ad attinger acqua: e avendo empiuti i canali volevano abbeverare i greggi del padre loro.And the priest of Madian had seuen daughters, which were come to draw water: and when the troughes were filled, they desired to water their fathers flockes.Erant autem sacerdoti Madian septem filiæ, quæ venerunt ad hauriendam aquam: et impletis canalibus adaquare cupiebant greges patris sui. 17And the shepherds came and drove them away: and Moses arose, and defending the maids, watered their sheep.Ma sopraggiunsero de' pastori, i quali le discacciarono: e Mosè si levò su, e prese la difesa delle fanciulle, e abbeverò le loro pecore.The shepeheardes came vpon them, and droue them away: and Moyses arose, and defending the maides, watered their sheepe.Supervenere pastores, et ejecerunt eas: surrexitque Moyses, et defensis puellis, adaquavit oves earum.
18And when they returned to Raguel their father, he said to them: Why are ye come sooner than usual?E tornate che furon queste a casa di Raguele padre loro, disse egli: Come siete tornate più presto del solito?Who being returned to Raguel their father, he said to them: Why are you come sooner then you were woont?Quæ cum revertissent ad Raguel patrem suum, dixit ad eas: Cur velocius venistis solito ? 19They answered: A man of Egypt delivered us from the hands of the shepherds: and he drew water also with us, and gave the sheep to drink.Risposero: Un uomo egiziano ci ha salvate dalle mani dei pastori: e di più ha dato di mano ad attingere acqua con noi, e ha abbeverato le pecore.They answered: A certaine man an Aegyptian deliuered vs from the hand of the shepheardes: moreouer also he drew water with vs, and gaue the sheepe to drinke.Responderunt: Vir ægyptius liberavit nos de manu pastorum: insuper et hausit aquam nobiscum, potumque dedit ovibus. 20But he said: Where is he? why have you let the man go? call him that he may eat bread.E quegli: Dov'è? disse. Perché lo avete lasciato partire? chiamatelo a mangiare del pane.But he said: Where is he? Why haue you let the man goe? cal him that he may eate bread.At ille: Ubi est ? inquit: quare dimisistis hominem ? vocate eum ut comedat panem. 21And Moses swore that he would dwell with him. And he took Sephora his daughter to wife:Mosè adunque fe' giuramento di dimorare in sua casa: e prese per moglie Sephora sua figliuola.Therfore Moyses sware that he would dwel with him. And he tooke Sephora his daughter to wife:Juravit ergo Moyses quod habitaret cum eo. Accepitque Sephoram filiam ejus uxorem: 22And she bore him a son, whom he called Gersam, saying: I have been a stranger in a foreign country. And she bore another, whom he called Eliezer, saying: For the God of my father, my helper, hath delivered me out of the hand of Pharao.La quale gli partorì un figliuolo, a cui pose nome Gersam, dicendo: Sono stato pellegrino in terra straniera. Ne partorì poi un altro, cui chiamò Eliezer, dicendo: Il Dio del padre mio mi ha soccorso, e liberato dal potere di Faraone.who bare him a sonne, whom he called Gersam, saying: I haue bene a stranger in a forren countrey. And she bare an other, whom he called Eliezer, saying: for the God of my father my helper hath deliuered me out of the hand of Pharao.quæ peperit ei filium, quem vocavit Gersam, dicens: Advena fui in terra aliena. Alterum vero peperit, quem vocavit Eliezer, dicens: Deus enim patris mei adjutor meus eripuit me de manu Pharaonis. 23Now after a long time the king of Egypt died: and the children of Israel groaning, cried out because of the works: and their cry went up unto God from the works.Di lì a molto tempo morì il re d'Egitto: e gemendo i figliuoli d'Israele sotto i travagli alzaron le grida: e i loro clamori per ragion dei travagli salirono a Dio.But after much time the king of Aegypt died: and the children of Israel groning, cried out because of the workes: and their crie ascended vnto God from the workes.Post multum vero tempore mortuus est rex Ægypti: et ingemiscentes filii Israël, propter opera vociferati sunt: ascenditque clamor eorum ad Deum ab operibus.
24And he heard their groaning, and remembered the covenant which he made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.Ed egli udì i loro sospiri, e si ricordò del patto fermato con Abramo, con Isacco, e con Giacobbe.And he heard their groning, & remembred the couenant which he made with Abraham, Isaac, and Iacob.Et audivit gemitum eorum, ac recordatus est fœderis quod pepigit cum Abraham, Isaac et Jacob. 25And the Lord looked upon the children of Israel, and he knew them.E il Signore volse gli occhi a' figliuoli d'Israele, e li riconobbe.And our Lord looked vpon the children of Israel and knew them.Et respexit Dominus filios Israël et cognovit eos.
2:1
Haydock
After this. In process of time, without reference to what immediately precedes. The Hebrew and Septuagint omit these words. (Haydock)
Calmet
The marriage of Amram, grandson of Levi, with his aunt or cousin, had taken place before the persecution. Tostat and others suppose, that people were not then forbidden to marry their aunts. But it is probable Jochabed was only the grand-daughter of Levi, and the daughter of one of Amram's brothers, as the Septuagint insinuate. Otherwise their ages would have been very disproportionate. See Exodus 6:20. (Calmet)
2:2
Year of the World 2433, Year before Christ 1571.
Worthington
Goodly. Handsome, elegant, Hebrews 11:23; agreeable to God, Acts 7:20. Josephus says, Amram had been assured by God that the child should be the deliverer of his people. Yet he neglects not to use every prudent precaution. (Worthington)
Calmet
Months. Hebrew moons; whence some erroneously infer, that the Hebrew year was not solar. (Calmet)
2:3
2:4
Haydock
His sister, Mary, who was born at the beginning of this persecution, and was therefore called bitterness. (Haydock)
Menochius
She was about 12 years old. (Menochius)
2:5
Calmet
Daughter, and sole heiress. She is called Thermut by Josephus, and Meris by Artapanus. She was going to bathe, or to purify herself, according to the custom of the country; or perhaps she was going to wash linen, as Nausicrae, the daughter of Alcinous, was doing, when she met Ulysses. (Calmet)
2:6
Theodoret
Hebrews, against whom the persecution raged. She saw it had received circumcision. (Theodoret, q. in Ex.)
2:10
Challoner
Moses, or Moyses, in the Egyptian tongue, signifies one taken or saved out of the water. (Challoner)
Calmet
Mo, signifies water in the Egyptian tongue; Mosse, "he drew out," in Hebrew. Philo believes that the princess feigned him to be her own child. Moses denied that he was, and would not take advantage of this adoption, Hebrews 11:24. He was grown up, and had been well instructed by his parents, ver. 9. He afterwards became well versed in all the sciences, (Acts 7:22,) rejecting what was idle and superstitious. Josephus assures us he became a great conqueror. (Calmet)
2:11
Year of the World 2473, Year before Christ 1531.
2:12
Challoner
He slew the Egyptian. This he did by a particular inspiration of God; as a prelude to his delivering the people from their oppression and bondage. He thought, says St. Stephen, (Acts 7:25,) that his brethren understood that God by his hand would save them. But such particular and extraordinary examples are not to be imitated. (Challoner)
St. Thomas Aquinas
He was inspired, on this occasion, to stand up in defence of the innocent. (Menochius) (St. Thomas Aquinas, 2:2, q. 60.)
Calmet
The laws of Egypt required every person to protect the oppressed; or, if unable to do it, he was to call in the aid of the magistrate. (Diodorus I.) (Calmet)
Moses looked round to see if there was any help near. He was 40 years old when he was forced to flee.
2:14
Haydock
Feared. St. Paul, (Hebrews 11:27,) is speaking of his leaving Egypt, at the head of the people, when he says, not fearing the fierceness of the king. Without being dismayed on this occasion, by the unexpected discovery of what he had done, (which was perhaps undesignedly made public by the Hebrew whom he had rescued) he resolves not to tempt God. (Haydock)
2:15
2:16
Calmet
Priest. Hebrew cohen, (or cen,) means also a prince, as the Chaldean has it. When put in this manner, with the name of a place, it is generally taken in this sense. But formerly kings were also priests. Jethro served the true God, like Job, in the midst of a perverse generation, and offered sacrifice to him, when he joined the camp of the Israelites, Exodus 18:11. (Calmet)
2:18
Challoner
Raguel. He had two names, being also called Jethro, as appears from the first verse of the following chapter. (Challoner)
Drusius
He is also called Hobab and Ceni. (Numbers 10:2; Judges 1:16.) Perhaps Raguel was father of Jethro. (Drusius)
2:21
Swore. Hebrew Goel is rendered "was willing."
Sym.[Symmachus?] has, "He conjured Moses;" and Theo., "Moses began to dwell." The Septuagint neglect the word entirely, "But Moses took up his abode."
2:22
Challoner
Gersam, or Gershom. This name signifies, a stranger there: as Eliezer signifies the help of God. (Challoner)
Calmet
And she, etc., is wanting both in Hebrew and Chaldean, but found in the Complut. edit. of the Septuagint. It occurs (chap. 18:4,) and we might naturally expect to find it in this place. (Calmet)
2:23
Usher
Died in the year of the world 2494. His successor, Amenophis, treading in his footsteps, was drowned 19 years afterwards. (Usher)
2:25
Challoner
Knew them; that is, he had respect to them, he cast a merciful eye upon them. (Challoner)
Calmet
Hebrew, "he had regard for them;" and, as some Latin copies read, delivered them. (Calmet)
2:10
Moses.... Or Moyses, in the Egyptian tongue, signifies one taken or saved out of the water.
2:12
He slew the Egyptian.... This he did by a particular inspiration of God; as a prelude to his delivering the people from their oppression and bondage. He thought, says St. Stephen, Acts 7.25, that his brethren understood that God by his hand would save them. But such particular and extraordinary examples are not to be imitated.
2:15
2:18
2:22
Gersam.... Or Gershom. This name signifies a stranger there: as Eliezer signifies the help of God.
2:25
Knew them.... That is, he had respect to them, he cast a merciful eye upon them.
2:3
3. VVhen she could not conceal him.] These godlie and prudent parents, Moyses parēts did prudently expose him to some danger, to auoide greater. considering that when the Aegyptians should perceiue such an infant to be borne, and not drowned according to the Kings Edict, they would destroy both the child, and whole familie: to auoid the greater danger, chose the lesse. To bring him to the water side, not omitting their owne industrie, as wel by closing him in a basket, that would draw no water, as by setting his sister to watch what became of him: that if better successe happened not the first day, the mother might at euening geue him suck, and minister other necessaries; and so expect an other day, or manie dayes Gods prouidence, til his diuine pleasure should more appeare.
Iosephus writeth that Amram Moyses father, being solicitous, when his Reuelations and Gods determinations do not exclude but include mans endeuour. Though Moyses iustly killed the Aegyptian, yet others may not imitate his example. wife was great, how to saue the infant, if it were a man child, God reueled to li. 2. Antiq. him, that she had conceiued a sonne, who should not only be saued from Pharaos furie, but also be the deliuerer of the whole Hebrew nation from thraldome, and seruitude of the Aegyptians. VVherupon they assuredly trusted li. 16. c. 19. de⸢c⸣iuit. that God would protect and prosper him, yet so, if they did their owne endeuour, which S. Augustin teacheth to be alwayes necessarie.
kind of 〈…〉lavv, so 〈…〉lled.
2:10
Mos, in the Aegyptian tongue signifieth vvater, and Ises, saued. Ioseph. li. 2. Antiq. & Clemens. Alexan. li. 1. Stromat.
2:12
12. He stroke the Aegyptian.] Moyses not of carnal loue towards his brethren, nor of priuate passion, but by diuine inspiration killed the Aegyptian, as S. Augustin proueth (li. qq. in Exod. q. 2.) by the testimonie of S. Steuen saying: Moyses thought his brethren had vnderstood, that God by his hand, vvould Act. 7. saue them. VVherby appeareth that Moyses himselfe knew it was Gods pleasure, he should kil that Aegyptian inuading an Hebrew. Yet others may not imitate such particular examples. Catech. Rom. p. 3. c. 6. q. 5.
2:14
The guiltie persō reiected Moyses for lack of knowē authoritie, but God cōfirmed his cōmission. Act. 7. So the Iewes reiected Christ, Iudge of the world.
He feared to tempt God by staying, but not the sierc••es of the king. Heb. 11.
2:23
Oppression of innocents crieth to heauen for reuenge.
2:1
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 78.34
… so that they being rejected and not chosen, the tribe of Judah was chosen. For it might have been said that they were deservedly rejected; because even in the blessing of Jacob wherewith he blessed his sons, he mentioneth their sins, and deeply abhorreth them; though among them the tribe of Levi merited to be the priestly tribe, whence also Moses was.
2:10
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 Answer to Eunomius' Second Book 1
… For who gave Moses his name? Was it not Pharaoh’s daughter who named him from what had happened
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist 2.93
… What shall I say of his son Joseph, who, after the tribulation of a prison, in which his chastity was tried as gold is tried in the fire, being raised by Pharaoh to great honors, even swore by the life of Pharaoh, —not as though puffed up with vain conceit, but being not unmindful of his kindness. The daughter of a king adopted Moses.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Harmony of the Gospels 2.3
… For it was an ancient custom also among that people to adopt children with the view of making sons for themselves of those whom they had not begotten. For, leaving out of sight the fact that Pharaoh’s daughter
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 1.28
… “The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband; and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife.” Moses too, who was born of a Hebrew mother and was exposed, was adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter.
2:11
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Duties of the Clergy 1.36
… He who does not keep harm off a friend, if he can, is as much in fault as he who causes it. Wherefore holy Moses gave this as a first proof of his fortitude in war. For when he saw an Hebrew receiving hard treatment at the hands of an Egyptian, he defended him, and laid low the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 4
… Thus, for instance, David: what he did among the sheepfolds, the same he did after his victory and trophy; that it might be shown how simple and absolute was his faith. Again, see Moses despising royalty, and forsaking all, and after forty years taking the lead of the people (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Ephesians 7
… Seeing, it is said, one doing an injury to one of them, he defended him that suffered the injury, and slew him that inflicted it. But this is not as yet for the sake of enemies. Great indeed is this act of itself, but not so great as what comes afterwards. The next day, then, he saw the same thing taking place, and when he saw him whom he had defended
Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 Letters of the Blessed Theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus 3
… And we shall find just the same kind of wisdom in the old Testament, for the famous Moses, after playing the man in his struggle with the Egyptian and finding out the next day that the homicide had become known, ran away, travelled a long journey, and arrived at the land of Midian.
2:12
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Miscellaneous Letters 7.77
… but he was more praised because he prayed for the people when they had transgressed. Let us then also stand and make propitiation, and let the plague be stayed, and let this be counted unto us for righteousness. Moses also was praised because he slew the Egyptian that oppressed the Israelite;
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Reply to Faustus the Manichæan 22.5
… or how his son Solomon had three hundred wives, and seven hundred concubines, and princesses without number; or how the first prophet Hosea got children from a prostitute, and, what is worse, it is said that this disgraceful conduct was enjoined by God; or how Moses committed murder,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 99.10
… For they were living in the midst of the people of God, without complaint from man. But what do we say? That perhaps the early life of Moses was sinful; for he fled from Egypt, after slaying a man.
2:13
Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 4.28
… But see how clear a difference there is between the example of Moses and of Christ. Moses voluntarily interferes with brothers who were quarrelling, and chides the offender: “Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow?” He is, however, rejected by him: “Who made thee a prince or a judge over us?”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 21
Ye are brethren, he means, and have come of the same pangs. Hence even on this head you ought to love one another. And this Moses said to those who were quarrelling in Egypt, “Ye are brethren, why do ye wrong one to another?” (
2:14
Pope St Clement I † AD 99 The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians 4
… Envy made Joseph be persecuted unto death, and to come into bondage. Envy compelled Moses to flee from the face of Pharaoh king of Egypt, when he heard these words from his fellow-countryman, “Who made thee a judge or a ruler over us? wilt thou kill me, as thou didst kill the Egyptian yesterday?”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Second Corinthians 15
… For so Moses for the sake of those he ruled left so great riches and treasures untold, “choosing to suffer affliction with the people of God,” ( Heb. xi. 25 .) and before his appointment was leader of the people by his actions. Wherefore also very foolishly did that Hebrew say to him, “Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us?” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 26
But what is “the reproach of Christ”? That [because] we repudiate the [ways] of our fathers we are reproached; that we are evil-entreated when we have run to God. It was likely that he also was reproached, when it was said to him, “Wilt thou kill me as thou killedst the Egyptian yesterday?” (
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Tertullian † AD 220 The Five Books Against Marcion 4.23
… As therefore God is a just God, He spared not impious children, exacting as He does honour for every time of life, and especially, of course, from youth. And as God is good, He so loves infants as to have blessed the midwives in Egypt, when they protected the infants of the Hebrews which were in peril from Pharaoh’s command.
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 42.7
… Would you prefer the whole of the Canaanites to Abraham alone? or the men of Sodom to Lot? or the Midianites to Moses,
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 10
… Call upon Him as Stephen did; “Lord,” he said, “lay not this sin to their charge.” ( ch. vii. 59 .) Call upon Him as did the wife of Elkanah, with tears and sobs, and prayers. ( 1 Sam. i. 10 .) I prevent you not, rather I earnestly exhort you to it. Call upon him as Moses called upon Him, yea, cried, interceding for those
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 3.11
… When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him, saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold. Then said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet,”
Socrates Scholasticus † AD 440 The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus 3.8
… But if they reproach those who succeed in secreting themselves from the malice of their blood-thirsty adversaries, and revile such as flee from their persecutors, what will they say to Jacob’s retreat from the rage of his brother Esau, and to Moses
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St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 69.6
… It is beside a well that Eliezer finds Rebekah. Rachel too is a drawer of water and wins a kiss thereby from the supplanter Jacob. When the daughters of the priests of Midian are in a strait to reach the well, Moses opens a way for them and delivers them from outrage.
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Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John 6.24
… We add a few instances to encourage students to pay more attention to such points. One of the sons of Levi, the first, is called Geson in most copies, instead of Gerson. His name is the same as that of the first-born of Moses;
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 17
… This is no longer passion, when thou art clear of all feeling for thyself alone. David had gotten Saul into his power, and was not moved by passion, did not thrust the spear into him, the enemy he had in his power; but took his revenge upon the Devil. ( 1 Sam. xxvi. 7 .) Moses, when he saw a stranger doing an injury, even slew him (
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St Justin Martyr † AD 165 Dialogue with Trypho 59
… “These words are in the book which bears the title of Exodus: ‘And after many days the king of Egypt died, and the children of Israel groaned by reason of the works;’
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 26
… and that which was said of Abraham, we find God saying the same of this man also; or rather, much more of the latter. For with respect to the patriarch it is said, “I remembered my covenant with Abraham;”
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Amram a man of Levi, a man of the descendants of Levi: this Amram was the son of Caath, grandson of Levi, great-grandson of Jacob, father of Moses. Alexander Polyhistor in Eusebius, lib. IX De Praeparat. Evang., cap. ult., relates that Amram was born 14 years before the death of Joseph, that is 57 years after Jacob entered Egypt, and consequently in the 77th year of his age begat Moses, and died 20 years before the departure of the Hebrews from Egypt; for he himself lived 137 years, as is evident cap. vi. Eusebius however in the Chronicle says Moses was born in the 70th year of Amram, not 77. And he took a wife of his own kindred. — In Hebrew it is, he took a daughter of Levi. This was Jochabed the mother of Moses, who likewise, Numer. xxvi, 59, is called a daughter of Levi. Whence Abulensis thinks that Jochabed was truly and properly a daughter of Levi, and the aunt of Amram her husband: so that Levi, being in his 110th year, begat Jochabed in Egypt; and she, when she was 68 years old, begat Moses, who in the 80th year of his life led the people forth. For by the law of nature marriage of an aunt with a nephew is not absolutely forbidden, but only by positive law, which at that time had not yet been given, but was afterwards, Levit. XVIII. Thus therefore Moses through his mother was the grandson, through his father the great-grandson of Levi. But it is more truly the case that Jochabed was not a daughter, but a granddaughter of Levi; nor an aunt, but a cousin of Amram: for this our Interpreter expressly teaches, cap. VI, vers. 20, where he calls her the paternal cousin of Amram; and the Septuagint there, who call her the daughter of Amram's uncle; and the Chaldean, who calls her the daughter of Amram's aunt. That therefore here and Numer. XXVI, she is called a daughter of Levi, understand that she was a Levitess, or descended from the stock of Levi, as our Interpreter translates it: for thus are called daughters of Juda, who are descended from Juda. Thus Vatablus, Pererius and others. Moreover Moses adds this, both that it may be established that Moses and Aaron were Levites both by maternal and paternal descent, and that he may signify that the Hebrews had already begun to marry their kinswomen, and thus God had sweetly begun the distinction of tribes even then. Let therefore Calvin's reproach be gone, that Moses was born of an incestuous marriage.
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Moses. Josephus adds that Amram, the father of Moses, was anxious about Moses when he was already conceived and about to be born soon, on account of Pharaoh's edict of infanticide, and when he was earnestly praying to God for the boy, God stood by him and said: "Know that it is my concern and your public safety, and your private glory: for this boy, whose birth the Egyptians feared and condemned your offspring to death, shall be born to you, and he will free his people from Egyptian servitude. Soon the oracle was confirmed by the childbirth of the woman, who contrary to the custom of women in labour was delivered so easily that she deceived the observers." These words of St. Stephen favour this oracle, Acts VII, 25. Moses was born in the year of the world 2374, from the flood in the year not 714, as Pererius's codex has it, but 717; from the birth of Abraham 425 (Porphyrius therefore erred, who feigns that Moses lived in the time of Semiramis, who succeeded Ninus, in whose year 43 Abraham was born), after Jacob's entry into Egypt in the year 135. This is evident: for the flood occurred in the year of the world 1656, and lasted one year; from the flood in the year 292, Abraham was born; but Abraham in the year of his age 75 received the promise from God, from which until the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt, and the law given on Sinai, there elapsed 430 years, which are divided thus, so that 213 years elapsed from the promise made to Abraham until Jacob's descent into Egypt; again, another 215 years elapsed from Jacob's descent into Egypt until the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt; but Moses was born 80 years before the exodus. Secondly, Moses was born 516 years before the reign of David, before the building of Solomon's temple 560 years: for from the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt until the building of the temple there elapsed 480 years, as is evident from III Kings cap. VI, vers. 1. Add to these the 80 years of Moses's life until the exodus, and you will have 560 years. Thirdly, Moses was born 985 years before the Babylonian captivity; before Christ, 1576 years; before the beginning of the Olympiads, or the Olympic games, 802 years; before Rome was founded, 825 years. See the chronological table which I set forth at the beginning of Genesis. Fourthly, Moses was born not 900 years, as Lactantius wishes, lib. IV, cap. v, but 430 years before the Trojan war, and therefore far preceded Homer, who was at least one hundred years later than the Trojan war: hence consequently Moses far preceded the seven sages of Greece; for these were far later than Homer, and lived in the time of Cyrus; whom Socrates, Plato, Aristotle followed long after, in the time of Alexander the Great. Fifthly, in the time of Moses, in the year of Moses 33, says Torniellus, the first king in Attica was Cecrops, who founded Athens, after whom almost everything happened that the Greeks narrate about their heroes, gods, wars and other memorable things. Thus Eusebius in the Chronicle, and Cyril, lib. I Against Julian. Finally, Moses was born at the time when Atlas, the most celebrated astrologer, flourished, whom they therefore feigned to sustain heaven on his shoulders, who was the brother of Prometheus the natural philosopher, whom they feign transformed stones into men; and this Atlas was the maternal grandfather of Mercury the elder, whose grandson was Mercury the younger, surnamed Trismegistus. Thus Eusebius in the Chronicle, and St. Augustine, lib. XVIII On the City of God, cap. VIII. Moses was therefore far older than Trismegistus: wherefore both Trismegistus and Plato and the other sages of the Gentiles drew their wisdom from Moses and the Hebrews, as Eusebius and others teach. See Genesis, cap. XII, vers. 40. "Seeing him comely, she hid him three months." This infant, says Josephus, was so beautiful that he would draw the eyes of those who beheld him upon himself, and hold them fixed. St. Stephen, Acts cap. VII, 20, for comely, translates, he was pleasing to God. Whence it is evident that this comeliness was more than natural, imparted to Moses by God, signifying that he was pleasing to God, that he was dear and of concern to Him; and so through this comeliness of Moses, not so much human as divine, his parents, having received the oracle concerning Moses, were confirmed in faith and encouraged to hide him; nor did they doubt that by this means he would escape the waters unharmed, God being his guardian, and this is what the Apostle says, Hebrews XI, 23: "By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months by his parents, because they saw he was a comely child, and they feared not the king's edict." See the remarks there. St. Ephrem, in his oration On the Transfiguration of Christ, thinks that Moses was sanctified in his mother's womb: for this comeliness of his body, flowing from the comeliness of his soul, seems to indicate this. But this conjecture is too slight to establish this privilege, and exemption from the common law of original sin, in which we are all born, especially since no one else has asserted this. Wisely Marsilio Ficino, in Plato's Symposium, called beauty the flower of goodness, and Pacatus in the Panegyric of Theodosius: "Most august," he says, "and whatever form is believed to draw most from heaven. Your virtue merited empire, but to virtue form added its support: that provided that you ought to become prince, this that it was fitting." Theophylactus adds in Hebrews XI, 23, that the parents wished to expose Moses when he was born, but the boy smiled sweetly upon them, and on account of this was saved. So much, he says, was everything divine in him.
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The inquisition and infanticide raging again. For it is clear that several infants escaped, as the tyranny relaxed, from Aaron and his contemporaries. She took a basket of bulrushes—that is, a little ark woven from rushes, as it were from twigs, and smeared on the outside with pitch and bitumen to keep out the water; in which the mother placed the infant and exposed him in the reed-bed or marsh, where an uncertain outcome gave a surer hope of life than at home, where certain death was to be inflicted by constant inquisitors, a harsh indeed, but necessary mercy, and one trusting in God's providence. Calvin therefore wrongly accuses the parents of Moses of cowardice and savage cruelty on account of this exposure of their child: for they could not otherwise preserve the life of Moses except by exposing him. But they exposed him as safely as they could, namely in a well-furnished ark and in a safe place, and they gave him his sister as a guardian, who would help him as much as she could. Whence the Apostle praises the faith and courage of these parents. It appears therefore that the parents received the oracle which Josephus recounts concerning the birth and safety of Moses, and therefore exposed him not from fear, but from certain confidence in God. Allegorically, Moses in his cradle delineated Christ: for both were exposed, the one to the arbitrament of fortune, the other to the salvation of men; the one in a basket of bulrushes, the other in wicker cradles and a manger; the one in the reed-bed of a river, the other in a cave by a public way; the one taken up and nourished by an Egyptian as a son, the other taken up by the gentiles through the Magi and adored with divine and royal gifts as God and King of all. He exposed him in the reed-bed—Pagninus renders it, in the marsh. A reed-bed is a place where reeds are born; a reed is a tall herb, in the shape of a sword, and pointed at the end. Hence it is clear that Moses was exposed in a marshy place and stagnant from the waters of the Nile, yet enclosed by dense rushes and reeds, so that the ark and the infant in it could not be swept away by the force of the waters. Josephus therefore errs, when he recounts that this ark of Moses was thrown into the middle of the river and carried away by the waters; and that the daughter of the king, sending swimmers, ordered the ark to be drawn from the waters and brought to her. Furthermore, God willed that Moses suffer these things, so that he might know the misery of his fellow-sufferers enduring the same, and might free them from this misery and lead them out. Learn here a moral lesson: God made us miserable for this reason, that from our misery we might learn how to have mercy on our neighbor. For, as St. Bernard says, On the Degrees of Humility: "A sick man and a sick man, a fasting man and a fasting man, the closer they are to each other, the more familiarly do they sympathize; for just as pure truth is seen only by a pure heart, so the misery of a brother is felt more truly by a miserable heart; but in order that you might have a miserable heart on account of another's misery, you must first know your own, and you will find your neighbor's mind in your own, so that from yourself you may know how to help him. By the example, namely, of our Savior, who willed to suffer, that he might know how to suffer with, and might learn from those things which he suffered mercy." Allegorically, Moses here exiled from home and exposed in a basket and in a reed-bed, was a type of Christ as a child: first, laid by his mother in a manger, because there was no room for him in the inn; second, exposed to the fury of Herod, and fleeing into Egypt. Whence St. Paulinus teaches that Christ suffered in Moses and in all the Saints; for writing to Aprus, who despising the world was likewise despised by him, he thus says, epistle 1: "You rightly glory and say in exultation, hence you trust yourself to yourself that you are a Christian, because those who loved you have begun to hate you, and those who feared you to despise you. From the beginning of the ages Christ suffers and triumphs in all his own. In Abel slain by his brother, in Noah mocked by his son, in Abraham a sojourner, in Isaac offered, in Jacob enslaved, in Joseph sold, in Moses exposed, in the Prophets stoned and sawn asunder, in the Apostles cast about on land and sea, and frequently slain by the crosses of many blessed Martyrs. He himself suffers in you reproaches, and the world hates him in you." St. Cyprian teaches the same thing, in the book On the Praise of Martyrdom: "When they are being tortured," he says, "although the hoof rebounds from the ribs and returns to the wound, and when they go under the lash with parts of the body torn away, the rope returns dragging, yet he stands unmoved, stronger than his torments, turning over in his mind only this one thing, that in that cruelty of executioners, Christ, for whom he suffers, suffers more than he himself," and, as he speaks further below, "as if decorated with the blood of a companion of Christ."
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Mary, a girl somewhat grown, about 10 or 11 years old, as Josephus says, sent by her mother. The mother had instructed her what to do, what to say, namely that if it should happen that some Egyptian passing by were touched with mercy for the exposed child, as she hoped, and sought a way to save the child, she would offer him the child's own mother as a nurse, as appears from what follows that she did.
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Thermut by name, says Josephus, and from him others in various places: Philo adds that she was the sole heir of Pharaoh, and without offspring, although she had been married for a long time. That she might wash herself in the river,—near the palace, in a place both enclosed and secluded, or, as Philo says, among the dark and dense situation of rushes and reeds; for it is not credible that a royal woman would have wished to bathe in the open. By the bank of the river,—by the shore of the river; in Hebrew it is, at the hand, that is, at the side of the river. When she saw the little basket in the papyrus,—that is, in the reed-bed filled with sedges, rushes and papyri: for papyrus grows in Egypt, as rushes grow among us, in marshy places or on the margins of rivers. Now papyrus is a small tree or shrub, growing near the Nile, with an oblique root, triangular sides, ten cubits long, and tapering to a point: from the leaves of papyrus, with a thin layer drawn out with a needle, they make paper for writing, which is hence called papyrus; and from this our papers, although made from beaten linen, because they nevertheless provide the same use for writing, are called papyrus: from the wood of papyrus they also make ships, whence that passage from Lucan, book IV: "When the Nile holds all things, the bibulous bark of Memphis is woven with papyrus." And Ovid, book XV of the Metamorphoses: "And through the seven-fold streams of the papyrus-bearing Nile." Moreover, Herodotus, book II, writes that the Egyptians make their ships from rushes. See Pliny, book XIII, chapter XI.
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The cruel edict of the father was suggested to the daughter, concerning the destruction of the Hebrew infants; but when she saw the boy circumcised, she could not doubt that he was a Hebrew: for at that time the Egyptians had not yet embraced circumcision, which they accepted later, as Jeremiah teaches in chapter IX, verse 25, and Theodoret here, and Diodorus Siculus, book I of Antiquities, chapter II, and Herodotus, book II.
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In Hebrew, the mother of the boy; but she was the same as his mother, namely the mother of his brother, that is, Jochabed. She nursed him, in Hebrew she suckled, Moses.
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How did the father Pharao permit this, he who was a hostile enemy of the Hebrews? I answer, that the heart of the king is in the hand of God, and was bent by him toward love of so elegant a boy, as Josephus says. Philo adds that Thermutis, since she was barren, pretended to be pregnant and gave birth to Moses, as if Moses were not an adopted but a natural son of hers. The Apostle seems to hint at the same thing, Hebrews XI, 24, when he says that Moses, when grown up, denied that he was the son of the daughter of Pharao; therefore he was previously held to be her genuine son. Why then, after Pharao's death, did not Moses but another (as I shall say in verse 11) succeed in the kingdom? Perhaps because the fraud of his mother and the adoption of Moses was discovered. Hence also Moses was educated in the manner of the realm in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, says St. Stephen, Acts VII, 22. For, as Plato says: "Wisdom is most useful and necessary for a ruler, so that in him indeed the body, but in this the mind of the prince may be established and adorned." Again, the same Plato: "What, he says, in planting and forming little trees, such and in begetting and instructing children ought to be the care; but here is labor, there is pleasure. But we must beware lest in this we appear to be asleep, but in that more than wakeful." To one asking: "What inheritance ought to be left to sons?" he answered: "That which neither hail, nor force, nor Jupiter himself fears." Hence he himself to youths, whom he never ceased to encourage toward living happily, frequently said: "Prefer labor to leisure, unless you think rust preferable to splendor." Again: "Consider the contrary nature of virtue and pleasure; for to the momentary sweetness of this is attached perpetual repentance, pain and torment; to that on the contrary, after brief pains, eternal delights are attached even after death." Wherefore to a certain disciple caring for his skin too luxuriously: "How long, he said, O wretched one, do you continue to build yourself a prison?" Otherwise: "The wise, he said, place the mind in the first place, the body in the second, money in the third. Thus in the Republic let the first place be given to virtue, the second to bodily strength, the third to money, which is the servant of virtue and the body." For this reason he urged vigils, as friends of wisdom and chastity. But prolonged sleep he detested, as the parent of evil enticements and sins, and most like to death; he also forbade eating twice a day and becoming satiated. Furthermore, the wisdom of the Egyptians was twofold, says Philo and Justin, Questions XXV to the Orthodox. The first, open and exposed to all, namely Geometry, Arithmetic, Astrology and Music. The second, Hieroglyphic, which through symbols teaches the most serious mysteries of Physics, Theology and Political science; therefore all these things, and even medicine, says Clement, Moses learned. Hence the same Clement, book VI of the Stromata, says that Moses in his rites and laws used the hieroglyphic method of the Egyptians, so that namely he might deliver them through symbols and enigmas; and this is evident especially in the vestments of the priests, the Cherubim, the ark and the structure of the tabernacle. See the sayings at Canon 27. Marcus Varro in St. Augustine, book XVIII of the City of God IV, teaches that the Egyptians first learned letters, taught by Isis, a little more than two thousand years before his time. There is no doubt that Jacob, Joseph and the Hebrews dwelling in Egypt for 215 years taught them many things; hence of Joseph, prince of Egypt, it is said in Psalm CIV: "That he might instruct his princes, and teach his elders wisdom," so that it is not surprising that in the doctrines and laws of the Egyptians many things are found most similar to Hebrew doctrine and law in Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus. Philo adds again that great rewards were offered to Moses by teachers summoned from Greece, who taught the liberal arts; by Chaldeans, who taught sidereal science, especially that which contains predictions of future things; by Assyrians, who taught him their letters, as one destined by hope of all to be the successor of his ancestral throne, and called the younger king: but Moses was very eager to be taught and followed not the institutions of the Egyptians, but the ancestral customs of his forefathers. Note here that Philo uses a certain amplification; for Moses was prior and more ancient not only than all the wise men of Greece, but also than all who wrote anything among the Greeks. For Cadmus, from whom the Greeks received letters, was much later than Moses, as Eusebius teaches, book X of the Preparation for the Gospel, chapter III. How then does Philo say that teachers were summoned from Greece to Moses? Moreover, Josephus relates another account concerning Moses, with whatever credibility attaches to it, namely that Pharao placed a diadem upon the head of the infant Moses, but Moses removed it to the ground and trampled it under foot; and when the Egyptians received this as a bad omen, as if this infant would be destructive to Egypt, and that divine one who had predicted that such a boy would be born asserted that this Moses was that very boy and wished to kill him, Thermutis snatched Moses away and preserved him. God willed that Moses, who was to be the leader of the people, be educated in the court of Pharao, so that he might learn and imbibe royal refinement, elegance of manners, greatness of spirit, liberality, and other virtues of a king, as one who was to be the ruler of the people. Second, so that afterwards, as the legate of God for the people before Pharao, he might have greater authority with him, especially with so many signs, portents and plagues attending. "And she called his name Moses, saying: Because I took him out of the water." Philo, Josephus, Clement of Alexandria in book I of the Stromata, Procopius and Rabanus think that Moses is an Egyptian name: for mos in Egyptian signifies water, or, as Josephus says, the Egyptians call water mo; and ises means saved: so that Moses is the same as saved from water. But I say that Moses is a Hebrew name, and signifies drawn or extracted, namely from waters; for its root is Hebrew, namely משה masa, which signifies to draw or extract. Therefore the Egyptian mother, adopting him, gave the Hebrew infant a Hebrew name: this is clear from the Hebrew text, which reads thus: ותקרא שמו משה vatticra shemo Mosheh ותאמר: כי מן המים משיתיהו vattomer: ki min hammaim meshitihu, that is, and she called his name Moses, and said: Because I drew him out of the waters: where it is clearly evident that he was called Moses from the Hebrew meshitihu, which signifies I drew him out, namely from the waters. Note first, that it should be said genuinely Moses, but corruptly Moyses: thus also other proper names of the Hebrews among the Greeks and Latins are corrupted; משה, that is Moses, turned about by anastrophe, is the same as השם hasschem, that is the name itself, namely celebrated, great, powerful and terrible to Pharao and the Egyptians. Again, name, that is the admirable virtue, efficacy and power which was given to Moses; third, Clement of Alexandria above relates that Moses, before he was exposed by his parents, was called Joachim, but afterwards was called Moses by the daughter of Pharao: he also had a third name, after he was assumed into heaven, and was called Melchi. Again, Aben Ezra and R. Abraham say that Moses was called by the Egyptians Monion. Pererius also thinks that an Egyptian name was given to Moses by the daughter of Pharao, signifying the same as the Hebrew Moses, and that the name of Moses was afterwards imposed upon him by the Hebrews themselves. But all these things are uncertain: for neither Holy Scripture, nor Josephus, nor Philo reveal any name other than Moses, and they give its etymology, as if he were called by this name both by the Hebrews and by the Egyptians; for in the following chapters Pharao and the Egyptians call him by no other name than Moses; and also the historians of the Gentiles, Tacitus, Trogus, Justinus and others, always name him Moses. From the happy event of extraction from the waters, therefore, Moses obtained his name, and that with a favorable omen and signification, namely that he himself would likewise extract and liberate the children of Israel from the waters of affliction, and would lead them through the Red Sea with dry feet. "It was fitting," says St. Augustine, sermon 89 On the Seasons, "that divine vengeance punish the parricide (Pharao through Moses) in his own affections, and that he perish through the provision of his daughter, who had forbidden mothers to give birth." Allegorically, Cyril says: The mother, he says, who enclosed her son (Moses) in a basket, is the Synagogue, which separated from herself Christ born of her, as if he were a stranger; but the daughter of Pharao, that is the Church of the Gentiles, received him, and that at the waters of baptism. And Prosper: "When," he says, "the daughter of Pharao descended to Moses, that is the doctrine of this world to Christ, washed by the spiritual wave, she put off pride, and receiving as a great one a small child, through the humble grace of the Church, which had been a daughter, she becomes the mother of Christ." Theodoretus adds: The mother again received from a Gentile Egyptian the son to be educated, because Israel will receive faith in Christ from the Church of the Gentiles in the last times. Moses therefore born in the persecution of Pharao, that is, Christ born in the persecution of Herod and the devil, who pressed the whole world under his yoke. Moses hidden for three months signifies Christ hidden in the old law in a threefold time, namely of the Judges, of the Kings and of the Pontiffs. Moses cast into the river by his parents signifies Christ immersed in the waters of passion and death by the Jews, whom the Egyptian, that is Gentility, received, and treated magnificently and splendidly, seeing his elegance in heavenly wisdom, life and manners. Tropologically, Hugh of St. Victor in the allegory on Exodus I: Moses, he says, is anyone in the river of the present age; the daughter of the king is the grace of God, which, snatching us from the flux of the age, adopts us as sons of God, and delivers us to the Hebrew, that is, the Church passing into heaven, the mother, to be nourished.
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In those days (when Moses was forty years old, as St. Stephen says, Acts vii, 23), after Moses had grown up. — Josephus and many of his followers relate that Moses, appointed by Pharaoh as commander in the Ethiopian war, routed the Ethiopians; that he captured the royal city of Saba, which was afterwards called Meroe from the name of the sister of the king, by the tradition of Tharbis, daughter of the king of the Ethiopians: whom Moses afterwards, according to the agreement, took as his wife. Tornelius records this war of Moses in the fortieth year of Moses, when Amenophis, under whom Moses was born, had long since died, and Orus reigned, if we believe Eusebius. Certainly, whatever may be the case with this war, which Theodoret and others call fabulous, it is not doubtful that Moses passed over many things about himself out of zeal for humility, for in these forty years, during which he lived in the palace as it were a prince, he was neither idle nor inactive. The author of the Scholastic History adds, and others, that this Tharbis was that Ethiopian woman on account of whom Maria and Aaron murmured against Moses, Numbers XII. Again, Moses, having won the victory, when he wished to return to Egypt, and Tharbis would not let him go, he, as one most skilled in the stars, carved two images in gems, of her virtue and power, so that one would bring remembrance, the other forgetfulness; and when he had set them in equal rings, he kept one, namely of remembrance, for himself, and gave the other, namely of forgetfulness, to Tharbis: which when she put on, she soon forgot Moses, and thus he was able to return to Egypt. But these are fables and trifles. And he went out to his brethren. — The Hebrews call brethren all those who are of the same family or nation. And he saw their affliction. — Philo adds that Moses often saw his Israelites laboring and afflicted, and that he consoled them, and admonished the overseers of the works with gentleness, and so the purple-clad ones gradually began to regard him with suspicion, and finally reported him to the king as one dissenting from him and plotting new things, and filled his ears with calumnies. Behold the fortitude of Moses professing himself an Israelite, and choosing rather to be afflicted with the people of God, than to have the temporal pleasure of sin, Hebrews xi, 25. Moses therefore despised the kingdom of Egypt, confessing himself a Hebrew, and thereby denying that he was the son of the daughter of Pharaoh. On account of this, says Ambrose, in Psalm cxviii, he was made by God the God of Pharaoh, that is, his superior, and terrible to him. On account of this also Philo calls Moses a miracle of nature: for to seek, I do not say royal dignity, but friendship, is an ordinary work of nature; but to spurn these very things, nay to detest them, is plainly extraordinary, and therefore a miracle, and all the more so, because he despised them not for his own advantage, but for the public good, and for the sake of his nation. Thus Philo. This is true elevation of mind, to prefer piety to kingdom: this is supreme dignity, which made him more worthy than the king in dignity. For he who despises dignity is greater than he who esteems and accepts it. For the former is superior in honor, the latter inferior: the former is master of pomp, the latter servant: the latter hungers for glory like a beggar, the former despises it like a master. An Egyptian man striking one of the Hebrews. — Philo says this Egyptian was one of the overseers, who was accustomed to beat the Hebrews oppressed with unjust burden so wickedly. St. Stephen, Acts vii, says he injured him in place of striking. The Hebrews relate that this Egyptian committed adultery with the wife of this Hebrew, and therefore a quarrel arose and he struck him; but this is their customary fabrication. It is certain that this striking was grave and enormous, either in itself, or on account of the circumstances, or on account of what had preceded, as Philo says, so that the striker deserved to be punished with death: otherwise Moses would not have had the power and right, nor the will to kill him.
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"Smitten," that is, slain; for he buried him and hid him in the sand. You will ask whether Moses did this slaying justly and rightly? For Moses, as one living a private life, seems to have received no authority for this either from God or from man. First, the Hebrews, even the ancient ones, as Clement of Alexandria testifies in book I of the Stromata, excuse Moses on the ground that he killed the Egyptian not with a sword, but by pronouncing upon him the name of the tetragram Jehova, in the way that St. Peter killed Ananias and Sapphira by his word alone: but this is a fabrication; for to smite means to strike not with a word, but with a sword or other weapons. Again, at that time the name Jehova had not yet been revealed to Moses. For God first made it known to himself, and revealed it to Moses in Exodus vi, 3. Second, St. Augustine, in book XXII Against Faustus, chapter lxx, blames this deed of Moses, as if done beyond the order of authority and justice; and he attributes it to his zeal, but excessive and uncultivated, which poured forth signs indeed vicious, but of great fertility; for this excessive zeal signified that Moses, when he should be refined, and should have learned to conduct and moderate this zeal by reason, would be a remarkable and courageous leader of the people. Hence also Oecumenius in the Epistle of Jude relates that the devil in an altercation with Michael concerning the body of Moses said that Moses was not worthy of burial, because he had unjustly killed the Egyptian, and had buried him not in a sepulchre, but in the sand. Third, St. Ambrose, in book I of the Duties, chapter xxxvi, St. Thomas and Burgensis attribute this deed of Moses to just defence, by which he was bound to defend the Hebrew unjustly attacked out of charity. "For he who does not defend his companion from injury, when he is able, is as much at fault as he who commits it," says St. Ambrose. For, as Toletus says in Luke xii, annotation 27, there was then no judge who could avert the injury, and the injury was present and admitted no delay of time: hence it was Moses' duty to come to his aid. Cajetan adds that these overseers were public enemies and oppressors of the Hebrews: and therefore it was lawful for the Hebrews to kill them if they could, just as in a just war it is lawful to kill an enemy and invader anywhere. Fourth, most clearly and solidly, Moses did this by divine inspiration, having obtained authority; for God moved Moses to this slaying, so that he might begin to act as the avenger of his people, and kill a public enemy; for this is what St. Stephen says, Acts vii, 25: "He wrought revenge for him that was wronged, thinking that his brethren understood that God by his hand would give them salvation." Moses therefore knew, and indeed thought that others generally knew, that he had already been designated by God as leader and avenger of the Hebrews, and that God willed that he should prepare himself for this leadership through this slaying and just vengeance; and so St. Stephen here seems to confirm the history of Josephus, who relates an oracle made to the father Amram concerning his son Moses, who would be the avenger and liberator of the Hebrews. Thus St. Augustine here, Rupert, St. Thomas and others. Symbolically St. Ambrose notes, in the book On Cain and Abel, that Moses was fit to be the slayer of the Egyptian, because he had first slain in himself ambition for honour and kingdom. "He," he says, "as it were lays hands upon himself, who kills the pleasures of his body. Moses therefore slew the Egyptian man; but he would not have slain him unless he had first slain in himself the Egyptian of spiritual wickedness, the honour of royal pleasures." Allegorically, Moses by slaying the Egyptian freed the Hebrew, that is, Christ by breaking the power of the devil freed mankind. The Egyptian is hidden in the sand, because the devil and his temptations are hidden in temporal goods, which like sand are vile, weak and unstable. Thus Pererius.
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He says, — within himself, that is, he thought; for as there is a word of the tongue, so also is there a word of the mind. How was this word made known? — In Hebrew, the word was truly made known; our Interpreter understood the pathos of Moses more deeply, and expressed it by a note of admiration, as if to say: Is it so, or is this word truly made known? but the matter comes to the same thing. Note: The Hebrews use the word metonymically for a deed, or a thing of which the word is the index and sign; thus it is said: "No word shall be impossible with God," that is, no thing; and the shepherds say in Luke chapter II: "Let us see this word that is come to pass," meaning Christ now born. See here how unstable are the honours of courts, how unstable and changeable is the happiness of the world. Behold Moses adopted as the son of the king, is driven into exile. Truly did Philo say, in the book That God is Immutable: "As the reflux of the sea follows shortly after the flow, so the reflux of things perishable follows soon after their affluence." Hear also Seneca: "It is a well-known saying," he says, "of one who had grown old in the service of kings, when someone asked him how he had attained that rarest thing in court, old age: By receiving injuries, and often giving thanks."
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At an opportune time, when it seemed good to God, he would return and consult for his people. Hence the Apostle to the Hebrews, chapter XI, verse 27, says of Moses: "By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the anger of the king," as if to say: Although Moses fled, yet he did not lose heart, nor did he cast away the hope of delivering Israel; but he was firmly persuaded that he would return in his own time and would deliver Israel: although there is also another, more genuine sense of that passage, as I have said on Hebrews XI. Thus St. Athanasius, when by the command of Julian the Apostate he was driven into exile from Alexandria, and saw Christians weeping around him, said: "Be of good courage; for it is a cloud which will soon vanish." Thus Sozomen, book V, chapter xiv. Thus it came to pass; for shortly after, Julian a monk, foreseeing in spirit the death of Julian, said to his companions: "The wild boar, the enemy of the Lord's vineyard, has paid the due penalties of his crimes against Christ, and lies dead, that he may no longer lay snares for Christians." Soon it was found that this truly happened at the same moment in which the monk spoke, as Theodoret testifies, book III, chapter IX. Note here: A faithful and holy man can never be driven into exile; for everywhere he is received by God, who is his father, and his country, and all his good. Thus St. Cyprian, Epistle 66 to the Thibaritans: "He is not alone," he says, "to whom Christ is a companion in flight; he is not alone who, keeping the temple of God, wherever he may be, is not without God." Thus St. Augustine, sermon On St. Cyprian: "Do you think, O tyrant," he says, "that you exclude a man of God from his own country into a foreign land? You are deceived; he is nowhere an exile in Christ, everywhere he is a pilgrim in the flesh." Thus St. Gregory of Nazianzus: "To me," he says, in Oration 28, "every land is a country, and no land is a country:" namely because my country is heaven, and because I regard the whole earth as my country, and I am a cosmopolitan, that is, a citizen of the world. Thus St. Basil: "I know not exile," he says, "I who am confined to no place; nor do I regard this earth which I now inhabit as mine, and I regard all of it into which I am cast as mine: or rather, to speak more correctly, I know that the whole earth is God's, of which I am a stranger and a pilgrim;" as Nazianzus testifies, Oration 20, which is on the praises of St. Basil. Hugo of St. Victor, book III of the Didascalicon, final chapter: "He is still delicate," he says, "to whom his country is sweet; he is already strong, to whom every soil is a country; he is perfect, to whom the whole world is an exile. The first has fixed love in the world, the second has scattered it, the third has extinguished it." Midian. — Midian was a city founded by Midian, son of Abraham by Keturah, whence also the whole region was called Midian. How true is that saying in Ecclesiasticus II: "My son, when thou comest to the service of God, prepare thy soul for temptation!" Behold how many temptations here assail Moses following God's calling and leaving the palace—poverty, ignominy, contempt, not only from the Egyptians but also from the ungrateful, for whose sake he was undergoing all these things, the Israelites, the snares of the king, dangers of death, flight, exile; but by none of these, not even by the evils of the ungrateful, is the piety destined for Moses overcome, which, regarding not men but God, endured as seeing the invisible, according to Hebrews xi, 27. See here how true is that saying of St. Mark the Anchorite: "God, conscious of our weakness, is not wont to confer anything great upon anyone without previous calamity." Allegorically Rupert notes that St. Stephen asserts in Acts vii that the fathers of the Jews denied Moses, Samuel, David, in example and type of the Jews denying Christ: who therefore, fleeing, took a foreign wife, namely the Church of the Gentiles. Note: While Moses was acting in Midian (in the year of Moses 67, says Torniellus, which was the 31st year of Cecrops, the first king of the Athenians), that famous flood of Deucalion occurred among the Gentiles in Thessaly. It is called "Deucalion's" because Deucalion then reigned there, and he himself with a few others, escaping this flood in a small raft and reaching Mount Parnassus, survived; whence it is said that he himself restored the human race. Thus St. Augustine, book XVIII of the City of God, x. Then also occurred the burning of Phaethon, as if fire and water had conspired together for the destruction of men: for so great was the heat of the sun that it seemed to have burned up the whole world: from which arose the fable of Phaethon, namely that Phaethon, son of the Sun, badly driving the chariot of the sun, burned up the earth. Thus Eusebius, Cyril, Orosius, book I, chapter x, and from these Torniellus.
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Chaldean: prince of Midian; indeed Artapanus also, according to Eusebius, book IX of the Preparation for the Gospel, final chapter, calls this Raguel king of Arabia: for that region is part of Midian. The Hebrew כהן cohen properly signifies priest; but because the priesthood, as it were the most noble and divine function, then belonged almost to princes or the chief men of families, such as Melchisedech, Noah, Abraham; and because a prince and magistrate ought especially to promote the worship of God and those things which pertain to His glory: hence cohen also signifies a prince, as is evident from II Kings viii, 18, where the sons of David are said to have been priests, that is, as the Septuagint translates it, aularchs, that is, princes of the court. Raguel therefore could have been both priest and prince: a priest, namely, of idols at that time, because the Midianites were idolaters; but afterwards, seeing the wonders which God wrought through Moses, he knew and worshipped the true God, as is evident from Exodus xviii, although St. Cyril, book III On Adoration in Spirit, folio 54, and Abulensis think that he then worshipped one God most high, but along with Him also many other gods of his nation. Demetrius the historian, says Eusebius above, relates that Abraham begat Jokshan from Keturah, from whom was born Dedan, as is evident from Genesis chapter xxv, verse 3, from whom came Raguel father of Jethro, whose daughter Moses took as wife; and he adds that Moses was tall in stature and fair-haired, with long hair and beard, and finally of very great dignity in stature and appearance. They desired to water the flocks. — The art of shepherding was then noble, whatever Calvin may object, which even then noble maidens exercised with the admirable chastity of those times, as we saw in Genesis that Rachel and Leah did.
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They drove them away, — driving their flocks to the water prepared by the maidens, to enjoy it idly from the labors of others, says Philo. Having defended the maidens. — Hugo of St. Victor thinks that Moses brought companions with him, by whose aid as shepherds he resisted. Everywhere Moses scattered the seeds of charity, the avenger of the innocent, the oppressed, and of justice; thus he gained the favor of Raguel and Zipporah as his wife. This is the part of the prudent man, this of the Christian, to bind all to himself by beneficence. Thus "Christ went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed by the devil," Acts chapter x, 38. Scipio also saw this through a shadow, he who a gentile, who kept Polybius's precept, not to leave the forum without making someone his friend or more well-disposed toward him, says Plutarch.
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The Hebrews, Lyra, and Abulensis relate that Raguel had four names: first indeed he is called here Raguel; second, in the following chapter, he is called Jethro, that is, adding, because he himself added one head to the law, concerning the ordering of the people by tribunes, centurions, fifties, and tens, in Exodus XVIII; third, he is called Kenite, Judges IV, 11; fourth, he is called Hobab, that is, loving, because he loved the law of God, and was converted to Judaism, as will be evident in Exodus xviii. But others more probably think that Hobab is not Raguel, but the son of Raguel, of whom in Numbers x, 29.
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Moses appeared such from his clothing and appearance; perhaps also he had answered the maidens asking where he came from that he came from Egypt.
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That he might take food, that he might dine with us. For bread to the Hebrews, by synecdoche, signifies any food.
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Scripture here, being intent on brevity, leaves many things to be understood, namely that the daughters returned to the well, and from there Moses, persuaded by the father's words, led them home, was kindly greeted by him, and his character being immediately examined, after much back-and-forth conversation, finally came to an agreement about dwelling with him, and confirmed it with an oath, and finally took his daughter Zipporah as wife. Note: For "swore" in Hebrew it is יאל joel, which although it properly signifies, he willed, he consented, he acquiesced; and thus the Septuagint, the Chaldean, Vatablus and others translate it here, yet sometimes by metathesis, and by the transposition of the letters ehevi, it is the same as אלה, that is, he swore, as is evident from I Samuel xiv, 25: "And Saul adjured the people;"; in Hebrew it is יאל joel.
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In Hebrew, because he said: for he gives the reason why he calls him "Gersam," namely that Moses himself was a sojourner and stranger in Midian. ger (גר) indeed signifies a sojourner, sham (שם) there. Note: These sons of Moses were born, not immediately when he came to Midian, in his fortieth year, but long after, namely shortly before his return from Midian to Egypt, which occurred in his eightieth year. This is evident from the fact that on this return he placed his wife with these sons upon an ass, as is said in chapter IV, verse 20. They were therefore still small children at that time. And she bore another. — Our Translator, with the Septuagint, inserts here the name of Moses' second son, so that he might enumerate the sons of Moses together, although it is not found in the Hebrew at this place, but in Exodus chapter xviii, verse 4: whence the Septuagint and Our Translator transcribed it; or rather it fell out of the Hebrew here. For the Hebrew texts are sometimes defective, as Bellarmine shows in book II On the Word of God, chapter 11. Moses therefore imposed upon his second son the name Eliezer, that is, My God is my helper, and he did this to teach the faithful, first, to bear bravely exiles and all adversities, relying on God; second, to regard their children, not as incentives to avarice, but as monuments of divine generosity, by which they are incited to thanksgiving and obedience to God; third, always to be mindful of God, and to name their offspring after some Saint or holy person; fourth, by his name he wished to admonish his children to think whence and how they were born, what they owe to God, and finally whom they ought to imitate.
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Namely, he under whom Moses was born, adopted, and sought for death: for the sequence of the history seems to require this. Which reason moved Gerard Mercator, following not Eusebius but Manetho, to think that all these things which Moses has narrated up to this point happened under Armesesmian, or Ramesses the king, whom he reports to have reigned for a very long time, namely sixty-six years. But because we have no more reliable chronologist than Eusebius, whom Catholics generally follow, hence with them we shall more solidly say that at this time not only that Pharaoh under whom Moses was born died, but also two others who succeeded him in the kingdom, who were of the same disposition and hatred toward the Jews. For these events seem to have occurred a little before, and, if we believe Torniello, one year before the leadership of Moses and the liberation of the Hebrews from Egypt, when Moses was in his seventy-ninth year of age, to which neither Ramesses nor any other king of Egypt reigned. Moses therefore says here, with the liberation of the Hebrews now at hand, that the king afflicting them, together with his followers, was dead, so that he might indicate to them that, with the tyrants dead, the Hebrews groaned and cried out to God, that he might create for them a milder Pharaoh, or rather send them a liberator who would deliver them from Egyptian servitude. The sense therefore is, as if to say: The king being dead, and other tyrants, the Hebrews seriously invoked God for their liberation; and God heard them, and in the following year, which was Moses' eightieth, he sent Moses who liberated them. And they cried out. — The Hebrews here, stirred by this scourge of servitude, returning to their senses, cry out more earnestly after the death of the tyrants, as if a greater opportunity for hoping for liberty were now given, to God, as the one who alone could liberate them: thus tribulation teaches one to invoke God; it is commonly said: He who knows not how to pray, let him go to the sea; for there the waves and dangers will teach him to pray, and to cry out to God and the heavenly ones. And their cry went up to God from the works. — The Chaldean, on account of the works. Hence the Theologians teach that the oppression of the poor is a sin crying out to heaven, which by its enormity provokes God to swift vengeance of the oppressors and liberation of the oppressed.
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Here and elsewhere an anthropopathy is used, and memory and remembrance are attributed to God: because if God were a man, who had hitherto permitted the Hebrews to be afflicted, he would rightly be said to have forgotten them; but now, intending to liberate them, he is said to remember the covenant made with the Patriarchs, by which he promised to be their God, and of their seed, with a particular and singular providence indeed toward them.
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Thus the Roman and Hebrew texts. And he looked upon, and knew (as the Hebrew texts add) God his people, thinking to liberate him soon, and to show himself merciful to him. Note on heard, remembered, looked upon, knew: for all these things repeat and inculcate the wonderful care of God toward his own, his love, his providence, and his great and swift help and mercy which would soon be at hand. The Septuagint translates, and he was known to them, namely liberating them, as if to say: The care and providence of God toward them was made known to them, when through Moses he began and undertook to liberate them; whence Our Translator renders it, and he liberated them: for the Septuagint here signifies an action begun, not completed.
Tertullian On Patience: Remedies Against All Adversity In this chapter and the preceding one there is an illustrious moral passage concerning the fruits of adversity and patience, and its example in Moses and the Hebrews, who grew through adversities and became a people, a Church, and the kingdom of God. Tertullian (whom St. Cyprian and others followed) wrote a notable book On Patience, in which in chapter v, he shows that the sins of the devil and of all men are to be ascribed to impatience; in the following chapters he demonstrates how excellent a remedy for life patience is, and this against all adversities. First, against the loss of wealth and resources, in chapter viii, he gives these remedies of patience: First: "In almost every place," he says, "we are admonished by the Lord's Scriptures to despise the world. Whence the Lord himself is found in no riches." Second, "The Lord always justifies the poor, condemns the rich; for the root of all evils is covetousness." Third, "Nothing is ours, because all things are God's, and we ourselves are his." Fourth, "He who is stirred up by impatience at loss, preferring earthly things to heavenly, sins against his neighbor and against God. Let us therefore willingly lose earthly things, let us preserve heavenly things: though the whole world perish, provided I gain patience." Fifth, "Patience in losses is the exercise of giving; for it makes us ready to share and to give alms: it does not grieve him to give who does not fear to lose." Sixth, "It is the way of the gentiles to exercise patience in all losses, who perhaps prefer money to the soul; but we ought not to give up the soul for money, but money for the soul, either willingly in giving, or patiently in losing." Seventh, "The very soul and body, exposed in this world to all injury, we bear, and we endure the patience of its injuries: far be it from the servant of Christ that patience prepared for greater temptations should fail in trifles." Second, against harsh words and blows, in the same chapter he gives these remedies of patience: First: "The Lord admonishes: To him that strikes thee on the cheek, offer also the other. Let the malice of another grow weary of thy patience." Second, "You overcome the wicked man more by enduring his blows; for he will be beaten by him on account of whom you endure." Third, "Consider the word of the Lord: When they shall curse you, rejoice." Fourth, "The Lord himself was cursed in the law, and yet he alone is blessed; therefore let us servants follow the Lord, and be cursed patiently, that we may be able to be blessed." Fifth, "Otherwise I shall be tormented, at least by silent impatience." Sixth, "For this reason he who harms you does so that you may grieve, because the fruit of the one who harms in the grief of the one harmed; therefore when you overturn his fruit by not grieving, he himself must necessarily grieve, by the loss of his fruit: then you will not only go away unharmed, but moreover delighted by the frustration of your adversary, and protected by his sorrow." Third, against sorrow in the death of loved ones, in chapter ix, he gives these sweetnesses of patience: First: "Read the Apostle in I Thessalonians IV: Concerning them that are asleep, be not sorrowful," etc. Second, "We believe in the resurrection of the dead; therefore sorrow for death is void, and impatience at sorrow is void." Third, "Why do you grieve, if you do not believe he has perished? Why do you bear impatiently what is taken away, whom you believe will return?" Fourth, "It is a departure which you think is death, and that to a blessed life." Fifth, "He is not to be mourned who goes before, but truly to be desired; why do you bear immoderately that he has gone away, whom you will soon follow?" Sixth, "Impatience in such matters both bodes ill for our hope, and betrays our faith." Seventh, "We wound Christ, when we do not receive with equanimity those called away by him, as if they were to be pitied." Eighth, "We resist the Apostle saying: I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ; therefore that is the best wish of Christians, and likewise of ours." Fourth, against the appetite for vengeance, in chapters ix and x, he gives these pacifications of patience: First: "This lust of avenging takes care for either glory or malice; but glory is everywhere vain, and malice is hateful to the Lord, especially in this place: because malice doubles what was done once. For what difference is there between the one who provokes and the one provoked, except that the former is caught in wrongdoing first, the latter second?" Second, "Both are guilty before the Lord who is injured, who forbids and condemns all wickedness, and who commands that evil not be repaid with evil." Third, "What honor shall we offer the Lord, if we have arrogated to ourselves the right of defense (that is, of vengeance)?" Fourth, "What do we believe that judge to be, if not also an avenger? He promises this to us saying: Vengeance is mine, and I will repay; that is, patience is mine, and I will repay patience." Fifth, "He who avenges himself has taken away the honor of the sole judge, that is, of God." Sixth, "after vengeance follows repentance, flight and guilt, so that we may be punished in like manner." Seventh, "nothing undertaken in impatience knows how to be carried through without impetuosity: whatever is done with impetuosity either offends, or falls, or rushes headlong." Eighth, "if you defend yourself too lightly, you will go mad: if too abundantly, you will be burdened." Ninth, "what have I to do with vengeance, whose measure I cannot control, through impatience of sorrow?" Tenth, "if I shall apply myself to patience, I shall not grieve: if I shall not grieve, I shall not desire to avenge." Fifthly, against the insults of Satan, chapter xi, he gives these strengthening supports of patience: First: "Despise the small darts of Satan from their insignificance; yield to the greatest from their abundance." Second, "where there is lesser injury, there is no necessity for impatience: but where there is greater injury, there is the more necessary remedy for injury, patience." Third, "let us strive therefore to endure what is inflicted by evil, so that the enemy's zeal may be thwarted by the emulation of our equanimity." Fourth, "but if we ourselves bring upon us some things either through imprudence or even willingly, let us equally patiently bear what we impute to ourselves." Sixthly, to the crosses sent by God, he gives these supports of patience: First: "If we believe that some things are inflicted by the Lord, to whom rather than to the Lord should we show patience?" Second, "it is fitting that we rejoice and be glad in the dignity of divine chastisement: I, He says, whom I love, I rebuke and chasten." Third, "The Lord pronounces the patient blessed, saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are they that mourn, blessed are the meek, blessed are the peacemakers; rejoice and be exceeding glad, for so they persecuted the prophets that were before you: for great is your reward in heaven." Seventhly, chapter XII, he assigns these fruits of patience. The first is peace and reconciliation with neighbors: First, "The patient one fulfills the law of Christ, commanding that forgiveness be given to a brother, not seven times, but seventy times seven times; likewise, that we remit to a brother his offense, if we desire pardon and remission from God." Second, "and the Apostle saying: Let not the sun go down upon your anger; therefore it is not permitted to us to remain one day without patience." Third, "patience reconciles married couples in discord: it does not make one an adulterer, it amends the other." Fourth, "patience of the father received the prodigal son," clothes him, feeds him, and excuses him before the impatience of the angry brother. The second fruit of patience is love, or charity. "Love is the supreme sacrament of faith, the treasure of the Christian name, which the Apostle with all the strength of the Holy Spirit commends, unless it is trained by the disciplines of patience?" First, "Love, he says, is magnanimous: thus it takes on patience." Second, "it is beneficent: patience does no evil." Third, "it does not envy: this is indeed proper to patience." Fourth, "nor does it savor of pride: it drew modesty from patience." Fifth, "it is not puffed up, it is not unruly: and this pertains to patience." Sixth, "it is not provoked, it bears all things, it endures all things: surely, because it is patient." Seventh, "therefore it will never fail; tongues will cease, knowledge will cease, prophecies will cease, faith remains, hope remains, love remains: faith, which the patience of Christ brought in; hope, which the patience of man awaits; love, which patience as teacher from God accompanies." The third is, that patience suggests the exercises of piety, chapter XIII. "What is the business of patience in the body?" First, "the affliction of the flesh, a sacrifice pleasing to the Lord." Second, "fastings joined with ashes and sackcloth." Third, "prayers and supplications." Fourth, "continence of the flesh." Fifth, "constancy under the cross." Examples are: "Isaiah is sawn asunder, armed with the strength of patience, and does not cease from the Lord; Stephen is stoned, and begs pardon for his enemies: Job expunges every kind of patience against every force of the devil, whom neither driven away flocks, nor sons taken away in one rush of ruin, nor torment of body excluded from patience: what a funeral pyre did God construct for the devil in that man? what a standard of glory, when that man at every bitter message brought forth nothing from his mouth except thanks to God? What then? God laughed; what then? Satan was torn apart. Hence he recovered all things doubled." The fourth is, that patience as it were begets the other virtues, chapter XIV. First, "it instructs in humility." Second, "it awaits repentance." Third, "it assigns confession." Fourth, "it rules the flesh." Fifth, "it preserves the spirit." Sixth, "it restrains the tongue." Seventh, "it holds back the hand." Eighth, "it tramples temptations." Ninth, "it drives away scandals." Tenth, "it perfects martyrdom." Eleventh, "it consoles the poor man, it moderates the rich man." Twelfth, "it commends the servant to his master, the master to God." Thirteenth, "it adorns the woman, it approves the man; it is loved in the boy, praised in the young man, received in the old man; in every sex, in every age it is beautiful." Eighth, he thus paints the image of patience so vividly to the life, cap. XV: First: "His countenance is tranquil and placid." Second, "his brow pure, contracted by no wrinkle of sorrow or anger." Third, "his eyebrows relaxed in a joyful manner." Fourth, "his eyes cast down in humility, not in wretchedness." Fifth, "his mouth marked with the blush of silence." Sixth, "his color such as that of the secure and innocent." Seventh, "frequent movement of his head against the devil, and a threatening laugh." Eighth, "his garment around his breast white, and pressed to his body, so that he is neither puffed up nor disturbed." Ninth, upon a throne sits his spirit of the mildest kind, which is not gathered in a whirlwind, does not rage in a cloud, but is of tender serenity, open and simple, which Elias saw in the third place; for where God is, there also is his foster-child, namely patience: when therefore the spirit of God descends, inseparable patience accompanies him."
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
2:1
v. 1 « Egressus est [post haec| vir de domo Levi, et accepit uxorem stirpis suae »; sed Heór. : filiam Levi. Vir, cuius nomen non traditur, accepit uxorem vere Hebraeam, e Levi oriundam. « Vox T" specie tenus otiosa consuevit adscribi narrandis maioris momenti geslis, habetque sensum suscipiendae vel aggrediendae rei : cf. Gen. 35,22 ; Deut. 31,1; Ios. 23,16 » (Kn.). — In "5 n3 nw np" deprehendebat Ps. Ion. nomen proprium mulieris Bath Levi. Ubi duo erunt supponenda : primum, excidisse ex hoc textu nomen patris Moysis, nam auctor utique non solum matris nomen scribebat; alterum, nomen matris e Bath Levi postmodum mutatum esse in Iochabed (6,20). Igitur Vulg. post LXX intellexit nomen appellativum, quod vertendum est non de filiabus Levi (LXX), non « filiam levitae cuiusdam », quod esset v5 ws D2, sed filiam Levi, e Levi sive mediate sive immediate progenitam. Praefigitur DN (si tamen ea vox genuina sit), notam illam filiam Levi designans, notam sc. ob datum Hebraeis magnum lezgislatorem. — Vir de domo Levi non est idem atque filius Levi, cum domus (cf. 1,1) etiam servos etc. complectferetur. Porro illustrium inter Hebraeos virorum genus celebrari consuevit. Natales tum tantum tacentur, quando in parentibus aliquid inest, quod filius merito erubescat. Ita Lev. 24,11 reticetur nomen Israelitae blasphemi et patris eius Aegyptii; Iud. 11,1 reticetur nomen matris Iephte meretricis; Saulis natales 1 Reg. 9,1 usque ad Beniaminitam quemdam anonymum revocantur, qui videtur superfuisse exitiali tribus cladi Iud. 20. Ergo sat facilis sensus verborum Ex. 2,1 est, natum esse Moysen patre, qui Ex. 2,2 sq. accenseretur quidem Hebraeis, esset de domo euiusdam viri levitae, sed hebraeus origine non esset, sed adoptione tantum. Quem verborum Ex. 2,1 sensum confirmare videtur Manetho (Ios. c. Apion. I. 26) Moysi tribuens originem aegyptiam e sacerdotibus Heliopoleos, cuius nomen primum fuerit Osarsiph, i. e. Osarsupi — « pertinens ad Osarsup », nomen OsSiridis Heliopolitani (Ebers, Gosen p. 548). i Confirmare eundem videtur genealogia Moysis Ex. 6,13-28 duplici sutura inepte inserta (cf. ib.). Notandum porro, Iosue etiam et Hur natales primum taceri (Ex. 17,9 sq.). An igitur hi quoque viri eorumve patres Hebraei exstitere non origine, sed adoptione? An Hebraeorum liberationem effecere potissimum viri aliqui origine non Hebraei? Tamen talia quaerentibus alia quaestio opponi potest : Putatisne, plura illa centena hominum millia, qui cum Moyse ex Aegypto egressi sunt, omnes e lumbis Abrahae naturali generatione prodiisse? Caath » vel « filiis Gersam » vel « filiis Merari ». Ergo difficultas non est in eo, quod Ex. 6,18 et 1 Par. 6,2 et 23,13 Amram dicatur « filius Caath ». Et si in genealogia servatoris Luc. 3,23. 27 recensentur Heli et Neri, qui exstitere patres legales titulo leviratus, non est cur in genealogia Moysis non agnoscatur Caath fuisse pater Amram titulo legalis adoptionis. Adoptionis autem voce utimur quoad eos solos, qui circumcisione suscepta ad saera Hebraeorum accedebant : inter ipsos quippe Hebraeos, quantum novimus, adoptioni locus non erat. i In religione Hebraeorum, quae omnino innitebatur genealogia, simul tamen admittebat proselytas iustitiae, debebat haberi ratio, qua proselyta intra genealogiam reciperetur.Eius plurimus debuit esse usus aevo mosaico, dum aevo iudieum res in desuetudinem fere abiisse videtur, Christique tempore Pharisaei ab Hebraeis hellenistis de ratione agendi cum proselytis dissentiebant. Qui autem non ita diu ante Moysen vixerant Iacob patriarcha eiusque filii, Gen. 34,16 fatebantur, suscepta circumcisione potuisse Salemitas universos cum stirpe electa fieri « unus populus ». Ne mireris antiquos illos Hebraeos.« semen Abrahae » intellexisse sensu minus carnali, generosiore, imo veriore, quam posteriores rabbinos. Ceterum, cum « vir de domo Levi » possit tandem etiam filium. a Levi progenitum designare, et textus Ex. 2,1 fortasse aliquam corruptionem expertus sit, neque eam a limine ue vcn Es repudiamus, quae Amram a Caath prognatum esse defendit.
Cap. II
2:2
v. 9 « Quae concepit et peperit filium ». Eadem verba leguntur Gen. h,1. 17; 38,2 sq.; Os. 1,3, ubi tamen agi de primogenaitis non solis illis verbis efficitur, sed contextu. Contextus h. l. efficit Moysen non fuisse matris primum partum ; aderat certe v. 4 soror natu maior, quam aliam fuisse atque Mariam nulla est ratio defendendi; erat Aaron natu maior, neque est ratio sufficiens affirmandi eum aut Mariam alia esse natum matre. « Et videns eum elegantem », tanto minus animum inducere potuit mater, ut eum permitteret interim, sed « abscondit tribus mensibus », divini auxilii fide reprimens timorem tyranni (Hebr. 11,23). « Sed quis nesciat facilius quempiam abscoridi exiguo tempore quam lam scirpeam », canistrum e papyro, « e£ Jintvit eam bitumine » (ef. Gen. 11,3; 15,10) » ac pice, posuitque intus infantulum, et exposuit eum n carecto »,in iuncis, « 7ipae fluminis », V. d x « stante procu sorore etus et FRSODUE eventum rei ».
2:5
v. 5 « Ecce autem descendebat filia Pharaonis, ut lavaretur in flumine », in loco aliquo secretiore inter opaca iuncorum (S9/v.). Nomen Ios. tradit fuisse Thermuthis, Eusebius (Praep. evang. IX. 27; M. 21. 129 sq.) Merris, censetque Ebers p. 525, utrumque nomen revocari posse ad. Mer-en-mut, « dilecta a dea Mut », quod est nomen uxoris cuiusdam regis Ramessis II. At, inquies, quaeritur filia Pharaonis, non uxor. Omnino, sed intelligi potest filia Pharaonis Setil, patris Ramessis II : reges Aegypti saepe uxores ducebant suas ipsorum sorores. Ceterum, an e fide digna traditione nomen fluxerit, quod habet Ios., non liquet. « Et puellae eius gradiebantur per crepidinem alvet », secus ripam fluminis. « Quae cum vidisset fiscellam in papyrione , misit unam e famulabus suis », non : « extendit manum suam » (Ps. Ion.). moN est « eubitus » pro mensura acceptus, deberetque scribi n. « Ef allatam »
2:6
v. 6 « aperiens, cernensque in ea parvulum vagientem, miserta eius ait : De infantibus Hebraeorum est hic », agnoscens eum non e circumcisione (TAeodoret.), quam etiam Aegyptii observabant, sed e facto, quod in flumine esset expositus. v. Y « Cu? soror puer : Vis, inquit, ut vadam et vocem tibi mulierem Hebraeam, quae nutrire possit inf antulum? » Monet Tost., ex hoc agendi modo colligi fuisse Mariam multo maiorem natu Moyse, quindecim vel pluribus annis; item Aarone qui ex 7,7 nonnisi tribus ante fratrem annis erat natus. Vocanda autem fuit Hebraea, quod Aegyptia nunquam id muneris suscepisset : cf. Gen. 43,32.
2:8
v. 8 « Respondit : Vade. Perrexit puella et vocavit matrem. suam. », reliqui pueri.
2:9
v. 9 « Ad quam locuta filia Pharaonis : Accipe, att, puerum istum et nutri mihi; ego dabo tibi mercedem tuam. Suscepit mulier et nutrivit puerum, adultumque tradidit filiae Pharaonis ».
2:10
v. 10 « Quem illa adoptavit in locum filii, vocavitque nomen eius Moyses dicens : Quia de aqua tuli eum ». imponi nomen mes addito nomine alicuius numinis aegyptiaci, quod alterum Moses postmodum tamquam idololatriam sapiens renuntiaverit: potuit imponi simplex nomen mes. Of. Ebers, Dillm., Vig. Haud dubium est parentes puero, antequam in flumen demitteretur, probabilius in circumcisione eius, aliquod imposuisse nomen : an illud revera fuerit Ioachim (Clem. Alex. Strom. I. 23; M: 8. 897), definiri haud potest. Eiusmodi sc. hebraea traditio tenuem habet auctoritatem. Alia de Moyse apud Hebraeos tradebantur Aet. 7,22 : « Et eruditus est Moyses omni sapientia Aegyptiorum, et erat potens in verbis et in operibus suis »; et plura narrat los. de Moyse Aegyptiorum exercit um ducente contra Aethiopes, sed an vera omnia, quis definiat? Arg. — Moyses fratribus opem ferre studens, sed ómni tam apud ipsos quam apud Pharaonem destitutus auctoritate, fugere compellitur in Sinaitiden (cf. cap. 18), ibidem uxorem nanciscitur et filium. Ita et regioni illi assuefit et fata populi adumbrat in eodem deserto laeta incrementa accepturi.
2:11
V. 11 « In diebus illis, postquam creverat Moyses », « cum impleretur ei quadraginta annorum tempus, ascendit in cor eius, ut visitaret fratres suos, filios Israel » (Act. 7,293), de quibus fortasse antea fuerat parum sollicitus, et « egressus est ad fratres suos » ; exivit de civitate regia et palatio, ubi habitabat, in locum, ubi Hebraei angariae insudabant (Tost.). Audacius putat Sy/v., eum antea 1am ad fratres exire consuevisse : id certe demonstrari nequit et, si aspectul eorum afflictionis assuetus erat, non ita facile in caedem istius Aegyptii abripiebatur. Potuit fieri, ut tot annis fratres neglexerit. « Veditque afflictionem eorum, et virum Aegyptium percutientem quemdam de Hebraeis fratribus suis », —addunt LXX Syr. filiis Israel. Quaerit Cat., fueritne percussio gravis an levis; v. 12 idem verbum certe mortiferam percus- - sionem denotat. Quodsi Aegyptius reapse Hebraeo mortem minabatur, iuste Moyses fratrem defendit interfecto etiam aggressore. Certe factum laudatur Act. 7,24 sq. : « Et cum vidisset quemdam iniuriam patientem, vindicavit illum et fecit ultionem ei, qui iniuriam sustinebat, pereusso Aegyptio. Existimabat autem intelligere fratres, quoniam Deus per manum ipsius daret salutem illis; at illi non intellexerunt ».
2:12
v. 19 « Cumque circumspezisset huc illuc, et nullum adesse vidisset, percussum Aegyptium abscondit sabulo ».
2:13
v. 13 « Et egressus die altero », « sequenti die » (Act. 7,26), « conspexit duos Hebraeos rizantes ; dizitque ei, qui faciebat iniuriam : Quare percutis proximum tuum? » « Ille, qui iniuriam patiebatur, videns pro se bene sententiari non reclamavit; alius autem iudicem recusavit » (Tost.). Sapienter autem providit Deus ut, qui postea Pharaonem et Hebraeos auctoritate a Deo accepta esset audacter increpaturus, experientia doceretur, quam parum sine auctoritate proficiat bona voluntas.
2:14
v. 1& « Quz respondit : Quis te constituit principem et iudicem super nos? Num occidere me lu vis, sicut heri » — w'àN praecedenti ?£N persimile omisere Heór. Sam. Chald. — « occidisti Aegyptium? Timuit. Moyses et ait :: Quomodo palam factum est verbum istud? »
2:15
v. 15 « Audtvitque Pharao sermonem hunc, et quaerebat occidere Moysen », non ob meram Aegyptii minus nobilis necem, sed quod audiret eum exire ad exosos invisendos Hebraeos, eorum defensionem contra Aegyptios suscipere, et quod ab aulicis Moysi invidentibus incitaretur (Sylv., Tost.). « Qui fugiens de conspectu eius , moratus est in terra Madian ». Cf. Gen, 25,9. Madianitae hi secundum 3,1 haud procul monte Horeb versabantur. Ibi Moyses tutus erat, quod paeninsula Sinaitica non esset sub ditione regum Aegyptiorum. Inde ab exeunte tertia dynastia obtinuerant utique Pharaones ibidem fodinas gemmarum. et aeris, quarum vestigia exstant, quasque praesidiis munierant : sed earum regnante hamesse II ultima habetur mentio, videnturque tum ab Aegyptiis esse desertae. Ebers p. 136 sqq. Certe Pharaonis auctoritas non extendebatur ultra illas fodinas ad interiora paeninsulae. Quae modo generali omnino expressione innuebatur « mora in Madian », eaiam accuratius describitur, narrato Moysis apud Raguel adventu et nuptiis. « Et », cum venit in terram Madian (LXX), « sedit iuxta puteum ».
2:16
v. 16 « Erant autem sacerdoti Madian », de cuius nomine vide v. 18, « septem filiae, quae venerunt ad hauriendam aquam et, impletis canalibus » (cf. Gen. 30,38. 41), « adaquare cupiebant greges pairis sui. ». Virum. Chald. facit principem, respuens sacerdotium non israeliticum. Sed non est ratio, cur is non potuerit aequo 1ure, atque Melchisedech, sacerdos esse veri Dei; 18,129 certe offert sacrificium. Historiam, quae lam narretur, censet Dz//m. alterius Gen. 29 esse perquam similem. Omnino ita est. Sed adverte, uti medio aevo saepe numero nobili equiti defendenda fuit virgo oppressa, ita patriarcharum aevo viris cordatis non ita raro iuvandas fuisse puellas prope puteos.
2:17
v. 17 « Supervenere pastores et eiecerunt eas; surrezitque Moyses et, defensis puellis, adaquavit oves earum ».
2:18
v. 48 « Quae cum revertissent ad Raquel patrem suum, dixit ad eas : Cur velocius venistis solito? » fuisse videatur. Notandum hic additamentum LXX ad v. 16 pascentes oves patris sui Iethyro. Quod videtur in textum LXX irrepsisse, quo tempore iam v. 18 Raguel et 3,1 Iethro habebat. Habet illud non sufficientem contra textus reliquos omnes auctoritatem ; multo vero minus ex solitaria Vaticani aoro) (contra a0:0») lectione inferre fas est, fuisse Raguelem patrem Iethro. Ad nominis formas quod attinet, Ex. 4,18 legitur 4215, 3,1.et18,1 sqq. 715; 3 Reg. 2,5.32 et 1 Par. 2,17 Amasae pater vocatur 3n sed idem 2 Reg. 17,25 Nn; et, qui 1 Par. 7,37 vocabatur pns idem sequenti versu videtur scribi 35. Syr. socerum Moysis scribit pm. Ivitur Jos. declarabat iam, illum Moysis socerum fuisse binomium; quod si concesseris, debebis tamen fere concedere Ex. 2,18 et 3,1 esse diversorum scriptorum, cum idem scriptor, tam parvo interiecto intervallo, vix credi possit nulla addita explicatione eundem virum appellasse modo Raguelem, modo Iethro. Aliam solutionem videtur suggerere Iosephus. Is virum semper appellat Raguelem (cf. Ant. II. 13. 1; III, 3; III. 4); at II. 12. 1 eundem etiam cognomen habuisse 'Is0eyAatoc. Videtur Ios. esse suspicatus nomen primitus fuisse ost m vel eiusmodi quid, ac postmodum scribarum incuria factum esse, ut in quisbusdam textibus sola nominis pars posterior ovt, in plerisque sola pars anterior *r superfuerit. Liceat aliam proferre solutionem. Sicut rex Aegypli praeter nomen proprium, quod quidem Gen. et Ex. reticet, habebat nomen ofticii pharao (sine articulo), ità « sacerdos Madian » apud Madianitas item habebat nomen officii raguel, i. e. amicus Dei. Hoc nomen officii seu honoris habetur Ex. 2,18 et Num. 10,29.
2:19
v. 19 « Responderunt : Vir Aegyptius liberavit nos de manu pastorum, insuper et hausit aquam nobiscum, potumque dedit ovibus ».
2:20
v. 90 « At alle : Ubi est? inquit. Quare dimisistis hominem? Vocate eum, ut comedat panem », seu cibum.
2:21
v. 21 « Juravit ergo Moyses, quod habitaret cum eo ». ltem Symm. , secutus traditionem aliquam rabbinicam : sed 5&* non est iurare, sed inczpere (Theod.), velle (Chald. Syr.) : ergo Moyses petenti, ut apud se maneret, annuit; ille virum robustum , omnium artium Aegyptiorum, etiam artis militaris gnarum sibi devincire studebat. « Accepitque Sephoram filiam eius wxorem ».
2:22
v. 99 « Quae peperit ei filium, quem vocavit Gersam, dicens : Advena fui n terra aliena ». 33 advena, mv ibi. Explicatio certe non est etymologica, sed mnemoneutica. Si nomen a radiee v3 derivetur, habebitur significatio exsul, quo nomine Moyses pulchre exprimebat suae gentis desiderium eiusque repetendae voluntatem. N^p** formae masc., licet secus etiam de muliere praedicetur, recte tamen LXX h. l. ad Moysen retulerunt : non enim Sephora advena erat, sed Moyses. Monet Sy/v., haec non illico facta esse, cum Moyse in Aegyptum revertente 4,20 sqq. Gersam adhuc fuerit parvulus. Aut Moyses plures apud lethro annos servivit, donec filiam accepit uxorem ; aut haec nonnisi elapsis pluribus coniugii
2:23
v. 93 « Post multum vero temporis mortuus est rez Aegypti », ile sane, quo regnante fuerat Moyses expositus et educatus. Quod Seti 1 non. esset de regia stirpe, eius filius Ramesses II ab ipsa nativitate reeio nomine ornatus est. Mortuo patre octodecim annos natus coepit ipse regnare per se, regnavitque annos sexaginta sex ad aetatem octoginta quatuor annorum usque. Bene igitur potuere eo regnante ea omnia fieri, quae hic de Moyse narrantur. Eius autem mors Moysi redeundi occasio fuit, quod iam poena patratae caedis non esset timenda : accedebat mox divinum mandatum. « E! ingemiscentes filii Israel. propter opera vociferati sunt, ascenditque clamor eorum. ad Deum ab operibus ». Speraverant, sua onera alleviatum iri : sed novus rex Merenpthah gravioribus etiam oneribus illos opprimebat (Tost.). v. 9& « Et audivit» Deus « gemitum eorum » ; nune tandem, ubi tribulatio praedefinitam a se mensuram impleverat, exauditionis signa edere coepit; « ac recordatus est » Deus « foederis, quod pepigit cum Abraham , Isaac et lacob » ;
2:25
v. 95 «et respexit Dominus » — reliqui Deus — « filios Israel et cognovit [eos| » Deus. Quid cognovit? Id sane, de quo in praecedentibus sermo erat, quodque ideo repeti non oportebat, afflictionem populi sui. Moratur quandoque Deus, specie tenus non audit, non recordatur, non respicit; sed, ubi tandem valido supplicantium clamore, ut respiciat, moveri se permisit, illico etiam causam cognoscit, examinat, iudicat. Quem vero ea iudicialis cognitio effectum tulerit, tota sequens pandit oratio incipiens a vocatione Moysis. Est igitur verbi illius 211 pulcherrimus sensus, quem ignorant penitus recentiores centonum suturam subodorati. Deus ita populi sui causam cognoscens et iudicans cognoscitur etiam ipse (LXX), tam a populo suo quam ab Aegyptiis : tamen hic non est immediatus vocis sensus. Adverte nomen n'n5x quinquies repetitum , antequam narrari incipiat nominis secretioris revelatio. Cur perieopen cum Sa. usque ad v. 18 inclusive, non vero cum Masor. solum usque v. 17 producamus, initio sequentis pericopae explieabimus.. Nostrae pericopae Masorethae nullas adhibent subdivisiones; Sam. e contra has : 3,1-13. 1&-18* (verba « et audient vocem tuam » sapienter ad priora trahens); 3,18"-4,1; 1,2-5. 6-10. 11-18. Sam., uti in sequentibus passim, novas paragraphos a novis divinis eloquiis orditur, quae incipiunt vocibus « Locutus est Dominus ». Quae dividendi ratio generatim est apta, quia Deus non rogatus sua eloquia ordiri soleat, at h. 1. minus conveniens, quia Deus ad Moysis quaesita respondet. Sam. autem suis distinetionibus responsa a suis quaesitis seiungit. Quem errorem si corrigas, commode Sam. distinctiones retinebis. — Igitur 3,1-12 (non 13) Dei describitur apparitio et generale propositum ; 3,13-22 primum roganti Moysi nomen Iahve (v. 13-15) revelatur, postea Dei propositum distinctius panditur, suscipiendae sc. (v. 16-18") à Moyse ad seniores, inde (v. 18"-22) ad ipsum Pharaonem legationis. 4,1-9 (non 9-10) Moyses signa impetrat : v. 1-5 virgae, v. 6-8 leprae, v. 9 aquaein sanguinem mutandae. v. 10-17 Moyses se ob linguae impedimentum excusare conatur, cui Deus v. 10-12 specialem assistentiam, v. 13-17 Aaronis cum virga opem promittit. Coneludit v. 18 pericope Moysis à socero discessum breviter commemorans. Arg. — « Respicit » (2,95) Deus Israelem « apparitione » (3,2) Moysi facta. Apparet ei autem « in flamma ignis de medio rubi ». Rubus, vilis planta sed cum foliis intacta perseverans, adumbrat populum electum, oppressum ; ignis Deum, qui in columna ignis populo praesto futurus, persecutores oppressurus est (cf. Ca?.). « Clamore » (v. 9; cf. 2,93 sq.) populi commotus Deus liberationem decrevit, cuius efficlendae causa mittit Moysen ad Pharaonem, speciali auxilio promisso. | Cap. III
2:1
… Through her shrewdness, she saved the life of this son of hers and managed to become his nurse, when, forced to expose him in the Nile in a papyrus basket, he was taken up by the daughter of Pharaoh (Ex. 2:1-10).
2:3
The Hebrew téblah (which also occurs in Ex. 2:3, 5: "little box" or "basket" in which Moses was saved) is translated in the ancient versions also as "ship, bier, kneading trough." The Latin arca corresponds to "chest, place or instrument …
… The work seeks to explain the apparent contrast between Ex. 2:3: "The law will come from Zion" and the legislation on Sinai.
… It is mentioned in many passages of the Bible and is indeed often called simply "the river" by antonomasia (Gen. 41:1-3; Ex. 1:22; 2:3; 7:17-22; 8:5-13; 9:9; Ps. 77 [78]:44; Jer. 46:7-8; Is. 19:6-9; 18:2). As is natural, it is always present in the life of the country: the pharaoh dreams of it in Genesis (41:1-3), …
2:4
1. Sister of Moses, firstborn of Amram and Jochebed (Ex. 6:20; Num. 26:59; 1 Chron. 6:3). She watched over her little brother exposed on the waters of the Nile and cleverly managed to have his own mother given to him as a nurse by the daughter of Pharaoh (Ex. 2:4-10). At the crossing of the Red Sea, M. was 90 years old (Ex. 7:7) and as a prophetess led, under divine influence, the dances and songs of joy and thanksgiving to Yahweh (Ex. 15:20 ff.; …
2:8
… The usage of the Hebrew Bible (Gen. 24, 43; Ex. 2, 8; Cant. 1, 2 and 6, 7; Ps. 68 [67], 26; Prov. 30, 18-19) gives the noun 'almāh the sense of a young unmarried woman, who must be supposed intact, as the Septuagint understood, before …
2:9
Ramses ("Râ' Has Generated Him") II
According to many exegetes R. II is identified with the "new king" who began the oppression of the Israelites exiled in Egypt (Ex. 1:8-22) and whose daughter introduced Moses to his court (ibid. 2:9-10); he would have had the cities of R. (Pr-R'misso) and Pithom ([v.]; ibid. 1:11-14) built by the Hebrews. …
2:10
Moses (Mōšeh, Μω[θ]σῆς, Vulg. MoySES, Ancient Latin Moses)
… The woman raised him and after some years gave him back to the princess, who gave him the name M. (Egyptian mīw "son, boy," cf. Thutmosis, Ahmose, etc.; in Ex. 2, 10 connected with the Hebrew māšēh "to draw out," an allusion to the rescue from the waters). …
2:11
HEVITES (Heb. hā-hīwāš always with the article and in the singular; Septuagint ὁ Εὐαῖος, sometimes οἱ Εὐαῖοι). - A people settled in the land of Canaan and always included in the list of the whole group of peoples dwelling in the land before the Israelite conquest (Ex. 2, 11; 3, 8; 13, 5; 23, 28; Deut. 7, 1; 20, 17; Josh. 3, 10; 9, 1; 12, 8; 24, 11; Judg. 3, 5; 2 Kings 9, 29; 2 Chron. 8, 7; v. CANAAN).
Moses (Mōšeh, Μω[θ]σῆς, Vulg. MoySES, Ancient Latin Moses)
… The Bible recalls his visits to his fellow-countrymen, employed as slaves in the grandiose constructions (of Ramses II?; cf. H. Gressmann, op. cit., pp. 106, 107). M. killed an Egyptian overseer who was maltreating the Hebrew workers (Ex. 2, 11-12): a "gesture" useless in itself, but indicative of the impulses at work in the young man's soul. …
2:15
The Midianites (v.) mentioned in the story of Moses (Ex. 2:15 ff., etc.), in the exodus from Egypt (Num. 25:14-18; 31:2), and finally in the account of Gideon's victory (Judg. 6-8), were northern Arabs. …
Midian and Midianites (Hebrew Midhjān; Septuagint Μαδιάμ)
Name of a region south of Palestine (Ex. 2:15) and of its inhabitants (Ex. 3:1; 4:19; 18:1; Num. 24:47), sometimes indicated by the patronymic "Midianites" (Gen. 37:38; Num. 25:17).
2:16
Jethro (Hebrew Jithro'; Ex. 4:18 Jether)
… As for the identity J.-Raguel, the Greek version of the Septuagint already holds this, since in Ex. 2:16 it twice gives 'Iobép. …
2:18
Jethro (Hebrew Jithro'; Ex. 4:18 Jether)
In Ex. 2:18 and Num. 10:29 he is called Raguel (Rè'ù'ël). …
Moses (Mōšeh, Μω[θ]σῆς, Vulg. MoySES, Ancient Latin Moses)
… With one of their priestly chiefs, of the family of the Kenites (Iud. 1, 16; 4, 11), named Jethro and Hobab (or Reuel: Ex. 2, 18; Num. 10, 29), he found welcome: he even obtained in marriage his daughter Zipporah, by whom he had two sons, Gershom and Eliezer.
Raguel (Heb. Rē'ḏēl = "Friend of God")
1. Priest of Midian and father of Zipporah, wife of Moses (Ex. 2:18), called elsewhere preferably Jethro (v.).
2:19
… Its most important manifestations may be seen in: Gen. 18, 3-8: Abraham; ibid. 19, 2-3: Lot; Ex. 2, 19-20: Moses; Ios. 6, 23: Rahab; Iudc. 19: the Levite of Ephraim; Job 31, 31-32, etc. Hospitality consisted in having the stranger spend the night under one's tent or in one's house, in …
2:21
… In a particular way the prohibition applied to the various Canaanite populations of Palestine or of the neighboring regions (cf. Ex. 34:11-16; Deut. 7:1-4). But in the most ancient times such a law appears less rigorous (cf. Gen. 34:14; 41:45; Ex. 2:21; Jud. 3:6; 14:3, 10; Ruth 1:4). Even Moses had a Midianite as his wife (Ex. 2:21; Num. 12:1). After the exile, on the other hand, the exclusion becomes ever more rigorous, …
2:22
GERSON. - The firstborn son of Moses (Ex. 2:22 and 18:3), whose name is explained there: "A stranger (gër) am I in a foreign land" (hypothetically, the Arabic gulgul, "bell," is thought of).
Following the example of Abraham (Gen. 21:23; 23:4), of Moses (Ex. 2:22; Acts 7:29), of Israel drawn by God away from the pagan world (Wis. 18:3; Hab. 3:16: παρενία is a synonym of x.), every Christian is and must feel himself a "stranger" (ξένος) …
2:23
Moses (Mōšeh, Μω[θ]σῆς, Vulg. MoySES, Ancient Latin Moses)
At court M. remained perhaps some forty years (Ex. 2, 23; 7, 7; cf. Act. 7, 23): a period rich in experiences and decisive for the cultural and spiritual formation of the meditative young man. There is no difficulty in admitting that …
Ramses ("Râ' Has Generated Him") II
… After his death "after a long time" (ibid. 2:23), his successor Merneptah (v.) would be the pharaoh of the exodus (v.), against whom Moses carried out the divine mission of liberating Israel (ibid. 3:10-15, 19).
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · Vulgata Clementina · original Douay-Rheims (Douay 1609-10), transcription by EEBO-TCP (CC0) · La Sacra Bibbia, tradotta dalla Volgata da Antonio Martini (1769-1781) (LaParola (laparola.net), Martini OSIS text, Public domain (LaParola's electronic edition marks it 'Dominio pubblico')). Public domain.