2._Sanctify unto me all the first-born. _This also refers to the First Commandment, because God asserts His right over the first-born, lest the recollection of their redemption should ever be lost. For thus were the Israelites admonished that they must honor that God by whose grace they had escaped... [ Continue Reading ]
3._And Moses said unto the people. _He repeats what he had said more at length in the foregoing chapter, respecting the unleavened bread, not so much to instruct as to exhort them; for he had already expressed the matter with so much clearness, that there was no need of further explanation; but it w... [ Continue Reading ]
4._This day came ye out. _He compares the day of their coming out with the whole time of their sojourning in the land of Canaan; as if he had said that they were redeemed not to enjoy a mere transient joy, but that they might be mindful of their blessing throughout all ages. He proceeds to eulogize... [ Continue Reading ]
8._And thou shalt shew thy son in that day. _He repeats what we have already remarked, viz., an injunction to parents to teach their children, that they may thus transmit the service of God to their descendants. In the preceding chapter it was said, “when your children shall say unto you,” etc.; and... [ Continue Reading ]
11._And it shall be when the Lord shall bring thee. _He proceeds with what had been glanced at in the beginning of the chapter with respect to the consecration of the first-born, that in this way they should bear witness to the special blessing of God which preserved them when He destroyed the first... [ Continue Reading ]
17._And it came to pass when Pharaoh. _Moses here assigns the reason why God did not immediately lead His people by the more direct way into the land of Canaan, which would have been just as easy to Him, but preferred to bring them round through the desert, by a long and difficult and dangerous jour... [ Continue Reading ]
18._The children of Israel went up harnessed. _The word חמשים, (148) _chemishim, _is derived from “Five,” from whence some have explained it, that they were furnished with five kinds of arms, but this is too absurd. The Hebrews, because they could conjecture nothing better or more probable, almost w... [ Continue Reading ]
19._And Moses took the bones of Joseph with him. _Hence it appears, that even in their adversity the memory of their promised deliverance had never departed from the people, for had not the adjuration of Joseph been currently spoken of in common conversation, Moses would never have been able to imag... [ Continue Reading ]
21._And the Lord went before them. _Moses here proclaims another of God’s mercies, that, having redeemed His people, He was their constant leader and guide; as the Prophet also in the Psalms distinctly makes reference to both. (Psalms 77:15; and Psalms 78:14.) It was indeed a marvelous act of loving... [ Continue Reading ]