_MOSES AND THE ISRAELITES, PRAISE THE LORD IN A TRIUMPHAL SONG: THEY ADVANCE INTO THE WILDERNESS OF SHUR; WHERE, BEING IN WANT OF WATER, THE WATERS OF MARAH ARE MADE SWEET BY CASTING WOOD INTO THEM: THENCE THEY MARCH TO ELIM._ _Before Christ 1491._... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN SANG MOSES— This is supposed to be the most ancient piece of genuine poetry extant in the world, if, perhaps, we except the Book of Job. The words of Lamech to his wives; the prophecy of Noah concerning his sons; the blessing of Jacob upon the twelve patriarchs, are all, as some learned writers... [ Continue Reading ]
_Exodus 15:2. The Lord is my strength and song; And he is become my salvation: He is my God; and I will prepare him an habitation: My father's God; and I will exalt him._ This holds throughout, as the attentive reader may observe; except that, in one or two verses, it seems as if the two choirs sun... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY SANK INTO THE BOTTOM AS A STONE— A poetical expression, to set forth their profound and utter destruction. See Jeremiah 51:63.Revelation 18:21.... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THE GREATNESS OF THINE EXCELLENCY— _In the brightness of thy glory,_ Calmet: referring to ch. Exodus 14:24 when the light from the pillar of fire burst forth upon the Egyptians. Agreeably to this remark, _thy wrath_ might be rendered thy _fiery heat,_ or _burning indignation._ The expletives in t... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WITH THE BLAST OF THY NOSTRILS— This is commonly supposed to refer to the _wind_ mentioned in the 21st verse of the preceding chapter, which was the instrument of gathering the waters together. But, as the heat of the _nostrils,_ all through the Scripture, is used to express _wrath,_ one would r... [ Continue Reading ]
THE ENEMY SAID, &C.— No reader can be insensible to the striking beauty in these verses: the exultation of the enemy is so finely expressed in the one, and their sudden destruction so emphatically in the other: _thou didst blow with thy wind,_ &c. There is a similar beauty in the song of Deborah: se... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO IS LIKE UNTO THEE, O LORD, AMONG THE GODS?— The sacred Writer here refers to those _gods of Egypt,_ over whom Jehovah had now so gloriously triumphed; and one of the great ends of whose miracles in Egypt was, doubtless, to assert his Supremacy, and to shew his superiority over all local and fals... [ Continue Reading ]
THE EARTH SWALLOWED THEM— That is, says Ainsworth, the bottom of the sea, the abyss which the sea covers; as in Jonah 2:6.— ארצ _aretz,_ rendered _earth,_ sometimes signifies, _the lowest part of the earth: pars infima cujuscunque rei, the lowest part of any thing,_ says Calasio: _the lowest part of... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU HAST GUIDED THEM IN THY STRENGTH UNTO THY HOLY HABITATION— There is in this song so great a variety in the tenses, as they are at present fixed by grammarians, that there can be no impropriety in giving to this passage such a version as makes it conformable with the fact. In agreement with Houb... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PEOPLE SHALL HEAR, &C.— The sublimity of this passage would appear much more striking if it were rendered, agreeably to the Hebrew, _The people hear, they tremble: sorrow takes hold on the inhabitants of Palestina. Straight_ (אז * _az_) _the dukes of Edom are amazed: the mighty men of Moab, trem... [ Continue Reading ]
AND PLANT THEM IN THE MOUNTAIN OF THINE INHERITANCE, &C.— As this verse undoubtedly refers to Jerusalem and Mount Sion, it is reasonable to think, that the _holy habitation,_ Exodus 15:13 refers to the same. The phrase of _planting,_ expresses their _fixed establishment:_ and the same idea is used i... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LORD SHALL REIGN FOR EVER AND EVER— An exulting strain; expressing the absolute sovereignty of Jehovah, which he had demonstrated by this signal overthrow of the Egyptians, as the next verse declares; where the reason is given for this triumphant assertion; _for the horse of Pharaoh,_ &c. This 1... [ Continue Reading ]
MIRIAM THE PROPHETESS— Μαριαμ in the Greek, in the Latin _Maria,_ from the Hebrew word מרה _marah, bitterness._ She was so called, say some, from the times of affliction and bitterness, (Exodus 1:14.) in which she was born. In the note on Genesis 20:7 we have given the true explanation of the word _... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN THEY CAME TO MARAH— Moses tells us, in the close of the verse, that the place was called _Marah,_ from the _bitterness_ of the waters there. "In travelling from _Sdur,_ Or _Shur,"_ says Dr. Shaw, "towards Mount Sinai, we came into the desert, as it is still called, of _Marah,_ where the Israeli... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE CRIED UNTO THE LORD; AND THE LORD SHEWED HIM A TREE, &C.— As soon as the Israelites felt the least inconvenience, they shewed that murmuring and discontented disposition, which so strongly marks their character. Their murmurs against Moses, Exodus 15:24 were, in reality, murmurs against GOD.... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY CAME TO ELIM— Elim was situated upon the northern skirts of the desert of _Sin,_ two leagues from _Tor,_ and near thirty from _Corondel._ I saw, says Dr. Shaw, no more than nine of the _twelve wells_ which are mentioned by Moses, the other three being filled up by those drifts of sand which... [ Continue Reading ]