commentators, to which region the plague reached not. But I apprehend the sacred writer means not to affirm, that the magicians, upon this occasion, dis- ́ played their power in turning water into blood; but this was one of the wonders which they were accustomed to perform: not indeed upon all the water of the country, or even of a single lake or river, but upon small vessels of water: and as the sacred Historian mentions it as a remarkable circumstance in Moses's miracle, that the water in all sorts of vessels was equally affected by it, I should guess, that when the magicians pretended to make this wonderful transmutation, it was a requisite, that the water should be in a vessel of some certain kind. However, to make an apparent change of water in small quantities, and in certain circumstances, into blood, was one of the common tricks of Egyptian magic. Pharaoh, therefore, not adverting to the universality and completeness of Moses's miracle, thought it nothing more than what he had often seen done by his magicians, and hardened his heart. This I take to be the sense of this 22d verse; and in like manner I would interpret the 7th of the following chapter.

CHAP. viii. 9. 66

התפאר עלי Glory over me. For

Houbigant would ready, Do thou thyself expressly fix the time for me."

Verse 12.

"because of the frogs which he

had brought against Pharaoh." Rather," about the matter of the frogs which he had settled with Pharaoh." Moses prayed to God to effect the removal of the frogs, for which Moses had passed his word to Pharaoh. (Compare LXX. & Vulg. & Houbigant.)

Verse 18. This production of lice the magicians had often tried, but had never been able to succeed. CHAP. ix. 15, 16. "For now had I stretched out my hand, and smitten thee and thy people with pestilence, thou wouldst even have been cut off from the earth. 16. But for this cause have I preserved thee, &c."

CHAP. X. 21.

"even darkness which may

be

felt." Literally, "that darkness may be handled,"

i. e. that they may be obliged to feel out the way by groping with their hands.

PLAGUES OF Egypt.

I. Water turned into blood............Exod. vii. 19-25.

X. Death of the first born................ xi. xii. 29-30.

CHAP. xii. 12.

-"and against all the gods of

Egypt I will execute judgment." For Houbi

gant would read

“and in all the habitations

of Egypt I will execute judgment."

Verse 33. "And the Egyptians were urgent." Rather," And Egypt was urgent,"-Egypt, the whole country. That the word, here renders the country (by metonymy for the inhabitants of the country) is evident from the singular feminine

תחזק verb

Verse 48. "And when a stranger, &c." Except that the Ammonites and Moabites were afterwards

incapacitated by a special law, on account of their unkindness to the Israelites in the desert.

Deut. chap. xxiii.)

CHAP. Xiii. 2,

(See

"all the first born," i. e. the

males. (See v. 12.)

Verses 3, 4, 5.

" there shall no unleavened"

"Therefore it shall be"- 3. "No leavened bread shall be eaten," upon the day when ye came out, in "the month Abib. 5. Therefore it shall be", Or thus, according to the Samaritan

દ

copy. "3. No unleavened bread shall be eaten

4.

this day. 'Twas in the month Abib ye came out, 5. Therefore it shall be"

and

fore."

The two "'s, D

have the force of " 'twas" and "there

Verse 8.

"This is done because of that

which the Lord did unto me, when I came forth out

בעבור זה עשה יהוה לי בצאתי ממצרים: ",of Egypt

"It is because Jehovah did this unto me, when I came forth out of Egypt;" i. e. because Jehovah at that time made me do this, which I now do, i. e. he made me eat unleavened bread. (See Houbigant.)

Verse 12. "That thou shalt set apart unto the "Then thou shalt make over unto

,והעברת ",Lord

Jehovah".

"the males shall be the Lord's," al

lotted to the priests and their families exclusively.

(See Numb. xviii. 15-18, and compare Deut. xiv. 23-27. & xv. 19-23.)

Verse 18.

"and the children of Israel

went up harnessed"—(" Harnessed," Armati, Vulg. and to the same effect Syr. & Chald.) ❝ Qui po"tuissent arma parare, et secum tollere Israelitæ,

66

qui festinatione tantâ egrediebantur, ut ne ad pa"nem quidem faciendum tempus habuissent?" (Houbigant ad locum.)

,מחשים reads חמשים Houbigant, therefore, for

and renders profecti sunt festinanter, referring the word to the root n, "to hasten," or "make

מחשים

haste," and alleging Judg. xviii. 9, as an authority for the word, and for this exposition of it. But, in that place, the word 'n derives from , and signifies the very reverse of haste. But there is no necessity for any alteration of the word 'wan, which signifies "marshalled." The children of Israel went up out of Egypt " in orderly array;" not in the array of battle, but of a religious procession. (See Fuller apud Poole.)

Verse 21.

"to go by day and night"—" that

they might march day and night." Eo ut nocte dieque iter facerent." (Houbigant.)