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Egyptians so readily granted the requests of the Israelites.

And Moses said to Pharaoh, before he went out of his presence, (compare v. 8. with ch. x. 29.) Thus saith the LORD, About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt, will manifest my power in an eminent manner, without using thy rod, 5 or any other instrument : And all the firstborn in the land of Egypt shall die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, his son and successor, even unto the firstborn of the maid servant that [is] behind the mill, the meanest 6 slave; and all the firstborn of beasts. And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall be like it any more. But against any of the children of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue, against man or beast, they shall not have the least disturbance: that ye may know how that the LORD doth put a difference 8 between the Egyptians and Israel. And all these thy servants, who are now ready to drive me from thy presence, shall come down unto me, and bow down themselves unto me, saying, Get thee out, and all the people that follow thee, that put themselves under thy conduct and command: and after that I will go out. And he went out from Pharaoh, who was in a great anger, or rage against Moses, because of this threatening.

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And the LORD said unto Moses, Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you; that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt. God being determined to punish him further, in righteous judgment suffered him to continue in his obstinate fury. 10 And Moses and Aaron did all these wonders before Pharaoh : and the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart, so that he would not let the children of Israel go out of his land, till he was forced to it by the death of the firstborn.

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REFLECTIONS.

E may observe, that to fear and reverence God, is the way to be feared and reverenced by the worst of men; v. 3. Moreover the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, and in the sight of the people. He was beloved of God, and reverenced by man. When God's servants act from religious principles, and evidence to the world their regard for God, men cannot but have an esteem for them bad as the world is, wicked men will always have a secret reverence for the righteous. Let us, therefore, fear and honour God, and keep his charge; and thus shall we have favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man.

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• See this sense established in Shuckford's Con. vol. II. p. 336.

2. What reverence do we owe to that God, in whose hand our breath is! How easily can he cut off the spirits of men; the spirits of princes, the greatest of men, are in his hand. He knew how to separate the firstborn in all the families of Egypt to destruction. Who would not fear so awful a Being, and reverence him, as the preserver of man and beast!

3. Let us be solicitous to be found among God's people, that we may escape the plagues which he brings upon the wicked. The Lord puts a difference between them, oftentimes in this world, and preserves them from the noisome pestilence: but when the day cometh that shall burn as an oven, it shall put a still greater difference between him that feareth God, and him that feareth him not. The wicked shall be turned into hell, with all the nations that forget God; sudden destruction shall come upon them. But those who fear the Lord, he will hide in the day of his anger, and fix in a state of everlasting tranquillity and repose; there remaineth a rest for the people of God.

4. What a melancholy instance have we of an impotent, obstinate rage in Pharaoh. After having suffered so much, it might have been expected that he would have been mollified and humbled; instead of this, he hardens his heart, and rages against Moses. This is too often the case of wicked men they grow hardened by their afflictions. When God's messengers give them warning, set before them the terrors of the Lord, and point out the threatenings of his word, they grow angry at the messengers; ministers become their enemies by telling them the truth. But whether men will hear, or whether they will forbear, whether they will bear it patiently, or let their passions rage, the message must be delivered, as we would deliver our own souls. God approves the zeal and fidelity of his servants, however men may despise or be offended at them. Let men rage ever so much, and stand out ever so long, God will humble them at last. His counsel shall stand; and his ministers shall be a sweet savour in them that perish, as well as in them that are saved.

CHAP. XII. 1-28.

God had promised to Abraham, in Gen. xv. 13, 14, Know of « surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; and also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge ; and afterward shall they come out with great substance; in this chapter we have the fulfilment of that prophecy.

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ND the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month Abib [shall be] unto you the beginning of months: it [shall be] the first month of the year to you.*

Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth [day] of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of [their] fathers, a lamb for 4 an house: And if the household be too little for the lamb, too few to eat it at one meal, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take [it] according to the number of the souls; every man according to his eating shall make your count for the lamb; every master of a family shall compute how much his family useth to eat, and shall take such a share of the lamb as may suffice them.

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Your lamb shall be without blemish; intimating that God must be served with the best ; a male of the first year, or, about a year old; ye shall take [it] out from the sheep, or 6 from the goats: And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening; the Hebrew signifies, between the two evenings, between three o'clock and sunset.t

And they shall take of the blood, and strike [it] on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it; not on the threshold, lest it should be profaned, as trampling upon any thing was reckoned to do.

And they shall eat the flesh in that night‡ following the fourteenth, and beginning the fifteenth day, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; [and] with bitter [herbs] they shall eat it. 9 This was to remind them of their bitter bondage in Egypt. Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast [with] fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof,

Thus the beginning of their year was changed; it was before this command in the middle of September, but now in the middle of March. Hence in all reckonings of the months in scripture, where they are numerically named, this is counted the first, and the others as they lie in order from this.

Every master of an house was to kill it in the presence of his whole family, which made him a priest in his house; but afterward it was restrained to the priests only.

The lamb was killed on the fourteenth day in the evening, that is, after three o'clock, 6. but was eaten that night, which was the beginning of the fifteenth day.

10 all the entrails that are proper for food. And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning, for any superstitious use ; like some of the ancient idolaters, who preserved some part of the sacrifices for superstitious purposes; but ye shall entirely consume yours: and that which remaineth of it until the 11 morning ye shall burn with fire. And thus shall ye eat it at this time; [with] your loins girded, your long garments tied up, your shoes on your feet, as a sign and token of your liberty, (for slaves always went barefoot,) and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste; like persons on the point of departing it [is] the LORD's passover; that is, a sign of his passing over you and your houses, when he comes to destroy the Egyptians.

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For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judg13 ment:* I [am] the LORD. And the blood which shall be sprinkled on the door posts shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye [are ;] not to direct the destroying angel, but to confirm your faith and hope: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to 14 destroy [you,] when I smite the land of Egypt. And this day shall be unto you for a memorial of this deliverance from Egypt, and a type of your redemption by Christ; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations, as a time of rejoicing for your deliverance: ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever, every year, all the days of your life, or rather, till the coming of Christ who is our passover, 1 Cor. v, 7, 8,

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Seven days after the passover shall ye eat unleavened bread; even the first day after the passover ye shall put away leaven out of your houses for whosoever eateth leavened bread from the first day until the seventh day, that soul shall be cut off from Israel, be excommunicated, or cut off by the hand of God, as a rebel against him; as one who hath renounced his 16 religion and his covenant. And in the first day [there shall be] an holy convocation, a solemn day of public worship, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save [that] which 17 every man must eat, that only may be done of you. And ye

This was designed to show them the vanity of idols and to confirm their faith in the God of Israel. An heathen writer says, that an earthquake threw down their temples also.

Epiphanius tells us, that the Egyptians used at this time of the year to mark their cattle, trees, and one another, with red ochre, which they fancied to be a preservative from death; it probably took its rise from hence.

This was to be a memorial of their speedy departure out of Egypt, when they had not time to leaven their bread.

On the first of these holy days their deliverance was begun, by the death of the firstborn of Egypt; and on the last of them their deliverance was completed, by the drowning of Pharaoh and his host in the sea.

shall observe [the feast of] unleavened bread for in this selfsame day have I by my angel brought your armies, all your tribes, like a triumphant army, out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordi18 nance for ever. In the first [month,] on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the 19 one and twentieth day of the month at even. Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, 20 that is, a proselyte, or one born in the land. Ye shall eat nothing leavened; in all your habitations shall ye eat unleavened bread.

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Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel, to give them the directions he had received from God, and said unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the passover, that is, the lamb appointed for a memorial. 22 And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip [it] in the blood that [is] in the bason, and strike the lintel and the two side posts, with the blood that [is] in the bason; and none of you shall go out at the door of his house until the morn23 ing. For the LORD will pass through to smite the Egyptians; and when he seeth the blood upon the lintel, and on the two side posts, the LORD will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite 24 [you.*] And ye shall observe this thing, this commandment

of the passover, but not all these rites and ceremonies of it, 25 for an ordinance to thee and to thy sons for ever. And it shall come to pass, when ye be come to the land which the LORD will give you, according as he hath promised, that ye shall keep this service, and instruct your children and house26 holds in the nature and design of it. And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by 27 this service? That ye shall say, It [is] the sacrifice of the LORD's passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped God, in token of their thankful acknowledgment of his favour, and cheerful submission to his command and ordinance. 28 And the children of Israel went away, and did as the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron, so did they.

God could have distinguished them without this blood, and preserved them if they had gone out; but it was his own appointed method for their safety, and had they neglected it, they would have been justly destroyed. Thus it is said, Heb. xi. 28. Through faith he, that is, Moses, kept the passover and sprinkling of blood, that is, through faith in God's declara sion, and in this condition of their preservation.

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