Rephidim toward that part of the Mountain called Horeb upon their murmuring for want of Water XVII 5 6. But seem to have returned thither to fight with Amalek v. 8. And then they were led by God to this other side of the Mountain which is called the Wilderness of Sinai There Israel encamped before the Mount For the glorious Cloud having led them hither rested upon the Mount as appears from the words following Ver. 3. And Moses went up unto God Whose glorious Majesty appeared upon the Mount And the LORD called unto him out of the Mountain Or rather for the LORD called to him out of the Mountain where the Divine Glory rested unto which he would not have presumed to go if the LORD had not called to him to come up thither Which was upon the second day of the third Month. Thus shalt thou say to the House of Jacob and tell the Children of Israel There was some reason sure for calling them by these two names the House of Jacob and the Children of Israel which perhaps was to put them in mind that they who had lately been as low as Jacob when he went to Padan-Aram were now grown as great as God made him when he came from thence and was called Israel Ver. 4. You have seen There needs no proof for you your selves are witnesses What I did unto the Egyptians Smote them with divers sore Plagues and at last drowned them and their Chariots in the Red Sea And how I bare you on Eagles wings Kept you so safe and placed you so far out of the reach of your Enemies as if you had been borne up on high by an Eagle Which are observed to carry their young ones not in their feet as other Birds were wont to do but on their Wings and to soar so high and with so swift a motion that none can pursue them much less touch them Bochartus hath observed all the Properties ascribed to the Eagle with respect to which Interpreters have thought God's care of his People to be here compared with that Bird Hierozoic P. II. L. II. c. 5. But after all he judiciously concludes that Moses best explains his own meaning in his famous Song XXXII Deut. 11. where the Eagles fluttering about her Nest and making a noise to stir up her young ones to leave their dirty Nest and try their Wings represents the many means God had used to rouze up the drooping Spirits of the Israelites when they lay miserably oppressed under a cruel Servitude and incourage them to aspire after Liberty and to obey those whom he sent to deliver them And brought you unto my self And by that means brought you hither to live under my Government For this was the very Foundation of his peculiar Empire over them that he had ransom'd and redeemed them out of Slvery by a mighty Hand and stretched out Arm as he speaks XIII 3. IV Deut. 34. so as he had not delivered any other Nation and thereby by made them his own after an extraordinary manner peculiar to them alone This Joshua also recals to their mind when he was near his Death and renewed this Covenant of God with them XXIV 5 6 c. Ver. 5. Now therefore Having wonderfully delivered them and supported them in a miraculous manner by Bread from Heaven and Water out of a Rock he now proceeds to instruct them in their Duty as Greg. Nyssen observes L. de Vita Mosis p. 172. If you will obey my voice indeed c. If you will sincerely obey me as your King and Governour and keep the Covenant I intend to make with you then you shall be mine above all the People of the Earth whose LORD I am as well as yours but you shall be my peculiar Inheritance in which I will establish my Kingdom and Priesthood with such Laws as shall not only distinguish you from all other Nations but make you to excel them This is the sense of this verse and the following A peculiar treasure unto me i. e. Very dear to me and consequently I will take a singular care of you as Kings do of those things which they lay up in their Treasury So the Hebrew word Segullah signifies Which Origen proves they really were notwithstanding all the Calumnies of Celsus their Laws being so profitable and they being so early taught to know God to believe the Immortality of the Soul and the Rewards and Punishments in the Life to come and bred up to a contempt of Divination with which Mankind had been abused as proceeding rather from wicked Daemons than from any Excellent Nature and to seek for the knowledge of future things in Souls which by an extraordinary degree of Purity were rendred capable to receive the Spirit of God L. V. contra Celsum p. 260. And this the Author of Sepher Cosri happily expresses when he saith Our peculiar Blessings consist in the conjunction of Minds with God by Prophecy and that which is annexed to it that is as Muscatus explains it the Gift of the Spirit of God And therefore he doth not say in the Law if you will obey my voice I will bring you after Death into Gardens of Pleasure but ye shall be to me a People and I will be to you a God Pars I. Sect. 109. For all the Earth is mine Which made it the greater honour that he bare such a special love to them Ver. 6. And ye shall be unto me a Kingdom of Priests An honourable or a Divine Kingdom not like worldly Kingdoms which are defended by Arms but supported by Piety Or a Princely People that should rule over their Enemies For the same word signifies both Priests and Princes and in the first times of the World none was thought fit to be a Priest but he who was a King or the Chief of the Family as we see in Melchizedek and Jethro That God was peculiarly the King of this People I observed above III. 10. and here he expresly owns this peculiar Dominion over them by saying Ye shall be to me a Kingdom And one reason perhaps why he saith they shall be a Kingdom of Priests is because they were governed while they continued a Theocracy by the High Priest as the prime Minister under God who in all weighty Causes consulted God what was to be done and accordingly they ordered their Affairs XXVIII 30. XXVIII Numb 21. Which is the reason why God commands Moses to make such Garments for Aaron as should be for glory and beauty or for honour and glory as we read v. 2. of that Chapter i.e. to make him appear great like a Prince for they were really Royal Garments And for his Sons also he was to make Bonnets of the like kind for honour and glory v. 40. they being in the form of the Tiarae which Kings wore and are joyned in Scripture with Crowns XXIX Job 14. III Isa 23 c. Whence Philo says in his Book de Sacerd. Honoribus that the Law manifestly
made him very unfit he thought to be an Ambassadour And this doth not disagree with what St. Stephen saith that he was mighty in Words as well as Deeds VII Acts 22. for the sense of what he spake was great and weighty though his pronunciation was not answerable to it Nor did his ill or weak pronunciation nor his slowness in bringing forth his words hinder him from being an excellent Judge and deciding Causes from Morning to Night as we read XVIII Exod. In the determination of which there was no need of Oratory but of a quick Apprehension exact Judgment and proper Language which he never wanted One would think also that by Use and Exercise he grew prompt in the delivery of his Mind for he made several very long Speeches to the People and especially an incomparable Discourse before his departure out of the World in the beginning of the Book of Deuteronomy In the latter end of which his Song shows that he wanted no eloquent words when he pleased to use them Ver. 11. And the LORD said unto him who hath made mans mouth c. Cannot I who formed all the Organs of Speech and made the rest of mens Senses and when I please deprive them of their use take away this Impediment of which thou complainest and make thee to speak as roundly and gracefully as any Man living The Authour of the Life of Moses who makes Pharaoh to have condemned Moses for killing the Egyptian c. See II. 15. fancies that God puts him in mind of his Deliverance at that time As if he had said Who taught thee to make thy Defence when thou wast Arraigned before Pharaoh Who made the King dumb that he could not urge and press thy Execution Who made the Executioner deaf that he could not hear the Sentence when pronounced And who made them all blind that they could not see when thou madest thy escape which is very ingeniously invented but we have no assurance of the truth of this Explication Ver. 12. Now therefore go and I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say Excuse thy self no longer but obey the Commission I have given thee and I will both help thy Speech and suggest to thy Mind what thou shalt deliver This doth not signifie as I take it that if he had without further disputing gone about his Business God would have given him a better Elocution but that he would have made his words as powerful as if they had been pronounced with the greatest advantage Or the meaning may be that he should never want either words or thoughts to instruct his Brother Aaron whom God always intended to send along with him Ver. 13. And he said O my Lord. The same form of Speech with that v. 10. Send I pray thee by the hand of him whom thou wilt send The Vulgar Latin having translated the word SCHILO XLIX Gen. 10. qui mittendus est him that is to be sent it hath inclined several great Men to think that Moses here desires God to send the MESSIAH And several of the ancient Fathers Just Mart. Tertull. and S. Cyprian c. were of this mind as many later Interpreters both of the Roman and of the Reformed Church have been Particularly Flacius Illyricus in his Clavis upon the word MITTO thus explains this Passage Manda id functionis c. commit this Office to the true Messiah or blessed Seed whom thou hast resolved to send who will discharge this Trust far better than I can do c. But there have been and are other very considerable Persons who think Moses means no more than this Send a more proper Person one sitter for this Imployment than I am And the truth is such Speeches as these in Scripture do not denote any certain Person or Thing but signifie something indesinite and in general Examples of which we have in 1 Sam. XXIII 13. 2 Sam. XV. 20. upon which Phrase Vado quo vado I go whither I may the same Flacius observes that it denotes an uncertain motion In like manner Moses here determines his desire to no particular Person but only wishes God would send any Body rather than himself And that he did not think of the Messiah there is this Argument that he had no reason to believe he was now born and yet God's Promise was to send one immediately to relieve the Israelites Upon which Errand also if he had prayed God to send him it would argue Moses to have been in the same Errour with the present Jews that the Messiah was to be a Temporal Deliverer Ver. 14. And the Anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses These words seem to import that God was highly displeased with him and consequently that he had very much offended him Yet some of the Fathers particularly St. Hierom and St. Basil impute his backwardness to serve in this Imployment unto his great Modesty Humility and a deep Sense of his own Infirmities of which the wisest and best Men are far more sensible than other Persons And then this Anger amounts to no more than such a Displeasure as a Father hath at his Child when he is too dissident notwithstanding all that he hath said and done to breed in him a just confidence And therefore no Punishment followed this Anger unless we think as R. Solomon doth that because of this backwardness God preferred Aaron's Family above his or that this was the Cause he would not Cure his Imperfection of Speech but only a Chiding which we may suppose went before the following Question Is not Aaron the Levite thy Brother which carries something of sharpness in it And indeed this may be said in Moses his Excuse That the most Excellent Persons are the least forward to embrace the Offers of great Advancement According to the observation of Plato L. I. de Republ which I find Eusebius also hath noted out of him L. XII Praep. Evang. c. 9. that no Magistracy being designed for the Profit of him that Governs but of those that are Governed I must needs conclude saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that no Man who is considerate he means will voluntarily take upon him the Government of a People but he must be hired to it or he must be punished if he will not undertake it For he that will use his Power well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 never doth that which is best for himself but for those whom he governs Such an one was Moses who sought not his own Profit or Glory as those that now seek for great Places by which they design a Benefit to themselves and not to their Neighbours and therefore was not easily perswaded to accept of the high Authority which was offered to him Is not Aaron the Levite thy Brother One would think by this that Aaron was now a principal Person and of most eminent Quality in the Tribe of Levi as may be concluded also from his Marriage with the Sister of the
a secret inspiration how to determine every Cause Ver. 17. The thing that thou dost is not good Neither profitable for thy self nor for the People as it follows in the next Verse Ver. 18. Thou wilt surely wear away Decay apace and without remedy as the Phrase in the Hebrew signifies Both thou and the People that is with thee Such tedious Attendance will impair them also as well as thy self For this thing is too heavy for thee c. Too much for one Man to undergo Ver. 19. Hearken now unto my voice Be advised by me I will give thee counsel and God shall be with thee Though I am no Israelite I will take upon me to be thy Counsellor and I doubt not God will show my Advice to be good by the good Success which will attend it Be thou for the People to Godward that thou mayst bring the Causes unto God Appoint others to hear Causes and do thou give thy self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the Worship and Service of God alone as Josepus expounds it L. III. Antiq. c. 3. or as Ruffinus glosses reserve thy self only to the Ministry of God to attend that is upon him and know his mind Which if it be the sense must be understood with this Exception only in greater Causes as it follows afterward which he was to hear himself And that may well be the meaning of these words When the People bring any matter to thee which is too hard for other Judges to determine v. 22. do thou if need be carry it to God that he may resolve thee Not that he was alway to consult the Oracle for he knew in most Causes the sense of God's Law but in some it might be necessary to have a particular direction from Heaven As in XV Numb 34 35. XXVII 5 c. Ver. 20. And thou shalt teach them Ordinances and Laws How these two differ is not certain but Ordinances are commonly taken to concern matter of Religion and Laws civil matters of Justice and Charity In both which he was if the Case required it to bring it to God and then to report to the People what his Resolution was about it And shalt shew them the way wherein they must walk How to behave themselves towards God And the work that they must do How to behave themselves one towards another Ver. 20. Moreover Now in order to this Thou shalt provide out of all the People Look out such Men as are qualified according to the following Directions Which he did in this manner as he himself relates I Deut. 13. where he saith to the People take ye wise and understanding men c. In the Hebrew it is give ye i. e. present to me such Men as you think sit for this office And then it follows I will make them Rulers over you They chose them and then he approved them and gave them authority Or perhaps they presented a good many whom they thought qualified and out of them he appointed such as he judged most meet And thus he saith again v. 15. So I took the chief of the Tribes c. See Mr. Selden L. I. de Synedr c. 15. p. 632. Able men Men able to endure labour or Men who are not needy but rich and wealthy or Men of Parts or Men of Courage for it may refer to any of these especially the last such as did not fear potent Persons but God alone as it here follows Such as fear God Men truly Religious who would fear to offend God by doing Injustice but not fear to offend Men by doing Right Men of Truth Honest upright Men whose love to Truth would make them sift it out by hearing both sides patiently with impartial attention and unbiassed affection Hating Covetousness Not greedy of Money but abhorring Bribes and all base ways of Gain Which as Demosthenes says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 makes Judges besides themselves and no better than mad For all these good qualities they were to be eminent and noted among the People as Moses his words import I Deut. 13. where he bids them present to him not only wise men and understanding but also known among their Tribes generally accounted Men of Understanding and Integrity And place such over them to be Rulers of Thousands c. The Hebrew words are such that it cannot be determined by them whether this relate to the number of Rulers or of People that were to be ruled by them as Mr. Selden observes and discourses upon it very largely in the sore-mentioned place L. I. de Synedr c. 15. p. 615. Where he shows that Decem vir for instance was not only one set over ten but one of the ten Judges of which a Court consisted and so the rest may be interpreted But the most ancient and most received Sense is that he doth not speak of the Number of Judges for what a strange Court would that be in which there was a Thousand Judges but of the People of whose Causes they were to take cognizance And it is commonly thought also there was but one Ruler over a Thousand Families or Men it is uncertain which and so of the rest though the words may import more than one in each of these Judicatures whether greater or smaller The Talmudists make a prodigious number of Judges of each sort but it is most rational to think that Jethro's meaning was That he should constitute greater and lesser Judicatures according to the Division of their several Tribes into Thousands Hundreds Fifties and Tens and a competent number of Persons appointed to be Judges in these greater or lesser Courts For that their Tribes were divided into Thousands for instance is apparent from several places XXII Josh 14. VI Judg. 15. where Gideon saith my Family in the Hebrew it is my Thousand is the meanest in Israel 1 Chron. XII 20. V Mic. 2. These Thousands Corn. Bertramus takes to be Families whom the Hebrew call Houses which were divided into so many Heads as they call them as the Tribes were into Families And of these he thinks Jethro advises him to make such Rulers as are here mentioned of several degrees But others particularly Herman Conringius de Republ. Hebr. Sect. 19. think we are to understand only Rulers over a thousand Men not Families as it is certain in Military Affairs the Captains of thousands were only of a thousand Soldiers XXXI Numb 14. Rulers of hundreds Rulers of fifties and Rulers of tens There were four orders of these Rulers but whether there was a subordination of the lower order to the higher as in Armies there is of the Captain to the Colonel as we now speak and the Inferiors to him I cannot determine Ver. 22. And let them judge the People at all Seasons Sit every day some or other of them in their several Districts See v. 26. Every great matter they shall bring to thee Not if they were able to determine it themselves For they had power to hear all Causes but