Wherefore. These are not words of anger, but of earnest prayer. (St. Augustine, q. 14.) Moses does not attempt to satisfy the exasperated officers, but commits the whole to God. (Menochius) --- In great undertakings, there are commonly many difficulties; which ought not to discourage us. (Tirinus) CHAPTER V. Said, in answer to his prayer. --- Cast out, so eager he will be to have you dismissed, after he has repeatedly felt my hand, chap. iii. 19. (Haydock) My name Adonai. The name which is in the Hebrew text, is that most proper name of God, which signifieth his eternal self-existent being, (Exodus iii. 14,) which the Jews, out of reverence, never pronounce; but instead of it, whenever it occurs in the Bible, they read Adonai, which signifies the Lord; and therefore they put the points or vowels, which belong to the name Adonai, to the four letters of that other ineffable name, Jod, He, Vau, He. Hence some moderns have framed the name Jehovah: unknown to all the ancients, whether Jews or Christians: for the true pronunciation of the name, which is in the Hebrew text, by long disuse, is now quite lost. (Challoner) --- This name was first clearly revealed to Moses, that he might have confidence in his special protection and love. (Menochius) --- To know one by his name is to treat him with familiarity and distinction, Exodus xxxiii. 17. The pronunciation of the name of God might be known to Abraham, &c., but it was not so fully explained, nor the power and excellence of it declared in such a stupendous manner, as it was to Moses. (Du Hamel) --- Or perhaps Moses made use of this name in the history of the patriarchs, because he wrote his account of them after this revelation. (Calmet) --- The Septuagint always put Kurios, "the Lord," instead of the ineffable name; and our Saviour and his apostles, citing text where it occurs, follow their example. (Matthew iv. 7, 10; Romans xv. 11.) (Worthington) --- Philo informs us, that it was death to pronounce it out of the temple, and since that was destroyed, it has never been heard. (Calmet) --- Galatinus, who wrote in 1518, is supposed to have invented the word Jehovah, (see Amama Antib. p. 319,) the year after the pretended reformation began. (Haydock) --- St. Jerome (ep. 136 ad Marc.) explains the ten names of God, but never reads Jehovah. (Tirinus) God, Elohim, who will pass sentence in your favour, as a just judge. (Menochius) Hand; swearing. (Chap. xiv. 22; 2 Esdras. ix. 15.) Anguish: Septuagint, "pusillanimity." They would not even hope for a change. (Menochius) --- The Samaritan copy records the speech which they made to Moses. (Kennicott, p. 313.) Uncircumcised lips. So he calls the defect he had in his words, or utterance. (Challoner) --- The Hebrews call the heart, &c., uncircumcised, when it has any natural or moral defect, Acts vii. 15. (Tirinus) --- "I do not speak the language in its purity." Sym.[Symmachus?], "I express my sentiments with difficulty," chap. iv. 10. (Onkelos.) These. From this place to ver. 26, is written in a kind of parentheses: the remainder of the chapter is a recapitulation of what had been said. (Calmet) --- Moses intends to give his own genealogy, and the state of affairs when he began to afflict Egypt. (Haydock) --- He mentions three tribes, which Jacob had rebuked, lest any one might think they had forfeited their title to some distinctive tribes. (Menochius) Levi died the last of his brethren, and Joseph the first. (Worthington) Aunt: Hebrew Doda is applied to various degrees of kindred. The Chaldean says, Jochabed was daughter of Amram's sister, the Septuagint assert of his brother, and consequently his own cousin. But she might be his aunt, chap. ii. 1. (Calmet) CHAPTER VI. Nahason, prince of the tribe of Juda, Numbers i. 7. Observe the modesty of Moses, who passes over his own family almost in silence. (Menochius) Aaron is sometimes placed first, as the elder; sometimes last, as inferior in dignity, ver. 27. --- Companies, or bands, in order of battle, chap. xiii. 18. (Calmet) The God of Pharao, viz., to be his Judge; and to exercise a divine power, as God's instrument, over him and people. (Challoner) --- Artapanus says, Moses was afterwards adored by the Egyptians. --- Prophet, or interpreter. Thou shalt reveal my orders to him. (Calmet) --- Moses participated in the divine nature, as judge, priest, prophet, &c. (Worthington) I shall harden, &c. not by being the efficient cause of his hardness of heart, but by permitting it; and by withdrawing grace from him, in punishment of his malice; which alone was the proper cause of his being hardened. (Challoner) --- He took occasion even from the miracles to become more obdurate. (Haydock) --- Yet Pharao was less impious than Calvin, for he takes the sin to himself, chap. ix. 27. (Tirinus) Took, or "threw down," as the Hebrew and Septuagint read. Magicians. Jannes and Mambres, or Jambres, 2 Timothy iii. 8. (Challoner) --- The pagans represented Moses as the greatest of magicians. (Pliny, Natural History xxx. 1; Justin xxxvi.) --- They also, &c. Hebrew has three terms, "wise men, diviners, and magicians;" but the two last seem to be of the same import. "The enchanters did the like by their secret practices," either by words or by actions. Some say these operations were real; others affirm they were only apparent, and mere delusions. (Calmet) --- "Whoever believes that any thing can be made, or any creature changed or transmuted into another species or appearance, except by the Creator himself, is undoubtedly an infidel, and worse than a pagan." (Coun.[Council?] of Orange.) See St. Augustine, q. 21, de Trin. iii. 7; St. Thomas Aquinas, [Summa Theologiae ] ii. 2, 9, 17, a 2. --- The devil deceived the senses of the beholders; or brought real serpents, &c., thither. (Menochius) Devoured. Thus the superiority remained with Aaron. The rod was then restored to its pristine form, ver. 15. (Haydock) My hand. The rod was in the hand of Moses, but he was God's agent. (Menochius) River. The Samaritan copy repeats here the very words of God to Pharao, as the other speeches are also twice put at length. "Moses and Aaron went to meet Pharao, and said to him, 'The Lord,'" &c., as ver. 16, 18. See chap. xi. 7. (Calmet) --- This is very agreeable to the style of Homer; and Kennicott believes that the repetitions have been omitted in the Hebrew for brevity's sake, (Diss. 1 Chron. p. 383,) and that before the Greek version had been made. (Haydock) All the land, even in that of Gessen, which belonged to the Egyptians; while the Hebrews had good water. (Menochius) Like. They got a small quantity of water, either from the sea, from Gessen, (Wisdom xi. 5,) or by digging wells, ver. 24. (Calmet) --- This plague lasted a full week, ver. 25. The water which they found in the mean time in the wells was mixed with blood. (Philo; St. Augustine, in Psalm lxxvii.) Wisdom xi. 7, thou gavest human blood to the unjust.