Matthew Henry

Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah;

“A recital of the names of the twelve patriarchs, as they are called, Acts vii. Their names are often repeated in scripture, that they may not sound uncouth to us, as other hard names, but that, by their occurring so frequently, they may become familiar…”

The descendants of Jacob numbered seventy in all, including Joseph, who was already in Egypt.

“This was just the number of the nations by which the earth was peopled, according to the account given, Gen. x.”

Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died,

“All that generation by degrees wore off. Perhaps all Jacob's sons died much about the same time; for there was not more than seven years' difference in age between the eldest and the youngest of them, except Benjamin; and, when death comes into a family…”

Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, whose names were Shiphrah and Puah, “When you help the Hebrew women give birth, observe them on the birthstools.

“The two midwives he tampered with in order hereunto are here named; and perhaps, at this time, which was above eighty years before their going out of Egypt, those two might suffice for all the Hebrew women, at least so many of them as lay…”

But the man replied, “Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you planning to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?”

“Moses, for reproving him is immediately charged with a design to kill him. An attempt upon his sin was interpreted an attempt upon his life; and his having killed the Egyptian was thought sufficient to justify the suspicion; as if Moses made no difference between…”

When Pharaoh heard about this matter, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses fled from Pharaoh and settled in the land of Midian, where he sat down beside a well.

“If this be his forsaking of Egypt which the apostle refers to as done by faith ( Heb. xi.”

So God heard their groaning, and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God saw the Israelites and took notice.

“The name of God is here emphatically prefixed to four different expressions of a kind intention towards them. [1.] God heard their groaning; that is, he made it to appear that he took notice of their complaints.”

There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from within a bush. Moses saw the bush ablaze with fire, but it was not consumed.

“It was an angel of the Lord that appeared to him; some think, a created angel, who speaks in the language of him that sent him; others, the second person, the angel of the covenant, who is himself Jehovah.”

Then He said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”

“Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, are particularly named, because with Abraham the covenant was first made, and with Isaac and Jacob often expressly renewed; and these three were distinguished from their brethren, and chosen to be the trustees of the covenant, when their brethren were rejected.”

I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land…

“This deliverance was typical of our redemption by Christ, in which the eternal Word did indeed come down from heaven to deliver us: it was his errand into the world.”

The elders of Israel will listen to what you say, and you must go with them to the king of Egypt and tell him, ‘The LORD, the God of the…

“Moreover, they must only beg leave of Pharaoh to go as far as Mount Sinai to worship God, and say nothing to him of going quite away to Canaan; the latter would have been immediately rejected, but the former was a very modest and reasonable…”

But if they do not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground.

“This was done, at first, as a sign, but, not gaining due credit with Pharaoh, the whole river was afterwards turned into blood, and then it became a plague.”

Moses was eighty years old and Aaron was eighty-three when they spoke to Pharaoh.

“Joseph, who was to be only a servant to Pharaoh, was preferred at thirty years old; but Moses, who was to be a god to Pharaoh, was not so dignified until he was eighty years old.”

But the magicians did the same thing by their magic arts, and they also brought frogs up onto the land of Egypt.

“They also brought up frogs, but could not remove those that God sent. The unclean spirits which came out of the mouth of the dragon are said to be like frogs, which go forth to the kings of the earth, to deceive them ( Rev.”

Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Pray to the LORD to take the frogs away from me and my people.

“He begs of Moses to intercede for the removal of the frogs, and promises fair that he will let the people go.”

When Pharaoh saw that there was relief, however, he hardened his heart and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said.

“Till the heart is renewed by the grace of God, the impressions made by the force of affliction do not abide; the convictions wear off, and the promises that were extorted are forgotten.”

then the hand of the LORD will bring a severe plague on your livestock in the field—on your horses, donkeys, camels, herds, and flocks.

“The hand of the Lord immediately, without the stretching out of Aaron's hand, is upon the cattle, many of which, some of all kinds, should die by a sort of pestilence.”

Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Take handfuls of soot from the furnace; in the sight of Pharaoh, Moses is to toss it into the air.

“This is afterwards called the botch of Egypt ( Deut. xxviii. 27 ), as if it were some new disease, never heard of before, and known ever after by that name, Note, Sores in the body are to be looked upon as the punishments of…”

But the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he would not listen to them, just as the LORD had said to Moses.

“Note, Wilful hardness is commonly punished with judicial hardness. If men shut their eyes against the light, it is just with God to close their eyes. Let us dread this as the sorest judgment a man can be under on this side hell.”

(Now the flax and barley were destroyed, since the barley was ripe and the flax was in bloom; but the wheat and spelt were not destroyed, because they are late…

“In this plague the hot thunderbolts, as well as the hail, are said to destroy their flocks, Ps. lxxviii. Perhaps David alludes to this when, describing God's glorious appearances for the discomfiture of his enemies, he speaks of the hailstones and coals of fire he…”

When Pharaoh saw that the rain and hail and thunder had ceased, he sinned again and hardened his heart—he and his officials.

“The prayer of Moses opened and shut heaven, like Elias's ( Jam. v. 17, 18 ), and such is the power of God's two witnesses ( Rev. xi.”

So Moses left Pharaoh’s presence and appealed to the LORD. And the LORD changed the wind to a very strong west wind that carried off the locusts and blew them…

“He never desired the woeful day, though he threatened it. His commission indeed ran against Egypt, but his intercession was for it, which was a good reason why they should love him, though they feared him.”

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, so that darkness may spread over the land of Egypt—a palpable darkness.”

“The plague of darkness brought upon Egypt, and a most dreadful plague it was, and therefore is put first of the ten in Ps. cv.”

So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and total darkness covered all the land of Egypt for three days.

“The tradition of the Jews is that in this darkness they were terrified by the apparitions of evil spirits, or rather by dreadful sounds and murmurs which they made, or (which is no less frightful) by the horrors of their own consciences; and this is…”

and every firstborn son in the land of Egypt will die, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sits on his throne, to the firstborn of the servant girl behind the…

“Warning is here given to Pharaoh of the last and conquering plague which was now to be inflicted. This was the death of all the first-born in Egypt at once, which had been first threatened ( ch. iv.”