Commentarius Grammaticus Historicus Criticus in Vetus Testamentum (Volume 3 ); In Usum Maxime Gymnasiorum Et Academiarum Adornatus (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1860 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER IV. Ver. 4. A rod.--We find on the ancient Egyptian remains the representation of a rod, crooked at the top, being carried in the hand; and still the Arabs use such for various purposes. In the monastery of Mt. Sinai is the wood of a shrub which grows in the wilderness (Colutea Haleppica) sold, adapted for such rods, and (not improbably) regarded as the kind from which Moses' wonder-working rod was made.--In ancient Egypt there existed an art of serpent-charming, which has continued even to the present day. The person who practises it restrains the serpents from biting; nay, exercises such power over them, that they will stretch themselves out, stiff and immoveable like a stick. When this power of working miracles is bestowed on Moses, he is given to understand that henceforth, through God's might, he shall be superior to all enchanters. At the same time, this miracle, like that of the burning bush, had a deep significance. "What can be more simple than a shepherd's staff? Yet My power can create from thence that which is an object of fear to all its enemies." Moses understood this from the miracle, since he himself fled in terror from the face of the serpent. But as the serpent in his hand became again a rod, so was he assured that even the most terrific power, which made Pharaoh tremble, should be to him a means of help, not of injury. Ver. 7. Flesh.--The leprosy, as an incurable malady which excludes the unhappy sufferer from the society of men. That same Moses, who had been driven out of Egypt, and rejected by his own people, is destined to be restored through God's power, and to be reinstated in that office to which so early he had felt himself called. Ver. 9. Dry land.--By this sign would Moses show himself, and the God who sent him, to be lor...