the Egyptians to the LORD our God: lo, shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us?

27 We will go three days' journey into the wilderness, and sacrifice to the LORD our God, as he shall command us.

28 And Pharaoh said, I will let you go, that ye may sacrifice to the LORD your God in the wilderness; only ye shall not go very far away intreat for me.

29 And Moses said, Behold, I go out from thee, and I will intreat the LORD that the

swarms of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people, to morrow but let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully any more in not letting the people go to sacrifice to the LORD.

30 And Moses went out from Pharaoh, and intreated the LORD.

31 And the LORD did according to the word of Moses; and he removed the swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his people; there remained not one.

32 And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also, neither would he let the people go.

Verse 3. The river shall bring forth frogs abundantly? -Frogs are still very abundant in the Nile and other waters of Egypt. This and several of the other plagues consisted in giving an unexampled intensity and magnitude to some of the greatest nuisances of the country. The astonishing extent of this invasion of frogs is indicated not only by the immense heaps of their carcases which ultimately corrupted the land; but still more expressly by the fact, that their numbers were such as to oblige them to forego their natural habits, and instead of confining themselves to the waters and moist soils, to spread over the country, intruding even into the most frequented and driest places-the most private chambers, the beds, nor even the ovens being exempt from their visitation. Here, as in other instances, the objects of superstition became the instruments of punishment. The frog was one of the sacred animals of the Egyptians, being regarded by them as a type of Pthah-their creative power-and also as a symbol of man in his embryo condition. There are probably several species of frogs in Egypt; but the one most commonly met with is the Rana

EGYPTIAN FROGS (Rana punctata).

punctata, or dotted frog, so called from its ash colour being dotted with green spots. The feet are marked with transverse bands, and the toes are separate to half their length. This frog changes colour when alarmed, and is comparatively rare in Europe.

16. Lice.'-The Septuagint renders the Hebrew word Da kinnim, by okvipes, which means the mosquito-gnat; and this rendering is entitled to great respect, when we recollect that the translators lived in Egypt. It is also confirmed by Origen and Jerome, who, with the Septuagint, form perhaps a mass of the best authority which on such a point it is possible to possess. The best modern translators concur in this view of the word; but it is certain that the generality of interpreters agree with the common translation, which perhaps may be accounted for by the fact, that the noisome parasite is better known in the West than the mosquito, although, happily, neither of them is so generally familiar as in the East. The present writer has had some experience in different countries of the misery and continual irritation which the mosquito-gnats occasion, and can say, without the least hesitation, that of all insect plagues, there is none which he should think so intolerable. The activity of these insects, their small size, their insatiable thirst for blood, and the power of their sting, which enable them to riot not only on the exposed parts of the person, but on those that are thinly covered, as the legs, almost render existence a calamity during the season in which they most abound. The painful sensation which their sting produces, and the intolerable and protracted itching which ensues, with the combined torture resulting from the infliction of fresh stings while the former are still smarting, is scarcely less distressing to the mind than to the body, To secure sleep at night, the inhabitants of the countries infested by these insects are obliged to shelter themselves under mosquito-nets or curtains; and it deserves to be mentioned that this precaution was used by the ancient Egyptians. There is a remarkable passage on this subject in Herodotus. After mentioning how the country is infested by gnats, he says that as the wind will not allow these insects to ascend to any considerable elevation, the inhabitants of Upper Egypt sleep in turrets to avoid these tormentors; but that in Lower Egypt the people rest securely underneath their nets with which they fish by day, and which they spread over their beds at night. This has puzzled translators and others; but it is a fact that mosquitos and other flies will not pass through nets, even when the meshes are much more than large enough to admit them. This is practically known in some parts of Italy, where the inhabitants use net window-curtains which freely admit the air while they exclude gnats and flies. How severely this calamity was felt is evinced by the fact that the Egyptians and other nations of antiquity had gods whose especial province it was to protect them

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from these and other flies.' The Baalzebub,' or god of flies,' so often mentioned in Scripture, was a deity of this description. We read also of towns near lakes and marshy grounds (where these insects particularly abound) being deserted on account of this nuisance, as well as of important military undertakings being abandoned. As the mosquitos breed in marshy soils, and particularly in moist rice-grounds, where such exist, the annual overflowing of the Nile renders Egypt but too favourable to their production. They accordingly appear in immense swarms, and the testimony of travellers concurs in declaring that there is no country, in the old continent at least, where the mosquito-gnats are so numerous and voracious as in Egypt, or where the pain of their wound and the consequent smart and itching are so acute. We have abstained from describing them, as their general appearance and habits differ little from those of the common gnat; but there is no comparison in the degree of annoyance which they occasion. The Egyptian gnat is rather small. It is ash-coloured, with white spots on the articulation of the legs. It may be objected to the view of the text which we have taken, that it detracts from the miraculous nature of the visitation to suppose it connected with insects which Egypt naturally produces in such abundance. But this objection equally applies to lice,' which swarm there to such a degree that it is difficult for the most cleanly persons to keep themselves wholly free from them. If we take either reading, it is only necessary to conclude (which the text expressly states) that the creatures were brought in swarms most extraordinary even in Egypt, and perhaps that they were produced thus abundantly at a time of the year when they do not usually abound.

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21. Swarms of flies.- arob; omne genus muscarum,' Vulg.-As the word arob implies a mixture, the Vulgate has translated it all sorts of flies,' and from thence our version, swarms of flies,' where it is to be observed that flies,' in italics, is not in the original. We are left to conjecture what kind of fly is meant, or whether, indeed, the plague consisted in flies at all. The language of the 24th verse is remarkable: the land was corrupted by reason of the swarm,' which could hardly apply to any fly,' properly so called. If also we refer to Psalm Ixxviii. 45, we see the arob is described as devouring the Egyptians, which is an act that seems inapplicable to a fly. Upon the whole, we strongly incline to the opinion which has found some able supporters of late years, that the Egyptian beetle (Blatta Egyptiaca) is denoted in this

BLATTA EGYPTIACA.-A colossal Beetle, from the Egyptian Collection in the British Museum.

place. The beetle, which is almost every where a nuisance, is particularly abundant and offensive in Egypt, and all the circumstances which the Scripture in different places intimates concerning the arob, apply with much accuracy to this species. It devours every thing that comes in its way, even clothes, books, and plants, and does not hesitate to inflict severe bites on man. If also we conceive that one object of these plagues was to chastise the Egyptians through their own idols, there is no creature of its class which could be more fitly employed than this insect. What precise place it filled in the religious system of that

remarkable people has never, we believe, been exactly determined; but that it occupied a conspicuous place among their sacred creatures seems to be evinced by the fact, that there is scarcely any figure which occurs so frequently in Egyptian sculpture and painting. Visiters to the British Museum may satisfy themselves of this fact, and they will also observe a remarkable colossal figure of a beetle in greenish coloured granite. Figures of beetles cut in green coloured stone occur very frequently in the ancient tombs of Egypt. They are generally plain; but some have hieroglyphic figures cut on their backs, and others have been found with human heads. The Egyptian beetle is about the size of the common beetle, and its general colour is also black. It is chiefly distinguished by having a broad white band upon the anterior margin of its oval corslet.

26. Shall we sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians before their eyes, and will they not stone us?'--This is on all hands agreed to mean that they could not offer their sacrifices in Egypt, because in that case their lives would be endangered by their slaying animals which were accounted sacred by the Egyptians. This might naturally lead us into some remarks on the general worship of the Egyptians: but the subject is too large for a note; and we must limit our attention to the point immediately before us. The sacred animals were of different grades. Some were looked upon as deities, others were merely living symbols of the gods. The worship of some was general throughout Egypt; that of others was confined to particular districts; and the same animal which received divine honours in one part of the country was often execrated and held in abhorrence in another. But there appear to have been some that were treated with more general or more intense worship than the others. Among these the principal seem to have been the solitary bull Apis, the cow, the sheep, the goat, the cat, the dog, the ichneumon, the crocodile; and among the feathered tribe the hawk and the ibis. There were assigned lands whose profits were appropriated to providing food for the sacred animals according to their several habits. It seems that, while a general kindness and bounty to the animals left in their natural state was exercised, some individuals were kept up for more concentrated care and reverence. probably as representatives of their races. Some of the sacred animals were interred wherever they were found dead, but others were conveyed to particular places, and after undergoing an embalming process, were buried with great ceremony, and often at a heavy expense. Diodorus mentions that when the Egyptians went abroad in the wars, they brought home, with great lamentation, dead cats and hawks to be buried in Egypt. There was mourning in whatever house a cat or dog happened to die for the former the inmates shaved their eyebrows, and for the latter their whole body. Whenever a fire happened, the great anxiety of the Egyptians was lest any cats should perish in the flames; and they took more care to prevent such a calamity than to save their houses. The punishment was death to kill a sacred animal designedly; but if undesignedly, the punishment was referred to the discretion of the priests. But if a person killed a cat or an ibis, no distinction of intention was made; the enraged multitude hurried away the unfortunate person to his death, which was often inflicted without any formal process or trial. The just apprehensions of Moses will receive illustration from an anecdote related by Diodorus as having happened while he was in Egypt. Some Romans being in that country for the purpose of concluding a treaty with the king, the people, who were much interested in the result, and held the Roman power in great fear, treated the strangers with the utmost attention and civility. But one of them having happened undesignedly to kill a cat, the enraged mob hastened to his lodging, and neither the interference of the king nor the dread of the Romans could deter them from putting him to death. The animals which the Israelites would offer in sacrifice were oxen, cows, sheep, and goats. It is, therefore, in connection with the present text, of most immediate importance to know how

these animals were regarded by the Egyptians. The ox and cow both stood among the sacred animals of Egypt, but were not equally honoured. Oxen might be both sacrificed and slaughtered; but not till they had been examined by a priest, to see that they were free from certain marks, which would have rendered them sacred, and which it was a capital crime to sacrifice, as they were considered to belong to Apis. But all cows were sacred, and could not on any account be slain or sacrificed in any part of Egypt, being consecrated to Athor. Many, both oxen and cows, were kept in different towns as sacred objects; but they were not worshipped as deities, like the bull-gods Apis, and Mnevis, and Basis,-the first at Thebes, the second at Heliopolis, and the last at Hermonthis. The sheep was sacred in Egypt, except in a few known nomes or provinces, none of which contained the scene of the transactions before us. It was in the Thebaïd that the

highest honour was paid to it; although all the other provinces except two abstained from sacrificing it, or using it for food. The goat, on the other hand, was not accounted sacred in Upper Egypt, but only in Lower Egypt, in and near that part of the country in which this great contest was carried on. It was therefore highly probable, as Moses intimates, that the Egyptians would have risen upon them, and massacred them in a frenzy of religious zeal, if they had attempted to offer their sacrifices in Egypt; while the fact itself forms, when rightly understood, the basis of their demand for permission to go off three days' journey into the desert, where they might offer their sacrifices to the Lord in peace. It is also very obviously to be inferred from this that they had, from the influence of these considerations, if not also from a taint of idolatry, neglected to offer sacrifice during their sojourn in Egypt.

CHAPTER IX.

1 The murrain of beasts. 8 The plague of boils and blains. 13 The message about the hail. 22 The plague of hail. 27 Pharaoh sueth to Moses, 35 but yet is hardened.

THEN the LORD said unto Moses, Go in unto Pharaoh, and tell him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me.

2 For if thou refuse to let them go, and wilt hold them still,

3 Behold, the hand of the LORD is upon thy cattle which is in the field, upon the horses, upon the asses, upon the camels, upon the oxen, and upon the sheep: there shall be a very grievous murrain.

4 And the LORD shall sever between the cattle of Israel and the cattle of Egypt: and there shall nothing die of all that is the children's of Israel.

5 And the LORD appointed a set time, saying, To morrow the LORD shall do this thing in the land.

6 And the LORD did that thing on the morrow, and all the cattle of Egypt died: but of the cattle of the children of Israel died not

one.

7 And Pharaoh sent, and, behold, there was not one of the cattle of the Israelites dead. And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people go.

8 And the LORD said unto Moses and unto Aaron, Take to you handfuls of ashes of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward the heaven in the sight of Pharaoh.

9 And it shall become small dust in all the land of Egypt, and shall be a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast, throughout all the land of Egypt.

10 And they took ashes of the furnace, and stood before Pharaoh; and Moses sprinkled it up toward heaven; and it became a boil breaking forth with blains upon man, and upon beast.

11 And the magicians could not stand before Moses because of the boils; for the boil was upon the magicians, and upon all the Egyptians.

12 And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them; 'as the LORD had spoken unto Moses.

13 And the LORD said unto Moses, Rise up early in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith the LORD God of the Hebrews, Let my people go, that they may serve me.

14 For I will at this time send all my plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people; that thou mayest know that there is none like me in all the earth.

15 For now I will stretch out my hand, that I may smite thee and thy people with pestilence; and thou shalt be cut off from the earth.

16 And in very deed for 'this cause have I 3raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.

17 As yet exaltest thou thyself against my people, that thou wilt not let them go?

18 Behold, to morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now.

19 Send therefore now, and gather thy cattle, and all that thou hast in the field; for upon every man and beast which shall be

3 Heb. made thee stand.

found in the field, and shall not be brought home, the hail shall come down upon them, and they shall die.

20 He that feared the word of the LORD among the servants of Pharaoh made his servants and his cattle flee into the houses:

21 And he that 'regarded not the word of the LORD left his servants and his cattle in the field.

22 And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch forth thine hand toward heaven, that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon man, and upon beast, and upon every herb of the field, throughout the land of Egypt.

23 And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven: and the LORD sent thunder and hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt.

24 So there was hail, and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation.

25 And the hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both man and beast; and the hail smote every herb of the field, and brake every tree of the field.

26 Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were, was there no hail. 27 And Pharaoh sent, and called for

4 Heb. set not his heart unto.

Moses and Aaron, and said unto them, I have sinned this time: the LORD is righteous, and I and my people are wicked.

28 Intreat the LORD (for it is enough) that there be no more 'mighty thunderings and hail; and I will let you go, and ye shall stay no longer.

29 And Moses said unto him, As soon as I am gone out of the city, I will spread abroad my hands unto the LORD; and the thunder shall cease, neither shall there be any more hail; that thou mayest know how that the "earth is the LORD'S.

30 But as for thee and thy servants, I know that ye will not yet fear the LORD God. 31 And the flax and the barley was smitten: for the barley was in the ear, and the flax was bolled.

32 But the wheat and the rye were not smitten for they were 'not grown up.

:

33 And Moses went out of the city from Pharaoh, and spread abroad his hands unto the LORD and the thunders and hail ceased, and the rain was not poured upon the earth.

34 And when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunders were ceased, he sinned yet more, and hardened his heart, he and his servants.

35 And the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, neither would he let the children of Israel go; as the LORD had spoken by Moses.

Verse 3. Camels.'-Here it is positively affirmed that the Egyptians had camels; and we see also in Gen. xii. 16, that camels were among the gifts of Pharaoh to Abraham. But the great French work on Egypt having stated that the figure of the camel never occurred in Egyptian sculptures and paintings, some learned persons conjectured that the camel was not known in Egypt, or even in Africa, until after the Arabian conquest. If it were true that the camel is not really figured on the Egyptian monuments, the inference against the existence of the camel in Egypt, at the time of the Mosaic history, would be exceedingly illogical and gratuitous. It would have been safer to infer, with Reynier, that the camel, however useful, was too much associated with the idea of the nomade shepherds, whom the priests detested, to be allowed to appear in their sacred places. But the fact is, that the camel does occur in the Egyptian sculptures. The head and long necks of these animals are repeated several times, two by two, upon the obelisks at Luxor. This discovery, made by Minutoli, confirms the truth of the Scripture account, which, however, no one had a right to question on the ground of the alleged absence of the camel from the Egyptian sculptures, which we are not bound to regard as embracing the whole circle of Egyptian zoology. This negative testimony could have no legitimate weight in shewing that the camel was unknown in Egypt, when we recollect that it was common among the nomade tribes which occupied the borders of Egypt, and which even found their way into the valley

of the Nile: besides which, the caravans, like that of the Ishmaelites who purchased Joseph of his brethren, must often have brought under the notice of the Egyptians the camel in a state of useful domestication.

6. All the cattle of Egypt died.'-This must be understood with some limitations, because subsequently, in the same chapter, there are cattle still threatened by the next plague of hail. We are probably to understand that all the cattle in the open fields were destroyed on this occasion: those Egyptians, who were convinced by the previous miracles, having probably, as we find them doing afterwards, taken such precautions as they judged necessary to protect them from the threatened calamity. If, however, we will take the text literally as saying that all the cattle of the Egyptians were killed by the murrain; we may account for their afterwards having cattle liable to be destroyed by the plague of hail, by supposing that they had in the mean time replenished their stock, by obtaining, either by purchase or compulsion, cattle from the Israelites, whose flocks and herds had been unaffected by the plague.

10. A boil breaking forth with blains.'—The word shechin, occurs as one of the indications of leprosy in Lev. xiii. 18, 20; in 2 Kings xx. 7, it is characterized as 'the boil or blotch of Egypt.' It is also used to denote the grievous disease with which Job was afflicted. It would seem, from its root, to denote some inflamed swelling ending in an ulcer. Gesenius thinks it means the elephantiasis,

which is endemic in Egypt: he understands the term elephantiasis of the thick leg to which that name is applied, whereas, if he is right in his first conjecture, we apprehend it should be rather understood to denote that tubercular affection of the whole body to which the term elephantiasis is also given. Dr. J. M. Good (Study of Medicine) allows that the disease of Job was probably elephantiasis. This disease has generally been considered a stage in or a form of leprosy, and accordingly we find it forming one of the cutaneous disorders indicative of leprosy, of which the priest, under the law, was directed to take cognizance, as well as of the other indications which will require to be more particularly noticed in the notes to Lev. xiii. It seems very likely that the word here used denotes in general a boil or swelling, without determining its class or character at all.

28. Mighty thunderings and hail.'-This terrible storm of thunder, lightning, and hail, would have been awful any where; but a little consideration of the meteorology of Egypt will suffice to shew how much more alarming it must have seemed in that, than in almost any other country, and will sufficiently explain why this plague brought more conviction, for the time, to the mind of the king than some others which we, in a different climate, should have thought more likely to make an impression upon his stubborn nature. Thunder and lightning are very unfrequent in Egypt, and are so completely divested, when they do occur, of the terrific qualities which they sometimes exhibit in other countries, that the Egyptians never associate the idea of destructive force with these phenomena, and are unable to comprehend how lightning can possibly inflict injury or give occasion of alarm. Thevenot indeed mentions a man who was killed by lightning at Cairo; but adds, that such a circumstance had never before been heard of. Much the same may be said of hail. It does sometimes fall, but rarely, and with slight effect.

31, 32. The flax and barley,' etc.-It is interesting to observe, how exactly this agrees with the state of the crops in Egypt at the present day, at the time of the year indicated. We are thus also enabled to fix the season of the year at which these important transactions took place. Flax is ripe in March, when the plants are gathered; and it must therefore have been 'bolled,' or risen in stalk, in February, in which month we would understand this and several of the other miracles to have been effected. Barley is expressly stated in works on Egypt to be gathered a month before the wheat; and as the wheat harvest takes place in May, in Lower Egypt, and in April in Upper Egypt, the barley must have been in ear in February. At the same time the wheat would hardly be grown up; and as to the rye,' it is not well determined what it indicates. These facts seem to concur in denoting the season in or about February; and accordingly we find that the month Abib, in which the Israelites departed from Egypt, and which was directed thenceforward to be the first month in the year to the Hebrews (ch. xii. 2), corresponds nearly to our March. Dr. Richardson, whose observation applies to the early part of March, says: the barley and flax are now far advanced; the former is in the ear and the latter is bolled, and it seems to be about this season of the year that God brought the plague of thunder and hail upon the Egyptians, to punish the guilty Pharaoh who had hardened his presumptuous heart against the miracles of Omnipotence.-Travels, ii. 163.

Flar.' That the Hebrew word n pishtah, does really denote the flax plant has scarcely at any time been questioned. From the numerous references in Scripture to fax and linen, there is no doubt that the plant was abundantly cultivated not only in Egypt, but also in Palestine. As to Egypt, we have proof of this in the fact that the mummy cloth is made of liven, and also in the representation of flax cultivation in the grotto of el-Kab, which exhibits the whole process with the utmost clearness; and numerous testimonies might be adduced from ancient authors of the

esteem in which the linen of Egypt was held. That it was also grown in Palestine, and well known to the Hebrews, is proved by the numerous passages in which it occurs; as in Josh. xi. 6, where Rahab is described as concealing the Hebrew spies under the stalks of flax laid out upon the roof of her house. The several passagesLev. xiii. 47, 48, 52, 59; Deut. xxii. 11; Jer. xiii. 1; Ezek. xl. 3-xliv. 17, 18-we find it mentioned as forming different articles of clothing, girdle, clothes, bands. From Prov. xxxi. 13, it seems to have been worked up at home, along with wool, by industrious housewives, The words of Isaiah (xlii. 3.) The smoking flax shall he not quench' are referred to in Matt. xii. 20, where Aívov is used as the name of flax, and as the equivalent of the Hebrew pishtah; and this alone would settle the identity of the plant if otherwise doubtful.

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Rye,' n

FLAX (Linum usitatissimum).

kussemeth.-It is generally agreed that the Hebrew word does not mean rye, which is a product of cold climates, and is not cultivated even in the south of Europe, wheraas the Kussemeth grew both in Egypt and Palestine (Isa. xxviii. 25). It is however, not at all agreed what the word does mean. The Septuagint renders it by oλupa, but it is almost equally uncertain what this word denotes: it is, however, commonly rendered by spelt, although the claims of rye, oats, fitclies, rice, maize, and millet, have all been advocated. Spelt (triticum spelta) certainly has the majority of voices; and in the absence of more definite information, may be accepted as the most probable of the alternatives which have been proposed. The existing state of agriculture in Egypt affords no data to assist our conclusions on the subject, as some important objects of ancient cultivation appear to have been abandoned for millet and maize. Whatever were the grain in question, it must, if really identical with the olyra, as the Septuagint suggests, have occupied an important place among the Cerealia of ancient Egypt, as Herodotus describes it as being that which the Egyptians principally used for bread.