Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Argument: Introduction to Exodus
This book, from the principal subject of its content, was first called by the Greeks, and then by the Latins, Exodus, that is, departure (for it narrates the departure of Moses and the Hebrews from Egypt toward the promised land of Canaan), just as Genesis, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy were named by the Greeks and Latins from the subject that each of these books treats. For among the Hebrews no nomenclature corresponds to these titles; rather, they designate each book from its opening words, so they call Exodus veelle scemot, that is, "and these are the names," because Exodus begins in this way.
The author is Moses; who, just as in Genesis, having described the creation and propagation of the world, and then setting aside the history of other nations, described only the history, origin, and propagation of his own Hebrew people — that is, the faithful people descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — so here in Exodus he continues the same.
Therefore, resuming here the history of the Patriarchs and the Hebrews from the death of Joseph, at which point he had ended Genesis, Moses continues it up to the second year after the departure of the Hebrews from Egypt, as is clear from Exodus, last chapter, verses 1 and 15.
Exodus therefore encompasses the deeds of 145 years. That this is so is clear; for from the death of Joseph to the birth of Moses, 64 years elapsed. Moses, at age 80, led the people out of Egypt, and in the following year he erected the tabernacle, with whose erection Exodus concludes; for if you add 64 to 80 and add one more year following, you will have the aforesaid 145 years.
On this matter, and therefore for the entire chronology of Exodus, note that the Hebrews dwelt in Egypt not 430 years, as some wish, but only two hundred and fifteen years: so that from the descent of Jacob into Egypt, which occurred in Jacob's 130th year, Joseph's 39th, to the departure of Moses and the Hebrews from Egypt, only 215 years elapsed. That this is so I will demonstrate at chapter XII, verse 40. From this descent to the death of Joseph, 71 years elapsed: for this descent occurred in Joseph's 39th year, and Joseph lived to the age of 110. Again, from the birth of Moses to the departure of the Hebrews from Egypt, 80 years elapsed.
It follows that the intermediate time that elapsed from the death of Joseph to the birth of Moses was 64 years. For if you add 64 years to the 80 years of Moses and the 71 of Joseph that elapsed from the descent of Jacob into Egypt to the death of Joseph, you will have and complete the aforesaid 215 years that elapsed from this descent to the departure.
Therefore Trogus Pompeius, or rather Justin, errs in book XXXVI, where he reports that Moses was the son of Joseph. Josephus also errs, who in book I Against Apion asserts that Joseph died before Moses by four generations, or 470 years; for it must be corrected to 64 years, as I have said.
From what has been said, it follows that Exodus encompasses the history from the year of the world 2310, in which Joseph died, to the year of the world 2454, in which the departure of Moses and the Hebrews from Egypt occurred: indeed, to the following year 2455, in which the tabernacle was erected.
Moses therefore in Exodus narrates: first, the death of the Patriarchs, namely the sons of Jacob, and the harsh oppression and servitude of the Hebrews that followed at the hands of the Egyptians. Second, the birth, deeds, and plagues of Egypt through Moses. Third, the crossing of the Hebrews through the Red Sea, with the Egyptians drowned in it. Fourth, that manna rained upon the Hebrews in the desert, and that they found an abundance of water there, and defeated Amalek. Fifth, that God gave them the law on Sinai and entered into a covenant with them. Sixth, that the Hebrews broke the covenant and worshipped the calf, and therefore Moses broke the tablets of the law and slaughtered the covenant-breakers. Seventh, the construction of the tabernacle and its various furnishings is described. Therefore the summary of Exodus is: first, the ten plagues of Egypt; second, the Decalogue with judicial and ceremonial precepts; third, the construction of the tabernacle.
Moreover, all these things were done and written to this end: First, that God might fulfill what He had promised to Abraham, Genesis XVII, 7-8: "I will establish My covenant between Me and you, that I may be your God and of your seed after you, and I will give to you and to your seed the land of Canaan." Second, that having led His people out of Egypt and from idolaters, He might form from them a Church for Himself at Sinai. Third, that He might show how great a care He has for His Church, and how omnipotent and terrible He is in punishing their enemies. Fourth, that He might give a type of the new Church and of Christians, who from paganism through baptism, and through many temptations and struggles, and through many miracles, with Christ as their leader, journey toward the promised land in heaven. Just as in Genesis the history of the creation of the world is recorded, so in Exodus the history and type of its redemption is recorded: so that Rabanus rightly wrote that nearly all the Sacraments of the present Church are foreshadowed and expressed in Exodus.
Synopsis of the Chapter
A new Pharaoh, not knowing Joseph, and fearing the Hebrews who were thus increasing, attempts to oppress them. First, by imposing burdens; but from this they increase all the more. Second, verse 15, by commanding the midwives to kill the males of the Hebrews; but they refuse the deed. Third, verse 22, by commanding them to be drowned.
Vulgate Text: Exodus 1:1-22
1. These are the names of the sons of Israel who entered Egypt with Jacob: each entered with his household: 2. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, 3. Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, 4. Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. 5. All the souls therefore that came out of Jacob's thigh were seventy; and Joseph was in Egypt. 6. When he had died, and all his brothers, and all that generation, 7. the sons of Israel increased, and multiplying like sprouts, and greatly strengthened, they filled the land. 8. Meanwhile a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph; 9. and he said to his people: Behold, the people of the sons of Israel are numerous and stronger than we are. 10. Come, let us wisely oppress them, lest perhaps they multiply, and if war should break out against us, they join our enemies, and having conquered us, depart from the land. 11. And so he set taskmasters over them, to afflict them with burdens: and they built store-cities for Pharaoh, Pithom and Ramesses. 12. And the more they oppressed them, the more they multiplied and grew: 13. and the Egyptians hated the sons of Israel and afflicted them, mocking them: 14. and they made their life bitter with hard labor of clay and brick, and with every kind of service with which they were oppressed in the works of the land. 15. And the king of Egypt said to the midwives of the Hebrews, of whom one was called Shiphrah and the other Puah, 16. commanding them: When you serve as midwives to the Hebrew women, and the time of delivery has come: if it is a male, kill him; if a female, save her. 17. But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt had commanded, but preserved the males. 18. Having summoned them to himself, the king said: What is this that you intended to do, that you preserved the boys? 19. They answered: The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women: for they have the skill of midwifery, and before we come to them, they give birth. 20. Therefore God dealt well with the midwives, and the people grew, and were strengthened exceedingly. 21. And because the midwives feared God, He built them houses. 22. Pharaoh therefore commanded all his people, saying: Whatever is born of the male sex, cast into the river; whatever of the female, save.
Verse 1: These Are the Names
1. THESE ARE THE NAMES — veelle scemot, "and these are the names"; where the word "and" seems to join this history of Exodus with the end of Genesis and to continue it. For formerly the Pentateuch was one continuous book, which later generations then divided into five sections or books. Add that the Hebrew vav often occurs as a pleonasm, serving only as an ornament, especially at the beginning of a sentence or clause. Hence Ezekiel too begins thus: "And it came to pass in the thirtieth year"; therefore the word "and," among the Hebrews, is often merely a marker of the beginning of speech, and introduces a sentence.
EACH ENTERED WITH HIS HOUSEHOLD. — "Households," that is, sons and grandsons: for "house" among the Hebrews often signifies offspring, because it is as it were the building of the father: thus the Lord promised David that He would give him a house, that is, royal offspring (2 Kings VII, 11). And that He would overturn the house, that is, royal line, of Ahab (3 Kings XXI, 29). So Rachel and Leah built a house, that is, the lineage of Israel (Ruth IV, verse 11). So also the Greeks, Latins, French, Flemish, Spanish, and Italians use "house." Hence the Poet: "When the house of Assaracus shall rule over conquered Argos."
Second, "house" is rightly taken by metonymy for family and the entire domestic establishment contained in a house, in the way that Aristotle generally takes "house," book I of the Politics, chapter I, when he says: "A house is an economic community, consisting of husband, wife, children, slaves, an ox, and other animals." Hence the Chaldean translates, "each entered with the men of his house," that is, with sons and servants, and their furnishings and domestic goods; for this is in fact what happened, as is clear from Genesis XLVI, 8. So Procopius, Bede, and Saint Augustine here, in locution 1.
Verses 2 and 3: Reuben, Simeon, etc.
2, 3. REUBEN, SIMEON, etc. BENJAMIN. — This is not the order of birth: for thus Benjamin, being the youngest, should be last; rather, it is the order of the conjugal bed. For the first six are sons of Jacob's first wife, namely Leah; the seventh, Benjamin, is the son of Jacob's second wife, Rachel; the two following sons are of the third wife, namely the handmaid Bilhah; the two last are sons of the fourth, namely Zilpah.
Verse 5: All the Souls Were Seventy
5. ALL THE SOULS THEREFORE THAT CAME OUT OF JACOB'S THIGH WERE SEVENTY. — "Souls," that is, people; it is a synecdoche. The Septuagint translates, "all the souls that came out of Jacob's thigh were seventy." Where it is clear that "souls" is taken for "people." For it is certain that the human soul does not come out of the thigh, nor arise from the transmission of the parents: to suggest which, our translator clearly rendered it, "the souls of those who came out," etc. The Hebrew can be translated either way, but better in the latter manner, with our translator and the Chaldean.
Here the number of Hebrews entering Egypt is established, namely that there were 70, so that that wondrous fruitfulness of multiplying seed, promised to the patriarch Abraham (Genesis XIII, 16, and Genesis XV, 5), may be seen as most truly fulfilled by God, when in the 215 years they lived in Egypt they so increased in number that, besides children and wives, six hundred thousand foot soldiers were counted at the departure (chapter XII, verse 37).
SEVENTY — if you count Joseph with his two sons, as is clear from Genesis XLVI. Therefore what Moses immediately adds here, "And Joseph was in Egypt," contains an exception, not from what immediately preceded, but from what he had said a little before in verse 1: "These are the names of the sons of Israel who entered Egypt." For the Hebrews do not always refer to what immediately precedes, but often to what is further back and more remote. The sense then is, as if Moses says: In verse 1, among the sons of Jacob entering Egypt, I did not count Joseph, because Joseph had already been and was in Egypt.
Verse 6: When He Had Died and All His Kindred
6. WHEN HE HAD DIED AND ALL HIS KINDRED. — "Kindred," namely sons, both his own and his brothers', that is, their nephews from the brothers; which is the closest and greatest kinship. As if to say: When Joseph and his brothers had died, and their sons — that is, in their second generation, or in their grandchildren. Hence the Hebrew for "kindred" is dor, that is, generation, or age. As if to say: When that generation or age had died, namely when those seventy who had entered Egypt with Jacob had died, then immediately the sons of Israel, who were the sons and descendants of those first seventy, wonderfully increased and multiplied.
Verse 7: Like Sprouts
7. LIKE SPROUTS. — In Hebrew it is veisretsu, that is, "they swarmed" like frogs and fish, whose fecundity and multiplication is wondrous, surpassing that of birds and land animals: both because of the abundance of moisture, as Pliny says (book IX, chapter II), and because they breed in all seasons of the year, as Aristotle teaches (book VI On Animals, chapter XVII). Note here that our translator sometimes employs different similes and metaphors than those in the Hebrew, when the matter is the same and the sense the same: especially if his expression is more familiar or clearer to us than the one in the Hebrew, as this one of sprouting is compared to that of frogs and fish. For this is permitted, indeed befitting a faithful translator. Moreover, the word "sprouting" signifies that they multiplied like a sprout, and as if sons of the earth, came forth from the earth in crowds, and, as Aquila translates, "crept forth."
Hence the Septuagint translates, "and the sons of Israel increased, and multiplied, and became abundant": they so increased that they spread throughout that entire land, says Theodotion, in Greek chudaioi egenonto, which Origen's translator renders, "they were poured forth in great multitude, and they grew exceedingly strong, and the land multiplied them." Aptly: for just as from one grain of seed many stalks grow up, from one stalk many ears, from one ear many grains, so that from one grain often three hundred and more are produced — so from one patriarch, such as Judah, many sons were born, from one son many grandsons, from one grandson many great-grandsons, etc., so that from one patriarch, within a hundred years, not hundreds but thousands of offspring would be produced, and a patriarch could assemble an army from his sons and grandsons alone and lead it into battle against the enemy.
STRENGTHENED EXCEEDINGLY — increased in multitude, which is the immense strength of an army or a people. Moses here uses anadiplosis to signify the innumerable propagation of his nation.
THEY FILLED THE LAND — understand fittingly, their own or that assigned to them, namely the land of Goshen.
You ask: whence such great multiplication of the Hebrews — from nature or from miracle? I answer first, it is not properly to be ascribed to miracle: for naturally, if 70 people continually beget, and these others, and those still others, always for 215 years, they will produce an immense number of offspring. Hence Diodorus Siculus teaches (book III, chapter II) that Ninus, who began to reign around the year 250 after the flood, led out against the Bactrians one million seven hundred thousand foot soldiers. See how many people were propagated in 250 years from only three sons of Noah. Therefore in the same way the same could have happened here; and first, because it could naturally happen that all Hebrew women were fertile and gave birth every year. Second, it could happen that they began to give birth prematurely early, and ceased very late indeed.
Third, the Hebrews report, and Abulensis does not dispute it, that they bore two, three, or even four children at once; indeed Aristotle, in book VII of the History of Animals, chapter IV, affirms that this is common in Egypt, for he says thus: "While certain animals bear single offspring, others bear many; the human race is in between, for mostly individual women bear single children. But often, and in most places, they also produce twins, as is certain to happen in Egypt; for in Egypt they bear three and four at a time; and in some places this happens frequently; but at most five are born, and a certain woman in four births produced twenty, bearing five in each birth, and the greater part of them could be nursed and reach adulthood." So says Aristotle.
I answer second, that this fecundity and propagation of the Hebrews is not to be ascribed to nature alone, but to the singular providence, help, and cooperation of God, by which He assisted nature, nurtured it, and made it more vigorous and fruitful. This is proved because the Hebrews so increased even while they were in the greatest and continuous labors and afflictions, both of body and soul — indeed the more they were oppressed, the more they grew. But this oppression and affliction is contrary to fecundity and produces sterility, and this is what Saint Augustine says, book XVIII of The City of God, chapter VII: "The Hebrews increased, their multiplication having been divinely made fruitful."
Allegorically, Jacob entering Egypt with his twelve sons signifies Christ entering the world with His twelve Apostles, and preaching the Gospel throughout it all, from which after the death of Joseph — that is, of Christ — an innumerable multitude of believers was propagated. So Saint Augustine, sermon 48 On the Seasons.
Verse 8: A New King Arose
8. A NEW KING AROSE IN THE LAND. — Who was this? Cajetan thinks he was not Egyptian by origin, but Assyrian. He argues from what Isaiah says (LII, 4): "My people went down into Egypt, and the Assyrian oppressed them." But the sense of that passage is different, as I explained there.
Second, others with Eusebius think it was Mephres, whom Eusebius makes the fourth king of the 18th dynasty, which is that of the Politan rulers: and he adds that in the first year of his reign, Joseph died, and the affliction of the Hebrews began. But this conflicts with Scripture here, which asserts that this affliction began after the death of Joseph and of all his brothers and their sons. Now Levi and other brothers and nephews lived long after Joseph: therefore this affliction of the Hebrews began long after the death of Joseph.
Third, others think it was Ramesses, from the fact that after him, it seems, the city of Ramesses was named, which the Hebrews built by his command during this affliction. But Eusebius, Cyril, and others report that Ramesses reigned long after Moses.
Fourth, Gerard Mercator calls this king Armesesemianus, whom he says reigned for 66 years and began to reign five years before the birth of Moses.
Fifth, Abulensis, Pererius, Torniellus, and others more probably think it was Amenophis, who was indeed the seventh in the 18th dynasty of the Politan rulers. Some think he was Memnon the speaking stone, whose statue gave forth a voice until the time of Christ: for when a ray of the Sun at its rising struck this statue and reached its mouth, then it spoke in the manner and mode of humans. For Eusebius reports that Moses was born in the 18th year of his reign; and this affliction of the Hebrews began shortly before the birth of Moses. He is called a "new king," not because he was from a different dynasty, but because he was from a different family than the previous kings who had honored Joseph, says Josephus; or he is called a "new king" by reason of a different and novel character, habits, customs, and governance — different, I say, from the preceding kings who had treated Joseph and the Hebrews kindly.
Allegorically, the old king is God, the new king is the devil, who afflicted the faithful in three ways: first, violently, through the ten persecutions of the Roman Emperors; second, wisely, through the wise and heretics; third, cunningly and enticingly through allurements and pleasures, as he now does, once the peace of the Church has been obtained. See Rupert and St. Augustine, Sermon 84 On the Times. Thus that Abbot in John Moschus in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter 144, used to say: "Let us not desire to serve Egyptian pleasures, which make us subject to Pharaoh, a pernicious tyrant." He therefore who serves pleasure subjects himself to Pharaoh, that is, to the devil.
WHO DID NOT KNOW JOSEPH. — The Chaldean translates: who did not observe the decrees of Joseph, but introduced new laws and customs, according to the saying: New king, new law.
See here how quickly forgetfulness and ingratitude steal upon mortals. The king and the Egyptians owed to Joseph the preservation of Egypt in the famine; moreover, Joseph had purchased for the king a fifth part of the revenues of all Egypt as a perpetual right by feeding the people during the famine; but "quickly what is not seen, and (as Pindar says) an old benefit is consigned to oblivion, and as it were to sleep": for men inscribe benefits in dust, but injuries in marble — indeed they engrave them, as Blessed Thomas More used to say. How often even today in cities, kingdoms, and congregations we experience that saying: "There arose a new king who did not know Joseph!" Learn therefore what the same More used to say: "This world is accustomed neither, ungrateful as it is, to reward well and praiseworthy deeds according to their merit, nor is it able to do so, even when grateful." You therefore who seek the favor of princes, hear the words of Wolsey, who was the cause of King Henry VIII of England's divorce from Catherine, and afterwards incurred the king's supreme indignation: "I," he said, "because I sought not God's favor but the king's, have therefore lost God's grace and have not gained the king's."
We recently knew in Belgium a chief courtier, who had been intimate with a certain neighboring prince for many years, and had been in the highest favor; but afterwards, for a trivial reason, he fell from all his grace. Withdrawing from the court, he began to philosophize more deeply, and to devote himself to God and to his soul, and then he used to say repeatedly: By experience I have learned how great a difference there is between services rendered to a prince and services rendered to God; again, how great a difference there is between the favor of princes and the favor of God. For I have learned and seen that great and many services rendered to a prince are quickly consigned to oblivion and poorly rewarded; but if you offend the prince even slightly, I have seen that it remains stored deep in the mind and is severely avenged. But services, even small ones, rendered to God, I have learned are preserved in His eternal memory, and are rewarded by Him with great and eternal rewards; while offenses against Him, even grave ones, are so blotted out by light penance that He Himself immediately forgets every injury and freely pardons the punishment.
This is what the Comedian says: If you do anything well, gratitude is lighter than a feather; if anything is done amiss, they bear leaden anger.
Rightly therefore does St. Bernard exclaim, Letter 107: "O wicked age, which is accustomed to bless only its own friends in such a way as to make them enemies of God! Haman found favor with King Ahasuerus; this favor produced for him a cross: Ahithophel found favor with Absalom; this brought him the gallows."
Verse 10: Come, Let Us Wisely Oppress Him
One may ask, secondly, why God permitted the Hebrews to be oppressed by such harsh and long servitude in Egypt? Rupert answers that they were justly thrust into that prison into which they had sent their brother Joseph; but that was the sin of the fathers, not of their children. I respond therefore, first, because some of them had imbibed the impious customs and idolatry of the Egyptians; for Ezekiel teaches that the Hebrews worshipped Apis and idols in Egypt, chapter 23, verse 7; and St. Jerome and Theodoret expressly teach the same thing there. Hence also shortly afterwards they fashioned the golden calf, as if it were the Egyptian Apis, at Sinai; hence also Moses so often forbids and condemns idolatry in the Pentateuch. So says Aben Ezra. This servitude was therefore a punishment for sin. Second, by this servitude as a goad, God wished to rouse them so that they would turn away from Egypt and the Egyptians, and hasten to Canaan, which He had destined for them. Third, so that through this servitude the Hebrews would be given the occasion and just title to despoil Egypt, and thus enrich themselves. Fourth, so that through the same there would be given occasion for performing the most numerous and greatest wonders, namely the 10 plagues of Egypt, by which God wished to make known to the whole world His power and vengeance against the impious Egyptians, and His clemency and fatherly care toward His own Hebrews. Fifth, so that through it He might purge, perfect, and glorify the Hebrews; for the more they were oppressed, the more they grew. Sixth, so that with this as gall He might render insipid the honey and delights of Egypt to the Hebrews who were yearning for them, so that once departed they would never desire to return to Egypt; for how much the Hebrews loved the fleshpots of Egypt and wished to return to them is clear from Numbers 11:5, and chapter 14:3.
LEST PERHAPS THEY MULTIPLY, AND IF WAR SHOULD BREAK OUT AGAINST US, THEY JOIN OUR ENEMIES, AND HAVING DEFEATED US DEPART FROM THE LAND. — Note here three causes moving the Egyptians to oppress the Hebrews, namely fear, envy, and hatred. First, fear, lest when war broke out they would join the enemies of the Egyptians, and having conquered and despoiled them would depart to the land promised to them by God, namely Canaan. For the Hebrews boasted of this as having been promised by God to Abraham and to themselves, and therefore the Egyptians feared them. Second, envy, because they saw that they were being surpassed by the foreign Hebrews in numerous, beautiful, robust, clever offspring, and in other gifts of mind and body with which they were endowed and which were outstanding. Third, hatred conceived from the difference of religion, character, and customs: for the Egyptians worshipped their Apis or bull and other animals, while the Hebrews worshipped the one true God; hence the Hebrews sacrificed and ate cattle and sheep, which the Egyptians abominated.
But Josephus, who adds a fourth cause of hatred — namely this, that a certain soothsayer had foretold to the Egyptians that there would soon be born from the Hebrews a certain one who, if he grew to maturity, would overthrow the power of the Egyptians, but would wonderfully increase and prosper the affairs of the Hebrews — this was Moses.
10. COME, LET US WISELY OPPRESS HIM. — The Hebrew has: come, let us be wise against him, or against him; the Septuagint has katasophisometha autous, let us deal craftily against them: for there is one wisdom and prudence that is from God above, another that is earthly and diabolical (which this was), James 3:15. Certainly it was not with this law, purpose, and intention that Pharaoh had admitted the Hebrews into his kingdom.
One may ask, when did this oppression of the Hebrews begin? First, Eusebius in his Chronicle thinks it began immediately after the death of Joseph, and consequently lasted 144 years; for that is the number of years from the death of Joseph to the departure from Egypt. But this is an error: for Moses says here that it began after the death of Levi, and of all the brothers and of their entire kindred, of whom many lived long after Joseph. Second, the Hebrews in Seder Olam think it began at the death of Levi, and lasted 116 years; but they too err in both the first and second points: for from the death of Levi to the departure from Egypt, the years that elapsed were not 116, but 121. Third, Torniellus thinks it began at the start of the reign of Amenophis, and lasted 106 years. Fourth, Pererius thinks it lasted 87 years.
I respond and say that it began shortly before the birth of Moses, and lasted approximately 90 years — that is, it began 18 years before Moses, and continued 88 years during Moses' lifetime; for in the 80th year of his life, Moses led the Hebrews out of it and out of Egypt. This is evident, first, from the fact that it began after the death of Joseph, of his brothers, and of that entire first generation; and it is established that Levi, who was only 4 years older than Joseph, lived 137 years, as is clear from chapter 6, verse 16. Levi therefore lived 23 years after the death of Joseph; and from the death of Joseph to the birth of Moses 64 years elapsed; therefore from the death of Levi to Moses 41 years elapsed. Again, Kohath the son of Levi lived 133 years, as is clear from chapter 6, verse 18. If he is assumed to have been born in Levi's 20th year, it follows that he outlived his father Levi by 16 years, so that from the death of Kohath to Moses only 25 years elapsed. Again, after Kohath, Perez and others who were children when they entered Egypt seem to have lived and died; but this affliction began after the death of Levi, Kohath, and the rest of the 70 who had descended from Canaan with Jacob into Egypt; indeed, after their death there first began that multiplication of the Hebrews spoken of in verse 7, which stirred up this envy and the hatred of the new king, to afflict them. After Kohath, therefore, about 45 years seem to have elapsed, during which partly the remaining ones of the original 70 died, and partly the Hebrews were increased with many offspring: so that the envy and persecution of the Egyptians against the Hebrews began about a decade before the birth of Moses. This, secondly, is proved from the fact that this persecution of the Hebrews began around the birth of Miriam, Moses' sister, who was therefore called Miriam, that is, bitterness, as the Hebrews relate; and Miriam was about a decade older than Moses. For she guarded the infant Moses when he was exposed, and arranged for him to be nursed and raised, as will be clear from chapter 2. She was therefore at that time easily about ten years old.
Verse 11: He Set Over Them Masters of the Works
In Hebrew, masters of missim, that is, of tribute — not of money, but of bricks, so that each one might pay his daily quota of work. Rightly therefore our Translator renders it masters of the works; whence also the Septuagint translated epistatas ton ergon, that is, overseers of the works. For these were not like architects directing a construction, but like imperious taskmasters, says Philo, pressing the work, and this in order to weaken the strength of the Hebrews and to exhaust and drain their capacity for procreation and self-propagation through excessive labor: namely so that those pressed by hardships, while life itself became wearisome, would have no desire for conjugal pleasure.
How truly that young man in St. Jerome, in his Letter to Rusticus, when tempted by lust and falsely accused daily of the crime of fornication committed (the Abbot secretly arranging this for victory over the temptation), said: "Is it not permitted to live, and shall it be permitted to fornicate?"
Hear Philo, in Book I of The Life of Moses, describing this bitter servitude of the Hebrews: "The king," he says, "compelled to servile tasks men who were not only freeborn, but guests. Second, he imposed on them burdens heavier than they could bear, heaping labor upon labor. Third, if anyone withdrew from the work because of infirmity, he was judged guilty of a capital offense. Fourth, the most cruel and merciless men presided over the works, whom they therefore called taskmasters." Fifth, from excessive labor and heat, very many were seized and died of plague: and the Egyptians threw them out unburied, says Philo. Sixth, Eupolemus adds, in Eusebius Book IX of the Preparation for the Gospel, that the king ordered the Hebrews to be clothed in different garments from the Egyptians, so that he might expose them to the ridicule and harassment of everyone, and therefore that king was punished by God and died tortured by elephantiasis.
OF THE WORKS. — What were these works imposed upon the Hebrews by the Egyptians? I respond: The first work was to form mud into bricks, as is clear from verse 14. The second, to build the cities of Pithom and Raamses, as is stated here. The third, to divide the Nile into many canals for irrigating the individual fields and meadows, and to surround the canals with embankments. So says Josephus, who, fourth, attributes the insane constructions of the pyramids to the Hebrews. Finally, in verse 14, Scripture says that they served in all servitude in the works of the land.
Morally, St. Bernard in the Sentences says: "The masters of Pharaoh's works are three: the foul heat of lust, the raging fury of savage avarice, and the harmful appetite for vainglory."
AND THEY BUILT CITIES OF STOREHOUSES. — Procopius is the authority that Aquila also translated it thus; the Chaldean translates, cities of treasures, so that the Hebrew miskenot from sachan would be the same as the Latin censere and census, by metathesis. The Septuagint translates poleis ochuras, that is, fortified cities; Oleaster translates, enclosed cities, or cities for storing, namely weapons, or anything else. The Hebrew miskenet properly signifies granaries, storehouses, repositories, as Vatablus and others translate it.
These cities were therefore like granaries (whence our Translator renders it storehouses) of the kingdom, in which public grain, oil, wine, etc. were stored: for these were the wealth and treasures of the Egyptians; and therefore these cities were fortified and enclosed, as the Septuagint and others translate.
The Septuagint adds that the Hebrews built Heliopolis. This is suspect to St. Jerome in his Hebrew Places, because Heliopolis had already been built before, as is clear from Genesis 41:43. But it can be answered that this was a different Heliopolis; or, if it was the same, that it had been destroyed by some accident and was rebuilt by the Hebrews, or was so enlarged that it seemed to be a new city.
Tropologically, Pithom in Hebrew means the same as a failing mouth, or the mouth of the abyss. Raamses means agitation or trampling of the moth. Pharaoh, that is the devil, commands these to be built, so that the sinner at death may hear with Lucifer that saying of Isaiah 14:11: "Beneath you the moth is spread, and worms are your covering." See Origen and Rupert. Whence also St. Bernard in the Sentences says: "The refuge of the impious is threefold: the lesson of deceiving falsehood, which is Pithom; the fortress of worldly power, which is Raamses; the semblance of feigned justice, which is the City of the Sun. Pharaoh commands these to be built."
TO PHARAOH. — Note: All the kings of Egypt are called Pharaohs, just as all the Roman Emperors are called Caesars. One may ask, whence the name? First, some think the Pharaohs were named from Pharos, an island of Egypt; second, others say: Pharaoh, they say, in Hebrew means the same as free, stripped, unencumbered (from the root para, that is, he stripped, he made ready), and from this the Latin word Baron seems to be derived; kings were therefore called Pharaohs as if Barons, that is, free princes and rulers.
But Pharaoh is an Egyptian name, not Hebrew. Third, others think the kings of Egypt were called Pharaohs after their first king named Pharaoh, just as afterwards the same kings were called Ptolemies after the first Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, to whom Alexander the Great assigned Egypt. But since we nowhere read of a first king who was called Pharaoh by his proper name, hence, fourth, it seems more likely that Pharaoh is a title of dignity, as among us the name Augustus is. So says Eusebius in the Chronicle, and Josephus, who expressly teaches in Book VIII of the Antiquities, chapter 6, that Pharaoh in Egyptian signifies king: "Pharaoh, therefore," says Josephus, "is a name of honor and principate, by which all the kings of Egypt were called, from that Menes who founded Memphis and who preceded Abraham by many years, up to the times of Solomon, for thirteen hundred years: for after Solomon's father-in-law Pharaoh, no king of Egypt was any longer called by this name." Thus far Josephus, who in this last statement of his is mistaken; for it is established from the Books of Kings, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah, that after Solomon's time there existed Pharaoh Necho, who killed Josiah, and Pharaoh Hophra, and that other kings of Egypt are everywhere called Pharaohs up to the Babylonian captivity.
PITHOM AND RAAMSES. — These cities were on the borders of the kingdom. For the Hebrews are said to have departed from Raamses to Succoth in chapter 12:37. Raamses was perhaps named from the land of Raamses in Goshen, which Pharaoh gave to the Hebrews to inhabit, Genesis 47:11. So says St. Jerome (or whoever the author is: for in Smyrna St. Jerome himself is cited) in his Hebrew Places; or certainly, as Abulensis holds, from this city Raamses the entire region was called Raamses: so that in Genesis 47:11, the land is called Raamses by prolepsis, which was afterwards named Raamses from this city. Abulensis and others say this city was later called the City of Heroopolis. Whence in Genesis 46:28-29, where Joseph is said to have met his father Jacob in Goshen, or Raamses, the Septuagint has, at the City of Heroopolis. They also judge that the same was later called the district of Arsinoites, and finally Thebes and the Thebaid, famed for its many monks and monasteries: although Adrichomius distinguishes all these and posits three different cities, namely Raamses, Thebes, and the City of Heroopolis. The Jerusalem Targum incorrectly translates Pithom and Raamses as Tanis and Pelusium. The Hebrews relate that the Jews labored so sluggishly in these cities that the names became proverbial; for they say of a lazy person: "He is a Pithom and Raamses."
Verse 12: The More They Oppressed Them, the More They Multiplied
12. AND THE MORE THEY OPPRESSED THEM, THE MORE THEY MULTIPLIED. — St. Augustine notes, in Book XVIII of The City of God, chapter 6, that this happened not naturally, but by divine power; for nature, dried up, constricted, and suppressed by excessive labor and anguish, could not supply the moisture and vital spirit needed for generating so many offspring: and so the more the body and soul were burdened by labor and distress, the more unfit they were for procreation. God here fulfills His promise given to Abraham, even if the order of things which He once established must be changed, so that all the Israelites may learn to place their firmest hope in His most high providence. Again, see here how virtue grows when stirred by adversity, which languishes and withers in prosperity. The Hebrew words indicate this more clearly, for instead of "they multiplied" they have iiphrots, that is, they burst forth. For just as water or a river, the more it is confined and restricted, the more it struggles out with greater force and abundance, breaking through dikes and barriers and bursting forth: so also here the children of Israel, pressed by the Egyptians, struggled free and burst forth with greater force and abundance.
Learn morally here that servitude does not harm the pious and faithful, but benefits them; and that those who serve God and are in His care, even if they are slaves, are nevertheless free. Thus Bion used to say, "Good slaves are free, but wicked freedmen serve many desires"; and Sophocles said: "Even if the body is enslaved, the mind is nevertheless free." Diogenes, sold into slavery, when asked what he knew, replied: "I know how to command free men." And the buyer freed him, and handing his sons over to him said: "Take my children over whom you may rule." Aulus Gellius, Book II, is the witness; whence Seneca in Letter 28: "He who despises slavery," he says, "is free in any crowd of masters." Terence was a slave, and he learned with no slavish talent, and wrote comedies in no slavish style, by which he earned both freedom and a place among the leaders of the poets. Plato, brought into servitude, because he was a philosopher was greater than his buyer. The mind is greater than any fortune, and in a slave body a free mind dwells. The Senate rejects a slave, but not virtue, not industry, not loyalty. Tiro was Cicero's slave, but having obtained freedom through these arts, he left to posterity an elegant book about his patron's witticisms. Among the faithful, Serapion the hermit was noble, who sold himself for a small price so that, made a slave, he might by his virtue and wisdom convert his master, and free him from the servitude of sin and lead him to true liberty. Nobler still was St. Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, who handed himself over as a slave to the Vandals on behalf of a widow's son, and by his virtue and prophecy obtained from the king freedom for all his fellow citizens. That Malchus, whose life St. Jerome wrote, was a slave, whose chastity in marriage was defended by a lion and vindicated into freedom: for the lion killed the master pursuing Malchus in flight, and so Malchus escaped free. Finally, that saying of Cato, whom Cicero celebrates, was: "Only the wise man is free."
Verse 13: The Egyptians Hated the Children of Israel
13. And the Egyptians hated the children of Israel. — As if to say: Hence, or for this reason they hated them, because clearly they saw them growing so much; the Hebrew is jakutsu, that is, they were pricked (for kots signifies a thorn, because it pricks), namely with pain, envy, anguish, sadness, disgust, and hatred; and as the Chaldean has it, they were troubled and distressed because of the children of Israel. Hence it is clear that the Egyptians envied the growth and prosperity of the Hebrews, and that their hatred arose not only from fear but also from envy. Josephus expressly teaches this, and David in Psalm 105:24-25.
AND THEY AFFLICTED THEM, MOCKING THEM. — The Hebrew is: and they made the children of Israel serve with harshness, or cruelty, that is, they treated and worked them tyrannically like slaves: for it is the height of tyranny and cruelty to mock the one you are oppressing; rightly therefore our Translator renders it, mocking them.
Verse 14: In All Servitude in the Works of the Land
14. AND IN ALL SERVITUDE WHEREBY THEY WERE OPPRESSED IN THE WORKS OF THE LAND. — The Hebrew is: in all the work of the field, that is, in all agricultural work, their servitude was harsh and cruel, harsh and tyrannical. Hence it appears that Pharaoh distributed the Hebrews throughout all Egypt, so that in the fields and villages they would serve everywhere like peasants and slaves, doing all agricultural labor, and he imposed the heaviest burdens on them, and compelled them to toil like donkeys.
Verse 15: The King Said to the Midwives of the Hebrews
This is the second tyranny and tyrannical cunning, greater than the former servitude, labor, and oppression, by which Pharaoh attempts to extinguish the offspring of the Hebrew nation, and this through the work of midwives, by whose skill the life of offspring is normally preserved, says Origen here, Homily 2.
The Hebrews and St. Augustine (Book Against Lying, chapter 15) think these midwives were Hebrew. But it seems more likely that they were Egyptian. So say Josephus, Hugh of St. Victor, Abulensis, Oleaster, and others. For the tyrant would not have believed it easy to persuade Hebrew women to rage against their own people. Again, the midwives themselves sufficiently indicate that they served the Egyptian women in childbirth and were Egyptians, when they say: "The Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women: before we come to them (the Hebrew women, that is), they give birth"; hence their piety was all the more praiseworthy.
ONE WAS CALLED SHIPHRAH, THE OTHER PUAH. — These two were the more prominent, and as it were the leaders of the others, through whom Pharaoh arranged for his command to be communicated to the rest. The Jews relate, and Lyranus from them, that these two were Jochebed and her daughter Miriam, that is, the sister of Moses; and therefore God built them two houses, namely the priestly and the royal: for from Jochebed were born priests, namely Moses and Aaron; but from Miriam were born kings, because Miriam married Caleb, a prince of the house of Judah, in which was the scepter and the royal family. But these are fables and inventions of the Jews: for, to pass over other objections, Miriam was then only a little girl of six or seven years at most — how then could she have been a midwife?
Verse 16: When the Time of Birth Has Come
16. AND WHEN THE TIME OF BIRTH HAS COME. — The Hebrew is: when you see upon the obnaim. Obnaim is either the birthing stool, as the Hebrews commonly explain; or rather, since it is a dual form and descends from the root bana, that is, to build, it signifies the two hinges of the womb, on which the embryo is first formed, just as an earthen vessel is formed on the potter's wheel, which is thence called by a kindred word ophnaim. Second, by which, as by doors, the infant comes forth and is born into the light: for the womb is like a building, or the house of the embryo. The meaning therefore is: when you see the infant upon the obnaim, that is, upon the openings of the womb — that is, when you see a male infant coming forth from the mother's womb. Whence the Septuagint translates: when you are midwifing the Hebrew women, and they are at the point of giving birth; and Vatablus clearly renders it: when you see them in labor giving birth to a son. Hence it is clear that these midwives were ordered to kill the males of the Hebrews not after birth, but during the very act of birth: secretly suffocating, crushing, strangling them, so that the mothers would conceal the matter, as if they themselves had given birth to dead or dying infants — a cunning plan indeed, lest the mothers should perceive the treachery and be able to take precautions. So say Abulensis and Lipomanus.
Moreover, it is certain that before the infant has fully emerged, its sex can be discerned, since physicians teach that even long before, this can be conjectured from certain signs: for example, if there are many and strong movements of the fetus in the womb, it is a sign that it is a male; again, if the mother is well-colored; if the infant is on the right side, because that part is warmer and stronger due to the proximity of the liver, etc. So say Galen and Hippocrates, Book V, Aphorisms 42 and 48.
Behold by what stages the king's impiety grows: first, he wished to prevent conception through the labor and oppression of the parents; second, he attempts to destroy the birth; third, in verse 22, he schemes to drown the offspring already born.
So tropologically the devil, first, is accustomed to divert a heroic work from being done; second, if he cannot do this, he attempts to corrupt it while it is being done; third, if he cannot do even this, he strives to overturn it after it has been done.
IF IT IS A MALE, KILL HIM. — The midwife can easily and secretly do this. For, as Aristotle says in Book VII of the History of Animals, chapter 10: "Skilled midwives push back into the womb the blood of the child: and once this is done, the infant who was already failing is immediately revived and restored to life. Their office is to tie and cut the umbilical cord of the infant, and to act promptly and skillfully against whatever complications arise," and to deal with difficulties: if one were to neglect these things, or do them wrongly, she would kill the infant.
One may ask: Why did Pharaoh order the males of the Hebrews to be killed, but the females preserved? I respond, first, because he feared the males, lest they might sometime join his enemies, verse 10. Second, because the Hebrew women, as they were defenseless, so they were beautiful: he therefore wished to abuse them for lust. Third, he wished them to be preserved for the service of his wives, and to be servants of the Egyptians. Fourth, the Hebrew women excelled in wool-working, weaving, dyeing, and other crafts, and therefore were very useful to the Egyptians, who by their nature are intent on profit — which Plato attributes to the climate of the place.
Hear him as reported by Caelius Rhodiginus, Book XVIII, chapter 18: "Among Plato's teachings it is observed that from various regions and aspects of the sky, different dispositions or temperaments of character are engendered. By which argument, in the region of Greece men seem far more apt for acquiring learning than elsewhere. But those who incline toward Phoenicia and Egypt are believed to be wonderfully shrewd at accumulating money, their talent being especially suited to this. Those who are nurtured among warlike barbarians are found prone to fury and anger. And those who inhabit the parts of the world scorched by the sun tend to degenerate into timidity and a more effeminate nature. For the internal heat dissipates as the body's channels are relaxed and, as it were, opened by the intemperance of the nearby star. Evidence of this is the darkening skin, from the abundance of innate heat drawn to the surface. But those who inhabit the cold and frozen parts of the world excel excessively in boldness, with the surface of their bodies glowing. Moreover, the southern regions, tempered on one side by heat and on the other by cold, produce both wiser and more prudent talents, and peoples especially born and made for empire — which Vitruvius judges is roughly the character of Italy's location."
Fifth, because, as Euripides says, male children are the image of columns — pillars of houses are male sons: for a male multiplies, propagates, and strengthens his family and his nation.
Tropologically, females are the works of the flesh, males are the works of the mind and spirit. Again, females are soft, weak, and imperfect souls; males are strong, noble, and perfect ones. "By the female," says St. Jerome on Ecclesiastes chapter 2, "the weaker sex and matter is signified: no saint, except very rarely, is recorded to have begotten females; and only Zelophehad, who died in his sins, begat all daughters. Jacob, among his 12 sons, was father of one daughter, namely Dinah, and because of her he was placed in danger." See also St. Ambrose, On Cain and Abel, chapter 10.
Virtue, says Cicero in Tusculan Disputations II, takes its name from man (vir). And fortitude is the quality most proper to a man, whose two greatest offices are contempt of death and of pain. And Lactantius, On the Workmanship of God, chapter 12: "Man (vir)," he says, "is so called because there is greater strength (vis) in him than in woman, and hence virtue (virtus) received its name." And St. Augustine, in his Letter to Macedonius: "Virtue," he says, "is to love what ought to be loved. To love rightly is prudence; to be turned aside from it by no hardships is fortitude; by no allurements is temperance; by no pride is justice." Hence Ovid: Virtue strives toward what is difficult. And Virgil, Aeneid VI: Easy is the descent to Avernus, but to retrace your steps and escape to the upper air, this is the task, this is the labor: few whom gracious Jupiter has loved, or whom ardent virtue has raised to the heavens, sons of the gods, have been able to do.
Aristotle, in his Hymn in Praise of Virtue: "O virtue, arduous and laborious for the human race, most beautiful discovery of life! For the sake of your beauty, O maiden, even to die — in Greece death is regarded as desirable — and to endure violent and untiring labors. Such an immortal fruit, more precious than gold, you implant in the heart. Through your grace Hercules, born of Jupiter, and the sons of Leda endured much, declaring by their deeds what they were capable of." And Socrates said: "As a statue should be unmoved on its base, so the student of virtue should be unmoved in his good purpose." And Pliny, Book XXXVI, chapter 9: "Just as immense obelisks are erected with great effort because of their weight, but once placed they endure for endless centuries, so also virtue." Therefore Pharaoh, that is the devil, says Origen, Cyril, Augustine, and Rupert, especially seeks to overthrow the males, that is, the heroes and the perfect, through two midwives, that is, through the flesh and the world — namely through the pleasures of the flesh and through worldly wealth and honors. To overcome these, we must fear God and by the fear of God crucify our flesh. Egyptian women need the help of midwives, because the imperfect are moved to works of virtue either by hope of honor and profit, or by fear of loss and disgrace: Hebrew women, that is, the perfect, do not need these, because they are driven by the strength of the Holy Spirit to all good and holy things, however arduous, from the pure love of God and the desire to please Him alone.
Verse 17: They Feared God
In Hebrew it is: they feared Elohim, that is, God the judge, governing all things, punishing, rewarding; for this is Elohim, and therefore He is supremely to be feared and worshipped.
Verse 19: They Have the Knowledge of Midwifery
In Hebrew it is nunchaiot, which signifies lively or life-giving, and this in a threefold sense: First, as if they were saying: Because they themselves are of lively and shrewd talent, and, as the Chaldean translates, because they are wise, and therefore of themselves and by their own cleverness they have the knowledge of midwifery, as our Translator renders it. Second, because they are themselves vigorous and energetic, and therefore before the midwife can come to them, they give birth to the child, and it is lively and strong. So says Vatablus. Whence the Jerusalem Targum translates: because they themselves give life before the midwife comes to them; they pray before their heavenly Father, and He hears them, and thus they give birth. Third, because they themselves are life-givers, that is, midwives: for it is the midwives' role to help women in labor so that the infant may receive life, and thus in Hebrew idiom they are said to give life to the infant. Some Rabbis crudely translate: They are like beasts (for the Hebrew chaiot also signifies beasts), which when they give birth do not need midwives. Evidently these crude midwives could give this crude response, as it were natural to them, to the crude Egyptians. For thus the crude populace, hostile to the Jews, would naturally say: "The Jews give birth like animals and mares."
BEFORE WE COME TO THEM, THEY GIVE BIRTH. — They are lying; for they themselves were preserving the males of the Hebrews, as is stated in verse 17. Rupert judges that this lie of theirs was permissible, both because it proceeded from charity, and because God rewarded it by building them houses. So Cassian, Conferences XVII, from chapter 17 to 25, teaches that it is permitted to lie either to avoid evil or to acquire gain — for example, to acquire humility. The same is taught by Bede on 1 Kings 21, and Clement, Book VII of the Stromata, and Origen, Book IV Against Celsus, who seems to have drawn this error from the school of Plato, whose teaching this is, in Book III of the Republic: "A lie, although an evil thing, must nevertheless sometimes be employed, as one uses hellebore and medicine; therefore princes of cities, and any others to whom this is granted, must sometimes lie either against enemies, or for their country and citizens; but from others who do not know how to use a lie, every falsehood must be taken away." St. Chrysostom seems to hold the same view, in Homily 53 on Genesis, and St. Jerome in his commentary on Galatians chapter 2; but these two are to be piously excused, in that by lying they mean simulation or dissimulation.
For it is now certain, and indeed a matter of faith, that every lie is sinful and illicit; this is clear from Proverbs 12:22: "Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord." Indeed, Scripture often signifies by lying all impiety and transgression, as in Jeremiah 8:6 and 10; Hosea 7:1. Just as conversely, by truth it signifies every duty and obligation of virtue, as is clear from John 8:44; Ephesians 4:15; Psalm 119:30, 86, 160. Second, because this teaching has been defined by Innocent III, in the title On Usury, chapter Super eo. The reason is that lying is intrinsically evil, both because it is contrary to truth, or rather to truthfulness; and because it is in itself shameful for a man to deceive and to speak against his own mind. See St. Augustine, in his book On Lying, and his book Against Lying, whom all theologians consistently follow.
You may say: This lie proceeded from charity. I respond: Charity never dictates that evil should be done, and consequently nor that one should lie in order to benefit one's neighbor; for charity and truth are sisters. This lie, therefore, proceeded not from true charity, but from the midwives' disordered love or fear.
You may say, secondly: God rewarded this lie of theirs by building them houses. St. Augustine responds, in his book Against Lying, chapter 19 and following, that this reward was given to them "not because they lied, but because they were merciful to the men of God; therefore it was not deceit that was rewarded in them, but benevolence — the kindness of the mind, not the wickedness of the liar; and on account of that good, God also pardoned this evil." I say the same about Rahab, Joshua 2:5. St. Gregory teaches the same, in Book XVIII of the Moralia, chapter 2, where he adds that on account of this lie, their eternal reward was converted into a temporal one.
But this is scarcely probable: for a venial sin, such as this officious lie was, cannot reverse an act of charity and the merit of eternal life.
Calvin therefore errs, indeed blasphemes, when from this he teaches that God holds in esteem and adorns with reward virtues even when stained with some mixture of filth, as if they were pure; which he deduces from another principle of his, no less impious — that no work is so holy and perfect that some stain does not adhere to it. For God did not here approve or reward the sinful act of lying, which it would be blasphemous to think; indeed, moreover they had a true act of the fear of God, by which they revered God, and for God's sake exposed themselves to the danger of death; and this act of fear is supernatural and meritorious of eternal life. This is true, but irrelevant to this passage; for "to build houses" does not signify in Scripture to give the reward of eternal life.
Verse 21: He Built Them Houses
So the Hebrew, the Chaldean and the Latin, and even the Septuagint: for they have epoiesen autais oikias. But formerly it was read epoiesan, that is, "they made," as Augustine reads it, translating "they made fortified houses for themselves," in which they might protect themselves from the attack of the Egyptians, whose commands they had scorned: but it is not probable that they did this. Therefore "He built" — not Pharaoh, but God whom they feared — "for them" — not for the Hebrews, as Calvin would have it, but for the midwives who feared God: for the sequence of the discourse requires this, since it is occupied with describing the reward of the midwives, and the Septuagint who translate autais, and the Chaldean, who translates lahen, in the feminine; for although in the Hebrew the pronoun is masculine lahem, nevertheless by an enallage familiar to the Hebrews, it is used for the feminine lahen, as happens also in chapter 15:20, and elsewhere: and conversely, the feminine is used for the masculine, Ruth 1:13, and 2 Kings 4:6. Moses uses the masculine for the feminine here, because women and families receive their name from their husbands, says Vatablus.
What were these houses? The Hebrews, as I said at verse 15, think that Miriam married Caleb and received the royal house, while Jochebed received the priestly house; but this is foolish. For Josephus says Miriam married not Caleb but Hur, and the royal house was in the family of David, which descended not from Caleb but from another line.
Second, R. Kimchi: "He made them houses," that is, He hid them from Pharaoh and placed them in safety.
Third, Lyra: "He made them houses," that is, He joined them in marriage to leading Hebrews, and among them gave them illustrious offspring and families. But this is said gratuitously and by conjecture: for Scripture does not say that God made them houses of the Hebrews, or among the Hebrews, but simply houses.
Fourth, Rupert and St. Jerome on Isaiah 65 understand by "houses" mansions in heaven, of which Christ says, John chapter 14: "In my Father's house there are many mansions." These Fathers therefore hold that these midwives merited the reward of eternal life: St. Thomas holds the same, II-II, Question 110, last article.
Fifth, more probably St. Augustine and Theodoret explain it thus: "He built them houses," that is, He increased their domestic wealth, gave them riches and an abundance of temporal goods; for thus Jacob said to Laban, Genesis 30: "It is right that I should at some point provide for my own house," for which the Hebrew has: When shall I also make myself a house?
Sixth and best: "He built them houses," that is, He gave them offspring and numerous progeny — wealthy, honored, distinguished, long-lived and enduring. For these five qualities especially ennoble offspring; for in Hebrew a son is called ben, from the root bana, that is, "he built," because a son is, as it were, the edifice and house of his father, and because sons, by themselves and through the sons they beget, build up the father's family like a house. See what was said at verse 1. Note: This was a fitting reward, that those who had preserved the children of the Hebrews should be blessed with children of their own.
Again, these midwives also merited eternal life, as I have said; but in the Old Testament God does not usually express that heavenly reward, because to the Jews, who were unrefined and carnal, He generally proposes only temporal rewards, and those of five kinds. First, length of life; second, a large and illustrious posterity; third, wealth; fourth, power and dominion; fifth, victory over enemies. For the explicit promise of the heavenly kingdom and eternal life is proper to the New Testament and the Gospel of Christ, says St. Jerome to Dardanus.
St. Thomas, II-II, Question 110, last article: They held it impossible and contrary to the nature of things that a virtue polluted by vice should be, or should be judged and considered a virtue by that most clear eye of God. Therefore God rewarded not the lie, but the other acts of piety, mercy, and fear of God, as Moses expressly says at verse 20, which were clearly distinct from the prior act of lying; for these midwives, in this protection of infants, elicited many acts — some good, some bad.
You will object: What then should these midwives have done; what should they have answered to Pharaoh pressing them? I reply: Either they should have fled from his face and hidden; or the truth should have been concealed by some stratagem, not denied; or certainly, as St. Augustine says, chapter 17 of his book Against Lying, "they should have most freely refused, and should rather have died for the most innocent truth."
Verse 22: He Commanded All the People
This command of infanticide was issued only against the males of the Hebrews, as is clear from the preceding; hence it is surprising that Cajetan extends it to the Egyptians as well. This was the third step of tyranny, now publicly raging against the Hebrews. It is likely that the Egyptians were horrified by this inhuman edict, and that consequently it was scarcely put into practice, and shortly after was neglected and abolished. Torniellus thinks it was revoked immediately after the death of Amenophis, who had enacted it; which death, following Eusebius, he assigns to the fourth year of Moses.
Tropologically, Origen, homily 1, and from him St. Augustine, sermon 84 On the Seasons: "Our soul," he says, "is either governed by a legitimate king, or devastated by a tyrant." The Pharaoh who cherished Joseph and the Israelites represents the king; the Pharaoh who did not know Joseph, and who afflicted the Hebrews with works of brick and mud, represents the tyrant. "For if, with God's help, we live piously; if we think about charity, mercy, patience, repentance, etc.: although we are still in Egypt, that is, in the flesh, nevertheless we are governed by Christ the King; and He rules us in mud and brick, but does not consume us, nor does He wear us down and afflict us with earthly cares or excessive anxieties. But if our soul begins to turn away from God and pursue dishonorable things, then it submits its neck to the tyrant (the devil), who addresses his people, that is, the pleasures of the body, to kill the males of the Hebrews and preserve the females. For the devil wishes to extinguish in us the rational sense that sees God, and to preserve what pertains to the concupiscence of the flesh.
"This Pharaoh therefore compels you to serve his works, not of justice but of iniquity: he will make you work brick and mud for him; he, under overseers, taskmasters, and drivers, will drive you to earthly and luxurious works with blows and beatings; he is the one who makes you run about through the world, to be troubled by the elements of sea and land through cupidity; he is the king of Egypt who makes you pester the courts with lawsuits, and to weary your neighbors with quarrels over a small plot of land; he is the one who persuades you through lust to plot against chastity, to deceive innocence; to commit in your house what is foul, abroad what is cruel, within your conscience what is shameful. If therefore you see that your deeds are of this kind, know that you serve the king of Egypt, that is, you are driven not by the spirit of Christ, but of the devil."
Allegorically, concerning the Holy Innocents slain by Herod — who, like precious grains that were sown and died, produced a great harvest for the Church — see Prosper, On the Promise and Preaching of God, Part I, chapter 32.
Finally, anagogically, Rupert says: By the banner of the Cross and by tribulation, we become stronger than the devil, we are added to the angels, we depart from the earth, because heaven awaits us.