Exodus 2:23-25

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Exodus 2:23-25

Here is, 1. The continuance of the Israelites? bondage in Egypt, Exod. 2:23. Probably the murdering of their infants did not continue; this part of their affliction attended only the period immediately connected with the birth of Moses, and served to signalize it. The Egyptians now were content with their increase, finding that Egypt was enriched by their labour; so that they might have them for slaves, they cared not how many they were. On this therefore they were intent, to keep them all at... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Exodus 2:23

And it came to pass in process of time that the king of Egypt died ,.... According to Eusebius, Orus reigned in Egypt when Moses fled from thence, and that two more reigned after him, Acenchres and Achoris, who both died before the deliverance of the children of Israel; but according to Bishop Usher F2 Annal Vet. Test. p. 19. A. M. 2494. , this was the same king of Egypt under whom Moses was born, and from whose face he fled, who died in the sixty seventh year of his reign, Moses being... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Exodus 2:24

And God heard their groaning ,.... The petitions they put up to him with groans and cries: and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob ; that he would bring their seed out of a land not theirs, in which they were strangers, and were afflicted, into the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession. read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Exodus 2:25

And God looked upon the children of Israel ,.... With an eye of pity and compassion, and saw all the hardships they laboured under, and all the injuries that were done unto them: and God had respect unto them ; had a favourable regard to them; or "knew" F2 וידע "et eognovit", Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. not only them, the Israelites, and loved them, and approved of them, and owned them as his own, all which words of knowledge sometimes signify; but he... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 2:23

In process of time - the king of Egypt died - According to St. Stephen, ( Acts 7:30 , compared with Exodus 7:7 ;), the death of the Egyptian king happened about forty years after the escape of Moses to Midian. The words ההם הרבים בימים ויהי vayehi baiyamim harabbim hahem , which we translate And it came to pass in process of time, signify, And it was in many days from these that the king, etc. It has already been remarked that Archbishop Usher supposes this king to have been Ramesses... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 2:24

God remembered his covenant - God's covenant is God's engagement; he had promised to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give their posterity a land flowing with milk and honey, etc. They are now under the most oppressive bondage, and this was the most proper time for God to show them his mercy and power in fulfilling his promise. This is all that is meant by God's remembering his covenant, for it was now that he began to give it its effect. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 2:25

And God had respect unto them - אלהים וידע vaiyeda Elohim , God knew them, i.e., he approved of them, and therefore it is said that their cry came up before God, and he heard their groaning. The word ידע yada , to know, in the Hebrew Bible, as well as γινωσκω in the Greek Testament, is frequently used in the sense of approving; and because God knew - had respect for and approved of, them, therefore he was determined to deliver them. For אלהים Elohim , God, in the last clause of... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 2:23

Verse 23 23.And it came to pass in process of time. (34) He uses the demonstrative pronoun to mark the forty years in which God kept his servant in suspense, as if he had forsaken him. By adding “many,” he expresses the approaching end of the interval. When, therefore, he had reached his eightieth year, and had married and grown old in the land of Midian, the intolerable cruelty of their tyrannical masters extorted new sighings and cries from the children of Israel; not that they began then... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Exodus 2:15-23

The long exile.Moses took with him into Midian all the best elements of his character; he left some of the faulty ones behind. He may be assumed to have left much of his self-confidence, and to have been cured in part of his natural rashness. His after growth in meekness would almost imply that he had come to see the need of curbing his hot passions, and had, like David, purposed in his heart that he would not transgress ( Psalms 17:3 ; Psalms 32:1 ). But he carried with him all his... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Exodus 2:23

In process of time. Literally, "in those many days ." The reign of Rameses II . was exceptionally long, as previously explained. He had already reigned twenty-seven years when Moses fled from him ( Exodus 2:15 ). He had now reigned sixty-seven, and Moses was eighty! It had seemed a weary while to wait. The children of Israel sighed. If the time had seemed a weary while to Moses, how much more to his nation! He had escaped and was in Midian — they toiled on in Egypt. He kept sheep — they... read more

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