Verse 34
From the midst of another nation - This was a most extraordinary thing, that a whole people, consisting of upwards of 600,000 effective men, besides women and children, should, without striking a blow, be brought out of the midst of a very powerful nation, to the political welfare of which their services were so essential; that they should be brought out in so open and public a manner; that the sea itself should be supernaturally divided to afford this mighty host a passage; and that, in a desert utterly unfriendly to human life, they should be sustained for forty years. These were such instances of the almighty power and goodness of God as never could be forgotten.
In this verse Moses enumerates seven different means used by the Almighty in effecting Israel's deliverance.
- Temptations, מסת massoth , from נשה nasah , to try or prove; the miracles which God wrought to try the faith and prove the obedience of the children of Israel.
2. The hand of God signifies the same power, but put forth in a more signal manner.
3. The arm of God, the Divine omnipotence manifested in the most stupendous miracles.
4. The arm of God stretched out, this same omnipotence exerted in a continuation of stupendous miracles, both in the way of judgment and mercy. In this latter sense it appears to be taken in the text: the judgments were poured out on the Egyptians; the mercies wrought in favor of the Israelites.
7. Great Terrors, גדלים מוראים moraim gedolim ; such terror, dismay, and consternation as were produced by the ten plagues, to which probably the inspired penman here alludes: or, as the Septuagint has it, εν ὁραμασιν μεγαλοις , with great or portentous sights; such as that when God looked out of the cloud upon the Egyptians, and their chariot wheels were taken off, Exodus 14:24 , Exodus 14:25 . More awful displays of God's judgments, power, and might, were never witnessed by man.
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