Exodus 7 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

Exodus 7:8-13 P. Aaron and the Magicians: Hardening of Pharaoh's Heart. Magic and religion are, in the last analysis, fundamentally diverse; for, while magic claims to put a compelling constraint upon occult powers, religion implies a relation and dependence upon a personal Being of which prayer is the characteristic expression (p. 187). But the two have been, and are still, almost inextricably intermingled. It is not surprising, therefore, to find magical powers, in all good faith, claimed for the servants of Yahweh, and allowed, in inferior degree, to exist among His enemies. Magic has been called the science of primitive times, and its obvious success is due to a mixture of bluff, shrewd prognostication, cunning contrivance (cf. secret arts, Exodus 7:11 mg.), and sleight-of-hand. Serpent-charming still persists in Egypt, and experts can stiffen serpents by hypnotic devices into rods. What is peculiar in the present story is that the rods become serpents, and Aaron's rod swallows up the rest. The mg. on serpent distinguishes the term, meaning a reptile, perhaps a young crocodile, from the ordinary word used in Exodus 4:3 J, where the sign was to convince Israel, not Pharaoh. The word for magicians is used only of Egyptian wizards. Jewish tradition (2 Timothy 3:8) knew the names of the two leaders, Jannes and Jambres. Though their success was marred by the swallowing up of their rods, Pharaoh's heart was hardened (Exodus 7:13). Here is one of the leading ideas of this part of the Bible. Three words are used one only in Exodus 7:3 P, another (mg. strong) by P and E, and the third (mg. heavy) by J. The various forms of expression, hard (in fact), self-hardened, and God-hardened, together with Paul's treatment in Romans 9:15-18, raise difficult questions. A little reflection lightens the difficulty. In all human conduct there is a mysterious combination of man's choice and God's enabling. And God uses events to produce opposite effects upon different characters, as fire melts wax but hardens clay. Assertions of God's sovereignty must not be isolated, but interpreted in harmony with His moral rule. Thus read, the cumulative assaults upon Pharaoh's resolution call forth one of the most dramatic exhibitions in literature of the merely politic vacillations of a man whose conscience has been weakened, or silenced, by self-will.

1°. Water turned into Blood (Exodus 7:14-15 a J; Exodus 7:15 b E r; Exodus 7:16-17 a J; Exodus 7:17 b, with the rod. hand, E; Exodus 7:17 c - Exodus 7:18 J; Exodus 7:19-20 a, commanded, P; Exodus 7:20 b, to servants, E; Exodus 7:20 c - Exodus 7:21 ab, J; Exodus 7:21 c - Exodus 7:22, P; Exodus 7:23-25 J). In Egypt not only prosperity, but life itself, was bound up with the Nile. Moses meets Pharaoh on his morning visit to the Nile (cf. Exodus 8:20), either for bathing (as Exodus 2:5) or worship, repeats the Divine demand, and announces the smiting of the Nile, by turning its waters into blood. Each year the water of the river becomes like blood at the time of the inundation (Sayce). The peculiarity in Ex. is that the water was rendered unwholesome, as it sometimes is just before the redness begins. In P all the water in the land takes the poisonous tinge: the irrigation canals (Exodus 7:9 mg.) and ponds or reservoirs being specially mentioned. The artificial character of P's representation is shown when, after the water has been reddened, the magicians can yet find water to prove their powers upon. The death of the fish would be a grave calamity, fish being a staple article of diet.

Exodus 7:15. the rod (E): is noted by the editor as that which was turned to a serpent (Exodus 4:3 J).

Exodus 7:17 b. The sentence about Yahweh's smiting is dislocated by the insertion of a scrap from the command to Moses in E (Exodus 7:15 b), with the rod that is in mine (altered from thine, yet spoiling the sense all the same) hand.

Exodus 7:20 b. and he lifted up: not Aaron (Exodus 7:20 a P) but Moses (E), for only the waters that were in the river were smitten.

Exodus 7:23. heart: in Heb. covers, and indeed often denotes, mental not emotional activity: render give his mind even to this.

Exodus 7:14 to Exodus 12:36. The Ten Plagues. How deeply this series of events imprinted itself on the mind and heart of the nation is shown by the fulness with which the three sources report them.

J 1° 2° 4° 5° 7° 8° 9° 10° E 1° 7° 8° 9° 10° P 1° 2° 3° 6° 10° 1°, river turned to blood; 2°, frogs; 3°, fice (gnats); 4°, flies; 5°, murrain; 6°, boils; 7°, hail; 8°, locusts; 9°, darkness; 10°, death of firstborn.

A sound historical judgment will conclude, both from this fact and from the nature of the occurrences mentioned, as well as from the need for some such group of causes to account for the escape of the tribes, that the traditions have a firm foothold in real events. But since not less than four centuries intervened between the events and the earliest of our sources, it is not to be expected that the details of the narratives can all be equally correct. And there are not only literary distinctions between the sources, but differing, and in some points contradictory, representations of matters of fact. The Great European War illustrates the difficulty of weighing even contemporary testimony. But it is important to observe that even such a legend as that a force of Russians was brought through England, though it stated what was incorrect, yet would have conveyed to posterity a true reflection of two fundamental features in the European situation of 1914, viz. that Russia was allied with England, and that powerful reinforcements were needed to meet an enemy across the English Channel. So the general situation in Egypt in 1220 B.C., and the contrasted characters of Pharaoh and Moses, may reasonably be taken as rightly given, while the order, details, and precise nature of the events in which they were concerned may have been more or less distorted by tradition. One of the marks of the shaping power of the reporting process is that each source can still be seen to have had its own uniform skeleton of narration in this section. This phenomenon may be concisely exhibited. It should be contrasted with the form of narratives (such as those in 2 S.) which are more nearly contemporary with the events they relate.

a. JEP: and Yahweh said unto Moses,

b. J: Go unto Pharaoh, and say unto him, Thus saith Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, Let my people go that they may serve me. And if thou refuse to let them go, behold I will.

E: Stretch forth thy (i.e. Moses's) hand (with thy rod toward. that there may be.

P: Say unto Aaron, Stretch out thy rod, and there shall be.

c. J: And Yahweh did so, and there came. (or and he sent)

E: And Moses stretched forth his hand (or his rod) toward. and there was.

P: And these did so: and Aaron stretched out his rod, and there was.

d. P: And the magicians did so (or, could not do so) with their secret arts.

e. J: And Pharaoh called for Moses, and said unto him, Entreat for me, that. And Yahweh did so, and removed.

f. J: But Pharaoh made his heart heavy.

E: But Yahweh made Pharaoh's heart hard.

P: But Yahweh's heart was hardened.

g. J: And he did not let the people go.

E: And he did not let the children of Israel go.

P: and he hearkened not unto them as Yahweh had spoken.

The reader who will mark with letters in the margin of the text the parts assigned to J, E, and P will discern for himself, more fully by the help of the RV references, the points of contrast and resemblance, or he can consult the larger commentaries. In any case he should note that J is fullest and most graphic, and describes the plagues as natural events providentially ordered, Yahweh bringing them after the prophet's mere announcement; that E is briefer, has not been so fully preserved by the editor, heightens the miraculous colouring, and makes Moses bring on the plagues with a motion of his wonder-working rod, or a gesture of his hand; and that P makes Aaron the spokesman and wielder of the rod, and introduces the magicians, the supernatural element transcending the historical throughout. Another feature is that in J the Israelites are apart in Goshen, but in E are mixed up with the Egyptians in Egypt. Each source has its own word for plague (Exodus 9:14 J, Exodus 11:1 E, Exodus 12:13 P); and three other words (signs and wonders two Heb. words) are also employed. It will appear that the plagues were miraculously intensified forms of the diseases or other natural occurrences to which Egypt is more or less liable (Driver).