Came to pass in process of time— That is, about forty years afterwards; see ch. Exodus 7:7 compared with Acts 7:23. This king of Egypt who died was Rameses, according to Bishop Usher, who places his death in the year of the world 2494. His successor was Amenophis, who was drowned in the Red-sea about nineteen years afterwards. How Moses spent his time in these forty years retirement, say the Authors of the Universal History, save that he kept Jethro's flocks, is what he has not thought fit to acquaint us with. Those who suppose that he wrote the book of Job during this interval, have certainly this strong argument on their side, that it appears to have been written before the deliverance of the Israelites out of Egypt: otherwise, it were absurd to suppose, that either Job or his friends, considering what kindred and country they were of, could be either so ignorant of the wonders which God had wrought in favour of that oppressed people, or so forgetful of them, as not to have urged them in the strongest terms during their long and intricate controversy about the various dispensations of Providence.
They cried; and their cry, &c.— Perhaps this might be rendered, the children of Israel sighed from amidst, or for a deliverance from, bondage: And they cried [i.e. they applied to GOD by fervent and incessant prayer] and their cry unto God amidst, or for deliverance from, bondage, ascended up. The Syriac renders what we have translated they cried, "they prayed;" with which some of the other versions agree: and in answer to their prayer, four expressions are used in the two next verses, declarative of God's tenderness and regard towards them: he heard their groaning—remembered his covenant,—looked upon the children of Israel—and had respect unto them.
REFLECTIONS.—The Israelites, who had neglected their deliverer, now groan under aggravated bondage. God will often long and severely rebuke his own people, for their humiliation. Hereupon,
1. They cry unto God. Had they thought more of him before, probably they had not groaned so long. It is a sign that God is beginning to save, when he pours out a spirit of prayer and supplication.
2. We have God's attention to them, and his remembrance of them. No prisoner's sighs are unnoticed, no burdened sinner's groans disregarded by him; he will hear their cry, and will help them.
We may observe on this chapter, which contains an account of the deliverance of Moses, and his hardships in a foreign land; that God was pleased so to order it, that he who was to be the deliverer of Israel, should himself be rescued providentially from the fury of the oppressor, to be animated by this reflection with the more zeal for the deliverance of his suffering brethren: while the hardships he endured in a desert land, and the virtues he learned in this school of adversity, distant from the pleasures of that court where he had been educated, served greatly to qualify him for the part he was afterwards to act. And when we consider how long and how severe the slavery of the Israelites was, we are instructed not to be disheartened either by the duration or severity of our sufferings. God is sometimes pleased, for wise and good ends, to leave those whom he loves, long in adversity, before he stretches forth his saving arm to help them: but those whom he loves, shall, unquestionably, be helped by him. This, therefore, in adversity or prosperity, should be our only care: for those who love the Lord, and of course are loved by Him, shall want no manner of thing that is good.