And when he went out the second day, behold, two men of the Hebrews strove together: and he said to him that did the wrong, Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow?
Two men of the Hebrews strove. The benevolent mediation in this strife, though made in the kindest and mildest manner, was resented, and the taunt of the aggressor showing that Moses' conduct on the preceding day had become generally known, he determined to consult his safety by immediate flight (Hebrews 11:27). 'The Hebrews themselves had been his betrayers. This is, in the first place, a probable effect of the degradation consequent upon their state of slavery. There were, in addition, other and still more powerful reasons to prejudice him in the minds of his brethren, who would doubtless resent, and deeply, as a wrong done to their clan, his refusal of the crown of Egypt' ('Mon. History,' 2: p. 568). These two incidents prove that neither were the Israelites yet ready to go out of Egypt, nor was Moses prepared to be their leader (James 1:20). It was by the staff and not the sword-by the meekness, and not the anger of Moses-that God was to accomplish that great work of deliverance. Both he and the people of Israel were for forty years longer cast into the furnace of affliction, yet it was therein that He had chosen them (Isaiah 48:10).