Commentaria in Exodum
Chapter 3
Moses, feeding the sheep of Jethro, is called by the Lord in the burning bush, unconsumed, and is sent by him to Pharao to free the Hebrews. Secondly, verse 13, he asks the name of God, who says: I am who am.
1. And Moses fed the sheep of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Madian: and he drove the flock to the inner parts of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, Horeb. 2. And the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he saw that the bush was on fire, and was not burnt. 3. And Moses said: I will go and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. 4. And when the Lord saw that he went forward to see, he called to him out of the midst of the bush, and said: Moses, Moses. And he answered: Here I am. 5. And he said: Come not nigh hither, put off the shoes from thy feet: for the place whereon thou standest, is holy ground. 6. And he said: I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Moses hid his face: for he durst not look at God. 7. And the Lord said to him: I have seen the affliction of my people in Egypt, and I have heard their cry because of the rigour of them that are over the works: 8. And knowing their sorrow, I am come down to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians, and to bring them out of that land into a good and spacious land, into a land that floweth with milk and honey, to the places of the Chanaanite, and Hethite, and Amorrhite, and Pherezite, and Hevite, and Jebusite. 9. For the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me: and I have seen their affliction, wherewith they are oppressed by the Egyptians. 10. But come, and I will send thee to Pharao, that thou mayst bring forth my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. 11. And Moses said to God: Who am I that I should go to Pharao, and should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? 12. And he said to him: I will be with thee: and this thou shalt have for a sign that I have sent thee: When thou shalt have brought my people out of Egypt, thou shalt offer sacrifice to God upon this mountain. 13. Moses said to God: Lo, I shall go to the children of Israel, and say to them: The God of your fathers hath sent me to you. If they should say to me: What is his name? what shall I say to them? 14. God said to Moses: I AM WHO AM. He said: Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: HE WHO IS, hath sent me to you. 15. And God said again to Moses: Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me to you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations. 16. Go, and gather together the ancients of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: The Lord God of your fathers hath appeared to me, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, saying: Visiting I have visited you: and I have seen all that hath befallen you in Egypt. 17. And I have said that I will bring you forth out of the affliction of Egypt, into the land of the Chanaanite, and Hethite, and Amorrhite, and Pherezite, and Hevite, and Jebusite, to a land that floweth with milk and honey. 18. And they shall hear thy voice: and thou shalt go in, thou and the ancients of Israel, to the king of Egypt, and thou shalt say to him: The Lord God of the Hebrews hath called us: we will go three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God. 19. But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go, but by a mighty hand. 20. For I will stretch forth my hand, and will strike Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in the midst of them: after these he shall let you go. 21. And I will give favour to this people, in the sight of the Egyptians: and when you go forth, you shall not depart empty: 22. But every woman shall ask of her neighbour, and of her that is in her house, vessels of silver and of gold, and raiment: and you shall put them on your sons and daughters, and shall strip Egypt.
1. NOW MOSES FED THE SHEEP OF JETHRO.—For the 40 years in which he lived in Madian Moses was a shepherd of sheep; for as many years after he was shepherd and leader of a people. “For the shepherd’s art,” says Philo, “is a prelude to kingship, that is to the government of men, the most gentle flock. He alone can be a king in every respect perfect who is well skilled in the shepherd’s art, and by caring for the lesser animals has learned how he ought to preside over the greater.”
So Saul, feeding asses, was anointed king by Samuel; so David also was called from the sheep to the kingdom: hence Homer also calls Agamemnon poimena laon, shepherd of peoples. With a threefold forty is the life of Moses as it were consecrated: for he lived in Pharao’s court 40 years; then, having escaped by flight, he fed the sheep of Jethro in Madian again 40 years, as is plain Acts 7:30. Thirdly, returning from Madian into Egypt, he was leader of the people in the desert for the last 40 years of his life: so Eusebius. For Moses died in the 120th year of his age.
You will ask, what did Moses do in these 40 years? Philo answers, first, that by feeding sheep he learned to feed and rule a people; secondly, that he exercised himself in philosophy and wisdom; thirdly, that he studied virtues, and the subduing of the affections of the mind. “For philosophy is vain unless it flows into action, as medicine is vain unless it cure diseases: so also Philosophy, unless it cure the vices of the soul,” says Plutarch. Fourthly, Moses in these years gave himself to prayer and contemplation, by which he was prepared by God for the government of so great a people, as will presently appear.
Pererius adds fifthly: It is believed, he says, that Moses then wrote the book of Job and the book of Genesis, to console and strengthen the Hebrews oppressed in Egypt, both by the example of Job’s patience and of his consequent consolation and felicity; and by the examples of the fathers Abraham, Isaac, Jacob; and by the same promises made of liberation from Egypt and possession of the land of Chanaan; but of this matter I have spoken elsewhere.
OF JETHRO HIS FATHER-IN-LAW.—This is the true reading: for so have the Hebrew, Chaldee, Septuagint and Roman, both here and chap. 4, verse 18, and St. Jerome Against Helvidius. Wrongly therefore do others read: “Jethro his kinsman.” Hence it appears that Sephora, wife of Moses, was daughter of Jethro; and since the same woman in chap. 2, verse 21 is called daughter of Raguel, it follows that Raguel and Jethro are the same.
AND HE DROVE THE FLOCK.—Minare is a Latin word, and proper to shepherds directing sheep with the staff; hence the grammarian:
The shepherd drives (minat) the sheep with his staff, the wolf threatens (minatur) with his mouth.
TO THE INNER PARTS OF THE DESERT.—In Hebrew, behind the desert, that is, following the desert into the hinder parts, that is, its inner parts: so the Chaldee, Septuagint, Vatablus and others. Moses withdrew into the innermost wilderness, from zeal for prayer and a quieter contemplation, and to pour out his vows for his Hebrews more freely and ardently, and to exercise himself in the course of virtue under reason as mistress: that he might prepare himself for both kinds of life, active and contemplative, says Philo. Morally, learn here that solitude is most apt for prayer, cultivation of the mind, quiet and perfection; whence David, Psalm 54, says: “Lo, I have gone far off flying away, and I abode in the wilderness;” and Osee 2, the Lord says: “I will lead her into the wilderness, and I will speak to her heart.” Here we learn to feed and rule three flocks, namely first, the body and the members and movements of the body; secondly, the soul, namely all the senses and affections of the soul; thirdly, the spirit, namely the understanding, will, memory, and all the thoughts and affections of the mind, to purify them from all dregs of errors and vices, and to arrange and conform them to the norm of truth and the divine law. And this is the beatitude of this life. “For the highest good,” is “a mind despising fortuitous things, glad in virtue, beyond fear and desire, a sound mind, and in perpetual possession of its sanity.” And, as St. Cyprian says to Donatus: “There is one placid and faithful tranquillity, one solid and perpetual security, if anyone, drawn out of the whirlwinds of a restless age, and nearest in mind to his God, glories that whatever seems sublime and great among others in human affairs lies beneath his conscience: he can now seek nothing, desire nothing from the world, who is greater than the world.” Nay Seneca also, epist. 84: “Leave,” he says, “riches, either the danger or the burden of the possessors; leave the pleasures of the body: they soften and enervate; leave ambition; it is a swollen, vain, windy thing, has no limit; it is as anxious not to see any one before itself as not to see itself behind another; it labours with envy, and indeed a double one. Direct yourself to wisdom, the most tranquil of things, and at the same time the most ample. If you wish to climb this summit, to which fortune has submitted herself, you will look down on all things that are held most exalted.”