Commentaria in Exodum
Philo thinks that the stammering of Moses was natural, and was here cured and taken away by God, as if God said to him: “By My will thou shalt set forth all things distinctly, thy eloquence changed for the better, and thy thoughts shall flow from thee like the clearest springs.” But this does not seem true; for it is because of the want of eloquence in Moses, and the eloquence of Aaron, that God adds Aaron as his companion, as follows. Moreover, in ch. vi, 12, Moses plainly says that he is still uncircumcised in lips.
16. HE SHALL BE THY MOUTH.—Aaron shall be thy interpreter; thou shalt conceive, as the understanding; but Aaron shall speak the same things, as the mouth that carries out and utters them.
Morally, learn here how great a good a companion and companionship are: for since every man has defects, one supplies the defects of another, because man was made for mutual help. Hence the wise Greeks so greatly celebrate that story of the blind man with sound feet, who carried on his neck a lame man with good eyes; so that each enjoyed the help of the other, the one of feet, the other of eyes, each gaining from his companion what he lacked. Hence that epigram of Ausonius:
What either lacks, he takes from the other.
Thus Moses received eloquence from Aaron, Aaron wisdom from Moses. Wisely, therefore, the Wise Man says: “A brother that is helped by his brother is like a strong city;” and “It is better that two should be together than one; for they have the advantage of their society. If one fall, he shall be supported by the other: woe to him that is alone, for when he falleth he hath none to lift him up. And if a man prevail against one, two shall withstand him: a threefold cord is not easily broken.” For this reason religious go two by two, and Christ sent His disciples two by two to preach the Gospel, both that they may have a companion in their labours and a witness of their life. Hence S. Thomas Aquinas used to say: “A monk alone is a solitary devil.” For, as Seneca says, ep. 93: “Solitude persuades us to every evil.” And ep. 41: “A great part of sins is taken away if a witness stands by those about to sin.” The Emperor Justinian, Novel. const. 133, counts it a crime for monks to live in secret without witnesses; he wishes them therefore “to be witnesses to one another of honesty” and chastity; for, as Theodore Studites says in his testament, § 15: “Slander of one alone is easy.” So Joseph suffered from his mistress the slander of lewdness because he was alone; so also Susanna underwent the slander of the elders because she was alone. Rightly, therefore, S. Augustine in his Rule, ch. xii, ordains thus: “When you are together in church, and wherever women are, guard one another’s modesty. For God, who dwells in you, will in this way also guard you by means of yourselves.” Let religious who go alone hear the sentence of Thomas of Cantimpré, bk. ii, ch. xi, § 1, let them hear and fear: “How true,” he says, “is this saying: Woe to him that is alone! I know it, who for thirty years held the office of Bishop’s vicar in various provinces; in this matter, in which religious go alone on the roads or stay alone in courts, I have often heard of horrible evils, horrible scandals and horrible dangers, which they would never have undergone or committed had they had a companion joined to them.”
AND THOU SHALT BE TO HIM IN THOSE THINGS THAT PERTAIN TO GOD.—Thou shalt be to him the messenger of God; in Hebrew it is, thou shalt be to him lelohim, for God, in God’s stead, that is, that from thee he may understand the will of God, that is, My will, and from thee as it were consult and hear Me; for, as Christ said to the Apostles: “He that heareth you, heareth Me;” and the Psalmist to princes and judges: “I have said: You are gods.” The Chaldee renders, thou shalt be to him for a prince, but this is cold and improper. For Elohim properly signifies God.
18. I WILL GO AND RETURN TO MY BRETHREN INTO EGYPT, THAT I MAY SEE IF THEY YET LIVE.—Moses conceals the vision of God from his father-in-law, out of a care for modesty, and offers him another true and just cause for going away, that he may courteously obtain leave to depart.
20. HE SET THEM UPON AN ASS.—R. Salomon says that this was the very same ass as the one that carried Abraham’s wood for the sacrifice of Isaac, Genesis xxii, 3. That the Messiah too is to ride upon the same ass, according to the prophecy of Zachary ix, 9; because in Hebrew, he says, this ass has the demonstrative he, as if it were illustrious and famous; and because, unless it had been marvellous and unusual, it could not have carried the mother with sons already grown. Who does not see and laugh at this fable? And yet the Jews believe this R. Salomon in all things, as their Pythagoras, and hold these fables for certain traditions. See here God’s just judgment upon the Jews. “Because they received not the love of the truth, therefore God shall send them the operation of error, to believe lying,” says S. Paul, 2 Thessalonians ii, 10.
For such are these trifles and fables with which R. Salomon abounds, so that it is wonderful that Lyranus should so often attribute so much to him and to them. To his argument above I replied that these sons were born about this time, and were therefore little children, not grown.
CARRYING THE ROD OF GOD IN HIS HAND.—This rod was the shepherd’s staff of Moses, with which he fed and drove the sheep of Jethro, which was changed, and was again to be changed before Pharao into a serpent; by it Moses wrought all the wonders and plagues of Egypt; hence it is called “the rod of God.” The Hebrews add, or invent, that this rod was four-sided, and that the name of God, the tetragrammaton, or four-lettered name, was inscribed on it, so that one letter of the name was cut on each side of the rod.
Artapanus, in Eusebius, De Praeparatione, bk. ix, last chapter, says that this rod of Moses was afterwards held in veneration by the Egyptians, and that in memory of it a staff was set up and worshipped in the temple of Isis. For they think Isis to be the earth, which, struck by the staff of Moses, produced so many prodigies.
21. SEE THAT THOU DO ALL THE WONDERS WHICH I HAVE PUT IN THY HAND (that is, in thy power; namely those three wonders which I have assigned to thee in this chapter, and others which I shall hereafter assign to thee; see and take care that thou do them all) BEFORE PHARAO.
I WILL HARDEN—how God hardens,
22. ISRAEL IS MY FIRSTBORN SON.—A son by adoption, not by natural generation; as if He said: I, God, have adopted the Israelites, as the posterity of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as sons to Myself, I have chosen them for My people, that they may serve Me and worship Me, and I in turn may be their father, protector and provider.
Note that “firstborn” means beloved above other nations and chosen, and held as the firstborn; moreover, first among the peoples united in the faith and worship of God, and begotten and nurtured in that faith: for such was the people of Israel.
23. BEHOLD I WILL KILL THY SON.—He gives only the last threat and plague, because until then the heart of Pharao remained hardened; but by that plague it was softened, so that he let the Hebrews go.
24. THE LORD MET HIM.—An angel, bearing in human form the person of God. Hence the Septuagint render, an angel of the Lord met him; see what was said ch. iii, verse 9.
AND HE WOULD HAVE KILLED HIM.—Either by suffocation, as Tertullian will have it; or rather, as Theodoret and Diodorus say, threatening death with a drawn sword, not to the boy, the uncircumcised son of Moses (as Tertullian, bk. Against the Jews, ch. iii, and S. Augustine will have it): for this infant had not sinned, nor deserved death; for the fault of the omitted circumcision lay not in him, but in his parents. The angel, therefore, threatens this death to Moses; for the pronoun “him” designates Moses, of whom the discourse has hitherto continuously run.
R. Salomon raves, in a fable, that this angel appeared in the form of a dragon and swallowed Moses with gaping mouth as far as the member that was to be circumcised; Sephora seeing this understood that this had befallen Moses because he had not circumcised his son; wherefore she at once circumcised him, and immediately the dragon vomited Moses forth.
You may ask, why did the angel wish to kill Moses?
First, S. Augustine, sermon 86 De Tempore, and both the Eusebii, namely Emissenus and Caesariensis, answer: because he was bringing his wife with him, who was a hindrance to Moses and to his mission, which, says Eusebius, she would have made suspect to the Hebrews; for they would have said to Moses: If you come to lead us out of Egypt into Chanaan, why did you not leave your wife and offspring, as so many hindrances, in Madian? For through Madian (that is, through mount Sina, to which Madian adjoins) we must go into Chanaan. But Theodoret rightly excuses Moses here, in that he could not leave his wife in Madian without grave offence to his father-in-law, and the suspicion that he wished to put her away. But Scripture suggests another cause for the death threatened to Moses.