Bible Commentaries
Exodus

THE SECOND BOOK OF MOSES, CALLED EXODUS.

MOSES having, in the first book of his history, preserved and transmitted the records of the Church, while it existed only in private families, come, in this second book to give us an account of its growth into a great nation. The word Exodus, εξοδος, in the Greek language, signifies a departure, or going out; and this second book of Moses is so called, because it principally treats of the departure of the children of Israel from Egypt. The Jews, according to their custom, call it שׁמות ואלה veale shemath, from the first two words in it. It contains a history of about a hundred and forty-five years, from the death of Joseph to the building of the tabernacle. In this book Moses begins, like Caesar, to write his own commentaries; nay, a greater, a far greater than Caesar, is here. Henceforward the penman is himself the hero, and gives us the history of those things of which he himself was an eye and ear-witness, et quorum pars magna fuit (of which he was the grand subject). There are more types of Christ in this book than, perhaps, in any other of the Old Testament: Moses wrote of him, John 5:46. The way of man's reconciliation to God, and coming into covenant and communion with him by a Mediator, is here variously represented. In short, the whole is of great use to us for the illustration of the New Testament, as we have that to assist us in the explication of the Old.