\\INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS\\

This book is called by the Jews Veelleh Shemoth, from the first words
with which it begins, and sometimes Sepher Shemoth, and sometimes only
Shemoth. It is by the Septuagint called Exodus, from whom we have the
name of Exodus, which signifies "a going out"; see \\#Lu 9:31 Heb 11:22\\,
because it treats of the going of the children of Israel out of Egypt;
and hence in the Alexandrian copy it is called the Exodus of Egypt;
and so the Syriac version entitles it the second book of the law,
called "the going out"; and to the same purpose the Arabic version.
The Jews sometimes give it the name of Nezikin, as Buxtorf {a}
observes out of the Masora on \\#Ge 24:8\\ because in it some account
is given of losses, and the restitution of them. That this book is of
divine inspiration, and to be reckoned in the canon of the sacred
writings, is sufficiently evident to all that believe the New
Testament; since there are so many quotations out of it there by
Christ, and his apostles; particularly see \\#Mr 12:26\\ and that it
was wrote by Moses is not to be doubted, but when is not certain; it
must be after the setting up of the tabernacle in the wilderness; the
greatest part of what is contained in it, he was an eye and ear
witness of; it plainly points out the accomplishment of the promises
and prophecies delivered to Abraham, that his posterity would be very
numerous, that they would be afflicted in a land not theirs, and in
the fourth generation come out of it with great substance. It treats
of the afflictions of the Israelites in Egypt, after the death of
Joseph, until their deliverance by Moses; of his birth, calling, and
mission to Pharaoh, to demand of him to let the children of Israel go;
of the ten plagues upon him and his people, for refusing to dismiss
them; of the departure of Israel from Egypt, and the institution of
the passover on that account; of their passage through the Red sea
into the wilderness, and of the various exercises and afflictions,
supplies and supports they met with there; of the giving of a body of
laws unto them, moral, ceremonial, and judicial; and of the building
of the tabernacle, and all things appertaining to it; and throughout
the whole, as there is a figure and representation of the passage of
the people of God out of spiritual Egypt, through the wilderness of
this world, to the heavenly Canaan, and of various things they must
meet with in their passage, so there are many types of Christ, his
person, office, and grace, and of his church, his word, and
ordinances, which are very edifying and instructing. The book contains
a history of about one hundred and forty years, from the death of
Joseph, to the erection of the tabernacle.

{a} Lexic. Talmud. col. 1325.

\\INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS 1\\

This chapter begins with an account of the names and number of
the children of Israel that came into Egypt with Jacob,
\\#Ex 1:1-5\\ and relates that increase of them after the death of Joseph,
and the generation that went down to Egypt, \\#Ex 1:6-8\\ and what
methods the Egyptians took to diminish them, but to no purpose, as by
obliging to cruel bondage and hard service; and yet the more they
were afflicted, the more they increased, \\#Ex 1:9-14\\ by ordering
the midwives of the Hebrew women to slay every son they laid them of;
but they fearing God, did not obey the order of the king of Egypt,
which when he expostulated with them about, they excused, and so the
people multiplied, \\#Ex 1:15-21\\ and lastly, by ordering every male
child to be cast into the river, \\#Ex 1:22\\ and which is the
leading step to the account of the birth of Moses, which
follows in the next chapter.