1 And the Lord said to Moses: Behold, I have appointed thee the god of Pharao; and Aaron, thy brother, shall be thy prophet.
v.1–6
VERS. 1-6.-- *And the Lord said to Moses: Behold I have appointed thee lord,* etc. It is to be noted that when he was sent to the people, it was not said to him: Behold I have given thee as God to the people, and thy brother shall be thy prophet; but, thy brother shall speak for thee to the people. It was said also *shall be thy mouth, and thou to him in those things which are unto God;* it was not said, *thou to him God.* But to Pharao Moses is said to be given as god, and by analogy Aaron is given as prophet to Moses, but towards Pharao. Here it is intimated to us that the prophets of God speak those things which they hear from him; and that a prophet of God is nothing else than one who announces the words of God to men, who either cannot or do not deserve to hear God. Sometimes God is spoken of by appellation, sometimes essentially. By appellation, as here: *I have appointed thee god of Pharao.* And elsewhere: *Bring him unto the gods.* And elsewhere: *God hath stood in the synagogue of gods,* etc. Essentially, as here: *I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,* which Paul, wishing to distinguish, says: *Of whom Christ was born according to the flesh, who is God blessed for ever.* For by appellation God is said to be among all things, but essentially above all things; that therefore he might show Christ to be naturally God, he recorded him to be not only God, but God above all things. For any just man whatever is God, but among all things, because by appellation: but Christ is above all things, because he is naturally God. God says continually, etc. *as far as I will harden,* that is, I will show how hard it is.
2 Thou shalt speak to him all that I command thee; and he shall speak to Pharao, that he let the children of Israel go out of his land.
3 But I shall harden his heart, and shall multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt.
4 And he will not hear you: and I will lay my hand upon Egypt, and will bring forth my army and my people, the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt, by very great judgments.
5 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord, who have stretched forth my hand upon Egypt, and have brought forth the children of Israel out of the midst of them.
6 And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord had commanded; so did they.
7 And Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron eighty-three, when they spoke to Pharao.
v.7–8
VERS. 7, 8.-- *Now Moses was eighty years old,* etc. On account of circumcision, namely, which was commanded to be celebrated on the eighth day: for the number eighty has the same signification as the number eight which is less than it. *Now Moses was eighty years old.* When Moses and Aaron spoke to Pharao, Moses was eighty years old, but Aaron eighty-three years old: because the law offered by preachers to the Gentiles taught spiritual circumcision, and they themselves were zealous to be perfectly cleansed, and so they preached the faith of the holy Trinity.
8 And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron:
9 When Pharao shall say to you, Shew signs; thou shalt say to Aaron: Take thy rod, and cast it down before Pharao, and it shall be turned into a serpent.
v.9
VERS. 9.-- *When Pharao shall say to you,* etc. Here there was no need of a voice, for the slenderness of which Aaron seemed to have been given to Moses, but the rod was to be cast down that it might become a dragon. Why then did Moses not do this himself, save because the mediation of Aaron between Moses and Pharao bears the figure of a great mystery. This also is to be noted, that it is written: *Aaron cast down his rod:* perhaps if it had said, he cast down the rod, there would be no question; but that it adds *his own,* whereas Moses had given it, is perhaps not said in vain. Or was that rod common to them both, so that if it were called the rod of either of them, it would be truly called so? The rod of Moses signifies Christ, who took flesh from a royal stock. Whence that same rod, turned into a snake, devoured all the rods of the sorcerers, because the death of Christ consumed our death. The Apostle says in I Corinthians XIV: *Be emulous of spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy.* Let us also try to take up the emulation of good things, but to await from the Lord the fulness of the gift. For for the one it is said in Psalm LXXX: *Open thy mouth and I will fill it;* but for the other: *Prick the eye, and it brings forth a tear; prick the heart, and it brings forth understanding.* I think therefore that Moses coming to Egypt, and bearing the rod with which he chastises and beats Egypt with ten plagues, is the law of God, by which it may reprove and amend the world with ten plagues, that is, with the ten commandments of the decalogue. The rod by which these things are done, and Egypt is subdued, and Pharao overcome, is the cross of Christ, through which the world and the prince of the world is overcome, that is, the devil, with the principalities and powers. The rod when cast down becomes a dragon or a serpent, and devours the serpents of the Egyptian magicians. But the serpent is wont to be set for wisdom or prudence; whence Matthew X: *Be ye prudent as serpents,* etc. And Genesis III: *The serpent was more prudent than all the animals,* etc. The cross therefore of Christ, whose preaching seemed foolish, which Moses, that is, the law, contains, after it was cast down upon the earth, that is, came to the faith of men, was turned into wisdom, and into so great a wisdom as should devour all the wisdom of the Egyptians, that is, of this world. For behold how God made foolish the wisdom of this world, after he manifested Christ crucified to be the power and wisdom of God: and now the whole world has been laid hold of by him who said in I Corinthians III: *I will take the wise in their own craftiness.*
10 So Moses and Aaron went in unto Pharao, and did as the Lord had commanded. And Aaron took the rod before Pharao and his servants, and it was turned into a serpent.
v.10
VERS. 10.-- *And Aaron took,* etc. And he took the rod before Pharao, etc., *as far as: I will be thy death, O death,* etc. *Which was turned into a snake.* The law of Moses was as it were tasteless like a rod, but turned into a snake, that is, into spiritual understanding, it was made drinkable and delightful.
11 And Pharao called the wise men and the magicians; and they also by Egyptian enchantments and certain secrets, did in like manner.
v.11
VERS. 11.-- *And Pharao called the wise men,* etc. It is to be known that either by diabolical feignings they deluded the eyes of the beholders, so that things remaining in their own nature seemed to be something else; or, according to Augustine, the demons, although evil, have not lost their own nature: therefore while by their incantation the sorcerers attempt to effect something, they run through the world, and suddenly bring the seeds of those things of which the matter is in hand. And so from these, God permitting, they produce new species of things. *Similarly.* In the first plague he says, when the water is turned into blood; and in the second, when the frogs boil forth; and in the third, when the gnats assail; in the fourth, when the dog-fly is brought forth; in the fifth, when the hand of the Lord is upon the cattle of the Egyptians, they are said to be like things.
12 And they every one cast down their rods, and they were turned into serpents: but Aaron's rod devoured their rods.
v.12
VERS. 12.-- *Dragons.* They are so called Apo tou δέρκειν, that is, *to see,* because they see more sharply than other animals. *But it devoured,* etc. If it had been said, The dragon of Aaron swallowed up their rods, it would be understood that the true dragon of Aaron had not swallowed up the phantom feignings, but the rods, etc., *as far as* but God alone is the true creator, who has implanted in things their very causes and seminal reasons.
13 And Pharao's heart was hardened, and he did not hearken to them, as the Lord had commanded.
v.13–14
VERS. 13, 14.-- *And it was hardened,* etc. God hardened the heart of Pharao, because he so hardened the devil after his sin that he is never softened by the compunction of repentance, as is said in Job XLI: *His heart shall be hardened as a stone.*
14 And the Lord said to Moses: Pharao's heart is hardened, he will not let the people go.
15 Go to him in the morning, behold he will go out to the waters: and thou shalt stand to meet him on the ' bank of the river: and thou shalt take in thy hand the rod that was turned into a serpent.
v.15–16
VERS. 15, 16.-- *Go to him in the morning, behold he will go forth,* etc. First indeed Moses does not enter in to Pharao, but meets him as he goes out to the waters; but afterwards he enters in; after these things he neither enters in, but being summoned he approaches: because whether our contest with Pharao is in the word of God and in the assertion of religion, or whether we strive to snatch from him the souls he besets, and there is in us a wrestling in disputation, we ought not at the first onset to go in to the uttermost places of the questions, but we must meet the adversary, and at his own waters, that is, the authorities of the philosophers of the Gentiles, that we may first convict them and show that they have erred; then we must go in to the inner parts of the contest. For the Lord says: *Unless a man first bind the strong one, he cannot enter into his house and plunder his vessels*. First therefore the strong one must be bound and constrained with the bonds of questions, and so we must enter in to plunder the vessels, and to free the souls which he had possessed by deception and fraud. And when we shall have done this often, and shall have stood against him, girt namely as to our loins with truth, and standing in the Lord, and acting manfully, the ancient and crafty artificer will feign himself conquered and to give way, that he may make us more negligent for the contest. He will feign repentance also, he will entreat us to depart, but not far off: he wishes us to be near to him in some part. But unless we withdraw farther from him, and cross the sea, and say in thought, in speech, and in deed: As far as the east is distant from the west, so far hath he removed our iniquities from us, we cannot be saved. Let us therefore pray for the mercy of God, that he may snatch us also out of the land of Egypt, out of the power of darkness, and may sink Pharao with his army like lead in the most violent water. But let us, being set free, sing a hymn to the Lord with joy and exultation. For he is gloriously honoured, etc. The plagues were wrought bodily in Egypt, but in us they are wrought spiritually. For Egypt is the figure of the world.
16 And thou shalt say to him: The Lord God of the Hebrews sent me to thee, saying: Let my people go to sacrifice to me in the desert: and hitherto thou wouldst not hear.
17 Thus therefore saith the Lord: In this thou shalt know that I am the Lord: behold I will strike with the rod, that is in my hand, the water of the river, and it shall be turned into blood.
v.17–19
VERS. 17-19.-- *The water of the river,* etc. The water turned into blood signifies worldly wisdom, in which everyone who has remained is slain, as a fish in blood. For worldly wisdom thinks it foolish that God should die for men; whosoever therefore shall have clung to it will not be able to live. The water of the river is turned into blood, to which they had delivered the children of the Hebrews to be slain, that it might render to the authors of the crime a cup of blood: and that by drinking they might feel the gore of the polluted flood which they had stained with parricidal slaughter. Allegorically also the waters of Egypt are the erring and slippery teachings of the philosophers, who deceived those little in sense and understanding: but when the cross of Christ showed the light of truth, they are exacted for the punishments of the slaying of their own and for the guilt of blood. Whence: *All the blood which hath been shed upon the earth shall be required of this generation*.
18 And the fishes that are in the river, shall die, and the waters shall be corrupted, and the Egyptians shall be afflicted when they drink the water of the river.
19 The Lord also said to Moses: Say to Aaron, Take thy rod; and stretch forth thy hand upon the waters of Egypt, and upon their rivers, and streams and pools, and all the ponds of waters, that they may be turned into blood: and let blood be in all the land of Egypt, both in vessels of wood and of stone.
20 And Moses and Aaron did as the Lord had commanded: and lifting up the rod, he struck the water of the river before Pharao and his servants: and it was turned into blood.
v.20–21
VERS. 20, 21.-- *Which was turned into blood,* etc. The first precept is concerning the worship of one God: Thou shalt not have other gods before me: the first plague, the water turned into blood. Compare the first precept with the first plague: water, from which all things are generated, signifies the one God, from whom are all things; blood, mortal flesh. The water therefore was turned into blood, because *they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man,* and this change indeed takes place in the heart of the impious. *Into blood,* etc. Because they who feel carnally about the causes of things are reproved by corrections of this sort, that from the quality of the punishments they may recognize their own error.
21 And the fishes that were in the river died; and the river corrupted, and the Egyptians could not drink the water of the river, and there was blood in all the land of Egypt.
22 And the magicians of the Egyptians with their enchantments did in like manner; and Pharao's heart was hardened, neither did he hear them, as the Lord had commanded.
v.22–23
VERS. 22, 23.-- *And the heart of Pharao was hardened.* It seems that the heart of Pharao was hardened for this cause, that the enchanters of the Egyptians did like things. But what follows teaches how great that hardening was, even when the enchanters failed.
23 And he turned himself away, and went into his house, neither did he set his heart to it this time also.
24 And all the Egyptians dug round about the river for water to drink; for they could not drink of the water of the river.
v.24–25
VERS. 24, 25.-- *And they dug,* etc. Because the Gentile world, confounded by the meditation of secular philosophy, when it sees that there is nothing living nor wholesome in it, is zealous by searching to seek on every side a draught of wisdom, and finds it not, until it comes to him who says: He that thirsteth, let him come to me and drink.
25 And seven days were fully ended, after that the Lord struck the river.