the people out of Egypt: it may be asked how both can be true. But it must be understood that after that slaying of Moses or of the infant which was about to come from the angel, she returned with the little ones. For some have thought that the angel terrified him for this reason, lest, to the hindrance of the ministry which Moses bore as divinely imposed, the female sex should accompany him. It is asked how it can be said to the people that God commanded he would cast them out of Egypt into the land of Canaan, but to Pharaoh that they wished to go out a three days' journey into the desert to sacrifice to their God according to his command.
But it must be understood that, although God knew what he was going to do, since he foreknew that Pharaoh would not consent to letting the people go, that first thing was said which also would first have come to pass, if Pharaoh had let them go. For in order that all things should happen just as the following Scripture testifies, the obstinacy of Pharaoh and of his people deserved it. For God does not lie in commanding what he knows the one commanded will not do, so that a just judgment may follow. The words which Moses says to the Lord: 'Why have you afflicted this people? And why have you sent me? For from the time I went in to Pharaoh to speak in your name, [he has done evil] against this people, and you have not delivered your people' —
these are not words of obstinacy or of indignation, but of inquiry and of prayer, as appears from what the Lord answered him. For he does not rebuke his unbelief, but discloses what he is going to do. There is no doubt that there is here a place of a sacrament: that Scripture, wishing to demonstrate the origin of Moses — since his activity was now demanded — began the genealogy from the firstborn of Jacob, that is, Reuben, then to Simeon, then to Levi; it did not proceed further, since Moses was from Levi. But these are commemorated who had already been commemorated among those seventy-five with whom Israel entered into Egypt. For it was not the first nor the second, but the third tribe, that is, the Levitical, that God willed to be priestly. As to what Moses says:
'Behold, I am of a feeble voice, and how shall Pharaoh hearken to me?' — it seems that he excuses himself on account of the feebleness of his voice not only because of the greatness of the people, but even because of one man. It would be strange if his voice were so feeble that it could not be heard even by one man. Or perhaps royal pride did not permit them to speak from close by? And it is said to him: 'Behold, I have given you as a god to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet.' It is to be noted that, when he was being sent to the people, it was not said to him, 'Behold, I have given you as a god to the people, and your brother shall be your prophet,' but, 'Your brother,' he says, 'shall speak to the people for you.' It was also said, 'He shall be your mouth, and you to him the things that pertain to God'; it was not said, 'You to him a god.'
But to Pharaoh, Moses is said to be given as a god, and by analogy Aaron as Moses' prophet, but toward Pharaoh. 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 other than a proclaimer of the words of God to men who either cannot or do not deserve to hear God. God repeatedly says: 'I will harden Pharaoh's heart,' and as it were adduces the reason why he does this. 'I will harden,' he says, 'Pharaoh's heart, and I will multiply my signs and my wonders in Egypt,' as though the hardening of Pharaoh's heart were necessary in order that the signs of God might be multiplied or fulfilled in Egypt. God therefore makes good use of evil hearts for that which he wills to display to the good, or to those whom he is going to make good.
And although the quality of each heart in its malice — that is, what sort of heart one has toward evil — comes about by one's own fault, which grew up from the choice of the will, yet by that evil quality, so that it is moved this way or that, whether it be moved evilly this way or that, it is done by causes by which the mind is driven; and that these causes should exist or not exist is not in a man's power, but they come from the hidden providence — most just indeed and most wise — of God, who disposes and administers the whole that he created. Therefore, that Pharaoh had such a heart, which by the patience of God was not moved to piety but rather to impiety, was of his own vice;
but that those things came to pass by which the heart, so malignant through its own vice, resisted the commands of God — for this is what is called 'hardened,' because it did not consent pliantly but resisted inflexibly — this was of the divine dispensation, by which for such a heart there was prepared a punishment not only not unjust but manifestly just, whereby those who fear God might be corrected. For instance, when a gain is set before someone — say, a gain for the sake of which a murder is committed — the greedy man is moved one way, the despiser of money another: the one, namely, to commit the crime, the other to avoid it; yet the very setting-forth of the gain was not in the power of either of them. So causes come to evil men
which are indeed not in their power, but which have this effect upon them: they act according to what sort of men they find them already made by their own vices out of a past act of will. It should indeed be considered whether it can also be taken thus: 'I will harden,' as if he said, 'I will show how hard it is.' 'If Pharaoh speaks to you, saying, Give us a sign or a wonder, then you shall say to Aaron your brother, Take the rod and cast it down before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it shall become a serpent.' Here surely there was no need of the ministry of voice, for which Aaron seemed to have been given, as it were of necessity, on account of the feebleness of Moses' voice; rather, a rod was to be cast down, that it might become a serpent.
Why, then, did Moses himself not do this, except because this mediation of Aaron himself between Moses and Pharaoh bears the figure of some great matter? This too is to be noted, that when that sign was being wrought openly before Pharaoh, it is written: 'And Aaron cast down his rod' — whereas, if it had perhaps been said, 'He cast down the rod,' there would be no question; but that it added 'his,' although Moses had given it to him, was perhaps not said in vain. Or was that rod common to both of them, so that it might be called the rod of either of them and be truly so called? 'And the rod of Aaron swallowed up their rods.' If it had been said, 'The serpent of Aaron swallowed up their rods,' it would be understood that the true serpent of Aaron swallowed up not those illusory figments, but rods.
For it could swallow up that which they were, not that which they seemed to be and were not. But since he said, 'The rod of Aaron swallowed up their rods,' certainly the serpent could swallow up rods, but not a rod. Yet the thing was called by that name from which it had been changed, not into that into which it was changed, because into that it was also changed back; and therefore it ought to be called by that which it principally was. What, then, is to be said of the rods of the magicians? Were they too made into true serpents, but called rods for the same reason as the rod of Aaron? Or did they rather seem to be what they were not, by a sorcerous deception? Why, then, on both sides are they called both rods and serpents, so that in the manner of speaking there is no difference regarding those figments?
But it is difficult to demonstrate how, even if true serpents were made from the rods of the magicians, neither the magicians nor the evil angels, by whose ministry those things were wrought, were nevertheless creators of the serpents. For there are present in corporeal things, throughout all the elements of the world, certain hidden seminal reasons, by which, when temporal and causal opportunity has been given, they break forth into their due species in their own modes and limits. And thus the angels who do these things are not called creators of the animals, just as neither are farmers to be called creators of the crops or trees or of whatever things spring up in the earth, although they know how to furnish certain visible opportunities and causes for those things to be born.
But what these men do visibly, the angels do invisibly; yet God alone, the one, is the Creator, who implanted the causes themselves and the seminal reasons in things. The matter has been stated briefly: if it were to be explained by examples and copious discussion, so that it might be more easily understood, there would be need of a long discourse, from which the ground of our haste excuses itself. 'And the enchanters of the Egyptians did likewise with their sorceries; and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he did not hearken to them, as the Lord had said.' When these things are said, it seems that Pharaoh's heart was hardened for this reason, that the enchanters of the Egyptians also did like things; but what follows will teach how great that obstinacy was, even when the enchanters failed.
'And the enchanters of the Egyptians did likewise with their sorceries and brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt.' It is asked whence, if it had already been done everywhere. But it is a similar question whence they also turned water into blood, if all the water of Egypt had already been turned into blood. Accordingly, it must be understood that the region where the children of Israel dwelt was not struck by such plagues; and from there the enchanters were able either to draw water, which they might turn into blood, or to bring up some frogs, merely for the demonstration of their magical power. Although they could also have done so after those things had been checked. But Scripture, in narrating swiftly, joined together what could also have been done afterward.
'And Pharaoh saw that there was respite; and his heart was made heavy, and he did not hearken to them, as the Lord had said.' Here it appears that the causes of the hardening of Pharaoh's heart were not only those — namely, that his enchanters did like things — but also the very patience of God, by which he spared him. The patience of God is, according to men's hearts, useful to some for repenting, useless to others for resisting God and persevering in evil; yet it is not in itself useless, but according to the evil heart, as we have already said. This the Apostle too says: 'Not knowing that the patience of God leads you to repentance?'
'But according to the hardness of your heart and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his works.' For elsewhere too, when he said, 'We are the good odor of Christ in every place,' he added this also: 'both in those who are being saved and in those who are perishing.' He did not say that he was a good odor of Christ to those who are being saved, but an evil one to those who are perishing; rather he said only that he was a good odor. But they are such that they perish even by a good odor, according to the quality of their own heart, as has often been said — a quality which is to be changed by good will in the grace of God, so that the judgments of God may begin to profit them, which harm evil hearts. Whence he, with his heart changed for the better, sang:
'My soul shall live and shall praise you; and your judgments shall help me.' He did not say, 'Your gifts' or 'Your rewards,' but 'Your judgments.' It is a great thing, moreover, that it can be said with sincere confidence: 'Prove me, O Lord, and try me; burn my reins and my heart.' And lest he should seem to have attributed anything to his own strength, he immediately added: 'For your mercy is before my eyes, and I have been well pleased in your truth.' He commemorates the mercy shown toward himself, that he may be able to be well pleased in the truth, since 'all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth.' As to what the magicians said to Pharaoh:
'This is the finger of God,' because they could not bring forth the gnats, they truly perceived — since they knew the power of their nefarious arts — that their attempts had been frustrated, not by such arts, as though Moses were more powerful in them, but by the finger of God, who was indeed working through Moses. Now the finger of God, as the Gospel most clearly declares, is understood as the Holy Spirit. For while one evangelist so narrates the words of the Lord as to say, 'If I by the finger of God cast out demons,' another evangelist, narrating the very same thing, wished to explain what the finger of God is, and said, 'If I by the Spirit of God cast out demons.'
Since therefore the magicians, in whose power Pharaoh trusted beforehand, confessed that the finger of God was in Moses, by whom they were overcome and their sorceries frustrated, nevertheless Pharaoh's heart was hardened now with a wholly wondrous hardness. But why the magicians failed in that third plague — for the plagues began from when the water was turned into blood — is difficult both to perceive and to explain. For they could have failed even in the first sign, where the rod was turned into a serpent, and in the first plague, where the water was changed into blood, and in the second concerning the frogs, if the finger of God, that is, the Spirit of God, had so willed. For who, most demented, would say that the finger of God could hinder the attempts of the magicians in this sign and was unable to do so in the earlier ones?
There is therefore altogether a certain cause why they were permitted to do those things up to this point. For perhaps the Trinity is thereby commended, and — what is true — the greatest philosophers of the nations, so far as it is traced in their writings, philosophized without the Holy Spirit, although they were not silent about the Father and the Son, which Didymus too recalls in his book which he wrote on the Holy Spirit. 'Behold, I send upon you and upon your servants and upon your people and upon your houses the dog-fly, and the houses of the Egyptians shall be filled with the dog-fly, that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of all the earth. And I will set a division between my people and your people.'
What Scripture here disclosed, lest it should say it everywhere, we ought to understand was done also in the later and in the earlier signs, namely, that the land in which the people of God dwelt was afflicted by no such plagues. But it was opportune that this should be plainly set down here, whence now begin the signs to which the magicians did not even attempt to do like things. For without doubt, because the gnats had been everywhere in the kingdom of Pharaoh, but had not been in the land of Goshen, there the magicians attempted to do likewise and were by no means able. Up to the point, therefore, where they failed, nothing was said about the separation of that land; but from the point where those things began to happen where they would not even dare to attempt like things. As to what the Latin copies have:
'Go and sacrifice to the Lord your God in the land,' the Greek has: 'Come and sacrifice to the Lord your God in the land.' For he did not wish them to go where they said, but wished them to sacrifice there in Egypt. This the following words of Moses show, where he says it cannot be done because of the abominations of the Egyptians. As to what Moses says: 'It cannot be done thus; for we shall sacrifice the abominations of the Egyptians to the Lord our God' — that is: 'We are about to sacrifice these things which the Egyptians abominate, and therefore we cannot in Egypt.' This the words which he adds and says make plain: 'For if we sacrifice the abominations of the Egyptians openly before them, we shall be stoned.' Not understanding this, certain of our translators have interpreted it so as to say:
'It cannot be done thus; shall we then sacrifice the abominations of the Egyptians to the Lord our God?' — whereas Scripture rather said that they are about to sacrifice the abominations of the Egyptians. But other Latin copies have thus: 'It cannot be done thus, since we shall not sacrifice the abominations of the Egyptians to the Lord our God.' The added negative particle makes a contrary sense, whereas Moses said: 'It cannot be done thus; for we shall sacrifice the abominations of the Egyptians to the Lord our God'; and therefore they said they wished to go into the wilderness, where the Egyptians would not see their abominations. This, moreover, is to be understood as signified mystically.
This we have also said concerning the shepherds, who were abominable to the Egyptians, and therefore the Israelites received a separate land when they came into Egypt. For thus also the sacrifices of the Israelites are abominations to the Egyptians, just as the life of the righteous is to the wicked. When the locust had been taken away, it was said of Pharaoh: 'And Pharaoh made his heart heavy even at this time, and would not let the people go.' Certainly now it is not said, 'Pharaoh's heart was made heavy,' but, 'Pharaoh made his heart heavy.' So indeed in all the plagues. For from the will of man is the origin of vices;
but the hearts of men are moved by causes, some hearts thus, others so, and often even by causes not different, in different ways according to their own qualities, which come from their wills. 'But Pharaoh, seeing that not one of the cattle of the children of Israel had died, Pharaoh's heart was made heavy.' How was this weighing-down of Pharaoh's heart brought about from contrary causes? For if the cattle of the Israelites too had died, then a fitting cause would have seemed present by which his heart was weighed down to despise God, as if his magicians also had made the cattle of the Israelites die; but now, whereas he ought to have been moved to fear or to believe on seeing not one beast dead of the cattle of the Hebrews, from this his heart was made heavy; that is:
that hardening progressed even to this point. What is it that God says to Aaron and Moses: 'Take for yourselves handfuls of ashes from the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it toward heaven before Pharaoh and before his servants, and let it become dust upon the whole land of Egypt'? For the earlier signs were wrought by the rod, which not Moses but Aaron either stretched out over the water or struck the earth with; but now, two signs having been interposed concerning the dog-fly and the deaths of the cattle, where neither Aaron nor Moses did anything with the hand, it is said that Moses should sprinkle ashes from the furnace toward heaven, and both are commanded to take it, but he to sprinkle it not on the earth, but toward heaven:
as though Aaron, who had been given to the people, should strike the earth or stretch out his hand upon the earth or upon the water; but Moses, of whom it was said, 'He shall be to you the things that pertain to God,' is commanded to sprinkle the ashes toward heaven. What of those two earlier signs, where neither Moses nor Aaron does anything with the hand? What does this diversity mean? For it is surely not nothing. 'And for this very cause have you been preserved, that I might show in you my power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.' These words of Scripture the Apostle too set down, when he was engaged in that most difficult passage. There, moreover, he also says this:
'But what if God, willing to show his wrath and to demonstrate his power, endured with much patience the vessels of wrath' — sparing indeed those whom he had foreknown were going to be evil, which vessels he calls fitted for perdition — 'and that he might,' he says, 'make known the riches of his glory upon the vessels of mercy.' Whence the voice of the vessels of mercy is in the Psalms: 'My God, his mercy shall go before me; my God shall show me among my enemies.' God therefore knows how to make good use of the evil, in whom nevertheless he does not create human nature unto malice, but bears with them patiently, until he knows it fitting: not in vain, but using them for the admonition or exercise of the good.
For behold, that the name of God might be proclaimed in all the earth, it certainly profits the vessels of mercy. To their advantage, therefore, was Pharaoh preserved, as both Scripture testifies and the outcome teaches. What is it that God commanded to Pharaoh, when he threatened that he would bring a great hail, that he should hasten to gather in his cattle and whatever he had in the field, lest they perish by the hail? For this seems to be a warning not so much in indignation as in mercy. But this raises no question, since God, even when angry, tempers the punishment.
What deservedly moves one is: what cattle are now being provided for, if all had died in the earlier plague, where it is written that God made a distinction between the cattle of the Hebrews and of the Egyptians, so that from the former none died, but all the cattle of the Egyptians died. Or is the question resolved thus: that he had foretold that those would die which were in the field, so that these are understood as all, but those which were in the houses are understood to have escaped — which could have been gathered even by those in doubt and kept in the house, lest perchance what Moses had foretold the Lord would do should prove true; and from these there could again be some in the fields, which he now warns to be gathered into the houses, lest they perish by the hail — especially since Scripture follows and says:
'He of Pharaoh's servants who feared the word of the Lord gathered his cattle into the houses; but he who did not set his mind on the word of the Lord left his cattle in the field.' This, therefore, could come to pass when God had also threatened the death of the cattle, although Scripture was silent about it. 'And the Lord said to Moses: Stretch out your hand toward heaven, and there shall be hail in all the land of Egypt.' Behold, again Moses is commanded to stretch out his hand not toward the earth, but toward heaven, as above concerning the ashes. When, at the crashing of heaven, which was violent in the hail, Pharaoh, terrified, begged Moses to pray for him, confessing his iniquity and that of his people, Moses said to him: 'You and your servants — I know that you do not yet fear the Lord.'
What sort of fear was he seeking, to whom that fear was not yet the fear of the Lord? For it is easy to fear punishment, but this is not to fear God — namely, with that fear of piety which Jacob commemorates, where he says: 'Unless the God of my father Abraham and the fear of Isaac had been with me, you would now have sent me away empty.' The Lord said to Moses: 'Go in to Pharaoh; for I have made his heart heavy, and that of his servants, that these my signs may come upon them in order.' Thus he says, 'For I have made his heart heavy, that these my signs may come upon them in order,' as though God had need of anyone's malice. But it is to be understood as if he said: 'For I have been patient over him and his servants, so as not to take them away, that my signs may come upon them in order.'
For because by the patience of God the evil mind became more obstinate, therefore, instead of 'I was patient toward him,' it is said: 'I have made his heart heavy.' 'And there was not one locust left in all the land of Egypt. And the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart.' Scripture certainly commemorated a benefit of God, that he took away the locusts, and then said that the Lord had hardened Pharaoh's heart: by his very benefit, that is, and by his patience, through which that obstinacy came about, while he was being spared — just as all the evil hearts of men grow hard by making evil use of the patience of God. A third time it is said to Moses: 'Stretch out your hand toward heaven,' that the plague of darkness too might come. But it was never said to his brother Aaron that he should stretch out his hand toward heaven. As to what, then, was said to Moses:
'Stretch out your hand over the land of Egypt, and let the locust come up over the land,' I believe it is signified that he who can do more can also do less, but not that he to whom the lesser things are conceded can straightway do the greater. God to Moses: 'Speak therefore secretly in the ears of the people, and let each one ask of his neighbor, and the woman of her neighbor, vessels of silver and of gold and raiment.' From this no one ought to think that an example is to be taken for despoiling one's neighbor in this manner; for God commanded this, who knew what each one ought to suffer. Nor did the Israelites commit theft, but rendered a ministry to God who commanded;
just as when the officer of a judge kills the one whom the judge ordered to be killed — assuredly, if he did it of his own accord, he is a murderer, even if he kills the one whom he knows ought to have been killed by the judge. There is also this not inconsiderable question: if the Hebrews dwelt apart in the land of Goshen, where the plagues by which the kingdom of Pharaoh was afflicted did not occur, how does each one ask of his neighbor, male or female, gold, silver, and raiment, especially since, where this is first commanded through Moses, it is put thus:
'and the woman of her neighbor and her fellow-cell-dweller' — or 'fellow-lodger,' if it must be so expressed — 'or her housemate.' Whence it is to be understood that even in the land of Goshen the Hebrews did not dwell alone, but that some Egyptians were fellow-dwellers with them in that land, to whom by the merit of the Hebrews even those divine benefits could deservedly reach, so that hence those same Egyptian fellow-dwellers might both love them and readily lend what they asked. Nor yet did God judge them to have been so free from the injuries and afflictions which the people of God endured, that they should not be struck even by this loss — they who had not been struck by those plagues, because that land was being spared. 'And the Lord said to Moses:'
'Pharaoh shall not hearken to you, that I may multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt' — as though there were need of his disobedience, that those signs might be multiplied, which were profitably wrought for terrifying the people of God and, by that very distinction, for forming them unto piety. But this was of God, making good use of the malice of that heart, not of Pharaoh making evil abuse of the patience of God. 'And whatever remains of it in the morning you shall burn with fire.' It can be asked how anything will remain, when they had been forewarned that, if a house should not have a number sufficient for consuming the animal, the neighbors should be taken in. But it is understood, since it was said, 'You shall not break a bone of it,' that the bones certainly were to remain, which were to be burned with fire.
'A perfect lamb, male, a yearling, it shall be for you.' This expression can trouble a person who does not know by what necessity it was so translated, as though a lamb could be something not male. For it ought to have been rendered 'sheep,' because the Greek has 'próbaton'; but 'próbaton' in the Greek language is of the neuter gender, and all that follows could then have agreed with it, as though it said: 'a perfect, male, yearling beast shall be for you.' For in Latin one could say 'masculum pecus' (a male beast), just as one says 'mascula tura' (male incense) in the neuter gender; but 'ovis' (sheep) cannot be called 'masculus,' because 'ovis' is of the feminine gender. Likewise, if one were to say 'ovis mascula' (a male sheep), it would be still more absurd.
But if 'beast' (pecus) had been used, something else too might be understood, and the sacrament would not be preserved; for although Scripture speaks of a sheep, it afterward says: 'from the lambs and the kids you shall take it.' In which matter Christ is rightly understood to be signified. For what need was there to instruct that a sheep or lamb be taken from lambs and kids, unless He were being prefigured, whose flesh was propagated not only from the just but also from sinners? Although the Jews try to understand that even a kid may be taken for celebrating the Passover; and they suppose this to be the meaning of 'to take from lambs and kids,' as though it said that either a lamb from lambs or a kid from kids should be taken, if the other be lacking. Yet it is evident, once the realities were fulfilled in Christ, what had been prefigured by that precept.