Dr Paul Allen

PLAGUES OF EGYPT . In commissioning Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt , God had warned him that this would come about only through God’s supreme power overcoming all the might of Pharaoh, whereby Egypt would be smitten with wonders or signs from God (cf. Ex. 3:19–20).  After the sign of the rod that became a serpent and swallowed up those of the Egyptian magicians, which left Pharaoh unmoved, God’s power was demonstrated to him and his people in a series of ten judgments. They were so applied as to portray clearly the reality and power of Israel’s God, and thus by contrast the impotence of Egypt’s gods. The first nine of these plagues bear a direct relation to natural phenomena in the Nile valley , but the tenth, the death of the firstborn, belongs wholly to the realm of the supernatural. These first nine plagues demonstrate the divine use of the created order to achieve his ends, and recent studies tend to confirm both the reality of what is described in Ex. 7–12 and th...

MOSES. The great leader and lawgiver through whom God brought the Hebrews out of Egypt , constituted them a nation for his service, and brought them within reach of the land promised to their forefathers. I. Name In Ex. 2:10 it is said that ‘she called his name Mōšeh: and she said, Because I drew him (mešîṯī-hû) out of the water’. Most interpreters identify the ‘she’ as Pharaoh ’s daughter, and this has led many to assume an Egyp . origin for the name Mōšeh, Egyp. ms, ‘child’ or ‘(one) born’ being the best possibility. However, the antecedent of ‘she’ could as easily be ‘the woman’, i.e. Moses ’ own mother and nurse, who ‘had called his name … ‘(so W. J. Martin). Ex. 2:10 clearly links the name of Mōšeh with his being taken from the waterside (māšâ, ‘to draw forth’). This pun would come naturally to a Hebrew speaker but not to an Egyptian: which fact would favour the view just mentioned that it was Moses’ own mother who first named him, rather than Pharaoh’s daughter. Mōš...